Please read the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers tell their ‘love-story’ amidst a UN article of Japanese cranes, Afghan cycling and the return of Afghan music.

http://www.un.org/en/events/peaceday/2010/asia.shtml

“Fighting cannot bring peace is the message we want to send to our Afghan country men and women, and to the world. As we say in Afghanistan: blood can not wash away blood,” said Mohammad Jan

The Head of United Nations in Hiroshima

On the wings of paper cranes, UN staffers aim to spread message of peace

6 August 2010 – In 1955, 12-year-old Sadako Sasaki began folding a thousand paper cranes to try to heal her leukaemia, in accordance with a Japanese tradition. Despite surviving the bombing of Hiroshima a decade earlier, she had developed the “atom bomb disease.” Over half a century later, United Nations staff members hope to harness that same spirit to remind the world of the horrors wrought by nuclear weapons.

Sadako died on 25 October 1955, having completed 644 origami cranes. Her friends completed the remaining cranes and she was buried with them in Hiroshima, where the Children’s Peace Monument now stands in her honour and children from all over the world send more than 10 million cranes each year.

To commemorate the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, dozens of UN workers at the Organization’s Headquarters in New York and at its offices in Tokyo have worked together to fold a thousand origami cranes. The cranes were then assembled into a garland that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon presented today to the Mayor of Hiroshima at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony. This marks the first ever trip by a Secretary-General to the annual ceremony.

“We expect that his presence at the [ceremony] as the first UN Secretary-General… will further develop international momentum to abolish nuclear weapons… and lead to consolidate political will of national governments that have been working for a world without nuclear weapons,” Kazuaki Oku, a Hiroshima municipal official heading atomic bomb commemoration activities, told the UN News Centre.

He commended the Secretary-General for showing “strong will toward the abolition of nuclear weapons by proposing a five-point plan to rid the world of [them].”
The paper cranes presented by the UN are highly significant, Mr. Oku said. “We believe that paper cranes could help forge the momentum for world peace and strengthen public opinion seeking a world without nuclear weapons, through conveying this episode to the world.”
Cranes, which symbolize longevity, are considered mystical creatures in many parts of Asia. In Japan, it is said that folding 1,000 origami cranes grants that person one wish, and people often send these cranes to those who suffer from illness or ill fortune in hope that their lives will improve. Through Sadako’s story, the folding of cranes has also become a symbol of world peace.

The UN cranes project was spearheaded by Kiyo Akasaka, a Japanese national and the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information. Mr. Akasaka said “this will be a very special commemorative gift for the Secretary-General to present during his visit to Hiroshima, symbolizing the strong wishes of the UN staff for world peace without nuclear weapons.”

UN staff members folded the cranes in their spare time, with two or three made by each person. “The message we’re trying to send to the Japanese people is we want peace. That’s what the UN is about, peace and stability, and we want to prevent things like [the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki] from happening anywhere in the future,” said staff member Natalia Samoilova, who worked on the project in New York.
The cranes also helped to bridge the gap between the UN and Japanese citizens, says Shinichi Kushima, another UN staff member who participated in the project in New York. “For me, as a Japanese, it’s great that the UN cares about us,” he said.
Moreover, the project engendered wide-ranging emotions in the UN staff members who helped fold paper cranes.

In addition to being “honoured to be invited to participate,” Ms. Samoilova said that “it was much fun. I never did origami before. I admire people who are very skilful at origami and at least to [learn] how to fold a crane – especially if it’s going to be part of this big garland – oh, I felt so happy.”

Edita Zulic, another staff member who folded cranes, said that “it was interesting how it made me contemplate what we can do in our daily life to send out these messages of peace, to spread positive energy. This is a really small, small, undertaking, folding one crane. But I think when we all get together you see we make 500 or 1,000 cranes. It symbolises that one person can really make a difference.”

The Peace Sign put up by the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers at the Bamiyan Buddhas

“We want peace,” Afghan students grouped near a white dove sculpture in Bamyan Peace Park in the central province of Afghanistan chanted into a phone linking them with youth groups in other parts of the country.

“Peace is friendship and love and that’s how we are campaigning for peace - by making more friends and more volunteers,” said Zikrullah, a 15-year-old second grader and a member of the Bamyan Peace Volunteers, a group of school students who campaign for peace in Afghanistan.

Zikrullah dropped out of school for economic reasons a few years ago but made a commitment last year to continue his studies. He now goes to school in the mornings and in the afternoons helps his father run a shop in Bamyan city.

In his spare time, he volunteers with the peace group which helped build the park where the group is now gathered. 

“We worked for nearly two years to build this recreational area close to our school, now our school friends can come here to study and play,” said Zikrullah, who along with his friends persuaded hundreds of schoolmates to volunteer to build the park to mark International Peace Day.

In addition, the group was involved in a trekking for peace event organized by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

More recently, the group illuminated the site of the renowned Bamyan Buddhas with the word “Sulh,” which means peace in Dari, to send a message of peace to the world on the occasion of Kabul Conference on 20 July.

“Fighting cannot bring peace is the message we want to send to our Afghan country men and women, and to the world. As we say in Afghanistan: blood can not wash away blood,” said Mohammad Jan, an 11th grade student with the Volunteers.

Zikrullah and his friends have been visiting other youth groups around the province to persuade them to volunteer for change.

“I am happy with the result, we are making many peace friends,” he said.

Building relations with youth groups in other provinces of the country is a priority for them.

They sent handmade mobile phone covers to a youth group in Kandahar province a few months ago as peace souvenirs to build a stronger friendship with youths in difficult parts of the country.

“We regularly contact our friends in Kandahar, Kabul and Dai Kundi provinces to discuss problems and issues, and to plan joint programmes with them,” Jan said.

This year, the group plans to expand its Peace Day activities to its partner volunteer groups in the United States, Iraq, Palestine and Singapore.

The group members believe their work is crucial for their country.

“I work for peace because I know this is the biggest need of our country,” Jan said.

In the distance, the group was closing the telephone meeting by again chanting its slogan: “Why not love? Why not peace?”

By Jaffar Rahim, UNAMA

How do we bring peace to war?

Afghanistan’s world cyclist preparing for next tour

The dentist-turned-cyclist said he plans to tour about 20 countries this time.

