Obama has announced the list of charities to which he is donating his Nobel Peace Prize money, and it’s a fantastic list. Its worth noting that Fisher House and the Haiti fund get the most money, followed by a long list of education-related foundations. But i think the most important awardee is the Central Asia Institute – here’s why.
Defending the liberal tradition in history, science, and philosophy.
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Fascinating…Since when in the U.S did it become fashionable to start caring about Central Asians(Pakistan is Central Asia now?)? Of course, we have organizations like the Feminist Majority, of which I agree with Sonali Kolhatkar, is outright racist in it’s views and “charity” towards Afghanistan and Middle Eastern/Central Asian folks in general…The simple fact is Obama is trying to score points with the Pakistani population, and the so-called “Muslim World” in general. It is a political move, taken from his own “personal” charitable coffers. Good luck to him with that. Neither his money or the Central Asia Institute will have much luck in that department.
Well, Cyrus, I disagree. Educating girls is very popular in Pakistan (even in the tribal territories) and Afghanistan. The Taliban opposition to it is one reason they are hated. The more educated Muslim women in the world the better, if only because it will reduce (through decreased birth rates) the percentage of young men among Muslims – which will reduce violence, as happens anytime you reduce the percentage of young men among any population.
Yours,
Tom
This is the ultimate dog-bites-man story.
“Rich man gives (relatively) small donation to charities. No news at 11″
YAWN.
I’d rather he spent the cash on a few pounds of blow and worked on resuming the good relations with India that we had under Bush.
Bravo for the President in giving the $1.4 million dollar prize to charity. I am especially pleased he gave a substantial chunk to a scholarship program for impoverished people in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where our troops are doing most of the fighting.
Repeat: where our troops are doing most of the fighting these days.
We’re in that region to help the benighted people there overcome the legacy of the Taliban and other reactionary medievalist groups. Good for the President for supporting our country’s efforts that way.
foo,
The Indians, along with the Israelis, are the new “bad guys” these days according to the Administration. Because they piss off the Muslims.
But, again, who doesn’t piss off the Muslims?
What exactly has Obama done to sour the US relationship with India?
Great!.. So glad he decided to give the money he didn’t even deserve to people who can use it.
Now if someone could explain to me what he’s done, even including this past full calendar year since his nomination, that warranted a Nobel Peace Price I’ll be grateful.
The man has done nothing but talk…. even though he repeatedly states that ‘the time for talk is over.’
LOL. How DARE he give (not enough) money to a bunch of useless charities?!?! Why this is more of an outrage than him receiving a (discredited) peace prize to begin with! He’s all talk, especially when he does something!
Oh yeah, and India, for god’s sake, India! and muslims! musssssslllllimmmmmmsssssssss!!!
LOL Aziz,
So other than giving away money he didn’t earn in the first place…… what has Obama done?
Has it been forgotten that Pakistan was viewed as a critical ally during the entire Bush administration? Did that stop being the case since Obama took office? Have military planners changed their minds in their previously near-universal assessments that without Pakistan’s help and cooperation, and especially without making significant efforts in Northern Pakistan, we can’t possibly sustain our efforts against the Taliban in Afghanistan?
The President is doing something patriotic here, guys. And it’s something he doesn’t have to do at all. The cheap shots are, well, cheap.
> The cheap shots are, well, cheap.
Yup. I am happy with the President when he acts like Bush on the WoT- which seems to be most of th time.
And I am happy with the direction given to NASA – except they should cut its budget, not increase it.
On domestic policy Obama wants to be one of the the worst Presidents ever, but his legislative inexperience and incompetence is keeping him from dragging the country down (by mistake!) as fast as he would like.
Yours,
Tom
- Tom, you had me ’till you said “women in the Muslim world.” You want plenty of educated “Muslim” women? Just go next door to Iran(or any of the “Stans”). Afghanistan’s problem is 30 years of modern warfare in some of the most dislocated turf on the planet. I’d say only about 1/3 of Afghans are even functionally literate…That includes folks in the cities. No, this organization is “feel good,” and it will do little to improve the plight of Afghan(read Pashtun) women. Besides, so what? A few more Pashtun girls can read…Then what? ITT Tech? They can then go work on the Afghan Space Program?
