What courage! Back at home, we have teenagers complaining about homework.KABUL (AFP) — An Afghan teenager -- whose face was burned in an acid attack by suspected Islamic extremists -- vowed on Saturday to continue going to school even if it put her life in danger.
Men on motorbikes used a water pistol to spray acid into the faces of Shamsia and around dozen other girls as they arrived at school wearing all-covering burqas in the southern city of Kandahar on Wednesday.
Shamsia, 17, was the most badly wounded and had some acid enter her eyes. She was transferred to a military hospital in Kabul where she was visited Saturday by other schoolgirls, accompanied by media.
"I will go to my school even if they kill me," she told reporters. "My message for the enemies is that if they do this 100 times, I am still going to continue my studies."
Imagine sending your child off to school without winter clothing. You wrap their feet in rags so they can walk through the snow.
Try it. Tell your kids to walk to school in a t-shirt in minus 10 weather, with rags on their feet, instead of shoes. Could you?
Angelina Jolie Sees 'Real Suffering' in Afghanistan
Jolie, a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Refugee Agency, met refugees who have returned to their post-Taliban homeland to rebuild their lives after fleeing in 2001. She also visited projects by Afghan Hands, an organization helping women and children, inspired by her work with refugees. "After seeing real suffering," she tells PEOPLE, "you never complain anymore."Imagine, telling your kids that they can't play their Xbox until they have done their homework. Homework is now cruel punishment inflicted by schools and teachers to make sure kids can't play on the computer as much as they want.
Imagine, telling your kids that, today, they should drink a lot of water to make them feel full, because there is no food.
Imagine, yourself living in Afghanistan, with your family as it is today. No computers, no power, no I pods, no hope, no food, and it's cold, but there is no heat.
Imagine, thinking that education is a "right" that should be free, while others are only hoping that their school will let them, as a female, learn to read and write.
Imagine, worrying about not having a family Doctor, while many Afghanistan's never get any medical attention.
Imagine, the difference our troops are making, in a land that needs a hand up. Is it any wonder why our troops are so supportive of this mission?
Can any Canadian seriously say that not helping Afghanistan's will make our world better? Or is this female ghost what we want?
Imagine, all opposition parties supporting the government so that little girls going to school will not have to fear acid in their faces.
Imagine, that this little girl was yours. How would you feel? Would you not be heartbroken? Would you not want revenge? Is an Afghan child less worthy of support than a Canadian child? Is a Canadian Mom's love better or more intense than an Afghan Mother's?
Imagine, your life in Afghanistan. Makes you appreciate Canada.
15 comments:
Wonderful post, Hunter. I remember years ago when Jay Leno's wife was castigated for her work to help these women. She replied by saying that the day a woman in this country could choose her own way in life would be the day she's stop "interfering".
Oh, and for anybody wanting links or a thousand experts' findings - look for them, yourself.
Imagine losing your entire family in a bomb explosion detonated by your so-called liberators.
Imagine this happening while the NATO troops were there.
Imagine there's no heaven...it's easy if you try...
Imagine Carlos growing up in Afghanistan where he would not have the right to speak freely.
Carlos,
That's incredibly short-sighted of you. I wonder why the left create a false dichotomy in which they believe the western forces are on a par with the Taliban because of the collateral damages inflicted by war.
The left want an immediate exit from Afghanistan from NATO forces, but never have I once heard a plausible explanation for what will happen to the people left behind in the wake of the exodus of protective forces.
Sure, it's fine for you Carlos, warm and safe in your ideological bubble in Canada. You don't care what happens to these people. You only care about vague and meaningless platitudes and pretensions.
Raphael: How long has NATO been in Afganistan? How much better are these people's lives? Their lives have not improved because of our involvement. The only thing that has improved is the poppy cultivation. We are not really helping these people. A school gets built and then gets blown up. What was the point?
Even the Russians eventually figured it out and left. We should too. Nobody cared about these people before 9/11. Why do you care about them now? There are worse things going on in Africa, but no one seems to want to help there.
You are the pretensious one here, not Carlos.
Imagine Hunter saying something intelligent...
SQ,
It is not a question of how long, or how much better, but how much longer and much worse will it be under the Taliban? So the point, as it were, is of great significance.
The Russians weren't there to "win hearts and minds", and I doubt they cared a whit about the people there. We are there on a mission of humanitarian purposes, something the left seems unable to comprehend. It is not our objective to kill the people there, though the same cannot be said for the Taliban.
Your strawman on Africa is summarily ignored. Such a topic is entirely immaterial to our discussion.
