These people are not stupid

This latest Rob Bell book that I finished had a lot of things to say, but as I was reading it on a plane on my way to Dubai, one thing stood out in the middle of one of the chapters. Rob threw out a statement about people – sort of a universal idea – that we are all members of the same tribe, all in the same boat, all on our way to some different or greater future. He was talking about heaven and hell, but when I was waiting for my plane to fly out to Kabul, I was looking all around and seeing a huge variety of people. I was seeing all the differences, but somehow feeling a kinship to each of them. We were all headed to the same place.

Since I’ve been here, I’ve heard a lot of opinions about the locals. I’m working in a section of four desks with low cubicle walls between them, and two of the four desks are manned by Afghanis who have worked for my company for several years now. They drive an hour each way to work, through Kabul.

They speak Persian, these two. One has a tattoo on his arm, right where I have a tattoo as well. His tattoo is Dari for his name. Mine is a large cross. I was asking him whether or not my mark was offensive to him and his religious beliefs. He laughed and said that it wasn’t, but he was happy that I would ask. The other Afghan is studying to get his bachelor’s in Business. Both of these guys are making something of themselves.

I look at them, and I see the obvious truth – that the Afghan people have as much potential as I do. They are people. We are in the same tribe and in the same boat – on our way to something different or greater. I have a lot of hope for the people here in this country. My company is helping to train people to be the best police force that they can be here in a third-world country. I’m optimistic that somewhere down the line, the Afghan National Police may be all that it needs  to be.

But that’s not the story that I get from most of the guys that we hear from about the locals. The tame end of the opinions just talk about the Afghans as stupid – that they don’t think as well as we do. They walk out into traffic without looking. They have no moral compass, working as police during the day, but placing IED’s along the road at night for the Taliban. No loyalty. No honor. This group of people is just dumb.

Those are the conservative judgements. Other contractors, who have been on the job for years now, actively signing contracts to fulfill a mission to teach these people modern law enforcement techniques, talk about the Afghans with much less respect. There have been things said about the natives that I would not repeat to anyone else – embarrassing things. These are the kind of rumors that, even if they are true, are not worth repeating.

I stop listening after a while. I know that the truth of the world is that there are a lot of people in it that are different than me. There are a lot of people in this world outside the US that do things that would make your jaw drop to the floor. I don’t deny it. If the rumors are true about the Afghani people, then there are issues here with the sexual exploitation of women and children. There are religious laws that require brutal and swift punishments with uneven effects for men compared to women. There is forced labor for kids, and people are often sold into slavery – exported to Dubai to work for the super rich. Copyright law is a joke here, and most of the movies that you find at the bazaar each week are pirated copies.

I will grant all of this, but as I heard all of those allegations, I couldn’t help but think, “We are converting them to Americans!” One quick swing through the internet will show you all of these transgressions and worse, right inside our own borders.

Now, I don’t have the experience these cops have in spending time with the people. But what I do know is this – Afghanistan ain’t the nicest neighborhood in the world. In fact, the history of this place is one long string of war, invasion, and subservience to dominating world powers. I’m not talking about the United States or United Nations. I’m not even talking about the Taliban or even the Soviet Union.

Afghanistan is the crossroads of Asia, and Kabul is right on the busiest trade route between Asia and southern Europe. For over two millennia, this area has been the stomping grounds of the world’s most dominating military forces. In 700 A.D., Alexander the Great bludgeoned his way through the valley, building castles that stand to this day. 700 years later, Genghis Khan brought his own brand of conquering, killing as many people as he could, and bringing his own ethnic tribe to the area, seeking to breed the Afghans out of existence. They weren’t called Afghans then, but it wasn’t too much longer after the Khan’s dominance faded,  that the British established a presence here. India, which included Pakistan at the time, needed a definite border with Afghanistan, and it was the British who determined what it would be. 25 years after that, the Soviets, who had been friends of the region, invaded to prevent the spread of Marxism in the country. That invasion was a ten-year debacle of scorched earth warfare that left the Soviets with nothing to show for 10 years of war, and left the Afghans with little more than a valley of dust.

The Taliban instituted that strict, conservative Islamic law that is the thing of legend and TV news report. When they stood their ground and didn’t give up Osama, the US took it’s turn as invader.

Can anyone in the United States who has not immigrated from another country, say that they in any way understand the Afghan people? How in the world could we make a judgement about what this people group should or should not do? We don’t know what life is like after 2,000 years of oppression, poverty and an outright struggle for survival. We in the United States know 200 years. We know 200 years of relative super-prosperity. Our actions, decisions, abilities and resources are based in the experience of having nearly everything we want.

Here in Kabul, people live in mud-walled huts. They struggle to find enough food to feed their families. There is not enough water to go around and no dependable city systems for things like sewage, water or electricity. A policeman makes $120 per month. The life expectancy of the population is decades less than that of the US. In the winter, the air is thick with some of the worst pollution on the planet because the people burn anything they can to stay warm in the high mountain winter. They burn tires and other plastic products, which give off a toxic smoke that is killing the people who are using it to keep warm.

These are a whole bunch of facts that come together for me like this: in the US we understand a few things. As the best educated and wealthiest people on the planet, we understand that before a person can start to address their inner desire to become all that they possibly can become, they need to work on a few lower-level needs. Like food. Shelter. They need to have a feeling inside that says they are safe. We here in the US have got those needs covered – in spades. We’ve got houses built to exacting and super-safe codes, and in those houses we’ve got pantries full of food and on the street outside, the best law enforcement that exists in the world. We’re safe. We’re smart and we are able to reach out to others to help.

The people of Afghanistan don’t have these things. They fight for survival – which is not just the lyrics to a Journey song. They literally wake up in the morning with a mindset that is focussed on staying alive. How many times did you wake up this last week with the thought, “I’m going to stay alive today, no matter what it takes!”

Again, I don’t have the firsthand experience with the people in Kandahar or in the other parts of the country, but I’m going to just say that the people here have every ability that I have, but they never get to the level that I am on because they just can’t. There are too many needs that they have to worry about before they can even think about the things I am thinking about on a minute-by-minute basis. The people here are not less than human and they are not less than us – they are just the end product of 2000 years of tyranny and being in the wrong place. All. The. Time.

I had to write all this stuff down, and even though sometimes I want to scream that Gahfoor just can’t learn to create queries in Access, I quietly remind myself that he has to drive his car through areas that are still bristling with landmines. I’m going to do two things as I consciously choose not to judge him – one, give him the benefit of the doubt, and two, cut him a huge amount of slack.

And if you agree – post this as your Facebook status.

That was a joke I made up. The rest of this was pretty serious, huh?