Friends can change us, as the Afghan mountains ask us to
September 29, 2010 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Dear friends,
“When I get tired, I come back to the mountains.”
15 year old Abdulai
As we had our Peace Trek in the Afghan Hindu Kush mountains, we believed that
“Friends can change us, as the Afghan mountains ask us to”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxlsIHh7dt0
Also watch Native Americans walking together with Afghans ( created by Raven Redbone in Olympia Washington USA ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Io7KrjJmaU
‘Mountains cannot reach mountains, only Man can reach Man.’
Afghan proverb
“When I see my friends & my family, anger, hate & fear in my heart changes towards friendship.”
Love and peace,
Hakim and the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers
http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog
http://www.thepeoplesjourney.org/
http://www.friendswithoutborders.org/
“Mountains cannot reach mountains,
only Man can reach Man.”
Afghan proverb
Text of video
‘Mountains cannot reach mountains, only Man can reach Man.’
Afghan proverb
Our Peace Trek in the Hindu Kush
Zekerullah goes to school
Song ‘Walking together’ by Native American Arli Neskahi
Ali works with his donkey
Mohammad Jan keeps his cow
Faiz tends to his sheep
Khamad runs his chips business
Lala farms his potato fields
Nazuko fetches water
Ghulamai works in a shop
Parwin studies hard
Raziq saws some wood
Aziz helps with calligraphy
Abdulai reaps his wheat
When I get tired, I come back to the mountains
Our Peace Trek in the Hindu Kush mountains
Oh beautiful dove, oh dear dove
We are very tired of war & injustice, very tired of war & injustice
We want peace, we want peace
We want peace!
On each of the pieces of white cloth you see behind us, we wrote the word peace in 44 languages
This sentence reads ‘Why not love?’
The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers wrote the words ‘Why not love?’ on the Afghan hills
We showed ‘Why not love?’ to the Bamiyan Governor Dr Sarobi & to the UN dignitary Mr Robert
This is in English ‘Peace’. This is in Braille. There’s also Georgian. Where is it? You need to find it.
I must confess the word is correct. How do you read it? shredoma
‘Paz’ in Spanish. Kapayapaan in Tagalog. Hoa Binh in Vietnamese.
Robert, this is in Chinese ? ? ‘He Ping’. Santi in Hindi.
Where’s Arabic? It’s here, ???? ‘salam’. ??? Sulh is also Arabic and Dari
??? ???? ?????? Chera mohabat nakuneem? Why not love?!
Let’s go to the peace dove…
Bamiyan Governor Dr Sarobi and UN dignitary Mr Robert with the Peace Dove
‘Why not love?’ ( yellow highlight ) in the Afghan mountains
I wish that this peace will spread to all of Afghanistan like a wave. This is the wish of all the people of Afghanistan
It ( peace ) doesn’t come on its own. It’s something that we have to struggle for.
Human beings are all part of the same body. The essence of creation ought to be one. When a member of the body is in pain, the whole body shares their agony. If you are not affected by the people’s sorrow, one may not call you a human being.
Friends walking together
The Afghan youth peace volunteers spoke out meekly but resolutely before the elders
…..to resist the ‘mountains of anger, hate and fear’ in our hearts
On International Day of Peace 3 days ago, we the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, together with our international friends, had asked with one voice, “Why not love?”.
We hope to find friends without borders in the whole world
friends who love one another, friends who are honest & who share each other’s pain
friends who will never take each other’s life
& if we ourselves should die, whose voice of peace would never remain silent.
We wrote ‘Why not love?’ on the Afghan Hindu Kush hills
When I see my friends & my family, anger, hate & fear in my heart changes towards friendship
15 year old Abdulai
Embracing our Peace Dove
Friends can change us, as the Afghan mountains ask us to
Ali and Ghulamai guide the trekkers
2 of our 47 ‘Peace’ Signs used to make the question ‘Why not love?’
These are in Croatian ( left ) and Vietnamese
Dear friends of love,
We wish to thank you for being our friends, in particular, those of you who tried so hard to contact us on International Peace Day 21st of September, strengthening us with tears and songs in our predicament. We were deeply touched by your solidarity from as many as 20 different countries of origin.
Forgive us if you couldn’t connect for our failure to overcome ‘technology’ and know that our longing to connect will not diminish.
We are human beings yearning for love’s concrete practice above a decent piece of bread. And if this love of ours, held up by you, is perceived as ‘weak’ or ‘naive’, so be it. We know this love cannot be dismissed. It is the most resolute resistance we can harness, so please stay with our shared power as we ask together, “Why not love?”
We are working to put together a THANK YOU collection of these conversations, because we yearn for this love to grow so wide, we’ll finally see the natural woods healing the thorns.
Meanwhile, we ordinary Afghans watch with foreboding as the international forces announce their mythical Operation Dragon Strike on Qandahar.
As if killing was pragmatic.
As if dragons were real.
We are not dragons or beasts.
