TIPTOEING THROUGH POPPY FIELDS

OPIUM SEASON: A Year on the Afghan
Frontier. Joel Hafvenstein. Lyons. 336 pages. $24.95.

The author describes the dangers of helping ease Afghan farmers out of
the opium business.

This real-life story, which provides a chilling sense of deja vu,
offers a perfect example of the old saying: Those who forget history
are doomed to repeat it. It's a lesson author Joel Hafvenstein
relearns as a condition of employment in perhaps the "dirtiest job"
in foreign service -- as a contractor in the Taliban/Khan-ruled poppy
fields of Afghanistan.

The book contains histories of the opium-growing region with
background on everything from colonialism to past poppy wars and
Russian interventions. Hafvenstein's prose, detailed and robust, cuts
a clear path through the dizzying Afghan political minefield.

Many Afghans remember a homeland lush with grapevines and fruit trees.
Not anymore. In 2004, employees of the Chemonics company huddle
together like hunted birds, trying to rebuild the Afghan
infrastructure while holed up in sandbagged "safe" rooms. During his
tour of duty, Hafvenstein will see many of his co-workers murdered.

Among the natives, political affiliations change direction like
poppies swaying in the breeze, and true loyalties lie with
centuries-old blood ties and warlord fealties. Add memories of hated
colonialism and the ancient lure of opium profits, and you have a
morass as impenetrable as fog in an Afghan mountain range.

Into this brutal setting step Hafvenstein and his co-workers, under
contract with the U.S. Agency for International Development. They are
there to help poor Afghan farmers quit cultivating poppies and find
new ways to make a living. The Americans have high hopes and good
intentions. They don't want to "lose our chance to make a
difference."

But this is a land ripped by religious violence, where children's math
books teach kids how to calculate how many seconds it would take for a
speeding bullet to pierce an enemy's head. Soon it is the Chemonics
staff members who are in the natives' rifle sights.

Hafvenstein tries to figure out a field payroll system where he won't
constantly be robbed, stuffing packets of currency in his clothing.
Choosing the wrong word, or even the wrong food, during a social visit
can lead to death.

The Americans adrift in early 21st century Afghanistan face the same
nightmare as in 1960s Southeast Asian killing fields. Alarmingly,
there's little in Opium Season to show that we've learned much of
anything. The book details episode after episode of cultural
misunderstandings, artlessness and credulity on the part of the Americans.

But what Hafvenstein's book offers is the chance to wise up quick. We
can read the book and discover new directions, learning where we
should be and shouldn't be in this time of war.

Jacqueline Loohauis-Bennett reviewed this book for The Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel.