Looking for statistics on Afghanistan I came across a VERY useful site for numbers on all nations.

[ConsAreLiars]

A guest on Rachel Maddow's GEM$NBC TV show said that Afghanistan was the 4th poorest country in terms of per capita income. Invading and mass murdering more Afghans as the US is doing is the moral equivalent of the frat boys dousing a sleeping homeless person with gasoline and burning him/her to death, or beating another to death with clubs. Times many thousands.

Here is the site's Afghanistan page: http://www.nationmaster.com/country/af-afghanistan/peo-people . Check it out. More suffering and hardship is certainly not what they need or deserve. The US policy of turning that harsh land into a killing field began with Carter/Brzezinski. It's about time to stop.

Anyway, the http://www.nationmaster.com site has way more than all the data you can imagine, on a couple hundred or so countries in a very easily accessed format, including data for past years going back to around 1960. It's very focused on stuff that is most relevant to US and transnational corporations, but also very useful for humans.

[arcadian]

1. That description is apt

Could be said for Iraq as well. Where Bush I started it, Clinton starved them and Bush II continues the genocide. Sickening. But hey, what's on American Idle?

[JeffR]

2. K & R and thank you.

This is a great find!

And interestingly, I notice Afghanistan ranks "merely" 23rd poorest on one of their charts:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_pop_bel_pov_lin-economy-population-below-poverty-line

Dana Perino was repeating the "4th poorest" thing on Jon Stewart tonight. Seems the Heritage Foundation fax machine was buzzing tonight. I think they're pushing this as a way to spin their utter failure in Afghanistan, it being undertaken against such daunting conditions and all.

[ConsAreLiars]

5. The "per capita GNP" numbers can mean one of two things.

In either case it refers to the volume of transactions done in currency recognized by the multinational bankers (no pretty shells or handshakes). But that does not necessarily measure quality of life, only that portion of it that is controlled by the capitalist overlords and thus needs cash.

I was in Afghanistan only in two late summers, when it was pretty dry and desolate. How anyone survived at all was something I never saw. But at a demo before the invasion an Afghan woman spoke about the beauty of her home village and country. I had seen the beauty and strength of the men (women were mostly but not all burka'd and hidden - those not seemed equally strong and beautiful), but not the landscape, which seemed utterly barren and hostile. Her comments led me to search for what I had missed and thus to Luke Powell's site.

(edit typos, as usual)

[JeffR]

6. No question the "quantitative" measure is inferior to the "qualitative" on this.

Afghanistan, high on the misery scale before Bush invaded it, has to be headed right off the charts now.

I have to wonder at how the unfathomable added dimensions of pessimism, danger and dread have added to the crushing poverty the Afghans have lived with so long. And yet their forbidding landscape is home, and they've fought off tyrannical empire after tyrannical empire to defend it.

[ConsAreLiars]

7. There is a pride, as well as strength, that comes with surviving and even

thriving during some historical periods under tough conditions. Luke Powell handed off one camera for this picture during one of his many visits. Look at these guys. How could anyone think stealing from them or attempting to make them cower and become servile through brute force would be a smart or successful plan?



Luke Powell commented that they surrounded him in a protective shield, seeing him as as someone needing protection. And, having been accepted as a guest, he felt completely safe. In Kandahar my companion and I were stalked through the streets by one of these guys - well, not exactly, gray hair and blue eyes, carrying a rifle (well, everyone seemed to carry a rifle so that was not so notable) - and with that situational awareness stuff operating I worried a bit. Eventually the encounter happened, and it turned out, through gesture, he wanted to sell his beautifully hand crafted single shot rifle that, I am unsure on this, might have even been a muzzle loader. I was tempted, it was fine art, but backpacking onward with a rifle added to the tent and sleeping bag, canteen and whatever seemed a bit impractical. Signing "no - thanks - sorry" and signing back "thanks - oh, well - best wishes."

[Joe the Liberal]

3. Wow thats a pretty good site.........

Very informative.

[leftstreet]

4. Thanks for the link

Interesting site!