Nicholas Laferriere
Reaction Paper 7
The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan
Bitter Harvest
Rashid Chapters 14 and 15
This week we watched The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan, a documentary about young boys that have forced to please older men. The second documentary we watched was Bitter Harvest which went into detail about the drug trade in Afghanistan. In class we went off on a little tangent about monopolies and big business versus small business. The two chapters of Rashid covers the American treatment of prisoners of war and the drug trade in Afghanistan.
In class we talked about the power of large corporations and how they drive out small chains and local businesses. It was an interesting class discussion and centered around how because of the fact stores like Walmart could by in such large numbers local stores didn’t stand a chance of keeping up with them. A large distributor would be in bulk at a discount and then sell it with a smaller profit than a local family store. This makes it next to impossible for a lcoal business to make a profit.
The First documentary explores the “bacha bazi” in Afghanistan. The practice involves dacing kids entertain the older men that are there. They also do what ever entertains the older man. The reasons that children get involved in “bacha bazi” is usually to earn money for their family. Often they keep doing the practice until they have earned enough money to make their families financially stable according to the presenter. They often have no other choice but to do this in order to have enough money to survive. It is thought that the practice was brought to Afghanistan by Alexander the Great. It is now part of the culture of the area and why older men participate in the practice.
Chapter 14 of Rashid’s book goes into details about the what might be considered war crimes on the behalf of the US, by ignoring certain things in the Geneva Conventions. The main point of the chapter is the treatment of prisoners of war by the US. One of examples used was President Bush’s reclassification of people they captured so that they weren’t considered POW’s. This was a loop hole around the Geneva Conventions and allowed the US to do what they wanted to people that they captured. Some other countries as a result started to also neglect or dance around the laws in place against torture. The results ended with widespread violations in the area by other countries. The US opened the door to this with the CIA network of prisons, Guantanamo Bay and the treatment of captured enemies at these places. Rashid talks about the horrible things that happened to people in these facilities. Their was also a huge lack of punishment by the perpetrators of these crimes. Hardly anyone got blamed for it and even few got punished for it.
The second documentary goes along with chapter 15 in Rashid’s book. Both talked about the drug trade in Afghanistan. In the book Rashid talks about the British plan to try and eradicate the drug trade. Like most plans that involve money that Rashid brings up in the book it failed horribly. The plan was to pay the farmers to destroy their fields. In most cases the money either never went to the farmers or they got it and just didn’t destroy their crops. The drug trade was making so money for the people in the area that wasn’t possible to eradicate it. The drug cartels and the local warlords were also involved in the trade and Afghanistan lacked a strong enough central government to be able to fight it. The documentary Bitter Harvest followed a family that grew drugs to support the family. The documentary was focused on the area around the border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. With extremely high unemployment rates in the area, their are plenty of willing people to risk to possible consequences to being involved with the drug trade. The documentary also showed the effects of the drugs on people and how addictive it is. Another big point in the documentary was the American policy towards the farmers and fields. At first the Americans were burning and destroying all the fields that they came across. This however was alienating the population and growing anti western sentiment. This was giving more power to the opposition forces in the area. In an effort to win the hearts and minds of the people, the American forces stopped destroying the fields and just ignored them.
Reaction Paper 7
The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan
Bitter Harvest
Rashid Chapters 14 and 15
This week we watched The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan, a documentary about young boys that have forced to please older men. The second documentary we watched was Bitter Harvest which went into detail about the drug trade in Afghanistan. In class we went off on a little tangent about monopolies and big business versus small business. The two chapters of Rashid covers the American treatment of prisoners of war and the drug trade in Afghanistan.
In class we talked about the power of large corporations and how they drive out small chains and local businesses. It was an interesting class discussion and centered around how because of the fact stores like Walmart could by in such large numbers local stores didn’t stand a chance of keeping up with them. A large distributor would be in bulk at a discount and then sell it with a smaller profit than a local family store. This makes it next to impossible for a lcoal business to make a profit.
The First documentary explores the “bacha bazi” in Afghanistan. The practice involves dacing kids entertain the older men that are there. They also do what ever entertains the older man. The reasons that children get involved in “bacha bazi” is usually to earn money for their family. Often they keep doing the practice until they have earned enough money to make their families financially stable according to the presenter. They often have no other choice but to do this in order to have enough money to survive. It is thought that the practice was brought to Afghanistan by Alexander the Great. It is now part of the culture of the area and why older men participate in the practice.
Chapter 14 of Rashid’s book goes into details about the what might be considered war crimes on the behalf of the US, by ignoring certain things in the Geneva Conventions. The main point of the chapter is the treatment of prisoners of war by the US. One of examples used was President Bush’s reclassification of people they captured so that they weren’t considered POW’s. This was a loop hole around the Geneva Conventions and allowed the US to do what they wanted to people that they captured. Some other countries as a result started to also neglect or dance around the laws in place against torture. The results ended with widespread violations in the area by other countries. The US opened the door to this with the CIA network of prisons, Guantanamo Bay and the treatment of captured enemies at these places. Rashid talks about the horrible things that happened to people in these facilities. Their was also a huge lack of punishment by the perpetrators of these crimes. Hardly anyone got blamed for it and even few got punished for it.
The second documentary goes along with chapter 15 in Rashid’s book. Both talked about the drug trade in Afghanistan. In the book Rashid talks about the British plan to try and eradicate the drug trade. Like most plans that involve money that Rashid brings up in the book it failed horribly. The plan was to pay the farmers to destroy their fields. In most cases the money either never went to the farmers or they got it and just didn’t destroy their crops. The drug trade was making so money for the people in the area that wasn’t possible to eradicate it. The drug cartels and the local warlords were also involved in the trade and Afghanistan lacked a strong enough central government to be able to fight it. The documentary Bitter Harvest followed a family that grew drugs to support the family. The documentary was focused on the area around the border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. With extremely high unemployment rates in the area, their are plenty of willing people to risk to possible consequences to being involved with the drug trade. The documentary also showed the effects of the drugs on people and how addictive it is. Another big point in the documentary was the American policy towards the farmers and fields. At first the Americans were burning and destroying all the fields that they came across. This however was alienating the population and growing anti western sentiment. This was giving more power to the opposition forces in the area. In an effort to win the hearts and minds of the people, the American forces stopped destroying the fields and just ignored them.
So what was I looking for in Blog Seven. I wanted you to engage Rashid chapters fourteen and fifteen and the documentaries "The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan" and Bitter Harvest and tie those docs to Rashid and our class discussions.
ReplyDeleteSo how did you do? Very well.
Questions and comments:
Nothing like poverty to force one to engage in certain activities? Culture? Hasn't bisexual behaviour been around at least since Ancient Greece?