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H-ASIA ***************************************************************** From: Keith Leitich <why_the_sky@hotmail.com> Subject: Bamiyan Buddhas As a practicing Buddhist, the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas reinforces the inpermance of things, but as a social scientist and scholar I find the destruction of these historical and cultural treasures as a loss for all of humanity. But I also think that it can generate an informative cross-disciplinary discussion among H-Asia's members. It has been brought up the Taliban that Western governments were giving preference to artifacts over people and that the decision to destroy the Bamiyan Buddhas was in part a reaction to the appeals by Western governments. If I am not mistaken a French-woman foreign aid worker was persecuted by the Taliban for her immoral conduct. Given this: -Should aid be given to a government who helped initiate some of the current problems? -Who dictates the terms of foreign aid - the donor or the recipient? Given that Afghanistan has a patchwork of different ethnic groups - Hazara, Pushtan, Tajik, Uzbeks - with Pushtan in power - do mechanisms need to be in place to guarantee distribution to all ethnic groups? Given that Afghanistan is a mountainous country and current state of infrastructure. -Should the "West" help rebuild the transportation infrastructure? - Is it ethical to rebuild the transportation infrastructure when it could be used to gain access to the opposition? Lastly: If a culture or society wished to return to a pre-modern era - who is responsible for the condition of the society? I hope that my questions will stimulate discussion among fellow members. Regards, Keith Leitich Independent Scholar ================================================================= To post to H-ASIA simply send your message to: <H-ASIA@h-net.msu.edu> For holidays or short absences send post to: <listserv@h-net.msu.edu> with message: SET H-ASIA NOMAIL Upon return, send post with message SET H-ASIA MAIL H-ASIA WEB HOMEPAGE URL: http://h-net.msu.edu/~asia/
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