Friday, March 24, 2006

Who would Jesus deport?

A group calling itself the March 17th Alliance will march this Monday, PAril 10th to protest the immigration bill making its way through the GA legislature. www.Alianza17deMarzo.org for details on the march. See post below for more information about the bill.

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March 24, 2006

There are a few things about Georgia politics I'm not so crazy about...the use of the word "illegal" to describe people is one of them. A friend pointed out that the New York Times, that bastion of the liberal media, uses it too. I wrote a letter to the public editor and this is the response I received:

Dear Ms. Serna,

Thanks for writing. I will make sure that the appropriate person sees you message. But just so you know, here is the relevant entry from the paper's stylebook:

illegal immigrant is the preferred term, rather than the sinister-sounding illegal alien. Do not use the euphemism undocumented.

Sincerely,
Joe Plambeck
Office of the Public Editor
The New York Times

Note: The public editor's opinions are his own and do not represent those of The New York Times.
---------------
LEGISLATURE 2006: House passes bill on illegals-Senate prepares to iron out differences -- from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Carlos Campos & Jim Tharpe.
Friday, March 24, 2006

Georgia's sweeping attempt to confront illegal immigration moved a step closer to becoming law Thursday when the state House voted 123-51 in favor of the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act. The Republican-dominated chamber debated Senate Bill 529 --- a complex proposal aimed at illegal immigrants and those who employ them --- only 90 minutes before House leaders called for a vote.

State Rep. Dan Lakly (R-Peachtree City), the son of a legal immigrant from Yugoslavia, told the House the bill is a simple case of "right versus wrong, legal versus illegal."

Lakly and other speakers pointed a stern finger at the federal government, which they said has failed to fix a broken immigration system.

"There comes a time when the states have to stand up as one and send a message to the federal government," Lakly said. "The people of our country want our borders secure. The people of this country do not want to be overrun by illegal immigrants."

But Rep. Pedro Marin (D-Duluth), one of two Hispanics in the House, said the bill, which overwhelmingly passed the Senate this month, does not provide "meaningful immigration reform."

"This bill is not the right first step," he said. "It addresses symptoms of the problem, not the cause, which is a broken national system."

Polls show that more than 80 percent of Georgians want the Legislature to deal with illegal immigration. The thorny issue has become a centerpiece of this election-year session of the General Assembly, where all 236 lawmakers' jobs are up for grabs.

Rogers' bill [Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock] attempts to prohibit adult illegal immigrants from getting taxpayer-funded benefits to which they are not entitled. [Note: this sentence explains nicely that this is already prohibited, and this aspect of the bill does not address anything new.] It also attempts to ensure that companies with public contracts hire only workers in the country legally, and it would financially penalize private employers who hire illegal immigrants [Again, already the case.] The bill also would establish tough penalties for human trafficking [This aspect of the bill is definitely a good thing.]

House members added a provision in committee that would require illegal immigrants to pay a 5 percent surcharge on money they wire out of the country. That has upset some senators who might try to remove that section. [We're talking about people who are supporting their families with this money. 5% adds up quickly - they already pay sales taxes, many pay too much in income taxes, propping up Social Security to the tune of billions of dollars, not to mention taxes as fees. If their children attend universities, they pay out of state tuition. How many times can we charge the same struggling people?
"As the debate over Social Security heats up, the estimated seven million or so illegal immigrant workers in the United States are now providing the system with a subsidy of as much as $7 billion a year." Full ARTICLE.
There are an estimated 250,000 to 800,000 illegal immigrants in Georgia --- though no one has a precise number. Proponents of a crackdown say illegal immigrants burden schools, prisons and the health care system without footing an equal part of the tax burden. Opponents of Rogers' proposal say immigrants are here seeking a better life, do pay taxes and take only the jobs Americans refuse.

"This is an unprecedented level of fear," said Zamarripa, who called for a weekend of prayer on the issue. Zamarripa said he had tried to be a voice of moderation and spoke out against plans within the Hispanic community to stay home from work today as a demonstration of their importance to the state's economy.

In the House, conservative Democrats sided with the Republican majority to easily pass the bill. Rep. Alan Powell (D-Hartwell) said Rogers' bill did not go far enough, but agreed it was a starting point. He said the federal government had spent billions on homeland security since 9/11 "but we can't stop hungry Mexicans" from crossing the border by the millions.

"We have a system that is out of control," Powell said. "What part of illegal do people not understand? It's illegal to be here undocumented."

Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan (D-Austell), who voted against the bill, said some of her constituents had urged her to "do something about all those Mexicans." But she called Rogers' proposal "race-baiting, hypocritical legislation."

"When history records what we've done in this chamber, I'm going to be on the right side of history," she said.

Tisha Tallman, counsel for the Atlanta regional office for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the organization would continue its opposition to the bill. Tallman said MALDEF continued to believe the bill was "not only unconstitutional, but bad policy for Georgia."

The bill "fails to recognize contributions" of immigrant workers on Georgia's economy. She said MALDEF, which has sued over similar issues in other states, was preparing for potential litigation in Georgia.

WHAT THE BILL WOULD DO
The Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act (Senate Bill 529) would do several things:
1. Discourage businesses from hiring illegal immigrants by prohibiting employers from receiving state income tax benefits if they hire undocumented workers.
2. Require proof of legal residence for anyone older than 18 who seeks public benefits. Prenatal care would be exempt. The courts have ruled that illegal immigrants are entitled to a K-12 education and emergency medical care.
3. Require that public contractors use only workers who are in the country legally. It would not hold a contractor responsible for a subcontractor who hires illegal immigrants. [This is already the system in place for most undocumented workers - it happens to deprive them of many of the labor protections they would otherwise have access to.]
4. Empowers the Georgia Department of Labor to establish the Georgia Immigrant Worker Verification system to verify that employers with public contracts only employ workers legally in the country.
5. Require verification of the legal status of any person jailed for a felony or DUI. [I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but the police already id anyone and everyone they take into custody. Trust me, I've seen it happen to people who do not have legal identification, and it ends up costing them around a thousand dollars to get out of jail.]
6. Establish penalties for human trafficking. Penalties of up to 20 years in prison would be imposed for anyone who recruits or transports a person who is subjected to forced labor.
7. Place a 5 percent fee on wire transfers of money to a foreign nation when the sender cannot prove legal status in the U.S.
8. Regulates the "notarios" industry which provides immigration assistance services.
We have a legislature full of people who claim to be Christian. I won't be the first to point out the incredible hypocrisy of policies that do people harm - by attempting to deny children an education (that was last session's anti-immigrant gem - preventing the children of these supposedly "illegal" people from attending public schools), cutting people off from jobs they need to support their families, preventing access to health care (this is terrible public policy for us as a society, not just for immigrants) and creating an atmosphere of disrespect that has led to violence against immigrants.

Where do we live again? Last time I checked my great great grandmother hopped on a boat without a whole lot of documentation herself. You know what? I bet she was hungry and tired and fed up with not being able to make a decent living.

But yeah, let's make Georgia all about putting the hurt on undocumented immigrants. That's fair, and righteous, and Christian.

"Illegal: it's the new black..."

Well that makes my morning...Duke goes down and Pittsnogle comes through again

I love it!
ATLANTA -- No need for LSU and Big Baby to cry in this NCAA tournament. The Tigers left the tears for J.J. Redick.

Glen "Big Baby" Davis and a pair of defensive-minded freshmen have LSU just one win away from the Final Four, stifling Redick and sending top-seeded Duke to yet another loss in the round of 16.

If the Tigers can play this kind of defense three more times, they might just do it for a state still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Duke made only 18-of-65 shots (28 percent) and finished with its fewest points in a game since 1996.


D-E-F-E-N-S-E

Suffocating defense might not be as elegant as the sight of a feathery 3-pointer dropping through the net.
For LSU's Tigers, dropping top-ranked Duke out of the NCAA Tournament was a beautiful spectacle.
And making the morning even brighter:
The second semifinal appeared headed for overtime when West Virginia's Kevin Pittsnogle sank a 3-pointer with five seconds left to tie Texas at 71. Pittsnogle had just re-entered the game after going to the bench to treat a bloodied nose.

The Longhorns did not call timeout and rushed downcourt, allowing time for Paulino to make the winning 3. Officials reviewed a TV replay that showed Paulino released the ball in time.

Advice to poets

Tonight I read this astonishing piece by ee cummings, whose lines about plums we all read in the sixth grade and whose non-use of punctuation always seemed right to me.

