Abdulai the Afghan boy remembers those killed in Iraq, just as he remembers his father

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F647Zn4iqY8

Abdulai at his father’s and grandfather’s grave

My dad & grand-dad were killed & this morning I went to their graves to remember them

We the people of the world should restore the sacred value of life

We should revive true spirituality & recover our love

I grieve for every person killed in the Iraq war because that grief has also broken my heart

To our friends of Iraq Memorial to Life, our hearts are with you

Iraq Memorial to Life

Technorati Tags: Afghan fatherless boy remembers those killed in Iraq War, Iraq Memorial to Life Dedication in New York Central Park

As civilian casualties rise in the escalating Afghan war, listen to an Afghan child think about the value of life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CG6_zMH4NA

The value of working people

The Associated Press 15^th of Feb 2010 : U.S. Army units fighting the Taliban in Helmand province have a compensation system for any death, injury or damage to crops and buildings…. The death of a child or adult is worth $1,500-$2,500, loss of limb and other injuries $600-$1,500, a damaged or destroyed vehicle $500-$2,500, and damage to a farmer’s fields $50-$250.

Transcript of Video

Zekerullah Jan, what are you doing?

Teacher, I am peeling potatoes.

Is having work good?

Yes, it’s very good for the people. Not having work is a disease.

How old are you?

13 years old

In 2009, 3 Afghan children were killed daily in war, children like yourself

This is ‘vulgar’ and bad news….

Bad because there’ll be less Afghans, the people of Afg will no longer exist…

When an Afghan child is killed in war, foreign & local leaders express their ‘regret’. Is their ‘regret’ appropriate?

No, their ‘regret’ seems to mean that however much the ‘regret’, children will still be killed again, so their regret isn’t acceptable

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

Is your life as valuable as the life of Obama’s daughter?

Her life is very good because she’s the child of a minister or king

Aren’t you as valuable as Obama’s daughter?

In terms of humanity, both of us are human beings

Zekerullah, never forget that you are as valuable as every other child, whether in Afg, America or Europe.

Okay…

And all of us love you.

Be alive and be at peace, teacher…

Technorati Tags: Marjah and Uruzgan civilian casualties, McChrystal’s Afghan war strategy, Obama’s Afghan war strategy, Operation Mushtarak Together

Please watch Mohd Jan describe Afghan war and dehumanization

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQFXCgTXknc

Man fleeing Man

Transcript of video

Mohd Jan, during the Soviet & Taliban wars, where did the people flee to?

In the war, I also fled, everyone fled to safe places as they could. I fled over the mountains you can see behind, to Gandhak.

When we were fleeing, one problem was going on foot over a distance of about 20 to 30 km…

Secondly, it was cold ; it was spring but there was snow to about our waist. There were mines & those who were fighting were firing from behind us & we feared being killed

Now, in the south, foreign forces are fighting in Operation ?????, or Operation Together. People there are fleeing ; do you understand their pain?

Yes, we’ve also seen those days. They are having a tough time, they fear being killed & have nothing with them to solve their problems.

Civilians have been killed in Marjah. How do you feel when you hear such news?

I feel…sad because everyone is a human being and has the right to life. Peace cannot be brought with their deaths.

People fear suicide bombers & acts of terrorism. What is the way of salvation from this? Can we escape such terror?

We should make peace with them. For how long can we flee from terror?

But all the leaders of the world agree to fight in Afg.

You & I have seen much war in Afg. Every group comes by turns to fight but none of them have managed to bring peace. Instead of Operation Together for war, they should have an Operation Together for peace. They don’t think about how many people will be killed. We should think, “Till when can we fight?”

A country cannot be secure from war because war is war.

No country has been built or developed through war.

The people of the world think badly of the people of Afghanistan.

I think that people don’t know us at all. If they know us, they’ll know that we are also humans. We’re also born of mothers & we’re so poor we can’t even improve our lives.

Even if wars work, after 30 years of armed foreigners in your backyard, wouldn’t you wish that they’ll leave you to find your own better world?

Mohd Jan with pain

Technorati Tags: Obama's Afghan War Strategy, Operation Mushtarak, Operation Together

Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers saddened by Operation Moshtarak ‘ TOGETHER ’

Please watch them speak clearly to the world, against militarism and violence

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kIjfLz-Si0

together in non-violence

Please, do not fight anymore.

