I just finished watching a show on the Nat'l Geographic Channel called "Search for the Afghan Girl". Steve McCurry photograped the girl, approximate age 13, and it was the cover for the magazine in 1985. He never knew her name. She spawned an incredible amount of interest in the plight of Afghanistan & it's people when the magazine was published.
He went on a recent search for her & with luck, found her; alive, married & still living there. A Pashtun woman. Family & time have taken it's toll. Look at what 17 years does to a person living in that part of the world.
Story
This got me to thinking. Yes, again. In the middle east, especially, there has been war since time immemorial. The Greeks & the Romans fought here. The Byzantine Empire. The Turks, Assyrians, Hittites. The Crusades. All the way through until todays Iran-Iraq war, Israels climb to statehood. The unended Palestinian war.
Most, if not all of these have one thing, namely religion, as a background cause. Often it was in the forefront. I'm not bashing religion here, so don't wander off down that path. What I am saying is, as they've changed deities & dogma, the area has fallen farther & farther behind the rest of the world. Iraq, once a center for science & learning, now sends it's best & brightest to Germany, Britain or, god forbid, the US for a formal education. They have a literacy rate under 60% of the total population. Same with Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia. The entire region has gone backwards.
What would happen if they put (God) aside & started concerning themselves with advancement? I'm not suggesting they give up (God), just take him out of daily life in the social & political structure. It seems that, even in the west, the more "bible toting" one is, the less headway one makes in a geo-political & scientific light. Commerce isn't concerned with morality. The shopkeeper can be. Industry doesn't care if you are Hindu or Catholic, as long as you can operate the press. Isn't it time to step aside from ancient superstitions & join the 21st century?
He went on a recent search for her & with luck, found her; alive, married & still living there. A Pashtun woman. Family & time have taken it's toll. Look at what 17 years does to a person living in that part of the world.
This got me to thinking. Yes, again. In the middle east, especially, there has been war since time immemorial. The Greeks & the Romans fought here. The Byzantine Empire. The Turks, Assyrians, Hittites. The Crusades. All the way through until todays Iran-Iraq war, Israels climb to statehood. The unended Palestinian war.
Most, if not all of these have one thing, namely religion, as a background cause. Often it was in the forefront. I'm not bashing religion here, so don't wander off down that path. What I am saying is, as they've changed deities & dogma, the area has fallen farther & farther behind the rest of the world. Iraq, once a center for science & learning, now sends it's best & brightest to Germany, Britain or, god forbid, the US for a formal education. They have a literacy rate under 60% of the total population. Same with Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia. The entire region has gone backwards.
What would happen if they put (God) aside & started concerning themselves with advancement? I'm not suggesting they give up (God), just take him out of daily life in the social & political structure. It seems that, even in the west, the more "bible toting" one is, the less headway one makes in a geo-political & scientific light. Commerce isn't concerned with morality. The shopkeeper can be. Industry doesn't care if you are Hindu or Catholic, as long as you can operate the press. Isn't it time to step aside from ancient superstitions & join the 21st century?
It's striking how much she's aged, if she was 13 in the first pic, that means in the second she's my age...wow. She's suffered some hard life.
