The Turquoise Mountain Project

I have just been listening to a BBC Radio programme, only fifteen minutes long, in which Rory Stewart's account of his experience working with the Turquoise Mountain Project in Kabul was read to the listeners. The fact that project has the sponsorship of the Prince of Wales and that Rory Stewart is now an MP for the Conservative Party could not hide the fact that the project was built from the ground up by people themselves, and that it was built despite bureaucratic and commercial pressure, despite police with AK47s, and across many cultural and ethnic divides. That a member of the British royal family and a Tory could lend their support to something which, in its impetus and development, was such an example of mutual aid in action, indicates to me that the principle is not dependent on ideology - again see Meir Turniansky's article quoted in yesterday's blog. Certainly there is a commercial (and therefore capitalist) aspect to the project, but that was not what seemed important to me as I listened. Another of my 'imperfect examples' to add to the list.