I popped out for Shreddies and heard a traǀc war story
The horror of Afghanistan’s never-ending conflict struck David Harding anew after a chance meeting at the shops
Covering international news sometimes seems too much about reporting on “quarrels in far away countries we know nothing about”. And, if we are honest, many don’t care too much for foreign news.
But what is happening now in say, Belarus, Wuhan or Tunisia, is not confined in terms of importance and impact to those places. And the ripples of what happens in far away places can be found even when not looking.
On Sunday night, in a corner of London, I headed to the nearest local shop to pick up some breakfast for the next day. As I left the store, there were just two other people in the high street.
One of them appeared drunk, really drunk. So, I did what any concerned person on a deserted British high street would do at dusk, and made sure he hadn’t seen me.
A few seconds later I heard a loud thump and the sickening noise of flesh hitting concrete paving. The drunk guy had fallen. Myself and the only other person on the street rushed to pick him up, something which seemed to offend the drunk man, who then stumbled off.
Which left just me and the second guy; we got talking and within seconds he revealed he was half-Afghani. The conversation got more intense as he told me how he had lost members of his family to the country’s never-ending conflict; how he had worked for the British army and how he had seen things he wished he hadn’t.
Within seconds, tears poured from his eyes, as he said between sobs how he didn’t want the world to think his country was “full of terrorists” and how he understood the foreign troops who have poured into his country ever since he was born were “just doing their jobs”.
We talked some more, only intermittently, looking to check where the drunk guy had got to. The conversation got lighter. Almost inevitably we ended up talking football, somewhat less predictably about how bad Newcastle United were.
We said our goodbyes. The whole experience was humbling. I popped out for a box of Shreddies and ended up talking to someone directly – and horribly – affected by the Afghanistan war.
It is a far away place and we don’t know much about it. But that doesn’t make it any less important.
Yours,
David Harding International editor
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