Rachel Maddow Goes Shopping For Gems And Carpets In Downtown Kabul

video

by Frances Martel | 8:28 am, July 8th, 2010

» 13 comments

A great deal of the questions on Afghanistan’s ability to sustain itself center around military aid from abroad, but Rachel Maddow, reporting live from Afghanistan this week, went out in search of the answer to a different question today: without the economic support of the West, how will Afghanistan pay for the new democracy? A tour of local bazaars yielded plenty of lapis lazuli, emeralds, and carpets, but little in the way of concrete economic resources.

Maddow speaks to a soldier that tells her Afghanistan “doesn’t have oil,” but has a vast potential for cultivating mineral resources. The local markets show some of that, selling plenty of lapis, turquoise, emeralds, and rubies, but, unfortunately, not enough to sustain the entire country, and not very much of the precious lithium estimated to exist in the mountains.

Maddow passed by a gift shop and a gem store, but wasn’t excited by most of the products until she came to a carpet shop, where a merchant was selling carpets with illustrations of weaponry. She bought one to bring home. “My mom’s going to be really excited,” she notes, before having the obvious pointed out to her: “I think she’s going to be a little disappointed… we just saw all the stones and you buy a $20 carpet with a gun on it.”

Video below:

Afghanistan, bazaars, Kabul, minerals, msnbc, Rachel Maddow, shopping

Liberty Banned

“Maddow passed by a gift shop and a gem store, but wasn’t excited by most of the products until she came to a carpet shop”

LOL….I’m not even going to say it.
sarainitaly

LIberty! haha

Why would she buy a carpet with a gun on it? Carpet bang?
BatBoy

That was the most compelling video I have ever seen…..

What was missing at the end was when Rachel told the starving kids begging for a dime…”Screw you kids, I spent all of my money on the carpet with a gun sewn on it.”
valkyrie101

This whole series of Maddow Afganistan shows has been excellent. Good journalism.
Liberty Banned

valkyrie101 said:
This whole series of Maddow Afganistan shows has been excellent. Good journalism.

I think it’s great that she went as well. What I’d also like to see is her in the mountains with the Taliban. She could do some hard hitting news story about their tolerance. Then she could fly on over to Saudi Arabia and interview men on the street regarding women’s rights and gays rights. I wonder how that would turn out.
valkyrie101

Liberty Banned said:
I think it’s great that she went as well. What I’d also like to see is her in the mountains with the Taliban. She could do some hard hitting news story about their tolerance. Then she could fly on over to Saudi Arabia and interview men on the street regarding women’s rights and gays rights. I wonder how that would turn out.

…similar to her giving the Liberty College commencement address.
writer

People have a choice of which college to attend. I don’t think the Taliban offers choices.
RTB

Now this is funny…who does she think she is sporting that burqa? Nancy pelosi?
I ll be tunning in tonite for laughs…
CarmanK

I thought the show was terrific. But I agree with Engle, I think her mother would have rather had the rubies or emeralds rather than a rug with ammunition showing.
valkyrie101

CarmanK said:
I thought the show was terrific. But I agree with Engle, I think her mother would have rather had the rubies or emeralds rather than a rug with ammunition showing.

Really, did you know that sales of rugs with AK-47s has gone way up on ebay ? Everyone wants one. A Chinese company has agreed to manufacture them.
Phocus2

Rachel Maddow Goes Shopping For Gems And Carpets (to munch) In Downtown Kabul
valkyrie101

…and on the way home her gay producer is going tea bagging.
jrcmi

Phockup2 says: “Rachel Maddow Goes Shopping For Gems And Carpets (to munch) In Downtown Kabul”

When YOU “munch,” your “girlfriend” springs a leak and needs re-inflation.

You’re a bigot – and a creep.