Afghanistan and After: Future Foreign Policies at WLU!

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Experts are coming to WLU in Waterloo this Monday to discuss the progress in Afghanistan!

This looks interesting... A public lecture on the effectiveness of military-driven reconstruction efforts will be held Monday and guests attending the conference include representatives from the United Nations, NATO, the Canadian Forces and non-governmental organizations. Yes - they will be at the WLU on Monday, May 14th in Waterloo, ON! This will enable us to better understand to our committment in Afghanistan... and a chance to ask questions and meet with other military families! Here's the info:

Afghanistan and After: Future Foreign Policies

A public lecture will be held

as part of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Afghanistan conference

on
Monday, May 14th
from 7 p.m.

at

Wilfrid Laurier University

Maureen Forester Recital Hall

75 University Ave. W., Waterloo.

Leading international experts will gather next week at Wilfrid Laurier University to discuss the effectiveness of military-driven reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.
About 30 top representatives -- including one of the world's top scholars on Afghanistan -- will attend the two-day conference focused on appraising the role of Provincial Reconstruction Teams.
There are 24 such teams in Afghanistan, including a Canadian one based in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar City.
The teams provide humanitarian aid and security, with soldiers performing front-line duties including training Afghan police and guiding community infrastructure projects.
"One of the reasons for this conference is to produce some solid information on what's been accomplished in the Canadian sector and what's being accomplished in other sectors as well," said Terry Copp, director of the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies.
The assessment is an important one, he said, because the 2009 exit date for Canadian troops is approaching.
"Surely what we have to do between now and 2009 is learn as much as we can about what is actually happening on the ground and how much success is actually being achieved."
The conference coincides with ongoing discussions in the House of Commons about the mistreatment of Afghan prisoners.
Last week, the federal government amended its prisoner-transfer agreement after evidence surfaced that some prisoners were being abused by Afghan police.
Copp said the conference will touch on questions of policy related to the recent controversy, including how other nations handle prisoners and whether NATO should be building its own facilities to detain prisoners.
"None of us are politicians and we're not interested in either a partisan position either for the government or against the government," Copp said. "What we would be interested in is what the best practices are."

William Maley, author of Rescuing Afghanistan, will speak about the current political situation in the country. The Australian scholar is one of the foremost experts on the country.
"One issue will be underpinning everything we're discussing is just how important Canada's deployment in Afghanistan actually is," he said. "It's important to distinguish the debate over Afghanistan from the debate over Iraq."
Experts attending the conference include representatives from the United Nations, NATO, the Canadian Forces and non-governmental organizations.
Members of the public are invited to a lecture, Afghanistan and After: Future Foreign Policies, on Monday evening.

Ramesh Thakur

As a panellist, Ramesh Thakur, a distinguished fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), will draw attention to the relationship is between security and development.
"The military itself is not a good instrument for nation-building," he said. "And without nation-building and state-building, the initial security achievements can be reversed. And that's the difficulty we now face in Afghanistan."
The conference is the fourth in a series on Afghanistan, but the first to examine issues of human security, economy and development.
Experts will attend a closed-door workshop Tuesday.
Their findings will be published in a report a few weeks after the conference.

Canadian Soldiers Echo Hillier's Frustration with Focus on Detainees

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (CP) - A dog-eared letter from a young student in Canada is having greater resonance among Canadian troops at a remote outpost in Afghanistan than the political hand-wringing in Ottawa over Afghan detainees.
The letter, with coloured hearts around its edges, was written by a Grade 7 student in Toronto who was born in Kabul. It tells the story of a little girl whose family fled to Pakistan after being chased from their homeland by the Taliban. Once there, her one-year-old sister was kidnapped.
"My mom wanted a country that was safe and where I would be able to learn so we came to Canada," the neatly typed letter reads. "Thank you so much for trying to make my country a better place and tell your soldier friends that I said thank you."
In a place where a bomb or a rocket sometimes barely merits getting out of bed, the letter tugs at the heart strings of the battle-hardened men and women of the Royal Canadian Dragoons out on patrol in Afghanistan.

