Reverence for the Sacred Land: Part 1 – Inadequate responses to endemic violence in Central America

In Part 1 of this post, MCCer Tobias Roberts, in Nebaj, Guatemala, explores his contrasting experiences with urban life in Central America, and the inadequacies of the dominant responses to daily violence. In Part 2, which will be posted in a few days, he describes an alternative experiences that rebuild community space in urban contexts. This article was originally published in América Latina en Movimiento http://alainet.org/active/52651 February 8, 2012.

San Salvador, El Salvador

For five years I lived and worked in the outskirts of San Salvador with an organization supporting marginalized families living with HIV/AIDS.  Though the agonizing combination of poverty and HIV formed a part of my daily experience, AIDS was not the main epidemic that surrounded my life.  The World Health Organization considers more than 10 homicides per 100,000 residents to be at epidemic levels.  From 2004 to 2009, El Salvador ranked first in the world with 62 homicides per 100,000 residents. After five years in San Salvador, having a pistol pointed at your head during an assault on the public buses became a common experience.

Every day after sunset as I returned to the small house I shared with my wife and her family, I went through the same apprehensive routine: Walk quickly through the streets; look constantly over your shoulder to see if you are being followed; sit near the front of a bus next to an elderly lady if possible (they always inspire shelter); don´t look at anyone, don´t talk to anyone; don´t trust anyone.

Nebaj, Guatemala

A year later, I find myself living in a quiet Mayan town in the highlands of western Guatemala.  Every day after sunset as I return to the small room that I share with my wife, I go through the same life-enhancing routine: Walk calmly through the streets; stop to chat with the local woman selling tortillas on the corner; pause in dark alley to contemplate the stars and the moonlight silhouetting the surrounding mountains; find a pick up soccer game in the park to join in on; look at everyone; talk to everyone; trust everyone.

The difference between these two daily routines—one marked by fear and violence, the other by trust and tranquility—has made me constantly question how violence evolves, how it becomes entrenched in the daily lives of communities, and most importantly, what is a real, effective response to this violence.

From my experience, there seems to be two main “answers” or “responses” that arise due to the endemic situation of violence: the apathetic response and the de-rooted response.

The Apathetic Response 

The apathetic response is a response generated by the genuine fear of impoverished, marginalized communities overwhelmed by the ever present hostility of their surroundings.   This response is characterized by an increased militarization of society, a generalized lack of trust, apathetic resignation to the inevitability of violence, and the loss of capacity to consider life sacred.

These characteristics are manifested in the recently and popularly supported political decisions among various governments to send out the military to patrol the streets, the resolve of certain political parties advocating for the death penalty, or by “hard-hand” laws that criminalize youth and “suspect” populations.

It is seen when, due to the constant killing of bus drivers for not paying extortion fees to gangs, most bus drivers in San Salvador put a sticker on their windshield reading “Only God knows if I´ll be back”, in essence resigning their fate to the luck of the draw.  It is heard in the conversations between people on the streets: “What happened over there?”  “Ahh, it´s just another dead person.” Fourteen murders a day in a country the size of Massachusetts numbs the inherent capacity we all have to appreciate life as the most sacred and precious of gifts.

This response is then propagated, expanded and exaggerated by the mass media and manipulated by government and business elites who prefer this simplified and superficial response to violence which is purely reactionary, while turning a blind eye to the underlying, systemic causes of this violence.  However, I do believe that though manipulated by mass media and elite sectors of society, and though this response has been shown to be completely ineffective in decreasing violence, it is an understandable reaction by communities affected by this unyielding aggression of violence.  Communities faced with daily homicides, rapes and extortions excusably opt for the myopic solution of the apathetic response as a type of survival mechanism.

The “De-rooted” Response

Then there is the ; a response formulated by academic sectors, NGOs, and people more aligned with the political left.  It is a response that seeks to question not just the visible consequences of violence, but uncover the underlying causes of this violence.  This response argues that youth delinquents and gang members are victims of an unjust system that denies them educational and work opportunities.  It advocates for more policies aimed at re-inserting youth as productive members of society and condemns the militarization and “hard-hand” policies that are implemented by governments and championed by mass media.

