WHAT ABOUT WEDGE POLITICS?

A friend responds to my reflections on "wedge politics" with some selected quotes:

George Bush, in an address to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001 said, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."  In the film Star Wars, Episode 3, Darth Vader says to Obi-Wan Kenobi, "If you're not with me, then you're my enemy." Obi-Wan responds, "Only a Sith deals in absolutes."

For the international NGOs and for newcomers, the 'wedge politics' approach should be of concern. It is likely that both groups are familiar with this style of politics from other countries. 'Wedge politics' casts issues in 'either/or,' and 'them against us' terms. It creates conditions of fear leading to increasing levels of polarization and suppression.

If you are concerned about the rights of Palestinians then you are against Israel, even "anti-Semitic" (Jason Kenny).

Bev Oda, in the face of CIDA's support of Kairos, simply cancels funding. Offend this group, please another group. Forget rational criteria for judgment and obey the boss.

If you raise questions about the handling of Afghan detainees, you are refusing to support Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan (Harper).

Both NGOs and newcomers are familiar with countries in which a leader has promised to bring order and discipline and has made power and political control the priority.  Control is the keyword.  Terry Milewski for CBC in Halifax this morning observed directly to Harper that he appeared to be campaigning "in a bubble" -- with pre-selected crowds of supporters in attendance. The reporters raised the issue of only being allowed 4 questions. There is evident tension between Harper and the press. 

Michael Ignatieff, in contrast, seems happy and at ease with the questions coming his way. His style of response suggests a person and a party with policies and a vision that is intended to serve the whole country. My anticipation is that if Ignatieff's personal presence continues to receive positive response on the campaign trail, NGOs and those concerned about Canada's relation with the world will begin to feel quite comfortable with the Liberals.

The newcomer groups are a different matter. If they left home countries where government was dominating and corrupt, it is possible they will want to remain disconnected from the political process. They are likely to be more concerned than others about the economy. What will be their judgment be on politically motivated spending over fiscal restraint? How will they react to Canada being mired in deficit?

SIGNS OF SPRING

Cathy had her covenanting service Sunday afternoon at St. Matthew's church here in Belleville. Pastor Larry Doyle from Faith United in Courtice preached and reminded the congregation that Cathy was called not only to be priest and pastor but also prophet.

It was especially encouraging to see the youth and adult leaders from her previous church, St. Paul's United Church in Bowmanville, in attendance. The group are quite social media savvy. They were eager to take down my blog address.  I appreciated their enthusiasm for what I have to say.

Whatever warnings there might be about virtual identities and Facebook depression and so on, the upcoming generations do use the media to connect and to learn in a way that was not possible in past. I've also noticed articles about the "Silver Surfers." Senior Canadians, the cresting boomer generation, may have been initially slow on the uptake, but are now becoming tech friendly.

Politics. I have the opportunity this month to learn in an intensive fashion about our Canadian political issues and to witness how an election campaign is carried forward. Cathy and I went out walking on this crisp, sunny day and saw the signs. I'm not talking about the signs of the change of season. Rather I mean the politicians' signs. Darryl Kramp, Conservative has the most signs out at the moment. After all, he had them stored and ready to go since the last election. For the Conservatives this is a riding that they believe they should own.

Peter Tinsley, Liberal is just getting his effort underway. The Liberal office on Dundas West in Belleville has its campaign poster as a temporary identification for the location. Tinsley is considered by the CBC to be a "star" candidate for the Liberal party. He headed the inquiry into the torture of Afghan detainees.  He is a sharp critic of the Harper style of governing. It will be a challenge for him to become known to the broader community in the riding. I meanwhile am observing and learning.

Michael McMahon, who has run in a number of previous elections, is the NDP candidate.

Alan Coxwell, who has been the Green Party candidate in past, has issued a letter indicating that he had consulted with Michael McMahon to suggest that they both withdraw in favour of Peter Tinsley.  When McMahon did not agree to that, Coxwell decided that he himself would withdraw in support of Peter and the Liberal campaign to replace Harper.  A letter to that effect was read at the opening of Peter Tinsley's Belleville office Saturday April 2. 

The Green Party candidate is now Patrick Larkin.

WHY SHOULD I CARE?

It's a great question. My friend told me the other day that the question came up over drinks during holiday time south of the border. One Canadian talks about volunteering time and energy to prepare a conference promoting understanding among people of different religions. Another perhaps slightly bored Canadian asks, "Why bother?" "Why should I care?" Basically, why should I give freely of myself for any worthy cause?

At this point in the discussion, one could bring up an ethical principle shared across many traditions -- the "Golden Rule": "Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you." Help others out because you want a world in which others will help you out when you need it.

Of course, if you have your retirement well organized and insurance premiums all paid up you may claim that you don't really feel the need for others to help you. Basically, you can suggest that everybody should pay their own way. I am paying my way and others should pay their way. I suppose that there might be someone who could say nobody ever helped them out, the proverbial "self-made man." Nobody opened a door for them, forgave a mistake they made, gave them advice on how to get ahead. 

Whatever the results of those happy hour arguments, the fact is some people do care and some do volunteer time and energy. The question shifts slightly. It is not "Why should I care?" but "Why do I care?" and "Why don't I care?" I like that question better. It's less abstract. I can think about it.

I care and take time for others and for worthy causes because that's what my parents taught me to do. They had time to help others out. They felt that was important and I don't have to think about it. It just seems right to do. I feel better about myself and the world when I help out.

Or maybe I don't care because I have too many projects going already, am physically or emotionally tired, or I'm stressed personally and financially and so on. Perhaps, I'm suffering compassion fatigue. Whatever it is, I find I need a boost.

I may also need a boost when I meet new situations. What happens when I face situations my parents never faced? Will I go beyond the ways of feeling and acting that I learned from my family, as good as they are? The Good Samaritan went beyond what was expected of the good person. He helped the enemy.  What about me? Have I been, will I be more than just a good person for my time and place? Does it happen that I have been drawn out beyond the perimeter of my safe space?

(AFTER CUERNAVACA) IVAN ILLICH AND THE ISW

Cathy's dad bought me a book for my birthday: "The Rivers North of the Future: The Testament of Ivan Illich as told to David Cayley" Foreword by Charles Taylor [Yes, the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor] (2005).  I've jumped into it.

In the first part of the book, Ivan Illich centres his reflection on "The Good Samaritan" parable told by Jesus. For Illich the parable is about the gratuitous reality of compassion. For their time, the priest and the Pharisee who passed on by the wounded man were acting ethically. The wounded man could have been a polluting dead man. Both those who passed by had demanding responsibilities urging them not to stop.

Likewise, the Samaritan should not have got involved. The Samaritan should not be helping a Jew, a man not of his group. But he is moved "in his bowels" with compassion. The Samaritan breaks through the ethical norms. Jesus is putting forward a love that breaks through the ethical norms. Illich considers it a perversion of what Jesus taught to suggest that the Good Samaritan parable sets a norm for Christian or universal human behaviour. The point here is not to establish a new burdensome law. Jesus is not making some universal statement about everyone in need being our neighbour. No, your neighbour is the person to whom you respond with compassion. Sin is not breaking a law but is turning away coldly from another person.

Monsignor Illich, a Catholic priest, established a language training school in Cuernavaca, Mexico in the early 1960's. He is renowned as a critic of educational and medical institutions. At his school, Illich challenged the optimism for development that was the spirit of the time -- as seen in the Alliance for Progress, the Peace Core and so on.  Illich withdrew from active ministry and through work as professor and scholar challenged what he considered the inversion of Christianity and ultimately the sin of Western culture -- the conviction that the good can institutionalized. 

In the present book, Illich gives an illustration of what he means. Christians in the early period kept a mattress, some bread and a candle ready in their homes for a person who might wander by in need. With the conversion of the Emperor Constantine the bishops could act publicly to establish houses for strangers. The great preacher, St. John Chrystostom, criticized this development claiming that the houses for strangers undermined the early practice of personal hospitality to the stranger in need.