Don't you tire of abusing other people on the internet?
This was never a humanitarian mission. It was an "international security assistance force". The Taliban are as strong now as when we went into Afghanistan. So what is the point? And Africa is not a strawman. If we pulled our troops out, maybe they could do some good in Africa. I for one, am tired of hearing that another Canadian soldier has died from a road-side bomb...or 'friendly fire' incident. The world would be better off with us as Peacekeepers. Everytime another innocent civilian is killed, three more terrorists are created.
Also, the billion$/year we are spending is a waste of money. JMO
I've already intimated what I believe the point is, and you haven't resolved what you would propose in the exit of western forces or what the state of Afghanistan would be in without them.
As for Africa, I'm not aware of any multilateral missions we've been asked to participate in. The Africans have been nothing if not vociferous in their opposition to western intervention in African affairs.
As for being tired of hearing about Canadians dying in Afghanistan, what specifically did you expect. Soldiers are born to fight, and some die. It's a part of the job description. Perhaps if we had more forces there, not less, we would have less casualties. But soldiers dying in Afghanistan have still a lower occupationary hazard than many dangerous jobs in Canada.
Why do you consider the security of Afghanistan and the fight against al-Qaeda a waste of money? If we don't stand up to terrorism, who will? What solutions do the left have other than anti-war demonstrations?
So Sq..you would pull Canadian forces out of one frying pan and throw them into another frying pan in Africa.A place where the chances of Canadian soldiers being killed is just as great or greater than Afghanistan.
Exactly what peacekeeping would we be doing? Peace making is more like it, and that means killing people to do it.
What kind of mess would you and your leftist comrades have us enter? The govt in Khartoum does not want western forces involved.If we went in, we would be doing so unilaterally, something the left decries so vociferously in Afganistan and Iraq.
What other ideas would come next from the bright sparks of the left, a long term deployment(occupation?)
How many years do you think it would take to enforce peace and maintain it in Darfur? A decade? longer?
As for Carlos..while it is a tragedy when innocent civilians are killed from time to time, are you saying it is better to leave the Afghanis to their own fates, and ensure civilian killings would then happen on a regular basis? Seen to by their new (and tragically familiar )masters the Taliban?
If you are worried about civilian casualties created in the strive for greater good, you better not want to go to Darfur, where the likelihood of such things happening will be just as great as in Afghanistan.
You know Southern Quebec, I have put up with a lot of your comments, but I definitely do not agree with your idea that our troops should be peacekeepers, that is just such 60's thinking. Our troops have never been peacekeepers, that is a Liberal myth.
The Taliban are not as strong as they were, they have been reduced to acid throwing on little girls going to school, and roadside bombings, such cowards.
Our troops deserve our respect because of what they do, and how they do it. They understand, to have peace, you must fight for it. They are not latte sipping wimps posting from their computers in their parents basement. They are taking on the real task of helping little girls go to school.
I wish I could go there to help, but if I can't, I totally support those who will, and I totally support spending money to ensure that they have the best equipment available to support them in what they are doing.
Silly rhetoric about peacekeepers is just that, a cowards way of saying that fighting scares you and that anything scary must be bad.
Why is it that only Conservatives understand the need to fight for people who are in need of help?
I don't want peacekeepers, I want peacemakers!
Imagine Southern Quebec getting his head out of his a$$ and actually thinking about a very real and important issue!
Canada has lost 97 soldiers in how many years. Yes every death is a tradgedy but if stats are right, more than that are killed or wounded in Toronto every year.
Has anyone recommended removing all gang members from this city to stop the killing.
Prescott Shipway became the 98th soldier to die on September 8. But still, no deaths in over two months shows how well-trained our soldiers really are. No doubt the media is salivating at the idea of posting the big 100.
But still, no deaths in over two months shows how well-trained our soldiers really are.
Yes, the followed the government orders to stay out of engagements until the election was over.
No doubt the media is salivating at the idea of posting the big 100.
Which media would that be? The CPC controlled CTV who released the ambush interview of Dion days before the election?
Or the CPC controlled CBC, who hushed up the kidnapping of the journalist kidnapped TWO DAYS before the election.
The criminal Conservative Party used two of its propaganda organs along with the Canadian Armed Forces to try and steal an election. They almost succeeded.
By the way, I support the Afghan mission. But it is being botched by the current government here.
The CPC controlled CTV???
The CPC controlled CBC???
Following government orders???
Is that black helicopters you are seeing or perhaps liberalism really IS a mental disorder?
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