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One thing I didn’t mention in a previous post is the cost of war, which adds enormous amounts of money to the already heavy financial burden of the average American family and therefore to the pressures on a struggling US economy - apart of course from the much greater sacrifices the people in Iraq and Afghanistan are making in wars forced upon them. Nation Editor Katrina vanden Heuvel reflects on the staggering economic, as well as human, costs of war.

I’m not sure when or even whether this movie will be released here; it’ll certainly come out on DVD at one stage. Starhawk’s thoughts on the films though are interesting enough for me to post them here:

Due to a series of odd events and a couple of generous invitations, I was able to see a new film at the Toronto Film Festival: In the Valley of Elah. Written and directed by Paul Haggis, who won an Oscar for Crash, it’s a very powerful and tragic story of the toll that the war in Iraq takes on those who wage it. A young soldier, Mike Deerfield, goes missing on his first weekend back from Iraq. His father, Hank Deerfield, played superbly by Tommy Lee Jones, is a retired military man and investigator, and when he sets out to find his son, one grim layer of truth after another is peeled back. Mike, it turns out, has been brutally murdered. As Hank tracks the murderers, he is both helped and hindered by Charlize Theron in the role of a woman police officer with a young son whose sweetness and vulnerability play off perfectly against Hank’s toughness and bottled-up emotions. For Hank, who truly believes in America and all it is supposed to stand for, the horror of what has been done to Mike is slowly eclipsed by the horror of finding out what his son has seen and become in Iraq.

In the Valley of Elah is not the Iraqis’ story. That story needs to be told and heard, although probably Hollywood won’t tell it. Elah is a story about Americans, told from an American perspective, aimed at an American audience. But it is also a story we desperately need to hear, the counterpoint to the drumbeats of endless war, for it faces us with the real price of our militarism, and the real limitations of its power—that the violence of war also destroys those who wield the weapons, and poisons the society that sent them forth.

One of the pleasures of watching thrillers and mysteries is akin to waking up from a bad dream. We all have secrets, things we’re ashamed of and things we fear being found out. When a fictional killer is tracked, his murderous secrets revealed, we can squirm vicariously and then wake up with that bright sense of relief we get when a nightmare proves to be only a phantom. Whatever we might be concealing, generally it’s not a corpse, and whatever we’ve done, we probably haven’t committed a heinous crime. Murder stories put our sins and troubles into perspective.

But with this film, there’s no easy waking. Because we are culpable. The horrors are real, and they are still going on in Iraq, and all our efforts have not stopped them. Whatever we have done, we’ve clearly not done enough.

How fascinating to watch this brief conclusion Cheney came to in 1994 and the exact opposite position he took in 2003. The external circumstances had not really changed, which makes it pretty clear that the Bush administration knew exactly what would or at least could happen if they’d invade Iraq; that in turn seems to lead to the conclusion that the neocons simply lied to the world. Nothing new really, just another interesting proof.

The video can be found on the MoveOn.org site, an organisation worth supporting (it seems) if you are an US citizen or permanent resident.

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Now playing: Kanye west / Stronger
via FoxyTunes

It may be long before the law of love will be recognised in international affairs. The machineries of government stand between and hide the hearts of one people from those of another. — M.K. Gandhi

Cross-border letter writing

In addition to the World’s Largest Love Letter post, I’d like to mention a couple more activities of the group Friends Without Borders. The ginormous letter is linked to an ongoing world peace project in which tens of thousands of children all across India have begun writing heartfelt letters to students in Pakistan. Vice versa, all across Pakistan, tens of thousands of children are writing back with heartfelt letters. New connections are being made. New friendships are being formed.

Friends Without Borders rightly says: “Children have a natural instinct toward friendship and will jump to reach out and create new friends, when given the opportunity. The simple act of writing a letter leaves deep and lasting impressions that help to humanize ‘the other.’ These are the seeds that promise to mature into a safer, friendlier world.” And so more and more schools are invited to participate in a simple campaign that just might work!

Cross-border concert

Another project is ‘Dil se Dil’ is India-Pakistan cross-border concert to be held as part of India’s Independence Day celebrations in August this year. Here is a brief project description in the group’s own words:

“Sixty years and four generations after Independence, the people of India and the people of Pakistan have never jointly celebrated the political event that gave birth to both nations. This year, all that will change.

