
How I coached a basketball team in Afghanistan and what went wrong - drpp
http://nplusonemag.com/basketball-diaries-afghanistan
======
javajosh
This piece is amazing, and highlights one truth: the amount of self-afflicted
human misery in Afghanistan is truly astounding.

And it raises a lot of questions. Is Afghanistan totally hopeless? Is there
something wrong with the Afghans? Is it Islam? The American occupation?
Something in the water? Why would anyone choose to live in such conditions,
and choose to perpetuate the institutions, behaviors, and beliefs that create
such an environment? What indeed is at the root of this misery?

I would argue that the key change they need is for the people to be
overwhelmingly disapproving of destruction.

If you intentionally destroy someone or something, the mob should make sure
your ass is grass. You can say what you want, hang out with whoever you want -
but as soon as you destroy, you're toast.

Now, ideally you let the mob pitch in to hire someone to enforce this one
rule, and perhaps even add some overhead to ensure that they enforce it more-
or-less fairly. And so you have taxes, police, and courts. (And if you want to
be more subtle about what constitutes destruction, you can make laws, but
that's optional).

Afghan society must start _severely_ punishing destructive people. Leave
punishing blasphemy to Allah. Since creation is so much slower and more
difficult than destruction, the net effect will be a continually improving
infrastructure and society.

EDIT: Also, I would like to put up posters denouncing denouncers and see if
maybe that would help.

~~~
chernevik
Behaviors that are baffling to outsiders are almost certainly adaptive within
the context. Tribalism and clannism seem insane to us -- but family and local
ties are likely far more trustworthy than anything related to the government,
law or "Afghan society".

Obviously that sets up a pretty bad loop.

I suspect that the most important economic flows in Afghanistan are foreign
aid and narcotics. The proceeds of the former are largely distributed via
corruption, which requires co-operation, which is facilitated by the trust
within tribal networks. Those the latter would be distributed accordingly to
tribal / clan structures. I suspect "the Taliban" are basically a front for an
extremely well organized drug cartel.

Notice that neither of these really depend on the productivity of the
population. So the powers-that-be don't need stability to keep the goods
flowing. If their economy depended on large industrial plant and skilled
workers then blowing stuff up and killing people would be expensive and the
society wouldn't tolerate it. But who sits in office or who harvests the poppy
hasn't much to do with the goods flow. And so the gains on wrestling over the
spoils are higher than those on increasing the society's overall production.
That means tribal co-operation "pays" a lot better than "national" co-
operation. And that co-operation is far more trustworthy.

Unfortunately this traps them in a loop where 1) the weak and just are screwed
and 2) they cannot possibly build a real economy.

It's just a theory, but it does seem to explain a lot. (And it's a vast
oversimplification, just a very simple political / economic model to postulate
how tribalism could be adaptive. Even if that model is roughly accurate, the
actual operation has to be vastly more complicated.)

(As an aside: People in the United States just have no idea what a miracle
this place is, how carefully its society and government was constructed, and
how easily that construction could be undermined. We take a lot for granted
here, but this place didn't just happen.)

~~~
javajosh
_> Behaviors that are baffling to outsiders are almost certainly adaptive
within the context._

Why do you believe this? It reminds me of people who think that just because
something exists, it must be useful. Some things really don't serve any
purpose, like nipples on men, or belly buttons, or fingerprints.

I don't think its tribalism itself that's the problem. Heck, if the tribe is
big enough we call it a nation. It seems to me that it's possible to have a
"good tribe" - one that defends it's borders well, and imposes something like
the rule of law within it's borders. Perhaps most importantly, inculcates a
_culture_ of non-destruction - where initiating violence is frowned upon by
everyone. This tribe, I believe, could thrive and grow, and prosper.

As for the economics of the thing, I think that such a tribe could do very
well. Heck, if you're right about capital flows (and you probably are) such a
tribe could get (covert) American aid, etc. I imagine we'd even look the other
way if they wanted to grow poppies. But still, this would be a small island,
and I'm not sure if there are enough people to really man the battlements and
make it work.

~~~
cynicalkane
You're proposing an entire tribe throw off the culture that they grew up in,
social bonds that could mean the difference between life and death, and
just... go all John Galt over in Afghanistan?

~~~
w1ntermute
Well, a lot of those people are going to die before long if they don't do
something to change the destructive aspects of their culture.

So I'd say it's worth it (though highly infeasible).

------
kanamekun
Sounds like a worthwhile effort to support Internet connectivity in
Afghanistan. Wish the author would create an indiegogo fundraiser to raise
money to pay the fees, so that I could help support it!

~~~
trevore
So I'm not the author of that but I am the SSF engineer in charge of that
network and was present while that story was unfolding. Funding is in fact one
of our biggest issue these days. We've discussed doing various fund raising
efforts including Indiegogo but it does not solve the real needs.

The problem is that our expenses for that network are all recurring. We can
get occasional injections of money for things like gear and generators, but it
is hard to find someone who is willing to pay for the bandwidth or Afghan
salaries on an ongoing basis.

All of us in SSF have no income from our work over there but we all continue
to support our friends in Jalalabad in every way we can. For an indiegogo
campaign to be successful it actually takes a fair amount of effort and is
only a stop gap solution to the problem. So we are all focused on trying to
sustain ourselves while actually solving problems. I can't speak for everyone
in our crew but most of us don't have the time, energy or heart to do a full
fund raising campaign that we know is only a temporary solution. What we
really need is a sponsor to take over bandwidth costs and the salary of our
fantastic Afghan crew who works on the ground over there.

So on the off chance anyone reads that and knows of someone who might be
interested in becoming a sponsor, I can be reached at
trevor.ellermann@gmail.com Feel free to direct any inquiries my way.

If there is any question of my identity and involvement in Synergy Strike
Force, I have ways of authenticating I am who I say I am. Also, I would not
ask for any money directly. There is a large, well known, non-profit that
everyone knows that would be the entity dealing with any financial
transactions.

Also, if you just want to nerd out over a cool network we run outside the
barbwire in afghanistan hit me up.