We should stand TOGETHER in non-violence

No one wins in war, neither men nor women

together in kindness

We should stand TOGETHER to stop our world’s militarism

We the people of Afghanistan are tired of war & don’t want this war

together in humanity

We are not willing for the Taliban, or international & Afghan soldiers or Afghan civilians to be killed

We the youth of Afg say to Obama, Gordon Brown & the world, let’s be TOGETHER in the way of humane-ness & non-violence ‘cos love is how we’ll ask for peace.

together in love

Love is how we’ll ask for peace.

The Afghan youth peace volunteers

‘Their flesh is my flesh, their blood is my blood, their pain is my pain, their SMILE is my SMILE.’ Henri Nouwen

International peace volunteers in Olympia USA & across the globe. ‘Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.’ Mother Teresa

The picture with our peace message Reconciliation of Civil Hearts for the Nobel Peace Laureate President Obama.

We have hope that love has a value which overcomes even death.

We know that we’re not alone.

We’re waiting historically with the rest of the world.

Love is how we’ll ask for peace

.

Share and Enjoy:

Technorati Tags: Afghan peace message for Nobel Peace Laureate President Obama, Operation Moshtarak in Marjah Helmand Afghanistan, Operation Moshtarak Together in Helmand Afghanistan, US NATO Karzai and the Taliban

Please watch how Afghans in Kabul desire peace so much they’d scribble it on the walls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H_ADb4SUag

Peace is our desire

I was in Kabul recently and as I was passing by the high, barbed-wire walls surrounding the Ministry of Finance, I noticed the deep wishes of Afghans ‘graffiti-ed’ on the grey walls, declaring :

Peace is happiness

Peace for security

Peace is mutual respect

Peace is friendship

Peace is our hope

Peace is our desire.

I couldn’t capture all the ‘graffiti’ in time, but need we demand more Afghan ‘graffiti’ to prove their desperate desire for peace, while the world gets un-imaginatively stuck in the tiring idea that bombs and bullets can meet the needs of their hearts?

Making a living in Afghanistan

Transcript of Video

For those who would remember Afghanistan

Don’t just remember its ruins

Remember the writing on its walls saying, “ Peace for security”

And most of all, remember her people

Afghans who want to make human contact with others

Radio : I want to speak more to my daughter but telephone expenses are high…

Afghan wall wish: Peace is good fortune

Afghans declare on the walls : Peace is happiness

And most of all, remember her people…

Afghans who wish it so much they’ll write it on the walls : Peace is our desire

Peace, so we can work

Technorati Tags: Afghans desire for peace, Afghans desire peace whatever the walls, Kabul Afghanistan desires peace, security and peace in Afghanistan

Please watch how Afghan children ski and play ‘marbles’ with stones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w97Be_hMzjo

playing ‘marbles’, with stones

Transcript of Video

Modern Warfare 2 is a video war game that raked in US$550 million in the first 5 days of its sales

Call to Duty ; Modern Warfare 2 video game

Afghan children playing ‘marbles’, with stones

Play may involve fears and risks

Afghan children skiing with sneakers, shoes & sticks

We need to ask all those hard questions from the very beginning

What do we want children to grow up playing & learning?

‘Cos when the children fight let them know it ain’t right’

‘When the children pray let them know the way’

What can we say when the children cry in the wars which adults wage?

Afghan ski group

Background Music “When the children cry”

Little child, dry your crying eyes

How can I explain the fear you feel inside

Cos you were born into this evil world, where men has killed young men, and no one knows just why

What have we begun, just look what we have done

All that we destroyed, you must build again

When the children cry, let them know we tried

Cos when the children fight, let them know it ain’t right

When the children pray let them know the way

Cos when the children sing, then the new world begins

Technorati Tags: Afghan children play, Call to Duty Modern Warfare 2, skiing in Afghanistan, war and peace in Afghanistan

Please watch how Afghan youth fasted & asked which other human we humans would torture next

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDloKITlBJM

Zekerullah with a poster for Witness Against Torture

On Martin Luther King’s Day this 18^th of Jan, after fasting for 2 short days, in solidarity with Witness Against Torture’s 12 day fast for the prompt closing of Guantanamo Bay Prison, a few Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers gathered in a mud house on an Afghan winter night, to have a heart-to-heart conversation with members of the Witness Against Torture and later, with friends from Landmark Education Olympia facilitated by Dr Dennis Mills of Capella University.

