Rory Stewart – 978-0156031561
An interesting book; especially so if you have read little or nothing about Afghanistan, Islam, etc. Having read extensively on these and related subjects I was less taken by it, though it is well written.
The author walked across Afghanistan, and chronicles the many adventures, contacts, threats and miseries thus encountered.
He is especially informative when discussing the Islamic approach to things, their culture and attitudes, which is meaningful for one who actually wants to understand. When I was in the Army in Okinawa I was always confronted by friends who commented: “well, if I were Japanese” . . . and I forever had to point out that, first, you are not--and that may be your problem. Work not on becoming Japanese so much as understanding what it means that you are not!
Herein are but a few examples and discussions of just how different are Middle Easterners, Afghanis, Muslims, etc. and it is quite enlightening.
• “[Tony] Blair’s handling and discussion of the Koran would have struck Ali (an Afghani leader) as highly eccentric. In Ali’s view, Blair could not have read the Koran because Blair could not read Arabic. Since the Koran, unlike the Bible, is the verbatim word of God, spoken through Muhammad in Arabic, a translation is not considered to be the Koran. It is [often] considered blasphemous to translate it at all.”
• “. . . a photograph of Bush casually dragging a Koran across a table with his unclean left hand, while the mullah who presented the book struggled to smile.”
• “Policy makers [after the Taliban was overthrown] . . . justified their lack of knowledge and experience by focusing on poverty and implying that dramatic cultural differences did not exist. They acted as though villagers were interested in all the priorities of international organizations, even when those priorities were mutually contradictory.”
• “Without the time, imagination, and persistence needed to understand Afghans’ diverse experiences, policy makers would find it impossible to change Afghan society in the way they wished to change it.”
Thus, with myriad additional examples does he not only make his point(s) but make the book a worthwhile read. Understanding is, or ought to be, what it is all about.
Addendum:
Just for the hell of it I recently reread Caravans, by James Michener (ISBN-9780449213803). I had completely forgotten about it in the intervening 40 year hiatus. You will find it a superb book on Afghanistan, arguably better than this one. Though fiction, it will give you more insight into the country, its history and its people. I recommend that you read it in addition to--or instead of--that above. Sincerely!
