THE results of elections to Afghanistan's lower house of
parliament, which took place on September 18th, will become
clear this week. Voters took great risks to exercise their
rights: the Taliban let it be known that insurgents would target
polling booths and 17 corpses attest to their success. The
American government will be looking hard for signs that
Afghanistan is closer to being able to stand on its own two
feet. That day is some way off, however. The government in Kabul
collects about $1 billion in taxes each year and spends about
$40 billion. Even when most of the foreign soldiers do
eventually leave troops, America and its allies will be making
up the shortfall for the foreseeable future.  THE UN's General
Assembly meets on Monday 21st September 20th to discuss
progress, or lack of it, towards the Millenium Development
Goals, before its meeting proper gets underway. The goals, which
have become a kind of secular scripture for NGOs, are hard to
argue with (improving sanitation, reducing hunger and the