Self-centred but romantic Afghans!

I have stopped asking fellow Afghans what their main hobby is because I can predict what the answer is: ‘poetry or reading it’. It is the same in Afghanistan, everyone I met was a poet. Not all their poems are about love but the majority of them tend to be.

It’s not just that, the choice of movies is also soppy. It’s either Bollywood love stories or Hollywood romantic comedies.

The pattern is followed by music as well. The majority of Afghan music is about “love”. The other music most Afghans listen to is again either Indian romantic songs or RnB which is more or less the same except for the language.

If you are a techno music lover like me then you always feel that you are a bit of an outcast. I was so happy to find out that ASAUK’s next event is not just a keyboard singer with cheesy songs that we have all heard millions of times but something different ‘a rapper’. It was a relief that there will be a change from the norm.

A friend once commented on Afghan’s saying: “All Afghans are in love but they just don’t know who they are in love with”. With time I found that statement to be so true.

Don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with being romantic but the self centeredness that comes with it is not good. I think the reason that we (Afghans) are so self centred is because we all love ourselves far too much. We don’t know it but deep down the only person we love is ourselves. There maybe some psychological reasons behind it but I really don’t to get in to that.

It is that feeling that always stops us from appreciating others, their talent, good deeds and so forth. We have developed a sense of jealousy and we think everything should be about us. The world is bigger than one individual. There are billions of people on earth and they are all human and hence equal. No one is complete on their own.

Other people always have qualities that we don’t so we should accept this instead of getting defensive and disagreeing with all they say or do. We only do this to make us feel better about ourselves. We know they are right but we have to dispute everything they say. Accepting the achievements of others is important.

I maybe wrong so feel free to correct me if you think I am. I really want to know why this is.

If I am not wrong, then listen to some techno and you might find that you like it!!

Spring of Hope

I went to the premier screening at the American Embassy of Hashmat Khan’s new movie ‘Spring of Hope’ last night.

The event started with a few welcome words from the American Embassy's cultural attaché and a welcome speech from the Afghan Ambassador, Dr. Rahim Shirzoy, showing his support for the film and the film maker's efforts. After the ambassador’s speech the film was shown which was followed by a question and answer session with the film maker.

The name of the film contained the word HOPE in it and it was being screened at the American embassy so I went with my hopes up. I had Hollywood standards in mind but the film started with a typical Bollywood style of a guy and a girl who see each other and lo and behold they fall in love at first sight.

It was a love story as you probably gathered but it also covered the Afghan war, ethnicity and language issues faced by Afghans in Afghanistan. The aim of the film is to restore national unity.

I felt that there were many flaws in the film, like repetitive shots, cheesy lines and not all but some bad acting. A friend of mine who is not Afghan felt it was a bit of a self-indulgent, stereotyped 3 hour long epic for the director and that it was again not a great film to be seen by the international community as "the first commercial film to have been made in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban".

Initially I left the cinema room disappointed but on reflection I realised that the film portrays the reality of Afghanistan.

It is to be expected that the first film won’t be of great standards. Everyone has to make a start somewhere. I am sure Hollywood didn’t begin with making extra-ordinary movies. The film actually got better towards the end which to me meant: the future is bright.

Hashmat Khan put a lot of work in to the film and we should be appreciative of that. He did something for our country and if we (Afghans) are not going to support him then how will he or any other film maker be able to make an improvement.

I am sure he wanted to screen an amazing film but reality is far from that. Financial, technical and many other obstacles that he explained in the question and answer session came in the way of that.

The film made me realise that we live in a dreamland and only want to see things beyond our expectations when it comes to Afghanistan. It is not our fault, we only want the best for Afghanistan and feel proud when there is something nice to show off with, however to achieve the best we have to work hard for it and need to understand that every small step take us closer to what we really want to see.

This film may not have met our expectations, but it still had some very interesting and informative bits. More importantly it showed that there are people working for the betterment of our country in all aspects of life. Their hard work and our support will one day give us the chance to see Afghan movies that are beyond our expectations.

The best part of the film for me was that it covered the effect of the war over the Afghan culture in such a beautiful manner. How war transformed the Afghan culture may not be an easy thing to explain to people but from now on I don’t have to, I can just show them the film but first, I need to buy a DVD copy of it!

Last but not least, I enjoyed the film and would like to say bravo to Hashmat Khan. I look forward to watching his next film which is about education.

Also many thanks to Farid Khan Popal (First Secretary, Political Affairs – Afghan Embassy UK) for his efforts of making the embassy accessible to all and for keeping the Afghan youth in mind at all times.

Obsession with Doctors

Since I was a child my parents kept telling me that I will one day become a doctor. Without a second thought I would always agree with them. As I grew older and graduated from school, I discovered I had more of an interest towards engineering subjects. However my parents were still adamant that I would become a doctor.

