Afghan Peace Vigil for Nobel Peace Laureate President Obama
October 23, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Please watch Afghan youth raise their voice of peace and at their ongoing peace vigil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3VAq06TNGY
Text of Video
Bamiyan youth held a cultural event at Bamiyan Peace Park, attended by internationals and Afghan youth
The youth read peace poems, enacted a peace sketch, sang & played the flute for peace.
They read their message of peace ( http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog ) for the Nobel Peace Prize Winner President Obama
We’re keeping a peace vigil at this Peace Park till the voice of peace is raised in Afghanistan & the world
Afghan youth peace volunteers, led by 13 year old Abdulai, keeping warm in their tent at night as their vigil continues till President Obama acknowledges their message of peace
Progress of our peace vigil
Life progresses principally when individuals struggle together for something worthwhile, especially when these individuals hardly know each other, but do so because they recognize the common human values that hold Mankind together.
Because of this kindred human spirit, otherwise described as love, we will not give up.
Below are the emails we’ve received from wonderful groups and individuals who are standing for peace too.
We are deeply grateful to each and every one of them. Thank you!!
Just wanted to say I admire what you’re doing and wish you and especially the children the best of luck and much happiness. I too look forward to a day of peace with no wars – ever.
Sincerely,
Laura
Dear Laura,
Thanks!! May our shared wishes gradually come true!
I’ll let the children know your kind wishes.
Peace!!!
Hakim
Hi Hakim,
Hope you don’t mind that I reposted this on my blog, Dandelion Salad.
Is this our Afghan moment of peace? 13 year old Afghan boy will keep peace vigil with other youth
Hopefully many around the world will be with you in spirit for peace in Afghanistan.
Have you sent this to President Obama? He needs to see this.
much love,
Lo
Dear Lo,
Our hope is to keep the day-and-night vigil at Bamiyan Peace Park from the 22nd of October onwards, while waiting for Obama to acknowledge the receipt of our letter; which we will send through the US Envoy in Bamiyan.
NOBODY is expecting this to work out ; if you have a way of raising publicity and sending the Afghan youth’s peace message ( which I’ll add to the post tomorrow ) to Obama, it would be deeply appreciated.
Love and Peace!
Hakim
It is time.
And beyond all word – we thank you.
I will be standing with you. Listening to you.
Can we broadcast the speech in real time here in the US?
Young people want to join you – standing.
We’ll do it in Washington D.C. – can you set it up so that the broadcast
could be heard and/or seen in real time here in United States?
There will be 20 or more at the vigil tomorrow afternoon.
Peace is our wish for all Afghan people.
Douglas Mackey
Website: iraqmemorialtolife.org
Dear Douglas,
We also cannot thank you enough!
We apologize that the technology in Afghanistan would not allow us to do real time broadcasting……
The event went well. There were originally 10 who covenanted to keep the vigil but 1 dropped out, so there are 9 of us. We are now keeping the vigil at the Peace Park till an acknowledgement comes from President Obama.
The 9 of us keeping the vigil have been talking about the ridicule, criticisms that we’ve heard and other worse scenarios that may arise. We are ready to face whatever comes.
We had no specific request except that the voice of peace be raised and heard in Afghanistan and the world, through his acknowledgement of our message of peace.
We will not give up here.
Struggling and standing with you,
Hakim in Bamiyan, Afghanistan
On behalf of all the Afghan youth with us
…will remember your cultural event on Thursday night with prayers.
Take care and cheers
LiLian
Praying!
Keep believing, keep hoping (: something we never take away from hearts that cry for peace.
Love
Liza
So, where does the power come from, to see the race to its end?
….From within! Eric Liddell
press on!
chiew wan
Best wishes for your vigil for peace! I hope you are wildly successful. I will keep you in my thoughts.
Susan
There are some in our city of Olympia in the state of Washington (not the Capital of Wash.D.C.) who stand in solidarity with you. We find ourselves unable to stop our government from attacking people around the world. It is not the common people that hate, it is in the hearts and minds of men in government and the military who want to play with big guns and have others bow down to them.
