The Human Impact of the Palestine Conflict
This Thursday (January 28), three time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Archbishop Elias Chacour will speak in Grand Rapids about the human impact of the Palestine conflict.
Chacour is the founder of the Mar Elias Education Institutions and author of the acclaimed book Blood Brothers. He has traveled and spoke on the consequences of violence in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and is a strong advocate for non-violence.
Chacour will speak at the Cultural Center of St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church located at 2250 East Paris SE in Grand Rapids. The presentation begins at 7:30 pm and is sponsored by Healing Children of Conflict.
Healing Children of Conflict is a Grand Rapids-based group that is sponsoring Palestinian and Iraqi children that have been seriously wounded by the US military or US weapons. The children will be brought to Grand Rapids in order to receive medical treatment.
Thursday’s event is free and open to the public.
Documentary on Argentina at the Bloom Collective 1/28
This Thursday, the Bloom Collective will host a screening of the documentary film Argentina: Hope in Hard Times. “What would you do if you lost your job, they closed the banks so you couldn’t access your savings, and the government seemed unable to help? In Argentina they stormed supermarkets for food; the police gunned down 30 people in just one day. But what happened next was truly extraordinary.”
ARGENTINA – HOPE IN HARD TIMES joins in the processions and protests, attends street-corner neighborhood assemblies, visits workers’ cooperatives and urban gardens, taking a close-up look at the ways in which Argentines are picking up the pieces of their devastated economy and creating new possibilities for the future. A spare narrative, informal interview settings, and candid street scenes allow the pervasive strength, humor, and resilience of the Argentine people to tell these tales. These are their inspiring stories – of a failed economy and distrusted politicians, of heartache and hard times, of a resurgence of grassroots democracy and the spirit of community – told in resonant detail.
Thursday, January 28 7pm
Bloom Collective 1134 Wealthy (back space)
Suggested donation of $3 Discussion will follow
The local news media continues to report on local humanitarian responses to the crisis in Haiti and that certainly says something about people’s capacity to do good. Anytime people raise money for emergency relief efforts it has the possibility of relieving someone’s suffering.
However, along with humanitarian relief comes the responsibility to understand the historical and political context of the current crisis in Haiti, particularly when it comes to US policy.
Today the Grand Rapids Press has an interesting editorial entitled “From here to Haiti.” The editorial points out the positive response from West Michigan to the crisis in Haiti, most notably the Haitian orphans who were brought to town with the help of Amway corporate jets. Bethany Christian Services is the agency heading up this adoption project.
Then the Press article highlights some local longstanding West Michigan/Haiti partnerships that were initiated by the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, an Aquinas College education project and a recent (2008) Cornerstone University anti-poverty project.
The editorial concludes with more praises for West Michigan’s commitment to philanthropy and this final paragraph:
“It’s been uplifting to see this country lead the world in the rush to ease Haiti’s suffering during an unfathomable tragedy. But for Haiti to have a better tomorrow, the world will need to be there next month, next year, and next decade. Because of our ties and commitment, West Michigan must resolve to help ourselves, as well as our nation and our world, remember and remain.”
While I agree in general with this statement it ignores two things. First, it ignores some of the West Michigan connections that have not been a positive influence on Haiti. In the 1990s the children’s clothing manufacturer H.H. Cutler closed down their manufacturing operation in West Michigan and moved much of it to Haiti, since labor costs were a fraction of what they are here.
The labor conditions in Haiti have been well documented by groups like the National Labor Committee, which has classified the labor conditions there as sweatshops conditions. Another local connection is with the Haiti Baptist Mission based in Rockford, Michigan. In her book, The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier, author Amy Wilentz talks about the corrupt practices of the religious leaders from the Haiti Baptist Mission working in Haiti.
These are just a few examples, so while I salute the current humanitarian efforts from West Michigan in support of Haitians that the Grand Rapids Press acknowledges it does a disservice to its readers to not include local organizations that have contributed to Haiti’s ongoing poverty.
Independent News Coverage of Haiti
The second thing that the Press editorial ignores is the role that current US media coverage of the crisis in Haiti plays in terms of the public understanding of this crisis.
