| To see more, visit: www.guardian.co.uk June 2008 US forces in Afghanistan face an unexpected enemy: the language barrier. They need villagers to cooperate but inaccurate translations keep defeating them. Here is one comically absurd example of failed communication. An increasing number of Taliban rockets has been hitting Charlie Company. The source of the attacks was located near Mangratay, a small Afghan village. Sergeant Adams is sent to Mangratay to speak to the local elders about the attacks. As always, he finds a ghost town: 'everybody has just disappeared.' Finally, a man appears but he only speaks Pashto. Asked about the level of security in the area, he replies that 'there is no security'. Inexplicably, this gets translated to: 'We are fine; there are no problems here.' The translators have become empowered and inject their own interpretation into everything. Although the elder clearly indicates he wants to cooperate, the translator fails to convey his answers, And so it goes on. The old Afghan offers the American soldier a parable; 'The Taliban are like little ants, there is no way to keep them from the wheat' is translated to 'the Taliban are behind this mountain'. This is a familiar situation to Sergeant Adams, who leaves swearing and angry. A week later, more rockets hit the same area. Time after time the Americans and ordinary Afghans fail to understand one another. Never was the absurdity of war more obvious than here. |
