On Mermaids and Sailors

About love, strength, weakness and letting go.
Click here to read about the challenge and the necessity of growth.

No matter where you live or what you're doing you never really know what's around the next corner. If you do, then my advice is to get up off your ass and do something different 'cause life cannot be about tedious predictability. It’s about adventure, discovery and the unknown, all of which are found in different ways for each person. Sure, we all like routine to a certain degree. Dependability and stability are great but really, how long can that last before boredom and that oh so dangerous sense of curiosity set in?

For my part, I managed to get myself out to a city called Herat (in western Afghanistan) the other day. Beautiful place. Clean, wide, tree lined streets, traffic lights, fishing, well kept parks, intense architecture, and a perfect climate. The peacefulness of the city belies an interesting and brutal past. Over 3000 years old, it was once considered among the most learned and advanced cities in the known world. A centre of trade, thought, education, architecture and philosophy. Alexander the Great passed through Herat and no doubt spent many evenings gazing at the mysterious and inviting mountain range shyly skirting the city's western edge. Tragically, there are no true natives of Herat because in the year 1222 (I believe), Genghis Khan ripped and roared through the city, leaving an unbelievable 40 survivors out of an estimated 160,000 inhabitants. Only one was a woman. The current population of 500,000 (give or take 2 or 300,000) is the result of centuries of migration from Iran and other parts of Afghanistan. The Soviets pulled no punches either, committing pure terrorism when the citizens of the ancient city rose up against their military occupiers. They decided that an appropriate response would be fighter jets screaming down low, firing machine guns and rockets at the fleeing people. They took 20,000 lives in a single day.

Imagine being the pilot of one of those planes or a soldier in Mister Khan’s army. How would you bring yourself to do something like that? I think we demonize our perceived enemies to the point of seeing them like animals, devoid of feelings and purpose and suddenly killing, raping, torturing, segregating, and controlling them seems less like an act of barbarism than it is a necessary act of education and enlightenment. George Dubya and Osama should both pay attention. Mr. Khan would be envious of you two, wouldn’t he?

(BTW if you want to see a really good (fictional) movie on the Russians in Afghanistan, go rent 'The Beast' with Stephen Baldwin)

Herat has seen much more than that, and will no doubt continue to see both brilliant and disastrous times in the future. The current Governor, Ismail Khan, is a text-book feudal landlord. He controls the drug trade and the import/export duties over the nearby border with Iran, making him by far the wealthiest man in Afghanistan. He wields a strong hand throughout the province but injects large sums of money into development, or at least enough to placate the people. Of course, it may be the threat of force keeping them placated. Some see him as a benevolent dictator, some see him as a murderous fiend. He’s probably both. Whatever your viewpoint, I think it’s likely the best developed city in the country. Still, I have much yet to see.

I caught a tantalizing glimpse of India. A group of eight of us went to a friends wedding in Goa, spending three days there and two in Delhi. It was truly amazing but I caught a cold, wiped out on my rented motorbike, tore up my arm, bruised my shoulder and hip, then was hunted by and fought off 15 incredibly vicious dogs with a German journalist on a deserted beach at 3 am using nothing less than a flashlight and a beer bottle. And that was just in Goa. Good times! I also managed to go to a couple of great parties in Delhi, one of which was thrown for all the models of a two-day fashion party taking place in our hotel... *ahem* that was fun too....
Interesting place, India. I would love to go back, there’s still so much yet to see.

Oh, by the way, try not to get into a road accident over there. Apparently you could get seriously injured and the medical care is a bit sketchy.

Pictures? Well, of course there are pictures. Check it out:
http://www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b34bcdee0534

My next trip will take me to Pakistan and then possibly Croatia and/or Poland in March. Hmmm, I wonder what’s waiting around that next corner...