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PD #7 "WE SUPPRESS OUR TEARS"
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Joyce Lynn, Editor
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Jun 27, 2002 19:36 PDT
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POLITICAL DIARY
The Inside Source for News
Joyce Lynn, Editor
By email: politicaldiary at hotmail dot com
www.topica.com/lists/politicaldiary
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THE POLITICAL DIARY, based on the truth-telling power of dreams,
Is founded on the premise each of us has an Inside Source, which can
Reveal the truth that will bring wholeness. Through commentary, news
reporting, tips, and other journalistic tools, THE POLITICAL DIARY
informs about the stories behind the news so the populace can make
informed choices.
Issue #7
June, 2002
TO POLITICAL DIARY READERS:
Last October, in the aftermath of 9-11 and the U.S. attack on
Afghanistan, I asked Farhad Azad, editor of
afghanmagazine.com to put me in contact with some members of
the Afghan community in the Bay Area. I wanted to interview them
about the events in their homeland. I sent a few questions via
email to several people.
The response of Daud Razawi, who lives in Fremont, California,
touched me.
As Afghanistan this month moved from an interim appointed leader to
elected President, Daud’s remarks take on heightened meaning. Harmid
Karzai, the U.S. selection to head the interim government, was elected
head of the new Afghan government. Karzai is a former Unocal consultant;
Unocal is the Texas-based company that during the Taliban rule headed
the consortium that wanted to build an oil pipeline through Afghanistan
linking the oil rich fields of the Caspian Sea arena with the huge
markets of Asia. Unocal officials have said financing for the pipelines
depends on a stable government in Afghanistan -- something the Taliban
were unable to deliver. Upon becoming head of the new government, Karzai
said establishing military and police forces was his top priority.
As the attention of the U.S. military and populace has moved onto to
the next battlefield and as we are inundated with all war all the
time, Daud’s gentleness and peacefulness are striking and powerful.
As the political jockeying in Afghanistan goes on, Daud brings us
back to our humanity.
I recently asked Daud if given the passage of time, he wanted to
add or subtract any thing from his original responses. He said "no"
as long as I indicated the interview took place before the interim
government was set up last October. That was shortly after the U.S.
attacked Afghanistan.
After finishing high school in Kabul in 1980, Daud left Afghanistan. He
says he has "never gone back (yet)." He lived in Germany for seven years
and then joined his family in the Bay area in July, 1987. He graduated
from CSU-Hayward and is married with two children.
A dream tip to explore the Bush administration’s so-called “war on
terrorism” (now the named the even more frightening “war on terror”) led
me to this story.
Joyce Lynn
Editor
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“WE SUPPRESS OUR TEARS”
Interview with Daud Razawi: Completed October 28, 2001
Joyce Lynn: Would you share your thoughts about what you believe is
really going on in Afghanistan?
Daud Razawi: I do not think that at this time anybody knows what
really is going on. We are in this war atmosphere where all
information is filtered through somebody's agenda.
In Afghanistan, we have a saying, "taa nabashad cheezake, mardoom
naghoyand cheez haa." It means: If there were not a little thing,
people wouldn't say things." So, there is some truth in everything
we hear? I am truly not sure anymore. I think this Afghan saying is
such a representation of Afghan people's simple mind and noble
heart. We believe in what people say, but the world has become such
a cruel place.
Things that we hear could be such a refined and manipulated lie
that it might not have any trace of truth in it. I saw (Osama) Bin
Laden talking about revenge on anybody living in America with a gun
on his side and wearing a militia jacket. And, I see how thousands
and thousands of innocent religious minds are manipulated to ideas
they cannot grasp.
The Afghans do not know where Palestine is; they do not care about
American oil policy in Saudi Arabia. How could they care about
something they do not understand? In 1992, when American soldiers
went to Saudi Arabia, Afghans were busy fighting each other and
being hit by rockets raining in Kabul. They did not hear the news
of American-Iraq war.
