BBC Knows Nothing About Afghans
I am not quite sure what myths the BBC was alluding to in their statement that despite our ‘fierce reputation’ we are ‘gentle, thoughtful people.’
The BBC should be very careful in their wording lest they perpetuate a fictitious ‘reputation’ that they could very well be held responsible for creating. Where is this proof of a ‘reputation’ of fierceness, thoughtlessness, and violence that they refer to coming from?
Are they basing it on the Western media’s painting of all Afghans as the Taliban? If so, that is a false reputation created by a sensationalist media that is only looking at a fringe group created in Pakistan from 1996 onward and has very little to do with Afghanistan or Afghans as a whole.
If anything, our reputation is that of Rumi, Rabi’a Balkhi, and the Dari language – the language of the court:
Despite their fierce reputation, Afghans are mostly gentle, thoughtful people – deeply courteous, with warm humanity that radiates from luminous eyes.
They are also tolerant and very patient.
There was clear evidence of barefaced election fraud, implicitly insulting people who went out to vote believing that their ballots would count. But there has been peace on the streets.
One man said to me this week:
“This is all so crazy I‘ve just stopped thinking – and most of my friends are now simply depressed.”And Afghanistan struggles on.
Despite eight years of international assistance, many places in Kabul are a mess.
Pakistan‘s Taliban dilemma [BBC]