As I reflect on the Canadian snowbirds who have reached out to people in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, I wonder whether whether they might not agree with Illich. The first agreement might have to do with a distancing from institutional religion and its new forms in secular government.

The second agreement might have to do with the question of who is my neighbour. My neighbour is not a generic citizen with a right to universal benefits; my neighbour is the person who makes a call on me. I have no obligation to act, but in the freedom of the Spirit I do act to respond to this neighbour who calls on me. Sin is not acting when called and moved to act. 

Much of what Illich is saying rings true to me. The implications can provoke and disturb. What is the task of the International Support Worker in relation to governmental organizations and NGOs with their institutionalized procedures? Where is the emphasis to be put -- on training to better support institutional structures or on learning to engage the person who makes a call on us?

SPIRITUAL GROWTH: CONTEXT AND STRUGGLE

I have more to say about spiritual growth. Indeed, lots more should be said. Not only are we responsible for the way we make our decisions, but we are well-advised to attend to the context in which we make our decisions.

Yesterday I said, "Do what you enjoy!" and "Follow the energy!" I nuanced those statements with the notion that this kind of advice works well when we are in a harmonious state, when we are not self-centred but turned out in care for others.

What is the implication of caring for others? The implication is that we attend to the context of our decision making. For me this means constantly broadening my horizons, overcoming the confines of my group, my social location. Yes I am concerned about the people and issues of the West Hill of Belleville. Yes I am concerned with the people and issues of Prince Edward-Hastings county. Yes I am concerned about Ontario and Canada. Thanks to the International Support Worker, Loyalist College, immersion program in Mexico, I care more about the fuller extent of the environment, the issues and the peoples of the Americas.

I am more alive and feel more alive the more I understand and respond to the people and to what is happening in my expanding context. As I am transformed so there is a greater possibility that those around me will likewise be transformed. As my friends grow spiritually so my possibilities for growth are enhanced. As I see it, spiritual growth is about liberating, unleashing, releasing in each one of us the vector of energy that can flow through us. This is the energy of wonder, of curiousity, of desire to know, of desire to live to our full potential, to create and to contribute.

The energy I talk of was felt in the Lacandon tropical rain forest. It brims over in the play of children, the commitment of lovers, the discipline and creativity of artists and scientists, the practical accomplishments of business people, managers and politicians.

We grow spiritually when we wrestle each day with the pressures that attempt to inhibit that energy/spirit and close us in to narrow prejudices and fears. It is a struggle that is won in the struggle itself.

THROUGH THE SPIRITUAL DOOR (on St. Patrick's Day)

Yesterday's de-briefing discussion with the ISW group raised the question of spiritual growth. Have we entered the spiritual door of learning during our time in Mexico? Some thought that they had grown spiritually through the experience of physical problems -- "stomach problems." Others had found that they were very grateful for what they returned to here -- family, house, friends. People talked of humility and gratitude.

My contribution to the discussion was my realization that the Chiapas, Mexico experience had confirmed something I had been taught over and over again during the years. I had been told to follow my gut feeling. In the group discussion, "Do what you enjoy!" is what I said. I added: "Follow the energy." Blogging has been a matter of following the energy. I felt consoled in thinking out, writing about and distributing my thoughts.

I'm not being original in this but it is hitting home that this counsel to follow the energy applies to me. If I am to be a productive person, it is important that I focus on what gives me energy. I could express that somewhat differently: I should be doing what I have energy for. St. Augustine said it better: "Love and do what you will." He recognized that the issue is that one has to be in a state of grace, that is, in love: then do what you will, then -- do what you enjoy. Follow the holy energy.

To distinguish when I am acting on the basis of a loving frame of mind and when I am acting out of something else I shall have to be self-critical. Am I basically concerned for others or only for myself? Generous or selfish? Let us suppose that I have the good sense to recognize when I am off-balance. Then I may say the opposite: "John-boy, Don't do what you enjoy when you're in this nasty frame of mind." Work against your spontaneous energy. Get back in balance.

I prefer to take an optimistic view of my state of being. Given that with the support of wife and friends I am in a generally peaceful state of being, then I should be alert to what brings me consolation and what brings me desolation.

INTERNSHIP IN CANADA: THE RETURN

The International Support Worker graduate certificate program requires that each student undertake a 4 week internship. My choice is to undertake a project under the supervision of Bob Cottrell, President of the Prince Edward-Hastings Federal Liberal Association (PEHFLA). It looks like the internship project will be a go.

Now what will the project entail? It will be on my initiative and will develop as it goes forward. The basic idea is that I listen to what people have to say and that I report it. I will focus on two distinct groups. One group will be the NGOs in the area that have international outreach. I see myself giving them the opportunity to say how they perceive Canada's identity in the world today. What do people think of us Canadians? What is our actual performance? What are possibilities for the future? What should our priorities be?

A second group is those who can be described as "newcomers." What are the local demographic patterns? What are the allegiances newcomers currently hold? Have they experienced Canada as a welcoming place? How would they like to see government move in the next while?

My time in Mexico gave me a sense of Canada's profile from outside the country.

I have a sense that what is to come next will be more difficult for me. My identity as a Canadian inhibits me; it is as though I have to work with mirrors to see my own face. My thoughts do not flow easily. I both know too much and know much too little.

I welcome suggestions for the kinds of questions that should be asked of NGOs and newcomer families. I welcome any input from those who find themselves in those groups.

I hope to rein in my aggressive side by following guidelines for listening: -by Kay Lindahl, the founder of the Listening Center in Laguan Niguel, California. Kay is also the chairperson of the North American Interfaith Network (NAIN).

 1. WHEN YOU ARE LISTENING, SUSPEND ASSUMPTIONS - What we assume is often invisible to us. We assume that others have had the same experiences that we have, and that is how we listen to them. Learn to recognize assumptions by noticing when you get upset or annoyed by something someone else is saying. You may be making an assumption. Let it be - suspend it - and resume listening for understanding of the other.
 2. WHEN YOU ARE SPEAKING, EXPRESS YOUR PERSONAL RESPONSE - informed by your tradition, beliefs and practices as you have interpreted them in your life. Speak for yourself. Use "I' language. Take ownership of what you say. Speak from your heart. Notice how often the phrases "We all", "of course", "everyone says", "you know", come into your conversation. The only person you can truly speak for is yourself.
 3. LISTEN WITHOUT JUDGMENT - The purpose of dialogue is to come to an understanding of the other, not to determine whether they are good, bad, right or wrong. If you are sitting there thinking: 'That's good", 'That's bad", "I like that" "I don't like that", then you are having a conversation in your own mind, rather than listening to the speaker. Simply notice when you do this, and return to being present with the speaker.
 4. SUSPEND STATUS - Everyone is an equal partner in the inquiry. There is no seniority or hierarchy. All are colleagues with a mutual quest for insight and clarity. You are each an expert in your life. That is what you bring to the dialogue process.
 5. HONOUR CONFIDENTIALITY - Leave the names of participants in the room so if you share stories or ideas, no one's identity will be revealed. Create a safe space for self-expression.
 6. LISTEN FOR UNDERSTANDING, NOT TO AGREE WITH OR BELIEVE - You do not have to agree with or believe anything that is said. Your job is to listen for understanding.
 7. ASK CLARIFYING OR OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS to assist your understanding and to explore assumptions.
 8. HONOUR SILENCE AND TIME FOR REFLECTION - Notice what wants to be said rather than what you want to say.
 9. ONE PERSON SPEAKS AT A TIME - Pay attention to the flow of the conversation. Notice what patterns emerge from the group. Make sure that each person has an opportunity to speak, while knowing that no one is required to speak.

CHOOSING AN IDENTITY IN BOTH CHURCHES

"Did you ever have to make up your mind?  Pick up on one and leave the other one behind.  It's not often easy, and not often kind.  Did you ever have to make up your mind?"  Recognize those lyrics?  Yes.  The Lovin Spoonful.  That song is my personal 'ear-worm.'

