Resources for SEMILLA Class

In January 2011 I took Peace and Justice: Latin American Perspectives at Semilla, an Anabaptist Seminary in Guatemala City. Here is a description of the class from the syllabus and following are links I compiled throughout the experience.

This course is an approach to the Anabaptist-Mennonite understanding and practice of peace from a Latin American perspective. It explores the main conflicts, situations, and challenges of Central America. It examines the basic theological and spiritual convictions related to peace and justice that sustain the Church mission and testimony in these lands. It also provides an overview of how the Anabaptists have spent trying to follow Jesus Christ and to preach and live his message of peace in the midst of the challenging situations and struggles of this context. This course is offered at the Latin American Anabaptist Seminary (SEMILLA) in Guatemala.

ORGANIZATIONS:

• Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG)
• Guatemalan League of Mental Hygiene -- Reunions & adoptions
• Survivors -- Domestic abuse
  
• UPAVIM -- Women’s co-op connected to 10,000 Villages (Montessori school, crafts, bakery, soy milk, etc.)
  
• Ruth and Naomi Co-op -- http://www.guatemalaproject.org/36201.html
• Bezaleel & Fundameno -- Mennonite school and health care. http://bezaleel.mennonite.net/Bezlweb%20Donations.htm &
• CASAS & SEMILLA (Facebook)
• Justicia Restaurativa
• Mission Year & CCDA. Some of us ate dinner with a couple that was connected to both of these. Like them, I first heard of both from Shane Claiborne.
• Orphan Resources Intl -- Mike took us hiking on Pacaya for our last adventure. His story and the story of ORI was really encouraging. Mike's blog.
  

FILMS:

• Recycled Life -- Documentary about the city dump in Guatemala City that we visited.
• Return to El Salvador -- The website has the trailer and the first 7 minutes, along with a short film (Marcelo) on a related topic. It’s by the same director (Jamie Moffett) who made The Ordinary Radicals.
  
• El Norte -- “Two indigenous youths…flee Guatemala in the early 1980s due to ethnic and political persecution. They head north and travel through Mexico to the United States, arriving in Los Angeles, California, after an arduous journey.” Trailer
• Romero
• Sin Nombre -- Trailer
• The Corporation -- Companies behaving badly.
• 180° South -- Less related to our studies than the other films. It’s more for those interested in adventure sports and ecological conservation.

Food films:

• The Future of Food -- http://www.thefutureoffood.com/
• Bad Seed -- http://www.badseed.info/. I’ve only seen a small part of this. It reminded me of The Future of Food, though the quality seemed lower.
  
• Earthlings -- http://www.earthlings.com/. Gruesome.
• Food, Inc. -- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1286537/
• The Garden -- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1252486/
• King Corn -- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1112115/

Andre recommends:

• Peaceable Kingdom -- A documentary about farms and humans relationship to the rest of the world.
• Ballad of the Little Soldier -- Documentary about child soldiers in Nicaragua by Werner Herzog. He happens to be one of my favorite directors, and if you like his style I would also recommend: The White Diamond, The Wheel of Time, and Little Dieter Needs to Fly.

BOOKS:

• Peacemaking Power of Prayer -- As with any book, it can’t be read uncritically, but I think it has an element of wisdom to speak to our studies here.
• Confessions of an Economic Hitman
• Game as Old as Empire
  
• The Arrival -- Comic book/graphic novel sans words about immigration. Emotional but not violent. Beautiful.
  
• Jim and Casper Go to Church -- I thought of this book after visiting La Casa de Dios. See also http://churchrater.com/.
• The End of Days
• The Fullness of Time in a Flat World (Waalkes)

Joon recommends:

• Three Cups of Tea (Mortenson)
• Stones to Schools (Mortenson)
• Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh (Norberg-Hodge)

RANDOM:

• Bus bomb in Guatemala City -- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12109840 & http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110113/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_guatemala_bus_fire_1
• Chichicastenango
  
• Coban
• Iximche
• Infant Mortality Rate (country comparison) -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mortality_rate
• Homicide Rates (regional comparison) -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
• Per capita income (regional comparison) -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita
• WHO Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence against Women -- http://www.who.int/gender/violence/who_multicountry_study/en/
• enditnow (Adventist say no to violence against women) -- http://www.enditnow.org/ & http://www.atoday.com/viewpoints-vol-4-heatherdawn-small.
• Smedley Buttler -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler. Wrote War is a Racket (http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865 & http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html ). Two quotes I’ve posted on my blog (http://justicelives.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-posted-following-item-on-my-ethics.html ):

o "War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."

o "I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

Faith beyond Borders -- Adv Today Review

My review of Faith beyond Borders is now posted at Adventist Today. Though this statement does not appear in said review: I loved this book. Read it, yo.

