Marcela Grad commented on "Remembering Afghanistan's Lion" (3 months ago)

Hi Shruti,

Thank you for your response. And thank you for considering to write another article afetr you finish the book.

About Massoud's thoughts, I can't answer for him. I can only say that because of him and the Afghans, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda were stopped in Kabul. Without them, we would have the forces of intolerance everywhere in Central Asia - definitely a worse situation than we have now - all thanks to them. Their struggle produced a success indeed. Massoud did not miss any opportunity and never abandoned the fight. The ones who lost an opportunity are those around the world who did not help him. And about the future of Afghanistan, I humbly think that he would have understood that changes in Afghanistan would not happen right away, and he would be happy with the changes that have already been done.

I ask you from my heart to help me bring the profound story of Massoud and his Afghans to the forefront.

Best wishes,

Marcela

Marcela Grad commented on "Remembering Afghanistan's Lion" (3 months ago)

Hi Shruti,

It's Marcela, the author of "Massoud: An Intimate Portrait of the Legendary Afghan Leader".

First of all, thank you for writing this article. But I wanted to say 1) you mispelled my last name. The right spelling is GRAD. I also would like to say that it surprised me that you did not go deeper into who Massoud was, so your article did not really bring anything new to the plate. You had the opportunity. You had my book which is really a compilations of stories that bring Massoud alive with his extraordinary qualities. Sorry. You missed an opportunity.

Best regards,

Marcela

Marcela Grad commented on "Remembering Afghanistan's Lion" (3 months ago)

Hi Harumi,

My name is Marcela Grad and I am the author of "Massoud: An Intimate Portrait of the Legendary Afghan Leader". Just wanted to let you know that I agree with you that this article does not focus on what is relevant about Massoud today. Shruti had the chance. She had the book I published which is a collection of more than 500 stories about Massoud from those Afghans and people from around the world who knew him and worked with him. So I am going to try to answer. I think Massoud is extremely relevant not only because he represents the strongest voice of moderation in the Muslim world and in the rest of the world, but because of all the qualities he possessed. I am from South America and I don't know any leader who could be compared to Massoud. His compassion, profound spirituality, integrity and love is an example for me and those who knew him, and I hope it will be for humanity, especially for those who are in real need. My book includes a page written by a cloister Catholic nun in a convent in Europe who is also writing a book about Massoud. I hope this helps. Marcela

Matthew Collins commented on "Obama disappoints some young Africans" (7 months ago)

What do Africans believe, specifically, that the Obama Administration and other Western governments should do? The article mentions "supporting institutions" but that terminology is rather vague.

Are we talking US and EU military support to overthrow corrupt regime?I do not see that happening in the near future given the developments in Afghanistan. Economic support in the form of aid packages and free trade agreements? What's the point of creating trade agreements with one government only to have the rules change when it is overthrown or is unstable in the first place, let alone giving a corrupt government aid? Political support in the form of sanctions and letters of protest? Having the UN draft a letter that basically says "We're very angry with you for your detestable actions" doesn't have much teeth. This truly is a vicious Catch-22 scenario but there is only so much the US and EU can do as outsiders.

Jeanette Oromo commented on "Obama disappoints some young Africans" (7 months ago)

President Obama talked very well I agree, but he made a mistake by not visiting the undemocratic and corrupt Kenya. This is so because, Kenyans are not people who will listen to a far away sound but who will understand when talked to face to face. By President Obama coming to Ghana and quoting Kenya as corrupt and undemocratic, its seen by us Kenyans as not trying to help us out but as washing our dirty linen in public. Even Jesus came to save sinners and interacted with sinners and did not isolate sinners just because they did wrong... So for me President Obama, even though he spoke well he could have arranged a way of meeting with Kenyan leaders and helping them instead of talking about Kenya from a far.