The world according to an Afghan

Ali is extremely well-versed in global politics, not everyone will agree with his interpretations, predictions.

“Uzbeks are straight up guys,” said Ali, who to most people is just a nameless face in the crowd and prefers to remain this way. “I was having tea in a filthy Jalalabad bazaar when an Uzbek guy, a real tough looking character, asked if I spoke Pashto or ISI lingo and once we had settled on Pashto and I had dusted off my ancestors to his satisfaction, he asked what I thought of a handsome young man loitering nearby. I agreed that he was striking. ‘My son,’ he told me. ‘A big disappointment. My village is in the south and I make a damn good living selling fresh water to a British Army base. A dollar a litre I get but that boy is creating a huge problem. I have told him again and again it’s fine, you’ve got to kill at least one firangi a month but he is knocking off at two or more!’ Yes. Uzbeks are straight up front and murderous and they don’t hide it, which is more than I can say for some!”

“Look at the Yanks,” continues Ali. “All pomp, ceremony and bullshit and the idiots expect everyone to swallow their guff about good intentions and, shamefully, many people do. Look at Iraq, look at Syria, Afghanistan, the situation they are creating in Iran and as for Balochistan … well … the Yanks are set on ‘liberating’ it from Pakistan and then exploiting it dry. They are also working hard, pulling out all the stops to keep President Asif Ali Zardari in power; they need him and Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, too, otherwise they will not get Balochistan. All of these wars are about energy and mineral wealth. Back in the 1960s, America was operating on a 40 per cent shortfall in oil supplies, now it’s up to 85 per cent and they are desperate.”

“One of the major problems is that 90 per cent of global oil is in Muslim countries — yet, the Yanks have absolutely no idea how to communicate with Muslims so they go into attack mode and instigate wars and chaos, alienating everyone in the process. Currently, there is no viable alternative to oil: armies run on the stuff and gobble up astronomical amounts of it — as does society, global society, in the way it has been indoctrinated to live. This utter greed for the black stuff will be the death of America by 2050, at the latest. It is already imploding, as is the ‘global policeman’ it set up — Israel. They will both go bang and then the way will be clear for China and the Central Asian states to come into their own. Look at the power Russia is quietly wielding … President Vladimir Putin is one astute guy who knows exactly how to play the game … especially when no one is looking!”

Ali, like so many other ‘ordinary’ people here in Pakistan, is extremely well-versed in global politics although not everyone will agree with his interpretations and predictions. But, even taken with the proverbial pinch of salt, his views are certainly food for thought!

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19^th, 2012.