Is it possible to thank our friends enough, for their Love in standing with us?
November 5, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Please follow this link to see Love in action http://gallery.me.com/villagemedia#100068
The pictures of our peacemaker friends in Olympia WA USA Fellowship of Reconciliation, who kept the peace vigil with us.
Is it possible to thank our friends enough, for their Love?
The answer is ‘no’…
Gratitude, like grief, is more than life-long.
An Olympia USA FOR Friday Vigil, when we were having ours in Afghanistan
Standing with the Afghan Youth for Peace
We will stay close to our friends by continuing our journey with them ; please join us as we take our next small steps in “Love is how we’ll ask for peace.”
Please watch 13 year old Zekerullah in the “Love is how we’ll ask for peace trailer” above or at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydi8l33YTnQ
Jody Tiller had this poem by Hafiz in her email.
Now is the time to know
That all that you do is sacred.
Now is the time to understand
That all your ideas of right and wrong
Were just a child’s training wheels
To be laid aside
When you can finally live
With veracity
And love.
…Now is the time for the world to know
That every thought and action is sacred.
This is the time
For you to deeply compute the impossibility
That there is anything
But Grace.
Now is the season to know
That everything you do
Is sacred.
Hafiz
Love is how we’ll ask for peace
Beware, Afghanistan is re-defining democracy: world democracy comes crashing down in Afghanistan, like Soviet communism before
November 2, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Please hear the disappointment and recognition of a failed ‘democratic’ process in the video above :
“ Beware, Afghanistan is re-defining democracy”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jpCfWopRLY
Or without English subtitles, as on BBC South Asia News 1/11/2009, entitled “Afghan youth share their thoughts on the election.” ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/8331717.stm )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zz2HS0y7nw
Abdul Ali does not understand ‘democracy’
World democracy comes crashing down in Afghanistan, like Soviet communism before. This is the death of representative truth in Afghanistan’s womb.
“If morality is destroyed, religion which is built on it comes crashing down.” Gandhi
If my morality pays more than 300 million US dollars to compromise on integrity through sanctioned fraud, my morality has bought itself a hearse.
If my religion allows me to kill, my religion is dead.
We can’t forget, especially the many who have lost loved ones in the fighting and bombings, that this attempt at a democratic pregnancy was conceived in the midst of Operation Panther’s Claw, the projected ‘long war of necessity’ that made the scene look like a violent rape.
For the sake of ‘progress’, my Afghan landlord had rushed to complete a 2-storey mud building right in front of my room. As always in Afghanistan, the harsh winter was fast approaching. I had suggested that he delayed the completion till the following spring, but he was ‘pragmatic’ and willing to take mis-calculated risks, so I remember him hurrying through the chipped, already flaking, poorly-dried mud bricks and when he was constructing the roof, late autumn snow was falling!
His mud house was done but left window-less and door-less so that no one could have stayed anyway. About 1 month later, when a few winter snow falls had turned the mountains into a picturesque heaven, the house came crashing down.
The grief of the Afghan stillborn democracy may now fill the earth.
However, it will still insist on reproducing the legitimate partners that America is courting, in the expensive style of war-lord pomp, disguising a putrefying religious rigor mortis and a moral high hypocrisy.
It’s better not to use the name of democracy at all, because than to ‘kill’ democracy’s name this way, that is, it may be possible to salvage truth by calling it what it is, not what it is not. Trying to wrangle some trace of ‘democracy’ from this abortion would be teaching 13 year old Abdul Ali in the video an un-truth.
Either a single candidate ‘choice’ in a run-off election, or the international appointment of the ‘best cheater’ as President without holding a run-off, would be organizing the Afghan and therefore our world democracy’s funeral.
The only consolation is that in Afghanistan, corpses, democratic or otherwise, are customarily buried without costly coffins, just placed in a cloth wrap, the death made ‘right’ through an inexpensive announcement of cover-up regret or approval, not from Kabul, but from the White House.
azam’s election fatigue
Imad’s election pity
Afghan youth share their thoughts on the election : Our Journey to Smile video on BBC
November 1, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Please watch one of our peace vigil youth, Abdul Ali, in our video published on BBC South Asia News 1/11/2009, entitled “Afghan youth Share their thoughts on the election.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/8331717.stm
Or you could watch it at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zz2HS0y7nw
Abdul Ali, one of our peace vigil youth, in the BBC Afghan Election Video
Text on BBC 1/11/2009
In the wake of the second round of Afghanistan’s presidential election, amateur film maker Teck Young Wee who works for the non-governmental organisation, Our Journey to Smile, interviewed young people from Bamiyan.
