Author: sueclarkson

 

 

You may be wondering why I have suddenly included an essay in my journal.  Well, I have been finding it increasingly difficult to write on the WordPress page as I can’t in crease the font.  So I thought, ‘Why not cut and paste?’  And it worked!  Friends, you don’t need to read the essay but rejoice with me in this discovery.  It has opened up untold possibilities!

Is There Anything Distinctively ‘Russian’ About These Stories?

 

The stories under consideration in this essay all come from the nineteenth century and, while immersed in universal themes, they reflect in the unfolding of events aspects of Russian culture, society, landscape and climate which cast a special light on the unfolding of these themes. These works were written by Russians, about Russians and for Russians, so contain little explanation of customs, features of geography or social life. The universal themes are those of love, death, hatred, revenge, courage, mystery and spirituality.

Four of the stories deal with love and its destructive power. None of the protagonists in ‘First Love’, The Kreutzer Sonata’, ‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’ nor ‘Grasshopper’ escapes unscathed, even the most culpable. Turgenev with Zinaida, Vladimir and his father, Tolstoy with Pozdmyshev, and Leskov with Katerina, reveal the destructive power of

obsessive love. The constraints of Russian society bring the unhappy lovers to breaking point. Vladimir’s father in
‘First Love’ is of higher social standing than Zinaida and this contributes to her acceptance of his domination. By contrast, the bored Katerina in ‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’ has power over the workman Sergei as she is the wife of a merchant of standing. Boredom and shallowness are the characteristics of Chekhov’s Olga, which lead her to deceive her doctor husband. Both Olga and Katerina are products of a narrow provincial life which often trapped women in Imperial Russia where there was little to occupy them outside the home. It is difficult for the English reader to appreciate the isolating nature of Russia’s vast landmass and the unforgiving climate which made travel impossible for many months of the year.

Tolstoy and Chekhov in’The Cossacks’ and ‘The Steppe’ give us some of the most beautiful and evocative descriptions of two vastly different areas of Russian landscape. Even more, the two stories are about two outsiders, Olenin and Yegorushka; one a soldier off to duty in the Caucasus, and the other a young boy leaving home for the first time to go to school. Olenin is typical of young wealthy Russians of the period who, bored by life and weighed down by debt, seek a new life in the army in the strange land of the Cossacks. His journey is related by Tolstoy in many descriptive passages which convey the effect on the impressionable young man of the dramatic landscape:
The rapid motion of the troika along the even road made the mountains seem to be running along the horizon,their pinkish summits gleaming in the rising sun. At first the mountains only astonished Olenin,; and then they gladdened him; but then, as more and more intently he studied the chain of snowy mountains that rose, not from other black peaks but from the steppe, growing aloft and fleeting away, he gradually began to penetrate this beauty and to feel the mountains with his senses.

Similarly, Chekhov describes the strange, alien mystery of the steppe as it appears to Yegorushka:

When he awoke the sun was already rising. Screened by an ancient burial mound it was striving to spread its light all over the world, eagerly casting its rays everywhere and flooding the horizon with gold. Yegorushka felt that it was in the wrong place, for yesterday it had risen behind him and now it was very much further to the left. And the entire landscape was different from yesterday’s. The hills had vanished and wherever you looked a brown cheerless plain stretched away endlessly.

As well as the effect of the landscape on the spirits of Olenin and Yegorushka, the people both characters meet are influential in their progress. The rich array of characters in both stories are typically Russian and in both tales the strangeness of the behaviour and customs alarms and yet captivates the protagonists. Among others in the Cossack community Olenin meets Luka and their relationship is complex. They are both rivals for the captivating Maryanka
but their expectations and misunderstandings of each other confuse and perplex them

Yegorushka, a frightened yet inquisitive boy, when finding himself alone among the drivers delivering wool, makes friends with most of them, despite his shyness. Their life is hard and tedious, bound by the immense distances they have to travel over the vast steppe and Yegorushka is at the same time terrified and drawn to them.

