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Friday, February 21st, 2014

Majority of Afghans Suffering in 2013

Author:     Mohamed Younis
Source:     The Gallup Organization
Publication Date:     19-Feb-14
 Link: Majority of Afghans Suffering in 2013
Stephan:   If you are an Afghani or an Iraqii is it any wonder you are passionately anti-American? In both countries the outcome of American occupation and war has been a significant degradation in the quality of life for ordinary people. I had lunch today with a good friend whose father was part of the Foreign Service of USIA. He grew up in India, Pakistan, and Turkey, and we spent some time talking about what Afghanistan was like when he was a boy living there, compared to the country that exists today. It was a very sad story. Then I came home and found this Gallup Poll which confirms his observations. Click through to see the graphs that accompany this survey.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Afghans prepare to elect a new president and international forces start to withdraw, their hopes for the future are as grim as ever. The majority of Afghans (55%) rate their lives poorly enough to be considered “suffering,” the highest percentage Gallup has measured in the world in 2013.

Gallup classifies people as “thriving,” “struggling,” or “suffering” according to how they rate their current and future lives on a ladder scale with steps numbered from zero to 10 based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale. Gallup considers people to be suffering if they rate their current lives a 4 or lower and their lives in five years a 4 or lower. The respondents do not label themselves as suffering.

While the majority of the Afghan population is suffering, which is disconcerting on its own, no Afghans rated their lives highly enough to be considered “thriving” in 2013. This is largely because their expectations for their lives in five years dropped to their lowest average since 2008, standing at 4.3 in 2013.

Afghans’ Economic Outlook Increasingly Grim

While Afghans express concerns about security issues and terrorism, some of their increasing pessimism about their lives appears to have economic roots. Only 5% of […]

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