thoughts.. not in colombia

Colombia: A democratic solution for economic violence

2010-05-09T21:06:00.000-07:00

In the interests of spreading academic work... i shall place part of the paper on a blog that no one ever reads. i tried... right?

In Eastern Colombia, in the Municipality of Saravena, Colombia, three community leaders were killed by the Colombian military on August 5, 2004. Jorge Prieto was the president of the Arauca Brand of the health workers union ANTHOC; Hector Alirio Martinez was the leader of the Arauca Department Association of Peasant Farmers; and the third was Leonel Goyeneche, who was a member of the largest trade union in Colombia, the CUT. According to Amnesty International, those responsible for the crime were soldiers who were part of the Battalion of the XVIII Brigade of the army.

The assassinations sparked international outrage, and in a rare conviction four people including army Lieutenant Juan Pablo Ordóñez and three soldiers were charged and sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2007. An investigation showed that the three activists had not been killed in combat, but rather in the back of the head. Violence is not new to Colombia, and a civil war has claimed thousands of lives and displaced more than 3 million internally. Depending on which model of conflict is used to analyze the situation, peace building would require different actions. This paper examines the international forces that are mediated through national policy to explain state violence against non violent activists.

Edward Azar: Protracted Social Conflict
The effects of trade, foreign aid, and multinational companies have a large role in the violence. Colombia is the only South American country to remain mired in conflict, despite many shared commonalities that exist in the region. Edwards Azar’s theory of Protracted Social Conflict (PSC) provides a useful framework for understanding the violence in Arauca. PSC theory uses the social group as the unit of analysis and understands conflict by a social group’s relation with the state. Social policies and democratic procedures can exclude a segment of the population based upon their social identity. Describing the kind of governance in which a PSC is most likely is one that “tends to be monopolized by the dominant identity group or a coalition of hegemonic groups’ which use the state to maximize their interests at the expense of others” This theory helps us understand ‘violence from above’ that targets nonviolent civil resistance to state policies. Oil development in Arauca is seen as a benefit to the governing institution that is centralized in the metropolitan capital Bogota`, and resistance to the policies is seen as illegitimate. This creates a clash of interests between the citizens of Arauca and their government.

Cecilia Lopez, a presidential candidate in the 2009 election contributed an essay to the book Colombia: Essays on Conflict, Peace and Development, says that poverty is an effect of limited democracy and is not the driving force of the conflict. Poverty alone does not cause violence, “the cause… and the resulting escalation in violence, is the insufficiently acknowledged political, economic, and social exclusion which has characterized its [Colombia’s] society.” The solution is to fundamentally change the power structures and opportunities for citizen participation. Unless citizens have a greater say in determining their own fate, the cycle of poverty and violence will continue.

Democracy is also hindered because of the high levels of violence. Armed groups on the left and the right have created a climate of fear and persecution during election time that impacts voting procedures. Politicians and judges have been targeted for their political beliefs which inhibit specific ideas and political platforms from ever being voted for or against. The structures of violence are so ingrained that even after the political will has been established to change things; it will take many years to implement democratic forms. Only until violence subsides and people can be involved in politics without fear, can there truly be democratic participation.

As illustrated by the deaths of the three community leaders, the military was directly responsible for the deaths of peaceful activists, which can only be interpreted that their work was interpreted as a threat by the ruling powers. Human rights group US Labor and Education Project (USLEAP) has documented the impunity of trade unionist is at 95%. The fact that some people were held responsible for this crime was due only to international outrage rather than recognition that the actions were wrong. By initially accusing the men as guerrilla fighters to justify their deaths also shows that most likely this type of crime is not even seen as legitimate by the other social groups that the government does represent.
Accountability

The exclusion of large segments of Colombian society from political participation is a consistent grievance, and some have argued that this is the true root cause of the violent conflict. However, the narrative of human rights groups in Arauca faults the government in their complicity, but is not trying to call into question the legitimacy of the state as is the case in other conflicts.

As the example in Arauca showed, the community still appealed to the judicial system despite a narrative of complicity in the violence by other Colombian institutions. Two prominent and separate issues are pointed out in the narrative. One, that laws exist that are not being applied to perpetrators; secondly, that unjust laws exist that are being used to jail activists. In the same town that the three community leaders were killed, in 2002 hundreds of people were rounded up and closed off in the stadium on charges of ‘rebellion’. Tens of people were subsequently arrested. While many were released not long after, the arbitrary nature of arrests as well as the application and definition of ‘rebellion’ allow existing community tensions to be exacerbated by armed groups on a relational level. Activists claim that this charge is used to jail social activists and to criminalize legitimate protest.
By appealing to the existing system rather than rejecting it outright, shows that there is some degree of legitimacy despite the problems. As more and more favorable cases work themselves through the judiciary, perhaps more judges will be emboldened to apply the law, and controversial laws can be changed. Reinforcement can help strengthen and empower these institutions.

Azar’s theory does not account for the commitment to non-violence by the community in Saravena, and a rejection of all armed groups, yet the protracted conflict continues. Violence comes not only from above, but from guerrilla groups as well that operate in the area. Collier’s theory of a war economy can help explain the high levels and brutality of the violence, as well as the incentives for why the government is not responsive to the needs of such a large portion of its citizens.

Guatemala’s efforts to reform the judicial system creates needed democratic opening

2010-03-21T19:04:00.001-07:00

According to polls, perceptions of democracy are not very favorable in Central America, including Guatemala. But democracy means more than elections, and access to decision making power in all areas of life is strongly lacking. Political and economic freedoms are an integral part, if not a pre-requisite, to changing a country with vast social inequalities and reducing corruption and organized crime. Guatemala faces its biggest challenge in development due to political obstacles rather than a shortage of feasible ideas.

Guatemala signed peace accords in 1996 after a 36 year civil war, but current the crime rate remains one of the highest for a country not at war. Impunity plagues the small country, and the conviction rate remains below 2%. The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, CICIG, has been operating in Guatemala since 2008 to help reform the judicial system and dismantle organized crime. Clandestine security groups that are remnants of the civil war are believed to account for a majority of the violence. Human rights organizations championed the creation of the Commission, although it is widely regarded to be a more watered down version than previously designed. The democratic opening that enabled the existence of the Commission is an opening that can be taken full advantage of to strengthen the foundation for democratic participation in all areas of governance such as decisions over health care, education or police reform.

CICIG has had unprecedented success in its short two years. Separate from international courts, it is a hybrid court which is embedded within the local legal system. The goal is long lasting institutional reform, and legitimacy was gained by immediate success in some high profile cases. Other measures for reform include training, and efforts to increase collaboration with police and prosecution units; and Congress recently approved changes in policies such as immunity of public officials and ammunition and arms laws.

The Commission was catapulted into existence after the murder of three Parliamentarians from El Salvador; and the subsequent murder of the four police who were imprisoned for the crime. The incident highlighted the fact that organized crime was out of control and united broad sectors of society. Guatemala is frequently polarized into a right / left dichotomy, but public discussions can bring these two sides together for a common cause. Citizens often find that their ideal visions of the future are not that far apart such as the desire for a functioning judicial system and being able to feel secure.

Having been requested to renew its mandate in 2010 for another two years, momentum can build on top of what was already accomplished to further institutionalize the changes. Perhaps one of the most important initiatives is the involvement of more civilian participation for Supreme Court nominees. The Supreme Court, along with the government and judges, has historically not been well trusted as an institution trusted to protect human rights. More civilian control fosters legitimacy and accountability which in turn fosters increased interest in being involved in the first place.

Literature on hybrid courts has reported on the importance of an outreach strategy as key to creating lasting change and capacity. International efforts can be a catalyst for change, but long term reform depends on the degree to which civil society takes ownership of the initiative. Other countries, such as Sierra Leone, have experimented with outreach efforts for their hybrid court through town hall style meetings to discuss how trials are proceedings, and to answer any questions and concerns people might have. Not only do town hall meetings offer widespread educational opportunities to learn about the legal system, they foster a mutual understanding of important issues like justice and accountability. Most importantly, this is a time for creativity at the grassroots level. The challenges Guatemala faces should not be underestimated, but they should not be considered insurmountable either. CICIG has created an opening for increased democratic participation, which can be seized and expanded on and serve as a bold model of reform.

work doesn't make the person

2010-03-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

Does being a prostitute or a dancer damage your character? No. Is stripping an ideal to strive for? I would say no. I was asked - as a "feminist" wouldn't i support women stripping. I assume this concerns the idea of a woman being able to do anything she wants to do rather than looking at how ideal this type of work is. Putting the argument to the test: I think stripping is no better or worse than other degrading types of work. For me, working at Starbucks was degrading. People were rude, extremely disrespectful, and the pay was bad. Work is different from meaningful employment.

Women have entered the workforce in throngs, but have hardly broken into the power circles. ceo's and congress people are still overwhelmingly male. Granted, some dancers as well as some escorts do make quite a bit of money. During my union training someone mentioned that there was a union drive in LA for the prostitutes. I argue though, that is not normal, dancing is degrading, and a show run by males, paid by males, of the exploitation of the female body which does not enhance the freedom of women . just as working at wal-mart for low pay long hours and no health care when you have three kids is not liberating. Yes, women want work. But they want good work. As a feminist I am all for women choosing their type of work on their own terms. However, the idea that stripping is a great part time job designed for the ambitious college student is a far cry from reality. I won't pretend like any of my previous minimum wage part time jobs were great. I won't lie and say as a young woman it was so great to have employment.. and learn that your boss likes to go on power trips and that my time is worth shit. So those defending dancing should put it in the same category. taking off your clothes for pay is also degrading, and women rarely do this because they like it. Yes, people have to make choices in life, and sometimes life forces you into degrading, and demeaning employment - like stripping.

Show me a worker run cooperative owned and run by the dancers, and I'll show you my future child's mentor...

2010-02-23T19:22:00.000-08:00

to be continued- initial thought:
the mistake of Ayn Rand and to a lesser extent milton friedman is that ability honesty and non discrimination pays. however, doesn't starting ahead five spaces on a game board help you win? why wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that people would act in their interests to keep their privilege or advantage. corruption pays.

2010-02-11T12:19:00.001-08:00

I think Fukuyama had an interesting point about the “radius of trust” which seems to me it can be fostered and destroyed in any community or group, and some of these ties do not translate into trust of others, or may be trust within destructive groups.

I think this applies not only to developing countries but to poor communities within the richer countries as well. I’ve heard argued convincingly that in impoverished areas individualism can be detrimental. A community that already is impoverished will have fewer opportunities, and more obstacles. The success of the group is integral to the success of the individual – as one person cannot magically obtain affordable healthcare if the program does not exist. I don’t believe this takes away emphasis away from individual agency, but rather that an individual is situated within a community, and their successes are integrated. A strong sense of community can positively impact the quality of lives of people. In developing countries practically no safety nets exist for large segments of society, and communities / groups must fill that role. Although it seems that even in areas with strong social cohesion, violence can tear this down. Dictatorships seem to specialize in using terror with the exact intent to sow fear and distrust – which then hinders shared quality of life development.
As a problem this poses to development aid, perhaps this should be taken into account to NGO’s or other international organizations just as much as developing the ‘right program’ is.

Dependency theory vs. culture vs. geography:
I think neither theory can claim a monopoly on explaining economic development. As we discussed in class week, the importance of human agency plays a large role as well as strong leaders. Many factors influence the course a country is taking, and the extent to which each factor plays a role is more important than privileging one over the other. For example, massive foreign intervention has had a far more destabilizing effect in Guatemala than Peru. Rather than claim that foreign aid to dictatorships or corporate ownership of half a country does not hinder economic growth, a better question is to what extent

Some of the authors, particularly Mariono Grondona would use broad generalizations to support a theory that had too many exceptions. As one of the authors Mala Htun – on gender inequality points out that there are drastic differences among Latin American countries as well as within the countries themselves. While culture is important, I think there is not enough correlation to tie values to economic performance as many of the authors would like. The book we read last week discussed the interaction between civil servants and the central government; and the complex relationships between keeping ones job, balancing ties where one works and to whom one reports to. He adds that the incentive for better work performance is strongly tied to belief that the job will allow one to move up in rank, and that the job security will not be influenced by politics. While this is also ‘work culture’ it is quite disconnected from work ethic or ones belief in the value of a hard day’s work.

2010-02-04T12:00:00.000-08:00

atheist vs. me
who gave you morality?

one of the ten pillars of conflict resolution skills is communication. assertiveness, not aggression. non violence has nothing to do with being passive. Honest communication prevents you from holding grudges, and just keeping yourself honest with what you need in your life, and if you are giving yourself what you need.

I get to do a research project for one of my classes. have trouble narrowing it down though. Thinking about doing interviews for a restorative justice program if it exists. I wonder if it works as well for victims of vicious attacks in these types of programs or if it is mostly tailored to less violent crimes. It seems to work very well in juvenile small crime.. what about adults? vamos a ver.

got distracted by a pumpkin curry recipe. yum

my product

2009-11-17T14:26:00.001-08:00

Product: developing workplace processes and code to address various forms of conflict
Training - 3 hours (two evening of 1.5 hours, or 3 sessions during the lunch break)
Goal: institutionalizing workplace code to address the issues
What issues: sexism, racism, homosexuality, x,y,x.. addressing conflict in the workplace
Who: NGO’s (build the contact base, and most likely to want to improve in these areas)
Numbers: small groups.
Price: I see this as a product that we can begin as pro-bono conducted by students. Later on this could be a situation where new students could be the second facilitator and gain experience and be involved in the consulting group project. Eventually, I think this product could then charge on a pre-determined price. 3 hours = how much?
What is needed: create a framework of practice that will be used in all of these trainings. This will be the ICAR brand.Here is my idea about the framework that would need some professional input, using the example of a gender workshop:
Goal: awareness of gender stereotypes, establish processes and code that address sexism, and practices to confront and handle it in the workplace. Creation of a more productive and positive work environment
session 1: 1.5 hours
20 minutes: large group, general discussion of what sexism is, provide definitions,
- 10 min: small group discussion of stereotypes for males and females
- 10 min: share in large group what each small group discussed – collaboration of ideas
20 minutes: What kinds of issues / concerns does this create in the workplace? (eg promotions, childcare..)
- 10 Small group activity
- 10 Large group presentations
15 minutes: vision – what would the ideal workplace look like
Session 2: What are the workplace procedures that most appropriately prevent and address gender issues in the workplace

My idea behind this is the language learning model: that there is a general framework that has been developed – what needs to be learned first, etc. but for each topic, the teacher / consultant can modify the small group activity, or how people interact to best demonstrate the theory. The working groups could help come up with what theories should be presented in what order, and what could be covered in a few hours. I believe the part with the least amount of creativity involved would be the workplace code that would be most effective. This should be pre-developed. We could also offer advanced training to go more in depth in handling these issues.
Thoughts anyone?

consulting group

2009-11-10T06:00:00.001-08:00

How do a group of people with little business experience start one up? The beginning of the unfinished process began a few months ago.
Goals of the group: first, brainstorm. What are our ideas, what would a consulting group require? the goal is to have deliverables every two weeks so that we can move this process along. One of the people had experience with business plans, so for the next week, we used a template to get us going.
Concept:
Goals
product:
marketing analysis - who you are selling to, is there a market for it, who is your competition - what makes you different.

Concept: improving processes. Instead of an ngo or business having to hire a fulltime person they can hire a consultant. what we can offer is a variety of expertise from addressing conflict in the workplace to expertise in a specific area - like the effect of water on conflict.
Each time we meet - twice a month - the group gets bigger. last time we met with six MBA students from GW who were interested in partnering up. They read our concept and other documents we had put together on the wiki site. We had some nice input from a professor to start the ball rolling. It also helps that people in the conflict resolution program have a variety of life experiences. They recommended we really hammer out "who are we" what is it that we are offering - study other groups to see what they are doing. And come up with a product - one girl recommended a training program. I thought this would be interesting. after all, after teaching english i could come up with my own lesson plans based on a template. a professor could help create the framework, and students could do the training. one of my interests in this group is to be able to participate before i am a certified "expert" with a PhD. the more practice you get - you become good at it. like giving trainings even if i didn't have the theoretical background to develop the blueprint. but hey, that's ok! other people didn't like the training idea saying that it should be the last thing we develop. We decided to go ahead.
There are now three teams working on different things: analyzing the competition, etc. our next meeting we want to have
"1. Identify 5 products : details, hours, deliverables, feasibility and revenue prospect
2. Draft a list of main competitors: name, location, contact info
3. Draft a value proposition: What can we do better than anyone else?
4. Participant Expertise: Years, industry, experience
5. Develop a guiding framework for our work: simple and applicable.
6. Compile a list of all of our own contacts within the industry that we are willing to share
7. Organizational Structure: Leadership, consulting teams, responsibility and team building"

The part that i am working on is product that we can offer relatively soon like trainings. We want five. I posted my training idea up on the site and they suggested that i go forward with it. which i am excited about.
"I also would suggest that you go forward with your idea as well. Put together some sort of deliverable, perhaps an HR best practices manual? Or perhaps a training seminar, where the deliverables would be a power point presentation and some sort of training binder complete learning modules and tests. What do you think?"
Done.

Galtung

2009-10-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

What is structural violence, according to Galtung: "violence is here defined as the cause of the difference between the potential and the actual". while personal violence is direct - from person to person, - even even direct mental violence in some cases, structural entails indirect violence - meaning there is no actor who is committing the violence. It is violence by other means. Structural violence can be both latent and manifest, as expressed though cause and effect. Structural violence uses the vehicle of monopoly over decision making powers. This fans out into decisions over allocation of resources, of the laws - and other systems of governance, and especially the power over access to decision making powers. The effects from an inherently violence structure can be latent or manifest, manifest being more easily observable through poverty, inadequate resources, and inequality in all its manifestations - whether it is intended or not.
Identity based violence, as defined by Celia Cook- Huffman is a special case of structural violence as defined by Galtung. Access to decision making powers can be denied by identification with a specific group. Collective identities are used to justify social inequality. "In many post-colonial societies the structures of the state are dominated by and benefit one communal group or a coalition of groups and are unresposive to the needs of other groups. This inequality feeds frustration, fragmentation, a lack of system legitimacy, and ultimately, conflict" (HCAR Cook-Huffman,pg. 21) Cook-Huffman notes that identities are social constructs, rooted in history but lived out on a daily basic. Identities can also be salient, with the meaning as well as level of identification changinf over time. Identity as understood through structural violence is manifested usually through collective identities,and the exclusion or privileging of groups based upon their collective identity. Collective identites can be willfully chosen in a salient social structure, but in cases of exclusion are often imposed by those with decision making power.

