Millennium’s last solar eclipse and war-torn Afghanistan
The Frontier Post, August 12, 1999

Tens of thousands of people gathered on the streets to see the eclipse of the sun in Europe.

Residents in war-torn Afghanistan were unimpressed Wednesday by the last eclipse of the millennium, too busy with a daily struggle for survival against poverty amid a relentless conflict.

“More important for us is our stomachs and safety,” said a local shopkeeper, Gul Agha.

He said the people are too hungry and poor to think about the eclipse in this backward country which has been wracked by 20 years of war.

Residents said they had heard on foreign radios they should avoid looking at the sun with their naked eyes. Although Afghanistan did not get a total eclipse of the sun, around 5:00 pm the normally strong summer sun over Kabul became weak and pale like that on the late winter’s day.

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