The tour is supported by the Government of Afghanistan and by Abdul Satar Khawasi, Secretary of the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House). The Afghan Film Department of the Ministry of Culture and Information has assigned cameraman Jawanshir Haidari to film the tour.

In 2003, Shah’s tour took him across the Middle East, Europe and the United States over 371 days. President Hamid Karzai asked him to donate his bicycle to the Kabul Museum in December last year where it is on display, highlighting his efforts to promote peace in Afghanistan.
Nadir Shah told UNAMA that he is very worried about the escalating violence. “It’s very painful for me. I want to ask strongly all the countries to bring peace here. First of all, the Afghans themselves should work for peace. Then the international community, especially the United Nations, should help us,” he said.

One thing Nadir Shah liked about his earlier tour is that he noticed that all the countries he crossed in Europe were living like a family even if Europe was at war 60 years ago.

“When I was entering Holland from Germany, I thought I had lost my way and asked the locals which way would lead me to Holland. They said I was already 20 kilometres into Holland. It looked all the same. I want to see my country like this.”

By Tilak Pokharel and Shafiqullah Waak, UNAMA

Afghanistan’s top singer uses voice for national harmony

19 July 2010 - Afghan singer Farhad Darya entertains fans of all ages at a peace concert on the eve of the Kabul Conference. The Kabul-born artist said he wants to remind Afghan leaders and the international community to think of the people of Afghanistan tomorrow when making their decisions.
Darya has said that music is a constant inspiration for Afghans and allows them to communicate through ethnic and tribal boundaries. Darya has written and sung in most of Afghanistan’s many languages, including Farsi-Dari, Pashto, Uzbek, Hazaragi, and Urdu, among others. He is a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Goodwill Ambassador.

Technorati Tags: war and peace in Afghanistan

Dear friends,

We, the nobodies of Afghanistan, ask this with love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB9er3w_oto

This is the love which our mothers have taught us. So please, don’t belittle this love with the haughty confusion of ‘Muslim’ or ‘Christian’ anger and hate.

We plead with trembling because people are dying, dying in ways which rob us of all human meaning and which cause us to cry.

To our own Afghan elite, the American elite and the coalition elite of our failing world :

Please behave like adult human beings!

You are trapped as unfortunate models of an unsustainable, a-rational, a-moral, global militant system that is grossly self-seeking ( forgive us for sounding like we’re about to vomit or throw shoes at your Presidents…J )

Please stop your childish, frantic and violent nonsense in Afghanistan.

You imagine that you must ‘win’ more wars, more power and more wealth to ‘win’ votes and remain as cruel kings, but if and when you’ve proclaimed ‘victory’ over the dead, remember that neither the dead nor the living will honour you.

You no longer represent the wishes of your ordinary citizens.

What you have been representing are the cowardly vices that we detest about ourselves, vices we’re all prone to but which we must shun : utter greed, pride and self-interest.

So please, for now or forever, go as far away from us as your fancy planes will take you.

Start listening to the People, thinking about the People and loving the People. At least, behave like decent adults.

You need to do this, because you know you are not beasts.

To the ordinary People of our disconnected world :

Please behave like adult human beings!

You, like us, have been de-sensitized in allowing the inhumane fantasy that more killing, more money-grabbing, and more blood-resources can justify our leaders and make everyone happier.

You know that’s a lie.

So, please get out onto your streets.

Get out in the critical millions.

Join us on International Day of Peace 21^st of September in Bamiyan Afghanistan, to make friends without borders, asking loudly and softly, gently and angrily, joyfully and painfully, any unique way, but only with love, asking

“Why not love?”

“ Chera mohabat na-kuneem?”

“??? ???? ?????? “

“Enough of the war narratives! Here we are, friends who refuse to be ‘enemies’!”

And this time, don’t stop till we get some answers, because People are dying.

We need to do this, because we know we are not beasts.

Wanting love, the way we dream of love to be,

Hakim and the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers

“We thank those who pray that we’ll have peace, But prayers won’t suffice if one by one, war takes us away from life.” 15 year old Ali

“We may not make it, but as Gandhi encouraged, we must be the change we want to see in the world.”

15 year old Abdulai

“Which one of us does not yearn quietly for genuine peace? If that is the critical desire underlying the undeveloped science of human relations, then why the hesitance? Why not relate massively so as to free Mankind from the self-constructed cages of endless experimentation with war, to turn to nurturing the earth, to struggling for overdue equalities and to loving the People? What’ s stopping us? What’s the harm?” Young Hakim

At the State Department, spokesman P.J. Crowley said efforts to explain to Afghanistan and other allies that the U.S. government played no role in leaking the documents seemed to have paid off. “We’re very gratified that the response thus far internationally has been moderate, sober,” Crowley said.

When the Afghan children cry

The work in progress to establish Friends Without Borders

Moderate? Sober? What has happened to humanity that we remain moderate and sober in watching thousands being killed?

Thus, we hope to launch Friends Without Borders, a non-political, non-religious, voluntary, wide-scale network of person-to-person relationships for a peace that the elite cannot dismiss.

Together with Mark Johnson and Douglas Mackey ( Fellowship of Reconciliation and Iraq Memorial to Life ), Josh Stieber ( Contagious Love Experiment and The People’s Journey ), Pam Bailey with Salma and Leila ( Gaza Youth Tour and The People’s Journey ) and Shane Clairborne with his many associates ( The Simple Way ), we have a quickly growing group of volunteers that would work urgently over the next few weeks to put in place the beginnings of the struggle of Friends Without Borders :

To end wars and violence by tapping the tide of world public opinion with…

…a HEART-STORM of GLOBAL FRIENDSHIPS saying,

“Enough of the war narratives! Here we are, friends who refuse to be ‘enemies’!”

We are working towards a Music4Peace concert at the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan on the 21^st of September, International Peace Day. Whether or not this concert pulls through, we hope to launch Friends Without Borders that day.

What we request you to do : Arrange to call us that morning, from your various communities, to resound with us our tune, “Chera mohabat na-kuneem? Why not love?”.

Then, if love could change everything, everything could change.