The Rwandan genocide had many structural underpinnings that helped lead to the genocide of 1994. This took on two major components. Colonial domination aimed to solidify ethnic divisions and ingrain them into the social and political structures of society. Tutsi's were given decision making power Such things as identity cards, tutsi’s as the ruling class, superiority, inequality of resources on the basis of belonging to a defined category. Social and political relations were designed around these categories. These definitions were helped out by previous hierarchies of Tutsis as the ruling class, and domination over Hutus even before the Rwandan territory was colonized. However, as was pointed out in the article, tutsi was often used to describe a social class – referring to the amount of cattle one owned in contrast to differing histories, language, or physical features. The lived reality of social injustice helped and violence helped make genocide possible.

Jeffrey Sachs' fear of 3rd world womens' wombs

2009-09-28T08:53:00.000-07:00

"Common Wealth" is the title of the occasionally interesting, often outright sexist thoughts of the economist and co-creator of Goldman and Sachs. influenced by keynesian economics, - that poverty can be a powerful creator of violence; but yet ultimately profoundly influenced by neo conservative milton friedman ideology - Markets are Awesome - especially when implemented by force.

Theme of the day: population control. Watch out world. women are on the loose. With babies. lots of them. ahhhhh! Human survival is doomed. The culprit? women. Poor women from Africa and India would kill us all in a heartbeat if they could do it tomorrow. Unless... we fix this problem Now! through: "voluntary reduction in fertility rates". Why Jeffrey, you are a genius.

getting serious, so i can present my viewpoints 'academically' in a classroom that does not look kindly on sarcasm or jokes.

Sachs presents 10 other positive things that all point to lower fertility - eg education for girls, labor equality, health services,empowerment through equality in land titles and the law, better child survival rates.

1. misguided cause and effect
- low Fertility rates (having 3 children or less)is not a virtue by itself. Having fewer children does not magically create a functioning educational and health system. It does not grant equal access to the law. It certainly does not stop male privilege and gendered violence.
(In fact, male privilege may be the single largest factor creating all of these other negative factors, yet Jeffery does not address this. For example, he claims that education is important for women to 'get ahead'. I don't disagree. However, Conservative male dominated governments in places like Iran and that seized power they forbade women to work - even those with a university degree. Female doctors, lawyers, and professors that had been earning an income were suddenly barred from using their education. The only thing that stood in the way was penis power. The same with Afghanistan. the US supporter the Taliban against Russia, helped install conservative male power which demonized women. On top of that, the US then invades Afghanistan which killed off many of the women as well as their children and bombed them into the stone ages. War is much more devastating than high fertility rates.)
2. How many people can the earth hold? If population by itself is to blame for the pollution and destruction of the earth's environment, then that would mean that each person contributes equally to the destruction. however, as Sach's wrote in the previous chapter - 1st world countries, especially America - and the rich within America are disproportionately destroying the earth. logic would follow, that rich American women should stop having children - because her child pollutes as much as about 100 African children (if not more). not to mention that child will live twice as long - meaning that if we calculate the destruction that "paul" has - living to 78 years old as compared with "mandella" who lived to be 46, that is twice as much time to pollute. meaning paul pollutes in his lifetime as much as 200 african children. This of course does not even take into account the likely hood mandella lives to be 46 rather than 5. Point is, the sheer amount of time those that are destroying the earth have is far greater. Not to mention that 1st world countries' fertility rates are actually increasing! but this causes no alarm bells.

The critique that Sachs does not address is (which he even mentions, pretending that he will address) is that the problem is not population, but about living sustainably. For example, imagine if the earth held 11 billion people rather than the 6.7 we currently have. The only reason a large population is bad - is because we are too destructive. Because even when we had 3.5 billion in the 1950's this was the start of the worst environmental destruction in earth's history. Mostly through large polluters like coal production, steel mills, and deforestation. So large populations don't destroy the earth - single people do. So imagine if we were less destructive at 11 than at 6.7, then logically there would be no problem. But yet Sachs creates the goal of 'stabilizing at 8 billion' because 'we cannot continue the current path we are on'. Again, the path he refers to is the complete destruction of our environment. At 6.7 billion we are very wasteful. Do we need to fix shit? yes. get rid of coal. get rid of open pit mining. stop oil drilling. This obsession with 3rd world women's motherhood choices creates fear and will not solve the real problem. SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES.

conflict studies

2009-09-05T08:44:00.001-07:00

thus begins my formal academic career in conflict studies. perhaps one of the most highly contested and political fields in my opinion. terrorism, what creates it, how to best respond to genocide, wars of agression... the list goes on. while the program is rooted in the idea that peace is indeed desireable and possible, much of the current literature is not.
current class: reinventing foreign policy from a conflict resolution perspective for Obama. self reflection: i have difficulty reading material i disagree with, because it makes me angry. trying to dissacociate from it, and try to understand their argument without having to agree with it. The book "peace and conflict 2008" by hewitt and wilkenfeld is like reading what the US state department wants you to believe. As I am reading through, in the back of my mind - why did they choose that definition? or, if they use that, why did they not include x,y,z? such as in the chapter discussing terrorism. "the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation." the us state department only uses the term political - and actual violence rather than threat of violence. legal terrorism questions not withstanding as a moral problem, what about the war in iraq? wars of agression are illegal accourding to international law, with bombings, for political reasons. this is terrorism. why did they choose to consider rebel groups, or minority groups the sole perpetrators of terrorism? without admitting that they actually did so? but they did not consider any state terrorism. not even the razed villages campaign in Guatemala that killed 200,000 people and the gov't was responsible for 93% of the deaths. but the resistance group is counted among the terrorist? give me a break.

other areas of concern: "economic openess" is discussed as 1 of 4 main criteria for judging instability.
wow: i just looked up the political instability task force: where much of this info is analyzed. it says the task force was created by request from senior policy makers to understand failed states. columbia university, arizone, george mason public policy program.. the kicker: "funded by the CIA. are you kidding me!!! wtf george mason? how legitimate is any academic study funded by the CIA.

"The PITF is funded by the Central Intelligence Agency. The PITF website is hosted by the Center for Global Policy at George Mason University and is provided as a public service. The views expressed herein are those of the Task Force and its individual members, and do not represent the views of the University or the US Government."

wow.

liberals vs. conservatives

2009-09-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

From my first impression of my first class - arguably not the best sample to form a real opinion, but that has never deterred me before... It seems that we ("liberals") vastly underestimate who conservatives are, what they believe, and the ideology that we disagree with. conservatives are not only undeducated rural americans. They are professors, they are the heads of think tanks, they are military generals, they are our congressmen. and a few are even our congresswomen.
People were commenting on the anger and division during the elections. or how they can't really talk to their conservative friends. Personally, I enjoy rural america. maybe not all of it. the white supremicist groups are unwelcome and protested almost everywhere they go in Montana, but they still do have their supporters. Unlike dc, you can actually have a conservation not involving politics. unwillingly i do as much as i can to change that.

if we use education as our measure to create an inferiority complex, why would it uniquly be a white thing? What about the labor movement with low wage jobs?
Lets face it folks, the war cry is not limited to republicans. in fact, ron paul was against iraq also. education makes one docile in the face of authority. pavlov's other experiment - asking people to shock their peers by pretending to be a doctor. despite hearing their screams to stop.

anyways, my point is, i think people overestimate democrats, which doesn't seem like such a radical concept, concerning what most progressive blogs write about concerning the blue dog betrayal on health care... so it surprised me to see that partisan adherence come out even in the initial conversations. fake liberals annoy me most because they pretend they are pro humanity. yet they still want to bomb people, because that is the practicality of life.

washington times

2009-08-17T09:25:00.000-07:00

my personal crusade is quite amusing. I might have hoped that my rallying cry of 'fuck the old people' - might have been condemned rather than cheered.
example 1:
"Government needs to get out of all of it! Veterans health care, medicare, its all a sham. if seniors weren't smart enough to save for retirement, why should i have to subsidize it? even if the insurance companies don't offer cheap enough plans for most people to have access to a doctor, well that's life. much prefer that than a government takeover. " woohoo!

my new strategy is disguising criticism within praise. It amuses me.

"kudos to the WT! not many people have the courage to stand against people from their own party. republican johnny isakson of georgia wrote the death panel bill. thanks again washington times. evil must be fought against no matter which party came up with the idea."

is the american psyche really that easily wiped of suspicion of expansive power that is fucking them in the ass at the very same moment they are spewing their support? don't they feel it? i don't get it. i don't trust uncle sam anymore than the next fellow. partly because they prop up mr. ceo. government in and of itself is not evil if it is a democracy. our government is being gutted as we speak. less social services, while expanding measures for to be 'the enforcer'. more police, more weapons, more prisons, more military, more surveilance, more... holy shit... they are out to get me. but not to take me to the hospital for my diabetes.

What kind of society do we want? create the ideals, live out the process that exemplifies the ideals - because a lived process creates and affirms the end result. you can't win a race if you don't practice running. you can't end up with a utopia if you don't live your ideals in your daily life.

Mainstream loses another one

2009-08-10T19:10:00.000-07:00

For the longest time I have justified myself with the idea of being a bridge. a link - between the ideas I believe in and those that don't. I wanted to convince them. But as long as i try to maintain these links, it is undermining my own growth. Instead of spending more time living out my beliefs, and practicing them, I am wasting time getting to know those who wish to ruin the utopia.
I have had enough. The more saturated I become with my own existence, the more difficult it is to venture forth into the hypo-reality. People protest, and they don't even know what they are protesting. ..yeah.. i would love to have medicare for all.. but i hate that socialized medicine stuff single payer... And how much were they paid?
Mainstream press is more censored than porn on a disney channel. Certainly, not everything is censored good sir. Everything? yes my child. I can see their mind at work. It's like fountainhead, but it doesn't take a Toohey do manipulate the outcome. Pretend you are the Washington Times, and facts are irrelevant. It is actually quite clever of them to insert the "union connection" about healthcare. Indeed, Sweeney has unleashed his union thugs to counter the real grassroots protests that have erupted. And, like clockwork, it plants the idea. damn those unions! Healthcare: its a thug thing.

sailing!

2009-07-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

certification course in sailing, then I can rent out their boats! Preparing the groundwork for a summer solo trip... my childhood dream. probably a few years down the road though.

thoughts on persuasive arguement. I have come to realize that ideas and beliefs are intensly personal. Even the most logical arguement will do no good, even with the most 'rational' person. But if you trust someone, you are more likely to believe them. Hence the idea behind making personal connections to relate to their point of view and life story. But is this saying that logic has limited reality in social change? But how much logic? Which facts? if you believe it is fact, it can become fact, and previous reality becomes irrelevant. Or having a different premise which leads to different conclusions, regardless of the philosophical methods one applies.
Speaking of lack of facts, how bout that pat buchanan? When i watch these people, I can't distinguish between whether people are actually that unintelligent to think that facts don't matter - (they get paid to lie) or if they actually believe what they say. Probably a little of both, more so I believe getting paid to lie. which is why Rachel didn't directly challenge him on any of his mistatements (eg sotomayor benefited from AA programs the whole way through, or, no black people died in the civil war..) Heard a compelling arguement that Rush limbaugh and Bill O'riely have been bought out as well. Bigots don't draw party lines so easily. If you dislike government policy due to ideology - than it would be impossible to critize only one party to such a high proportion of the time. it is not ideology. If pat buchanan really believed that stuff what he was saying, he would fit right in with most the elite democrats as well, who believe the same things. They are after all, rich white and male as well. bought and paid for.
just my two cents. First, I will need two cents. I can see how getting paid is appealing to many. Paid? ha!
Shall I go into work tomorrow? probably. do I feel like it? no. Is it easy? yes. and you don't want to go in? no. not really.
would rather be sailing.
or reading
drinking coffee
eating
mmmm..eating

i'm sorry rant

2009-06-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

the ever important phrase "i'm sorry" should be weilded carefully. Not only does it imply you have done something wrong that you are apologizing for, but that you genuinely feel bad for what you have done. These two requirements cannot be easily met, and it is best not to lie than utter falsehoods. People often get around this simplistic formula by stating 'i'm sorry i made you feel bad'. which translates to, i don't give a shit about what i did, i just wish you didn't take offense to it. This pathetic excuse for an apology should not pass. Am I just being stubborn? probably. but would someone really want me to apologize for something i didn't regret? if people wan't to be soothed by words without significance, i'm all for it. just like telling your two week old crush you love them. But apologizing at its root - if you recognize what you did was wrong, then you shouldn't have done it in the first place. Maybe the apologizer should look to themselves and just not do it... far more productive than offering a sugary apology without action.
just my two cents.

immigration and labor unions

2009-06-21T17:05:00.000-07:00

while immigration reform is in my thoughts, it doesn't often come to the forefront. AFter hiking over the weekend with a women's group (mostly progressive independent women who like the outdoors).. it surprised me to hear about 'the illegals in california ruining the economy'. especially the part about the schools losing so much money to teach the 'Illegals'. I tried to counter this with logic, pointing out the immigrants pay social security and sales tax, are exploited at work, and don't really use any of the services anyways... I always feel uncomfortable with these confrontations. since i am somewhat of a confrontational person anyways, i think i need to be a nicer, more bubbly personality to discuss harmful stereotypes. Maybe i just make people angry and they don't listen anyways.
So...semi-book review of "disposable domestics" (grace chang) which helped me understand immigration as a labor issue, and why the hate speech is simply false.
rough draft for internship:
Anti-immigrant sentiment changes on who it is directed against and when it is deployed. Economic crisis' are one of those times that predictably drum up anti-immigrant fears. The usual charges vary from overwhelmed social services, taking Americans jobs - or for the ambitious immigrant, taking down the economy. Not only are these statements ingenious, they are simply false.

It has been long recognized that immigrants provide cheap labor at little. They use a relatively small proportion of social services, pay sales tax and even social security tax, of which they will see none of. However, even as countless studies show that the net 'economic benefits' of immigrants outweighs the 'costs' this misses the point. Economic refugees do not come to sweatshops for the English.

Grace Chang's book, Disposable Domestics, is as relevant today as it was ten years ago. She notes that one of the reasons immigration is so cost effective for the United States is that their home country has borne the costs of raising them. Many people come to the United States as a young and employable workforce. immigration patterns do not correlate only with the poverty, but rather with US influence and interference in a country. Chang notes that "the extraction of resources by the United States and other First World nations forces many people in the Third World to migrate and follow their countries' wealth." We can see this playing out before our very eyes with the multinational corporations operating in Mexico. They save money through lax environmental laws, and abuse labor laws they know will not be enforced. These corporations put small stores out of business and destroys the places where they operate, syphoning the profits back into the United States. Companies such as Dole own unused large swathes of land, rendering a significant part of a country, such as Guatemala, unproductive.

Upon coming to American, the questions remains, - are illegal immigrants taking American jobs? As Chang points out about immigration raids, - "Creating job vacancies is not the same as creating jobs" - factory raids do not provide decent jobs to Americans. Many of these jobs would not exist in the first place were it not for a super exploitive labor force. This is because if the company employed Americans, the working conditions would be illegal. Under the threat of deportation, undocumented workers face extreme obstacles to organize to confront employer abuses. Even after forced to work long hours, in poor conditions for low pay, employers often do not give a paycheck. The fact that even legalized workers in the United States face harassment, intimidation or fired for trying to organize gives us insight to what companies will resort to to wreck havoc on their workers - without these laws for minimal protection. Companies have even called the INS on themselves during an organizing drive to thwart unionization. American workers have a vested interst in ensuring labor rights to all documented and undocumented workers. It is impossible to compete with a labor force without rights. Power in number ensures that companies cannot use technicalities to justify inhumane conditions.

Part 2. more musinggs: morality of selective law.

Even if people do not agree on many things, being against sweatshops or child labor shouldn't depend on one's nationality or having the right papers. Many of our laws exist because it is simply wrong. If an immigrant commits murder this is wrong. Are they subject to punishment under the law? yes. Why? it is wrong. Is it wrong to have people working in conditions that would be illegal if they company had hired Americans? Yes. But yet these distinctions remain in our legal system and our psyche. Laws should not be something to pick and choose which ones I should abide by, yet this is the system that operates. If the act is immoral, why should it matter who does it? Chang notes that many people believe that "people [low wage laborers] should be grateful for the work they get under any conditions, that it is a privilege, that they are better of with it than without.... At the core, the struggle that all of these workers share is to disabuse the American public and US employers of the belief that employing them in service work resembling servitude in an act of justice or charity."

Peru

2009-06-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

President Garcia: "We have to understand" he said, that "when there are resources like oil, gas and timber, they don't belong only to the people who had the fortune to be born there because that would mean more than half of Peru's territory belongs to a few thousand people."

Oil and gas are finite resources and the land the rest under cannot be simultaneiously lived on as well as exploited. Who owns this oil? Using his same logic the oil doesn't really belong to Peru either - just because that country happens to posses oil within its borders. They belong to the people of the world!

Since the use of these resources requires ownership, he is saying not only that they don't belong to the indigenous groups, but that they "Belong" the ruling elite. Its not like cleaning up the river so we all benefit - so the corporation has no right to pollute. No, this is the taking of land, to be given to someone else, at the expense of uprooting and potentially murdering an entire people.
This statement implicitely shows who is 'worthy' and 'unworthy' in Garcia's mind, and exposes his racism.

Protests like the ones in Peru and around the world such as for water rights or what have you, it is often said that the motivation is purely political. I fail to see how this denigrates the objective. Of course it is political! Government policies and international policies are political decisions. How can it NOT be political? I think what they are insinuating is 'political gain' in that people care more about raw power than about the issues. This is precisely the point. Their use of 'political gain' is almost absurd because if this were true, the elites would be quite excited. If the indigenous leaders actually renounced their movements, for 'reconciliation' this would be 'politically motivated'. If Obama pledged to renounce torture unequivocally, and doesn't, it is for 'political' reasons. If Max Baucus doesn't support a government sponsored health care plan against the wishes of Montanan's... THIS is politically motivated at its finest. But when people risk their lives for a cause and refuse to renounce and reject everything they stand for... is this politically motivated? I think not.