Many of the soldiers in Spin Boldak, a ramshackle outpost in southeastern Afghanistan just six kilometres from the Pakistan border, are barely aware of the political tremors in Ottawa over reports that Afghan prisoners have been tortured in prison after leaving Canadian custody.
But they feel acutely that most of their fellow Canadians at home are themselves largely oblivious to their efforts to improve the lives of ordinary Afghan people.
During his visit to Kandahar last week, Canada's top soldier, Gen. Rick Hillier, said in his typically blunt fashion that the soldiers are "pissed off" that the detainee controversy has dominated headlines at home.
"If they're pissed off about anything, it's that we are here and we're doing so much other good stuff, and nobody's talking about it now," said Maj. Steve Graham, reconnaissance squadron commander with the Dragoons, currently deployed in Spin Boldak.
"Everybody right now is focused on this (detainee) aspect which, for us, is really an incredibly small part of everything we've done."
Many soldiers, when asked whether they've ever handled a detainee, respond with a blank look or a shake of the head.
Some are largely unaware of the controversy that has gripped the House of Commons for two weeks since news broke of allegations that prisoners handed over by Canadians to Afghan security forces have been abused and tortured.
Cpl. Fernando Arduengo, 28, of Markham, Ont., acknowledged the significance of the detainee story and said he understands that it needs to be told.
"Yes, there's stuff that happens here that's really negative, but my personal opinion of it is we're doing a hell of a lot of good things, and for it to get sidelined - it kind of sucks that things happen that way," Arduengo said.
"My wish is that the stories that are covered are on the positive things that we do. What we're doing here is we're trying to establish peace and security for these people."
Reconnaissance Squadron has handled two detainees since they were deployed shortly after Christmas, Graham said. And while none of the soldiers want to see the rights of the prisoners violated, certain realities exist in a country such as Afghanistan, he added.
"We certainly don't want them to be tortured, we don't want them to be abused, we want a process to be followed the way there is at home," Graham said.
"Ideally, we want them to follow exactly the same rules and regulations that we have, but that's not going to happen. That's not the way this country is."
For Arduengo, the handling of detainees is simple: "Treat them the way you would like to be treated."
"If they took you down, we obviously know they wouldn't be nice - at all. But how would you like to be treated? I think that's how we go about it."
Graham said most soldiers know how the system in Ottawa works, and often what looks like a lack of political support back home is little more than an opposition party's effort to score points against the government.
"All the soldiers understand that in a democracy, that's the way it works," he said.
"As long as we're sent here and we're given the tools that we need to do the job here, political debate back home is fine, and that's a good thing in a democracy."
"As long as we're getting everything we need to do our job here - the job that we've been asked to come and do - I think the guys understand the way the system works back home."
Which is why, when it comes to catching up on current events, many soldiers prefer to get their news from a class of schoolchildren than from reading Canadian newspapers or watching television.
Sgt. Dave Camp, who commands a section of engineers attached to the Dragoons, said he has hundreds of letters of support from countless school kids in his home town of Shelburne, N.S.
He plans to hand-write replies to each and every one.
"I don't know - I guess it's my upbringing," Camp said. "I'll be awful disappointed in myself if I don't get it done."
Camp said he's only heard talk about the detainee controversy, but he said it's disappointing that it has overshadowed Canada's efforts to help the people of Afghanistan.
"That might be a bad thing ... but the cases of bad, if it occurred, is a fraction of the good that's being done," he said.
"If people are going to run with the bad, they're going to run with the bad. In the end, the good is still going on, and I'm still doing my job."

Red Friday Rally in Petawawa

WOW! WE SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!

The turn out of Support was amazing.


Pictured here: Lisa Miller, Karen Boire, Prime Minister Stephan Harper, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor

Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks at the Red Rally in Petawawa.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today addressed a Red Friday rally in support of Canadian troops in Petawawa, Ontario. The Prime Minister began his remarks by lauding those in attendance for standing by the Canadian Forces and its mission in Afghanistan.
“I’d like to thank you for the incredible amount of strength and support you have displayed over the last 12 months while hundreds of members from CFB Petawawa were deployed in Afghanistan,” said Prime Minister Harper.
The Prime Minister spoke of their heroic acts in Afghanistan, noting that nine soldiers from the base were recently honoured for their service. The Prime Minister went on to speak of the importance of ensuring Canadians from coast-to-coast are made aware of their stories of professionalism, bravery, and selflessness.
“Unfortunately, these soldiers didn’t get the attention they deserved, because their stories were eclipsed by arguments in the House of Commons over the allegations of Taliban prisoners. I sincerely hope their stories get told when the Governor General formally awards their decorations,” said Prime Minister Harper.
This is the second year that Red Friday rallies have been held across the country. The event grew out of the “Wear Red Friday” campaign, which was started by family members of soldiers from CFB Petawawa in 2006.

Canada's top soldier reminded the audience that on the other end of the world, their fellow soldiers were braving 50-degree heat, carrying 45-kilogram backpacks, and fighting elusive enemies while simultaneously battling endless clouds of desert dust and dirt.
But Gen. Rick Hillier told them that the weekly Red Friday rallies make a difference.
"You sometimes can be forgiven for feeling alone (in Afghanistan)," he said.
"But when they hear about what you are doing, when they see video and pictures of it - and they will - you can actually watch their eyes grow big."
"They understand that at the end of that 12,000-kilometre trail, they're supported by you from back home, and they're remembered."