“How blind are the people of the world in allowing their governments to spend so much money on the Afghan war.” 13 year old Ghulamai

“And what’s the result? Many people will be killed… and the security of America, Afg & the world will get worse..” 15 year old Ali

“However without thought & compassion our leaders are, we the youth just want friendship & love! “15 year old Zekerullah

 “We should at least ask, Why not love?”15 year old Abdulai

Love and peace,

Hakim and the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers

http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog

http://www.thepeoplesjourney.org/

Other musings about human behaviour and our current global system

How did we become numb looking at these ‘numbers’, fellow people who have left us forever :

140,000                   Hiroshima              Little Boy

80.000                     Nagasaki                Fat Man

3 million                 Vietnam Agent Orange

? 1 million              Iraq                         White Phosphorus and ?depleted uranium

???                          Afghanistan          drones, targeted killings, ?depleted uranium, ?cluster mines

The world, all of us, have tried the military system and this is the result. It does not work!

It’s a scary, unsustainable and de-humanizing, a system of addressing ‘terrorism’ that brings out all our tendencies to survive, and only survive ourselves.

This non-living system didn’t create and assemble itself, We humans set it up, so only we humans can dismantle it. We have hope that wide-scale human to human friendships can change us. We’re banking on the hope that love can change everything.

It can’t be a naïve love ( as if such naivety stands a chance in Afghanistan ) and it can’t be apathetic (  coming from the Greek word apatheia meaning ‘a creature’s inability to suffer’).

It is a resolute love acting on all that it believes in, convicted that even a little of such love is stronger than the war of the worlds.

Our Palestinian friends Salma and Leila

Text of video

From the hills I play my flute…

I wish for peace & reconciliation

When will the world ever understand?

We thank those who pray that we’ll have peace

But prayers won’t suffice if one by one, war takes us away from life

From the hills I play my flute…

I wish for peace & reconciliation

When will the world ever understand?

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers with friends in Dai Kundi province

We can only raise the voice of peace through love & brotherhood, not only for peace in Afg but also the world

Serving tea & bread to friends from Kabul…

We should make connections with the world thru’ tele-conferencing & websites.

We should work together towards peace in every other country & in the capital & the provinces of Afg,.

Only with love, brotherhood & the law through peace & friendship…, we can improve this 30-year war-ravaged country & make good progress, until the world becomes one…

I believe 100%, as an Afghan living among Afghans & I say it clearly, the people don’t want even one more minute of war.

In this global system of wars…

…many people will be killed

…where Abdulai’s father is buried

…where children live amidst death

And play soccer by the graveyard

…the earth will be destroyed,

floods etc…

…the poor will become poorer

We should at least ask,

Why not love?

We want to establish a group called Friends Without Borders formed by peace volunteers from Afghanistan & the world

How blind are the people of the world in allowing their governments to spend so much money on the Afghan war.

And what’s the result? Many people will be killed… and the security of America, Afg & the world will get worse

However without thought & compassion our leaders are, we the youth just want friendship & love!

Love is how we’ll ask for peace!

Why not love?

Our American friends Josh Stieber and Douglas Mackey

Technorati Tags: Afghan war logs, General Petreaus, wikileaks Julian Assange

If we have to distance ourselves from our country or profession or loved ones to remain faithful to Man, we need to do so with urgency.

Because we can’t purchase the permanence of love with temporariness, the temporariness of manufactured patriotism and moth-prone wealth. Life isn’t sustained by these.

Have you heard the response of ordinary Afghans to the Wikileaks Afghan War Logs, especially since the 92210 leaked documents are about them?

Your answer will most likely be ‘No’ ; that’s how dominantly the elite dictate our world views.

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers have already responded twice to date. The first letter is “The 92210 pieces of my broken Afghan heart’. The 2^nd was sent to Iraq veteran Josh Stieber with the hope that it would be read somewhere, entitled “Our ordinary hell.”

‘No’ is normal. Nameless people have been killed for the sake of many different Names for centuries, without any mention or notice. What is scary is that in the rare instance when an individual ‘no-body’ is mentioned, it doesn’t move us and it doesn’t change us.

Whatever our politics or religion, we all recognize that killing doesn’t improve our situation. And that mass killing doesn’t make us kinder.

Killing haunts. Better to be hunted for truth than to be haunted for lies.

So, Assange, Manning, stand in the wind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9E_nXiPj9g

Stand as a free Men.

Stand freely for love because you are obeying the higher order of conscience rather than the dusty order of power.

And we, the nobodies, the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, will stand with you, believing that truth will protect itself and that the structures of violent power must soon be transformed.

And love is how.

Sincerely,

Hakim and the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers

The dove looks up at Bamiyan Peace Park

Our ordinary hell

Dear America and the world,

If these 92210 war records had occurred in the States and even just one American civilian killed, there would have been ample, loud threats for justice and retaliation. No, these happened in Afghanistan and ordinary war-tired Afghans know that the expected global response is ‘Who cares?’

After all, the ironic 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Winner alludes to this as the good and just war, and not even the Nobel Peace Prize Committee would speak retrospectively to that. Though we know that American public opinion seems to be swinging, many still hold the phantom Afghan War aims as real, while watching the world grow less safe, as if educated scrutiny has almost completely died not only in the States, but also in the world.

Most people on the ground in Afghanistan would recognize how unsustainable, factional, corrupt and violent this Great Game has become.

But none would say it.

Not the President of USA. Not the President of Afghanistan. Not the leaders of the 43 plus coalition countries. Not the UN Special Envoy to Afghanistan. And not the Taliban.

The 92210 entries say it.

And they can no longer be refuted by history or the future. Any record of actual events can only benefit those struggling for truth.

Admiral Mullen and Mr Robert Gates went on to suggest that Assange may have blood on his hands. Afghans are not fooled. We have eyes and we have seen much blood. Whoever’s hands has blood, we have an Afghan saying that ‘Blood cannot wash away blood.’

We ask fellow human beings to stop this childish blood-throwing and inhumane blood-shedding, whoever they may be. To shock your cynical ears, we, the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, would like to suggest that love is how the world should ask for peace.

We plead with the leaders of our broken world to sit down like real visionary men and women, to reconcile deeply, to listen deeply, to think deeply and to build deep relations of peace.

We urge our world to return to this love, for at worst, that can only bring everyone some dignity and meaning.