Much of the coverage, as we already have noted, has little historical context of the US relationship to Haiti or the motives behind this country’s policy in the small Caribbean country. In the US, some of the best coverage of what is going on in Haiti has come from Democracy Now!, which has sent a news team to that country for daily reports.
Independent reporter Jeremy Scahill has also been writing about Haiti, particularly what role private security forces are playing in “relief” work. Scahill reported on this phenomenon after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and is now uncovering similar patterns in Haiti.
A recent article by author Nikolas Kozloff points out that the news coverage coming from Latin America and the Middle East is much different that that of the US in their coverage of Haiti. Kozloff says, “Watch the U.S. media and its coverage of the crisis in Haiti, and you get the impression that Washington is a benevolent power doing its utmost to help with emergency relief in the Caribbean island nation. But tune into al-Jazeera English or South American news network Telesur and you come away with a very different view.”
Kozloff has a link to this excellent story by al-Jazeera. When watching this story think about how it compares to US-based news reporting.
Supreme Court ruling is a blow to democracy
Yesterday the US Supreme Court ruled to overturn a ban on direct corporate spending on elections. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, “In a 5-4 decision, the court’s conservative bloc said corporations have the same 1st Amendment rights as individuals and, for that reason, the government may not stop corporations from spending freely to influence the outcome of federal elections.”
The federal ban had been in effect since 1907 and prevented corporations and unions from spending their own treasury funds on broadcast ads or billboards that urge the election or defeat of a federal candidate.
Corporate and special interests groups already have tremendous influence during elections and this Supreme Court decision will only exacerbate the problem. Fortunately, some public interest groups are responding with campaigns to confront the court’s decision.
The Center for Media & Democracy (CDM) responded to the Supreme Court decision by saying they “strongly oppose this radical decision by a bare majority of the Supreme Court to rewrite the First Amendment and give corporations even greater influence in elections and public policy. With this decision, huge corporations like Goldman Sachs and AIG will be able to use their enormous wealth to run campaigns against the president or any person who might oppose their agenda.”
CDM has created an online petition encouraging people to express the voice their opposition to this decision. The Center for Media & Democracy will also have a new “portal” they are launching in SourceWatch to help educate the general public about these issues and provide a gateway for getting more involved.
In addition, Public Citizen has also begun a petition campaign in response to the Supreme Court decision. However, Public Citizen thinks that what will ultimately have to happen would be to “pass a constitutional amendment to ensure corporate money does not overwhelm our democracy and clarify that the First Amendment is for people — not corporations.”
Public Citizen also posted a short video message from their President Robert Weissman, explaining their strategy.
Grand Rapids Poverty rates and the GR Press
The lead story in the Grand Rapids Press today was based on a recent study by the Brookings Institute on the increase in levels of poverty for Grand Rapids and its surrounding suburbs.
According to the data the percentage of people living in poverty in Grand Rapids increased by 8.9% since 2000 and for those in its surrounding communities the rate increased 4.9%. The total amount of people living in poverty for Grand Rapids now stands at 24.7%, meaning one-quarter of the population, which saw the steepest rise in poverty rates of the 95 cities investigated in the Brookings study. The percentage of the population in the surrounding communities now stands at 11.2%.
Considering such alarming numbers, whom does the Press reporter talk to for reactions? First, they quote one of the Brookings research analysts, Elizabeth Kneebone who says, “It is putting additional strain on a safety net that is not as well developed.”
Next the Press reporter talks to Steve Gibson who works for a social service agency in Byron Center. Gibson said that many of the people they serve no used to be middle class. “I hear it over and over and over again, that we used to donate to you,” Gibson said.
The only other source cited in the story was George Erickcek, senior analyst for the Kalamazoo-based Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Erickcek is a regular source for the Press and acts as its unofficial economic expert. His response to the findings of the Brookings report was, “It penalizes you for being low at the start. Grand Rapids is worse than before. But it’s definitely not a basket case. The manufacturing sector has been hard hit. I’m not surprised to see an increase in poverty. But for me, it’s more important to see the total level of poverty.”