Show our support for our troops... Wear Red on Fridays!

The Engineer's flag proudly waves in the crowd. CHIMO!

We support our troops.

Our Wear Red on Friday Ladies: Lisa Miller and Karen Boire pictured in the foreground.

Prime Minister Harper's Speech:
PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER PAYS TRIBUTE TO TROOPS AT RED FRIDAY RALLY
May 11, 2007PETAWAWA


Thank you, Gordon O'Connor, for your generous introduction - and for providing the kind of leadership that only a real military man can provide.Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your warm, enthusiastic welcome.It's great to be here on Red Friday. After all, you created this weekly national celebration of our troops.Give yourselves here at Petawawa a big, well-deserved round of applause.You deserve the applause - and not just for inventing Red Friday.But because of the incredible strength and support you have displayed over the last 12 months while hundreds of troops from CFB Petawawa have been deployed in Afghanistan.I know it hasn't been easy.This community has had more losses to mourn than any other base in Canada.But you have stood firm in support of our troops.Because you're so proud of them.And so you should be.Last month, nine soldiers from Petawawa were honoured for their work in Afghanistan.Two were awarded the Star of Military Valour, five the Medal of Military Valour, and two more were Mentioned in Dispatches.But, sadly, the attention has not been on them.Unfortunately, these soldiers did not get the attention they deserved.Because their stories were eclipsed by arguments in the House of Commons over media reports based on information from Taliban prisoners I sincerely hope their stories get told when the Governor General formally awards their decorations.But in the meantime, let's give a well-deserved hand to those medal recipients who are here today.
Private Jess Larochelle
Private Michael O'Rourke
Corporal Jason Funnell
Corporal Joseph Ruffolo
Master-Corporal Sean Niefer
Master-Corporal Richard Harris
Friends, there are too many unsung heroes in Afghanistan.Not just Canadians, but all the NATO soldiers who are there, with the United Nations, helping the Afghan people reclaim and rebuild their war-ravaged country.You know the story; the link between 9-11 and Afghanistan, the oppression Afghans endured under the Taliban, and the risk of terrorism coming here if we don't confront it there.You also know about the progress we made - progress that could not be possible unless our men and women in uniform put themselves on the line:
The return of democratic elections,
The revival of human rights and freedoms for women,
The reconstruction of schools, health care facilities and the basic infrastructure of a functional economy.You also know that our work has not ended.We can't just put down our weapons and hope for peace.We can't set arbitrary deadlines and wish for the best.And we can't let anyone get away with tarnishing the reputation of the Canadian Forces as the most professional, disciplined and effective soldiers in the world. We can't.And we won't. Because we know where we stand.We know what we stand for.And we know who we stand with.The proud and courageous military men and women of the True North Strong and Free.God bless the work they do.God bless all of you, their families and friends.
And God bless Canada.

From Petawawa Post:

"Wearing red on Friday is like giving our troops a huge round of applause"

by Lisa Brazeau
Like an undulating ocean of red and CADPAT green, a literal sea of supporters flowed down Petawawa Boulevard waving Canadian flags, banners and handmade signs. In an impressive show of appreciation for the men and women of the Canadian
Forces and their families, thousands turned out for homegrown Red Friday Rally and March of Military Appreciation, filling the parking lot at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 517 with the signature colour. " Wearing red on Friday is like giving our troops a huge round of applause. When we all wear red together, it adds volume to our voices in colour. It speaks of our support, our pride and our appreciation for our Canadian Forces members and their families." said Lisa Miller, who with Karen Boire
brought Canada-wide attention to the grassroots Red Fridays Campaign, a movement encouraging people to wear red on Fridays as a show of support for Canadian Forces."When we gather together, like today, boy oh boy, is that voice loud," she said. Miller and Boire, the “Red Friday Ladies”, worked closely with 580 CFRA last year to bring a massive Ottawa Red Friday rally to Parliament Hill, and wanted to bring the initiative to the home front where so many have seen their loved ones deploy to Afghanistan, and so many soldiers have paid the ultimate sacrifice.
"No matter how many people show up, whether it be 15 or 15,000, it makes the rally, and the message we're sending, a success," noted Boire.
Like ‘Red Fridays’, the local rally also garnered national attention; among the dignitaries was Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Minister of National Defence Gordon O'Connor, and Chief of the Defence Staff Gen Rick Hillier. Local dignitaries Renfrew- Nipissing- Pembroke MP and MPP Cheryl Gallant and John Yakabuski, Town of Petawawa Mayor Bob Sweet, 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group Commander Col Denis Thompson and CFB/ASU Petawawa Commander LCol Dave
Rundle were also in attendance. "These rallies and all the other demonstrations of support are immensely important to those of us in uniform and I don't need to tell this crowd about sacrifice, service or duty. You live it every day," said Col Thompson, who through personal experience, attested to the positive impact local support has had on morale overseas. "It's significant, it does resonate here, and frankly it gives our efforts real meaning."

