This week for me and many others who love Afghanistan has been a struggle. It's difficult to express our feelings about the situation in English; it would be much easier in Dari. That language encourages the intimacy of connection and the pain of loss in ways it is awkward to do in English, as wonderful as our language is in other ways.
English is a language of the brain; Dari is a language of the heart.
When you encounter a friend in a village in Afghanistan, you both stop where you were headed to embrace, hold hands and inquire about each other's heart, body, mind, family, and onward. It can be a long list and if you've not met recently, these greetings may take a while.
But when you really stop and think about it, what is it that matters more in life than how we feel about each other?
Money? Fame? Power? Possessions? Accomplishments? Awards?
I don't think so.
In Dari you are able to say "my heart loves your heart" in a way that does not necessarily imply romantic love but does connote how much you truly care for each other. It doesn't sound odd at all.
Meanwhile, in America all too often such an encounter starts with "How are you?" And ends with "Fine."
It's sort of flat, unsatisfying.
In fact it is so unsatisfying to me that I try, and I know this is weird, to adapt something of Dari greeting rituals into talking with my friends. Each person is made of such specific qualities I value that, for me at least, there have to be specific words I use only for them.
But even more than that I always try to say what I mean and to mean what I say. So if I say "I love you" what I mean is that I love you.
***
As a commentator on the news, my goal is always to locate what is hopeful about otherwise crushing developments if I can, but in the case of Afghanistan right now this is difficult because it is so personal.
Some news correspondents report that the Taliban has fundamentally changed, but I doubt that. They say they will extend amnesty to government workers, respect the rights of women, and preside over a peaceful transition of power, but those are empty promises unless and until we see the proof.
Meanwhile, there is plenty of historical precedent for what usually happens when military forces assume power, and that record is soaked with the blood of innocents.
Sadly, Afghanistan has been criss-crossed by conquerers throughout its recorded history. Just to mention a few of them and the empires that resulted: Alexander the Great and his Macedonians, the Greco-Bactrians, Kushans, Indo-Sassanids, Kabul Shahi, Saffarids, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Kartids, Timurids, Hotakis and Durranis.
In their oral histories, Afghans most often bring up the Mongol invaders, starting with Genghis Khan in 1221. And they talk about him and others as if they are still around the next curve of the road.
For example, just north of the town of Taloqan is a magnificent mountain known as کوه بز سیاه, which translates as Black Goat Mountain.
When riding in the back of a truck packed with people, goats and chickens one time, I spoke with a man who recounted stories of the Mongols that have been passed from father to son over the past thousand years or so.
"When they rode in last time, they cut off the heads of a million people," he said, repeating a version that I had heard many times.
"And they will be back. Just on the other side of Black Goat Mountain there are hundreds of thousands of Mongols waiting to strike."
He was referring to the Uzbek population of Takhar Province in what has long been a largely peaceful agricultural area.
A few hundred miles to the west of Takhar, during a visit to Mazar-e-Sharif, I heard similar tales about the Hazara population living in a nearby isolated valley. "They will ride in here soon so watch out."
Nearby are the ruins of Balkh, a legendary city in the pre-Mongol era, with some of the most ghostly remains I have ever visited. Somewhere in my boxes in storage may still be the shards of pottery I collected at the site, which appeared to be many centuries old.
Balkh is where historians confirm that Mongol hordes did in fact decapitate many residents when they struck, and if the eerie winds whistling through the area are not the voices of those long dead, my ears must have betrayed me.
Among Afghanistan's intractable problems is the stark reality that it less an actual country than the cobbled together homeland for at least seven major tribal groups. Besides the Uzbeks and the Hazara, there are the Tajiks, Pashtus, Turkomans, Baluchis, and Nuristanis.
Plus four or five smaller groups, most notably the nomadic Kochi.
The name of the country means "Land of the Afghans," which is what the largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, call themselves. That name leaves every other group out, which complicates matters politically.
My point here is that Afghanistan has plenty of internal problems without outsiders like the British, Russians and Americans getting involved. No foreign occupier ever stays for long anyway, because the local people simply won't tolerate that.
And once the foreigners leave, the Afghans get back to normal. What this means as of August 2021 is that they have to sort out their internal differences now they are not under the thumb of any foreign power.
After decades of operating mainly as a guerrilla army, the Taliban have to figure out how to somehow govern what many believe to be an ungovernable land. Not only are the traditional tribal loyalties an issue, the big cities, especially Kabul, have modernized over the past 20 years and millions of women are now educated.
Will the Taliban throw all of that progress away and chop off the heads of the modernizing society they've inherited? Or will they grow into the moment and embrace the future?
The ghosts of Balkh have been waiting a thousand years for answers to those questions.
***
Luckily for me on Friday, my despair over Afghanistan was countered by an outing to a favorite nearby town with a special friend. It was a slightly smokey day in the Bay Area from the distant wildfires but the smoke stayed high while we stayed low.
We stopped at a coffee house for a spell and then she drove us through an ancient tunnel to the edge of the sea where you can smell the salt in the air. I loved being at this place and I loved the company I was keeping.
All of this reminded me how important it is to celebrate beauty and hope and the love of friends even as we mourn the horror and sadness of the world around us. Everything is inter-related, and all I know at this point is to try and stay centered and balanced in order to avoid letting the dark obscure the light in my own life.
