Albie Sachs dedicates his book, The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law:
“The lovely little boy that Vanessa and I brought into the world two years ago has to our delight just used the word ‘why?’ If one day he wants to know why we name him Oliver, why his Daddy has one arm, and why his Daddy is called a Judge, he can find the answers in this book.”.
A wonderful mind stretcher that takes you into the author´s mind and heart in his process of reaching his decisions on major constitutional court cases with universal themes.
2 copies left, $30 each. Click here to see the details.
An article about Albie Sachs that was published in the California Bar Journal. By Howard B. Miller, President, State Bar of California. Click here to see the details.
A video clip of a CCAF Pre-school in rural Cambodia we visited and have given some material aid. Connie Hunter is carrying flip flops for them in 2010 February.
A Botswana Quaker Project. The only Women´s Shelter in the country. The Kagisano Society Women´s Shelter Project changes the lives of women and children affected by domestic violence in Botswana.
Click for details.
Reashoma Drop in Centre Project
Reashoma Drop in Centre, founded September 2006 when the community found much child
vulnerability due to AIDS.
Click for details.
Latin America: Our Back Yard
by Barby Ulmer / our developing world(odw)´s voices
Unfortunately our elected leaders, and many appointed ones think of Latin America as our backyard and consequently feel our policy can be to keep those countries functioning as we want:
Putting Drug Enforcement Agents in on our terms. In Bolivia they didn´t find four cocaine manufacturing plants which the Bolivian government found this year, yet we cancelled the trade advantage that they had saying they weren´t doing enough to combat drug trafficking. Perhaps it was really because US funding was keeping dissident wealthy in Santa Cruz province? Even more interesting because the cocaine plants were found in the rural areas of Santa Cruz.
And if we really are so concerned about drug running why are we funding the brutal government of Columbia? The military base in Ecuador, shutting down in November, will be moved there. WIth so many trade union activists among others being killed in Columbia how can there be a viable free trade agreement?
Having intervened in the El Salvadoran election for many years, pressure from solidarity folks this year finally got a statement from our State Department the day before the election saying we would work with whomever was elected. It relieved the fear that Salvadorans had that the US would prohibit remittances from Salvadoran family members. Our Ambassador made that threat in 2004.
Having engineered the coup in Haiti and funded the one in Venezuela ( see Eva Golinger´s The Chavez Code, we met her with with our odw realty tour group). Might we also be supporters of the Honduran coup? Certainly we´re related to the new “President” and the leaders of the coup for they´re all graduates of the School of the Americas (now called Whinsec). Why doesn´t Hillary Clinton call call it a coup? Perhaps because then the law would require the US to end funding their military. If we really want Zelaya back in office as the rightfully elected President, why don´t we let him land at the US base not far from the capitol? Write mazorcademaiz@gmail.com for direct updates and photos from two Central American friends eyewitnessing in Honduras.
Is it any wonder that Latin America is distancing itself from the US?
It´s frightening to watch national news broadcasts on TV and read the newspapers! The national media is in complete control of the Coup “government”, and ALL THE CONTENT IS PURE PROPAGANDA. It´s like watching actors play their parts based on payments or threats (or both), who knows. The journalists who are trying to get information out are being detained and/or threatened (see media release below).
Many times a day, all the transmissions on TV and radio are interrupted (including cable) for cadenas nacionales, where the Coup “government” has national figures (from the Police, Churches, Defense Ministry, Micheletti, etc) express their backing of the de facto government.
They also use these cadenas to communicate subtle threats to Mel supporters and to the functionaries of his deposed government, many of whom are being prosecuted for a dubious array of corruption charges.
The journalist we met at the march yesterday, who appears in mimundo.org´s photo-essay with his shirt drenched in blood, had his TV and radio programming cut the day of the Coup, so he decided to drive around the city of Guaimaca, reporting the news through a loudspeaker. He was arrested in Guaimaca that same day . He claims he was rescued by a crowd of people from the hands of the police.
