Afghanistan

Hear are some facts you wouldn’t normally find in the mainstream media. These excerpts are from an article by Rosie DiManno titled “Hopeful signs from ex-Taliban hotbed” May 18, 2008. This article was buried at the bottom of page 15 in the Sunday paper. The Toronto Star normally wouldn’t publish anything positive about Afganistan, except Rosie DiManno is one of their top columnists and is well respected.
“…Christopher Alexander, Canada's former ambassador to Afghanistan and now deputy special representative at the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.” He states:
“…there have been benchmark successes, if often eclipsed by the insurgency. Alexander reeled off some of them:
• The National Solidarity Program, heavily funded by Canada, provides grants to communities to identify, plan and manage their own development projects. Even in volatile Kandahar, the program is functioning in every district.
• 9,000 schools open in the country, where there were only 1,000 in 2001; an enrolled school population of 6 million compared with 1.5 million six years ago. (Yet upward of 500 schools closed or burned down by insurgents in the south.)
• 85 per cent of the population with access to a medical clinic within two kilometres of where they live.
• 2,000 kilometres of new paved roads connecting at least some of the provincial capitals.
• More than 20,000 heavy weapons placed in cantonments as part of the disarmament and demobilization program; 70,000 members of official militias disarmed; 200 illegal armed groups disbanded.
• About 60 per cent of the country cleared of land mines.
• A vast telecommunications network, with 4.5 million cellphone subscribers.
• A well-trained and highly respected army of 69,000 troops, growing to nearly 77,000 by year's end.
• The return of 4.5 million refugees since 2002.”
With all this success, it’s amazing that all you ever hear about is how bad it is over there and the suicide bombers.