Thread: Herriot of Helmand

BBC LINK

Seems like a worthwhile programme. Happy farmers with healthy livestock = well-fed families = fewer $10 Taliban, I would have thought.

Imagine the Afghan Mrs Pumphrey though...

Originally Posted by Hobo-Ken

Imagine the Afghan Mrs Pumphrey though...

Whats the Dari/Pashto for "Vitinry"?

How would they say, like Mallick(the bone man) It's "Congestion tit Lungs vitinry".

CTC

Originally Posted by smartascarrots

BBC LINK

Seems like a worthwhile programme. Happy farmers with healthy livestock = well-fed families = fewer $10 Taliban, I would have thought.

Agreed. It also highlights just how ignorant the locals are. Education is badly needed in Afghanistan. It really p1sses me off the way that aid money has been wasted over there. The amount of money poured into Afghanistan could have made a real big improvement to the lives of Afghanis, instead it has been wasted.

Originally Posted by StickyEnd

The amount of money poured into Afghanistan could have made a real big improvement to the lives of Afghanis, instead it has been wasted.

I dunno, it's helped keep the board of Mercedes in ivory back-scratchers.

That was something that really surprised me - quite how out of touch with their own needs they seemed to be. I'd always assumed that subsistence farmers - of all people - would have a firm grasp of basic agriculture. Seems not.

Originally Posted by smartascarrots

Originally Posted by StickyEnd

The amount of money poured into Afghanistan could have made a real big improvement to the lives of Afghanis, instead it has been wasted.

I dunno, it's helped keep the board of Mercedes in ivory back-scratchers.

That was something that really surprised me - quite how out of touch with their own needs they seemed to be. I'd always assumed that subsistence farmers - of all people - would have a firm grasp of basic agriculture. Seems not.

They probably would have if they wheren't so religious.

Religion, keeping people ignorant for millenia.

Given we're not going to be able to rid Afghanistan of religion, how do we go about delivering something as basic as teaching farmers how to look after livestock?

The need for security is a given in the big-ticket infrastructure projects, but it strikes me that something like this only requires that we creat a bubble of security for a short time while the goat-doc delivers his lecture and puts his hand where nature never intended. Why isn't it given more priority? Is it perhaps less 'sexy' than building a dam or a school?

Good stuff. The British-led Multi-National Division South West in Bosnia also ran a successful veterinary programme.

Originally Posted by smartascarrots

Given we're not going to be able to rid Afghanistan of religion, how do we go about delivering something as basic as teaching farmers how to look after livestock?

The need for security is a given in the big-ticket infrastructure projects, but it strikes me that something like this only requires that we creat a bubble of security for a short time while the goat-doc delivers his lecture and puts his hand where nature never intended. Why isn't it given more priority? Is it perhaps less 'sexy' than building a dam or a school?

The guy you linked to in your OP is making a start. Good luck to him.

Originally Posted by hackle

Good stuff. The British-led Multi-National Division South West in Bosnia also ran a successful veterinary programme.

I know a bloke who was heavily involved in a OECD-funded programme to revitalise agriculture in the Balkans post-conflict, but in AFG we'd have to deliver this while the fighting is still going on. I think there's limited scope for civvies to get involved and the Army Vet Services aren't exactly groaning at the seams with numbers.