Just watched a National Geographic feature on how courageous people in Afghanistan risked their life to protect their cultural artefacts when the Taliban came in and started destroying the country. A group of film archive workers built a false wall to hit over twenty thousand film negatives and created film prints for the Taliban to burn away, while an artist used waterpaint to paint over human characters in oil paintings so that the Taliban would not destroy them (Their fundamentalist religious beliefs prohibits the portrayal of human characters). An archeologist sought to unearth a long lost gigantic 'Sleeping Buddha' in Bamiyan, which will be almost double the size of the ones that the Taliban blown away in 2001, as a fitting way to spite the Talibans and uncover a glorious part of Afghanistan history.
It moved me so that people are willing to risk their lives to protect their cultural heritage, without which a country will lose its soul. Even in such a strife-stricken and war-torn country, there are people dedicated to preserving memory and the past for future generations to build their identity on. I almost wish I could go take a course in archeology right away and embark on a lifetime endeavour of uncovering ancient treasures for that country after watching the show.
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