The Wall Street Journal-20080117-The Informed Reader - Insights and Items of Interest From Other Sources
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The Informed Reader / Insights and Items of Interest From Other Sources
World Affairs:
West's Promises to Afghans Hardly in Evidence
The West has failed to deliver on the development promises it made to Afghanistan, says journalist J. Malcolm Garcia, as he ponders his own unfulfilled promises made to a band of Kabul orphans he befriended during a reporting stint in 2004.
On a recent attempt to track down the six teens he spent time with in Afghanistan, Mr. Garcia passed through a social strata in Kabul barely touched by the $13 billion in foreign aid pledged since 2004. He says too much redevelopment money meant for the poor has been spent on cars, housing complexes and hotels for top government officials, businessmen and foreign-aid workers. For example, a $4 million fund to build schools hasn't been spent because the land intended for the schools has been taken over by what Mr. Garcia calls "Western interests."
Meanwhile, thousands of children remain on the streets of the country's capital, as do countless slum dwellers. For them, poverty and increasing violence have made Taliban rule and Soviet occupation seem stable and prosperous by comparison.
On a smaller scale, Mr. Garcia feels he has disappointed the boys he met several years ago. He frequently bought meals for the boys, and arranged for them to attend a local school for orphans. The school's future has been threatened by developers eager to build hotels or upscale homes for Westerners on its land. The school has secured new property but lacks the funds to build on it.
Mr. Garcia finally tracked down three of the orphaned kids. They were out of school but eager to return. Each earns about $6 a week, doing things like selling tea or fixing bikes. Mr. Garcia considered promising them $100 a month for an education, but in the end only promised to try to come up with the money.
"I feel like America," he says. "I got these boys thinking about their futures and then jumped ship."
-- Virginia Quarterly Review -- Winter
Asia:
Revised Views of Long March
Divide Older, Younger Chinese
Recounting the bravery and sacrifice of those on Mao Zedong's Long March used to be a unifying force in China. Now competing views of the Long March are dividing the old guard and younger generations, says the Los Angeles Times' John M. Glionna.
Between 1934 and 1936, about 300,000 Red Army soldiers fled from government forces in southern China, traveling over 6,000 miles of harsh terrain in search of a haven to continue the revolution. The events represent a founding story of hardship and courage for communist China in much the same way as Valley Forge does for the U.S. Only one in 10 survived the march. And only 500 veterans of the march remain alive today.
For decades, veterans of the march have been celebrated for their sacrifices. Their status, however, is being undermined by recent research from both inside and outside China portraying the march as an uncontrolled rout. Many of the deaths are now blamed on intraparty purges and Mao's decisions to wage pointless, bloody battles. It seems peasants were forced against their will to join.
Many young Chinese are accepting some of these revisions and are starting to view veterans as willing puppets of the propaganda machine. "In the West, we're constantly rethinking our wars," said Andrew McEwen, co-author of a recent book about the march. "China is only now beginning to do that. But we're running out of time. These survivors are dying off."
Few of the veterans seem willing to shake their view of Mao as a great leader, says Mr. Glionna. Casting doubt on the legacy would call the entire national character into question. "I don't believe the new thinking," says Tu Tongjin, a 94-year-old veteran. "I follow the version the Chairman has put forth."
-- The Los Angeles Times -- Jan. 16
India:
Tourist Village Captures
Longing for 'Simple Life'
One of the true markers of growing affluence -- a nostalgic hankering for a slower, simpler life -- has arrived in India in the form of a tourist-oriented "native village" near the thriving city of Bangalore.
There, visitors pay $150 a night to look after animals, ride in bullock carts and play traditional games. The village is designed to help preserve some of India's rural traditions, though it makes concessions to modern tourism by featuring environmentally friendly, chemical-free plants and a nondenominational temple.
The longing to connect with a real or imagined simpler lifestyle turns up among the affluent around the world, trend analyst Martin Raymond tells the BBC. And it isn't limited to recent times -- Marie Antoinette built a vast farm to "live as the peasant lived." The paradox, of course, is that the people who actually deal with the difficulties of village life crave the comforts that bustling, modern cities offer.
-- BBC -- Jan. 14
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