Books? I mean, books...

Peshawar's pollution was turning everything down to the depths of my soul black, so we irrationally hopped a bus.

In Taxila we saw the collison of East and West, where the Greeks openly influenced Asian art in an ancient Buddhist civilization. Despite the historical significance and the land touched by Alexander, though, the benefit of the sojourn mostly lay in blue skies and fresh air.

A ride with a local math teacher to Islamabad brought us to the dingy Star Hotel, which would be our home for several unexpected days. It seems that the Ashura festival (on which the self-mutilating Shiites displaying reverence for martyrs of old seemed to be hiding from us in Peshawar) wrought a little havoc with the work-week of the Muslim world. The visas to the next destination should be available shortly.

In the meantime, we've been trying not to drive each other completely insane, mostly unsuccessfully. This dull western city to which we never wanted to return after our first stopover here is draining the very life out of us. Most inspiration of thought comes from literature, which despite its serving as a catalyst to arouse ideas as we move, is a sad fact for any traveler to admit to.

Today we awoke with the intention of bagging the whole ordeal, but a slightly optimistic email has us glued to Musharraf's backyard for another day, at least.
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For those wanting something more, I include it here:

Iran is not an imaginary place in the cradle of civilization, far far away from the United States in both time and place, as I and perhaps 90% of other Americans would think. Instead, Iran is a place easily reached from the United States in less than 24 hours and maybe 1000 dollars in the modern world. Iran is not an undeveloped country, and most people to whom we've spoken who have traveled there praise the level of development, in contrast.

There are, as such, actual people living in Iran.

It is completely unfair to judge the middle east by pictures of burning danish flags on the cover of newsweek, or by one story in the NYTimes about suicide bombers in Kandahar, or even by stories of 4 people being killed in riots in Kabul. This would be akin to developing one's view of the United States based on a murder in South Central LA. It would be like nixing Washington off the list because someone tried to dive a plane into the pentagon. It would be like avoiding the mountains of colorado because there was an avalanche somewhere a few weeks ago.

The irrationality by the west in their appraisal of the situation in the middle east is astounding, and I am the first to admit that I wholly embodied the common stance before arriving in Pakistan. As much as I may have wanted to, the task of digging one's way out of the swamp of media misinformation and misguidance is daunting, and nearly impossible at home.

Here, we drive down the streets of pakistan and by a few protestors (danish cartoons), while our driver, who is just a friend we met, not a taxi driver, advocates the view that the protests are good; should be carried out; and that the man who wrote the cartoon should be punished. What may be shocking to the Western reader of Newsweek is that he is not wholly opposed to free speech, he is not against all western values, and he does NOT want to kill US just for having white skin like the Dane who brought all this wrath about.

In my estimation, there would be similar riots in the streets of Denver if the Rocky Mountain News published an editorial dismissing the holocaust as a myth or advocating the return of slavery, for example. A protest in light of such remarks would not be construed by the media as an attack on freedom of speech, but rather as an exercise of freedom of speech. In that wonderful article of the declaration of independence, it is not only the initial statement that is protected, but all the subsequent responses as well.

In fact, in those riots in Denver some protestors may get out of hand. Some people may break some windows, pull down some light posts, or even set a building ablaze - say, an embassy. But it has never been a value of the West to dissuade the masses from continuing peaceful demonstrations - up to and including flag burning, as has taken place at many rallies that I have attended - despite the unruly few who cross the line of the law.

Focusing on Iran and Pakistan, we can make one point clear. Pakistan is the seventh most populous country on the planet with 150 million people (how many people that you meet on the streets in Washington today will know that?), and Iran has close to 70 million. Supposing even 1, 2, 3, 4, or 20 million people chose to hit the streets in protest, they would still not provide an accurate representation of the sentiments of the country as a whole. In fact, to assume such is akin to assuming the whole of Ireland is aligned with the IRA, or that all of Alabama is the KKK. Such gross over-statements of non-truths are absolutely outrageous, and yet this is the image the media highlights of the entire muslim world. When flag burning is not prevalent on the streets, they instead focus on Al-Qaida operatives or Nuclear ambitions - while the other 99% of the population takes its seat in the ignored realm of editor's cuts.

All of this logic applies equally well to Iran. Iran is a country full, by all accounts, of some of the most hospitable people on the planet (though the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Western Pakistan are very hard to beat) - people who live life everyday just like you and me. Likewise, they are people with a reputation among travelers for an innate ability to separate the actions of governments with the actions of people - as are most Asians. They realize that I am not Bush. In fact, just as at our protests yesterday, the writers of everyone's favorite lonely planet describe a rally that they witnessed in Tehran: in a crowd chantings "DOWN WITH AMERICA!" in unison, several participants came out just to say hello to the onlookers with white, pasty faces and ask them how they liked Iran.

Perhaps the people of the United States have been so overwhelmed by the propaganda of history books that our government is "by for of the people" that we forget that many despise our own government's actions. We forget that the people in power are rarely a reflection of society as a whole, and certainly we cannot blame Abbey and Chris for the pitfalls of George Bush's viewpoints. People in Iran do not equate to the Ayatollah, and people in Iran recognize, even in the face of impending sanctions or war, that I am not the one doing the bombing. They recognize that 279 million other people are in the US with whom I have to contend - why can't the majority of people in the US realize the same lesson to overcome their inherent fear?

Of course, in this specific instance we cannot place the blame of blatant misunderstanding or misplaced policy squarely on the shoulders of our beloved President. In this case, he has specifically stated that the government of Iran does not reflect, and much more overpowers and even oppresses its own people. It's just that Americans (and westerners as a whole - I've met Irishmen equally irrationally terrified of Persia) have their minds so wholly bent toward disagreeing with the usually idiotic personality that they forget to think for themselves. They forget to group individuals apart from politics.


It struck me when I spoke to a Cambodian who dismissed the entire reign of Angkar as politics; and when I spoke to the Vietnamese who did likewise with their wartime history; and even the Burmese who did the same with their oppressive government of the moment that even war is only politics - even when it costs lives. In fact, as I sat in a wester-style pizza/burger joint in Peshawar, close to the border with Afghanistan, I looked around and realized all of my above points. I realized that life does, indeed, exist here - and despite its differences of beliefs and customs, it is remarkably similar to the life I know...the life everyone knows. In this city where I was so scared to come a few weeks ago because the CIA bombed the tribal areas, I realized more than simply that people here associate me less closely with the CIA than I irrationally do. I realized that life does not come to a halt at the demand of the United States government. Bombs, deaths, and conflicts do not stop time from moving forward; and as it does people continue with their daily lives, with very little changed.

So as we try to go into Iran we recognize the risks (most of which stem from Patriot Missiles at this point, which would probably miss us if they did land, and which won't be flying for a month or so at the earliest anyway), but we also emphasize our own misperceptions. We are going there to get around the media and to arrive at a more complete, more satisfactory understanding of the place. We are going with the intention of understanding something we cannot find by simply reading an IAEA statement. We are going to meet people who are very much alive, breathing...and kind.