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Poppy fields forever
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AS always each spring, fields of poppies grown for the narcotics trade stretch as far as the eye can see in Afghanistan, which produces the raw material for more than 90 per cent of the planet’s opiates. When the UN sanctioned the bombing of Afghanistan, Washington and London pledged to eradicate both the Taliban and Afghanistan’s only dependable export.
The Taliban are slowly returning and, although fewer poppies are grown in some areas of Afghanistan, production in others increases yearly. There is now such a glut of opium that there are many more addicts among the local population than before and troops admit there is little they can do. “Let’s face it,” said one British officer, “if we cannot provide an alternative livelihood, we must just accept it.”
The weak but pro-Western administration not only fails to provide an alternative but governs only a small area near Kabul and, despite the NATO peacekeepers, little peace reigns in Afghanistan.
The road to hell might be paved with good intentions but the unpaved highways and byways of Afghanistan are dusty, rutted, dangerous and paved with broken promises. And they are lined with fields of opium poppies.
A right-turn too many
SUPPORTERS of Rome’s new right-wing mayor gave fascist salutes following last week’s local election results and cries of “Duce! Duce!” echoed outside the city hall.
History rarely repeats itself to the extent that it duplicates the past but if Rome is happy with a right-wing extremist for mayor, the title of “Duce” is not appreciated by those inside and outside Italy who remember the Second World War.
Prime Minister-elect, Silvio Berlusconi, jubilantly declared, “We are the new Falange!” although the Falange is forever associated with the Spanish Civil War and Francisco Franco’s 40 years of dictatorship. Nor is it rational for the leader of an EU founder country to acclaim fascism while aspiring applicants like Serbia and Turkey, for whom membership would have a democratising effect, are likely to be turned down on the grounds that their governments are too repressive and insufficiently democratic.
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