Gladys Williams, president of the Stanislaus-Modesto Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), has been honored as one of the first to have her name placed on the new Wall of Tolerance in Montgomery, Alabama.

Williams, a Modesto City School District elementary teacher, has served the community for many years as a mentor and social justice advocate.

The wall is a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s National Campaign of Tolerance chaired by Civil Rights pioneers Rosa Parks and Morris Dees. It has been designed by Maya Lin, architect of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.

El Porvenir means "the future." It is a small nonprofit organization dedicated to sustainable development in Nicaragua. Simple potable water projects are our #1 priority.

This past summer I joined a work brigade to Nicaragua. This was my third trip to this beautiful Central American country. The other two trips centered on Somoto, with the Merced-Somoto Sister City program. The brigade consisted of ten people including a family with two teenage sons. It was a two week commitment with sight seeing on the week-ends. We were to leave on July 14,2001 and return on July 27, 2001. It took us 24 hours to leave San Francisco due to cancellations and delays. We arrived the next evening and some friends were there to greet us.

After spending the night in Managua, we were all set to go to Ciudad de Dario. This was a new adventure for all of us. The village in which we were going to work had requested help with repairing a well, shower rooms, and sinks for washing clothes. El Porvvenir takes on projects if they are asked. The community works along with us, or rather we work along with them. The two leaders for us have been with El Porvenir for over 5 years.

Sandy road up to the village with wind riding in the back of pickup with benches on either side. People selling animals by the road. Bumpy ride to the village. And then we are here and meet the people. We arrive a day late and everyone is eager to get started. The little and big boys are there to help also.

The progress was so impressive. From dirt to bricks to outlines to finished projects. We ate in the village and had tortillas freshly made and beans and fresh juice of various colors from orange to pink provided by Laura and Errol, our leaders.

There had been a drought in Nicaragua this summer. Crops were planted and not much rain. We saw acres and acres of stunted corn and dried plants of beans. A new planting would be made in August. As we looked at the children, we feared there would be a famine as La Prensa-newspaper headlines stated. And with the president of Nicaragua saying there was no problem. But we worked on the project and in two weeks it was finished with a party and a pinata for the children. It is a life-changing experience to come to this country of lakes and volcanoes and wonderful people.

ACTION: You may contact the author at: ShellyS833@aol.com

What was once sold by the Clinton Administration as a one time aid package to fight a "war on drugs" in Colombia has been transformed by the Bush Administration into on-going involvement in a raging civil war. In late July the House of Representatives passed the Andean Counterdrug Initiative package, which builds on the $1.3 billion Plan Colombia, sending an additional $676 million in mostly military aid to war torn Colombia and its neighbors. The new aid commits up to 500 US military personnel to be stationed in Colombia, and pays for up to 300 mercenaries. It also substantially increases military aid to other countries in the Andean region.

US training and weapons are already escalating the war in Colombia. On August 13 Colombian government warplanes using night vision began bombing a column of troops from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The next day attack helicopters paid for with US tax dollars began ferrying 4,000 troops into the battle zone. In the following weeks the government helicopters continued to hunt down the FARC forces. As one military colonel said, "Our mission now is to eliminate them."

What this attack will accomplish for the "war on drugs" is an open question, but there is no question that the US is aiding Colombia in a counter-insurgency war. This attack represents the most sophisticated and deadly military campaign launched by the Colombian military in years, and it couldn’t have happened without US aid. To a few right-wing ideologues in Congress that’s good news. According to Rep. Ben Gilman (R-NY), "It’s time to drop the fiction of anti-narcotics aid only…Overall, we need to keep going and do more in the region…. Panama, deserves our strong support, especially as it faces a new FARC inspired and trained insurgency. We must continue to show we are serious, and do even more."

The fact of the matter is that there is no good side to the war in Colombia. The Colombian military has the worst human rights record in the Western Hemisphere. Human Rights Watch has documented collaboration between the military and right-wing paramilitary groups which routinely wage terror campaigns. This year paramilitary tactics have included killing civilians with chainsaws, and bashing their heads in with rocks. Just as is the case with the FARC, the paramilitaries are partially funded by coca production.

The FARC, for their part, are funded by a tax they levy on coca production and by kidnappings. They conscript children into their guerrilla army, and wage terrorists bombing campaigns. While they kill and terrorize fewer civilians than the right-wing paramilitaries, that’s hardly a recommendation.

The effect of Plan Colombia has been to inject modern war fighting tactics into this brutal war while ignoring the tremendous suffering of innocent civilians. According to the Colombian President’s office 319,000 people were driven from their homes by paramilitary and rebel troops combined. There are an estimated 20 deaths every day due to political violence.

