CH 3 - THE ROOTS OF EXTRAORDINARY

How does one go from being a fairly normal kid, growing up in a loving family (two parents, a brother, etc)...having friends, playing kids' games and doing the stuff normal kids do all over the world by and large. How DOES one go from that to living a truly extraordinary existence...and known, appreciated and admired by millions of people around the world.

HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN? DO YOU KNOW?

I don't know in most cases, but I want to take you inside the life of one kid at least who has done just that. Taken that journey...and it has not been easy. Not by a long shot...and even shot he has been.

MUSTAFA KAZEMI.

Born in the capital city of Nimruz province,  Zaranj, in the Southwestern portion of Afghanistan where the country meets two of its neighbors...Iran & Pakistan, Mustafa emerged. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: Don't miss the grippingly moving video link at the end of the chapter. It will provide a glimpse of Zaranj and what has happened to it in recent months.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Always intensely curious and even more devoutly determined. Determined to try to seek out and find the story of his country and then tell it to a world thirsty for information and understanding of Afghanistan and the people who live there.

A fairly remote country, and virtually deliberately cordoned off from the rest of the world community, Afghanistan has long been relatively unknown and little understood particulary by the West. By and large (and this continues to this day), most Westerners (Americans, Brits, Germans, French, Italian, Danish...etc.) have little or no clue about the people of Afghanistan which means they have little or no understanding. They do not see them as bright, industrious, talented, creative, and genuine...because there is little connection people-to-people between Afghans and the people of the Western democracies. 

How then can you expect people of the United States or the UK or elsewhere to appreciate the Afghan people when they have no clue and even less information about them. Without information there can be no understanding. Without understanding there can be no appreciation nor respect. Certainly no affection, for how can you feel anything for people you know nothing about? How? 

That is a dilemma, and sadly the virtual reality at the heart of the problem between the people of Afghanistan and the West and elsewhere in the world. 

America, Europe, Australia, North & South America, Asia. Even the countries of central and southern Africa. That is ludicrous in this day and age. 

Yet...that is what Mustafa saw. He saw that his country was virtually isolated from the rest of the world and that is one reason why it had always been such an easy target for interlopers and invaders. Nobody much ever cared to come and help the Afghans defend their homeland because they saw nothing of value in doing so. 

If you do not believe that? Look at the history between the West and other countries of the Middle East. America in particular has traditionally gone in and mucked around in Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Iran, Iraq, and elsewhere...knowing little or nothing about the cultures, the history, or the people of any of them. We have propped up some dictators while toppling others...and all while the United States government was doing it...it had little or no idea of what they were doing or who they were doing it with or for. Such is the arrogance of politics run amuck, for this was and is the United States goverment...and not the people of America.

Ok, so we look at that...and then look at how many times we have tried to intervene in Afghanistan. Such as when we tried to help them when the Russians invaded for example in 1979? Don't make me laugh. 

Oh yeh. We have a wonderful track record in the Middle East and Afghanistan...

and don't you just love the bit about...
'Well, (snivel whine), what's in it...for us?'
The old 'everything has its price' bogus crap.

I'll tell you what is in it for us. A chance for a stable, politically and economically viable, and safe Afghanistan. Why would that not be in American's best interests. Hell, the world's best interests.

Can you blame the Afghans for being a bit skeptical of us? Our intentions? Our willingness to stick, to hang in there with them? Anyone who does is an idiot. The West has given Afghanistan and its people plenty of reason to mistrust us. But, that also means we need to work a whole lot harder to break that cycle. 

The sad truth is...
the Afghans have had to fend for themselves through countless attacks and invasions and because of them, remnants of which still remain and remain hostile to each other, there has been and still does exist tremendous hostility, suspicion, and distrust amongst the various factions inside the country as well as a conjoined mistrust of outsiders. 

