Hope in Afghanistan

As kind of a follow-up to my last post, I wanted to share some more thoughts about hope.  On the way home from church, I was listening to NPR and heard some reporter talking with the wife of the Ambassador to the United States from Afghanistan.  They were with a cook making a traditional Afghani dish, and interspersed in the food talk was discussion about the state of Afghanistan as well as what it was for her growing up.

Towards the end, the reporter asked her how the current state compares to what it was 30 years ago when she was growing up (which she had described as ideal, before Russia invaded).  She responded with this quote:  “I just think it is so unfair when you hear the media just criticizing everything.  You don’t see the positive side. […] We have major accomplishments.  Why don’t you talk about that?”  In the middle of that quote she cited several indications of positive change and progress in Afghanistan, but she’s right, you hear nothing of this in the media.  It is just about suicide bomber this, dead American troops that.  Those are important, but without the positive things, you lose HOPE.

Isn’t that what Barack Obama wants?  Then why is it that he never mentions these signs of progress.  It shows that “hope”, that is supposed to be his message, is in fact not contained in his message, just empty promises that he can fix the world.  As one commenter just noted (thanks Jillian), we have to individually fix our world.  No one man or woman or administration can do that.  Let’s get to work!

Here’s the link to the story.  You’ll need to listen to it to hear what I’ve talked about as it hasn’t been fully transcribed.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91710829 [npr.org]