Dear Friend,
What will be the fate of Afghans, now that Taliban has taken over the country?
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Binu Mathew
Editor
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The Taliban take Kabul
by Dr Binoy Kampmark
It unfolded as a story of fleeing. The Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, taking flight to Tajikistan, giving little clue of his intentions to colleagues. The fleeing of the infamous Abdul Rashid Dostum, a warlord assured to fight another day. The fleeing of tens of thousands of residents out of the city of Kabul, long
seen as beyond the reach of insurgents. The fleeing of Coalition embassy personnel, aided by freshly deployed troops from the United States and the UK sent into Afghanistan as a matter of urgency. The Taliban had taken Kabul.
It unfolded as a story of fleeing. The Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, taking flight to Tajikistan, giving little clue of his intentions to colleagues. The fleeing of the infamous Abdul Rashid Dostum, a warlord assured to fight another day. The fleeing of tens of thousands of residents out of the city of Kabul, long seen as beyond the reach of insurgents. The fleeing of Coalition embassy personnel, aided by freshly deployed troops from the United States and the UK sent into Afghanistan as a matter of urgency. The Taliban had taken Kabul.
In departing and leaving stranded colleagues to their fate, the bookish Ghani, preferring pen to gun, had time to leave a message on Facebook. One could never accuse the man of having wells of courage. He reflected on either facing armed Taliban fighters or leaving his beloved country. In order to avoid immolating Kabul, which “would have been a big human disaster”, he chose a hasty exit.
Only a few days prior, on August 11, Ghani had flown to Mazar-i-Sharif, in the company of the blood lusty Uzbek Dostum, supposedly to hold the fort against the Taliban with another warlord, the ethnic Tajik Atta Muhammad Noor. Noor had pledged in June to mobilise the citizenry of Balkh province to fight the Taliban. “God forbid, the fall of Balkh,” he declared at the time, “means the fall of the north and the fall of the north means the fall of Afghanistan.”
This was not a move greeted with universal joy. Habib-ur-Rahman of the leadership council of the political and paramilitary group Hizb-e-Islami saw a bit of self-aggrandizing at work, hardly remarkable for a warlord keen to oversee his bit of real estate. “The mobilisation of the people by politicians under the pretext of supporting security forces – with the use of public uprising forces – fuels the war from one side and from the other it affects Afghanistan’s stance in foreign policy.”
The shoring up mission led by Ghani would do little to conceal the historical differences between Noor and Dostum. The former had done battle with Dostum’s troops during the latter’s time as a regional commander in the ailing Soviet-backed Afghan government. Dostum’s defection from the government (one spots the common theme) in 1992 to form the Junbish-e-Milli party presented Noor with a chance to join forces. But the Tajik left Dostum in 1993 citing irreconcilable ideological differences. With the initial defeat of the Taliban, Noor triumphed in several military encounters with the frustrated Uzbek, seizing the Balkh province in its entirety.
The accord reached between the parties on this occasion certainly did not involve agreeing to fight the Taliban. Both had come to the conclusion that scurrying to Uzbekistan was a sounder proposition. Noor subsequently justified the measure by claiming enigmatically that, “They had orchestrated the plot to trap Marshal Dostum and myself too, but they didn’t succeed.” Ghani would soon follow.
Members of Ghani’s imploding government have not taken kindly to the flight of their leader. “Curse Ghani and his gang,” wrote acting defence minister, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi. “They tied our hands from behind and sold the country.”
The head of the High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah also released a video withering in announcing that, “The former president of Afghanistan” had “left the country in this difficult situation.” God, he suggested, “should hold him accountable.” Abdullah, along with former President Harmid Karzai and Hizb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, are currently in negotiations with the Taliban over the formal transfer of power.
The US and UK have deployed personnel in a hurried panic. Over the weekend, President Joe Biden, in announcing the deployment of 5,000 troops, told the press that they would ensure “we can have an orderly and safe drawdown of US personnel and other allied personnel, and an orderly and safe evacuation of Afghans who helped our troops during our mission and those at special risk from the Taliban advance.” Another thousand have also been added to the complement.
There was much embarrassment in all of this. The US and its allies made the fundamental error that training, money and expertise would somehow miraculously guarantee the stability, continuity and reliability of a ramshackle regime. Biden, in coming up with his own phraseology, had stated that a Taliban victory was “not inevitable”. In July, we were given a nugget of Bidenese that, while he had little trust for the Taliban, he did “trust the capacity of the Afghan military, who is better trained, better equipped, and more re- – more competent in terms of conducting war.”