The video shows Mohammad Azam, Immaddudin and Abdul Ali.
Abdul Ali is one of a group of young people currently keeping vigil in Bamiyan Peace Park in the hope that their message of peace will be acknowledged by US President and 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Barack Obama.
Text of the video which we ourselves had entitled “Beware, Afghanistan is redefining democracy”
Interviewee : Mohammad Azam
Me : In the recent presidential election, there was widespread fraud. How do you feel about it?
Azam : It makes us feel tired.
Interviewee : Immaddudin
Immaddudin : We feel uneasy and strange about it. Although it is the 2nd time we’ve had elections after 30 years of war, we still have such fraud. It’s such a pity!
Interviewee : Abdul Ali
Me : Ali, if you had a friend in school who from his childhood, had been cheating and been deceitful, do you think he can be corrected in 2 weeks?
Ali : No, he cannot be corrected of his deceitfulness in 2 weeks.
Me : What is democracy?
Ali : ‘Wa-allah ( Oh God ), this I don’t understand.
U.S. Ambassador Eikenberry’s visit and words to the Afghan peace vigil youth : Some lonely thoughts from our peace vigil group
November 1, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Please watch brief moments of the U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry’s promise to deliver the Afghan youth’s message of peace to the Nobel Peace Laureate President Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTHbY-obupI
Text of video on the U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry’s visit to the Afghan peace vigil youth
The last night of vigil saw the boys holding up the tent against the rain
The peace vigil youth ready the next morning to meet the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, his wife and the Governor of Bamiyan Dr Sarobi
Zekerullah, who had dropped out of school this spring, eagerly waiting for the Ambassador’s arrival
Ambassador Eikenberry and his wife arrive at the Bamiyan Peace Park with Governor Dr Sarobi
The peace vigil youth greet the Ambassador and his wife with ‘salams!’ ( peace ! )
Abdulai seated beside the Ambassador who spoke with the peace vigil group
Abdulai gives photographs of the peace vigil youth to the Ambassador & through him, to President Obama
The peace vigil youth in a group photo with Ambassador Eikenberry & Governor Sarobi
Zekerullah about to pledge to U.S. Ambassador & President Obama to go back to school next year
Abdulai gives photographs of the peace vigil youth to the Ambassador & through him, to President ?Obama
The peace vigil youth in a group photo with Ambassador Eikenberry & Governor Sarobi
The framed photo of the vigil youth as a gift of thanks & their hope for President Obama to hear their voice of peace
Mountains cannot reach mountains,only Man can reach Man.
Watch the U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry speak to the Afghan peace vigil youth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28kZcdoHaC0
Text of U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry’s words of peace to the Afghan peace vigil youth
I don’t know how many trips I’ve made to Bamiyam. I’ve lost count. The first time I came here was 2002 and it’s been many many trips I’ve made.
And your theme is one of peace and in all of Afghanistan, if we want to talk about peace, the place to come to is Bamiyan Province. And there’s problems in Bamiyan but Bamiyan is such a peaceful place overall.
The fighting that you talk about in your poem and in the letter to President Obama is not the fighting that takes place in Bamiyan, so you’re serving as a…this province serves as a wonderful example for the people of Afghanistan and serves as a wonderful example for the international community.
I’ve been a soldier in your country, with fighting in many places and I always whenever I became discouraged, I always thought about Bamiyan and said if this can work in Bamiyan, then it can work in Afghanistan.
What you’re talking about is not only peace in Afghanistan. What you’re talking about in your poem and in your letter to the President of the United States President Obama who just won the Nobel Prize for Peace, you’re talking about global peace.
And when I come here to Bamiyan in Afghanistan and I think about the bigger world and I sit here in this very peaceful place, I meet some very inspiring young men like you, I think about the seed of peace and that we can plant the seed of peace right here in Bamiyan, in this beautiful garden that you built and from this can grow examples that the rest of the world can look to.
Afghanistan is very important to the American people. The security of Afghanistan is the security of the United States of America. We know that because of what happened to us on 9 11 when our country was attacked.
We were attacked by the same enemy who has a thinking about a kind of militant idealogy, a kind of extremism, a kind of lack of tolerance. It’s the same enemy that destroyed your beautiful heritage here in Bamiyan.
