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
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?
?
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.
Need Afghan children respond to Obama’s New Afghan Policy at all?
April 4, 2009 by
Filed under An Afghan's Questions, Videos
Need Afghan children respond to Obama’s new Afghan policy at all??
Will Obama listen as he says he would, to ordinary Afghans…… ordinary Afghan children?
Do ordinary Afghans have any Voice at all over what Obama, NATO and the world decide FOR them?
This is the Voice of ordinary Afghan children, through Abdulai and Raziq. It has NO political or religious intent.
This is Our Journey to Smile.
Afghan Focus for Key NATO summit
BBC 04/04/09
US President Barack Obama wants European nations to commit more troops and funds, but so far new pledges have been limited.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has offered a temporary increase in troops ahead of Afghanistan’s presidential elections in August.
But despite European expressions of support for the new American strategy, it was not clear whether the long-term pledges sought by the US would be forthcoming.
Letter of Humanity’s Love from Afghan Youth to the UN Hague Conference 31/03/2009
March 30, 2009 by
Filed under An Afghan's Questions, Comments
The Afghan youth’s dream of a kinder humanity
As it has been in the hesitant development of human civilization and history, the hearts of ordinary human beings may be ignored once again.
How long more?
How long more will Man accuse Man of being ‘evil’?
How long more will Man look at War and call it ‘good’?
How long more will Man pretend to uphold ideals he is un-true to?
How long more will we think ourselves to be ‘better’ humans?
How long more will humanity quench her conscience in defending eye-for-an-eye , power-hungry, and money-driven killing industries, while untenably holding on to her inhumane disguises of democracy and religion?
How long more will we justify self-importance and greed while marginalizing the ‘forgotten’ individuals just ‘off the map’?
How long more would we chase Names and Forms, knowing intuitively their impotence in addressing the disparity of justice within our own souls and walls?
How long more would we dictate every decision based on the gain of Money when we are losing the more noble and dignified responsibilities to the wider community and humanity?
How long more would we deceive ourselves by dreaming of peace while harboring hate and killing our ‘enemies’ while claiming love for them?
We, the youth of Afghanistan, having lived through some of the worst scenarios of the human condition, refuse to believe that humanity’s love, once given voice and shape, however minuscule and wherever practiced, cannot add dignity and magnanimity to Mankind.
So, we express humanity’s love today, not a love we own, but a love that causes humanity to smile, sing and dream, even in the darkest moments.
We express humanity’s love when we ask forgiveness on behalf of generations past and present, for the wrong we have done. We express humanity’s love by clearly saying that we forgive you too, whoever you may be, for the inadvertent or deliberate mistakes which you have made because of us and for your indifference to Mankind’s lives and Mankind’s deaths.
We express humanity’s love when we ask to be held accountable to treat all men and women alike and when we ask to be treated as humans, as you would treat yourselves.
We express humanity’s love when we grieve over every act of violence on any infant, child, youth or adult of any race, because we believe that God created all and that belief is powerful only when it leads us to grieve. In death, there is no distinction of civilian or military, intention or faith.
We express humanity’s love when, though you think it natural for us to hate or to be bitter, we choose kindness to the best of our hearts and take firm hold of the freedom which compassion gives us.
We express humanity’s love by thanking every individual who has worked to raise the possibility of peace. We know there are many who seek peace and believe that these make the majority and are deeply grateful to their labour of love and truth. Yak jahan tashakur!A w orld of thanks!
We express humanity’s love when we ask Man for creativity and courage to learn from history’s errors and to rise above the mundane and expected solutions to humanity’s problems today.
It may seem strange and insignificant that we, the youth of Afghanistan, have these thoughts and feelings.
But then you shouldn’t be too surprised; you have them too. Any human being does.
We wish to show you, in a flash of un-remembered history, that a humane love IS possible.
We wish for humanity to relate humanely though we cannot expect or demand it.
And even if you insist on thinking badly of us and wish to hurt us still, we will hold our smiles with confidence and hope that PEACE is the peacemaker’s eventual destiny, even if it were just a well-intentioned tale.
Stop. Please stop.
Listen. Please listen.
And journeying along with us, stand firm in a love that captures empathy, sorrow and joy with equal resolve and strength.
We are no longer willing for any one of you, any of us or any one of humanity to perish at Man’s hand, at our own hands.
We are no longer willing for ourselves or our elders to forget what Man could be and to remain self-absorbed in primitive motivations.
Because that hand which kills is shriveled and feeble and needs an artistic and thoughtful transformation into a hand of friendship.
We choose to smile at every child and person.
We choose to act with compassion.
We choose to deny the rough, proud, violent and resentful suggestions that haunt our corners and weaknesses.
