Letter From Helmand.9: "Her World Has Lost Its Color"

[NOTE: This is the ninth letter from a young Afghan friend about life in his country since the Taliban took over.]

Dear David:

Bakhti [a pseudonym] is a friend of mine who is 24 now. Two years ago, she was the top student in her university class in Kabul, graduating with a degree in political science. While we were students, she always motivated me by her speeches. 

Despite the extreme hardship in Kabul of that time, which included suicide attacks and frequent blasts, Bakhti remained full of hope and ambition. She was competitive and driven. To maintain her position at the top of the class, she studied late every night,  read a book every week, and even wrote book reviews to share with me. We frequently debated, agreeing on some issues while disagreeing about others. She talked about her ambitions to find a job after graduation with a good salary. 

We often walked together in the streets of Kabul, talking about various subjects, taking photos, listening to music, and reciting poetry.

When I called her a few days ago to ask how she was doing, she described for me the day the Taliban entered Kabul: it was a Sunday, the hands of the clock stood at eleven in the morning, and everyone was running, fleeing from the invaders. The moment seemed frozen in time, the sunlight suspended, nature in a vacuum – if there was motion from the birds or the leaves on the trees, nobody saw it.

A month has passed since that terrible day, and Bakhti says life is not getting any easier. Her world has lost its color. Friendships are a thing of the past. Women have covered their faces, imprisoned behind the walls of their houses. There is nothing they can do but mourn their lost liberty. They feel stateless and homeless.

Our dreams of salvation at the hands of the Americans were false. In the end, America did nothing but transfer power from one Talib to another. The safety we felt when the Americans were here was naive. Would it have been better if we had not planted the seeds of hope in our hearts?

The Taliban, the enemies of our peace and advancement, killed us at home, on the road, at school, at university, wherever possible. They blew up our schools and universities, massacred us in the classroom. Perhaps foolishly, we kept going back – to our schools, universities and aspirations.

Somehow we forgot that we were living in a country with people like Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban, where the Afghan people were nothing but a means to power. We were sacrificed for their goals.

In my hopes for a better tomorrow, I would run to my classes at the university through bullets and explosions, always in fear of persecution. Eventually I graduated, and thought I had succeeded, with a job, an income, and my independence. I had friends to talk to, a full life of work and socializing. I felt free, the wind in my hair.

But the takeover of our country by the Taliban has changed all that, for me and for Bakhti.  Recently she went to a demonstration with her friends, demanding rights for the women of Afghanistan, but they were met with whips and threats of even worse violence. Now she stays home all day, often crying. She feels her voice has been silenced.

It is an indescribable pain when a person loses her job, education, freedom and everything she has lived for, overnight. Bakhti feels her dreams have died.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* Special Report: Backers of Trump's false fraud claims seek to control next elections (Reuters)

* ‘An iron curtain’: Australia’s covid rules are stranding people at state borders (WP)

* COVID-19 creates dire US shortage of teachers, school staff (AP)

* We Have Gone Badly Off Track in the Global Covid Fight (NYT)

* COVID-19 sends northern Chinese city into semi-shutdown (Reuters)

* Coronavirus infections among children accounted for nearly 26% of all new cases reported last week. The latest boom among children has primarily been seen in the South. “Child cases are high in places where community cases are high,” Dr. Sean O’Leary, vice chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics committee on infectious diseases, told HuffPost. [HuffPost]

* VIDEO: Brazilian President Says He Is Not Vaccinated (AP)

* U.S. to donate 500 million more COVID-19 vaccine doses to other countries -Biden (Reuters)

* Delta is the dominant covid variant worldwide, WHO says (WP)

* California COVID rates are low — Bay Area’s are even lower (SFC)

* Brazil’s health minister tests positive for coronavirus at U.N. General Assembly (WP)

* Under Taliban, thriving Afghan music scene heads to silence (AP)

* Taliban Complete Interim Government, Still Without Women (NYT)

* Taliban seeks to attend United Nations General Assembly in New York (WP)

