Tomorrow

The daughter of the worker, the daughter of the peasant, won’t have to prostitute herself -- bread and work will come from her honorable labor.

No more tears in the homes of workers. You’ll stroll happily over the laughter of paved roads, bridges, country lanes. . . .

Tomorrow, my son, everything will be different; no whips, jails, bullets, rifles will repress ideas. You’ll stroll through the streets of all the cities with the hands of your children in your hands -- as I cannot do with you.

Jail will not shut in your young years as it does mine; and you will not die in exile with your eyes trembling, longing for the landscape of your homeland, like my father died. Tomorrow, my son, everything will be different.

Edwin Castro

Does a bullet know Muslim from Christian?

"Pray the Devil Back to Hell" is a documentary about how a women's movement in Liberia stopped a bloody war that had been present in the country since Christmas of 1989. It started at St. Peters Lutheran church in Monrovia. The movement contained women of both Muslim and Christian traditions working together to end the terror that was inflicted upon their children, families, and entire country.
The war started with Charles Taylor, a rebel leader who started a civil war amongst the various ethnic groups living in Liberia. After many years of conflict, Taylor "terrorized" the people of Liberia to vote him into power. He is now exiled from the country and was being held in a United Nations jail. He is now on trial for all of the crimes he caused and committed himself. You can read more about the trial here.
I highly recommend watching this documentary, which was chosen as Best Documentary Feature in 2008 at the Tribeca Film Festival.
-Anne

This is a video from the School of the Americas Watch. It talks about the new U.S. agreement with Colombia to have access to seven Colombian bases for ten years. Take a look.

Dr. Vandana Shiva

We watched a movie yesterday titled “Another World Is Possible.” The movie was about the World Social Forum, which takes place annually in Brazil, usually at the same time as the World Economic Forum. I’m not sure which year the movie was from. There was one woman who was speaking about agriculture that caught my attention so I googled her. Dr. Vandana Shiva has started many programs circulating around the issue of food security and sustainability. If you go to her site you can sign up to receive the newsletter, but the actual site seems to be having some trouble. Boo. Instead you can go to the website of the India-based NGO, Navdanya. Dr. Shiva is one of its founders. The organization works to secure the rights of Indian farmers to their seeds and land, as well as the ability to keep their produce organic. It also works to keep GMOs out of the market places and out of the seeds the farmers are working so hard to save. I think she looks pretty cool. I am going to read more on one of her other projects, Diverse Women for Diversity.

Thanks, JNP

We’ve been taking justice and peace studies classes for the past two semesters, and have realized it is fairly difficult to make sense of all the information that is thrown at us. We figured this blog would be a good outlet for organizing all of it and also sharing it with anyone who wants to know. We hope you find this useful in figuring out your own worldview and what you believe needs to change.