Monday 16 July 2012

Is there actually any point to Pakistan?

Just watched this interesting documentary on Afghanistan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83X4wx6XYU4

A couple of things struck me. The first is the staggering statistic that, despite the war, the shithole is responsible for 95% of the worlds heroin supply.

Then I remembered a story about Bill Gates investing in Monsanto (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100830/12233610823.shtml) because he thinks interfering in the natural order of things will somehow result in feeding the starving hordes, when, in fact, possibly the best thing he could do is help prevent the human equivalents of locusts breeding in the first place by funding compulsory birth control for the third world.

And it struck me – surely Bill has enough money to pay Monsanto to develop a opium poppy-specific plant disease? I suspect that act would do more good to the planet, as a whole, than saving any number of starving Africans.

The other point was the amount of ‘prescription’ drugs produced by Pakistan. Are these produced for western consumption or are they rip-offs? I don’t think I want drugs produced in such a place for myself and my family. And if they are counterfeited products, what is being done about it?

Is there actually any point to Pakistan?

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