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Ask HN: What’s the best way to help people in Afghanistan?

by 42droids on 8/17/21, 8:51 AM with 24 comments

• by hutzlibu on 8/17/21, 9:23 AM

  My question would be, why do you want to help people specifically in Afghanistan and not, for example a starving child threatened by even more crazy people from the IS also happening right now, even though it is not on the news?

  The world is big, with a long list of problems.

  A single person cannot fix the mess of global powers. I believe one of the reason for the mess, is too many people "knowing better" and from the outside how to fix things.

  But strictly pragmatically speaking:

  I would try to put pressure on politicians, that they are serious to get at least some of the people out, who are seriously under threat - basically everyone not radical islamic. But you see the problem with even that?

• by m0rti on 8/17/21, 5:51 PM

  Assuming you are American. In general, for the future:

  - Don’t vote for people who actively seek new enemies. - Talk to your representative and tell them to not support foreign invasions. - Don’t believe everything the western media says the next time USA decides to invade some country.

  For now:

  I don’t think any amount of money will help since the US spent trillions to achieve the opposite. Taliban is stronger than ever.

  You can try and raise awareness about the situation in Afghanistan and call out western leaders for their hypocrisy and mistakes. Let them not act like this was a success. Since the US is the best democracy, use your voting power and social media influence. It is basically like cancelling somebody but this time you are cancelling politicians from decision-making positions.

  Invasions make bad situations worse.

• by phekunde on 8/17/21, 9:58 AM

  Before going for help, please watch these two videos:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m7uL4Q44ws

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6jItZF5ZeU

  It is said that history repeats itself!

• by noduerme on 8/17/21, 9:29 AM

  I'll take a crack here. (1) Go to Turkey, put down $20k and rent a few trucks. (2) Bribe the border guards in Iran. (3) Drive across Iran, pay more bribes. (4) Pick up Afghans and drive them wherever, but not Iran, because Iran is about to have about a million of them. *

  *(FTW, this is probably Biden's strategy to destabilize Iran).

• by LinuxBender on 8/17/21, 11:58 AM

  In my opinion, probably the most realistic and least risk to you would be to find out what organizations are going to help the 22k or so that the U.S. is trying to extract and donate to them. I don't know who that is or how efficiently they would use the funds.

  For those remaining in Afghanistan, there is not likely much you could do without putting yourself in harms way or making things worse.

• by cpach on 8/17/21, 12:21 PM

  Donating to UNHCR is probably a good idea.

  https://donate.unhcr.org/int/en/afghanistan-situation

• by allendoerfer on 8/17/21, 10:45 AM

  Inform yourself and act inside your own social circles in a moral/reasonable way. Use your right to vote.

  When my country invaded Afghanistan together with the US, I was too young to vote and to see the similiarties to Vietnam. Our leaders and population where blinded by 9/11 and got themselves into that mess, even though they could have known better. Should my country in my lifetime again try to invade another country together with the US I will vote for a party that supports leaving Nato.

  I am not a pacifist and I think the US as a nation is still our best option when it comes to global superpower. At some point as informed members of society, we have to start remembering. I think it is on me and you to stop the next Vietnam in a few decades. So we cannot help Afghanistan now, but when the time comes and the US wants to repeat Vietnam yet another time, you should remember the pictures of the helicopters in Saigon or the planes in Kabul. When they come up with some phony reasons, we should remember how even 9/11 was a bad reason to invade Afghanistan.

• by admissionsguy on 8/17/21, 3:05 PM

  Assuming you are from the US, the most effective way to help Afghanistan would be to lobby your government to not instigate another civil war there.

• by cblconfederate on 8/18/21, 9:40 AM

  Immediately? I suppose extracting and hosting people who want to leave. The taliban want them gone anyway - so they won't have to kill them. Long term - move towards communication that is uncensorable, can circumvent country-wide bans without VPNs for those who know. They can easily block twitter but not bittorrent

• by JSeymourATL on 8/17/21, 1:34 PM

  How to help Afghanistan: Things you can do right now for a country in crisis > https://www.fastcompany.com/90666326/how-to-help-afghanistan...

• by readonthegoapp on 8/17/21, 10:13 AM

  I'd say, as usual, it's calling up your rep, senator(s), potus, getting heard.

  That's the minimal start, i would say.

• by kleer001 on 8/17/21, 10:31 PM

  Focus on fixing your own world. Clean your bedroom, make it beautiful. Make peace with your parents and siblings. Read some classic literature. Eat whole foods, mostly vegetables, drink water.

• by penguinlinux on 8/17/21, 1:53 PM

  it was so sad seeing those people hanging onto the jet engines of american planes to later fall off :( , what makes someone forget reality and assume that they would be able to survive a trip on a jet engine ? Desperation ?

  I hope the Taliban might be a little more moderate this time and that innocent people won't lose their lives because now they are in power.

• by xyzzy21 on 8/17/21, 8:53 PM

  There's REALLY very little you can do. There's no happy feelings or happy thoughts that can be practical.

• by rajacombinator on 8/18/21, 2:01 AM

  Subtly educate your friends about the corrupt imperial West. If you convince 2, and they convince 2 …

• by runawaybottle on 8/17/21, 12:19 PM

  Tweet to Elon about getting Starlink available in Afghanistan for free. Find a way to smuggle in those cheap raspberry bi computers.

  Make online courses in their language so their women can at least learn to read.

  Good luck.