Wicked Good Surf and The Triumph of Peacemakers: El Salvador

Excellent roads leading to incredible beach towns with unbeatable waves: that’s today's El Salvador. We stayed in Playa Tunco, where the pounding Pacific lulled us to sleep every night, surfers woke early to catch waves before siesta-ing much of the day, and culinary offerings ran an impressive gamut from street tortillas and tamales to shrimp or lobster in well-developed curry coconut sauces.

We got here because of a cheap flight deal on Travelzoo, promising to put us within forty minutes of some of the world’s best waves. I Googled a bit, I bought a Frommer's Nicaragua and El Salvador (Frommer's Complete Guides), and I checked in with the State Department and CDC about safety issues. Despite the various assurances of a beautiful country with substantial safety for tourists, the dominant El Salvador in our minds was still the El Salvador of the assassinated Archbishop Oscar Romero, the raped and murdered Maryknoll nuns, and a dreadful civil war settled rather recently through the 1992 Peace Accords.

We de-planed near 9pm and were literally whisked through customs. We walked into the humid night and saw our driver waiting with an “Eric Hartman” sign. I’d made arrangements with a beach hostel I found online – they ensured a $40 taxi trip from the airport to our first hostel that night in Playa Tunco, the Qi-X Surfcamp. On the drive to Qi-X we began to realize how distant our historic El Salvador was from our contemporary experience: we drove smoothly over perfectly maintained roads. The street signs were frequently posted and easy to understand, the traffic was amicable near the airport, and as soon as we left the city the night was completely calm.

Qi-X, unfortunately, was unimpressive. The room was only $25, but it was extremely small and the hostel was not on the beach. The next day we walked down the coast, checked out some additional hotels and hostels, had an excellent breakfast on a rocky point overlooking the Pacific, and found our home for the week at the lovely $35 a night Hotel Tortuga, where we had ample space, a private bathroom, and, most importantly, a second-story window opening immediately to the beach and Pacific Ocean beneath us. 

Suddenly, only a day out from the frenetic pace of Philadelphia and Thanksgiving rushes in the states, our only concerns were where to eat each day and how long we would read in between dips in the ocean or pool. Our food was consistently good. We settled into a pattern of spacing grilled meats with pupusas, tortillas, and ceviches. Food prices were lower than in the states, but reflected our location to become pricier than local food: ceviche dishes would go for $5 - $8 and my generous (and scrumptious) lunch of a 6 oz. steak, a sausage, beans and rice, a tomato salad, an avocado slice, and a potato, was $6.

And there we stayed. We relaxed. I took a surfing lesson, standing up a couple times. Six-foot waves were commonplace. Shannon took some photos (promising to share a few here once we're home). And we pondered the great distance between the El Salvador of today and the country of rights abuses and Reagan-era CIA proxy-wars that I sometimes use as a (bad) example in my human rights classes. How that distance was closed became the subject of our inquiry as we journeyed to San Salvador and visited the Centro Oscar Romero, traveled to the mountain town of Suchito and hit other sites. And today's El Salvador will be the subject of my next blog post. For now, an excerpt from Monsignor Romero's homilies:

“Peace is not the absence of war. Peace is not an equilibrium of two opposing forces in a struggle. Peace above all is not reached by repressing until death those who are not allowed to speak… True peace is based on justice and equality.” (August 14th, 1977)

Happy Thanksgiving, America!

Conservative, liberal, occupier, tea partier – it’s time to take a break and be thankful. I wrote the editorial below two years ago from Bolivia, before our politics reached their current impasse. I believe the main thesis still holds. That is, despite the historical inaccuracies and current political debates, Thanksgiving’s function of getting us to pause and consider the things for which we should be thankful – is extremely important. I’m thankful for my family, my friends, my health, and the rights that came along with the place I was born. Here’s the original Post-Gazette editorial, reprinted in its entirety. 

If you agree with the sentiments below, please forward and re-post. If you have additional sentiments you'd like to add, please do so in the comments section below. Thanks for reading and commenting.   

American blessings: Thank you for democracy, diversity, safe water and pancakes

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia -- A friend from Singapore once told me that if he ever got the chance to visit the United States he wanted to have an American breakfast at a truck stop at 4 a.m. He managed to gather into one wish unique aspects of American life -- waffles for breakfast, work around the clock (where else are there so many 24-hour truck stops and diners?) and wide-open spaces.
As I celebrate Thanksgiving this year with a group of American students and their host families in Bolivia, I'm taking a moment to consider what we all should be thankful for in the United States of America.