* Sunni scholars who left Afghanistan hope Islam's tolerant message survives Taliban (Reuters)

* A Botched Drone Strike in Kabul Started With the Wrong Car (NYT)

* Philanthropists pledge record $5 billion to protect nature (Reuters)

* Birds Thrived During Covid-19 Lockdowns, Study Shows(WSJ)

* This summer, California fires emitted twice as much carbon dioxide as during the same period last year, and far more than any other summer in nearly two decades. (Cal Today)

* New WHO air-quality guidelines aim to cut deaths linked to fossil fuels (Reuters)

* Amid furor over border images, Biden faces backlash from Democrats (WP)

* Latin American Migration, Once Limited to a Few Countries, Turns Into a Mass Exodus (WSJ)

* U.S. default this fall would cost 6 million jobs, wipe out $15 trillion in wealth, study says (WP)

* 'No one would be spared': Debt default would set off dire consequences (CNN)

* A new study indicates that the relatively low mass of Mars allowed most of its water to be lost to space billions of years ago, rather than retained on its surface. (NPR)

* New Program Encourages Americans To Get Vaccine To Prevent It From Going To Foreigners (The Onion)

The Thinnest Line of Defense

Today's top story is that General Sherman, believed to be one of the oldest trees on the planet, at roughly 2,500 years, survived a severe threat from wildfire. From California Today:

"Last summer, a single fire killed tens of thousands of sequoias in the Sierra Nevada. And this month, blazes in and around Sequoia National Park are lapping at the bases of these massive trees, worrying the firefighters who are scrambling to protect them.

"The ever-increasing intensity of fires in California has become too much even for the sequoias, which evolved to survive — even thrive — in fires. The dangers prompted firefighters last week to wrap General Sherman, believed to be the largest tree in the world, in flame-retardant foil in a bid to save it from flames.

"Experts say the fires that sequoias endured for centuries were mostly low grade. Thick bark and sky-high crowns protected the trees from serious damage. Heat from the flames even helped them reproduce by releasing seeds from their cones. "Last summer, a single fire killed tens of thousands of sequoias in the Sierra Nevada. And this month, blazes in and around Sequoia National Park are lapping at the bases of these massive trees, worrying the firefighters who are scrambling to protect them. The ever-increasing intensity of fires in California has become too much even for the sequoias, which evolved to survive — even thrive — in fires. The dangers prompted firefighters last week to wrap General Sherman, believed to be the largest tree in the world, in flame-retardant foil in a bid to save it from flames. "Experts say the fires that sequoias endured for centuries were mostly low grade. Thick bark and sky-high crowns protected the trees from serious damage. Heat from the flames even helped them reproduce by releasing seeds from their cones."

So the good news (for now) is that some of our largest and oldest trees have survived. Think of how much human history has occurred during the lifetime of General Sherman.

We are used to tragic stories of fires wiping away decades of memories from human lives; the classic question asked of residents in fire country is: "What would you take with you if you had to evacuate?"

But losing these big trees represents a collective loss of many more orders of magnitude. If the planet is a living organism, these enormous trees are among its most magnificent accomplishments. Just being among them is a spiritual experience.

The sight of firefighters wrapping aluminum foil around its base in a last-ditch effort to save it was touching but its also was a reminder of just how powerless we are against the magnitude of the challenges of global climate change.

Because aluminum foil won't guarantee us a future.

***

On Netflix: "Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror."

This is a five-hour docuseries that recounts the past 20 years of war in Afghanistan, starting with the terrorist attacks in 2001, through the killing of Osama bin-Laden, all the way to the final withdrawal of U.S. troops in August and the Taliban takeover that has ensued.

It is not easy viewing but I recommend it to anyone wishing to take a thoughtful look at the momentous series of events that have shaped the early part of the 21st century.

We cannot allow ourselves to avoid the questions raised by this 5-hour series. There is too much to remember. As the people who funded that war, we do not have the license to forget.

