Afghan President Hamid Karzai has attacked the US, Britain and other nations – who have forces in his country – not only for the high number of civilian deaths, but also for overlooking the effective propaganda machinery that has been built up by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The Independent reports that the Taliban now have three different press spokesmen covering three separate regions of the country. In Kandahar this summer, Taliban cassettes, DVDs and magazines are available in numbers never previously seen.
“Most of the Afghan population are illiterate, but there are hundreds of tapes on sale in the bazaars of the south that feature songs against the government and foreigners, eulogising the martyrs of the Taliban.
“The Taliban have also begun broadcasting a pirate station called the ‘Voice of Sharia’ from mobile transmitters in at least two southern provinces.
“There is also a sophisticated website, www.alemarah.org . In Arabic and Pashto it offers news, poetry, messages from the Taliban’s spiritual leader, Mullah Omar, and regularly updated videos of the last messages of Taliban suicide bombers. A DVD called ‘Lions of Islam’ is one of a number that is widely available. It was largely filmed in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
“In response, Western forces in the country are extending a fledgling military funded radio channel called Radio Peace into the south to counter anti-government propaganda.
” ‘It is perhaps something we haven’t paid enough attention to in the past’, a Nato military spokesman, Major Luke Knittig, said.”
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.