Ruination of East Anglia; Gardez News; Friday Round-up

Every year on Good Friday pilgrims make their way on foot to Chimayo, a town in northern New Mexico. Walking the 10, 30 or 100 miles is a form of penance and spiritual renewal. It's also a very social event. It's a religious thing, obviously, but a cultural phenomenon, as well.

Something akin to the Chimayo pilgrimage occurs in Walsingham in Norfolk County, except it traces its origins back 10 centuries. The Reformation put the brakes on it in the 1500s. The tradition, after all, began as a Catholic practice. It was revived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for both the Catholics and the Anglicans. The Anglicans troop to a shrine in the village; the Catholics converge on the Slipper Chapel just down the road in a bucolic setting near North Barsham.

The photo above is a country lane near Walsingham, close to a village called Great Snoring. Great name, huh? Makes you think there's lots to do there.

Seems like anywhere you go in Norfolk County, there once existed a priory, convent, monastery, church or cathedral that stands no more, or only their stony shells remain. All this is due in large part to Henry VIII and the Reformation. In England, the dismantling of religious communities in the 16th century is called the Dissolution. Henry didn't just dissolve the organizations and scatter its membership, he also literally tore down the buildings, some of them already hundreds of years old in his day. The landscape is signposted with these skeletal forms, like the one pictured at right, the priory at Castle Acre. This priory, however, had already declined in importance by Henry VIII's reign.

Gardez News

Speaking of bucolic settings, Kelley writes of a mission, one of the few she's had in the actual community beyond the confines of her forward operating base. She writes:

"Went to a school where another unit did a VMO (village medical outreach). The ANA (Afghan National Army) medics/docs actually did the medical care, but the Air Force medics/docs (their "mentors") came along, as did our medic, so I tagged along, too. They saw lots of patients. Lots of kids and grown-ups and saw lots of goats, donkeys and camels! The Kuchis are on the roads a lot this time of year, as they are moving to their summer grazing grounds, so we saw lots of them driving their little goat/donkey/sheep/camel herds. Saw their tents along the way, too. So cool. The potty there was like the
one in Slumdog Millionaire. EW!!"

I have not seen Slumdog Millionaire, so I'm not familiar with the reference, but given the circumstances one might hazard a guess as to the state of affairs in that particular latrine. The Kuchis, by the way, are one of the tribal people one hears so much about in accounts from Afghanistan but for which detailed information is often lacking. Here's a glimpse of the aformentioned flocks, courtesy PRT Paktya.

She also tells of an exchange between one of her female colleagues and a local woman. The husband brought the woman, his wife, to the medical outreach. The AF female medic dealt with the local women because the Afghan Army docs are all men, with whom Afghan women may not communicate unless they're related.

Even faced with a female medic, the husband in this case would not allow his wife to communicate directly with her, a foreigner. Instead, the medic dealt with the husband, who related his wife's physical problems and conversed with the medic as if she wasn't even present.

For more info on PRT Paktya, follow this link to the previous version of this blog, where I was able to post a copy of the PRT newsletter.

Speaking of Afghanistan...

The news the past week was full of news and commentary on events in Afghanistan, from President Obama's surprise visit to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's stacking of the country's electoral commission ahead of the coming September parliamentary elections there.

The Afghan parliament appears to have grown a pair and rejected Karzai's bid to dominate the electoral board. It's one piece of good news in what otherwise has been Karzai thumbing his nose at allies and ignoring his own people's disgust at his corrupt administration.

NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman noodled President Karzai in terms of what motivates the guy and what the long term prospects for the US relationship with that country will be. A cursory look at Afghan history shows Karzai acting in a way consistent with his forbears. Which is to say, acting in his own interest, not ours. Afghan leaders of the 19th century played British support against the Russians, and the Russians against the Brits. When it suited them, Afghan kings installed or underwritten by the Brits turned on them, as well, seeking the support of conservative tribal and religious leaders in order to solidify their base.

After all, which is more important? The indigenous honchos that will keep you in power, or the foreign overlords who put you there? It's no wonder Karzai has gone his own way, no matter how injurious to his country's future; it's one lesson in history that's glaringly obvious.

What does this mean for efforts like those undertaken from FOB Gardez? The locals may respond positively to our efforts to make their lives more secure, to offer them a modicum of health care and build a few roads and schools. That work may pay off in the long run by producing a society that is more fair and just and less violent than the one left to Afghans following their victory over the Soviets. It won't guarantee us any friends there, on the other hand.