Soaking up all the images and stories we've been given on TV and the internet, we can all pretty much agree that Afghanistan never made it out of the middle ages, right?
Wrong. If you though "hmm I guess so" then read on! If you didn't, good job...just read on anyway and enjoy my written thoughts.
Over the years the war in Afghanistan has become a staple of daily news worldwide. We all know how influential the news is and how many people it reaches. Many of us solely rely on the news for our knowledge about the issues in this world and don't bother with doing further research to broaden our knowledge and form our opinions. This is where many misunderstandings start.
Now I am no certified researcher about the conflicts in Afghanistan but I've always been curious about how people think and why they think a certain way. Why people believe what they hear accept it as the truth so quickly. With Afghanistan being such a confusing and complex topic area, I am sure that we all have our own views about what is happening there. That's fine because everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. But having a story told to you only through the news or through someone you know is not enough to make your opinion a complete and legitimate one. We should know that there is never one side to a story and that one should therefore not base their view on just that one side of the story. What I mean is that if you feel an interest in, say the political issues that are going on in Afghanistan it is best to look at it not only from an external point of view (Western media) but also from an internal point of view (people in Afghanistan/ Afghan media).
I have been approached by many people, including friends, with questions about what it is that's going on in Afghanistan and to be honest I personally don't like to answer those kinds of questions. The issues are highly controversial and I don't like to focus too much on all the negative information that is constantly rubbed in our face. Afghanistan is the victim of three decades of war and it isn't surprising anymore when we hear about a new issue. As good as it is to stay informed, I feel that if we show more interest in the bad news than the good news, more of "the bad" will continue to be put out there, truthful or untruthful, because that is what will keep us following these profit-driven entities such as news channels, news papers, and online news sites. I don't like to support them in that way.
So now you are surely thinking that I don't care about the terrible things going on in Afghanistan.
Wrong. If you though "yup guess so" read on. If you didn't, good job...you too read on and enjoy the rest of my thoughts.
I am certain that most of us care about all the awful and heart-breaking things we hear about Afghan women, the kids, about families who lost loved ones, the schools, and the unsafe streets. A lot of us have therefore made it our job to do something about it. In fact, there is a whole new generation of Afghans who grew up outside of Afghanistan and are now giving back with solid contributions to the betterment of the country in many ways. I am not going to elaborate on that, as that's a whole other topic of interest but it makes me beyond happy when I hear of someone who is actively involved in the "betterment" of Afghanistan and I believe that you don't need to be overly involved with the politics and all the negativity that comes with it, to be able to make a difference.
As I will always say, I like to focus on the positive because there are indeed enough people doing the opposite and we need a balance of what kind of information is always out there. When I was in Afghanistan last year, I saw and enjoyed so much of the beauty that our country has that I had started to question why I'd never seen this kind of thing on TV and what a pity it is that most of us will never get a chance to discover the true beauty that Afghanistan has the potential to be and what a greater pity it is that we, the babies of the war time, never got to see what beauty Afghanistan was before the war.
The reason I feel compelled to share what I and many others have seen is because I encountered many people last year who tried to convince me not to go, because it would be far "too dangerous". People were asking me questions like "so WHAT are you going to be living in? a tent?" and "what will you be eating?" with facial expressions that I can't describe right now. People have associated Afghanistan with conflict, war, terrorism, bloodshed, and a place absolutely not suitable to live in. Now I'm not saying Afghanistan is heaven on earth but it is not as bad as people make it seem and believe it is.
It's time people see what this country and culture is really about, other than the few stereotypical things that everyone knows about Afghanistan.
Thanks for reading this post, til next time!
Love & Peace
-Omayhra
