Opium, Anyone?

Opium, for those unfamiliar with the term, is a narcotic produced from the seeds of opium poppies. Opium contains about 12% morphine, which is commercially processed to produce heroin, for illegal drug trade. As far as the production of opium is concerned, Afghanistan is the largest opium producer in the world. Opium production in Afghanistan has been on the rise since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. In 2007, for example, 93% of the opiates on the world market originated in Afghanistan (Source: United Nations office on drugs and crime). This amounts to an export value of about 64 billion US dollars.

Here's an intriguing graph pertaining to the opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan (1994-2007):

The numbers on the Y-axis denote the land area in hectares dedicated to opium production. It is interesting to note that production in the year just after the Taliban rose to power is significantly less than any other year. During the Taliban rule, Afghanistan saw a bumper opium crop of 4,600 metric tons in 1999. In July 2000, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar declared that growing poppies was un-Islamic, resulting in one of the world's most successful anti-drug campaigns. As a result of this ban, opium poppy cultivation was reduced by 91% from the previous year's estimate of 82,172 hectares. The ban was so effective that Helmand Province, which had accounted for more than half of this area, recorded no poppy cultivation during the 2001 season (Source: United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP): Annual opium poppy survey).

After September 11th, 2001, a combination of U.S. CIA and military forces (US and allied powers), invaded Afghanistan. By November 2001, many of the country's farmers were forced to resort back to growing opium for export (1,300 km² in 2004 according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime). Two of the following three growing seasons saw record levels of opium poppy cultivation. As you can see from the graph, opium production in Afghanistan breaks new records nearly every year.

Here's another interesting quote:

Despite the fact that only 12 percent of its land is arable, agriculture is a way of life for 70 percent of Afghans and is the country's primary source of income. During good years, Afghanistan produced enough food to feed its people as well as supply a surplus for export. Its traditional agricultural products include wheat, corn, barley, rice, cotton, fruit, nuts, and grapes. However, its agricultural economy has suffered considerably. Afghanistan's largest and fastest cash crop is opium.

Source: Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College

In 2004, United Nations Development Programme ranked Afghanistan number 173 of 177 countries, using a human development index, with Afghanistan near or at the bottom of virtually every development indicator including nutrition, infant mortality, life expectancy, and literacy. Several factors encourage opium production, the greatest being economic: the high rate of return on investment from opium poppy cultivation has driven an agricultural shift in Afghanistan from growing traditional crops to growing opium poppy.

Alright, so now we know what is keeping the Afghan people busy. We also know what the production trends are - but what about the cause of this disaster? Naturally, it is logical to assume that the people who are benefitting the most from the situation are the likely motivators, right?

The UN estimates that for 2006, the contribution of the drug trade to the Afghan economy is of the order of 2.7 billion. What it fails to mention is the fact that more than 95 percent of the revenues generated by this lucrative contraband accrues to business syndicates, organized crime and banking and financial institutions. A very small percentage accrues to farmers and traders in the producing country.

Narcotics constitutes a major source of wealth formation not only for organized crime but also for the US intelligence apparatus, which increasingly constitutes a powerful player in the spheres of finance and banking. In other words, intelligence agencies, powerful business, drug traders and organized crime are competing for the strategic control over the heroin routes. A large share of this multi-billion dollar revenues of narcotics are deposited in the Western banking system. Most of the large international banks together with their affiliates in the offshore banking havens launder large amounts of narco-dollars.

This trade can only prosper if the main actors involved in narcotics have "political friends in high places." Legal and illegal undertakings are increasingly intertwined, the dividing line between "businesspeople" and criminals is blurred. In turn, the relationship among criminals, politicians and members of the intelligence establishment has tainted the structures of the state and the role of its institutions including the Military.

Source: Who benefits from the Afghan Opium Trade? (Michel Chossudovsky)

In conclusion, Obama's forces are destabilizing the country of Afghanistan, forcing the people to narcotic production to support their own livelihoods. Meanwhile, the US army has been failing for 8 years to kill a man supposedly living in a cave. God bless America.

