El oro o la vida -- your gold or our life?

This is the trailer of a new video by the Guatemalan NGO Ceibaguate about the environmental and human impacts of gold mining. With the soaring price of gold, itself due to the greed of financial speculators and the financial meltdown they caused -- (thanks, taxpayers, for the bailout and lack of regulation so they can do it all again) -- there is now a worldwide gold rush. Even low-grade deposits are suddenly valuable. The result: a combination of mountain-top removal, toxic waste, and permanent pollution of water supplies vital to life, affecting some of the world's most vulnerable, especially indigenous peoples.

In this video they raise vital questions. Why do corporate heads and governments turn a blind eye? What is the responsibility of the peoples of the North? What is right living? To what end does such so-called "development" take us all? Community is a greater and more sustainable wealth than gold.

***

See our previous post on the deliberate laxity of Canada's corporate accountability laws.

In Guatemala - by Kathy Coster

(a volunteer with InnovativeCommunities.org in Guatemala)
The villages, volcanoes and Lake Atitlán: photos by D. Millar
Feb. 2: Today saw the delivery of 50 ONIL stoves to Santa Catarina Palopó, the neighbouring town to San Antonio. [The ONIL stove is a revolutionary stove design and implementation system that services the poorest by protecting women and children from burn and lung disease, the number one killer for children under 5 years old, and by saving women 2 days a week gathering wood. This valuable time is then available for economic and social activity.]

I actually arrived on time – not an easy thing to do as I've gotten out of bed most reluctantly these last few mornings as it has been very chilly and windy and bed so cozy. Dressed in several layers, I had breakfast and set off to find a picop. [see photo below]

By the time I reached Santa Catarina I was peeling off clothing because the sun comes over the mountain by 9 am and the wind seemed to die down or it is more sheltered there. Very shortly after my arrival women started to drift into the square and we waited for the truck to arrive with the stoves, which it did shortly. I phoned Rodolfo who was in charge but hadn’t shown up yet and he was in Panajachel so the stove truck driver organized the people to unload the truck and this time we did it by making a spot for each complete stove, which consists of about 14 parts. That worked quite well (my experience had been to pile by parts and each woman was given the parts to her own stove as her name was checked off). With today's method, after all the stoves were complete the women were asked to stand by one and we went around and checked everyone off and had them sign for it. Still shocks me that so many can’t sign their names, even the younger ones, and had to use their thumbs.

Three hours later we still had two unclaimed stoves and 15 water filters. One woman never turned up though had paid for her stove, one was an oversight on my part in that we had received a stove for the demonstration and I had forgotten that and ordered 50 instead of 49. Rodolfo got someone to store the first one for the person and said he knew someone who really needed one and went and asked her and she happily paid for it and carried it away – with the help of many of her 7 kids and husband. The water filters -- I had completely forgotten to mention to Rodolfo that they were coming! There they sat. The intention had been to put them in the health centre, which turned out to be closed all weekend. Some Muni workers came by and when asked said it would be fine but they might get stolen if put in the Municipal building for the weekend. Finally Rodolfo asked the owner of the art gallery right on the main plaza and he said sure and they are hopefully safely stored upstairs in the art gallery!

And then I was off to Panajachel, went to a nice little outdoor garden restaurant near the lake and had a delicious avocado sandwich on homemade wholewheat bread and a limonada. Just as I finished a woman came to the table for some reason I can’t remember and said something about a project, I said where, she said Panabaj, I said are you Louise Sosa, she said yes. We have been corresponding for ages, planning to meet when she got here (she lives in Qualicum BC and works with Mayan families). It was great to meet her and I would say she's a person of remarkable energy and dedication and useful skills for projects...

Sunday... Interesting to see how my energy waxes and wanes. [Afternoon] going with Maria to visit a widow and see if there is any way we can help, and one possible stove recipient. I would like to talk with Francisca, the widowed mother of five whom we are helping, too but need to see if Adelaida, her niece who can translate, would come too...

Later, I went out with Maria and it was really nice and cloudy but warm then the clouds blew away and it got hot. Very strange weather! The hills seemed to groan as I walked up – oh no, guess that was me! When we got ‘up’ we then followed a water course down toward the lake to a house of a woman (and her family) who is going to get a stove and of whom, for some reason, we had no picture. Wow did she have a lovely spot- tiny lot, adobe house, dirt floor - overlooking the lake with nothing to spoil her view. After that we hiked up to the road and then all the way down to the south end of the main road in town and then hiked up again to the house of Petrona, a new widow. She has 4 children, 2 of whom are in school, one´s about 3 with a bad cold and one is several months old and cute as a button, in fact they were all cute. We were talking to her when her mother in law, who is also a widow but of several years, came and started asking for some help too. I said perhaps they could share some of the food! She actually has grown children and can go out and work when there is work washing onions and other things. In the scheme of things I wasn´t feeling very sympathetic toward her.