No man shall ram the towers of yesterday and escape the falling stones. No one shall open the floodgates of his ancestors without drowning. Kahlil Gibran
Love and peace,
Hakim and the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers
If you should kill me unawares
September 16, 2010 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Heart to heart!
I want to be your friend.
To set my small heart free.
Zekerullah and Afghan youth ask the world to reach their human hearts*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I529WInhaW0
*through Skype calls to the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers on the 21st September 2010 International Day of Peace….. If you and your friends would reach out this way, even for a minute, please email dougwmackey@gmail.com and arrange to talk with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers!
“We will plan to be together the whole day of 21st to receive calls, for all of 24 hours from 8.00 am, … We’d rather take your calls than join the ‘officials’ in paying lip service to peace…and we’d rather stay awake to hear your voices than sleep without those human connections we yearn for.” Hakim and the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers
I refuse the dictation that our pain is passive, or alone.
I refuse to weep this way.
“If you should kill me unawares…
don’t forget I had asked for your friendship & love.”
15-year-old Afghan boy Zekerullah.
Heart to heart, Zekerullah asks for your phone call
It feels like all the anger and doubts of life and death have ‘collected’ within us in Afghanistan.
It isn’t easy.
We tell each other that we’ll cope somehow with the challenges of survival and harsh physical circumstances before us, even to cope unwillingly with death. What we can’t cope with is the global poverty of love and truth.
We see ourselves choosing empty ‘success’ over friendship and thriving on the subjugation of earth and ‘the others’. We can’t seem to appeal more from our leaders than a penchant for ‘greater’ self-interest, money and power.
And oh, such distance between souls.
Hence, we live constantly hoping and constantly despairing.
We constantly hope because love imparts resolve to people of any age.
We constantly despair because hate seems so uncontrollably noisy.
We walk around hoping and despairing.
We dream that intact, independent spirits will understand our pain and do what Man must do to improve on life’s passage, to refuse this sorrow.
We’ve seen the rich plundering those already dying. It fills us with utter disrespect, so why?
We’ve stomached the powerful executing those already voiceless. It destroys our equilibrium of justice, so why?
We’ve heard everyone claiming the winning strategy over those already cornered. It mocks a child’s wisdom, so why?
We’ve pitted God/Love against Satan/Hate in hurting and killing. It drives us to frantic hypocrisy, so why?
We’ve demonized ‘the others’ to deify ourselves. It amputates our shared essentials, so why?
We’ve tried war. It doesn’t work. We know it doesn’t work, so why?
Why?
Why this incongruent life of self-absorption, anger and fear?
When Abdulai visits his father’s grave, when Faiz remembers his brother smothered within bullet-ear-shot and when Parwin asks about the 3000 plus dead of September 11, grief re-catches up with them.
In Afghanistan, grief is like gravity, imperceptibly hurtling us downwards till death makes it un-necessary. It weighs on us like it weighs on Americans or Iraqis or Palestinians or Jews, or you.
It makes us doubt life’s flailing suggestion of goodwill.
For one too many, when we can no longer find relief in any fellow human being, ‘suicide’ relieves us of life.
Then evening came, another day of tough un-affirmed labour, more snipe remarks at his ‘uselessness’, and Zekerullah looks away at the impersonal distance, teary but expecting practically nothing.
Zekerullah takes in the same haughty and violent news on the radio, we extend each other our hands to keep our human affections alive, and he offers me the simplicity that which clarifies my doubting moments, the smile of a child at heart, gently echoing :
I refuse the dictation that our pain is passive, or alone.
I refuse to weep this way.
With this smile transforming us, Zekerullah isn’t shy in crying out to you, you who may hear him as we should hear ourselves, “Why not love?”
For we constantly hope that your love would find some way.
Yes, we keep our hearts hoping that our love would find some way.
Heart to heart!
I want to be your friend.
To set my small heart free.
Text of video
Love is how we’ll ask for peace!
We’ve always had a wish to bring peace through love.
How can Afghanistan become peaceful?
We should act truthfully & not lie. We shouldn’t do wrong…then Afg may become peaceful.
Perhaps the people of the world don’t believe that we ( Afghans ) understand love.
But in our families & among friends, we wish for love & practice it.
If your younger brother was killed by a bomb & you were offered money in compensation, would you accept the money?
No, I won’t accept the money because firstly, why was he killed? Secondly, those responsible should be punished so they won’t infringe on the rights of other people
The monetary compensation shouldn’t be accepted as money doesn’t match up to the value of a person
In this war, if you should kill me unawares, don’t forget I had asked for your friendship & love.
Love is how we’ll ask for peace!
Are your legs strong? My legs….yes, they’re strong. Show me your strong legs…
Zekerullah fulfilled his promise to US Ambassador Eikenberry to go to school
If you should kill me unawares, don’t forget I had asked for your friendship & love.
Come become friends from the bottom of our heart-to-hearts!
Heart to heart!
Please call us on International Day of Peace
21st of September 2010
We’d love to hear your voice!