Each Sunday, I attend Catholic mass at St. Michael's in Belleville at 8 a.m. and then go on to St. Matthew's United for 10 a.m.  I have made up my mind that I have both a Catholic identity and a United Church identity.  Why shouldn't I live both identities at whatever depth I can muster?  

Let me explain.  My view is that the response to Jesus is more like a dynamic movement than it is like a static institution.  

A movement has beliefs.  I do not deny that.  Beliefs are important.  We believe in one God, one mother/father of all -- each human a treasure valued in the eyes of God.  God -- the personal, gifting, embracing, creative Mystery -- is Love.  Yes, I believe.  Yes I believe that Jesus is the Word of God, to be trusted not just as a man (human being) but in the way I trust God. And yes the Spirit that moves in ways we do not control can be trusted and can be allowed to move through us, to inspire and to counsel.  I've just said yes to the three questions for baptism: Is the Father God?  Is the Son God?  Is the Holy Spirit God?  For a Catholic following the teachings of the bishops of Vatican 2, baptism, whether in the Catholic church or in the United church, is the basic badge of identity for the Christian.

But a movement puts its priority not on doctrine but on performance, on orthodoxy that manifests in orthopraxy.  As I live my identity in Catholic and United Church forms (and reach out to Anglican, Hindu, Buddhist, secular ... forms), I search to collaborate in working together in "Building a World of Justice."  The movement (the "Way" of the book of Acts) is performance in tune with the performance of Jesus of Nazareth.

The phrase, "Building a World of Justice," is on the cover of the "Share Lent Magazine" that I picked up as I was leaving the St. Michael the Archangel church this morning.  Catholics contribute financially to the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace collaborating in working for a world of justice with many projects domestically and internationally.  United Church people -- St. Matthew's with its Food Bank and Meals and Mission Outreach -- work for a world of justice.  

Each one of us can say that perhaps we could do more, that our churches could do more (and Canadian government could do more).  However, we do have the example of many of our fellow church people (and non-church people) who do more.  Personally I am happy to draw on the broadened horizon of contact with people in both church communities to inspire me to do more.

WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN

I'm in my Lazy Boy -- Mac on lap -- and looking out the window to our black and white world -- gray clouds above the black veins of the trees. Memories of the vibrant colours of Mexico have begun to fade. Adjusting to the return to Canada has been smooth. That Cathy was with me for the last week in Mexico has been very helpful. Besides our tans, we share our perceptions and appreciation of Mexico.

As well, our International Support Worker group of students gathers Monday through Thursday at Loyalist College to reflect on issues of culture shock and the patterns of return. We look ahead to the times when we might be taking leadership in immersion experiences in other cultures.

Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday. It was also International Women's Day. Our group marched with the women of Belleville and then gathered as one of our members raised in Africa addressed an assembly at the CORE centre, Belleville, about the experience of women in other countries. We remark on the absence of younger women at the event.

Afghanistan. The other event advertised for International Women's Day was a presentation by the NGO "Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan." I attend this event in the evening at the Belleville library. This NGO, among a number of projects that support women in Afghanistan, pays for teachers who teach girls. The teachers and the girls brave the threats of the Taliban.

Our two presenters, Susanne Schurman and Madeliene Tarasick of the Kingston area, are retired from teaching. They are energetic and obviously committed to their volunteer work. Madeliene has administrative experience as a former superintendent of schools and just recently took on the position of President of the Board of "Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan." The presentation goes some way to explaining why these two women are committed to the work of this organization.

I put the story in my own words. Both are successful career women who can look back on a life of opportunities and struggle. They see that women have made gains in Canada and they do not understand why Afghan women should be denied these gains. Each has been shocked at the approach to women taken by the Taliban. Women are forbidden work outside the home. They are told to be shrouded outside the home and threatened with mutilation or death if they leave the home unaccompanied by a family member. Girls are forbidden school. They are not to learn to read and to write.

Whatever one's view of NATO's and Canada's ongoing military presence in Afghanistan, support for the education of women appears a postive action. The situation as it now stands suggests that without the continuing military presence education for girls and women would not be happening. Anecdotal information indicates that the Taliban view is very much a minority view in Afghanistan. Afghan children want an education. However, school stops with child marriage. The one hope is that the husband may see value in education as a result of the wife's increased earning capacity.

CIDA has funded the projects of this NGO in past with a grant of $500,000. The question today is why has CIDA not renewed funding for the training program for teachers? How can an interested person help? Madeliene explains that the Kingston area chapter (there are 12 in Canada) is open to the participation of both women and men. One can help by making donations and putting on fund-raising events. To the Belleville crowd she suggests that they could also start a separate chapter in Belleville. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. I bring home pancake makings and maple syrup for a late supper and begin the shift into Lent.

REVISEABLE LEARNINGS FROM MEXICO

In my blogging to this point I have been writing in an anecdotal and descriptive fashion. I beg patience as I shift to a more analytic and summary style. I am very conscious that there is much for me to learn about Mexico and its people and about being an effective international support worker. Here are a few of my learnings from the Chiapas and Mexico experience:

 Experiential education benefits from appropriate media for expressing and communicating insights. This blog and other social media have been a significant help for me to identify and give voice to my experiences and insights.

 Experiential education is about the transformation that occurs when we experience a bond with other people. We reach a point of empathic insight when we can imagine what it feels like to be poor and shunned, or joyful in family relations and fiesta, music and dance. Mexicans and Canadians with this bond can then say truthfully, 'mi casa es tu casa.'

Transformation withers without ongoing support. An ongoing community of those who share that transformative experience and its new set of meanings and values can provide support.

It is worth making the effort to learn the language of the people we engage. People from our International Support Worker program expressed frustration in not being able to communicate in Spanish and expressed a sense of fulfillment when communication happened.

Since 1994 and the Zapatista uprising indigenous issues have come front and centre in Mexico. At the very least, indigenous people today report more of a sense of pride in their histories, languages and cultures. No more do they have to step off the street to give way to mestizo and other peoples. We might connect this with revitalization movements globally and in Canada.

The archeological sites such as the Maya cities contribute significantly to the sense of Mexican identity and to the inclusion of indigenous peoples in the Mexican identity. They also undermine the notion that the Americas were an empty land waiting to be occupied by culturally and technologically advanced European peoples. For Canadians, one implication is that treaties with our First Nations should be taken seriously.

Tourism is a big income earner and Mexico is a destination with many grand recreational and cultural sites. Cathy and I spent a wonderful, warm week in Zihuatanejo, state of Guerrero. Tourism is the major source of income for the state of Guerrero. A desperate search for employment drives people north to the U.S.A. 300,000 people from that state live in Chicago. 

Democracy is fragile in Mexico (and Canada?). There is a question of who benefits? Will it be moneyed elites or local and indigenous groups? Big projects such as the Mesoamerican highway from north of Chiapas through to northern Colombia are being pushed forward. Environmental controls on polution from mining are undermined [Oh, oh under-mined] by the NAFTA process.

There are significant differences among areas of Mexico. The drug wars and killings of women are taking place in the north of Mexico. The south of Mexico has other issues having to do with the ongoing repression of indigenous communities.

TOURISM: THE MAJOR SOURCE OF INCOME FOR GUERRERO STATE

La Chole

Today Cathy and I took the Petatlan bound bus out to La Chole on the road that leads from Zihuatanejo to Acapulco. The Lonely Planet guide informs us that this recently discovered archeological site (work began in 2007) is the largest and richest site in Guerrero State. Another source (La Jornada, Guerrero) suggests that it could ultimately outshine Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza. The newspaper article adds that he government has already spent 12 million pesos on work completed at the site.

The local bus bangs along in the heat with no shock absorbers. The passengers are friendly and try to be helpful. One passenger, a lady in her late 40's, heard me asking about La Chole and indicates that she will be getting off there as well. There is a camioneta (truck) waiting to take us into the site.

Cathy takes a photo of a weathered sign on the side of the road which reads -- "a government you can trust, encouraging tourism: visit Soledad de Maciel -- archeological zone 4 km."

