Remember how bad the taliban were?

Remember these pictures of life under the taliban?

Actually you don’t remember those photos at all. They were taken in 2008 – not under the Taliban. If you think you did remember them, don’t worry, my prime objective is not to embarass you, although if you are a honourable, honest and humble person, you should feel somewhat embarassed.

I want to make you think about perception.

Perhaps your feeling smug now and saying “I don’t remember them” but let me appeal to your honesty and ask you if associate photo’s LIKE  them being associated with the Taliban? I’m sure most honest people will be nodding right now, because almost everyone in the commercialised world, very possibly, will have a negative opinion about the Taliban.

Where did that perception come from? If I suggested to you it came from the western media feeding you pictures like this, accompanied by the thought shaping prose of western journalists denigrating life is under the Taliban, would I be wrong?

Did you actually go to Afghanistan? How many Taliban did you meet? How much of it did you see? What social level were you exposed to? Were you raised with Afghan cultural and environmental and religious values?

I doubt you did or saw any of those things.

Like virtually all of us ‘your’ opinion was forged by the media and if ‘your’ opinion was negative the likelyhood that is becasue the coverage involving the Taliban was negaive.

I know of someone who was in Afghanistan before 9-11. I put it to him the Taliban were involved with growing poppies to get money by exporting heroin. He was very offended with my suggestion and denied it strongly. I put that question to him simply because that was the perception I was given (I think via UK terrestial TV). I cannnot discount the possibility that it was myself who read into the ‘afghan report’ a connection between Taliban-Afghanistan-Heroin because I cannot recall if I had been subject to negative reporting on the matter before that. But I don’t think it was my own will. I’m pretty confident the suggestion of Taliban and heroin was as a result of the Afghan report itself making that association.

Before the US illegally invaded a country and tried to slaughter the theocratical group (the Taliban) who had absolutely nothing to do with 9-11 whatsoever, it was very common for TV reports to show haggard looking people shrouded in mucky burqus, accompanied with the tag lines of “oppression of women” etc. Scenes of depravation and junk scattered about such as discarded hollowed out TV’s and cinema tape trailing in the breeze from the branches of leafless trees.

NOT ONCE did I see the slightest indication of anything cheerful about Afghanistan, such as a child eating a nice looking meal, or siling, or looking well groomed. I never saw love being shown by the Afghan men to their wives or kids. I never saw footage of Afghans telling jokes or recounting fascinating historical tales. I never saw images of fathers teaching their kids to fish and farm. Women were never shown preparing their firends for marraige – nor were they shown enjoying the celebrations afterwards. I never say pictures of beautiful secenery, lakes, cloud formations, flora and fauna.

And neither did you.

You weren’t supposed to.

7 years on, longer then WW2, after nameless, faceless(some literally) and countless thousands of humans have been annhilated the USUK lead coalition of the killing persist in slaughtering innocents.

Pictures similar to the pre 9-11 propaganda pictures are still be captured by selective photographers, but such pictures this time round are NOT used to demonise the self declared official powers ruling the country today. (Actually they only rule Kabul – a bit like the Green Zone in Iraq, outside their central base of operations, those supporting the terrorising USUK slaughter machine will find little safe haven as the majority of the population hate the invading forces as they rightly should!). In fact the BBC plays a game of dual-propagnada, a bit like good-cop/bad-cop, showing scenes of misery, yet when useful, trying to inject some positivism into it, saying of one of one photo of refugees, the children think its a “fascinating game” – How sick can you get? (source – see photo 2).

A clever propagandaist (is there any more clever than those who shape western opinion?) seems to be able to use any blinkered photo for propaganda. In this case, like I said, they are not now being used to show the apalling nature of the ‘official’ leadership and administrative structure there, they are instead being used to try and cajole you into accepting that the USUK killers must remain in Afghanistan. As if these killers, of who it is intended will facilitate neoliberal policies of capitalism to grab the country and people by the throat this time financially rather than physically, can ever tansfroem the country into anything other than what its own people have become accustomed to and fashioned themselves.

Seldom in the corporate mainstream media will you hear an unedited (read: undistorted) report from people themselves saying how they believe in wearing the burqua, ot how they believe they want to stay in the house – acting as the nucleus for a functioning family and home). This is not because there are no people who would say such things, but becasue it will be detrimental to the planed pilliage of Afghan resources for the USUK imperialists.

Your mind is likely to have been pickled.

1) by your normalisation witht he culture you have become familair with and

2) by vile propaganda which is intent on making you accept mass killing of humans.

The first is understandable and to a point, isn’t a great deal you can do about it, but as for the second, you most certainly can do something about it. Question is, are you the kind of person that will do something about it? I hope you are and start about trying to reclaim your own mind as best you can.

The photos came from…

pics 1-4: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7738078.stm
mid to late 2008.

pic 5: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/weekinreview/06hicks.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Photographs and text by TYLER HICKS. Early to mid 2008

pic 6: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7228275.stm. Photo 8 early 2008

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