September 2009 Newsletter
Dear Friend,
Past is prologue. Déja vu all over again? Puzzled, concerned, angry by recent events in Honduras?
Please visit http://quixote.org/node/955 to view a ten-minute video that provides an excellent overview of the history and current popular organizing and repression in Honduras. Some parts of the video are deeply disturbing and personally take me back to what brought me to devote much of my life to working with the people of Nicaragua — my own deep respect and belief in democratic values and human rights. As the narrator of that video says, we are witnessing "something unprecedented in Honduran history."
Our concern for the people of Honduras comes out of our long relationships with people, communities and popular organizations in Nicaragua. In the coming months PeaceWorks will bring more information about Honduras to our supporters and to the public, starting with a speaker on Honduras at our Sat., September 12 mini-solidarity roast and dinner forum — see below for information.
Please continue to help PeaceWorks nurture the relationships we have developed with our Nicaraguan partner organizations as well as among our community of sharing, action, and concern. These are difficult times for non-profit organizations such as PeaceWorks. With the major expenses of our October 3 aid shipment to Nicaragua coming up, we are in need of your support.
Please donate generously today. Thank you for accompanying PeaceWorks, for helping sustain our work and our commitments borne of friendship and love. Please help us get through these difficult times so we can continue tilling, harvesting, and sharing. Here are some upcoming events and work projects, as well as resources for thought and action.
The Honduran Coup. Much has occurred since the June 28 coup in Honduras and much of that has not been reported in the general news media. Please see the enclosed articles written by Tom Louden of the Quixote Center. Tom recently took part in a delegation to Honduras that witnessed first hand the brutal repression of the Honduran popular movement. Tom has a historical and personal perspective on the crisis as he worked in Nicaragua during the height of the U.S. government sponsored contra war on the people of Nicaragua, living in areas with daily contra attacks. (PeaceWorks' January delegation stayed overnight in one remote village in this region of Nicaragua and they still talk of the terror and attacks on their communities.) Honduras was the organizing and staging base of those attacks that killed over 30,000 Nicaraguans. Many Hondurans also fell victim during that period, out of which came the 1982 Honduran constitution. Tom's articles lay out the historical background, dispelling the line in much of the news media that the coup was triggered by a Chavez-want-to-be President intent on galvanizing personal power. Tom writes that most Hondurans look upon the 1982 constitution as being drafted by the U.S. government, intending to protect the power of the nation's economic and military oligarchy. Incredibly, the constitution is unalterable, which led to steady organizing on the part of a widespread popular movement to eventually hold a constituent assembly that would rewrite the constitution along more democratic principles. The fear of that movement, triggered the coup and has led to widespread repression, torture, and some deaths. One organization reports that over 3,500 people have been detained by the coup leaders.
The websites of several organizations are providing up-to-date information and action alerts. We must do all we can to ensure that this time our U.S. government acts on the right side of democracy, justice, and human rights. Here are a few: The Quixote Center and Quest for Peace www.quest.quixote.org; Witness for Peace — www.witnessforpeace.org; Rights Action — www.rightsaction.org; SOA Watch — www.soaw.org; and the Nicaragua Network — www.nicanet.org.
Please Come to our Mini- Solidarity Roast and Dinner Forum on September 12. We changed up our plans for the Roast this year due to the fact that the 12th is so close to our October 3 shipment date — both take a great deal of work and I, for one, ain't the spring chicken I used to be (in other words, I faced reality and realized that discretion is the better part of exhaustion). But we are still going to have some barbecue, along with the usual tasty assortment of foods. That, together with some music from long-time PeaceWorks' supporter John Keith and also a presentation about the ongoing situation in Honduras. Please see the enclosed flyer for more details and visit our website (www.peaceworks.org) for directions and event updates.
