She Flies On

The long vigil is over - Mom took her last breath this afternoon.

Thanks to all the friends that joined us during those 11 days at the Civic. Precious to share the memories and the tears.

And you nurses are wonderful.

Prayers Flying

Does prayer have an impact? One school of thought argues strongly that prayer can directly impact the prayed for. But petitions for divine intervention in Afghanistan for example can quite rightly be viewed with some skepticism. I feel strongly that prayer definitely benefits the one who prays. As a Christian I believe in dialogue with God. And the process is as important as the destination. Hence the power of the prayer flag - beckoning nature to spread our plea. Fly one today for Cindy Fritsch who died earlier this week in a diving accident in Cozumel.

Celebrate the defeat

Le Gouvernement du Québec is debating its participation in - even its acknowledgement of - this summer's 250th anniversary celebration of the battle of the Plains of Abraham. The Péquistes are of course horrified and territorial - heh it was the French Army that was defeated so what has that to do with us. Jean Charest's Liberals are attempting to avoid the issue by asserting that the Government of Canada is responsible for the fête - the Plains are after all a National Park.

I like the straightforward assertion by ADQ MP Éric Caire that the Battle is part of our undeniable history - and that only those that have been truly colonized would refuse to celebrate the event. Those of you who are fans of the comic strip character Astérix will love Mr. Caire's allusion to the much celebrated Battle of Alésia in 52 BC when the Romans defeated the Gauls - the international renown Astérix is based on the defeated (and later executed) Gaul leader Vercingétorix.

http://www.ledevoir.com/2009/01/23/228870.html?fe=5951&fp=246595&fr=128699

Whose story?

Loss of autonomy, theft of identity - security is increasingly a virtual issue. How auditable is our daily life on the Internet? Le Monde reports the recent publication by the Parisian periodical Le Tigre of its first Google biography - "grâce a toutes les traces - les milles details" left by a young employee of a French architectural firm.

http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2009/01/17/un-internaute-piege-par-ses-traces-sur-la-toile_1143123_651865.html#xtor=EPR-32280155&ens_id=824668

Observers have remarked on it as a further confusion of public and private spaces - such as video surveillance privatizing public space, and the Facebooks publicizing private space. Others label it a group exhibitionism, and mutual narcism.

Whose story is our life anyway?

Do no Harm or feel the Pain

Continuing to ponder the ethics of my work - what should I expect to achieve and at what cost? Mary Anderson's famous treatise on the interaction between aid and conflict - "Do No Harm" - recounts how people chose even criminal actions in the pursuit of justice. Humble, small incremental changes in a few lives within a framework of honesty and caring is probably the most realistic expectation I should have.

Nonetheless I still idealize that we could measure our impact in the feelings and experiences of those with whom we work. Perhaps "feel the pain" is the "do no harm" analogy - a bottom line without which we do not have permission to operate. A young woman at Mirwais Girls School in Kandahar Afghanistan - one of 15 victims of a recent acid attack - is succinct in her analysis of the perpetrators. "The people who did this do not feel the pain of others."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/world/asia/14kandahar.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Luxury of SIN

My mom was assessed last week by le Centre Local de Santé Communautaire - the gate keepers for admission to Québec's assisted living facilities. It was a very friendly process - too many questions perhaps but providing a pretty honest picture to all concerned. Well I did have to go home and find my mother's Social Insurance Number to complete the paperwork.

The Canadian health system - its personnel and institutions - have served my family well in the recent years that we have felt the impact of Alzheimer's. Will I have the same luxury to look forward to in my aging?

Foregiveness - and tough choices

Healing a hurt world involves forgiving those who have hurt us. It is an intentional and thoughtful act. We should aim to forgive those with whom we have a relationship, or in whom we have an investment. That is to heal the hurt we should acknowledge the damage done to both parties, and the value of taking some responsibility for the damage, and the reparation.

Forgiveness is therefore an emotional and selective endeavour. Hence we should aim to merely forget those about whom we cannot honestly say "I care."

Tough choices? How about today's report from BBC Mundo on the environmental impact of a Google search. "Two Google questions use as much energy as a cup of instant coffee"….