We asked each other the questions of our times and our hearts.

Friends of Witness Against Torture led by Frida Berrigan and Bob Cooke encouraged the Afghan youth with their kind words, their tears and their singing. The conversation ended with them singing ‘We shall overcome’ and a sense of the ‘change in consciousness’ and the friendships which all human beings long for.

We remembered the words of Martin Luther King, in the everyday Dari of Afghanistan.

The Afghan Youth recall Martin Luther King’s words

Text of Video

A few Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers fasted for 2 days, then gathered in the mountains…

Which human will we humans torture next?

They tele-conversed with Witness Against Torture?, remembering M. L. King’s words

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’

A lie cannot live.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

Why do we respond to fear, hate and anger by hurting one another?

Which human will we humans torture next?

Frida Berrigan of Witness Against Torture : They first become wealthy professionals but they don’t want to. They want to lower their income because they don’t want to pay for war

Dr Dennis Mills of Capella University : Dr King talked about 3 major demons, 3 problems.

The 3 ( demons ) are racism, materialism & militarism.

Those are very prophetic words because we who are making this call are still working to change ourselves for generations.

Which human will we humans torture next?

Pause in empathy or perish in estrangement

We shall live in peace some day

We shall overcome some day

Now is the time to pause in empathy or perish in estrangement

Our Afghan winter night connection with

Witness Against Torture and other friends

Cross posted from

http://www.witnesstorture.org/fast-day-8

Compiled by Kate Cowley

January 18, 2010
Dear Friends,

This morning, on Day Eight of our fast, we gathered together for a conference call with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, a group of young people working for peace and justice in Afghanistan (http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/). They have been fasting for two days in solidarity with all of us.

It is difficult to try to encapsulate the richness of the dialogue we exchanged with this group of young people so dedicated to the struggle for peace and justice, and so entrenched in the sorrow and pain of war. The dialogue and connections across such a distance was very inspiring to all of us.

At one point in the conversation, Jerica mentioned to them that we’ve been singing a lot lately, and asked if they sing songs together. They in turn asked us to sing for them, and so Kathy led us in another round of “Hold on, keep your eyes on the prize.” They returned the favor by singing a song for us in Arabic that translates into English as: “Mountains cannot reach mountains, only men can reach men.”

Carmen brought up that it was Martin Luther King Day and asked if they were aware of the significance of this day in the history of the U.S. They responded to this by reading to us MLK quotes in Arabic that they had learned together. It was quite a fitting close to our conversation and a beautiful homage to Martin Luther King Jr. We will keep these young Afghan Peace Volunteers in our hearts and be with them in their struggle!

At end the day, we joined with survivors of torture from TASSC International at St. Stephen’s. In sharing their stories with us, they expressed the difficulty of starting life over again after being tortured and re-assimilating to life again in a different place. They focused on the importance of prayer for them, and shared their gratitude at learning that there was a group of people praying with and for them. We listened as they spoke about the effects of certain methods of torture, particularly solitary confinement, and the de-humanizing effect it can have. They also discussed the way violence of torture perpetuates itself, how often the tortured can become the torturer.

They told us that one of the most difficult things about being a survivor of torture is the loneliness. We have talked as a group before about this feeling of loneliness, and how it is one thing that all human beings share. Again and again we come back to this idea of community, of being able to reach out to one another, as a way of rebuilding our humanity.

Thank you for all you are doing.

Peace with Justice,

Witness Against Torture
www.witnesstorture.org

Fasters from Witness Against Torture at

the Museum of American History on MLK day (observed).

Technorati Tags: Bagram Prison, Guantanamo, Martin Luther King Jr Day, We shall overcome, Witness Against Torture

Please listen to Faiz’s heart of sorrow and humanity in remembering death and war

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yufP1iRr0z4

Faiz and post traumatic stress

I can tell the story of a war in which I lost my brother…

in front of me, before my eyes.. they shot him, with a Kalashnikov.

.. a massacre… a cave on our way, in which we saw 60 corpses with our own eyes

We were very frightened but we did not have any choice.

What could we have done?

