Dr. Vesper's Discussion

When Dr. Vesper came and discussed with us the present situation in Iraq I found it very interesting. When we finished the book Hyder told us that his father stopped being the governor of Kunar Province. But what he didn’t tell us was why. Today when Dr. Vesper came and talked to us about his views we finally got an insight as to part of the reason he stepped down from being governor. What he said was that Hyder’s father was pretty much just lazy. He never got very much accomplished and never was very motivated to do anything that would be of extreme help to the province. This is something that I completely did not get from the book. I thought that he was a respectable leader who was just what the country needed. I never realized that he was just lazy. An example of this that he told us was the timber smuggling. He knew that people were doing it but he never did much to stop it, or at least enough to make a difference. One thing he told us that completely surprised me was about how long it would take the country to even become a third world country. Dr. Vesper said at least 20 years. This long because you need a whole knew generation with fresh ideas from people who are open minded. It is sad to think about that all of the hard work that the government now is putting in might not pay off during their life times. They might never get to see the country change. When Dr. Vesper came and talked to us he was telling us about Asadabad and Jalalabad and their stops in between. But in particular a road near the gem mines. But I found it to be very ironic that Dr. Vesper and driven past that same road and told not to go on it that the American troops in the book and Hyder go on, and they are shot at. All together I am glad Dr. Vesper came and talked to us to help conclude our study of Afghanistan and stitch up any questions that we still could have had.