A poet is somebody who feels, and who expresses his feelings through words.
This may sound easy, but it isn't.
A lot of people think or believe or know they feel -- but that's thinking or believing or knowing; not feeling. And poetry is feeling -- not knowing or believing or thinking.
Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel. Why? Because whenever you think or you believe or you know,you're a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you're nobody-but-yourself.
To be nobody-but-yourself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
As for expressing nobody-but-yourself in words, that means working just a little harder than anybody who isn't a poet can possibly imagine. Why? Because nothing is quite as easy as using words like somebody else. We all of us do exactly this nearly all of the time - and whenever we do it, we are not poets.
If, at the end of your first ten or fifteen years of fighting and working and feeling, you find you've written one line of one poem, you'll be very lucky indeed.
And so my advice to all young people who wish to become poets is: do something easy, like learning how to blow up the world -- unless you're not only willing, but glad, to feel and work and fight till you die.
Does this sound dismal? It isn't.
It's the most wonderful life on earth.
Or so I feel.

Last night I sat in bed with all my candles lit, reading and waiting. The fact of having no lights or electricity made the evening longer and more peaceful, but my thoughts kept coming and would have no part of sleep. Tomorrow an airplane will alight and bring with it a visitor I wish were a permanent feature of this city.

Today I felt disconnected, apart, all day long. Some days my architecture class at Los Andes has this effect on me - I'm rendered mute by the language of buildings, auditoriums, plazas. Also by my silly unspoken but easily legible disdain for some of my classmates, but that's another story. They are rich college kids like rich college kids everywhere -- but for some reason, being in Colombia, they bug me more.

We visited another university today - Jaime Lozada - which has an amazing, hulking, concrete yet airy library bordering its main plaza. Somehow I don't care much about the ideas "modern" or "aesthetic" but I care a great deal about large hunks of concrete with gaping squares cut out just so, to let the light in.

The professor talked about the tilt of the sun, the movements of the earth, days when everything aligns, days when there is less or more light than on any other day. I wanna know - do architects consider solstice? And is there an astronomical term for days when nothing lines up right? Somehow nighttime has a way of fixing things for me, setting the world right in a way that's impossible in the daylight. And tomorrow will surely come.

---

From one window, Preservancia sits, waits, patient facades with dark openings and surfaces that glare their blue sheen at the world. An inventory of poverty lies undone. another idea from a book I read, so what else is new? Directly below, sun-touched students gather in the plaza of one of those universities that has never seen a protest, or imagined reason for one.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Lights out

Cold showers are so much nicer in the summer. I knew having someone else pay our bills was not the best idea I'd ever heard, but I guess it could be worse. At any rate, that's the game we've been playing all day, ''I guess it could be worse!'' No electricity means no hot water in our house, and no wireless internet! These are two things I enjoy...ah well. Maybe tomorrow they'll turn it back on.

Making dinner by candlelight, I opened all the windows and entertained myself the old-fashioned way: by spying on the neighbors. One woman seemed to be having some plumbing trouble...see? It could be worse! She was outside her front door staring down the drain and occasionally bailing it out with a bucket. She stared for a long time. I started thinking maybe she'd lost something, a ring perhaps? Then her son came outside to help. They both stared for a while, then bailed some more. For some reason, I found this scene incredibly comforting.

I could also hear all the neighborhood night noises from the open window - children yelping with relief as they left church for the evening, the butcher downstairs calling across the street to his friend at the convenience store, couples whistling for their dogs as they mosey down the lane. The candles flicker in the night wind, and I am content.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Man's flaws, and greatness

It may be too little, too late for many from Louisiana, but the description of how the aid package to LA came about is striking because it describes how one person was open to change:

from the New York Times

With Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and Mayor C. Ray Nagin at his side, Mr. Powell announced that the president would seek $4.2 billion more for Louisiana to compensate homeowners — even those in the flood plain.

Mr. Powell's epiphany came after hours of listening to Louisianians: the decision makers; the woman who cleaned his room at the Sheraton; Victoria Reggie Kennedy, the wife of Senator Edward M. Kennedy (whom he called after hearing she was a Louisiana native); the inspectors examining high-water marks in homes. As he drove through New Orleans with Mr. Bush on March 8, he pointed to a small restaurant in the Ninth Ward and rattled off the owner's real estate woes.

"He had a learning experience," said Walter Isaacson, vice chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. "It's the most amazing thing for somebody of his stature. It's because by himself, he walked around. He walked around and talked to people."

Mr. Powell says walking about in the region incognito, in blue jeans and boots, is becoming a bit harder now that people are starting to recognize him. "I went with no preconceived thoughts," he said. "And I realized that while Mississippi was an act of God, Louisiana was an act of God and man. There were some flaws. The levees breached."