The idea of red Fridays began as an e-mail out of the United States, which Miller and Boire reworded for a Canadian audience and began distributing it to friends and family. As the effort grew, the pair began promoting the initiative beyond the borders of Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley. To date successful rallies have been held in numerous coummunities including Barrie, Toronto, Kingston, and now, in Petawawa.
The Prime Minister applauded the Petawawa community not just for fanning the flames of the Red Friday movement, "but because of the incredible strength and support this community has displayed over the past 12 months while hundreds of troops from CFB Petawawa have been deployed in Afghanistan," he said. "I know that it hasn't been easy. This community has had more losses to mourn than any other base in this country. But you have stood firm in support of our troops because you're so proud of them and you should be." He spoke of the numerous unsung heroes in Afghanistan, not just Canadians but everyone who has had a part in helping
the Afghan people reclaim and rebuild their war ravaged country. He also noted that nine soldiers from the base were recently honoured for their service overseas. " You know about the progress we've made," he said, "progress that would not be possible
unless our men and women put themselves on the line." It’s progress made possible,
too, by the support Canadians have for their military and the mission in Afghanistan, said Minister O'Connor. "I've been to Afghanistan three times, and I can tell you how important it is for our troops over there to know that this mission has the support of Canadians, a mission that is critical to the future of Afghanistan," he said. "Today, through this rally, we can remind our troops that we are behind them 100 per cent."
The rally, he added, is also an opportunity to acknowledge the sacrifices made by military families, and the "vital support they provide to our men and women in uniform, sustaining them while they carry out their duties. Thank them for all they do to keep the Canadian Forces strong."
In appreciation of the efforts of the "Red Friday Ladies", Petawawa Mayor Bob Sweet presented Miller and Boire with Town of Petawawa Medals, which conveys the gratitude and appreciation of the mayor and council of Petawawa.

Cambridge Royal Highland Fusiliers

I'd like to thank Sue, for sharing her pictures with us that she had taken during Prince Andrew's visit to Cambridge. I wish I could have been there. A big THANK YOU Sue!




Royal Highland Fusiliers marching in Cambridge.

Unfurling the flags after permission granted.

Prince Andrew visits with military families

and visitors in the bleachers.

Note: If you have any photos that you'd like to share, send them along with a description to my email address -because, together we can share in the happy and the sad times together.. as we are military families and friends.

A Big HUA for Canada's Engineers!

Canadian Engineers Detonate Bomb

Near Pakistan Border

Rusty Bucket Packed With Explosives and Wired to a Black Battery Box .
By CP
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan — Canadian military engineers fought fire with fire Tuesday as they safely detonated a crude roadside bomb in a cloud of flame and smoke near this border town in southern Afghanistan.
The soldiers of Engineer Squadron, attached to the Royal Canadian Dragoons, tried in vain to use a remote-control robot to split apart the device — a rusty bucket packed with explosives and wired to a black battery box.
After severing the wires from a distance, the engineers and a team of explosive experts dispatched from Kandahar Airfield used their own high-powered explosive to reduce the device to little more than bits of rubble.
When it was over, all that was left was a hot, blackened crater in the middle of a parched, barren tract of land just a few kilometres from the Pakistan border.
As soldiers examined the charred hole, section commander Sgt. Dave Camp beamed with the satisfaction of a job well done.
“It was a good day,” Camp said. “It’s gone, and done, and nobody got killed.”
Bomb a work in progress
The device, which was reported Monday by a commander with Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, was found above ground and well away from the road — unusual for an improvised explosive device, or IED, in Afghanistan.

That suggests whomever built the device was still in the process of preparing it when they were spotted, said Camp.
It’s also possible it was placed there in an effort to learn about Canadian tactics, he added.
“I’d have to say it was something that was in progress,” he said. “It’s an awful waste of valuable resources on their part to just let it go for the sake of watching us ... it was the start of something.”
Also Tuesday, a Canadian patrol that included soldiers from 2nd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment and members of the Afghan National Army was attacked near the village of Howz-e-Madad, about 30 kilometres west of Kandahar city, a Canadian Forces spokesman said.
”The patrol was engaged by multiple insurgents using small arms and rocket-propelled grenades,” Lieut. (Navy) John Nethercott said in a statement.
The engagement lasted about three hours, the statement said. There were no Canadian or local Afghan casualties, and no word on how many Taliban insurgents were killed.
A similar attack lasting about six hours happened in the area on Monday, with no Canadian casualties reported.