When we arrive at the site we are approached by Francisco and he becomes our guide -- all in Spanish. The initial completed reconstruction is a large ball court. 15 skeletons were discovered at the entrance to this area. Francisco tells us that the skeletons had been sent to Mexico City for analysis. The thought is that these were not of the Cuitlaltecos people, perhaps prisoners of war.

At the other end of the ball court it seems the bones of a child are partially excavated waiting for the return of the archeologists. This area apparently displays three ball courts, including the very large reconstructed one. Plastic bags are piled off to the side of the court. The bags have the archeologists/anthropologists notes scribbled on them.

On the other side of the road we walked up to the top of a pyramid that has been partially reconstructed. Francisco informs us that the top of the pyramid included five tombs (Lonely Planet calls them 'temples') -- the tombs of five governors/kings. As well, there have been many artefacts taken from this area. The best of these were sent to the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) but some of them had been kept back for the local museum. That museum was supposed to have opened in January.

On one side of the pyramid the archeologists have excavated deeper and discovered an adobe stairway which Francisco indicated they identified as Olmec. That puts the site at some 1500 years before Christ (or before the not so common era, if you like). The Pyramid stands above a flat plaza area that also showed evidence of much adobe brickwork. We are told that adobe is not the usual building material for pyramid sites.

From Francisco we have the suggestion that the government might want to buy up the whole area but the people themselves would not want to move from the area. There is potential for a massive dig in the area and one source suggests that a city of some 10 square kilometres could have existed here. There is a river near-bye and the area could be developed as a tourist destination.

The name La Chole comes from the metre and a half stone 3 headed idol that stands protected in the yard of the village Catholic chapel capilla (chapel). The archeologist, David Arteola Gutierrez, suggests that this is the oldest piece and dates back to the time of the Olmec culture, some 1500 years before Christ.

On our way back out from the site to the road we learn/hear the rumour that the state government has changed and the archeologists have lost their funding. At least that was what the friendly Americans who gave us a lift in their truck told us.

Mexico draws in a billion dollars in tourist income each month -- according to our Lonely Planet guide. The biggest income earner for the state of Guerrero is tourism. There is potential here for economic development, but also potential for the kind of development that could disturb the life of a settled, self-sustaining community. I can only imagine that there are and will continue to be some intense political and business discussions underway about the Soledad de Maciel site.

HAIR AND THERE: SHARED STORIES OF MEXICO

Zihuatanejo. Cathy and I are on holiday. She's escaped the cold snows of Canada and is celebrating her week in the warmth of this Mexican Pacific coast town. In the heat of the day I find it easy to agree with Cathy that I need a haircut.

I ask the fellow at the hotel reception where the nearest peluqueria is located. It's near-bye and he googles a map for the area, prints it out and pencils in the location. I also ask how much it should cost. 50 pesos, I'm told.

After breakfast and some leisurely morning reading we head out into the sunshine. We find "Lillian's Esthetics."  She is busy with tourists getting pedicures and I schedule for 12:30. Cathy and I do a walk-about including finding out that there is a 9 a.m. Sunday Mass at a church a few blocks from the hotel. On our way back, with 15 minutes to put in before the hair appointment, we stop at a road-side stall and watch as Isabel squeezes out a glass of orange and mandarin juice for me and orange and papaya for Cathy.

There is a table of fiction paperbacks for sale and a poster advertising a new book by a regular visitor to Zihuatanejo. The poster says that the book is about working on projects for the poor in the local area. My ISW interest perks up. I ask about the book and I am told that the author will show up next morning in the early part of the day. I think that I will try to get my hands on that book.

Now I'm in the chair at "Lillian's Esthetics."  I say I want the hair cut short. We get chatting. I mention that I have come from San Cristobal de las Casas. She tells me that she has recently been there herself. I tell her that I arrived just as the funeral services for Bishop Samuel Ruiz were coming to a close. She knows about the funeral and indicates that it was at the end of January. She was especially impressed by the Santo Domingo church. I tell her that is where I got my photo of the President of Mexico.

She says that she learned about "jade" in San Cristobal -- green being the most common colour. You polish jade with jade. If it is not a very hard stone then it is not authentic jade. She talks about another precious stone. It is yellow and clear. She can't remember the name of it. I say "ambar." She tells me that if a flame melts the stone it is a plastic imitation, not ambar.

Cathy sits patiently reading her novel while my hair falls and the conversation picks up energy. Isabel has been to the Lacandona rain forest and to the Maya sites -- Bonampak and Palenque. We agree that Palenque is most impressive. She likes the story that is told of the king with one leg longer than the other, family members with six fingers. A tourist pops her head in the door and asks for a time to come with her son to have his hair done. She is told it will be 90 pesos. I am ready with my 100 pesos, 90 plus tip. Cathy and I head off for lunch and siesta.

PALENQUE

El Palacio

Palenque is Spanish for fortress; this is a beautifully presented Maya city site. We had a guide, Victor, who helped us understand what had been discovered at Palenque. Victor did not have the typical facial features of a person of Maya descent. He spoke English well and had a sense of humour.

We started with templo XIII, the Tomb of the Red Queen. The tomb, which is painted in cinnibar red, was only discovered in 1994 hidden deep within the pyramid. It is the second most impressive tomb at Palenque with a jade mask and many precious stones, pearls and obsidian.

Outside the tomb was the skeleton of a woman lying face downward and the skeleton of child lying face upward. The suggestion is that the woman and child were sacrificed to accompany the Red Queen into the afterlife. The next building is named the Templo de las Inscripciones for the many gliphs carved into the interior walls. Archeological exploration within this pyramid led to the discovery of the magnificent tomb of Pakal down a well-hidden interior stairway some 1.44 metres below the surface of the plaza.

The lid of the tomb, weighing around ten tons, depicts the governor (king) either descending to or rising from the underworld. The lid is so heavy that it could not be moved and has been left in place. Our guide pointed out that Pakal is taller than the ordinary Maya, but that he had one leg longer than the other.

Our guide said that the royal family of Pakal's time, like the Lacandones of the past century, did not marry outsiders. The family of the governors/kings married within the family group. The guide called it "incest" but I am not sure that is what he meant. It seems that there developed some inherited genetic features -- six fingers and disproportions.

After a visit to the Templo del Sol and the Templo de la Cruz Foliado we went to the Palacio. The Palace structure is one of the most complex and elegantly constructed of the Maya world. There are corridors using the Maya arch in its largest form, a series of toilets washed clean by water passing below, rooms for sleeping and a central open courtyard that received foreign dignitaries and prisoners of war.

Only a tenth of the extent of the Palenque ruins have been excavated. There are over a 100 pyramids in the area.  The question that many ask is how it is that in the 9th century these huge stone cities came to be abandoned? Was there a change in the weather, the depletion of the fertility of the surrounding agricultural lands, a series of destructive wars?  Where have the Maya gone?  As our guide pointed out -- there are the peoples of Maya descent in the surrounding villages.  The vendors selling craft goods to the tourists are of Maya descent.

For centuries the stone cities sunk beneath the encroaching forest. Today with the tourist industry generated by these sites and with the sense of a pride in Maya achievements and identity, there is a growing realization that the Americas had highly developed cultures prior to the arrival of the Europeans. For the purposes of the ISW program there is the question of what are the dynamics of the rise and fall of empires? On what basis did the Maya city states rise to the point they did and on what basis did they decline and disappear into the shadows of memory?

VICENT IS PRACTICAL

It is Valentine's day and Cathy and I have already expressed over Skype that we love one another. The morning is bright and the cold is lifting. I pick my way along the sidewalk and out into the road crowded with vendors in traditional garb, smell the scent of chicken frying, avoid the men lugging loads on wheeled carts.

As I near the Museo de Medicina Maya I hear my name called. I turn and see Vicente. Thin, bearded, 30ish, with a smile, he has returned from his trip to Mexico City. He has travelled the 12 hours to arrive at 7 a.m. and now is walking toward his home at the Museo. He is lugging a back-sack and has very long thin object strung over his shoulder. I ask what it is that he is carrying. He answers that it is his "didgeridoo" [I had to look on the internet to see that I spelled that correctly]. He tells me that he has brought it from Mexico City where he stored with a friend the baggage that he brought from France. 

