jmcmichael

“Lucas, Spielberg, Ridley Scott, these guys didn’t create the worlds they presented to us. They hired these 5 artists to create those worlds for them.”

“The product-service-system (or PSS) is a new term for an old idea: emphasizing access over ownership, it’s simply about sharing products among people, and recognizing that bright green systems are just as important as products. Since we already take part in them – video rentals, laundromats, libraries, gyms, and taxis being obvious examples – we only really talk about PSS with regard to things that many of us don’t usually share, like cars, appliances, tools, or clothing. Breaking past some of the cultural barriers that equate affluence with ownership may still be the greatest challenge, but what if alternative is cheaper, more sustainable, doesn’t clutter your home, and connects you with your neighbours?”

Throughout all the shooting and shouting, American commanders seemed strangely unaware that Marja might qualify as the world’s heroin capital — with hundreds of laboratories, reputedly hidden inside the area’s mud-brick houses, regularly processing the local poppy crop into high-grade heroin.  After all, the surrounding fields of Helmand Province produce a remarkable 40% of the world’s illicit opium supply, and much of this harvest has been traded in Marja. Rushing through those opium fields to attack the Taliban on day one of this offensive, the Marines missed their real enemy, the ultimate force behind the Taliban insurgency, as they pursued just the latest crop of peasant guerrillas whose guns and wages are funded by those poppy plants. “You can’t win this war,” said one U.S. Embassy official just back from inspecting these opium districts, “without taking on drug production in Helmand Province.”

The hands that wield the force of the US Government seem to be operating at cross purposes. The left hand (covert special/black ops) and the right hand (military action to ostensibly serve the interests of US citizens) have radically different interests and operations in Afghanistan, and this shows itself most clearly when one looks deeply into the region’s (the world’s, really) opium trade.

It’s relatively easy to discover that the Taliban receives most of its funding from US foreign aid programs. One needs to dig a bit to discover that the Army Corps of Engineers replaced a ferry with a bridge across the Panj River - an important route in the opium trade between Afghanistan and Tajikistan - which increased the route’s traffic from 40 to 1,000 trucks a day.

It’s gotten so bad that even the Russians are complaining about the inflow of drugs into their country via this bridge. More likely though, they’re disappointed with their cut of the profits and are applying public pressure to increase their share.

Even the British are trying to get in the action. A couple years ago they had planned to build a Taliban training camp - a little strange, but it gets stranger. These soldiers were to be taught farming, irrigation, and were provided satellite phones to keep in contact with their handlers. The satellite phones were presumably to invite them to dine on a particularly bountiful harvest of eggplant, hummus, and dates…?

It could be that what we’re witnessing here is the distant rumblings of an international turf war over the world’s opium trade.