Afghanistan’s recent past and actual present are fraught with death and destruction, inequality, and crime against girls and women, alas. But there is more to the whole than just that.
There are several reasons that I today treat this subject in some depth here, instead of posting somewhere else online:
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- Afghanistan not only through the past two decades was a platform for international power games.
- Since at least the 18th century British interests made it the region considered the ‘gateway to India’.
- Its geographic coordinates as well have made it a starting point and turnstile for almost any of the global powers of the last 200-300 years: Russia, England, France and the US.
- For over 40 years, ever since I can remember starting to watch news and understanding them, Afghanistan has seen civil war, fostered by all those powers, sometimes at the same time, sometimes in turns, to make sure they kept influence and – power.
- Natural resources around it as well are part of the overall interests and ‘games’ being played.
To try and live in Afghanistan is a challenge at least, and these days probably much more a daring enterprise for anyone concerned about a civil life
(Link above: World Happiness Report 2019, UN).
The influences and interests I mentioned are emulated by internal groups and traditional tribe systems that force farmers in some regions to a crop of drugs instead of livestock and agricultural harvest.
International politics have created – literally and figuratively – burned earth in many parts of this globe, be that in South America, Africa or Asia.
Almost none of the countries has been a stage of so much cruelty and death over such a long time, as Afghanistan has been.
Imperialistic politics over the centuries have a lot to answer for.
Making peace is a sometimes challenging task, not to say awe-inspiring. But it is worth it, any time and every time.
Note: As a German born and bred I have been raised to high education and a ‘social and political conscience’. Spreading knowledge and wisdom about such matters is my way of fulfilling this sense of responsibility. Recent German history of the past 100 years is fraught with some dreadful events. This sense of responsibility stems from there.
Exemplary links to start from for more in-depth information:
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- Rudyard Kipling‘s story The Man Who Would be King (Wikipedia reference)
- Power games: The Emirate of Afghanistan (Wikipedia reference)
