Sometimes, the way to solve a problem is to come at it from an oblique angle.  In fact, it’s often helpful to look in the “opposite direction” of a problem for the keys to its solution.  Paradoxically, focusing on a problem is not always the best way to solve it, especially when it’s long-term or systemic.  Focusing on a game that solves the problem is often a better way to go.

A story on CNN this evening demonstrated this fundamental of gamechanging.  Two years ago, Oliver Percovich  an Aussue skateboard enthusiast,  formed a non-profit group called Skateistan, to give some fun to children who don’t experience much of that in their war-shredded society.  Later this year, the skateboarders of the “Republic of Skateistan” will begin ollying in a new 19,000-square-foot skate park and will be taking English and computer classes as part of the program.

Skateboarding is probably a hundred eighty degrees from most of the problems facing Afghanistan, which means that the Skateistan game is probably a step in the direction of solving them.  Thanks to Oliver Percovich, at least the possibility has been created that one day “killing it in Kabul” will mean kickflipping and nosegrinding intead of mortar attacks and suicide bombs.