THE HEADLINES:

* What likely saved the General Sherman Tree from the KNP Complex Fire (SFGate)

* Covid Vaccine Prompts Strong Immune Response in Younger Children, Pfizer Says -- Vaccinated kids aged 5 to 11 showed evidence of protection against the virus, the company said. The data must be reviewed by the F.D.A. before children can be inoculated. (NYT)

* U.S. reported deaths surpass toll of 1918 flu pandemic (WP)

* VIDEO: New York City Will Institute Weekly Coronavirus Testing in Schools (NYT)

* ‘The world must wake up’: Tasks daunting as UN meeting opens (AP)

* U.S. seeks to double climate change aid for developing nations -Biden (Reuters)

* Jeff Bezos pledges $1 billion to protect 30 percent of the Earth’s land and sea (WP)

* China is key to saving the planet from climate change. But it can’t quit coal. (WP)

* Australia has lost one-third of its koalas in the past three years (Reuters)

* Wildfires are changing California forever and making it harder to see a future here (WP)

* Climate Change Is Killing Trees And Causing Power Outages (NPR)

* Biden confronts extreme heat, now America’s leading weather-related cause of death (WP)

* Afghanistan's Taliban say working on reopening girls' high schools (Reuters)

* Taliban Add Minorities, Technocrats to Afghan Government, but No Women (WSJ)

* Taliban expand economic team as Afghan crisis deepens (Reuters)

* A Harsh New Reality for Afghan Women and Girls in Taliban-Run Schools -- Afghanistan’s new government is likely to severely restrict education for girls and women despite the Taliban’s claims that schooling will eventually resume. (NYT)

* Taliban appoint hardline battlefield commanders to key Afghan posts (Reuters)

* Democrats’ once-sweeping policy agenda continues to shrink -- An overhaul of voting laws was blocked by Republicans. An effort to strike a bipartisan deal on police reforms has lost all momentum. A plan to provide a path to legal residency for millions of immigrants is now all but dead. (WP)

* The Supreme Court scheduled Dec. 1 arguments in a case that challenges abortion standards set in Roe v. Wade. The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case gives the court's conservative majority a chance to advance a GOP culture-war agenda item. [HuffPost] 

* Democrats to Pair Spending Bill With Raising Debt Ceiling, Pressuring G.O.P. -- The approach essentially dares Republicans to follow through on their threats to oppose increasing the debt limit, by coupling it with urgently needed federal spending. (NYT)

* Huge hack reveals embarrassing details of who’s behind Proud Boys and other far-right websites (WP)

* A lawyer representing Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg said he has "strong reason to believe" others will be arrested in the Manhattan district attorney's tax fraud case. Trump's company is also charged in what the DA calls "a sweeping and audacious" tax fraud scheme. [AP] 

* Google plans to buy office space in New York City for $2.1 billion (Reuters) 

* NASA looks to a future that includes flights to the moon and Mars as it reorganizes (WP)

 * At 107, These Japanese Sisters Are The World's Oldest Identical Twins (NPR)

* More Corporations Using Tag And Release Programs To Study American Consumers (The Onion)

Patterns in the News

An irony of being retired is that I finally have enough time to sort through the daily news in a thorough manner. I could never have done while employed, because I was always too busy.

Therefore it was difficult in the past to fully appreciate the larger patterns in the news. 

But now that I see the patterns more clearly. I'm sure many other ex-journalists are in the same position. Honestly, news outlets should hire us as "pattern consultants," so they could better position their limited reporting assets against the stories that will be making headlines next week, next month and beyond.

For example, probably one of the biggest moments for humanity, if not the news business, is just six weeks away, when global leaders gather in my mother's native country, Scotland, to once again try to forge a consensus on how to fight global climate change.

The leaders will both compete and cooperate at this gathering -- that's how global affairs are conducted in a capitalist system. Given the stakes, we should hope for a new monopoly to emerge, with all of the great powers agreeing on measures to stem climate change and repair the damage.

Even though it may be too late to avoid disaster, it's never too late to try and forge a united front.

***

Quietly, the Covid pandemic has reached the total number of estimated deaths in the great flu epidemic of 1918-19, which is 675,000.