I remember how people were unjustly beaten up,

how arms were dismembered,

how eyes were gouged out…

Sometimes, I don’t know how to feel & I wonder who & where I am.

The memories of war affect me very negatively.

What do you request of those who are harsh, the war-mongers, those who have become habitually violent?

I request them not to murder anyone ;

come live in a humane society, to stop these cruel and inhumane acts.

Faiz Ahmad, you and I, or any human being who has witnessed these dismembering and eye-gouging horrors of war, cannot be the same again.

As a medical practitioner, I’m certain that we would all qualify as sufferers of post-traumatic stress, according to the DSM Criteria, and experience the painful symptoms not just for the one month period required for diagnosis.

If we didn’t suffer such stresses on our conscience, we would be the disordered ones, unlike the war veterans who respond humanely with a pain they carry for the rest of their lives, some of whom eventually take to suicide in hope of a kinder world beyond.

13^th Jan 2010 The United States Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki noted that of the more than 30,000 suicides each year in America, about 20 percent are committed by veterans. Why do we know so much about suicides but still know so little about how to prevent them?” Shinseki said. “Simple question, but we continue to be challenged.”

Post-traumatic stress should be cared for optimally and with love, because it is an order of our conscience that can save humanity.

It puts an onus on us to prevent such in-humane experiences by the eradication of war.

Those who have witnessed others killed with the maximal violence humans can muster should not have to suffer alone. They do not deserve the derision of those who erroneously consider them weak and as having a dis-order.

Our cold, clinical medical ‘intelligence’ will never match their saving conscience.

It reminds me that as we cope with the harsh Afghan winter cold in a medieval system of poor heating, it is the difficult elements of nature that point us to the salvation of community warmth.

Faiz invites us to come live in a humane society

Post Traumatic Stress is an ORDER of human conscience that can save humanity

Why I, a family physician, consider Post Traumatic Stress from war a natural order of human conscience, and NOT a disorder.

1. It is a natural order that should be managed holistically and with love, because it is an order that arises out of an intact CONSCIENCE.

Our medical diagnostic label has inadvertently mis-represented what is a natural and expected human response to extreme violence as an un-natural disease.

Which of us would NOT be stressed witnessing a brutal killing?

If we believe that it is a courageous man who watches slaughter calmly, we have lost something essential about being human. For that logic to stand scrutiny, we would have to condone holding a ‘bravest man competition’ in which contestants watch as many ‘live’ killings as he can tolerate without feeling sick, or sad.

If we believe that it’s patriotic to kill any suspicious ‘enemy’, grievous would be the day the ‘enemy’ was your own child and unconscionable the act that puts a country above a fellow human being.

2. It is a natural order because it is our passionate response to in-humanity.

Yes, we must help the post-traumatic stress sufferer, BUT, we mustn’t call it a DIS-ORDER.

It’s inaccurate to call it a disorder

It is in essence a natural human ORDER that when we have witnessed horrible violence or personally experienced terrible trauma, we become stressed, often very stressed. It is Man’s inherent way of coping with events which are entirely in-congruous with how a good, peaceful life should be.

We label something as disordered when it mal-functions and behaves abnormally. Feeling scared, sorrowful and repulsed by killings is not a malfunction and is not abnormal. It is how our bodies, together with our hearts, minds and conscience, NORMALLY FUNCTIONS.

It’s a PARADOX to call it a disorder. The person who doesn’t feel remorseful or traumatized, who forces himself into ‘courageously’ accepting that the violent killing was normal or even kind and who convinces himself to perpetuate the violence, is THE disordered one.

So, sufferers should be helped to cope with their stress by acknowledging that their feelings are normal, while we should worry about the truly disordered response of a numbed conscience which allows continued mass killings.

It is not a disease to hate or be angry and sad over the scenes of bodies and blood splattering everywhere or to detest the violent manner in which a loved one or a fellow human died.

3. It is a natural order whose onus on humanity is to work towards the eradication of war. It can save humanity.

The current crisis of increasing suicides among war veterans points us to an urgent need to prevent this suffering by abstaining from and preventing acts of war and violence.

It is the onus and responsibility of the medical, civil and military communities to heal and save humanity definitively.

Irish Nobel peace laureate Mairead Maguire

“Killing goes against everything we’re taught from childhood about love and compassion.