Otherwise, these war logs will continue into our Afghan horizon, and remain your special interest and our ordinary hell.

Sincerely, salamat bAsheen and KhudA Hafez, be at peace and God protect you!

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers

Change in Afghanistan and the world

92210 pieces of my broken Afghan heart

Dear friend ( including those who would remotely consider me an ‘enemy’ ),

The 92,210 Wikileaks Afghan War Logs were recorded between my 9^th and 14^th year of life among fellow Afghans.

I have disappointed myself and have been disappointed by Mankind more intensely than numbers can define. But I’m trying not to lose hold of the unseen virtues that can give some remnant meaning to my existence.

We have a global family that is disconnected, unequal and disappearing and even though we recognize that bullets and bombs cannot heal our souls, we are still cheering our own suicides. Even after being presented with 92,210 instances of a failed solution, we would still un-scientifically and un-sustainably support it, sanitizing and numbing our consciences by labeling it as ‘over-hyped’, old ‘news that has already informed public debate’.

Look how militant we have all become, how angry and how dis-empowered!

In Afghanistan, we spend more money and energies with the intention of killing people than helping them.

Globally, we never listen to others, not even to our friends. We submit only to elitist noise.

We hardly really know anyone else or their needs. We revolve only around ourselves and our needs. We hover emptily around praise, wealth and power.

I know this sounds cynical for a 15-year-old boy, but we are all continuing our fantasy of the ‘good’ war in Afghanistan. The elite will ‘demonize’ Assange and the likes of ordinary Man and fuel an in-humane fear with the ‘magic mask’ of ‘national security’ while endangering our world with fancy weapons.

Nothing worthwhile is working in Afghanistan.

To me, we have been losing our hope ever since forever, and that’s hell.

You want to know who killed my father and the ‘sorry’ state of my grieving mother, so I would hate his killer and you could feel justified about the daily Afghan fight against ‘insurgents’. But I will not perpetuate Man’s vengeful history even if the President orders me to.

More than losing our war on life, we are losing humanity. Brothers are hurting brothers, Man is killing Man, and we are not doing enough to stop this blood spill.

I humbly say to all the leaders of the 43 plus-country coalition, the leaders of our neighbouring countries, and the leaders of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, that your systems and strategies are fatally flawed. We all wish, like human beings ‘religiously’ do, that there was some salvation in our present predicament, but there is no comfort to be found in our present violent approach.

Like sensible people, we, the ordinary people of the world, should all sit down to listen to one another and endeavour to be friends and if ‘ridiculously’ necessary, to let the children of the world bring us together. That’s how desperately engaging we should be about building tangible peaceful relations.

To our factional, god-pretending leaders: start serving like real Men and Women, by envisioning a kinder, non-violent, demilitarized world.

To every soldier ; this carnage under orders is  not making you a gentler person nor bringing your families a safer life, so leave this cold system today before it consumes you tomorrow.

To every concerned citizen of the world, request to have your war tax money back, because even though that wouldn’t bring the murdered international soldier or Afghan back to life, you would be demanding the return of your conscience.

What is breaking my Afghan heart is our pride, our greed and our selfishness. We are deceiving ourselves to our own lonely destruction.

The media and self-aggrandizing adults ask silly questions like ‘What do these leaked Afghan War Logs show?’. I almost want to boycott ALL media.

We’re drowning in the shallow shadow cast by an opaque corruption, which renders us incapable of insight, but worse, which robs us of love and makes war our star.

You may unwittingly forget that Afghans like myself wish to love and be loved. You may believe the normalized propaganda which imply that Afghans are ‘savages’ and the coalition elite ‘saints’. You may sincerely think that Afghans had asked for and are taking delight in this war.

If this is how you think, I wish to lay claim to our common, more creative selves by countering with a plea ‘Why not love?’. That’s what we should counter, not ‘insurgencies’ that rightly seek freedom, but powers which erroneously seek more power.

I would persist in asking ‘Why not love?’ even if there was nothing my oppressed silence could say nor anything the 92,210 pieces of humanity’s hurting heart could shatter to persuade you that war stinks of death.

We need to deliberately change.

And love is how.

Your small friends,

Hakim

Though the vision of Abdulai ( and the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers )

Grade 7 Student, farmer, shop-keeper

Bamiyan, Afghanistan

http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog

http://www.thepeoplesjourney.org/

journeytosmile@gmail.com

Update on ‘Why not love?’ Vigil from 31^st of July 2010 to 5^th of August 2010

This is our response to the ‘live’ tragedy in our country Afghanistan, partly revealed by the 92210 Wilileaks Afghan War Logs.

On the 27^th of May this year, we had placed a dove at Bamiyan Peace Park and below it, we wrote the words ‘Why not love? Why not bring peace?’. Vandals destroyed these writings about a week later.

We re-wrote these words at this vigil and will keep asking ‘Why not love?’ till we hear ourselves clearly and till others hear us.

We’ll call for the urgent establishment of an international, non-political body of peacemaker representatives to establish wide scale human relations and end wars, running up to International Peace Day on the 21st of September.

Our ‘Why not love Vigil’ at the Bamiyan Peace Park was held from the 31^st of July 2010 to the 5^th of August 2010. We gathered there from 7 am to 8 am daily for 6 days

Please watch a video of our ‘Why not love?” vigil.

The state of Afghanistan is fatally un-sustainable.

Morality, intellectualism and capitalistic democracy are dying in Afghanistan. Humanity is dying.

Everything needs to change but since we can only change ourselves, doing small things like keeping this vigil is what we the ‘nobodies’ of the world must do.

15 year old Abdulai says, “We usually feel alone. I think that my country is on fire and that we are all withering on the inside. We wish for your friendship in this vigil to put out the fire, for only a resolute love can give us some hope. I pray you would believe that we need that hope right now.”

Love,

Abdulai and the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers

Text of “Wikileaks Assange, stand freely for love and we in Afg will stand with you” video

We shouldn’t continue this manner of life. This life is hard & difficult.

We should have a good & better life through peace & reconciliation.

A resolute love can change every human being & every violent person.

Dear friends in Afghanistan & the world, we may not make it…

But as Ghandi encouraged, ‘ Be the change you want to see in the world.’

More troops & more war make life tough for us.