Katrina brought everything out into the light that had been hiding in deep dark places: racism, extremes of poverty and wealth, poor city planning, poor emergency planning, people being let down in large and small ways every day in the city of New Orleans...but it also brought out poetry, music, and life, in ways we've only just begun to see. I visited a few weeks after, and life is tenacious. It's also fragile -- I just hope we don't have to learn all the same lessons, all over again, in a few months. Hurricane season is almost upon us.

Great book about the underlying causes of the extreme damage Katrina visited: Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast, by Mike Tidwell.

a reasonable question

"How will we look back on this time in American history?" asks the Border Film Project flip book. It's a good question, I think, and one that has the power to shift our perspective ever so slightly, if we ask it. This project is worth checking out - the idea is powerful but simple.

WHO WE ARE

We are three friends - a Rhodes Scholar, filmmaker, and a Wall Street analyst - who spent three months on the U.S. Mexico border filming and distributing hundreds of disposable cameras to two groups on different sides of the line: undocumented migrants crossing the desert and Minutemen volunteers trying to stop them.

WHY WE DID IT

To simplify the complexities of immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border, and to show the realities on the ground. To date, we have received more than 1,500 photographs and more continue to arrive everyday. The pictures speak for themselves. They capture the humanity present on both sides of the border. They tell stories that no news piece or policy debate or academic study could convey. They are non-partisan and inclusive.


On a less weighty topic, we played some ball today, two games we had to wait an hour to get in on, games against Colombians, games that left us bloody but not beaten. Ok, technically bloody AND beaten, but not defeated, not emotionally anyway. And we talked waaay better trash than any of the little kids standing around watching - that's gotta count for something.

In the spirit of March Madness, here's our bracket:

Round One:
The Fulbright Panters (cause we pant a lot...) v. Colombian all male team from the Pacific coast that no one has even beaten, ever.
Guess who won? It's not a trick question.

Round Two:
The Fulbright Panters v. Team with a couple of short guys, one good rebounder/shot blocker, and a girl who told me, "be careful who you mess with, queenie"
This one was a little closer, but again...

We did not represent American athletes well, not at all. On the positive side, we sped up the whole process of waiting to play, which was truly beginning to be a drag for the other teams on the sidelines. And we felt completely justified ordering beers with lunch afterwards. Today was a national holiday, so I'm telling myself all the best players were out today. Yeah, that's what it was. Funny, no one I've asked has any clue what holiday it is. Must be the equivalent of Colombian flag day.

I know someone who had better luck with his brackets though...he's out to prove you don't have to know sports to pick a good team. I'm hoping this turns out to have some practical life application.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Why Chile Matters, and "Night of the Pencils"

"Why we should develop a taste for Chile" -- Good article by former Mexican minister and renowned author Jorge G. Castañeda.

March 27, 2006 issue - In the reams of commentary about newly inaugurated Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, two statements are systematically repeated. The first contrasts the supposedly conservative nature of Chilean society against the fact that Bachelet is the first woman to be elected president of a major Latin American nation. The second hails the popularity and stature of former leader Ricardo Lagos, elevating him to the ranks of Latin American elder statesmen. Both items of conventional wisdom deserve closer scrutiny.

Today has been awfully productive for a Sunday. This morning (ok, my version of morning, which occurred at about 11:30 am...) the girl in charge of our apartment dropped by to pick up a bill and ended up staying for several hours. For whatever reason she feels an obligation to explain Colombian history and society to us, and we ended up talking about the situation at the national university, where she has been a student for four years now.

I ended up taking notes and getting good information that should help shape whatever we end up writing. She invited us to watch a documentary about students being "disappeared" from a university in Argentina in 1976 after protesting tuition increases called "The Night of the Pencils" (NYT review).

Then later in the day I learned from a friend that some European countries, Holland in particular, initiated their own American-style educational reforms a few years back -- tuition increases, switch from combined bachelor's/master's degree in 5-7 years to a four year degree, etc. This should help with the international context for a paper.

And finally, my grandmother is doing better! Very happy about this. Love you GG.

Friday, March 17, 2006

...Silence.

After waiting 40 minutes for the professor to find an available room, then finally tramping over to the looming cement building next door, the first five minutes of class consisted of a quizzical look on his face (never learned his name) and some searching glances around the small but well-lit room, filled to the gills with 30 students. Faded graffiti on the inside of the classroom door read: "Paramilitaries have invaded our city. Don't doubt that they will kill."

I figured out fairly quickly that I was in the wrong place, but the room was too crowded to leave unobtrusively, so I amused myself by considering the reaction if I were to pack up my things and stomp out in a huff. Both classes had the same name, and I realized after I got home and checked the latest schedules online that the room had been changed for the class I actually wanted to take - civic participation in the countryside.