As the Taliban was securing the capital, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken parried evident parallels with the US withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975. “This is manifestly not Saigon,” he said with little conviction.
Now, the scene was one of grave, turbaned and bearded men, armed to the teeth, overseeing the desk which Ghani previously occupied in the presidential palace. They had survived and outwitted an army better armed and supposedly better trained. They had survived airstrikes launched from within the country and from bases in the Persian Gulf and Central Asia, via heavy bombers and lethal drones. They had survived the forces of the US, NATO and rival militias.
They now find themselves in control of an entity they wish to be recognised as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. History has come in its full violent circle. A group of insurgents dismissed as fundamentalist mountain savages who would be vanquished before the modernising incentives of the West have shown up, as previous Afghan fighters have, the futility and sheer folly of meddling in their country’s affairs.
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com
Cry, the Beloved Humanity
by Mitali Chakravarty
As I watched the Taliban drive through villages of Afghanistan on TV, there were glimpses of women in burqas who sat on the ground, seemingly breaking bread with others. Were there children too? Children who should have been in school? What will happen to all the girls? Will they have the privilege of an education?
Some countries are in shambles.
Some countries are in a wreck — war torn, poverty-ridden, divided deeply from the world where such expressions are only hyperboles and not a reality. The major war in these fortunate parts of the world currently is mainly with the pandemic. These nations still have the bandwidth to explore how to make more money and flourish. When can flying be resumed? Tours? Holidays? Historically as we evolved, humans set limits. We mapped borders that cannot be transcended, having drawn them ourselves – boundaries of ‘isms’ – which disallow us from reaching out a helping hand to our neighbours in distress. As humans, how long will we keep absolving ourselves of responsibility for ignoring the pain faced by members of our own species?
In a humorous film called Baby’s Day Out (1994), a gorilla took charge of a human child and saved him from villainous men. Today, as some countries cry out in pain, we see the suffering of our own species and yet sit quietly waiting for the others to act. One month ago, a young Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist, Danish Siddiqui, died shooting a clash between Pakistan, Afghan security forces and the Taliban. One month after his death — that seems a lifetime away– we watch the Taliban take over. What did the death do? What could Reuters do? Was Siddiqui a victim of his own choices or of circumstances? He said: “I shoot for the common man…” But do all common men want to know, know of the pain and the suffering? How does it help? What does it do for them? Does it mobilize help for the victims? Does it create an awareness of suffering and make us kinder, more considerate as a species?
Thirty years ago, I left journalism because we were taught “good news is no news”. I have always wondered if this is the favourite dictum of much of the media? Artistes like Goutam Ghose, who made the film, Moner Manush (2010) on a Sufi based baul in response to Ayodhya Babri Masjid rioting, conquer the violence of hate with the truth of love. Leaving behind the facade of hunting for truths, Ghose has embraced the best of truths and presented them to people as did the man on whose life he made the film, Lalon Fakir (1774-1890). Lalon himself was a Hindu who was abandoned when he was sick during a pilgrimage and healed back to health by a Muslim family. When he returned to his village, he was thrown out as he was said to have lost his caste. He went away and found his own home at the edge of a forest with mystics. And when anyone enquired about his caste or religion, he said, “I am a human.” An uneducated man who could not read and write, his work was taken up by the Tagore family and some of it has found its way to us in rustic Bengali of the nineteenth century and has been subsequently translated and studied. Lalon moved people with the truth of his lyrics on love and the oneness of humankind.
Will we have people like that among the groups who sit in the Taliban laced territories? Will they be allowed to survive? The statues of the Bamian Buddha were destroyed in 2001. Will art and heritage have a chance at survival?
As I watched the Taliban drive through villages of Afghanistan on TV, there were glimpses of women in burqas who sat on the ground, seemingly breaking bread with others. Were there children too? Children who should have been in school? What will happen to all the girls? Will they have the privilege of an education? As infrastructures are built, will they include schools for all children — boys and girls? As the wave of American protection recedes and the Taliban takes over, I am wondering is he the voice of the real people — people who have not lived in cities but in villages, without the benefits of Western education and thought? How many of them support him?
On the other hand, I see Myanmar, where people are protesting the military coup. We as humans watch, watch them — with drops of humaneness dripping from an ocean of acceptance of atrocities. Can we rise together like a tsunami to help mankind in need?
