Afghanistan, A dying opportunity to free the waterfall
May 26, 2009 by
Filed under InHumanity- Struggles, Journey Updates
Afghanistan
A dying opportunity to free the waterfall
In this dream of a kinder world, ordinary people from all races and nations take a dying opportunity to gather at the World Heritage Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan on International Peace Day 21st September 2009,
to hope for peace and reject violence.
And against all odds and dams, to free the waterfall.
I myself can no longer trust words, so you need not trust these thoughts. What I can trust, having lived and worked among Afghans as a Singaporean medical doctor, is that I’ve become more human and therefore in the words of my Afghan friends, more Afghan, and perhaps more ‘of any other nationality’.
I and my Afghan friends have a waterfall of humane dreams and wishes in which we are grieving, crying and hurting badly.
If we describe this waterfall to the ‘elected’ leaders of our self-designated ‘civilized’ societies, we’ll be told their version of the ‘truth’.
‘Justice’ when they mean revenge.
‘Help’ when they mean money.
‘Democracy’ when they mean power.
If we describe it to the self-designated ‘best’ religious people, we face a similarly rigid monopoly of ‘truth’.
‘Justice’ when they mean ‘no matter if you die or kill because justice is in the other world’.
‘Help’ when they mean ‘come over to our better side’.
‘Theocracy’ when they mean power.
So, we have had to let our dreams, grief and tears become an invisible, un-felt waterfall. A silence. A dying.
This country and our humanity are in need of a pause in the dying.
The dying of love, truth, hope and dear ones killed in violent war. Love, truth, hope and violence for WHAT?
If we look towards our self-designated ‘learned’ ones for possible solutions, they say ‘dam up the waterfall to give yourselves light’. Light for what, when what we badly need is the waterfall.
In present day Afghanistan, from where I’m writing, there may be a ridiculous and potentially painful opportunity to free this waterfall. At least, humour me as I pacify myself and my Afghan friends by imagining the opportunity presented by:
- The Global Great Game that is being played here ‘live’, a horrid ‘reality show’.
All major world players are involved.
- The contradiction of war and peace watched by the world
The ordinary world community is watching Afghanistan distantly but closely, wondering if war will reign or if ‘peace’ is possible, especially when Afg-Pak has become the military, political and economic focus of superpowers.
Hopefully, we’re not watching primarily for entertainment; I just read that violence is dominating at the Cannes Film Festival 2009.
3. The question of humanity in inhumanity
Does Mankind have enough of a majority populace keen to restore some semblance of humanity in the midst of inhumanity?
“Don’t be silly,” I’ve thought.
We’ll be misunderstood and laughed at as illogical and unrealistic or as anti-this or anti-that.
People will continue to ‘label’ us because the prideful intellectual development of Mankind can only understand human beings in categories so as to dispel fears and channel criticism.
In the current universal climate of distrust and soul-less herd behavior, hardly anyone would hear us.
What can ordinary human beings do anyway, ordinary humans who make up most of the world ( I bet many outside Afghanistan have forgotten that the majority here are also ordinary humans with wishes for a normal life ).
Or like many fellow international aid workers, I may become un-productively frustrated, harbouring the explosive un-resolved anger that’s in the hidden and open protests of conscience globally, even among ‘peace’ building groups.
Or worse, I could succumb to the ancient, distorted hunger for a Name, doing this selfishly merely for myself, defeating any sense of service I can muster.
Not to mention the almost complete self-deception, corruption, greed and the culture of war worldwide, perceived by some as perfected in Afghanistan.
But then one day, as I was riding my Chinese-made Tonda motorbike over the Afghan Hindu Kush mountain dirt pot-holes, I remembered that Man has gone to the moon, tapped atoms and bytes and modified genes and that countries are sending thousands of elaborately armed troops and billions of military dollars to this God-forsaken place for poorly understood personal and national reasons.
So I thought, “What the heck!”
I can try this for love of Khamad, Nasrullah and some others….
I can hope.
I can pursue those virtues every human soul dreams about and even if it fails, I hope that this experiment will not harm anyone.
I can test to see if uncomplicated love and undefended truth can free our ordinary, mundane wishes.
I can accept the ‘shame’ of rejection in asking peacemakers from all over the world to please join us at the Bamiyan Buddhas on 21st Sept 09.
I know. This may mean nothing to you. Or understandably, you do not believe that any sense or goodness can arise from what is condemned to be a very dark place.
But I wish to record this, so that, as my Afghan friends and I perish, first in our hearts, then physically, I can at least say that we voiced the opportunity and the opportunity died too.
