Posted on 01/03/2010 7:11:14 AM PST by SandRat
NEWS RELEASE ISAF Joint Command - Afghanistan
2010-01-CA–007
For Immediate Release
CHAGCHARAN, Afghanistan (Jan. 2) – A Lithuanian Army corporal presented a photographic exhibition to the local Department of Culture and Information on behalf of the Lithuanian-led Chagcharan Provincial Reconstruction Team.
The exhibition, called "Our Memories," featured images taken by Corporal Vilius Dziavecka during his deployment in support of the PRT here three years ago.
Eid Gul Aazim, director of the education department in Ghowr, supported the art exhibit initiative, authorizing its indefinite stay in the department so all visitors could see and enjoy it.
During the opening ceremony, community leaders gave a warm welcome to Dziavecka on behalf of the members of the Culture and Information Department, the city of Chagcharan, the children of the orphanage, area youth organizations and local media representatives. Many of them fondly remembered the photographer who served in their community as a public information officer in the PRT.
The exhibition depicted Afghans in their everyday life, as well as their portraits, local traditions, landscapes and cooperation with the international community all from the perspective of a foreign soldier.
The ceremony concluded with a short movie showing images of Afghanistan and Lithuania. While the film showed significant differences between the two countries, their projects and goals have served to unite the two groups through their efforts to improve the lives of Afghans in the region.
This is probably not of much interest to anybody, but I saw an exhibit on Afghanistan at the Met last year that was truly excellent. Afghanistan was on the old Silk Road and while parts of it were tribal and primitive, it was a very cosmopolitan crossroads (prior to Islam), where Jews, Christians and Buddhists crossed paths.
The exhibit was sponsored by the Karzai government and obviously a lot of great curators, archeologists and others had been involved in it and, looking at the video, you could see that Afghanis were very proud of the exhibit.
I wonder if one of the reasons Obama wants to retire from Afghanistan may be related to the fact that Afghanistan, like Persia and many other places now under Islamic domination, actually had a wonderful and fascinating past that revived after the US (briefly) liberated it. But now Obama wants to return it to Islam.
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