Afghanistan, the song deconstructed
They blew up the Buddha's
Right off the mountain wall
I was shocked they didn't care
About history at all
The Buddhas of Bamyan were two monumental statues of standing Buddhas carved into the side of a sandstone cliff in the Bamyan Valley in central Afghanistan. Built during the sixth century, the main bodies were hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs, but details were modeled in mud mixed with straw and coated with stucco. It is believed that the upper parts of their faces were made from great wooden masks or casts. They were dynamited in 2001 by the Taliban whose leader declared that they were "idols" (which are forbidden under Sharia law). International opinion strongly condemned the destruction of the Buddhas, which was viewed as an example of the intolerance of the Taliban and of fundamentalist Islam.
Girls can go to school
The former Taliban regime prohibited girls from attending school as part of its widely criticized drive to establish what it considered a "pure" Islamic state. Cleric Sayed Omer Munib, a member of the nation's top Islamic council, said there was no justification in Islam's holy book, the Quran, to prevent girls from studying. "Nowhere in the Quran does it say that girls do not have the right to education," he said. "It says that 'people should be educated.' This means girls, too." Hundreds of thousands of girls have returned to school since US-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001.
Boys can fly kites
Music's everywhere again
Taliban Religious Police banned a variety of things and activities: music, shaving of beards, keeping of pigeons, flying kites (took boys away from studying the Quran), displaying of pictures or portraits, western hairstyles, music and dancing at weddings, gambling, "sorcery," and not praying at prayer times. Movie theaters were closed. Wedding musicians buried their instruments.
Women now have rights
Upon seizing power, the Taliban instituted a system of gender apartheid effectively thrusting the women of Afghanistan into a state of virtual house arrest. Under Taliban rule women had been stripped of their visibility, voice, and mobility. When they took control in 1996, the Taliban initially imposed strict edicts that:
They grow poppies everywhere
Farmers doing what they know
Addiction's not a care
Girls drop like apples
And boys are never the same
With a poppy eatin' at
The middle of their brain
Opium has become the number one export of the country. The Quran forbids Muslims from producing or imbibing in toxicants. Hashish is banned because it is consumed by Afghans and Muslims but "Opium is permissible because it is consumed by Kafirs in the West and not by Muslims or Afghans." In 2000, Afghanistan's opium production accounted for 75% of the world's supply. Opium production was cut back by the Taliban not to prevent its use, but to shore up its price, and thus increase the income of poppy farmers and revenue of Afghan tax collectors. By 2007, production had far exceeded world demand. But there is a mystery, enough heroin to supply the world's demand for years has disappeared. For the past three years, production has been running at almost twice the level of global demand. The numbers just don't add up.
There are two credible theories.
Theory 1: A large and undocumented market has opened up in countries which don't want to admit the problem. Russia has long been in denial over the scale of its heroin problem and the same may be true in emerging drug markets like Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Intelligence suggests there is considerable stockpiling of narcotics by Afghan criminal networks in order to control prices in the growing markets in Russia, China and within the local region.
Theory 2: Vast quantities of heroin and morphine are being stockpiled. Intelligence services are examining who holds this surplus, where it may go, and for what purpose. Further credibility is given to the stockpiling theory in that 'farm-gate' prices for opium remain pretty stable at about $70 per kilo.
One serious anxiety is that the economic downturn will herald a new wave of drug misuse.The recession in the 80s coincided with the British heroin epidemic. In the US it was crack cocaine. It is not just that people turn to drugs to blot out the misery of a downturn. If the crisis pushes up unemployment, it is likely that, deprived of a legitimate way to make a living, some may turn to an illegitimate source.
It's a happy-sad story
Just like a passion play
Much more killing in the streets
Comes with a better day
Afghanistan has always been a violent place but the civilian death rate has increased to 10/100,000 which is double the middle east average of 5/100,000 . In comparison, Europe is 3-4/100,000 and the U.S. is 6/100,000. If we factor in all violent deaths which includes Afghan soldiers and police, foreign troops and Taliban, the number increases to 24/100,000.
On the Highway of Heroes
Tears fall like rain
Patriotic people cry
To a bloodstained refrain
Canadians line the overpasses to salute fallen soldiers when they are driven by hearse from the military air base in Trenton to Toronto along Hwy 401, a stretch of highway that has been renamed the Highway of Heroes.
