John McCutcheon’s concert warms the cold night

With hammer dulcimer, guitar, piano, and voice, folksinger John McCutcheon’s music and stories filled the sanctuary and delighted the audience of 300 at the Modesto Church of the Brethren January 16th.

He sang traditional songs and works in progress. The crowd joined in singing many times, invited or uninvited.

Some were songs written in the aftermath of September 11th, free for the downloading on his website www.folkmusic.com. John writes many topical songs and pieces that will not be on a CD for a while. There’s a selection of these as MP3 files. (Of course, his website also has 27 CDs, philosophical statements, a picture of his dog, and “other stuff.” )

Megan Slankard opened the concert. The young local musician is developing her own following--and has her own website.

Bringing folksinger John McCutcheon to Modesto for the fundraising concert has been a longtime dream of Peace/Life Center Boardmember Sandy Sample.

When a date opened on his 22nd Annual “Left Coast Tour”, a committee sprung into action. What a success as well as a treat!

It’s the 1st annual, Sandy says.

— Indira Clark

Ed. note: the event made $2385 for the PLC by press time. 

School of America’s Watch founder to speak in Modesto

Father Roy Bourgeois, founder of the School of the Americas Watch, will give an update on the U.S. military and corporate agendas in Latin America including the drug war on Colombia and the use of U.S. trained terrorists in Mexico, Central and South America.

He will speak on Sunday, Feb. 24, 7 p.m. at Our at Lady Of Fatima Church Parish Hall, 501 W. Granger, and on Monday, Feb. 25, 7 p.m. at Modesto Junior College Forum 110

Sponsored by ALTERNATIVES TO WAR; MODESTO COMMITTEE FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST; MODESTO PEACE LIFE CENTER; MJC STUDENT ACTIVISTS CLUB

Call 209-529-5750 For Information.

SOA Watch is an independent organization that seeks to close the US Army School of the Americas, under whatever name it is called, through vigils and fasts, demonstrations and nonviolent protest, as well as media and legislative work.

In the past two years, US legislators have nearly succeeded in closing SOA, also called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Fr. Roy and thousands of US citizens have peacefully protested against SOA for over a decade. More than half of all Catholic Bishops in the United States have signed a resolution calling for SOA’s closure.

In the wake of 9-11, come and learn the story of SOA and how its closure must be part of the US War Against Terrorism. SOAW has additional information at: www.soaw.org

Fr. Roy will also be speaking on these dates:

• 2/23 Sat. Chico, 7 pm, Trinity United Methodist Church, Info: 530-342-9370

• 2/24 Sun. Oakland, 2 pm, Calvin Simmons Theater, 10th St, Info: 510-548-3088

• 2/26 Tues. Davis, 7:30 pm, 198 Young Hall, UC Davis, Info: 530-792-1040

• 2/27 Wed. Sacramento CSUS Newman Center, Info: 916-448-7157

• 2/28 Thurs. Kentfield, 7:30 pm, Olney Hall, College of Marin, Info: 510-527-2522

Peace Essay Contest 2002

“Service is the rent you pay for room on this planet.” — Shirley Chisholm

Since 1987 the Modesto Peace Life Center has sponsored an annual essay contest open to students in Stanislaus County grades 5-12. Peace Essay Contest 2002 received 980 entries, the most ever, 15% more than last year’s high.

For this year’s contest, participants each identified a need our community. After describing the situation as the writer saw it and explaining why it was important to take action on it, the student developed ideas to improve the situation and identified the skills and talents he or she had to contribute to the success of the project.

The entries are entering the final judging stage as Connections goes to press. See our March issue for some of the winning essays. The Peace Essay Contest 2002 awards reception will held March 8th, Forum Building 110, Modesto Junior College/East at 7 pm. It is free and open to the public.

ACTION: To help at the reception, volunteer by leaving a message at the Modesto Peace/Life Center, 529-5750.

— Indira Clark

Chinese New Year

By LILY DEA

Lily Dea recently transitioned from Berkeley to the Sundial Senior Lodge on McHenry Avenue, Modesto. She taught school in China, immigrated to America in 1938, and later taught in a Chinese language school in Tucson, AZ. Her recounting of Chinese New Year is told to her daughter, Joyce Cunningham. Most of the traditions and customs described herein were maintained when she started her family in America.