Vicente is responsible for teaching our group at the Museo. This morning as we gather as a group he ponders what he will teach us. I tell the group that he has brought his "didgeridoo" with him. We all want to hear him play. We will have coffee while we listen so Vicente makes a fire in the "rocket stove" that we made before the weekend. Some of our group experiment with playing the very long instrument. A low moaning sound comes out of the end of the 5 foot tube. As the stove works to bring the water to a boil, Vicente demonstrates his ability to draw breathe through his nose while his stomach, lungs, mouth and tongue all work together to produce a hypnotic form of music. We clap as Vicente puts down the instrument. It is a moving performance.

Coffee is made, poured and we drink. From the back-sack that he brought from Mexico City, Vicente draws another aid to his creativity. I puzzle over the look of it. Point it up the right way and it looks like a urinal. Vicente explains that this plastic form is the mold for a urinal. He guides us in sifting sand, measuring out water and cement and mixing together the constituents that are then poured into the mold. The idea is that the dry toilet that Vicente and friends have built will benefit from the men having a separate urinal. No need to go to the plumbing store. We can make the urinal on site.

Later I ask Vicent about his long range plans. He explains that he wants to create a workshop space here at the Museo where volunteers and public can experiment and see experiments in making appropriate technology. He already has built a clay oven that is relatively efficient, a dry toilet that will allow feces to quickly degrade and be usable for fertilizer [the urinal will help]. With a dry toilet there is less chance of polluting water sources. Among other future projects, he hopes to make an inexpensive tank to gather rainwater.

Vicent is a practical man. He studies the situation. He asks what is needed. He gathers ideas and seeks out collaborators. He has an insight and makes an item and tweaks it until it works. We learn from him.

APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY AND A CANADIAN COUPLE

People working together for a safe, efficient stove -- appropriate technology.

There is a Canadian expat community here in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas. This past Saturday I travelled with Paul Poirier of Belleville, Ontario to San Juan de Chamula. Paul has been coming to Chiapas for 20 plus years. Now that his wife Diane, who worked at the Canadian Mental Health Society in Belleville for many years, has retired, they settle in San Cristobal together for four months of the year. In what they do here, they are much more than the typical snow-bird.

They are practical people and get things done. Among other projects, over the years Paul and Diane, with the support of Canadian volunteers and donors, have financed and built 30 classrooms either totally or with another NGO partner in 18 different communities. Through the Arthur Frederick Community Builders (AFCB), the NGO they founded in 1993, they continue to promote projects that respond to the needs of the poor.

The attraction to Chiapas goes deep for Paul and Diane. Roll back some 43 years to when they were both in their 20's. See the handsome young couple hitchhiking (!) through Mexico. Paul is tall and strong, destined for a career in construction. Diane is especially attentive to the diverse cultures. As a mature student in the 1980's she studies archeology at Trent University. She shares her knowledge and love of the ancient cultures with Paul. Their love blossoms in service to others and over the years benefits the Maya peoples of Chiapas.

There is also an American expat community in San Cristobal de las Casas. Paul's purpose on Saturday was to join the 72 year old American expat president of Amigos de San Cristobal, Diane Livingston. The Amigos are a group of Mexicans and expat residents who gather funds to support community projects. Diane Livingston has a special project that is coming to a point of completion. She has relied on Paul's advice in past and she wants him present in San Juan de Chamula. This was the day that she would supervise the completion of her dreamed about, improved version of an appropriate technology stove. As her assistant, she has brought along her Mexican Tzotzil godson, the highly competent 20 year old, Rodulfo (Rod). 

Finally, there is another Mexican partner in the project, Francisco Guttierrez. Francisco is on the board of AlSol, a non-profit civil association that does micro-credit financing. He is a tall, strongly-built man with a loud voice and a surplus of warm energy. He is in the construction supply business and has organized the materials and brick-layers for the stove project. It is AlSol that will help promote the construction of these stoves more widely in the indigenous community. Diane and Francisco go head to head as Diane insists on exact measurements and Francisco patiently guides the workers in getting the job done. Paul steps in on occasion to make a suggestion and to express approval of their decisions.



I am delighted at the opportunity to witness the building of this stove. Diane claims that the design will reduce wood consumption by 60%. The heat produced in a narrow combustion chamber moves first to the mouth above and then with the smoke to the flat expanse of the large iron surface of the stove and out of the house through a pipe chimney. It's a simple design that is perfect for the cooking of beans over the front mouth and tortillas on the flat iron plancha. It is appropriate technology that comes from Diane consulting with design experts and communicating with the women who do the cooking. The next step will be the matter of reducing costs. Led by Francisco, Diane and Paul and the family in attendance cheer the arquitectos -- the bricklayer and assistants. We take photos as a very pleased Tzotzil mother and cook sits with a smile by the side of her new stove.

AT LAST SOMETHING PRACTICAL!

At last something practical! This morning we learned the secret of adobe. Vicent, a volunteer from France working for the past year at the Museo de Medicina Maya, took a small group of us to a hole in the ground at the back of the property. The hole went down about four feet. The first two feet were earth, somewhat darker than the clay below. Three of our group took hoes to the earth and clay and it fell in a mixed pile at the bottom of the pit. Meanwhile Vicent had me and another volunteer chopping straw. The other volunteer, a young woman from France, was especially forceful and effective with the machete. Vive la Revolucion Francaise! Vicente then spread the straw over the earth/clay mix, poured water into the mix and invited us to take off our shoes and jump into the mud. I kept my shoes on while others joyfully squished and squashed and massaged the mix with their bare feet.

So there it is. The recipe for adobe: 1 part earth, 1 part clay, chopped straw and water. The mud is then poured into a square form that has been oiled and watered and the square brick is compacted in the form and then slipped out of the form to dry in the sunlight (for a couple of weeks).  

Vicent told us that he had seen quite a lot of this adobe construction for homes in a recent trip through the back country of Guatemala. He had also seen a stove made within a large metal pail. That was the next task. With few pieces of "ladrillo," a kind of rounded clay tile, and with some of the adobe mud, Vicent had us shaping a stove inside the pail.

First, a portion of the metal pail was cut open to form the mouth of the stove. The "ladrillo" pieces were washed with mud to help with the exterior bonding to the adobe mud that would later surround the clay tiles in the pail. So -- cheating a bit with cement mixed with adobe for a base, the "ladrillo" pieces were inserted in the pail to allow a small entrance for oxygen and to form a rounded pipe reaching up to the rim of the pail. The idea is to concentrate high heat with a minimum of wood for fuel. The mud was put all around the pipe and entrance chamber and left to dry.

Seeing Vicent working so quickly at the project, I commented that he must have done this before. In his mix of French, Spanish, and English he said that he had the knack of seeing how a thing works the first time and then being able to replicate it. He also said that there are many ideas for these stoves available on the internet. I must be sure to invite Vincent to Belleville to help construct the clay oven we are planning to construct in our backyard this summer.

THE MUSEUM OF MAYA MEDICINE

We are getting our exercise. First a half hour walk to the Cross in front of the Cathedral. We gather in this public open space to an uplifting version of "New York, New York." It strikes us as somewhat odd as immediately afterwards a a platoon of soldiers marches in to raise three Mexican flags and dignitaries assemble. The soldiers smile as we take multiple photos.

Then a half hour walk to the Museum of Mayan Medicine. We walk with staff and volunteers of Natate, a Mexican based volunteer coordination organization. Michelle is staff, a young Mexican woman. We have an opportunity to talk in a quiet moment at the Museum. She is completing and undergraduate degree for which she took the thesis route. Studies for the thesis took her to Algeria and she will report on women's issues in refugee camps in the area. She informs me that her professors are quite interested in her work and there is a good chance for publication. In few weeks she will go to Mexico City to defend her thesis.

