Send Real Humanitarian Aid

This week was a good week. I can feel myself distentangling from the web of winter blues. My UBBT7 numbers this week reflect this - pushups, horse stance minutes, kicks, and knitting hours are way up. Sifu Brinker has published a challenge for Valentine's Day - 1000 each of situps and pushups - and I'm pumped for that.

I am very happy with my knitting. I have finished my first charity project - a scarf. Though it seems insignificant at the moment, I envision a complete care package to be donated by the end of the year; quality wool scarves, socks, hats, at least one blanket, and more if time permits. All canadian-made yarn of course. I have been wondering where this package will end up; Canada? Tibet? Siberia? Afghanistan? Who knows? If nothing else, this project is fueling my sense of responsibility to everyone else in this world. Thoughts are leading to acts, and that was the purpose behind some of my UBBT7 goals.

I've just finished a MUST READ book relating to my comments above. "A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice." by Malalai Joya. This woman, born in Afghanistan in 1978, was raised in the refugee camps of Iran and Pakistan; became a teacher in secret girls' schools in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime, helped established a medical clinic and orphanage, and most significantly, continues to speak out about the injustices that Afghan citizens face under the US-sanctioned present-day government. It is a book that clearly expresses the reality that the Afghan people live under; and we must be cognizant of this point of view if we dare to hope of a future where world peace figures into the picture.

"Every time you kill an angry young man overseas, you're creating fifteen more who will come after you." Major-General Andrew Leslie of Canada

Claire Finnamore
Student Member: Silent River Kung Fu
http://www.silentriverkungfu.com