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Afghanistan

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The Taliban – one year on

Herat: What does Afghanistan's Herat look like one year after the Taliban took over? Herat is the example of what Afghanistan could look like – as the city has 780 places on the UNESCO World Heritage List. This report gives a look from both the 1970s and today.
Francesca Borri -

A trap of neutrality

Carsten Wieland IB: Syria and the Neutrality Trap. The Dilemmas of Delivering Humanitarian Aid through Violent Regimes

SYRIA: Carsten Wieland uncovers a large number of mistakes in the Western donor countries' handling of the humanitarian crisis during the Syrian civil war. He also mentions how rebel forces have deliberately starved local people to attract aid: Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda.
Hans Henrik Fafner -

Two girls with clasped hands stare expressionlessly at the ground

AFGHANISTAN: Sangin – during twenty years of war, this area has been the bloodiest battlefield. It is reminiscent of Roman ruins. In 2001, one in three Afghans was starving – now one in two is starving.
Francesca Borri -

A gigantic loss project

Craig Whitlock: The Afghanistan Papers. A Secret History of the War

THE DISCLOSURES: For 20 years, US authorities lied about the war in Afghanistan.
Ranveig Eckhoff -

The military-industrial complex

MODERN TIMES CONVERSATIONS: From someone who should know the intricacies of foreign policy and geopolitics: Thorbjørn Jagland on military rearmament and enemy images – when it comes to the USA, Russia, China, Turkey, and Libya.
Truls Lie -

Banished and imprisoned for his books

ESSAY: In addition to the world's whistleblowers, a number of writers have suffered because of what they have revealed. Jan Tystad deals with some of them here.
Jan Tystad -

Silently disciplining research

PRIO: Researchers who question the legitimacy of US wars, seem to experience being ousted from their positions in research and media institutions. The example presented here is from the Institute for Peace Research in Oslo (PRIO), an institution which historically has had researchers critical of wars of aggression – and who can hardly be labeled friends of nuclear arms.
Ola Tunander -

"I do not see beauty in war, but there is beauty in everything"

THE PHOTOGRAPHER: Beauty, suffering, wealth, poverty, superficiality and raped children are different sides of the same coin, says photographer Marco Di Lauro, who spent a week with the Red Cross in Bergamo during the covid-19 outbreak.
Thierry Vissol -

The document that started the war in 2001

United States / Militarization:: In this article, Niels Harrit points out that the participation of European countries in the attack on Afghanistan in 2001 was illegal – according to the UN Treaty. Were a number of countries tricked into the "war on terror"?
Niels Harrit -

Brave soldiers and lost system criticism

Rod Lurie: The Outpost

: Cinema current The Outpost confirms the turn American war films have taken from system criticism of the hero cult.
Aleksander Huser -

Everyday life in Kabul

Abuzar Amini: Kabul, City in the Wind

AFGHANISTAN: In the capital Kabul, which only gets international attention when suicide bombers attack, director Aboozar Amini is a fly on the wall in the lives of ordinary people.
Nick Holdsworth -

The illiteracy of Pakistan

READING AND WRITING DIFFICULTIES: Pakistan needs to prioritize citizens' inadequate literacy skills and should implement a nationwide program that takes into account the country's multicultural and foreign language communities.
Zara Kayani -

The Art of Escape: A European Nightmare

Hassan Fazil: Midnight Traveler

MIGRANTS: The Fazili family are migrants. They are recording with mobile phones their dangerous journey from Afghanistan via the migrant route in the Balkans and to an uncertain future in Europe.
Carmen Gray -

"When we act, we create reality."

CHRONICLE: Is there any reason to rejoice over the arrest of Julian Assange?
antikrigsinitiativet@gmail.com -

Underground rock in Kabul

Travis Beard: RocKabul

AFGHAN METAL: The story of the emergence of the first Afghan metal band – and the subsequent fall under the weight of an ultra-conservative society.
Carmen Gray -

The word that kills

MOUTH BASKET: Abuse of power, war of aggression and mass murder are today carried out without anyone lifting a finger, since all criticism is dismissed as "conspiracy theory".
Ola Tunander -
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Full 100-page MODERN TIMES including the appendix Orientering and Modern Times Review comes out quarterly in early March, June, September and December) with international book reviews (non-fiction) and comments / essays. According to the physical newspaper (and PDF), the articles are published regularly online (see the newsletters).

© MODERN TIMES & Orientering AS. PO Box 3113 Elisenberg, 0207 Oslo. Chief editor: Truls Lie

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