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Reading in the news about how Europe is employing all new technologies to try to stem the flow of migrants pouring toward Europe. Things like drone surveillance, sound cannons that blast 160 decibel cannonballs at approaching migrants, walls, detention centers in the process of being built, etc.
It is a very big problem costing the EU taxpayers billions each year. The problem can be solved by replacing the liberal EU politicians with politicians who are anti-immigration. The same remedy that the US needs.
No new tech is needed. What is needed to stem the tide of invaders, or anyone unwelcome already exists in great quantity. You just need the will to use it.
It sounds harsh, but at some point, you have to put your foot down. Looking for a better life, or hoping to receive free benefits is not an excuse.
Well it will get worse, make sure you're tanned and not taller than meter and a half or else soon you won't be allowed to live in any european country.
Have you ever been there? Prior to Taliban and have you seen what it is now?
Never been there. Never will go there.
People have tried to modernize Afghanistan. Equal rights for women and universal education have been proved to be unpopular. It's probably more true in the countryside. It is, what it is.
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The PDPA came to power through the Saur Revolution, which ousted the regime of the unelected autocrat Mohammed Daoud Khan. Daoud was succeeded by Nur Muhammad Taraki as head of state and government on 30 April 1978.
Taraki and Hafizullah Amin, the organiser of the Saur Revolution, introduced several contentious reforms during their rule, such as land and marriage reform. Amin also added on the reforms introduced by Daoud, such as universal education and equal rights for women.
After the Khalq–Parcham struggle, a power struggle within the Khalq faction began between Taraki and Amin. Amin won the struggle, and Taraki was killed on his orders. His rule proved unpopular within his own country (due to the reforms mentioned earlier) and in the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union intervened, supported by the Afghan government, in December 1979, and on 27 December Amin was assassinated by Soviet military forces. Karmal became the leader of Afghanistan in his place.
Najibullah pursued a policy of National Reconciliation with the opposition, a new Afghan constitution was introduced in 1987 and democratic elections were held in 1988 (which were boycotted by the mujahideen). After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1988–1989, the government faced increasing resistance. 1990 proved to be a year of change in Afghan politics: a new constitution was introduced, which stated that Afghanistan was an Islamic republic.
What can the history of the Afghan state teach us about the current predicament in Afghanistan? Certainly, overzealous attempts at modernization, with unrealistic expectations for the possible rate of change, have been destabilizing.
While the current counter-insurgency strategy acknowledges the past errors, oversights and blind spots, the supercharged pace of development driven in part by home-country political factors sets totally unrealistic timetables for the transformation of institutions and attitudes. And against a July 2011 “is-it” or “is-it-not” deadline that encourages all players to discount the long-term in favor of the short.
At the same time, too much of our technical assistance has been based on incomplete or incorrect knowledge and the assumption of a blank slate, which has too often led to cut-and-paste institutions. In many cases, it was easier to buy into the myth that there was a blank slate than to try to understand what was there and to build on it.
I don't think Afghans think their country is wrecked.
While it's poor, its culture is still intact. They are living the same way they lived for a 1,000 years.
If they wanted to change, they could have. They simply do not want to be a western country.
I agree with you for the most part. I traveled through Afghanistan in 1977. Yes, a long time ago. However, I've read numerous articles about pre-Soviet invasion Afghanistan and how its inhabitants were gradually being drawn into the 20th century, how women were being educated and liberated, etc. Perhaps that was so, but I saw none of it. Ninety-nine per cent of the visible population were men, boys, and prepubescent girls. The very few women I saw were shrouded in burkas. They'd cross the street when they saw me coming so they wouldn't be beaten for inadvertently getting near a Western woman. The only unveiled women I saw were Koochi tribeswomen out in the desert. The men were reserved but friendly and, after declaring me to be an "honorary man" (so they could speak to me), were intensely curious, hospitable, and helpful.
There were a large number of international care workers trying to improve the lot of Afghanis, but they were largely met with polite but firm, mute resistance. Most people I talked to wanted to be left alone by the rest of the world and were baffled by the presence of the care workers. It was a very closed, insular society. Their way of governing themselves would be considered quite harsh by Western standards, but it worked for them. I doubted the plight of their women would change much for centuries to come.
I found Afghanistan to be a fascinating, bleakly beautiful place -- a fractured jewel. I pity what its inhabitants have endured the last several decades.
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