Pantely, who fascinates Yegorushka, embodies a typical Rusian trait which occurs often in different characters in the stories, that of a fondness for storytelling. He tells tales to while away the long evenings after a hard day’s travel. Daddy Yeroshka too tells Olenin stories of his life as a young Cossack. Storytelling is used in “First Love”, ‘The Kreutzer Sonata’ and ‘The Sealed Angel’ but in these works the stories told are the main story. This device of stories within stories is a common one in Russian shorter fiction.

The journeys made by Olenin and Yegorushka are journeys of discovery and often delight. Not so the journey made by Katerina, Sergei and their fellow prisoners to the desolate wastes of Siberia in ‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’. Exile to Siberia figures much in Russian fiction and even in Russia today. As well as the harshness and heartbreak in Leskov’s
story, Chekhov too presents a picture of penal life in ‘Murder’. Chekhov’s account is based on real life observation by the author himself, of Sakhalin Island.

‘Murder, and ‘ The Sealed Angel’ illustrate another important aspect of Russian nineteenth century life, religion. ‘The Sealed Angel’ tells the story of a group of itinerant workmen who are Old Believers, as is Pantely in ‘The Steppe’. Old Believers were a sect which renounced reforms in the Orthodox church and developed their own way of worship. These masons carried around their treasured icons and it is the story of one of these which Leskov tells. Icons are a major part of Orthodox worship and Old Believers took the reverence of icons to a higher level. It is Leskov’s skill as a writer which draws the reader into this strange tale of an outcast sect and engages our sympathy; we really care about the fate of the Angel:

And heating the stick of sealing wax he jabbed the boiling resin, still flaming, right into the angel’s face!My dear sirs,don’t hold it against me if I can’t even try to describe what happened when the gentleman poured the stream of boiling resin onto the face of the angel and, cruel man that he was,raised the icon up so as to boast of how he’d managed to spite us. All I remember is that the bright divine face was red and sealed, and the varnish, which had melted slightly under the fiery resin, ran down in two streams,as if it were blood mixed with tears…

Chekhov’s”Murder’ draws us into the chaotic life of people whose religious beliefs and practices are even more removed from Orthodoxy. Yakov’s obsessions cause him to murder his cousin yet he finds peace and a right relationship with God in the sufferings of penal life in Siberia.

In these eight stories we meet people from varied sections of Russian society in the nineteenth century. We meet them
in varied urban and rural settings and through them learn a little about life in Imperial Russia. Yet, as with all great
storytelling we feel, to differing degrees, connected to these characters and we care about what happens to them. They are living out the joys and, even more, the struggles
of life and even if, for them, this is in the context of Russia, their actions and responses resonate across centuries and continents.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ivan Turgenev: ‘First Love’ from First Love and Other Stories, trans. Richard Freeborn, O.U.P. 1982

Leo Tolstoy: ‘The Cossacks” from The Cossacks and Other Stories, trans. David McDuff, Penguin Classics 2006

Leo Tolstoy: ‘The Kreutzer Sonata’ trans. David McDuff, Penguin 2007

Nikolai Leskov; ‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’ and ‘ The Sealed Angel’ from The Enchanted Wanderer and Other Stories, trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, Vintage Books

Anton Chekhov: ‘The Steppe’ from The Steppe and Other Stories 1887-1891, trans. Ronald Wilks, Penguin Classics 1984

Anton Chekhov: ‘Grasshopper’ and ‘Murder’ from Ward No. 6 and Other Stories 1892-1895, trans. Ronald Wilks, Penguin Classics 2002

Ronald Hingley: Russian Writers and Society 1825-1904, World University Library 1967

The adventure for me started with catching the Airline bus around the corner from my flat in Oxford.  I felt a mixture of excitement and apprehension, not unusual for me!  The air travel to and from Russia was what one would expect.  Although I’m not a frequent flyer, I have done five long journeys by air; to Cameroon, Madagascar, the United States (twice) and Afghanistan, and airports and aeroplanes still have a novelty value.  I’ll write later about the experience of travelling as a visually impaired person but I want to focus here on the adventure of travelling on a Russian train.

