Patria es Humanidad, Duarte Vive!

January 27, 2006

"Homeland is all of humanity – Duarte lives!" was our slogan as we marched through the streets of the Zona Colonial in Santo Domingo last night.

Yesterday was the 194th anniversary of the birth of Juan Pablo Duarte – the man who for Dominicans is their George Washington, their Thomas Jefferson and their Rollie Fingers, all in one.

Juan Pablo (left) and Rollie. Juan Pablo saved the Dominican poor from foreign imperialism; Rollie saved 341 games as the closer for Oakland, San Diego and Milwaukee.

Justicia Global celebrated with a patriotic mobilization of about a hundred people from Santo Domingo and San Cristóbal. The folks from San Cristóbal brought their drums and their swivelin' hips; those of us from Santo Domingo brought candles, banners, a street theater troupe and plenty of noise.

The Dominican Powers That Be all hold up Duarte as a model patriot and "Founding Father" without ever checking out what the man actually wrote. It turns out old Juan Pablo was quite a radical in his day – few people remember he died in exile in Venezuela for his insurgent behavior.

In Justicia Global we try to unearth the real history. We consider ourselves an organization of slightly younger, slightly hipper Howard Zinns. We handed out a few thousand flyers calling for Dominicans to "Reclaim the history of our organized populace and construct in the present a dignified future." (It sounds hipper in Spanish.)

Also on the flyer was a summary of Duarte's "Five Principles," written up by Dominican professor Narciso González:

1. National independence is the source and guarantee of our local freedoms.
2. The homeland is the People (not the small, powerful group of "miserable traitors" who make their fortunes at the cost of the majority).
3. To obtain happiness, we must practice Justice.
4. We need a governmental structure that is more participatory than the three old branches.
5. It is essential to conserve the quality of thought, feeling and action ("Never has it been so necessary as today to have good health, a good heart and good judgment; for today men without hearts or judgment are conspiring against the health of the Homeland").

Ingrid, who introduced the event, said, "Let us hold up Duarte not as the solitary savior of the Dominican people, which is the image they sell us. Let's celebrate him because he was a young guy who organized his countryfolk to gain independence from foreign rule, a reality we face again today. Let's learn from Duarte's example that the way to justice for the people is through organization."

All of life is laundry

The title of this post is a line from a poem we read in Mr. Cartwright's Writing Themes class my senior year of high school. Five extra credit points for the first person to identify the source.

January 15, 2007

My new favorite pastime is washing my clothes. I cannot seem to get enough of this. I wash everything in sight. After all of my clothes are clean, I wash my sheets, dish towels, the bathroom rug. I tried to wash the couch cushions but they wouldn't fit in the washing machine.

This is the key – the washing machine. Ah, what a wonder! A veritable work of technological genius! An apparatus worthy of the attention of sonnet-writing poets and composers of experimental jazz.

We at the Justicia Global community house have recently become the proud caretakers of a 3.0 kg Sankey Lavadora Semi-Automática Modelo WM 4200 washing-drying machine. A member of Justicia Global moved in with folks who already had a washing machine, and at once she thought of us, one of the 46.12 percent of Dominican households without one.*

Looking back, 2006 was not a good year for my clothes being clean. Washing by hand in the bathtub was okay for awhile, but after several months of that, I started doing everything in my power to find creative alternatives.

I made up reasons to go to the United States. In June it was for "the wedding of two friends." In November it was for the "VI International Summit of Justicia Global" in Ithaca, New York. The real reason for my visits became apparent when I opened my massive suitcases full of dirty clothes. I basically came to do my laundry.

There is a genetic precendent for this behavior. When my grandfather was studying in New York City in the 1940s, he would pack up his dirty clothes and send them by mail back to my grandmother in Pennsylvania for her to wash.

I am proud to report that there are some of Grandpa's clothing-related habits I haven't inherited. His test for whether socks were too dirty to wear was chucking them against the wall. If they stuck: too dirty. If they fell to the floor, they were good for another day.

So the 3.0 kg Sankey Lavadora Semi-Automática Modelo WM 4200 and I have been spending a lot of time together over the last couple of weeks. Washing with the Sankey 4200 is more of a labor-intensive process than we US folks are used to; you have to dump the water in yourself, change the water to rinse, and hang the clothes on the line afterward, because the dryer just spins them around really fast and leaves them damp.

But you won't find me complaining. In fact, if anyone has clothes they need washed, just package them up and stick them in the mail! I'll be waiting, detergent in hand.

* O.N.E., Dominican Census, 2002. Other interesting numbers from that census:

Graffiti: the good, the bad, the Ditka

January 5, 2007

I have a deep respect for good graffiti. Good graffiti is that graffiti which highlights a social or political reality, uses sharp images or plays on words and delivers a clear message, usually from a perspective of resisting a hegemonic discourse (whatever that means – it sounds kind of intelligent, though, right?).

