Hillary Clinton has said Pakistan posed a “mortal threat” to world security : Our Grief
April 25, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
First national park of Afghanistan, Band-i-Amir, Bamiyan, Afghanistan
BBC’s Have your say Question : Does Pakistan pose a global threat?
We, all of humanity, not Pakistan, have become our own mortal threat by ??perfecting a Culture of War & ?Deception in a Global ??Great Game.
The Grief of violent war felt by any ?ONE ?ordinary person regardless of race or faith is too ?much to ?bear in ONE lifetime.
Can’t we ‘ordinary ?humans’ gather ??(we’ll begin..) to grieve ?for & build peace without ?partisan ?aims?
Aren’t we equal humans who share in ?every hand ??that kills & every mother’s pain?
Aren’t we ?able to do something for peace or are we ?too disappointed to hope?
Afghan college students appeal to UN Racism Conference for peace and humanity ?
April 19, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
US boycotts racism conference
Al Jazeera and BBC 19/04/09
The United States has said it will not attend an United Nations conference on racism because the text of the draft final statement contains language it is “unable to support”, the state department says.
Australia and Canada have also chosen not to attend.
Multiethnic Afghan college students appeal to UN Racism Conference members for peace, reconciliation, forgiveness, humanity, friendship, brotherhood and love.
Afghan college students appeal to UN Racism Conference for peace and humanity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaNmWKX5x-8
I am Mohammad Salim, a student of Bamiyan University and a Tajik. The ruined city you see behind is a historical city of Afghanistan where Ghenghis Khan once ?ruled.?We request the UN Conference members that they’ll bring about a world civilization of honour and peace, of close, warm friendships and brotherhood.
I am Mariam. I’m Hazara, a citizen of Afghanistan and a citizen of the world. We understand that every human has a mother who wishes for her children goodness, happiness and peace. We request the UN Conference for reconciliation, peace and brotherhood because being humane brings true civilization to Mankind.
I’m Amin and I’m Pushtoon. Through history, Mankind has been hurting each other. We should now forgive one another. We wish from the UN members for compassion and forgiveness, that’s all.
I’m Abdul Wahab, I’m Uzbek and I’m a student at Bamiyan University. Discrimination is destroying the world. We ask the UN Conference, for the whole world, to bring peace, security, friendship and love. Thank you!
Thanks and Peace! !
http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog
Need Afghans Respond to Obama’s New Aghan Policy? -video
March 28, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
US rethinks Afghanistan strategy
BBC 28/03/09
Flanked by military and civilian members of his top foreign policy team, President Barack Obama unveiled his eagerly awaited policy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He said growing radical forces in the area posed the greatest threat to the American people and the world.
He said an extra 4,000 US personnel would train and bolster the Afghan army and police, and he would also provide support for civilian development.
Need Afghans respond at all to Obama’s new Afghan policy?
Need we at all?
Need we, Afghan youth who crave for peace, respond at all to Obama’s far-away decision over us, to send 4000 more human beings to train other human beings to kill even more human beings?
Need we ask any questions at all, since we are confident that whatever games are played in history, the love and conscience that sits in the kinder and less self-absorbed depths of every human heart, can change the devious adults in the very same hearts, and that this humane humanity can no longer be hidden?
Can a grave hide death, the snow hide spring and the sky hide space?
Our Journey to Smile
Obama’s Iran appeal
March 27, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
- Al Jazeera News Network published our view 23/3/2009
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Your views: Obama’s Iran appeal |
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| Your views: Obama’s Iran appeal | |
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| Published: Friday, 20 March 2009, 01:14 PM Mecca time, 10:14 AM GMT |
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Added: Monday, 23 March 2009, 09:25 AM Mecca time, 06:25 AM GMT |
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Dear Obama and Khamenei, |
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Our Journey to Smile, Bamiyan, Afghanistan http://english.aljazeera.net/your_views/americas/200932010147240822.html |
Letter to Obama and Khamenei from Afghan youth
March 27, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
A youthful Afghan dream?
Obama and Khamenei overtures
Al Jazeera 21/3/2009 and 23/3/2009
In his video appeal to Iran on the 21st Of March 2009, Obama said: “This process will not be advanced by threats. We seek instead engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect.”
The press adviser to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, urged Obama to back his words with concrete action to repair what he called past mistakes.
“They chant the slogan of change but no change is seen in practice. We haven’t seen any change,” Khamenei said.
Dear Obama and Khamenei,
We address both of you respectfully as humans, fellow human beings who will, like all of us in Afghanistan, die with dignity some day.
We request forgiveness as the way forward, hoping that whatever the words we use, our trembling actions will be courageous in love; we request of the quiet and concrete peace and vision that both you, Obama and Khamenei, and the rest of humanity, have been expressing since our hearts and imaginations have allowed us to.
We must no longer live meagerly in fear of the human instincts to claim right-ness and revenge. All of civilization now recognizes the value of our shared frailties and the dream of a kinder humanity.
This dream has no borders and as we retire for another night, hopefully to a brighter day, we will pray in both Persian and English that our children and youth would not be confined to or disappointed by your and our limitations.
This is Our Journey to Smile.
With sincerity,
Our Journey to Smile
http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/
Aren’t Afghans Humans too?
March 26, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
We are humans
We are proud to be Afghans
Freedom is a basic foundation of every human being and of all individuals
We ask for the right to live decently, freely.
