Hernando de Soto, the Peruvian economist was invited to Kabul by President Hamid Karzai to present proposals for fighting problems of refugees, poverty and violence. De Soto is considered a rising star in unconventional solutions to problems of poverty in many developing countries. "His consultation fees can be as high as $ 10 million," says a Reuters report. He is the author of the best selling book "The Mystery of Capital.," which was nominated for the 2001 Nobel economics prize. The Peruvian economist's advice has been sought by about 15 world leaders including Karzai of Afghanistan who met him during one of his visits to the United States. De Soto now advises the president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide among others.

A strong proponent of capitalism, De Soto banks, in his advice, on the $ 9.3 trillion in "dead" capital owned by the world's poor. This money is in the form of homes, land and machinery. De Soto is of the opinion that using this huge asset the poor could propel themselves into prosperity escaping poverty.

To do this, he suggests reforming property laws and the use of the rule of law to help the poor who are barely and rarely covered by the prevailing laws in their respective societies. Such a reform will give them a chance to borrow on the strength of their property and launch profit bearing businesses.

So much about the man and his theory that he wants implemented in poor societies. Afghanistan is in dire need of a remedy for the revival of its economic infrastructure. She has suffered greatly during a quarter of a century of war and unrest including foreign domination and internal strife. The situation has destroyed social institutions, the value system, and the structure of the society. War and insecurity have affected every aspect of life in Afghanistan. Rebuilding of a new nation on the ruins of this devastating war is a formidable task.

Against such a background, proposals of an international consultant who sees no difference between Afghanistan and other countries he has studied, such as Egypt and the Philippines, saying the life of the poor is spent working outside the rule of law in all of such nations, are worth deeper scrutiny for validity of their claims. It is obvious that amidst similarities in the developing societies, many, such as Afghanistan, have unique problems that are vastly different from those of other nations or even from historical precedence and experiences. De Soto may be correct in his assumption that "rather than traditional development schemes that entail rich nations funneling funds to poor ones, the world's poor and former Soviet nations already have the keys they need to thrive, if they know how to use them." But for the poor to be able to utilize the rule of law and even the most favorable property laws, he should be educated (both general and vocational) , provided a secure environment (both personal and community oriented), emancipated thoroughly within the community (freed from bonds of ethnic and religious prejudice) and made part of the political process. Many of these points cannot be generalized for developing nations as a whole. Almost all of them apply directly to the Afghan society at present and all of them requiremostly Afghan solutions before De Soto's suggestions could be taken seriously for the laying down of the capitalistic foundation for the prosperity of the poor.

President Karzai would do well to look also everywhere else for advice and direction in his quest for finding of solutions to Afghanistan's economic problems. An expensive consultant would not necessary be the most effective or else the beautiful country of Peru would not have its current economic and security problems! 09/27/02