terrshee's Diaryland Diary
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Afghan Finance Minister
Yesterday afternoon I got to sit in on a press conference with U.S. Treasury Secretary Snow and Finance Minister Ghani of Afghanistan.
Generally I don't care much for such occasions since they are mostly posturing for the sake of the press (of which I count as a member, if an undistinguished one).
Yet I found myself genuinely moved by the sense of urgency the Finance Minister conveyed. Here is truly a desperate country trying to right itself after years of war, corruption and fanaticsm. And the gap between what we in the West consider development and what they need is appalling.
It was a rebuke to the institutionalized cynicsm we of the press cultivate to maintain our sanity and dispassion. Sometimes those just aren't the right responses.
2:32 p.m. - 2004-07-13
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past tense - always tense - future tense
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