just pasting this in for those who are interested...all the links you need are below...spread the word!
--------------
Dear Friends,
For 36 years, Guatemala suffered through an internal armed conflict in which at least 200,000 people were "disappeared" or killed. State-sponsored violence was widespread, entire villages were burned and razed, and rape was commonly used as a weapon of war against women. Numerous investigations have concluded that the vast majority of these human rights violations were conducted by members of the Guatemalan Army or intelligence services.
Today, a decade after the conflict's resolution, many of those responsible have escaped prosecution and now work with the police or private security forces. Perhaps it is no wonder that violence against women continues unabated, and that the perpetrators are virtually never brought to justice.
Human rights groups have documented a sharp increase in the rate of "femicides" or killings of women in Guatemala since the beginning of 2000. As of August 2006, 2,300 Guatemalan women had been murdered, and only 17 cases had been resolved, including both convictions and exonerations. In fact, so few convictions have been handed down that there is almost complete impunity for those who murder women in Guatemala. Investigators mishandle crime scenes and officials blame the victims themselves, often deciding that their murders are not worth investigating because they are deemed to be "nobodies."
The Women's Edge Coalition and the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies have joined together to condemn the institutional acceptance of violence against women in Guatemala. In November 2006, members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a resolution calling on the Secretary of State to urge the Government of Guatemala to improve its procedures for investigating and prosecuting crimes of violence against women. Representative Hilda Solis of California re-introduced the resolution (H. Res. 100) in January 2007, and a vote is expected in the House very soon. (A similar resolution is currently being considered in the Senate.)
Join us in asking your representative in Congress to sign on as a co-sponsor of H. Res. 100. To identify and contact your Congressperson in the U.S. House of Representatives, click here; to check and see if your representative is already a co-sponsor of H.Res. 100, click here. If he or she has not yet signed on, you will find a sample message that you can personalize and send below.
The war in Guatemala is long over. It's time for Guatemalan women to enjoy the benefits of peace.
In Solidarity,
Karen Musalo
Director
Center for Gender & Refugee Studies
Barb Gottlieb
Director of Outreach & Membership
Women's Edge Coalition
[SAMPLE MESSAGE]
Dear Representative [name],
During Guatemala's decades of internal armed conflict, state-sponsored violence was widespread, and rape was commonly used as a weapon of war against women. Numerous investigations have concluded that the vast majority of these human rights violations were conducted by members of the Guatemalan Army or intelligence services.
Today, a decade after the conflict's resolution, many of those responsible have escaped prosecution and now work with the police or private security forces. Perhaps it is no wonder that violence against women continues unabated, and that the perpetrators are virtually never brought to justice.
Human rights groups have documented a sharp increase in the rate of "femicides" or killings of women in Guatemala since 2000. As of August 2006, 2,300 Guatemalan women had been murdered, and only 17 cases have been resolved, including both convictions and exonerations. In fact, so few convictions have been handed down that there is almost complete impunity for those who murder women in Guatemala. Investigators mishandle crime scenes and officials blame the victims themselves, often deciding that their murders are not worth investigating because they are deemed to be "nobodies."
I urge you to join your colleagues in Congress in condemning the institutional acceptance of violence against women in Guatemala by signing-on as a co-sponsor of H. Res. 100, which encourages the Guatemalan government to bring an end to these crimes. To co-sponsor H. Res. 100, contact Representative Hilda Solis's office at (202) 225-5464.
The war in Guatemala is long over. It's time for Guatemalan women to enjoy the benefits of peace.