Hopefully my second class - administration and city politics in Bogota - with another former mayor (I'm going to start a collection - this one was appointed by Mockus when he made his first ill-fated run for president) this afternoon will have a more successful resolution!

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

How much you wanna bet he's re-gifting this???

Bolivian president Evo Morales is on a streak - first he gave Condi the coca guitar, and yesterday he presented Colombian president Uribe with an enormous painting of Simon Bolivar...made entirely out of coca leaves. Check out the grin on Evo's face.
El presidente de Bolivia, Evo Morales, regaló al presidente Uribe un cuadro de Simón Bolívar hecho con hojas de coca. "Desde que sea para cosas como esta, la coca está muy bien", dijo el mandatario colombiano. AFP [Translation: "So long as it is used for things like this, coca is very good," said the Colombian president.]

In other plant-inspired news, 25 Colombian universities are combining forces to limit the sale of
alcohol in their vecinities. For some inexplicable reason, dry laws in Colombia are given the names of veggies. Former mayor Antanus Mockus' measure to close bars at 1 AM was called the "Carrot Law" (Ley de Zanahorias) and I have a tiny carrot pin to prove it.

And now these limits are being referred to as "Lettuce Hours." If anyone can explain this to me, I'd be so grateful!

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Stories to tell

With all the sickness and accidents of this week, I ended it up feeling pretty good. I like to be needed, I've realized, and between my roommate falling from a moving bus and our friend still being fairly sick with malaria, not to mention a few emotional crises I've been fortunate enough to be privy to...it's been a full week! My roommate said she was going to start calling me Florence, a simple compliment that pleased me immensely.

Colombia is proving to be a somewhat humbling experience on the whole. Apparently the universe is trying to tell me to tone it down. I won't go into all the boring details, but in so many ways my self-image has been changed both by the fact of leaving the life I knew, and by the way life is turning here in Bogota.

Things are both simpler and more frustrating here. For instance, today was Election Day, and there were soldiers conducting random searches on the corner across from our apartment. The two bus explosions and general fear of disruptions surely motivated this happenstance, but to see it happening right in front of your face and be completely powerless to stop it is galling. (I do think it's wonderful, however, that elections are held on a Sunday, and the level of participation appeared simply by sight to be quite high.)

Yet at the same time, the way we live is so relaxed - time spent with friends, walking everywhere, eating fruit bought from the person who grew it - that it's hard to stay upset about the raw realities of war and conflict. It's amazing how often our focus faces inward given the national 40-year nightmare. Or maybe it's the most natural thing imaginable. I'm not sure.

The magnitude of the poverty and the very real oppression (despite what our unfortunate Kuwaaiti neighbor calls a "completely open political system") is starting to shake up my priorities. That and the violence. The student's death (which that same miserable neighbor says was "not a shame atall - he should have been focusing on his studies") in particular. That hit pretty close to home, regardless of whether he was participating in the protest or just watching, as we've heard.

Fresh graffiti on the entrace to UN reads:
Todos Somos Oscar.
We are all Oscar.
Coming here, I thought public participation and public transportation would be the themes that would guide my research career, that I'd go on to get a doctorate, that I'd lead a nice life teaching, investigating areas of interest, and publishing. Nothing fancy, but a clearly defined path. That or somehow build on the advocacy experience of CfPT, stay in Atlanta, and work to make the city more livable.

But now? I don't know. I'd like to say I've re-dedicated my life, to human rights for example. But all I know is that the things that interested me and occupied my time before seem unimportant and incredibly technical in comparison to, say, what our friends who work as peace accompaniers do with their lives. I've been so impressed with the British girl who's in charge of the organization here - she's a powerhouse but you only realize it until later because she's also terribly charming and kind. I wonder what brought her to Colombia...people here invariably have a story to tell. Increasingly, I just want to tell them.

Here's what we're reading this week, me and mine: It's What I Do and Finding Soulmates to Make a Living With, both on the blog "How to Save the World."

