Afghanistan – Look what you’ve done…

“The Afghanistan you see today has its roots in the British occupation of India, exacerbated by the USSR and USA. Regional powers like Pakistan, Iran, China and Gulf Arab states have all co-conspired with imperialists to reach their hands under my land for its resources. $3 trillion worth. Your pharmaceutical companies bet on us too; 80% of the worlds opium is Afghan-grown. Ironic you believe we are the ones dependent on you.

People from my region do not live in a post-colonial world; we exist within the legacies that empires leave behind. We come clawing to your shores where we are told we don’t belong. But we’re very familiar with you – we’ve seen the name of your countries everywhere; on the side of humvees, on the propaganda leaflets dropped from jets, in the mouths of women your soldiers raped.

Today you flood my DMs and say you care, is this what it took? 241,000 deaths? That’s the official number, but it’s hard to count bodies when they’re piles of flesh. Drug addiction up 300%? Babies born with deformities because of radiation from your bombs? Our diaspora communities ravaged with trauma? My mother and father are living ghosts you’ve created, they don’t haunt you but I bear witness to their pain everyday. Or did you care when your veterans were dying on your streets from homelessness and drug addiction? No, you didn’t even care when it was your own blown to shreds on faraway soil.

You play the towers falling on 9/11 every year. My people do not have the luxury. My people are constant gardeners, planting flowers on top of mass graves. We have too many dates to grieve; your 9/11 is our 24/7. We exist within these systems that were meant to kill us, and while you sit in privilege, we fight amongst ourselves, our morale lowered each time, we grow closer to believing there is nothing left to salvage.

Look what you’ve done. I hope it haunts you.” – Madina Wardak