We flew to Moscow but then took a train to Perm.   Taking this train transported us into the exotic, mysterious and evocative experience that is Russia.   The overland journey took a little less than twenty four hours.  Imagine my delight when I discovered, several weeks before we set out, that the journey was, in fact, the first day of the Trans Siberian Railway journey.  After landing in Moscow we went for a meal at a small restaurant near the railway station and then, around ten o clock, boarded the train.   The train seemed large, shiny, imposing and serious, compared to our brightly coloured, sometimes dingy, and somewhat toy like trains.  We had to climb up steps to enter the carriage which made me think of the train I often used to take between Washington D.C. and Baltimore.

Every carriage on our Russian train had its own attendant who was responsible for cleanliness, providing bedding, a simple meal and a seemingly endless supply of cups of tea which we were able to buy from her small shop/office near the door.  I slept really well that night; the movement of the train rocked me to sleep and we woke quite late, about nine , and prepared to enjoy the prospect of twelve hours speeding eastward through Russia to our destination.  The journey gave our group plenty of opportunity to get to know each other and those who had travelled frequently in Russia were able to share experiences and advice.  In between conversations we gazed out of the window at the scenery speeding by.

Much of the countryside we went through was forest, endless forrest it sometimes seemed, but also beautiful and restful.  I think the trees of these early autumn forests were mainly birch and firs.  The sun shone in the clear blue sky and we were able to step down from the train now and again as it stopped at some stations for maintainance.  At these stops, vendors sold ice cream, other snacks and souvenirs from stalls at the side of the track.

At the Moscow station, on the train and standing at the side of the track on our extended stops, my mind often turned to Anna Karenina.  It wasn’t just her tragic end but the fact that trains and train journeys played an important part in the novel, as in much of Russian literature.  I think this connection with trains and train journeys in literature added to my growing sense of really being in Russia.  Coming from a tiny island I was amazed and awed by the size of Russia, and we crossed only a small part of it.  The idea of making the Russian part of our journey by train was inspired, probably Karen’s idea, and it certainly gave a real sense of travelling far to reach our destination.

Of course, at the end of our stay we took the train again, but I’ll write about that when I write about Moscow.

 

It’s now a few weeks since we returned form our visit  to Perm, Russia and I now feel ready to write about the impressions made on me by this remarkable, beautiful, mysterious and hospitable country.   In this piece I’m just going to outline first impressions and then hope to develop the chosen themes, a little like the pieces on Afghanistan written last year.

Since our return I’ve been in touch with the others and we have all been suffering from jet and train lag and some of us have had colds and coughs.  By ‘us’ I mean seven people who visited Perm as part of the Perm/Oxford twinning link.  We were a diverse group and I learnt a great deal from my travelling companions on our long journey and many outings made in Perm.  Some spoke Russian, some were regular visitors and all had a fascination for the country.

I’m hoping to write about travelling on a Russian train, religion and culture, water, visual impairment and other disabilities, Perm State University and our hosts, and what ever else springs to mind.!

Two of us had no Russian at all and tonight we are signed up for a beginners’ Russian course.

Our two week stay in Perm has left me with a desire to explore the riches of this vast and paradoxical country.  Whether I am able to return remains to be seen but yesterday I signed up for a course at Woodbrooke, the Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham, on Quakers in Russia.  This seems a good way to proceed and perhaps I’ll be able to make contact with Russian Quakers.

We have just finished the sixth Peace News Summer Camp.  For five days we spent time relaxing, sharing , listening, singing, reciting poetry and lots of other good things.  For this post, however, I want to focus on a workshop we had talking about the Afghan Peace Volunteers.  The best thing about it was that we not only talked about them, we talked  to them!

Imagine a sunny August day.  We are in a cheery white tent on a tranquil Suffolk organic farm.  Sitting on hay bales we gather to learn more about ordinary people in Afghanistan, their hopes and fears.  We have a simple smartphone and with it we are able to speak to the Afghan Peace Volunteers.  The connection is, at first, tenuous but eventually we have an uninterrupted half hour conversation.

