Asks WaPo art and architecture critic Philip Kennicott.A young man who leads the local offices for an international cultural heritage organization said he was determined to stay in Afghanistan. “I am checking every day, and right now, things are normal and safe,” he said....
Some arts, including ceramics and woodwork, are passed on through a deeply conservative master-apprentice system which is embedded in traditional Afghan culture. Miniature painting, which has roots in Persian culture, too, is more fraught because it includes representational imagery and the human figure. During the Soviet occupation that began in 1979, rug-making — one of the most pervasive and revered Afghan crafts — morphed from an abstract craft to a field of resistance, with individual craftsmen making “war rugs” that recorded the brutality of the Russian war effort....
[One] leader of an organization that does cultural work in Afghanistan said...“Was everything we did for nothing?.... You can think of it like a building, a Jenga tower, and it all just fell down. But this is also about human capital. Millions of people got 20 years of relative stability, and freedom, and perhaps they will do something for their country. Maybe they will come back.”
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62 comments:
"Millions of people got 20 years of relative stability, and freedom"
Wait, what's this? You mean, even a pretty minimal American presence maintained "stability" and "freedom"? Like, the "endless war" wasn't actually a war-war? Like, "war" itself become a propaganda meme?
Well, WaPo art and architecture critic, Philip Kenicott apparently did not see this news in The Washington Post, but the Taliban don't particularly like the arts.
Folk singer executed
I would not whistle a happy tune walking down the a Kabul street these days. And performance art of any sort is probably not a good idea. I would not sculpt statues, or any figures at all. Maybe a mound. But I would get permission to sculpt a mound before I started it up. In fact, I would probably not even mention that you can sculpt. I would just stay quiet, don't display, don't perform. That is how the arts will be for awhile. They may not even need art critics for a bit.
Over 50,000 people killed during those 20 years of “relative peace.”
*stability.
What will happen? We all know what will happen. Death, destruction, chaos, repression and lawlessness.
Sharia law, when applied in the manner in which it was intended, is kind of brutal.
But that's what it is supposed to be...there was no enlightenment in Islam, so Muslims will just have to suck it up or reform their religion.
So all cultures aren't equal? Hmm...
Maybe they talk to their fellow Afghans. Y'know the ones now running Afghanistan and ask them. This is so hilarious. So, now the USA is responsible for the craft/arts community in every country in the entire world. A second thought, maybe we can cut a deal with the Taliban and USA can support the afghan arts community through foreign aid.
Right now there's now blowback for being hysterically anti-Taliban. There is no sanction against antiTalibanism. People need to remember that taliban lives matter.
The establishment press certainly does seem to want to make the Afghanistan story about everyday life over there, not the foreign and domestic policy shit show here.
What will happen? Nothing good, of course.
Easy question to answer. What happened to the Bamiyan Buddhas? What happened to Nazar Mohammad (better known on Tik-Tok as Khasha Zwan)? What happened to Afghan folk singer Fawad Andarabi? Welcome to a 12th century theocracy.
Almost three-quarters of the population is rural. Stability and culture in the capital may not have had much effect on the country as a whole.
It seems there is a major drought and serious malnutrition so I'm assuming most people in Afghanistan are going to be out foraging for food and perhaps not worrying too much about arts and culture.
I wonder if some western pop star will organize a "USA for Afghanistan" or "Live Afghan Aid" concert to raise funds to feed the people. The SNL cast can perform "War Party".
We are the World, We are the Children, We are the Ones who Make a Brighter Day...
Sucks to be dependent on the kindness of others, especially when the “other” is led by Sleepy Joe… or the Taliban.
On first pass I can't believe how disturbingly out of touch with reality these people are. These are the same types of people who dialy dish out scorn for war. Now they'll be subject to Islamic law, as interpreted by the Taliban. You shoudl read up on the details...
On second pass it reads as perhaps it's begun to hit home for WaPo, knowing it's not just Republicans involved but some of those cool kids from college they used to hang with...
