The global financial crisis has managed to get most of our attention. Now and then some of us wonder about the world outside our countries but not for long. Keeping our jobs, feeding our families and holding to our houses has taken priority above anything else. And yet, we should be aware that the global political conflicts are destroying and disrupting millions of lives. Just think Afghanistan if you have doubts. A country which is becoming if it is not already totally ungovernable with corruption and drugs as well as being a possible haven of terrorists. And in the middle of it all troops from many countries, specially those belonging to NATO, have sent their soldiers with the hope of solving or at least improving the situation. It is true that the media has taken to name mostly soldiers from the USA, and the UK, only mentioning other countries such as Germany, France and Canada when the United States government asked them for more troops. And yet soldiers for those above mentioned countries as well as from other countries like Spain had lost their lives in Afghanistan. Each country has its soldiers in a different area and some are more dangerous than others. Take Spain, whose troops as well as their workers from the Spanish Agency of the International Cooperation for development (AECID) which are working in the country reconstruction, are stationed in the province of Bagdis, in the northwest of Afghanistan. Until a short while ago the area was under the command of the Afghan Governor Ashraf Nasery who got along well with the Spanish troops. Unfortunately, the Afghan president Hamid Karzai decided to make an exchange and sent Nasery to the province of Zabul, located in the volatile area of the south of the country, governed the last four years by Delbar Jan Arman. It seems that during his time as governor of in Zabul, corruption grew to new levels and the rights of women, never too good, became far worse. Needless to say that with the exception of the Americans, whom he helped in the arrest of tribal leaders, he was not much liked in Zabul where nobody wanted him to remain. Now the Spanish troops are waiting with trepidation his governing of the area where they are stationed.
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