Sunday, August 22, 2021

A Letter From Helmand -- نامه ای از هیرمند


[Note: I received the following letter from a man inside the city of Helmand in Afghanistan. I've edited it slightly for clarity.]

Dear David: 

I'm talking from Helmand, a key city for (the) Taliban. 

Helmand and Kandahar were/are at the center of their jihad; the Taliban have been more active here than anywhere else.

The people are working as always, but everyone is so desperate because of their future, especially the Hazara people and government employees. They are worried whether they will receive their allotted pay or not, will they still be employed, if paid, how and when will they receive their pay, and how will the Taliban treat them in the future?

There are a lot of questions that people are concerned about. The people are pessimistic about the future. They are trying to find a way to get out of the country.
The women are not seen in the bazaar and street as they were before. We are seeing changes in the clothes of women and men. Women wear very loose clothes and burqas while men are wearing turbans and caps. 

We are hearing that the Taliban enquire about the dress of women and it is being said that the Taliban have punished and flagellated women if they wear jeans or tight clothes. The Taliban have said to shopkeepers that they are not allowed to sell anything to women who don't cover their face. 

The city has almost all men, no women around.
The TV has changed their broadcast and series. Now they are playing Islamic series and reading of Quran. We aren't seeing female executives on TVs.

Food, car rental and gasoline are very expensive. It is impossible to make a new home or find work in Iran and Pakistan because of the deluge of refugees.

***


I cannot independently verify this man's identity at this time, so bear that in mind. But we've been in touch for a number of months and his descriptions of life under the Taliban are consistent with several of the news reports I've curated below.


And this is not the first time I have been contacted by Afghan citizens over the years, since I have often published columns about my time there as a Peace Corps Volunteer and I have followed developments in the country closely for the past 50 years.


For example, I'm not sure how many people recall the following news item from two months ago, on June 22 in the New York Times:

"Risking Death, Hazara Students Pursue Education at Bombed Academies -- A group of young Afghans studying for college entrance exams must risk suicide attacks by the Islamic State and the looming threat of a Taliban return."

I listed it in my daily roundup at the time and later received a message from a Hazara man inside Afghanistan who described the horrors his people were going through, the Hazara in particular.

Traditionally in Afghanistan, the Hazara have occupied the lowest class of all of the major ethnic groups. Outside of their closely guarded home district, they tend to be the poorest of the poor. In the big cities you would often see them barefoot in ragged clothes, doing the most menial of tasks for fractions of a cent, and verbally abused by the more settled residents.

When I lived in Taloqan, a Hazara man worked for me as a cook; his name was Faiz Muhammad.  He told me that when he was a teenager, he had been conscripted into the military, and there, because he was young and pretty, he had been forced into becoming a "dancing boy."

Unlike the militaries in most places, Afghan men had essentially no contact with women and their sexual tension must have become unbearable at times. The abuse Faiz told me he endured was awful, dehumanizing and (by our standards) criminal.

When he finally got out of the military and escaped that nightmare, he taught himself to be a cook so he could find employment. He said he was still young and good-looking enough that some rich families took him on, which is where he gained experience and references for further jobs.

His life became that of an itinerant worker. He couldn't read or write, so when he left one job he went to the town scribe to obtain a reference to carry with him to the next town. In a rural society where only a tiny fraction of the population was literate, these scribes filled a vital gap in the communication system.

Faiz explained to me how it worked. He would ask his past employer to meet with the scribe and dictate his recommendation in a local language, usually Dari. Then he would pay the scribe for the letter.

Everyone came with letters of introduction, and I had in fact hired Faiz on the basis of one such recommendation.

By the time he worked for me, Faiz was an old man of 48, stooped in posture and with the lined face of a  far older person.

He liked to sit cross-legged on a pillow in my living room and tell me stories based on his travels. He said he was always too poor to take a wife and now besides being poor he was also too old.

"So I will always be without a family."

He didn't seem bitter, just resigned. Although he wasn't terribly religious he did kneel each day and pray facing Mecca, which in Afghanistan is not to the east but to the west.

The only sounds that ever came over the only loudspeaker in town, which was located at the local mosque, were the prayer calls. Those calls were sung out in perfect Arabic by the mullahs, which is how I developed a love for the rhythms of that language.

I picked up a phrase here and there, including the ubiquitous Allahu Akbar (God is Greater), later perverted by the terrorists on 9/11, which leads me right back to where I started, in Afghanistan.

The chaotic attempts by hundreds of thousands of people to flee the Taliban is heartbreaking. There are also the first signs of rebellion against the new rulers.

I doubt peace will prevail in Afghanistan for long if at all. U.S. and other forces remain nearby ready to pounce in order to protect foreigners who remain trapped in Kabul and elsewhere in the country.

I will be in contact with a number of Afghans in the coming days so it is possible I will have more to report on the situation soon.

[NOTE: The Washington Post has an article titled: "How to help Afghan refugees and those trapped during the Taliban takeover." It lists the non-profits involved with aiding Afghans in this crisis, including helping those who wish to escape from the country.]