Taliban Resources Depleting
In the last month, Canadian troops have reported a marked decline in the level of sophistication of many of the explosive devices they encounter, a sign that Taliban know-how and resources have been severely depleted in their ongoing battles with coalition forces.

“The stuff is there, but the talent and the knowledge base is fast disappearing,” Camp said. “The people that are coming in to replace them don’t have as much experience, and it’s taking them a bit longer to figure out.”

Canadian soldiers are back in the Spin Boldak district in a major way, in part to discover the routes insurgents may be using to move back and forth with relative ease across the Pakistan border.

It’s all part of an effort to disrupt the flow of Taliban resources into the country and up into those areas where they prefer to engage coalition forces: Helmand province and the Maywand, Panjwaii and Zhari districts of Kandahar province, west of Kandahar city.

“Not even a year ago, the only people in Panjwaii were the Taliban and it was outright war,” Camp said.

“Now you go, and there’s little girls going to school. That says a lot right there — not just little boys, but little girls going to school. To drive up and down those roads, there’s a lot of kids, and a lot of them are waving.”

Happy Mother's Day from Afghanistan Video 1

Our Canadian Soldiers currently serving in Afghanistan are sending "Happy Mother's Day Wishes" to their Moms, Mothers-in-law, sisters, wives, fiancees ... Some of the husbands have noted that they will be spending their baby's first Mother's Day in Afghanistan..and send their love to their wives back home. My kleenex is beside my computer. They touch so many hearts. I'll try posting the videos as soon as I see them.

"Happy Mothers' Day to my fellow Moms :)"

Happy Mother's Day from Afghanistan Video 2

Happy Mother's Day from Afghanistan Video 2A

Happy Mother's Day from Afghanistan Video 3

Happy Mother's Day from Afghanistan Video 4

Happy Mother's Day from Afghanistan Video 4A

Happy Mother's Day from Afghanistan Video 5

Happy Mother's Day from Afghanistan Video 6

Happy Mother's Day from Afghanistan Video 6A

Happy Mother's Day from Afghanistan Video 7

Happy Mother's Day from Afghanistan Video 8

Happy Mother's Day from Afghanistan Video 9

Plane Accident in Egypt Claims Life of Corporal Benoit Chevalier

Our hearts are heavy as we grieve alongside the family and friends of Corporal Benoit Chevalier. Chevalier was a control operator from 3 Wing, Bagotville, Quebec.
Our prayers are with you.

Cpl Benoit Chevalier

Nine dead as French military aircraft crashes in Egypt's Sinai
05-06-2007, 10h21
CAIRO

Nine members of a multinational peacekeeping force, eight of them French, were killed Sunday when their plane crashed while attempting an emergency landing in northern Egypt.
"Nine people on board the plane died in the crash. This included eight French crew members and one Canadian," an Egyptian security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) and French military sources said they had received reports that a French transport aircraft belonging to the peacekeeping force had crashed but did not immediately confirm any casualties.
According to Egyptian security sources on the crash site, the light aircraft suffered a technical failure and tried to perform an emergency landing on a road near the town of Nakhl, a remote area in the central Sinai mountains.
One of the plane's wings smashed into a truck carrying large containers, sending the aircraft crashing into a hill, said the sources, quoting the truck's driver, who survived the accident.
"Yes, unfortunately we have had reports of a plane crash. It was a French aircraft carrying eight French crew members. There was one other officer on board whose identity we are still trying to get," the MFO director general's representative, Normand St. Pierre, told AFP.
"It was a training mission and we lost touch with the plane shortly after takeoff," he said.
The French embassy in Cairo said it was still checking the reports and did not immediately confirm any casualties.
The plane was heading south from the northern Sinai airport of Al-Gurah, where the MFO has one of its two bases in the peninsula.
"The two pilots radioed in to report a technical failure and warn that they would attempt an emergency landing, after which we lost contact with them," a source at Al-Gurah airport said.
The Canadian embassy could not immediately confirm the death of one of its nationals.
Witnesses in the area told AFP and Egyptian public television that the plane smashed into a truck as it was attempting its emergency landing before crashing into the side of a mountain.
"The aircraft is a twin engine transport plane which carries out liaison missions and constitutes France's contribution to the force," a French military source in Cairo said.
The MFO is an independent peacekeeping force not related to the United Nations, created as a result of the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty and funded mainly by the two neighbours and the United States.
The approximately 2,000-strong military force was set up in 1982 and includes troops from 11 different countries, including a large US contingent. It is based in two camps in the Sinai peninsula.
According to the MFO's website, the aircraft is a DHC-6 Twin Otter which provides transportation between the force's two camps.

