Behind Open Doors

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Any attempt to describe the circumstances that envelope this country without making a political comment is futile. This is a country that has been brutalized from forces from inside and from outside of it's borders.

The election, for the most part, is an attempt to show that world that Afghanistan has the ability to decide it's own destiny. However, like many countries (and one could make the argument towards all countries), the want of power and the path to achieving it is paved with corruption, influence, and deceit.

The list of election problems here seems endless: ballot boxes going missing for hours, womens' voting stations closed, thousands of people (more than 10,000 in one case) bussed outside of their own district to buoy candidates in another district, ballot stuffing (indicated by 60 to 70%!t(MISSING)urnout in some regions), etc.. But the citizens here hold strong promise in their words and are confident that the election is moving their country forward.

To understand this level of thinking, one must understand the way this country exists. Everything here is laid bare. Many people here have but one pair of shoes, one shirt, one pair of pants, one jacket. To wear them everyday, they advertise the few dollars that exist in their pockets. The sidewalks are broken concrete and dust that have no hope of repair, now or in the near future. Those that can, water them down every morning, not to clean them, but to make them manageable. And the bakeries and the butcheries bake their bread and cut their carcasses on the cleaned (but dirty) table and floors in front of them.

Compare this to the antiseptic society of North America. In North America, everything is done without our knowledge: people buy expensive clothes on their maxed-out credit cards, sidewalks are cleaned and repaired by faceless city uniforms, and our foccacias and filets come in plastic wrap from sanitized kitchens. And, we like to think that our own elections are great beacons of modern democracy, but they aren't. Our own politicians know how to stuff the ballot boxes, buoy electoral districts, and influence voters. They just do it behind closed doors.

Peace and stability will come to Afghanistan. If only the world would just get out of it's way.

Cheers,

Jay

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