For we all die and wish that when our time comes to leave our families and our world, we can witness a gentler world of civilities, of brotherhood, of friendship, of joy, of love and all those tender virtues lauded by the sages of our time, the valued men and women who would put themselves and their self-interests aside to imagine another universe.
A world not of the fables, but a world that is present, real and free.
To borrow the life of John Donne, ‘any Man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in Mankind, And therefore never send to know, for whom we smile…….we smile for Thee.’
Our Journey to Smile
http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/
Afghans Smile for Love Forgiveness Peace Humanity
March 26, 2009 by
Filed under An Afghan's Questions, InHumanity- Struggles, Videos
Can we smile?
Despite the war, the suffering, the inhumanity?
Why did they kill my father?
They didn’t even know him.
Why do they make guns instead of bread?
Why? why? Why?
We wish for peace.
We wish for humanity.
We will all die one day.
What can we do now?
love, forgiveness, peace, humanity
Can we?
Can we all?
We long for peace, for humane relations, for a decent life.
We want to smile.
Afghan Youth’s Request to UN on behalf of humanity
March 12, 2009 by
Filed under An Afghan's Questions, Comments
Dear Friends of Humanity and Friends of the United Nations,
Man has gone to the Moon but mankind has lost faith in mankind.
For both these reasons and to encourage the world that humanity has retained dignity, we, the youth of Afghanistan, ask for an opportunity to deliver a message of humanity’s love and wishes to the UN Conference on Afghanistan to be held on the 31st of March 2009 in the Netherlands.
We make this bold request because this Conference is about us, the future of Afghanistan and the dream of a kinder humanity.
This is Our Journey to Smile.
Thanks sincerely,
Dr Hakim ( international medical doctor living and working in Bamiyan )
On behalf of the ordinary youth of Afghanistan
On behalf of the ordinary international aid worker
On behalf of ordinary humanity
An Afghan’s Questions
February 12, 2009 by
Filed under An Afghan's Questions, InHumanity- Struggles
An Afghan’s questions about global civility, about kindness
Why have we become so inhumane? Who is kind?
Can I trust NATO or the ‘terrorists’ ? Surely, they, like I, crave the possibility of love?
Do we, including you and I, Obama and Osama, the CEOs and the laborers, the haves and have-nots from the beginning of time, share the same understanding that we are human?
That we are born in times and places not from our own voluntary choosing?
That we all die?
That we wish for happiness and a better life?
That we admire compassion and value love?
That we have not seen any benefit from wars, save creating permanent rifts and permanent deaths?
That we don’t desire to be lonely, because we want to relate deeply with others?
Are there those in this world who will pursue a humane kindness?
Why must Man always insist that he alone is correct? Why has Man’s heart not enlarged?
Why is every Man unmoving with this obstinate presumption of CORRECTNESS?
If I asked two conflicting groups , won’t each group say that they, and not the other group, are correct? Correct socially, politically, religiously and ‘civil-ly’? Won’t they immediately think that I, Habib, have got my facts wrong about their ‘enemies’? Would there be any avenue for me to reason otherwise?
Isn’t it apparent that there is no ancient or modern way of judging who of the two parties is right? Nor plausible scientifically or spiritually within all of our lifetimes to call upon a verdict from the unseen God many claim to know vaguely?
How can I shirk SELF?
Whatever happened to Man’s heart?
Who is a sincere friend? Who can I trust?
Doesn’t our actual practice of love and conscience reveal how imperfect we are? Who is the friend who will tell me what’s real?
Why has Man reached the Moon and yet has not been able to reach his less fortunate neighbors? Why can we reach Space but not souls?
Why does Man rely on atoms and expensive defense systems yet cannot trust fellow human beings? Why do we trust machines more than Man?
Why does the world have more money, but yet, there are more poor people? Why don’t others figure significantly?
Why do a minority of men and women, in the name of democracy or Marxism, religion or civilization, have so much sway over common people like myself, making decisions that perpetuate the wars which the majority of us do not want?
Isn’t humanity’s hurt, anger and disappointment abysmal?
Can’t I build my life in peace?
Are we not human? Can we not smile?
Why are MY interests bigger and more important than YOURS?
What happened to the ancient possibility of a civilized world?
Why do some claim they love their enemies but resist and even kill them?
Why do some claim they desire peace but hold on to such hate?
I am tired but am willing to take any hard questions in a hard life just as much as I am hoping for some answers. Answers to questions I am asking on behalf of Afghans, on behalf of Man.
China
2
Egypt
1
India
1
Italy
1
Malaysia
1
Nepal
1
Philippines
1
USA
1
Singapore
2