Because the connection is unpredictable we first hear from the APV who, through the splendid interpreting of Hakim, share with us their concerns about war situations around the world.  They have an extraordinary capacity to see a wider picture all the time.  While painfully conscious of their own situation, they never forget those who are suffering elsewhere, be it Syria, Gaza or Ukraine.  They have the open heartedness to feel with the sufferings of innocent people wherever they are, and place responsibility for the suffering firmly in the hands of the superpowers.  The constant plea is that governments look at what they are doing and work together to create a peaceful and just world.  They are clear that there can be no peace without justice.

Our workshop participants ask about the environmental costs of war in Afghanistan and how they feel about the removal of foreign troops.       Hakim has a lot to say about environmental damage and this topic is going to be followed up by the camper who asked the question.  While I was in Afghanistan many people expressed fear of the resumption of civil war after the withdrawal of troops but the other side to this question is that the troops did not provide safety during the time of occupation so perhaps the withdrawal will not make too much difference.  What is striking is that all these issues are very real to the people we are talking to; they have suffered recently from nearby attacks from bombers.

The APVs present at the Skype call are male and female and are articulate and impassioned.  They value such conversations and do not want to be forgotten.  They want us to share their story and tell people about their hopes and fears.  Technology links our serene Suffolk field with war torn Kabul and I know those present in the tent are deeply moved by the conversation.

Other campers took copies of the VCNVUK newsletter and ten people bought blue scarves.  These scarves are embroidered with the word BORDERFREE in English and Dari and publicise the Borderfree campaign on which the APV are working.  Money raised from sale of the scarves will go to the sewing project which makes duvets to be distributed in winter by the APV to families in Kabul.  The APV use all the tools of social media to spread the word about their life and work and my hope is that PN camp participants will use these platforms to get to know our beloved Afghan friends in Kabul.

Many of my friends and aquaintances know that I’m always complaining about the internet, computers etc. and I’m aware that my whining and wittering is often irritating.  The last piece I wrote had some damning things to say about IT and I stand by what I said in relation to drone warfare.  However, I am about to launch into a hymn of praise for how my life has been enriched by IT in general and Apple and Amazon in particular.  I realize that, as an activist, these two Leviathans should be shunned, but I have to acknowledge truthfully that they do help, if I keep them in their place!

A few years ago I was lucky enough to buy a second hand five year old Mac for £250.  This meant that as well as the usual functions such as email and the ability to write essays, journal entries, letters, articles and leaflets, I also had access to a decent DVD player and learned how to use BBC IPlayer as I don’t have a TV.

The greatest joy, however, has been the ITunes library where I can store all my favourite books in audio form and then transfer them to my IPod.  I buy audiobooks from Audible, now an Amazon company.  I have always loved to read and my failing sight has meant that I haven’t been able ro read normal print for the past few years.   It’s a pleasure to be read to, and if I have a favourite book on CD, I can use the computer to listen to that too.

After returning from Afghanistan, Beth and I gave several talks.  I decided to buy an IPad so that we could show pictures of our visit.  Beth set up a Prezi presentation and I was delighted to find that running through the pictures was a breeze, even when I gave solo talks.

The IPad has been a revelation to me.  When I bought it the man in the shop told me that they are very popular with children and the elderly!  I’d like to add the visually impaired to that.  Even though I use my hand magnifyer to look at certain icons and buttons, adaptations make it easier to read emails on the IPad and the picture on IPlayer is really clear and bright.  Despite the fact that the on screen keyboard took some gettting used to, I really like it now and whilst on retreat recently I was able to write all my retreat reflections on the IPad.  During the same retreat I used the camera to take some beautiful photos of the garden which I can look at any time and remember, and be happy!  (I’ll buy a coffee/tea for anyone who gets this reference!)

When I first got the IPad I didn’t use it much, apart from the presentations.  When the police “seized” our computers after our Waddington action, I followed my friend, Henrietta’s, advice and made friends with the IPad.  By the way, we now have our computers , thanks to Keith’s persistence.

