Everyone should read this book.Words like "Afghanistan", "Taliban", "U.S. troops in Afghan", they werent exactly unfamiliar to me. But during those turmoil times, after reading a summary of what has happened, I usually do not keep abreast of these news anymore. Too depressing, and well, just admit it, we just get too caught up in our own lives to care about such world news for long.
It's the same with any other world disasters, such as the Szechuan earthquake, the Mumbai terrorist attacks, etc etc. We read about the pitiful stories of the victims, we know who are the Singaporeans that have been sacrificed, and once the newspapers headlines have moved on to other news, we move on with our own lives as well.
And then, I picked up "The Kite Runner" to read 2 days ago. Left me totally in awe. I think "powerful" describes the story best. It gave me a greater insight into how Afghanistan is really like, what it had gone through over the years, from being a monarchy to being overthrown by a coup, and then being invaded by Russian, then by the Taliban, and then the U.S. troops toppled the Taliban regime.
The Taliban regime was governed with many prohibitions, among them, fireworks, clapping at sports events, television, computers, photos, movies, etc. And the treatment of women during then is utterly anti-modern. But the worst of all, was the "ethnic cleansing" of an ethnic race called Hazara in Afghanistan.
"The Taliban drove their pickup trucks up and down the narrow streets of Mazar-i-Sharif shooting to the left and right and killing everything that moved."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban
A complete replica of Hitler's massacre of the Jewish.
Or perhaps, even worse.
And all that happened during 1996 to 2001, not too long ago.
The wars left Afghnistan being only a land of rubble and beggars. Today, the country is reconstructing from the aftermath.
But today, another war is happening in the Middle East. As we are buying our CNY clothes or getting ready for the new school semester ahead, the people of Gaza find themselves being surrounded by bombs and corpses. Nothing but fear grips them.
Take some time out, read the book, read the news, and count your blessings.
