NATO and US in dilemma over Afghanistan
February 24, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
NATO and US in dilemma over Afghanistan
Scheffer
21/2/2009 Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has said that failure in Afghanistan is “not an option” but he ruled out a military solution alone. “We should not be under any illusion there is a military solution,” he said.
Kyrgyz MPs have voted to close a key US base supplying troops in Afghanistan. The Manas base in Kyrgyzstan is used by thousands of US soldiers every month on their way to and from Afghanistan.
Robert Gates
Pakistan Swat-style truce in Afghanistan acceptable
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on 20/2/2009 that Washington could accept a political agreement between the Afghan government and the Taliban if the insurgents will lay down their arms and accept the government’s terms.
Letter to Palestinian Dr Izzeldeen from Afghan youth
February 24, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Letter to Palestinian Dr Izzeldeen from Afghan youth
Dr Izzeldeen
Dr Izzeldeen lost 3 daughters and a niece in the Gaza conflict. He says that he still believes in peace. He said that his family was only armed with love and education.
Afghan youth in Bamiyan and all in Our Journey to Smile humbly wish to put the SMILE back on Dr Izzeldeen’s face.
Dear Dr Izzeldeen,
We, the youth of Bamiyan Afghanistan, grieve with you.
We know from personal firsthand experiences that grief is permanent and inconsolable.
As difficult as this grief is Mankind’s disappointment in the obstinate, undignified in-humanity of the few fellow human beings who would kill LOVE, again and again.
War and violence kills LOVE, again and again.
Raziq and Abdul
15-year-old Raziq and 12-year-old Abdul would like to specially comfort you using a poignant Afghan phrase, “Our ‘liver is bleeding’ with you (we are intensely sad with you).”
Ba-AmAn KhudA (wishing you the peace and protection of God),
Our Journey to Smile
ourjourneytosmile.com
Our Journey to Smile Supporters’ Words of Encouragement
February 24, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Aman from Afghanistan wrote on 21/2/2009 :
‘I would like to join our journey to smile,because it take long time we people had no oppertunity to smile because of the war.’
Florence from Singapore wrote on 23/2/2009 :
The Our Journey to Smile video has warmed my heart and lifted my spirits; that despite the strife and tribulations out there, love radiates from their smiles. Please let them know that they are a beautiful people 
Smile – from the Heart
February 22, 2009 by
Filed under Videos
You can access ALL our videos on You Tube at this address http://www.youtube.com/user/ourjourneytosmile/featured
Please subscribe to our videos if you so wish.
Thank you for your heart of peace!
Peace in Bamyan Afghanistan
February 22, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Little Steps towards peace in Afghanistan but slowly and surely, there is yet hope
Peace Building
February 19, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
- President Barack Obama’s wish for peace in Afghanistan in his inauguration speech on 20th Jan 2009
We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan.
We cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself.’
President Barack Obama has ordered an interagency review to examine U.S. policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan before a NATO summit in April 09.
18/2/2009 President Barack Obama has authorised the deployment of up to 17,000 extra US troops to Afghanistan, saying they are to “meet urgent security needs”.
The deployment will be made up of 8,000 marines, and 4,000 army soldiers, plus another 5,000 support staff. They will serve in the south of Afghanistan, where the violence has been worst. They will also arrive ahead of the national elections in August, a crucial time for Afghanistan.
The increase “is necessary to stabilise a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan“, Mr Obama said. “The Taleban is resurgent in Afghanistan, and al-Qaeda supports the insurgency and threatens America from its safe-haven along the Pakistani border,” he said.
Afghanistan, he said, “has not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires”.
“I recognise the extraordinary strain that this deployment places on our troops and military families,” the president said.
The announcement came after the UN said that the number of civilians killed in the conflict in Afghanistan rose by 39% last year.
Militants were to blame for 55% of the 2,118 civilian deaths, while US, Nato and Afghan forces were responsible for 39%, according to the UN report – the highest number since the Taleban were ousted in 2001
‘There is tension between us and the US government on issues of civilian casualties, arrests of Afghans, nightly raids on homes and the casualties they cause,’ Karzai said.
US President Barack Obama’s envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, has said that winning the conflict there will be “much tougher” than in Iraq. He told a conference in Munich: ‘I have never seen anything like the mess we have inherited. It is like no other problem we have confronted .’
‘But until we prove capable – with the help of our allies and Afghan partners – of safeguarding the population, we will never know a peaceful, prosperous Afghanistan.’ Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.
War kills Our Smile
War kills Man’s Dignity
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Desmond Tutu’s message to Obama 19/2/2009
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has warned Barack Obama of the risk of squandering the goodwill he says the US president’s election has generated.
