ISLAMABAD: Imagine a world without television, or music, or dancing, or plays, or pets, or hobbies — without leisure of almost any kind. Welcome to Afghanistan. Now imagine a world where anything goes, where leisure is considered an industry and entertainment almost a basic human right. Welcome to America. Pitch those two countries against each other, and the result is a clash of cultures that almost defies comprehension.

“The US action against Afghanistan may be in pursuit of the elimination of terrorism, but for many people it appears to be a clash of cultures — of civilisations almost,” said Pierre Devries, a Belgian anthropologist. “The roots of this conflict and the spark that torched its current flame are simply incomprehensible to ordinary Afghans and, I’m afraid to say, probably ordinary Americans as well,” he said in an interview.

“Most people in Afghanistan have absolutely no idea that their country might be the international headquarters of a global terrorism network,” Devries said.

The suggestion that someone living among them, Osama bin Laden, could have planned and organised such an audacious act is simply inconceivable. “You have to appreciate that Afghanistan today is a country almost devoid of intellectual thinking beyond that of a very narrow range religion,” Devries said.

Ordinary Afghans, he said, have no idea what is happening to them. Although almost inured to conflict after more than two decades of war , the scale of the US-led assault has stunned even the most battle-hardened Afghan.

Most Afghan conflicts have been between people who speak the same language, have the same customs and the same religion. This time the enemy is unseen. Planes capable of flying all the way from continental America are dropping bombs on Afghan cities. Cruise missiles are being launched from thousands of miles away by submarines — a mind-boggling concept for a country where the overwhelming proportion of the country has never seen the sea.

Devries said, “Ultimately it is a great breakdown in communications; a great difference between two worlds that is being widened by the day.”—Reuters