Afghanistan's Opium Wars
This article by National Geographic on opium wars seems to be one of the best and most recent articles out of what I've looked at. I also looked at this link to learn more about what opium is, what it is made from, and what it can do to the user.
I learned many things from the National Geographic article that I didn't know about opium or Afghanistan's production of opium. To start off, I can't say that I ever knew there was a connection between opium and Afghanistan. I guess I have always heard of opium but hadn't thought about where it comes from or who supplies it. After learning that Afghanistan has a role in opium production, I was surprised to find out how large that role was.
I also learned that some of the farmers, as mentioned in the article, use the income from the opium crop to feed their families. "It provide(s) everything," one man, Mohammed Khalid, said. Because of the eradication of poppies, Khalid has come up with a plan in order to keep providing for his family. He said that he will end up switching his easily seen crop of poppies to that of melons and wheat and keep only a small slice of land, which is more hidden, to earn money. I had no idea that so many families depended on the opium crops for their main income.
I thought it was interesting to see how the officers go about removing the crops. They tend to go through them with bamboo canes and "swing away at the flowers, reaper-like." I learned a lot of small interesting things like this through the photo gallery related to the article. The captions helped me realize how serious the problem is. For example, there is one photo and caption about the many people addicted to opium, which features two men smoking with young children in the room. These photos are a really good way to experience the intensity of opium production, use, and attempted eradication. I would highly recommend looking through the gallery if you get the chance.
No comments:
Post a Comment