Anyway, this new widow´s main concern was schoolbooks and mochilas for her children which I said we would buy along with some maiz and a few other things. She speaks no Spanish and is 30 and we will be giving her a stove.

After being with her for a while we went to visit (much higher up) Juana, another new widow and as we approached her door we could hear her crying and she was kneeling in front of a little altar where a candle was burning. She beckoned us to come in and said she was crying because her 10 year old son had headed off to the coast the day before to sell vegetables like his father had done and was due back in about an hour. [Guatemala is still a very dangerous place due to robbers, gang violence and rightwing death squads - Ed]. I tried not to think about that but find myself worrying and hoping he made it back.

We sat and talked for a while. She is already signed up for a stove. She and her husband had purchased a little piece of land higher up in the village but nothing is built on it. She is living on her in-laws property and doesn’t know how long she will be allowed to stay there. She has 5 children, 3 of whom are in school.

She weaves so I ordered three 'servietas' from her and they will take her about 5 weeks to make. These are what the women carry with them all the time and use for shopping bags – a large square piece of material made of the same pattern that the huipiles are made here in the village. They wear them folded on their heads when carrying something heavy and also as a wind shield and a shawl. I think we can sell them for small table cloths.

A Village in Guatemala

NACLA photo: General Perez Molina of the "Patriot Party” whose motto is La Mano Dura.
[ Editor's note: We have received permission to tell this story. During the 1960-96 genocide at least 200,000 people, mostly Mayan campesinos, were disappeared or openly massacred by Guatemalan forces under officers trained in the infamous School of the Americas, Ft Benning GA. No one has ever been brought to justice. Bishop Gerardi was assassinated in 1998 for publishing a church report on the genocide, Guatemala: Nunca Más. Since then, the US and Canada (and investors) have turned a blind eye to the military’s narcotic trading and an alarming rise in street violence. Last year, aided by political beatings and assassinations, one of the genocidal generals, Perez Molina, came within two seats of forming the government. A tiny 3% elite descended from the conquistadores control 70% of the land. The rest are desperately poor. Mayans are still struggling for language and education rights, access to land, a decent standard of living, and freedom from military terror. More than half of Guatemala's population, they average less than half the Ladino income; 900,000 children work as labourers; 45% attend school. Average life expectancy is 20 years. -- See references at the end.]

A Village in Guatemala, by Nathalie Sorenson

Santa María Tzejá, March 2004

I was one of 14 Canadians on a social justice study tour of Guatemala. Santa María Tzejá is a 9 hour drive from the capital. The road took us through brilliant green fields, groves of tall tropical trees hung with vines, here and there, high mountain ranges, banana plants in the deep ravines, their wide leaves shining in the afternoon light, and native people’s small plantations of corn far up the slopes. In the final 4 hours, we pass through a couple of villages and an army base, but mostly this region is wild and green and empty. The dirt road is so bad that our vans slow to a few miles an hour as they bump through pot holes more than a foot deep. The road is unsafe after nightfall, the time of killers and kidnappers. Welcome to Guatemala….

We reach Santa María in darkness, and in the home of Randall Shea (an American volunteer who stayed and married into the Mayan community) we are served a delicious meal of chicken, fresh green squash, black bean paste, and tortillas by candlelight.

Next morning we seek out a village elder, Bartolo. We follow a footpath into a grove of trees, the sun dappling the warm green gloom. By the side of the path, a young girl is lying in a hammock reading. It is the Popol Vuh, a sacred book of the Mayans. The path widens into a cattle trail leading to Bartolo’s modest one-room home, and he comes out to greet us, a man in his seventies with great personal dignity, former president of the village agricultural co-operative, father of eight children.

