So I published my first guest blog yesterday and already got some feedback, pretty cool if you ask me. I was asked to provide more details on the day to day for Afghan’s, I should of realized that most Americans have zero concept of life out here, so I’ll try my best to describe it.
I interact with the local Afghan population on a daily basis, my job is to try and sort out problems they have (work stuff, troops in the area, crime, electricity/water, etc). Please remember that this is my OPINION and not any kind of policy.
Most of the complaints from the local population has to do with the incredible amount of corruption that takes place in their local government and the perception that ISAF and the US are complicit in allowing this to happen. From police shaking people down to bribes being paid for government job, processing “fees” so your paperwork doesn’t get lost, all of these are having a hugely negative impact on the locals. What complicates these problems is that there is such a disconnect between the villages and the urban areas that the villagers don’t even have the opportunity to make complaints. One more layer to that onion is that US/ISAF policy has been to allow the Afghan’s to govern themselves, this has been a spectacular failure, with a population that has 90% illiteracy rate and a “take care of my own tribe first” mentality things have taken a predictable downward spiral.
There are a great number of Afghan’s who never leave their local village, for any reason. To try and tell them that someone they have never met in a city they will never go to, is in charge, well it’s amusing to them.
In terms of a day to day life for the Afghan people, it’s really just a matter of surviving, day to day, there is no Pashtun or Dari word for “dream or ambition” it’s just making it through life, hoping you get enough to eat, if you are lucky getting the chance to get married.