And that if, one day, against all odds and dams, the waterfalls are freed, all Afghans and some of humanity may be encouraged to weep for life and death once again.
To record, that even in the ‘darkest and driest of places’, there exists waterfalls.
Hakim/Young
Our Journey to Smile
http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog
Swine Flu Pandemic is Imminent UN WHO fears : The War Pandemic a greater threat to humanity than the Swine Flu Pandemic
April 30, 2009 by
Filed under Comments, InHumanity- Struggles
The War Pandemic a greater threat to humanity than the Swine Flu Pandemic
I’m a doctor and support the most rigorous measures necessary to control H1N1 Influenza A Swine Flu virus. The loss of EVERY life is a loss to humanity.
It is wonderful that the world has not been silent with this influenza threat.
I pray someone would listen to a threat that has been silent. Listen to silence.
I live and work in the midst of the War Pandemic, among Afghans in Afghanistan.
We should not be silent with the War threat either, which, just reading BBC News Front Page on 30/4/2009 updated at 0650 GMT, claimed 256 lives.
WHO rightly fears that a Swine Flu Pandemic is ‘imminent’. The War Pandemic is ‘present’.
The War Pandemic is also a human to human transmitted disease.
It is spread when a human gives an order Incongruent with all Human Consciences and Civilizations, the order to fight, to kill.
It is more than a mutation.
It is no respecter of persons.
Like H1N1, it verifies Man’s common Mortality by mercilessly speeding it up.
We ordinary Afghan youth have been paralyzed by this War Pandemic all our lives.
We wish to run away but we can’t seem to quarantine ourselves!
We cry, “God, save us!” but God seems to say, “Humanity can save herself!”
We cry, “Stop! We’re tired of war and want peace!” But, no human seems to hear us.
No one listens to the ordinary Voice of Peace, drowned by the voices of a few powerful fellow human beings who have caught this subtle illness that is tearing humanity apart. Tearing humanity apart…. Tearing us apart……
Will you grieve as much for those of us who may be killed by war soon, as much as the world is grieving for those killed by the H1N1 virus?
We plead with humanity not to forget. Please. Please don’t forget.
For tomorrow, as you keep updated on the Swine Flu Pandemic statistics, some of us may have already succumbed to the War Pandemic statistics.
Can’t ordinary human beings do something to end this War Pandemic, this global in-humanity, this New Global Great Game, this Global Culture of War?
If this grief doesn’t make sense to you, then at least, remember us in our silence and our inconsolable regret.
“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. “Martin Luther King Jr
Thanks and Peace!
Dr Hakim/Young
US regrets civilian deaths : Our Great Deception
April 21, 2009 by
Filed under InHumanity- Struggles
Human civilization in this Age of Technological Terror has perfected a deep-rooted Culture of War, founded on pride, hate and finances, so another ONE death means relatively and absolutely NOTHING, in the midst of a Great Deception that believes naively that our children can find safe zones in shelling, creativity in cluster ammunition, humanity in human shields, mercy in manipulative politics, reliability in rhetoric, help in hurling even more money and sigh..a Great Sigh, dignity in the destruction of fellow human beings.
Our Journey to Smile
US regrets civilian deaths
Al Jazeera 210409
The senior US and Nato commander in Afghanistan has apologised for civilian casualties caused by international forces, saying there is not enough money in the world to replace the loss of an Afghan life.
General David McKiernan made the remarks on Sunday, following repeated calls from Hamed Karzai, the Afghan president, for explanations of civilian deaths.
Afghan college students appeal to UN Racism Conference for peace and humanity ?
April 19, 2009 by
Filed under An Afghan's Questions
US boycotts racism conference
Al Jazeera and BBC 19/04/09
The United States has said it will not attend an United Nations conference on racism because the text of the draft final statement contains language it is “unable to support”, the state department says.
Australia and Canada have also chosen not to attend.
Multiethnic Afghan college students appeal to UN Racism Conference members for peace, reconciliation, forgiveness, humanity, friendship, brotherhood and love.
Afghan college students appeal to UN Racism Conference for peace and humanity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaNmWKX5x-8
I am Mohammad Salim, a student of Bamiyan University and a Tajik. The ruined city you see behind is a historical city of Afghanistan where Ghenghis Khan once ?ruled.?We request the UN Conference members that they’ll bring about a world civilization of honour and peace, of close, warm friendships and brotherhood.
I am Mariam. I’m Hazara, a citizen of Afghanistan and a citizen of the world. We understand that every human has a mother who wishes for her children goodness, happiness and peace. We request the UN Conference for reconciliation, peace and brotherhood because being humane brings true civilization to Mankind.