Osama is talking from a religion of hate. We do not know that
religion. Mullah Omar says half of the country was ruined by
Soviets, let the U.S. ruin the other half. Afghans do not go this
easy on their soil. Every bomb that the U.S. throws in Afghanistan
breaks our hearts, but we have to keep quite. It seems like the
world asks us Afghans, "So, what do you expect us to do (in
response to the attacks on the U.S.)? Nothing?" We do not know the
answer, so we keep quite. Why should we know the answer? Why do we
have to choose between the Taliban and U.S. bombs?
We suppress our tears; we keep ourselves busy with our daily
routines. But we are not like Osama and Omar. We are not people of
hate. Where do the Osamas and Omars get this complete disregard for
human life? This is not who we are. This is not our religion. These
are not the religious leaders we used to know.
I used to know religious people, old bearded fragile men, who were
speaking softly and who were crying about murder and war that
happened to the grand children of Mohammad 1300 years ago. I
remember on Ashuras when we were mourning the death of Hussain, our
religious leaders praying to the souls of all the dead people. When our
mothers were listening to them, they used to hold on tight to us.
Out on the streets people were distributing the best smelling
Qabili Palau and Halvah as part of their blessing to the dead.
Thirteen hundred years after the fact, we felt such sorrow about
the death of the 72 people, we would doubt if their murderer,
Yazid, was even a human being. How could he have killed small
children? I see the face of Yazid and his people on my TV, men full of
hate.
I am looking for religious men crying over innocent lives lost and
I do not see them in Afghanistan. I see the attempts of the
pro-Taliban talking about "Afghanistan's sovereignty" and preaching
Islamic responsibility. They talk about Afghans' dignity being
destroyed by foreign soldiers, civilians being killed by the forces of
American expansionism. I just get mad, my blood pressure goes up, and my
muscle tension just makes me cry: "God damn it, people. You brought this
suffering upon our people. Just shut up and put up."
My heart goes with any kid in Afghanistan looking up in the sky trying
to differentiate between the bomb thrower and the food thrower. Which
plane to run away from, which one to run to? The sky is where we used
to look when we were talking to God. I do not know where he is now, but
I can't think of Him being in the skies of Afghanistan.
I saw Bush with some children behind him, standing before Afghanistan's
map, asking American children for dollar bills to help the Afghan
children. My emotions run wild and my tears come to my eyes. Why are
the Afghanistan's children in such a desperate situation? Why is the
American president trying to heal our wounds but the Taliban are
stealing the food assigned for the hungry Afghan refugees? I am just
about to scream, applauding the President's sense of humanity.
But the following morning I read there was no Red Cross program like the
President was saying. The White House did not know of such program.
They just added as it as part of the PR for the President, and I take a
newspaper and I look into the President's eyes, and I see this fake
smile, and I see through him. He does not speak truthfully. I do not
see a leader. I see just another ordinary politician taking advantage
of my emotion and playing on children's innocence for political gain.
You asked me what are my thoughts? I remember Charlie Chaplin in "The
Great Dictator" saying: "We think too much and feel too little." How
true.
JL: What you would like to see happen in terms of a new government?
DR: My ideal government is one that has nothing to do with people's
race, ethnicity, language, or religion. I would like to see a government
that can see through the realities of our time and is not fooled by
shaky bonds of false brotherhoods. We have plenty of bonds with the
people of our neighboring countries, cultural with one, religious with
the other, ethnic with another. But above all we have the bond of
humanity with the rest of the world. We have to nurse all these bonds,
but it is not the government's job.
Governments have political relationships with each other. We, the
private citizens of Afghanistan, will continue being who we are. We will
continue having our religious, ethnic and cultural identities, but we
should not bring them into government's affairs. I wish the next Afghan
government would realize its main job: Serving the people of
Afghanistan. Period. Government is not in the business of serving God.
The reality? Too many of us think a government free of religion is a
government against religion. This is not and does not have to be true.
JL: What are your feelings about the exiled king, the Taliban, the
Northern Alliance as parts of whatever government is put together?
DR: I am truly embarrassed that these are our hopes and our saviors.