Though this response by a sector of society is much more holistic and visionary; though it seeks to correct the causes of violence and not just attack its observable consequences; though it offers a much more realistic attempt to effectively reduce violence; there is one key problem.  This response is generally formulated and advocated for by sectors of society that live removed from the daily, callous reality of the violence that affects their country.

It is a lot easier to advocate on behalf of youth delinquents as victims of an unjust society when you´re not a victim of extortion, or when you don´t have to fear being assaulted on public transportation, or when you don´t live in a community controlled by local gangs and drug traffickers.  Ultimately this response, though well articulated and well-intentioned, is divorced from the deep rooted reality of the majority of the marginalized population.

Blessed are those who mourn: Thoughts from Honduras

"El Dolor" by Oswaldo Guayasamin

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charissa Zehr, an MCC worker in Santa Rosa, Honduras, contemplates violence, mourning, and faith in this post from her blog on January 27, 2012  http://findinglempira.blogspot.com

Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Sometimes there are no other words to express all the feelings that well up inside me. And at times, the words of others, passed down from generation to generation of believers still feel insufficient.

It has been a long week filled with difficult questions. Why does God allow terrible things to happen? Why do God-fearing, God-following people have to suffer? How can I provide comfort to people living in the stark reality of injustice? How can we as Christians who talk endlessly about justice make any kind of impact in a dangerous and violent society where people are too afraid to speak out?

This week took a shocking turn for my church family in Santa Rosa when one of our brothers was brutally killed after preaching at another church a few minutes outside of town. This man was a well-respected member of our church. He was humble and caring, always quick with a smile and a joking word. He was also a mentor of many youth and will be greatly missed as a father and role model.

Although it has not been easy, it has been a privilege to be part of this church community and share in their pain this week. To walk along side them and share in the grieving process has taught me a lot already and continues to stretch me in my relationships and in my faith.

When faced with situations of injustice and pain, my first reaction is often one of anger and frustration; then–what are we going to DO about it? Taking action feels like the only correct response, and even then, it does not always seem sufficient. But perhaps we need a change in our thinking–to allow ourselves the freedom to be still for a moment (or two)–to mourn, weep, question, and dwell in the pain of tragedy.

It was only in reading the thoughts of others that I was able to allow myself this space for lament and mourning. Here is an extended quote:

“The antiquated notion of lamentation points us in a direction opposite to our contemporary impulses. We are conditioned to respond to a problem…by identifying a course of action and mustering as much resolve as possible in an effort to make a positive difference. The standard operating principles – which have their place – include effort, productive change and hope. Lamentation derails that. It provides a sacred space in which to expose our shadiest feelings.

I need this. I can’t carry all [of this] with me.

Lamentation is a space in which we do not need to hide or minimize these normally frowned-upon sentiments…In lament, we walk straight into the darkness, the valley of shadows, and stay there as long as necessary.

Nancy Duff, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary…writes that usually “we are taught that true faith in God mitigates such intense feelings” as the ones we might express in lament. Similarly, theologian Walter Brueggemann notes the common and, in his view, unfortunate belief that good Christians do not “acknowledge and embrace negativity.”

But the biblical lamenters – who wrote a full third of the Psalms – make an art out of our impropriety. They express desire for harsh vengeance (“Happy shall they be who take [the Babylonians’] little ones and dash them against the rock.” Ps 137:9); they make brazen accusations against God (“You [God] have renounced the covenant with your servant.” Ps 89:39); and they cry out in utter despair (“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?” Ps 13:1).

Lamentation even allows us to give up. Duff says it “allows us to rely on God and the community to carry forth hope on our behalf when we ourselves have no hope in us.”

[from Will Braun. full article: http://www.geezmagazine.org/magazine/article/a-walk-in-the-dim-valley/]

"Maternidad" by Guayasamin

I know that my community here is NOT without hope and have already seen a vibrant strength in the midst of tragedy…but I am asking my broader community to carry forth the hope on our behalf, because sometimes even our most resilient faith can be hard to find.