- Foobarista…A few pounds of blow perhaps, but I see little value in improving relations with India. We borrow a good deal of our money from China. China is racing to be a major global power and player, and it will. India is China’s enemy. India has literally nothing to offer us. They are a very distant second…third…fifth place to China. They don’t even have defense contracts to offer our thirsty aerospace sector. They only thing that India has going for it in relation to the U.S is a massive foreign lobby. One of the top four lobbies, in fact. This at least according to the late great Congressman Charlie Wilson.
- Dean, what can I say. You have a much more optimistic view of it. I do not see it helping much at all. If it keeps a few U.S service personnel from getting shot, my hat is off to it. I just do not see that as happening. As long as our people are there, they will be shot at. So goes the nature of Afghanistan. For the record, I do not see the Afghans as particularity benighted, so much as just being on the receiving end of about half a dozen different empires for the last 200 years our so. The Taliban legacy is nil. The Taliban of 2001 and all it’s lovely/extremely stupid Gulf Arab influence has long been eighty-sixed from the scene. The current manifestation is much more inline with the Afghan(read Pashtun) way of thinking. It is a wholly different thing, and one that is hardly add odds with “the people.”
- Mike, grow up. If you believe that the Israelis are Obama’s enemies and the “Muslims”(who are they again?) are his friends…Well, you probably also believe that 9/11 was an inside job done by your local Shriners chapter, working in cahoots with the United States Postal Service.
> Besides, so what? A few more Pashtun girls can read…Then what? ITT Tech? They can then go work on the Afghan Space Program?
Rolls eyes. It’s remarkable how much useful information our pioneer forefathers got from books about simple technical questions like when to plant a crop or what to use to make soap. Rolls eyes again.
Goes bowling with eyes.
Yours,
Tom
Cyrus,
Wow, you have a very active imagination to believe I hold a whole lot of beliefs I never gave one word to claim I hold.
- I never said Israel was Obama’s “enemy”; I said he was treating them like the “Bad Guys” with threats of sanctions in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, etc.
- Yes, O’s snubbing of India has much more to do with China. Yet if you combine it with his snubbing of Israel and his apology tour of the Islamic world you have to wonder.
Yeah, I’m a Trufer just because I express an opinion you don’t like. Hey, I don’t like your attitude and opinions, you must be a nasty, racist Nazi! See how your bizarre logic works?
9/11 was done by 19 Muslims (the 20th never boarded) and the U.S. (and Israel) had nothing to do with that act of terror.
Cyrus,
What Mike said.
Look, we can all make plenty of outrageous hyperbolic statements on our own (and do – its a tradition on the intertubes!) without people putting words in our mouths and thoughts in our heads.
Yours,
Tom
Kudos to Obama for donating the money. I could quibble quite a bit with his choices, especially the overt political ones, but there’s no point. He really had no choice but to donate the money and there is no real surprise here in to whom he decided to give the money.
That does nothing whatsoever to assuage the ridiculousness of his winning the increasingly irrelevant prize in the first place.
Hah ha, Tom. You don’t know about Afghans. These were the same folks making AK-47′s by hand in villages in the 1980′s. Books on crop rotations and such are plenty available, and have been since long before the U.S(or Soviets) ever showed up. It is just that you can only find them in the cities, and then are usually written in the wrong language, i.e Persian instead of Pashtu. I guess that means we are better off teaching those Pashtun women to read and write in a language other than their own? Now, there is a thought…
As far as we are concerned, we are hardly their benevolent teachers, and the more we try to be, the more we are just going to piss them off. We are dealing with some very ancient cultures in the area, and they are not primitive. War torn in a Mad Max kind of way? Yes. Primitive? No. What for example, you “think” you can teach them, fails sharply in comparison with what you actually have to teach. Keep in mind, the Soviets tried all this B.S before. Only made things 1000x worse. Better off letting themselves sort it out. They are adults. They will figure it all out in a generation or two.
> You don’t know about Afghans.
You don’t know what I don’t know.
> These were the same folks making AK-47’s by hand in villages in the 1980’s.
I know this. They’ve been hand making rifles for centuries.
> Books on crop rotations and such are plenty available, and have been since long before the U.S(or Soviets) ever showed up. It is just that you can only find them in the cities, and then are usually written in the wrong language, i.e Persian instead of Pashtu.