The plight of Colombians has worsened since the implementation of Plan Colombia and continued aid promises to increase and expand the conflict. President Bush’s Andean Counterdrug Initiative doesn’t merely increase military aid to Colombia. Under the plan Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Venezuela and Panama would all get an increase in military aid of between 20% to 345% per country. Commenting on the increased violence in his town earlier this year, an Ecuadorian mayor said, "If Colombia is going to be the next Vietnam…then Ecuador is going to become the Cambodia."

Like Vietnam, there is a disturbing and persistent lack of congressional oversight of US intervention in Colombia. In January, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) complained that the only reason he learned about the fact the US was paying to upgrade a base in Ecuador was because he read it in a newspaper. More recently Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) has pushed the issue harder, saying, "The American taxpayers are funding a secret war…The public has a right to know that the Defense Department is outsourcing dangerous missions to private armies that operate free from public scrutiny." Indeed, the US Defense Department has hired two mercenary companies, DynCorp, and Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI), to conduct a variety of training and monitoring roles. These companies are under no legal obligation to tell the American public what they do. As MPRI spokesman Ed Soyster said in a recent interview, "You can’t go into a wartime situation and announce to the world and your enemies what we’re doing."

While Congress continues blindly forward with this misguided policy, Democrats representing California have been very responsive to grassroots pressure. In a remarkable turnaround all but four of them voted to cut $100 million in military aid out of the Colombian aid package. As the bill moves to the Senate the pressure is mounting on Senator Feinstein to listen to her peers. Senator Boxer has been an outspoken opponent of military aid to Colombia. Write and thank Senator Feinstein and tell her to vote for any amendment that cuts money for the war in Colombia. Urge her to support amendments to the Andean Counterdrug Initiative that cut military aid to Colombia and its neighbors. Also write Senator Barbara Boxer and thank her for her stand.

Senator Diane Feinstein’s address: Hart SOB, Washington, DC 20510; fax: 202-228-3954; email: senator@feinstein.senate.gov.

The author is Northern California Political Director, California Peace Action Email: andrew@californiapeaceaction.org; ph. 510.849.2272.

Tirza Hollenhorst and Chris Johnson, recent Rice University graduates, have spent most of the last two years walking the talk of social and environmental justice in Egypt, New Zealand, Thailand and Ecuador. Both will continue their activist paths in Argentina as volunteer members of the Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA-Centro De Derechos Humanos Y Medio Ambiente).

They will work under the non-governmental organization’s umbrella to launch its Responsible Business Program (RBP) in Argentina in an attempt to help small and medium sized businesses there "operate in a more economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable manner."

The young couple’s objectives for the coming year are:

• to create a bilingual manual for local implementation of responsible business practices.
• to build an online library for the exchange and dissemination of socially and environmentally responsible business practice.
• to link local business leaders and stakeholders in a collaborative and constructive responsible business network.

The RBP hopes to offer alternatives to "business as usual" practices that promote "short term profits...bound solely to the interests of the stockholders." The focus will be to educate businesses about the benefits of an expanded triple bottom line that goes beyond economic to environmental and social concerns. It is believed business can and should positively impact, rather than threaten, the future of human enterprise by providing a positive force for social change.

Expanding the bottom line would also broaden the body of stakeholders to include the employees, business partners, investors, customers, community and the environment. Tirza and Chris point out there already has been an international precedent whereby businesses "have deployed vast resources and achieved proactive innovations, [including] new systems of environmental management and assessment, merging values with core business practices and giving stakeholders a voice in the company."

The effects of triple bottom line business practices have been "to reduce consumption and waste streams, protect employee and human rights, and address and basic needs of the community. Moreover, these efforts have shown that a commitment to environmental and social responsibility can enhance the financial performance of business while making corporations a positive force for change.

Although global resources for business reform have been implemented over the past decade, Tirza and Chris point out "the adaptation for responsible business practices have not been uniform," and that an acute lack of accessible, relevant resources in Latin America has been a barrier to progress.

The two plan to "encourage cooperative relationships between business and community leaders, academics, activists and civil servants" by engaging them "in meetings and workshops to foster collaboration and enable affinity groups that concentrate on common interests."

"CEDHA works primarily in three areas: Access to Justice, Sustainable Trade, and Responsible Business." It supports Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and participation in developing the United Nations Human Rights Guidelines for Companies and the Global Reporting Initiative’s human rights indicators.

ACTION: To help Chris and Tirza cover the expenses incurred to the RBP as they work with local business and community leaders, readers may partner with them through tax-deductible contributions earmarked for the Responsible Business Program to the US-based non-profit Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), a fiscal sponsor, c/o 5254 Tully Road, Hughson, CA 95326. Visit the website at: www.jprconsulting.com/RBP/RBP.htm to learn more about the program.