WLOE E-Newsletter: 16 April 2003: 

”…when silence is betrayal.”

These days there is much to read, to learn, to share: too much on war and suffering, happily also some excellent revelations and analysis, reports and examples of resistance to war and injustice. Here we share with you a number of recent articles by women writers and activists, and a powerful poem forwarded by one of our WLOE advisors. Please feel free to pass this on to friends around the world. And we welcome and need your support (see information about donations at end of mailing).
There are many good links and articles about what’s going on at:http://www.yomamasays.org/ and  http://traprockpeace.org/links.htm

• And here are four good articles available on the AlterNet site:                       
  Privatization in Disguise By Naomi Klein, The Nation April 15, 2003
  “On April 6, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz spelled it out: There will be no role for the United Nations in setting up an interim government in Iraq. The US-run regime will last at least six months, "probably . . . longer than that." And by the time the Iraqi people have a say in choosing a government, the key economic decisions about their country's future will have been made by their occupiers. "There has got to be an effective administration from day one," Wolfowitz said. "People need water and food and medicine, and the sewers have to work, the electricity has to work. And that's a coalition responsibility." The process of getting all this infrastructure to work is usually called "reconstruction." But American plans for Iraq's future economy go well beyond that. Rather, the country is being treated as a blank slate on which the most ideological Washington neoliberals can design their dream economy: fully privatized, foreign-owned and open for business.”
  Read full story at:http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15638                       
  
  Letter from Baghdad: A Moment of Understanding By Kathy Kelly, Alternet April 15, 2003
  “Baghdad, April 10 – Early his morning, Umm Zainab sat quietly in the Al Fanar lobby staring at the parade of tanks, APCs and Humvees that slowly rolled into position along Abu Nuwas Street. Tears streamed down her face. "I am very sad," she told me. "Never I thought this would happen to my country. Now, I think, my sadness will never go away." Wanting to give Umm Zainab some quiet time, I took her two toddlers, Zainab and Miladh, outside to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. Several soldiers stood guard not far from me and the children. I wanted to bring the children over to them, to let them behold these tiny beauties. But, no, too much of a risk – what if it would add to Umm Zaineb's pain?”
  Read full story at:http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15643                       
  
  Who Will Tell the Stories of Dissent? By Anuradha Mittal, Inter Press Service April 15, 2003           
  “My city of Oakland, California was in the news recently – not just in every Bay Area newspaper, but around the country. Pictures of young peaceful Americans fired at by the Oakland's finest with wooden dowels, bean bags, concussion grenades and "sting grenades" (rubber pellets accompanied by tear gas) highlight America's hypocritical attempt at being a democracy, a champion of human rights and a nation of civil liberties. But dissent is growing – reaching new barometric levels as national leaders abdicate their responsibility as elected officials and turn into warmongers…”
  Read full story at:http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15645  
                       
  Personal Voices: 'Peace' Is Overrated By Amy Hamilton-Thibert, yomamasays.org April 14, 2003
  “At many of the anti-war events I have been to in the last short while, the overwhelming sentiment is that something called "peace" should happen as soon as possible. Many of the events themselves are billed as being "for peace" and many of the participants carry signs and banner that speak about peace. Logical, right? Antiwar=peace, you dimwit! It's as simple as that, many people would say. Well . . . I'm gonna come clean. I'm wary of this "peace" idea. What's not to understand about the desire for peace? I can't quite put my finger on it – but when I try to, I come up with more questions than answers. For one thing, when I see people of color at marches and rallies, I rarely see them holding signs or banners that talk about peace. I notice that their signs, instead, often talk about "justice." Why?”
  Read full story at:http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15627
       
• Israel
  “I was a human shield” by Israeli journalist Billie Moskona-Lerman
  “The death of human rights activist Rachel Corrie, crushed to death while trying to stop an IDF bulldozer, was reason for Billie Moskona-Lerman to go to the Rafah Refugee Camp and to spend 24 hours at the most miserable place in the Gaza Strip. A place where shooting never stops, where shells whistle by the windows, the walls are covered with bloodstains on the walls, houses turn into ruins and people walk the streets.”That is the introduction to the article "I was a Human Shield" by Israeli journalist Billie Moskona-Lerman, published in Hebrew in the Israeli newspaper “Ma'ariv” on 28 March 2003.
  An English translation of her story is on the website of the Israeli peace organization Gush Shalom:
  http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/shield_eng.html
  For information on the situation of residents in Gaza and of international solidarity workers in Palestine -- including the deaths of  and attacks on members of the international teams, see http://www.palsolidarity.org
  Photos of Rachel Corrie and of life and death in Rafah, where she was killed while trying to prevent the destruction of Palestinian homes, can be found on a website created by Muhammad, a young student from Rafah: http://www.rafah.vze.com   
          