But they have the Bacha Bazi you know - the singing and dancing boys show so beloved of the Lincoln Project here. That is the culture that Islam gives. ( ps - it isn’t a “sin” if they are not in puberty)
Maybe one day the Taliban will be chained and made to rebuild the Buddhas they destroyed in the name of performance “art”.
It's different this time.
[One] leader of an organization that does cultural work in Afghanistan said...“Was everything we did for nothing?
Did you arm people? Did you teach them how to use and maintain their weapons? How to work together as teams in a firefight?
No?
Then yes, everything you did was for nothing. Bec cause you built a "culture" of pathetic wimps like yourselves, ones whose freedom is entirely dependent upon someone else risking his life for you.
And there's no one "else" around any more
From your previous post:
The United [Nations] says more than 18 million people - over half Afghanistan's population - require aid and half of all Afghan children under 5 already suffer from acute malnutrition amid the second drought in four years....
So, Mr "cultural" moron, you didn't actually do anything to build a better society.
You sat around in Kabul, sucked down tons of other people's money, and pissed it away on masterbatory projects.
The biggest tragedy is that none of he people responsible for this will have to live / die under that Taliban and reap what they've sown
Rapes, torture, murder. Just whatever the Taliban, ISIS and Al Qaeda desire.
Lots of Dog stew. Lots of service dogs left behind also.
Temujin said...
And performance art of any sort is probably not a good idea
Oh NO!
Didn't you see the video, of Yesterday's performance?
The Taliban flew a Blackhawk; I know, I know, pretty boring performance, right?
Nope!
They took an performer, put a noose around his neck, and after throwing him out of the Blackhawk;
They flew around Kabul, with the guy hanging by his neck below the chopper.
Now, THAT is serious Art... Serious Art, that sends a MESSAGE
If you think about the Taliban, They have NO PROBLEM with performance art.
They don't seem to care much for standard, boring paints and sculpture, but Performance Art!
They are INTO Performance Art.
I think y'all are just critcal of art that is edgy. Y'all probably complained about Piss Christ too
WaPo art and architecture critic, Philip Kenicott ,is obviously a cultural imperialist.
Is that a rhetorical question?
"Millions of people got 20 years of relative stability, and freedom, and perhaps they will do something for their country. Maybe they will come back.”
1400 years of Islamic history and practices say otherwise.
Islam happens.
Dave Begley said...
What will happen? We all know what will happen. Death, destruction, chaos, repression and lawlessness.
8/31/21, 8:57 AM
Are you talking about the Taliban or the democrats, antifa, blm, etc.?
Biden supporters don't really care about any of that stuff.
See my comment in the previous post. These things are not valuable to the ruling party, they are probably seen as worthless at best and evil at worst. These are the people who blew up ancient relics and ban music. They have a distorted view of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. At the bottom is a very wide "service to Allah" with a tiny peak for "physiological needs" on top of that. Nothing else.
Death.
Same answer for the question posed in the previous link, too.
i see now, that the Taliban have put their performance art shows on the road!
They're traveling house to house; to make SURE that EVERYONE is exposed to CULTURE!!
Taliban commit 'house-to-house executions' in Kabul after US exit as chilling audio demonstrates Afghans' fear
so far - slaughter.
This is the same author who wrote that the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of hypocrisy and unfulfilled promises: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9754765/Washington-Post-writer-claims-Statue-Liberty-symbol-hypocrisy.html
I can't help but think that those like this author lamenting this "loss" are the same type of people who were always condemning the US soldiers and mostly white soldiers at that, otherwise the US military would be systemically racist if disproportionately POC. But lots of black, Hispanic and other diverse background soldiers as well.
A lot of those who reflexively condemn US soldiers and Marine (not saying military since the flag ranks and career civilian bureaucrats deserve a lot of condemnation right now), are having to face the harsh reality when those soldiers aren't standing post, conducting operations, interdicting bad actors.