So, I promise to continue our work together to try to find ways to have peace brought to your country, justice and prosperity. And soldiers are needed, but soldiers won’t triumph. To have the triumph of peace, we need good governance, we do need justice and we do need economic development.
Now, to each of you young men, I will give a challenge. Study hard, continue to grow your minds, and each one of you when you grow up one day will make a contribution to a peaceful and to a prosperous Afghanistan filled with justice. I look…( may I add, respect girls and your sisters ) and respect girls and your sisters, which if you don’t have that there really will be no peace or justice, nor will you have prosperity because women hold half the sky up on their soldiers.
Now I look forward then to someday to coming back here when I’m much older with my grandchildren as tourists and I won’t be surprised if you’re the Governor of Bamiyan and I won’t be surprised if you’re a famous doctor in Bamiyan and I won’t be surprised at all if you are a famous engineer building roads throughout Afghansitan and I won’t be surprised if you’re as great writer who has won the Nobel Prize for literature. So, study hard and hold on to your dreams.
I have an opportunity to talk to the President of the United States..oh, it seems now about every several weeks because we’re really thinking hard about Afghanistan and our future strategy here and I pledge to you that when I talk to him, the first opportunity I have, I’ll talk about this letter, I’ll talk about this moment and because of this moment I feel in my heart that I’ll have more confidence when I talk about the future of Afghanistan because the future I see in front of us here and it’s a good future.
So, I ask you, again as the President’s representative, you’ve accomplished much here in the Park, the vigil that you had, the letters that you’ve written, have achieved a great objective. And maybe now it’s time for you to end your vigil. I will take forward this moment and I’d encourage you to get back 100% to your studies. And the next time I have the opportunity to mention this to the President, I’ll let the Governor know and I’m sure she’ll let you know then.
And next time I come back to Bamiyan, which maybe I don’t know how many months it’ll be, the next time I come back to Bamiyan, I’d like to get together with the same group.
Are you 2 brothers? Cousins, okay. I can see it.
Which one is a better student?
Zekerullah, pointing to Abdul Ali : He is..
Which is your favourite class?
Abdul Ali : I’m interested in all of them.
How about you? What’s your favourite?
Zekerullah : Unfortunately, I didn’t go to school this year
You’re not in school. Are you going back next year?
Zekerullah : Inshallah.
Governor Sarobi : He promised. Before, when I arrived here, I had a conversation with him. He left school….he couldn’t follow.
Okay, I hate to… I’ll get that…I’ll get that news to President Obama. Can I tell him that you’re going to go back to school?
Zekerullah : Yes.
Okay. Is that a pledge? ( The Ambassador shakes Zekerullah’s hand )
Some lonely thoughts from our peace vigil group
Why did we feel lonely while we quietly raised our voice of peace?
Peace is lonely.
We tasted this loneliness but were aware that it is a shared human experience; our new found friends in Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation USA were shouldering this too. Everyone has tasted this Space, a space which we carry as individuals whatever our station in life.
We can’t run away from it, so we embrace it and wish to comfort others who may face its gravity acutely, even for the Nobel Peace Laureate President Obama, when he chooses which road he needs to travel, as all of us must.
But then, war is staggeringly lonelier still. It exhausts, divides, makes everyone cynical of the benefits or prizes of peace and finally, as if to seal its victory, throws its isolation and blame on those who speak its alternatives.
Why were we made to feel bad by those who passed by our peace vigil with a disapproving shake of their head, that empty mockery in their eyes?
Peace is seen as powerless and money-less, therefore a sad sort of madness, an un-realism. Whereas wars can sometimes be deemed necessary, peace is sometimes judged as futile. Why necessary? Why futile?
Can Zekerullah understand why bloodshed may feel clean and peace may feel dirty? I mean, to feel wrong in standing for peace?
Is it shameful to ask questions about love and truth and to ask ‘why war’?
Yes, we wish to seize this possible moment of peace, to take back its voice from the noise of war and to wait historically with the rest of the world but the world should know how small we feel, how lost in the ‘rights’ and ‘force’ of violence and oh, how lonely.
But then, because war severely separates us from love, we’d rather cling to the alone-ness of peace than linger with the crowds of Man hurting Man. And strangers killing strangers.
We’d rather feel lonely than live in the abysses where perhaps no Man or God may reach.