(Letter From Helmand.15)
NOTE: This is the latest in a series of letters from a young Afghan friend in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He describes life under Taliban rule. We are withholding his identity to protect his safety.
In the show’s first episode, we meet the protagonist: a man called Gi Hun, who is suffering from his debts and lack of options to get out of his terrible situation. It evokes the memory of a neighbor of mine who always fled from his debtors. At first, when they came to ask for repayment, he sold everything he had. Before long, he had nothing left to sell. He fled one night, just vanished. No one knows where he has gone.
In my village of 100 families, only two or three have a relatively good life. The rest struggle throughout their life to pay their debts with little hope of ever becoming solvent. If my village is a representative sample, only two or three percent of Afghans live in a relatively good situation.
The parallels continue. In episode seven of Squid Game, players cross a bridge made of glass, not knowing whether it’s composed of tempered or regular glass. If the latter, the bridge cannot support their weight and the players at the front of the line fall to their deaths. Watching as they progressively test the panels, I’m struck with the similarities to Afghanistan's roads full of landmines – an equally deadly prospect
For many years we have been playing this deadly game on highways. If the driver makes a mistake, the mainland will swallow the car with all of its passengers.
There also are explosions in buses, suicide attacks in mosques, schools, universities, and other gathering places that reduce our chances of staying alive.
Twice I was able to survive a suicide attack: once there was a one-meter wall between me and the explosions, but more than 100 people were killed in that blast. The second time I was inside a shop when the explosion took place in the road in front.
Early in the Squid Game series, players come to understand the brutal rules of engagement, that losers aren’t simply disqualified, they are killed. They are shocked when they later find out that these deaths are for the fun and entertainment of others. They feel it’s not fair, and it’s hard for them to come to grips with this grim scenario.
But the reality is that the game is real, and is being played out every day in the Middle East, where people's lives do not matter at all. We are being used as a tool by the superpowers. These countries support different factions and pit rebel groups against each other. Insurgent groups like the Mujahideen emerged 30 years ago, and the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, etc., have killed more than ten thousand people so that their masters could take advantage of this chaos.
Afghanistan is a battlefield, and the civilians are the unwitting, expendable soldiers in this eternal struggle.
***
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
* Nearly 90 countries join pact to slash planet-warming methane emissions (Reuters)
* Over 100 global leaders pledge to end deforestation by 2030 (Reuters)
* Biden tells leaders U.S. will meet climate goals (Reuters)
* 'Time for action', Queen Elizabeth tells summit (Reuters)
* The Migrant Workers Who Follow Climate Disasters -- A growing group of laborers is trailing hurricanes and wildfires the way farmworkers follow crops, contracting for big disaster-recovery firms, and facing exploitation, injury, and death. (New Yorker)
* Leaders Warn of Climate ‘Doomsday’ as Old Rifts Divide Summit’s First Day (NYT)
* How Biden’s Afghan blunder is already endangering U.S. security (WP)
* She was sold to a stranger as a child bride at age 9 so her family could eat as Afghanistan crumbles (CNN)
* At least 15 people were killed and 34 wounded when two explosions followed by gunfire hit Afghanistan's biggest military hospital in Kabul, a Taliban security official said. (Reuters)
* Biden unveils new rules to curb methane from oil and gas operations (WP)
* Biden apologized for Trump's anti-science actions. “I shouldn’t apologize, but I do apologize for the fact the United States, the last administration, pulled out of the Paris accords and put us sort of behind the eight ball a little bit,” Biden told world leaders. Today, the White House unveiled a set of sweeping policies to rein in methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas far stronger than carbon dioxide. [HuffPost]
* How Car Shortages Are Putting the World’s Economy at Risk (NYT)
* Qatar Helps Tens of Thousands of Afghans Flee the Taliban (CBS News)
* Egypt Poised to Expand Security Powers of President and Military (NYT)
* How Trump’s 187 minutes of inaction led to Jan. 6 bloodshed (WP)
* Roe Is as Good as Gone. It’s Time for a New Strategy. (NYT)
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