Afghanistan: The New Switzerland

London bookies peg Ashraf Ghani, currently the chancellor of Kabul University,as either first or second in the running for the Presidency of the World Bank (link). That’s a natural segue to a hobby-horse of mine. Call: it Afghanistan, the new Switzerland.

It’s not that crazy. A hop, skip and a jump ago, Switzerland was mountainous, landlocked, desperately poor, the producer of nothing in surplus except warriors.

Now, Afghanistan. Mountainous, check. Landlocked, check. Desperately poor, ooh checkeroo. Producer of—well, I’m not sure Switzerland ever did opium.

I’m really not clear exactly why or how Switzerland vaulted from nowhere into financial preeminence, although I have the impression it has something to do with Italian bankers driven out of Lucca by the Counter-reformation. At any rate, I strongly suspect the Swiss aren’t all that clear themselves. Oh, they may think they know, but it happened so fast (in geologic time) they probably haven’t had the time or the inclination to follow the breadcrumbs back to the source.

Okay, frivolous, but not entirely. Compared to Switzerland at its takeoff, there is really nothing Afghanistan needs that it doesn’t have already, except perhaps luck. Wonder how they are at cuckoo clocks and chocolates.

Fn.: Looks like I said it before (link).