It goes against every religious doctrine and moral code.

It’s small wonder that so many come back from war sick at heart.

We have to start to disarm our own minds and look at the fact that there are always alternatives to violence.

We must create the idea that to even think of war is horrific. “

Kevin O hill was a 23 year old American soldier killed in Afghanistan

http://thebrooklynink.com/2009/10/kevin-hill/

Kevin seemed “kind of distant” to his friend Darryl.  “Like he had a lot of stuff on his mind, like his mind was racing,” Darryl said.  “He told me he had seen a dead body in front of him.”

Olsen Hill, Kevin’s father, picked it up to hear his wife, Mahalia Hill, screaming on the other end.

“Having to tell her on the phone, and not being able to hold her.  And to hear them scream, without being able to hold them.  That just made it even worse. Nine hours, driving and crying, driving and crying,” he said. “I don’t know whether he suffered or not, and that’s what kills me.  In terms of details, him being shot before or after.  I just try not to think about it because it’s too much, too much,” his father said, his voice breaking. “None of us wanted him to go into the military.  Well not in the Army anyway because I was in the Army in the first Gulf War, and I knew what war was like.  And so I didn’t want my son experiencing combat like I did,” said Olsen Hill.  He told his son about the constant fear, of not knowing where the next bullet, mine, or sniper was hidden.

309.81    DSM-IV Criteria for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

A. The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following have been present:

(1) the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others (2) the person’s response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror. Note: In children, this may be expressed instead by disorganized or agitated behavior.

B. The traumatic event is persistently reexperienced in one (or more) of the following ways:

(1) recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts, or perceptions. Note: In young children, repetitive play may occur in which themes or aspects of the trauma are expressed.

(2) recurrent distressing dreams of the event. Note: In children, there may be frightening dreams without recognizable content.

(3) acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring (includes a sense of reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative flashback episodes, including those that occur upon awakening or when intoxicated). Note: In young children, trauma-specific reenactment may occur.

(4) intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.

(5) physiological reactivity on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.

C. Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma), as indicated by three (or more) of the following:

(1) efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations associated with the trauma

(2) efforts to avoid activities, places, or people that arouse recollections of the trauma

(3) inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma

(4) markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities

(5) feeling of detachment or estrangement from others

(6) restricted range of affect (e.g., unable to have loving feelings)

(7) sense of a foreshortened future (e.g., does not expect to have a career, marriage, children, or a normal life span)

D. Persistent symptoms of increased arousal (not present before the trauma), as indicated by two (or more) of the following:

(1) difficulty falling or staying asleep
(2) irritability or outbursts of anger
(3) difficulty concentrating
(4) hyper-vigilance
(5) exaggerated startle response

E. Duration of the disturbance (symptoms in Criteria B, C, and D) is more than one month.

F. The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Specify if:
Acute: if duration of symptoms is less than 3 months
Chronic: if duration of symptoms is 3 months or more

Specify if:
With Delayed Onset: if onset of symptoms is at least 6 months after the stressor

Technorati Tags: Afghan War, Iraq war, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide rates increase among veterans, the human cost of wars

Please watch Afghan youth speak to the world’s ‘intellectuals’ about their strategy against terrorism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzcNWj9iLsU

How can war end the greed for power, the greed for money, poverty, the lack of work,

the telling of lies, fear, injustice, ignorance, misunderstandings,

self-interest, pride, violence, anger and hate?

The intellectuals of the world have analyzed & justified the war against terrorism.

We, the youth of Afg, are sorry that their analysis is not correct.

In fact, the people of the world know that war cannot end the roots of terrorism.

Abdulai

A root of terrorism is greed for power & war can’t end the greed for power.

Rahman

A root of terrorism is greed for money & war can’t end the greed for money.

Shir Ali

A root of terrorism is poverty & war cannot end poverty.

Raziq

A root of terrorism is lack of work & war cannot end the lack of work.

Najib

A root of terrorism is the telling of lies & war can’t end the telling of lies.

Immaduddin

A root of terrorism is fear & war cannot end fear.

Nasrullah

A root of terrorism is injustice & war cannot end injustice.

Yasir

A root of terrorism is ignorance & war cannot end ignorance.