Girls can go to school
Boys can fly kites
Music's everywhere again
Women now have rights
They blew up the Buddha's
Right off the mountain wall
I was shocked they didn't care
About history at all
The Buddhas of Bamyan were two monumental statues of standing Buddhas carved into the side of a sandstone cliff in the Bamyan Valley in central Afghanistan. Built during the sixth century, the main bodies were hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs, but details were modeled in mud mixed with straw and coated with stucco. It is believed that the upper parts of their faces were made from great wooden masks or casts. They were dynamited in 2001 by the Taliban whose leader declared that they were "idols" (which are forbidden under Sharia law). International opinion strongly condemned the destruction of the Buddhas, which was viewed as an example of the intolerance of the Taliban and of fundamentalist Islam.
Girls can go to school
The former Taliban regime prohibited girls from attending school as part of its widely criticized drive to establish what it considered a "pure" Islamic state. Cleric Sayed Omer Munib, a member of the nation's top Islamic council, said there was no justification in Islam's holy book, the Quran, to prevent girls from studying. "Nowhere in the Quran does it say that girls do not have the right to education," he said. "It says that 'people should be educated.' This means girls, too." Hundreds of thousands of girls have returned to school since US-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001.
Boys can fly kites
Music's everywhere again
Taliban Religious Police banned a variety of things and activities: music, shaving of beards, keeping of pigeons, flying kites (took boys away from studying the Quran), displaying of pictures or portraits, western hairstyles, music and dancing at weddings, gambling, "sorcery," and not praying at prayer times. Movie theaters were closed. Wedding musicians buried their instruments.
Women now have rights
Upon seizing power, the Taliban instituted a system of gender apartheid effectively thrusting the women of Afghanistan into a state of virtual house arrest. Under Taliban rule women had been stripped of their visibility, voice, and mobility. When they took control in 1996, the Taliban initially imposed strict edicts that:
- Banished women from the work force
- Closed schools to girls in cities and expelled women from universities
- Prohibited women from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative
- Ordered the publicly visible windows of women's houses painted black and forced women to wear the burqa (or chadari) which completely shrouds the body, leaving only a small mesh-covered opening through which to see
- Prohibited women and girls from being examined by male physicians while at the same time, prohibited most female doctors and nurses from working
They grow poppies everywhere
Farmers doing what they know
Addiction's not a care
Girls drop like apples
And boys are never the same
With a poppy eatin' at
The middle of their brain
Opium has become the number one export of the country. The Quran forbids Muslims from producing or imbibing in toxicants. Hashish is banned because it is consumed by Afghans and Muslims but "Opium is permissible because it is consumed by Kafirs in the West and not by Muslims or Afghans." In 2000, Afghanistan's opium production accounted for 75% of the world's supply. Opium production was cut back by the Taliban not to prevent its use, but to shore up its price, and thus increase the income of poppy farmers and revenue of Afghan tax collectors. By 2007, production had far exceeded world demand. But there is a mystery, enough heroin to supply the world's demand for years has disappeared. For the past three years, production has been running at almost twice the level of global demand. The numbers just don't add up.
There are two credible theories.
Theory 1: A large and undocumented market has opened up in countries which don't want to admit the problem. Russia has long been in denial over the scale of its heroin problem and the same may be true in emerging drug markets like Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Intelligence suggests there is considerable stockpiling of narcotics by Afghan criminal networks in order to control prices in the growing markets in Russia, China and within the local region.
Theory 2: Vast quantities of heroin and morphine are being stockpiled. Intelligence services are examining who holds this surplus, where it may go, and for what purpose. Further credibility is given to the stockpiling theory in that 'farm-gate' prices for opium remain pretty stable at about $70 per kilo.
One serious anxiety is that the economic downturn will herald a new wave of drug misuse.The recession in the 80s coincided with the British heroin epidemic. In the US it was crack cocaine. It is not just that people turn to drugs to blot out the misery of a downturn. If the crisis pushes up unemployment, it is likely that, deprived of a legitimate way to make a living, some may turn to an illegitimate source.
It's a happy-sad story
Just like a passion play
Much more killing in the streets
Comes with a better day
Afghanistan has always been a violent place but the civilian death rate has increased to 10/100,000 which is double the middle east average of 5/100,000 . In comparison, Europe is 3-4/100,000 and the U.S. is 6/100,000. If we factor in all violent deaths which includes Afghan soldiers and police, foreign troops and Taliban, the number increases to 24/100,000.
On the Highway of Heroes
Tears fall like rain
Patriotic people cry
To a bloodstained refrain
Canadians line the overpasses to salute fallen soldiers when they are driven by hearse from the military air base in Trenton to Toronto along Hwy 401, a stretch of highway that has been renamed the Highway of Heroes.
Girls can go to school
Boys can fly kites
Music's everywhere again
Women now have rights