Sincerely,
[name & address]
Sunday, March 25, 2007
An Inconvenient Truth
i know i'm behind the bandwagon on this one, but i just saw An Inconvenient Truth yesterday, and i feel the least i can do is to pass this link along with information about the documentary and things we can do to make an impact.
http://www.climatecrisis.net/
it's truly alarming and i think we all have a responsibility, especially those of us in the US with our generally high-consumption lifestyles. living in the city has made the transportation issue easier for me, i often walk 150 blocks in a day and take mostly buses when not walking. i'm definitely a believer in walking, biking, and public transportation when possible. the only change i'd like to make is to cut down on flying, which i think i have mostly minimized by taking buses down here when possible and staying in one place for a while. cutting down on water use has been fairly easy and i'm getting better about turning off lights, computers, and appliances. we use natural gas here and don't keep the pilot light on all day so that's also a plus. i'll have to cut down on my meat consumption though, which has went back up again recently, but every day is a new day.
http://www.climatecrisis.net/
it's truly alarming and i think we all have a responsibility, especially those of us in the US with our generally high-consumption lifestyles. living in the city has made the transportation issue easier for me, i often walk 150 blocks in a day and take mostly buses when not walking. i'm definitely a believer in walking, biking, and public transportation when possible. the only change i'd like to make is to cut down on flying, which i think i have mostly minimized by taking buses down here when possible and staying in one place for a while. cutting down on water use has been fairly easy and i'm getting better about turning off lights, computers, and appliances. we use natural gas here and don't keep the pilot light on all day so that's also a plus. i'll have to cut down on my meat consumption though, which has went back up again recently, but every day is a new day.
heading out of bogotà
well, another traveling chapter is coming to a close. i arrived in bogotà last august. i had said i wanted to live for a while in a big city, and now i've had that experience.
i know the city and it's various transportation systems fairly well, and getting to most places is more of a problem of traffic and timing than actually knowing what to do. i live with two other extrajeros, lyndsey and mike, in the oldest part of the city, a colonial area called La Candelaria. it's definitely relaxed compared to the rest of the city, and the museums are interesting. i've seen very little of colombia outside of the city, although i recently took a trip to Villa de Leyva, which was beautiful, and hope to see some other surrounding pueblos such as Paipa and Melgar before heading out.
i've picked up some of the accent, which most people from bogotá are quick to say is the best and most clearest in the world. I'm not sure if I agree with that; rather, it's been another fun accent to learn...new words, new diminutive which they use just a bit (solo un poquitico, claro)...well, actually, it is used so often perhaps it has taken on a new meaning.
in any case, i have also gained some insight into the culture. bogotà is probably the most conservative place i have lived in Latin America so far. there are many formalities in speech, dress, and interaction that, although having seen them elsewhere, seem to be heightened here. i can't quite tell if the beauty salons are used more than in other LA countries here, but i do know that at 5:30am you're just as likely (if not more so) to see a beauty salon up and running as to find a place to buy a piece of bread for breakfast. and walking around with bandages from your recent plastic surgery is not only socially acceptable, but viewed quite positively. taking care of your appearance has been important in all places i've been, but i think caracas and bogotà have been a new sight for me. i hear another city in colombia, cali, is known for their plastic women, but not sure if i will get there before i leave at the end of april. i'm hoping to head to cartegena if i have the time, perhaps some of the pueblos outside of bogotá, and perhaps cali on the way down to ecuador, which is currently where i plan to go next.
the experience in bogotà has been a good experience for me, mostly to remind me of what's most important to me and what i hope to experience and contribute with my life. teaching english to upper middle class professionals has been good for teaching experience, but not where i want to be in terms of a career, which for now i am content not to have. but the exchange of culture and language has been worth the experience, and i'll take the knowledge and skills into future social work. i am currently applying for a month-long volunteer experience doing construction work in a pueblo in ecuador, a couple of hours south of quito. i think that will happen during the month of may, and i should be back in the states for a month or so to do some editing and perhaps research work with a professor of social work who i've been working for the past couple of years. i hope to save a little money during this time and then head off to the US southwest and/or northern Mexico to work with the immigrants and refugees trying to cross the border. some of the projects, such as giving water to undocumented immigrants crossing the border, are quite controversial, although alliances between at least one organization and the border patrol have been formed, and permits have been obtained for the work. i think immigration is an issue i would like to work with in the future, partly because of the experiences i have had in Latin America and partly because I think the issue hits directly at US imperialism. who are we, after all, to deny peaceful access to land that our ancestors and others conquered with all manners of force, rape, biological warfare, slavery, and repression? even if we personally had nothing to do with it, i still feel we should do something to take more positive paths in the future. allowing open access to the US is a radical idea that perhaps not many support, but i find myself supporting it more and more in my thoughts. would our economy suffer or gain? probably both. would economic loss be fair? i believe so. our country and by association, us, have so much compared to the rest of the world, i think we should share more than we do.