The sheer amount of the various groups and factions that composes its citizenry makes it a very religious/culturally/and ethnically diverse country.  Almost forty million people, and while this can be a very positive thing...it can also lead to a lot of division and strife in a country where such diversity exists without respect or understanding or tolerance between the various groups. 

Contrary to many people's misconceptions, Afghanistan like the rest of the Middle East is not just any one thing. It is not just populated by Arabs. But even amongst those who are Arabs there are factions who do not agree or get along. The Sunni/Shia are both ethnically Arab but also a good example of my point. Then there are the Persians, the Pashtuns, the Kurds,
the Uzbeks, and others. Muslim, Christian...no. Afghanistan is hardly just any one thing or group or ideology or political persuasion, or...well, you get the idea.

Afghans have always been a hardy people, resilient and stubborn to boot. That has served them well...except for the fact that because of all the invasions and assaults upon them, they have for decades continued to withdraw as a people. They kept not only remaining fairly isolated but becoming even more so. More suspicious of outsiders. which to be honest is quite logical and very understandable to be sure, but poisonous to a healthy society. Especially when that isolation and mistrust exists among its various factions and not just against outsiders.

That has not served either them not the West well.

Because again...the Afghan people are just that. People, and people who are very bright, creative, talented, and hard-working. They have incredible artisans who turn out incredible work such as the Mosques throughout the Capital of Kabul as well as the rest of the country. These are nothing short of works of art which demonstrate a brilliance in design...all created by Afghans.

Painters, Sculptors, writers, musicians...all of which combine to display a wide diversity of artistic talent and achievement among its people. Afghanistan is a very rich country culturally. But who in the west has a clue about any of that? 

Few, sad to say.

Mustafa saw that, understood it, and decided it was time to turn to the west and not away from it. Try to bridge the gaps, not widen them. Try to forge new alliances, not reject them. Try to bring a new vision to his country instead of hiding beneath the shroud of the past. For the way forward for Afghanistan as for any country is as a part of the world community, not an isolationist aberration that like the proverbial and literal ostrich tries to ignore the existence of others and remaining in helpless fear of a boogyman that doesn't really exist.


He was right and he is part of an emerging group of young Afghans who are perhaps the first truly visionary Afghans to come along in a very very long time if ever. These Afghans are much better educated than a lot of their predecessors, but they also have the advantage of modern technology that their forebears did not. In truth, the average Afghan today...especially those that live in the larger cities and/or who go to the colleges and universities, have access to the Internet, to cell phones, and to a variety of advanced forms of communications and tele-communications that opens up Afghanistan and its people to the rest of the world in ways that simply didn't exist even maybe ten to fifteen years ago...and it is accelerating.

There are also a sizable number of groups of Afghan born-and raised people who now live abroad in countries like Canada, Germany, the UK, and elsewhere who also have access to the wide array of communications devices and have first-hand awareness of life and people in the West which they are now capable of sharing (and do) with their fellow Afghans back home. Websites are springing up. Travel is becoming more common...which is all to the good in terms of bring Afghanistan further and further into the modern 21st century world, and in the midst of it all there is Mustafa Kazemi. Tweeting and using a wide variety of news outlets and social media to broaden the knowledge base concerning Afghanistan & its people to a world who truly needs to hear, see, and know the truth about Afghanistan that he is providing and what it means going forward for both sides.

Mustafa's reporting not only on the war efforts but on life in Afghanistan is invaluable. It is ground-breaking, almost revolutionary. 

It is necessary.

But again, the question is...
how did he get here?

Ahhh..how indeed. How did Mustafa Kazemi go from a normal childhood to someone who is nothing short of extraordinary and living a life at once both magnificent and dangerous. For him and to him.

Well, let's look at his roots. The roots of his version of extraordinary, because that is where it started as is true with most people of accomplishment.

SHALL WE?

http://youtu.be/6KQxCexPbRU

My thanks to Michael M Phillips & the WSJ

                         > TO CHAPTER 4