We heard about that pandemic when we were growing up; our grandparents and parents had lived through it, although in my case none of them had arrived in this country yet.

A century after that one swept around the world, this one came. That one probably burned itself out eventually because it was much more difficult to cross geographic barriers and reach new pools of uninfected people than it is now.

By contrast Covid-19 remains a threat, because our world is much more interconnected now. No group of unvaccinated people are so remote that travelers cannot get to them.

Along with the virus.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* World leaders face furious push to act quickly on climate change -- The presidents and prime ministers gathering at the United Nations this week have six weeks to go until a crucial global climate summit in Scotland where they must join forces to slow the warming of the planet — something they have struggled to do in the past. (WP)

* Leaders arrive for General Assembly under shadow of pandemic (WP)

* Officials warned of increased fire danger in much of Northern California. The affected area includes portions of the Sacramento Valley and some of the Bay Area. (Sacramento Bee)

* The world’s largest tree, the General Sherman in Sequoia National Park, was spared direct fire damage as the KNP Complex blaze swept into the park’s beloved Giant Forest over the weekend, while voracious flames from the Windy Fire burned into other sequoia groves on Sierra Nevada slopes to the south (SFC) 

* COVID has killed about as many Americans as the 1918-19 flu (AP)

* Rich Countries Worry About Booster Shots. They Should Be Worried About Africa. (NYT)

* California has the lowest COVID rate in the nation. (SFC)

* A New Covid Testing Model Aims to Spare Students From Quarantine (NYT)

* U.S. to allow vaccinated international air travelers in November (Reuters)

* How Accounting Giants Craft Favorable Tax Rules From Inside Government -- Lawyers from top accounting firms do brief stints in the Treasury Department, with the expectation of big raises when they return. (NYT)

* A once-in-a-decade chance to overhaul health care gets personal for Democrats (WP)

* The weekend Washington rally to support pro-Trump insurrectionists was a spectacular flop, with fewer than 100 people vastly outnumbered by cops and reporters. Donald Trump Jr. took the opportunity to make fun of undercover officers. Some attendees said many stayed away, thinking the event was a trap. [HuffPost] 

* Half of all Americans experiencing homelessness live in California. (Cal Today)

* Beto O’Rourke Draws Closer to Entering Texas Governor’s Race (NYT)

* After California Recall, Democrats Fret Over Latino Vote (WSJ)

* Donald Trump sent a letter to the Georgia election official he tried to bully into declaring voter fraud, citing a new right-wing website report of — voter fraud! Meanwhile, don't miss this alarming article by Travis Waldron, who says Georgia's elected officials are accomplishing what the Capitol rioters could not: They're passing laws and changing rules to rig the system so Democrats can't win legitimate elections. This is what democracy looks like when it fails. [HuffPost]

* Alabama Begins Removing Racist Language From Its Constitution (NYT)

* Facebook, Google and Twitter are the new ‘oligarchy of speech’ (George F. Will/WP)

* Tech giants quietly buy up dozens of companies a year. The Biden administration is finally noticing. (WP)

* Permission to Dance? BTS sing their way through United Nations (Reuters)

* Rebel Afghan Valley Empties Out After Taliban Victory (WSJ)

* Archaeologists Discover Neolithic People Took Weekend Trips To Get Feel For North America Before Deciding To Migrate Across Land Bridge (The Onion)

***

"A Day in the Life"

by John Lennon & Paul McCartney

I read the news today, oh boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well, I just had to laugh
I saw the photograph

He blew his mind out in a car
He didn't notice that the lights had changed
A crowd of people stood and stared
They'd seen his face before
Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords

I saw a film today, oh boy
The English Army had just won the war
A crowd of people turned away
But I just had to look
Having read the book
I'd love to turn you on

Woke up, fell out of bed
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
And looking up, I noticed I was late
Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke
And somebody spoke and I went into a dream

I read the news today, oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall
I'd love to turn you on

A Life on a Shrinking Planet

The world's tallest population -- the Dutch -- seem to be getting shorter and scientists don't know why. These days it's tempting to connect every biological or meteorological abnormality to global climate change, but I'd resist doing that.