in any case, i'm still forming opinions, but i don't foresee a sharp divergence from them in the future. i feel good about the changes to come, and i look forward to them. for now, it's a month more of teaching experience and spending time with the friends i have made, and at least for this afternoon, it's off to make some refried beans, man i miss the food from Mexico!
i know the city and it's various transportation systems fairly well, and getting to most places is more of a problem of traffic and timing than actually knowing what to do. i live with two other extrajeros, lyndsey and mike, in the oldest part of the city, a colonial area called La Candelaria. it's definitely relaxed compared to the rest of the city, and the museums are interesting. i've seen very little of colombia outside of the city, although i recently took a trip to Villa de Leyva, which was beautiful, and hope to see some other surrounding pueblos such as Paipa and Melgar before heading out.
i've picked up some of the accent, which most people from bogotá are quick to say is the best and most clearest in the world. I'm not sure if I agree with that; rather, it's been another fun accent to learn...new words, new diminutive which they use just a bit (solo un poquitico, claro)...well, actually, it is used so often perhaps it has taken on a new meaning.
in any case, i have also gained some insight into the culture. bogotà is probably the most conservative place i have lived in Latin America so far. there are many formalities in speech, dress, and interaction that, although having seen them elsewhere, seem to be heightened here. i can't quite tell if the beauty salons are used more than in other LA countries here, but i do know that at 5:30am you're just as likely (if not more so) to see a beauty salon up and running as to find a place to buy a piece of bread for breakfast. and walking around with bandages from your recent plastic surgery is not only socially acceptable, but viewed quite positively. taking care of your appearance has been important in all places i've been, but i think caracas and bogotà have been a new sight for me. i hear another city in colombia, cali, is known for their plastic women, but not sure if i will get there before i leave at the end of april. i'm hoping to head to cartegena if i have the time, perhaps some of the pueblos outside of bogotá, and perhaps cali on the way down to ecuador, which is currently where i plan to go next.
the experience in bogotà has been a good experience for me, mostly to remind me of what's most important to me and what i hope to experience and contribute with my life. teaching english to upper middle class professionals has been good for teaching experience, but not where i want to be in terms of a career, which for now i am content not to have. but the exchange of culture and language has been worth the experience, and i'll take the knowledge and skills into future social work. i am currently applying for a month-long volunteer experience doing construction work in a pueblo in ecuador, a couple of hours south of quito. i think that will happen during the month of may, and i should be back in the states for a month or so to do some editing and perhaps research work with a professor of social work who i've been working for the past couple of years. i hope to save a little money during this time and then head off to the US southwest and/or northern Mexico to work with the immigrants and refugees trying to cross the border. some of the projects, such as giving water to undocumented immigrants crossing the border, are quite controversial, although alliances between at least one organization and the border patrol have been formed, and permits have been obtained for the work. i think immigration is an issue i would like to work with in the future, partly because of the experiences i have had in Latin America and partly because I think the issue hits directly at US imperialism. who are we, after all, to deny peaceful access to land that our ancestors and others conquered with all manners of force, rape, biological warfare, slavery, and repression? even if we personally had nothing to do with it, i still feel we should do something to take more positive paths in the future. allowing open access to the US is a radical idea that perhaps not many support, but i find myself supporting it more and more in my thoughts. would our economy suffer or gain? probably both. would economic loss be fair? i believe so. our country and by association, us, have so much compared to the rest of the world, i think we should share more than we do.
in any case, i'm still forming opinions, but i don't foresee a sharp divergence from them in the future. i feel good about the changes to come, and i look forward to them. for now, it's a month more of teaching experience and spending time with the friends i have made, and at least for this afternoon, it's off to make some refried beans, man i miss the food from Mexico!
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