For release 05/28/09, printed by odw with permission
The other parts of war: PEACE RISING
By Robert C. Koehler
Tribune Media Services
In sacred remembrance of all those we have killed, and are continuing to kill…
The flag waves, the heart stirs, the music rends the air. Memorial Day 2009. I stood at a bubbling fountain in downtown Chicago and listened to speakers from Vietnam Veterans Against the War — speakers with hard-earned and grown-up attitudes about war — apologize for the wars still going on today and plead for awareness that they must stop, that we must learn how little they solve and how long they linger, and that only in committing ourselves to the end of all wars can we honor the dead. Then, toward the end of the small, solemn gathering, the passing of Zak Wachtendonk was mourned.
“Zak´s name will never be on the memorial, but he died in Vietnam just as surely as my nephew did,” said Barry Romo, who earlier had talked about the death of his relative.
Romo´s comment opens up the select world of this day´s honorees in a way that has left me disturbed in wave after wave of overwhelming remorse.
Zak, who died in March, a month after his 30th birthday, was the son of a Vietnam vet who had been exposed to Agent Orange; he was born with chromosomal damage and severe birth defects that made living an extraordinary struggle and, indeed, he was not even supposed to see his first birthday. Loving parents gave him a life; he was able to thrive emotionally even though he struggled physically. He was a wonderful young man and his passing tore a hole in people´s lives. It also signaled how long modern wars are capable of lasting.
Consider Agent Orange, a defoliant containing dioxin, one of the most toxic chemicals known to science. Better yet, consider the planners and bureaucrats who dumped more than 19 million gallons of this substance and other herbicides, some with even higher doses of dioxin, on the jungles of South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971. Killing millions of trees and poisoning the earth — the rice paddies — to gain a military edge on “the enemy” is the strategy of psychopaths, or so it seems in retrospect, but we have yet to have the public accounting, the truth commission, that lays the matter bare and allows our moral progress to resume.
Instead we had another war, after the fact, waged for decades against the vets who fought in Vietnam, denying them, for as long as possible, any claim against the government for their shattered health. The strategists had nothing to prove to anybody when they decided to wage chemical warfare, but the victims of that war — or a small slice of those victims, the Americans, who had some legal leverage — were required to satisfy exacting standards of evidence to demonstrate the link between the poison they ingested and their vast array of symptoms, which included, for some, birth defects in their children, before any government aid was forthcoming.
With this in mind, consider the vast forgotten victims of Agent Orange: the Vietnamese themselves. Then multiply the suffering of Zak Wachtendonk and his family by at least 3 million. That´s the number of Vietnamese suffering ill effects from their exposure to the defoliant (out of 4.8 million who were exposed), according to a lawsuit on behalf of the victims filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals in 2007.
Consider also the scorched earth, the poisoned flora and fauna of Vietnam. According to the International Peoples´ Tribunal of Conscience in Support of the Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange, which met in Paris May 15-16, some denuded areas of the country may take 200 years to regenerate; some may never come back. Never. My God, what kind of war requires the death of a country?
The illnesses the spraying of dioxin has visited directly on the Vietnamese include cancer, skin disorders, liver damage, pulmonary and heart diseases, nervous disorders and reproductive defects, according to the Tribunal. Indirectly, on their children, dioxin has brought severe physical deformities, mental disabilities and shortened life spans.
This, and nothing less, is war, and any remembrance of it that fails to acknowledge the vastness of the sacrifice it exacts, on the willing and on the innocent alike, is a sham. The word the Tribunal used to describe the failed and wretched — the criminal — U.S. strategy in Vietnam is chillingly modern: ecocide.
And because the nation´s post-Vietnam accounting was stillborn — the war´s opponents were blamed for our “defeat” and our bellicosity turned inward — the conscience of the security establishment remained untouched. The next wars of choice and aggression it succeeded in fomenting, in Iraq, Afghanistan and Iraq again (as well as the “humanitarian intervention” in Kosovo), perpetrated cancer, birth defects and ecocide with even more impunity, through the use of depleted uranium munitions and other criminally lethal substances.
The number of victims has multiplied, while peace remains only a scattered longing. But as we mourned together on Memorial Day 2009, I felt it rise as a global force, born on the tide of awareness.
our developing world(odw) New Program - Invite us to do programs on:
Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia and why we should care about them.
Free and Fair trade, how the difference makes a difference in many lives,
When the US sneezes the rest of the world gets pneumonia.
