The State We're In, 13 March 2010. In London, a rabbi who runs an addiction centre helps Muslims create their own centres. Two problem drinkers, one Irish and one Russian, explain why their cultures are so steeped in alcohol. And an Afghan journalist presents an audio diary about the loss of his best friend to free market medical practices.

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Rabbi’s rescue
Rabbi Aryeh Sufrin runs an addiction centre just outside London, England. Just after the July 2005 bombings, a young Muslim man knocked on his door. He needed help he couldn’t get in his own community. Rabbi Sufrin welcomed him and eventually helped the local Muslim community start their own addiction centres.

Wasted
Brian O’Connell grew up with excessive drinking all around him in Ireland. He became a problem drinker himself and had to fight two battles to become sober: the first against the bottle, the second against the drinking culture of Ireland. He’s written a book about what he went through called “Wasted”.

Down and out in Moscow
Yuri Vasilyevich was also a problem drinker. He lost five male friends to alcohol. He tells Jonathan how he triumphed over his addiction and how he still struggles to stay sober.

About face
We recently aired an interview with a former violent jihadist about how extremists have perverted the true sense of jihad. We turn now to London where Hanif Qadir helps young Muslim men turn away from violent religious ideology – just as he once did.

Kabul’s “free” market
TSWI's new contributor in Kabul, Ali Erfan (not his real name), presents his first audio diary, about his best friend who went to hospital with appendicitis. What should have been a routine medical procedure turned into a nightmare of incompetence. Ali says that the post-Taliban liberation and its free market is to blame for the lethally incompetent health care in his home city.