 

 

 

 

 

For more information: http://www.canadianmennonite.org/articles/honduran-mennonite-pastor-killed

Note- Oswaldo Guayasamin (1919-1999) is an artist from Ecuador whose work frequently depicts the violence and suffering in Latin America as a result of war and injustice.

PAZ in contexts of violence

Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, location of the MCC Retreat January 2012

Adriana Koehn is the Connecting Peoples Program Coordinator in MCC Guatemala.  This article was posted on January 24 on their program website http://www.connectingpeoplesguatemala.blogspot.com/.

A quick search on the Internet and one can find more than enough reports on the current reality of violence that most of Central America and Mexico are experiencing. Indeed the situation at times seems quite grim, leaving one to wonder just what things like the newly elected ex-military President will bring to Guatemala.

While many of the region’s cities can be found on various “most dangerous” lists, it was more than fitting that the topic of working at peace in this violent context was the focus of the regional retreat for MCC workers in Mexico and Central America earlier this month.

The similarities between the various countries and the struggles that they all seem to share is alarming, causing one to feel that this little part of the world is going down, and going down fast. (Read more here about these difficult issues that connect the North with the South).

Guatemala: How can the cycles of violence be broken?

New Guatemalan President ex-General Pérez Molina

“It was like having to chose between cancer and AIDS.”

This is the phrase I heard frequently during a recent trip when talking with Guatemalans about the impossible choice that voters had in the elections in November 2011.

The key election issue was the escalating violence and national security. (Although one candidate highlighted a promise to get the Guatemalan soccer team to the World Cup in 2014 – always an important consideration!)

Of the final two candidates, one, Manuel Baldizón, was a multi-millionaire member of one of the most powerful business families in the Department of El Petén, who appeared to have links to narco-trafficking and the illicit acquisition of government contracts.

Home Part 2: Constructing “home” in Haiti

Half a million internally displaced Haitians still live in camps two years after the earthquake. Photo by A. Wiebe

January 12, 2012 was the second anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti. In this post, Alexis Erkert and Beverly Bell of Other Worlds, describe the on-going search for housing solutions in Haiti. Alexis is a former MCCer is now the Another Haiti is Possible Coordinator for Other Worlds.

Haitin women in camps make a distinction between housing and homes. They point out that while lodging can provide a roof over their heads, what they want is a nurturing space that is free of violence, where the common good is prioritized, and where power dynamics between men and women can shift.

Two years after the earthquate in Haiti, over 500,000 people still live in displacement camps. In the absence of initiative by the government, some Haitian non-profit and human rights organizations have stepped out of their normal missions to provide different kinds of housing. They have teamed up with local communities to create do-it-yourself solutions. They hope to inspire others, including their government, to envision and to dare to create viable community spaces with local participation.

Colette says, “You can’t just denounce what you don’t want. We’re meeting with others, as well as drawing inspiration from housing movements, networks and cooperatives in other countries. We want to propose alternatives that our country’s leaders could use as models.”

Environmentally-friendly housing built by ITECA Photo from website http://www.forumlibertas.com

In one of these alternatives, the peasant support group Institute of Technology and Animation (ITECA) in Gressier, west of Port-au-Prince, is building 1,700 permanent homes for residents who lost theirs. With funding from Caritas Switzerland, the houses offer water and electricity, almost unheard of in the countryside, and moreover in environmentally low-impact ways – through a rainwater collection system and solar panel on each roof. Each is equipped with an outdoor latrine.

The houses are earthquake and hurricane-resistant and use local building materials, like stones, to the degree possible. Another rare feature is that the home-owners themselves do all of the work that doesn’t require specialized skills. ITECA is also working with the mayor to ensure that each owner will receive proper land and housing titles.

Chenet Jean-Baptiste, director of ITECA, explains, “We aren’t building houses to meet a need for housing, but rather as a work of community process. For us, housing is an entry point for re-organizing concepts of land ownership and social and economic relationships. Our fundamental mission is to accompany communities and encourage them to become principal agents of change. After all, what’s the point of giving someone a house only for them to die of hunger inside it?”

