Once upon a time in Afghanistan--record stores, pencil skirts, rock and roll

[Rob]

Sad, but definitely worth a look.

[SwedeIndeed]

nice find, it's shocking to see what that country has become

[President Shrub]

The same thing in Somalia and Ethiopia as well. Sad stories..

[Steffmeister]

Those pictures reminds me of present day ex-soviet countries. Maybe even nicer.

[WHEATLEY007]

Zimbabwei / Rhodesia. Used to be known as the 'Food Basket' of Africa - modern shops, decent standard of living. Now look at it.

[Cheeto]

So Afghanistan fell apart when the Soviets moved in? Or was it some other catalyst?

[Rob]

Various foreign interventions, historical circumstance, even just plain old bad timing--there's plenty of blame to go around.

The monarchy in the 60s introduced a much more liberal constitution than had been seen in the country up to that point, creating a legislature in thirds....1/3 was appointed by the crown, 1/3 was directly elected, 1/3 was selected by provincial assemblies. The new constitution, though we'd probably rightly see it as progress, also allowed the country's deeply-Soviet-tied communist party to operate openly and legally.

Another 10ish years go by and the monarchy's developed a reputation for being deeply corrupt and the economy's in the shitter because of a horrific drought. A non-violent coup overthrows the monarchy and establishes a republic. But the republic was no better at fixing the economy than the monarchy had been.

Up steps the local communist party, with tacit Soviet support, who promptly execute the republican government's leader and his family. Under the rule of the new Soviet-backed leadership, the country starts to look like most Eastern Bloc countries during the Cold War--liberalization of laws relating to women, strong restrictions of religion, the imprisonment and torture of the traditional elite, intelligentsia, what-have-you.

Increasing restrictions ended up inciting revolts that would turn into the Afghan War, and we know how that goes. The Soviet Union sends in its own ground forces while the US trains the Mujahadeen with the aid of the Pakistani ISI; 10 years of this and everything goes to shit. Half a million to two million dead, another 6+ million displaced or flee the country outright.

After the clusterfuck is over, things don't get a lot better: the power-sharing new government is an Islamic State of. Civil unrest continues while neighbours arm militias and clans until the Taliban finally emerges as the winner by '96...aaaaaand promptly sets about rewinding society centuries and destroying the country's cultural heritage.

Five years later we come along and knock these assholes out of power and install a new government of our preference. But with the country having last seen progress and modernity pretty much two generations ago....I bet it'll probably be a long time before we can stop seeing the place as the backward shithole it's become.




Shitty situation. I don't know if blame can be pinned on any one thing.

[Zirconium Blade]

I blame you.

[Franciszka]

Causes of Depression:


The wide range of treatments causes like
Treatment can mean spending time talking to patients about their physical and
emotional problems, examining their diet and exercise habits, and doing blood tests to look for medical or
environmental causes for depression....

[The Scatman]

Being a souless bot is meant to be quite depressing too. Just look at what happened to HAL