But we will still move towards love & truth.

Let we ourselves, the youth, bring change. Yes..yes..yes!

Love is how we’ll ask for peace! Let’s move…let’s go!

When disappointment closes in like another moon-less night

We pause in our madness as mere dying Men

For our ‘Why Not Love’ Vigil, we rewrote the vandalised words at Bamiyan Peace Park

Aziz, what are you writing?

We are writing, “Why not love?”

Why are you writing this?

Because we want to bring peace, peace to Afghanistan!

War, so much war…After 35 years of war, what benefits have we seen?

In sunshine…

…or in rain, we will take the necessary roads.

So Assange, stand freely for love and we’ll stand with you!

The situation in Afghanistan is bad. The effects of war on our elders is clearly seen. Our work is hard.

??? ???? ??????

Why not love?

We want to establish a group called Friends Without Borders formed by peace volunteers in Afghanistan & the world

We must not let go of our hope.

??? ???? ??????

Why not love?

Nancy vigiled with us in Oregon USA

??? ???? ??????

Why not love?

Douglas, Dennis and friends vigiled with us in Olympia USA

??? ???? ??????

Why not love?

All of us should leave our fearful nights

‘Peace / ???’ lit up at the Bamiyan Buddhas

Even a little of our love is stronger than the war of the worlds!

“Blood cannot wash away blood.”

Love is how we’ll ask for peace!

??? ???? ??????

Why not love?

Change.

??? ???? ??????

Why not love?

Building peace in Afghanistana and the world

Technorati Tags: 92210 Wikileaks Afghan War Logs, Bradley Manning, Julian Assange

Please join us in our Afghan and American ‘Why not love?’ Vigil. We may hinder peace but we cannot hinder love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeFDev5M-ZQ

We are keeping vigil at Bamiyan Peace Park for this week through to Thursday and this is our 2^nd day.

We wish to ask the world, “ Why not love?’

Details of ‘Why not love?’ Vigil from 31^st of July 2010 to 5^th of August 2010

This is our response to the ‘live’ tragedy in our country Afghanistan, partly revealed by the 92210 Wilileaks Afghan War Logs.

On the 27^th of May this year, we had placed a dove at Bamiyan Peace Park and below it, we wrote the words ‘Why not love? Why not bring peace?’. Vandals destroyed these writings about a week later.

We are re-writing these words for this vigil and will keep asking ‘Why not love?’ till others hear us.

We’ll call for the urgent establishment of an international, non-political body of peacemaker representatives to establish wide scale human relations and end wars, running up to International Peace Day on the 21st of September.

Our ‘Why not love Vigil’ at the Bamiyan Peace Park will be held from the 31^st of July 2010 to the 5^th of August 2010. We will gather there from 8 am to 5pm Afghanistan time on the first day of the vigil ( Saturday the 31^st of July ), and for the subsequent 5 days, hold an hourly vigil from 7am to 8am every morning ( the Afghan youth have much farm and other work in their fields! )

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers ask that you would join them for a daily one-hour vigil over 6-days ( from Saturday the 31^st of July 2010 to Thursday the 5^th of August 2010 ), to ask the leaders of the world, “Why not love?”

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPkzRgT05P8

The state of Afghanistan is fatally un-sustainable.

Morality, intellectualism and capitalistic democracy are dying in Afghanistan. Humanity is dying.

Everything needs to change but since we can only change ourselves, doing small things like keeping this vigil is what we the ‘nobodies’ of the world must do.

15 year old Abdulai says, “We usually feel alone. I think that my country is on fire and that we are all withering on the inside. We wish for your friendship in this vigil to put out the fire, for only a resolute love can give us some hope. I pray you would believe that we need that hope right now.”

Please join us. You may call us at +93799371354 / +93785949274 when we are at our vigil if you wish to.

Love,

Abdulai and the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers

‘Why Not Love?’ Afghan and American Vigil

Text of video

We were advised : “Afghans don’t use the word love.”

We still wrote “Why not love?” at Bamiyan Peace Park

Later, vandals ‘dripped’ blood-red paint over our work…

We mustn’t be paralyzed by the desperate war narratives…

War begetting war…

Faiz, what is the seed of peace?

The seed of peace is love, is friendship

Blood begetting blood…

We all have eyes, so we know whose hands has blood. We have an Afghan saying, “Blood cannot wash away blood!”

Thanks to those friends who are keeping vigil with us. Though there are only a few of us,

we will work for friendship & love.

We will continue and not give up.

??? ???? ??????

Why not love?

When we fall, we will get up again.

Get up to listen & love again !

Why not love?

Best wishes to you out there. And I’m sorry what our country is doing to you.

Even a little of our love is stronger than the wars of the world!

??? ???? ??????

Why not love?

Technorati Tags: Admiral Mullen, Julian Assange, President Obama, Robert Gates, war and peace in Afghanistan

The 92210 pieces of Abdulai’s heart

Dear friend ( including those who would remotely consider me an ‘enemy’ ),

The 92, 210 Wikileak Afghan War Logs were recorded between my 9^th and 14^th year of life among fellow Afghans.

I have disappointed myself and have been disappointed by Mankind more intensely than numbers can define. But I’m trying not to lose hold of the unseen virtues that can give some remnant meaning to my existence.

We have a global family that is disconnected, unequal and disappearing and even though we recognize that bullets and bombs cannot heal our souls, we are still cheering our own suicides. Even after being presented with 92,210 instances of a failed solution, we would still un-scientifically and un-sustainably support it,

Look how militant we have all become, how angry and how dis-empowered!

In Afghanistan, we spend more money and energies with the intention of killing people than helping them.

Globally, we never listen to others, not even to our friends. We submit only to elitist noise.

We hardly really know anyone else or their needs. We revolve only around ourselves and our needs. We hover emptily around praise, wealth and power.

I know this sounds cynical for a 15-year-old boy, but we are all continuing our fantasy of the ‘good’ war in Afghanistan. The elite will ‘demonize’ Assange and the likes of ordinary Man and fuel an in-humane fear with the ‘magic mask’ of ‘national security’ while endangering our world with fancy weapons.

Nothing worthwhile is working in Afghanistan.

To me, we have been losing our hope ever since forever, and that’s hell.

