Sunday, April 22, 2012

The Weather Report Is In...

February was "cloudy with a chance of SAF" and now "April showers bring
May poppy."  That's right, it's poppy season out here in Afghanistan.
Based on the below two stories I don't know if ANSF/CF are winning or
losing the "war on poppy."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/17/opium-poppy-farming-afghanis
tan-rising


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/20/us-winning-war-on-poppie
s-in-afghanistan-but-for-h/?page=1


I can also neither confirm nor deny that poppy eradication campaigns are
or are not taking place in one or two or many provinces around
Afghanistan or Pakistan or the U.S. or Mexico.  10% of the total income
from poppies goes to the Taliban according to UNODC.
http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Afghanistan/Afghan_Opiu
m_Trade_2009_web.pdf?ref=enews171109


Confirming the findings of the 2011 Afghanistan Opium Survey, the Risk
Assessment of this year indicated the strong association between
insecurity, lack of agricultural assistance and opium cultivation.
Villages with a low level of security and which had not received
agricultural assistance in the previous year were significantly more
likely to grow poppy in 2012 than villages with good security and those,
which had received assistance. Similarly, villages which had been
targeted by an anti-poppy awareness campaign were significantly less
likely to grow poppy in 2012.
http://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghanistan/ORAS_report_2
012.pdf


And we really have seen quite the rain storms the last couple days,
leading to sandbagging some buildings last night and joking that I would
float away on my chair/exercise ball.

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