My friends traveled there in the early 70's. Kabul was cosmopolitan, and mostly open society. But that was the exception. It was a time of relative freedom, and creativity.
but it was financed, as always, by opium and hashish. with the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, or extremism, things changed to what we have today.
what hasn't changed is the tribal nature of the society. that has and will continue to exist.
what hasn't changed is the role of graft and corruption, central to the society. the americans didn't change that, just picked a faction and made it seriously rich.
the american time there was relatively brief, and did nothing to change the afghani view of western society as corrupt and incompetent. We did everything to reinforce that view, all in the name of compassion and nation building.
In the end, Afghanistan is what it has always been, tribal, corrupt, and cursed to be at the center of geopolitical forces that have no interest in the people there.
the country watched, while america spoke of democracy and equality, while financing and supporting Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, two countries whose mission, for decades, was to spread religious extremism. The people could see that ultimately, america would be like all the rest. Just richer, more self righteous and just as corrupt and incompetent as all the others before.
We fought so that they would be killing folk singers over there, rather than over here.
Given how most of our American folksingers are, I'm not sure how I should feel about that.
Stay tuned for the bien pensants to deplore the sudden spate of Islamophobia here.
Now we get the pain point: the arts.
On the plus side, everyone knows exactly what their pronouns are...
rcocean said...
A second thought, maybe we can cut a deal with the Taliban and USA can support the afghan arts community through foreign aid.
That would be awesome!
I suggest we start with an "exchange program". We'll send to Afghanistan every single publicly supported "artist" in the US. In a year, any who are still alive can bring back Afghan artists to show us how they do it
"I wonder if some western pop star will organize a "USA for Afghanistan" or "Live Afghan Aid" concert to raise funds to feed the people. The SNL cast can perform "War Party".
We are the World, We are the Children, We are the Ones who Make a Brighter Day..."
Don't forget, "He's Just a Walk Away Joe" and "Leavin' On a Jet Plane"
"After the Americans leave, what will happen to Afghan artists and performers, cultural workers, and nongovernmental organization staffers engaged with heritage, traditional crafts and preservation?"
Asks WaP art and architecture critic Philip Kennicott.
I've got a great idea, Phil. how about you go to Kabul and do an in depth article on this? Say, schedule a month for you to be over there
If they adopt the same policies that democrats have in NYC, Chicago, Baltimore, St Louis, LA there will be mass shooting, murder, mayhem all those things democrats vote for year after year.
Maybe they should have defended themselves when they had the chance.
'"I wonder if some western pop star will organize a "USA for Afghanistan" or "Live Afghan Aid" concert to raise funds to feed the people. The SNL cast can perform "War Party".'
I have been breathlessly waiting for Michelle Obama to hold up a piece of paper with a hashtag...that'll show the bastards...
This sounds like something the average WaPo reader would be concerned with more than the average Afghani. I often got the impression that our media only queries the views of the Afghans who directly benefited from our presence.
If accurate polling data was available, would it show that our departure (and that of the former Afghan government) was met with an overwhelming "good riddance", or a "This is disaster, how can we carry on?"? I suspect the former.
"Was everything we did for nothing?"
Yep.
Joe Smith said...
I have been breathlessly waiting for Michelle Obama to hold up a piece of paper with a hashtag...that'll show the bastards...
#Don't_underestimate_Joe's_ability_to_fuck_things_up
All of the artists will be killed.
Next question?
There's an obvious answer since the Taliban are performance artists in their on right. Witness their latest piece entitled "Disident Hanging from Blackhawk". We can expect to see many such as this if the media permits it.
There's an obvious answer since the Taliban are performance artists in their on right. Witness their latest piece entitled "Disident Hanging from Blackhawk". We can expect to see many such as this if the media permits it.
“ Witness their latest piece entitled "Disident Hanging from Blackhawk". ”
That was fake news, wasn’t it?