Statement by the Minister of National Defence
on the Death of Corporal Benoit Chevalier

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(May 6, 2007) - The Honourable Gordon O'Connor, Minister of National Defence, issued the following statement today on the death of Corporal Benoit Chevalier:"We deeply mourn today's loss of a dedicated Canadian Forces member who died in an aircraft accident in the Sinai in Egypt. Corporal Benoit Chevalier, an Aerospace Control Operator from 3 Wing Bagotville (Quebec), was part of a team of six air traffic controllers deployed to provide flight services for the Multinational Forces and Observers in the Sinai.A highly regarded and important member of the Canadian Forces personnel assigned to this operation, Corporal Chevalier was fulfilling a key role in the Canadian contingent. His comrades will forever remember him as an extremely thoughtful and professional airman.My heartfelt sympathies and thoughts are with the family and friends of Corporal Chevalier, who should be extremely proud of this member's honourable service to his country. I would also like to extend my deepest condolences to the families and friends of the other personnel who died in this accident.We will mourn the memory of this brave Canadian, who echoes our values as a nation helping to spread security and stability across the globe. I am deeply honoured by the commitment and professionalism that Corporal Chevalier demonstrated."


Message from Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaelle Jean, Governor General of Canada, on the death of Corporal Benoit Chevalier

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(May 6, 2007) - "My husband Jean-Daniel Lafond and I were deeply saddened by the news of the terrible accident that occurred in Sinai, claiming the life of Corporal Benoit Chevalier, Control Operator from 3 Wing, Bagotville, Quebec.
Corporal Chevalier belonged to the Canadian Contingent of the Multinational Forces and Observers in El Gorah, of which Canada is among the 11 participating states. Members of the Canadian Forces involved in this operation are committed to carrying out peace efforts in this region. We applaud their remarkable work.I join Canadians in offering our most sincere condolences to the family, loved ones and colleagues of Corporal Chevalier.Our thoughts are with our fellow Frenchwomen and men who are also mourning the loss of numerous soldiers as a result of this tragic accident."

Sleeping Buddha

The Sleeping Buddha:

Portraits of a Changing Afghanistan

by: Hamida Ghafour

The Sleeping Buddha:
Portraits of a Changing Afghanistan
Author: Hamida Ghafour
Format: Hardcover Published: May 1, 2007
Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0 in
ISBN: 1552786447
Published By: McArthur & Co.

'Who is she?' asks a voice.
'A foreigner,' someone answers.
'No, she's Afghan. Can't you tell?'
'She is not Afghan - she is writing.'

Excerpt: A young boy of about ten sidles up to me and watches my notebook intently. He looks completely puzzled. He doesn't understand that a woman can write. The image of a woman holding a pen is far more alluring and powerful than anything the politicians here today have to say. The crowd grows and grows. Some laugh and point. I am conscious of my black scarf slipping from my head. Hamida Ghafour's family fled Afghanistan after the Russian invasion, when she was just a child. In 2003 she goes back as a journalist to cover her country's reconstruction, and finds it utterly unlike the world her parents have brought her up to believe in. In the Kabul of the 1970s, women wore miniskirts and drove buses; now few dare leave the house without the chadari. It is a society divided: between communists and mujahideen, between those who stayed and those who left - like Hamida herself. All around her is the West's first post-9/11 experiment with Islamic democracy. But the ordinary people she meets are engaged in a different kind of nation building: a 'beautician without borders' whose school teaches its female pupils economic independence; a woman campaigning fiercely against warlords and armed thugs for a seat in her country's new parliament; an archaeologist digging for a giant sleeping Buddha, a symbol of Afghanistan's lost civilisation.Hamida must sift through the rubble of her family's past to understand the nation's future - and to reclaim her sense of what it means to be Afghan. Review: `Extraordinary ... her eyewitness accounts provide powerful insights into recent events from the perspective of a western woman, but with the inside track of an Afghan.'

About the Author: Hamida Ghafour's family left Afghanistan for Toronto in 1981, following the Soviet invasion. After working for Canada's national broadsheets she moved to London in September 2001, where she continued her career as a journalist. In 2003 Hamida was posted to Kabul to report on Afghanistan’s reconstruction for The Telegraph and Globe and Mail. She now lives in London and covers Islamic affairs for various international publications.

