Sue’s Reviews > In the Land of Blue Burqas > Status Update

When two cultures come into contact, they're both changed, and sometimes those changes are good.

Some people believe that the government rules Afghanistan, but that's simply not true. On the street level, the mullahs rule.

We look at one another across nations, religions, and even tablecloths and assume that beneath our clothes and customs we are somehow all the same. We believe that if we just communicate, we'll understand one another and find our ground common. We don't realize that we look at one another through our own eyes, from our own frameworks and worldviews...The reality is, we see the world very differently.

He told me which group he fought with, and I saw a deep sadness in his eyes through the rearview mirror. I wondered what stories haunted his mind, but my ride had already come to an end. I walked away thinking, the victims and the victors in this land both suffer.

For many Westerns, the question of who God is and what He wants for and from us is simply not relevant. We are, after all, wealthy and busy. For Afghans, it may be the most important question of all.