Water

The vast majority of Americans can drink tap water in their homes. This is a daily miracle. Nearly one billion people around the world (that's more than three times the U.S. population) do not have access to safe water. And most people who do have safe water do not have it flowing into their homes.

Public education

The effort to provide high-quality public education is nearly as old as the country, although not everyone has benefited equally from a system that remains subject to continuous debate. And it should provoke argument -- education can make or break a country. Still, the message is clear: Countries that invest in their people flourish economically and are more likely to support democracy and respect individual freedoms.

Work ethic

People work hard just about everywhere. My first impression of Africa was that everyone was moving crops, hauling water, selling, buying or otherwise exerting themselves. But our culture values work to the point that we've produced an entire genre of self-help literature aimed at curing workaholism. Hard work yields dividends; see "Contemporary China."

Democracy

Our system of government protects individual rights, checks government power and encourages fair play. James Madison addressed the issue in "The Federalist Papers": "If men were angels, no government would be necessary ..." We've enabled human freedoms to the fullest extent possible while acknowledging human limitations. I see too much corruption in my work around the world. It's helpful to remember that good behavior is built with institutional effort over time. We need reminders of this from time to time, too, as money does infect our politics and abuses regularly crop up in the private sector. See "Financial Crisis."

Open spaces

Stop reading. Go west. Breathe in Dwight D. Eisenhower's unique achievement -- the American interstate system. Zip past fields of sunflowers in Kansas. Grab a six-pack and hang out with rural Nebraska kids as they float up and down on the backs of oil pumpjacks, drinking and talking about eight-man-football as the sun drops below the plains. Then, somewhere in the soaring Rockies, throw a tent and sleeping bags into the back of a pickup and drive a full day over dirt roads deep into one of our national forests to camp.

Diversity

America has created an imperfect but highly accomplished multicultural democracy to an extent unmatched elsewhere and unparalleled in history. This is a beautiful thing. Strong societies are adept at incorporating and adapting ideas from other cultures. America becomes more diverse and therefore more dynamic every single day.

Volunteer military

The United States military is the strongest ever known. One reason is that our service men and women enlist voluntarily. War is horrible, profoundly complicated and, as it should be, often controversial. But never should we fail to honor the men and women who volunteer to keep us safe and serve at the direction of our elected officials.

Pancakes, etc.

For a country so rich in history, we're poor in unique culinary traditions. But sweet, syrup-topped, simple and affordable pancakes and waffles -- these are ours. Burgers made with ground beef, which for some inexplicable reason are hard to recreate elsewhere, are American magic. And, of course, in multicultural America one can find fine foods and culinary traditions from almost any corner of the world, anytime.

Philanthropy

The governments of other developed countries spend a greater portion of their budgets on social welfare at home and abroad. But Americans give from their own pockets in a way that is unmatched elsewhere. Individual involvement has led to the creation of thousands of small and mid-size nonprofit organizations like the one I direct. While smallish organizations cannot address all issues for everyone, they can be responsive to the real lives and concerns of the people they serve.

Ideals

American ideals are tied up with the notion that we always can do better. We continue to build a better society. We work to redress the excesses of past generations. Now, for instance, we seek to make our society more environmentally sustainable. We continue to work toward expanding individual human freedoms in our own country and around the world.

For these things and much more, we Americans should be profoundly thankful. Throughout history, few peoples have had the opportunity to experience long lives. Few peoples have had the opportunity to debate the pros and cons of their would-be leaders in advance of free and fair elections. Few peoples have been able to hop on a motorcycle and cruise across a continent on well-manicured roads, stopping at truck stops at any hour of the day or night to find good food and fast service.

I am thankful to be an American in the world today. We have a lot of problems. We have a lot of disagreements. We create injustices. We mess up and fail.

But on Thanksgiving Day, pause. Be thankful for the broad contours of this American reality. Tomorrow we can get back to work.

Social Justice Song Treasure Trove - Vote for Your Favorite & Contribute!

Folk, rock, rap, hip-hop: in common we have compelling artists with beautiful messages. As we move closer to America's Thanksgiving Holiday, everybody deserves a moment for great music and visions of a better tomorrow. That's what we have below (along with some rage, some specific complaints, and some vague concerns). Take a moment to 

1. listen, 
2. vote (below) for your favorite social justice song, and 
3. add song suggestions in the comments section (I'll then post your suggestions). 

You can vote for as many or as few of these songs as you like. Please share, forward, post, and tweet to get far-flung-friends involved in this contest, conversation, and vote!