A second initiative is GARR’s dream to create land and housing cooperatives. The vision springs from a 40-year-old experiment in Uruguay, where 25,000 members of housing cooperatives manage their housing and land communally. It is also reminiscent of land reform communities in Brazil and elsewhere. In this model, according to Colette, “the very poor pool their money together and pull their internal resources to resolve their own problems, to find land and care for the land together. Everyone is responsible for the community.”

GARR has started two model cooperatives, made up of 42 families on the Haitian-Dominican border. One is a landowners’ cooperative where families with small properties merge their properties to manage together. The second is cooperative housing, on land donated by the government. With assistance from Christian Aid, GARR has constructed 15 out of 40 projected houses on this land. The visionaries hope that the cooperatives will continue to grow and that “villages of life” will evolve, thriving communities with on-site or nearby clinics and schools, and job opportunities in agriculture or small business.

In Cap-Rouge, in South-eastern Haiti, the Haitian Platform to Advocate Alternative Development (PAPDA, an MCC partner) is working together with an organization called Hope for the Development of Cap-Rouge (VEDEK), to repair 500 destroyed homes using local building materials.

According to Franck St. Jean, coordinator of PAPDA’s Food Sovereignty Advocacy Program, core principals of the project include strengthening local wisdom, culture, and economy; conserving biodiversity; and empowering community. Though currently funded by European non-profits, PAPDA and VEDEK are ultimately trying to create a model that doesn’t depend on external funding or knowledge.

Similarly, the Support Group for Rural Development (GADRU) is repairing homes around the towns of Carrefour and Kenscoff in Haiti’s western province. Their objective? To promote community development wherein konbits, or volunteer, collective labor teams, of 10 families each build one another’s homes. GADRU, too, is working with local construction techniques and materials – wood, stone and earth – and designing the homes to withstand natural disasters.

Children in front of temporary housing built by a local Mennonite Church with MCC assistance. Photo by A. Wiebe

Displaced people and grassroots organizations in Haiti are insisting that they must have input in developing solutions.

“People have needs and they have ideas, they have visions for the way that houses can be built,” says Reyneld Sanon of the Force for Reflection and Action on Housing (FRAKKA). “Go into a camp, and ask any child to make a drawing that shows what kind of house they want to live in. And you’ll see. You’ll see. Even children have ideas and ideals.”

For more information about housing in Haiti, see:

http://www.otherworldsarepossible.org/another-haiti-possible/two-years-after-earthquake-haiti-%E2%80%9Chousing-our-battle%E2%80%9D

From Displacement Camps to Community in Haiti – Part 1 Policy Solutions

Haitians actively claim the right to housing. Photo by Ben Depp

January 12, 2012 will be the second anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti. In this post, Alexis Erkert and Beverly Bell of Other Worlds, describe the on-going search for housing solutions in Haiti. Alexis is a former MCCer who lived through the earthquake, and is now the Another Haiti is Possible Coordinator for Other Worlds. 

As 2012 begins, a growing movement of displaced people and their allies in Haiti is actively claiming the right to housing, which is recognized by both the Haitian constitution and international treaties to which Haiti is signatory.

Haitians displaced by the earthquake two years ago face many crises, but perhaps none worse than ongoing homelessness. One of the 520,000 people still living in displacement camps, [i] Dieula Croissey describes conditions where she lives in Cité Soleil: “We’re living in insecurity, our lives are threatened, our daughters are used.” In addition to insecurity and violence, especially against women, people living in camps face deteriorating shelter materials – shredding plastic tarps and tattered tents – hunger, and lack of adequate water or toilets. Despite Haiti’s declining rates of cholera infection,[ii] the dearth of sanitation options leaves real risk for contracting the disease.

One of the many Internally-Displaced Persons camps that continue to exist in Port-Au-Prince. Photo by Adrienne Wiebe

Meanwhile, reconstruction projects, especially permanent housing projects, have been slow in materializing. According to figures furnished by UN-HABITAT, only 13,000 houses have been repaired and 4,670 permanent homes built for the more than half a million people originally displaced. Approximately 100,000 temporary shelters have also been built.[iii] Tiny (less than 100 square feet for an entire family), usually made of untreated plywood or heavy plastic sheeting, these do not provide a long-term solution for people in need of housing.

