“War is fun, peace is boring.”

The first chapter of a book I read recently mentioned that while we can talk of many different types of “war” (international war, civil war, cold war, etc), we can only talk about “peace” in the singular form. In other words, we can talk about ”wars” but not of “peaces”. So the challenge, the authors of the book suggested, is to envision different ways of creating and experiencing peace.

Later in class, someone mentioned that we talk more about war than about peace because war seems to be more exciting, full of action, adventure and adrenaline. Peace, on the other hand, is usually conceived as static, calm, quiet, maybe even boring and dull. Now the question is, how do such perceptions of violence, war and peace affect the way we live day by day? How do they influence our understandings of world affairs?

I think, for example, of the way our entertainment is full of reference to violence and harm. We start with “innocent” things such as jokes about harming others (either physically or verbally) or funny videos of people being hurt (whether intentionally or not), but then we have hundreds of TV series and movies that make violence and war appear funny, meaningless, just a game. In our day to day lives, violence and war are fun; peace is boring.

The challenge of envisioning many types of “peaces” is indeed difficult as our lives are full with references to violence (even if “it is only a joke”). But peace does not have to be boring. Sure, there can be some types of peaces that are less appealing to some. But we can certainly be at some kind of peace and enjoy ourselves. We can be at peace and still laugh and have a good time. I mean, we can, right?

I guess the real challenge comes in times of conflict. Can we think of ways of resolving conflict that do not require violence and aggression? In our daily interactions, can we think of ways of relating to each other that are in essence peaceful? We have become so used to violence that we usually think it is ok to use harmful words and aggressive behavior in our interactions among each other. But is it necessary? Is the only way?

It is no secret that peace is hard to establish and maintain. Will we take the challenge to, in our daily lives, choose peace above violence? As long as we don't choose peace, it will be hard to imagine then end of violence in bigger levels, like in cases of state violence and international wars. Peace is our choice.

Octubre, mes de la revolucion de 1944!

:: No hay respuestas magicas ni metodos milagrosos para resolver los problemas que enfrentamos, simplemente los de siempre: busqueda de entendimiento, educacion, organization, accion... y la clase de compromiso que persiste apesar de las tentaciones de desilucion, apesar de los tantos fracasos y pocos exitos, inspirado ...por la esperanza de un futuro mas brillante (Noam Chomsky)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A finales del siglo XIX la economía guatemalteca comenzó a depender enormemente en la industria cafetera. Dicha transición intensificó la explotación colonial, el racismo y el autoritarianismo en el país... A través de medidas legales y sociales los campesinos se vieron obligados a dejar sus pequeños cultivos y a comenzar a trabajar en plantaciones. En las plantaciones los campesinos estaban a la disposición de los hacendados (dueños de las plantaciones)... Los hacendados usaron la autoridad que tenían sobre los campesinos para meterlos a la cárcel injustamente y abusar de ellos física y sexualmente.

Al comienzo del siglo XX, distintos grupos campesinos demandaron que el gobierno interveniera en contra del mal trato de los hacendados... Por diez años, entre 1944 y 1954 el gobierno intentó de una manera tangible responder al clamor del pueblo...

En junio de 1944 estudiantes universitarios y maestros de la capital, desafiaron el poder del dictador Jorge Ubico con una huelga y manifestaciones públicas a las que pronto se agregaron elementos de todos los sectores sociales.

Los movimientos pacíficos de junio derrocaron a Ubico. El triunvirato militar que les siguió en el mando, entregó luego la presidencia al general Ponce, a quien la Asamblea Nacional nombró presidente provisional. Pero como el pueblo de Guatemala ya no estaba dispuesto a soportar otra dictadura militar, el 20 de octubre de 1944 el Ejército Nacional apoyado por las masas trabajadoras, se sublevó y derrocó al general Ponce.

Después de las elecciones democráticas celebradas en diciembre de 1944, dos presidentes reformistas, Juan José Arévalo y su sucesor Jacabo Árbenz, restringieron muchas de las prerrogativas y privilegios de la oligarquía cafetera... Los nuevos gobiernos ratificaron una constitución social-democrática, restringieron el trabajo forzado, legalizaron los sindicatos, promulgaron un código de trabajo, expandieron el derecho al voto, y aprobaron una reforma agraria de gran escala...

El periodo de reforma terminó abruptamente en 1954, cuando la CIA derrocó a Árbenz.

blogs, blogs, blogs

In the past months I have really got into using Google Reader to follow news and read about crafts, home decor, everyday fashion, recipes, and other academic blogs regarding Latin America and development. Every now and then I "discover" a new blog that I found worth reading and I add it to my Google Reader so I can check it out whenever I'm bored at work or have some spare time (ok, I check Google Reader more often than that... but I'm trying to control the addiction!)

Today I found a blog with a topic that is very similar to the reason why I started this blog (tho I blog much less than this girl does!). So I thought about sharing here: 

http://makeundermylife.com

Here is a little bit of what Jess wrote in the "About" section:

Even more important to my philosophy is the idea that everyone is a designer of their life and we use intentions (conscious or otherwise) to guide and shape our actions and environment. Sure there are lots of things we cannot control in our lives, but how we respond and design our lives accordingly is up to us.

