Fieldnotes on Humanity

I waited long enough to make sure that I'm not among the privileged ones to receive the covid vaccine before those in need. Given my field of occupation, I fall under the category 1b, meaning that I am eligible for covid vaccine as those essential workers at stores, transportation, etc. I thought it is a privilege that other don't have and it made me uncomfortable because I've never considered myself to be in that position.  Anyway, a few weeks ago, I went online on the university's health portal, I saw several openings. I was hesitant. I went back a week after and saw more openings. Then, I was convinced that perhaps a lot of people have vaccinated in my community, then I registered. The following day, I received my first shot of Pfizer vaccine which wasn't too bad except that I felt soreness in my arm that I was told is a common effect. I couldn't do workout for the next 24 hours but it went away quickly. There wasn't any serious side affect involved but t...

No wonder why misinformation has become such a serious problem. Here's an example of how conspiracy theories are so alluring that even grown-ups can fall prey to it. It has become so dangerous that it can render its victims devoid of faculty for practical judgement, which ultimately lead to the deprivation of individual's agency because it erodes the very foundation of knowledge that is imperative to social agency. In a video clip shared on twitter (see below) Donald Wagner, a GOP lawmaker of the Orange County asks doctor if vaccines had tracking devices. At first, it sounds like a joke but it is not, it's real. I quote what he says in the video clip:  Is there any--in the vaccine--we heard about the injection of a tracking device. Is that being done anywhere in Orange County? It took a few seconds for the top health official Clayton Chau to figure out what he just heard. The doctor's answer is NOPE.  It is very unfortunate that Wagner is elected in that capacity, it is...

Fearing of alienating Turkey, for decades US presidents have tried to avoid recognizing the events of 1915-1923 that led to 1.5 million death of Armenians at the hands Turks as "genocide." Finally, today, Biden is going to acknowledge the Ottoman Turks atrocities as genocide . It is considered to be the most monstrous crime against humanity to have occurred in the outset of the twentieth century. But it is not the only one, in fact, almost 25 years before another genocide occurred against indigenous population of the Hazaras in Afghanistan. Abdul Rahman khan, a Pashtun leader organized a mass genocidal campaign between 1888 and 1893 in order to subjugate the Hazaras in Hazarajat, a geographical area in central Afghanistan. The Pashtun Sunni mullahs declared fatwas that the Hazaras are infidel and they must be killed. Suddenly, every Pashtun rose up to become ghazi, someone who kills non-Muslim for pleasing the Muslim God and wishes to enter to heaven.  In addition to governm...

I am very saddened to hear that Vartan Gregorian just passed away. There is an obituary of him published in the New York Times that chronicles his academic and philanthropic achievements as well as his service to American people. He was born the city of Tabriz to a Christian family who moved to the US at age 22. I have been knowing him from his book,  The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan: Politics of Reform and Modernization, 1880-1946 (1969). Initially it was written as a dissertation but later he turned it to a book.  Among many books written on the modern history of Afghanistan, I found Gregorian's book remarkably comprehensive. He highlights every turn of events between 1880 and 1946 to carefully analyze and provide a clear picture of how modern Afghanistan has tumultuously been emerging. After I graduated from college, I wrote him an e-mail to inquire whether he was looking for a research assistant because I heard from Jeffrey  that he was planning to rewrite his bo...

I am reposting this piece that I wrote for CNN in December 2009 when Obama planned to send more troops to Afghanistan to "finish the job" and bring back the troops. I argued that sending more troops doesn't help, instead, the US should allocate all those resources to train Afghan security forces. This year, Biden has decided to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan leaving behind nothing but a shaky, discriminatory and corrupt administration with weak and worn out security forces.  After a long debate over increasing troops in Afghanistan, finally, President Obama said that he has decided to send around 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan. Now, deploying 30,000 troops to Afghanistan is a good idea but I’m doubtful that this will work as a long-term strategy to “finish the job.” A long-term strategy to mitigate the violence and end the war in Afghanistan is to train and equip the Afghan National Army. No so long ago in July 2009,  around 4,000 U.S. Marines alongside 650 ...

