By: E&P Staff Sultan Munadi, a freelance interpreter working for The New York Time who was killed in the commando raid today in Afghanistan that freed kidnapped Times reporter Stephen Farrell, wrote a post for the Times' At War blog just one week ago on why he would not leave his native country again, titled "Hell? No. I Won't Go." Here is an excerpt. The post is at:
http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/hell-no-i-wont-go/
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I grew up there, and when I went to Germany to study for a master?s degree in public policy I saw concrete everywhere, a lot of glass, asphalt and artificial things. It was depressing, very boring for me. I was dreaming of the dust, I was dreaming of nature in my country, of the mountains....
If I were a teenager, it would be easier to be integrated into the society in Germany, but now at the age of 34, it is difficult to be away from my country. I would not leave Afghanistan. I have passed the very darkest times of my country, when there was war and insecurity. I was maybe four or five years old when we went from my village into the mountains and the caves to hide, because the Soviets were bombing. I have passed those times, and the time of the Taliban when I could not even go to Kabul, inside my country. It was like being in a prison.
Those times are past now. Now I am hopeful of a better situation. And if I leave this country, if other people like me leave this country, who will come to Afghanistan? Will it be the Taliban who come to govern this country? That is why I want to come back, even if it means cleaning the streets of Kabul. That would be a better job for me, rather than working, for example, in a restaurant in Germany.
Being a journalist is not enough; it will not solve the problems of Afghanistan. I want to work for the education of the country, because the majority of people are illiterate. That is the main problem facing many Afghans. I am really committed to come back and work for my country.
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