I’ve discovered a real interest in Art History and have already completed several courses at the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education.  My methods for viewing pictures in a gallery are for another article.  However, the websites of various galleries really help in looking at pictures before visiting.  One particular website which I like is the BBC’s ‘Your Paintings’.  Nothing replaces visiting a gallery and looking at the original painting, yet the computer makes it possible to pick out detail I might otherwise miss.

In the past few days I’ve found out that I can put a Kindle app on the IPad and get ebooks from Amazon.  I’ve been able to set text size and font and use a white on black screen so that now I can read print again!  The first book I downloaded was ‘Seeking Justice’ by Keith Hebden, with whom I planted the peace garden at Waddington.  I’ve also bought two Chekov stories which we’ll be studying in the Russian Shorter Fiction course which starts in October.

Information technology is a good servant but a bad master.  Apple and Amazon give me what I need; the ability to write, access to well loved books, paintings and programmes, and the facility to discover new ones.  What I need to do is to keep a safe distance from other webs they may try to weave around me!

On 3rd of June six of us, now known to our friends as the Waddington Six, entered RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, from where the British drones are now being operated.  Our aim was to find out what was happening there and to give information, by leaving photos and descriptions, about the effects of drone warfare on innocent people.  We also planted a peace garden containing a vine and a fig tree, echoing the prophets, Isaiah and Micah, who spoke of these as symbols of genuine peace.

The three reasons why I acted with my friends can be summed up thus.  First, I acted because of my belief that war and preparations for war are contrary to God’s will for us.  The second and third reasons are summed up in a chant heard at a public demonstration at Waddington earlier this year;

‘EVERY AFGHAN HAS A NAME:

WAR IS NOT A VIDEO GAME’

For many years I have believed that Jesus left us a powerful message of nonviolence, summed up in the Sermon on the Mount and in the example of his own life and death.  He urges us to love one another and to love our enemies.  This is incompatible with war and warmaking.  One of the reasons I became a Quaker was because of the Peace Testimony, which, together with the Testimonies of Simplicity, Equality and Truth, form the basis of Quaker practice in daily life.  It was in the spirit of the peace of Jesus given in the Gospel and the Quaker Peace Testimony that I joined the others at Waddington on that beautiful summer’s morning.

EVERY AFGHAN HAS A NAME

Over the past five years, since joining St. Francis House, I have met and got to know many refugees from Afghanistan.  This, together with several direct actions I have taken part in, resisting the war on Afghanistan, led me to go with Voices for Creative Nonviolence to Afghanistan last year.  The people we met through the Afghan Peace Volunteers told us many stories about the effects of thirty five years of war.  The use of drones in Afghanistan is the latest in a long line of violent interventions the people of Afghanistan have had to suffer.  One young man, Raz Mohammed, spoke movingly of a drone strike which killed members of his family and uttered the heartbreaking words: ‘Drones bury beautiful lives’.

WAR IS NOT A VIDEO GAME

Drone warfare is remote control warfare.  The operators of the drones are thousands of miles away from their targets and so operating drones resembles the kind of computer war games which are so popular today.  Because of this remote control warfare, innocent people lose their lives.  The sophistication of information technology and the internet make drone wars possible.  Whenever I turn on my computer or IPad I am aware that I am part of a world which idealizes and idolizes this form of communication.  Even at this moment, as I write,  I am admitting that I accept this kind of impersonal communication, which is often no communication at all.  This can isolate and dehumanize me.  Modern warfare, of which drone wars are but a part, is possible because of the devotion we have to computers.  I am also complicit in this.

“We are called to live ‘in the virtue of that life and power which takes away the occasion of all wars’.  Do you faithfully maintain our testimony that war and the preparation for war are inconsistent with the spirit of Christ?”