But this is the reality that we all have to face. The king has somewhat
directly said he is not interested. He has had some 10 years to do
something, but he did not do anything. He has always had an "if" and a
"but" when he talked about Afghanistan. But we so desperately beg him to
come. It is pathetic. It is pathetic because we admit the superiority of
a tribe's blood. This is racism with a cover-up of "the reality of the
country." People just tell you straight to your face that the future
leader needs to be from a certain tribe otherwise they will not
cooperate.
We have to separate two groups. One is the Taliban as a party in power.
They have to go with their Arab brethren to hell or to any other place,
I could not care less. But there are other thousands who used to be
Mudjahedeen. These people are like many other
Afghans — fighters at the time of war and peasants at the time of peace.
As odd as it may sound, I think these Taliban can be re-trained and
re-educated into patriotic Afghans instead of blinded Fanatics.
If the intellectual Pashtuns would face the challenge and their
sensitive historical responsibility of preaching equality and unity
among Afghan people, these Taliban would turn into farmers and workers
eventually. But our intellectuals have not reached that level of
maturity yet. There are people with multiple degrees from American and
European universities who truly believe in the superiority of their
tribe and subscribe to the idea of "real and some what "real Afghans.
This is usually expressed in terms of "The real owners of the country
should have more rights!"
The Northern Alliance had their chance to show their true identity, and
they failed miserably. We have to even add a heavier burden on them for
committing atrocities in the 1990's when human rights violations were
not as sporadic as it is now. Eyewitnesses from Afghanistan and Human
rights organizations have reported gross atrocities committed by this
group.
The response one gets from their supporters is usually twofold: 1) "It
is all lies. Anybody believing in these lies has been either
brainwashed or is supporting the Taliban."
There is some truth here, but it is not all true. Yes, Pakistan, first
through (warload) Gullbddin Hekmatyar and then through the Taliban never
gave them the chance to actually govern. Yes, there are some who would
not accept the Northern Alliance because of their ethnicity regardless
of what they do. But there have been independent reports on Northern
Alliance’s atrocities and political failures.
2) These people have suffered under the Pashtuns' dominance for over 200
years. They cannot be blamed for being irrational. If revenge were an
approved action, we would justify the Taliban’s ethnic cleansing after
they took over. This will justify any future atrocities. When are we
going to break this cycle of violence? Rejecting all three sides, where
else can we turn? Unfortunately, nearly only these three. It is quite a
bleak picture. It is enough to drive you to a severe psychological
depression.
There is no easy way out of this terrible, terrible situation I think
that a state established upon flexible idealistic virtues (we have to
shoot for stars while standing with both feet on the ground) and run by
these three forces with plenty of intellectuals and educated people in
the background have some grim chances of succeeding. We have to realize
our miserable situation, understand the limitations we have, yet pursue
achieving a highly humane society as our ideal. We have to realize the
importance of the current desperate situation, yet visualize a future
that is not solely based on current conditions. Some prerequisites,
however, need to be met first:
America must keep an eye on the situation without being directly
involved. America must keep putting pressure on Pakistan, Saudi Arabia,
Russia, and Iran not to interfere. Pakistan should have learned by now
that they cannot have a hell burning in Afghanistan without its flames
burning some part of Pakistan itself.
The Afghans have to taste some pleasures of peace and prosperity before
wanting more. There must be a better alternative to war. There must be a
trust in government providing civil services. Oh, yes, and how/who
should do that? This is the million-dollar question.
C Joyce Lynn 2002
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JOYCE LYNN is a journalist including eight years as a political
reporter in Washington, D.C. After she moved to San Francisco, she
turned from writing about the politics of social welfare issues to
matters of the mind.
She initiated the POLITICAL DIARY in the aftermath of the 2000
election when she recognized dreams predicted with 100% accuracy its
outcome and told the story behind the story. POLITICAL DIARY is archived
at www.topica.com/lists/politicaldiary.
Joyce teaches INNER JOURNALISM:Writing, Dreams, and Telling the Truth
through Writers on the Net(www.writers.com). The next class begins
August 16. For information and to register go to www.writers.com
Joyce can be reached at politicaldiary at hotmail dot com
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c Joyce Lynn 2002
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