Kyrgyzstan - Base Hit!

I just finished reading "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins. He details the ways that mega-corporations like Bechtel and Haliburton work in lockstep with the U.S. government, the World Bank, and the IMF to control developing countries via enormous debt for mega-projects that are built by these companies and that benefit only a small segment of the populations.


I just finished reading "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins. He details the ways that mega-corporations like Bechtel and Haliburton work in lockstep with the U.S. government, the World Bank, and the IMF to control developing countries via enormous debt for mega-projects that are built by these companies and that benefit only a small segment of the populations.

I guess my radar was way up when I saw a scant two-sentence article in the SF Chronicle this week, saying Kyrgyzstan had granted the US an extension on our airbase in their country after telling us to leave a few months ago. Kyrgyzstan? It's one of those "new" countries from the former Soviet Union that most Americans (like myself) have not added to our mental globes.

I looked it up on Wikipedia and found that sure enough it is one of the poorest countries in that neighborhood. Also this article from the Encyclopedia of Nations, says the IMF is very involved in propping up its currency.

Nevertheless, in this case Kyrgyzstan may have found a product to sell to the highest bidder and maybe even reduce some of their debt. Seems that Russia recently gave them 1.3 billion to evict the U.S. The New York Times did a much better job than our Chronicle and recounted some details of what Kyrgyzstan got from the U.S. - which uses this base extensively in our war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. I imagine that author John Perkins could rattle off several indicators that point to even more back-story on what leverage we used to get this agreement.

Suicides of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan Keep Rising

According to a "Voice of America" report, an army spokesman recently said that the number of Army suicides in 2008 could reach 130, eclipsing the record number in 2007 of 115. An army report that was published a year ago noted the following numbers of Army suicides in recent years.

2003 - 79 suicides
2004 - 67 suicides
2005 - 88 suicides
2006 - 102 suicides
2007 - 115 suicides

They started keeping records in 1980. Of the record number in 2007, 31% were fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan while another 8% killed themselves within four months of their return home. The army report said there was "limited evidence" that repeated deployments were putting more of its soldiers at risk from suicide. My guess is that if they looked at it harder, they'd find a strong correlation.

Last year, CBS News did its own investigation of suicides by veterans when it couldn't get much pertinent information from the government. CBS found that recent U.S. war vets were 2 - 4 times more likely to kill themselves than other people their age.

Three Cups of Tea

photo by Trudy Rubin

Just finished the book, "Three Cups of Tea," the story of former mountain climber, Greg Mortenson whose life took a radical turn when tribal villagers in Pakistan nursed him back to health in 1993 following a harrowing attempt to scale K2, a Himalayan peak. He told them he wanted to build a school for their children and that he'd return to do so. First he went back to Berkeley, California where he lived a hand-to-mouth lifestyle picking up night shifts as a nurse-paramedic, living in shared apartments and sometimes out of his car & storage locker. He made a list of rich and famous people and wrote fundraising letters, amassing about $20 for his efforts.

Eventually he succeeds and the school is built, but there are all kinds of riveting and entertaining stories along the way - as Mortenson wends his way through inter-cultural and actual minefields. His integrity and purpose draw people to him on both sides of the world and though he continues to live on next to nothing, he finds ways to build school after school in villages throughout Muslim Pakistan and Afghanistan where none existed before, and where girls and education were never imagined in the same sentence. The story takes on another dimension as he sees the beginnings of what became the Taliban and Al Queda as well as the aftermath of the US war in Afghanistan.
Read new articles on Greg's blog.

For me it was more than an inspiring, well-told story. I loved that he started out typing letters that got him nowhere. And that he was doing it from the Berkeley haunts I know so well. It made it all so real and accessible. Sure, there are many ways to view "Dr. Greg" in a transcendent "hero" category. His skill set alone - mountain climber, nurse, language-learner - put him in a unique niche. But instead, he could have been a Greyhound bus rider, a writer, and a great cook and somehow engaged with people from another walk of life and decided to make a dream come true for them (and him). As the book goes on, Dr. Greg becomes larger than life in terms of his dedication, asceticism, and bravery, but at the outset he's someone we've all known or almost been. Perhaps the momentum of his work carried him into a more mythical level of "hero-person," but the ingredients that generated his life path are not secret ones. They just usually get moved further back on the shelf.