Quaker Advices and Queries n. 31

 

“Visual impairment is neither a shame nor an honour: it is simply a limitation.”  These words were spoken by Mahdi, the deputy director of Rehabilitation Services for the Blind in Afghanistan, whom we met in Kabul.  As a visually impaired person myself, I had contacted Hakim before our journey, to ask if it would be possible to meet some visually impaired people and find out what kind of services existed for them in Afghanistan.  One of he APV set up the meeting and on our first Saturday in Kabul we set off in taxis to visit the project.  Mahdi and his co worker, Yacubi, are also themselves visually impaired.

During our visit we learnt that the project provides skills for children who are visually impaired.  Unfortunately the workers are able to help only a percentage of those who are registered with them, due to scarce funding.  Advocacy is also one of the aims of the project and we were told that International White Cane Day, 15 Octobr, gives an opportunity for raising awareness of issues surrounding visually impaired people.  The problems are many and, given the enormous difficulties of life for all Afghans, life for the huge number of people with disabilities is even more challenging.  Blindness and partial sight, as with other disabilities, are caused by a number of factors; hereditary, accidents, preventable diseases and, of course, war.  We also visited other projects specifically concrned with disability.

At the end of our visit we met a class of children learning braille.  They read to us and sang for us and Hakim made a short video about our visit, which contained a moving message from Mahdi at the end.  In his message he stresses our common humanity and speaks of the need for all peoples to live in peace, love and kindness in order to make a better world.  You’ll find the video on YouTube, along with several others about the APV.  Type

ourjourneytosmile

in the search box on YouTube.

As a visually impaired person myself, I had to consider, before deciding to be part of the delegation, whether or not my disability would be a hindrance to the group.  I needed help during our journey from Heathrow to Kabul and back, and this was willingly offered by my travelling companions.  Once in Kabul, various members of the APV took care of me and I was helped and guided during our trips to visit various projects.  In the house, too, I was really aware that the boys were looking out for me and ensuring that I found my way safely to where I needed to be.  One fruit of my disability has been the three articles I have written for this journal.  Deprived of my accustomed aids to reading and writing, I was unable to make notes but had to store everything in my head to be retrieved as soon as I was united to my computer.  We returned just ovr two weeks ago and it has been imperative that I set things down while they are still fresh.

One memory will never leave me.  The woman who teaches sewing to the group of women making duvets, asked Hakim what faith I had and if I believed in prayer.  She asked for some Muslim prayer beads but as non could be found she produced pen and paper.  Standing near me she began to pray softly, marking down the prayers she said on her paper.  This went on in the living room for several minutes and as her prayr progressed I became fully aware of the beauty and sacredness of the moment.  Here we were, two women of different nations, cultures, languages and faith, united in prayer to the one God in whom we both believed  Our delegation had been advised to keep off any reference to faith matters in case rumours sprang up about the possibility that we might be there to evangelise.  In offering to pray with me, my new Muslim friend dissolved the boundaries between us.  Tashakur!  Thank you!

In writing this piece I am well aware that I have had no experience of being directly affected by war and that these reflections are simply the observations of an outsider in more ways than one.  It is important to say here too that these are my own reflections and in no way represent the views of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, under whose banner we went to Afghanistan.  This will be true of anything I write in this journal; I am writing as myself and not as an official representative of VCNV.  It is important to say this as I have a great respect for Voices’ ethos and practice.   For more about VCNV and the great work they have and are doing, visit

http://www.vcnv.org

Elsewhere in this journal mention has been made of preparatory reading which was recommended to us.  “Ghosts of Afghanistan”by Jonathan Steele and “Descent Into Chaos” by Ahmed Rashid have been helpful texts in presenting the recent history of war and conflict in Afghanistan and the wider region.  In our short visit to one part of one city, Kabul, most of the people we met had been affected by the wars of the past thirty five years, chronicled in these two books.  Jounalists’ facts took on human features and voices and left us speechless.

