Filed under: Journey Updates, Letters and Correspondences | Tags: A swine flu pandemic is imminent, , War in Afghanistan and Pakistan, New swine flu infections intensify travel fears, Pandemic is imminent UN fears, Swine Flu Epidemic a threat to all humanity, Swine flu nears pandemic level, Swine Flu pandemic raised to level 5, WHO fears Pandemic imminent, WHO notches up swine flu pandemic alert, World closer to swine flu pandemic, World takes drastic steps to contain swine flu
The War Pandemic a greater threat to humanity than the Swine Flu Pandemic
I’m a doctor and support the most rigorous measures necessary to control H1N1 Influenza A Swine Flu virus. The loss of EVERY life is a loss to humanity.
It is wonderful that the world has not been silent with this influenza threat.
I pray someone would listen to a threat that has been silent. Listen to silence.
I live and work in the midst of the War Pandemic, among Afghans in Afghanistan.
We should not be silent with the War threat either, which, just reading BBC News Front Page on 30/4/2009 updated at 0650 GMT, claimed 256 lives.
WHO rightly fears that a Swine Flu Pandemic is ‘imminent’. The War Pandemic is ‘present’.
The War Pandemic is also a human to human transmitted disease.
It is spread when a human gives an order Incongruent with all Human Consciences and Civilizations, the order to fight, to kill.
It is more than a mutation.
It is no respecter of persons.
Like H1N1, it verifies Man’s common Mortality by mercilessly speeding it up.
We ordinary Afghan youth have been paralyzed by this War Pandemic all our lives.
We wish to run away but we can’t seem to quarantine ourselves!
We cry, “God, save us!” but God seems to say, “Humanity can save herself!”
We cry, “Stop! We’re tired of war and want peace!” But, no human seems to hear us.
No one listens to the ordinary Voice of Peace, drowned by the voices of a few powerful fellow human beings who have caught this subtle illness that is tearing humanity apart. Tearing humanity apart…. Tearing us apart……
Will you grieve as much for those of us who may be killed by war soon, as much as the world is grieving for those killed by the H1N1 virus?
We plead with humanity not to forget. Please. Please don’t forget.
For tomorrow, as you keep updated on the Swine Flu Pandemic statistics, some of us may have already succumbed to the War Pandemic statistics.
Can’t ordinary human beings do something to end this War Pandemic, this global in-humanity, this New Global Great Game, this Global Culture of War?
If this grief doesn’t make sense to you, then at least, remember us in our silence and our inconsolable regret.
“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. ” Martn Luther King Jr
Thanks and Peace!
Dr Hakim/Young
Filed under: Journey Updates | Tags: US losing control in Afghanistan, Obama and Afghanistan, troop surge in Afghanistan, US UK AUSTRALIA NATO strategy and policy in Afghanistan, war against terror in Afghanistan
Al Jazeera News 290409 US ‘losing control’ in Afghanistan
Richard Armitage, a former US deputy secretary of state, told Al Jazeera,” The situation in Afghanistan may be spinning out of control more quickly than we are gaining control and it’s of course exacerbated by their next-door neighbour Pakistan.”
He also said Barack Obama, Bush’s successor, got it “a little backwards” sending thousands of extra troops to Afghanistan before his administration completed a review of US policy on the region.
BBC News 290409 Brown to Unveil Afghan startegy
Gordon Brown is to outline to the Commons the government’s revised strategy for the war in Afghanistan, following his visit to the country.
He is expected to say Pakistan – which was also on his tour – must be part of a solution to Afghanistan’s problems.
Mr Brown has spoken of a “chain of terror” linking the region to the UK.
The so-called “Af-Pak” solution is likely to echo US President Obama’s new policy unveiled in March.
BBC News 290409 Australia boosting Afghan force
Australia is to send an additional 450 troops to Afghanistan because of what Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called the deteriorating security situation there.
The announcement is also a response to diplomatic pressure from US President Barack Obama for America’s allies to increase their contribution.