Art Gish, a life-long peace activist who died this past summer, once quipped, “Anyone can be a young radical. Where are the old radicals?”[1] Now well beyond retirement age, Don Mosley is likely the kind of old radical Gish wanted to find. As a co-founder of Habitat for Humanity (1976) and Jubilee Partners (1979), Mosley has traveled the world to serve humanity in the name of Jesus. Among other adventures, he has stared down the barrel of a gun in Egypt, protested the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in the U.S. (formerly School of the Americas), protected civilians as a co-leader of a joint Fellowship of Reconciliation/Witness for Peace delegation in Nicaragua, worked on two Israeli kibbutz, and illegally transported large shipments of medical supplies into Iraq for children affected by war and the trade embargo.

[1] http://www.docchallenge.org/2010-Finalists/old-radicals.html. See also http://www.jesusradicals.com/in-memoriam-life-long-christian-peacemaker-art-gish-dies/.

[full review]

Saturday Potpourri

Two sets of randomness today:

First, this past week in Peace Colloquium, we were introduced to the following resources:

• Innocents Abroad: American Teachers in the American Century (Jonathan Zimmerman, 2008)
• Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty (Roger Thurow & Scott Kilman, 2009)
• Famine: A Short History (Cormac Ó Gráda, 2009)
• Ending Africa's Hunger (Raj Patel, Eric Holt-Gimenez & Annie Shattuck, The Nation, 21 Sep 09)
• Naomi Klein in Conversation With Michael Moore (The Nation, 23 Sep 09)
• Cornucopia Blues (Brent Cunningham, The Nation, 21 Sep 09)

Second, these random articles interest me:

• Web Roundup (Adventist Activism, 8 Oct 09)
• Monday Potpourri (Pack Light, 5 Oct 09)
  
• Two Voices on Michael Moore's "Capitalism" (Jared Wright, Spectrum, 9 Oct 09)
• Repent! For the Kingdom of God is Near (Sarah Lynne, Jesus Manifesto, 9 Oct 09)
• The Death of Progress (Joshua Dbau III, Jesus Manifesto, 6 Oct 09)
• Greed, America, and the Rich Young Ruler (Mark Van Steenwyk, Jesus Manifesto, 6 Oct 09)
• Adventures in seeking God’s love and justice (smh00a, Jesus Manifesto, 25 Sep 09)
• Tables scraps or the One Whole Loaf (Loren McGrail, Jesus Manifesto, 7 Sep 09)
• The Health Care Question (Travis Mamone, Jesus Manifesto, 7 Sep 09)
• 911 Campaign: Lament Violence, Invest in Peace (Shane Claiborne & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Jesus Manifesto, 27 Aug 09)
• Critics on Our Left, Meet the Critics on Our Right (Ryan Rodrick Beiler, Sojourners, 9 Oct 09)
• Video: Colbert on Conservapedia’s Bible Translation Project (Ryan Rodrick Beiler, Sojourners, 9 Oct 09)
• A Faith Declaration for Health-Care Reform (Jim Wallis, Sojourners, 8 Oct 09)
• Scripture and History Remind Us That We Are All Immigrants (Lynne Hybels, Sojourners, 8 Oct 09)
• Smashing Economic Idols (Julie Clawson, Sojourners, 8 Oct 09)
• David vs. Oil-iath (Elizabeth Palmberg, Sojourners, 6 Oct 09)
• Listening to Poor People ‘Offstage’ (Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Sojourners, 5 Oct 09)
• Five Benefits of Common Security Clubs’ Economic Solidarity (Chuck Collins, Sojourners, 2 Oct 09)
• Singing and Praying Justice, Part 2 (Jeremy Del Rio & Louis Carlo, Sojourners, 2 Oct 09)
• Proclaiming Jubilee in the Midst of Foreclosures (Mark Van Steenwyk, Sojourners, 28 Sep 09)
• “In the world…” (Robert Martin, Young Anabaptist Radicals, 5 Oct 09)

Darfur Now

On Friday night, the local university hosted an evening focused on the genocide in Darfur. After a skit and a couple technical difficulties, we watched Darfur Now, a documentary that shares the stories of six activists working to improve the situation in western Sudan. ACTION, the student group sponsoring the event, has attended protests at a certain Chinese embassy in the past.

Showing six different perspectives on the issue was a useful technique. It gives viewers more options for engaging the film, since we tend to project ourselves into the story. Who do I relate to more--the celebrity, the hometown activist getting signatures, the lawyer, the NGO administrator, the local leader, the woman who joined the revolution? Which one is an example of how I can get involved? It shows that we can each play a role, regardless of who we are. And it helps us see how tragedies affect different people.