• Here is the poem by Emmanuel “Manny” Ortiz, with thanks.
  Before I start this poem, I'd like to ask you to join m ein a moment of silencei n honour of those who died in the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon last September 11th. I would also like to ask you a moment of silence for all of those who have been harassed, imprisoned, disappeared, tortured, raped, or killed in retaliation for those strikes, for the victims in both Afghanistan and the U.S. And if I could just add one more thing...A full day of silence for the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have died at the hands of U.S.-backed Israeli forces over decades of occupation. Six months of silence for the million and-a-half Iraqi people, mostly children, who have died of malnourishment or starvatio nas a result of an 11-year U.S. embargo against the country.
  Before I begin this poem: two months of silence for the Blacks under Apartheid in South Africa, where homeland security made them aliens in their own country. Nine months of silence for the dead in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where death rained down and peeled back every layer of concrete, steel, earth and skin and the survivors went on as if alive. A year of silence for the millions of dead in Vietnam--a people, not a war-for those who know a thing or two about the scent of burning fuel, their relatives' bones buried in it, their babies born of it .A year of silence for the dead in Cambodia and Laos, victims of a secret war ... ssssshhhhh ...Say nothing ... we don't want them to learn that they are dead. Two months of silence for the decades of dead in Colombia, whose names, like the corpses they once represented, have piled up and slipped off our tongues. Before I begin this poem, An hour of silence for El Salvador ..An afternoon of silence for Nicaragua ..Two days of silence for the Guetmaltecos ..None of whom ever knew a moment of peace, 45 seconds of silence for the 45 dead at Acteal, Chiapas, 25 years of silence for the hundred million Africans who found their graves far deeper in the ocean than any building could poke into the sky.There will be no DNA testing or dental records to identify their remains. And for those who were strung and swung from the heights of sycamore tree in the south, the north,the east, and the west...100 years of silence...For the hundreds of millions of indigenous peoples from this half of right here, Whose land and lives were stolen, n postcard-perfect plots like Pine Ridge, Wounded Knee, Sand Creek, Fallen Timbers, or the Trail of Tears. Names now reduced to innocuous magnetic poetry on the refrigerator of our consciousness ..So you want a moment of silence? And we are all left speechless. Our tongues snatched from our mouths. Our eyes stapled shut. A moment of silence And the poets have all been laid to rest. The drums disintegrating into dus tBefore I begin this poem, You want a moment of silence You mourn now as if the world will never be the same. And the rest of us hope to hell it won't be. Not like it always has been Because this is not a 9-1-1 poem This is a 9/10 poem, It is a 9/9 poem, A 9/8 poem, A 9/7 poemT his is a 1492 poem. This is a poem about what causes poems like this to be written And if this is a 9/11 poem, thenThis is a September 11th poem for Chile, 1971. This is a September 12th poem for Steven Biko in South Africa, 1977. This is a September 13th poem for the brothers at Attica Prison, New York, 1971.This is a September 14th poem for Somalia, 1992. This is a poem for every date that falls to the ground in ashes. This is a poem for the 110 stories;  that were never told The 110 stories that history chose not to write in textbooks. The 110 stories that CNN, BBC,The New York Times, and Newsweek ignored. This is a poem for interrupting this program.
  And still you want a moment of silence for your dead? We could give youl ifetimes of empty:The unmarked gravesThe lost languages. The uprooted trees and histories. The dead stares on the faces of nameless children Before I start this poem We could be silent forever Or just long enough to hunger, For the dust to bury us And you would still ask us For more of our silence. If you want a moment of silenceThen stop the oil pumpsTurn off the engines and the televisions Sink the cruise ships Crash the stock markets Unplug the marquee lights, Delete the instant messages, Derail the trains, the light rail transit If you want a moment of silence, put a brick through the window of Taco Bell, And pay the workers for wages lost Tear down the liquor stores,The townhouses, the White Houses ,the jailhouses, the Penthouses and the Playboys. If you want a moment of silence,Then take it On Super Bowl Sunday, The Fourth of July During Dayton's 13 hour sale Or the next time your white guilt fills the room where my beautiful people have gathered You want a moment of silence Then take it &  Now, Before this poem begins. Here, in the echo of my voice, In the pause between goose steps of the second handIn the space between bodies in embrace, Here is your silence. Take it. But take it all Don't cut in line. Let your silence begin at the beginning of crime  But we, Tonight we will keep right on singing For our dead.
  
  Emmanuel Ortiz works with the Minnesota Alliance for the Indigenous Zapatistas (MAIZ) and Estación Libre. He is a staff member of the Resource Centre of the Americas, the non-profit &n bsp publisher of americas.org "A time has come when silence is betrayal. That time is now."Martin Luther King Jr.
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