The simple fact of graffiti's existence is a challenge to our society's obsession with the concept of private property. It begs the question, "Which of these offends us more -- an edifying message written without official consent in spray paint, or a million-dollar billboard objectifying women's bodies to sell beer?"

Creative graffiti brings a city to life. It brings character to normally dull expanses of cement. Laura Sweitzer, Earlham College grad and Justicia Globaller, is currently traipsing about the globe studying this stuff. Below are a couple of her photos from Spain. See more here

To me, good graffiti is much like a good cheering section at a sporting event. It just makes you swell up with pride that you get to share the same planet with such delightful, creative people.

Take, for example, the 2006 Earlham College sports fans. These folks will go down in NCAA Division III history as one of the best cheering blocks since the 1939 Middlebury Maulers (see below).

The '06 Earlham Quaker Army raised some goofy, good-natured ruckus at every school athletic event from men's cross country to women's field hockey. They toted flags, drums, and a Cheer Hymnal. At a contest where the visiting squad hailed from western Pennsylvania's Transylvania College, several Earlham fans appeared on the sidelines brandishing wooden crosses. Who else would be in the middle of this but my brother? Read more here

It seems I'm taking the real roundabout route in getting to my point. My point is that yesterday on the bus I saw some exceedingly bad graffiti. I mean Mike-Ditka-singing-Take-Me-Out-to-the-Ballgame bad.

Okay, you don't know it, but this is a terrific analogy. For all of you who haven't followed Chicago Cubs radio broadcasts over the past several years, the tradition of Harry Caray leading the crowd in the traditional "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" song during the seventh inning stretch was passed on to selected celebrities after Harry himself passed on. Many of the celebrities performed admirably, but Mike Ditka's day was a special experience for all of us unfortunate enough to witness it.

Mike Ditka is much better known for being a professional football coach, Just-For-Men hair care product spokesman and all-around big growly-looking guy than for any talents in the tune-carrying field. I suppose after his nearly unrecognizable version of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," this was made abundantly clear. Let me just put it this way: not only was Ditka bad, he instantly became the reference point for measuring the quality of every subsequent celebrity performance.

Years later, the following is still the standard conversation between the Cubs radio broadcasters in the bottom of the seventh inning:
        "Well, how about that rendition of 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame?'"
        "Sandberg was bad, Pat, but he was no Ditka."
        "Hooo, boy! You can say that again, Ron. Ditka sure was awful, wasn't he?"
        "Sure was, Pat. I've heard pigs squeal prettier than that."

As I was saying, the graffiti I saw on the bus yesterday was pure Ditka. Actually, now that I've built up its mediocrity to untouchable levels, the following phrases aren't going to seem so abominably disgraceful. Yet they still should arouse a touch of sorrow in the artists behind the works of beauty featured above.

The first one I saw appeared to be a simple signature: Deivy the nightly. Dominican youngsters enjoy practicing their English skills in public places, especially when it means giving themselves exotic nicknames.

Yet what is it Deivy was going for here? Does he work the graveyard shift as a security guard? Perhaps he is boasting the ostensible regularity of his encounters with the ladies. We may never know.

The next graffiti that caught my eye was this one:

Cesar = T-mac
Oscar = James
Jonathan = Iverson

This one has possibilities as a political statement, but it's a little obscure for the common viewer. Luckily, I was able to decipher it.

Cesar is clearly a reference to the rulers of the ancient Roman Empire, the Caesers. We understand T-mac to be British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Therefore, the first line is a critique of Blair's Caeser-like abuse of power and Great Britain's involvement in the war in Iraq.

The second line picks up on the raging debate in Latin America regarding the voting for Best Actor in 1955. The author of this line clearly believes James Dean's portrayal of fast-driving Jim Stark in "Rebel Without a Cause " was Oscar-worthy.

There is disagreement among scholars over the origin of the third and final line. The more plausible explanation is that the authorship belongs to a young man, "Jonathan," possibly an aspiring basketball star, who likens his playing style to that of Philadelphia 76ers point guard Allen Iverson. We cannot rule out, however, that Mr. Iverson, currently struggling offensively and embroiled in trade rumors, penned this line himself, referencing a long-repressed desire to be just like Jonathan Ortiz, a little-known Santo Domingo juice vendor.

These scrawls leave much to be desired in terms of our working definition of "good graffiti." We see little evidence of clarity in sociopolitical vision or aesthetic sensibility, though the diffusion strategy chosen -- a state-owned public bus -- sends an interesting message to the Fernández administration regarding the availability of "proper channels" through which the citizentry may express its opinions.