You want to know who killed my father and the ‘sorry’ state of my grieving mother, so I would hate his killer and you could feel justified about the daily Afghan fight against ‘insurgents’. But I will not perpetuate Man’s vengeful history even if the President orders me to.

More than losing our war on life, we are losing humanity. Brothers are hurting brothers, Man is killing Man, and we are not doing enough to stop this blood spill.

I humbly say to all the leaders of the 43 plus-country coalition, the leaders of our neighbouring countries, and the leaders of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, that your systems and strategies are fatally flawed. We all wish, like human beings ‘religiously’ do, that there was some salvation in our present predicament, but there is no comfort to be found in our present violent approach.

Like sensible people, we, the ordinary people of the world, should all sit down to listen to one another and endeavour to be friends and if ‘ridiculously’ necessary, to let the children of the world bring us together. That’s how desperately engaging we should be about building tangible peaceful relations.

To our factional, god-pretending leaders: start serving like real Men and Women, by envisioning a kinder, non-violent, demilitarized world.

To every soldier ; this carnage under orders is  not making you a gentler person nor bringing your families a safer life, so leave this cold system today before it consumes you tomorrow.

To every concerned citizen of the world, request to have your war tax money back, because even though that wouldn’t bring back the murdered international soldier or Afghan back to life, you would be demanding the return of your conscience.

What is breaking my Afghan heart is our pride, our greed and our selfishness. We are deceiving ourselves to our own lonely destruction.

The media and self-aggrandizing adults ask silly questions like ‘What do these leaked Afghan War Logs show?’. I almost want to boycott ALL media.

We’re drowning in the shallow shadow cast by an opaque corruption, which renders us incapable of insight, but worse, which robs us of love and makes war our star.

You may unwittingly forget that Afghans like myself wish to love and be loved. You may believe the normalized propaganda which imply that Afghans are ‘savages’ and the coalition elite ‘saints’. You may sincerely think that Afghans had asked for and are taking delight in this war.

If this is how you think, I wish to lay claim to our common, more creative selves by countering with a plea ‘Why not love?’. That’s what we should counter, not ‘insurgencies’ that rightly seek freedom, but powers which erroneously seek more power.

I would persist in asking ‘Why not love?’ even if there was nothing my oppressed silence could say nor anything the 92,210 pieces of humanity’s hurting heart could shatter to persuade you that war stinks of death.

We need to deliberately change.

And love is how.

Your small friends,

Hakim

Though the vision of Abdulai ( and the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers )

Grade 7 Student, farmer, shop-keeper

Bamiyan, Afghanistan

http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog

http://www.thepeoplesjourney.org/

journeytosmile@gmail.com

Details of ‘Why not love?’ Vigil from 31^st of July 2010 to 5^th of August 2010

This is our response to the ‘live’ tragedy in our country Afghanistan, partly revealed by the 92210 Wilileaks Afghan War Logs.

On the 27^th of May this year, we had placed a dove at bamiyan Peace Park and below it, we wrote the words ‘Why not love? Why not bring peace?’. Vandals destroyed these writings about a week later.

We are re-writing these words for this vigil and will keep asking ‘Why not love?’ till others hear us.

Re-writing Afghanistan’s narrative with ‘Why not love?’

We’ll call for the urgent establishment of an international, non-political body of peacemaker representatives to establish wide scale human relations and end wars, running up to International Peace Day on the 21st of September.

Our ‘Why not love Vigil’ at the Bamiyan Peace Park will be held from the 31^st of July 2010 to the 5^th of August 2010. We will gather there from 8 am to 5pm Afghanistan time on the first day of the vigil ( Saturday the 31^st of July ), and for the subsequent 5 days, hold an hourly vigil from 7am to 8am every morning ( the Afghan youth have much farm and other work in their fields! )

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers ask that you would join them for a daily one-hour vigil over 6-days ( from Saturday the 31^st of July 2010 to Thursday the 5^th of August 2010 ), to ask the leaders of the world, “Why not love?”

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPkzRgT05P8

The state of Afghanistan is fatally un-sustainable.

Morality, intellectualism and capitalistic democracy are dying in Afghanistan. Humanity is dying.

Everything needs to change but since we can only change ourselves, doing small things like keeping this vigil is what we the ‘nobodies’ of the world must do.

15 year old Abdulai says, “We usually feel alone. I think that my country is on fire and that we are all withering on the inside. We wish for your friendship in this vigil to put out the fire, for only a resolute love can give us some hope. I pray you would believe that we need that hope right now.”

Please join us. You may call us at +93799371354 / +93785949274 when we are at our vigil if you wish to.

Love,

Abdulai and the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers

Hakim,

I am a friend of Taher Deghayes, who I respect greatly.

Taher, through another friend, Adele, sent me your piece about the war in Afghanistan.

I found it very moving, and I reduced your words to poetry, taking some poetic license, but staying true to your message and meaning, I hope.  Obviously, there are a few lines of invented text, but actually very few.  I consider this piece more a poetic translation of your feelings than a “created” poem.

Adele and Taher gave me permission to send it to you. I hope you like it.  David

I am David Cohen, a lawyer in NY and a spiritual brother of Taher Deghayes

Hakim’s Plaintive Plea

I am a very old young boy

A teenager, a student, a farmer

A shopkeeper, the man in my household

In Bamiyan, Afghanistan, 2010

My father was killed

By who, we do not know.

My mother still grieves

His loss too great for her

To understand, comprehend

War here has been perpetual

Before my 9^th year to now, my 15^th

Afghanis killing Afghanis

And those other ones, the coalition aliens

With the fast trucks and the sunglasses.

I am disappointed; how can this be

I am disappointed by all mankind

More intensely than numbers can define

But I am trying, not to lose hold

Not to forget the unspoken virtues

Of the simple, decent lives we once shared

We once were able to be magnificently

The shining remnants of an ancient existence.

We are a global family which has lost its way

It is disconnected, unequal, disappearing

Bullets and bombs cannot heal our souls

Restore the harmony of music to our being

Some cheer even suicides and homicides

Failed solutions are re-postulated

Regenerated, and tried all over again.

We are a global family which has lost its way

Look at how militant and angry we’ve become

Poverty predominates, money and energy wasted

Rugged mountains and impassable valleys

Not referencing merely the topography

Where once there were crops and dates

We have no more friends, only allies

Allies and enemies interchangeably.

