In a remote region of Afghanistan lies what is believed to be the second largest copper deposit on the planet. It is valued at $100 billion dollars. Atop that gold mine of a copper mine, however, sits an ancient, 2,600 year old buddhist temple. Archaeologists consider the site priceless.
Those archaeologists are considered bad for business, however, especially by the Chinese copper giant that is swooping in to demolish the site next month. But also by the Taliban, who evidently stand to profit from the flow of sweet, sweet copper through the region. So they are gunning for the excavators, who are racing against time to preserve as much of the site as possible before it is blown off the face of the planet so Chinese factories can use the metal to make our iPads.All of which makes for one of the more interesting Kickstarter videos I’ve seen in some time:There are too few crowd-funding pitches being made from Afghani huts these days. Have no illusions; no matter how much “awareness” this documentary raises, this site is almost certainly still toast. But it’d be nice to have a record of it, as well as the saga that led to its demise.After all, these death matches are becoming all too common; massively valuable resources vs. priceless cultural heritage. Capital vs. history. And if that history is any guide, we should have a pretty good idea of which side is going to win out.