Her long term goal is to enter the Mexican diplomatic service. First, she says, she will have to gain entrance to the one school that does the training for diplomatic service. I mention the Nobel prize winner, Octavio Paz, who worked as a Mexican ambassador. We laugh. Now I recall that there has been a Mexican tradition of choosing ambassadors from accomplished Mexican artistic and literary figures. Michelle has ambitions.

A volunteer working at the Museum, Vicente from France, takes us through the Museum. I am happy that I will be returning to work at the Museum for five days. I find it relevant to my past experience with First Nation peoples in Canada. There are herbs that address specific conditions and I think of the Anishinabe I know who gather plants from the forest for healing purposes. There is much to observe about the curanderos who deal with mental and emotional conditions. We enter the replica of a Catholic chapel with figures of St. Peter, St. Lawrence, St. John, St. Andrew and Our Lady of Guadeloupe. The curandero is in process of calling the attention of each of the santos to the needs of a young indigenous woman with her baby. He moves from one to the other swatting them with a bundle of green herbs. We see how tobacco, chalk and garlic are ground together for a treatment of stomach conditions. In another room we observe the mock up of an indigenous mid-wife at work as the mother stands supported by her husband, the mid-wife receiving the baby from behind. Vicente tells me that after the delivery the mother is taken to what resembles the northern sweat-lodge. 

So much for the moment as I close to attend our reflection meeting. I hope to enter deeper into this other world.

PUZZLING OVER WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING

From my bedroom I look across the central courtyard of our Mexican home to a pink flowering tree pushing up against a grey concrete wall. Among other bric-a-brac, cartons of empty bottles of coca-cola stack high against the wall. Coca-cola. Something clean to drink when you cannot trust the water. A sugared potion to hasten death. Diabetes is rampant in the population -- in Mexico some consider it to be the primary cause of death. It is ascending as a cause of death in the Chiapas area.

Baby Maria's demanding voice rises from the kitchen below.  Her father Gilberto and mother, Ramona, are having breakfast. Ramona's voice. I'm writing in my journal. I've already had a full morning. I was eating breakfast with the father of our host family, Roberto, when news of a conflict in the tourist area of Agua Azul came on the radio. The Bishop of San Cristobal diocese was interviewed at length. The Catholic church apparently is to be consulted in these situations.

Roberto, a former teacher and director of a primary school, explains the situation. He speaks in the measured and clear tones of a natural teacher [in Spanish, of course]. In past government funds did not reach the indigenous campesino. It stopped with government officials and local chiefs (caciques). The campesinos had very little -- no food, no health care, no educational facilities -- and sometimes no land at all. Mestizos often had large tracks of land. With the perceived threat coming from the Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) [NAFTA in our terms], the thought was that the problems of the campesinos would be worsened. The rich resources of Chiapas and other southern states were to be put up for sale.

Andres gave the example of an orange which is 40% juice. That juice would be extracted and sent of to Europe and North American. Protests and concerns received little response from the government. The result was the Zapatista uprising in 1994.

Subsequently, with the mediation of Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia, government and Zapatistas were at the point of signing an accord. The Government has not signed to this point in time. The Zapatistas started "La Otra Campana" [The Other Campaign] throughout the whole of Mexico bringing their case before the Mexican people and attempting to rouse support. Vincente Fox, the successful PAN candidate for President of Mexico in 2000, promised that within 15 minutes of becoming President, he would have an agreement with Marcos and the Zapatista communities. It has not happened 15 minutes and years later.

Now the Zapatistas have organized 5 "caracols" [snails] which they supervise for the purpose of good government. When there are conflicts the people can bring them to councils of good government to ensure just decisions. One of the positions of the Zapatistas is that they will accept no support from the government. They do not participate in the various development programs proposed by the government. These include various monthly payments to older people, to mothers of families, and to students. The Zapatistas see this as buying off the people. The result is that in the areas controlled by the Zapatistas there are communities that support the government. It does not really matter which party they belong to -- PRI, PAN, PRD -- those who support and receive support from the government are in tension with the Zapatistas. This is the source of the conflict on the highway leading into the tourist area of Agua Azul.

With my level of Spanish abiility, I know that I have not captured the nuances of Andres' explanation of the situation. I will have to study more and talk with others to help my understanding of the situation. When I read the newspaper later, the story is about the Governor Juan Sabines handling the Agua Azul conflict personally. He has called together the disputants around a large table for dialogue. Now it is the local Presbyterian church that is signaled as a major interlocutor in the debates.

Aware that the Zapatistas see the Governor as being behind the problems encountered in this situation by Zapatista sympathizers, I am presently in a puzzled state. I ask myself what is really going on? The next day we attend a press conference in which the Governor Juan Sabines is identified as having taken over part of an ejido back as early as 1980. The people do not want money for the land, rather they want the ejido (traditional communal land) left intact. The matter is presently with the Supreme Court.

An event next day at Frayba [Centro de Derechos de San Bartolomeo de Las Casas] critiques plans to put a highway through traditional areas with all the exploitation possibilities that will come with easier access. The highway is intended to run from Mexico to Colombia and the front story is that it is to open up the area to tourism. Resistance to these plans meets with repression.

SUNDAY MORNING IN SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS

It's a cold morning in San Cristobal de las Casas. I move quickly out of bed to the sound of roosters. The sun and the surrounding hills are obscured by low-lying clouds. It's 6:40 a.m. by my watch and we, the host parents and myself, agreed the night before that we would go to the local Catholic church for the 7 a.m. Mass.

We can hear the bells of the church ringing as we round the corner to the church of San Jose (Saint Joseph). The interior of the church is something of a surprise -- a lower ceiling than I expected, bright lights and lots of flowers. I think the flowers may be from the feast Dia de la Candelaria on February 2, the presentation of Jesus in the temple. Most of the statues are of Jesus -- Jesus preaching, Jesus carrying his cross, Jesus on the cross attended by Mary and the beloved disciple John. Even the central statue of Joseph has Joseph carrying the baby Jesus. Santo Nino, the holy baby Jesus, is dressed as a baby king. 

As I experienced in the cathedral last Sunday, there are bulletins available with the Scripture readings and prayers. The people follow closely in their bulletins. The priest is a small man whom I guess to be close to 80 years old. The small organ plays too loudly but there is a group of people up front who lead participation in the singing. People from the congregation proclaim the readings.

The homily is on the text that tells us that we should be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. The connection is made with the first reading which is from Isaiah in which we are told to feed the hungry. Jesus is the light of the world, way and the truth. We will be a light to the world if we care for the children on the street, if we feed the hungry. The elderly priest proclaims the gospel of justice again, no doubt a theme repeated by him countless times. We pray for those who are suffering from the cold that has descended on Mexico. 

The priest extends the moment of the elevation of the host, intended as a sacred time. I note that we pray explicitly for deacons in this diocese that is renowned for its large numbers of deacons. Only about half the congregation goes forward for holy communion unlike the Catholic congregations in Canada where almost everyone will come forward.

At home -- mi casa es su casa -- we listen over breakfast to the Bishop's radio program. He points out scriptural passages that support Catholic sacraments. He has an excellent radio voice and I comment to my host that his program seems a response to the challenge of pentecostal evangelical ministry. At the end of the program the Bishop gives us the e-mail, twitter, telephone number, Facebook, and diocesan web-site contact points. The diocese is up to date with the social media in San Cristobal of internet cafes and wi-fi. 

After an extended breakfast I go up to the roof and watch out over the hills and the street. Directly across from our house is Ebenezer Ministries, La Iglesia de Cristo: Fuente de la Esperanza (the Church of Christ: Source of Hope). The music begins and I read about the Maya civilization, Palenque and Chichen Itza, as trumpets sound and Alleluias are shouted and people arrive for the pentecostal service. I check the internet with my Mac and gather that there are 40 churches of Ebenzer ministries in Mexico and that their apostle leaders are originally from Guatemala.

Such is Sunday morning in the ancient colonial city.

MEXICO IS A VERY CATHOLIC COUNTRY?

'Mexico is a very Catholic country' is a phrase we hear repeated in our group discussions. What does that mean? Well, as another phrase repeated in the ISW group puts it -- 'It's complicated.'