Friday, March 10, 2006

Keep them from marching in the streets

National University student Óscar Leonardo Salas Ángel died yesterday, in a room he shared with our malarial friend. No one can say precisely what killed him - something metal punctured his eye and entered his brain. The investigation, such as it is, is ongoing. There were student protests yesterday after word of his death - a TransMilenio station bore the brunt of their frustration. Today classes were cancelled. Videos here: 1 2 3

(Don't worry, this photo is from the newspaper's website: El Tiempo.com)

Here's the part I don't understand: the officials hear there's going to be a protest at the national university so they show up in body armour, anti-riot gear, and tanks. What do they think is going to happen at that point? Then the kids throw some rocks, some bricks, even some explosives, then there's tear gas, and when someone gets hurt or killed it's hard to say just what happened, but it was incredibly easy to predict. As the head of the squadron says in the third video -- we were just maintaining the perimeter, trying to contain the protest, keep them from marching in the streets. The girl interviewed in the second interview responds: we just want to not be killed! We have the right to protest, whether or not you agree with us.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

a city is not a war zone, but today a university campus was

A student protestor was shot and seriously wounded by the police today at the National Unversity of Colombia. We initially thought he'd been killed. This is not the first time this has happened: University Under Attack. The only media outlet that has it so far is IndyMedia. I found out about it when I ran into one of my roommates at the hospital two blocks from our apartment. He looked like death, although it turns out he did not know the student personally. It was his birthday today. I was at the hospital trying to visit my friend who works with a peace organization here...she has not one, but two types of malaria. I took her chicken and arepas but wasn't able to see her today.

Not sure of all the details, but the student was shot by the police during a demonstration against proposed reforms at the university. It's shocking...one sees the police and army anti-riot squads so frequently around here, they become almost (but not quite) part of the scenery. I see them standing under trees for shade, chatting on cell phones, sitting on the benches at pick up soccer games, lounging with their partners in the mid-day heat. It's hard for me to understand.

In the past, students and professors at the university were basically under siege by the right-wing forces in Colombia. Today, that threat has subsided, and a new, more immediate one has taken its place: elite anti-riot squads of the police. Students are being attacked, injured, and even killed by the very forces their parents' tax dollars pay to protect society. How cruel, how misguided, how immoral. I don't really have the proper words for this - what I'm writing sounds so formal, so distant from the reality around me, so I prefer to quote from this report from 2001.

The National University of Colombia, in Bogota, is a colourful and lively place. Almost every available space on buildings, in class rooms and corridors is covered in murals, graffiti, posters and stencils decrying Plan Colombia, protesting the war in Afghanistan and celebrating resistance.

Over 80% of universities in Colombia are private. There are 32 public universities, which have long been recognised as a hotbed of activist and leftist activity. The National University of Colombia is the largest public university and a vibrant centre for a range of critical projects. Students have renamed all of the landmarks, squares and buildings on campus and there is strong sense of radicalism thoughout the university. There are hundreds of active affinity groups on campus from Virus, a media and mural collective, to anarco-feminists and political musical groups. In addition to the diverse groups, the teach in-style meetings and discussions held daily around the campus, there are regular tropels - literally ‘bustles’ - when students directly confront police, taking over streets surrounding the university or blockading the main university entrance. When there is a tropel the hazy smoke of tear gas fills the campus, the constant noise of rallying cries and molotovs and tear gas canisters exploding fills the air.

At a tropel last week students protested the privatisation of health and education, and world wide American imperialism. A group of students were protesting the bombings in Afghanistan when police responded to the demonstration with violence. Police fired tear gas on the crowd and over 15 students were injured, two seriously, and one died. Police denied responsibility for the shooting, but a number of witnesses confirm the shot came from behind police lines. Carlos Giovanny Blanco Leguizamo, a twenty-two year old medical student , was shot at around noon, he died ten minutes later, still on the university campus.

Emilie*, a student from the National University, said, "the media and the autopsy report says it was a shot from a .22 gun and that he was shot from less than 10 metres. They want people to think that there was someone from inside the university who killed Giovanny, but people who saw say that it was the police, they used a gun that isn’t like the guns they officially use so there aren’t many proofs, but many people saw the act."

The following day two more students were murdered at the National University in Medellin. Reports suggest that they were playing chess in an education centre when two gunmen entered and shot them. Protests were been held simultaneously at universities across Colombia. Protesters were demanding respect for their anti-war sentiments and their right to protest and were marching in defiance of the murder of the medical student.

In the past two years, students, professors and university union leaders have been killed at four universities. Three students and six professors have been slain in the last year at the University of Antioquia in Medellin alone. The fact that universities provide a space for resistance activity means that they are also extremely dangerous places for activists, with many plants and right wing groups on campus. The United Auto-Defence groups of Colombia (AUC), which represents some 20 far right-wing paramilitary groups, announced its arrival, through a campaign of bathroom graffiti in student and professor lounges, at the University of Cartagena. There has been precious little reported about these latest killings, as is the case with many of the devastating attacks on civil liberties and human rights in Colombia. Morale is low, people are afraid, but resistance continues.

