Afghanistan Election News
Question for Mark Ritchie, Author of God in the Pits
Why is the new edition of your former bestseller subtitled, "The Enron-Jihad Edition", and what does it have to do with Afghanistan election news?
"I have labeled this the Enron-jihad Edition not because it will focus on either Enron or jihad, but because these two disjointed settings provide the backdrop for my own personal struggle. The poverty and mystery of Afghanistan is a spiritual enigma all its own. And the wealth of capitalism has brought us greed that we’ve hardly noticed. I use the Enron-jihad label because my trauma centers on the private parts of humanity, parts that brought us both Enron and 9/11."
When I first wrote this story for Macmillan, it evolved into a spiritual journey in which Afghanistan and Islam were factors, but almost incidental ones. No longer is this so.
For example, a few decades back when I stepped into that travel agency at the Chicago Board of Trade, I wondered how I would ask the lady for the fastest ticket to Kandahar. A fellow trader from the soybean oil pit stopped by and to show interest, asked where I was headed. I told him that I had a personal tragedy that required me to get an emergency ticket to Afghanistan. There was such an inquisitive look in his eye, I had to give some detail; highway accident, remote desert, family tragedy. But I decided not to mention Kandahar."
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