Don’t look at progress with Western eyes

  • Published
  • By Spc. Jim Wagner
  • 109th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) --  A couple hundred yards outside the perimeter here, loudspeakers blasting Afghan music permeate the night air. Faintly, the sounds of laughter and shouting come from the compound housing the local Afghan militia force there.

For the past three hours I’ve been stretched out on my cot, tossing and turning and trying to sleep despite the noise. It’s now 1 a.m., and my first thought is, “Man, in the States they’d be getting a visit from the police for partying like this.”

Then, upon reflection, playing loud music -- any music for that matter -- would have resulted in a lot more than a $100 fine two years ago in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime. In fact, a ticket would be a blessing in a country that only two years ago was ruled with an iron fist.

Lying there, I considered how my “Western” eyes looked at everything going on in the country right now, especially the progress of coalition forces to bring peace and stability to a region that in many ways came to a stop decades ago.

It’s easy to look around and say Afghanistan today is exactly the same as it was 100 or even 500 years ago: a living, breathing time capsule in the middle of a world of technological and social advances.

Most Afghan cities don’t have decent plumbing, electricity or adequate housing. Most women still walk about town in full abaya and won’t speak or look at anyone but their husbands or immediate families and wouldn’t even think twice about baring their faces or any part of their body, despite the lifting of that ban by the central government. Despite having their own standing army for the first time since the 1960s, in many remote areas regional commanders still rule over their tribes or regions.

Progress doesn’t seem to have come to the country, despite the time and effort coalition forces have put into stabilizing the region so far. But that measure of progress is seen through the eyes of a Westerner and doesn’t necessarily apply here.

Exactly 100 years ago, the Wright brothers conducted their first airplane flight. It would be another 17 years before the first commercial radio went live, 24 years before the first television and 36 years before the first digital computer.

I can remember like it was yesterday when I first saw cable TV and its whopping 36 channels; my parents remember when they saw the first color TV broadcast; my grandparents remember the first TV; my great-grandparents remember a time before both TV and radio.

More than one-third of the past 100 years in Afghanistan has been spent in constant warfare. When it wasn’t civil war, it was the Russian invasion and occupation, or the Taliban rule that drove off or murdered most of the intellectual elite in the country. It’s no wonder they are behind the curve when their progress is measured against Western standards of today.

Progress is taking shape in Afghanistan -- incrementally, but it’s coming. According to many experts, true progress will take at least a couple of generations, or about the generational difference between my grandparents’ ‘talking picture box’ in the living room and my MTV.

Outside, the Afghan militia force compound has grown quiet and the music has stopped. It’s reassuring to know I and all the soldiers, airmen, Marines and sailors here have played a part in making sure progress hasn’t also stopped.