We can only hope this reflection will add to the body of scholarship guiding today's budding graffiti artist. We expect many exciting and innovative things from this genre in the years to come.

A year older and about
3 and a half years wiser

January 2, 2007

Dear friends,

Warm New Year's greetings from Justicia Global and the Dominican Republic!

I'm coming off of an eventful couple of weeks, including a lovely
visit from my family and ringing in the new year on tropical white sands.

As 2007 unfolds ahead of us, we have much to celebrate and much to tell about Justicia Global's collective project to create a society based on justice and peace.

A society of justice and peace? Did you hear that at a beauty pageant? Don't you think that kind of goal is a little ridiculous? Absolutely. We're completely nuts. Yet the social reality we're faced with now calls for nothing less than folks thinking and acting on this scale.

Justicia Global's style of grassroots organizing mixes consciousness-raising with more material gains, balances transformation of the self with training of new leaders, mixes joy and compassion with commitment and tenacity. At the core of our mission is the simple belief in strength in numbers.

An important part of our work is figuring out what we're up against.
In the Dominican Republic we have a government dumping $10,000 per foot into a new subway system while 53 percent of the population survives on less than $2 a day and only 10 percent graduates from high school. The International Monetary Fund is pressuring for sales tax hikes and more public funding cuts to balance the deficit caused by a new free trade agreement with the United States. We realize that transforming these injustices will take a ridiculously huge mobilization for change from the bottom up.

Despite the obstacles present in Dominican society, many people are beginning to believe that social change is possible - and that united, we can make it happen. Since our 2nd International Summit this past May, Justicia Global has been invited to begin community work in nine new communities throughout the Dominican Republic. We've formed a group for artists and committees at the high school level. We work with groups of:

• Children and adolescents, teaching the organization's values of justice, cooperation, equality and trust through art, cooperative games and community projects;
  
• Professional women, through our sister organization, Perla, which focuses on self-esteem, health, relationship issues and human rights;
  
• Urban and rural adults, coordinating workshops on natural medicines and violence prevention;
  
• High school and university students, who in Circles for Action and Study focus on socioeconomic issues, mass media manipulation, neoliberalism, and race, class and gender inequalities;
  
• Artists, who through theater courses and film studies learn how to use art as a tool for social change;
  
• Farmers, fortifying local organizations and initiating a direct fair trade network within the Dominican Republic.

Why such a broad range of groups? We believe every sector of the population has something to contribute to the collective project. Because the systems of oppression are so deeply entrenched in our world, it's going to take all of us working in deliberate and coordinated ways to create true transformation.

The roots of social inequality aren't contained within national boundaries. For this reason we're also investing in relationships with organizations on the international scale. In November we were in New York coordinating future exchanges with the U.S.-based
Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, and we're helping plan an off-campus program for Ithaca College and Cornell University students here in June.

My main work is with kids and farmers. I'm co-writing and illustrating a booklet about the Justicia Global method of running kids' groups - it's a sort of guide for guides. And then there's the garden. We're eating lemons, tomatoes and basil now, and soon we'll have eggplant and passion fruit!

Justicia Global is an all-volunteer, self-funded organization. All of the resouces we have - human, material and financial - are given with joy as a commitment to our vision of social change. This financial strategy is a conscious decision. It's a common experience in Latin America that funding from governments and foundations often create dependency, erode personal commitment and co-opt the agendas of grassroots organizations.

That said, our work costs money, so get ready for the following
Call To Wallets. We welcome non-tax-deductible donations from friends and organizational allies. Here's a short list of ways to make your first gift of 2007 count:

• $16 covers gasoline for one trip to San Cristóbal, where we work with farmers doing natural medicine workshops and coordinating groups of children and adolescents;
  
• $33 buys one hundred cement blocks for the construction of a meeting space in San Cristóbal;
  
• $60 finances 2,000 copies of our periodical, "Abre Los Ojos" (Open Your Eyes);
  
• $235 pays for rent and utilities at our community house for a week;
  
• $800 buys a meeting space for children's and adults' groups in Boca Chica.

Checks can be made out to:

Dan and Vera Smucker Shenk
1014 S. 13th St.
Goshen, IN 46526
574.534.5290
574.534.9673 (answering machine)

Please note that checks should be made out to Dan and Vera Smucker Shenk, with "Justicia Global" in the subject line.

As always, you can learn the answers to all of your burning questions (What good is science? How can I avoid the rubella outbreak? What are the sociocultural effects of a subterranean mass transit system on a developing nation?) on my site.

Blessings to you and those close to you in the new year. May peace and justice be with us all-

Tim
for Justicia Global