I tossed out the difficult questions of the week to the
men tonight and I am not convinced with their response; they still
cannot explain the reason why, for most of this country's history, there has always been war and conflict. There have been pockets of
peace here and there but never long enough. We went on to the role of Pashtunwali and sure
enough the dogmatic one said it was on par with the Koran which I pointed
out keeps instability burning, for in the oral code
one may practice vengeance, revenge, against his accused. Forgiveness and reconciliation only comes in one
of these council meetings, jirga.
This kind of law is arbitrary and must allow members of the jirga
to intervene faster, interpret, adjudicate and expedite decisions like the
forgiveness of a Taliban a lot faster.
Reclamation, a former Taliban can be accepted into society if he is offered compassionate reasons to turn back. Embrace the evil and it will end. Reconciliation doesn’t come without
forgiveness.
Am I being naïve again?
Am I being naïve again?
Anyways there’s no need for this particular ‘code’ to exist
anymore. Civil laws, respectfully and
honestly managed are far better than using rules of revenge. This cannot be an alternative to Islam.
So? Wasn’t there something else? Aside from a day with a class beginning at 7am and another class finishing twelve and a half hours later how was your day?
11.16.15
I’ve got to remember this:
I was preparing for a class and I put this on for background
balancing and then around the 14 minute mark I heard this mantra and
wow, it’s good. Ok, back to work.
11.17.15
Everyone gave him a lot of space and behaved as if there
wasn’t someone really important in the room, like royalty that needed a safe
and stable environment but when I told the man I had a class at seven the next
morning he jumped up and offered to take me and we flew out of the room before
any of the twelve men could react and I climbed into the heavy armor plated Land
cruiser and off we went.
Of course when I arrived at the house of one of my student’s
palatial homes in his father’s driver’s Toyota pick up with armed guards
sitting in the back he was the first guest I met in the gilded 12 sofa majlis-entertainment
center though I didn’t know who he was then exactly and even 24 hours later I
still don’t know other than he seemed like a good bloke who is enjoying life a
hellava lot more than me right now.
11.18.15
Tonight I’m previewing ‘Waking Ned Devine’ for tomorrow’s
conversation class. I need to take note
of any idioms or phrases that even in context might be difficult to
understand. Said Wali showed me how to
add subtitles, such an easy thing to do, and then he set me up to download
movies, not for sale, but for instructional use. Hmmm, can I show Inherent Vice? I’ll have to watch it first. I want to show ‘The Outsiders’ and perhaps
‘West Side Story’ and with these two movies discuss some issues the students
should be able to connect with. Sounds
good? Everything else good? I guess so.
Tomorrow morning I’ll help Saffiq interview eight men for the
coordinator position. What questions can
I ask? “Can you drive me to the bank
once a month? Can you cook? What do you know about solar energy?
8:29pm—I watch movies and
try to guess how my students will take it, I never showed movies in Oman or the
Emirates because there was really nothing I could show them that didn’t offend
someone, here kissing and nudity are offensive.
In Walter Mitty there’s a three second kiss and I covered the lens and
looked at Koshay who was sitting a seat behind the projector, she smiled. In Ned Devine we got at 39:10 a couple of old
naked men going to the beach for ten seconds.
And I’ve watched this movie countless times but didn’t
realize how much drinking there is, I asked if watching people drink booze was
ok and SA said everyone’s dying for a drink here. Ya, it’s silly, really. Time for tea.
This morning I rolled the heater in front of the bathroom
and took a shower for the first time in four days. After I showered I went to visit a business
exhibition at the soccer field. This is
the first large exhibition in Kandahar and there was I guess a good turnout of
about 100 businesses selling the province's famous pomegranates, apricots, and raisins in a variety of forms, construction tools, farm supplies, and a few ladies from Herat had
their fabrics and shawls laid out. I
asked two businessmen who sold cotton, edible oil and seed cake if they knew
anything about hemp and how you could make fabric from the male plants and they
knew nothing. One man said this is for markets
with tourism.
Today’s youngest educated are optimistic about their
country’s future but that’s it.
11.19.15
8:03pm—Sitting in the dark the solar is finished. Come on Hanukkah, they’ve been turning on the
generator all week at night for a few hours.
I wait…..The students enjoyed Waking Ned Devine a lot, I was a bit
nervous but they found the lyrical Irish accent easy to follow, and thanks to
subtitles, they loved the intrigue, an entire village gets a little rich
because a man dies of the shock from winning the lottery.
And Hannukah hasn’t a clue how to connect the generator with the
house and neither do I, so we’re in the dark for the evening, or at least until
Saffiq returns.
Well, tomorrow there’ll be no such day off. I have two tests to get ready for next week
and I told this evening’s class I’d make a syllabus for the remaining nine
classes. I don’t like not having a
syllabus to follow and one student whined of not knowing what we would discuss
each class though no one has complained about what we have done so far.
Anyways, I downloaded a weird version of the
Outsiders, added on scenes at the beginning and end that I do not like at all, so I have
to try and download another “for educational purposes only” version. What else would you like to show them? I have two Thursday slots to fill. West Side Story? That would take two to watch but the themes
are easy to exploit. I’ve also been
thinking of Jaws. Themes of fear? Ya, there are a lot of movies I’d like to
show just for fun like Groundhog Day.
That would be great. Time can
bend if you love someone one. And then there is O Captain my captain....
wow, reunited with one
of my favorite albums. At minute 3:07 or
so I was suddenly in the Brazilian rain forest buzzing over the dense ground
floor.
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