There’s several entities vying to become the richest and most powerful in the world. The USA is still in there, but China, the EU and India will be straining to make the cut. And there are subsidiary nations, like Switzerland or Canada who like the riches without the power, mainly due to their close trading links with neighbouring blocs. But who might end up the poorest? Whose leaders display such blind obduracy, and whose subjects are so ignorant and backward that their country sinks down to the bottom of the world league-and stays there?
Based on the evidence from this BBC story by Aalia Farzan and Frances Mao, we at LSS think that Afghanistan has to be a strong candidate for the wooden spoon. [1] Because the geniuses who run that country have now decided to ban university education for women. This is in addition to their attacks on secondary education for females, the enforcement of a strict dress code, and all the other spiteful petty indignities they have visited on their own wives, mothers and sisters. Even the most cursory glance at some economic websites will reveal the catastrophic effect this will have on that benighted country’s GDP [2] We are sure that the elite band of scholars who make up the readership of LSS will be able to find much more for themselves.
Apologists for these fools will always plead “ah, but there are special circumstances-the culture , the religion, the consequences of History…..”
To which we shall only respond with the tale of an ordinary Roman who, confronted by a particularly crass Emperor’s decision to execute the State’s best General, told the Prince:
“I am ignorant, Sir, of your motives and reasons. I only know that you have acted like a man who cuts off his right hand with his left”
Perhaps some other countries will heed the example of Afghanistan, and learn in time
[1]https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64048082
[2] https://www.borgenmagazine.com/global-advantages-of-female-education/
#afghanistan #taliban #women’s education #equality #brexit
Learning, Science and Society 