Fried Chicken and Body Oil

Oddly enough, I was combing through the articles on the bombing in Khost at FOB Chapman, and came across a bit of hope:  Afghan Fried Chicken.  In the story here, there’s an entrepreneur that used to sell rugs in NYC prior to 9/11.  After that, sales dropped off.

Imagine that.

So he’s now in Afghanistan, KFC wants $1 million for their franchise, and he opts to go his own way and put together something different.

“I want the American people to know about AFC,” said Rasholi, 46. “This is American culture, American food, and I want to introduce American good in all of Afghanistan.” 

It’s a disturbing thought that he’s using fried chicken a la Popeye’s (at least that’s the way the article portrays it) as a way to introduce American good in Afghanistan.

But it highlights the split between the Taliban and the rest of the actual population of Afghanistan, and the rest of the world:  they can’t stand our politics, but they sure do love our products.

I read one time that an imam in response to this issue said this, “We love your VCR’s, just not the movies you make to play in them.” 

In the wake of the Taliban, there was a resurgence in Kabul of gyms, and Gold’s Gym, the original that started the modern bodybuilding craze, was the model most of them tried to emulate here in this place.

So what results is a country where some of them detonate the occasional suicide vest, and a others work toward putting together Gold’s Kabul.

Love this country.