‘Most of us do want to see peace. ‘
He says it would be “wonderful” if Mr Obama apologised for the invasion of Iraq.
“The Bush Administration managed to rile people everywhere. Its bully-boy attitude sadly polarised our world,” he says.
‘When war began, first in Afghanistan and not long after in Iraq, we read allegations of prisoner abuse at Bagram air base in Afghanistan and of rendition to countries notorious for practising torture. We saw the horrific images from Abu Ghraib and learned of gruesome acts performed in the name of gathering information. Sometimes the torture itself was couched in the US government’s euphemisms – calling waterboarding an “interrogation technique”. ‘
‘Going forward, as we strive to create a stable, prosperous world for all, we need to work together with other nations for justice, equity and peace. We need to believe that the values of fairness and compassion are not only yours and mine; they are shared by all humanity. ‘
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Russia and Peace in Afghanistan
‘We were there for 10 years and we lost more than 14,000 soldiers, but what was the result? Nothing. We wanted to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan, but in fact everything got worse.’ Lt Gen ( retd ) Ruslan Aushev.
‘The conflict cannot be solved by military means, it’s an illusion. No-one can reach any political goal in Afghanistan relying on military force. Frankly speaking, they are doomed to repeat our mistakes,’ says Col Oleg Kulakov, who served twice in Afghanistan and is now a lecturer and historian in Moscow.
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Other peace building activities in Bamiyan planned for 2009
a. Building of Bamiyan City Peace Park
Bamiyan Peace Park will be a green area in Bamiyan City Centre that will provide a platform for youth, women, children and travellers to promote the development of a civil society through income generating, peace building and artistic activities.
The people of Bamiyan wish to build this park by their own independent means, through the participation of all its people, without the help of foreign funds. This will be a park built by the people, for the future peace and development of their country.
Allocated Bamiyan City Peace Park site
Bamiyan Youth Volunteers at the Peace Park Site
Bamiyan Governor Sarobi at Peace Park ground-breaking ceremony 2008
b. Establishment of Reconciliation Committee
When established, it will be the first such Reconciliation Committee in Afghanistan.
Wish for Peace
February 14, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
- President Barack Obama’s wish for peace in Afghanistan in his inauguration speech on 20th Jan 2009
‘ We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan.
We cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself.’
- Other peace building activities in Bamiyan planned for 2009
Building of Bamiyan City Peace Park
Establishment of Reconciliation Committee
Journey to Smile
February 13, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
An ancient and growing journey to smile
A seed, a friendship
An encouragement and a grieving
Perhaps
Also a meaning.
Habib, Aghans and the world wish to smile;
To be humane despite our hearts.
To ask together, like the dove,
Perhaps
We can raise the possibility of love.
Join the Journey to Smile …
VENUE World Heritage Bamiyan Buddhas
LOCATION Bamiyan Afghanistan
DATE 21 September 2009
Our Journey to Smile in 2009 wishes to gather Afghan college students and Afghan youth from every ethnicity,
as well as international volunteers from every country, to come together at the World Heritage Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan on International Peace Day,
21st September 2009,
to be an example and encouragement to the world
that wide-scale humane relations based on a humane love is possible,
in-humane our current global situation may be.
In 2009 AD, Afghanistan is in the depth of world conflict and self-interest.
Whatever our fellow humans, Obama or Osama or others, decide, the college students and youth of Afghanistan, together with all of humanity, wish to to encourage ourselves and others to SMILE.
By smiling, we are grieving over Mankind’s proud, in-humane and self-absorbed behavior. We seek to raise the possibility of a humane love by building wide scale humane relationships and thus enjoy the growth of a majority public practice of humanity’s shared hopes.
We hope to put courage and dignity into our lives and our world, to put delight into the hearts of children and all of Mankind, to suggest that whatever our shared condition, a HUMANE LOVE is possible.
While the US, NATO, Taliban and all other players decide what to do with a country that is not theirs and a world that does not belong only to them, is there ANY ONE PERSON who understands what the common, average citizen of Afghanistan or citizen of the world wishes for?
Some say realistically but sadly, ‘this Journey will NOT happen….’
What they are saying is ,’ Genuine love, humanity and peace belong only to the poets and the fables. Humanity doesn’t have what it takes.’
It’s sad because both Afghans and the world need encouragement.
It’s sad because reality, perhaps life itself, seems keen for us to remain frozen in the timid beliefs that humanity cannot have the HUMANE RELATIONS which the majority of us want, that the small minority of decision-makers must always have their self-interested ways.