Fair Trade vs. Direct Trade

2009-06-08T17:54:00.000-07:00

Stepping into my local coffee shop inquiring if they sell fair trade coffee – I was told that they had something better – “Direct Trade”. I was told this cut out the middle man in Free trade, and was the next step up. Excited, I bought the coffee, and then came home to investigate.

I also began reading more intensly my book on fair trade "the prospects and pitfalls of market driven social justice"
I am disappointed by both. More so by Direct Trade since they are demeaning to Fair Trade on their website, and trying to compete in a tiny market of ethical consumers rather than bring in new ones. And it appears they don't have better labor standards.
The book points out that with the collapse of the international coffee agreement in 1989 the price of coffee was much higher than it is today - even above fair trade prices. Fair trade a few years ago only compromised about .5% of the coffee market. So here we have some people making a little bit of money, but it is bascally peanuts. And people buy it thinking they are doing good, when they don't realize that even walmart used to pay higher price - more fair - than they are now!

I wanted to write a critical assesment of both on the blog at my internship, but I was censored. First time. I guess i can understand why since we put out catalogues of suggestions for how people can be more ethical consumers. But at the same time, isn't being realistic also neccesary? like tossing a dime to the starving child and feeling warm and fuzzy for your contribution for solving world hunger.

So even while fair trade has its pitfalls, some within it are actually trying to change the marco-economic policies, and sell fair trade products as only one small part to increase awareness and create fertile ground for cooperatives around the world who are trying to create an alternative structure to the corporate model. ie no hierarchy, democratic control of the workplace, social conciousness. the foundation must be layed first. Although other fair trade theorists have no such desire and want to increase marketability and don't believe the neocapitalist can or should be changed. It is what it is.
The dangers of co-optation. If Starbucks becomes the major buyer of fair trade coffee this raises legitamate holy fuck type questions. apparently they have already pushed for changing the labor standards, and who fair trade deals with. I think some of this already was implemented. If fair trade becomes mainstream through corporations, who then determines its course? who holds the power? these alliances should be made with suspicion. the book points out that the world bank, imf, starbucks etc. are all in favor of fair trade - at the micro level. (just enough anyways - starbucks only buys 6% fair trade coffee). But none of them would ever support changing the fundamental structures of domination - macroeconomic policies.
I emailed "Counter Culture" about their labor standards with the following questions. What really bugs me is that try to pretend to be all revolutionary on their websites, when they don't even have a vision to change anything. They also mention how transparency is fundamental, but none of the farms they trade with have websites, no way i can check up on them. I guess its easy to be transparent when there is no information. Like me: i am completely honest concerning all aspects of my artwork! uhhhh...

1. Are there specific criteria used to judge labor standards?

2. Are these criteria a prerequisite to developing trade relations?

3. Direct Trade is compared to Fair Trade throughout the website. Since an integral mission of Fair Trade is based on ethical working conditions adhering to ILO standards (no child labor, right to unionize, etc.); by saying Direct Trade has higher standards suggests that Direct Trade ensures better working conditions. Is that a proper assessment?

(“Meanwhile, we recognized that our own standards of quality, transparency, and fair pricing were somewhat higher than the FTC standard. We developed the Counter Culture Direct Trade Certification in the desire to raise the bar of fairness and sustainability and lead by example in the coffee trade”.)

4. One of the biggest criticisms of Fair Trade coffee is that its ‘fair’ price is actually below what the market was before the International Coffee Agreement was abandoned in 1989. The sales of both fair trade and direct trade do not even begin to fill the gap of the price drop. In the interests of social sustainability, does Counter Culture support efforts to change macro-economic relations?

5. Why did Counter Culture choose to peg its bottom floor price in relation to Fair Trade – which it can be argued, is not meeting the needs of farmers.

6. Does Direct Trade aim at increasing the amount of ethical consumers – by offering better coffee, or does it simply compete with Fair Trade consumers?

z course economics

2009-05-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

the answers from prof. bond from my online course:

me:

Hello everyone, I am a preemie with this stuff, as my following questions will demonstrate. Attempting to stay afloat, but enjoying the readings nonetheless.

“One indicator of the super-profitability of the financial sector is that while profits in the US manufacturing sector came to one percent of US gross domestic product (GDP), profits in the financial sector came to two percent.” What constitutes the other 97 percent?

PB: Hi, it's just a measure, e.g., how much do I weigh in proportion to,say, all the things in my apartment: about 2%, I'm guessing. And my 14 year old son? His weight is closer to 1%. The other 97% is the furniture, the appliances, the books in the little study, etc. Most of the 97% of the GDP that you refer to is the input cost of production; a typical surplus in the 10% range is divided into all the various economic sectors. (I'm surprised its so low for finance, insurance and real estate, and maybe can get around to looking at that again).

ME: Bello talks about bubbles and that the profits are only made by selling before ‘reality sets in’ - is there any such thing as ‘real values’? If someone is willing to pay x amount for a house, why isn’t it worth that much? If the loans could not have been restructured would things have turned out any different?

PB: An underlying value in the marxian sense is the potential for maintaining a decent rate of return by extracting surplus value. That's the ultimate 'real sector' productive value we would look for, to see if an investment can be sustained. We would look for that, but capitalists don't, they look for profit. So if a company like GM makes much more money from GMAC financial gimmicks than from making cars, GM will still get investments in the stock market from gullible brokers and consumers who believe they're buying 'value'. When the bubble bursts and GM goes under, it is all revealed as speculation, with so little production that the company can be trashed. In the case of mortgages, the real estate bubble was fueled by easy credit (not just subprime but more generally). Once the credit ends, as we're seeing, prices crash.

ME: What exactly is speculation – and its connection with fictitious capital. It seems that speculation is referred to not how much something could be worth, but rather how much people can be tricked into thinking its worth.

PB: These are great questions, and I should have backed up long ago on this to try making these links. Let me append the section from my book Uneven Zimbabwe which covers all this, ok? Again, I'll apologise in advance for jargon, but I hope you will see where financial speculation, financial control and financial crisis are all rooted.

Colombia! ILRF

2009-05-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

final draft.. not yet approved for my new internship at the International labor rights forum (!) apparently all my cool little links i had put in were de-installed with the copy and paste. I am not (yet) tech savvy enough, nor motivated enough to fix it. My new project is on the colombia free trade agreement, and to make a simple graphic to make it easily understood why we oppose it. This should be fun.

Colombian Senator and Liberal Party Presidential candidate, Cecilia López, spoke about her ideas for peace and human rights in the country yesterday in Washington, DC at an event sponsored by the Washington Office on Latin America and the Center for Justice and Environmental Law. Senator Lopez founded the organization ‘Agenda Colombia Foundation’, has taught economics and demography at various universities, and has written numerous publications addressing solutions to the conflict. She described the current situation in Colombia as a human rights catastrophe.

Her platform, titled ‘Security with Rights’, combines safety with social concerns - “there is no real peace without development”. The elimination of poverty is not simply humane, it is essential for ending the conflict. This is no simple task. In the book she contributed to: “Colombia: Essays on Conflict, Peace and Development”, she says that poverty is an effect of limited democracy and is not the driving force of the conflict. Poverty alone does not cause violence, “the cause… and the resulting escalation in violence, is the insufficiently acknowledged political, economic, and social exclusion which has characterized its [Colombia’s] society.” The solution is to fundamentally change the power structures and opportunities for citizen participation. Unless citizens have a greater say in determining their own fate, the cycle of poverty and violence will continue.

Some of those rights include freedom at work. Intimidation, violence, threats and displacement characterize workers’ daily lives. USLEAP has documented that even though there has been improvements, more unionists are killed in Colombia than the entire world put together – still! Less than 2% of these cases are ever even prosecuted. Fighting for small protections has always been an uphill battle, yet companies’ have still found ways around them. According to the ILRF report, “The Right to Associate”, contract labor has substantially increased in Colombia. Contract laborers do not have access to any of the protections of being in a union, and are often used as ‘union busters’ through mass firing of workers and re-hiring of contract laborers. One of the bottling plants in Bogota was found to have contracted more than 70% of its workforce from associated work cooperatives. One of our previous blogs discusses the five worst offenders of worker rights, and what we, as consumers, can do about it.

The Colombian Free Trade Agreement, (FTA) which is not expected to be debated in Congress this session, has been criticized on many levels. The most common critique is of Colombia’s substantial number of human rights violations. While important, this fails to take into account the causes of these violations as well as the other things inherently wrong with the agreement. (And as if being the worst offender in the world by a small margin rather than a large margin implies victory!) Upside Down World activist, Heidi Andrea Restrepo Rhodes, notes that heavily subsidized US goods would be allowed to enter Colombia duty free. The service and agricultural workers could not possibly compete, and job loss is estimated at 250,000 – mostly rural farmers. In an open letter to Obama and Nancy Pelosi last year, the Association of Indigenous Authorities of Northern Cauca Council adamantly rejected the FTA. In a popular referendum, 98% of the people responded unfavorably towards the agreement. They say that, “We want an agreement that has real trade as its content, trade that guarantees reciprocal opportunity, so that the well-being of peoples is realized in a manner that is autonomous and sovereign and protects nature and life.”

As Colombia becomes integrated in the global economy, worker rights are even more important. This includes the right to land. Agrarian reform is essential for environmental and cultural protections, as well as moving towards a more egalitarian society. Colombia’s roots are derived from unequal land distribution which has left a lasting legacy of inequality. The conflict continues to drive people off their lands, and the millions of people internally displaced have also been driven from their livelihood.

Senator López declares “the rights of the people are a duty of the state and not a favor”. While current President Alvaro Uribe has dismissed unionists concerns and human rights groups as ‘guerrillas’, she says that it is precisely these things that a democratic government should defend. Laws protecting trade unionists should be enforced and backed by the government. These bold statements will serve as a challenge to Uribe in 2010, arguing that he has put security ahead of everything else, including peace.

colombia / guatemala

2009-05-18T07:39:00.001-07:00

from upside down world "The water is ours damnit!" - (signs in bogota against water privitization)

lawyer from guatemala murdered, accuses government. Who is probably guilty. even though he is the first 'progressive' government in almost fifty years. He has ruined the reputation. continuing the policies of corruption and money laundering.

While studying in Xela i had many conversations with my spanish teacher over the politics. Apparently a few years ago the national bank went bankrupt and refused to pay back people's money. People lost their entire life savings and suicides went up tenfold. even though it was a government bank, the gov't did not feel obligated to pay the money back. And the banks have been revived with out this burden.

There were both military and police patrolling the streets. Colom (the pres.) had disbanded the military due to Guatemala's violent past, crime spiraled out of control and some cities requested to have them back. Many rural villages took justice in their own hands wishing neither for military nor to just let the crime go. The gangs of Guatemala city had effectively taken it hostage and the police force was entrenched in corruption and collusion. The prison system was critized for holding theives and murderers for a week or so, and then letting the criminal go. In an effort to limit corruption police forces rotated cities they patrolled, so as not to develop ties to the community and give favors. My critique of this (and my teaachers as well) is that the net effect is the corruption becomes integral of the entire police force. They feel no obligation to any community which increases violence. As the police rotate in and out of Guatemala city the ties have already been made with the gangs - to the police force institution, rather than to only a few corrupt ones. The alliance becomes a national one. As Jessica tells me - even if someone wanted to be a good police officer, there is nothing they could do. They will either be killed, or they can benefit. police officers are underpaid and seen as corrupt and disrespected. Since the military was disbanded by the gov't without re-integration programs, many become angry and joined the narco traffickers. Many are well trained with no job, or job relocation programs. Guatemala city has not invited the military back, despite the highest crime rate in central america, (possibly latin america with the exception of mexico). So in the city where i was studying, police patrolled some areas, miltary were in other's, and private security guards were mandated in front of businesses. The crime was not very high in this town, but the gangs were reportedly trying to move in. About 30 bus drivers had been murdered in the last few months for not paying ransom to the gangs. They were killed along with their assistant. Some threats had been made to do the same in Xela and the drivers were going to go on strike.
Femicide: premeditated killing of women - as a hate crime, for simply being female. This often includes torture
Feminicide: a government policy of femicide.

Femicide was finally recognized as an official crime about ten years ago. There still have been very few prosecutions, but awareness and acknolwedgement is nonetheless being made. The woman who came to speak about women and politics believed many of these crimes in the past ten years were because of the feminist movement and women challenging the status quo. Domestic violence is extremely high as is domestic murder. 4 women were violently killed and tortured and xela in the past year. occaisonally these are political crimes. women are vastly under represented in politics and organizations in general. Because education is expensive male children are given priority to study. So lack of education and skills keep women locked into poverty and less job opportunities.

Health: very poor health system. Colom was actually making some head way on this. It is upsetting that the left is most likely going to be discredited because Colom is upholding the status quo in other areas (corruption and intimidation). pneumonia is the leading cause of death in Guatemala. Illiteracy reaches 40% in some of the rural areas. Public hospitals are available for free and open to anyone. The better hospitals are mostly located in the bigger cities. Patients must pay for their drugs though. since almost half the population lives in rural areas this makes health care in those areas very difficult. there is also a separate system for privitized care and for people with insurance. Some people with government jobs have "IGGS" which is insurance provided by an employeer, or purchased. It works very well except hardly anyone has it. The other main complaint with IGGS is that it may take up to three weeks in order to receive care. For serious illnesses this can be dangerous and inneffective.
- "pharmacists" sell pills on the bus. They tell people how to take the medicine.
- wandering caravans of missionaries to provide health care are everywhere. The lecturer on this topic was highly critical of the practice. i asked what the effect is of the high number of foreign NGO's that received most of the aid from foreign sources - ie the obligation is to the funders not to the people who recieve treatment. She said there are some very good NGO's who have developed very good ties to the community. But not often. most pay more attention to attracting volunteers and making it a good program for foreigners rather than the locals. Some of the doctors don't even speak spanish. Some have lost their license and can't practice in their own country - so they come to guatemala where there is no regulation. or, most common, they do not know the culture, the illnesses, or the causes for the problems they wish to fix. They bring medicine for a disease that does not exist, or antibiotics that do not work.

palestine

2009-05-17T11:13:00.000-07:00

what is the difference between a militant and a civilian? A civilian is a citizen of a state, so perhaps a better term is militant civilians. Do you categorize child soldiers as children killed, or as militants?
The catch 22 of war. It is impossible not to resist.
From an article critiquing the philosophy of israeli warfare "concerning the difference between combatants and non-combatants, justifying it thus:"
[Israeli war manual]
'We reject such conceptions, because we consider them to be immoral. A combatant is a citizen in uniform. In Israel, quite often he is a conscript or on reserve duty. His blood is as red and thick as that of citizens who are not in uniform. His life is as precious as the life of anyone else (p.17).'"

So is a militant. The difference i see is that soldiers are sent to kill, that is why the distinction has historically been made. That supposedly the fight should be between willing parties. (although mandatory conscription has made this arguement less relevant as does modern warfare which expertly targets civilians)

After having finished reading the article I think his words say it better than mine:
"The moral distinction is based on the fact that combatants have intentionally embarked on acts of violence and are actively seeking to endanger others, whether they are conscripts or not, thereby forfeiting their right to security and to be left in peace. In addition, combatants are armed, prepared for combat, and capable of defending themselves militarily."

Welfare:
In reading Globalization and its discontents' side by side with milton friedmans book there seem to be a point both miss. friedman says ' you cannot do good with other people's money'. stiglitz uses the term 'spread' the wealth or re-allocate it etc. I agree with friedman. The point these interpretations miss is WHOSE wealth has been stolen. When a corporation, or single individual takes over a river to build a dam, they are stealing the resources of the community. the water for the farmers, the land from the people who live there. Land allocation shows the history of collective theft all over the world. They are not doing good with other people's property. When Stiglitz uses the term 're-allocation' it buys into this same idea that you are giving people hand outs of something that does not belong to them. welfare. free money. pity. When in fact, this ideology is better attacked head on. Stolen land, stolen wealth, give it back.
Unionization fails in the sense it does not challenge the idea of ownership. A corporation cannot have entitlement to a communities' wealth. so just as the person who does no work is not entitled to the earnings of the hard working man, an individual has no right to take away someone's means of being able to do work. Namely resources. ideologically it seems friedman would agree. He says he is suspicious of concentrated power. and that ownership breeds productivity. (main critique of communism). So let the people own their own land!!

milton friedman chapter 1

2009-05-12T05:32:00.000-07:00

'capitalism and freedom'. it seems that there is the inherent contradiction between "the preservation of freedom is the protective reason for limiting and decentralizing government power" and then advocating for state militarism and absolute control. One might even say these are opposites. 'Contradictions don't exist.' Is it like the perversion of communism under totalitarianism pretending it is marxism? did he actually see Chile in its form as being free? on to chapter two. no. not yet.

Questions and critiques. Perhaps chapter 2 will make more of a case that capitalism is PRO freedom rather than using the law of negatives. Totalitarian communism limits freedom. capitalism apparently is the exact opposite because it is NOT communism, (stalinist) therefore, it is free.

Question: why is freedom important? eg - what do you get out of it? ayn rand would say it is for the expression of the ego. But he states that in a "society freedom has nothing to say about what an individual does with his freedom... leave the ethical problem for the individual to wrestle with.." Briefly used an example of amazing writers as a product of nongovernment interference, but did not equate freedom with being amazing. (also did not include space exploration, or government funding in research, including his own school...)
- i am also looking for a better definition of coercion

I agree: the market place should be: "both parties to an economic transaction is bilaterally voluntary and informed...individuals are effectively free to enter or not to enter into any particular exchange, so that every transaction is strictly voluntary"
- however, he seems to define involuntary as explicit state violence. does not address other types of involuntary transactions such as forced labor (poverty, child labor, etc)

"Economic power can be widely dispersed...But can there be more than one really outstanding leader, one person on whom the energies and enthusiasms of his countrymen are centered? There seems to be something like a fixed total of political power to be distributed."
what??? no comment. democracy... (true democracy)

"historical evidence speaks with a single voice on the relation between political freedom and a free market." he backs this up with "i know of no example". he doesn't use any historical evidence, so one must trust that him not knowing is equivalent and better than backing up statements with facts. He uses this "not that i know of" to back up similar wild statements.

he critiques socialism: "in order for men to advocate anything, they must in the first place be able to earn a living". precisely. This is one of the biggest critique of the free market!! because it leaves most the population unable to earn a living. therefore, unfree. right on, miltie.

