Afghan artists
have painted several walls in central Kabul with giant eyes and the words, in Dari and Pashto,
Corruption cannot be hidden from God or from the people.
A cool project, although I have to wonder if corruption at the level of Afghanistan can be fought by any sort of protest.
This is an important reminder to outsiders that Afghan politics looks different from inside. We see the Taliban as a regime of such pure evil that any alternative is better. But Afghans are focused on practical issues like corruption and the economy, and the U.S.-supported "democracy" is failing pretty badly by any such measure.
It is also worth noting that despite everything, Kabul still has a community of people who identify as artists and act politically through art.
"A cool project, although I have to wonder if corruption at the level of Afghanistan can be fought by any sort of protest."
ReplyDeleteCorruption is a culture. It is a set of values that people adhere to, and promoting values which run contrary to it is the only real way to actually fight it. You can kill or jail corrupt people, but corruption itself lives on. The only way to ever counteract it is to promote honesty and selflessness in others.
These paintings might not be the most effective way of combatting corruption, but it's at least something - and every little bit ends up helping.
And even if these paintings could be shown to have zero actual effect on the corrupt themselves, they certainly have an effect on the non-corrupt. It's far, far easier to stand for your values when you have concrete reminders that you aren't alone in doing so - that other people feel the same way you do, and care about whether you choose to have integrity and character or not.
If these images help convince even just one honorable person to not give up on their values, or even just one corrupt individual to reconsider and change their ways, then they are a victory, and worth immeasurably more than the time and paint it cost to make them.