I feel sad when I see countries fight. I weep when I see homes destroyed in natural calamities or wars. Where will all these people go? The images embedded in the psyche paint stark fears in my heart. I still remember the unbelievable horror of 9/11 as I saw the aircrafts hit the twin towers while listening to the news. That was many years ago…Now, I am visibly shaken to see developments that seem to head the world for times that have regressed in the history of humaneness but progressed in technological advances. Are these all for real? What could be a way to tackle this? Why did village after village let the Taliban take over? The CNN aptly said in the TV news that the army “melted away”. All this is happening within the part of the world I live in.
I live in a tiny island, nurtured, cared for, with healthcare facilities… away from where I was born. Like Odysseus, I have travelled, travelled to find a place where I can have an uninterrupted life and a place of peace, I call my home. I do not face struggles experienced by people in Afghanistan, Mayanmar, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Thailand or in the Middle East or Africa or the Americas.
Sitting here, I dream of a world where we do not have borders, where people help people, where kindness exists, where ‘isms’ do not drive out the urge for helping others, where humanity stands united, and poverty can be alleviated over time. Remember that was said by Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee — a reallocation of resources can solve the problem of hunger. That was another time, another place. As I see the suffering around me in all these countries defined well by boundaries, I see a part of the world that moves forward in time towards a future we can dream of and, across a schism that seems to deepen, I see people struggle, struggle to survive. The international community watched as the Rohingyas continue to lack of a home, the Taliban took over, Myanmar protests a regime without respite. None of them have the luxury of the life I lead. Do they sleep hungry? Do their children live out their dreams? What are their dreams?
In a world where, mankind emerged out of a single continent and spread all over, I can only be aware of the suffering of others. I do not even pretend to understand their plight. But, reading of and watching these issues on the news, I wonder if we need to change, change the foundations of our ideas, ideologies, pedagogies, governance, trade, education, and way of life to find inclusivity and consonance for all our species. Writers and thinkers have often tried suggesting it. Most call such visualisations utopias. But without dreams or visions, would we have moved out of caves and progressed enough to build space stations?
When I read, I often notice what reduces human interactions are extreme ease and luxury which creates islands of consumerist lotus-eaters — as can be seen among the Spacer community in Asimov’s Robot series set in the future. Spacers were originally people from Earth who populated other planets to create their own lifestyle and went into denial of their planet of origin. They were so obsessed with their divisions and revulsions that they lived away from each other and used the convenience of robots to do all their work. They avoided human interactions. Asimov in Robots and the Empire (1985) observed: “They (The robots) lessen the dependence of people upon people. The fitted interstices between. They were the insulation that diminished the natural attraction people have for each other, so that the whole system fell apart into isolates.”
Humans created distances between themselves by using the conveniences given by robots, to lead a privileged existence. They removed themselves from the needs of their neighbours and finally were endangered as their population thinned out over the vastness of a myriad of planets. If we replace the planets with countries, can we draw a parallel?
Tagore (1861-1941) had identified the problem for us in an essay he wrote in 1917, more than a century ago: “The problem is whether the different groups of peoples shall go on fighting with one another or find out some true basis of reconciliation and mutual help; whether it will be interminable competition or cooperation.” This was said in the context of nationalism in India and partly in America. But it holds for the whole world in the present context. The maestro continues to reflect in the same essay: “The whole world is becoming one country through scientific facility. And the moment is arriving when you also must find a basis of unity which is not political…There is only one history — the history of man.”
Will we all be a part of that ‘one history’?
Mitali Chakravarty likes to waft among clouds in quest of a world drenched in love and harmony and in that spirit runs the Borderless Journal.
Ireland And The Wabanaki
by Hugh J Curran
The parallels between Ireland and the Wabanaki of Maine and the Maritimes is compelling. The English settlers who came into America devastated Native populations, not only by militarism, but as the result of widespread
infections brought about by diseases such as measles, typhus, TB and smallpox resulting in a 90% mortality rate.
The first colonial settlers arrived in New England at about the same time as they arrived in Ireland. These settler-colonialists (planters) expropriated a half-million acres of arable land under the conviction that Ireland needed to be anglicized, civilized and controlled. In doing this the English colonists began a century of conflict as they attempted to supplant the Indigenous Gaelic inhabitants.
Four decades later the infamous Oliver Cromwell invaded with an army and confiscated large swathes of territory for his soldiers and supporters. An estimated 40% of the Irish population died from famine and disease brought on by war, (600,000 out of 1.4 million, according to a 17th century English economist). Fifty thousand were sent to the West Indies as indentured servants, while the majority of Irish farmers became tenants at will under Anglo-Irish land-owners.