Sept 11 message from Afghanistan, the quiet alternative to humankind burning herself
September 11, 2010 by
Filed under Journey Updates
From Afghanistan on September 11, love as the quiet flame in place of burning ourselves ;I want to be your friend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jHaxXlGl4c
I want to be your friend
Love as the quiet flame
in place of burning ourselves
??? ???? ????? ?
Why not love?
Salam ( peace ) to all from Afghanistan!
All of us fellow human beings of the world, at this time, should ask ourselves & one another, “Why not love?”
The Holy Bible & the Holy Quran
??? ???? ????? ?
Why not love?
I want to be your friend
??? ???? ????? ?
Why not love?
Love as the quiet flame
in place of burning ourselves
??? ???? ????? ?
Why not love?
The Holy Bible and The Holy Quran
Our Afghan friendship with Jane Goodall Institute Singapore
September 5, 2010 by
Filed under Journey Updates
“If only we could overcome cruelty with compassion we should make a giant stride toward achieving our ultimate human potential, moving beyond the Age of Reason to the Age of Love.” Jane Goodall
Please watch our tele-connection. The Age of love comes when we extend every hand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gro7_UpKs9I
Jane Goodall
http://www.janegoodall.org.sg/Jane_Goodall/Welcome.html
Peace Day ( Jane Goodall’s write up on our collaboration )
Why does peace matter to JGIS?
Conflict hurts more life than human life. It hurts animals and the environment too.
Conflict starts with one person. One person has anger and revenge and destruction in their hearts. We can execute conflict on one other person, animal or life, or on many. But whatever the circumstance or victim, it can be distilled to one. So if conflict starts with one, so does peace. When we shout at a friend or hit out at any living creature, that’s conflict. When trees are cut down, that’s conflict.
So what’s peace? Peace is when we respect all life – human, animals and the environment. For life to thrive, we must have respect. If we respect, we can have peace.
The idea of Peace Day was born in July 1989. An independent documentary film maker, Jeremy Gilley, set out to establish a fixed calendar date, to be recognised every year, of cease fire and non violence.
Why? Because there was so much violence, so much struggle, and if we could get countries and people around the world to agree that on one day of the year, there would be peace, then maybe we could stretch it to two days, and three, and a week. If we wanted peace, why not start with one day?
The idea won powerful backing. And on 7th September 2001, the U.N. International Day of Peace became a reality.
Then, disaster. Four days later, 11th September 2001, everything changed.
Peace days came and went, without ceasefire, without recognition.
Determined to succeed, Gilley decided to go further, to prove the day could have a practical effect on peoples’ lives.
Where? Afghanistan, where there hadn’t been peace for 30 years. If it could work there, it could work anywhere. And it has worked. In 2009, the 10th year that Peace Day was officially upheld, over a hundred million people in over a hundred countries, marked Peace Day. Relief, humanitarian and medical aid reaches people in conflict zones on 21st September every year, including Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, ordinary Afghans are trying to build peace. Abdulai is a grade 7 student, farmer and shop keeper. His father was killed by insurgents and people have told him to take revenge. But he refuses to perpetuate what he calls ‘Man’s vengeful history’. Instead, he’s trying to build peace. He says:
“More than losing our war on life, we are losing humanity [when we fight]. There is no comfort to be found in [a] violent approach. There is a saying in Afghanistan: ‘Blood cannot wash away blood.’ The ordinary people of the world should all sit down to listen to one another and endeavour to be friends. Why not love?”
Abdullai, 15, student, farmer, shop keeper & peace-builder
Last September 21st, Abdulai and his friends, who have called themselves Our Journey to Smile held a Peace Day trek in the Hindu Kush mountains.
Representatives of the embassies of France, Japan, Britain and America trekked with them. This year, Journey to Smile will do the same, carrying a Jane Goodall Institute (Singapore) peace dove with them.
Abdulai and his group are also working hard to establish Friends Without Borders, a non-political, non-religious, voluntary network of person-to-person relationships for peace.
The U.N. International Day of Peace in 2010 is this Tuesday.
What will you do to make peace?
Text of video
My name is Bernice. I’m from the Jane Goodall Institute in S’pore. We’re going to be working with all the other Jane Goodall Institutes around the world & with Jane Goodall herself, in asking for peace within ourselves, towards other humans & towards animals & the environment.
We told people about your Peace Trek last year & that you hope to fly the Peace Dove at your Peace Trek this year.
That’s good!
We wish you’ll be with us always.
We wish for peace to come to all of Afghanistan. We have experienced war for so long…we want peace in Afg & the world
On the 24th of Sept 2010, for the International Day of Peace, we will be trekking to Koa-e-BaBa ( the grandpa of mountains ). And we would ask of the world, “Why not love?”
Thank you so much and good luck to everybody & it’s lovely to meet you.
??? ???? May God protect you! Good bye!
Just as we had asked for The Reconciliation of Civil Hearts at last year’s Peace Trek ….
We are asking for a ‘Reconciliation of Civil Hearts’…We, the peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war
.. have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims. Preamble UN Charter
Friends from Roots and Shoots Jane Goodall Institute S’pore