For Sarah Chayes, who came to Afghanistan just after the fall of the Taliban as a reporter for National Public Radio, it's a frustrating turn of events. Chayes left NPR to stay and help rebuild the country, first working with Qayum Karzai, President Hamid Karzai's older brother to start Afghans for Civil Society, an organization designed to teach civics as a basis for sound economic development and later starting the Arghand Cooperative.

While Chayes agrees with many people that Afghanistan's hopes rest in part on its ability to develop some alternative to the poppy plant, she disagrees with many in the international aid community about the solution. Chayes notes that Afghan farmers are turning to opium not out of ideology or strong-arming by the Taliban, but as a business decision. As she explains to Bill Moyers on THE JOURNAL:

Afghans need credit, just as much as we do. They can't get it. And so, they borrow money. They need to marry off their sons, for example. It's gonna cost 'em $5,000 or $10,000. They have to pay a bride price. They have to have a feast for the entire village. They have to-- you know, where are they gonna get that money? So they turn to the opium trafficker, who lends them money. And he demands repayment in opium.

What exists down there is very valuable crops. Almonds, apricots. It's fruit crops mostly. To me, the way to attack opium is to compete with it. Like let's make it possible to make a living and not— you don't have to import some exotic new plant. They've got almonds, they've got apricots, they've got pomegranates. They've got Cumin, they've got anise seed. Wild pistachios. We're putting all this stuff in our soap. Why isn't there a fruit juice factory in Kandihar? It's the pomegranate capital of the world.

This is what we do: Eleven Afghan men and women and I scour this harried land for its (licit) bounties and turn them into beauty products. Our soaps, colored with local vegetable dyes and hand-molded and smoothed till they look like lumps of marble, and our oils, elixirs for polishing the skin, sell in boutiques that cater to the pampered in New York, Montreal, and San Francisco.The scale of the effort — we sell about $2,500 worth of soap per month — is tiny. Still, our business, the Arghand Cooperative, represents what reports and think tanks say places like Afghanistan need: sustainable economic development.

"I had 1,500 pomegranate trees five years ago," said Abdul Jabbar, a resident of Nawzad district. "They gave a very good yield. We loved the orchard, and I would never have destroyed it, but what else could I do? There was no market to sell the fruit. Birds would destroy the pomegranates on the branch, or else we'd pick them and they would rot at home."The government says it's against poppy, but drug traffickers go from house to house and buy our crop and give us a lot of money," he said. "Find me a market for my pomegranates. Everyone hates poppy cultivation."

There are a lot of people, I think, both in the West and in the Muslim world, who believe in clash of civilizations. Who want to see the world as a place dominated by two irrevocably hostile blocs. I don't wanna live in that kinda world. I think that we live in an interconnected world full of rich, flawed, varied civilizations that are inextricably intertwined. And, so what I'm doing in Afghanistan is working for that intertwined world.

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Beginning in 2002, Ms. Chayes served in Kandahar as Field Director for Afghans for Civil Society, a non-profit group founded by Qayum Karzai, President Hamid Karzai's older brother. Under Ms. Chayes's leadership, ACS rebuilt a village destroyed during the anti-Taliban conflict, launched a successful income-generation project for Kandahar women, launched the most popular radio station in southern Afghanistan, and conducted a number of policy studies. Later, she ran a dairy cooperative.

From 1996, Ms. Chayes was Paris reporter for NPR. Her work during the Kosovo crisis earned her the 1999 Foreign Press Club and Sigma Delta Chi awards, together with other members of the NPR team. She has also reported from Algeria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, Serbia and Bosnia, as well as covering the International War Crimes Tribunal and the European Union. Before that, Ms. Chayes free-lanced from Paris for a variety of radio and print outlets. She began her radio career in 1991 at Monitor Radio.

Ms. Chayes graduated in History from Harvard University in 1984, earning the Radcliffe College History Prize. She served in the Peace Corps in Morocco, then returned to Harvard to earn a master's degree in History and Middle Eastern Studies, specializing in the medieval Islamic period.

Ms. Chayes is recipient of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' inaugural Ruth Adams Award for writing on strategic issues. She has published articles in THE ATLANTIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE BOSTON GLOBE, THE MAIL ON SUNDAY, and the TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL. She is featured in the Sundance/Frontline World documentary "Life After War"/"A House for Haji Baba." She has lectured widely as well as participating in the training of incoming US and NATO military officers. Her book on post-Taliban Afghanistan, The PUNISHMENT OF VIRTUE: INSIDE AFGHANISTAN AFTER THE TALIBAN was published in 2006.

Guest photo by Robin Holland.

Published on February 15, 2008.