Here's an example of relentless gullibility from a representative, Luaren Boebert . I looked her up and found that she dropped out of high school in her senior year, and didn’t attend college, nothing to blame her there, but she still can educate herself by looking things up on google or in a book or ask someone to define what Marxism is. A Ponzi scheme is a product of Capitalism, not Marxism which theoretically sees a classless society where everyone is equally contributing to a common good. I suspect one reason that she tweeted about Ponzi scheme is because  Bernie Madoff just passed away . I feel sorry for her and for the people who sent her to congress. Apparently, she is also a QAnon enthusiast .

They came, made a mess, and now they are going back. Then there are the unfortunate and defenseless people like the Hazaras who have no way to escape and no ability to confront the most evils on earth. These evils (the Taliban) are celebrating the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, they call it a "defeat" because they claim to have brought the Americans to their knees. No, you didn't brought them to their knees, their mission is over. It has always been like this, in times of war, they come and destroy, and then return to where they came from. 

I wrote this piece for CNN long time ago, I'm reposting here: This year, the Nowruz festival holds even more significance and importance in the lives of Afghans since the United Nation’s   General Assembly recognized March 21 as International Day of Nowruz . Nowruz, banned under Taliban rule, begins on the day of the vernal equinox (the first day of spring) and marks the beginning of the new year. Every year, three days before Nowruz, tens of thousands of people travel to the northern Afghanistan city of Mazar-e Sharif to watch the elaborate ceremony. Nowruz is celebrated for two weeks throughout Afghanistan. People wear new clothes, refurbish their house, paint the buildings and henna their hands. Young girls go with their mothers to holy shrines and pray to have a good future, a good life and a good husband and be fortunate while the boys have an eye on their parents to decide who is fair and suitable for him. One of most famous of Nowruz traditions among Afghans is to...

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the destruction of the two monumental Buddha statues of Bamiyan which were built in the 6th century AD. Twenty years ago, on March 02, 2001, the Taliban on the orders of their leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, began destroying the statues. The destruction process took several weeks. They first began with heavy artilleries but soon realized they couldn't destroyed. So, they forced the local men to descend the cliff and drill holes into the statues. Then they placed dynamites and blew them up. This was a tragic event but it is not the whole story. When the Taliban took control of the city of Bamiyan, they first massacred the Hazaras who were residents of the city. The victims were mostly old men and women and children, too weak to fight, and too old to run. They were left behind and everyone else who could run, fled to the mountains and hid in the caves. The people later died of starvation. A few months after the fall of the Taliban, the locals sta...

Farmers protest at the Delhi Singhu border in Delhi, India. Getty images These ongoing  protests of Indian Punjab farmers are just implications of what a far-right Hindu nationalist government would offer to its people. In an effort to reboot the economy, the government has passed laws that constitute dispossession and control over agricultural lands to which farmers have a special relationship.  These bills , introduced and passed by parliament last year and then signed into law, are tailored to benefit only giant corporations while lacking any sustainable, ecological, social, or economic integrity.   What these laws would basically do is  replace the market, run and protected by  committees of traders and landowners,  with a free market where farmers will have neither control over the circulation of their products nor over market prices . In the long run, this would result in farmers being self-indentured to billionaires sitting in Delhi who buy stocks i...

I reminisce that rotting wooden bench on Louther street next to the library and across from the Lutheran Church we used to sit you always insisted "let's tarry awhile" a time unlike now, like ephemeral past sends new nostalgic errands

It's Darwin's Day. February 12, the day we, anthropologists, commemorate the birth of Charles Darwin in 1809, one of the greatest naturalists in our history. In 1831, he made a voyage to the Beagle in which he observed and collected specimens of plants, animals, rocks, and fossils, some were mostly on land, far apart from the sea. At the time, he was just 22 years old. (this makes me feel bad about myself, what a useless life I have lived so far). On his return, he published his findings in a book called The Voyage of the Beagle . His discoveries and ideas shaped our understanding about the natural world and ourselves. He showed that we humans are just another type of animal living on earth, a small branch on a big tree of life. My field, anthropology, is deeply influenced by Darwin's evolutionary theories about human evolution. His ideas on the evolution of human traits and natural selections may have been disputed by recent studies on fossil records, but his fundamental...

