[Nettime-bold] dropping bombs and flour on Afghanistan

[Tjebbe van Tijen <t.tijen@chello.nl>]

A practical proposal that dropped in my mailbox today from a development aid worker who has worked recently in the region:

Original Subject line:

what the USA can do to demonstrate it isn't at war with Islam  or the Afghans

Body of text:

This was sent to the BBC's the World Today programme:

> Madam, Sir,
>
> it appears to me that the present situation offers Mr. Bush, and the Americans, an excellent opportunity
>
> to draw a clear line between their treatment of Osama Bin Laden c.s., and possibly of the Taleban, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, their friendship with, and concern for, the ordinary innocent (o.i.) Afghan people.
>
> Didn't the UN call for food donations to the Afghan people?
>
> Don't the Afghans suffer drought for the third or fourth consecutive year, apart from what they suffer from the war(s) in their country?
>
> So Bush might use this coincidence:
>
> when the USA load their planes to drop bombs on Mr. Bin Laden, wherever he may be in Afghanistan, then why not also take along some sacks of flour to drop on the o.i. Afghans, with an appropriate Qur'an verse printed in Arab and English on those sacks, saying something about helping others in need as God's obligation to its people, plus an expression of the American people's friendship for its o.i. Afghan brothers, and of its respect for Islam?

> That would, dollar for dollar, do an incomparable lot more to prevent terrorism in the future, than any deployment of the USA's undisputed military capabilities.
>
> What worries me is that nobody appears to have noticed this opportunity.

> Heimo Hedringa
> Hoorn, the Netherlands
> heimo@netschaap.nl

Tjebbe van Tijen

Imaginary Museum Projects (IMP), Amsterdam

Background information on:
http://people.a2000.nl/ttijen/Index.html