But it is not only those in our country, it is men all over the world who hunger for dominance of others. It is men in many of the governments of the world who can order the deaths of those whom they despise. Our government is no better or worse than many others in this regard.
And so we also stand in vigils for peace and are ignored, even by our neighbors who feel weak and helpless in the face of those giants. Our government officials have even ordered our own military to shoot civilian college students who were protesting the U.S. invasion of Vietnam. Much like the Chinese government ordered their military to shoot civilians in Tianamin Square for wanting a more democratic form of governance.
There are many of us around the world who want a more peaceful world and stand for those ideals in many ways. I will be so bold as to speak for them in saying we honor you and support you in your efforts.
“Peace is not a passive act. Peace is the courage to stand for compassion while staring hatred in the face.” T. Zander
tezzer
Dear Abdulai ( 13 year old Afghan boy keeping the vigil )
We have not heard from each other for a while; I know you are very busy with school and other things.
I really hope that you, your friends, and your family are all doing well.
It is my birthday on Saturday, and I remembered how you said you do not know your birthday.
So, I will wish you a happy birthday even though you are not sure when it is.
I wanted to tell you that I asked my classmates to pray for Afghanistan and the world on Peace Day.
Also, I read that you are keeping a peace vigil. It’s a really great thing and I wish to join you in speaking out about peace.
Please take care and God bless you.
Your friend,
Elisa ( 14 year old American girl )
peace vigil youth in their tent at night
Love you guys! Will watch video tomorrow when I can use another pc (mine is too slow). Just wanted to send congratulations and thank you for bravery. Will write again soon Kyle Christensen
We, an interested group in Singapore, are with you in your peace vigil. Everyone on this earth is entitled to peace..especially you in Afghanistan who have gone through so much hardship through no fault of yours. We are very glad that your voice of peace is being heard,at least by some of us now,,,and by more to come. Cecilia & friends
International Day of Peace in Afghanistan, where peace asked to go home and war, like a cancer, demanded to stay
September 20, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Please watch Shamsullah guess where my real home was, when he was well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxuGvUJOJDA
“If I am dying, I want to go home.”
When a 14 year old Afghan boy coping with terminal cancer says this, we ought to pack up our bag of follies for the sake of his pain.
It was a short year back that Shamsullah’s dreams started ebbing away. His nose bled uncontrollably, suddenly, like a burst pipe.
The tumour which invaded and eventually over-ran his nose and neck, was like the raging war afflicting Afghanistan.
Shamsullah beheld the escalating tumour like he beheld the war but he couldn’t put his finger on it, not even when it had been buried with himself.
He hated its unwelcome appearance but couldn’t shirk it because it had soon become an ugly part of himself.
He wished it away but instead, had to quietly accept that he neither had the money nor the power to even ask if a cure was possible.
He detested its odour and its encroachment on his very breath but he couldn’t have possibly fired it away with the common Kalashnikov.
He could bomb it out of his world but that would take away the very reason why he wanted to go home.
He wanted to return to the comfort of love. He wanted to leave the condemnation of help-lessness.
Sham’s brother and uncle had brought him to a hospital in Kabul. They were told that treatment was only available in Pakistan or Iran. “There’s nothing we can do here.”
In Afghanistan, that’s a reality that is suffering repetitively. Multi-billion dollars are being extra-ordinarily and unreasonably spent on the war machinery while people are dying for ordinary and dubious reasons.
It is hard to explain to a child that this is the best that Mankind can offer, when Mankind is waging many continuous, costly wars.
His destitute family and equally destitute village over-heard his occasional complaints of nocturnal pain, the distressing pain signals that indicate our cracking human condition.
I believe that everyone who knew him genuinely wished they could help. But this is Afghanistan. Occasional help may be expected of foreigners but no help is expected of life.
I was first acquainted with Shams in the video exchange above, in which he was guessing where my real home was. Later, when I first saw him in his advanced illness, I was looking at impending death, the burial of life.
But Shams was sitting calmly on my mattress, resigned and gracious. Even when Afghans stare at death, they learn to remain strong.
