6 ms·

A new road to an inaccessible land

58 points by curmudgeon22 5y ago

wizwit999 5y ago
This article has a lot of inaccuracies and reeks of a pervasive orientalist narrative with it's primary source a non Afghan tour guide. > muezzin's call to prayer of urban Afghanistan There's nothing urban about a muezzin's call to prayer. Muezzin's call to prayer everywhere in the country. > The lack of Sunni extremism, coupled with the corridor's physical isolation, means it's been impossible for Daesh and the Taliban to take a hold here, so the Wakhan has been spared the conflict that has blighted the rest of the country. The quip on 'Sunni extremism' sounds like barely concealed racism. And this has aged very poorly or is woefully uninformed since the Taliban captured Ishkamkish recently and captured 5 more districts in Badakhshan this week!
- Clewza313 5y ago
  > Muezzin's call to prayer everywhere in the country Except in Wakhan, since (as the article notes) the Ismaelis have jamatkhanas, not mosques. No minaret, no muezzin. > The quip on 'Sunni extremism' sounds like barely concealed racism. Not really? The Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam as exported by the Saudis is the primary driver of violent Islamic movements including Islamic State, the Taliban, etc.
  - wizwit999 5y ago
    My friend this what I mean when Westerners speak about Muslims and Afghans without basic knowledge. Taliban are strict Hanafi Deobandis and are vehemently opposed to Wahhabis (and Daesh).
Clewza313 5y ago
The Chinese investment of O(millions) into building this road is likely to have a much better economic and political payoff for both China and Afghanistan than the O(billions) spent by the US on war in Afghanistan.
- dmitriid 5y ago
  That's what China is doing: they invest in infrastructure in many countries, and this solves significantly more problems and ties countries to China more deeply than the current vicious circle that Western countries employ: give out large grants and credits to largely corrupt governments, that money gets mostly stolen, give more money (and also more money to cover the interest rates from previous credits), repeat.
  - yorwba 5y ago
    China's development finance has had plenty of the same problems, which is why loan volume has drastically dropped since the 2016 peak [1], China adopted debt sustainability criteria similar to those used by World Bank and IMF [2] and the chairman of China Development Bank was relieved of his post and arrested for corruption [3]. [1] https://www.bu.edu/gdp/2020/12/13/scope-and-findings-chinas-overseas-development-finance-database/ https://www.bu.edu/gdp/2020/12/13/scope-and-findings-chinas-... [2] https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3007714/china-seeks-allay-belt-and-road-debt-trap-concerns-standard https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3007714/ch... [3] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-bank-idUSKBN2070PA https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-bank-idUSKBN2070PA
  - inglor_cz 5y ago
    Chinese investments into infrastructure are hardly corruption-free. Look at the case of the new port in Sri Lanka, which was a fairly obvious debt trap from the beginning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hambantota_International_Port https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hambantota_International_Port Or at the highway in Montenegro, a small and poorish Balkan country that cannot really afford a $1 bn project going through the worst mountainous terrain in Europe. https://www.npr.org/2021/06/28/1010832606/road-deal-with-china-is-blamed-for-catapulting-montenegro-into-historic-debt https://www.npr.org/2021/06/28/1010832606/road-deal-with-chi... This kind of bad investments tend to be signed by corrupt politicians and sometimes backfire spectacularly.
    - dnautics 5y ago
      did you not read the article? It is the best road in montenegro.
simonh 5y ago
Those mountains are incredible. They look like god's building contractor dumped a huge pile of rubble and dirt on a flat plain just a few years ago.
noduerme 5y ago
Ah! Who but the British Sunday press could write such a romantic love story about yet another foreign power trying to build a road through the mountains of Afghanistan?
pestatije 5y ago
Can't believe they didn't include a map.

58 points by curmudgeon22 5y ago

This article has a lot of inaccuracies and reeks of a pervasive orientalist narrative with it's primary source a non Afghan tour guide. > muezzin's call to prayer of urban Afghanistan There's nothing urban about a muezzin's call to prayer. Muezzin's call to prayer everywhere in the country. > The lack of Sunni extremism, coupled with the corridor's physical isolation, means it's been impossible for Daesh and the Taliban to take a hold here, so the Wakhan has been spared the conflict that has blighted the rest of the country. The quip on 'Sunni extremism' sounds like barely concealed racism. And this has aged very poorly or is woefully uninformed since the Taliban captured Ishkamkish recently and captured 5 more districts in Badakhshan this week!

Clewza313 5y ago
> Muezzin's call to prayer everywhere in the country Except in Wakhan, since (as the article notes) the Ismaelis have jamatkhanas, not mosques. No minaret, no muezzin. > The quip on 'Sunni extremism' sounds like barely concealed racism. Not really? The Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam as exported by the Saudis is the primary driver of violent Islamic movements including Islamic State, the Taliban, etc.
- wizwit999 5y ago
  My friend this what I mean when Westerners speak about Muslims and Afghans without basic knowledge. Taliban are strict Hanafi Deobandis and are vehemently opposed to Wahhabis (and Daesh).

Clewza313 5y ago

The Chinese investment of O(millions) into building this road is likely to have a much better economic and political payoff for both China and Afghanistan than the O(billions) spent by the US on war in Afghanistan.

dmitriid 5y ago
That's what China is doing: they invest in infrastructure in many countries, and this solves significantly more problems and ties countries to China more deeply than the current vicious circle that Western countries employ: give out large grants and credits to largely corrupt governments, that money gets mostly stolen, give more money (and also more money to cover the interest rates from previous credits), repeat.
- yorwba 5y ago
  China's development finance has had plenty of the same problems, which is why loan volume has drastically dropped since the 2016 peak [1], China adopted debt sustainability criteria similar to those used by World Bank and IMF [2] and the chairman of China Development Bank was relieved of his post and arrested for corruption [3]. [1] https://www.bu.edu/gdp/2020/12/13/scope-and-findings-chinas-overseas-development-finance-database/ https://www.bu.edu/gdp/2020/12/13/scope-and-findings-chinas-... [2] https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3007714/china-seeks-allay-belt-and-road-debt-trap-concerns-standard https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3007714/ch... [3] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-bank-idUSKBN2070PA https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-bank-idUSKBN2070PA
- inglor_cz 5y ago
  Chinese investments into infrastructure are hardly corruption-free. Look at the case of the new port in Sri Lanka, which was a fairly obvious debt trap from the beginning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hambantota_International_Port https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hambantota_International_Port Or at the highway in Montenegro, a small and poorish Balkan country that cannot really afford a $1 bn project going through the worst mountainous terrain in Europe. https://www.npr.org/2021/06/28/1010832606/road-deal-with-china-is-blamed-for-catapulting-montenegro-into-historic-debt https://www.npr.org/2021/06/28/1010832606/road-deal-with-chi... This kind of bad investments tend to be signed by corrupt politicians and sometimes backfire spectacularly.
  - dnautics 5y ago
    did you not read the article? It is the best road in montenegro.

simonh 5y ago

Those mountains are incredible. They look like god's building contractor dumped a huge pile of rubble and dirt on a flat plain just a few years ago.

noduerme 5y ago

Ah! Who but the British Sunday press could write such a romantic love story about yet another foreign power trying to build a road through the mountains of Afghanistan?

pestatije 5y ago

Can't believe they didn't include a map.