Borrowed from: whyaskwhytime at flickr.com
Growing up as an Afghan-American, my Afghan culture and values took precedence over my American ones at home. I grew up in a world where all of the adults around me were constantly immersed in global issues, especially those that affected Afghanistan. Politics, history, and literature are huge in my family. Growing up, it seemed like everyone who was anyone had an important role in society in Afghanistan. My grandfather from my mother’s side was a governor; he is responsible for the creation of many paved roads in Afghanistan. My late father, Dr. Akhtar Mostamandy, M.D. was a nationally recognized OB/GYN. My father’s late brother and my uncle, Dr. Chaibai Mustamandy, was once the Director General of Afghan Institue of Archaeology and Preservation of Hisorical Monuments. The list goes on and on. You can imagine that with all of these role models, the passion for my ethnicity came almost naturally. To this day, I have an immeasurable love for Afghanistan and its people. I thank my family for this.
As a Cultural Anthropology major, I have found international development to be a way that I can constructively convey the passion I have for Afghanistan. Moreover, my biculturalism has made me more accepting and interested in a variety of other cultures. I want to take the knowledge I’ve learned from my family about Afghanistan and apply it to my own international development projects in the future. However, I have learned that international development is difficult work. International development focuses on long-term results. Unfortunately, many organizations and projects that do not have this focus end up being detrimental to the societies they seek to help.
International development news is not traveling fast enough. Many people don’t know that aid and development have a shadowy darkside. Much of what is called “international development” has manifested on the idea that people have nothing. This idea is one of many that exacerbate already detrimental conditions in many societies. It is important for all individuals to understand the differences between good and bad development for the sake of humanity both at present and in the future.