Jim said...
My friends traveled there in the early 70's. Kabul was cosmopolitan, and mostly open society. But that was the exception. It was a time of relative freedom, and creativity.
**************
I call malarkey I was there in early 1974. Kandahar was an absolute and literal shithole, with piles of feces left by the sides of the roads, often next to and not in the open sewers running along them. I saw a guy being whipped while tied to a pole mounted on a kiosk at a street intersection, for what I do not know.
Kabul was marginally better, with some paved streets. The only really modern building one could label as "cosmopolitan" was the Inter-continental Hotel outside town, one of the few places where Traveler's Checks (remember them?) could be cashed. It may still exist, but if you google the term its description is in the past tense.
To be fair, I do recall seeing a sign identifying a building as housing the "Cercle Hippique", or Equestrian Circle. But I remember it because I saw virtually nothing else in that benighted country that identified itself with Western culture, something I would think a pre-requisite of "cosmopolitanism".
\ Ann Althouse said...
That ["Disident Hanging from Blackhawk"] was fake news, wasn’t it?
Snopes claims it is fake news
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/taliban-hanging-black-hawk/
For a few days, I saw it reported that 'the Taliban is going to outlaw music', without any of the articles specifying what that might mean. Are they talking about banning concerts in theatres or performance halls? The family down the street's Saturday night sing-along in their front parlor? Buskers with guitars on the streets?
The photograph I saw of the man hanging from the helicopter was 'fake news'. In close up, the hanging man looked to be waving, presumably to the onlookers below.
Ann Althouse said...
“ Witness their latest piece entitled "Disident Hanging from Blackhawk". ”
That was fake news, wasn’t it?
Tell yourself that.
The taliban rapes and murders. They are going around right now and demanding "wives" in mass. They are killing anyone on the list Biden gave them that they can find. It is what they do. Over 50% of the child bearing female population, 12-30 years old in Afghanistan, will be raped and sold off to buy "security" within a few months.
We could have wiped them out. But we were not allowed to.
The Taliban is taking over because the DC crowd wants them to.
What will happen to them? They'll be driving rickshaws, or the Afghan equivalent, if they are lucky enough not to be murdered by the Islamaniacs.
@Althouse, Michael Yon thought the story was plausible. He’s a veteran war correspondent and is — of until recently was — on the ground in Afghanistan. That he found it plausible should give a reasonable person something to think about — it’s not as though Snopes has a lock on the world’s truth and righteousness. When I saw the clip I did not notice a waving arm, and the posture of the man dangling below the copter in the last few seconds he is visible certainly resembled the posture of a lynching victim.
What will happen? If they have enough people who care about those things and are willing to fight for them, they can keep them. I suspect they don't, so they likely won't. That's their choice. Let's respect their right to define their culture as they see fit - burkas, beheadings and all.
I just put up a new post about the fake news, with a link to USA Today.
People who fell for the fake news need to reflect on their role participating in spreading incendiary, titillating stories.
This sort of thing ought to give you pause: "@Althouse, Michael Yon thought the story was plausible. He’s a veteran war correspondent and ..."
Center yourself on facts.
Americans have been bombarded with fake news for years, and you expect us to tell the difference when one story, that wouldn't make people think twice, turns out to be fake?? It's what happens when you have Pravda media. Whose facts are you to believe??
Yes, of course it was all for nothing. Because the U.S. won't face what war is.
How many Americans ever seriously considered nuking Kabul in 2002? That would have been WAR. War is killing, burning, maiming, stealing and destroying the enemy people and their property until their hearts break and they are willing to give you what you want. In our case, that means leaving us alone, at a minimum, which necessarily entails that whenever someone is detected preaching jihad against the West, the locals kill him, immediately.
And given that radical Islam is exists in every Muslim country, and is supported more or less secretly by Russia and China, as well as huge numbers of traitors within Western Civilization, it means World War.
Instead, we have decided to surrender.
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