The Year of the Horse: February 12, 4700

The oldest and most important festival in China is the Spring Festival, more commonly known as Chinese New Year. Like all Chinese festivals, the date of the New Year is determined by the lunar/solar calendar <http://www.chinatown-online.co.uk/pages/culture/calendar.html> rather than the Western /Gregorian calendar, varying from late January to mid-February.

Chinese New Year celebrates the earth coming back to life and the start of plowing and sowing. In the past, feudal rulers of dynasties placed great importance on this occasion, and performed grand ceremonies to usher in the season.

Preparation for the traditional celebration of Chinese New Year begins with the eighth day of the last lunar month when the weather typically becomes cold. On this day a meal of special hot rice soup containing nuts, dried lotus seeds, red beans, dried dates and other non-meat ingredients are prepared. This tradition has its roots in Buddhism, and the eating of the rice soup is a symbolic purification of the body in preparation for the new year.

Then houses are thoroughly cleaned, in hopes of sweeping away all the ill-fortune that may have accumulated in the family and making way for the wishful in-coming good luck; old things are disposed of; debts are paid; hair is newly cut(!). This is a good time for businesses as people pour out their money to buy presents, decoration material, food, and clothing. Doors are decorated with vertical scrolls of characters on red paper with the very popular themes of happiness, wealth, longevity, and satisfactory marriage with more children. This keeps away ghosts and evil spirits. In many homes incense is burned as a mark of respect to ancestors.

On New Year’s Eve houses are brightly lit with every light turned on, awaiting the reunion of the family clan for a dinner feast. In the south of China, among other sumptuous dishes, a sticky-sweet glutinous rice pudding is served, while in the north a steamed dumpling is popular. Extra care is taken not to stumble or to break or drop anything, particularly a chopstick, for the next several days; doing so would be indicative that bad luck lies ahead. Any such mishap must be quickly followed by the loud utterance of sui sui ping an, which loosely translated is “may each year be with good health.” Immediately after dinner, all brooms and kitchen knives must not be touched. It is considered unlucky to use anything sharp on New Year’s Day—knives, scissors, even nail clippers. Using any kind of sharp blades may sever the threads of good fortune brought in at New Year. Similar risk is attached to the broom, which may accidentally sweep out all that is good. Most celebrants stay up until midnight, when fireworks light up the night sky, driving away impending evil spirits; excitement at this point reaches its zenith. Streets are subsequently inundated with the red outer wrappers of the firecrackers! House lights are left on for at least three nights.

New Year’s Day is spent visiting family, neighbors, and friends. The familiar gung hay fot choy fills the air! The family starts out going door to door, greeting first their relatives and then their neighbors. It is the opportune time for reconciliation and to cast away old grudges. Having an argument on New Year’s Day is to be avoided at all costs. Words related to sickness and death are dropped. This even extends to the use of words which might remotely sound like the words for death or sickness. Housework on New Year’s Day is completely avoided; this activity runs the risk of washing or sweeping away good luck. For the same reason, washing one’s hair on the first and last day of the year is also taboo.

The favorite colors during Chinese New Year are red, symbolizing happiness, and gold, symbolizing wealth. These two colors are predominant in most Chinese New Year decorations and greeting cards.

Lay see, the small red envelopes decorated with a blessing or a good wish, are every child’s (or young unmarried person’s) delight at Chinese New Year! Typically the lay see contains a shiny silver dollar or a crisp dollar bill. The tradition of giving gifts in Chinese culture is not the same as that practiced in western culture. By and large the giving of gifts is restricted to giving money. Small-item gifts are given when visiting the home of a friend and increasingly for weddings, but more traditionally monetary gifts are given. The Chinese give money inside red envelopes, which is also called by its literal translation hung bao. The symbolic giving of the money represents a wish for fortune and wealth in the coming year.

During the build up to Chinese New Year, Door Gods are placed on the external doors of houses. This tradition dates back to the Tang Dynasty(618 - 907 AD). The Emperor Taizong is said to have fallen ill and had a dream in which ghosts came to the palace in search for him. He recounted this tale to his officials the next day, and the story quickly spread through the Imperial Court. The emperor’s top two generals, both of whom had fought to establish the Tang dynasty, stood guard outside the emperor’s bedroom door.