Globally, we never seem to listen

In any event, we cannot hear

Drones drone out nature’s noise

I yearn to hear a chirping bird

Instead, cynicism prevails

The Taliban justify; the elites demonize

Peace, it is declared, requires killing

Killing demands vengance in return.

There is no end to this

Nothing worthwhile is happening

Nothing good  is growing in Afghanistan

We have been losing hope since forever

This place, at this time, in these circumstances

This place is hell; you want to know

Who killed my father, we all did

Man’s inhumanity to man is guilty.

Hate does not go away; it prospers in the desert

It’s elevated, put on a pedestal of national security

National security is a magic mask

If you put it on, you can avoid seeing

That weaponry endangers our being

What we used to have and have is not enough

We need more, larger fancier weaponry

To kill more competently, with louder noises.

More than losing the war to preserve

A way of life; we are losing humanity

Brothers hurting brothers

Humans destroying humans

Blood spilling ceaselessly

Into the rivers of Afghanistan

Flowing downwind into every cave

Clogging up the arteries of life. 

We’re drowning in the shallow shadow

Cast by an opaque corruption, and

Media propaganda which paints

The innocents as savages, and

The savages as unredeemable

The coalition troops saintly

You may sincerely think Afghanis asked for

And, want you to win this war.

No, we do not care, we’re not opposed

We simply do not care, can no longer

Distinguish by your uniforms who’s on our side

Willing to die for Afghanistan is not the test

Willing to live for Afghanistan is it

We seek love, and joy, and family

Days without intensive coverage

Nights without dangerous flights.

Why not love?

Why not end the common deception

That carnage under careful orders

Is not the same as carnage for carnage’s sake

Stop spending your wealth and treasured youth

To violently repair the irreparable

The Afghani bridge is broken permanently

Without fighting all violence first.

I lost my father

I may never know a wife

I say humbly to the leaders of the west

Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, as well

You are all fools

Your systems and your strategies

They are fatally flawed

There is no comfort in mutual destruction.

We, the ordinary people, the victims

Of all these war games

We seek a different solution

Salvation

Building tangible peaceful relations

A dawn which is a dawn, a new beginning

Envisioning a kinder, non-violent

Demilitarized Afghanistan.. 

                                             DDC 8/2/2010

Technorati Tags: 92210 Wikileaks Afghan War Logs

We thank our friends from America and Palestine who join us in this Bamiyan Buddha Peace Light-up video, while we live in the midst of the 92000 Afghan war Wikileaks representing just the tip of our inhumane fire-berg.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPkzRgT05P8

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers ask that you would join them for a daily one-hour vigil over 6-days ( from Saturday the 31^st of July 2010 to Thursday the 5^th of August 2010 ), to ask the leaders of the world, “Why not love?”

The state of Afghanistan is fatally un-sustainable.

Morality, intellectualism and capitalistic democracy are dying in Afghanistan. Humanity is dying.

Everything needs to change but since we can only change ourselves, doing small things like keeping this vigil is what we the ‘nobodies’ of the world must do.

15 year old Abdulai says, “We usually feel alone. I think that my country is on fire and that we are all withering on the inside. We wish for your friendship in this vigil to put out the fire, for only a resolute love can give us some hope. I pray you would believe that we need that hope right now.”

Love and peace,

Abdulai, Hakim and the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers

http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog

http://www.thepeoplesjourney.org/

The Bamiyan Buddhas

Text of video

We thank the international participants at the Kabul Conference for working with the people of Afghanistan.

An advertisement signboard near the Bamiyan Buddhas saying, “ The future is in your hands.”

Moving our ‘Peace / ???’ sign to the small Buddha…

Fixing the lights on the ‘Peace / ???’ sign

A view from the Buddha statues… from history……from ancient & new ways

So we lifted ‘Peace / ???’ up…

…and secured our ‘Peace / ???’ sign.

We the youth of Bamiyan have lit up the small Bamiyan Buddha with ‘Peace / ???’

‘Peace / ???’

We hope that all our work strategies will change, to bring true peace & reconciliation, not rhetoric without action nor action without results

All of us should leave our fearful nights

We should all say together, “Blood cannot wash away blood.”

Love is how we’ll ask for peace!

??? ???? ??????

Why not love?

Why not love?

From our Palestinian friends Salma & Laila

Why not love?

From our American friends

Let’s leave our fearful nights…

??? ???? ??????

Why not love?

Technorati Tags: 92210 Afghan war Wikileaks, Kabul Conference 20th July 2010, war and peace in Afghanistan

We thank the international participants at the Kabul Conference for working with the people of Afghanistan.

Tonight, we have lit up the small Bamiyan Buddha with ‘Peace’.

We hope that all our work strategies will change to bring true peace and reconciliation, and not rhetoric without action nor action without results.

We should all leave our fearful nights and say together, “Blood cannot wash away blood.”

We will be posting our video of this event soon.

Please read the UNAMA press release below.

Bamiyan Buddha Peace Light Up

http://unama.unmissions.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1741&ctl=Details&mid=1882&ItemID=9722

Bamyan Buddhas illuminated with message of peace for Kabul Conference

21 July 2010 – Afghan youth peace volunteer groups illuminated the site of the renowned Bamyan Buddhas with the word “Sulh,” which means peace in Dari, to send a message of peace to the world on the occasion of Kabul Conference.

“We have come together tonight to light up the great Buddhas of Bamyan to welcome participants of the Kabul Conference in Afghanistan and to send our messages for peace to them” said Mohammad Jan, an 11th grade student and a member of the Bamyan Peace Volunteers in Bamyan Province, west of Kabul.

At the Kabul Conference, co-chaired by the United Nations, the Government of Afghanistan asked the international community to realign its pledged aid and programmes behind a set of national priorities which focus on improving daily lives of Afghans.

The national agenda is part of an Afghan-led political framework for reconciliation and peace.

In their own way, the youth volunteers in Bamyan are contributing to the long-term goal of a secure Afghanistan.

“Fighting cannot bring peace is the message we want to send to our Afghan country men and women, and to the world. As we say in Afghanistan: blood can not wash away blood,” added Mohammad.