When Shams said, “I can’t eat much. It doesn’t hurt that badly,” he was saying, “I don’t think I can get well. I don’t think we can beat this.” He had become a pale shadow of himself.
I told him, “From today, let’s agree that you have only one responsibility. Eat whatever you can muster yourself to eat. I know you didn’t like Kabul much, but we’d like you to go again.” I wanted to exhaust the options in this fateful country.
It wasn’t that Shamsullah’s spirit didn’t fight with the thief of his time. He was strong in his heart; I wanted to encourage him and as a physician, I’ve observed that courage itself is enabled by love. When we withhold love, courage suffers. Shams needed us, above all uncertainties, to love him and that was why he wanted to go home.
Home was where love had always been. One evening after it was clear that none in Kabul could help, I asked his mum to visit me and short of crying, I handed her a little cash for the journey to Pakistan.
We were aware that the Afghan / Pakistan crossing had its dangers. But we all have to cope somehow even when there are wars within ourselves and on the road.
Shams and his mum never made that trip. It seems that Shams had the intuition of endings on the morning he left us. He had asked to see his family and had asked for forgiveness for the trouble he had brought.
It wasn’t fair. And we mustn’t pretend that it was.
In Sham’s Afghan village is a kids’ cemetery for those who die before 14 years of life are completed. On the beautiful evening when I had gone there to ponder his passing, beside his stone-marked grave was wheat that was green and growing. Afghan graveyards are spilling over and crowding out life.
I remembered his gentle acceptance that living in a poor country riddled with conflict, often kills human endeavour.
I remembered how he perked up slightly after hearing some hope in my advice for him to keep strong with a good diet. He had looked into the distance and had come alongside our shared humanity by agreeing with the significant yes. The yes that says, “I’m with you in this struggle.”
I remembered his peace in asking to go home.
Unlike war, which, like a cancer, mercilessly demands to stay.
It keeps growing and feeding itself.
It kills its own house.
It dominates and threatens its victims to submission, and in the end, it extinguishes even the un-submitted soul.
It is an unsatisfied parasite that, while sucking out the marrow of life, doesn’t care that it too would perish with its victory over the host.
Acting as if war can bring enduring peace is like mistaking cancer as the healer.
Like cancer, Einstein said that ‘war can’t be humanized, it can only be abolished.’
Michael Jackson had sung, “Heal the world, make it a better place, for you and for me and the entire human race. There are people dying, if we care enough for the living…” Even if we were not Michael’s fans, we should like the song’s dream of a better world.
Karzai, in his International Day of Peace Speech, said “We Afghans, more than any other nation in the world, realize the value of peace. In a world where conflicts and unrest claim thousands of lives each day, our nation bears the heaviest burden. A one-day ceasefire may be symbolic, but it symbolizes peace as the greatest ever aspiration of mankind.”
I know that it’s a positive step in the right direction to call a ceasefire for a day in a year.
But truth must go beyond that to recognize that our war-torn world has been so mutilated by the cancer of wars that asking Shamsullah’s cancer to stop its destruction for one day would not have brought the healing he desired.
We must never lose sight of the greater aspiration by hiding the tumour for 24 hours.
What Shams needed, to overcome the deadly cancer, was a long-term care and commitment from fellow human beings and the applied knowledge of Man’s hearts and minds to help one another, together with an equitable economy based on human concern.
None of us can overcome death but we can overcome cancers, including the cancer of war, for the healing of our future and children like Shams.
If then, after we have done what we can but we still hit the end of the road, it would remain for us to be kinder friends by visiting Shams at his home, by greeting him in peace and by adding to the consolation of love and meaning at his place of birth, in his home of homes.
Shams sensed that while the cancer was winning the war against his body, another day and even another one ‘terrible night’ at home was safer.
For this International Day of Peace in Afghanistan, I’ll remember Sham’s life by recalling that he, like peace in his burdened country, had asked to go home, despite knowing that the cancer, like the Afghan war, was demanding to stay.
“If I am dying, I want to go home.”
war is a cancer
Shams, on the left, with his friend Abdulai