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/science/newsid_7823000/7823918.stm

There is no free inquisition.

Right Livelihood

The New Year's resolution testing is in full swing and I am in my Xmas wonderings about work ... eager to return to the field ... a respectable employer checklist in hand. The Buddha's admonition for right livelihood will weigh increasingly heavy in these upcoming times of financial hardship for the North American class moyen. Can people be compassionate, and collaborate on mitigating the enormous suffering which is immient?

The snowshoe hills around our house in rural LaPêche are a good place for such ponderings. Much as we Canadians lament snow the undisturbed white hillsides create a powerful mantra - crunch crunch puff puff fly fly.

Full moon at 2227 .... the sunset hunt for exploding skies is about to start.

Bigger, More and Jammer

The Pentagon's Joint IED Defeat Organization feels frustrated that American military deaths are increasingly caused by makeshift explosives. It just doesn't seem fair.

“We are instinctively prone to look for technological solutions,” said one senior Pentagon official. “That’s the way (Americans)are wired.

Surely they should be able to outcompute the enemy?

“We (need) better intelligence ..and that will require changing the attitudes of the local population ...the Iraqis will have to help us root out the people involved.”

So whose tougher?

"Those placed by Shiite forces are increasingly sophisticated, using technology ... from Iran. The Sunni-based insurgents plant bombs of a more homemade variety, but still deadly"

But surely there must be some fanatics somewhere?

Always. "Those associated with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia strive for the spectacular ... in order to generate hostility and headlines."

Thanks to the 02Jun07 New York Times

Good Husbands

Performed by the students of the International School of Kabul 23May07 - directed by yours truly - photos by Waheed Sarmed

The wives prime for a pregnancy annoucement at the gym.

"Have you not loved me all these years - now you want me to have a bady!" Wellllll on three conditions





Babies interrupt negotiations for "just a few more billion dollars" between senior management of the Afghan Construction Company and American Reconstruction Company President Ms Vicky Jones

"Hi John - Yes everything is OK - heh I am soooo happy - we are gonna have a baby"

The good husbands will get the contract thanks to succcessful Santa Maria Naroz Party adoption negotiations

Any Where Any Time

Well I may be approaching a tipping point in my insecurity tolerance. Colleagues from the International School were attacked today on the morning hill walk - sunrise looked so peaceful up there last week.

The daily security report pulls no punches ...

Attack: 21 May, Kabul City (District 5, Af-Shar Area) – initial reports suggest that early this morning four members of the international community were walking on a hill adjacent to the Intercontinental Hotel when they are attacked by an individual with grenades and a hand-gun; one grenade was apparently lobbed at the walkers but detonated too far away to inflict injuries; attacker then produced a hand-gun with which he did not appear to have much experience; gun jammed a number of times; walkers managed to make good their escape with no apparent physical injuries.

Comment: Circumstances still to be clarified but incidents such as this serve to illustrate why it is unsafe to assume that any part of Kabul is free from potential danger at any time of the day or night.

Viewer Discretion

An upper class woman announces her pregnancy to a friend at the gym, two prominent business men are almost caught cuddling their infant children, and the president of the American Reconstruction company just might award a substantial sub-contract in exchange for an adoption.

All these babies must mean that some sort of sexual practice has been going on. Viewer discretion is advised for the World Premiere of "Good Husbands" 23May07 by the Drama Club at the International School of Kabul.

School Supplies

The girls' classroom is by the side of the road

Backpacks just fill up your arms

The boys look better together

Photos by HEP Community Outreach Team - you guys rock

We can't chose

17May07 is the international day against homphobia.

On doit lire le message de Madame Louise Arbour le Haut Commissaire des Nations Unies aux Droits des Personnes.

"The quality of the debate is as important as the result"

http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/424e6fc8b8e55fa6802566b0004083d9/b91ae52651d33f0dc12571be002f172c?OpenDocument

Photo - Le Devoir

The best Odds

Days ago I was wondering about the personal and collective responsbility for a specific human rights abuse in my home country, and wether that had an analogy in Afghanistan.

