Sam Mochizuki Mochizuki 1

Humanities

Ms. Lindsey

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a very troubled place because of the war in their country. The war has thus

created a big influence on the art, politics, and economy, in their country. The influences on

these cause many problems in their country and make it a dangerous place to be in. Afghanistan

is now rated the 2nd most dangerous country according to World Atlas. Many things in

Afghanistan are affected by the war raging on, politics have been all corrupted, their economy is

plummeting, and all of their arts are being destroyed. These things are extremely important to the

country and the people who live there.

Corruption has taken hold of Afghanistan and has threatened the progress of their

country. Whenever there are projects to try and better the community or even just build a small

bench, big businesses and the Taliban stop or delay them (Danish). This allows for almost

nothing to happen in their country. Also this doesnt allow help from outside the country so the

communities there are struggling. Most of the corruption in the politics are businesses or people

just trying to gain money from people who want to donate to the country. Jamil Danish describes

that he works in the ministry of rural development and whenever they try to help the struggling

communities some politicians try to grab money from them. This is exactly what he said This

was genuinely important work for genuinely needy people and yet it was often disrupted by the

corruption of the political class, who would, one way or another, find a way of getting their

hands on the money.(Danish). Although things are still bad today, it was worse before. The
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corruption use to be so bad that no one was able to donate anything to Afghanistan due to the

Taliban taking hold of the government. After the Taliban seized the government all of the

funding and help that came to the country stopped. This caused major struggle in the country.

The poorer communities lost a lot of people and barely survived by using what little they had.

But after the government was taken back theyve been able to accept a lot more help.

Ever since the war started in 2001 the country has spent lots of money on keeping their

country safe and alive (Economic Growth | Afghanistan). Most of the money that they spend

comes from donations from other countries. The US and several other countries have sent

countless donation to get the country safe again. Since the war is still going on the country cant

focus too much on spending the money for communities. Most of the money goes to fighting the

groups that terrorize their communities. Since very little goes to the communities many people

have a hard time living there and many people die due to the harsh conditions. Although the

communities dont get a lot of money, they still at least get some to help them survive the war.

The other incomes of money to their country come from trade and farms there, but it is very

little. Also the trading and farming there is mostly illegal. People there are forced to grow and

sell illegal plants such as opium. Opium is the main drug that farmers grow over there. They

choose to grow it since it yields the most amount of money. Other plants they sell either don't

grow well or arent worth as much (Reality of Life in Afghanistan).

Afghanistan has lost many arts to the war and most of them cant be recovered. Due to

the Taliban and other terrorist groups, the museums there have been destroyed many times. The

terrorist groups destroy the museums to try and threaten the people and show them that they
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arent afraid to hurt them. One terrorist group destroyed the Mosul Museum to show that they

can act with impunity (Laura). Also they want to destroy many of the old ways of Islam. They

believe that their way of Islam is the best and want to eradicate all other forms. This is very

tragic for the people who believe in the older ways Islam. Many people from their communities

believe that this is a very shameful thing to do. They believe this because they wish to respect

their ancestors and not destroy what they believed in. There are some organizations that are

trying to help them hold onto older traditions. The Kabul Museum travels around the world to

help keep the traditions alive. They do tours that help raise money so that they can rebuild the

original museum (Alipio).

In conclusion Afghanistan has lost a lot of things due to the war, but it is slowly fighting

back. The war has created lots of problems such as the corruption, the amount of they spend on

things, and even the art that they have acquired from years of development. Due to the war,

Afghanistan is now a very dangerous place.

 Works Cited

Alipio, Amy. This Art Exhibit Made Me Cry. Intelligent Travel, National Geographic,

11 Apr. 2011,

intelligenttravel.nationalgeographic.com/2008/05/29/this_art_exhibit_made_me_cry/.

Looted Art Returned to Afghanistan. BBC News, BBC, 19 July 2012,

www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-18901966.

electricpulp.com. Encyclopdia Iranica. RSS, Encyclopaedia Iranica,

www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kabul-museum.

Afghan Women Say, Call Me by My Name. Public Radio International, PRI The

World, www.pri.org/stories/2017-08-02/call-me-my-name.

Danish, Jamil. Afghanistan's Corruption Epidemic Is Wasting Billions in Aid. The

Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 3 Nov. 2016,

www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/nov/03/afghanistans-cor

ruption-epidemic-is-wasting-billions-in-aid.

Reality of Life in Afghanistan. Trust in Education, Trust in Education,

www.trustineducation.org/why-afghanistan/life-in-the-villages/.

Economic Growth | Afghanistan. U.S. Agency for International Development, 13 May

2017, www.usaid.gov/afghanistan/economic-growth.

King, Laura. Why Islamic State Wants to Destroy the Treasures of the Ancient World.

Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 25 Oct. 2016,

www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-iraq-islamic-state-antiquities-snap-story.html.