Intelligent Afghanis

I was watching a show on PBS the other night. At first it was about the two Buddhist statues that were blown up by the Taliban. I was interested in that because they were so ancient. There has been some talk of rebuilding them, but even so they would not be same. A French archaeologist is working on an seperate excavation. He is sure there is a 'sleeping Buddha', a statue of a Buddha lying down, buried somewhere near where there once was a Buddhist monastery. By the end of the show and the end of the season when they could dig, it looke4d as if they had found the feet of a huge statue.

The other part of the show was about Afghanistan's National Film Library. The Taliban ordered that all of the films be burned. There was footage of lots of film being burned. The men who were in charge of the library were not exactly dumb. They were burning copies. The originals were in a room which they hid by taking out the door and covering it with wallboard and painting it over. Time and time again Taliban inspectors would come and search the building for more film. They never discovered the room which had no door.

The Taliban seems to have lost pretty much all of its importance in Afghanistan. I hope the people of Afghanistan remember this well if they try to resume power again.