Roses in Afghanistan ** Was: Bulgaria Claims Rose Crisis

[Guest guest]

Howdy Marcia,

 

> Hey Butch . . . I've snipped all else, but wanted to give you a

> heads up on other recent Afghanistan rose attempts. It isn't

> complete hype; there are a number of entrepreneurs (Afghans living

> in US) (as well as farmers in Afghanistan) trying to introduce rose

> growing to curb the poppy production for heroin.

 

Everybody wants to do this .. especially Afghans living in the U.S.,

Canada and Europe. They see it as a chance to make a buck or three

using grant money .. but they are not getting anywhere. I saw this

type thing for many years in Turkey .. everybody and his brother had

great ideas .. I would get visits often from these guys .. or in some

cases from their high ranking family members .. their " sponsors " .

They had ideas that would allow them to " turn the corner " .. all they

needed was some financial backing .. or a person who could smooth the

way for them to get some of the U.S. Gummit money that everyone knew

was just laying around waiting to be spent.

 

> Their efforts haven't taken purchase yet; obviously the poppy

> growers/traders are against it and do everything to sabotage the

> effort.

 

You are correct on both counts but lemme tell you who these players

are. The growers are NOT what the media portrays .. they are peasant

villagers but they're not subsistence farmers. The traders are Tribal

Chiefs or War Lords .. some are pro-Taliban and some are anti-Taliban

and some play both sides of the fence. The suppliers of the raw Opium

to the Heroin industry are the Taliban .. Opium gum is their second

major source of income .. first is funding from some nations that

claim to be our Allies in the Fight Against International Terrorism.

 

> As you read the article, you'll see that Shafiq Azizi has to now

> move a large rose field to another farm.

 

Shafiq Azizi is out of the business for now .. his sponsor (Gulestan

company) has liquidated and it looks like plans to move the company

to another location have been overcome by events. In addition to

that .. the failure was not totally due to the reasons presented in

the article .. there is far more to this than is stated in that

article .. there always is.

 

There are many reporters/writers in Afghanistan and covering the

hostilities is not their only mission .. they also need to create a

fair number of human interest tales and when doing so they don't act

as investigative reporters .. they sometimes write tales they

themselves don't believe .. in some cases they embellish or create

composite stories that are fiction.

 

> As long as the Afghans are corrupted by $, it will be a long haul

> to convince those in the heroin trade to consider changing.

 

Correct .. though the farmers are not into the Heroin trade .. they

just grow Opium Poppies and extract the gum and sell it on the black

market.

 

A few days ago Sarah told me that the situation is so bad that people

are loath to consider anything that doesn't produce immediate

return. Poppies are an annual with a guaranteed market so, despite

the risk, it is still more attractive in the current environment.

 

Turkey once had similar problems .. was a time that it was common for

a farmer to sell 10% of his Opium gum on the black market and make

more than he made from the 90% he sold to the legitimate market ..

but those days are history because now the farmers are not allowed to

bleed the poppies .. they must sell the heads intact and there is a

lot of attention given to the growing and the harvesting .. this

change was due to U.S. efforts and there are still DEA agents working

with the Turkish government. Keep in mind that the economic impact

to total legalization of Opium Poppy production in Afghanistan will

be felt by Turkey .. there are two sides to that coin.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-07-01-voa18.cfm

 

The first photo below is in the Opium fields of Afyon .. intact Poppy

Heads is how they are sold in Turkey now .. they are not allowed to

bleed them.

http://health.ph.ATFE2/photos/browse/f45a?c=

 

Shafiq Bey's story of losing out on a Rose field is a common one ..

Sarah and crew had a similar experience two years ago. She told me

that she signed contracts with 8 farming families in Panjwayi (just

outside Kandahar) .. her group planted the Rose rootstock and the

families were to maintain them .. but 8 weeks later hostilities broke

out in that area and everyone fled .. the Roses came up and then died

and the entire district has remained in Taliban hands since then.

 

> However, (and I know you know this), Afghans themselves are not

> addicted to heroin (certainly against their family-values culture),

> but they are more or less forced to grow the poppies to survive.

 

True it is that growing Opium Poppies is the best source of income ..

and Opium is not grown to supply Afghan consumers .. unfortunately,

drug addiction is becoming a problem in Afghanistan .. here are some

articles on this http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-05-27-voa42.cfm

 

This one is from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

http://www.unodc.org/afg/en/fact_sheet.html

 

A UNODC report dated April 08 stated that .. " During the previous

year, an estimated 434,000 Afghans used hashish, 130,000 used opium

and 41,000 used heroin. Some agencies report higher numbers, but

this may be due to their failure to adjust the population base. While

the population of Afghanistan is officially listed as 31.8 million,

the UNODC figures are based on the figure of 23.8 million people who

currently live in Afghanistan. The other 8 million, including

refugees in Pakistan and Iran, live outside of Afghanistan. "

 

There are many other references.

 

You are correct that it is not common among peasants in Islamic

countries to have a high rate of drug addition .. it is certainly

counter to their family values culture .. but modernity and war and

displacement has increased the number of those who are addicted to

drugs .. especially in those countries where folks don't have access

to alcohol. I have not seen an Afghani drug addict but in Vietnam I

saw temporary laborers who brought a stash to work each day .. to us

they never appeared to be high but they probably would have appeared

different if they were not chewing the gum .. like a maintenance

drinker in the U.S.A. You might never know s/he is an alcoholic

until they are not drinking for some reason.