I have added it to my Google Reader and I hope to learn some and share the fun of designing and improving our lives :)

someday we'll live our lives out loud

"Someday"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYh3olR9xKA


You can go
You can start all over again
You can try to find a way to make another day go by
You can hide
Hold all your feelings inside
You can try to carry on when all you want to do is cry

[Chorus:]
And maybe someday
We'll figure all this out
Try to put an end to all our doubt
Try to find a way to make things better now and
Maybe someday we'll live our lives out loud
We'll be better off somehow
Someday

Now wait
And try to find another mistake
If you throw it all away then maybe you can change your mind
You can run, oh
And when everything is over and done
You can shine a little light on everything around you
Man it's good to be someone

[Chorus]

And I don't want to wait
I just want to know
I just want to hear you tell me so
Give it to me straight
Tell it to me slow

Cause maybe someday
We'll figure all this out
We'll put an end to all our doubt
Try to find a way to just feel better now and
Maybe someday we'll live our lives out loud
We'll be better off somehow
Someday

[x2]
Cause sometimes we don't really notice
Just how good it can get
So maybe we should start all over
Start all over again 

Remember the Immigrant

We serve a God who directs us to care especially for those most vulnerable in society. Our Scriptures tell us of God's special concern for the "alien" or the "stranger," or as more contemporary translations say--the immigrant.

For the Lord our God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. God defends the cause of the orphan and the widow, and loves the immigrant, giving the immigrant food and clothing. And we are to love those who are immigrants, for God's people were immigrants in Egypt (Deuteronomy 10:17-19)

We ask God to open our eyes to the struggles of immigrant workers, for we know that:

We must not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether the worker is a resident or immigrant living in our town. We must pay the worker the wages promptly because the worker is poor and counting on it. (Deuteronomy 24:14)

God's desire is that those who build houses may live in them,

And that those who plant may eat. (Isaiah 65:22)

And yet we know this is not possible for many in our midst.

We know of:
farmworkers who cannot feed their families,
construction workers who have no homes,
nursing home workers who have no health care,
restaurant workers who could not afford a meal in the restaurant.


We know that too many immigrant workers among us are not receiving the fruits of their labor, nor the justice required by the courts.

God charges our judges to hear disputes and judge fairly, whether the case involves citizens or immigrants. (Deut. 1:16)

But our laws do not adequately protect immigrants. Our legal and social service programs exclude many immigrants. Our education programs undervalue immigrant children.

God tells us that the community is to have the same rules for citizens and for immigrants living among us. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. Citizens and immigrants shall be the same before the Lord. (Numbers 15:15)

When an immigrant lives in our land,

We will not mistreat him or her. We will treat an immigrant as one of our native born. We will love an immigrant as ourselves, for God's people were once immigrants in Egypt. (Leviticus 19:33-34)

And a special word to those who employ immigrant farmworkers:

Make sure immigrants get a day of rest. (Exodus 23:12)

To those who craft our immigration laws and policies, we lift up God's command:

Do not deprive the immigrant or the orphan of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. Remember that God's people were slaves in Egypt and the Lord our God redeemed them from there. (Deut. 24:17-18)

To all of us who seek to do God's will, help us to:

Love one another as God has loved us. Help us to treat immigrants with justice and compassion that God shows to each of us.


--------------------------
This was one of the prayers that were shared last night at the rally in opposition to the new immigration law in Arizona. It was distributed in pamphlets by Interfaith Worker Justice (www.iwj.org).

More info about the rally:
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/may/29/rally-in-opposition-to-immigration-law/

Eastern and Western attitudes toward nature

A seventeenth-century Japanese haiku by Basho:

When I look carefully

I see the nazuna blooming

By the hedge!

A nineteenth-century poem by Alfred Tennyson:

Flower in the crannied wall,

I pluck you out of the crannies,

I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,

Little flower--but if I could understand

What you are, root and all, and all in all,

I should know what God and man is.

The Buddhist philosopher Suzuki (1960) observes that the Japanese poet does not pluck the nazuna but is content to admire it from a respectful distance; his feelings are "too full, too deep, and he has no desire to conceptualize it" (3). Tennyson, in contrast, is active and analytical. He rips the plant by its roots, destroying it in the very act of admiring it. "He does not apparently care for its destiny. His curiosity must be satisfied. As some medical scientists do, he would vivisect the flower" (3).

Tennyson's violent imagery is reminiscent of Francis Bacon's description of the natural scientist as one who must "torture nature's secrets from her" and make her a "slave" to mankind (Merchant 1980: 169). Principles of monism, holism, and balanced complementarity in nature, which can temper perceptions of opposition and conflict, have largely given way to the analytic urge in the recent history of Western culture.

(from "A Critical-Interpretive Approach in Medical Anthropology: Rituals and Routines of Discipline and Dissent" by Margaret Lock and Nancy Scheper-Hughes, 1990)

Being one with life

I feel pressure within myself to become what I am not yet. I have a constant feeling of failure as I don't seem to achieve the status of who I should be. I feel guilt for not being all that I could be. I fear wasted potential in the use of my time and in the amount of energy invested. I dream of how much I could accomplish if, only if, I would do more and be more.

But the truth is that right now I am who I am, and that's all that I can be now. There's nothing wrong with that. Accepting such truth seems to be the first step to being one with life.

I don't need to be anyone else--I couldn't be anyone else! If I see the need of changing my deeds and beliefs then I should do so without fear of lagging behind. Who sets the standard anyway?

Today, I'll be one with myself; I'll be one with life.

(yep, that's a dialog with myself but you're welcome to comment on it ;)