The other parts of war: Grassroots America, A Non Profit Newsletter
Memorial Day 2008
Letters from a Desperate Veteran part 1: A memorial service yet to be held
I received two phone calls today. The calls had very similar messages in wording, yet totally different meanings to me. The first was from a fellow veteran and activist, asking that I "try to have a peaceful Memorial Day". The second was from my brother, wishing me "a happy Memorial Day". If you've read my poem "Survivor's Guilt" you already know that I find nothing "happy" about Memorial Day. I type this letter in the hope that I may find some kind of peace today.
Memorial: something designed to preserve the memory of a person, event, etc. as a monument or a holiday.
It's becoming all too apparent to me that every year, on this day, overtake everything. Once again, I find my mind flooding with memories and my finger itching to pull the trigger and splatter those memories across the ceiling. It would seem logical to assume that if memories are merely electronic imprints made on grey matter in my skull that 12 gauge triple aut buckshot is the best way to remove memories. Maybe that's just jarhead logic. Before that day comes I want to share some memories with whomever wishes to read about them.
Most of all, I remember the pain. The pain of back-to-back deployments; The pain of false pride; The pain of a military family's last dinner together before the Marine heads to the armory to check out his rifle and wait for a white bus; The pain of "let's drink until we forget what happened".
The pain of packing up a fellow Marine's combat gear and personal belongings to send back to the states because he didn't have any legs, arms, chest or back to carry it back with him. It's a double edged sword, but lucky for him, he didn't have a head to carry back any memories with either. Even more pain when I couldn't stick a letter in with his stuff to tell his parents that their son had died for a good cause.
I remember the Marines. Not a single one of them needed a campaign medal or a combat action ribbon to wear on their uniform to prove that they had seen what they had seen and endured what they had endured. Most of them wore it on their faces. All wore it on their hearts. When looking back I remember everyone understanding everyone else's pain, because everyone felt it to the same degree, just at different times. We held eachother up and helped eachother through, and I'll always have that memory.
I remember July 15, 2005 with Camp Pendleton in my rear-view, and I was scared. i was scared because I had always thought that when I left, I'd be leaving my memories behind, but they were in the backseat when I left, following me everywhere, no matter how far I run. I guess the memory of a young Iraqi girl losing her face and arm because of American ordnance is a memory with some strong legs on it. I don't even run from them anymore, I'll just end up dying tired.
I remember dying. I see it happen over and over again in my head. It's happened so many times, I can't stop thinking about it. Like when I killed a man for the first time, and the second time and the 50th time. Like when I didn't have the balls to speak how I truly felt and declare " I refuse to take part in this depraved lunacy". I've died so many times, I've forgotten how to live.
So, today is a day for memories, specifically the memory of all those who have made a sacrifice for this country. Today I will honor and remember my morality and my dignity, along with all the heroes who have fallen. May they rest in peace.
I wish for all my brothers and sisters who have ever worn the uniform, that they may find peace this Memorial Day, and that everyone keeps their memories close to their heart.
I HAVE COME home from a long stay in Mexico to find — because of the presidential campaign, and especially because of the Obama/Clinton race for the Democratic nomination – a new country existing alongside the old. On any given day we, collectively, become the Goddess of the Three Directions and can look back into the past, look at ourselves just where we are, and take a glance, as well, into the future. It is a space with which I am familiar.
When I was born in 1944 my parents lived on a middle Georgia plantation that was owned by a white distant relative, Miss May Montgomery. (During my childhood it was necessary to address all white girls as "Miss" when they reached the age of twelve.) She would never admit to this relationship, of course, except to mock it. Told by my parents that several of their children would not eat chicken skin she responded that of course they would not. No Montgomerys would... (See the full article at http://www.theroot.com/id/45469)
The other parts of war: Learning from the People Brings a New Perspective
Wars hopefully end. Military and the private armies come home. But historically, rebuilding the devastation and helping with the medical needs are rarely part of the reality with the exception of the Marshall Plan.
our developing world(odw) EcoReality Tours sometimes visit the countries the US has invaded or held proxy wars in: Central America, Southeast Asia.
When we first went to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam we expected to experience at least some anti-American feelings. We didn't! Not at all. Part of it probably was because we were there to see what the people were doing to make life better for their communities that we had come to learn from them. And very possibly the very strong Buddhist influence played a role. Focus on today and move forward!
