some effects of socialized capitalism...

i don't pretend to know a lot about the economy, but it feels as though the global economic dependence on the U.S. market is being felt more than ever as our government begins the process of a $700 billion bailout. i do know that economic instability in the US is causing the price of gas, food, education and transportation to soar; which makes way for pain and suffering in El Salvador and around the world. our government is seeking to help the biggest corporations and fails to invest in its own workforce. if you'll allow me to commodify life, human capital is (for me) without question our greatest untapped resource. and it is a mutually beneficial relationship. a friend emailed me the article below. it illustrates how we treat such life. all things considered, it's an insanely eye-opening and incredibly sobering article to read...it's not long, and is certainly worth it.

http://www.truthout.org/article/twenty-questions-social-justice-quiz-2008

secondly, the following is part of a transcript from today's DemocracyNow! interview with Marian Wright Edelman. the civil rights activist and advocate for children and education, wright provides her opinion in regards to the current crises at hand. it's an inspiring and
insightfully real view of for change...

AMY GOODMAN: And it’s particularly important to talk to you in these critical times, when, as you write, the gap between rich and poor in the United States is the highest ever recorded and higher than in every other wealthy industrialized nation, and we’re seeing perhaps the largest bailout in history passed for the wealthiest corporations in this country.

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN: And the real crisis in America is not the real bailout on Wall Street; it is what we’re doing with our children and our failure to invest in our human capital for the future. What is happening in our country, where a child is born into poverty every thirty-three seconds, and we have seen an increase in child poverty, 500,000 in the recent—in the last three years.

AMY GOODMAN: Half a million?

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN: Half a million children between 2005, 2006, and that’s before the downturn in the economy; where we have a child who is born without health insurance every forty-one seconds, is neglected or abused every thirty-six seconds, is having a child every minute; and where we have got one in three black boys who are seven years old today who is going to go to prison in his lifetime, one in six Hispanic boys likely to go to prison in his lifetime, one in seventeen white boys to go to prison in his lifetime—we’re the world’s biggest jailer, and we’re spending three times more on incarceration than on public education per pupil—and where we’ve got ten percent of our—children drop out of school every ten seconds of every school day; and where 65 percent of all of our children are not reading at grade level in twelfth grade if they’ve stayed in school, and a half of them have not; and where over 80 percent of our black and Hispanic children cannot read at grade level in fourth, eighth or twelfth grade. The real economic downfall and the—is in these figures, and we have got to begin to get our heads screwed on straight and to begin to invest in the future and in our young people today.

AMY GOODMAN: And yet, we’ve been told that we can’t afford that.

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN: Well, we can’t afford not to. We have seen, in effect, an ideological and economic coup d’etat over the last decade, where we’ve taken from the poor, taken from children, and given in massive tax breaks to the rich and in prosecuting several wars. And, you know, this is just—we are upside-down.

We have got to reset our moral compass. We have got to redirect our attention to our internal human infrastructure, because I am convinced that what we are failing to do today in educating our children, providing them very basic health care, is going to be a moral and economic Achilles’ heel that is going to topple America’s leadership in the world in the future.

....more continued at the website if you so desire. democracynow.org (24/9/08)

entre amigos y la divina providencia

this past weekend, the students spent their first weekend in their praxis sites and are beginning to build relationships with the salvadorans they are coming to know, learn from and love.

similarly, starting a few weeks ago, i began my search to find the site(s) where i will be volunteering. i have been grappling as i've tried to decide between working with an LGBT organization or an organization which provides for more corporeal needs i.e. organizations that provide services like food, shelter, education, health, etc.

working with LGBT individuals and advocating for their personal safety, mental health and ability to be her or his own true person, gives people life. and it is essential, no question. but i see the need to work against the more visible struggles which poverty provides as well.

i do wish that the two did not appear so separate to me, but in my mind i form binaries, assign importance and give preference to the more corporeal needs, after all what good is advocating for LGBT folks if they cannot even eat and be healthy? but then again, what if everybody took that point of view? the issue for me lies in what needs present themselves and make a claim on me and my ability to work with others.

the places where i have passed time are:
1. la divina providencia:
a hospital run by carmelite sisters for economically poor people with cancer. mostly campesin@s, these salvadorans come from rural areas for treatment in the city and stay in this hospital so they have a shorter commute to the hospital. the hospital is famous, or infamous, if you will, because archbishop Oscar Romero was living at divina providencia and was murdered in the chapel of the hospital while presiding over a mass. i've gotten to know some of the patients pretty well and while it is hard to accompany people who are suffering, it's also a joy to accompany these patients who do not have families to visit them.

(the photo above is a collection of images from the evening when Romero was martyred & the image below is of the womyn's wing where i'll be spending lots of time.)

2. entre amigos: is a salvadoran NGO which advocates for gay men and people who identify as transgender. yesterday i went to a meeting with entre amigos and was in a situation i never would have imagined. i was with 16-20 gay men and trans salvadorans who were being interviewed by a doctor from the united nations who is working for the UNDP, a united nations program for human development in el salvador. the UN is seeking to combat the AIDS epidemic and the lack of education surrounding LGBT health and identity issues; they had come to do some interviews and i was able to connect with them about some ideas that i've had.

it was incredible to see the community that these folks have formed and i was blown away by the fact that a government agency is actually interested in the well being of the gay community in el salvador. the community is very strong, as are many which face great amounts of adversity. however, i'm not sure how much i can identify with the group and do not think that i will be spending all of my time there. a ver...

both places are very personal to me and for that reason it's been a challenging discernment. therefore, in a cop out manner, i have decided to work with both organizations. it seems like the right balance for me. in theory, this way i'll do a couple of things (a) be able to accompany salvadorans who are living with and some, dying from, cancer and (b) balance out the lack of hope which comes from seeing lots of death and suffering with working for change in the treatment and reality of LGBT Salvadorans...

...i'll keep you posted on how well i embrace and meet that ideal balance i seek.

finally, if you're interested in more information about the hospital divina providencia feel free to check out their website: http://www.hospitaldivinaprovidencia.org/EN_Hospital.html