The Blaming Game

As always, I was in a rush to print my English essay and get to my first class. I turned on the computer and bent over my big black bag lying on the floor so I could get my ID card to swipe before using the school printer. I was still half-bent when the Internet headlines appearing on the Yahoo homepage grabbed my attention.

Seeing Afghanistan in the first line was no surprise, but this time it was not about a blast or a victory over the Taliban. President Karzai’s comments about the U.N. and the West interfering in our country’s internal affairs had made the headlines that day. The title, “Karzai’s Worrying Comments about the West,” was disturbing enough for me to go ahead and open the link.

His speech read that foreigners were looking for excuses to avoid funding the September parliamentary elections because “they want a parliament that is weak and for me to be an ineffective president.” The words seemed very familiar. They were the same kind of words I grew up hearing. “Foreigners are doing this, and foreigners are doing that.” It always seemed as if blaming the foreigners for everything that went wrong in our country made the ABC of our politics.

We blame foreigners for every bomb blast, every defeat to the Taliban, and every fraud that occurs. Just a year ago, I was talking with my mom’s uncle when he looked me sharply in the eye and said: “Come on, uncle’s love, it is all America’s game. It is America that funds the Taliban to give Islam a reputation for being violent and find excuses for invading Muslim countries.”

I wanted to reply but what could I say to a man whose views were so far from reality? It was especially hurtful because the comment was coming from someone who has a degree in economics. If he can think that way, what could I possibly expect from an illiterate Afghan man or woman?

Whenever we watched a news report on television about uprisings for equal rights for minorities, Shias especially, the instant comments I heard were: “Bloody Iran will never leave us alone; it is all their doing.” Again, I had no idea what to say. Since childhood, I have always tried to love my country’s leaders—the men who fought and stood for our rights and interests without wanting anything in return—but every one of them was introduced to me as ISI, CIA agents, or foreigners’ slaves and again I didn’t know what to say, except that I wanted to respect them and love them with all my heart.

Now my heart wants to shout directly into the ears of my people: “For Allah’s sake, stop blaming others for our miseries and problems.” I want to reach out to millions of Afghans, President Karzai included, and tell them: “We have had enough of the blaming game. Let’s not play it anymore. Let’s take responsibility for our own actions and our own faith, for our people cannot take any more pain of dirty politics and lies.”

By Meena