I’m Amin and I’m Pushtoon. Through history, Mankind has been hurting each other. We should now forgive one another. We wish from the UN members for compassion and forgiveness, that’s all.
I’m Abdul Wahab, I’m Uzbek and I’m a student at Bamiyan University. Discrimination is destroying the world. We ask the UN Conference, for the whole world, to bring peace, security, friendship and love. Thank you!
Thanks and Peace! !
http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog
US silent on Guantanamo abuse claim : Aren’t we all opaquely silent about the lack of transparency in global affairs??
April 16, 2009 by
Filed under InHumanity- Struggles
Aren’t we all hurting, prisoner or free?
Don’t we all distrust anything anyone says in public, especially our elected politicians?
Aren’t we all blinded already by global violence, hate and revenge?
Aren’t we all opaquely silent?
“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. “
Martin Luther King Jr
US silent on Guantanamo abuse claim
Al Jazeera 16/4/2009
The US state department has refused to comment on a claim that guards at Guantanamo Bay prison camp abused a Chadian prisoner held there.
Al Jazeera reported on Tuesday that Mohammad al-Qurani had been beaten and tear-gassed by guards after Barack Obama, the US president, pledged to end abuse at the camp in January.
Cory Crider, a member of al-Qurani’s legal team, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday it was hard to ascertain how al-Qurani had been treated in recent months as the situation varied from camp to camp within the facility and also there had been “ramping up” of secrecy in the new administration.
On his second day in office, Obama ordered the closure of the prison, which has been heavily criticised by rights groups over reports of ill-treatment of detainees.
He also ordered that prisoners held there be treated in line with the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit the abuse of detainees.
Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer for some detainees at Guantanamo Bay, said his clients had been subjected to similar abuses at Guantanamo Bay over the past two years and that the situation had remained the same despite the Obama administration coming to power.
“However, he ( Obama ) tasked the department of defence with conducting that review, so the same people… who had been running the operation for years were charged with being critical of their own operation. So, when the report came out, it said that everything was all right. It really wasn’t critical and independent in the ways we would have wanted.”
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Afghans ask ”Where is humanity in Obama’s 83 billion+ American war??”?
April 14, 2009 by
Filed under An Afghan's Questions
Afghan youth ask questions about Obama’s wish for US$83 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Afghans ask ”Where is humanity in Obama’s 83 billion+ American war??”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyHjugYBoDU&feature=channel_page
The youth were filmed as they volunteered to plant trees at Bamiyan Peace Park, Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
Below is a text of their questions.
My name is Najib. People in Bamiyan call me Najib Ekhloqi.
I am a citizen of Afghanistan.
You see that we have come here to start work at this place named Bamiyan Peace Park.
This park is located at a place near the historical City of Gholghola ( ‘Dying Screams’ conquered by Genghis Khan )….
and at its north-east lie the Bamiyan Buddha statues ( destroyed by the Taliban )
We have come to build this Peace Park, peace for humanity.
Today, having come to the Peace Park, we’d like to ask, as the youth of Afghanistan,
Why peace? Peace for who?
When they are deciding in the American congress on 83 billion dollars for the war in Afghanistan
We have some questions..
Can anyone answer us?
Where is humanity in this 83 billion+ American war??
Where is compassion and kindness in this 83 billion+ American war?
Where is peace in this 83 billion+ American war?
Where are Iraqi, Afghan and American mothers in this 83 billion+ American war?
Where is human dignity in this 83 billion+ American war?
Where is progress in civilization in this 83 billion+ American war?
Where are those who struggle against violence, like Martin Luther King, in this 83 billion + ?American war??
Where are all the world’s religious leaders and intellectuals in this 83 billion+ American war?
My father was killed by war…Where is peace in this 83 billion+ American war?
?
Will Humanity Forget, Constantly, constantly?
April 12, 2009 by
Filed under Comments, InHumanity- Struggles
Laith filmed this family attempting to flee Fallujah - ten minutes later they were dead
Will we forget, constantly, constantly?
Or will we forever brush the discomfort aside because that corpse was not our mother’s or our child’s?
Or will we join Laith Mushtaq in saying, “Fallujah ( in-humane, senseless death ) never leaves my mind.”
Don’t we realize what ANY ‘army does on the ground’ and if we do, what do we choose to do or say about such a realization?
Dear Laith,
Thanks for your work and your article, because media, like everything else, should help us understand ourselves.