Samiullah

A root of terrorism is misunderstandings & war can’t end misunderstandings.

Mohd Hussein

A root of terrorism is self-interest & war cannot end self-interest.

Mohd Jan

A root of terrorism is pride & war cannot end pride.

Shir Agha

A root of terrorism is violence & war cannot end violence.

Zekerullah and brothers

A root of terrorism is anger & war cannot end anger.

Aziz

A root of terrorism is hate & war cannot end hate.

The intellectuals of the world have analyzed & justified the war against terrorism.

We, the youth of Afg, are sorry that their analysis is not correct.

In fact, the people of the world know that war cannot end the roots of terrorism.

Technorati Tags: Al Qaeda terrorism Yemen Nigerian Farouk, global war against terror, Obama’s Afghan war, Taliban

Please watch Afghan youth fly kites for Gaza Freedom March and converse about revenge and love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWRqqoNESCc

love is how the kites will fly in Gaza, Afghanistan and the world

At about 1pm Afghanistan time ( 10.30 am Gaza time when the planned Gaza Freedom March was supposed to begin ) on the 31^st of December 2009, the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers had a tele-conference with these friends ( the conversation with Baseem and Yaniv was short but priceless ).

Palestine Baseem

Israel Yaniv

Iraq Skala

USA Douglas, Jody, Cindy Corrie, Josh Steiber, Margo, Andrea Le Blanc, Al

In the telephone conversation, we encountered the human souls in each other through our voices and we encouraged each other towards peace and those beautiful and important things in the hearts of all humanity. Thanks to all!

11 Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers then flew kites at Bamiyan Peace Park, to let our Palestinian friends in Gaza and peacemakers of Gaza Freedom March now standing in Cairo Egypt know that Love is how the kites in Gaza, Afghanistan and the world will fly!

The freedom which we youth, the future of the world, urgently desire is a freedom

from those built-up grievances heaped upon us or within ourselves,

grievances that separate us constantly,

a freedom from hate and un-kindness.

Love is how the kites in Gaza, Afghanistan and the world will fly!

Love is how we’ll ask for peace!

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers flying kites for Gaza Freedom March

Transcript of video

2010 was coming through over the Afghan horizon

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers flew kites for the Gaza Freedom March

They had a tele-conference with friends from Palestine, Israel, Iraq & the US

We wish for the youth of Gaza a freedom from the oppression & threat of war & violence

The people of Israel & Palestine should stop war & make peace.

Today, we want to converse with them, to become close to one another.

Abdulai, the Taliban killed your father. Do you want to take revenge?

No, we should make peace & not take revenge. If we take revenge, war will increase.

Faiz, your brother was killed by others. Do you bear a grudge in your heart?

No, we’ve made peace with them.

But, in the world today, everyone who has a family member will usually take revenge.

How do we end the thought of revenge?

We can’t go on killing one other in revenge. If we do, the world will end one day.

Blood cannot wash away blood. We should practice love, so such horrors can be forgotten.

Afghans conversing with a Palestinian,a Jew, an Iraqi and Americans

My name is Bassam, Bassam from Palestine.

Douglas : “Bassam, I know I speak for everyone, calling in solidarity…”

I know that the Corries would like to speak to you.

Cindy Corrie : Hello, Bassam, it’s good to hear your voice. And I hope that we have …good things happen for all of us.

I notice that we also have someone from Israel. Can you go ahead?

Hi everybody, my name is Yaniv. Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too!

And then from Washington D.C. Go ahead!

This is Josh Steiber.

Afghan hopes for peace

We’ll fly kites.

Our hope for freedom!

We have to fly the kites of freedom!

We want freedom from the wounds of our hearts!

We want freedom from hate!

Let the kite fly! Let the string go, let the string go!

Run………!

Love is how the kites will fly in Gaza, Afg & the world!

Run………!

Freedom, freedom……!

The freedom which we youth, the future of the world, urgently desire is a freedom from those built-up grievances heaped upon us or within ourselves that separate us constantly,  a freedom from hate and un-kindness.

Love is how the kites in Gaza, Afg & the world will fly

Love is how we’ll ask for peace!

run with and fly the kites of true freedom

Technorati Tags: Gaza Freedom March in Afghanistan, Love is how we'll ask for peace in Gaza Afghanistan and the world