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Message from Kabul
When his message came, the Taliban had just fled, Northern Alliance soldiers had taken over his village, and everybody rushed to barbers to cut off their beards and to nearby holes and hiding spots to dig up their Walkmen, VCRs, TVs, CD players, and -- in Junis's case -- his ancient Commodore, one of four in the village. Cafes had popped up all over, with impromptu dances and parties everywhere.
Junis's e-mail -- routed to Kabul, then Islamabad, then London -- was a reminder that there are civil liberties, and then there are civil liberties. Computers had been banned under penalty of death by the Taliban (except for the Taliban themselves), along with music and TV. Junis, a computer geek obsessed with Linux, had first e-mailed me years ago while I was writing for Hotwired. He was genial and obsessed with American culture. He loved martial arts movies, anything to do with Star Wars, and rap. He was perhaps the Taliban's prime kind of target. (Now he's furiously trying to download movies he's missed and is mesmerized by open source and Slashdot.)
"I could still see the dust of the pick-up trucks carrying the Taliban out of my village," he wrote, "and some friends and I went and dug up the boards of a chicken coop where I had hid the computer. They might have beaten or killed us if they'd found it. It was forbidden, although they used computers all of the time." He claims American commandos are skulking around dressed as Northern Alliance tribesmen.
Junis describes life under the Taliban as brutal, terrifying and profoundly boring. What the people in his town -- especially the kids -- missed most was music, posters of Indian and American movie stars (he'd kept his own decaying poster of Madonna), and American TV. Junis missed the fast-changing Web and sees, he says, that he has fallen "forever behind," and that programming is more complex than ever. But at least "Baywatch," which everyone in his town acutely missed, is back, and there's already a lot of talk about "Survivor." Junis predicts "Temptation Island" will be the number one show in Afghanistan within a month.
If the world needed another demonstration of America's most powerful weapon -- not bombs or special forces but pop culture -- it got it again this week. People all over the planet fuss about whether this healthy and democratic or corrupting and dehumanizing, but people's love for American techno-toys, TV shows, music and movies is breathaking. Watching TV pictures of tribesman on horseback, it's easy to forget that technology reached deep into this culture as well. Junis says phone service around Kabul remains spotty, but reporters, U.N. workers and foreign soldiers are wiring up. He's already made his way to some sex sites, and wishes he had a printer.
There are many computers in Afghanistan, Junis said, many in clusters in cities like Kabul and Kandahar (news reports have frequently mentioned that Bin-Laden's organization used both e-mail and encrypted files to communicate). Computer geeks are already hooking up with one another all over the country; Junis isn't the only Afghan e-mailing these days. He says other coders and gamers hid their PC's as well. Meanwhile, he's especially eager to get his hands on the Apple iPod, and has been drooling over the Apple website site since he got back online. And some things, of course, never change. "I thought they were going to get Microsoft," he wrote. "I guess not."
A decade ago, when East Berlin teenagers stormed the Wall and crossed over into West Berlin, the first thing many of them did was rush to music stores to buy tapes and CD's they'd been secretly, illegally listening to for years.
The Taliban worked to create the antithesis of the American world, one without technology, computing, the Net, music, or any vestige of popular culture (not to mention women's rights, elections, a free press or any religion except fundamentalist Islam. Junis said people in his town risked their lives repeatedly, not to fight the Taliban, but to try and listen to CD's and watch videos smuggled in from Pakistan, watched in the dark under blankets and in cellars. It seems the outcome was inevitable.
sounds odd that for such oppressed people, this guy could get at a computer so fast... Sounds like this oppression view thing is a little one sided... Was the taliban really that oppressive? or are the western media outlets just trying to make them look just that little bit more evil?
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Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
from the comfortable confinds of Jon's Herman-Miller chair...
Jon, did you research your story? Try to verify the facts? Try to corraborate it with conventional news broadcasts?
Jon Katz: reporter, commentator, or story teller? (a/k/a fact, opinion, or fiction?)
-- You can't idiot-proof anything, because they're always coming out with better idiots.
What business is it of ours how women are treated in Afghanistan? Since when were we the moral compass for the world? Last time I checked, we had seperation of church and state, which Afghanistan does not have. That means they get to rule their country however their religon sees fit. Attempted "Modernization" of Saudi Arabia is what created the whole fundie Muslim movement in the first place. I know it's probably hard for us equal-rights-crazed Americans (and Europeans), but maybe Afghans like it that way. Yes, even the women. Ask orthodox Jews or the Amish if they'd like to be forced to "modernize", and see what they think! If the Afghans would like to treat their women differently, let them figure it out for themselves, rather than putting our big nose in somebody else's business, which is what got us into this mess to begin with.
If you fall off a building, go real limp, because maybe you'll look like a dummy and people will be like hey, free dummy
And it seems to me that the folks suggesting this is just another typical internet chain-email hoax missed the part where Junis had written to Katz before!
Oh come on. You don't really expect people to read the article carefully before they bash Katz do you? They already know he has the cushy job writing on slashdot that they all want, so what difference does it make whether or not they read the article -- it just takes them longer to find something to bash about him when they are constrained by the facts.
I owe about half a mill on my current house. The main thing I get for my money is adjacency to people who are well off and well educated like me. I enjoy interacting with the people in my locale. And, the whole community is designed for people like us, with lots of cool book stores, eateries with interesting food, offbeat movie theaters and places to buy cool stuff. We keep the place clean, preserve open spaces and enjoy an outstanding quality of life here. And, best of all, we don't have to deal with those bible thumping idiots from the Red areas.
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Socrates was asked where he was from. He replied not "Athens," but "The world."
so let me recap:
1. JonKatz sucks...not even an online mags or reputable news agencies would hire him.
2. he makes shit up to look cool
3. he's not cool...because he makes up news.
4. most people here wouldn't care if didn't ever come back
JediLuke
-Do or Do Not, There is no Try