We, Afghan youth, understand those images that never leave your mind. We have to learn to cope somehow and we need to be strong.
And to hope that human civilization can change. If it doesn’t ?? ?????” What can we do? “
Sincerely,
Our Journey to Smile
Al Jazeera ‘Fallujah never leaves my mind’
By Laith Mushtaq, cameraman
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/04/200948132212418175.html
Laith Mushtaq was one of only two non-embedded cameramen working throughout the April 2004 ‘battle for Fallujah’ in which 600 civilians died.
When I think of Fallujah, I think of the smell. The smell was driving me crazy. In a dead body, there is a kind of liquid. Yellow liquid. The smell is disgusting, really. It sticks in your nose. You cannot eat anymore.
And you can’t get the pictures off your mind, because every day you see the same: Explosion, death, explosion, death, death.
After work, you sit down and notice there are pieces of flesh on your shoes and blood on your trousers. But you don’t have time to ask why.
I had to show the truth to people outside of Iraq.
I still remember the nurses couldn’t carry the woman because she was in too many pieces, people were jumping back when they saw it. Then, one nurse shouted: “Hey, she looks like your mother.”
In the Iraqi language that means: “She could be your mother, so treat her like you’d treat your mom.”
At some point, I couldn’t move anymore. I sat down on the street and kept smoking. I couldn’t move. I see what’s happening around me, but I can’t move. Khallas [enough]. I didn’t have any energy left.
The Americans said our pictures stirred up hatred against them. But what I did was only showing what their army did on the ground.
I don’t hate them, I don’t want vengeance, I just wish they had understood what they were doing.
US military admits killing mother, children
Afghan News Network 9/4/09
The US military in Afghanistan admitted Thursday that four people its troops killed in a raid were not “combatants”, after Afghans said they included a mother and her children, with a baby dying afterwards.
Afghanistan War? Never!. Afghans Never Want War Again
April 9, 2009 by
Filed under An Afghan's Questions, Videos
How has the world been helping Afghans find work??
April 9, 2009 by
Filed under An Afghan's Questions, Journey Updates
Isn’t it discouraging for Afghans not to be able to work in their own country after 8 years of international development and aid post-September 11?
Afghans run risks for work in Iran
BBC 08/04/2009
Every day, hundreds of Afghans - mainly young men - are brought across the frontier ( back into Afghanistan ) on buses deported from a country ( Iran ) where they had hoped to find work.
According to UN figures, there were more than 400,000 cases of deportation in 2008.
There are still thousands of Afghans willing to cross the flat, unforgiving desert ( into Iran ).
Many travel to Nimruz province in southern Afghanistan where people-traffickers offer to smuggle them across the border. The one-way trip costs about $400.
But this illegal journey can take up to a month and is often extremely dangerous
Aren’t ordinary Afghans both physically and vocally suffocated??
April 7, 2009 by
Filed under An Afghan's Questions, InHumanity- Struggles
Afghan ’smuggling bid’ youths die
Al Jazeera 05/04/2009
More than 60 Afghans, mainly children and youths, have been found dead after suffocating inside a shipping container in southwestern Pakistan in an apparent human smuggling attempt.
The physical suffocation of these Afghan youth seeking a better life is just as sad and devastating as the suffocation of the Voices of Afghan youth living in Afghanistan who are also seeking a more humane life.
Will ANYONE listen?
Will ANYONE listen to ordinary Afghan youth before they get suffocated?
Have you heard a SINGLE ordinary Afghan’s wish yet, while all of the world leaders and all of media talk about what non-Afghans want for Afghanistan?
The Voice of peace and humanity has a historical, present and future need to be heard.
This is why, unfortunately or otherwise, there will be protesters everywhere.
Un-healthy anger is accumulating because Systems have not addressed the majority’s genuine concerns sufficiently.
The state of international relations, as well as individual and community lives, needs to CHANGE.
We, unfortunately, cannot bring that CHANGE about through the status quo, far less through a fellow human being like Obama.
And we can’t get there through anger.
We need every individual to START by STOPPING, STOPPING to LISTEN, not to a few individuals, but to ordinary HUMANITY.
We humbly and quietly suggest that, as an example, while A FEW WORLD LEADERS are deciding the near future of Afghanistan, we can start by HEARING, and this is not even listening yet, to the ordinary wishes of ordinary Afghan youth.
Aren’t Afghans human beings?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqWi26t5mB4
Do Afghan children need to respond at all to Obama’s and NATO’s new Afghan policy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GTcxC1mZNc
Perhaps, then, ordinary humanity can begin growing.
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