On the night of August 14th and into the early hours of August 15th, preeminent musicians and celebrity Masters of Ceremonies will come together across the India-Pakistan border to lead the youth of both countries into a new era of friendship and cultural interaction: Dil se Dil: Independence Day Friendship Celebration.

Though this commemoration will entail a single, unifying concert event, the performances will originate from twin stages, one in India and one in Pakistan, on either side of the Attari/Wagah border. Live performances will alternate from one stage to the other, visible to the entire live audience, no matter on which side of the border they are sitting.

This two-stage-one-concert approach, with its innovative utilization of advanced telecommunications, sound engineering, and broadcast technology is as symbolic as it is practical. It represents the younger generation doing exactly what they do best: harnessing technology to create community and to overcome distance, physical barriers, and outmoded thinking.

Dil se Dil is a celebration of our past, acknowledging our shared history while recognizing that these two great countries are pursuing separate national destinies. It is a celebration of our present, displaying our common humanity. (We dance to the same songs!) It is a celebration of our future, demonstrating that mutual dreams of more peaceful, open, collaborative relations are indeed close at hand.

This historic event will be televised live by major networks in both countries, including Doordarshan. It will commence at 11:00 pm (IST) and conclude at 12:30 am (IST), thereby spanning the midnight hour in both time zones. Because of its significance and scope, Dil se Dil is a made-for-broadcast event and the dictates of first-class, live videographic presentation will be given priority. Notwithstanding the late hour, we believe this event will capture a substantial viewership – and the commercial channels in India have been discussing the desirability of doing a rebroadcast in the afternoon or primetime of 15 August as well.

Production Partners

Friends Without Borders, the unique child-to-child peace project, which has teams on-the-ground in both countries, is the creative author of this event and the coordinating partner for the production.

Routes2Roots, a Delhi-based NGO with an office in Pakistan, is using their decades of experience building social, cultural, and business connections among the peoples of South Asia to tackle the administrative, bureaucratic, and political aspects of the project.”

This has always been a grass-roots, people-to-people project. In that spirit, Friends Without Borders is looking for cash donations from people like you to help them getting started. Donation can be sent payable to “Routes 2 Roots” with a reference to “Dil se Dil” via cheque, bank draft or international money order (it seems) to the following address:

Friends Without Borders
c/o Routes 2 Roots
16 Apsara Housing Society, 2nd Floor
NDSE Part I, New Delhi 110 049
INDIA
+91 98942 77315
www.friendswithoutborders.org

Since the separation of Pakistan from India in 1947, both countries have seen acts of mutual aggression ranging from individual terror attacks to full-scale wars. On this backdrop, the Friends Without Borders initiative of having the children of India writing the World’s Largest Love Letter to the children of Pakistan is a remarkable undertaking and a wonderful grassroots action promoting peace and helping to build bridges between the two countries.

“The now famous “World’s Largest Love Letter,” written from the children of India to the children of Pakistan, is MASSIVE! Bigger than a football field, it measures 240 by 360 feet (73 by 110 meters). It’s so big that we actually had trouble fitting it into the enormous Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium and had to leave the border pieces off.

The text of the letter is written in Urdu, English and Hindi, and reads:

Dear Children of Pakistan,
Let’s join hearts in friendship. Together we can make a better world.
-The Children of India

We hosted massive events in various cities throughout India and Pakistan that involved thousands of children and created front page headlines in papers all across both countries.

The Inspiration…

When we began our India-Pakistan penpal initiative, we knew from the beginning that it could bring lasting change between the people of both countries, but only if we could get schools everywhere to participate.

‘How to get the word out?’ was the big question.

It was when Mark Peters saw a newspaper photo where the H.B. Kapadia School in Ahmedabad, India had laid out their penpal letters, impressively filling a gymnasium floor, that he got the idea that we should create the “world’s largest letter.” Surely, that would generate a lot of media attention and help promote our initiative.