When I started applying for University, I was forced to keep the subject of my degree a secret but eventually my parents found out and there was a huge quarrel about it. It took a lot of persuasion and many arguments later I managed to convince them. Seeing my passion for engineering they vowed their support.

I felt like I have changed my family’s mind about enforcing what they want on us. I was mistaken. In the recent months, my nephew had to go through exactly what I did. If it was just an issue in my own family perhaps I wouldn’t be so worried but this obsession exists in most Afghan families.

I can’t speak for other professions but if you are an engineering enthusiast and having similar problems with your family here are some of the arguments that will help you fight for your right.

One of the arguments my parents gave me was that doctors are the healers and saviours of human being, which is true. However, engineers are the not only the saviours of human beings but also the providers of the convenience. Everything we see around us that wasn’t made by God is the creation of Engineers.

Without engineers there would be no ambulances to get the critically ill people to hospitals, doctors and surgeons would have no tools to operate on patients, there would be no x-rays or other technology to diagnose illnesses, all in all there would be no hospitals with out engineers.

There would be no roads without engineers, no electricity, no aeroplanes, no cars, no ipods, no laptops, no toys, no dolls, no bridges, no boats, no buildings, well basically nothing. Look around you, well there would be none of that without engineers.

From the early days of the world, the engineers have made the lives of other humans easy. Those with engineering minds dug caves for shelter. It is the blessing of engineers, who invented the printing machine, which made education accessible to all. Without this invention, most people won’t be able to afford books.

With computers, engineers made life even easier for every one on this earth. Communication is almost free these days but more than that learning about any subject is only a click away.

Engineers didn’t stop with providing all the needs but continued with entertainment for everyone. Radios, televisions, DVD’s, ipods, etc are all gifts of the engineers.

You would think that would be it but fortunately it doesn’t stop there. It took an engineer to work out the causes of the deadly Malaria, which claimed many innocent lives, just like cancer before an engineer working in a mine found a cure for it. Cancer is another example of engineering research. The amount of contribution engineers make towards medical advancement is immense. You could call engineers the real healers :)

This is just an example but if you do show you are so passionate about what you want to do then there would be no problems. It is also advisable to do a detailed research about your choice because nothing is worth doing without absolute passion.

Billions of Afghani

The number of times I have been called an Afghani is countless. Afghani is the currency of Afghanistan & its nationals are called AFGHAN. It is like calling an American a dollar or a British a pound. However I can see how it may happen, as people from Iraq are called Iraqi. The same rule does not apply everywhere though!!

The next time you see an American, ask him if he is known as a dollar and gage his reaction! I’m sure he will not be too pleased!

Being called Afghani is insulting as the value of Afghani is so low. Therefore insinuating that Afghans are not worth much. So let’s try and remember the term is Afghan not Afghani.

Afghanistan summer 2007

I have recently returned from Afghanistan. The pictures on the right are also from my trip.

The pictures portray lots of development work that has been carried out. Seeing this progress made me a happy person but unfortunately the feeling didn’t last long.

While there were new roads, tall buildings and fancy cars on the roads, there was also the lack of equivalent intellectual progress. Education was still at its lowest, and the behaviour of people was still very much ignorant. Although there was no danger of bombs on the road, one still did not feel safe walking on the streets. The attitude of the average person on the streets of Kabul was far from friendly.

TV channels were promoting a culture that is not true to Afghanistan and again education had no part of the scheduled programs. After watching a week of TV, I came to the conclusion that if Indian drama serials and foreign music was taken out of the schedule the only thing left would be propaganda news and advertisements.

To me it seems that Afghans are being blocked out from the external world. Maybe this a deliberate attempt to keep everyone in the country blind to what is happening around the world so that they can not compare their position with the rest of the world. If it is not done deliberately then lies the question of why these television stations sensor the progress of the world??

I was however inspired and encouraged to see the interest in education from the Afghan youth. Although the system is working against their needs, they were still searching for ways to quench their thirst for education. How far they may reach with their quest was not known but everyone was still trying...

During my time in Afghanistan, there were university entry exams for evening classes. The amount of people that turned out to take the entrance exam one morning was immense but unfortunately it would prove to be a futile exercise. Even if they passed they would still have to pay a bribe to get on a university course. The odd of getting in to university without being able to pay a hefty bribe was like that of winning the lottery. It seems that money is the new religion and without money you are helpless.

I met with so many students that have taken these entry exams in the past 3 consecutive years and their results were “unknown”. Everyone had the same question, what is unknown? Is it a pass or a fail? But they didn’t have the money to get the question answered.

Corruption at the level of police, the army, government, banks, hospitals, schools, universities... I could go on forever and the list won’t end. However, having the culture of corruption as part of the education system is the one that is worrying me the most.

I returned with pretty images in my camera but with ugly images in my mind. Is hope everything we have now or should we try to change this? Change is possible if we want it but impossible without anyone working for it. … Maybe a miracle will happen and it will all be fixed… or is time for Afghans to unite and face this challenge as a nation?