What do you suppose Erickcek means by the “total level of poverty.” My suspicion is that he is not talking about the harsh reality of living in poverty that goes beyond statistics and this is what is missing from the Press article. We do now get the perspective of people living in poverty. There is not person or family that lives in poverty that is source in this story. We do not hear their perspective on the realities of poverty but we do hear an economic “expert” who doesn’t seem to be “surprised to see an increase in poverty.”
The Privilege of Richard DeVos
I forced myself to go hear Amway co-founder Rich DeVos give a lecture today as part of Calvin College’s January Series. It’s important to hear people with power, especially for independent media, since one of the fundamental tenets of journalism is to scrutinize power.
DeVos focused on his most recent book, Ten Powerful Phrases for Positive People. The phrases are not anything new or terribly enlightening, they are just phrases that we all have been taught by parents or teachers at some point in our life. Phrases like, “you can do it,” “I believe in you,” “I trust you,” and “I respect you.”
DeVos shared personal stories about how he has tried to apply each of the ten phrases he wrote about in his book and much of the discourse was framed in his interpretation of the Christian faith. DeVos kept saying, “our task as Christians is to be life enrichers.”
However, as he kept sharing stories and reflecting on his own life I couldn’t help but think about what a privileged life he has led. When I say privileged I don’t mean, “what a privilege it is to be here.” I am talking about the kind of privilege that few people in the world have, privilege that comes with wealth and power. DeVos has been a millionaire then billionaire for more than 50 years. He has traveled around the world countless times and has had access to those in political power for decades.
Several times he shared stories about conversations with US presidents and other stories about interactions with prominent business leaders. DeVos even had the arrogance to begin his talk by thanking the crowd for such a warm welcome and then saying that it surprises him sometimes because, “a prophet is never welcomed in his own country.” That phrase was historically attributed to the Hebrew prophets because they challenged and condemned the power structures of their day.
As he kept talking and trying to weave small pearls of wisdom with his phrases he would eventually say things that to this writer really reflected who Rich DeVos is. When talking about the phrase “I need you,” DeVos mentioned that Amway was sending supplies to Haiti because “the Haitians need us.” He also added that we shouldn’t give them everything because then they won’t learn to do for themselves. Apparently, DeVos think that Haitians are just chronic charity cases who are only looking for handouts.
When discussing the phrases “I believe in you,” DeVos shared the story about how he went to the Grand Rapids Press once to chastise then editor Mike Lloyd for criticizing the amount of money Arendt Lubbers was receiving as the GVSU President. DeVos said we need men like Lubbers and then said he was upset with the way that Wall Street executives were being treated now. “Wall Street people have done a great deal to build up this country.” DeVos went on to say that he was recently talking to former President Clinton and expressing his frustration with Obama and his “anti-Wall Street” positions. I’m not sure what DeVos means since the Obama administration has been fine with handing over billions of taxpayer’s dollars to bailout Wall Street for their corrupt financial practices.
Another phrase that DeVos mentioned was “Thank You.” During his reflections on this phrase he talked about how he was against the most recent government push for health care reform. He said, “we tried all kinds of things to defeat it and then along came this guy from Massachusetts. The hand of God is so evident.” DeVos was referring to the recent victory of Republican Scott Brown who is replacing a seat in the Senate vacated by the death of Edward Kennedy. It is believed that Scott’s victory will signal a defeat of the President’s health care plan in the Senate.
The last phrase that DeVos touched on was, “I Love You.” In reflecting on this phrase DeVos recounted how much family support he received while in England where he had a heart transplant. At one point DeVos went as far as saying that the new heart was a gift from God. Apparently his financial wealth had nothing to do with it.
DeVos finished his talk by reading a Christian bible phrase and a story about how he told a group of US Marines recently to keep the quote on a piece of paper while serving in the next tour of duty. The phrase was, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” I wondered to myself if this is what these young men would be thinking while shooting Afghani civilians.
In the end I was glad I went. This way I could share with some people a perspective that is not likely to appear in any of the other news media in West Michigan, as is evidenced in a short piece that appeared on the Grand Rapids Press online source this afternoon.
