Middle East Panorama show on Resonance FM 104.4 Every Friday 14:00 - 15:00 London Time (GMT) "Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium and heroin, but its own people are becoming the victims. ..." David Macdonald tells a story about the diversity of drug use in Afghanistan that no one has ever told before. Author David Macdonald has worked as a drugs advisor to the UN. Drugs in Afghanistan - Opium, Outlaws and Scorpion Tales (Pluto Press 2007) breaks down the myths surrounding the cultivation and consumption of drugs, providing a detailed analysis of the history of drug use within the country. He examines the impact of over 25 years of continuous conflict, and shows how poverty and instability has led to an increase in drugs consumption. >> Listen to the interview Since You Left is an autobiographical essay of a Palestinian-Israeli actor Bakri who returns to the grave of his former mentor, the writer and communist Emile Habibi, and attempts – using
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51