Think Again
We do after all, collectively exercise a certain conscience of perceived responsibility toward others when we appreciate our freedoms, our security of person under the laws of our land, the bounty of food available to us, the comfort of decent housing and medical treatment, our education system, our plenitude of clean water and air. We understand just how fortunate we are when our attention is drawn to the plight of countless populations living in substandard human conditions, where there is no security of person, where laws are deficient and not enacted to protect all equally, where sufficient nutrition and potable water is denied the bulk of the population who are prey to all manner of diseases, many of which owe their prevalence to a lack of hygienic state infrastructure.And when we are faced with the need to fling ourselves into action, we respond in whatever ways are available to us, from urging our nation's government to act on our behalf to send much needed supplies of food and medicines to counteract the immediate after-effects of natural disasters. To ourselves giving generously to the aid coffers of NGOs. Sometimes those natural disasters take on the guise of political/religious fundamentalism that preys on a nation's most vulnerable, the poor, the women and their children. Now Canada finds itself mired in a dreadful holding situation in Afghanistan, a poor, beleaguered country which turmoil, political unrest and war has historically tainted.
Canada joined her NATO colleagues in a determination to arrest and wipe out religious fundamentalists whose agenda in Afghanistan under the Taliban brought the country to a state of medieval brutality. And since the Taliban took it upon itself to give aid and assistance to another group of militantly religious fundamentalists, al-Qaeda, there was a double mission, to eradicate the capabilities of both groups of wreaking havoc in the world. The United Nations recognized the dangers inherent in these fundamentalist groups' intent on fomenting terrorism and taking states back to the stone age of existence and made common cause with NATO in attempts at eradication.
But there is a living social, traditional, religious, political polarization not easily breached by good intentions. Countries and their administrations which have historically lived in a certain manner with their own religion-based social mores and values which run directly counter to those in the West with advanced economies and a political social order that owes no allegiance to a theocratic underpinning simply do not understand one another. Western counties have a wish to 'gift' countries with no history of social democracy with their way of politics, of administration, and of justice. But countries not accustomed to this manner of living are simply incapable of absorbing and accepting this new world order in short order.
People desperate for personal security of life and limb, an end to lawlessness, understand that this is their first practical need. Civic infrastructure, public utilities, health and education services can only click in when law and order has been established. And even once all of those needs have been satisfied, the mode of social interaction and shared values that have traditionally expressed the country's character will fall back into place, not the kind of fair and egalitarian social network that the West demands for itself. In countries whose administrations have been largely built on corruption, that will continue until and unless the germ of Western-style democracy asserts itself locally, through a country's own deterministic need.
Where extortion and graft is the order of the day, and local authorities do nothing to disrupt corrupt practises, this is seen as a normal mode of civic life. Bureaucracies thrive on their recognized entitlements and aren't amenable to dislodging them to satisfy a conception of fairness and lawfulness practised elsewhere. When NATO invaded Afghanistan to root out the Taliban and bring a legal, elected and democratic-style government to the suffering Afghan people, they envisaged the transformation of the entire society, without understanding or having any knowledge of the traditional way of life. It's simply human to recognize one's own successful mode of political and social governance as transferable.
Yet in helping the new government of Afghanistan incorporate into their governing body the old tribal chieftans, always jostling for power and themselves guilty of dreadful human rights abuses against the population, NATO assured the continuation of the corrupt status quo. Power is essentially back in the hands of the old local thugs with blood on their hands. President Hamid Karzai may exemplify honesty and integrity personally, and remain desperately determined to bring order to his country, but his parliament is comprised of too many blood-stained warlords out to ensure their own agenda is first and foremost.
One-time British diplomat and writer, Rory Stewart, who wrote of his experiences travelling through and across Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Afghanistan knows the area and its traditions. In his newly-published book, The Places in Between, he asserts that the West's notions of democracy, human rights and emancipation of women, along with other ideals common to western societies are simply foreign to the traditions of the area and cannot be imposed: a 'utopian fantasy'.
In the end, it is the Afghan people themselves who will have to determine their own destiny. The fact is, Afghanistan is one of those unfortunate countries which has suffered one invasion after another throughout the ages by other nations seeking to dominate and subjugate it. The nation will have to resolve its internal problems and supply its own solutions in a manner that best reflects the needs of its people. As a Muslim society it may be impossible for militantly fanatic groups like the Taliban to be ever fully defeated. At least by Western intervention.
Afghans themselves, along with their parliament will have to be determined to cleanse their own slate, to create their own living state to best reflect their traditions and future needs.
Labels: Political Realities
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, April 12, 2007
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