Kathy Kelly's blog

by Kathy Kelly and the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers

Kabul - Bibi Sadia and her husband Baba share a humble home with their son, his wife, and their two little children. An Afghan human rights advocate suggested that we listen to Bibi’s stories and learn more about how a Pashto family has tried to survive successive tragedies in Kabul.

Beneath our flat, here in Kabul, wedding guests crowded into a restaurant and celebrated throughout the night. Guests sounded joyful and the music, mostly disco, thumped loudly. When the regular call to prayer sounded out at 5:20 a.m., the sounds seemed to collide in an odd cacophony, making all music indistinguishable.

By Johnny Barber

“All wars, whether just or unjust, disastrous or victorious, are waged against the child.” Eglantyne Jebb, founder of Save the Children, 1919.

The following statement was released today by the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers (AYPV). My organization, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, is collaborating with AYPV to support their work for peace.

“The world doesn’t have to choose between the Taliban and the US government. All the beauty of the world – literature, music, art – lies between these two fundamentalist poles.” (“War Is Peace,” by Arundhati Roy, October 18, 2001.)

We need clarity

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers reject the U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Declaration.

We reject such declarations made by politicians who do not know us, nor care for us.

We want the freedom to solve our own problems.

In case you haven’t heard of the U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Declaration, here is how it is being described in the international press.

I spent Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday in Washington, D.C. as part of the Witness Against Torture fast, which campaigns to end all forms of torture and has worked steadily for an end to indefinite detention of people imprisoned in Guantanamo, Bagram, and other secret sites where the U.S. has held and tortured prisoners. We’re on day nine of a 12-day fast to shut down Guantanmo, end torture, and build justice.

The community gathered for the fast has grown over the past week, and Voices for Creative Nonviolence members are now joining us for the Peaceable Assembly Campaign. This means, however, that as more people sleep on the floor of St. Stephen’s church, there is a rising cacophony of snoring. Our good friend, Fr. Bill Pickard, suggested trying to hear the snores as an orchestra, when I told him I’d slept fitfully.

In Pakistan’s Swabi district, a bumpy road leads to Shah Mansoor, a small village surrounded by farmland. Just outside the village, uniform size tents are set up in hundreds of rows. The sun bores down on the Shah Mansoor camp which has become a temporary home to thousands of displaced Pakistanis from the Swat area. In the stifling heat, the camp’s residents sit idly, day after day, uncertain about their future. They spoke with heated certainty, though, about their grievances.

Arish, Egypt ”” Yesterday, en route to the Rafah border crossing that leads into Gaza, our driver pointed to a long line of trucks laden with goods that are desperately needed in every area of Gaza. "You see," he said, "all of this is to help people." Generous people, around the world, want Gazans to have food, shelter, fuel, medicine and water while the Israeli military ruthlessly attacks their homes and neighborhoods. The aid shipments will surely save lives and ease affliction. Nevertheless, this relief will meet only a fraction of the need. What's more, the Egyptian government's recent decision to allow humanitarian goods into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, a border over which they have sovereign control, is a departure from the normal state of siege that Gazans have endured for most of the past 16 months.