On Survival

So today, I’m taking a brief diversion from my T.S Eliot series, because I read a rather inspiring article in The Guardian which made me think carefully about the nature of survival, and the very different perceptions of it from culture to culture. The developed world, the world which has Starbucks coffee on every other street corner, deems survival as an almost decadent indulgence; “Oh, I simply couldn’t live without my four by four”, or “I’m just starving…”. The article however presented a rather more interesting perception of survival; it was all about the boys of war-torn Afghanistan, who quite literally, walked to Europe, crossing vast amounts of land, traversing mountains, and clinging to the chassis of assorted lorries.

These boys are certainly not undertaking the journey for any charitable purpose; they are running away, paying gargantuan sums of money to smugglers, to escape the Taliban, or endless poverty, or the constant bombing of their villages. Like every other human, they have the fight or flight response, and unfortunately, it’s hard to fight a cause that is illogical. In the same way as arguing with a three-year-old is pointless, it is pointless to attempt intellectual argument against fundamentalism. Neither of these things are rational.

The startling thing of course is the fact that whilst I’m vigorously exercising, researching, thinking about things to take to Kilimanjaro, etc, these boys, who barely have a pair of shoes, are literally just doing it, climbing the mountains, and travelling in any way that they can, because that truly is the only way that they will survive the journey from their own damaged country. No one voluntarily traverses the Italian portion of the Alps, without shoes, medicine, food or shelter. However, this statement in essence, cannot be true, because people do it, if not regularly, then often; it is not an unheard of occurrence. This is startling because in our world, that is to say, the “civilised” western world, the thought of doing something so fundamentally dangerous is tantamount to declaring one’s own insanity.

One of the young boys who travel (1)

We continually, as adolescents in particular, moan about how bad our lives are; our student loans aren’t large enough, our boyfriends don’t love us enough, and our parents are always completely unreasonable. And to a certain extent, we are entitled as teenagers, to moan a little bit; to realise slowly that we aren’t the centre of the universe. It’s a rite of passage to know that, however these teenagers never had the chance to be ungrateful, because they were thrown into an unimaginably intense world of pain, where their parents don’t survive long enough to be able to ground them. That privilege was removed from them by extremism and foreign intervention.

Their education is also of paramount importance to them; something that as financial markets narrow, becomes even more important. We don’t tend to notice how privileged we are, and more often than not, will moan about getting up early, our homework, and something that a girl said about us, to someone who we thought was our friend. The boys who walk across Europe seek education as ferociously as they seek food; it is inspirational to read their stories, and to hear such unshakeable commitment, is fascinating.

These kids are inspirational, please have a read through!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/29/out-afghanistan-boys-stories-europe?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038

(:

(1) http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/u/

©

Perceptions of Afghanistan: The Kite Runner

The novel, The Kite Runner, is singularly one of the most horrifying and simultaneously beautiful books I have ever had the honour of studying. The themes, including rape, warfare, and the idea of honour and betrayal, are perhaps themes that much bigger novels have attempted, however none, at least in my opinion, have succeeded quite so admirably and succinctly. I think that the  fecundity of the author’s mind alongside his own human experience produces the tenderness in the setting of the children; the use of such seemingly innocent minds is almost irreconcilable with the abhorrent acts included within the novel.

Children tend to represent the beautifully innocent mind; people who have not yet been naturally damaged by the world around them. The removal of innocence in the boys, one betraying the other however shows a disparity between the naivety associated with childhood, and the real political awareness one would have had, growing up in a war zone. The concept of conflict in itself, especially in a nation as politically unstable as Afghanistan is an interesting juxtaposition when considered alongside the children as entities in themselves; they go on to represent the damaged children of Afghanistan and the generations from the 1950s onwards that have lived their lives in such a way that the explosion of a bomb was an everyday occurrence.

Kings Tomb, Kabul (1)

The country of Afghanistan I think was brought into a much more public, literary sphere than it had been previously entitled to as a result of the novel. The history of Afghanistan is tainted with the history of imperialism and subsequent occupation and invasion. The problem has been exacerbated in the last fifty years, especially with the rise of problems such as terrorism, jihad, and the freedom fighter. This led to the western world feeling threatened, and  therefore attempts to ‘control’ the nation lead to invasion, war, and inevitably a global misunderstanding of what true ‘jihad’ actually is, and instead promotes the media’s perception of the terrorist as someone involved in jihad. There is always a distinction to be made in each individual case, however it would be a terrible mistake to believe that every Muslim is involved in anti-western jihad; the majority of people of Muslim faith live in America peacefully and as part of their respective communities.

This misunderstanding is one explored within the parameters of the novel, and looks at how elements of change are also included as negative and positive; throughout the novel there is an element  of both positive and negative progression, and unlike most of the media coverage of events in Afghanistan, looks at domestic conflicts which are so rarely understood and sympathised with. I would suggest that everyone read the novel, if only to satisfy their own personal curiosity about some of the issues in the area.

I have an interest in politics of the Middle East and one day, I would love to be able to travel more freely around the area. The history of horrific oppression, often in a domestic setting and in relation to its position on an international platform makes the area a fascinating example of political and religious conflict; I hope to be able to look at more Eastern literature, and if I could, I would love to study a historical module on the modern history of the Middle East.

(:

(1) http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium/kings-tomb-kabul-afghanistan-michael-palmer.jpg

©