We want address our own cynicism, to try, to face disappointment, to take our small steps, believing that when we embark on Our Journey to Smile, humanity has to grow and will not shrink back to its unsure and undignified days.
Our Heart on In-Humanity
February 13, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Why have we become in-humane? Why terrorism?
Why such pride in insisting that we are right and others are wrong? Why the ‘clash of civilizations’?
Why can’t we find genuine friends, whose words we can trust? Why such disparities in life?
We get the feeling that life shouldn’t be this way, at least, people, humans, shouldn’t be this way.
Are we not all human?
Are we losing the gift of a smile?
Afghanistan’s dilemma is the world’s dilemma: extremism, conflict, politics and self-interest. Afghans, like all of mankind, want peace.
In 2008, Bamiyan university students volunteered to address this hope through a 3 month Peace Workshop.
At the end of the workshop, 16 students from different conflicting ethnic groups lived together in the same dormitory rooms for one semester. It was difficult but they have taken a step.
Join us in this continuing journey this year, going towards 21st September 2009, International Peace Day, at the World Heritage Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan.
In the midst of pain, disappointment and apparent impossibilities, you and I, all of us, should encourage each other in our journeys to recover our smile.
Especially at such a disheartening time in human history as this.
‘ Let us always meet each other with a smile, for a smile is the beginning of love.’ Mother Teresa
Our Journey to Smile : Humane Relations seeks to build wide scale humane relationships based on humane love. In the midst of pain, we hope to raise a majority public practice of humanity’s shared hopes, by encouraging ourselves and others to smile.
In 2009, Our Journey to Smile seeks international volunteers, one from every nation, to journey with Afghan college students from different ethnicities, in our common journey for humane relationships.
We would celebrate this together on International Peace Day on 21 September 2009, at the World Heritage Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan.
Our Journey to Smile : Humane Relations is based on Humane Love
L – Listens
O – Others-first
V – Violence not resisted with violence, but with grief and forgiveness
E – Empathizes with all humans as humans, including those perceived as “enemies”
What Our Journey to Smile is NOT :
- It is NOT political or religious.
- It is NOT a charity. It is voluntary.
- It is NOT a new idea. A smile is an ancient need and wisdom.
- It is NOT an institution.
- It is NOT activist. It is non-violent.
Volunteer
February 12, 2009 by
Filed under Our Journey to Smile : Mission Statement, Volunteer
We are looking for volunteers, one from every nation of the world.
- To go to the World Heritage Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan on International Peace Day, 21st of September 2009, in support of Afghan college students in Our Journey to Smile.
Volunteers will also need to attend a Humane Relations conference before the 21st of September 2009 (date and place of conference to be decided). This is necessary to build Our Journey to Smile and to understand and nurture each other’s lives.
- Be committed to encouraging Humane Relations: Our Journey to Smile in their respective countries, through various long-term, voluntary activities.
Criteria for volunteers :
- Our Journey to Smile involves no monetary benefit / profit / salary.
- Volunteers are fully responsible for their own safety.
- Individual expenses will be borne by the volunteers themselves. They may raise funds for themselves, but not receive funds from political or religious groups.
- Our Journey to Smile has no political or religious agenda, therefore NO politicians or affiliates of political groups and religious professionals will be considered.
- Volunteers should not insist that their way of thinking, doing and living is THE best or the only or right way.
- Volunteers must be prepared to live with ANY nationality.
B. Support Volunteers
Support volunteers can
1. Help spread the message of Our Journey to Smile
This will be through the volunteers’ own network of friends. The wider the spread, the wider the scale of Smiles and Humane Relations we will encourage.
2. Stay in contact with us
Our on-line volunteers will look into establishing a system of updating support volunteers.
Until such a system of a regular email alerts or updates is set up, we request support volunteers to visit the site regularly for updates.
3. Encourage with letters to Afghans
Write or leave comments to encourage Afghans
4. Share experiences on-line
This would add to the Journey through real stories on humane actions and peace building from various countries eg on inter-racial harmony
Those interested to be either Bamiyan Journey Volunteers or Support Volunteers should email us at
volunteer@ourjourneytosmile.com
Those interested to be Bamiyan Journey Volunteers should additionally fill up and attach the Bamiyan Journey Volunteer Application Form in their email to us.
http://www.ourjourneytosmile.com/Volunteer/VolunteerApplicationForm.doc
(if clicking on the link above does not work, please try this:
copy the link, and paste it in your internet browser.
Download or open the document.
After you’ve filled up, please save the form with a different name, and send it back to volunteer@ourjourneytosmile.com.
Thank you very much.)
Those interested to be volunteers should contact us.