Stefan Pirker 8A Eating Habits

Report-Eating Habits
INTRODUCTION

The aim of this report is to describe the eating habits of my classmates in Austria and for that
purpose I have interviewed them a couple days ago. My research into this topic clearly shows that
the majority prefers fast food, especially junk food to home cooked meals.

PLOT/ GIVE FINDINGS

After, or even during school they just do not have enough time to cook on their own. Another
advantage of fast food is its price. In fact, a normal take-away-pizza costs about 5€, but if you decide
to do it on your own you will have to invest way more money into it.

CONCLUSION

On balance, the majority of my classmates start their day off pretty healthy when they eat cereals or
fruits, but when it comes to lunch, they do not really care anymore about the quality of their food.
Furthermore, the spread of take-away possibilities did not really make it easier to avoid the fast food
restaurants.

RECOMMANDATIONS

Before I start giving advices, I have to admit that I am also a junk food fan. But not for its taste or
price, it is just the easiest and fastest way to get of rid of hunger. Looking at the interview’s result, it
is kind of sad that people have to eat unhealthy good because they just do not have enough time to
cook on their own. In despite of that the project gives some useful tips, how to bypass the time
problem.

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Stefan Pirker 8A Eating Habits

Recent History of Afghanistan

The government in Afghanistan has never been particularly stable. However it was relatively pro-West
for much of the past century. In the mid-1970's, Afghanistan was ruled by a moderate, anti-Soviet
monarchy. But that government was overthrown in a military coup in 1978 and then again by
Communists. In in the following year the Soviets invaded with 80,000 troops to install a pro-Soviet
puppet regime. Then followed a decade of war that the Afghanis call the "War of Liberation". During
that time Ronald Reagan, a principled anti-Communist, supplied semi-covert assistance to every anti-
Communist rebel group he could find-- including the pre-Communist monarchy and various radical
Islamic factions.

After the Soviets retreated from Afghanistan in 1989, our the Bush (41st) administration had the
opportunity to support Ahmad Shah Masood who was one of the heroes of the war and (although a
devout Muslim) would have made the country into a pro-West, moderate regime. He was part of a
coalition government that took over in 1992, but our government provided absolutely no assistance.
Since the Communists were defeated, the Bush (41st) administration's belief was that America had no
interests in that region. Because of this myopia, pro-West sentiments eroded. The situation quickly
degenerated into civil war with Masood and a radical Muslim cleric named Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
leading major factions.

The Taliban appeared in November 1994, led by Hektmayer's protege Mullah Omar and backed by
both Iran and Pakistan. Pakistan, in particular, was interested in creating a radical Islamic government
in the region that they would then have influence over. In the beginning, the Taliban was supported by
the public because they were tired of civil war and anarchy, and because so much of the population
had been wiped out by the Soviets that no one remembered what life was like before the war began.
Since then the "noose has tightened," and public sentiment (especially in the cities) has turned against
them. But the Taliban is a totalitarian regime and punishes dissidence with death.

Hekmatyar has since died, and the Taliban has just recently assasinated Masood. Masood's Northern
Alliance rebel group, with virtually no support from outside Afghanistan, controls perhaps 15% of the
land. The missile attacks on Kabul that CNN initially reported as an American strike was in fact the
Northern Alliance rebels fighting desperately for their lives.

Now, a lot of people blame the United States for creating the Taliban, and in one sense it is true. But
the argument usually put forth is that we created the Taliban by backing Islamic fundamentalists
during the war between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. This is simply not so. The Taliban did not
even exist until 5 years after the Soviets had left. They are not a child of War of Liberation but a
creation of Afghanistan's radical Islamic neighbors.

The Taliban was not created by Western governments' meddling but by the power vacuum left when
the West lost interest in the region after the Soviet empire collapsed. Any culpability our government
has is in totally failing to recognize the global Islamic resurgence as a threat to our security. The Bush
and Clinton administrations had ample opportunity to install (or at least support) a pro-West regime
led by a religious moderate and war hero. The Taliban and the Islamic resurgence in Afghanistan
would never have occurred if they had done so.

Now that Masood is dead, it is too late to correct that error. I don't know what the Bush (43rd)
administration has in mind for an end state of a war with the Taliban, but the situation is much more
complex and difficult than it was ten years ago.

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