~ Going back, always going back.
So I just hit my “return” key to write this post, to write another line. I was going to write instead about the Encyclopedia Britannica filmstrips of the forties and what a marvelous transformation it was to move up to a 13 inch black and white TV (circa the early 1950’s).
Knowing history (and even growing) is like that. One starts with almost nothing, a very small image of things, always black & white. Then in time the screen gets larger, perspective grows, one knows and learns a little more - maybe sound is added - later even color. And as the world turns we get the bigger picture on the big screen, CinemaScope and Technicolor; meaning a wider screen and truer color. At this point we still don’t have Dolby Sound, Cinerama, I-Max, 4-D Vision, or all the other good stuff that might help in seeing and feeling what is really there - but we’re making progress.
The problem is when people fossilize. The problem is when they are content with the big boxy film images from the past, grainy black and white stuff with flickers, grating (not great) sound, actors on stage jerking around because the projector does not match the film (being shown). Most theaters never cared about this last one; nor theater owners. “Just play the old frame per minute movies on the new equipment”, they said (meaning what they told the projectionist) - “the sheeple will not care, they’ll just get a laugh out of things (that aren’t really funny)”.
So now that you have this short history of film, fact, and entertainment - we can move on with this, my metaphor. Getting history “through the keyhole” is not good. I try to throw the door wide open; I encourage you to walk in, sit down / stand up; run around and feel the furniture - to know what is there and where you really are. So sit down folks, it’s time for today’s production. This one is Cinerama with surround sound without the pesky Cinerama center lines. If you’re used to “black & white” and don’t want the bigger vision - just walk out. Refunds happily given at the refreshment counter…
The Right of Return - a “Donald Clayton” production (ta - ta)
{Scene opens with a picture of war weary Afghans and the capitulation of the American forces}
The Afghan people have suffered long enough. It has been two thousand years (or less or more) of endless war. The suffering WILL continue - see the film footage now. The Afghans of course are tired of all of this; it’s not the people but the place they say. They want and need a homeland more like a real home where in the future they can work, live and prosper.
{Narrator / film critic chimes in and says, “Wow, This IS a real plot - What A Movie! - WOW! - Play THIS ONE again Sam; I think we have a winner!}
So all the Afghan scholars looked back, looking for a place with roots to root their aspirations and to which they (meaning “all” the Afghans) could return. What the scholars found was what everybody already knew (if you were Afghan) and that is there really is and was SUCH A PLACE! It is a land of milk and honey. God and history gave the land to me (”me” meaning all the Afghans interested in the dream, the land, the place that they dreamed to go).
{There is a musical interlude, almost an intermission. Great moving patriotic songs, love songs from Afghanistan’s past, songs borrowed from the human rights causes of others all are played. A chorus sings. Scenes of all the past wars and suffering are shown. It ALL is quite moving!}
At first not everybody bought it, or bought into it - meaning the Afghan “solution”. Some people had their doubts, voiced objections, complained. Things always go down that way. But the Afghan people were patient; they lined up their (little appreciated) history and presented all the facts. New writers joined the fray - spokes men and spokes women who knew the history, backed everything with very good research and facts and more facts.
They explained all of the voyages, the treks across the land, the sparse unsettled nature of EVERYTHING before they first arrived, “like a wilderness” is what they said. And it WAS. No, the Afghans WERE NOT lying. They found it, settled it, taught the natives a thing or two (really everything they know or knew). And in the end they simply said, “This Land is OURS, This land is Mine!”
{“Oh Glory to the Afghans! Glory to the great Afghan nation! The “Hindu” Kush no more. No more living in the land claimed always by ALL the others; we have OUR historic land which we can claim. We DO HAVE a RIGHT of return!” Camera moves to shots of happy hopeful faces.}
Of course the Chinese immediately sided with the Afghans. The Chinese offered to help them. The Chinese said that they would do everything in their power - including moving heaven and earth to help the Afghans, their friends. The Chinese of course knew. They were there too. They helped the Afghan missionaries the first time, they promised to help again. They knew THEY had an equal right to claim this new (old) homeland, but they didn’t and didn’t care. The Chinese HAD (and have) a HOME LAND; they’re happy with their home - they don’t need or want to move.
