Journey to Peace Conference in Bamiyan Afghanistan June 20-22nd 2009
May 10, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
We are a group of volunteer youth and college students in Afghanistan who, together with international volunteers, wish to recover humanity’s smile (peace, reconciliation, humane love, dignity) in Afghanistan and beyond.
Our Journey to Smile is a non-violent, peace-building effort and event approved by the UN International Peace Day under the Culture of Peace Initiative. http://internationaldayofpeace.org/participate/events_calendar.html
Our commitment to peace is also registered by Peace One Day www.peaceoneday.org/commitment.aspx (commitment number 21323).
Our Journey to Smile is independent, impartial, NOT political, NOT religious and NOT a charity. It is made up entirely of volunteers.
Purpose :
We Afghan youth are tired of everything bad.
We are tired of violence and war.
We are tired of deception.
We are tired of the lack of real friends.
We wish for true peace, reconciliation and humanity.
Place : Center of Bamiyan Province
Conference Dates : 20-22nd June 2009, Saturday to Monday
Organizers : Our Journey to Smile http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog
Participants :
Youth from every province in Bamiyan who are keen to pursue peace, humanity and justice.
Our Journey to Smile invites you to participate in this Journey to Peace Conference, to bring peace and friendship to this country.
Expenses are to be fully paid by the participants themselves.
The organizers will organize a trip to Band-e-Amir on the 3rd day of the Conference.
Those interested to participate in this Conference should not have any political or religious agendas and should not expect any monetary or other benefits in kind.
Interested participants are to fill up the form below and send it to contactpeacebam@ourjourneytosmile.com
Application Form for Journey to Peace Conference 20th – 22nd June 2009
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Photo of Applicant
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Name :
Name of father :
Name of grandfather :
Province :
District :
Village :
Occupation:
Age :
Write a short essay of not more than 100 words on ‘My wishes for humanity and justice’.
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I am not involved in any political or religious groups.
______________________
Signature
Date of Application :
US ‘deeply’ regrets Afghan civilian deaths: Why??
May 7, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said in Washington that the Obama administration “deeply, deeply” regrets the loss of innocent life, calling such incidents as the reported killing of the 100 civilians “particularly painful”.
WHY?
WHY?
US planes ‘kill Afghan civilians’, US Afghan strikes killed dozens of civilians: DEATH IS PEACE??
May 6, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Does Death differentiate between a civilian human and a military human?
Is violent death peace?
Do civilian and military deaths in war make us feel deep down that the world is getting ‘safer’?
Al Jazeera and BBC 060509
Robert Wood, the acting US State Department spokesman, said in a statement: “Coalition forces and the Afghan government have received reports of civilian casualties in conjunction with a militant attack on Afghan National Security Forces in Farah Province on May 5.
“A joint investigation will be conducted to determine exactly what happened.”
Amin, the governor of Farah province said that villagers had brought truckloads of bodies, many of them women and children, to his office in the provincial capital as proof of their death.
Violence has increased sharply in Afghanistan over the past year.
An estimated 7,000 people – including 2,000 civilians – were killed in fighting during that period, the UN and aid agencies say.
President Karzai, who is due to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington on Wednesday, has long pleaded with US officials to reduce the number of civilian casualties.
Palestine’s Holocaust museum : Why can’t Holocausts transform this Grievous Silence??
May 3, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Musa says Palestinians feel sorrow for the Holocaust,
but question why they are being punished
Aren’t we grieved that Holocausts seem to be harbingers of more Holocausts?
Doesn’t anyone have enough sense to heal this Pain of All, whether the Pain plagues the Jew or the Palestinian or us?
Aren’t we all unwilling to lose any loved one, anywhere?
Isn’t it particularly tough for young children to handle ‘an eye for an eye’, especially if they weren’t the ones who delivered those ‘punches’?
Dear Musa,
Thanks for your fine work arising from Pain & Sorrow.
We’re Afghan youth & revenge is sadly part of our ‘culture’ ; ‘hitting back’ and ‘accusing only the other’ has become part of the Global Culture of War, our un-dignified and shared human condition.
So, we must keep trying till ‘an eye for an eye’ ceases, till love triumphs over anger, till this grievous silence is transformed.
It’d take a lot from us to bring peace & humanity in the midst of war & in-humanity, but that’s better than the senseless violence that takes away our all!
Peace!
Our Journey to Smile
“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner
Al Jazeera 03/05/09
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/04/2009429133130101883.html
In a small anonymous home in the West Bank, a Palestinian academic has set up a project which is almost unheard of in the Occupied Territories.
Hassan Musa is the curator of a museum exhibition dedicated to the Jewish Holocaust in Europe.
The cracked white walls of this makeshift museum in the village of Ni’lin are covered from floor to ceiling with images of people forced out of their homes, tortured, imprisoned, starved and murdered.
In addition to the pictures depicting the Nazi brutality against Jews in Europe, there are also images of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the violence in Palestine since.
Musa says pictures of the atrocities committed against both peoples were strategically placed side-by-side to not only reflect the suffering of both and help Israelis and Palestinians better understand each other, but also to demonstrate how victims of one conflict can become the harbinger of another.
“The world is shamefully silent about what is happening in Palestine..”he said.
People in the village also accused the Israeli military of killing four Ni’lin residents since protests against land confiscation began in May 2008.
Among those was Musa’s 10-year-old nephew, Ahmad, who died on July 29, 2008 from a bullet wound to the head.
“Our message to the Jewish people all over the world is that having been victims of such a brutal genocide, we expect you to be messengers of all the principles of justice, mercy and humanity,” he told Al Jazeera.
“I lost my nephew and I know how painful it is for me,” Musa says, “that’s why I don’t want anyone else living on this land to lose their loved ones.”