 The 2000 Census has 101,456,786 Mexicans above the age of 5 as nominally Catholic. That is an impressive 81% of the total population. Mexico has the world's second largest Catholic population (after Brasil) and is divided into 88 dioceses with 15,700 priests and 46,000 men and women in religious orders.

These numbers do not mean that Mexican Catholics adhere to the Vatican moral teaching on such subjects as contraception and condoms. A 2003 survey indicates that 91% of Mexicans "believe adults should have access to contraception" -- including condoms and the birh control pill. This is just one issue on which Mexicans are not doctrinaire Catholics.

If the phrase 'Mexico is a very Catholic country' does not mean rigid adherence to Vatican teaching on reproductive issues, what does it mean? My understanding is that the cultural vision drawing on the complex roots of Mexican culture is in tune with the sacramental vision characteristic of many forms of Catholicism. Matter mediates the divine. The embracing, loving Mystery shines through rock and flower, bread and wine, dance and laughter, candles and incense and bells. In the Catholic churches one watches parents and grandparents teach the children that there is prayer in the touching of the saints' statues.

Life is more about celebrating gift than listing achievements.  San Cristobal de las Casas is a place of celebration in which each neighbourhood celebrates its patron saint and coloured fiesta flags fly above the narrow streets.

The significance of relationships is evident. In our host family we sit for a number of hours at the evening meal. The family has time for us visitors now becoming part of the family. We are shown the pictures of grandchildren and we talk about uncles and aunts and children. Notwithstanding the shift of population from rural to urban, Mexico is still a country of the extended family.

No surprise that the religious world here is more than simply 'me and Jesus.' We celebrate the child Jesus and Jesus suffering and Jesus in joyful relationship with Mary his mother, Nuestra Senora de Guadaloupe, and all the many saints. There are more saints each day as the martyrs of the periods of extreme persecution of the Catholic church in Mexico -- its priests and its lay congregations -- are remembered and honoured.

What are the implications for an international support worker when assisting development in 'a very Catholic country'? My guess is that the support worker would have to appreciate the role of celebration and relationship. For serious minded, goal-oriented types from the North this may require a letting go and a passing over. This could be a painful process but it is one that promises to release joyful energies.

DEVELOPMENT IS THINKING: BUT WHAT IS THINKING?

Good-hearted people can do damage when the implications of what they initiate are not considered carefully. One small instance of that would be our request during our first days before we went to live with Mexican families that the hotel staff not change our sheets and towels. That would be our way to help save water in an area of water shortages. In fact, we also indicated it was not necessary to tidy our rooms. We were planning to leave the next day.

 However, we failed to ask at least one important question. Would that request result in an employee losing part of their potential earnings for the day? Our request was not made as an extended discussion with all parties involved. Rather, it was more a demand than a request and it was made as we headed out the door of the hotel for another busy day.

Our teachers, Gary and Kate, have tried to emphasize that development work is not simply a matter of doing things. There is a cycle in which we experience, think, act and return to experience reflecting again on the impact of our action. What we do is termed experiential learning. There is a focus on immersion in a particular situation and action. However, it is meant to be thoughtful action.

 So let me suggest that it would be helpful to think about the thinking aspect of our cycle of experiential learning. Thinking is about asking questions. At the beginning of life, before social pressures shut us down, we are children inspired by wonder to an unending stream of questions. We saw that with the boys at the Casa de las Flores. They had no problem coming up with questions.

There are, however, different kinds of questions. There are questions for understanding - who? what? why? when? where? And when we think we understand, there is the all-important question for judgement -- IS THAT SO? We are then carried back to the evidence of our experience. Not every bright idea is a right idea. There are questions for action and moral discernment, another form of judgement that asks us to commit ourselves to life -- SHOULD WE? The authentic development worker is characterized by the courage and freedom to ask questions in the face of the Powers (internal and external).

The criterion for reaching the term of a reflection process is the sense we have that in the process we are no longer asking relevant questions. This is a very human process that takes full commitment on our part. To fail to ask relevant questions is just human inauthenticity. To continue asking questions when they are no longer relevant again is just human inauthenticity.

Sergio Castro, whom we learned more about yesterday in our visit to his museum and healing centre, is a man who asked questions. As Gary told the story, Sergio came from Chihuahua as an agriculturalist in training to do a placement among the indigenous people of Chiapas. With his knowledge and energy he did good work with them. However, he asked himself why the work of the families he dealt with so often failed? "Burns" was the answer. The inability to pay for treatment and distance from hospitals intensified the damage. Sergio's response has been to develop a way of treating the burns right in the home of the person damaged. The burns often occur in the home around the traditional open fire pit. There are further questions: are there possible safer designs? Why do adults fall into the fire? And so on. These questions can lead down paths that produce real positive human development.

DO CANADIANS CARE ENOUGH?

After this morning's talk by a speaker from otrosmundos organization I am reluctant to tell people here in Mexico that I am from Canada. Thanks to our Canadian mining companies we Canadians are perceived as polluters and bullies. NAFTA processes can enable Canadian mining companies to overrule Mexican domestic environmental laws and local community concerns; Canadian executives take advantage of this instrument for exploitation. People have died and will die in future because our companies make money the bottom line.

With our Canadian mining expertise and some respect for local conditions we could earn respect. Bill C-300, a private members bill tabled by Liberal Member of Parliament John McKay, proposed giving the government authority to investigate complaints against resources companies operating abroad and to withhold public money from offenders. The bill was narrowly defeated.

But my guess, along with that of M.P. John McKay, is that parliament will have to return to this issue. Canada as a whole is losing too much respect from the behaviour of the mining companies. As our speaker from otrosmundos detailed the damage Canadian mining companies have done, I thought back to my childhood in Cobalt. Cobalt was the world's biggest silver producer back in the early 1900's. It was the strike that led to many others in the Canadian shield and was where Canadians had their first lessons in hard rock mining. Our house was set on the hill above what we called "Poison Lake." It was a gray green pond of sludge. As children we played along the edges of the lake and on top of the mounds of tailings. Today I read that arsenic was associated with the cobalt ore from which the silver was extracted. Water around Cobalt is polluted. Children are warned away.

When my wife and I moved to Belleville, friends who had heard what local doctors were saying told us to install a water purifier in our home. There are mines to the north of Belleville. In past studies have shown a high level of arsenic in the Moira River. A close friend wonders whether it was Belleville water that caused her cancer.

When I lived north of Lake Huron near Espanola, Anishnabe men who had worked in the Sudbury mines talked about the damage done them from years drawing in the dust from the mines. We catch on late about the damage done our own people and to the environment. Having some sense of what it means to run a environmentally safe mining site do we forget our learning? Does it make sense to have no corporate accountability and export death to other areas of the world?

To see who was absent from the Bill C-300 vote and to learn how members voted go to http://howdtheyvote.ca/vote.php?id=940

WHAT THE ZAPATISTAS HAVE TO SAY ON THE OCCASION OF THE BISHOP'S FUNERAL

It's Sunday, January 30. I go to mass at the Cathedral dedicated to San Cristobal. I am seated at the back of the massive building among a mix of mestizo and indigenous families. The indigenous women wear their bright distinctive apparel.

After incensing the altar the bishop turns to address the people saying that confessions are being heard in Tzotzil on one side of the church (my left) and in Spanish on the other side of the church (my right). I estimate a thousand people in attendance.

I'm a bit tired after an early morning walk with Christine and subsequent hours sitting in the morning sun on a bench with Miki. Oh yes! and then there was my excitement on spotting a newspaper Diario de Chiapas with the banner "Expresa EZLN su pesar por la muerte de Samuel Ruiz," [the EZLN express their grief at the death of Samuel Ruiz.] I've had time to read the Zapatista declaration before the mass.

When the bishop speaks I cannot make out what he is saying and his voice echos in the great space and I doze and I ponder the words of the Zapatista commanders, Moises and sub-comandante Marcos. I think that some people here in the cathedral might not appreciate what the Zapatista leaders have said about the Catholic Church but many would be delighted.