I know this too. It’s a network effects problem. The more people who can read and write in a given language, the more useful both skills are and the more valuable written material becomes.
> We are dealing with some very ancient cultures in the area, and they are not primitive. War torn in a Mad Max kind of way? Yes. Primitive?
I know this too. Back when the Spice Road was the only way to get spices, Afghanistan was a major trade route.
> What for example, you “think” you can teach them, fails sharply in comparison with what you actually have to teach.
Yeah, that’s why you start with the basics, which are always useful, like reading, writing and ‘rithmetic.
> They are adults. They will figure it all out in a generation or two.
They have figured out something important now, quite on their own – that education for girls (and boys) is good. They think so even though people are willing to kill them for it, and you are willing to mock them for it.
Yours,
Tom
Maybe Obama should fund a charity devoted to teaching high U.S. officials to keep their feet out of their mouths. We’ve needed this for a lllllooooonnnnnggggg time.
Yours,
tom
If we’re dissing India in an attempt to court China, this won’t work with either one. China is the type of country that will interpret “open hand”-style appeals as weakness, which is why we tend to have worse relations with China under Democrats than Republicans, while India is the world’s largest democracy and is more reliable than Russia or China in any dealings in central Asia.
Foobarista – Ah yes, India is the world’s largest “democracy”…So what. A democracy that has religious riots that kill thousands of people every few years. Business is business. Countries think in terms of their own benefit, and not in abstract ideological concepts. Currently, the U.S gets nothing, nil, nada from any cozy relationship with India. Nothing “reliable” about India at all, except it antagonizes China, which is not currently in any U.S interests. China is our banker, whether we like it or not. India is not. They do not lend the U.S money, supply needed capital investment or natural resources, and offer little strategic use. The day I see endless Indian products at Wal-Mart, and the U.S has nearly a trillion dollars invested in it from India, I will change my mind. Until then, what you are saying is often repeated hot air. Literally a talking point for the Indian lobby.
As for Central Asia, India has zero leverage in the place what-so-ever. They have no economic, cultural, religious or historical connection to the region. Saying India is somehow reliable is meaningless. They simply do not exist there, and never have. They also never will. Russia ran the show for years. China stills owns a chunk of it. Iran used to own the place, and still has connections. Turkey speaks the same language. India has none of this going for it.
Heh I remember the comments.
Idiots: “Obama is probably smug for winning that prize”
Obama: “I don’t deserve that prize”
Idiots: “He’s going to cave in to those foreign demands now! The world doesn’t respect Obama”
Obama: “Sometimes war is necessary.”
Idiots: What’s he going to do with the money? Line his pockets I bet!”
Obama: “I’m giving the money to charity”
Idiots: “OMFG LOOK AT THE CHARITY HE IS A SECRIT MUSLIN!”
Obama could be10 miles away from a house that burnt down and idiots would say he should have been closer. If Obama were closer to that house they would say he should have seen the candle in the window and called the fire department to prevent it. If Obama did that, idiots would say he was wasting tax money and he should have blown it out himself. Then, If Obama were close enough, seen the candle, and then went inside to blow out the candle preventing a fire; idiots would scream bloody murder that he shouldn’t have broken into the person’s house and that he is invading people’s privacy.
There are a lot of idiots in this country, don’t be an idiot!
The literacy rate in Afghanistan by the latest available numbers is:
43.1% for men
12.6% for women.
Meaning, about 4 in 10 men, and 1 in 10 women.
Increasing education in that part of the world has been a major U.S. foreign policy goal ever since the Bush administration put us in Afghanistan. It is still a major goal now, and major military and non-miltary resources have been put to that, and the White House (ever since Bush was in office) has strongly encouraged private efforts and initiatives as well.
Given that the literacy rate for women is 1/4th the level it is for men, efforts to improve education for women in Afghanistan is, and has been, viewed as critical to U.S. foreign policy ever since the early days of the Bush administration. Donald Rumsfeld would tell you this. Condoleezza Rice would tell you this. George W. Bush would tell you this. In fact, they all already HAVE said it.
So I repeat: the President is doing something patriotic with the money, helping give both cash and publicity to a program that matches U.S. aims.
