Afghani Flowers

I was watching the news today and there was a story on about Afghani farmers that grow poppy flowers as the main means of feeding themselves and their families. Apparently, this is a huge crop in Afghanistan and local and foreign authorities have started programs to destroy these crops. They have reasons for this, mainly being that the poppy seed crops pay for the Taliban's efforts to reestablish itself, and consequently many insurgent and terrorist activities. But there is a problem with how they are going about with destroying these farmer's crops. They simply destroy and do not reimburse them in any way. The Afghanistan has said that they will reimburse the farmers with $500 per acre, but UN estimates say that farmers can make $6000 with that same acre of poppy. Then, the same authorities say they will send seeds to take the place of the illegal crop, but many farmers say they haven't seen reimbursement of any kind. On the news program, they interviewed one of these farmers (who are very poor and often receive the money to start the poppy crops from warlords who loan them the money). This farmer was telling the reporters that since the troops destroyed his crops, he would have no way to pay back the loan and the only way he could possibly repay them would be to give them one of his daughters.

I'm not against them destroying these crops, but leaving these farmers helpless to feed their families and themselves is something I can not support. If we are going to support the destruction of these fields, we need to ensure that the Afghanistan government is taking care of their people in the process.

Yee-haw!

My parents made a proposition to me this morning that, frankly, I could not refuse. My mother will be taking my sister down to Texas on the train, so my dad needs someone to switch off the driving all the way down there. They would fly me back immediately afterwards, but they really want me to celebrate Christmas with them. So they offered to pay me $500 to stay with them through Dec. 30, which would be more money than what I could make with a temporary job, which if I got right now, I would have to start paying for my car, insurance, and cell phone immediately. So I made the wise decision to spend some time down in Texas with them because they are also going to fly me back to Chicago and then pay for my train ride home too.

So to everyone in town, I will see you in January!