Will Humanity Forget, Constantly, constantly?
April 12, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Laith filmed this family attempting to flee Fallujah – ten minutes later they were dead
Will we forget, constantly, constantly?
Or will we forever brush the discomfort aside because that corpse was not our mother’s or our child’s?
Or will we join Laith Mushtaq in saying, “Fallujah ( in-humane, senseless death ) never leaves my mind.”
Don’t we realize what ANY ‘army does on the ground’ and if we do, what do we choose to do or say about such a realization?
Dear Laith,
Thanks for your work and your article, because media, like everything else, should help us understand ourselves.
We, Afghan youth, understand those images that never leave your mind. We have to learn to cope somehow and we need to be strong.
And to hope that human civilization can change. If it doesn’t ?? ?????” What can we do? “
Sincerely,
Our Journey to Smile
Al Jazeera ‘Fallujah never leaves my mind’
By Laith Mushtaq, cameraman
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/04/200948132212418175.html
Laith Mushtaq was one of only two non-embedded cameramen working throughout the April 2004 ‘battle for Fallujah’ in which 600 civilians died.
When I think of Fallujah, I think of the smell. The smell was driving me crazy. In a dead body, there is a kind of liquid. Yellow liquid. The smell is disgusting, really. It sticks in your nose. You cannot eat anymore.
And you can’t get the pictures off your mind, because every day you see the same: Explosion, death, explosion, death, death.
After work, you sit down and notice there are pieces of flesh on your shoes and blood on your trousers. But you don’t have time to ask why.
I had to show the truth to people outside of Iraq.
I still remember the nurses couldn’t carry the woman because she was in too many pieces, people were jumping back when they saw it. Then, one nurse shouted: “Hey, she looks like your mother.”
In the Iraqi language that means: “She could be your mother, so treat her like you’d treat your mom.”
At some point, I couldn’t move anymore. I sat down on the street and kept smoking. I couldn’t move. I see what’s happening around me, but I can’t move. Khallas [enough]. I didn’t have any energy left.
The Americans said our pictures stirred up hatred against them. But what I did was only showing what their army did on the ground.
I don’t hate them, I don’t want vengeance, I just wish they had understood what they were doing.
US military admits killing mother, children
Afghan News Network 9/4/09
The US military in Afghanistan admitted Thursday that four people its troops killed in a raid were not “combatants”, after Afghans said they included a mother and her children, with a baby dying afterwards.
Need Afghan children respond to Obama’s New Afghan Policy at all?
April 4, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Need Afghan children respond to Obama’s new Afghan policy at all??
Will Obama listen as he says he would, to ordinary Afghans…… ordinary Afghan children?
Do ordinary Afghans have any Voice at all over what Obama, NATO and the world decide FOR them?
This is the Voice of ordinary Afghan children, through Abdulai and Raziq. It has NO political or religious intent.
This is Our Journey to Smile.
Afghan Focus for Key NATO summit
BBC 04/04/09
US President Barack Obama wants European nations to commit more troops and funds, but so far new pledges have been limited.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has offered a temporary increase in troops ahead of Afghanistan’s presidential elections in August.
But despite European expressions of support for the new American strategy, it was not clear whether the long-term pledges sought by the US would be forthcoming.
Afghans Smile for Love Forgiveness Peace Humanity
March 26, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Can we smile?
Despite the war, the suffering, the inhumanity?
Why did they kill my father?
They didn’t even know him.
Why do they make guns instead of bread?
Why? why? Why?
We wish for peace.
We wish for humanity.
We will all die one day.
What can we do now?
love, forgiveness, peace, humanity
Can we?
Can we all?
We long for peace, for humane relations, for a decent life.
We want to smile.
An Afghan’s Questions
February 12, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
An Afghan’s questions about global civility, about kindness
Why have we become so inhumane? Who is kind?
Can I trust NATO or the ‘terrorists’ ? Surely, they, like I, crave the possibility of love?
Do we, including you and I, Obama and Osama, the CEOs and the laborers, the haves and have-nots from the beginning of time, share the same understanding that we are human?
That we are born in times and places not from our own voluntary choosing?
That we all die?
That we wish for happiness and a better life?
That we admire compassion and value love?
That we have not seen any benefit from wars, save creating permanent rifts and permanent deaths?
That we don’t desire to be lonely, because we want to relate deeply with others?
Are there those in this world who will pursue a humane kindness?
Why must Man always insist that he alone is correct? Why has Man’s heart not enlarged?
Why is every Man unmoving with this obstinate presumption of CORRECTNESS?
If I asked two conflicting groups , won’t each group say that they, and not the other group, are correct? Correct socially, politically, religiously and ‘civil-ly’? Won’t they immediately think that I, Habib, have got my facts wrong about their ‘enemies’? Would there be any avenue for me to reason otherwise?
Isn’t it apparent that there is no ancient or modern way of judging who of the two parties is right? Nor plausible scientifically or spiritually within all of our lifetimes to call upon a verdict from the unseen God many claim to know vaguely?
How can I shirk SELF?
Whatever happened to Man’s heart?
Who is a sincere friend? Who can I trust?
Doesn’t our actual practice of love and conscience reveal how imperfect we are? Who is the friend who will tell me what’s real?
Why has Man reached the Moon and yet has not been able to reach his less fortunate neighbors? Why can we reach Space but not souls?
Why does Man rely on atoms and expensive defense systems yet cannot trust fellow human beings? Why do we trust machines more than Man?
Why does the world have more money, but yet, there are more poor people? Why don’t others figure significantly?
Why do a minority of men and women, in the name of democracy or Marxism, religion or civilization, have so much sway over common people like myself, making decisions that perpetuate the wars which the majority of us do not want?
Isn’t humanity’s hurt, anger and disappointment abysmal?
Can’t I build my life in peace?
Are we not human? Can we not smile?
Why are MY interests bigger and more important than YOURS?
What happened to the ancient possibility of a civilized world?
Why do some claim they love their enemies but resist and even kill them?
Why do some claim they desire peace but hold on to such hate?
I am tired but am willing to take any hard questions in a hard life just as much as I am hoping for some answers. Answers to questions I am asking on behalf of Afghans, on behalf of Man.