This one had to be quoted in its entirety:
"In a capitalism society, it is only necessary to convince a few wealthy people to get funds to launch any idea, however strange, and there are many such persons, many independent foci of support. And, indeed, it is not even necessary to persuade people or financial institution with available funds of the soundness of the ideas to be propagated. It is only necessary to persuade them that the propagation can be financially successful.."
- does this not then advocate that capitalism is irrational? quality need not be important in the free market. the only obstacle is you need to persuade a rich person. At what point does the idea change from 1. working in the area one wishes to work, 2. pandering to what the population will consume 3. pandering not only to the population but to the rich financier. there are inherently less millionaires than poor people.

when Hollywood people were blacklisted (by Hollywood, not the government..) and says "Their appeal to the fifth amendment would have been a hollow mockery without an alternative to government employment."
I agree. however, he fails to recognize the same goes true when there is no alternative to exploitative employment. And by using the Hollywood example he plainly shows that private enterprises indeed discriminate. the free market, just like government is made up of people.

"To the liberal, the appropriate means are free discussion and voluntary co-operation, which implies that any form of coercion is inappropriate."
one word. Pinochet. Why did he advise the dictatorship and draw up plans for its economy? I don't understand. I had been wondering if he did believe that the ends justified the means, but he says he doesn't. So what then explains for this glaring contradiction?

market challenges

2009-04-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

My responses to my worker self management class. hopefully i can get an awesome responses to my internal contradictions between socialism and individuality.

I read the article by Lebowitz and I am having a hard time grasping worker self management as applied generally, rather than to the specific enterprises we have looked at. I liked the quote from the bolivarian constitution that ¨developing the creative potential of every human being and the full excercise of his or her personality in a democratic society¨ . My question is - what happens when there is a conflict between ones own creative interests and that of society. Or between the desires of the workers and the needs of society. For example, a hospital exists to care for the sick. But there are many sick people, and not enough qualified doctors and nurses, nor funds to pay the staff. Society requires that the staff work longer hours, for less pay, but this is at the expense of the time the nurse wishes to spend with her family, or other needs of the worker. Who´s needs are more important. In the model community, maybe they wouldn´t clash?

the article seems to also suggest that people work for the benefit and for the needs of the community. I see this as partly true, but that this is somewhat ignoring the creative potential, which may be serving only our own needs, rather than someone elses. goals and ambitions in general are self interested, and no one can realize them for us. For me, it seems that the worker cooperatives are the structures that allow people to become individuals, rather than existing only for the benefit for the community. Maybe i am not understanding the article correctly, but it seems to contradict the final point of the bolivarian constitution if everything we did was to benefit someone else. And that working in a cooperative is in a way self interested because we want our community to benefit, we want our families to benefit, we want to work with dignity, and most importantly this type of community enables us to realize our creative potential. Because this situation is a means to an end. But if there is conflict between the needs of society and our creative potential, and the needs of society take precendence, what then is the purpose of it?
As you can see, i am trying to reconcile my individualistic upbringing with what i see as a fantastic model for working with dignity. Sorry for the long rant.

2009-04-16T16:58:00.001-07:00

there is far too much to think about. started reading `¨shock doctrine, rise of ...capitalism`` on the plane. Some of it i knew already, but it does answer some of the questions on latin america concerning the economy that i needed some facts and figures on. such as that pinochet practically killed the economy and had to re-nationalize industries to keep it from going under. My main thoughts concern milton friedman. Is he the economic voice of ayn rand? it made me thoroughly disappointed to think this might be true. I am interested in reading his writings, he sounded intriguing. Initial thoughts= does the free market have an end in an of itself besides being a free market? supposedly it is in the defense of liberty, but if this is the case then it should be measured. The right to one´s life is the most fundamental freedom and liberty. So does friedan thought truly justify this? I also see poverty as limiting freedom, but that is for another day. also, private ownership. how can one company lay claim to a lake? how is this resolved? what about when two people have different goals within the free market structure '- such as short term goals and longterm ones. short term contradicts long term since less money goes towards sustainability and health of the factory / etc. and.. why does the free market call for privitizing everything BUT security? is this due to the idea that there exists certain enterprises where there should be no profit to be made? blackwater does it better! I see a fundamental contradiction between privitizing something for the government to then pay for, vs. going directly to the consumers. It seems that if the market were truly free the government would not be an intermediary. This is why i find charter schools problematic. The government is still paying for it - even though it is not providing it, thus losing all incentive to make it more cost effective. although, perhaps strangely comforting is to think that there actually exists an ideology behind all of this rather than blind hatred for people, and love of money. I still fail to see why certain people`s liberty are held above others in the campaign for liberty. I believe no ideas should be surpressed. the only way to defeat an idea is by an idea. if you can only eliminate the thought by killing the body, the idea didn´t win.

Currently i am staying in 'gringolandia'. it is strange. looking forward to getting out of here soon. people were very helpful during my bus escapades as usual. and of course they would come up to me and speak english which drives me almost insane. And... i didn´t hyperventilate attack on the plane! first time in years. literally.

Guatemala!

2009-03-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

who has plane tickets to Guatemala... Cassie does! spanish immersion, as well as first independent project on unions. exciting and scary all at once. my new internship is with the International Labor Rights Forum, and I have been accepted into grad school (yay!) so I actually have a title, per se, rather than 'concerned citizen'. I already contacted some people saying i was interested in writing an article on their work and would like to set up an interview. Easy as pie! I want to do justice to the project though rather than just an experiment, so I have been frantically trying to research the latest news with labor unions, etc. I will be there May 1st... workers of the world unite! So my labor rights focus happens to be timely with my cheap tickets, and long held desire to visit Guatemala. I am torn between devoting my efforts to the historical memory project, or the effects of CAFTA and rise in union member violence. Obviously, as beginner I cannot be expected to report new news, but rather to amplify the voices.
And, I can always fall back on reality - conduct an interview simply as a concerned citizen, and ask questions such as 'what significance does May 1st hold... what do you see for the future...?
I am reading on what Cato has to say about CAFTA to get a sense of measurement. The higher Cato rates it - the more bullshit it is.

Of other importance, but no less significant: I am taking two online courses 1. worker factory takeovers in Argentina, and the other on the economic crisis, its roots, and how it is affecting the global south. The latter is beyond my comprehension to contribute to the discussions, but interesting nonetheless. Thoughts of 'fictitious capital' keeps me awake at night. They answer my questions such as...can someone explain the housing bubble in baby babble please! and lovingly and gently, the radical leftist intellectual community has taken me under its wing. initial responses...

"You have put your finger on a fundamental difference between a materialist/Marxist analysis and a mainstream one. Marx argued that value was objective – the value of something was determined by the amount of labour time that it took to produce it. Mainstream economists say its all subjective – the value is what someone says its worth. It makes the interpretation of the current crisis quite different."

This reminded me instantly of Dostoyevsky - the man underground, and the ice castle. That no matter how silly our desires our, we still may want it. I believe that worth is extremely subjective. Whether its a house, a candy bar, or a jar of nutella that sells quite expensively in Colombia to an exclusively foreign crowd. A house for some is worth more than a house for others, regardless of the actual labor time it took to complete it. A better example might be coin collectors - why pay $20 for an old nickle? its only worth that much if someone is willing to pay that much. So the problem is not with the houses alone, per se, but with the idea behind them. That the mortages are what are not worth what they are then being packaged off and sold for. hmmm. i do not hold myself responsible for any statements made, as they will be changed probably within the week...

quotes:

2009-03-01T19:32:00.001-08:00

"There is something worse than death, and that is the end of birth itself." - Association of Indigenous Authorities of Northern Cauca Council

"To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. It is what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul, would you understand why that’s much harder" Ayn Rand (Roark - Fountainhead)

americorp website:
"White. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa." Really? we really are a colorblind society... the whole world is white!

Cato vs. truth: FTA

2009-03-01T15:14:00.000-08:00

For my speech at the dc People's Media Center I had five minutes to write a coherent speech on unions and collective organizing. It was recorded onto a cd which i get next week to critique myself. Not sure if i want to listen to it... but it should be interesting none the less. The idea that has been on my mind is one of poverty, unionizing, labor in general. I couldn't help but to order a new bok about female immigrant labor in the U.S. and the fight for living wages. This struggle is intimately connected cheap labor in other countries as well. Yes, a Honduran worker can make more off two dollars per hour here than in their home country, but does this justify it? What kind of system allows this to exist? continuing with my on going project in search of rejecting these ideals of human rights on the basis of logic and facts, I have been reading the Cato Institute publication in support of the Colombian Free Trade agreement. I was hoping for a challenge...
General contradiction: If free trade agreements are supposed to embody less government restrictions and more liberty - if the majority of the people in a country oppose it - isn't this the pinnicle of Big Government? To styfle free speech, protests and dissent, the government signs an agreement that is overwhelmingly opposed by its citizens. Sounds suspiciously like a dictatorship. -not support of liberty...

Problem One: Factually incorrect
1.Graphs of trade unionists killed. Stats from "colombian military and defense" and "Colombian military of social protection" but these two government sources don't even give the same numbers. The government shouldn't be so obvious when it is lying. example - first graph attempts to show that the number of trade unionist killings have gone down since uribe took office: listing 196 killed in 2002. Graph two shows that 205 were killed rather than 196 -because it makes the percentage drop larger. Amnesty International reports that in 2005 73 trade unionists were killed - Cato says 49.

False: "In the early 1990s, right-wing paramilitary groups were formed by landowners to battle the left-wing guerrillas." Fact: They were created in 1980.
-False: "In the mid 1990s, once the drug cartels were dismantled, both guerillas and paramilitary groups moved into the narcotics business." Fact: US war on drugs began in the 1980's which was also a counterinsurgency operation. The drug cartels partnered up with paramilitaries to fight the guerrillas. FARC also at this time began instituting 'taxes' on farmers who grew it in exchange for their protection. The idea that neither were involved until mid 1990's even contradicts US propaganda from the 80's. Lieing about a lie? That's a new one.
-Even if just one single fact is false it discredits the arguement. Since almost every single political claim is either an outright falsehood or a distortion I think it suffices to say that Cato is bullshit.

Allow us to continue.
"Furthermore, it would increase unemployment by 1.8 percentage points, representing a net loss of 460,000 jobs. GDP would go down 4.5 percent, and the poverty level would rise by 1.4 points"
"It is not in the U.S. interest to inflict this kind of economic punishment on an ally in the Andean region. Left-wing populism is fueled by poverty and lack of opportunities, as can be easily seen in neighboring Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia." Interesting that poverty and lack of opportunity is cited. Given that the stat that povery would go down is rejected by almost all human rights and labor groups.

"Then we also have the political significance of rejecting the FTA, which has already been approved by the Colombian Congress and is supported by a majority of Colombians."

- What do Colombians say? from the Association of Indigenous Authorities of Northern Cauca:
"To declare that the popular consultation on FTA is not a rejection of 'free trade' but of the form and content of this process and of the proposed treaty for its anti-democratic character, its lack of transparency, and its intention of annexation, displacement, and impoverishment of the population of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru."
- In Cauca:
"Ninety-eight percent of the people responded NO to the following question: "Are you in favor of the FTA between Colombia and the United States?" The people expressed their sovereign and conscious decision. Since that first consultation, others have been carried out throughout Colombia, all with the same result."
- one of the largest marches in Colombian history took place against the FTA
- "In Bogota, a million and a half people marched in what was described as the popular referendum against the FTA."

Although the point of this is not to present the case against it, which would take many many more pages, but to show once again that Cato is presenting false information -that the majority of Colombians support it and that Democrats are rejecting the wishes of the Colombian people.

tidbits;
"More than half of our $9.3 billion in imports from Colombia in 2006 were petroleum and coal."

America’s most competitive exports to Colombia in 2006, comprising more than 40 percent of U.S. goods sold there, were manufactured products such as drilling and oil-field equipment, excavating machinery, computers and computer accessories, telecommunications equipment, and medical equipment."

Amnesty says:
"Colombia’s wealth in water and mining, oil and gas, coupled with increased privatization of important parts of these industries, has attracted major transnational corporations to the country. Trade unionists in these sectors have faced repeated human rights violations, often because of their opposition to privatization. "

Cato says:
(CUT)"Free trade is killing us as much as bullets are."8 Equating peaceful, voluntary trade with murdering bullets is a gross comparison that shows the ideological agenda behind much of the opposition to an FTA" Free trade IS the bullets. This is the crux. This is the ideological difference I have with Cato. I don't believe you need to murder people to make money. It is not by chance that trade unions are targeted. They represent opposition to not only the trade policies, but the industries that thrive off it. Such as taking people's land, murdering the leadership of the mining union, and then giving a contract to a large multinational mining company. Or oil company. Or flower corporation. same scenario. Free trade thrives and survives through coercion and the lack of freedom. Trade is not peaceful when people are killed. Cato, do you understand this?
- to be edited at some point in the future

memory additions

2009-02-15T12:15:00.000-08:00

continuing on. Fiction vs. reality. The crux of the point below, is that often your own experience is not reflective of society as a whole. So to justify the dictatorship because the 'economy was good' is infactual. One could possibly say ' i benefited from it, but the majority of people did not, - so then it is ok'. is quite different. How do people reconcile this factual error when they study the massive amounts of debt that the dictatorship created? This is what i do not understand. I believe it is both ignorance and denial. if facts don't support your justifications... what do you do? Another reason for denial: feeling guilty - what if you found out when your child turned five years old that she had been stolen from a murdered pregnant woman? (common practice during the Argentine dictatorship) Could you honestly say this was a good thing? Although many wives were presented with children with full knowledge of where they came from. (The theory being that activists pass on poison ideas to their children, so two generations must be dealt with)

As Susana Kaiser discusses - the culture of fear stifles communication, discussion and dissent. even people that nostalgically remember the 'good ole days' do not want their children involved in activism or even community events because of fear they will be killed. So even they recognize it was 'dangerous' all the while speaking out of the other side of their mouth to claim that really, it was quite safe. That silence in fact speaks quite loud. What people don't discuss, is just as important as what they do -in analyzing the grip that terror has on a society even after twenty years.

Another tactic is discussing the violence without placing it within a historical context. The guerrilla insurgency is always exaggerated, their grievances are never discussed. A common theme is that the war was between the government and the guerrillas (rather than an all out war waged on civilian activists). As if opposition to state policies are caused for no reason. I still read articles on Colombia claiming 'Communist FARC' is trying to take over the government. The Montoneros in Argentina arose from anger about economic inequality. Along these same lines - an article i read yesterday on Hamas - how absurd the idea is that a relatively weak 'terrorist' organization is a realistic threat to nuclear armed Israel with the fourth most powerful military in the world. and so civilian annihilation is justified - to save the nation from a made up threat. (although a real threat to economic policies) Also importantly, is that civilian dissent is always lumped in with 'subversives' or guerrillas. This is especially true in Colombia to the point where even US human rights groups, the most moderate of all of them are called 'collaborators'. However this tactic is not new, in fact it seems to be the norm rather than the exception to demonize and criminalize dissent.

I have come to the conclusion that only through ignorance can most people support policies of violence, torture and massive inequality. I still fail to understand the mindset of higher levels of responsibility - those that orchestrate the policies. They are not ignorant. Those who intentionally deceive and manipulate public opinion because they know that the average citizen could not follow their ideas unless they are tricked. War for profit and power. There is a connection between most wars i read about - iraq, vietnam, state violence in latin america, etc. All of them depend on lies to fuel the conflict. This mass destruction will continue as long as ordinary society continues to cede power to these types of individuals. If you don't know what your government is doing - its most likely because they don't want you to know.

Ongoing thoughts concerning Israel's occupation:
1. To what extent should historical validity play in drawing the borders
2. If you follow the logic that Israeli's have historical ties to the land, how far back do you go? What about ancient Gaza and Egyptian rule? Is it relevant if the bloodline is diluted, or even nonexistent? (e.g is Palestinian an ethnic group, or rather more related to geographical location with a constant influx of relatively recent migration. also - european jews vs. arab jews? who has more legitimacy if they want different things)
3., how can biblical justification for land be used in the creation of a nation state considering the nation state is a recent phenomena?
4. last but not least, to effectively use this argument would that not entail the re-carving up of the Middle East (if not the world)

memory

2009-02-11T11:12:00.000-08:00

First off, I can't figure out the right way to eat muffins. Similar to large cupcakes, you cannot fit a proper bit into your mouth unless you bite if off the side or the top. Then it crumbles all over you. Everytime.
I have two different themes. One is, truth vs fiction with memories. "For memory is more about what we believe happened than about what actually took place" Susan Kaiser.
the book is on memories of the dictatorship by teenagers in Argentina that did not directly experience it. ie born right after it fell. The question that keeps coming back is one i have thought about before. Things people tell themselves to be 'ok' with the dictatorship are usually based on lies or infactual information. Because truthfully, how can one reconcile complicity with murder or torture? While there are many books exploring the memory of the victims, i am looking for one that examines what th ruling class / rich / military tell themselves, and how this period of time is remembered for them.
first innacuracy: "the economy at least, was good then" this is a big fat lie. the government brought in neo liberal policies, sky rocketed the debt, took over private debt, sold control of natural resources -- imf policies, decreased welfare spending. poverty increased, wealth for the wealthy increased, the economy tanked. I suppose it could be true then that the economy was ok. Because for them, it was. hmmm. interesting. but why do people say that when they are middle class, and they did not benefit from it? is it rich class envy? the idea that if only they were smarter then they, too, could take christmas in miami? However, - the economy did not flourish, and those policies paved the groundwork for the big crash in 2001.
2. "At least you could walk down the streets and be safe". It is interesting that people use this excuse considering 30,000 people were murdered. I tend to see a correlation between silent crime and chaos crime. Which is worse.
To be continued... i have been distracted.

dear human rights watch...

