716-332-3904 2/17/19
Friends,
Join us tomorrow (Mon, 2/18) for a rally against illegal national declarations of emergency and abuse of power. 12-1pm. Niagara Square.
We’re still holding space daily for India Cummings. This will culminate on Thursday, 2/21, 5-6pm with a press conference at the Erie County Holding Center. (Join one of our taskforces to stay involved). Visit our facebook page for more information. https://www.facebook.com/WesternNewYorkPeaceCenter/
NYS Budget Principle Statewide Tour. Friday, 2/22, 10am-12pm. PUSH Buffalo, 429 Plymouth Avenue, Buffalo, NY. The New Hope, New York Budget Principles offer a path forward to focus on fighting poverty and racism, reducing inequality, strengthening our democracy, protecting our environment, fixing our state and local tax structure and creating a bottom up economic development model for the state.
Hands Off Venezuela International Day of Action, Sat. 2/23, 1-2:30pm, Federal Building, 130 S. Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY.
Due to city permit changes, WOMEN’S MARCH-Buffalo/WNY will be held on Sunday, March 10, 3-4:30pm, Niagara Square. A no-permit gathering on Friday, March 8, 4:15pm at Niagara Square will be held with the possibility for an International Women’s Day walk. We’re also encouraging everyone to support the Women in Black vigil on that Saturday,12-1pm, at Elmwood and Bidwell, and National Women’s Month events here in Erie County. http://www2.erie.gov/csw/index.php?q=feature/womens-history-month-calendar-events-0
Peace, thanks, solidarity and love.
wnypeace.org
by Kathy Kelly
February 13, 2019
Constant
military surveillance of Afghans yields almost no real intelligence about the
problems they face each day. An unusual group of volunteers uses a far
different approach.
Hossein, a member of the Afghan Peace
Volunteers, (APV), which hosted my recent visit to Afghanistan, rolled up his
sleeve to show me a still-healing three-inch wound. Thieves had broken into his
family home in Kabul. When they were discovered, one of the robbers stabbed
Hossein.
An APV coordinator, Zekerullah, was robbed and
beaten by assailants in broad daylight. Ata Khan lost his camera and mobile
phone to a gang of young thieves who accosted him and eight other people in a
public park during the daytime. Habib, a recent young graduate of the APV
Street Kids School program, suffered blows from several attackers a month ago.
“I didn’t have anything they wanted to take,” he
said, assuring me he is OK even though his lower back, where they beat him, is
still sore.
Attacks like these—which all happened within the
last six months—are predictable in a chaotic war-torn city that absorbs new
refugees every day. Some have been forced off their land by drought and food
scarcity, while others flee the terror of violence carried out by various
warring parties, including the United States. In 2018, the United States
dropped 7,632 bombs on Afghanistan, more than any other full calendar year since
the U.S. Air Force began documenting its attacks in 2006.
According to the United Nations, in the first
nine months of 2018, there was a 39 percent rise in the number of casualties from
airstrikes, compared to the same period of the previous year. Within Kabul,
violent bomb attacks by the Taliban and other groups have become horribly
normal. Rising unemployment rates, now at 25 to 30 percent, also afflict
people. The International Labor Organization, reporting two months ago, said
Afghanistan has the highest unemployment rate of any country in the world. My four young
friends are very lucky, on many counts, that they are still alive.
And they’re trying to make things better. Two
days ago, thirty-five young people gathered for the seventh of twelve weekly
orientation classes. Topics covered include ecological sanity, combating inequality,
confronting world hunger and abolishing war. Muhammad Ali, age twenty, teaches the course.
The APV maintain a waiting list of young people wanting to join the next cycle
of classes.
“The people coming to the class learn
information they’ve never heard about before,” Muhammad Ali says. “We think
about ways to make peace and to live with respect for nature.”
U.S. efforts to improve Afghanistan’s decaying
education institutions have been woefully inadequate. Reconstruction projects
have been riddled with corruption. Millions of dollars have been poured into
various militias, while seemingly endless shipments of weapons arrive in the
country. Drones and military blimps prowl the skies, supposedly in search of
“bad guys.”
But the militarization of the society and the
constant surveillance from remote cameras yield almost no real intelligence
concerning the problems ordinary Afghans face each day, as they try to survive.
Negotiations over Afghanistan’s future are being
guided by people in charge of huge arsenals and sophisticated intelligence
networks. The outcome would be better if U.S. leadership would take an interest
in the APV’s approach to “surveillance.”
