The column about Afghanistan and the shredded social and economic fabric due to war paints a bleak picture. It paints hopelessness and gloom and makes one wonder about the trivialities that causes us to fret - which new car to buy, which school is best for the kid, etc. While here in Afghanistan our counterparts have to think of war and the Taliban, the tussle for the presidential chair and the ensuing power and security for life and family (“New truce could change Afghan blues,” May 23, Gulf Today).

The US withdrawing troops, the dash for peace talks with the Taliban and the current joint government doesn’t point to a promising future. In fact it points to a country that will be more broken than it already is.

The point is not to point to the huge lacunae in the workings of Afghanistan. The point is to question what the world is doing about these glaring lacunae. The West which claims to be all powerful and the Asian countries which boast of economic growth, what use is all that when none of that is used to help a fellow country?

Whereas today the issue we are dealing with is COVID-19. Tomorrow it will be the rise of the Al-Qeada in Afghanistan. And just like we are rendered helpless in the face of the virus, so it will be when the terror war is unleashed. It will be our folly not to have seen to the structure of our fellow country.

Joyce D — By email