I came across a review about this book and decided to pass it on. Currently it is not available, but can be ordered through Chapters. http://www.chapters.ca/ It may help with understanding, from the eyes of an Afghan (female) returning to her homeland and perceiving before and current lifestyles. After all, many of our family members and friends have been a significant part- a part of history- in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Over the past 40 years, Afghanistan has suffered through invasions by both of the world's superpowers, a civil war, fundamentalist Taliban rule, communist oppression and ongoing attacks by the world's most notorious insurgent groups. Life expectancy is 43 years, comparable to life in medieval Europe. Only 11% of the rural population has access to clean drinking water. Most Afghans have never walked an hour beyond their village with many so isolated they've never seen a car or a television. In 2003 Canadian journalist Hamida Ghafour went to Afghanistan to cover the rebuilding of her native country while tracing her roots in a rapidly changing landscape. Over twenty years earlier she and her brother were whisked away to India with her parents amidst the fighting between the Russian-supported communist government and the mujahideen. At the time her parents imagined they would be away for a handful of years at most until the restoration of peace. After four years they moved to Toronto and are still waiting for the bloodshed to end back home. Ghafour's account (which we read from pre-published proofs) of the experiment in turning the dysfunctional tribal country into a democratic Muslim society raises many questions about the assumptions we've made in the West about what's best for a people largely living in the Middle Ages. "Afghanistan was, and still is, an extreme example of the debate within the Muslim world about modernity, its relationship with the West, the role of religion and the role of women," she writes. Ghafour comes to realize that not only can't you go home again, sometimes you dodge a bullet by getting the hell out. "I couldn't shake off the sense of a near brush, and that I was watching my life as it could have been," she writes. But not all ex-pats were similarly chilled. Many she met were moved to kiss the tarmac upon arrival and felt liberated. "Hundreds of young Afghans in their twenties who had grown up or were born abroad were now returning to sort out their identity crises," she observes. "Some took the opportunity to unleash all the pent-up machismo they had to tone down in the feminized West - Apache helicopters rushing through the skies, AK-47s slung over the arm of every man, it was like a real-life video game." Most of those young people, however, were men. As a woman travelling the length and breadth of a conservative, patriarchal country, Ghafour was continually asked, with varying degrees of hostility: Are you married? Do you have a husband? Do you have a son? Where is your father? Who gave your permission to come here? Ghafour, gutsy in her own right in conversing with warlords and travelling to the most dangerous corners of the country, profiles the courage of a number of women she met in Afghanistan, from her cousin who defied death threats to run for office to a hairdresser teaching previously house-bound women a trade. In the West, Ghafour leads the life imagined by her grandmother, also named Hamida, a member of Afghanistan's Awakening of Youth movement in the 1940s. She was an active member of a group of reformers who campaigned for liberal change including opening women's schools and the abolition of the veil and forced marriage. Hunting for magazine articles written by her grandmother, Ghafour learns this bit of heritage is part of the country's past which has been stolen, burned or blown to bits. Books that survived the communist purges were looted by the mujahideen and what was left was incinerated by the Taliban. Ghafour notes the story of a six-tonne Buddha seized by police as it was being dragged across a railway station platform in Peshawar, while other antiquities slip more quietly across the border. She interviews an Afghan archaeologist who weeps at the destruction of the famed Bamiyan Buddhas, built into a mountainside sometime between the third and fifth centuries, blown up by the Taliban in 2001 before 9/11. "Afghans know their country is centuries behind in education, infrastructure, economy. But their immense heritage, their role as inheritors of humanity's rich history, was proof that they were at least a civilized people," she writes. "The destruction of the Buddhas took that away." About the only thing this impoverished, landlocked country isn't short of is guns. The influx of modern weaponry stepped up during the Soviet occupation in the late '80s, with over $4 billion in weapons supplied by the U.S. to the insurgents, including the shoulder-held, laser-guided Stinger missiles which helped turn the tide of the revolt against the Russians. After the Russians left, American interest waned and no effort was made to clear the landscape of weapons for 14 years before a disarmament program was declared in 2003. Today it's estimated there are 40 million small weapons in Afghanistan for a population of 31 million, and good luck getting 'em back. Ghafour quotes a United Nations official who says Afghanistan's attitude toward guns "makes the National Rifle Association look like a bunch of pinko softies." To illustrate the years Afghanistan was used as a staging area for al-Qaida, Ghafour interviews members of the Khadr family, who left Canada to fight for the mujahideen about the same time the author's family arrived on our shores to escape the bloodshed there. Today some of the Khadr family members are back in Toronto, while son Omar continues to be held at Guantanamo Bay as an "enemy combatant." "The Khadrs are the sort of Islamic fundamentalists who crystallize for some what they think is wrong with a multicultural society," Ghafour writes. "They denounce freedom of speech and liberal attitudes to sex but live on the dole with taxpayers' money. They want to force the world to live under a caliphate but still insist on their share of free health care." The family matriarch bemoans the fact that her son Abdul Karim, returned to Canada for medical treatment after he was wounded while with al-Qaida, is being polluted by Western culture. Held out for particular disdain is Adbul Karim's favourite show: The Family Guy. "It is the worst program. It's about a little boy who cannot even talk, he's in diapers. And it's about how he can get rid of his mother, how he can kill his family." What the deuce! The UN estimates there are 850 "illegally armed groups" which are responsible for an unrelenting crimewave across the country. Ghafour is critical of America's approach in dealing with some these groups as part of its plan to cleanse the countryside of Taliban and al-Qaida operatives. "The lack of synergy between the Americans and NATO is obvious," Ghafour writes. "The United States is funding and arming warlords to capture territory held by Taliban insurgents, while ISAF (the International Security Assistance Force) is supposed to protect civilians from the same commanders who see their power increase as a result of an infusion of arms and cash, and generally invest into the drugs trade." Ghafour says the rush to parliamentary elections before the establishment of security across the country guarantees a continuance of the instability plaguing the country. "The presidential and parliamentary elections cost $249 million. For that money, half of parliament is made up of warlords; 40 are linked with armed groups, 24 belong to criminal gangs, 19 are suspected war criminals and 17 are drug traffickers," she notes. Instead of a Marshall Plan to rebuild (or in most instances plain build) infrastructure, Ghafour says post-9/11 Afghanistan was deemed "a free-market project," and the country opened its doors to a breathtaking influx of diplomats, consultants and non-governmental agencies (NGOs) with experience in dealing with "post-conflict zones." "They were there for 'capacity building' and 'empowering women' and sorting out 'post-traumatic stress disorder' and 'gender issues.' There is hardly an assessment of what they have accomplished and no one seems to be held responsible," she writes. "The rebuilding of a rural, collectivist, insular and conservative culture is being overseen by people who have been raised in post-industrial, individualistic, capitalist cultures." Foreign aid, NGOs and democracy, however, could bow to the transformative powers of the media, and it may be that newspapers, satellite dishes and the Internet will ultimately inspire the traumatized country to put down their guns and pick up their joysticks. While televised candidate speeches didn't exactly capture the public's imagination in 2005, Ghafour points out that another kind of election was rocking the vote. "Afghan Star," a version of American Idol, was sweeping the country as 1,000 hopefuls, including some young women, competed for the coveted title and a $3,000 prize. Another big hit is a makeover show where a traditional-looking Afghan boy is plucked off the street at random and is given a Western-style hairdo and wardrobe. Which sure beats the alternative when you're plucked off the street in Kabul. In short, what Afghanistan may need is less Condi Rice and more Ryan Seacrest. And more modest, simpler gestures may prove effective in bringing hope to a place used to bitter disappointment. "Afghanistan would have to be healed by ordinary people, Afghan or not, doing a million small deeds simply because they wanted to," Ghafour says.