Today, I got a chance to tweak Abdul Qadir Bidel's Wikipedia page . I corrected some of the references and added several others. I also entered that he was the greatest poet of Indian-Persian, next to Amir Khusrau, who lived most of his life during the reign of Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal emperor. This is very close to historical reality than branding him based on cultural biases. I noticed some entries labeled him as a Persian poet from Khorasan or from the Indian subcontinent (though the later has a modicum of truth). The fact of the matter is, he was Indian, born and raised and eventually died there. He belonged to that geographical area, to that culture and people and he should be studied within that context. Removing him from this context is unjust and discriminatory.  I also added some other sections in his Wiki page, such as bibliography, notes, and works. I entered several bibliography entries, fixed some while redacted and retracted others. I hope others contribu...

The pots and pans ring across Myanmar against the military coup. It's a familiar ring for all of us but a special one for people in Myanmar, they use them to exorcise the evil spirit. For the past few days, it has been used against the military coup that seized power last week from a democratically elected - now detained- leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Now the evil spirit is the military. It's pots and pans' clatter and clang that has become a utility of anger and the sound of dissent. Pots and pans have always been a utility of dissonance and so, sometimes became political tool in different manner. When every other means of communication is controlled and the internet is shut down, pots and pans can be the strongest tool for expressing anger and to protest against the military dictatorship. Let pots and pants' clink and clunk rattle the dictators' conscience if they have any, I don't think they do.

This AFP news published on Dawn  says that after the 10 Hazara miners were killed a few weeks ago, "Pakistan coal miners reluctant to work after Hazara killings." Around 15,000 Hazara miners stopped going to work and as a result, around 200 mines are about to close or slash their production. The reason for Hazara's reluctance to return to work is obvious. They are not secure and their return to work means their might be potentially more attacks because there is no guarantee for their safety. The Hazaras in Pakistan have been systematically persecuted by various extremist Islamist groups and the Pakistani government has done very little to stop it. Now that the businesses are getting closed and people are out of work, the government eventually understands what such precarity means and what it would do in the long run in the province of Balochistan. The Hazaras in Pakistan should turn their reluctance into a movement and use it to pressure the federal government to beef up ...

These are  important suggestions that the Biden administration should take into account while ruminating on the nature of a possible withdrawal from Afghanistan. A complete withdrawal is a disaster that should be avoided and in fact, it should be off the table when negotiation over peace with the Taliban.  The peace negotiation that was ensued by the previous administration based on narcissistic whims should be rethought. The whole negotiation scheme needs to be reassessed because it was a unilaterally designed between the US and the Taliban insurgents. The Afghan government and the people were not involved in this negotiation from the beginning and even now, they don't have much control over it. The Biden administration should make a revision to the peace scheme and add mandates to commit the Taliban to reduction of violence; otherwise, any dodgy deals not only perpetuates war and violence, but also emboldens the Taliban and other insurgents for further violence. 

In my previous post , I mentioned that the Afghan security forces have been deployed to Behsud, a Hazara district in Wardak province, to disarm locals who stood up against the Taliban atrocity. These Hazara civilians were peacefully gathered in front of the district's office to inquire why these forces were there because there was no reason for them to be there, unless they are there to weaken the local's resistance, which would provide some leeway to the Taliban's assaults.  Here is a video as evidence showing Afghan security forces positioned in armored military Humvees opening fire on civilians and then run over them that is partially captured. So far, more than 10 people have been killed and nearly 30 people are injured.  This video shows the murder of Hazara protesters in Behsud by the Afghan security forces. It shows some civilians running away and the Afghan forces firing on them with M249 & PK machine gun. Some Humvees can be seen driving towards people to ru...

The relationship of the Hazara people and the Afghanistan's state has always been a historical hegemonic relationship. Historically it has been the Pashtuns (and to some degree the Tajiks) as superior tribe ruling the country. Not the class, not the political party, but a tribe. The Hazaras have been scapegoats  for various problems that the state faced. As a result, they have become the primary targets of systematic persecutions, which has historically created a lingering hegemonic force that can be exerted against the Hazaras at any given time. Let me contextual this historical hegemony. Recently, the Afghan central government deployed security forces to Behsud district, in Wardak province, to ostensibly quell the unlawfulness there, which is controlled by locals. The locals have armed themselves against the onslaught of the Taliban and to prevent their advance towards Bamiyan and the Hazarajat. Yesterday, the government forces opened fire on civilians who were gathered in a loca...

