A Dollar A Day
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho
This is a common scene in Kabul, and larger cities in Afghanistan (but really I have only been in Kabul and smaller towns/villages) men acting as human mules to cart around goods for vendors, it is a really sobering sight for me every time I see it (100s of times) and unlike some depressing scenes in development this kind of thing still gets to me.
These scenes keep brining me back to a conversation I had with an NGO officer for who I was doing some consulting work for in Kenya (arguably one of the better off countries in Africa, despite the recent violence). I had said something like “you wouldn’t want them hauling a 50kg (100lb) bag of fertilizer for 7-8 miles…” and I noticed as I said that her looked to his colleague and she half smiled back, it occurred to me at that moment that my made up scenario was actually quite real. I have seen hard work in many countries but I think the hardest work for the least compensation I have seen is in Africa and now Afghanistan. The men in this picture probably will not earn more than a dollar apiece this day.
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