Wonderland or Not

Renee remin­ded me of this with a clip she posted.

Brave New Films has part­ne­red with RAWA, to help Afghans dis­pla­ced by US war, focu­sing on what is really hap­pe­ning in Afgha­nis­tan as a result of US policy. The part­nership is to pro­vide direct aid to dis­pla­ced peo­ple living in des­pe­rate con­di­tions in suburbs of Kabul. The plight of these peo­ple has been cove­red in a docu­men­tary vie­wa­ble in seg­ments at the Rethink Afgha­nis­tan.

There are five seg­ments up at the site currently. Most are quite dis­tur­bing. The site itself is worth too­ling around. I’ve been follo­wing it for some time, as I’ve follo­wed RAWA. The site boasts a blog, and a sepa­rate sec­tion for Vete­rans for Rethin­king Afgha­nis­tan.

Unlike Iran Afgha­nis­tan is tech­no­lo­gi­cally iso­la­ted. The peo­ple, their way of life, are unfa­mi­liar to most of us. Iran, though iso­la­ted via sanc­tions, is a country whose peo­ple we relate to, and proudly twit­ter about, because they look more like us, are edu­ca­ted like us, have access — even if limi­ted — to advan­ced tech­no­logy, and we fear their country. We find it har­der to relate to the Afghan peo­ple. Con­se­quently we are less bothe­red by the fact that the women of Afgha­nis­tan suf­fer some of the most horri­fic cir­cums­tan­ces we could ever ima­gine. We don’t twit­ter about them, or turn our faces green over them.

There is no logic to how we choose our cau­ses. At times it seems merely a mat­ter of con­ve­nience, though we tend to act much quic­ker, and with more care­ful con­si­de­ra­tion, when we can see our­sel­ves in others. The more peo­ple seem like us, the more likely we will be bothe­red by their dis­tress and act, if only sym­bo­li­cally, on it.

We choose our cau­ses based on same­ness. Women are going to have to help women. First we have to lis­ten to the women we are hoping to help. The 5th seg­ment of the docu­men­tary will help with that. Bombs will kill women in Afgha­nis­tan.

We should be aware of what our policy is doing to women around the world, even if it is not as easy for them to com­mu­ni­cate this to us and our nightly news is not repor­ting it.

The site also has a direct link to donate to RAWA. The dona­tions will purchase a variety of things, from ghee and rice, to blan­kets and tent carpets.

A com­ments off FYI posting.

peace