Afghanistan - Back to Square One
By Shiva
@Shiva49 (28371)
Singapore
August 17, 2021 9:43am CST
It is tough to spot any silver lining in the daily news (noose?) with the ongoing pandemic that holds court for over a year and a half. Now another has edged in to compete for our attention. Looks like one cannot hide from the reality of the world we find ourselves in. Makes us feel sick in the pit of the stomach trying to make sense of the anarchy.
Over six hundred people have been packed like sardines in an US Air Force transport plane that left with nothing except the clothes on their backs while their president was packed to the hilt when he fled the country with truck loads of dollars! Well, that reflects the reality of an unforgiving world where the common folk bears the brunt of the fallout from the action of a few. I couldn’t spot women or children among those fleeing to safety. It is a blot on our common conscience that some lives are truly expendable.
Maybe, some are beyond repair. They cannot coexist, or are they victims of political power play? Whatever it is, it looks unreal in a modern world; the disconnect with peaceful existence is palpable.
They are not digits but humans just like us and the irony is the vast majority feel helpless. I can only visualize the scene of hundreds running helter-skelter in the animal world when pursued by a lone predator. That it plays out in our world and now is tough to stomach.
Don’t you also feel lost with what is going on?
Image: Flight to safety
15 people like this
12 responses
@BelleStarr (61463)
• United States
17 Aug 21
We all need to pray for the people of Afghanistan
5 people like this
@RebeccasFarm (91299)
• United States
17 Aug 21
Oh the plane is bringing them here to the USA Shiva?
4 people like this
@RebeccasFarm (91299)
• United States
17 Aug 21
@Shiva49 Yes because some could claim refugee here..refugee terrorist in disguise. Seem the US is possibly importing it now.
4 people like this
@LadyDuck (502208)
• Italy
17 Aug 21
@RebeccasFarm Do not worry Europe is going to import them.
5 people like this
@DaddyEvil (174281)
• United States
18 Aug 21
I'm sorry but I thought it was long past time the US pulled out and let the Afghanistani people take care of their own country. Their soldiers had twenty years to learn from the US troops and did learn from the US troops... They apparently wanted their old ways back again. So they got them back. I hope they're satisfied.
3 people like this
@DaddyEvil (174281)
• United States
18 Aug 21
@Shiva49 So it appears. I feel sorry for the women and children.
2 people like this
@Shiva49 (28371)
• Singapore
18 Aug 21
'You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink' comes to mind.
It was more like a house of cards in the end.
Whatever floats their boats is more like it now.
They are given a long rope with those with good intentions keeping a safe distance.
2 people like this
@ptrikha_2 (49753)
• India
21 Aug 21
@Shiva49
So far mankind at large is making things move towards hell by various actions.
And the rational and the Tolerant people are being sidelined or even killed.
I heard the news of a few folks welcoming Taliban's takeover in India itself and that worries me as to hiw big is the support for the radical elements growing.
1 person likes this
@ptrikha_2 (49753)
• India
21 Aug 21
@Shiva49
There are many a Wolves in Sheep's clothing who preach something and practice another.
They fool many around them.
1 person likes this
@ptrikha_2 (49753)
• India
21 Aug 21
@Shiva49
Afghanistan has been reduced to an experimental state for radicalism and games between major and other powers - now US, Russia, China and Pakistan.
3 people like this
@ptrikha_2 (49753)
• India
19 Aug 21
Yes it is a big crisis. What shocked me was that the nearly 300 K (on paper) strong Afghan Military fled or surrendered or could not put up a fight. I further read that there was rampant corruption in the ranks and well the elites there are guilty in making the lives of common folks hellish.
2 people like this
@ptrikha_2 (49753)
• India
20 Aug 21
@Shiva49
Yes a complex situation indeed.
Plus it has become clear that whether one brings in US or Russia or any other big power, Afghanistan would present big problem for one to keep on fighting there.
2 people like this
@ptrikha_2 (49753)
• India
20 Aug 21
@Shiva49
Now China could try using the current situation to its advantage !
2 people like this
@sjvg1976 (42727)
• Delhi, India
18 Aug 21
Things there in Afghanistan seem to be scary. People running and want to leave their own country because they know their country will be hell after the Taliban takes control of it.
Hope Afghanistan doesn't turn into the country like it was in the past before the US intervene there.
3 people like this
@Shiva49 (28371)
• Singapore
18 Aug 21
It takes some more time for a few to feel the blessings of being born here and to live for a blip in time on the planet. It could be generations but love and truth will keep shining as the sun does.
You would have heard about the famous Tagore story - Kabuliwalah, the one from Kabul.
"The main theme of this story is filial affection—the deep love that fathers have for their children. In the story, we encounter three examples of filial affection—the author and his daughter Mini; the Kabuliwala "Rahmat" and his own daughter in Afghanistan; and the Kabuliwala "Rahmat" and Mini. In this story, Kabuliwali comes to India every year to sell dry fruits and to meet this girl named Mini. The Kabuli Wala encountered a physical confrontation with a person while collecting debts and that's what led the Kabuliwala to end up in jail. After several years, the Kabuliwala was pardoned and was released from jail—he returned to meet Mini at her house, Mini who is grown up now could not recognize him due to circumstances."
Where did all the positive emotions go and what a stark difference from over a hundred years ago?
Let us beware those in our midst who sow seeds of division and are not much different from the Taliban!
2 people like this
@Hate2Iron (15724)
• Canada
20 Aug 21
It's so awful for those poor people. I was just thinking about them last night.
2 people like this
@DianneN (254949)
• United States
20 Aug 21
I feel awful for what is going on, and worse, because I am helpless to do anything about it.
The US did as much as it could to help the country, sacrificing so many American lives. Too bad it had to end this way, but Trump began the pull out with no thought process and left it in poor Biden’s hands.
2 people like this
@Shiva49 (28371)
• Singapore
21 Aug 21
"God helps those who help themselves" is a saying from time immemorial.
Obviously, there is only so much an outsider can do.
'You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink'.
Afghanistan has been an albatross around the necks of those who try to help.
They have to learn the hard lessons by themselves.
Yes, as always it is the common folks who suffer most.
2 people like this
@Shiva49 (28371)
• Singapore
18 Aug 21
Our primordial instinct of negativity refuses to die down despite repeated lessons from history.
Taliban is linked to religious diktats, but I wonder why to subjugate their own people and the women and children for that.
Obviously, women constitute 50% and add to that some sane men too and so the writ of the majority does not run. What a horrible state of affairs!
3 people like this
