Multi-ethnic 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.
Below is a text of their appeal in the video.
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
Kite Runner Author Khaled Hosseini responds to OJTS Youth Letter to UN Hague Conference
April 16, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Kite Runner is a bestseller book and film written by Khaled Hosseini. It tells a poignant story of the friendship between Amir, a Pushtoon boy, and Hassan, a Hazara boy through the tumultuous periods of the Soviet occupation and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
http://www.khaledhosseini.com/
http://www.kiterunnermovie.com/
Dear Our Journey to Smile:
Thank you for sharing your Letter of Humanity’s Love from Afghan youth to the UN Hague Conference. It was very moving and I am grateful you have included me in your distribution of it. I wish your organization the best of luck with its goals.
Best,
Khaled Hosseini
Dear Khaled,
Thanks to you too!
Thanks so much for your personal reply; it encouraged us deeply, particularly Abdulai and Raziq who have watched The Kite Runner 5 times!
Do stay in touch and join us on the 21st of September 2009 at the Bamiyan Buddhas if your schedule allows you.
Every human heart wonders about the 1000-times-over sort of friendship. Thanks for increasing our hope and our imagination!
( Be at peace! )
Our Journey to Smile
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.
Letter of Humanity’s Love from Afghan Youth to the UN Hague Conference 31/03/2009
March 30, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
The Afghan youth’s dream of a kinder humanity
As it has been in the hesitant development of human civilization and history, the hearts of ordinary human beings may be ignored once again.
How long more?
How long more will Man accuse Man of being ‘evil’?
How long more will Man look at War and call it ‘good’?
How long more will Man pretend to uphold ideals he is un-true to?
How long more will we think ourselves to be ‘better’ humans?
How long more will humanity quench her conscience in defending eye-for-an-eye , power-hungry, and money-driven killing industries, while untenably holding on to her inhumane disguises of democracy and religion?
How long more will we justify self-importance and greed while marginalizing the ‘forgotten’ individuals just ‘off the map’?
How long more would we chase Names and Forms, knowing intuitively their impotence in addressing the disparity of justice within our own souls and walls?
How long more would we dictate every decision based on the gain of Money when we are losing the more noble and dignified responsibilities to the wider community and humanity?
How long more would we deceive ourselves by dreaming of peace while harboring hate and killing our ‘enemies’ while claiming love for them?
We, the youth of Afghanistan, having lived through some of the worst scenarios of the human condition, refuse to believe that humanity’s love, once given voice and shape, however minuscule and wherever practiced, cannot add dignity and magnanimity to Mankind.
So, we express humanity’s love today, not a love we own, but a love that causes humanity to smile, sing and dream, even in the darkest moments.
We express humanity’s love when we ask forgiveness on behalf of generations past and present, for the wrong we have done. We express humanity’s love by clearly saying that we forgive you too, whoever you may be, for the inadvertent or deliberate mistakes which you have made because of us and for your indifference to Mankind’s lives and Mankind’s deaths.
We express humanity’s love when we ask to be held accountable to treat all men and women alike and when we ask to be treated as humans, as you would treat yourselves.
We express humanity’s love when we grieve over every act of violence on any infant, child, youth or adult of any race, because we believe that God created all and that belief is powerful only when it leads us to grieve. In death, there is no distinction of civilian or military, intention or faith.
We express humanity’s love when, though you think it natural for us to hate or to be bitter, we choose kindness to the best of our hearts and take firm hold of the freedom which compassion gives us.
We express humanity’s love by thanking every individual who has worked to raise the possibility of peace. We know there are many who seek peace and believe that these make the majority and are deeply grateful to their labour of love and truth. Yak jahan tashakur!A w orld of thanks!
We express humanity’s love when we ask Man for creativity and courage to learn from history’s errors and to rise above the mundane and expected solutions to humanity’s problems today.
It may seem strange and insignificant that we, the youth of Afghanistan, have these thoughts and feelings.
But then you shouldn’t be too surprised; you have them too. Any human being does.
We wish to show you, in a flash of un-remembered history, that a humane love IS possible.
We wish for humanity to relate humanely though we cannot expect or demand it.
And even if you insist on thinking badly of us and wish to hurt us still, we will hold our smiles with confidence and hope that PEACE is the peacemaker’s eventual destiny, even if it were just a well-intentioned tale.
Stop. Please stop.
Listen. Please listen.
And journeying along with us, stand firm in a love that captures empathy, sorrow and joy with equal resolve and strength.
We are no longer willing for any one of you, any of us or any one of humanity to perish at Man’s hand, at our own hands.
We are no longer willing for ourselves or our elders to forget what Man could be and to remain self-absorbed in primitive motivations.
Because that hand which kills is shriveled and feeble and needs an artistic and thoughtful transformation into a hand of friendship.
We choose to smile at every child and person.
We choose to act with compassion.
We choose to deny the rough, proud, violent and resentful suggestions that haunt our corners and weaknesses.
For we all die and wish that when our time comes to leave our families and our world, we can witness a gentler world of civilities, of brotherhood, of friendship, of joy, of love and all those tender virtues lauded by the sages of our time, the valued men and women who would put themselves and their self-interests aside to imagine another universe.
A world not of the fables, but a world that is present, real and free.
To borrow the life of John Donne, ‘any Man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in Mankind, And therefore never send to know, for whom we smile…….we smile for Thee.’
Our Journey to Smile
http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/
Afghan Youth’s Request to UN on behalf of humanity
March 12, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Dear Friends of Humanity and Friends of the United Nations,
Man has gone to the Moon but mankind has lost faith in mankind.
For both these reasons and to encourage the world that humanity has retained dignity, we, the youth of Afghanistan, ask for an opportunity to deliver a message of humanity’s love and wishes to the UN Conference on Afghanistan to be held on the 31st of March 2009 in the Netherlands.
We make this bold request because this Conference is about us, the future of Afghanistan and the dream of a kinder humanity.
This is Our Journey to Smile.
Thanks sincerely,
Dr Hakim ( international medical doctor living and working in Bamiyan )
On behalf of the ordinary youth of Afghanistan
On behalf of the ordinary international aid worker
On behalf of ordinary humanity