Bartolo’s story

He tells us the village was carved out of the jungle in the 1960s [presumably to escape rapacious landlords in the valleys]. He takes us up a steep jungle path. We are surrounded by unseen activity in the leaves and vines. Birds call overhead. At the top of a rise he shows us a stand of cardamom below, ten feet high with palm-like fronds and small oval green fruit. He picks a large handful, offers them to us, a gift of the country. Continuing uphill, we pass a fenced pasture where twenty Brahmin cattle are grazing. He is immensely proud of his healthy herd… the pleasure of ownership. His land totals 20 hectares. Further still, we come to the milpas, small plantations of corn, the native staple… then a grove from which palm hearts are harvested, and his vanilla plants, twined around small trees for support. The view opens to distant mountains. A hawk wheels slowly. As we rest, Bartolo tells us a story. He points to an area of jungle just below the hill…

“That is where we fled and hid after the attack in 1982,” he says. The mind’s eye sees terrified villagers running for their lives in the tangled underbrush of the jungle. On February 13, 1982, the Guatemalan army, in helicopters and on foot, stormed the village. Houses and crops were burned and the animals slaughtered. Over the next five days, they caught and killed seventeen people, most of them women and children. Who lived and died was quite arbitrary. A 13 year old said she would carry her little sister;. “No, just run as fast as you can,” said the mother; she heard gunfire from the direction where the girl had run, and then found her daughter dead. Manual Canil left his mother, wife, six children and members of their extended family hidden in a small ravine while he looked for a safer location. While he was gone, a dog barked. Only Manuel’s five year old son escaped. Hidden behind a bush, he saw nine others machine-gunned, or executed with a shot in the head.

The refugees

Fierce storms lashed the survivors. Some hid in the Ixcán jungle for a month… They were starving: leftover corn in the milpas, roots and wild fruit, cooked after dark. Malaria was common… they made ancient herbal medicines. Eventually about half the villagers left for Mexico… Single young men took positions in front and back of the line. They scouted the safest route and kept watch for the army. Families with small children stayed in the middle. Bartolo’s family were among those who fled.

In Chiapas, the refugee campesinos were greeted with open arms by fellow Mayans. COMAR (Mexican Commission for Help with Refugees) was the channel of United Nations and NGO aid. 200,000 Guatemalans had fled from hundreds of such massacres. 46,000 were in official refugee camps. Those from Santa María stayed for twelve years… Community cooperatives and stores were set up and some young people were able to study agronomy, livestock management, carpentry, mechanics and education. Others formed groups to study their human rights, as well as the history and constitution of Guatemala. Three of Bartolo’s daughters married Mexican farmers and are still in Chiapas. With a gift of 6 cattle to start his herd, they helped their father re-establish himself in Santa María. Mexico, generous as it was, was still exile.

The witnesses

Now it is evening. We are waiting for the witnesses of Santa María. They are relatives of those in who died in the February massacre. Together with people from twenty-two other communities, they brought class-action lawsuits against the generals who directed the genocide, Lucas Garcia and Rios Montt, for crimes against humanity. Each in turn, tells us the name of a mother, sons and daughters, brothers who were killed. They thank us for coming.

As they speak, the tropical night comes swiftly. A full moon rises, serene and bright. A bird calls: poor-will, southern relative of the whip-poor-will.

Pablo (not his real name) tells of the unmarked graves they found on their return in May 1994. “We carried out exhumations and were able to give a few of our loved ones proper burials… sadly the remains of most were not found. Then we began to think about legal charges. The process is very slow. This is the first case of its kind in Guatemala. People are afraid, as the accused have political and economic power.”.

Marco talks about the annual day of commemoration. “The names of each victim, with the dates and places of death were embroidered on pieces of cloth. These small pieces were sewn together into a banner. Each community, San Marcos, Quiche, Coban, -- all of them – made a similar banner and on February 25, 2004 we all marched in the capital with our banners. Many other people from the capital joined us. We were all shouting for justice. We went around several blocks and when we arrived at the Congress, we put the banners down on the ground. The Vice-President and two representatives came out… at the National Palace, the President himself came out…He said that the government was responsible for the violence and asked for pardon of those present. People felt hope…Past governments have never admitted responsibility.“

He thanks us… “It motivates us to know people care…May you go on informing others so there will be other protests, so this will never happen again.”

Farewell

I last saw Bartolo in the community hall. Teenagers from the school performed a traditional Mayan folk dance: girls in handwoven skirts and blouses, boys in white shirts, straw hats and colourful sashes. Then a young man with a guitar sang in honour of the fallen. In his warm sweet voice was pain, strength, and ultimately love. “Santa María,” went the chorus, “Santa María.” I glanced at Bartolo. He was not smiling, but what I think I saw in his face was quiet pride, and hope for the future.