We wish for peace, freedom, humanity.
Aren’t we humans?
Aren’t Afghans humans?
Aren’t we humans too?
Paths of Peace?
March 10, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
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 8th 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.”
8th 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 8th 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.
Afghan women Unite to be present for Peace and call for peace with justice in Afghanistan
March 7, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Here’s an appeal to show support for peace and justice on March 8th, International Women’s day
Show your support by wearing a BLUE scarf on International Women’s Day, March 8, donating your status to the women of Afghanistan ( *YOU* stands with the women of Afghanistan in calling for peace with justice).
Here’s the background:
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, 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, on March 8th the action is being led by 12 Afghan women peace leaders from 7 provinces throughout Afghanistan- Kandahar, Kabul , Jalalabad, Duikundi, Bamiyan, Mazar, and Herat . In each province, an experienced leader has been paired with a young emerging leader as a means to build bridges between generations; a focus to the future.
This is the first coordinated Afghan women-led and women-owned national peace action of its size and scope since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
While asking women to come out of their homes is a provocative and dangerous act in many parts of Afghanistan , THOUSANDS of women are expected to turn out across Afghanistan – all wearing a sky-blue scarf to highlight unity and solidarity – across generations, languages, geographic locations, ethnic identity and tribal affiliations. The sky-blue scarf symbolizes the immense possibility of a clear and open sky.
The action will also be supported by radio messages of solidarity from cross border women’s rights activists, as a demonstration that women stand united in the call for peace with justice, but also to highlight that the Afghanistan conflict must seek a regional solution.
On 8 March, we congratulate all women of the world, and in particular we show our solidarity with the women of Afghanistan , who are present today praying for peace with justice.
For more information on the action contact: p4p.withjustice@gmail.com
WHAT WE NEED YOU TO DO:
GLOBAL ACTION
*** ON MARCH 8 WEAR A SKY BLUE SCARF IN SOLIDARITY
**** Spread the message WIDELY, invite everyone you know to wear a blue scarf to show support.
** Organize an event in your community to recognize this peace action and post the info here on the event page. Create your own local facebook group to coordinate events in your area.
*** Have a conversation about the importance of women having a voice, about the role of women in the decision-making process.
IMAGINE the possibilities.
*** Post to your blog or post on your favorite blogs about the event. If you’re a reporter, write about it – Afghan women deserve a voice too.
Please spread the word about this action – and women’s desire to participate as full partners for peace with justice in Afghanistan – and wear a sky-blue scarf on 8 March 2009 as a sign of your support and a symbol that, when women stand together, the possibilities are as endless as a clear and open sky.
Wazhma Frogh
Gender & Development Specialist and Human Rights Activist
Chairperson of Interagency Gender Forum
Afghanistan
Dreams of Peace which even the ‘best’ of humans cannot fulfill??
March 7, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Chasing dreams of future peace
BBC 05/03/2009
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has backed a two-state solution – but is time running out?
Palestinians find it easy now to ignore politicians when they talk about peace, because they have heard it so many times before.
How long more will America and the world be ‘un-democratic’?, ‘un-Christian’ and ‘un-Islamic’ with regards to war and peace??
March 7, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
How long more will America and the world be ‘un-democratic’, ‘un-Christian’ and ‘un-Islamic’ with regards to war and peace?
How long more?
How long more will humanity quench her conscience in defending an eye-for-an-eye , power-hungry, and money-driven killing industries, while untenably holding on to her inhumane disguises of democracy and religion?
Putting Afghan arms down?
Al Jazeera 28/2/2009
Negotiations are under way between Taliban-linked mediators, Western officials and the Afghan government.
Patricia Degennaro, a professor at the Centre for Global Affairs at New York University, told Al Jazeera the talks were a central part of attempts to end the conflict.
“It’s long overdue that there is some kind of jirga, or regional council in Afghanistan, where some of these parties who have had grievances over the years are brought together.
“They need to start talking to each other and move forward so people can start putting their arms down.”
Putting American arms down?
From Al Jazeera 28/2/2009 and Obama’s address to Congress
“For too long our budget has not held true about how our tax dollars are spent,” Obama said.”Large sums held off the budget, including the true cost of Iraq and Afghanistan.
“For seven years, we have been a nation at war. No longer will we hide its price. “
“We are now carefully reviewing our policies in both wars, and I will soon announce a way forward in Iraq that leaves Iraq to its people and responsibly ends this war.
And with our friends and allies, we will forge a new and comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan to defeat al Qaeda and combat extremism. Because I will not allow terrorists to plot against the American people from safe havens half a world away.”
“The military industrial complex has become embedded in American life,” said John Pike, a US defence expert. “It seems normal and there aren’t strong voices, countervailing constituencies arguing against it.”
Moustaffa from Afghanistan commented on this in Al Jazeera , “The problem with America and it’s like’s never learn from the lesson’s of history. What did America learn from the unjust war it waged in Vietnam? It cost them billion’s of dollar’s and in the end left humiliated. Now they thought would be diffirent because were more powerfull and sophisticated, so they waged an unjust war in Iraq and Afghanistan. So now once again , they are spending trilions and they are achieving nothing except defeat and humiliation.”
US democratic in resisting Karzai poll date call?
BBC 1/3/2009
The US has reiterated it prefers an August date for presidential elections in Afghanistan, despite President Hamid Karzai’s call for polls on 21 April 09.