Out of Texas, a Cowboy Solution to an Afghan Crisis
The country needs dollars to keep its economy alive but no one wants to deal with the Taliban. One idea will stave off starvation — but just for a few.
Children at a camp for the displaced, near Herat, Afghanistan.
Photographer: Hector Retamal/AFP
The idea began with urgent phone calls between United Nations agencies and an anonymous business executive in Texas. It’s resulted in a steady stream of much-needed currency into Afghanistan.
Acting as an intermediary for one of Afghanistan’s richest men, the Texas-based businessman has helped arrange for warehouses of afghanis, the local currency, to be swapped with U.S. dollars held in the accounts of international humanitarian groups. The two sides have mirror needs. Afghan businesses are stockpiling immense amounts of paper currency because they don’t trust the banks, which are currently frozen; meanwhile, humanitarian agencies desperately need money to pay their staff and give cash handouts to a starving population. The U.S. dollars are needed to import essential items in the face of the almost total economic collapse since the Taliban took power on Aug. 15.