The Narratives – Mohamed Miah

Mohamed Miah | The Narratives

There’s something that grates on me every time I hear it, when a tourist, usually European or American, travels to another country and says it’s “dangerous,” “boring,” or “dirty.”

The irony is painful. These are the same nations whose forefathers colonised, looted, and destabilised Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

They carved up borders with rulers on maps, set tribes and communities against each other, stole natural resources, and left chaos behind. Then they sit back, point fingers, and wonder why Somalia, Afghanistan, or Sudan are “unsafe.”

Afghanistan – From Poetry to Warzones

Afghanistan wasn’t always a land people avoided. Before the Soviet invasion in 1979 and decades of US and NATO involvement, Afghanistan had universities buzzing with culture, women studying freely, a flourishing tradition of poetry, and bustling bazaars on the Silk Road. Kabul in the 1960s and 70s was called the “Paris of Central Asia.”

Now the same Western nations that fuelled proxy wars call it “backward and dangerous.” The truth is, Afghanistan was dragged into ruin by foreign hands, and then blamed for being in ruins.

Somalia – A Nation Carved and Starved

Somalia wasn’t always chaos and pirates. The Somali coast was once a hub of trade, scholarship, and seafaring that connected Africa, Arabia, and Asia. Colonisers divided it between the British, Italians, and French, tearing apart clans and territories.

Later, Cold War superpowers used it as a pawn, flooding it with weapons before abandoning it. Famine, warlords, and instability followed. Today, people shake their heads at Somalia’s “danger,” forgetting that it was the West that first broke it apart.

Iraq – From Mesopotamia to Rubble

Iraq is the cradle of civilisation, Mesopotamia, where writing, astronomy, and some of humanity’s earliest cities were born. Baghdad was once the jewel of the Islamic Golden Age, a centre of knowledge where medicine, mathematics, and philosophy thrived.

Fast forward to modern history, and it became the playground of oil politics, sanctions, and invasion. Bombs flattened the land, and millions were displaced. Now, outsiders fly in, see the destruction, and call it “unsafe,” as if Iraq did it to itself.

Dirty? Boring? Or Just Not Western Enough?

And then comes the arrogance of labelling these places “dirty” or “boring.” Step into Bangladesh, Yemen, or Syria and you’ll find centuries of tradition, resilience, food, poetry, and community. But because it doesn’t fit into a Western tourist’s checklist of beaches, cocktails, and nightclubs, it’s dismissed as worthless.

Immigrants vs Expats – The Language of Superiority

The hypocrisy doesn’t stop there. When Europeans or Americans move abroad, they are called expats. It sounds glamorous, adventurous, even noble.

But when people of colour move to their countries, suddenly the language shifts, immigrants, foreigners, sometimes even illegals.

The same act, moving across borders is framed completely differently depending on the colour of your skin. That’s not an accident. It’s a continuation of colonial superiority dressed up in modern words.

A British Bangladeshi Lens

As a British Bangladeshi, I’ve seen this double standard up close. Growing up here, I was always made to feel “foreign,” even though I was born in UK.

At the same time, I’ve watched Europeans and Americans move freely to Dubai, Singapore, or Bangladesh, and nobody calls them “immigrants.” They’re “expats,” living an “adventurous lifestyle.” Meanwhile, my people are judged for the very same movement, as if our skin colour changes the morality of crossing a border.

This isn’t just history, it’s lived reality. When I hear someone call another land “dangerous” or “dirty,” I don’t just hear arrogance, I hear denial. Denial of their own history, denial of the destruction they caused, and denial of the double standards that still live on today.

The truth is simple, the West destroyed much of what it now mocks. It destabilised, then pathologised. It lit the fire, then complained about the smoke.

So before calling our lands “unsafe” or “backward,” maybe ask why they are in that state. Who armed the militias? Who funded the wars? Who profits from the chaos?

The arrogance isn’t just in the words, it’s in the silence that forgets the history.