So we will start the event at 5:30pm and end by 8:30 or 9 — still at the Friends Meeting House in Chatham, NJ. In addition to John's music (his song about Inhijambia wonderfully captures the work and spirit of Mirna Sanchez), the Honduras presentation, the array of foods (yes, there will be barbecued ribs and PeaceWorks' famous peanut/ginger/tofu saté, plus much more), we'll raffle some original Nicaraguan artwork, Nicaraguan coffees, and — here's the kicker — some homemade organic blackberry, currant, and red raspberry jams made by yours truly and grown in the garden I have been known to make mention of in these letters. Please come for a late afternoon and evening of great food and inspirational entertainment and presentations. Please spread the word and bring some friends.
Our 56th Aid Shipment to Nicaragua — October 3. Please check out the enclosed flyer to see how you can take part in another leap of faith, sharing, and the expression of the commitment to the poor mentioned above. Take note once again that the shipment date is much earlier than in previous years, so we have to hustle to raise funds and collect materials to pay for and to fill the 45-foot cargo container. Also, please remember the changes we have to make in our labeling and inventory procedures. Use generic boxes or boxes that do not indicate that there might be valuable items inside. After packing your items, do not write the contents onto the box — attach the inventory on a piece of paper and we will provide a coded label for the box. It is unfortunate that we have to do this, but we want our aid to get to our partners! Go to our website (www.peaceworks.org) for more specifics and to network with others to help collect, pack, and get the materials to United Presbyterian on October 3. By going to our website you can download labels to identify the contents of the boxes you pack and/or you can let us know about how much you are collecting or if you plan to help on loading day.
These aid shipments and the materials they carry are vitally important for our Nicaraguan partners. Inhijambia's offices, group and independent homes for the former street children, their arts and crafts programs, to the clothes they share with the young people, are all stocked, equipped, and provided for with the supplies we send, enabling them to stretch their budget and to put financial resources directly in their programs. The tools we send to FEDICAMP help extend their reforestation and organic gardening projects. Bicycles sent to the Women's Collectives help literacy trainers travel to the communities in which they work, as well as help women travel to the markets and work. Medical supplies boost MASINFA's efforts to prevent and fight cancer through their CIPO health clinic. Beyond that, our efforts to collect and pack all those materials help build our local communities of sharing and action, bringing in people new to our efforts, strengthening our collective abilities to make a difference and "give meaning to our lives".
Outreach, Networking, Promoting PeaceWorks. PeaceWorks needs your help to reach more supporters to strengthen our aid shipments, events, and fundraising. Please sign up on our website, www.peaceworks.org, enabling you to receive our mailings electronically, to share our activities with your friends and networks with a click of the share button, and to work with us more directly with our events and shipments. Send me a message at peaceworks@peaceworks.org to get started.
Peace Agreements and Democratization in Central America. Please check out the enclosed article that offers a different perspective on Central Americaís peace agreements. Some interesting facts include that many Central American nations find themselves in a position of food dependency after an over 50 percent reduction in land devoted to the cultivation of basic foodstuffs for the poor. Also, that extremely poor Honduras is dependent on remittances (funds sent home from Hondurans working in other countries) for 28 percent of its gross domestic product.
Take Part in our January, 2010 Delegation to Nicaragua. An adventure of a lifetime is how many have described our annual journey to visit our Nicaraguan partners and explore the sorrows, inspirations, and beauty of Nicaragua. Please take a look at our enclosed flyer and let us know soon if you ready, willing, and able to join us.
I hope you will support PeaceWorks through taking part in our activities and by making tax-deductible contributions. Start collecting and packing. Come to our Solidarity Roast. Network with PeaceWorks. Change and challenge the world.
Peace,
Jim Burchell, PeaceWorks
Jim's glog: Berries, berries, berries — some of which have been used to make the organic, almost sugar-free jam that will be raffled on September 12. Lots corn, both field corn for corn bread and tortillas, along with sweet corn. Worst tomato crop ever, made worse by rapacious groundhogs and raccoons. Fall crop of broccoli and cabbage eaten by rabbits, the same cute little rabbits I have let escape from the garden all summer long as they had never been a problem in the past — where is the justice and karma in that?
Attachements
Honduras Updates.pdf
Pages Aid Brochure 10.3.pdf
Peace Agreements in CA.pdf
PW 2010 delegation flyer.pdf
... and a little something extra - The Weight of Nothing.pdf - from The Never Ending by Grahame Russell, Rights Action
Past is prologue. Déja vu all over again? Puzzled, concerned, angry by recent events in Honduras?