2009-02-05T09:29:00.000-08:00

"As a longtime human rights activist on Latin American issues I am concerned about the report by Jose Miguel Vivanco on Venezuela. In order to preserve the dignity of HRW, these accusations of bias and innacurate reporting need to be properly addressed."

fabulous websites: upside down world - "uncovering latin american activism"
Znet - absolutely awesome
znet has a two week course (some taught by noam chomsky!!) over the summer on alternative media and participatory democracy. i have been very politicaly influenced by many of these people and it would be one of the coolest things ever to take this course.
1. need to be employed before the deadline in a week
2. would need to be assured i could take the time off

i can't see the display of this blog anymore. my computer sucks ass and i deleted java and other programs in an effort to keep the computer running for longer. however, now i can't use a lot of programs. hmmm. i tried to re-dowload java which didn't work. did i break it? i need a new computer...

my other letter to the international labor rights forum.. since i occupy myself these days with reading immensly, then I offer my wonderful opinions to the open market. I also like to exagerate my credentials. Its interesting to think that even though I attended college, I am a self made "expert". most of what i learn i do on my own. Yet having gone to college is the only way I get some credibility with my self made knowledge. there is something seriously wrong with that picture.

Hello,
I read the educators packet on flower workers in Colombia. I study paramilitary violence against mine workers and various other trade unions in Colombia, as well as gendered studies. I found the report very informative but I suggest updating the portion on sexual violence.
1. connect sexual violence to the big picture of exploitation and globalization. The power structures involved in these exploitative jobs are at the root of sexual violence.
2 The issues of accountability and prosecution are only secondary problems considering 50% of the female floral workers experience sexual violence. even if the workers did not have work late at night or had better hours the problem would not go away.
2. The problem is not cultural attitudes in Ecuador. Please remember that immigrants in the U.S face similar proportions of sexual harassment and violence; as well as other groups working in exploitative working conditions around the world.

laws

2009-01-29T08:57:00.000-08:00

to be continued: intial thoughts. To what extent do laws deter crime? What is more important - a value system in which people do not commit crimes, or a system of punishment to jail people after the fact. Is crime prevention more effective? If so, what would this model look like? Do laws have any affect except to serve the power of the state? even failed states have laws, but too many people break them to jail them. So it seems that norms are more important. Laws are better seen as a reflection of the power of the state.
perhaps laws are seen as "justice". is justice punishment? or perhaps justice is a society in which no crime exists.

Here is what I think

2008-12-29T22:41:00.000-08:00

Ok. lets get down to business. Watching the news is always an excellent conversation starter. Especially among people with different political views. Lets talk Palestinian territories and Israel. As much as this conflict is rooted in history this is 2008/9. We live in a modern world and the current situation is bad news bears.
I just deleted previous section due to unpredented new knowledge. books are amazing. the book is on israel's occupation and details methods of control from 1967 through today. The striking thing i find in the news today is 1. disproportionate violence. as if proportionate violence of israeli's would make this all okay. 2. that hamas is the aggressor and israeli military is on the defense. as has been pointed out, an occupying force can never truly be on the 'defense' to protect itself. could france claim self defense in Algeria? Japan in China? no. What stikes me as so insane in all of this is that the US has voted down every UN peace settlement that is unfavorable to israel. While I do believe that the holocaust warrants protection of jewish people and awareness of their history of oppression, i do not believe that behaving in kind can be justified. The US media is so starchly uncritical of israel because it is like looking into a mirror. Attacking Hamas is essentially attacking all males over the age of 14 (or even younger) and rendering any kind of civil dissent as terrorist. Sound familiar? It goes to the very heart of what we consider 'terrorism', what creates violence, and how to combat it.
The book goes into detail about how the hospitals, schools, communication, borders, what you can/ cannot sell, electricity... everything imaginable was controlled and regulated by Israel. The creation of the internal spy system reminds me a lot of colombia. How much fear it brings to daily life and effective it is to styfle organizing and relationships because you are afraid of your neighbors. Promotions, lives, reduced sentences etc. were ways to get people to comply. The appartus really is quite immpressive. the palestininan authority was only created by the US and Israel as a proxy government because public opinion was against israel to openly occupy west bank and gaza. But with out a viable economy, no resources to build it with, civilian leadership infrastructure virtually destroyed by the occupation, half the population under 15, massive unemployement, a majority of people living off only through ngo welfare, israel still controls the borders, the country is level in shambles and essentially still 'occupied'. why does a radical group like hamas get elected? doesn't take a genious. why are people unrelated to hamas resisting but being called terrorists? it is impossible not to resist the occupation, essentially every civilian is a terrorist, every terrorist is a civilian.

My new book is awesome: "The revolution will not be funded" only two essays in and it has a lot to think about. #1 human rights career is an oxymoron. (is that spelled right? moron.. haha) An NGO's primary focus should be enabling the movement, not the face of it. People who are trying to create a career for themselves must get paid. Career = paid. This not only moderates you, but also contributes to the idea that working for social justice is a profession rather than a way of life. That 'experts' better understand the world and only a certain few have the obligation and knowledge to act on our behalf. in the remembered word of the book: as if a few should or could do the work of many.
And.. interesting paragraph - why are poor people studied so intensely to understand their ' condition'. Why not study the rich and actually risk yourself. I find it an interesting topic. How many rich people are sellouts. And more specific - to boil down the ways that money is maintained. Using three case studies - ultra rich: possibly even a do gooder like Bill gates. Then a semi rich Josephine, then Joe the plumber type. And compare the ways in which their income/ spending etc. mushrooms out to exacerbate (spelling...) and perpetuate or what not oppression. Oppression easily defined but yet narrowed when only studying sweat shop labor, businesses without unions etc. This shall be my project.
Now off to read my fabulous book and figure out in what other ways I am a sellout. Although some comforting part of me recognizes that even though I want to have a human rights career, I do so because i want to further specific movements, and I would give my life for what I believe in. (not god) I am not a sellout intentionally, and life is a learning process. Understanding all ways that we contribute to "the system"
- On a closing note, snowboarding is awesome

Jericho movement!

2008-12-07T20:48:00.000-08:00

I went to a really awesome discussion + documentary last night which spurred me on to a study day today and i have been listening to audio broadcasts on blackwater and speeches from death row inmates. I feel very inspired at the moment, so here is some cool stuff I have been learning!

The jericho movement is a movement to free the 100 + political prisoners in the U.S. www.thejerichomovement.com (it tells it way better than me) The discussion was about 8 of them. Formerly part of the black panther movement of the 60's they were framed in the killing of a policeman in San Fransisco. referred to now as the SF8. With out evidence, witnesses, or a murder weapon they were charged with murder. 3 of them were tortured which produced confessions. the case was later thrown out due to the fact that it is against U.S law to use evidence from coerced testimony. Sooo, fast forward 30 years: in 2003 the same men (6 of them) were tracked down and the trial is again being pursued. The murder of the police officer. they were only recently let out on bail after spending a year+ in prison. (these are senior citizens) The prosecution has yet to introduce any new evidence and a grand jury has thrown out the case 4 (5?) times and they have yet to receive an indictment. The two other "SF8" framed for the san fransisco cop murder did end up in prison after being set up a second time in New York. They have been in jail for 35 years. The main witness who testified against them recanted on public television saying he had been tortured by the police.

The attorney for the SF8 was at the discussion and she brought up how Barack Obama said he might negotiate with Cuba if Raul Castro freed the political prisoners. But what Castro should respond with is he will only deal with America if we free the more than 100 political prisoners that we are holding. The documentary that goes with the 'Free the SF8 movement' links the repression of social justice movements and torture (then) to the war on terror - now to show that this is not a new phenomena, and the tactics are alamingly similar. They talked about how the FBI tried to get them to testify against eachother, but instead it has built the movement to go around the country and talk about how the government is trying to discredit them with evidence that wasn't admissable 30 years ago but might now be because of the war on terror.

other tidbits from my audio lectures of today...

Colombia: about 50% of the military aid is spent on contracts for DynCorp - private defense contractors. - Part of the current negotiations with Bolivia for its Counternarcotics aid proram was that they have to hire out DynCorp for a percentage of its military operations. (although now on hold because bolivia expelled US ambassador) excellent... - Blackwater and Dyncorp and an Israeli defense contract firm were sent to New Orleans in the wake of Hurrican Katrina because Bush had deployed the National Guard to Iraq. This is illegal on so many levels. (military not allowed to patrol u.S cities much less private defense corporations) - there are more than 300 private defense contract firms operating in Iraq. - at the time of research, the average Blackwater employee made more than Gen. Petraeus

audio lectures are awesome!! - also watched the documentary "paying the price" on UN sanctions on Iraq under Clinton and how devestating that was. 500,000 children under the age of 5 died. (by film maker John Pilger)

SOA, Colombia, + ranting... = my sunday afternoon

2008-11-16T15:17:00.000-08:00

My letter to the editor of the NYT. watch for it....

To the Editor:

The Nov. 14 article, "Jesuit Killings In El Salvador Could Reach Trial in Spain," reminded us of the horrors that took place in Central America in the 80’s, including the massacre of six Jesuit priests. What the article failed to acknowledge was the United States' hand in these brutal murders.

The notorious School of the Americas (SOA), renamed WHINSEC, has trained some of the worst human rights violators in Latin America, including those who killed the Jesuit priests. Yet the school still operates in Fort Benning, Georgia, and is funded with taxpayer dollars. Of the 26 army personnel responsible for killing the priests, 19 were SOA graduates. The SOA also trained those who assassinated Archbishop Oscar Romero, and four U.S nuns.

As the anniversary of the Jesuit massacre approaches, and 15,000 take to the streets to call for the SOA’s closure, it is shameful to leave the U.S.'s role out of the story. With the SOA's long history of condoning torture and abuse, it is appalling that the Jesuit murders and other atrocities are not denounced and the institution shut down.

.....................
Now for a new and exciting topic that I have never written about: Colombia! excuse me while I grab another beer. Or should i say glass of water. By accident I bought Corona light. I fail to see the point. Alcohol by its very nature has calories. It tastes like faucet water.

I have been monitoring trends in the major papers on what they write about Colombia. The logic is ridiculous at best at any attempt to justify Uribe, or our involvement there.

A statistic I have seen pop up at least twice, in both the Washinton Times and the Post (the latter by the editorial board) is that it is safer to be a union member in Colombia than a member of the general population. Considering Colombia is the most dangerous place for a union member in the entire world, this is a bit misleading. The math of this stat is as follows. lets say 70 union members are killed each year. and 8,000 civilians are killed. more civilians are killed than union members. Basic statistics lesson. To compare the two, you must use 70 divided by the total number of union members, not the whole population, dumbass.

Recently there has been a lot in the paper about Colombia concerning 'false positives' (killing civilians and pretending they are guerrilas), firing of military personnel, the free trade agreement, etc. Why congress should cut off the aid to Colombia in simple terms: as summarized from my current fantastic book "America's other War" by doug stokes.

The logic of Plan Colombia has failed miserably. In the war on drugs, 80% of the money was used in military spending due to the idea that to stop the drug flow was to defeat the guerrilla insurgency. This assumes: the guerrilas are the primary transporters of cocaine, and that the method of defeating them is by killing their support base.

Problem 1: FARC never has been a major narcotics trafficker. They historically used a 'taxation system" on the growers, but the major drug routes in the north and the major infrastructure is controlled by paramilitaries (a fact which has been well documented U.S officials since pre- Plan Colombia)

Problem 2: The coca growers are almost exclusively poor farmers with no other means of substinence. Measures were taken to give them compensation to not grow coca which might have been successful if followed through. it wasn't, and farmers are continuously displaced as a result of fumigation which effectively ruined the real crops, poisoned the water, poisoned people, and created a stronger need to grow coca because the other crops were ruined. result: support base strengthened.

Problem 3: The aid to Colombia is hinged on three basic criteria due to human rights concerns. 1 -suspension of military personnel who commite HR violations 2- prosecution of those suspended, and 2 -prosecute those who have committed, 3 - effective measure to severe links with paramilitary units.
The state department certified the aid despite the fact that Colombia failed to meet any of the above requirements. Supposedly no aid will be given to units that have evidence of serious human rights violations. Yet as Amnesty reported in its Oct. 28th report, half of the units that received U.S aid has records of serious HR violations. (as has been reported before numerous times, notably right after the conditions were certified)

So why was most of the money to Colombia (1.3 billion) given to combat the minor players in a drug war, to an army notorious for human rights violations, and strong ties to the major players in drug trafficking and terrorism? You do the math.

I have written on my thoughts on that before and will continue to be outraged everyday that another story on Colombia is printed: claiming that Uribe is doing fabulous, HR violations are under control, everything will be okay once FARC is eliminated, etc etc...

colombia

2008-11-09T11:16:00.000-08:00

Amnesty International recently came out with a report on Colombia which I am reading right now. It has received decent press coverage and the trend is changing of how Colombia is viewed, although as noted in the report human rights groups have been saying the same things for decades. Some parts seem conflicting, and many of the recomendations are based on international law rather than a community centered solution. The report did actually say that the conflict is based on land, and that reparations must include the right to return to the land.
Summary:
massive transfer of wealth from small farmars, and collectively owned land frm afro-colombian and indigenous land owners through violence and paramilitary takeovers. This was done in collusion with the justice system that did not rule this illegal or turned a blind eye; politicians were elected with the help of paramilitaries through election fraud and intimidation and thus were bought off from interfering with the violence. Paramilitaries also worked with the security forces and had access to intelligence, the wealth of the state, and impunity. The security forces were often inseperable from the paramilitaries. Businesses and corportations hired them to break up unions, as well as to clear off land for fertile ground. Amnesty cites 4-6 million hectares of land was transfered. ( 1 hectare is equal to ~ 2.5 acres)
There is also evidence of FARC and paramilitary groups acting together to protect drug routes previously fought over.
thoughts on how to fix this: 1. Uribe still doesn't acknowledge that a civil war exists, continues to call the guerrilas terrorists, impunity reigns for demobilized paramilitaries (which most haven't actually demobilized) - the justice system should move forward, because of momentum with over 60 government workers charged or in prison, judges that were previously silenced can take on more cases. (although 15 people havebeen killed that have been associated with the 'justice and peace process in the last five years)
2. the government MUST have a real interest in peace, or else small victories will continue to be an uphill battle and what is needed is large victories, massive reparations and land distribution to its proper owners, inclusion of guerrilas into politics, cleansing of the security forces and trials for those who orchestrated the massive human rights violations. Investment in education, health, and sectors of the economy that benefit rural farmers. Colombia needs a new president that will say no to massive US aid that seeks to increase the military and continue a US presence in the area. most importantly though, the next president should return the stolen land to its rightful owners.
Of more importance,
GO OBAMA! Si se puede! Si se pudo...

mc rove

2008-10-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYZre8kEsuw
karl rove rapping. how did i miss this shit? better than crack

political

2008-10-08T17:57:00.000-07:00

Attempting to finally write political... There is so much to write that I have put it off for so long for lack of anywhere to begin. But i have finally found my starting point.
Working for the DNC i go out a few times a week to canvass - part of the 'grassroots' wing. It can be somewhat exhausting to defend my beliefs not only from a human rights standpoint, but on another level that I am not completely comfortable with: why am I campaigning for Obama? While I do believe that democrats have a better record on human rights than Republicans, I am also very critical of them. I also believe that Obama is more progressive and understanding of oppression eg. classim/racism/sexism rather than pretending it doesn't exist. I agree with democrats in the principle, i don't think they have followed through with their plans. Even more so, smaller goverment as in what conservatives supposedly go for will never apply to the military and foreign military aid which seems to indirectly perpetuate human right violations through out the world. my arguement was - if there ever was a republican to drastically reduce the military i would cast my ballot in an attempt at voice through voting.
So the tangent i went on last night was with a democrat turned republican. Needing to waste some time i spent about half an hour with her. The statement that bothers me the most is that people in poverty are lazy. This was in response to my theory that the most wealthy nation in the world should not have such a high level of poverty in its own country (not to mention promoting it abroad). I attempt to offer my rebutal to this, which i did not do well last night because i was so frustrated with the idea.
Without re-looking up the statistics, i am going to recall from memory.
1. the vast majorty of people in poverty are people who have jobs. period. Not people who prefer to beg on the streets because working in low wage jobs is that much more demeaning. People beggin in streets compromises a small portion of people who are actually in poverty. This includes families, people working two jobs on minimum wage, single mothers,
- homelessness: this also includes familes and disproportionately affects women, women with children, and those fleeing from violent home situations.
- Drugs are a vicious cycle in which people are caught up in the system of no education, no job skills, medicate with drugs, lose money. Violence, sexual abuse, and other 'life circumstances' are a major part of drug addition. I believe drug abuse is misunderstood in that people would like to think the drug addiction comes first, which makes the person homeless, or leads to prostitution rather than the other way around. Same goes for psychological disorders. Overwheleming numbers of women who are experience domestic violence develop a psychological disoder in able to cope.
- causes: major causes are lack of education (almost 50% of young people do not graduate highschool, much less with real job skills), affordable housing, capital flight out of inner city neighborhoods, lack of jobs on that middle level: many jobs are needed to keep this society going at a very low education and skill level which is where immigrants are employed and needed. But the next level of widely needed jobs skips almost a 4 year degree. possibly even a masters to ensure a good job. Poverty is a very complex issue. children raised in a community with a very high rate of poverty lack a culture of achievement, postive role models, lack of support from say churches, schools, and other networks that can help out. money thrown at schools with out strenghtening these other institutions will ulitimately fail. dc is an excellent example. sending a kid to a goo school who doesn't have a stable home life or proper diet cannot learn as well.
- now lets talk about oppression. This could obviously go on for many book lengths.. but lets take a stab. Anyone who says poverty is laziness is igoring the fact of widepread 'isms' and of how they have affected history, and continue to inform policy and life within America. Congress recently voted down a bill for equal pay for women in the workplace. republican cited that the age of sexism had ended. Many of the historical protections have been eroded, and rather than employers showing that they are fair, the employee must prove that they have been discriminated against. This comes during a time when women make about 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. This figure places women in the context of a capitalist culture and obsession of how much you make. Yet socially an accepted and traditional role for women is not in leadership positions. This system does not acknowledge women roles within the family - even if they are not bringing in an income. The U.S also has a very high rate of domestic violence and sexual violence. The one factor that all of these attacks have in common is gender. Until this threat is removed from society equality is bullshit.
- role of police: if you are locked up, this makes it much more difficult to survive financially. yet the U.S has a higher percentage of people incarcerated than any country in the world. around 1% is behind bars. Unproportionally by far African Americans are incarcerated at a higher rate than other 'races' (as defined by US). Whites compromise a majority of tax evasion and and 'white collar crimes' even though the dollar amount is more than most theft cases which don't acrue very much jail time. Drug charges however can land you life in prison or a felony charge. especially non violent drug charges. Women with felony charges - which are mostly black are not elligible for scholarship funding, low income housing benifits or food stamps. (the latter part enacted by Clinton in 1996 to cut 'welfare spending'.

this part goes with the above part on poverty. school vouchers = bad. So... poor communities can't afford to send their kids to better schools. And why would you want to send your kid to an all white school if you are attend a majority black low performing black school? why not have that school do better so that children in the same neighborhood can go to school as a community for support, not be among a racial minority, and a long commute - which usually entails no afterschool extracurricular activities. using the school system to perpetuate a culture of obedience and intolerance... to be continued.