Iraq

Yeah, let's talk about that God-forsaken country for a minute. Could somebody please give me a clear and compelling reason as to why this so-called 'war' is still raging? What kind of force is present in Iraq that has taken the American troops nearly 7 years to defeat? Is it a secret force Saddam was hiding from the world? Or maybe it's just Dumbledore's Army!

Remember all those campaign promises Obama made? Here's a little something to refresh your memory:

Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months.

 Source: http://usliberals.about.com/od/homelandsecurit1/a/ObamaIrqWr.htm

Had I been an American, I would have voted this guy in myself. Come to think of it, had I been an American, I would have not expected this:

“I said that I would remove our combat troops from Iraq in 16 months, with the understanding that it might be necessary — likely to be necessary — to maintain a residual force to provide potential training, logistical support, to protect our civilians in Iraq,” Mr. Obama said this week as he introduced his national security team.

Publicly at least, Mr. Obama has not set a firm number for that “residual force,” a phrase certain to become central to the debate on the way ahead in Iraq, though one of his national security advisers, Richard Danzig, said during the campaign that it could amount to 30,000 to 55,000 troops.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/us/politics/04military.html

More than 30,000 American soldiers on Iraqi soil - but why? Why is the US spending billions and billions of the tax-payers dollars on Iraq? How do saving the lives of the Iraqi people justify the death of the scores of Americans who die in Iraq everyday? What more does Obama want from Iraq, after it has made sure that there are no weapons of mass destruction in the country?

Involuntary Servitude

Here's the dictionary meaning an interesting word:

servitude   /s'ɜːʳvɪtjuːd/   /-tuːd/ US

Synonyms:

• noun: slavery, thraldom, thrall, enslavement, serfdom, servility, serfage

• 
  
  
  Servitude is the condition of being a slave or of being completely under the control of someone else. 
  

Involuntary servitude is the term for a person laboring against the person's free will, under some form of coercion. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution makes involuntary servitude illegal under any US jurisdiction whether at the hands of the US government or in the private sphere, except as a punishment for crime.

Now, let's consider this interesting piece from Obama's website itself:

President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps.

Obama and Biden will call on citizens of all ages to serve. They'll set a goal that all middle school and high school students engage in 50 hours of community service a year, and develop a plan for all college students who engage in 100 hours of community service...

Source: http://change.gov/americaserves/

First of all, in the URL itself "America Serves" - America is not serving anyone. It is a collection of good people striving for the common benefit, mostly. Whatever good comes out of the nation, it is for themselves to enjoy, so it's up to them to decide what they want to do.

Second, notice the keywords "call on...to serve". Why is Obama and company going to call on anyone? All depends on how the people will be called upon, as it is entirely unconstitutional to forcefully make people perform so-called 'duties' of citizenship. The government will be forcing the students to do service? Is that not involuntary servitude? Click here to view the 13th amendment to the American Constitution.

Thirdly, why should the government make a plan of how Americans get to "contribute" to the nation? Again, this is in direct violation of civil liberties.

Isn't it great that a guy whose ancestors were forced into slavery for hundreds of years is now advocating his belief that students should work against their will because the government says so?

Public volunteer service is one thing - forced "volunteering" is something totally different.

The First Post

Greetings all...

This first post seeks to state the objectives of this blog in general. The motive of the posts here is not to provide answers to any questions, but to motivate the questions that need to be asked. I doubt that I'll be able to explain anything up to any level of satisfaction, but hopefully, I'll be able to provide the means for people to formulate personal opinions about what they feel about situations.

This blog will not provide my own personal opinions. I shall limit myself to merely stating facts - unbiased and unprejudiced. I think that giving people the opportunity to think for themselves and choose their own stand is very important, as everyone is free to choose what everyone wants to believe.

I have absolutely no political credentials to try to convince anyone for anything - I'm not a conspiracy theorist, nor am I trying to sell anything. This is just a medium for me to organize the information that I stumble upon for my own future reference; all this is put online just to make it a little easier for other people easily find what took me quite a while to dig out.

Stick around, comment or ignore and leave - the choice is yours.