From Spice to Stone [Today's News Poem (Sonnet), June 14, 2010]
The spice is heated first no matter how
It's taken: needles, clean in leather bags;
Or smoke that flees the room and winds through boughs
Of deodar and rides a breeze—and drags
The user near the helicopter blades
That carry ammunition home to bone
And brick. The soldiers—far from home, on raids
To burn the crop—have found a trove in stone:
Beneath the deodars and graves of moss;
Below the gust of chopper blades in flight;
Beside the fields of poppies; where a loss
Can dissipate inside the wind at night:
A mechanism eats the roots in soil,
And poisons what is left, to rake the spoils.
“The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.”
– James Risen, June 13, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html?ref=business
“As such, Klare is not hopeful about Afghanistan’s future, believing it will inevitably come to resemble Nigeria—with a veneer of democracy, constant violence, and most people remaining mired in poverty.”
– Haley Cohen, Vanity Fair, June 14, 2010
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2010/06/the-resource-curse-why-lithium-may-spell-misery-for-afghanistan.html
“Mr Galbraith, who was removed from his job after being outspoken over last year’s disputed Afghan presidential election, on Tuesday hinted that Mr Karzai was not only corrupt, but also a drug addict. “Some of the palace insiders say [Karzai] has a certain fondness for some of Afghanistan’s most profitable exports,” Mr Galbraith told MSNBC.”
– Edward Luce and Daniel Dombey, The Financial Times, April 7 2010 00:21 GMT
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/eb5a9ed6-41d1-11df-865a-00144feabdc0.html
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