When it comes time for communion I am irritated to see that no-one is receiving the host in the hand. The nun pops the host in my mouth as I am slow in extending my tounge. Back in my seat I note that the last person to receive is a very short, old and visibly poor indigenous woman in bare feet.

After mass I wander up Guadalupe street to an Italian coffee house and order a cafe latte. Life is sweet in this tourist paradise -- place of disparities and unresolved tensions.

Let me give my translation of sections of this declaration the EZLN, the Zapatistas:

CONCERNING ZAPATISTA SUPPORT OF A PARTICULAR CURRENT OF CATHOLIC PRACTICE: "... today we wish to highlight a committment and a trajectory that is not only of one individual, but of a whole current within the Catholic Church. Don Samuel Ruiz not only excelled in Catholicism practised with and among the dispossessed, but also formed with his team a generation of Christians committed to this practice of the Catholic religion. Not only did he address the grave situation of misery and marginalization of the people of Chiapas, but also worked, along with his heroic pastoral team, to better these desperate conditions of life and death.

CONCERNING THE FOOLISHNESS OF THOSE WHO IN PAST ATTRIBUTED ZAPATISTA ACTION TO THE BISHOP AND THE DIOCESE: "The thesis then (and which today is repeated by idiots of the armchair left) was that the Diocese had formed the support groups and leadership cells of the EZLN. An instance of the broad sweep of these ridiculous arguments was seen when a General showed a book as proof of the linkage of the Diocese with the 'transgressors of the law'. The title of the incriminating book is 'The Gospel According to Mark [El Evangelio segun San Marcos].'

CONCERNING THOSE WHO SCORN THE WHOLE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND TERM ALL PRIESTS AS POTENTIAL OR ACTIVE PEDOPHILES Today when it is the fashion to condemn the whole Catholic Church for the crimes ... commissions and omissions of some of its prelates... Today when the self-identified 'progressive' sector amuses itself in condemning the whole Catholic Church... Today when this sector delights in seeing all priests as a potential or active pedophile... Today it would be good to look in another direction and encounter those who, as did Don Samuel, challenged and are challenging the Powers that be. For those Christians believe firmly that justice ought to reign also in this world. And so they live, and die, in thought, word and action. Don Samuel has gone, but many others remain, who in and for the Catholic Christian faith, fight for an earthly world, more just, more free, more democratic, that is to say, for a better world. Health to those women and men, for from their efforts will also be born tomorrow.

LIBERTY!
JUSTICE!
DEMOCRACY!"

THE FUNERAL OF BISHOP SAMUEL RUIZ GARCIA

 

We look like tourists but we are more than that. We are training as International Support Workers at Loyalist College.  The ISW program "is a one-year, post graduate certificate program, intended to provide competent staff and volunteers to work in international development organizations, anywhere in the world." We want to go behind the beauty of Chiapas and the brilliant variety of costume and custom.

Our professors, Gary Warren and Kate Rogers, know the terrain here in San Cristobal de las Casas, colonial city in the mountains. Our plane schedule, forcing an overnight in Tuxtla Guttierez, the capital of Chiapas State, meant that we arrived at the tail end of a historic celebration -- the funeral rites of Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia, nicknamed Tatic (Father) by the Maya people of his diocese.

The former bishop of this diocese, who retired at 75 and died at 86, incarnated the spirit of the great defender of indigenous peoples and first bishop of Chiapas (1543-1547). That Bishop, Bartolome de Las Casas, whose name is attached to the city we are presently in, is renowned as one of the founders of international law and an early promoter of human rights. He was beatified in the year 2000.

Bishop Ruiz took his position on the world stage when he acted as the mediator between the Zapatistas and the Mexican Government in January of 1994. We are told that some 5000 people, many of them from the Maya groups surrounding San Cristobal de las Casas, attended the funeral. With my computer I go to Radio Zapatista and listen to podcasts of the words spoken at the Bishop's funeral.

The strongest words spoken at the funeral appear to be those of the bishop's nephew, Patricio Murphy Ruiz, who criticized government and some media chains for having attempted to damage the image of the bishop. The lie was that the bishop promoted violent means, that he was a communist. His nephew pointed out that Samuel Ruiz was a man of action, who ate with the campesinos and defended them and the priests and religious who worked in their Maya communities. He is know for having assisted the Maya people to be agents of their own future, commissioned 20,000 catechists and ordained over 350 married deacons. As his nephew said, he was not a bishop who ate caviar and had his photograph taken with drug traffickers.

As we make our way through the crowds on the public square, el Zocalo, in front of the cathedral, our eyes are drawn to the hand drawn postings attached to the cathedral wall -- written in Spanish saying 'Tatic we will miss you.'

THE IMPACT OF NAFTA

Little Belleville reaches out to the world. A group of Loyalist College students are on a study tour of Chiapas. The idea is to learn about "development" and Chiapas has been the focus of development efforts, both governmental and non-governmental, since January 1, 1994. 

Why is that date significant? Canadians of a political or business stripe might remember it as the date of the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Many Mexicans and others remember it as the day that the Zapatista peasant army took over various towns and villages in the southernmost state of Chiapas.

NAFTA and the Zapatista uprising are intimately connected. NAFTA was a formal agreement among Canada, the United States and Mexico to allow free trade among these countries.  NAFTA meant that money rules.  In particular, for Mexicans it meant that "Free Trade" trumped article 27 of the Mexican constitution. Article 27 had protected every Mexican's right to have land on which to survive, prosper and feed the family. For the indigenous peoples of Chiapas, the Constitution protected their right to ejidos, the shared lands that they worked but that no individual could sell. These are fertile lands and the people with their small plots and sustainable agricultural practices have prospered. Now when money rules, land is for sale.

But the people say that this land is not for sale. The Zapatistas understood that the implementation of NAFTA would mean the end of a communal land system that had sustained them and was protected under the Mexican Constitution of 1917. The President of Mexico in 1994, Salinas, had attempted to change the Constitution through presidential fiat; that is, without going through proper legal processes. The campesino small farmer indigenous peoples rose up to say "NO." If the Mexican state would not abide by its own Constitution and protect their interests, what were their options? I will have more to say about the path the Zapatistas chose.

MEETING THE PROFESSOR IN SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS

January 27, 2011

This morning the group participated in an exercise that is an element of Gary Warren's Quest program -- a search for significant points in San Cristobal de las Casas.

The large group broke into smaller groups and each was given a list of sites to be discovered and questions to be answered.  I joined with Miki and Deb to explore the city.  What I would consider our most significant experience occurred at the Facultad de Derecho.

With some hesitation we slipped through the narrow, high entrance into the interior courtyard and began to observe the large murals on the surrounding walls  -- telling the kind of pictorial story that I recall from my visit to Spain. These paintings recalled the history of the clash and encounter of the Spanish invaders and the indigenous peoples.

As the three of us were commenting on these paintings, a formally suited man of middle age passed by us along the corridor.  We exchanged a greeting and he stopped to talk with us. Learning that I understood Spanish, he began to explain the murals and we learned that he is a professor of criminology -- derecho penal. He spoke with evident energy and enthusiasm for his topic. I asked his name but will have to search the faculty in order to recall it.

Let me put down a scattering of points that he made and refer to the three poems that he declaimed -- all in Spanish with me as translator.  He talked of the importance of the mixing of peoples (including the blacks of Veracruz) and he pointed to the darker colour of his skin.  He indicated that Chiapas has its distinctive history; unlike other states in Mexico, Chiapas had originally been administered by the Spanish from Guatemala.  He noted that the priest Manuel Hidalgo had led the war of independence from Spain for the states to the north, whereas Chiapas had its own liberator some time later.

The professor talked about the Mexican love of jokes and laughter, of smiles and dance. At the same time he noted the acceptance of death in Mexican culture -- that Mexicans make friends with death. He then declaimed three poems of Nezahualcoyotl.  We went away feeling welcomed to Chiapas and blessed by the gift of the teaching of the professor.