r/MapPorn • u/Coliop-Kolchovo • 6h ago

Helmand Province (Afghanistan): When poppy cultivators went from a majority to a socio-economic empoverished and discriminated by their government minority [repost]

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22 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

10

u/AssCrumbBilly 6h ago

Is this AI or bad translation? Why are there so many typos?

8

u/NorilskNickel 6h ago

If it's got typos then it clearly isn't AI, only humans make typos now LoL

3

u/PadishaEmperor 6h ago

AIs also make typos, but very rarely.

3

u/Coliop-Kolchovo 6h ago

I know, I meant "activities" instead of "authorities", and "populated" instead of "populating". I'm not used to mecanic keyboards so there are a lot of typos + I have vision issues so I miss some of them + English is not my native language. But this map was entirely done by hand on Inkscape.

15

u/GarlicSphere 6h ago

Are we genuinely hating on an effective operation that drastically reduced opium production???

2

u/RedOnesEnjoyer 1h ago

So many vets will tell you that they were explicitly told by their commanders to turn a blind eye to poppy seed farms while America occupied Afghanistan.

After the Taliban took over those farms have mostly disappeared.

Taliban is obviously horrible for a million reasons, but America allowing the drug trade is simply unjustifiable.

-2

u/Deltarianus 4h ago

Growing opium is infinitely less bad than the Taliban

8

u/gimmiesopor 6h ago

Drugs are a hell of a drug. 🤷‍♂️

6

u/Evil_CactusIII 5h ago

Oh no, those poor drug dealers

5

u/Sad_Macaroon_456 6h ago

Oh no... Anyway

2

u/JohnnieTango 5h ago

Reducing opium production is a good thing (although fentanyl is also apparently reducing demand some) and we should celebrate it.

The unfortunate part is that the Taliban could not think of any substitute cash crop for these farmers. If Afghanistan was a normal country, they might be able to grow flowers or blueberries or something and sell it to the Chinese or Europeans or Japanese...

Honestly though, as an American, well, we and our allies fought like 20 years to keep the Taliban out, and like the minute we stop, the Afghans just kind of give up and let the Taliban back into power. So in terms of sympathy I can generate, they are at the back of the line.