Otherwise we'd risk missing when positive things happen. Like the rains that visited the  parched Northwest this weekend, which was welcome news.

And the air quality in the Bay Area is terrific; the wildfires remain distant and the plumes of smoke are nowhere to be seen. The temperature is in the 70s. For one day we can be excused for not pondering the future of the planet.

But the only practical approach to the inevitability of climate change is to take what small steps we can individually, while figuring out how to devote a major collective effort toward mitigation and prevention.

There are over three trillion trees in the world, big and small, and not quite eight billion people, shrinking or not. We need to protect and grow more trees and we need to protect and grow more people.

Understanding the way trees communicate and sustain themselves may help us do a better job with the latter.

But trees are only one element. What about fish, flowers, clouds, water, soil, air, all of the flora and fauna surrounding us?

If I could set the curriculum for schools, ecology would be the main subject starting in kindergarten. I could even develop a reading list, since the principles of ecology are easy to grasp, even for a young child.

Human rights would be another key subject. How they are respected and how they are abused and what can be done to enhance the former and eliminate the latter.

If this all sounds hopelessly idealistic, which it may be, it also is precisely the kind of thinking we need to forge a future on this planet.

If survival is a worthy goal, let's begin acting like it. Humans evolved from small creatures; maybe we are seeing the beginning of a reversal of our evolution now. Maybe that's what's happening in Holland.

Instead of getting bigger, maybe we'll all start getting smaller. as we were in the distant past. Whether that is true or not, learning how to think smaller just might make a difference.

THE HEADLINES:

* The world’s tallest populace is shrinking, and scientists want to know why (WP)

* U.S. closes part of Texas border, begins flying Haitians home (AP)

* Child-care workers are quitting rapidly, a red flag for the economy -- Child-care employment is still down more than 126,000 positions as workers leave for higher-paying positions as bank tellers, administrative assistants and retail clerks. Parents are struggling to return to work as daycare and after school programs dwindle. (WP)

* The Scientist and the A.I.-Assisted, Remote-Control Killing Machine -- Israeli agents had wanted to kill Iran’s top nuclear scientist for years. Then they came up with a way to do it with no operatives present.  (NYT)

* The Reason You and Your Neighbor Make Different Covid-19 Risk Decisions (WSJ)

* Facebook says WSJ allegations are 'mischaracterizations,' confer 'false motives' (Reuters)

* Taliban-run Kabul municipality to female workers: Stay home (AP)

* Yellen faces test as climate advocates push for aggressive financial action (WP)

* VIDEO: Biden Urges World Leaders to Accelerate Action on Climate Crisis (NYT)

* Growing California wildfire spares group of giant sequoias (Reuters)

* As leaders reconvene at UN, climate and COVID top the list (AP)

* First all-amateur space crew splashes down in the Atlantic off Florida (WP)

* First Tied to ISIS, Then to U.S.: Family in Drone Strike Is Tarnished Twice (NYT)

* Greek PM says climate crisis is with us and cost of ignoring it 'unimaginable' (Reuters)

* Recall vote highlights California’s geopolitical divisions (AP)

* How an intelligence officer’s disappearance in Somalia has ripped the government apart this week (WP)

* In Orange County, the Recall’s Defeat Echoes Years of G.O.P. Erosion (NYT)

* Why I violated Texas’s extreme abortion ban (WP)

* Self-Esteem Built Up At Theater Camp To Get Shy Student Through First 6 Minutes Of School Year (The Onion)

***

Landslide"

by Stevie Nicks

I took my love, I took it down
I climbed a mountain and I turned around
And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills
'Til the landslide brought me down

Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changin' ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Well, I've been afraid of changin'
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I'm getting older too

Well, I've been afraid of changin'
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I'm getting older too
Oh! I'm getting older too

Oh-oh, take my love, take it down
Oh-oh, climb a mountain and you turn around
And if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills
Well, the landslide bring it down
And if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills
Well, the landslide bring it down
Oh-ohh, the landslide bring it down