退屈でないスピーチ

「退屈でないスピーチ」なんて経験的にはすでに語義矛盾だけど、この前（といっても、もう2週間も前かあ・・・）、退屈で死にかけたディナーの場でそんなスピーチに出会った。

アフガニスタンの外務省の大きな会議場のようなところに円卓がたくさん散らばって、ちゃんとフォーマルな格好をした人たちが円卓の席のついていた。200 人くらいかな。絶対にネクタイだけはしてこいと渉外担当のリサがうるさく言うのだけど、カブールにはそもそもスーツみたいなものを持って来ていないので、よれよれのコットンパンツに、砂がしみこんで真っ白に見える元茶色の靴を履いてネクタイをして軍服みたいな色のジャケットを着ていったが、色も素材も何もあってない。ひどい格好だとは思ったが、歳をとるとそういうのがどうでもよくなるのがまた怖い。アミールは無謀にも裏地が花柄の派手なスーツの下に黒いシャツを着てネクタイどころかボタンを三つくらい外して平気な顔していた。ほとんどチンピラにしか見えない。

次から次にエラーい人たちが恐ろしくつまらないスピーチを続けるもんだから、なかなかディナーが始まらない。しかもアルコールはないから、水だけを延々と飲んで、全然知らない人たちと同じテーブルでじっとしているしかない。誰だか知らないがエライ人のスピーチ中なので、隣にたまたま座った女の人がどんなに可愛くても、電話番号の交換とかやってる場合でもない。誰にも気づかれないように静かに切腹でもするしかないような状況に追い込まれてしまった。ほんとに退屈ほど恐ろしいものはない。

こんなところで思いっきり鼻くそをほじくったりしたら、結構イベントになるかもしれないとか、こういう時にアルコールが出たら、すぐにタコみたいに顔を真っ赤にして状況に全然関係ないことを大声で話しまくるオッサンとかが必ず登場しておもしろいのになあ、とか妄想にふけっていると、なんと同僚のモハメッド・シディクがスピーチを始めたではないか。よっ！頑張れ！ここらで一発かましてやれっ！とか心の中で一応叫んでみた。

シディクの話が始まると、大ホールが完全に静まり返ってしまった。恐ろしいことにみんな聞き始めたのだ。それまではあちこちのテーブルから聞こえていたヒソヒソ話の声がぴたっと止まった。大ホールが真空になってしまったようだ。僕もいつのまにか最後まで一語も聞き逃さないように聞いていた。

終わった。誰も何も言わない。これまでの誰かのスピーチの後のようにパラン、パランという義理堅い拍手の音もない。完全な静寂。その真空の一瞬の後、はっと気がついたように誰かが立ち上がって、拍手をし始めた。それを見て他の人たちもやっと今、目が覚めたように立ち上がりながら拍手を始めた。大ホールがものすごい拍手の渦になった。なかなか止まない。目頭を押さえてる人たちがあちこちにいる。僕も今喋ったら泣いてしまうので絶対に喋れないと思った。これまでのエライさん達のスピーチはなんだったんだとふと思ったが、もうどうでもいいではないか。

翌日シディクに、日本語に翻訳して日本全国に公表したいからとウソをついて、原稿をもらった。


Mr. Mohammad Sediq
Chief of Operations
United Nations Mine Action Center for Afghanistan (UNMACA)
Dinner on 29 March 2007
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Kabul, Afghanistan


Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my great honor to be here with you this evening.

I want to tell you a little bit about myself, and how I come to be speaking to you this evening. It has been quite a long journey.

I became the Chief of Operations at UNMACA in November of last year. This was the first senior management post ever to be nationalized at UNMACA and I’m sure is the start of many more to come.

Although I received a new title just a few months ago, I am not a newcomer to mine action. I have been with the Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan since its very beginning. I started out as a surveyor/deminer with the Afghan mine action NGO called the Mine Clearance and Planning Agency, MCPA, in 1990 when I was just 20 years old. Throughout all of my adult life, I have worked in various positions in mine action, including team leader, operations assistant and area manager, in various regions of Afghanistan.

Remarkably, I am not alone. There are many men like me, who have been a part of mine action for almost two decades, who have devoted their lives to the cause, who have risked their lives to clear Afghanistan. It’s because of this loyalty and dedication that the Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan is not just an organization, but a family that extends to the far reaches of Afghanistan.

I have known many of the people at UNMACA and the implementing partners for years now. These men have become some of the best experts in mine action in the world and some of the world’s most passionate advocates of mine action. It’s directly due to the courage and the exhausting work of these men that 60 percent of all the contaminated land that existed in Afghanistan has been cleared to date.

When I began in 1990, the field of mine action was still in its dawn. Deminers wore no PPE, the Personal Protective Equipment that today includes a Kevlar helmet, chest armour and apron armour that altogether can weigh up to 14 kilograms. The deminers then had very little training and had only most basic of equipment. Thanks to the support of the international community, deminers today no longer have to go out into the field with just the shirt on their back. They have some of the most advanced equipment to protect themselves and clear their country.

Sadly, demining will never be a risk-free job. I was part of a group of 21 young Afghan Refugees who were deployed into the field for doing technical survey of the mined areas 17 years ago. Only 5 of them are not killed or injured by mines. Many of those men I worked with paid the ultimate price to clear their country, and deminers are still sacrificing their lives. In 2006 alone, three deminers were killed and 33 were injured while they cleared Afghanistan of mines and unexploded ordnance.

Deminers these days encounter other threats besides those lurking in the ground. Astonishingly, deminers who are willing to lay down their lives for the future of Afghanistan have increasingly become the victim of insurgent attacks over the past years. Last year, four deminers were killed and six were injured due to insurgent attacks.

Demining is incredibly dangerous. Demining is incredibly difficult. Why do these people that I have worked with closely since 1990 do it? They do it for the simplest and best of reasons. They want a better Afghanistan. They want an Afghanistan that is safe for their children, an Afghanistan where farmers can plant crops without fear, an Afghanistan that is primed for development and an Afghanistan that is completely free from the scars of war, an Afghanistan that can provide another work to them.

I remember the last words from one of our colleagues Mr. Eng Nazar Gul? who was very deeply injured by the blast of an Anti personnel mine while we were working in a minefield in Sarde Dam of Ghazni, he was without both hands, both eyes and had a deep injury in his thigh and numerous other injuries on his body. While he had only a couple of more hours to live due to the lack of medical facility while his eyes were fastened and was shaking due to pain he was feeling told us: Continue your struggle until the last mine – the enemy of humanity in Afghanistan is destroyed. I will never forget this.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of men that are out in the field every day risking their lives for Afghanistan are not here tonight. As you well know, they are the true heroes of this night. But they are humble people, and I know that if they were here they would thank you for your support over the years. And they would hope that you will stay with them through the end – until their mission is accomplished and Afghanistan is finally free of the threat of mines and unexploded ordnance.

As I’m standing here, before of you, Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I know that Afghans can make it, as I did. In 1990, I was on the ground searching the dirt of my country for mines, and, today, I am speaking to you at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the chief of operations for the entire mine action programme.

Hard work and dedication has its rewards: I am optimistic that my country will prove that to the world, one day. Hard work and dedication have removed more than half the mine problem in Afghanistan already, and there will come a day very soon with the continued hard work and dedication of all of us here tonight and all those in the field, that the very last mine will be removed from Afghanistan.

This short movie is to pay a tribute to the men of the mine action programme for Afghanistan who have contributed to a safer environment for all of us, and to honour to all the donors who have made this possible.

Thank you very much.