International Day of Peace!!

2008-09-20T19:03:00.000-07:00

I am mutely excited that my soul selling is almost complete. Mutely, in the sense that how can one actually conjure up true emotion when soul selling is essentially the absence of emotion.

drunky blog deleted... to be re-written at a future date

really too much to think about though. and not neccesarily in the following order
1. graduate school for conflict resolution
2. establishing residency
3. sign contract for Teach for America 2 years
4. other job in media relations
5. tickets to india?
6. analyze myself
7. why am i so embittered by the u.s. government?
8. am I naturally messy, or is this a learned behavior
9. the magic of coffee
and oh so much more
politics? i have been hit on the back of my head with a bat of information. still processing the process.

the ratings

2008-08-13T18:07:00.001-07:00

It must be said... Cloverfield is one of the worst movies ever made. The end.

Books on tape! thumbs up. bedtime has never been more pleasant. Fountainhead rocks this time around. if only the soothing sound of Roark wouldn't put me to sleep so fast.

Pushing rocks of cliff. Fun. Not knowing how to turn video right side up on computer? priceless...

2008-07-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

Mission mountains - greywolf peak

Mitzi's first backpack trip. She's scared of bears, darkness, thoughts of bears, my cat, and small dogs

INTERNSHIP!!!!

2008-07-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

I will be unleashed into the DC area come september. muawhawhaw! Promoting human rights propaganda.

took an internship position with Amnesty International - media relations. It sounds pretty sweet and needless to say i am hella excited. slave labor notwithstanding

DC! bring it

books

2008-07-14T20:32:00.001-07:00

or my 'booklings' as I like to affectionately call them. I can't keep my focus and interest on just one book. and so i need to have about five different ones to keep me occupied for different moods. flavors of the week: I have gone on a gender issue streak lately.

Incite! The color of violence: fabulous book! a bunch of different essays with different authors about issues of violence concerning women of color. border patrol, palestine/isreal conflict, prision industrial complex etc. very excellent eye opening book.

Profit over People (Noam Chomsky): essays/talks about free trade, neo-liberal bullshit, corporatization etc. not very in-depth but makes you want to learn more about topics and can tear down other people's arguements so well!

Civil War, Insecurity, and Invervention: I really like this one. very informative, analyzes the civil wars of Rwanda, Somalia, Yugoslavia and Cambodia. With a little mix of India, Palestine, and Pakistan thrown in at the end.

Lucky (alice sebold): i don't know why i can't get through this one. perhaps the other books are just too interesting for me to sit down and read an easy one. autobiography of her rape and subsequent slide into drug use.

My bondage and my freedom (Frederick Douglass): my newest present to myself. can't wait to read more, but the first chapter seems promising. autobiography of the second half of his life.

rereading sporadically parts of the Fountain Head to see if I will like it more than the first time i read it.

The family: (did i finally manage to put pics up? yes!)

2008-05-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

General, the new horse
The dwelling
Toby: my first and only true love
Toby and Mitzy

baby rabbit - (R.I.P...)
baby lowline - check out my first website creation! (a work in progress) montanalowline.com any suggestions welcome

humanities

2008-04-24T15:40:00.000-07:00

I think i would like to attend the lectures of Sir Justman even after i finish school. If there was a person that could be bald, awkward, proud, boring, and dramatic all at the same time... I think that person has the potential to become the twin of Stewart Justman. a snippet from todays lecture: "Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky were like two bears in one den - the den of literature!"
the metaphorical genius lives to see another day

DPS

2008-04-20T11:16:00.000-07:00

How exciting. A student sit-in that resulted in arrests on my very own home campus for the fist time since the Vietnam war. One of three around the country. I wrote a simple letter from a simple girl to the editor that most likely will not be printed since they tend not to like me very much. Although this one is not near as mean as the previous one listing all the countries the U.S had invaded in the past 100 yrs.... quite extensive.

"President George Dennison should sign the letter of intent for DPS, and the charges against the students should be dropped. DPS ensures that workers making university apparel have a livable wage, and are able to form legitimate unions. University officials site ‘legal ramifications’ for their unwavering support of sweatshop labor.

Former Assistant Attorney General, Donald Baker, gave legal advice to ‘Workers Rights Consortium’ stating, “if the Program were carried out as recommended by us, the Program would not be likely to conflict with U.S. anti-trust laws; and hence the University Licensors do not face a significant risk of anti-trust exposure for proceeding with the program” (Baker and Miller PLLC). However, UM students are not even asking that Dennison sign on –but rather he sign a letter of intent. The letter says that if DPS were to be approved by the department of Justice that the University will then comply with it. Yet Dennison and Foley have refused to do this. Provost Royce Engstrom says that he “hoped they [students] would pursue their interests without undertaking illegal activity” (missioulian 4/20). My hope is that the university would pursue its interests in accordance with the wishes of its students, that it would support workers rights, and that Dennison would sign the letter of intent for DPS."

2008-04-15T14:44:00.000-07:00

new favorite quote ever! "Considering the state of the world I came to the conclusion that either there is no god, or else god is my all powerful enemy"

favorite musician ever! Immortal technique

favorite story from this morning! as i entered campus and on up to my classroom... typical montana style there is a random stuffed deer hanging out in the hallway - with a remote control to be used while hiding behind the corner to scare people. Why? I don't know.

torture?

2008-04-10T16:25:00.001-07:00

perhaps i torture others because i write about nothing else.... but self control has never been one of my strong points. Lets set the stage. The book for the week was confessions of state violence. My research project is on the School of americas and how america teaches torture. So i consider myself somewhat 'tortured out' at the moment. after reading so many testimonies the constant theme that keeps coming up is the 'ticking time bomb' theory. it is the rationale of every nation that uses torture, every human that inflicts it (or half beast). But yet the ticking time bomb of saving a million lives and you MUST torture because you will get reliable information - and not only reliable but the information that you actually are seeking... and be able to distinguish it from all the other bullshit that was yelled out during the torture session because apparently you know what information you are looking for - because they know where the bomb is in the first place... well. it just doesn't happen. but it is used in every single case. it is ironic (or not) how similar argentina, chile, brazil, and south africa and now the United States all compare with eachother. ticking time bomb! patriotism! denial untill evidence proves otherwise. a few bad apples. and more importantly, humans in secret torture facilities. or not so secret. Guantanamo lives!
An amnesty international report on the U.S is quite extensive. Not only outside the United States, but within as well "More than 70 people died after being shocked with tasers (dart-firing electroshock weapons), bringing to more than 230 the number
of such deaths since 2001."
on a new and exciting sidenote - anyone interested in creating a digital identity and living it out in a digitalized world? then you can forego reality, cease to exist and waste your money all at the same time! (sim world does actually exist)
Another sidenote because i thought i was up to date on my conspiracy theories. But apparently this one has been around for sometime. a journalist came and presented her documentary in Missoula with overwheleming evidence that Pres. Reagan bargained with Iran before he was elected to not release the hostages. This would create such bad press for Jimmy Carter that people would be sick of him and vote Reagan in. In exchange he agreed to sell them weapons. So, weapons for hostages... not so much. And even worse is that apparently Oliver North is now a special correspondent for FOX. And it is not mentioned that he was convicted for lying to Congress about selling illegal weapons from Iran to fund the contras in Nicaragua. but he ended up six months in jail but was pardoned before he served. and This bastard is a special correspondent? how depressing. torturous... if you will...
and another sidenote... (how many do i get?) Q: what is the biggest taboo of the weightroom? A: dropping the bar on yourself while bench pressing! superwoman lifting powers not available for rent on the odd days of the month...

giddy up!

2008-04-02T19:36:00.000-07:00

OBAMA IS COMING TO MISSOULA!!!!! and i'll be in line for tickets bright and early tomorrow... its free! i'm so excited! they better not trick me and then cancel it. i would be so disappointed.

old times

2008-03-29T23:22:00.000-07:00

As i started up my car, - same one since highschool, a song on the radio came on that i used to love - from highschool. and i had on my same puffy jacket i got for my birthday - in highschool. i had a weird thought... what if i was back in highschool! how have I changed? considering i have come full circle to end up not really going anywhere at all to be literally in the same shoes as i was five years ago. It was kinda of creepy.
Perhaps the only difference is that I can get away with ranting more than i used to. now that i am one of the educated/beautiful people getting ready to graduate. i fooled them all! There is a certain amount of cockiness that being 23 affords you. i just hope i don't morph from being cocky to cock-like. The ultimate punishment of old age.

back to the saga of nothingness. i am perfectly content to curl up with my book and my kitty (that i tamed).
more nothingness. i had a weird and very vivid daydream of vampires. So watch out for the blond chick with the knife.. she's sportin some badass fangs! and why would a vampire need a knife? much less three of them. The vampie was also lost and confused. not very intimidating

more torture...

2008-03-13T22:33:00.000-07:00

waging fear
to cure the consciousness
of objections to violence.
Legitimized only by the notion
that the fear holds truth, that
Fear of my death justifies another's
or fear for my house
my car, my money, my...
way of life.
And so I feel fear
reached by a manipulated consensus
of conclusions by propoganda
to create a feeling I didn't know i had
we had, they had.
We've Been had.
Fear permeates society
its the, CIA see?
the KGB, Nazi, paramilitaries
waging fear
on truth.
Secret detention camps
soccer stadiums, electric shocks
blindfolds, basements, blood
spilled
another killed
another filled - with hate, too late
to save a life - but not a truth
Let it speak!
Manipulation is not the ugly side of peace.
Torture can never be justified.
Waging peace does not mean a war of violence,
Let it speak!

torture

2008-03-10T20:36:00.000-07:00

is anyone else completely outraged by Bush's veto of the bill banning water boarding and other 'harsh interrogation' techniques condemned by international law and already previously outlawed by our very own military? A nation that sanctions torture is not worth protecting. Not only is there huuuuge moral issues, but what about the precedent that it sets? that any nation can defy international human rights laws in the name of national security? One nation's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. Or oops, perhaps we just got the wrong guy. Since they are not given a trial, and we use secret detention camps.... how much do you trust the CIA? The arguement has been proposed to me - that torture perhaps can be justified in certain circumstances if it were the last resort and if it were the only way to yield credible information preventing an attack. There is many-a-problem with this. First, there is no way of ever actually measuring this. Is it even possible to put someone in a detention camp and imprisoned while posing the idea that they are being held by a just and moral nation that will not harm or torture them? The U.S has too much bad history behind it. Second, most studies indicate that other interrogation techniques are much more successful, and moreover, testimony under torture is infactual and unreliable. (why were the tapes destroyed of the torture sessions of moussai- the name i can't spell?) Also there is so much information out there - 911 as the classic example - the problem is not that there is a lack of it. Rather there is too much. interpreting it is the hard part. The thousands of phone conversations, millions of documents, tranlations, etc. To claim that one testimony of a tortured individual is somehow more unique and valuable than the insane amount of information out there is ridiculous. Third. even if we could get info, - and only through torture, the bottom line is torture is immoral and wrong. It dehumanizes the people who do it and who they do it to. It is a crime against humanity. So Bush - Fuck you!
p.s. i put the 'adult content' thing on because it humored me. i also finally figured out how to put links up. yay for me.

ramblin away cause i'm too busy to work

2008-03-04T20:54:00.000-08:00

that plane blog was not nearly as spooky and prophetic as i would have liked it to be. use your imagination.... or how about even more creepy is that now the head guy of Farc has been murdered by the colombian military in Ecuador and venezuela is now putting troops on the border as has ecaudor and increasing military tension have backlogged the unprecedented progress of releasing hostages and farc(ian) political prisoners. Way to go Uribe. fucked it up again. there is a march on march 6th against miltary and state violence. needless to say it is receiving quite a bit of repression and backlash. unlike the march against guerrila violence a month ago. Not that i support FARC. But their leader should not have been killed. Many other countries acknowledge tham as a political group and have a political solution. I don't really see this as possible unless there is a fundamental restructuring of the colombian government. but even that's possible. join bolivia, venezuela, argentina, chile, ecuador, nicaragua, (brazil 1/2). And all of these countries aren't even that radical. in fact nicaragua has completely outlawed abortion. yet not even a slightly progressive President has held power in Colombian... ever? its time. Perhaps then Farc's time will be up. But not now, and not even a de-escalation in violence is possible now. and Venezuela's counteraction of militarizing the border is not a solution for peace.
It would really by nice to rant all night long. I have fun with it. But what really needs to happen right now is paper writing! Too much time at the gym, too much previous studying and being a sickly child does not make for productive homework time. (brittany spears did NOT just start playing.... yes, she did)
there is a world of difference between hard lifting and just.. lifting. where's my back massage boy when i need him... I want to do a whole new blog on just working out because i have so much fun with it and my family doesn't want to hear about it. and its quite boring to anybody but me.

airplanes

2008-02-23T13:30:00.000-08:00

So in another fucked up twist of fate another plane has crashed - this time in venezuela. The first time was kind of a random coincidence, but now it is becoming increasingly creepy that flights that i was especially nervous on have begun crashing. albiet a year later.... its still weird though. The one in brazil crashed a week later. That was one of the worst flights for me as far as being scared. The merida connection from caracas i was also pretty scared because it was descending into a valley from the andes. Turns out those mountains are what got the plane. crashed right into the mountain side. (what is that mountain goat doing way up here in the clouds?) I remember specifically writing that line during our descent. The other flight that has been particularily awfull for me was cuzco to colombia. So we'll see when that flight crashes. planes suck ass. and pretty soon my luck is going to run out and one that i predict is going to kill me actually will.

2008-02-06T20:33:00.000-08:00

Just coming from the gym i realized i misplaced my sports bra with a pair of underwear. Well, that ain't gonna work, so i stumbled home now dreading to go back. It is the 'hook up hours' at the moment and i feel a little unsure whether i should be scoring a date or lifting Gym update: i am stronger on almost every machine now which is quite exciting. AND.. i can almost go from a bridge into a backflip. they almost caught me practicing which was kind of an awkward moment. i was crumpled up on the floor after not making it all the way over and tried to pretend i was stretching my back.
Now to the gym. I wonder how all these white girls get so tan? I find myself contemplating whether its spray on, or from a booth. Or maybe my albino little self is just jealous.

I had my first night of 'boxing club' at the university. It was pretty cool, and exactly what i was looking for - its free! I probably won't stick to boxing as my 'sport of passion' but its cool to have something to improve and, and a situation where i get my ass handed to me from lack of skill and being in shape. Another happy note, i started a critical thinking group with one of my friends and we had the first meeting last night. I'm really excited about it. It introduces me to good people, and gives me time to discuss real issues with people. Next week I am giving a presentation on Colombia.

university career

2008-01-21T20:03:00.001-08:00

i sit here listening to abba - dancing queen pondering my classes and why i would love to drop out of college again and pursing higher education on my own. To their credit some of my classes are cool. Interest groups is a small class with six of us which allows for my witty jokes and my attention needy questions. Also upcoming is a 20 page paper on a lobbying group of my choice. I am leaning towards the School of Americas aka WHINSEC aka foriegn policy death squads. (three minutes have passed and i am now listening to daft punk, 'around the world'. also great music for bench pressing. on a similar unrelated topic i have come to enjoy doing my workout to classical music. there's something to be said for frenzied violin playing) moving on.
But of more importance are my three other classes. Especially the one i have just come from. The lecture from literary works. To put it simply i would have walked out after ten minutes, but familiar with tricks from irrelevant proffessors they usually intice students to stay by giving an assignment or extra credit in the last five minutes of class. so instead i amused myself with world class poetry in order to contain myself. (Madonna - material girl will background the poem writing

he stands there, shiny head and little hair
reading, feeding
pre-written biases and lies
he need not look up, for we are too ugly to even cook up
with head down, he wishes he could cry

then he raises his voice and is gesturing
the manequin broken neck is lecturing!

Like Hamlet i am sentenced
with dagger in the heart, my brain has become smart,
i stagger home for repentance

abortion law, anti choice

2008-01-21T15:53:00.000-08:00

Now that i am no longer in colombia, i feel that i can't really call this blog ' Cassie Colombia' perhaps cassie after colombia. Or Cassie's views who was at one time in Colombia....