So kudos to the President for doing something patriotic with the money. And shame on those of you who spit on it. I think you’re showing your own lack of patriotism, putting partisanship and hatred for the current temporary occupant of the White House over and above your desire to see your country, and the people of Afghanistan, succeed.
Well Dean, I am hardly wanting Obama to “fail”, as I am a liberal, a registered Democrat, and I voted for the guy. I am also probably the only person here with any real connection to the Afghans themselves. So, that being said, there is nothing “mean” about my conclusions, only realistic as I see fit. I still have not figured out what my country hopes to achieve in Afghanistan, and helping a few more Afghans read is nice, but will have little effect on the U.S achieving whatever goals it has set forth there, i.e the real reason our troops are there. There are at least a half a dozen reasons for this. One major reason is that a few dozen Afghans(namely Pashtun) civilians find themselves getting blasted by U.S air power every week. That is really bad news if you are trying to somehow reform the way those folks think of you as a group. Secondly, don’t assume body count, aka killing those pesky “Talibans”, will win much mojo with the Pashtuns either. After all, those women who are to be educated, well…Those Talibs are their husbands, brothers, fathers, cousins, etc. They have a very long memory over there. A very long one.
I’m sorry to tell you, I got connections in Afghanistan too. Including Afghan friends actually living there right now. They need food, they need sanitation, they need medicine, they need education, they need jobs, and they need all our support.
We’re doing all those things, and have been for some time, thank you very much, but we can’tbe all things to all people. But I can quite assure you that most Afghans fucking well HATE the goddamned Taliban and always have.
And they WANT all those evil things like education, medicine, sanitation, etc. Pretty badly, Cyrus.
Connections? No need to be sorry. I take it the people you know are “city folk”, perhaps? That is most likely the case, and that plays into a very large part of the construction of their views. Talk to anyone living in Kabul, and they hate they Taliban. They probably also hate the Pushtuns as well. Talk to folks in the villages of the NWFP about the Taliban, and suddenly things become much more 50/50 or more, depending on the village you happen across. I think the biggest problem here is that the Taliban are being viewed as a single collective, as a opposed to a massive confederacy. Do they all a want education, medicine etc? Sure. Do they see what little if any is received as being directly connected to U.S efforts? By an large, no. That is the problem. I do not see how that can possibly change, and least for the Pashtuns. Remember that Afghanistan has been on the receiving end of aid on and off for over 30 years. I am certain the metrics for literacy were much higher in the 70′s than at anytime later. I simply to not believe we even remotely have the resources, manpower or will to tackle this problem. Especially at this point in history, in the midst of a near depression. Then one must also ask…Why just the Pashtuns? Why not others, like a good portion of Africa? Just a thought.
Either way Dean, thanks for the reply. What I am saying might offend some, but it is simply another angle to look at it.
Fair enough. And yes, Waheed and his family and friends are in Kabul.
But I’ll tell you that a lot of us (particularly on this blog) have been watching Afghanistan and active in efforts to help the people there for years now. And we recognize that the situation in northern Pakistan and Afghanistan (the two really bleed into each other to the point of near indistinguishability around that border) is very complicated and is going to take a long, long time to work out. The challenges are simply staggering.
The only way out, long term, is to do what we are doing: attempt to have some form of representative, elected government come into place, and to do as much as possible to encourage education and development. It is a generational struggle. We will be at it for many many years. I would guess about 30 years, myself.
We are talking here about a civilization that is, pretty literally, still stuck in the Bronze Age in many ways. Yet it is an area of the world that has proved itself a safe haven for very dangerous terrorists. After the Soviet coup and invasion in the 1970s, Afghanistan went from bad but with hope into chaos and nightmare. It got a little better after the Soviets were driven out with massive covert U.S. help, but then the U.S. made the fatal mistake of walking away and turning its back on that country. 9/11 showed us, rather dramatically, what a huge mistake that was.
A myth here seems to be that all we’re doing in Afghanistan and northern Pakistan is bombing people. That is simply not true. We expend enormous resources on food, sanitation, medicine, and education. But we’re limited in resources, which is why for some time now the last two administrations have also been active in strongly encouraging NGOs, non-profits, and for-profit businesses to get involved in the area. Which is why I’m commending the President for this. His little half-million dollar personal contribution will help a few, but by doing it he brings attention to it and hopefully still more private donations will flow because of it.
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