ah I'm missing my rad mountain bike. Rad is a term commonly used by mountain bikers, I like it a lot, especially if you constantly use it, like a rad ride, a rad bike, a rad drop, it does not only vigorously boast your self-assurance but also indexes something else, that you are a professional rider and close to others of that ilk. Another telling indicator is that you have successfully fetishized your bike so much so that you talk about it in a manner that no other can relate. Yeah, that's a bit of me, when I'm on the trail or descending down the hills. Anyway, I sold this rad icon but now I'm having a compulsive urge to buy another one. I'm thinking of Santa Cruz or Yeti. 

I just read a great piece by Sonja Thomas explaining about the p resence of the Indian flag at the capitol riots . It's confusingly fascinating to see that among the sea of flags at pro-Trump rally on January 6th, there were flags of many other nations. I noticed an Iranian flag of the pre-Islamic Revolution monarchy with a lion holding a sword waving among the crowd, and signs that repeatedly read "we love you," "#Iranians for Trump," and "stop the steal." There is an article about it here .  Trump supporters hold a sign that says: "Iranians for Trump" (MEE/Ali Harb) Iranians of pre-1979 Iranian revolution have strong feelings about their particular history that can be traced in their support of Trump and his policies against Iran. As far as I have been following the US politics, this particular group has always supported conservatives and their policies. They ideally think Trump aggressive policies may cause the current Islamic regime to co...

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on my Farsi blog about my experience with racial discrimination and racial prejudice in Afghanistan and today, I thought I should start writing a few posts about the semantics of ethnic slurs that Pashtuns, Tajiks, and even Sayyids, who are Shias and look like Hazaras, commonly use against the Hazara people. Here is one of the most popular racial slurs used toward the Hazaras: " God forbid my dog to be a Hazara " (خدا سگ مره هزاره نکنه  khuda sagi mara hazara nakuna ).  Here are four common features of this racial slur: 1. Dogs are renowned for being loyal, friendly, and protective. Hazaras are so disloyal, unfaithful, and unfriendly that they do not deserve to be even like dogs, and as such, God has created them a different species from humans. 2. Dogs in Islam are considered  najis (Arabic word) , meaning untouchable and unclean. Hazaras are so vicious, wicked, and dirty that dogs are way kosher and clean, and deserve to be kept as frien...

Many of us at some point stammer, either for a short or longer time, or often try to remember but we can't help ourselves. The repercussion is of course a multiplicity of psychological anxiety, but here's a video on the BBC website showing kids can't utter their names, a BBC journalist who experienced years of stuttering but worked her way out; a UK MP who is being ridiculed in the House; and Joe Biden who acknowledges that he has worked hard to deal with his stuttering. Also check out this video where an Irish fireman tells his story of fighting stammer stigma.

Everyone wonders who is behind all these targeted killings in Afghanistan. No one knows the answer yet. I have been asking my journalist and pundit friends, they have no idea, and if they do, they just regurgitate what government officials have been touting. Basically, the prevalent view among the general public is that the Taliban are be behind all these attacks. The Taliban deny but if we look at the patterns of the attacks, we can see a repetition of the same tactics the Taliban have used in the past. The only difference is that they now go after every prominent figures irrespective of their political affiliation or ideological standing.  But there are also those who argue that why the Taliban should kill people who pose no threat to them. For instance, in the past few months former journalists, activists, and not very high profile individuals have been targeted whose presence obviously considered innocuous because they were simply not very much active as they used to. Now, we ...

In the aftermath of the attack on the capitol in Washington D.C., a lot of leaders around the world reacted, some condemned Trump for inciting the violence, while others expressed anger, horror, sorrow and sadness. In the Muslim world, the attack turned into an interesting topic of satire and reticule of Americans and their democracy. In the Arab world, people draw cartoons of the attack, they satirized and criticized the US for being hypocrite, the fact that its leadership can't deal with its own problem at home, they have no right to point fingers at others or meddle in their affairs.  I also saw some Afghan leaders on social media expressing their concerns about the future of United States and the transition of power. They called for calm and urged Trump to respect the people's vote. I laughed at this bitter irony that Afghan leaders are now worried about the integrity of the US presidential election. It sounds like one of those April fool's jokes, but it's for real.