This Friday and Saturday Calvin College is hosting its annual event that tries to draw the connections to animal rights, food justice and sustainability. The Two-day event is called Wake Up Weekend and will feature events at both the Calvin College Campus and in downtown Grand Rapids.
Wake Up Weekend 2010—Tentative Schedule
Friday, January 22, 2010
2:30-5:30 pm The Many Faces of Food Activism
Commons Annex Lecture Hall, Calvin College
Harold Brown (Farm Kind, NY)
Brett Colley (Grand Valley State University)
Ben DeVries (Not One Sparrow)
Lisa Oliver King (Our Kitchen Table)
Paul Shapiro (Humane Society of the United States)
5:30-7:00 pm Compassionate Comestibles Potluck
Commons Annex Lecture Hall, Calvin College
Hosted by Calvin College Students for Compassionate Living
7:30-9:30 pm Animals and the Kingdom of God Lecture
The Chapel Undercroft, Calvin College
“Animal Sacrifices”
Dr. John E. Hare, Yale University
A reception and book signing follows the lecture.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
11:00 am Bryant Terry’s Vegan Soul Kitchen
Brick Road Pizza Company, 1017 Wealthy Street SE
Cooking Demonstration, book signing, and vegan brunch*
(*Demo is open to the public; $10 brunch buffet is optional.)
2:30 pm Lecture
(106) South Division, Grand Rapids
“Justice for Animals: What May We Hope?”
Dr. Andrew Chignell, Cornell University
3:30 pm Panel Discussion
(106) South Division, Grand Rapids
Just Eating: Making a Difference in YOUR TOWN, USA
5:30 pm Open Studios
(106) South Division, Grand Rapids
Named and Nameless
Division Avenue Arts Collective, 115 South Division, Grand Rapids
The Artist Is the Human Is The Animal
7:00 pm Vegan Chili Cook-off
(106) South Division, Grand Rapids
9:30 pm Film Screening
Division Avenue Arts Collective, 115 South Division, Grand Rapids
Fowl Play: The Untold Story Behind Your Breakfast
Several hundred people gathered early this afternoon at the Allendale campus of Grand Valley State University to participate in the annual Martin Luther King Jr. event. The event began with a silent march from library to field house, with signs along the way acknowledging historical moments in King’s life.
After a few songs and comments from GVSU administrators, the keynote speaker, Randal Pinkett, was invited to the podium. Pinkett is, according to his website, founder, chairman and CEO of BCT Partners, a multimillion dollar consulting firm based in Newark, NJ, that specializes in information technology, organizational development and public policy. So what did a man who has made millions doing consulting work for Microsoft, Pfizer & Hewlett-Packard have to say to people on MLK day?
Pinkett used the metaphor from Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken, to communicate his idea that we all can be trailblazers and create our own road in life. The speaker felt that children have this sense that they can do anything they want because of their innocence and that we should all nurture that desire. Pinkett said that this was the message that Dr. King gave us……that we all can achieve anything that we can imagine.
At one level I wasn’t disagreeing with many of the statements that Pinkett made, but as I thought about them I came to the conclusion that most of the statements he made were shallow phrases, phrases that we always share with students in order to give them some hope about the future. Of course many people want to believe that we can achieve anything if we just try really hard, but this has little to do with the message and legacy of Dr. King.
Pinkett said he was going to address the issue of Wealth Creation, something he has written about in books like Campus CEO and No Money Down CEO. However, the speaker never addressed this issue. In response, it might be worth looking at what Dr. King had to say about wealth and economic justice.
King began with a focus on civil rights, but eventually evolved to a more mature vision of economic justice. Once King moved his base of operations to the North he began to reflect on the devastating and systemic poverty that Blacks lived in. In Chicago King began working on an anti-slums campaign and soon realized that there were economic forces that criticized King. This criticism lead King to write:
“You can’t talk about ending slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with the captains of industry….Now this means that we are treading in difficult waters, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong…with capitalism.”
King believed that the nation owed Black people for the years of free labor under slavery and the years of underpaid labor in the free market system. King didn’t necessarily call what the nation owed Black people reparations; rather he called it a Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged.