After the movie, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan shared parts of his story of fleeing for his life. There are two "Lost Boys" attending the university here. Now I'd like to see the original film.

Having read Darfur Diaries, it was interesting to see the footage and add a visual element to the story. For me, seeing the people and places makes it so much more real.

My life has been so easy. Signing the petition after the film seemed so trite, so shallow compared to the need.

Darfur Diaries

At our last movie night, a friend handed me a book, Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival. It works a tricky balance as part adventure log, part history lesson and part activist investigation. Brutal.

While not covering the details of systematic burning, pillaging and raping, the reader still gets a sense of the desperation and hope. It was interesting to read the sentiments of the displaced people; some wanting revenge, others just wanting to return home. All wanting peace, someday.

One item on the author’s agenda list is to convince the reader that the general media has over simplified the conflict into a North/South, Arab/African, Islamic/Christian dichotomy. Instead, the author believes that the government is using divisions between groups to cause chaos, keep it in power, and obtain the resources it desires. Thought provoking.

Now I want to watch the documentary—Darfur Diaries: Message from Home.

Kiva

Want to do something beautiful with your money? Check out Kiva.

Here's the scoop: Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world. By choosing a loan on Kiva, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the entrepreneur you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.

U.S. Federal Budget Proposal

I have shared the questions I would like to ask the current round of presidential hopefuls. These questions reveal my priorities. The 2009 budget proposed by President Bush reveals his.

Why is this on a blog about justice? I do not believe it is right to spend $650 billion on defense, more than the next 168 countries combined, while we continue to fail to support the Millenium Development Goals with our repeatedly promised .7% of GDP (.15% currently). We have the opportunity to help over a billion people gain access to food, water and housing, but instead we build tanks, missiles and machine guns. Are we any different from the Rich Man who neglected Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31)?

Thumbs Up

• Increases for abstinence education, Pell Grants for college students from low-income families and grants to school districts.
• Almost $20 billion increase in State Children's Health Insurance Program over the next five years, still falling short of plans passed twice by Congress.
• 10.3 percent increase (total of $22.7 billion) in foreign aid with increases for HIV/AIDS programs, anti-drug and -crime programs, development aid, and security packages. Some of these proposals are not my foreign aid priorities, and this is still FAR short of the .7% of GDP we have promised for meeting the Millenium Development Goals (The End of Poverty).

Thumbs Down

• Additional $36 billion for defense, an increase of 8% to over $650 billion. This does not include additional funding ($70 billion) for the Iraq war. Read more about U.S. expenditures on the military here--military budget, world military spending, countries and military expenditures.
• $18.2 billion cut in Medicaid, nation's single largest payer of children's health care for working families.
• $700 million cut from discretionary health programs that children depend on, ranging from poison control hotlines to funding for training children's doctors.
• Eliminates $283 million federal program to help make homes more energy efficient. Cuts energy aid to poor households by $500 million, a 22 percent drop.
• Over $400 billion budget deficit.

It will be interesting to watch how the debate over the budget progresses. I do hope some priorities will be changed. Voices needed.

Sources

• Bush budget would bring record deficits (Yahoo News, 4 Feb '08)
• Bush Budget Cuts Federal Health Programs Vital to the Health of All Children (Fox Business, 8 Feb '08)
• Department of Defense (Accessed 11 Feb '08)

The End of Poverty (Jeffrey Sachs)

I cannot encourage you enough to read The End of Poverty. Just do it. Promise yourself that you’ll find a way.

The first few chapters relate Sachs’s own evolution as a development economist and advocate—a process that leads him from Harvard University to countries around the world and eventually to Columbia University where he helped found The Earth Institute. We follow him along the journey of gaining insights into the roles that geography, population growth, and disease play in the poverty trap.

The subsequent chapters describe the needs of the poor, the misconceptions most of us have regarding what is being done and what the real problems are, and finally the way forward.

Sachs quantifies, maps, deconstructs, and personalizes the problems. Thankfully, he does not end there. He also quantifies the needed response, demonstrates the possibilities we have over the next couple of decades, and offers policy advice on increasing capacity and accountability.

For less technical, but more spiritual analyses of the same topics, see Walking with the Poor (Bryant Myers), Red Letters (Tom Davis) and Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (Ron Sider).

La Sierra SIFE

In 2007 La Sierra's Student in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team won the National Championship and the World Cup. These Adventist students demonstrate how management and leadership skills can be used to make the world a better place.

Read more about their projects--Kalaala Scrubs, Build-a-Village and Harambee--here:

• Sife Link
• La Sierra University