In the mid seventies civil war was already brewing between mujahedin groups which represented the different ethnic groups in Afghanistan.  These groups are: Pashtun (42%) Tajik (27%) Hazara (9%)  Uzbek (8%) and others (14%).  The Soviet invasion which began in December 1979 united the mujahedin war lords and their troops against a common enemy.  In 1989, with the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the civil war intensified.  in 1996 the Taliban entered Kabul and their reign of terror continued until their  defeat in 2001.  This defeat, as we all know, was brought about by the US/NATO attacks on Afghanistan, ordered in October 2001 by George W. Bush in an attempt, we were told, to capture Osama bin Laden.  The US/NATO war in Afghanistan increased in ferocity, causing even more suffering and death to a population already terrorised and cowed by conflict on all sides.  The war continues, bringing death and injury to innocent Afghans as well as to foreign soldieers whose grieving families do not understand why they are fighting in Afghanistan.

Kabul bears the scars of constant war and, despite the belief here at home that coalition forces are building a new Afghanistan, there is little sign in this wounded, struggling city, gasping for breath in the thick pollution hanging over it.  I was full of admiration for the people of Kabul, attempting to make a bearable life in difficult conditions.  The streets and pavements are full of potholes and there are open drains on the side of the road which require footbridges to cross.  We visited the Museum of Kabul and it was rouching to see how the staff is struggling to keep it open and to preserve the ancient culture of this dignified yet damaged land.

The people we met during our stay also have a dignity which shines through all the suffering.  The young members of the APV where we stayed, had nearly all lost a family member or friend as a result of the conflicts of the past thirty five years.  Despite this, they continue to believe that a nonviolent future for Afghanistan is the only way forward.

On our first full day in Kabul we visited a camp of Kuchi refugees.  The Kuchi are a nomadic people and are Pashtun.  The group we met had returned from a refugee camp in Pakistan because they had been promised land on which to settle.  Neither the government nor the UNHCR had made good this promise and they had found space in Kabul, far from the north where they usually live.  Maya Evans, from our delegation, also visited another refugeee camp in Kabul where, once again, people displaced and made homeless by war tried to survive.

Our second day was very much a women’s day, during which we heard more about the effects of war on ordinary Afghan families.  In the morning we spent time with the women of Pandora’s Hope, the fledgling sewing cooperative which is based at the APV community.   They expressed their fears for the safty of their children and, in a refrain we heard repeated many times, they told of their anxiety about the future in 2014, when the international troops are scheduled to leave.  During the many conversations we had, people returned to this and told us that weapons are pouring into Afghanistan so that people can arm themselves against the ethnic battles which are predicted.  Another fear is the return of the Taliban who are by no means a thing of the past.  We had no answers to allay these fears, just an overwhelming sense that the international governments which sent forces into Afghanistan in 2001 have done nothing to ensure the peace and safety of the people when they leave.  Time is running out but we need to speak out for Afghanistan now more than ever.

In the afternoon of the same day, we went to the home of a woman who had lost two children in a suicide bombing in Kabul.  Since 2003 suicide bombings have become an added threat to the already vulnersble lives of ordinary Afghans. As this woman told her story we heard how her young sons were returning home from schoool one afternoon to be caught up in the bombing.  The mother told if her grief and anger and sense of powerlessness and her fears for her remaining children, whom she was afraid to send to school in case the same thing happened to them.  This was one mother’s story.  How often is it repeated?  Suicide bombers target foreign forces but it is the innocent bystanders and their families who suffer the most.  Many who at first welcomed the US/NATO arrival in 2001 fear now that the presence of international troops increases insurgent activity and that the spiral of violence spins ever faster, befuddling logic and reason and destroying innocent lives.

Our conversations with Afghan people from various sectors of society raised more questions than answers but there were also definite signs of hope amid the pain.  We met journalists, human rights campaigners, advocates for disabled people, women’s rights workers, educationalists,  representatives of young Afghans, all of whom were working tirelessly to confront injustices and inequality in Afghan society.  The people we talked to, either in their own premises or at the APV, were working with ordinary people as well as approaching government bodies, to campaign for a fairer society.  We heard often about government corruption and the failure of the international community to make good its promise to help rebuild the war torn country.  Despite the fact that Afghanistan has been brutalised by internal strife and foreign invasion, the overall belief that a peaceful future depends upon nonviolent cooperation and care for the most vulnerable, shone through.  No one said it would be easy or quick to arrive, but the Afghan people we met are prepared to be in it for the long haul.  Here at home, we have to discover how we can best stand with them in the struggle.