“No amount of gold could provide an adequate compensation for the exploitation and humiliation of the Negro in America down through the centuries. Not all the wealth of this affluent society could meet the bill. Yet a price can be placed on unpaid wages. The ancient common law has always provided a remedy for the appropriation of the labor of one human being by another. This law should be made to apply for American Negroes. The payment should be in the form of a massive program by the government of special, compensatory measures, which could be regarded as a settlement in accordance with the accepted practice of common law. Such measures would certainly be less expensive than any computation based on two centuries of unpaid wages and accumulated interest. I am proposing, therefore, that just as we granted a GI Bill of Rights to war veterans, America launch a broad-based and gigantic Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged, our veterans of the long siege of denial.” (From Why We Can’t Wait)
Another important aspect of King’s insights about economic justice was his critique of military spending versus funding social programs. In his Beyond Vietnam speech King said that the US spends thousands to kill each enemy combatant in South East Asia, but spends only a few dozen on each poor person in the US. King understood that the Vietnam War was not only immoral, but it also stole precious resources from the Black community.
Lastly, it is important to note that King’s last months were spent working on the Poor People’s Campaign. The Poor People’s Campaign said nothing about Wealth Creation or Black Entrepreneurs, it was a campaign that demanded economic justice for the poor that would have used the tactic of mass civil disobedience, had King not been assassinated.
For Grand Valley State University to invite someone who has made millions of dollars as a consultant to corporate America to speak at its MLK Day celebration is questionable at best. I for one felt that the speaker cheapened the memory of Dr. King.
The Dr. King We Rarely Hear About
“I am sorry to have to say that the vast majority of white Americans are racists, either consciously or unconsciously.”
This quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is one that we are not likely to see or hear today as the nation celebrates his birthday. Most news coverage and unfortunately most public events will remember the “I Have a Dream” King.
It is easier to remember the King who had faith in this country to solve its racial problems. We all want to think about a future where White children and Black children will play together in harmony. However, this would be a dishonest view of Dr. King. We must look at the whole person and particularly the last years of King to understand his own evolution.
Once King brought his civil rights campaign to the North in 1965 he realized that liberals in the North were just as racist as they were in the south. The quote we began with is from a 1967 speech King gave entitled, “Which Way Its Soul Shall Go,” and it is as applicable today as it was in 1967.
When we honestly reflect on the economic and social condition of Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Arabs, Native Americans and other minorities in the US today it should be a signal to us that racism and White Supremacy is still deeply entrenched in our country. This is exactly the point that anti-racism writer and activist Time Wise was making in his most recent book, Between Barack and a Hard Place. Wise believes that while we can celebrate the country’s first Black President, racism is still firmly entrenched in our society. This is also a theme that radical historian Paul Street addresses in a recent essay comparing Dr. King and Barack Obama.
Saying that most Americans are racists wasn’t the only issue that King challenged people on in his later years. By 1965, King had identified what he considered the “triple evils”; White Supremacy, Capitalism and Militarism.
King had come to understand that he could no longer speak out about racism without challenging the economic and political structures in this country, which perpetuated and benefited from racism. In an essay from 1967, King provides astute analysis of why capitalism doesn’t work.
“We are now making demands that will cost the nation something. You can’t talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can’t talk about ending slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with the captains of industry….Now this means that we are treading in difficult waters, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong…with capitalism…here must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a Democratic Socialism.”
Ask yourself, why this statement has not received the same kind of annual attention as the “I Have a Dream” speech?
The third evil, militarism, was most manifested in King’s day with the Vietnam War. In 1967 – 68 King became one of its most vocal opponents. King’s 1967 speech at Riverside Church (Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence) is one of the best critiques of war from any American writer.
King not only spoke out against the immorality of the war, he addressed the economic and racist implications of war. In addition, King saw through the imperialist propaganda of the US and rightly identified the US, not as a nation promoting democracy, but a nation he called “the great purveyor of violence” on the planet.
In this video excerpt from his Beyond Vietnam speech we can hear King’s critique of a country that spends more money on militarism than social uplift.
