Afghanistan is, without a doubt, still a country in evolution. It’s history is tightly tied to it’s people groups and language, found in history books when discussing the Indus river civilizations, Indian and Chinese influence, and travelers such as Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, and Alexander the Great (this is the land of Bactria). The nation represented by it’s current borders has long been the travelers paradise, until decades of superpower involvement and local fighting has made this place, to say the least, very difficult and dangerous.
Coming here was a well thought out plan, and to be honest, not incredible original, either. Many travelers cross at Termez, Uzbekistan, in order to go to Mazar-i-Sharif, considered the official start of the Pamir Highway, and importantly, still a relatively stable and safe haven in a nation of uncertainty. Another peaceful option included the Wakhan Valley near Khorog, Tajikistan (something I came very close to doing, but figured Mazar would be a bit more of a story. If I did it again, I’d do the Wakhan versus Mazar any day). I’m not trying to sound dramatic, but it should be noted that although Mazar-i-Sharif is still a peaceful and safe town, this nation is still incredibly dangerous, and travelers here need to be very street smart. But anyway, about my visit.
I arrived in the evening, and already mentioned how impressed I was regarding the vibrant and busy night life of this town. Though dirty, people were walking around, eating, laughing, there was music, etc. My hotel was…fine… and I actually had a very good nights sleep, as it was the first king sized bed I’ve slept in for a while.
The next morning, my itinerary was centered around seeing the Blue Mosque/Shrine. Without a doubt, it was fabulous. After removing your shoes, you enter in a massive, tiled courtyard. The arabic architecture and inscriptions that one imagines from every Aladdin-esque fairly tale were present, all in a fabulous blue design. People were sitting and chatting in the shady areas. Men are dressed in their long long sleeved shirts and trousers (best compared to the Saudi “thobe”, and almost always, a vest. Women were wearing gorgeous white or blue abayas/burkhas. Everybody was very friendly and would say hello (men and women), and I had a ton of requests to take pictures of people. IF anybody knew english, they would run over and practice speaking with me. I spent quite a lot of time there, and met a few interesting people.
Of note, I met a group of 18/19 year old guys wanting to practice english. We chatted and joked around for a while. I asked questions about the Shrine, etc. Then they wanted to show me a place within the complex that well, had a ton of white pigeons. We were joined by one guy’s older brother, and his friend, who spoke good english and happens to work at a fairly good security level for a certain nations' embassy. After partially faking my interest in the flock of pigeons, they wanted to go to Karaoke. Hmm. Okkk. Maybe.
Luckily, the Karaoke bar they had in mind was basically underneath my hotel. So we went downstairs, and had a bunch of tea, they smoked Hookah, and there was music blasting at decibels not designed for the human ear to handle. They danced (and had me “dance”, too), and here I had some decent conversations with the english speaking guy, and a few of the other guys joined in as well when they could understand, or when translation was convenient by my new friend.
I knew that this was a bit of a rare opportunity, and I wanted to ask the right questions in this moment. So I first asked “what do Afghanis really think of Americans and America”. And then “How would you compare Afghanistan 10 years ago, to the Afghanistan today”. They had no problem answering each, and of course we talked fro awhile, but I’ll give just the basic summary.
There are two basic, and parallel, opinions that are shared by most Afghanis. The first regards the American public. Luckily, we are viewed as a very kind and agreeable population. We are seen as smart, driven, and very compassionate people who like to help. I was admittedly surprised by the percentage of positivity in this answer, I pushed him to be honest, and he was pretty sincere. Americans are well liked. The second is regarding the American government and military. They opinion is that our government does not, in fact, want peace in this country. We are viewed as war hungry, and sustainers of conflict, so that our interest are served in an one region. Oil in Iraq. Political prowess and good military base locations in Afghanistan, etc. He mentioned to me that the American military is “two faced”. They will offer to help with on hand, and pul you down with the other.
Regarding my second question, the answer was simple, and I wrote it down:
“Afghanistan is worse today than ten years ago. Ten years ago the Taliban wanted to control the government and run the country. They wanted nothing to do with villages and normal people. [America] came, and now they changed their strategy. They can not take the government, so they started fighting with the villages and the normal people. Ten years ago there was not too much fighting. Today, there is fighting everywhere, and it is dangerous. It is dangerous for you. Only in Mazar you are safe. If you were in Kunduz or Kabul, they would see you, take you, and cut off your head. You should be careful here, you are a VIP now.”
To the people of Afghanistan, I’m not here to agree or disagree, I’m just gathering information with some (admittedly prying) questions. To people reading, I’m not -at all- a well informed political journalist. I don’t have the facts to back up various view points, and as I’ve stated before, as much as I pretend to be, geopolitics are incredibly complex and I won’t pretend to be an authority on it.
However, I’ve talked about the importance of how nations view each other before. And a few things strike me here, things that I can only assume those reading already have thought about.
Firstly, there is a lens with which we are presented information form abroad. Our media puts a spin on things. It’s to sell information, it’s to sell air-time, it’s to be interesting, and perhaps lastly, it’s to give us up-to-date information on what’s happening in the world. Now, I’m trying to be careful as I write this. I know journalists risk their lives to be in dangerous situations, to bring us information that is needed. Also, I’m fully aware that nothing I’m writing is novel or unheard of. At this point, this is all likely old news. But it has become forefront in my mind that when the US is involved somewhere, like Afghanistan, things may not be going as we are told.
Secondly, the fact that there is a well perceived difference between American public versus government, highlights the fact that there IS a big difference between our public and our government. Many Americans, whether realizing it or not, marry those two groups together very tightly. Now, ideally, they would be similar institutions, as we are supposedly well represented in our government, but as this current election in America has highlighted, the “establishment” has started to run away from what the American people are. The fact that this is common knowledge abroad should remind you that this is the stark reality, and some Americans are seemingly the last ones to realize it.
I could go a few different directions at this point. I’ve drawn the point that our international involvement both misrepresented in the media, as well as misrepresenting the American public, and maybe even values. Again, to those who are likely reading this, it’s old news. To those who need to know that, you probably aren’t reading the, which maybe represents a separate fundamental issue. Although I’m flirting the line of jumping into the topic, I will refrain from bringing up the current American election, and who may or may not be a solution to any of this. Although the reality is, geopolitics are super complex, and a changing of our presidential guard may not make a difference at all.
I’m not entirely sure how to continue, but I hope I sparked some thoughts. I hope by reading some of these conversations I have, that you can start to have your own conversations. To the issue at hand, I think it’s fundamentally important for us to be more informed about our world, it’s politics, and how it all relates. Use more than one news source. Talk about it with people, discuss. I think it’s vital to our success as a human population to be givers to society, rather than only takers.
The VIP bit sparked that inner 6th travel sense that I’ve developed. I take risks when traveling, and am not overtly paranoid, but when the inner sense kicks in, it’s time to listen. I’ll be delicate in saying this, but, I trusted these guys in a way, and had an OK gut feeling about them as individuals. But when I was asked how long I was staying in town (in the hotel above me), I kindly said just a few days. I said I wanted to go upstairs to have a rest, and we said our goodbyes and “maybe see you laters”. I went upstairs, packed up my things, and left the country.
-BK