References

US aid and news: Despues de las Guerras / Central America After the Wars with witness podcasts and links, San Carlos Foundation, Cimientos de Educacion / Foundations of Education, BringLight, Village Earth, Oxfam America Investing in Destruction, death threats to environmentalists and US anti-fair trade; NACLA: North American Congress on Latin America, Narconews, NISGUA, Rights Action (ex Guatemala Partners) reports, Angus Reid Global Monitor, Derechos / Human Rights file on School of the Americas
See also postings in this blog: Enviados con gozo, Mayan rural projects

Canadian aid and news: Breaking the Silence Network, Atlantic Region Solidarity Network, Pueblo Partisans, Presbyterian Church Making Connection, InnovativeCommunities.org video on Mayan weaving cooperative and AT stoves in San Antonio Palopo.

UK aid and news: Conciliation Resources, New Agriculturalist, Friends of the Earth

Latin American history: Eduardo Galeano, Memoria del Fuego (trilogy 1982-86), translated into English as Memory of Fire I. Genesis, II. Faces and Masks, III. Century of the Wind; Chicago Religious Task Force on Central America, Dangerous Memories (AFSC/Popular University Press 1991). Guatemalan history: The Art of Political Murder reviewed in International Herald Tribune 27 Sep 07.

Terraviva actualidades en español

Enviados con gozo = Go forth with joy

para Loida Fernández, Reunión General de los Amigos de México, en la
Reunión Anual de la Sección de las Américas del Comité Mundial de Consulta de los Amigos, 2005. Ver texto completo. English translation follows.

Photo: Lago de Atitlán, Guatemala (D. Millar)

Jorge Fox nos dice: “Y esta es la palabra del Señor Dios a todos vosotros, y una encomienda a todos en presencia del Dios viviente: Sed modelos, sed ejemplos en todos los países, lugares, islas, naciones; por doquiera que viniereis. Y en medio de cualquier gente que sea vuestro porte y vuestra vida lo que les exhorte. Y agrega, “así, (y yo le pongo sólo así) es que vendréis a caminar gozosamente por el mundo, respondiendo a eso que hay de Dios en cada cual; para que así podáis ser una bendición en ellos, y hacer que el Testigo de Dios en ellos os bendiga a vosotros. Así seréis una bendición y un olor grato al Señor tu Dios.”

Hay en la pared de la Iglesia de los Amigos en San Ignacio, Chalatenango [El Salvador], donde es pastora la hermana Emma Espinoza, la siguiente inscripción...
LAS MISIONES SE HACEN CON LOS PIES DE LOS QUE VAN,
LAS RODILLAS DE LOS QUE SE QUEDAN,
Y LAS MANOS DE LOS QUE DAN.

Hay muchos ejemplos de cómo en el devenir histórico de los Amigos en este continente y alrededor del mundo se han realizado tareas inimaginables para otros (y esto lo digo con humildad y respeto), y una y otra vez, el llamado a alzar la voz profética ha iniciado en un individuo, ha sido probado en una junta o iglesia y se ha buscado en la espera expectante y en los diversos mecanismos que tenemos como Amigos, la dirección de Dios, que nos ha impelido a decir o a hacer tal o cual cosa….
Recuerdo a los Amigos Cubanos cuando fueron invitados a participar del servicio militar… hablar con firmeza, con miedo, pero con fe en Dios, ofreciendo sus servicios como ayudantes de servicios médicos, pero no realizando la labor que les pedían en caso de una invasión...
Allá estaban los Amigos Norteamericanos ofreciendo en México formas alternativas a la conscripción obligatoria…
Allí mismo, recuerdo a un Amigo, Heberto Sein, en adoración silenciosa en el Zócalo de la ciudad de México, sólo, pero a la vez con el apoyo de la Junta Mensual de esa ciudad, pidiendo el cese al fuego contra los estudiantes en 1968.
Cuántos y tantos de ustedes en este país y de Canadá, a nivel individual o como juntas enteras, participaron en la reconstrucción de países centroamericanos hermanos que pasaron por décadas de guerras civiles …
O los Amigos Canadienses apoyando la lucha por los derechos de los pueblos indígenas. Están también los Amigos que participaron en el movimiento Santuario. Los Amigos en Honduras que en los años ochenta junto con otros grupos pacifistas y otros no pacifistas se unieron para pedir el estatus de objetores de conciencia como parte de los derechos de sus ciudadanos.
Allí está el programa de becas en Guatemala para indígenas, a quienes en su propia patria se les dificulta estudiar, hoy ya con más de 30 años de existencia.
La casa cuáquera en Managua, La Casa Ridgeway y el centro de Paz de los Amigos en Costa Rica, Monteverde como comunidad. Y … otros ejemplos de nuestros propios países, de obediencia al llamado… para levantar la voz, y la acción.