In stark contrast to “intelligence” operations
carried out by the United States and its allies in Afghanistan, the APV
continue building their database, recording details about destitute and
impoverished families whom they invite into projects aiming to help needy
families subsist.
Traveling on foot, the Afghan Peace Volunteers
gather their “intelligence” by sitting on the floor with families in precarious
homes, respectfully collecting information in spiral notebooks. They ask about
rent expenses, access to clean water, and whether the family can afford beans
over the course of a week. Families who have little-to-no income and who must
depend on a child’s earnings for food and rent are especially welcome to join
the APV Street Kids School.
This year, more than 100 children have gathered
every Friday to study reading, writing, and math. Equally important to the APV
are the weekly nonviolence classes organized around themes mirroring the course
taught by Muhammad Ali.
The children apply what they learn by
participating in APV projects. They help plant trees, tend gardens, and serve
meals to day laborers. They join in clean-up projects along the city’s
riverfront. Every year, they climb a high hill, carrying kites, as part of
their “Fly Kites, Not
Drones” campaign.
Families whose children participate in the
Street Kids School receive a vital monthly contribution of rice, cooking oil,
and beans. The children know they are helping their families as well as
themselves. When I ask what fuels her energy to coordinate classes and
activities at the Street Kids School, Masoma, who has been with the school
since its inception, responds immediately: “It’s my passion.”
Concerned for the future of the 100 children who
finished their three-year program last year, APV members have begun working on
ways to help them gain skills in various trades. They’re also forming
cooperatives to enable future employment.
Where you stand
determines what you see. I admire the APV blend of idealism and practicality,
doing “the things that make for peace,” even as they face daily anxieties in
the chaos and upheaval that mark life in a war zone. They take time, day in, day out, to
notice and care about people in need. They aren’t afraid to share resources.
Facing violence, they control the urge to retaliate. And they clearly see the
futility of entrusting their futures and those of the neediest people they know
to predatory power brokers who have already plundered and killed people in
murderous wars.
A version of this article first appeared on the website of the Progressive magazine.
Photo credit:
Dr. Hakim
Photo Caption: Muhammad Ali teaching a “relational learning circle” class
during
orientation at
the APV Borderfree Center
Kathy Kelly (Kathy@vcnv.org) co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org) While in Kabul, she is a guest of the Afghan Peace Volunteers
(ourjourneytosmile.com)
716-332-3904 2/11/19
Friends,
The Women’s March will be on MARCH 10– International Women’s Day Weekend!! 3-4:30m at Niagara Square. We will also have two Women’s March Forum and Discussions on 2/28 and 3/13, 5:30-7pm. 2/28: Central Library. 3/13: Frank E. Merriweather Library. Join us to discuss the state of the women’s movement, and how we can move forward. The Women’s March Poster/Sign-Making Party on Thursday, March 7, 5:30-6:30pm, here at the WNY Peace Center.
We are holding space daily at the Erie County Holding Center for India Cummings, who died in custody due to medical neglect. Vigil schedule on our website and facebook page. Join us to bring light to the horrible conditions at the Erie County Holding Center.
We look forward to seeing everyone at our Fun-Raiser and Membership Drive at Community Beer Works this Wednesday! 5-8pm, 520 7th St., Buffalo, NY. Come out, renew or sign up for your membership with us, and get a free beer!
Continue to make your voice heard about Venezuela. Call your congresspersons.
Many more events on the website!
Many thanks, peace, solidarity, and yes – Love
We shall overcome #Unitethestruggles #Loveislove #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver
UPCOMING EVENTS:
– TONIGHT! Poor People’s Campaign – Postcard Party for the NY Health Act, 5-7pm, Raqs Solidarity, 322 Amherst St., Buffalo, NY.
– Immigrant and Refugee Justice Taskforce, 2/16, 10am, 5 Points Bakery, 44 Brayton St. Come out and be a part of planning for this taskforce.
– Resist Militarism! Monthly Meeting, 2/20, 7-8:30pm. Tipico (café), 128 Fargo Avenue, Buffalo, NY.
– The Dooley’s Fundraiser for WNY Peace Center! w/ special guest Jamie Holka. 3/1, 9pm. Buy tickets online or at the door. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-dooleys-fundraiser-for-the-wny-peace-center-wguest-jamie-holka-tickets-56346241124
No hate, no fear as we are #StillResisting. Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love.
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