The devastation of war throughout the 17th century ended with William of Orange’s defeat of King James at the Battle of the Boyne resulting in 90% of Irish land being appropriated and this state of affairs continued for 250 years until Ireland gained Independence in 1922.. This disestablishment of indigenous people from their land and culture became a pattern repeated in North America, Australia, and New Zealand, all of it supposedly justified by the “Doctrine of Discovery”, which made it a presumption of rights of sovereignty over “discovered” lands.
Maria Edgeworth’s book “Castle Rackrent”, written in the early1800s, revealed the stark acquisitive nature of an Anglo-Irish culture built on wealth disparities. The poet: WB Yeats considered the book: one of the most inspired chronicles written in English”.
The parallels between Ireland and the Wabanaki of Maine and the Maritimes is compelling. The English settlers who came into America devastated Native populations, not only by militarism, but as the result of widespread infections brought about by diseases such as measles, typhus, TB and smallpox resulting in a 90% mortality rate. Jared Diamond, in Guns, Germs, Steel, noted that such diseases were first brought by explorers in the 1500s, then spread throughout the continent. The causes were a lack of large domestic animals which helped provide immunity in Europe. A researcher noted that: Contrary to popular belief, it was not the European guns or soldiers that conquered Native Americans, but instead it was the epidemics diseases brought from the Old World by the Europeans…diseases such as smallpox, measles, and typhus annihilated most of the American native populations [ˇ [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1483570/]
Despite these destructive diseases the strength and resilience of the Wabanaki to survive are highly admirable. They continue to show their long-held concern for the environment, which in the past, fostered a sacred trust that helped protect the waterways and coastal regions for thousands of years.
Over the last few centuries the Wabanaki, as well as other Indigenous tribes, have seen the diminishment of Indigenous Rights as a result of the Doctrine of Discovery which was adopted in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The 1980 Indian Land Claims Settlement Act exemplified this tendency by extinguishing all aboriginal title to Wabanaki land in exchange for a monetary settlement. As stated in a BDN editorial in Feb. 2020: “…the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act means that tribes in Maine are treated differently and have different rights than all the other tribes in the United States. In Maine, the tribes are essentially treated as municipalities …They have far less autonomy over issues, such as gaming, criminal justice and taxation, than other federally recognized tribes in the US.”
Negative attitudes. rooted in old prejudices, are deeply embedded and they continue to effect policies relating to Native Americans. Prior to WWII Scientific racism and white supremacist mythology were popularized by such writers as the eugenicist Madison Grant. His book: “The Passing of the Great Race” was based on a long-held fiction that the “Nordics” (North & West Europeans) possessed inherent superiority over others and that “inferior races” should be rejected while “undesirables” must be sterilized. Modern genetic studies has debunked these beliefs, showing that all humans have similar intellectual capacities, and given the right circumstances, are able to attain equal levels of success.
White Americans continue to exercise control over the forests and rivers, lakes and mountains of Maine but it is now high time for residents of Maine to practice co-existence with Wabanaki people in what is historically Wabanaki territory, and to do this in a spirit of cooperation rather than of competition, and reciprocity rather than relationships based on power and dominance.
Recently the Maine legislature has considered a new legislative bill LD1626 which could potentially return the right of sovereignty to the Wabanaki, but it has been tabled. More than a decade ago the Maine Legislature issued a joint resolution concerning the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: “Indigenous peoples have the right to own, use, develop, and control the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well as those which they have otherwise acquired.” This would go a long way to overcoming the pernicious effects of the Doctrine of Discovery, which still seems to be embedded in the collective consciousness of many people. Passing this Bill will provide an opportunity to help atone for past wrongs.
Hugh J. Curran teaches in Peace and Reconciliation Studies at the University of Maine in Orono, Maine and was born in Killybegs, Donegal, Ireland.
What? A World Boycott of US Products Until US Stops Its Embargo of Cuba and Leaves Guantanamo?
by Jay Janson
If no other agency sees fit to call for an international boycott of American products in sympathy with the US caused suffering of the Cuban people, may heaven see the Cuban government itself call for such a boycott of US products.
On The Question Of Political Independence –Part 2
by DV Rao
As India celebrates the Amrut Mahotsav (75 years) of its independence, the questions still remain why India still lags behind, why imperialists still have a say in running the country.
Farmers Protest On Independence Day
by Harsh Thakor
On August 15th Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) celebrated the Farmer Labor Mukti-Sangharsh Day at 40 places with three big gatherings in hundreds of villages and cities across Punjab.
RICH,