Pero, ¿tiene un papel profético el CMCA hoy en día, hacia dónde vamos y quién nos envía, como Sección de las Américas? …¿A dónde más nos llama Dios a hablar? Nuestras sociedades, cualquiera que sea, están llenas de violencia en todas sus manifestaciones, explotación, corrupción.

Si nuestro llamado es como un “éxodo” a salir de situaciones conocidas, o cómodas o inclusive amadas, arriesguémonos en una “aventura” hacia el futuro arriesgándonos con fe en Dios.

* * * * *

Loida Fernández, Mexico Friends Meeting, keynote to FWCC Americas 2005
[see full text]
.
George Fox tells us: “And this is the word of the Lord God to you all, and a charge to you all in the presence of the living God: Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come, that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them.” And he adds, “Then (and I would say, only then) you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one; whereby in them ye may be a blessing, and make the witness in God in them to bless you. Then to the lord God you will be a sweet savour and a blessing.”

On the wall of the Friends Church in San Ignacio, Chalatenango [El Salvador], where Friend Emma Espinoza is the pastor, the following inscription appears...
MISSIONS ARE CARRIED OUT BY THE FEET OF THOSE WHO GO,
THE KNEES OF THOSE WHO REMAIN BEHIND,
AND THE HANDS OF THOSE WHO GIVE.

There are many examples in the history of the Friends, in this hemisphere and around the world, of how some have carried out unimaginable tasks for others (and I say this with humility and respect). Time after time, the call to raise the prophetic voice has begun with an individual, has been tested in a meeting or church, and Friends have sought in expectant waiting and in the various means we use as Friends, to hear God’s guidance, which has compelled us to say or do one thing or another. ..
I remember the Cuban Friends, when they were invited to participate in military service… how they spoke firmly, with fear, but with faith in God, offering to work as assistants for the medical services, but not doing the jobs asked of them in case of an invasion….
There were North American Friends, offering work in Mexico as an alternative to obligatory [US] military service for youth…
And I also remember a Friend, Heberto Sein, in silent worship in the Zócalo [central square] of Mexico City, alone, but with the support of the Monthly Meeting in that city, asking for a cease-fire against the students in 1968.
So many of you in [the USA] and in Canada, individually or as whole meetings, participated in the reconstruction of our brother Central American countries, [after] decades of civil wars… Canadian Friends supporting the struggle of indigenous peoples for their rights. There are also the Friends who participated in the Sanctuary movement. The Friends in Honduras [who] requested conscientious objection as part of the rights of their citizens.
There is the [30 year old] scholarship program for indigenous people in Guatemala, whose own country makes it difficult for them to study… The Quaker House in Managua, Casa Ridgeway and the Friends Peace Center in Costa Rica, even Monteverde as a community. And other examples from our own countries of obedience to the call to raise our voice, to action.

But, does FWCC have a prophetic role today? Where are we going and who is sending us, as the Section of the Americas? ... Where else is God calling us to go speak? Our societies, wherever they may be, are full of violence in all its manifestations, exploitation, corruption….

If our calling is like an “exodus” to leave situations that are familiar, comfortable or even beloved, then let us take risks on an “adventure” toward the future, risking ourselves with faith in God.

*****
See also Friends Journal special issue Oct 2007 on FWCC's work worldwide.
Western Independent Quakers' new book Spiritual Wisdom in an Ecological Age (Torrance CA: Friends Bulletin, 2007)

Mayan rural projects in Guatemala

left: Maya youth at Xix dancing one of the traditional dances of the K'iche' and Ixil
right: Women in fields
Foundations for Education / Cimientos de Educación
.
.
has been working with Maya communities in Guatemala for 20 years, helping indigenes create schools such as IMOA Middle School-Xix, Quiche. Since 2001 the Foundation has been sponsoring Artesana Maya, a cooperative of Kaqchikel and K'iche' women from the village of Panimatzalam, Sololá. Book sales of Threads Breaking the Silence about their experiences in the civil war, illustrated in their embroidery and weaving, provide funds for the cooperative's cultural center.