http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/06/world/asia/afghanistan-lajwardeen-mining-lapis-lazuli.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Jake Kazmierczak
This is an interesting article that talks about Lapis in Afghanistan, something I honestly never even heard of until now. Apparently it is some kindof mineral/gem that in 2010, the U.S. determined that Afghanastan had at least 1 trillion dollars worth of the resource unharvested in the country. This spiked interest in the market, and eventually led to the Taliban and other unlawful groups' interest in the mineral. Basically the entire market has gone corrupt according to this article, and the people of afghanastan are upset as the powerful few who essentially control the mineral are using their power to keep the government and people weak in order to keep control of what is left. The title sums it up, Greed, corruption and danger. In one of the most dangerous areas of the world right now, we're seeing the tune of corruption due to greed come into play. Unfortunately this is damaging to the locals who at one point lived off the lapis market that is now controlled by Taliban like groups. I am not sure what we could actually do about this, it feels to me like an unfortunate internal affair... but it is definitely an interesting development I would not have known about had I not opened up the paper.
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