www = wonderful wicked wierd

I never cease to be amazed at the power of the www – to link people, places and ideas.
Ever since I first posted my old scanned slides from Afghanistan in 1974 onto Flickr last year, there has been a snowballing effect. I have had a fascination for that country ever since I visited it back then. I read any book on Afghanistan that I could get my hands on and watched documentaries and films about it. And of course, followed with dismay and horror … the war on terror that was waged there after September 11, 2001. But after the flickr posting, I was contacted by Afghanis all over the world, many of whom had never seen as much of their homeland as I had. Many of them had been forced to leave it as children, and many have very bitter or sad memories of it. So, they were grateful to me, for having preserved this slice of history of their country. I was invited to join Afghanistan flickr groups, and facebook groups, and kept in contact with my growing circle of Afghan friends in our virtual Afghan country. I attended a book launch in Sydney, when my facebook friend, Mahvish Khan, was on a promotional tour of Australia. I bought and read her book My Guantanamo Diary, about Afghan detainees in Guantanamo Bay, with great interest.
Then the latest chapter, in this ever widening story, came when one of my photos was posted on a flickr blog. Then a whole lot more people looked at my Afghanistan set, and the daily views went up to 500 or so on that day and I made a few new contacts. Then futurowoman, a historian/photographer, posted a blog about it, and lo and behold ….. a heap more views (2,076 on one day in fact).
I can’t help but feel that this virtual journey will again take me back, in real space and time, to that timeless land … and I hope it will be a much happier and more peaceful place.

Tags: Afghanistan flickr blog www photos history