The troops will be used to help train the Afghan army and provide security for August’s presidential election.
About 1,100 Australian troops are already in Afghanistan.
Al Jazeera Your Views What now for Afghanistan?
Al Jazeera header
Barack Obama, the US president, has praised Nato allies for agreeing to send 5,000 extra military personnel to Afghanistan. Shortly after taking office in January, Obama pledged to send 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan and is reportedly considering sending 10,000 more. What are the biggest challenges facing Afghanistan and how can these be tackled? Will additional troops help to bring peace and stability?
OJTS comment published on 290409
http://english.aljazeera.net/your_views/centrals.asia/20093311114717410.html
Added: Monday, 27 April 2009, 08:20 AM Mecca time, 05:20 AM GMT
Big challenges Part 1( can’t say biggest challenges and sorry, need 2 parts for this )
1. Global Great Game of ‘Buzkashi’ ( goat-grabbing Afghan horse game ) in a Global Culture of War and Self-Deception. Afg is the beheaded goat & there are as many foreign players as there are local. Normalized violence, extremism, terrorism, ‘imperialism’..
2. Incorruptible corruption, including military and police. Challenge is to stop the agenda-filled foreign money that’s feeding this monster.
3. Opium : UN said on 19/3/09 that it has lost the war of drugs.
4. Crippling dependence on foreign aid, not independence. This brings creative lying and cheating from both ‘aider’ and ‘aided’ and has led to an almost total lack of self-help and industry. Another Africa aid story.
Big Challenges Part 2
5. Practically zero voice from the 30 million ordinary Afghans, who are tired of war and wish for peace. In the past month, have you heard ANY Afghan voice in this AJ forum or all major media?
How does a foreign trooper improve the Great Game or help the corrupt and drugged system? He doesn’t even understand a word of what Afghans are saying and if he does through an interpreter, he’s most likely to hear lies on which he does his guesswork.
Can’t we ordinary human beings do anything about this abysmal ‘in-humanity’?
What on earth and in heaven has happened to us, to Mankind?
Peace!!
Added: Tuesday, 28 April 2009, 11:13 PM Mecca time, 08:13 PM GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/your_views/centrals.asia/20093311114717410.html
Our Journey to Smile, Bamiyan, Afghanistan : Thank you for your post ! Yes there is something that we can do. We can join together as those of all nations that are enlightened and demand that every person – man – women – or child : is guaranteed by every government on earth with the freedoms enunciated by the Bill of Rights of The United States of America. These rights are not American, Iranian, or Cuban. They are the rights of everyone and any individual, of any government, that violates those rights should be held accountable by the International Criminal Court. WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF EVIDENT – THAT ALL PEOPLE OF EARTH ARE CREATED EQUAL : PEACE AND PROSPERITY TO ALL OF OUR SISTERS AND BROTHERS OF EARTH
Fred F. Jones, Pueblo, United States
Filed under: Journey Updates
Afghans get first national park
BBC 22/4/09
Afghanistan has established its first national park in a spectacular region of deep blue lakes separated by natural dams of travertine, a mineral deposit.
The new park is near the Bamyan Valley, where 1,500-year-old giant Buddha statues were destroyed by the Taleban.
Afghanistan’s National Environmental Protection Agency (Nepa) said the creation of the park would help the region attract international tourism and obtain World Heritage Status.
Much of the park’s wildlife has been lost, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
But recent WCS surveys show it still contains ibex, a species of wild goat, and urial, a type of wild sheep.
Other wildlife include wolves, foxes, smaller mammals and fish, and various bird species including the Afghan snow finch, which is believed to be the only bird found exclusively in Afghanistan.
The world knows little of this serene lake just as it is unaware of the
peace and serenity all Afghans long for.
Come see Band-i-Amir in Bamiyan and come get to know us ; we Afghan youth have the same human wishes and appreciation of beauty as you do.
