Book Review: The Places in Between by Rory Stewart - Page 3

This is just one reflection of the dissonance between today's Afghanistan and its past and the modern world. Eight nights into his trip, someone in the mud house in which Stewart is spending the night turns on a radio tuned to the BBC.

A Bill Gates speech on American policy toward technology monopolies was being translated into Dari. The men listened intently. I wondered what these illiterate men without electricity thought of bundling Internet Explorer with Windows.

Yet even such a comical scene just scratches the surface of the serious disconnect between "modernity" and the reality of Afghan life, history, and culture. Those making policy affecting Afghanistan's status and future

came from postmodern, secular, globalized states with liberal traditions in law and government. It was natural for them to initiate projects on urban design, women's rights, and fiber-optic cable networks; to talk about transparent, clean, and accountable processes, tolerance, and civil society; and to speak of a people "who desire peace at any cost and understand the need for a centralized multi-ethnic government."

But what did they understand of the thought processes of Seyyed Kerbalahi's wife, who had not moved five kilometers from her home in forty years? Or Dr. Habibullah, the vet, who carried an automatic weapon in the way they carried briefcases? The villagers I had met were mostly illiterate, lived far from electricity or television, and knew very little about the outside world.

The Places in Between reveals and revels in the diversity, strains and struggles of the latter people, their land and culture. It may be impossible to ever totally overcome the disconnect between it and modern culture. Fortunately, there are a few crazy people in the world whose passions help educate the rest of us about people and cultures of which we are all too ignorant. More important, if their stories and lessons also help educate the policy makers, they are no longer crazy and their stories are far more than travelogues.

Article Author: Tim Gebhart

Tim Gebhart lives in Sioux Falls, SD, where he practices law in order to provide shelter for his family, his dogs, and his books. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and his blog de guerre is A Progressive on the Prairie.

Visit Tim Gebhart's author page — Tim Gebhart's Blog