Protected by these two generals, the emperor slept soundly and had no further dreams of the ghosts. However, after a few nights the emperor became concerned for their well-being. He therefore ordered that paintings be made of each general. Once completed, the emperor had these hung on the door to his room and then relieved the generals.

This tale soon became widely known, and in their eagerness to share the protection of these Door Gods, the common people made their own paintings and placed them on their doors. The tradition has continued ever since.

The origin of the twelve animals of the Chinese calendar is rich in legends and myths. A commonly held belief is that the Buddha decided to invite all the animals of the earth to visit him on New Year’s Day, prior to his departure from Earth. However, despite preparing for the biggest party since the disembarkation of Noah’s Ark, only 12 animals came to bid him farewell. They were the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. The Buddha thereby decided to honor his guests by awarding each a year of its own.

The origin of Chinese New Year has several ancient explanations, but all agree that the word Nian, which in modern Chinese has come to mean only “year,” was originally the name of a monster beast that started to prey on people the night before a new year. According to the legend, the beast Nian had a very big mouth that would swallow a great many people with one gulp. People were very scared. One day, an old man came to their rescue, offering to subdue Nian. To Nian he said, “I hear say that you are very capable, but can you swallow the other beasts of prey on earth instead of people who are by no means your worthy opponents?” So, Nian took the challenge and swallowed up many of the other beasts of prey on earth that had harassed people and their domestic animals from time to time. After that, the old man, who happened to be an immortal god, disappeared, riding on the beast Nian. Now that Nian was gone and other beasts were scared into forests, people began to enjoy their peaceful life. Before the old man left, he told people to put up red paper decorations on their windows and doors at each year’s end to scare away Nian in case it awoke and tried to sneak back because red is the color the beast feared the most. From then on, the tradition of observing the conquest of Nian is carried on with the hanging of red vertical scrolls on the front doors.

The most spectacular event of the Chinese New Year festivities must surely be the Lion Dance. Lion dances take place throughout the first few days of the Chinese New Year, bringing good luck to the households or businesses that they visit. The Lion Dance is performed by two dancers, one at the head and the other at the tail of the lion. Careful observation of the Lion Dance reveals that it is in fact a stylized choreography of movements generally performed by skilled members of a martial arts school or acrobatic company. To enhance the ‘life’ of the lion, its eyelids, mouth, and ears all move . The dance is accompanied by loud music played on large drum, gong, and cymbals. The use of firecrackers, drums, gongs, and cymbals are related to the role of the lion in dispelling evil and bringing good luck.

The dramatic climax of the Lion Dance is the choi cheng or “picking the green.” The “green” refers to vegetable leaves which are tied to a piece of string; a red envelope (lay see) containing money is also attached. The string is hung above the door of a house or business, and the lion ‘eats’ both leaves and lay see. Lying on the floor, the dragon “chews” the leaves while the musicians play a dramatic rolling crescendo. The lull is broken as the lion explodes back into activity while spitting out the leaves. This is a symbolic act of the lion giving a blessing; the spitting out of the leaves signifies that there will be an abundance of every good fortune for the coming year. (There is a price, of course, to having a lion visit one’s house or business!)

Food is one of the most important aspects of the Spring Festival, and huge amounts are bought, prepared, and eaten in Chinese households. Many of the foods served at New Year have symbolic meanings. Some foods have names which sound the same as a character with a lucky meaning; for some foods their shape and color are emblems of words special to the Spring Festival such as happiness, prosperity, good fortune or luck. More than enough food for the reunion dinner is prepared to signify nian nian yu yu, which means having more than enough of good things in the upcoming year.

Kitchen God’s Day is on the 24th day of the last lunar month. The Kitchen God returns to heaven to report on the family’s past-year activities to the Jade Emperor, who is the ruler of heaven. This day is marked by acts of appeasement to the Kitchen God so that he will give the Jade Emperor a favorable report. Traditionally images of the Kitchen God are burned as a symbolic act of departure. Often some gold or silver money will also be burned for his traveling expenses. Often the lips of the Kitchen God are brushed with honey or a sugar solution just before the image is burned; this act will increase the likelihood that the Kitchen God will report only sweet things. From the 24th the Kitchen God will be absent from his shrine in the kitchen, and during this time it will be cleaned in preparation for his return on New Year’s Eve. The public holiday for New Year lasts 3 days in China, but the festival traditionally lasts until the 15th day of the new lunar month with the Lantern Festival marking the end of the New Year season. Houses are decorated with colorful lanterns, and a sweet or savory fried or boiled dumpling made of glutinous rice flour is eaten. Afterwards life becomes routine once again.  

