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Thursday, June 16, 2011

And were supposed to save these people?

Check this out--a story out today on Afghanis, the people we're supposed to be "saving", somehow: Cursed number "39" haunts Afghan car owners KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's booming car sales industry has been thrown into chaos by a growing aversion to the number "39," which almost overnight has become an unlikely synonym for pimp and a mark of shame in this deeply conservative country. Drivers of cars with number plates containing 39, bought before the once-harmless double digits took on their new meaning, are mocked and taunted across Kabul. "Now even little kids say 'look, there goes the 39'. This car is a bad luck, I can't take my family out in it," said Mohammad Ashraf who works for a United Nations project. Other "39" owners flew into a rage or refused to speak when asked whether their car was a burden. No one is quite sure why the number became so contaminated so fast, but Kabul gossip blames a pimp in neighboring Iran, which shares a common language with much of Afghanistan. His flashy car had a 39 in its number plate, the story goes, so he was nicknamed "39" and the tag spread. So between they're superstition and downright ingnorance, and the fact that we're in Afghanistan , training these fighters--who defeated first Russia and are now defeating us--how to fight, it just makes no sense for us to stay in this country.

2 comments:

Hyperblogal said...

The ignorant are the only people we can help. Everyone else is on to us.

Mo Rage said...

Good point. You're on to something there.