***

THE HEADLINES:

After more than a year of sealing themselves off at home, some people are finding social activities difficult. The Delta variant isn't helping. (WSJ)

* Have You Already Had a Breakthrough Covid Infection? (New Yorker)

Miscue After Miscue, U.S. Exit Plan Unravels -- President Biden promised an orderly withdrawal. That pledge, compounded by missed signals and miscalculations, proved impossible. (NYT)

Amid new security concerns, Pentagon hints at more rescues outside Kabul airport -- The signal that U.S. troops could undertake enhanced efforts to rescue people outside the airport came as the Biden administration scrambled to fly thousands of people per day out of Afghanistan. (WP)

* U.S. activates 18 commercial planes to aid evacuees after Afghanistan (Reuters)

VIDEO: U.S. Continues Evacuations as Conditions Worsen at Kabul Airport -- Pentagon officials said the U.S. military was continuing to process evacuations of Americans, Afghan allies and others at Kabul’s airport, even as the State Department warned Americans to avoid travel to the airport because of security threats. (Reuters)

Desperation as Afghans Seek to Flee a Country Retaken by the Taliban -- A surging crowd trampled a toddler to death near the airport, and many residents who aided America remain in hiding, fearing they will be killed by their new rulers. (NYT)

Seven Afghan civilians killed outside Kabul airport, as Biden set to update on evacuations (WP)

VIDEO: Evacuees From Afghanistan Arrive in Countries Abroad (Reuters, AP)

Afghan refugee goes into labor on U.S. evacuation flight, gives birth on landing (WP)

* Anti-Taliban leader Massoud says negotiation only way forward -- Ahmad Massoud, leader of Afghanistan's last major outpost of anti-Taliban resistance, said on Sunday he hoped to hold peaceful talks with the Islamist movement that seized power in Kabul a week ago but that his forces were ready to fight.(Reuters)

Fears Rise About Safety of Afghan Airport as U.S. Warns Americans to Stay Away -- Families continued to swarm the airport in hopes of getting aboard American military planes. U.S. officials are now worried that Islamic State might launch an attack to damage the Taliban’s sense of control. (NYT)

Afghanistan is not the country the Taliban last ruled. Will that matter? (WP)

America’s Afghan War: A Defeat Foretold? -- Recent history suggests that it is foolish for Western powers to fight wars in other people’s lands and that the U.S. intervention was almost certainly doomed from the start. (NYT)

Biden pulled troops out of Afghanistan. He didn’t end the ‘forever war.’ (WP)

* Britain’s ambassador to Afghanistan says British authorities have managed to evacuate more than 5,000 people, but there is a "huge" amount of work to do. (AP)

* Mask, vaccine conflicts descend into violence and harassment (AP)

* Four weeks in July: Inside the Biden administration’s struggle to contain the delta surge (WP) 

* ‘Nursing Is in Crisis’: Staff Shortages Put Patients at Risk“ -- When hospitals are understaffed, people die,” one expert warned as the U.S. health systems reach a breaking point in the face of the Delta variant. (NYT) 

* Rev. Jesse Jackson, wife Jacqueline hospitalized for COVID (AP)

* Post skeptical of coronavirus vaccine was most popular on Facebook in first quarter of 2021 (WP)

* Pop-up restaurants may stick around as COVID sees resurgence (AP)


Remote Work May Last for Two Years, Worrying Some Bosses --The longer that Covid-19 keeps people home, the harder it may be to get them back to offices, executives say. (WSJ)

* New round of winds fuel fury of Northern California wildfire (AP)

*The nation’s challenged roads, bridges, rails and ports: 10 projects that illustrate urgent needs (WP)

Forecasters Warn That Henri Could Be The Worst Storm To Hit The Northeast in 30 Years (NPR)

* Tropical Storm Henri makes landfall in Rhode Island (AP)


Local Restaurant Makes Foolhardy Attempt At Second Location (The Onion)

***

Longing

I'm sure you'll get it ...
手に入れるよきっと...
Where can i go 
何処へ行けるのか 

We don't know yet 
僕らはまだ知らない 

If you spread your newborn wings
生まれたばかりの翼を広げたら
Strong and high you can fly 
強く高く君は飛べる 

I've been on my side
憧れよ側にいてずっと
To the place where the shining stars lead 
彼方に輝く星が導く場所へ 

I'm sure you'll get there faster than anyone else 
誰よりも早く辿り着くよきっと 

The world is in its hands 
世界がその手に 

The hidden light 
隠してる光を 

I'll reveal it with this hand 
この手で暴いてみせるよ 

right now
今すぐ
I gave up 
諦めたことを 

Without giving up 
諦められずに 

Looking back 
振り返るのは 

Let's finish it
もう終わりにしよう
Standing on a hill that looked far away 
遠く見えた丘に立って 

I'm sure you will get a longing
憧れを手に入れるきっと
Invisible light 
見えない光が 

The dawn that called you 
君を呼んだ夜明け 

We leave 
僕らは旅立つ 

To a new world 
新しい世界へ 

The beginning of a dream 
夢の始まりを 

Put it on your song 
君の歌に乗せて 

I'll reveal a miracle 
奇跡を暴いてみせるよ 

right now
今すぐ
-- Yuki Kajiura

-30-


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