From an Indian friend in Kathmandu. Apologies for cross posting. I read an Inter Press Service piece yesterday about the dangers of landmines for people running for the packets... Tapan's dream gives that report a human angle.
Beena Sarwar
(Thu, 11 Oct 2001)
__________

If the bombs don't get you, the biscuits will

I sat before the TV listening to well-dressed men and women talking in well turned phrases. They were talking about the Global War on Terrorism. The leader of the Global Alliance and his followers came on from time to time and said that it was not a war against the Afghans or Islam, it was being waged to make the world safe for us and our children.

On the TV screen, the sky over Kabul and Kandahar was dirty green. Thanks to CNN's videophone, every now and then, we saw the green sky illuminated by a spray of bright white dots, streaking down from above and a few red flares coming up from below. The "white" bombs of the Global Alliance and "red" anti aircraft fire of the Taliban made no sound. There were no cries of the people on whom the bombs rained.

The well-groomed people from inside the TV studios said the Global War on Terrorism was a precise war. State-of-the-art technology was being used to target only Osama Bin Laden, his terrorist cohorts and the nasty lot of Talibans who were protecting him. The non-terrorist need not be afraid. Thanks to technology, the bombs and the missiles knew whom to get. There
would be minimum collateral damage.

What a neutral phrase, "collateral damage". Someone asked, "What did it mean? Could it be the death of human beings, the burning of their home, hopes and aspirations?" The well-groomed people said, "some of that might take place. But then a price has to be paid for making the world safe for you, me and our children."

The war against Terrorism is a humane war. Along with the bombs, the planes >drop bright yellow packets of biscuits and dry rations. Someday an Afghan might be able to tell his grandchildren of a sky that rained "Bombs and biscuits." and about an American President "who cared". At last, a recognition of people below the dirty green skies of videophone. Those who
do not become "collateral damage" may eat the biscuits.

I had fallen was asleep before the TV and I was dreaming. I was in the outskirts of Kabul. The sky was dirty green with white dots dancing all over. All round me were the ruins of homes of people and bodies that did not move. There was a little girl moving in slow motion as if she has just awakened from sleep. Suddenly she moved fast. There was bright yellow pack lying on the mud across the road. At the edge of the road she stopped, hesitating as if she was afraid to cross the road, to put her foot on the
ground on the other side. And then, she made a dash for the yellow pack. Had she seen the telly? Or was it her instinct that told her that it contained food. She tripped and fell. There was a bright flash as the landmine exploded. Her frail body was thrown up in bits blood splattering the yellow packet. My eyes burned. I was awake. There was no sound. The TV was still on showing the silent bombs from a dirty green sky on silent cities and villages. It could not tell who had placed the landmine - the Russians, the
Talibans or the Northern Alliance.

"What, then, shall we do? Stick, so far as possible, to the empirical facts - always
remembering that these are modifiable by anyone who chooses to modify the perceiving mechanism"
Aldous Huxley,
Eyeless in Gaza