We, the Voices for Creative Nonviolence UK delegation , have now returned from Afghanistan.  We spent two weeks in Kabul as guests of the Afghan Peace Volunteers.  This is a remarkable and unique community of young men who first came together in Bamiyan under the guidance of a local doctor, Hakim.  Inspired by the nonviolent spirit of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, the group first came together in 2008 to create a peace park in their locality.  Bamiyan is a mainly Hazara area of Afghanistan and the local people have suffered at the hands of the Taliban.  In March, 2001 the Taliban destroyed two ancient giant statues of the Buddah in Bamiyan.  For a more detailed background to the APV, visit their website,

http://www.ourjourneytosmile.com

The community relocated to Kabul and has worked closely with Voices for Creative Nonviolence over the past few years.  The dream of the community is to form a multi ethnic group, committed to nonviolence and work among the poor of their neighbourhood.

To say that the APV has a vision of being a multi ethnic community does not give the full picture of the task they have set themselves.  Ethnic divisions in Afghanistan go deep into a painful and violent history.  The community is mainly Hazara but there is a Pashtun and aTajik among the group.  It is a privilege to be part of their sincere desire to heal old wounds and build a society for the future of Afghanistan, free from ethnic chains.  Their task is not an easy one and they don’t seem to be under the illusion that it is.  The community and the country has a long struggle ahead to build a peaceful Afghanistan.  Spending time with these young men gives one the feeling that it is possible and that a commitment to nonviolence holds the key.

On our arrival in Kabul after a long but uneventful journey, we were met by community members and taken to their home.  We shared their living space for two weeks and were given typical Afghan hospitality. The four of us and later two friends from the US, Kathy Kelly and Martha Hennessy, slept on cushions in the main living area where, during the day we had meals, English lessons, discussions and meetings.  Kathy is the founder and coordinater of Voices and Marth                                                                               a is part of the New York Catholic Worker community.  She is also the granddaughter of Dorothy Day who co founded the Catholic Worker movement.

Through its connection with Voices the APV have played host to several delegations of international visitors over the past year or so.  Delegates share fully in the life of the community and during our stay we were present at many community meetings during which a wide range of subjects was discussed, from practicalities of daily communal living to deep philosophical reflections on the nature of nonviolence and its implications in a country reeling and bowed down by thirty years of war and conflict.

The APV as a community are involved in the life of their neighbourhood.  The house has a constant stream of visitors, young and old and all receive a warm welcome.  Each morning there is an English class, atttended by some of the APV and other local young people, both boys and girls.  Hakim conducts the class and often emphasises that the reason for lerning a language is to communicate.  During the lessons, which some of us attended, there was often a sharing of ideas and feelings about the future of Afghanistan and the aspirations of the students.  It was very moving to be present as these thoughtful young people expressed their hopes and fears and also posed searching questions to us about our role in the future of their country.

In the afternooons the APV themselves, along with other volunteer teachers, hold classes for local children, teaching Dari and maths.

The community is also home to a sewing project for women.  At present this project focuses on making duvets for poor local families as the bitter cold of winter approaches.  Financial help from Voices means that women can earn money by sewing the duvets, either at home or on the APV premises.  The sharing out of the materials to be made up into the completed products is carried out by the young men of the community.  The duvets are then distributed by the APV.  There is a video clip on the website showing the most recent distribution on 21 December.   Other duvets were also given to a nearby refugee camp during our stay.

As ewll as living community life and working on these projects, some of the community members attend school or university.  The overall atmosphere of the community is of generous hospitality,                  cheerful enthusiasm, hard work in difficult conditions and, above all, a belief that they are living out a model of the society they wish to see for a future Afghanistan.  This model has at its heart a true desire for people of all ethnicities to live together and to work together for a better life for the poorest and most vulverable.  These young men really do think globally and act locally.