We come to different conclusions relating to the morality of abortion, ideas of conception, etc. This is an issue with so great a diversity of perspecitives I argue not to convince you about my values over abortion but rather that no other group or human or government should have the power to regulate the choice to have an abortion.
The idea that a government or a group's morality is greater and more important than that of a single individual is a dangerous road to take. That decisions based on the concensus of 1000 people is more rational than that of one. Not only are laws not made by concensus but rather traditionally from upperclass males. Those in power are not of the same proportion as the people they have power over.
Opression is opression is opression. I may not be muslim, black, Colombian, male, homosexual, disabled, etc. But opression is not one sided and the fight for autonomy and respect for one group cannot occur with out a fight for all. The right to privacy, the right to protest, the right to health care, education, to equality under the law, the right to live in peace, are all rights that clash with a government that begins intruding into the personal space and lives of its citizens. The right to an abortion is not a moral sanction for it, but simply a recognition that an institution is not designed to impose values. 'governments are the biggest violators of human rights'
Values are a complex and intricate system that when imposed on a large population create conflict. one may not agree with abortion, but what about female genital mutilation? How about the idea that adultery is punishable by death? Execution for using drugs? the neccesity to torture people for the security of a nation? To start a preemptive war? To not have the right to protest in the streets? To not to be allowed to worship a different God? These are all values that different men who are 'leaders' in their countries have used as tools for opression. And all of them are for patriotic reasons. Even if one believes that abortion is murder and murder should never be allowed, they must also recognize that there are those that believe that a mother's rights supercede that of her fetus. That the living are more important than the unborn. That a miscarriage is not second degree murder. That thousands of women and girls die every year in the name of 'pro life' agendas. That abortion is a personal, but difficult choice to be decided by a woman. And only one woman.

che and ayn rand

2008-01-07T22:19:00.000-08:00

The utopia of Che Guevara and Ayn Rand i guess technically in weirdo Russian, its pronounced 'Ain' Rand. But fuck that. in my heart she'll always be Ann.
Che Guevara was not a true communist. (he had a break with Russian Communism because he disagreed with the Stalin method of mass extermination) And Ayn Rand would not say that any capitalist system that exists in the world today is true capitalism. Perhaps i am putting words in their mouth and making my own interpretation. But thats what happens when you die. And there's not a damn thing they can do about it.
Capitalism is based on the idea of productivity and exchange. Money is simply a material form to facilitate that exchange. In Atlas Shrugged she creates a utopia that is made up of only people who excel in their creative ability, and therefore all live in harmony. There are no looters. nobody who lives for free. Gold is the standard of exchange, thus the product being sold is creativity, and expertise. What a perfect little world.
Che also imagined such a world as did many 'communists' aka community living. The making of the "new man" that in order to achieve this magical new community, the consciousness for it must be created first. A revolution of ideas must occur first before the community can be enabled. and then in this communist community people would choose their work, and that work would help sustain the community. Not because they had to, but out of love. ability is being exchanged for the ability of others. Nobody is living for free, but elderly, and sick people are allowed to live. People who cannot care for themselves, but can offer non productive things to the community, such as conversation, wisdom, advice, family honor, etc..
essentially they are the same. The flaw i see with Ayn Rand is that not all ability is productive work. what about a monk? or what if the musician Dagny loved to listen to only played for his own enjoyment? Perhaps the satisfaction many people gain from their own accomplishments are personal and do not need any recognition regardless of the type of person who could recognize it. all of the people in the Utopia withdrew their genius from society because ordinary people could not acknowledge it. But they all still wanted it to be acknowledged by someone. someone of equal caliber. For some form of exchange. is personal satisfaction a form of exchange? how do you put a price on pleasure? This is why money is only an idea. and why it is not important that in communism there is no material medium of exchange. The exchange is actions. And everybody acts. This is the making of the new man. To become self actualized. Che called for education among all the guerrillas, to read, to learn new languages, to practice the morals that you preach. To be the best person you can be. The Utopia is only as good as the people in it. And this is the fundamental difference. We exist in a world of people. And we certainly don't live in a utopia. ( i do, but only occaisonlly in my head)

Thoughts on the looney toon spectacle of Presidential debates: first off. Hugo Chavez is not Chave`z. its Cha`vez. Get it straight.
Missed half the of Republican debate, but of course illegal immigration comes up again. if it hadn't already at least five times already. The evils of illegal immigration: Huckabee says that illegals should leave, and come back legally that way they can live with their head held high. why do people come to America. overwhelming economic reasons, as well as safety and security as undeclared refugees. Build the fence! increase border patrol! deny amnesty! What are the bigger issues here? how about how other countries are dealing with immigration? Ecuador, Syria, Chad, Canada.... How did immigrants become the source of attack (again). Its called the old fear and distract tactic. Make Americans scared of an issue of little relevance using an appropriate scape goat. currently its Latin American immigrants. before it was Irish, the Itaialian, the Chinese (especially during the gold rush). which immigrants shall we fear in ten years. Canadians? other scapegoat possiblilities: Muslims, Communists, anti americans, terrorists (this one is a perfect one. just change the definition!) So now we can blame someone for the problems of the economy, and not look at the real reasons why people want to attack us. Bring on the fence.
Democrats: nuclear proliferation: Obama, i am increasingly disappointed in you. first question asked was about invading Pakistan if their was credible intelligence of al qaeda's whereabouts. after much chatter of diplomacy his and comment was, yes. he would attack pakistan if pakistan would not cooperate in the elimination of terrorists groups. because this would make america safe from the threat of pakistan's nuclear arsenal (i suppose). NO! there is never any excuse to wage war on any country. even if the 'terrorists' were residing there. Economic sanctions! Today's world is a global economy. Economic sanctions would be more effective than war. Some of the biggest reasons why international interventions (in the real name of peace - not just pretend) were because some powerfull country was supplying a group with money and weapons. For real solutions, and real peace the countries must work together to stop the flow of money and weapons to a country and... za zing! And of course not examined to any extent was the military package the u.s gave Pakistan. One of the largest arms deals in the history of America. And we wonder why pakistan is unstable and full of weapons? little trinket toys are made in china. Weapons are made in the u.s. Also of concern. Nonproliferation. I was impressed by John Edwards tonight. i have usually discarded him. Bringing up the fact that we would be safer as a disarmed world. Go John. The idea that we fear being destroyed so we create more and more weapons in order to prevent our destruction? i like this quote.... " In a perfected nuclear deterrence, the knowledge in a disarmed world that rearmament potentially means extinction would become the deterrent" There is no need for nuclear weapons.
Obama and Edwards, you constantly claim ' i am the candidate of change!' but i got distracted how many times the word ' change' was said and possibly simply didn't hear anything of substance that was said during my counting. or possibly its because nothing was said. But what are President debates really for anyways. building up those catchy one liners. And John Edwards sumed America up nicely. This Presidential race is a fight for the middle class. of course it is. Because the buffer class is most important towards keeping the war machine up and running. If nobody fights for the middle class, there will be no buffer class. They will have joined the poor classes and others around the world and have started a revolution!

poem

2007-11-18T14:03:00.000-08:00

ignorance implicates us
in its fabricated
tapestry of lies
close your eyes
and imagine this world
with out suffering, with out violence
... with out people.
And so you stand alone.
With out responsibility from
the chains that bound you
to this earth
the chains that found you
at your birth
have been cut
all ties to humanity
human sanity
have been cut
you stand alone
pretending you are not a product of a past
but this past
is long living, forever sinning
and will outlast
this current generation
Alone, you stand
upon claimed land
staring into the abyss
of a mass gravsite called Earth.
But who piled on the dirt?
With victory cry
shovel held high, the voice screams
I did this for you!
For you, my family!
For you America!
For you! For you! For you!
and our silence is our complicity
it packs the dirt,
on this massive gravesite city
unless we realize our chains
are from our silence.
no longer bound
creating from silence a sound
of our voice shouting
No!
You do not kill for me
You do not hate for me
Not!
For!
Me!
But its not the guilt upon our backs
that need force us speak out and act
But Love!
And love of life. all life.
Because this world is filled with people

Tumaco

2007-11-13T12:38:00.000-08:00

I spoke too soon inside my head when i arrived yesterday. I thought this was a beautiful little town on the waters edge. i was so excited to see the ocean. Alas... my day was smashed with a reality check today when i went in search of boats to float gailily around in. This town is poor. dirty. it smells. poor? very poor. i have never seen a big city this poor. Small towns, yes, worse off. with out electricity, running water, etc. The houses are built into the water on supports for lack of land. Where the water has receded it leaves a big hole of mud filled with garbage for much of the waters edge houses. Lack of resources? I think not. This is a port town. With oil. lots of oil sent from Popoyan as i learned yesterday. as well as various other things. That explains the heavy military presence. They searched my bus on the way in, and made us all stand out in the rain as they checked for... drugs? Costumed men in green are everywhere. sometimes they like to scare me when i am walking along thinking my own little thoughts... a sound hisses out at me! a snake? no. something snake like... and military uniformed has called to me from his camafloughed perch. Today they were on their best beviour. i wanted to walk around the town in search of the peninsula. about five or six of them started sweetly shouting gringa! hey gringa! and mami! at me. and whistling loudly. such nice boys. and then i do not know who to attribute this next act of flattery to, but as i was walking back to my hotel a car drove by and someone reached out and grabbed ahold of my arm. scared the shit out of me. Such nice boys....
i am getting the fuck out of here tomorrow.

reading

2007-11-09T11:18:00.000-08:00

more tidbits: I am ploughing through my history textbook in spanish, but it is slow going. So i finally cave in and checked out some books from the library in english. An interesting comparison of numbers: Chilean dirty war - 17 yrs. 3,000 political killings. Argentina 8 years- 9,000 politically motivated killings. Colombia, 1986-1994, 28,500 politically motivated killings.... it was much easier to hide under "drug war" and the government often portrayed itself as a victim cocaine and guerrila warfare. However, the violence of the state commited more atrocites than all the other dictatorships in Latin America combined. And this was just in a period of 8 years. The writer of this new book discusses the tactics taught by U.S manuals of the "climate of fear" that to combat internal conflict the government must use violence in a manner so as to terrify the community into subjugation and silence. Killing is used not only to rid the city of "problematic" people, but to intimitate through use of torture. some of the examples given are absolutely horrific. The one i can`t get out of my mind is the story of a woman coming home to find her entire family decapitated. each body was sitting in a chair with its head on the table in front of it. The hands of the body were placed where their heads should have been. The baby`s hands were too little and were nailed to its body. guesomly horrific. As i began reading this book my roommate came in and we began a discussion of media violations. For example, two weeks ago a high up leader of one of the farc factions was killed by the police. His face was plastered all over the newspapers. His dead bloody face. And let us not forget the hanging of Saddam Hussein. Shown on international television and newspapers everywhere. I need look no farther than popular culture to begin comtemplating how it is possible to decapitate a baby and make a joke out of it.
to be continued....

we wear the mask

2007-10-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

WE wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

Paul Laurence Dunbar

teaching

2007-10-29T10:24:00.000-07:00

more on the saga of teaching...
the bane of my existence. Today went very well. It helps a lot to prepare lessons i have decided. But can be somewhat hindered when i am not given a book untill five minutes before class. But i had brought in a poem from Paul Lawrence Dunbar. We wear the mask... its one of my favorites. analyzed vocab, then pronunciation excercise. Say it faster and faster! get a rhythm going. I did it for two classes. It is good practice to do it twice. Then discuss its meaning. Then in my second class a game: i wash my ass ... in order that.... i am in paradise. kids are so creative. Games are fun. And a good help. Sometimes i forget learning a language can also be fun.
Saturday, went volunteering in Galan again. and once again the building was occupied by police. They were using our classroom so we didn`t have a white board, or markers, or ... nada. At least all the police were locked up in the room rather than wandering around brandishing their weapons like last time. I was supposed to give an english lessons, but for lack of materials and too large a class just sat with different groups to present the basics.
Elections were yesterday. Samuel Moreno won for mayor of Bogota. (partido del Polo) This was a great success for polo party. (some view polo as communist) with more people voting than ever before and a landslide victory even though the other candidate had support and money from the president.
Problems encountered. In this "democracy" usually not even half the eligible voters vote. Threats from the government, paramilitaries, Farc, are a large factor. Disinterest is probably the biggest. Corruption, lack of real visible changes, etc. create a disallusionment very widespread. But if democracy is winning 23% of the populations consent that you are not quite as bad as the other rich,(white) male... then hey, join the world. Some changes are positive. The mayor of Bogota previously was also part of the Polo party. Bogota spends a lot of money on its public schools now, has been adopting measures to disarm, more freedom of the press, soup kitchens, etc. But at the same time - allocating a few million dollars to improve public schools by the mayor is displaced by congress taking away 35 million dollars from education to go to the military. (these stats are not exact. ballpark are guess - it is actually a larger percentage that has been taken from education to fund the war, but i`ll have to look it up later)
Conclusion: the mayor of bogota is doing good things for the city. relatively powerful compared to a mayor in the estados unidos. Its a long road though for "the oldest democracy in latin america" to be truly representative of its people.

teaching

2007-10-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

Reconciling differences. How to work in an environment where I am forced to cover certain things in the book. To discuss issues such as intolerance and stereotypes, what i wear.. of filling out paperwork. (paperwork? bleh)
I still don´t dress very formal. i have been sneaking in with jeans, and occaisonally have come from the gym in a t-shirt and waiting for my boss to harass me. But i give classes on the third floor, the bosses are on the second.. muahawaw.
the difficulty i have had lately is sharing a class with other teachers. who need me to cover certain things in the book because they will be doing part two. In classes i do on my own it allows for more creativity. To use the book as a guide and bring in supplemental materials. But to have to do every single excercise from the book or risk the other teachers being rude to me? (which just happened last friday... she claimed it took her two hours to do a ten minute grammar excercise...)
yeah yeah...
My classes: i have tended to have a lot more discussions than me talking. Right now i lack being able to teach grammar in a creative way. I will have to work on that. I like our discussions though. I sometimes wonder if they are learning anything though. With beginners it is much easier to show their improvement. With advanced? Or perhaps i am just projecting my own frustrations with learning lanugages onto my students. Is my spanish even improving? I have almost given up. Perhaps switch to chinese. i think it would be easier.

Thoughts on "Kite Runner" (If you are planning to read the book, don´t read this) When i started this book i was very impressed. It is about the childhood of a young afghan, along with his sevant Hassan, and the Russian invasion, and later he moves to America with his father. It brought up many issues about the clashes of poverty vs. wealth. as Hassan is more courageus, often smarter even though he can´t read, a better person overall than Amir. Hassan is raped and Amir watches with out intervening. Later in the book he is able to rescue Hassan´s son Sohrab. I think this shoudn´t have happened. I think it would have been more powerfull to not have a chance to undo the wrongs. also he gets beat up very badly by the Taliban. And through this mutilation of his body he is healed at last from his wounds. Why is the cycle of violence used as a symbol of healing. "of getting what you deservered" as if an eye for an eye is the only way to peace. America was never criticized in this book. I view this as disgusting. It was written for an American audience and fails to ask the question... those who were moved by the horrible violence and terrors of the book not need look to their country´s policies and wonder how they are responsible. But America was the land of the free, of opportunities.... who did not apparently plant land mines that killed Hassans father.... more later.

remembering christian

2007-10-20T18:17:00.000-07:00

On our way to Galan, where they have sarturday school for the kids of the trabajadores. Gabriel tells me there is a change of plans. A kid just died so we will go to his funeral. Christian was 16 years old. He drowned in a pool, yet the details are unknown. did he dive in and hit his head? was he too drunk and just passed out? but he is dead now, just a 16 year old boy. He was part of the group of jóvenes that taught after school to help the younger kids in school. The caskett was brought out and a proccession of people began following behind it as it circled around to the church. This is when it hit me - that there was a dead boy there. Not just some idea, but a real body. A drowned body.
We marched on to the cemetery. I tried to write a poem about the event today. But i cannot put it into words. How can i describe a mother`s grief as i feel chills through my body when she falls to the ground and begins sobbing and screaming. His sixteen year old body being lowered into the ground. What kind of event is this for me to practice my writing skills? They have been buried with the boy.
My grief has never been uncontrolable. But the grief of others affects me almost more than my own.

This event has made me think about death a lot. Being an atheist I am completley at peace for when I die. I have no concerns about being burned to death in hell. I do not fear god, or hell, or fell compelled any longer to kneal or make the sign of the cross in church. I have many questions unanswered. But these questions to not bother me because it doesn`t affect how i act on earth. But what about another person who holds different beliefs? perhaps a different view on death would be easiar for a community to handle. It was one of the most heartwrenching funerals i have ever been to. The celebration of life is long forgotten in the feelings of pain and loss of death. He was just sixteen... jaime`s age.
I do not want to be buried in the ground. i prefer cremation, and spread to the wind. I feel my soul would be trapped and cold to be covered with earth.

villa de leyva

2007-10-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

what a beautiful day! I woke up yesterday morning and decided to leave for the weekend. it is completely ridiculous for me to be in colombia for so long and not to have experienced other cities.
Arrived somewhat late only to discover that every single hotel was full. But there was one... way up in the woods. It is weird coming from a dangerous city to a safe city. The mindset doesn`t change as easily. i was scared shitless walking up by myself into the woods. i confess, i turned back twice. But later i am going to go hiking up in the forest and it is completely safe. (unless i trip again and land on a stick that pierces my heart, not completely ruled out)

random thoughts from reading last night, formatted in an email to Julie:

One essay i just read was about disarming the world and using sanctions, or economic means in order to enforce law. A world with out war and weapons? The idea seemed almost absurd to me at first. Then the more i thought about it the more i realized how indoctrinated i have been to thinking that war is inevitable. It has really opened my eyes not only to the inhumanity of war (which i have always believed) but the impracticality. The unreasonableness! Such as mutally assured destruction: The idea that we fear being destroyed so we create more and more weapons in order to prevent our destruction? " In a perfected nuclear deterrence, the knowledge in a disarmed world that rearmament potentially means extinction would become the deterrent" We know we can become extinct. That is the reason that nuclear weapons should stop becing created. Because the only deterence we depend on now is the sanity of military officials, of the humanity of governments, and counting on that there are no mistakes made. Not a good track record..

How much war we could prevent if our foriegn policy was actually peace! Arundhati Roy gave a really great example of how the American forces threw down packaged meals for the millions of starved people after we bombed them. and asked " is pride a luxury only the rich are entitled to?" Or the idea of America ever having tried peace as a foriegn policy. as so many claim that `force is the only thing "they" respect. And how absurd that thought is, yet voiced with one collective idea that America must kill in order to prevent hatred.
You were right about the abortion blog. definetly masochistic. I view the interaction positive in only the sense that i researched and expanded my ideas on the topic. Other than that i deleted emails with out even reading them from the other woman....
And it finally stopped raining out. i can go outside an play in the sunshine! at least for ten minutes before it starts storming again.

abortion debate with Annie (author of anti choice blog)

2007-10-10T14:34:00.000-07:00

I want to just briefly touch on the statistics point because i think thatthere is simply a misunderstanding. correlation shows a connection betweenthe two things. in this case abortion rates cannot be shown to connectdirectly with education of condoms and contraception. There are too manyvariables. it doesn´t matter that pp is the single. largest. provider.(variables include increased access, chaning social attitudes, preg.resulted in inconsistently using contraception, or none at all...the listis large) therefore, there is not a direct correlation.

There is a point we agree on. That abortion is a difficult process. I have met many people who believe that the ´pro choice´crowd push abortion. Iam a strong advocate for counseling before and after an abortion. Each woman knows her life and her body better than any other person, so it isnot up to me to offer my advice or my push my opinion to a pregnant woman.