By this time the National University will be covered in the tents of students staying on campus in protest and new graffiti will mark the walls; ‘asesinos’ - assassins. In spite of the almost complete blind eye the media has turned on this event, the denial of responsibility by police, and the fear and confusion that people feel, ‘many students will stay at the university discussing things and making decisions’. With heaviness Emile finishes her mail, "the situation is very difficult, many people are too scared... but we have to go on. This isn’t the end of the story, we hope and believe that there is another possible story for this country, so we go on..."
*names changed for security reasons
By Alex Kelly ‘The Paper’ www.thepaper.org.au

Monday, March 06, 2006

a view of the NASCAR bid fiasco from my soapbox

I'm relieved we lost. There, I said it. As Atlantans we either tend towards extreme and not-justified-by-reality boosterism or extreme (and I do hope) not-justified-by-reality pessimism about our city, and often our state. But today I'm relieved, because we had a close call with the NASCAR bid.

Based on what I've seen of the the site sketches, in many people's view including mine, the finished museum would have set back development in the Centennial Park area, rather than furthering it. The building design proposed actually LOOKED like a parking deck. Interesting twist on the concept of trying to make decks look like real building...and if you think people coming to visit the NASCAR musuem would not bring their cars with them, further clogging city streets, I've got a beautiful green in Piedmont Park to sell you.

News reports today suggest Mayor Franklin and certain favored members of Atlanta City Council offered public city funding for Atlanta's NASCAR museum bid, to the tune of $77 million. (The state of Georgia added another $25 million to the package.) This is the part that amazes me:
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said putting the bid together shows that Atlanta, the state, and the business community can work well together on a common cause. (AJC)

Now, bear with me for a minute. Atlanta is the case study for the idea of Regime Politics (see book by Clarence Stone) in which a coalition formed by business leaders and politicians shifts but remains essentially dedicated to the same ideas despite the presence of racism and economic inequality.
From the end of Georgia's white primary in 1946 to the present, Atlanta has been a community of growing black electoral strength and stable white economic power. Yet the ballot box and investment money never became opposing weapons in a battle for domination. Instead, Atlanta experienced the emergence and evolution of a biracial coalition. Although beset by changing conditions and significant cost pressures, this coalition has remained intact. At critical junctures forces of cooperation overcame antagonisms of race and ideology. (from U Press of Kansas)

So where's the surprise in the business/politics cooperation in Atlanta?

To me, it's that it continues to happen out of sight. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution sued two business associations to retrieve public records of the city's bid, and won in court. Naturally, the case is pending appeal, and now it's a moot point.

The two lead groups, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Central Atlanta Progress, refused to provide documents about the process, contending they were not subject to state open records law.

The delaying tactic. What is the point of open records laws if they can be circumvented so easily?

At a conference for economic developers at Georgia Tech last year, I was exposed to how people in the field view the media in general and the idea in particular that the public should have a say in the packages they offer in our names (with public funds) to companies to relocate, or stay put, or expand, or just because. They are not fans. I understand the impulse to keep these things secret, I truly do, but I believe it is one we must resist as a society.

Secrecy and the lack of information sharing facilitate bad and/or unpopular deals, whereas the light of day has killed more than one (toll lanes to Athens, anyone?) Of course, that one may have been canceled due to some shenanigans of its own - it's been suggested that the toll lanes were nixed because that would have added to the desire for commuter rail along the 316 corridor...the more expensive it gets to drive, the more likely people are to want alternatives.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

dispatches

In my never-ending search for the perfect procrastination tool, I nominate these three blogger entries that did the trick for me, for tonight at least:

In the interest of full disclosure, I confess to not having actually read the last one. I mostly tilted my head to look at the flow charts...but it looked like the kind of knowledge management article I could get into - first off, he hates the term "knowledge management."

This week

Wednesday: Went to an Afro-Colombian dance class with Joy, then ate hamburgers at a fancy restaurant. I’m determined to try every kind of sport/dance I can find in Colombia until one of them sticks! Next on my list is wall-climbing. Joy pointed out at our basketball game Friday that back in high school she had to choose between dancing and sports…on the Fulbright, you don’t really have to choose…

Tuesday and Thursday: Oh, and I went to class and studied. A lot. Right.

Every day: Walked past my neighbor’s honeysuckle bush ten thousand times cause it smelled so good.

