Mir Update

Hello everyone. I hope you are all well. I know there are people interested in Mir from all over the world – Greece, Germany, the USA, Canada, Venezuela, Australia – and let’s not forget Afghanistan too. So I always feel both humbled and a bit nervous trying to articulate what’s the latest news from Mir and his family.

Most of you will have seen the film in a cinema over the past year or so and, other than my occasional updates, will have left Mir whistling optimistically as he strode up a hill in his village. Many of you, I know, have been wondering how he’s doing. Well, frankly the news is not all good. Nor is it all bad. On the negative side, we had hoped that some of those organisations and some of those individuals who had suggested they could help Mir in some way would come through. But, for whatever reason, none did. Maybe I don’t chase them hard enough? I have found it odd how often people have been deeply moved by the film but have not made a donation nor even bought a copy of the DVD. It really seems very hard to translate peoples’ compassion to actual action. That said, over the years we collected some donations and made our own monthly payment into a small fund and, not without some difficulty, we did manage to transfer those funds to Mir and his family. It was not, however, enough to radically transform their lives. Of course, one also has to ask what kind of future is it that they would really like? That’s not just about their personal ambition; that has much more to do with better security, less corruption, more stable crop production, better schools and improved health clinics. No-one should underestimate the difficulties in ensuring any of these in the thousands of tiny villages and towns throughout Afghanistan but maybe it’s fair of us to have hoped for a little more success over the past decade.

What that all means for Mir is that he remains in the village and is still loading coal. That’s not to say there hasn’t been one major change: Mir is now a married man! It is a genuine source of regret that Shoaib and I, though both invited, simply couldn’t afford to get there for the wedding. We do have plans to get a present to him though – and we have spoken to him and his parents and wished them all well. It’s hard for us to know too much about the background to the wedding – or just who his bride is. One hopes very much that they are happy together – though we have to acknowledge the reality of the situation which is that part of the incentive to get married so young was to bring a young woman into the household to help with the aging parents. Mir’s fine half-brother Khoshdel and family having moved out thus left Mir on his own to care for his parents Abdul and Mirwarid. I’m determined to get back to see them, maybe in 2013. Indeed, I’d love to raise the funds to continue filming them for another decade. But I am realistic enough to know that it will be virtually impossible to do so. One key UK channel has already told me that ‘Afghanistan is last year’s story’. Fools!!!

So we do what we can: last month, with the gracious help of an American friend, I managed to screen the film at the State Department in Washington. This was actually quite a big deal as it was watched by some important folk who have responsibilities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I came away from my day of screening and conversation there very impressed with their determination to make a positive difference. They are already planning for 2014-2024 and are committed to not turning their backs on the needs of Afghan people. I’m no defender of any particular nation’s foreign policy but I do get frustrated at the self-righteous trailing on and off TV, radio and newspapers criticising all British or all American policy in Afghanistan – and I wonder what exactly they think should be done for poor folk like Mir and his family? Life is, quite simply, more complicated and a myriad of shades of grey. It certainly is in Afghanistan. I, frankly, have no idea what will happen over the next few years – but some will have a better future than ever possible under the Taliban and others will die of easily curable disease or sheer brutal murder. There will be more of the latter if we just turn our backs on them. “We have our own problems, our own fight against austerity’, I hear folk say. Well, austerity is one thing, poverty is another. Dying of cholera, typhoid, malaria, dysentery, malnutrition is a wholly different world to what most Europeans or Americans suffer through austerity. I pity Mir. The winter is almost there –and the village will be snowbound soon. I hope they’ve enough wood and food to see them through. I’ll still be tucking in to a huge turkey dinner on Christmas Day but when I wish ‘Peace and Goodwill to all’ I’ll be thinking of Mir and the tens of millions like him.