The first step toward a real solution, according to the housing movement, must be development of a comprehensive national housing policy by the government, with broad input by displaced people themselves. Currently, no such policy exists; instead, homeless people’s fates are in the hands of piecemeal efforts from groups ranging from respectful community churches to profit-motivated businesses. One component of a national policy is that the government begin invoking eminent domain, exercising its right (guaranteed by a Decree on the Recognition of Public Interest in 1921) to claim private property for public use.

The second urgent need, activists say, is for the government to create public housing on the claimed land. The governmental Public Office for Public Housing Promotion (EPPLS by its French acronym) exists for this purpose, but currently has no budget or authorization to move forward. Housing activists stress that the residences built must be safe; have access to roads; provide water, electricity, and sewage; offer community and recreational spaces; be accessible to people with disabilities; and provide women with equal access.

The housing rights movement is also calling on the government to:

• Pass a law guaranteeing the right to housing. While Article 22 of the Haitian Constitution recognizes the right to decent housing, it does not guarantee it;
• Enforce existing rent control legislation. Renters report prices rising up to 17 times higher than pre-earthquake;
• Take proactive measures to sort out land tenure and create a registry of ownership, as a first step toward an urban and rural land redistribution program;
• Define a land use policy that prevents housing speculation and facilitates decentralization from Port-au-Prince by encouraging rebuilding outside the capital;
• Give small grants and credit to help people repair or build their own houses, where the government doesn’t provide public housing. The movement is calling on foreign organizations to do the same;
• Tackle gender bias in housing and land ownership, so that women’s names are consistently included in titling and their legally protected right to own and inherit land is enforced; and
• Ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This covenant, recognized by 160 countries, has been signed by the Haitian government but not yet passed into law. Doing so would hold the government responsible for providing housing, education and other human rights accountable to international standards and monitoring.

Painting by J. Derifond, Haitian artist

As with every other element of reconstruction from the earthquake, displaced people and grassroots organizations are insisting that they must have input in developing solutions. Calling on the Haitian government to provide a comprehensive solution to the housing crisis, they are also paving the way with participative models of what that solution could look like. Reyneld Sanon of the Force for Reflection and Action on Housing (FRAKKA) says that people have to be part of planning the reconstruction of “their neighborhoods, of their cities, of their country, and of their dignity.”

Part 2 of this post will look at some of the alternative, participatory housing models being developed in Haiti.

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References

[i] This is the most recent figure available. (HAITI Emergency Shelter and Camp Coordination Camp Management Cluster, Displacement Tracking Matrix V2.0 Update, November 30, 2011).

[ii] When rainy season ended, the number of new cholera cases declined from an average of 500 a day to 300. As of November 18, 2011, 521,195 people have contracted cholera and of those, almost 7,000 have died. (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Humanitarian Bulletin (19 November -19 December 2011), December 19, 2011; Republique d’Haiti Ministère de la Santé Publique et de la Population, Rapports journaliers du MSPP sur l’évolution du choléra en Haiti, January 3, 2012,  http://www.mspp.gouv.ht/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=117&Itemid=1).

[iii] In August 2011, the Haiti Shelter Cluster reported that 9,4879 temporary shelters had been constructed. (Haiti Shelter Cluster, Shelter Report by Municipality, August 31, 2011).

Painting by J. Derifond from http://www.galleryofwestindianart.com

Two Blogs and One Book

Here is some advocacy-related news from around MCC Latin America: community-based engagement in Colombia, community-corporation negotiations in Guatemala, and research for peace-building in Bolivia.

Colombia

Weaving from La Guajira, Colombia

The SEED program in Colombia brings together ten young people from the Americas (Canada, US, Mexico, Colombia, and Peru) and two coordinators for a two-year term to reflect, serve and advocate with Colombian communities.  “Participants of the program come together for two years to reflect on the issues that maintain barriers – from economics, politics, and war; to culture, geography, and theology.  The program connects the reflection on the big issues with community grassroots service  together with communities who are working against significant violence, poverty, and oppression.  While seeking to connect the macro to the micro, and learning to see how the large structures affect real communities, participants learn to speak as a community to advocate for peace, justice, and equality with global partners.” Follow their journey at this website: http://seed.mcc.org/