Apologized to the neighborhood internet café styled as tiki bar owner for not patronizing their lovely establishment anymore – nice as it is to have connectivity at home, I miss those folks – they stayed open late almost every night for me.

Thursday: Read with Abby and Chris at the second most beautiful library in Bogotá, Luis Angel Arango – where the fifth floor cafeteria has the world’s strongest coffee and people who claim to be doing surveys but really want you to buy their speed-reading cds, and where the view of the city is breathtaking.

Friday: Played basketball at the national park with other Fulbrighters, got caught in a freak hailstorm that made front-page news with the photos of children playing in what looked like snow.

Watched samba and capoeira demonstrations at the Brazilian Institute, then enjoyed introducing my friends to each other at an over-priced snooty bar on the north end.

Saturday: bought a bedspread for the cold – houses in Bogotá don’t have heat, since the climate is normally so temperate, but it’s been chilly lately. That or after a few weeks of laughing at Bogotanos for thinking a 65 degree afternoon is frigid, I’m getting wimpy myself…Tried to fight off the Fulbright cold, round two. This thing will not go away – everyone has had it twice now.
Ate at our favorite not-so-very Colombian restaurant, Crepes y Waffles…which actually is quite Colombian because everyone here loves it too.
Watched “Orgullo y Prejuicio” (Pride and Prejudice,also known as VH150 year old dance party) on my newly warm bed with Liz, Joy and Josh via the internet, then stayed up all night talking. I haven’t done that for ages…

Sunday: Went to the Botanical Gardens again, this time with Abby, Chris, and Chris’s mom, who’s visiting for the week.

Chris’s mom was great – made me miss my folks! When are you guys coming, anyway?

Made the enormous mistake (see post below) of going to the store Sunday evening. I nearly cried, it was so packed with people. Some days, everywhere I go in Bogotá, there are too many other people there already. Today was one of those days. But tonight I have the apartment all to myself, since Liz is out watching the Oscars and Mauro is, well, somewhere else. Nothing like a quiet Sunday night after a long week.

Things every norteamericano learns in Latin America:

That there is no bus ride so bad it can’t be improved by a little salsa…
That there’s always room for one more…
That fresh bread is the stuff of the good life, and that fresh bread hot from the oven is a slice of heaven…
That every drink tastes better after a round of toasts except water, and why drink water?
That market day is a baaad day to go shopping…unless you’re actually at a market...
That once you leave, whatever country you’re missing, the scent of of diesel will always take you back!

Saturday, March 04, 2006

who we are

“It’s not as bad as they say, is it? All the movies about Colombia focus on the violence, the conflict, the drugs…they show chickens on buses and burros in the streets.” Not one, not two, but three Colombians expressed this idea to me today. Two taxi drivers and a friend. And these are not just today’s talking points; this is a recurring concern among Colombians concerned about how their country is perceived from the outside.

The thing is, these images have some basis in reality. I haven’t seen any live chickens on the buses of Bogotá, but there are burros trotting down even the busiest main avenues, at rush hour even.

Yet at the same time, Bogotá is a grand city like New York, Boston, Chicago… Somewhere between 7 and 10 million people live in high-density apartments and high rises in the city center, in single-family homes on the north end, and houses built with their own two hands on the south side. And tiendas, tiendas, everywhere. One can live a very normal, even happy life here completely independent of the grisly scenes one sees in the newspaper, or avoids seeing, of the violence that still grips much of the countryside.

The director of the Fulbright Commission in Colombia gave a talk this past week (that I did not attend as it interfered with class) about various political science models as they apply to Colombia. The lone conservative Fulbrighter (or so we’ve christened him) apparently spoke about the success, in his view, of Plan Colombia. The cities are safer, he said (everyone, I mean EVERYONE, tries to claim responsibility for the drastically reduced murder rate in Bogotá). My brave and honest roommate, always remembering the plight of the worst off among us, noted fervently (I’m told) – people are being assassinated in the countryside – does that mean nothing?

The violent nightmares I had in Atlanta have changed background scenery. Now instead of single shots, there are burst of gunfire in my dreams. Sometimes I’m supposed to be protecting someone and am unable to do so. I wake up scared, but try to remember what the taxi drivers are always telling me – it’s not so bad here, in Bogotá. We are not who they say we are.

What they are really saying is, I’m tired of all this - the conflict, the violence, the death. I’m sick of war being front-page news. I want some peace.

Figure 1. peace initiatives in colombia 1979–2002
Total number of initiatives each year
from Conciliation Resources