[Buddha-l] Mes Aynak today

[Christopher Fynn]

Yes the  "higher-ups" are inevitably involved.

I guess it has been going on for years. In the late 60's I know you
could buy Gandhara statues in Pakistan for very little money -
probably some of them from Afghanistan. I have met a couple of western
dealers who became very wealthy from this.

Of course when this happens important information about the
archeological context is irretrievably lost and countries lose their
heritage - but at least the images are not completly destroyed by
fanatic mullahs or chinese mining companies.

If they are going to get sold off or destroyed anyway - it is too bad
the proceeds couldn't be used for something useful like primary
schools or clinics rather than lining corrupt politicians pockets and
likely funding murder and mayhem.


On 01/09/2013, Jo <ugg-5 at spro.net> wrote:
> Afghans are too busy ripping off the sites--Mes Aynak is one and another
> Buddhist site not far off is already about ruined thanks to treasure
> hunting. News reports always say "by locals" but I suspect higher-ups are
> involved and have their guys in there as well.
> Jo
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com
> [mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Christopher Fynn
> Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2013 2:13 AM
> To: Buddhist discussion forum
> Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Mes Aynak today
>
> Since the Afghan Government doesn't seem to be very interested in
> preserving
> the site. - perhaps they should just sell off everything there to museums
> and collectors. At lest this might generate enough income to allow them to
> put off starting the copper mine until everything of value had been
> removed.
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