We Afghan youth are tired of violence and war and wish for a humane love.
Filed under: Journey Updates
BBC Have Your Say header
US President Barack Obama says CIA agents who used harsh interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects during the Bush era will not be prosecuted. Do you agree with his decision?
Mr Obama banned the use of methods such as sleep deprivation and simulated drowning in his first week in office.
However, following a request by civil rights group the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) he has now released four memos detailing techniques the CIA were able to use under the Bush administration.
Rights groups, such as Amnesty International have criticised his decision to protect CIA agents involved in the interrogation procedures.
Should those involved in using harsh interrogation techniques be prosecuted? Has the President made the right decision?
Read Our Journey to Smile’s comment under Have Your Say archives Read-only debates CIA torture
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=6352&edition=2&ttl=20090428104540
Added: Tuesday, 21 April, 2009, 08:31 GMT 09:31 UK
There may be no need to prosecute, but there is at least a need for Obama or Americans or others to tell civilization what they deem to be HUMANE.
In this Age of Technological Terror, we have perfected a Culture of War, founded on pride, hate and finances, so another ONE violent torture or death means NOTHING, in a Great Deception that believes naively that our children can find reliability in rhetoric and sigh, a Great Sigh, dignity in the destruction of fellow human beings. Peace!
ourjourneytosmile ourjourneyto…
Filed under: Journey Updates | Tags: Afghan poets tackle scars of war, Afghanistan war and peace, Pashtuns and Taliban in Afghanistan, peace and humanity in Afghanistan, suicide bombers in Afghanistan
Waiting for Peace
Will the poets and people of Afghanistan wait for peace in vain?
Isn’t there poetry in every human heart, and not just the poet’s heart, that compels a humane reaction to bloodshed?
BBC Pashto Service 26/4/09
Young poets in Kabul, such as Muhammad Numan Dost, tell of mourning children lying on the graves of their dead parents after a suicide bomber “in exchange for heaven, cut to pieces a few lives now lying on the street”.
“It is not the poets’ choice to write about war and violence, they are compelled to do so – to express their reaction and hatred to bloodshed,” says Darwesh Durrani, a popular Pashto poet and professor of literature.
Then there is Zarlasht Hafeez, a female Pashto poet who has published a collection called “Waiting for Peace”. Her lines read:
“The sorrow and grief, these black evenings,
Eyes full of tears and times full of sadness,
These burnt hearts, the killing of youths,
These unfulfilled expectations and unmet hopes of brides,
With a hatred for war, I call time and again,
I wait for peace for the grief-stricken Pashtuns”
Filed under: Journey Updates | Tags: Great Game, Hillary and Pakistan mortal threat, Pakistan and Swat Taliban, peace, world security
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?
Filed under: Journey Updates | Tags: bush policies, humane relations, journey to smile, middle east, obama, peace building, war on terror
Al Jazeera has published a comment from Our Journey to Smile in Al Jazeera Your Views, under a discussion on Obama and the war on ‘terror’.
Read our comment and follow the discussion.
Al Jazeera’s discussion header
As a candidate for president, Barack Obama promised a new direction in the US ‘war on terror’. But to what extent has the Obama administration really turned its back on the policies of the Bush era? And just what will it take to dismantle the Bush administration’s legacy? Send us your views.
Our Journey to Smile’s comment on 26/4/2009
Al Jazeera Added: Sunday, 26 April 2009, 10:40 AM Mecca time, 07:40 AM GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/your_views/general/200941515552875448.html
Razina frustration?
Subiega Rage?
Alabama John 1.4 trillion?
A L Washington taxpayer money?
Max SFO we grew this movement ourselves with our tax money?
Ed LA the biggest guns and the most money? Power and Greed will always be above Morality and Dissent?
Brett south amboy we dont know how to make peace?
Aren’t we equal humans who share in every hand that kills & every mother’s pain?