You mentioned early on ´The entity inside women that is being terminated by abortion, or emergency contraception in some cases, is not your or my own body.´ i think this is a fundamental point for the abortion debate. I copy and paste this next part because i could not have said it better myself

¨No matter how much value we place on a fetus's potential life, it isstill inside the woman's body. To pretend that the pregnant woman isseparate - or as the discussion of fetal surgery suggests, irrelevant andnon-existent - is to deny her not only her rights, but also her humanity.¨www.protectchoice.org
The fact is, the fetus is a part of the women´s body. you mention that then newborn baby could not survive with out mothering. i agree. but i disagree that a fetus is on the same plane as a newborn baby. distinctions must be made. your definition would also place disabled people, or old people who cannot care for themselves and must be fed- bathed, etc. on the same level as a fetus. A baby is inside the woman for 9 months for a reason. It is developing neccesary organs -heart, skin, spinal cord, etc. If you took the baby out too soon by c-secion perhaps, it would not survive no matter how much ´mothering´you gave it. the analagy was also given that the baby is living because it is not the same as a human leg? i failed to follow the logic of this arguement. could you elaborate please, annie.

Let´s discuss contraception. i completely agree with you that some are dangerous to women´s health. which is dispicable and should be punishableby law. Some companies have knowingly profited by unsafe contraceptives andsold them anyways. ¨Depo was involuntarily tested on 14,000 women from 1967 to 1978, byUpjohn, Inc. 50% of the subjects were African American, low income andrural women subjected to trials without their consent. Today poor women,women of color, and young women are targeted users.¨ http://www.sistersong.net/documents/RJBriefingBook.pdfBut

But there are alternatives. And these alternatives should be safe, and the proper information given. If there are risks they should be known. For example, certain contraceptives can cause a higher rate of breast cancer. Then this is the choice of the woman to decide if she wants to take that risk or not. The information should not be withheld, nor should contraception be pushed. There are many resonably safe options out therethough, including condoms. sex education: while this is increasing related to AIDS, STD´s, and pregnancy the sad fact is that the government is on a campaign to limiti nformation that could be life saving. ¨Between 1996 and 2005, Congress committed over $1.1 billion through both federal and state matching funds to "abstinence-only" programs. Virtually no money went to comprehensive sex education. Today the only sex education for more than a third of all students is "abstinence only," even thoughthis curriculum teaches falsehoods about condom effectiveness rates andother matters.¨ http://www.sistersong.net/documents/RJBriefingBook.pdfAnnie,

(*this statistic was disputed by Annie, but i could not find any reliable sources to support her claim that the goverment has a large budget for sex education)

You brought up the Uganda solution, you wrote: ¨From thePresident on down, they emphasized abstinence not condoms, not abortion,and they have seen great results in reducing STDs and abortions¨
You misunderstand the Uganda solution. The name of the program is called the ABC approach. A - abstain, B be faithfull, C use condoms. where did you read your info? here is some more info about Uganda.
¨Reports of consistent condom use by men rose to more than 50 percent by 2002, compared with 10 percent a decade earlier. Among women, reports of condom use rose from virtually zero to 25 percent. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/02/24/MNG2PBG3VF1.DTL

¨ABC is far from all that Uganda has done. Uganda, he noted, "pioneered approaches towards reducing stigma, bringing discussion of sexual behaviorout into the open, involving HIV-infected people in public education, persuading individuals and couples to be tested and counseled, improvingthe status of women, involving religious organizations, enlisting traditional healers, and much more."

¨The U.S. researchers found that the single greatest factor lowering the percentage of Rakai people infected by HIV was the premature deaths ofthose who were infected earlier with HIV and subsequently died of AIDS....In the Rakai district, however, researchers found that abstinence andfidelity have actually been declining, but the expected rise in HIVinfections stemming from such behavior has not occurred. http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/06/5/gr060501.html

There is simply not enough funding of government programs to pay for childcare, health problems, followup doctor visits, etc.¨Approximately 40 million Americans, including about 9 million children, lack health insurance. It is estimated that an additional 10 - 15 million people have some coverage but not enough, and that an additional 2 million people have lost other health plans along with their jobs in therecent economic downturn.¨ www.motherfriendly.org¨

"22% of America's already born children live in poverty¨

"a pregnant womanwould not be covered for any injury or disease she suffers that does notdirectly affect the pregnancy, nor apparently, would she be covered if shesuffers a miscarriage or stillbirth, as more than 900,000 women do eachyear¨http://www.sistersong.net/documents/RJBriefingBook.pdf

there are quite a few other statistics i didn´t have time to find exactwebsites for. For example the amount of cases prosecuted of child abuse is about one percent. There is too much backlog and not enough workers. Or daycare centers for mothers who need to work to support the family are too expensive and the families will end up forgoing medial care or other vital options.

Last topic - evironment: This is existing all over the world, including the U.S. Right now there are over 1,305 superfund sites scheduled for cleanup

¨About 11 million people in the U.S., including 3-4 million children, livewithin 1 mile of a federal Superfund site and confront potential publichealth risks¨ http://www.scorecard.org/env-releases/land/

¨Reproductive toxicity may be expressed as alterations in sexual behavior,decreases in fertility, or loss of the fetus during pregnancy.¨ visit the website for the list of over 80 toxicants that are recognized.(not including those that are suspected) that are in these superfund sites.

-lawsuit against General motors for contaminating the lt lawerence rivermaking it unsafe to breastfeed. http://www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org/

¨All scientific experts agree that exposure to mercury is especially toxicto fetuses and children. Like lead, mercury is a highly toxic heavy metalthat can cause brain damage and learning disabilities, and often causesirreversible neurological damage.¨http://www.epa.gov/region09/toxic/lead/enforcement.html

¨Within the U.S., an estimated 10 tons of highly toxic mercury arereleased to the environment each year from mercury-containing lightswitches during the shredding and crushing of old vehicles¨http://www.epa.gov/region09/toxic/lead/enforcement.html

I chose to use a lot of quotes for this one, to help show that this is just a small sample of tons of info of problems related to female health andchildcare other than abortion.i hope this shows that there is a wider debate than making abortionillegal. And those of us that cannot agree about the right to abortionshould all argree on these other topics. That there is substantial healthrisk to ALL people because of the environment. this includes pregant womenand children. There is currently not enough programs for children inpoverty, or pregnant mothers to be raising healthy children. And that´lifesavings education of STD´s pregancy prevention is inadaquate.

Annie`s Reply to me about Uganda:
The info I have is that "Uganda's success against HIV is due to abstinence, behaviour change and community, not condoms" as found in a study published in SCIENCE journal. http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/ed007047-0e93-4964-9fba-aa887d42817e.asp :
As for later reports that "condom use was responsible for Uganda's stable levels of AIDS", we debunked that study here, two years ago, http://afterabortion.blogspot.com/2005/02/its-condoms-that-are-responsible-for.html .

My reply to Annie:
found the Uganda statistics that i posted from a consensus of seven websites i looked at. They were not pro choice sites. And the C in the ABC approach Does stand for condom. and you blatantly stated in your first response that condoms were not used. Most my information was found on government funded websites - who seek to promote it. The perception of Human Rights Watch is actually not that great in many conflict countries. I think their research is important, but they are still a U.S dominated human rights group. Therefore they are considered rather conservative and what they say must be taken with a grain of salt.

I read the study that you cited saying condoms didn`t work in Uganda. Here are some problems I found with it. I will compare your website to the USAID source. This is the source that founded and promoted the ABC approach. (rather than choosing a critical website of the ABC approach) Because in fact the ABC approach is criticized heavily by most human rights groups. I`ll call your website NAM.

1. NAM: says ¨Cambridge investigators established that HIV incidence was declining in Uganda by the late 1980s, and that by 1995 there had been significant declines in HIV prevalence, ¨-

but... u.s.aids shows that AIDS rates kept climbing and even peaked in 1992.

NAM: "The investigators established that HIV prevalence in pregnant women aged 15-24 peaked at 21% in 1991, but by 1998 had fallen to 9.7%,

-u.s. aids show that it peaked at 30% in 1991

NAM: ¨The number of individuals reporting casual sex in neighbouring countries did not change substantially between these dates. (1993 -2000)

¨u.s.aids In Kenya, there has been a marked decline in prevalence in recent years, (1) during which time national surveys have reported clear, positive changes in sexual behavior.- in Kenya from 1998 to 2003 reported more than a 50% drop in casual sex. (just like uganda)

NAM¨.... However, comparable numbers of Ugandans and individuals living in neighbouring countries reported condom use. This suggested to the investigators that “reduction in sexual partners and abstinence among unmarried sexually inexperienced youth … rather than condom use,¨

ME: - The whole basis for this claim is completely refuted. Not only was the issue very simplified they did not even use correct info. Excluding a 50% reduction rate in casual sex in Kenya is a large statistic to `get wrong` . And it is off of this deleting of information that it was concluded that condom use was ineffective! also, on this SAME website (NAM - Aidsmap) they say this:
¨although a recent study presented at the Twelfth Annual Retrovirus Conference in Boston last February, found that it was mortality, and not behaviour change, that was responsible for 80% of this reduced prevalence in one Ugandan district.¨ they also quote Human Rights Watch condoning the fact that information of condom use is being withheld in many districts. perhaps you viewed the part of NAM Aidsmap that was tampered with.http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/EF01AD9F-9733-412C-B282-30DF89760ED1.asp

you say ¨I'm not putting your comment through on the PLB because it isn't a forum for those who refuse to accept bona fide scientific research and scientists who have the proofs to validly disagree with the abortion establishment¨ hmmmmm

40 anniversary of the death of che

2007-10-09T17:52:00.000-07:00

i feel worried about my city today....
I have just come from the Transmilenio in the Calendaria. The streets were lined with police. My first thought was wondering if there had been a bomb threat. Since there had been demonstrations throughout the city, especially at the universities. I believe instead that they are doing another cleansing. There were `ambulances` all over and i witnessed them pulling a homesless boy towards one of them. Taking money from another. Searching a different man. Police are choking this city.
At the university i could tell what street the demonstrations were on because of the explosions. I sat outside the entrance with the other kids watching the scene. Four tanks, riot squads, vs. students baracaded inside. The potato bombs were the most effective. After a good shot at the tanks, perhaps underneath it, or smashing a window the spectators would all clap and cheer. As if the tanks and bombs are simply there for our enjoyment. To imagine ourselves actually harming the state in the same way the tanks are harmed. Or maybe it is too close to reality. A tank leaves to resupply its ammunition of tear gas and water, or possibly it is too damaged to continue and its reinforcement is sent shortly. One tank down is nothing compared to the army behind it. A paper cut does not kill the body.
This demonstration was not as exciting and entertaining as the others. If i may use fear as my barometer. The students left once the fireworks of potato bombs and fire stopped raining down. no more excitement.... time to go home. Or perhaps i have just become used to the sight of tanks and police to surpress young people like myself. That we have no right to demonstrate in peace. The protests only become Real exciting when someone dies. Fabulously that is. The streets may be cleansed but i won`t know how many people have been shot quietly on this rainy afternoon.
Viva El Che! Viva la Revoluciòn! oppression is rampant and widespread and must be fought. Not only against the representives - the tax officials, the police, the military, the politicians... but against the Apparatus. with our ideas. through our taxes that finance blood and war. We can fight because we have acceptance of others. To love life and people! Not not hold hate in our hearts to not care about the deaths of others that are not quite like us.
To govern less, is to govern better. And i withdraw my support from these regimes of violence and destruction. I belong to no state. A government is made up of people. And if the people resist, the government falls.
We do not wait for the masses to vote upon a moral measure. Arudanti Roy... "so then do massacres and genocides become left up to a vote?"
today... I am worried about my city

Outlaw Culture: Bell Hooks

2007-10-06T17:04:00.000-07:00

Great book. Some thoughts:
"The assumption that domination is not only natural but central to the civilizing process is deeply rooted in our cultural mind set"
We make excuses not to live as humans. Because it is the incapable human that must acheive not on his own but ontop of the back of another. domintation is the excuse of the weak. To be civilized is to be better than another. To disrespect another. To not understand the other.... domination is contra everything to be valued in mankind.
power over is not acheived through mutual respect of humanity.

"What would it mean for us to look at biography not from the standpoint of peoples accomplishments, but from what people desired"

"how can you work to end one form of domintation, but not the other... examining these blind spots, i conclude that many of us are motivated to move against domination soley when we feel our self interest directly threatened"

" untill we are all able to accept the interlocking interdependence and nature of systems of domination and recognzied specific ways each system is maintained, we will continue to act in ways that undermine our individual quest for freedom and collective liberation struggle.

Bell Hook{s writing has helped me to understand oppression better. No matter what kind it is, it is dehumanizing. and we must always interrogate ourselves do understand how we have incorporated this into our daily lives, both as victims and perpetrators.
It is impossible therefor for me to denounce crimes against women without denouncing the crimes against the masses of poor people here in Colombia. Or to only acknowledge the suffering of a specific people. Suffering is suffering.
Ill have to write more later because i am hungover and cant think very well.

The thoughts i had on my mind were on education. I quit my spanish course because the classes were authoritarian, focused on grammar, and not an environment conducive to learning. I was so excited to be involved in a language program after studying by myself for so long. At one of the most radical Universities in Colombia. Complete with protests, lectures, student assasinations, police raids, craziness! not meant to be. my teacher was disrespectfull and i was hoping it was just her. But the next professor was just the same. even if they had let me into the higher level his methods were the same as hers. And i cant understand the idea that a student comes to them and says " i want to learn! i want to be challenged! put me in a higher level." no. you can´t because your grammar isnt good enough. But i want to learn......

Pedagogy of Education: if it doesnt change the way you view life, it is not education. To undertand what, must be coupled with understanding Why.
The area inside the classroom is very important. Respect for students (and teacher), democracy, nonjudgemental, interrogating ideas,

"another task of the university and its triad of activities -teaching, research, and community work - is to create, live, and search out the passion of curiosity. This passion cannot be taught if it is not also lived or if the conditions for its development are not provided"
- paulo freire

I consider myself full of curiosity and love learning, and understanding more and more about the world. To be in a classroom, with people with the same passion, guided by a teacher who can can facilitate the process of learning would be such a wonderful experience.
Some day....

I just got three new books for the next two weeks. One is absolutely fabulous. Selected essays about nonviolence. Not only is there passionate pleas for peace to appeal to the conscience, but essays pleaing for our rationality to understand the absurdity of government. i am in a private war with the state...

I also found another book `anthem` by Ayn Rand. The more i read her books the more similar they become to socialism to me. ha. she is probably turning in her grave with that. I think socialism and communism has been perverted by society and by the states that pursue it. The principal idea is to live out your talents with out other inhibiting, and working together in a community that allows this to be possible. In Atlas Shrugged she creates a utopian society where everybody works the work that is which they love. work is the meduim of exchange. And the tradegy of `We the Living` is to watch the degredation of a man who would have been perfect if not for the oppression of the state the cripples people`s ability to be human. ... if they only knew, what this life meant to me...` The same ideas i encounter in Nelson Mandela`s autobiography: what these men could have been if they were respected as men, and allowed to live... as men. My favorite authors all have the same principle`s. To pursue creative talents, to use your mind! I`ll have to write more later comparing Ayn Rand`s capatalist society to that of Che Guevara`s idealistic society. But i am running out of time...

Volunteering

2007-10-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

First actual day of setting up my soon to be volunteer work was on Saturday.
The barrio of Galan is quite poor, although the mayor og Bogota` is progressive. So that most areas have public schools. The area surrounding Galan is on a hill, which is being mined for various minerals. Gabriel told me (who is part of the labor group CGT) that the paramilitaries and government displaced the entire hillside of homes so that they could begin mining. Pointing to the other hillside full of homes, mentioned that this one was next.
The school was being used as a training for the police. We could not enter the classroom for half and hour untill they evacuated. Why choose a school for police training ground? indoctrination. In Aruaca, where i was at before there wa a large movement to get the military and police out of the school. With signs of a cross through the guns. Armned people (guerrilla, military, police, etc. are all banned) is the idea anyways.
On friday during my run I passed by a school of young children. For their protection is a man in military uniform with a machine gun walking around. Unfortunately i didn`t have my camera, is what quite an opposing view.
Military service is compulsory unless you pay to get out of it. Moreover, those with less education are usually sent to more dangerous areas. The police are now doing random ID checks on the Transmilenio (transportation system) in order to catch draftdodgers.
Back to Galan... the children have a range of ages and are the kids of the union of workers from the informal sector. aka those that sell fruit on the street, or vegetables, etc.
part of the program is extra education, part is to bring up other issues. The one we talked about on saturday was trust. Most the kids trusted very few people, or none at all. While distrust may be important because there are lots of bad people out there, one must still be capable of trust, and be open to the idea that there are people that care for them. Trust is also a large obstacle to form a workers union and a community of shared resources.
one of the older girls (12-13) began asking me questions about what i thought of the poverty of Bogota, and what was my opinion on abortion.
I bypassed the stance that this is a topic of morality that i should not discuss.
I told her that I felt that abortion was a personal issue and no one else has the right to tell anyone else that they should or shouldn`t get an abortion.
Abortion was recently legalized in Colombia last year. Correction: it was legalized in cases of immenent death for the mother, in cases where rape can be proved, or when the mother is passing on a lethal disease to the baby. There were 11 abortions peformed (legally) in Bogota` last year.
Other topics of Colombia: I read an article recently of the fighting between different factions of the AUC in Eastern colombia. (near Villavecenia which is where i took my last vacation... interesting how these fights just spring up...) This is a new phenomenom because usually the AUC is fighting against the guerrillas, killing for pay union organizers, displacing communities, working alongside the military, or what have you. But never before have they been fighting against eachother. My roommate claims it is a product of the disarmament. Some groups have turned in their guns, while others wish to keep on fighting. They are no longer under the same umbrella of AUC. I have a wider version of this. I believe that this is the result of 20 years of government policy supporing violent militias. Gabriel simplified it to being about territory. The disuputed land is on route to the border of Venezuela. Paramilitaries are heavily involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping, and killing for money. Especially power. Except now they are out of control of the government which would like them do be doing these things only when asked to. Paramilitaries fighting eachother for territory, is now one more aspect of violence Colombians will have to deal with.
Humanitarian exhange. These talks took a sky dive over the summer when 11 politicans were killed by Farc. It is not known yet whether they were killed (as FARC claims) when the military violated the ceasefire and so they killed them. Or as the government claims FARC wanted to send a message which is why the 11 people were killed. Talks are resuming once again. Hugo Chavez is a mediator. Vamos a ver.