If you've read the book Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen or Rory Stewart's The Places in Between, you're shown that American politicians and military personnel need to place the formost importance on understanding local customs, values and methods of communication before calling in bombing missions or creating/supporting western-style centralized democratic governments.
The news out yesterday that Secretary Gates is not going to transfer the marines from Iraq to Afghanistan is fantastic, even if the reason is to stay the course in Iraq. Maybe he wants to encourage more tribal iniatives like the Soft Power in Djibouti in East Africa. Gates just travelled there and has lent his support to a task force that doesn't focus on killing terrorists, but on training regional forces, building schools, hospitals and wells for safe drinking water and irrigation. We all know as well as Stewart and Mortensen that the main source of insurgents is the enraged disenfranchised young men from impoverished areas all over the world. If we can get the balance right initially between local tactical defense, diplomacy on a regional as well as national level and development in war-torn countries, the seething hatred for Americans would abate.
The way I chose to help a bit with the balance is to work with an organization which puts displaced, war torn farm families back on their land in Afghanistan. After the Soviets' scorched earth practices which deforested the country, the bombings following 9/11 and years of severe drought and strict Taliban rule, Afghans became some of the poorest people in the world. Global Partnership for Afghanistan (GPFA) got started four years ago to bring as many men and women farmers as possible into structured programs growing fruit trees, poplars for construction and starting tree germplasm nurseries. Each farmer receives a loan and farm implements, and most importantly, education in farming methods, farm to market techniques, and regular farm visits from Afghan agronomists. The Afghan staff work with local councils and respect the customs and markets in their provinces. These farmers include many young men who would otherwise be growing poppies or be conscripted into jihad. They also include mothers, grandmothers and growing families who all work in the fields, taking pride in becoming entrepreneurs. With every contribution we receive, farmers and agronomists are added to the program.
GPFA has tremendous credibility within the four provinces it now operates because farmers can earn an excellent livelihood. Although it's one farmer at a time, Afghanistan is steadily regaining is fabled reputation as the orchard of Central Asia through GPFA's farm programs. I think this approach will do more good in stabalizing Afghanistan than sending in the Marines.
This holiday if you send a gift card to family or friends telling them that you've planted fruited trees or poplars in their name, you will be doing a lot of good things at once. Besides the livelihoods you're creating, trees absorb carbon dioxide to combat global warming, they stabalize the soil, provide shade and lumber and abundant food. Have a look at the website to see the gift cards and read about the farmers.
Please visit www.gpfa.org or our site at changingthepresent.org. Click here to see our Holiday gift page.