Here is a remarkable example of abuse - 1000 Kurd men gathering to stone a young woman to death in Iraq. With the support of her parents.

http://www.aina.org/news/20070425181603.htm

Honour killing such as this - apparently condoned by Islam - ensures the best possible odds.

Time to own it

Are there any offenses too big to forgive?

To what extent is responsibility for one’s offenses a condition of forgiveness?

I have been wondering aloud and praying about a tragedy being uncovered this week back home – evidence of wide spread sexual abuse in an upper crust Toronto boys school some 30 years ago. An acknowledgement of guilt on four counts and a plea bargain to drop other rumoured charges and serve house arrest. One victim committed suicide.

I am no more responsible for this than for the widespread human rights abuses in Afghanistan – by Taliban fundamentalists, coalition occupation forces, warlord powerbrokers, drug cartels and corrupt government officials. But this outrage at home has raised my ire at the powerful here – their greed and lack of respect. Sexual abuse of minors is analogously angrymaking – the exploitation of the powerless by the powerful.

And hence the question “is there hope”? For the oppressed and for the oppressive world. Is there a possible truth and reconciliation process – a way to acknowledge responsibility and ask for genuine forgiveness? As a Christian I believe my accountability is to both God and man. But it is the latter with whom we face the greater challenge.

Mankind may indeed be burdened with original sin, but it is our own acts that we need to examine - our own impact on the world that we need to critique. And we seem to live in a time of gross inability to admit error, to acknowledge mistakes, and to take responsibility for oppressive outcomes.

I’d like to start by asking the offenders to reflect on their victims. For both the sexual abusers and the powerful in the Afghanistan political arena to take some time to examine the consequences of their greed. To put aside for a moment their grievances – or ideologies. To make settling the score or being right a lower priority than being humane and kind and respectful of their fellow humans.

We have blood on our hands.

It is time to own it.

Honest Propaganda

The PsyOp in the GAP of ISAF has determined that "honest proganda is very effective because the Afghan people are not well educated and have few sources of information and therefore are easily manupulated."

http://www.ledevoir.com/2007/04/23/140594.html?fe=840&fp=191446&fr=16173

This Psychological Operations Unit of the Policy Action Group of the International Security Force for Afghansitan is also on record as "no longer lying to people as was done in the past". Though they still seem committed to "western values - democrcy, liberty, justice, human rights and women's rights."

Where the Birds are

How the neighbourhood avian population might view the Department of Health's recent visit.

To Captain Steve Brown

To Captain Steve Brown Canadian Army Kandahar:

Steve ... I read your letter in the Mansfield Echo and was very moved. Thanks – you made me proud to be a Canadian.

I work in the relative comfort and safety of Kabul as operations manager for a US government funded university development project. In 2005 I had the good fortune of managing primary school development projects in the West - still relatively safe but losing ground. Frankly Kabul is now the only place I would live here from a security point of view.

We couldn't do development without the space created by the coalition forces. Without your commitment and courage. Your six fallen comrades must be missed – we hear about their families and I imagine how painful it must be for a parent.

We also couldn’t do development without the remarkably brave and principled NGO staff. And Afghan colleagues who have taken up the education torch. And the generosity of developed country taxpayers who fund this work.

There is a lot invested here.

Unfortunately one key piece is missing which seriously jeopardizes the investment - America's willingness to pressure Pakistan to curb the Taliban. This of course gives serious credence to the theory that the American government does not want to end the war in Afghanistan.

Their motivation isn't the issue. For me it is my country's participation in a war where the possibility of victory is being undermined, and where principles and lives are being sacrificed for political gain. History, geography and prosperity bind us intimately to the United States of America - let's be clear that the death of Canadian soldiers in southern Afghanistan is one of the costs of the close relationship.

My prayers go out to you and your mates on the front line.

Thanks Steve - for making it possible for me to put some of my principles on the line here.

Best regards

Different Approaches to Education

Kids hitchin a ride to school as we descend the morning mountain.

The Virginia Tech massacre provides the Taliban with another good reason to forbid schools

Cartoon Michel Garneau Le Devoir de Montreal