~~~
iskander
Is anyone from the States still in Jalalabad or is the security situation too
risky? Also, how did you guys get started?

~~~
trevore
I hope you can appreciate that this is a little too public of a forum for
discussing current operational details of our operation over there. I can say
that we are still engaged and intend to stay that way. Hoever, with Mehrab's
assassination everything has changed. On a personal note, his death is one of
the hardest blows of my life.

The group was founded by Dr. Dave Warner. He was hired by to go over there and
help start several schools* in the area. While over there he ended up finding
the Taj Mahal, taking over the lease one it and founding the Synergy Strike
Force. SSF grew into much more then just schools and has been involved in many
different humanitarian projects. We are all just freelancers trying to dodge
the bureaucracy that get's in everyone else's way and make a difference for
the people over there.

* The schools have nothing to do with cups of tea in case anyone is curious about that.

~~~
trevore
Several people have pinged to ask what is with the name. I did not come up
with it but I can tell you my take on it. The name is kind of a joke name and
kind of an intentional name. It's bad enough that nobody is going to try to
take over our name (which has happened), it sounds just official enough to
appear legit to non-native English speakers and pretty aptly describes what we
do. We spend a lot of time identifying problems and then finding the right
people to solve them. When the most of the aid organizations are bound to
their safe houses for security reasons they need people like us. We are
outside the barbwire connecting the people who need help with the people who
want to provide it. So we identify a problem and strike it with synergy to
come up with solutions. We work with just about anyone on the ground in the
country who is willing to work with us to solve problems and improve the lives
of the Afghan people.

We often just say the letters SSF.

------
drpp
@trevore - great to see you on the thread! There are a lot of questions raised
here that are hard to answer, but I can share a troubling observation. Of all
the US personnel I have met in Afghanistan, fewer than a handful were
engineers, makers, creators rather than enforcers, money dispensers, or
supervisors. Sure, the military has its own engineers, but very few are
outside the wire interacting with people. Where are the civil communication,
construction, mechanical, etc. engineers? I think there is a larger role in
global peer to peer diplomacy for such a cadre. I've got more stories to tell,
so does @trevore, some of them are posted jalalagood.com/ --> more will come
out guided by the questions you ask.

------
platz
I'm really pleased to see n+1 appear on hacker news. This is a great
publication. Sometimes the writing can be a little obtuse, but in general I
think many hn'ers would enjoy finding out more about them.

------
tobyjsullivan
What a phenominal account from "outside the wire" in Afghanastan. Thanks for
sharing.

------
Petrushka
Great story. I was expecting the team to win the tournament when a local
official with no governing power stepped in and allowed them three chances to
score a last-second buzzer beater though...

(Hint: 1972 Olympics)

As an avid sports fan, and very active basketball player and cyclist, the
major shifts in current thinking towards evaluating the world of sports
through statistical and business eyes is to me quite unfortunate. To those
that make their money through that world, fine, but as a fan, I want to marvel
in the achievements of athletes, not be debating whether a pitcher is over-
rated because of his exFIB.

Basketball is about the battles against racism of Bill Russell and Oscar
Robertson, the soaring style of Dr. J, the _elan_ of Magic, the blue collar
work of Bird, the competitive viciousness of Michael Jordan, and the
physicality of Lebron.

Cycling is about the will of Eugene Christophe, the ethics of Gino Bartali,
the ferocity of Eddy Merckx, the spirit of Bernard Hinault, the pain of Marco
Pantani, and the insanity of Jens Voigt.

Even if we can't reach that level ourselves, it is that approach to what makes
sports great that allows for events and stories like this article. Without
that spirit, there wouldn't be any reason to have amateur sports to begin
with. Leave everything else alone.

------
stuartd
"According to Islamic Shari’a law, a man must shave his mustache, armpits, and
pubic hair." you learn something every day..

~~~
jnbiche
Actually, to the best of my knowledge, that particular stricture regarding
body hair only applies to Muslims while on hajj (the trip to Mecca). This
particular standard is probably more related to Pashtun culture, or to their
particular interpretation of Islam.

------
dccoolgai
Incredibly moving. I hope these guys all come out OK.

------
Uhhrrr
To one extent or another, most NGOs _are_ "missionary organizations", and are
certainly threatening the way of life of the more hidebound Muslims. So I'm
less surprised than some here at the conclusion of the story.

I think the question to ask is, if you're part of this existing traditionalist
social structure, what's the benefit of adopting a more Western way of
thinking? It is not obvious to them that Afghanistan was less fucked under
Soviet influence, or is less fucked under US and other NGO influence now.

~~~
Uhhrrr
Perhaps I was downvoted because I didn't make clear the reason for asking that
question. Mindsets can be very difficult to break, and telling those in power
in Afghanistan, "We're going to let women vote on things and let you kids look
up crazy things you don't like or even understand on the Internet!" will not
help.

Better to ask the tribal leaders, "what sucks about Afghanistan for you?" and
try to find the intersection of that with something along the path away from
revenge killings and stonings and toward full-fledged democracy and liberty.
Then iterate.

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avn2109
This is surely the first time something from n+1 magazine has made it onto HN.

~~~
gruseom
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=101106>

Lots more via
[http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aycombinator.com+npluso...](http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aycombinator.com+nplusonemag)

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lucastheisen
I don't have anything to add, but thank you for the story.