Can’t we ‘ordinary humans’ do anything to halt the abysmal grief, anger and frustration of violent war that is deeply incongruent with every human’s conscience?
Don’t we all understand grief when my farmer friend Khamad of Afg voices, “My father was killed by war. Where is humanity in America’s 83 billion+ war”?
Can’t we ‘ordinary humans’ gather to grieve for & build peace without partisan or religious biases?
Our Journey to Smile, Bamiyan, Afghanistan
Our Journey to Smile’s comment on 23/4/2009
http://english.aljazeera.net/your_views/general/200941515552875448.html
Mankind’s Culture of War is not only Bush’s legacy. It is ours. So it is for us to dismantle it, person by person. We understand humanity’s angry frustration in views and protests everywhere because War is deeply incongruent with every human’s conscience, our conscience, and Obama’s. So, it has to change.
And not from the Obama admin or other structures. Structures don’t change hearts. It is through structures of pride, hate and finances, under different Names, that Man has perfected the Culture of War.
Our Great Deception in the Global Great Game believes naively that we can find safe zones in shelling, creativity in cluster ammunition, humanity in human shields, mercy in manipulative politics, reliability in rhetoric, foreign aid in hurling even more foreign money and sigh..a Great Sigh, dignity in the destruction of fellow human beings.
The few of us in Afghanistan refuse further self-deception. Terror cannot drive out terror! Only a humane love can.
Al Jazeera Added: Thursday, 23 April 2009, 09:40 PM Mecca time, 06:40 PM GMT
I am afraid that you are right, Our Journey to Smile, Bamiyan, Afghanistan. If we so often say and speak such loud words of peace, then we should have peace by now. I remember from my own experience from my own childhood in the Christian churches – every Christmas, we all sing beautiful songs of ‘peace on earth – good will toward men’, the Pope gets up and speaks words to everyone about peace, but it has not happened for about 2,000 years, and by the time New Year is here there is a new and more violent war elsewhere – so is maybe something wrong with this picture, or shall we continue? – the choice is yours, choose wisely …
Leonard, Raymond, New Hampshire, United States
OJTS reply published on 290409
http://english.aljazeera.net/your_views/general/200941515552875448.html
Added: Monday, 27 April 2009, 10:29 AM Mecca time, 07:29 AM GMT
Dear Leonard & Raymond of New Hampshire, you wrote on 23/4 : If we so often say and speak such loud words of peace, then we should have peace by now… it has not happened for about 2,000 years.
Isn’t it sad?
Doesn’t it prove the old adage that action speaks louder than words?
In the past 2000 years, hasn’t ‘love your enemies’ practically meant ‘hate your enemies’? And ‘religions of peace’ have practically meant ‘religions of war’?
Is there a Global Humanity Crisis now worse than the Global Financial Crisis?
Can’t ordinary human beings do anything to stop this abysmal in-humanity and build peace in the civilization of Mankind’s hearts?
Thanks and Peace!
Filed under: Uncategorized
Human civilization in this Age of Technological Terror has perfected a deep-rooted Culture of War, founded on pride, hate and finances, so another ONE death means relatively and absolutely NOTHING, in the midst of a Great Deception that believes naively that our children can find safe zones in shelling, creativity in cluster ammunition, humanity in human shields, mercy in manipulative politics, reliability in rhetoric, help in hurling even more money and sigh..a Great Sigh, dignity in the destruction of fellow human beings.
Our Journey to Smile
US regrets civilian deaths
Al Jazeera 210409
The senior US and Nato commander in Afghanistan has apologised for civilian casualties caused by international forces, saying there is not enough money in the world to replace the loss of an Afghan life.
General David McKiernan made the remarks on Sunday, following repeated calls from Hamed Karzai, the Afghan president, for explanations of civilian deaths.
Filed under: Videos | Tags: afghan, basic rights, racism, UN racism conference
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! سلامت باشین!
http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog
Filed under: Uncategorized
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! سلامت باشین!
http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog
Our Journey to Smile 