When, by chance, we met artist John Devaraj in Bangalore, founder of the Born Free Art School, who specializes in large-scale art pieces, we told him about our idea and asked if he might be interested. He too had been thinking about exchanging letters between the kids of India and Pakistan, and so it seemed like a natural fit.

Together, we collaborated on a design, using tarpaulin as the material, which we could afterwards donate to the victims of the late 2005 Kashmir earthquake, for use as temporary roofing material.

The Creation…

John Devaraj, his kids, and many others all began painting the massive canvas just a week or so before its initial unveiling on January 16th at the M.Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium in Bangalore. Hundreds of kids were bused into the event to help in its creation and to sign along the border. The event was intentionally timed to coincide with the fourth day of the opening test match between India and Pakistan - one of the most watched cricket matches of the year. During the match, we arranged for a live televised cut to our event, introducing our campaign to over 100 million (10 crore) viewers!

The day was filled with fun and the children got to take part in an incredibly meaningful and memorable event. The next day, the picture of the massive letter graced the front page of newspapers all across the nation!

The Journey…

From Bangalore, we were given two trucks from Mahindra and Mahindra to carry the giant letter to Mumbai for another highly publicized event at Wankhede Cricket Stadium. It was a huge success.

Our team then jumped in our bus, also sponsored by Mahindra, and headed up to Ahmedabad, where six gigantic strips of the letter were hand-carried through the streets by hundreds of kids. The march began at six different houses of worship and culminated at the Gandhi Ashram, out of which our program was based. The day was a spectacular celebration of the unity within diversity. This was particularly relevant in Ahmedabad, where Hindu-Muslim riots had broken out just a few years earlier.

From Ahmedabad, we got in the bus and traveled west, through Gujarat to the border, stopping at schools all along the way to collect letters of friendship. During our campaign, we have collected letters from the richest kids in the very best schools as well as from kids living on the street… and everywhere in between. We have gone to deaf schools, blind schools, religious schools, and international schools. You name it, and we have been there, and this trip through rural India was a demonstration that our campaign is not only focused on the kids from the cities, but all the children… from every corner of both countires.

We made our way through Rajasthan and Delhi, then through Haryana and Punjab, stopping for visits all along the way. In Amritsar, we hosted another event at Jalianwala Bagh. Unlike all our other enormous events, the one at Jalianwala Bagh was intended to be more quiet - a candle light event to serve as a pause for reflection - a quiet before the storm - as we were about to enter into Pakistan to deliver The World’s Largest Love Letter along with tens of thousands of friendship letters, collected from all across India.

From Jalianwala Bagh, we literally walked 30 km to Wagah Border and crossed into Pakistan, receiving visas at the very last second. In Pakistan, we were greeted with a hero’s welcome - with a marching band and all!

The Delivery…

In Pakistan, we set up an enormous event to deliver The World’s Largest Love Letter at Gaddafi Cricket Stadium in Lahore. Thousands of kids were bused in to view the gargantuan letter and to sign along the yellow strip. The kids also brought with them letters of friendship for us to carry back to the kids of India. Along with these letters, a song of friendship was written and sung at the event by high school students as a gift of love to the children of India.

As in India, the press went crazy in Pakistan. We received massive coverage from all the newspapers and news channels.

Our Return…

The return home was equally grand as we laid out the yellow strips from The World’s Largest Love Letter all in a row, totalling 1008 feet, or nearly a third of a kilometer in length! This yellow strip was named “The Golden Bridge of Friendship” and was signed with messages of friendship from thousands of Pakistani children. It stretched from within Pakistan, all the way through Wagah Border (known as “No Man’s Land”), and into India. Again, the press was there to broadcast our awesome return to viewers throughout the world.

All in all, it’s fair to say that this was one heck of a spectacular grassroots movement - a highlight of all of our lives. It involved thousands of volunteers and hundreds of thousands of kids. Our simple message of friendship was heard and felt loud and far, making a real difference, and the promise of our campaign is as strong as ever. This new way to peace is truly only beginning.

Contact:

Friends Without Borders
c/o Routes 2 Roots
16 Apsara Housing Society, 2nd Floor
NDSE Part I, New Delhi 110 049
INDIA
+91 98942 77315
www.friendswithoutborders.org