Afghan Living Standards Among the Lowest, U.N. Finds

[Rose Siding]

Three years after the United States drove the Taliban out of Afghanistan and vowed to rebuild, the war-shattered country ranked 173rd of 178 countries in the United Nations 2004 Human Development Index, according to a new report from the United Nations.

It was trailed only by a few countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Burundi, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Sierra Leone.

The survey, "National Human Development Report: Security With a Human Face," released Monday in Kabul, is the first comprehensive look at the state of development in Afghanistan in 30 years. In addition to ranking Afghanistan in the development index for the first time, the report warned that Afghanistan could revert to anarchy if its dire poverty, poor health and insecurity were not improved.

"The fragile nation could easily tumble back into chaos," concluded the authors of the study, led by Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh, the report's editor in chief. "The basic human needs and genuine grievances of the people, lack of jobs, health, education, income, dignity and opportunities for participation must be met."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/international/asia/22afghanistan.html

[DemocracyInaction]

1. ..and I'll bet 50% of Americans or more think it is now a humming

vital nation complete with shopping malls and NASCAR races 'cause the Amurekans done gave it democracy!! This is the butt truth of what happens with our meddling. We improved nothing for these people but put a zillion more bomb holes in the road and killed a bunch of their people. We have nothing in the nation under control except Kabul and a few miles around it. We will dessert Iraq eventually and leave it in economic shambles just like here but hype to the people in this country that we created a vibrant country because of God Bush. It's amazing how little a few bizzillion dollars buys these days, isn't it???

[libodem]

2. I bet you are right.

[CindyDale]

3. Irresponsible

[Rapcw]

4. I wonder how bad it was before we invaded?

I doubt it was worse.

[LynnTheDem]

5. bush keeps to his lifelong standard of total

and utter FAILURE.