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
