Something Funny

18January2012

I was talking to the atmospheric guys about some good news in the province.  One of the smaller villages came to the interim provincial governor complaining about a neighboring village who comes over and plants ieds in their village.  They said if they want to plant ieds, they can plant them in their own village; and, if the government doesn’t take care of it, they would shoot the criminals on site.  They also said they didn’t want the Germans to be killed because they do not want to kill the Afghans and that they are helping to rebuild the province. 

The American Afghan in atmospherics (who we joke is a Canadian) is helping me meet with two of the areas most important and influential women.  I told him that the Dutch social scientists are interested in meeting them because they would like more women to join the police.  He said it would be easy, just offer a $5,000 signing bonus and there would be more women than men in a very short time!  In fact, fathers would be saying—really she is 18 years old about their 12 year old daughters.  A lot of girls would join as a way to provide for their families and so that they wouldn’t have to be married to some old ogre.  Anyway, it was funny the way he joked about it—sad too.  I was also told about a few local girls who committed suicide nearby because their parents were marrying them off to some horrible old man.  I said I would probably commit suicide too if that happened to me.  Actually, I think if I had the same dad as I do now and lived in this society, he would have tried to sell me off to whomever without regard to my thoughts or feelings.  Probably to some dorky old man---yuck.  I think I would try to run away first of all and then kill myself.

Nearby here, there is a place where two young people were stoned to death.  It was on the news apparently.  The interpreters told me a story about this young couple had fallen in love.  The girls family did not want her to be with this boy.  So, they ran away to Baghram.  Someone found them there and tricked them.  They said if they came home they could get married and everything would be okay.  However, as soon as they got back, they were taken to a pit and stoned to death.  I need to follow-up on the rest of the story, but some of the things here are terrible.  Some are good.  The lesson is that if we allow our society to become poor and ignorant, these are the same things that can happen to us.  No one is really safe. 

I met a civil affairs officer who is working on creating media to reinforce a sense of identity for Afghans and I told him about the Shah Nameh and how many of their heroes are from Afghanistan—their epic hero, Rostam, was born in Zabol.  There are many iconic images they could use to influence society.  He is thinking about creating radio plays and is interested in me possibly being a consultant.  He said Americans are great at myth making and he wished that Afghans were a little better at it.  We will see.