 

As I mentioned in a previous post, more than half my adult life has

been spent in Third World and Emerging Market countries and probably

90% of that time was in Islamic or Moderate Moslem countries. I

probably know more about Islam and Moslems than most non Moslem

Americans and just as I am never surprised to see a fellow Southern

Baptist in a whiskey store I am never surprised to have a Moslem

drink with me, or accept a BLT or many of the other so-called

prohibited food items. Almost all of that time I spent in these

countries was as a single man .. I was never without the comforts of

female companionship. With the exception of the Islamic extremists we

will find that many of them are as devout in their practices as are

many who call themselves Christians. Drug addition is a horse of a

different color .. it matters not what one truly believes when they

get on that horse.

 

> They actually would embrace an alternative if they could make a

> living at it.

 

For sure .. if it could provide the same level of comfort for their

families.

 

> I am not holding my breath, but would support this movement in any

> way I can.

 

I'm not holding mine either. I intend to support Sarah's operation

but we have toned it down a bit .. there is danger in trying to

establish a commercial enterprise that will take money away from the

Opium dealers. We are not foolish enough to get in their way .. we

plan to put in place a system similar to the few Turkish direct fire

alembics that are still in operation .. this will give employment to

a number of families but it should not be seen by the bad guys as us

trying to horn in on their act.

 

To quote a recent message I received from Sarah .. " The security

situation makes thinking in industrial terms unwise economically and

unrealistic sociologically. "

 

Basically, her operation is a sustainable one .. it doesn't have far-

reaching macro-economic impact but it will provide a sustainable

livelihood for roughly 25 co-op members and another 100 + families

who will supply the aromatics. It is NOT an industry but given the

current restraints its something more than they have now .. and

hopefully will continue to be so in the foreseeable future.

 

This old soldier is a cautious feller .. a few years back I was

prepared to deliver a very expensive commercial facility to the

Afghan gummit .. but times and players have changed .. now when I

apply for my visa folks in the Afghan gummit will know when, where

and why I will be coming .. do I trust them? Knowing there will be

folks with white hats and black hats (and gray hats) aware of my

every move, it is not my intent to step on any toes.

 

I'm not a reckless gambler but I will bet on a near sure thing if I

think I can win .. in this case I have concurrence with a provision

that will be in my proposal .. a healthy life insurance policy that

will cover terrorist actions. We are all gonna go under snakes some

day but those of us who have responsibilities to others need to make

sure we have our affairs in order. Of course, if I thought I was

going to go under snakes then I would not go to Kabul. ;-)

 

> It is possible that Sarah Chayes may already be aware of this . .

> If not, these contacts could be helpful to both of you.

 

Thank you ma'am .. Sarah knows Shafiq Azizi. She is totally on top

of what is going down .. even the personalities of many who seek

support and funding under the guise of wanting to do something that

appears to be altruistic and is in line with the less than serious

Western claims of wanting to eliminate the uncontrolled and illegal

Opium Poppy production. There are many proposals hitting Washington

each year seeking various Emerging Market grants and special grants

from the Department of State but none are being approved and lately

none have received real support from the Karzai government .. Karzai

is walking a tight rope. I went down that road a few years back ..

made a proposal to the Afghans that was to be financed by the Asian

Development Bank and another that I did not complete because I later

saw that it was a pipe dream by a special interest group from France.

 

There is a U.S./Afghan gummit program called the Counter Narcotics

Strategy .. but like lots of other programs that look good on paper

its not given a lot of attention now and the attention it received in

the past was ineffective .. and similar to many other programs, those

who benefited were the contractors .. not the Afghan people.

 

Here is an article Sarah wrote back in December 2007

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200712/afghans

 

> I blogged on this a while back

> http://www.aromaconnection.org/2008/06/struggles-of-ho.html

 

Yes ma'am .. I saw the original when it first came out .. and at that

time I queried the status of Shafiq Azizi's venture.

 

As I wrote at the bottom of this post .. there are no farmers who

have turned from Opium Poppies to Roses .. at least no LIVE farmers.

There are some who would like to grow Roses but they are not Opium

Poppy growers. And even if they do increase the Rose blossom

production they will not be able to operate as they do in Turkey and

Bulgaria. One can't maintain a commercial distillery in multiple

locations and the road network in Aghanistan will not allow speedy

delivery to a centrally located still .. so going with simple direct

fired copper alembics is the best solution.

 

Not trying to be negative or argumentative in my reply .. but at the

same time I do have a lot of negative opinions on a turn around of

cultural norms in Afghanistan. When the West tries to make folks be

like us we get criticized .. when we leave them to their own devices

we get criticized. We can't win it all .. the best we can hope for

in Afghanistan is to succeed in our efforts to allow them to live in

peace and make their own decisions .. and odds are it will be a long

time before we are satisfied with those decisions..

 

> Marcia Elston/Samara Botane

> http://www.wingedseed.com

> http://www/wingedseed.blogspot.com

> http://www.aromaconnection.org

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-)

 

Butch .. http://www.AV-AT.com

 

>> (Antal) Adam said: his company encourages farmers in

>> Afghanistan to plant roses instead of poppies, buying up

>> the harvest to curb heroin trade.

> Butch said:

> I can't find anything in English on Antel Adam but I am not

> inclined to believe the above .. because there is no Afghan

> crop to buy up and there are no farmers in Afghanistan who

> have turned from Opium Poppies to Roses .. none. I

> will check this Antel Adam out and get back with y'all but

> for now I conclude that it is commercial spin.