Rock in the Casbah

God help Afghanistan! Things might be bad now but they're going to get a lot worse.

What was once  described as a place on the wrong side of the wrong side of the tracks is now, and has been for millions of years, sitting on a gold mine. Actually it's a Lithium mine - I know I thought that was something you took for depression - and gold and lead and colbalt etc. It could add up to a $trillion jackpot; which is getting some in the Pentagon salivating like rabid dogs.

Currently if you're an Afghan your income is around $800 - mind you that's takes account of Afghan gdp -$23 billion divided by its population of  some 29 million. But I suspect that much of that $23 billion is in the hands of a very few of those 29 million, so an average Afghan would have much less. But, of course, the figures I'm quoting from the CIA's World Factbook possibly does not include the contribution opium plays in the everyday life of an Afghan.  Besides providing crucial foreign exchange for the purchase of ordnances for the insurgents, it helps many Afghans get by. 

Opium is Afghanistan's  above ground gold. Now they've (the Americans) have discovered the real stuff and Crips it could be the salvation....of many of the large corporations that currently mine across the globe.

If you're a poor, backward, corrupt country what you don't want is a Lotto jackpot. In no time your corrupt politicans will be signing away your country's wealth for a nice commission in some anonymous bank account. Your land will be expropriated and you're be worse off than you were before. Nigeria, Brazil, much of East Asia and, of course, the UK, make the case.

The UK? are you mad? I would suggest that whilst coal jump started our industrial economy and that of the world, the price paid for the black gold by its population was pretty shocking.

Back in Afghanistan the prospects of this huge wealth can only make the various combatants even more determined to end up in charge. 

Allah help the Afghan!

Comments

Popular Posts