Canadian Memorial Park Dedicated in Bosnia

Left to right, Major-General Stuart Beare, Commander Land Force Training Doctrine, Mr. Hamdija Lipovaca, Mayor of Bihac, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Canadian Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzigovina Mr. David Hutchings symbolically plant a maple tree in Bihac's newly dedicated Canadian Memorial Park. The park is dedicated to the many Canadian peacekeepers who have served in Bosnia-Herzegovina since 1992. Between 1992 and 2007, more than 40,000 Canadians served in the Balkan countries; twenty-three of them lost their lives there. Major-General Beare served in Bosnia for several years and was in command of the Canadian, British and Dutch Multi-National Brigade (North-West) September 2003 to September 2004.

May 5, 2007
Bosnian Park Dedicated To Canadian Forces

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(May 5, 2007) - In recognition of the significant contribution the Canadian Forces (CF) have made to help bring peace and security in the Bihac region of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Mayor of Bihac, Mr. Hamdija Lipovaca, announced the dedication of a local park, Canadian Memorial Park, during a ceremony held in Bihac earlier today.With this dedication, Canadian Memorial Park will serve as a permanent reminder of the sacrifices made by members of the CF, especially those who were wounded or killed while serving as part of peace-support operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Since 1992, more than 40,000 CF members have served in the Balkan region, of which 23 Canadians lost their lives in the service of peace."The men and women of the Canadian Forces have left a very positive impression of Canada upon the people of Bihac," said Mayor Lipovaca. "It is fitting then that this park dedication serve as a lasting memory of Canada's devotion to helping the people of Bihac return to a peaceful way of life," he added."Our soldiers, sailors and Air Force personnel have formed deep-rooted bonds of friendship with the people of Bihac they have had the privilege of meeting and working with over the past decade and a half," said Major-General Stuart Beare, who attended the ceremony as the senior Canadian military representative. "We in the Canadian Forces, as well as all Canadians, share a great sense of pride knowing vital infrastructure has been re-built and there is now burgeoning prosperity evident with busy shops, crowded cafes and bustling streets," he added.Canadian Memorial Park is located along the Una River, which runs through the town of Bihac. This specific site was chosen for its peaceful setting and popularity as a destination for both the local population and tourists.