The Political Crisis in Guatemala:

The normal: Impunity, crime, corruption. The judicial system desperately needs to be fixed. On the one hand, way more police are needed, but on the other hand, law enforcement itself is quite corrupt. While in Mexico big name drug traffickers are lined up in front of huge arsenals of weapons after they are caught, in Guatemala you read about arms being stolen from the police. The absolute lack of police enforcement in some rural areas has brought the return of community justice (beatings, burnings, etc). The congress cannot pass a desperately needed fiscal reform bill.

The new: Recently a Harvard and Cambridge educated lawyer filmed a video message three days in anticipation of his assassination blaming his future assassination on high ranking bank officials in cahoots with drug traffickers and the president and the presidents wife himself. His client and client´s daughter were earlier assassinated. The lawyers claim is that Banrural, the biggest bank in Guatemala, takes money from drug traffickers and cleans it… the banks´ other biggest client, the government, stands idly by. Documents have been produced showing apparent anxiety by the Presidents personal secretary about the lawyers client. The president claims that this is the latest act of a long campaign by drug traffickers and others unsympathetic with the leftist government to destabilize his government. When I first got here the president was just finding out that he was being spied on. Now some hopefully impartial organizations such as an organization set up by the UN will be investigating the claims made by the deceased lawyer.

Anyways thousands have taken to streets to protest and call for the resignation of the president. Today the government organized a protest in support, but the paper here ran an article saying that the participation in this march wouldn´t be quite as voluntary as the other. On the other hand, the paper is a city paper, and I hear that the president did better in rural areas, and the support for the counter rally apparently came from people outside of the city.

Colom is moderately liberal and those of us here working on social justice have had hope that he could make changes that would force the government to serve those that it has never served: the huge rural population of Guatemala that constitutes the “other Guatemala.” But what good is a golden head on a broken body? What could Colom do anyway if the legislative and judicial bodies are so screwed up?

This is why education is so important. Good education not only creates a more adept workforce but creates a more self-conscious public that has the skills and the confidence to demand, no require, better governance. Schools like Bezaleel can and are creating competent individuals who dream of a better Guatemala, and who simply through their quality of character will make a more just Guatemala.

On a lighter note a few weeks ago the paper ran an article on a town that said it was being terrorized by the spirit of a dead person some kids and unwittingly dug up. The author also noted that members of the reporting team also experienced some kind of supernatural event.

Jordan

ps. speaking of education, I hear that CA is going to have to make cuts on education. That seems dumb...

My ¨We are the World¨ post

The other night I wrote a rara ¨we are the world¨type of entry meant for my blog. I´ve decided now not to post all of it. Only a summary. Why maybe I felt it to radical. Maybe I was afraid it could be mushy (thus the sarcasm of my title). Maybe because I am too scared to talk about ¨love and compassion¨ as real things that can make a difference if we actually tried and really (really) did what those driven by the ¨love the neighbor as thyself¨philosphy ought to do.... I don´t know... I am just scared of being scoffed at I guess.

Anyways, the title of my post was goign to be

¨the constricted Mr. President/ my ¨we are the world¨ speech.

note: I think I have to very powerful sides, a very idealistic side and a very sarcastic, cynical and scared to death to be clichéd side.

Anyways - a quick summary- I am very excited about Obama

BUT, I think as president, he has to buy into a lot of things (American ideas or cultural myths or whatever you want to call them) that will force him to act a certain way.

Mr. President has to respond violence with violence. Mr. President always act in favor of us. That´s basically his job I know, but sometimes acting that way will probably hurt others. Mr. President has to be tough. I wrote that he has to push free trade, but I just realized that Obama will be taking a closer look at the NAFTA and the CAFTA. Mr. President can never say socialism even as a republican president does a very socialist thing and bails out banks. Mr. President maintain military superiority (though hopefully he will be reducing out amount of nukes). Has to try to maintain our position as a superpower, as if that´s somehow more important that things like our well being. Maybe that´s not a convincing enough list, but work with me here...

I wrote: I am not saying that he is taking the one ring for his own, I´m just aying that I think the job defines the man more significantly than we realize... possibly even more than the man defines the job.¨

I jump into bashing American society (that´s supposed to be sarcastic because I do believe that in some ways American society is pretty great, how can I not. That´s why there´s this hope thing Obama is talking about. It´s not him, it´s us (¨It´s not your, it´s me¨ says Georges girlfriend, George, ¨Your using the the it´s not you it´s me routine on me! I invented the it´s not you it´s me routine! If it´s anybody, it´s me!!¨ girlfriend, ¨Älright Alright, it´s you¨ snort of agreement from George) And that, the part before the seinfeld quote, is basically the point of what I wrote.

bad things: materialism sort of heads the list (bad for personal happiness, bad for environmet, global warming etc etc). Racism. Sexism. Violence is normal. We live in a society where people commit crimes for which we deem it worthy to kill the perpetrator and in which abortion seems like a necessary evil. militancy. Family problems. Nationalism instead of genuine care for our neighbor (actually Americans have always viewed ourselves as doing our best to help the world, it´s just the actual foreign policy, in my opinion, has not really done that too much). education is not important enough.etc. etc.

I wrote: ¨There are some diseases for which a good president is really just a bandaid. Those of us without th constricting title of Mr. President can go beyond anything politicians can do and attack the reasons why we have certain problems instead of trying to simply treat the symptoms. Only we can actually build a society more strongly based on love and compassion. Politicians have to deal with the problems that arise because we are not so much built on these ideals.¨ Changing our culture would change the presidency far more than any presidency ever could.

I listed stuff we might do especially to do with conservation of energy and investment in our communities were the main things.

I said it, ¨love¨... gasp. ¨does anyone remember the let your light shine song. It´s definately old, and possibly clichéd idea, but the amazing things that may come probably aren´t.¨

As I write I am realizing how classically American what I wrote is.

I end with a disclaimer. Of course Obama could do a lot. But not without us. And I emphasize that I think the L word translates into action and it´s just hard to live up to it most... I mean all the time. And the presidency and governance in general can also have a great effect on our culture, but still, us as individuals and as parts of so many smaller communities are the ones who really make it what it is.

Jordan

ps. watch the Flight of the Conchords song, ¨Issues, Think About it¨the live version. Pure comedic genious. on youtube.

pps. right now I am finishing up The Upside Down Kingdom and am feeling kind of convicted by it. I feel like we all need to read the gospels a little harder and ultimately try towalkas hewaled and do some of the things hewants usto do which we generally do not. And it can take part of the blame for this post.