Photo credit: Getty images Today, I was watching the live session on Biden's certification of electoral college on NYT when suddenly a chaos ensued in the congress. The camera was running but the sound disappeared immediately. Lawmakers rushed to the exit doors and then suddenly the video stopped. It was sad to see what was happening at the capitol after. I used to believe that Americans are more civilized than what I saw today, but today's events changed my mind. Today's events showed that even in a civilized nation violence is inevitable and that what happens sometimes in the developing world can happen in the most democratic country like the US as well. I just looked at the international news headlines, the world laughs at the US. It's sad and full of sorrow. I feel there are some Americans who grieve and mourn their dying democracy.

The Times speculates that behind the targeted killings might be some factions in addition to the Taliban. It's not clear what factions might be in point, but it is pretty clear at this point the Taliban is behind such attacks. It's possible to assume that they carry out their attacks through their third-party criminal groups but what makes the difference? It's still Taliban carrying out these attacks against innocent civilians. The claim that magnetic bombs are homemade is also questionable, at least we should cast doubt on Afghan government officials who make such claims under anonymity. How does the Afghan government know that the sticky bombs are homemade? We know that every one of those bombs are exploded so far and the question is, how did the government find out about the nature of the bombs after they blasted? The degree and magnitude of explosion of all these magnet bombs reveal that they are not homemade, they are rather imported from one of the two neighboring cou...

For the past few weeks, I have reading Marx. To have a better understanding of his social, political, and economic theories, I visited Feuerbach and Hegel. How happy I'm for this late discovery, and how much I envy those who discovered him early in their lives, and those who read his works and understand him better. Today, I thought if had I discovered Marx 20 years ago, I would have a better understanding of the world and situation that I grew up, and the situation that I'm in now. Perhaps, my life would be different, perhaps, I would be different person. For the past few days, I had a heavy feeling of some sort of loss, loss of time and opportunity. I told myself, alas, what opportunities that could have produced strength and ability I missed! Or opportunities that I took for granted and now I have to work hard to revive or repossess that in some sense is not too late but frankly it's late. Anyway, I feel contented to have spent the latter part of the month of December 20...

Here is a short review of Remarkable 2. It's strictly about the reading features and how adaptable this device is to pdf and eBook files. I did not look at other features since I did not see the need. I have read a lot of good reviews but they did not mention anything about its capability of handling pdf files and eBooks. As you can see in the video, eBook files are fine but there are some issues with pdf files, especially if you want to zoom in.  The normal view which is 100% is too small for me, so I need to increase the text size but unfortunately you can't customize the percentage of zoom in and zoom out. So you are strictly left with some preset options that you can select from, and if you do, the text goes off the edges. That means you can't pull up or pull down or pull to the right, you are stuck with 100% normal view which is really small, at least for me.  On the other hand, you don't have issue with eBook files. It has a perfect normal view but if you zoom in ...

Just thought this morning that I need to come back to this platform and post something, which could be text or photographs. For the past few months I have been trying to keep journals about some of the events taking place around me. I haven't had the opportunity to chronical as much as I hoped and whatever I wrote so far has been tucked under my pillow. That sounds like hiding. I don't need to hide, I told myself this morning. So, I promised to do blogging regularly. This is a place where I can post non-academic stuff, just for myself and perhaps for others, if anyone would cross this path.

From my summer journals: Yesterday, I took my mountain dulcimer to the mountains and gave a concert to the mountain goats. It was a windy day, and excusably, I couldn’t hold my concert at the summit because the wind would not let me play as I wished to, and the sound would travel with the wind (I don’t know where). Also, there were a few two-legged predators nearby that goats did not like; they became more skittish. Therefore, I had to scramble down a scree field and find a spot on the cliff edge, at which, at the bottom, the goats had congregated. First, I gave an oratory speech and tried to highlight the rocky mountain goats’ sufferings for millions of years at the hands of the growling wind, the cruel winter, the savage blizzard, and the bitter cold. Then, I admired them for their climbing skills and applauded them for their resilience and perseverance in adapting to an extreme climate, and at last, I was sorry that the human species had encroached on their territory and disturbed t...