Please visit http://quixote.org/node/955 to view a ten-minute video that provides an excellent overview of the history and current popular organizing and repression in Honduras. Some parts of the video are deeply disturbing and personally take me back to what brought me to devote much of my life to working with the people of Nicaragua — my own deep respect and belief in democratic values and human rights. As the narrator of that video says, we are witnessing "something unprecedented in Honduran history."
Our concern for the people of Honduras comes out of our long relationships with people, communities and popular organizations in Nicaragua. In the coming months PeaceWorks will bring more information about Honduras to our supporters and to the public, starting with a speaker on Honduras at our Sat., September 12 mini-solidarity roast and dinner forum — see below for information.
Please continue to help PeaceWorks nurture the relationships we have developed with our Nicaraguan partner organizations as well as among our community of sharing, action, and concern. These are difficult times for non-profit organizations such as PeaceWorks. With the major expenses of our October 3 aid shipment to Nicaragua coming up, we are in need of your support.
Please donate generously today. Thank you for accompanying PeaceWorks, for helping sustain our work and our commitments borne of friendship and love. Please help us get through these difficult times so we can continue tilling, harvesting, and sharing. Here are some upcoming events and work projects, as well as resources for thought and action.
The Honduran Coup. Much has occurred since the June 28 coup in Honduras and much of that has not been reported in the general news media. Please see the enclosed articles written by Tom Louden of the Quixote Center. Tom recently took part in a delegation to Honduras that witnessed first hand the brutal repression of the Honduran popular movement. Tom has a historical and personal perspective on the crisis as he worked in Nicaragua during the height of the U.S. government sponsored contra war on the people of Nicaragua, living in areas with daily contra attacks. (PeaceWorks' January delegation stayed overnight in one remote village in this region of Nicaragua and they still talk of the terror and attacks on their communities.) Honduras was the organizing and staging base of those attacks that killed over 30,000 Nicaraguans. Many Hondurans also fell victim during that period, out of which came the 1982 Honduran constitution. Tom's articles lay out the historical background, dispelling the line in much of the news media that the coup was triggered by a Chavez-want-to-be President intent on galvanizing personal power. Tom writes that most Hondurans look upon the 1982 constitution as being drafted by the U.S. government, intending to protect the power of the nation's economic and military oligarchy. Incredibly, the constitution is unalterable, which led to steady organizing on the part of a widespread popular movement to eventually hold a constituent assembly that would rewrite the constitution along more democratic principles. The fear of that movement, triggered the coup and has led to widespread repression, torture, and some deaths. One organization reports that over 3,500 people have been detained by the coup leaders.
The websites of several organizations are providing up-to-date information and action alerts. We must do all we can to ensure that this time our U.S. government acts on the right side of democracy, justice, and human rights. Here are a few: The Quixote Center and Quest for Peace www.quest.quixote.org; Witness for Peace — www.witnessforpeace.org; Rights Action — www.rightsaction.org; SOA Watch — www.soaw.org; and the Nicaragua Network — www.nicanet.org.
Please Come to our Mini- Solidarity Roast and Dinner Forum on September 12. We changed up our plans for the Roast this year due to the fact that the 12th is so close to our October 3 shipment date — both take a great deal of work and I, for one, ain't the spring chicken I used to be (in other words, I faced reality and realized that discretion is the better part of exhaustion). But we are still going to have some barbecue, along with the usual tasty assortment of foods. That, together with some music from long-time PeaceWorks' supporter John Keith and also a presentation about the ongoing situation in Honduras. Please see the enclosed flyer for more details and visit our website (www.peaceworks.org) for directions and event updates.
So we will start the event at 5:30pm and end by 8:30 or 9 — still at the Friends Meeting House in Chatham, NJ. In addition to John's music (his song about Inhijambia wonderfully captures the work and spirit of Mirna Sanchez), the Honduras presentation, the array of foods (yes, there will be barbecued ribs and PeaceWorks' famous peanut/ginger/tofu saté, plus much more), we'll raffle some original Nicaraguan artwork, Nicaraguan coffees, and — here's the kicker — some homemade organic blackberry, currant, and red raspberry jams made by yours truly and grown in the garden I have been known to make mention of in these letters. Please come for a late afternoon and evening of great food and inspirational entertainment and presentations. Please spread the word and bring some friends.