In the spirit of peace, the youth group recently sent peace souvenirs to the youth groups in Kandahar to establish closer relationships with youth in difficult provinces of Afghanistan, said Mohammad.

Throughout the year, the volunteers campaign for peace with sister groups in other provinces and abroad, with volunteers in United States, Iraq, Palestine and Israel.

“Our message is very simple to understand: Why not love, why not peace,” said Mohammad Jan.

By Jaffar Rahim, UNAMA

Technorati Tags: Kabul Conference, war and peace in Afghanistan

Dear peacemakers everywhere, when you get tired & discouraged, take another look at Afghans and the beauty of their home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2EwRQWHQVU

home of Afghans

And ask, “Why not love?”

Thank you for asking “Why not love?”

Afghan smile

Technorati Tags: Afghan War, Nelson Mandela Day, peace in Afghanistan

Please know that love is how ordinary Afghans want dignified, independant relationships

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llR-TmeD-Tw

Text of video

What are you doing?

We are making cell phone pouches for other youth in Kandahar.

Why are you making these for them?

As gifts.

What’s your purpose in this?

Peace. Our purpose is peace.

What is the principle of your work?

Love.

Is love possible among traditional enemies? Yes!

Love is more pragmatic than war.

Instead of asking for unity in COIN,

we should ask for unity in relations.

This cell phone pouch is a gesture of peace & friendship for the youth in Kandahar

We say to the youth of Kandahar : even a little of this love of ours is stronger than the wars of the world!

Our peace cell phone pouches reached

the Kandahar youth a week ago

We cry, “Build relations, not hate.”

In these withering times, what can we say?

We’re sorry that we hardly trust one another.

We know that violence doesn’t build trust.

It shatters trust.

But it’s time. It’s time to do everything differently.

The time to practice love clearly

is when none would applaud it.

Why not love?

Person  by person,

Steady thread by steady thread.

Heartfelt letter from Tajik and Hazara youth in Bamiyan to Pushtoon youth in Kandahar, sent with our packet of hand-sewn peace cell phone pouches

Salam from every one of us, Mohd Jan, Abdul Ali, Zekerullah, Abdulai, Ghulam, Faiz Ahmad, Lala, Abdul Raziq, Mohd Hussein, on behalf of all the youth in Bamiyan, to the youth in Kandahar and the ‘small’ people of the world,

In these withering times, what can we say?

We carry your painful doubts and are saddened by all that’s happening in Kandahar.

We’re sorry that none of us have been able to bring peace and we share the grief of mothers who feel forever emptied.

We’re sorry that we hardly trust one another. We know that violence doesn’t build trust. It shatters trust.

But it’s time. It’s time to do everything differently.

The time to practice love clearly is when none would applaud it.

We hand-sewed these cell phone pouches as gifts of love and friendship for you in Kandahar.

In encouragement, we say to the youth and people of Kandahar, and all the ‘small’ people of the world: “Even a little of our love is stronger than the wars of the world.”

“Why not love?!”

Sincerely,

Our Journey to Smile

http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog

journeytosmile@gmail.com

Technorati Tags: 4th of July, Afghan peace, Afghan War, General Petraeus

Vandals ‘dripped’ blood-red paint over our work…we mustn’t be paralyzed to keep asking : ‘Why not love?’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8l26PMcdz0

Text of video

We were advised : “Afghans don’t use the word love.”

We still wrote “Why not love?” at Bamiyan Peace Park

Later, vandals ‘dripped’ blood-red paint over our work…

We mustn’t be paralyzed by the desperate war narratives…

We came to Kabul to buy a dove for Bamiyan Peace Park

Faiz, what is the seed of peace?

The seed of peace is love, is friendship

Even a little of our love is stronger than the wars of the world!

Why not love?

Why not love?

The coalition asks ‘ Why not COIN?’

We the people must ask ‘Why not love?’

When we fall, we will get up again.

Get up to listen & love again !

Why not love?

building peace

Why not love?

We hoard an unsustainable power.

McCrystal, Obama, Al Qaeda and the Taliban humanly crave for affirmation but are trapped in unsustainable power. In this self-constructed cage, we prosper our own privileges.

The elite keep choosing violent conflict though it gets us nowhere nearer each other nor nearer safety. Ordinary folk like us help with our tax-payer money and complicit silence.

We are in a cage that is cracking, so we desperately call it a ‘democracy’ or an ‘amoral morality’ or a war against ‘terror’.

I am part of this decay ; you see, I’m living in Afghanistan and Afghans and internationals are dying.

People are dying, NOT objects.

Our world mistakes war as ‘justified solutions’, when it’s really a lust. We deceive our greed with ‘necessities’ and selectively hear “I must be correct, wronged AND good.”

Our self-absorption ‘spectates’angrily as oil is spilled, wealth is monopolized and worst, as blood is shed. We don’t want these inequalities but stand paralyzed against both ‘democratic and undemocratic powers.’

Replacing General Stanley McCrystal won’t change ‘war, terrorism or their industries’.

Violent money and power can’t be replaced by more militarism but by more diplomacy, and not by a civilian-military diplomacy but by a civilian-civilian diplomacy. You can’t have a mother nurturing her child, even a ‘deviant’ child, with the lure of mammon and the threat of guns.

Any general would serve best now under a civilian presidential mandate to reverse escalation and execute a restorative withdrawal.

We the people need to keep building massive global conversations that lead to concrete kindness.

Why not love?

What would we lose?

Why not say, “We relate badly. We don’t know one other anymore. Our politicians’ self-interest mirrors ourselves and this narrow abyss is suffocating everyone.”

Instead of risking the death of reform, why not take a day or more off work, get to our communities and go on-line, make phone calls etc, to organize the conversations and encounters that would reconcile us with each other globally? Not mainly with agreeable ‘allies’ but more so with perceived ‘enemies’.

Sustain a wave.

19 year old Faiz says, “The seed of peace is love, is friendship.” When asked by international peacemakers how Afghans can be helped, 14 year old Abdulai said, “Just enCOURAGE us.”

Through these small, cumulative instances of shared compassion, if love could change everything, everything could change.

rewriting Afghanistan’s narrative

Technorati Tags: Afghan peace, Afghan War, Runaway General McChrystal