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.

US open to Afghan Taliban talks

Al Jazeera 09/03/2009

“Yesterday, Mr Obama accepted and approved the path of peace and talks with those Afghan Taliban who he called moderates,” Karzai said during a function in Kabul to mark International Women’s Day on the 8^th of March 2009.

Ahmed Shah Ahmedzai, a former prime minister of Afghanistan, said,” The Taliban want to negotiate and tell the Americans and international troops to go out. Through this negotiation, a timetable will be chosen and the other issues regarding foreign troops being in Afghanistan will be discussed and this is the beginning to solve the crisis.”

“War is not the solution in Afghanistan, the only solution is to start the peace proceedings.”

Afghan women say ,” Come pray for peace with justice.”

8^th March 2009, International Women’s Day

In 2008, a small group of women in Kandahar, one of the most volatile areas of Afghanistan , came up with a simple but powerful idea: Let’s gather in a public square to pray for peace with justice in Afghanistan .

They began to spread the word to friends and colleagues, and decided to stage the action on March 8 2008, International Women’s Day. Expecting only a few women to show up, more than 1,500 women gathered in Kandahar that day – all with the same goal: to call attention to women’s desire for peace in Afghanistan. The action caught the attention of the international media and women’s groups all over the world.

This year’s International Women’s Day on the 8^th of March 2009 saw 12 Afghan women peace leaders from 7 provinces throughout Afghanistan- Kandahar, Kabul ,Jalalabad, Duikundi, Bamiyan, Mazar, and Heart leading a national peace action program, gathering women for an hour at various locations throughout these provinces to pray for peace with justice in Afghanistan.

Clinton Pushes for Afghan Meeting

BBC 06/03/2009

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for a high-level conference on Afghanistan at the end of March.

Solutions to the situation in Afghanistan can only be found if the countries involved, including Iran, meet, she said.