Our 56th Aid Shipment to Nicaragua — October 3. Please check out the enclosed flyer to see how you can take part in another leap of faith, sharing, and the expression of the commitment to the poor mentioned above. Take note once again that the shipment date is much earlier than in previous years, so we have to hustle to raise funds and collect materials to pay for and to fill the 45-foot cargo container. Also, please remember the changes we have to make in our labeling and inventory procedures. Use generic boxes or boxes that do not indicate that there might be valuable items inside. After packing your items, do not write the contents onto the box — attach the inventory on a piece of paper and we will provide a coded label for the box. It is unfortunate that we have to do this, but we want our aid to get to our partners! Go to our website (www.peaceworks.org) for more specifics and to network with others to help collect, pack, and get the materials to United Presbyterian on October 3. By going to our website you can download labels to identify the contents of the boxes you pack and/or you can let us know about how much you are collecting or if you plan to help on loading day.
These aid shipments and the materials they carry are vitally important for our Nicaraguan partners. Inhijambia's offices, group and independent homes for the former street children, their arts and crafts programs, to the clothes they share with the young people, are all stocked, equipped, and provided for with the supplies we send, enabling them to stretch their budget and to put financial resources directly in their programs. The tools we send to FEDICAMP help extend their reforestation and organic gardening projects. Bicycles sent to the Women's Collectives help literacy trainers travel to the communities in which they work, as well as help women travel to the markets and work. Medical supplies boost MASINFA's efforts to prevent and fight cancer through their CIPO health clinic. Beyond that, our efforts to collect and pack all those materials help build our local communities of sharing and action, bringing in people new to our efforts, strengthening our collective abilities to make a difference and "give meaning to our lives".
Outreach, Networking, Promoting PeaceWorks. PeaceWorks needs your help to reach more supporters to strengthen our aid shipments, events, and fundraising. Please sign up on our website, www.peaceworks.org, enabling you to receive our mailings electronically, to share our activities with your friends and networks with a click of the share button, and to work with us more directly with our events and shipments. Send me a message at peaceworks@peaceworks.org to get started.
Peace Agreements and Democratization in Central America. Please check out the enclosed article that offers a different perspective on Central Americaís peace agreements. Some interesting facts include that many Central American nations find themselves in a position of food dependency after an over 50 percent reduction in land devoted to the cultivation of basic foodstuffs for the poor. Also, that extremely poor Honduras is dependent on remittances (funds sent home from Hondurans working in other countries) for 28 percent of its gross domestic product.
Take Part in our January, 2010 Delegation to Nicaragua. An adventure of a lifetime is how many have described our annual journey to visit our Nicaraguan partners and explore the sorrows, inspirations, and beauty of Nicaragua. Please take a look at our enclosed flyer and let us know soon if you ready, willing, and able to join us.
I hope you will support PeaceWorks through taking part in our activities and by making tax-deductible contributions. Start collecting and packing. Come to our Solidarity Roast. Network with PeaceWorks. Change and challenge the world.
Peace,
Jim Burchell, PeaceWorks
Jim's glog: Berries, berries, berries — some of which have been used to make the organic, almost sugar-free jam that will be raffled on September 12. Lots corn, both field corn for corn bread and tortillas, along with sweet corn. Worst tomato crop ever, made worse by rapacious groundhogs and raccoons. Fall crop of broccoli and cabbage eaten by rabbits, the same cute little rabbits I have let escape from the garden all summer long as they had never been a problem in the past — where is the justice and karma in that?
Attachements
Honduras Updates.pdf
Pages Aid Brochure 10.3.pdf
Peace Agreements in CA.pdf
PW 2010 delegation flyer.pdf
... and a little something extra - The Weight of Nothing.pdf - from The Never Ending by Grahame Russell, Rights Action
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