At the end of the day, as the sun shrank as an orange disc in the western sky, the smoke chose to stay high, but down at the surface where good friends dwell the air smelled sweet, very sweet.
***
THE HEADLINES:
* With Afghanistan’s fall, the U.S. confronts a moral necessity it faced before -- Will we work to resettle our Afghan allies as we did after Vietnam? (WP)
* Taliban Quash Protests and Seize Enemies, Tightening Grip on Afghanistan -- The Taliban’s actions and history of brutality cast doubt on their promises of amnesty, and many Afghans are afraid to venture out of their homes. (NYT)
* Chaos persists at Kabul airport, imperiling evacuation effort (WP)
* David Patraeus On American Mistakes in Afghanistan (New Yorker)
*Demonstrations Against the Taliban Spread Throughout Kabul -- Protesters took to the streets of Afghanistan’s capital on the nation’s annual Independence Day, waving flags in defiance of the Taliban’s rule. (NYT)
* European forces cross Taliban lines for Kabul rescue, pressuring Biden to expand evacuation (WP)
* Facing backlash over chaos, foreign powers try to speed Afghanistan exodus (Reuters)
* Hunted by the Taliban, U.S.-Allied Afghan Forces Are in Hiding -- The Afghan forces disintegrated ahead of the Taliban’s rapid advance. Now, the militants are searching for thousands of Afghan soldiers and security officials. (NYT)
* Many of the loudest voices in the Republican Party say the U.S. shouldn’t open its arms to Afghans who helped U.S. troops in the bloody 20-year war in Afghanistan. The rhetoric from the Donald Trump wing of the party is threatening to drown out those on the establishment side who say the U.S. has a moral responsibility to help out. [HuffPost]
* U.S. to add bases for Afghan evacuations as Biden vows to help all U.S. citizens leave (WP)
* With Afghan Collapse, Moscow Takes Charge in Central Asia -- Along with Pakistan and China, Russia has gained broad influence in security matters at the expense of the United States and India. (NYT)
* Blindsided Abroad: Vaccinated but Testing Positive on a Trip to Europe -- The prevalence of the Delta variant means many travelers, including those who are vaccinated, are facing sickness, quarantines and delayed returns. (NYT)
* COVID anxiety rising amid delta surge, AP-NORC poll finds (AP)
* U.S. is studying whether Moderna vaccine may carry higher risk of rare heart condition (WP)
* W.H.O. Official Criticizes Covid Booster Shots in Wealthy Nations -- The World Health Organization’s Africa director said the introduction of booster shots in some wealthy nations threatened vaccination efforts on the continent, where only 2 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. (AP)
* Alabama has no more I.C.U. beds available, the state authorities said. -- The situation there may be a sign of what’s to come for other places with low vaccination rates. (NYT)
* Oil heads for 7% weekly drop as Delta variant spreads (Reuters)
* With the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus spreading across the U.S., children are filling hospital intensive care beds instead of classrooms in record numbers, more even than at the height of the pandemic. Many are too young to get the vaccine, available only to those 12 and over. With millions of children returning to classrooms this month, experts say the stakes are unquestionably high. [AP]
* U.S. extends travel curbs at Canada and Mexico land borders (Reuters)
* BTS And Garth Brooks Among Latest To Cancel Tour Dates Due To COVID (NPR)
* Government forecasters said Thursday that the severe drought that has gripped much of the western half of the country, including California, is likely to continue at least into late fall. (California Today)
* Rain Fell On The Greenland Ice Sheet For The First Time In Recorded History (NPR)
* Drought a 'Wake-Up Call' as Bee Colonies Shrink (Reuters)
* Caldor Fire Continues to Burn Northern California -- The Caldor Fire is threatening thousands of homes in Northern California as its destructive path spreads. Thousands of people remain under evacuation orders. (Reuters)
* At 60, Peace Corps plots return to world after virus hiatus (AP)
* Members of Congress introduced the Native American Voting Rights Act last week amid an ongoing wave of voter suppression bills in Republican-run states that make it harder for Native people to vote. The Senate is gearing up for a September session focused on voting rights. [HuffPost]
* Soaring Uber, Lyft Prices Send Passengers to Taxis, but Drivers Still Struggle (SF Public Press)
* Musk says Tesla likely to launch humanoid robot prototype next year (Reuters)
* Roommates Still Don’t Know Each Other Well Enough To Not Speak (The Onion)
***
Today's song is by Prince (lyrics below), which is right in tune with the rhythm of today's essay, courtesy of a friend who understands these things and many more.
You see a rock on the shore and say
It's always been there
Download no responsibility
Do what you want, nobody cares
Genetically disposed to rule the world
Download a future full of isolated
Full of isolated, boys and girls
The lesser of 2 dangers, illusion of choice
Download their form of fascism
Nothing really ever changes
You never had a voice
Throughout mankind's history
A colonized mind
The one in power makes law
Under which the colonized fall
Without God, it's just the blind leading the blind
It's just another way another man can still sleep
While he's sticking you with the bill
Download, a temporary acquisition
Of fleeting fame and fortune
Nothing to leave in your will, hey, hey, hey, hey
Download no respect for authority
Upload a child with no mother
Download a hard time showing love
Throughout mankind's history
A colonized mind
The one in power makes law
Under which the colonized fall
Without God it's just the blind leading the blind
No comments:
Post a Comment