Deception, conning, the shell game, amusing oneself, kidnapping, teasing, the put on, running road blocks, outdoor weddings, auto accidents, bus accidents, getting tourists to shake the sanitary hand, showing off phony passports, tour guides pretending to get lost in the most dangerous part of town for westerners, incessantly stating "blessed be allah," after every sentence, everyone getting together on the laptop to determine if the tourist's ancestry can be traced to the Crusades, meet and greets with various warlords whose attitude toward westerners change with the number of innocent Afghanis that are accidentally killed by friendly fire, rides through enemy territory in white Toyota pickups equipped with 50 cal machine guns, while taking a tour of some especially large bomb craters in the middle of a village they will shove a gun in the tourist's hand and tell them that they just decided to attack another warlord over the next hill, showing the western tourist pictures of innocent loved ones who have been tortured as enemy combatants, offering guests dung beetles or rocks for dinner, joking about some of their terrorist buddies deciding to drop by to give the tourists a once over to see if they are spies, (spies generally are recognized because they look somewhat European,) and so much more are only a few examples of the entertaining activities one can get involved in Afghanistan. Everyone from westerly develops would do the same if they did not have television, wouldn't they? Life would seem a little dull in Afghanistan with a few diversions, and best of all the tourist gets to do everything completely sober, though some pleasure is derived from knowing that their actions are sanctified and part of a larger plan that the tourist has no way of understanding how he or she fits in the grand scheme that your guides may be only kidding about or not. All in all an unforgettable vacation had by all, even if the tourist doesn't survive it, the Afghanis love sending videos to family members. Who wants to go to Vegas, instead?
Margaret Mead returns.
Posted by Matt F | Link to this comment | 11-23-05 2:59 PM
Man, those Samoans are a surly bunch.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 11-23-05 3:01 PM
How does one say "muppet" in Pashtu?
Posted by Andy Vance | Link to this comment | 11-23-05 4:47 PM
Man, those Samoans are a surly bunch.
One might even call them "angry".
Posted by Mitch Mills | Link to this comment | 11-23-05 5:55 PM
Or "wild".
Posted by Anonymous | Link to this comment | 11-23-05 11:47 PM
I've long been convinced that everyone in Afghanistan is fucking with the Western press
Fucking with the West period.
ash
['Warlords for Democracy, Inc.']
Posted by ash | Link to this comment | 11-24-05 5:22 AM
Deception, conning, the shell game, amusing oneself, kidnapping, teasing, the put on, running road blocks, outdoor weddings, auto accidents, bus accidents, getting tourists to shake the sanitary hand, showing off phony passports, tour guides pretending to get lost in the most dangerous part of town for westerners, incessantly stating "blessed be allah," after every sentence, everyone getting together on the laptop to determine if the tourist's ancestry can be traced to the Crusades, meet and greets with various warlords whose attitude toward westerners change with the number of innocent Afghanis that are accidentally killed by friendly fire, rides through enemy territory in white Toyota pickups equipped with 50 cal machine guns, while taking a tour of some especially large bomb craters in the middle of a village they will shove a gun in the tourist's hand and tell them that they just decided to attack another warlord over the next hill, showing the western tourist pictures of innocent loved ones who have been tortured as enemy combatants, offering guests dung beetles or rocks for dinner, joking about some of their terrorist buddies deciding to drop by to give the tourists a once over to see if they are spies, (spies generally are recognized because they look somewhat European,) and so much more are only a few examples of the entertaining activities one can get involved in Afghanistan. Everyone from westerly develops would do the same if they did not have television, wouldn't they? Life would seem a little dull in Afghanistan with a few diversions, and best of all the tourist gets to do everything completely sober, though some pleasure is derived from knowing that their actions are sanctified and part of a larger plan that the tourist has no way of understanding how he or she fits in the grand scheme that your guides may be only kidding about or not. All in all an unforgettable vacation had by all, even if the tourist doesn't survive it, the Afghanis love sending videos to family members. Who wants to go to Vegas, instead?
Posted by elephty | Link to this comment | 11-26-05 9:20 PM
A guy could have a pretty good time in Vegas with deception, the put on, amusing oneself, and teasing.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 11-26-05 9:24 PM
A guy could have a pretty good time
elephty doesn't have a pretty good time, guy. Or even a good time.
['Blog Afghanistan.']
Posted by ash | Link to this comment | 11-26-05 10:04 PM