{The camera pans to pictures of the Great Chinese armies, the nuclear armed aircraft carriers, the missiles, the cannon and the endless artillery, the thousands of Chinese aircraft and bombers, ten thousand landing craft - enough to move an entire nation across the seas and waters. The narrator says: “Wow! It does look like the Afghans do have some support for this thing. Maybe they really do have a clear right of return!}
The Afghans of course did not say, “Might makes right”. They just wanted the right to have those citizens (of the new country) to be freely accepted by the new counties that occupied the land of the Afghans original “old country”. They didn’t (in terms paraphrased by others) “want no gringos or wetbacks to impede the progress of the Afghan infiltration”. The Afghans of course were too polite to use these racist words; but that’s what they thought about the “johnny come latelys” that occupied the Afghans ancient land in America.
In the beginning the Afghans plan was to “work with” these people. Share the land, space, cultural experiences and observe “cultural expression”. Then (of course) more Afghans would (WILL!) follow. The (old) native villages will then of course have to move. Chinese made bulldozers might help do the trick; or maybe just wait for the “brown flight” as the new browner race moved in, in numbers - in ever daily increasing numbers as the Chinese boats kept bringing all the new fresh Afghan faces ashore - by the thousands, by the the millions of Afghans that there really are!
{The narrator asks the question: “Is there a blockade against these people? Why won’t they let the Chinese ships freely in? Why won’t they let the Afghans cross the borders and get to their native lands. The Afghans WERE here first; EVERYBODY knows that now! Let the Afghans work, play, bring and raise their families, have four wives and maybe two dozen children from the four - it IS cultural and (religious) tradition! Oh please, Let the Afghans have their way! It is SO RACIST to have it any other way!}
So Israel had to stop and think about the Afghans. Some in Mexico had to stop and think a bit about it too. The Americans had to think about the Afghans. The native Americans just thought that the Afghans were invaders, but they had to then look at their own history too.
The question on everybody’s mind was of course, “Is there a RIGHT to return?” Who’s rights are effected? Who has the right to just live and stay; or does population rule EVERYTHING; the greater the numbers, the greater the weapon power and “you win”?
{The narrator makes the following announcement: “The Chinese government today just announced that 50% of the “Chinese” population is really “Afghan” and the Chinese are demanding the full right of “return“!}
Now a billion Chinese “Afghans” are coming over (across the Pacific once again) in the great fleets built by China with all the American dollars that they made, with the steel that they made, in the ships that they made and are making. It is like a great “family reunion” in America now. What goes around has come around. Pharsi and Chinese signs are everywhere. All the new laws are in Chinese, all the new temples are Chinese Mosques from where Buddhism is spread - like it was in the beginning when the first Chinese and Afghans “discovered” this great land a thousand or so years before. I guess things really do work out. I guess “return” is good.
{There is a great beating of melodious drums; Chinese drums, Afghan drums, Korean drums too (some Koreans were Chinese so these people are Afghans too). Streamers are flying, kites are flying, there are pictures of the Great Bamian Buddhas fully restored; recreations of the great Chinese sea-going Junks that crossed the seas so long ago so all of this could happen. The camera does NOT “fade to black”, instead there is a burst of color; not the words “The End” or “Fin”, but “THE BEGINNING” fills the screen. The audience (meaning you) doesn’t know whether to stay, or leave!}
Epilogue:
“Give me a break! An “epilogue” to a movie? How Lame!”, you MIGHT say. That IS what people say when they miss the point of a whole movie, not just the Britannica film strip version of things.
The real point is that all the points I made ARE true. The events depicted really ARE Afghan and Chinese history (that YOU SHOULD know). Every person in every culture is very culturally blind; and politically blind too. I’m not saying “restricted or tunnel vision” - I said blind, I mean blind.