We learn new things every time. And now we find we can even play a unique role. We’ve brought local people together who hadn't met before and they were able to learn from each other and collaborate. As we tell our tour participants what it was like three and six and nine years ago we've given our hosts a perspective they were too close to to see.
We hope to take a small group back to Cambodia and Laos with an option for 5 extra days in Vietnam as an add-on cost and days. We urge everyone to use at least one checked bag for donations to organizations. This time we’re looking for pre-school kindergarteners used flip flops for children in Kampot province who are working with CCAF(Cambodian Children’s Advocacy Foundation), and grade school and middle school used washed tied together tennis shoes that will be used as soles for prostheses for landmine and polio survivors at the Rehab Center. If you're involved with a pre-school could you ask parents to donate outgrown flip-flops?
And if you’re involved with an elementary or middle school we’d love to do a little lesson for classes to encourage them to organize a tennis shoe collection drive.
We always return energized and full of hope that we get from the people we meet. You will, too. Join us. Call us or check our website. 408-379-4431 google our developing world(odw). We come up on top as Non profit.
We’re looking for pre-school and kindergarteners used flip-flops washed and tied together for children in Kampot province who are involved with CCAF(Cambodian Children’s Advocacy Foundation), and grade school and middle school used, washed, tied together tennis shoes that will be used as soles for prostheses for landmine and polio survivors at the Rehab Center. If you’re involved with a pre-school could you ask parents to donate outgrown flip-flops? And if you're involved with an elementary or middle school we'd love to do a little lesson for classes to encourage them to organize a tennis shoe collection drive. Check it out on our lessons web page.
A lesson on Landmines has been field tested and well-received in two middle schools, a fourth grade where kids are making a difference now by collecting tennis shoes for the VVAF sponsored rehab center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The staff, many wearing prostheses or using wheel chairs or walkers, will use the shoes for those wearing braces and prostheses. The lesson plan can take an hour or less. It uses visuals from the rehab center, videos and simulations and is also appropriate for high school.
All Things Are Connected: International Debt, Environmental Degredation, Poverty Increase, Unemployment, Education, AIDS.
CONSUMERISM: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally.
We can do it with or without snipets from videos from our library and display boards that can be borrowed. Handouts have stories, websites and action.
Down the Street and Around the World, A Starter Kit for Global Awareness.
Lessons with handouts, briefings and activities on globalization andits effect on Education, Environment, Health, Human Rights, Labor, Migration, Security, Trade. Two intensive weeks for the entire series or it can be woven throughout the course or used selectively.
From Cuba we've brought some paper beads and a carved wooden humming bird, handmade paper and a lesson plan of questions and answers about a ecologically planned community in a Biosphere. Also some material in Spanish about solar energy plus other things.
From Guatemala: a handwoven diaper and huipil (hand woven blouse) from Guatemala, PLUS all the other beautiful weavings and corn husk dolls, etc...
And more!
We audio-taped a variety of people speaking about the work that they or their groups do in trying to build a sustainable life. Voices from Cuba, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
Other examples from our lending library are handcrafts that are great teaching tools. A few beautiful Southeast Asian hand weavings, baskets and hand made paper diaries and albums, Vietnamese small zylophones and much much more.
Several new videos with guides:
Rosa Parks´ Story
Faces of Globalization
Audio cassettes and CDs by National Radio Project's Making Contact program. In depth half hour shows on one topic in three stand alone ten minute segments make them ideal for classroom use. Check www.radioproject.org for catalog.
Books for teachers, adult educators, community organizers and anyone who hopes to teach, and learn.
The Line Between Us By Bill Bigelow http://www.rethinkingschools.org/publication/mx The Line Between Us explores the history of U.S-Mexican relations and the roots of Mexican immigration, all in the context of the global economy. And it shows how teachers can help students understand the immigrant experience and the drama of border life.
Rethinking Globalization Edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson http://www.rethinkingschools.org/publication/rg
This comprehensive 402-page book from Rethinking Schools helps teachers raise critical issues with students in grades 4 - 12 about the increasing globalization of the world's economies and infrastructures, and the many different impacts this trend has on our planet and those who live here.