Stand by Me, by Playing for Change

Peace Train, by Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam)

 Waiting for the Great Leap Forward, by Billy Bragg

Fight the Power, by Public Enemy

This Land is Your Land (Springsteen's version)

AND Born in the USA by The Boss, again Mr. Springsteen

I hear them all by Old Crow Medicine Show

I wish I knew how (it would feel to be free) by Nina Simone

 I wish I knew how (it would feel to be free) by The Lighthouse Family

One by U2 with Mary J. Blige 

One by Johnny Cash

The General, by Dispatch

Kurt Vile, Puppet to the Man

Dylan's Hard Rain

If you Miss Me from the Back of the Bus, by SNCC Freedom Singer Reunion

If I had a Hammer, by Peter, Paul, and Mary 

Judy Collins & Pete Seeger, Turn, Turn, Turn

Sam Cooke, A Change is Gonna Come

Billie Holiday, Strange Fruit

Joe Hill, by Joan Baez

Where is the Love? by The Black Eyed Peas

Fast Car by Tracy Chapman

Redemption Song by Bob Marley

BB King Why I Sing the Blues

Array of Incredible Artists doing We Shall Overcome at Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Party

Pete Seeger (90+) and several others do We Shall Overcome at Occupy Wall Street

American Ruse, by The MC5

White Riot, by The Clash

What's So Funny about Peace, Love, and Understanding, by Nick Lowe

What's So Funny about Peace, Love, and Understanding, by Elvis Costello

What's So Funny about Peace, Love, and Understanding, by Springsteen and Friends

I Asked When, by Brett Dennen

Ain't No Reason, Brett Dennen

F**k Da Police, by NWA

They Schools, by Dead Prez

Man in Black, by Johnny Cash

Get Involved, by Freddie McGregor

Big Man, by Antibalas

I'll Take You There, by The Staple Singers

Imagine, John Lennon

Freedom Day, by Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln

Pride in the Name of Love, U2

The Decline, by NOFX

Uprising, by Muse

Crime to be Broke in America, by Spearhead

And songs related to social justice that I just can't stand: 

• John Mayer's Waiting on the World to Change (and an explanation as to why that's the case). 

Please add additional suggestions here. I'll post them and add them to the list below (for votes) as well. Please broaden the conversation by re-posting, re-tweeting, or forwarding. You deserve a break for great music! 

International Arm Chair Travel - Living the Dream Vicariously

Across the Americas, around the world, continuous motion, living, and learning through travel. Ongoing movement is tantalizing - and it can be informative and liberating. Pico Iyer captures it beautifully in Why We Travel:


So travel, at heart, is just a quick way to keeping our minds mobile and awake. As Santayana, the heir to Emerson and Thoreau with whom I began, wrote, “There is wisdom in turning as often as possible from the familiar to the unfamiliar; it keeps the mind nimble; it kills prejudice, and it fosters humor.” Romantic poets inaugurated an era of travel because they were the great apostles of open eyes. Buddhist monks are often vagabonds, in part because they believe in wakefulness. And if travel is like love, it is, in the end, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed.  


I've had the good fortune to meet with and learn from many, many continuous travelers over the past decade. Some of these individuals keep great websites, tweet regularly, and stay up to date on their storytelling via photos and video. I'm going to share a few favorites here, and would love to hear about others engaged in ceaseless international travel, which so many people do rightfully feel is part of building peace by pieces (when done conscientiously and considerately).

I have to begin with two wonderful individuals I bumped into first in Cochabamba, Bolivia and later in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (randomly, and yes, that's amazing). They are Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott, a traveling couple who continue to post at UncorneredMarket.com. They proclaim themselves driven by curiosity and guided by respect - and they're currently in Iran!

Dan and Audrey have developed substantial engaging content in their last 1800 days on the road. Check them out. 

Additionally, you likely have seen this video (Where the Hell is Matt?) below many times already, but it must be mentioned in this blog post. And YouTube only records 40 million+ views of it, so many more billions have yet to see it. Take a quick, inspiring look: 

And in this adventurous spirit, a few guys from Australia made three very short and compelling (1 minute each) films. Move: 

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Learn:

LEARN from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

And Eat:

EAT from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Please let me know if you have any favorites of this kind (please share!), please remember Amizade is a great way to engage in ethical short-term international volunteering and service, and please - through videos, books,  blogs, or going yourself - keep finding ways to live your dreams!

Everyday (Global) Justice, Served up with Tantalizing Travel – and Motorcycles

How do we work for global justice every day, from our lives at home – where we deal with bills and friends and life's daily distractions? I’ve pulled together a few resources here that help with global giving, connect us international armchair travelers with engaging inspiration, and remind me that my favorite forms of transportation have two wheels.

Justice from Home:

We have clear evidence that we can make a huge difference from home. And fortunately there are numerous resources available for those who insist – as so many of us do – that each human life, everywhere around the world, is equally valuable.

