Because not everyone wants to participate in the Peacebuilding Olympics, I have decided to open up the playing field a little. Here are a few of my top medal picks of the week, along with a few losers: First of, a big gold plated disk to the Olympics for being over. I never quite know
Tag: politics
In the rhetoric of Colombia, the myth of being Latin America´s largest democracy looms large. But on Monday, democracy was once again seen to be more rhetoric, less reality. Bogota´s leftist mayor, Gustavo Petro, was dismissed from office by the Inspector General for problems when he tried to nationalize the city’s garbage collection last December.
I was invited to share with Langley Mennonite Fellowship for Peace Sunday. Here are some of my thoughts. Forgiveness and kindness are political acts of peace, which I have had the privilege to witness in Colombia over the past two years. For many, especially in Colombia, the Montes de Maria region of the Caribbean coast
Español Prison missives, authored by Saint Paul to Martin Luther King Jr, have power. When the normal liberties of life have been stripped away, all that remains is the humble authority of conviction and the truth of an unbreakable spirit. From his maximum security prison, where he spent the first month sleeping on the cement
Español Imagine that you are an 18 year old young man. Imagine that for your whole life you have grown up in a country that promotes violence. There are knights waving flags in your Sunday school classroom. Billboards proclaim the glory of becoming a national hero. You know that when you reach the age of
IMPORTANT NOTE: This blog post is my lived experience and interpretation of the situation and not the official action alert nor the official position of Sembrandopaz or MCC. Political persecution sounds like something out of those political intrigue novels full of stock characters I used to devour in middle school. Life is an adventure and
Español Aqui Advocacy is the focus of the month! What is it, how does it work and who does it are all questions that we Seeders are wrestling through after our big trip to Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala, and of course, our present work in Colombia. Here’s a reflection of working with the church: I
Sunday was a tension filled roller coaster ride of ups and downs. The question of to march or not to march was on everyone’s mind and the theme of countless discussions long into the night. Working groups, speeches, and political posturing dominated the day as meetings went on and on and on. The governor of
When we left this morning at 5:30am from Arroyo de Arena, someone in the 600 strong crowd remarked, “At this pace, we are going to arrive in Cartagena at the same time that it takes to lick two block of panela.” This means a long time, basically the coastal equivalent of slow as molasses in
Anna L. Vogt 