Dipping my oar in

This week's assignment required us to "dip our oar in" and comment on blogs covering topics similar to ours.


The Canada-Afghanistan Blog: Teaching Soldiers to Read

I’d never heard of this program before I found it referenced on your blog, but it sounds like an interesting idea. It never occurred to me that this would be an issue: I assume that the US and UK military require some sort of basic literacy before you can fully enlist for the very reasons mentioned by Lt. Gen. Caldwell about serial numbers and bank accounts.

That said, I checked out the original article, and the comments posted there raise some interesting questions about the information presented, such as: What languages exactly will the soldiers be taught? Serial numbers use English, but will they also be taught to be literate in their own language, and if so, to what extent? I am not familiar with the many local languages and dialects spoken over there, but I would imagine that it would not be easy finding one written script for all to read unless it were something like Arabic. Some of those commenters also seem justifiably peeved at the fact that money is being spent to teach Afghans when so many children back in the United States are already having issues with education; what are your thoughts?

It’s possible that these issues have already been covered in the program, and the details were somehow omitted when writing the article. I am very curious as to how this will turn out, and I will try and follow it on my own blog as well.

Afghan Notebook: Afghan Protests Turn Violent

I’m not one of your students, but that is a very interesting question you put at the beginning. Afghanistan and its neighbours are all very religious countries, and the clergy have an enormous amount of influence not seen in the U.S. or many Western countries anymore, at least not since the 18^th century or so. (Unless you count Catholicism.) As to why the proposed burning of the Qur’an provoked so much more anger than other equally shocking events, I think it is because of the Qur’an’s status in Islam. If a Bible burning were to take place, I’m sure there will be pockets of outraged reactions from the Christian community. However, the physical form of the Bible seems to me secondary to the text within it and the lessons of that text. With the Qur’an, the whole is sacred. I was taught in class that one should technically make sure they are purified through ablution before handling the Qur’an to read from it. And if I treated that seriously, I would be angry too if someone wanted to burn it to make a political statement.

On a final note, I am glad that they chose not to do it after all, but that doesn’t mean the sentiment has gone away. I also wonder what it feels like for Muslims who are serving in the U.S. army and have to witness the outpouring of anger on both sides.