Here are just a few among many important resources. First, there’s Peter Singer’s The Life You Can Save book, website, and pledge.  It’s pretty simple: people are dying unnecessarily early, suffering through preventable diseases, and frequently deprived of educational tools and opportunities. We know how to change this. We know what has worked. We have records of success. We do not have enough funding.

Small, regular donations from those of us (regular people) who have disposable income will continue to change lives and ensure human freedoms. It’s astonishing. The value, each month, of two beers, two Starbucks coffees, or one big burrito from a fast food joint – can literally save not just a life, but lives. (For a longer discussion of how things work on the ground in developing countries, see my post on Millennium Development Goals from Tanzania). Here’s the short film from Singer. It's totally worth the three minutes. 

Second, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn wrote one of the most important books I’ve ever read, Half the Sky. It chronicles women’s experiences, challenges, and successes around the world. The individual narratives are powerful – and the data point that 100 million women are missing around the world (due to explicitly violent and more subtle discrimination against girls) is painfully valid and overwhelming (this data comes from world-renowned economist Amartya Sen). Everyone should read their book – and then take actions that follow from it. Kristof and WuDunn assembled numerous links to important, effective organizations advancing women’s rights around the world. Women and girls rights, without doubt, constitute one of the most important issues of our time. Give to any one of those organizations and know that you are making an important difference. Here's the book in one minute and eleven seconds. It's a beautiful clip.
    

Third, John Prendergast and company are taking “never again” as seriously as possible with their effort to completely stop genocide and crimes against humanity through the Enough Project. What’s amazing about The Enough Project is they always tie their campaigns to actions we can take. What’s more, they have clearly demonstrated how raising our voices and making deliberate ethical purchases have helped stop murderous regimes in the past. Take three minutes to watch this video, then follow their suggestions for letting companies know that we want conflict-free electronics.   

Fourth, and related to the Enough Project’s efforts, we can practice systematic conscious consumption. Corporations give us many nice things: as consumers, as employees, and as beneficiaries of positive unintended effects of product developments. But some corporations behave better than others. And all corporations respond to significant consumer pressure (It happened with slave-grown sugar and prohibition; it happened with bus boycotts during the civil rights movement; and it happened with diamond boycotts as part of ending apartheid in South Africa). Resources for advancing conscious consumption include:

• The British organization Ethical Consumer, which catalogues the impacts of your purchases across a wide variety of products. 
• Tree Hugger is also a great site, particularly in respect to the environment. 
• And the movie and movement Call and Response has developed a systematic accounting of each of our (it hurts to write it) "slavery footprints," which is an estimate of the extent to which slave labor is involved in the production of your products. Their estimate is based on data from the US Department of State, Freedom House, Transparency International, and other reliable organizations. The Call and Response trailer provides some quick data on and context for the current, real global problem of slave labor (that exists in the US in large numbers too):  

Fifth, we can be part of or support ethical international connections. This is a favorite of mine, and I think it’s actualized best through an organization where I sit on the Board of Directors, Amizade Global Service-Learning. Amizade connects community-driven development projects with volunteers from around the world. There are a few things that make Amizade stand out:

1. It is deeply committed to community-driven principles, and has been since its inception in Brazil in 1994. 
2. In a field increasingly distorted by private sector travel groups interested in making a quick buck off of something they call service-learning, Amizade is a nonprofit organization with clear ethical commitments, and 
3. Amizade has given substantial time and effort to developing programming that encourages all of its volunteers, students, participants, and community members to think about and act on what it means to be a global citizen long past the end of a brief volunteer experience. 

You can support Amizade by volunteering with them, organizing a group volunteer experience, or by giving this week, when every gift is matched at a 100% match rate (until Nov. 7, 2011)! Also, if you commit to giving $10 or more per month, there's an additional, one-time match of $50! Please consider giving to simultaneously advance community-driven development (this means water systems in Tanzania, classrooms in Bolivia, and much more) AND develop peace by pieces, by connecting people across cultures.

Here are two inspirational minutes on Amizade below (great clip!). But don't let that distract you. You've read this far. Take action. Give to one (at least one) of these important initiatives today. You get the most bang for your buck with Amizade this week (because of the match through the link above), but - more importantly - give somewhere. We're building a better world.

Where, you may ask, is the inspirational international arm chair travel and mention of motorcycles? It turns out this will be  a series. Those posts will come soon.

Please share your additional resources by responding below or sending them my way otherwise. And if you agree that supporting these efforts is important, please re-post, re-tweet, or otherwise share! Thanks for reading!