The BLIND ARE still leading the blind. Glasses, contact lenses; laser surgery even, will not help. Even the sighted following blind leaders around doesn’t make the leaders see. So what to do? Join the A Thousand Ships of Light flotilla is what I say. Make a poster or a sign; post something on the web - send an E-Mail or two to make it happen. You don’t need to pack your bags yet. Just get ready. Spread the word! Post up a real storm before the real storm hits.
Photograph of Chinese Premier Chou En-lai (Zhou En lai) and Prime Minister Daoud (Daud) of Afghanistan - Kabul, Afghanistan - January 1960.
Afghanistan - Ancient Land with Modern Ways - page #175 photograph from the Donald Clayton collection - This image is contributed to the Public Domain under the parameters of Qala Bist Blue.
As Chinese Foreign Minister Chou En-lai visited Afghanistan in late January of 1957. In 1960 he returned pursuant to a frienship treaty that celebrated 2,000 years of Chinese-Afghan friendship inherent to the Silk Road commerce through to Rome. The agreement referred to a “new silk road”. Now there is a new “New silk road” that is bringing the first railroad into Afghanistan - a China connection!
Photograph of Radio Kabul central control panel in 1960.
Afghanistan - Ancient Land with Modern Ways - page #114 photograph from the Donald Clayton collection - This image is contributed to the Public Domain under the parameters of Qala Bist Blue.
Does this man look Chinese. Of course not. He IS an Afghan. But the Afghans and Chinese have been pooling their genes for maybe 5,000 years so what is YOUR point? I’ve made mine.
Chronology - the Afghan version of the world and the history of the Afghan people; maybe even (after 1222) Afghanistan. There is no mention of a “home land”.
Afghanistan - Ancient Land with Modern Ways - page #198 “Chronology” from the Donald Clayton collection - This image is contributed to the Public Domain under the parameters of Qala Bist Blue.
If you look to the year 453 (A.D.) you will find the secret to a tremendous amount of history. Like #1 - Who really “discovered” America first. #2 - Why the Aztec / Maya expected a return of wise “white men”. #3 - Who the real “four corners” originators of all things really were. #4 - Why the “swastika” design is found both in Tibet, China, and the Southwest region of the USA; brought to Afghanistan by the Romans and before by the Greeks. The Afghans didn’t really use it; the Chinese more often did. #5 - And then there are all those cliff dwellings (in the Southwest), like in Bamiyan (in Afghanistan) so long before.
No, America’s presence in Afghanistan is NOT about the Taliban. It IS about the history; about Bamiyan a bit, about Qala Bist and the underground vaults with treasures, maybe maps, maybe all the records that have been “lost”. It’s about all the other cities (ruins only half explored). It’s about China and the great encirclement - circle game - bases from Bagram to Osan and Okinawa in-between.
Oh yes; a WAR is coming. But it is always good to know WHY. If everyone knew “why” we could stop it. It’s the “Y” of history thing.
Meanwhile: The Thousand Ships of Light post is here. The Artists Wanted post is here. The All Ashore that are Going Ashore post is here. Your Map and the itinerary post is here. And the Four pictures of Qala Bist picture post is here.
But one more image before I go (for today):
“Head of Buddhist monk found in Afghanistan in 1923, dates to First Century A.D.”
Afghanistan - Ancient Land with Modern Ways - page #31 Photograph from the Donald Clayton collection - This image is contributed to the Public Domain under the parameters of Qala Bist Blue.
The Buddhist influence in Afghanistan lasted for 1,000 years. Afghanistan was a major center of Buddhist activity and thought; and as the text associated with this photograph makes clear, “By the First Century A.D., Afghanistan had developed Buddhist traditions which flourished for nearly a thousand years. Afghan missionaries spread out to carry Buddhism to all parts of Asia.”
The Afghan missionaries that went on the Chinese Junks to America and the Yucatan probably looked something like “this” (meaning like the face in the picture above). Looks “Afghan” to me; or maybe too like a Greek God.
[First posted 2010.06.07 / Monday The Right of Return] 1:25 P.M. Mountain War Time
