06.20.07
Peace Direct
So I contacted this organization, Peace Direct, some time ago about possibly volunteering for them. I was looking around their site and saw the following:
Lots of people give us time – photographers, marketing experts, concert promoters. If you think you can help us to raise our profile or reach new audiences contact Chris.
So I did. I told him about the trip I was taking and why I was taking it. I told him I was somewhat of a photographer and sent him some of my photos. He responded enthusiastically and told me about the Photographing Peace project they were just starting.
Now I am going to be working on this project with them…looking for iconic images of peacebuilding as I travel. In addition, Chris contacted me a couple weeks ago and asked if I would be interested in documenting this “search” for the site. So while I am traveling, I will be posting periodically on their site, specifically talking about my journey to find these iconic images.
I’m real excited about that. It adds another element to my trip that was completely unexpected, but for which I am very grateful.
Once the page is set up on their site, I’ll post it here, as well as on the trip page, which is linked on the right side of this blog.
06.18.07
Awakenings
There seems to be something in the water.
I’ve recently had conversations with a few people that I havent seen in some time, and I’ve been surprised at what the content of these conversations have been.
One in particular: I recently attended a wedding of a couple “kids” that used to be in a youth group I helped out with. They of course aren’t kids anymore. At this wedding, I reconnected for a bit with a family Missy and I had been friends with while in Columbus. We always enjoyed our time with them and they are one of the families we most often miss when we think about our time there.
However, I wouldn’t necessarily say that we were always on the same page with a lot of things…at least as far as the husband and I go. I remember I let him borrow my copy of Richard Rohr’s “Simplicity” (which he still has I believe). His comment to me as he read it was “that guy’s out there…” Out there indeed. I think it was somewhat shocking to my friend that a christian would be calling us to voluntary simplicity in the interest of those in the world who are in need. Without giving too much detail and “out-ing” my friend on here, he was (and is still somewhat) invested in a lifestyle that doesnt necessarily lend itself in that direction.
But some things changed over the course of the last few years for he and his wife. And again, without too much detail, he’s been thinking differently about himself, his faith and his world. He and his wife looked me up on the internet a while back and found the “commie rag” you are now reading. They were certain they had the right guy of course.
We talked almost the entire time together at the wedding. He’s in that phase where I think he desperately wants to take a leap somewhere, but he’s not sure which direction to aim and how hard to jump. And not that I have the answers for him, but it’s at least a familiar place for me.
I hope we can get together again soon. There are many I think like him that get to a point where they realize something has to change…but they never get around to it. And then, regret…often for a lifetime.
So pray or courage for my friends. That they would be shaken and leap out in fear and trembling.
06.08.07
Oh my god…
I’m old.
“I don’t remember the password on my mom’s library card, but I need to get on the internet.”
“Well, I can’t give you her number or change it since it’s not your card.”
“Can I call and ask her what it is?”
“Sure, the payphone is in the lobby.”
“I don’t have any money.”
“You can call collect.”
“What’s collect?”
so sorry, another one
I’ll stop posting these when they stop happening. Stop buying Chiquita. Not only were they a high factor in the economic colonialization of latin america by the U.S. (i.e. they put a lot of pressure on the U.S. government in the 70s and 80s to make sure they could do whatever they felt like in central and south america), but now it seems they’ll do whatever it takes to make those farms safe:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6732739.stm
Oh, and if you think their concern is 100% for the welfare of their workers, perhaps you should read this report from Human Rights Watch:
In the same vein
Similar to the stories I posted the other day, I wanted to mention a couple things.
There is a trial starting this Friday in the case of an Islamic cleric who was abducted in Italy and taken to Egypt, where he was tortured. This is the first trial that will test the legality of the practice of extraordinary rendition, where suspected terrorists (or journalists or whomever we choose) are abducted and sent overseas solely for the purpose of using interrogation methods illegal both in the U.S. and according to the Geneva conventions. If you listen to the story, pay close attention to how much the CIA ran up the hotel bill. Almost funny if it weren’t in this context.
Some of you may be arguing that this man probably was involved in terrorist activity in some way. You might be right. But at what point did the liberty, democracy and freedom we’re supposedly spreading become set against the detainment, communistic (listen to the story about how we borrowed our interrogation methods from Russian cold war manuals) oppression with which we’re carrying out our “war?” I suppose modeling democratic methods isn’t as important at forcing them to happen at the barrel of a gun.
In related news, Congress is now considering legislation that would reverse the decision by the former Republican controlled Congress to eliminate the right of Habeus Corpus to Guantanamo detainees. Not only was this one of the more dastardly (dastardly because it’s incredible cowardice to take away their right to trial since we know we can’t charge them with any crime that will stick) things I’ve seen happen to those detainees in the last 6 years (aside from being arrested without charges, taken to a foreign country, made to wear hoods whenever anyone might see them, having their holy book flushed in the toilet, no contact with their families, enduring the same interrogation techniques mentioned above - which is why it’s in Cuba, a place we’re not allowed to travel to, but we sure can keep an army base there - and on and on…
Let’s hope these political prisoners earn the right to defend themselves, or at least get a day in court.
Strangely, none of this looks much like the Kingdom.
06.05.07
Detainment
14,000 people are detained around the world by the U.S. military.
Inlcuding an AP photographer: http://www.ap.org/bilalhussein/
And Omar Khadr, who was arrested when he was 15 for allegedly killing a U.S. soldier: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6720315.stm
It’s funny that we champion “democracy” and want to spread our version of it. But our version includes imprisoning people (including children) for years without charges, lawyers, or trials.
let freedom ring i guess.
