There are jobs and there are jobs ...... the bad ones seem to follow Death around as he carries out his gruesome duties. Now I am aware of the Chinese boatman who collects suicides bodies from the Yellow River and either returns them to the families (for a fee), or buries them, so I was much taken by the tale of Abdul Hakim.
Apparently, more by accident than planning he has become the body collector for the Taliban after firefights with the NATO troops (so he's a busy man then), in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar. For over six years he has collected many many bodies on behalf of the local Taliban, even though they killed his two sons, and also his son-in-law. So far he has tallied the body count as 250 (127 were Taliban, 28 civilians, and the balance government supporters).
A fairly thankless task but I guess someone has to do it ......
What particularly drew my attention though, was the gravestones ..... it was the surprising fact that they were predominately in English.
Maybe its because they are Red Cross cemeteries (ICRC) via the Red Crescent affiliate, but I just assumed that any English would be restricted to an ID number, and that the rest of the details would be in the local language or Arabic.
Globalisation just marches relentlessly on, without us even noticing.
Apparently, more by accident than planning he has become the body collector for the Taliban after firefights with the NATO troops (so he's a busy man then), in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar. For over six years he has collected many many bodies on behalf of the local Taliban, even though they killed his two sons, and also his son-in-law. So far he has tallied the body count as 250 (127 were Taliban, 28 civilians, and the balance government supporters).
A fairly thankless task but I guess someone has to do it ......
What particularly drew my attention though, was the gravestones ..... it was the surprising fact that they were predominately in English.
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| Afghanistan Cemetery |
Globalisation just marches relentlessly on, without us even noticing.