Tirza and Chris “tell it like it is” in Argentina

(Tirza Hollenhorst and Chris Johnson, Rice University graduates in the sciences, have kept Connections readers abreast of ecological, social and political conditions in past accounts from study travels in Ecuador, Egypt, New Zealand, and Thailand. They currently send this report from the economically embattled Argentina, where ironically, the two have been working under the CEDHA (Centro De Derechos Humanos Y Medio Ambiente) Responsible Business Program (RBP) to help small and medium sized businesses “operate in a more economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner.”)

Greetings friends, Happy New Year from the Nomads. We are well in Argentina.

We arrived here in a time of relative stability, but recently, everything has changed. We are watching sad events unfold in this country. The people have been outspoken, but passive. We do not feel in danger. In many ways, we are not affected personally by the changes. It is like watching a sad movie unfold.

Devaluation, emigration, and casseroles:

Over the New Year’s holiday the government devalued the currency. The one peso/one dollar convertibility kept the economy stable for years. However, there were many problems in the system including tax evasion, corruption, overspending, and over-borrowing.

As in most unsustainable systems, what has happened is not a slow tumbling of the economy, but a free fall. People are not buying anything. Prices have been deflating, especially in the service sector, in an attempt to stimulate business. The devaluation of the currency has increased the cost of imports and oil, so there is inflation, as prices adjust to a new dollar value. All the while there are politicians making off with what little remains in the government coffers.

As the economic situation worsens, more and more people are leaving or trying to leave the country. Because Argentina has such a large immigrant population, many people either hold foreign passports or are eligible for dual citizenship. Young professionals are leaving for Spain or Italy, the countries of their parents or grandparents, places where they have never been. Others are searching for opportunities in Canada or the US. It is awful to meet young, talented, enterprising professionals who feel they do not have a future in the country they love.

A short time ago we were strolling to a friend’s house when we witnessed Los Caserolazos, “the casserolers”, whole middle-class families at night banging on casserole dishes, 1970s orange Tupperware, flattened pie pans, and tin cans. Babies banged spoons with half filled milk bottles hanging from their mouths like strange appendages. Grandmothers carried signs, lynches, and canes. Everyone demanding jobs, the resignation of the mayor, the resignation of the president, change, improvement, a future...

The changes we feel:

We do not buy very much regularly, except food. When we arrived here in Cordoba, we were pleasantly surprised at the number of health food stores. Two months ago when we inventoried several stores and collected info on the prices and availability of about forty products (dried goods), the country was in stable times with the dollar equal to the peso in value. Now everything is uncertainty and speculation. Policy, exchange rates, and financial restrictions are constantly changing. The government devalued the currency 40 percent overnight, but in actuality, it is up to 50 percent devaluation. Fear and speculation about the future of the currency has made prices unstable across the country.

We took advantage of our information to do our own study of price changes to see how they affect us. The locals we told about our plan to re-inventory thought without a doubt there would be big increases, and the papers have been saying that food is going up: meat 15 percent, oils 8 percent, bread 10 percent, and fruits and vegetables 0 percent.

We are also affected by the changing situations of the people we meet. People are very stressed and worried. They often spend half a day waiting in line at the bank (several times a week). Last week the government froze all dollar accounts. A one time $3000 transfer is allowed and then the account is frozen for the next year. If this policy stands, CEDHA’s future is uncertain. If CEDHA cannot take out money for rent, Internet, phone, and salaries, things will undoubtedly change. When the government can get away with blatant infringement of personal property rights, they throw the rational to the wind. Who would want to invest here, if they could lose the right to control their belongings?

Indeed the fact that the country has not descended into anarchy is actually quite amazing. But things just plod on. We are more cautious these days, aware that petty crime is probably on the rise. People are very somber. The whole country is in a somber mood. And waiting, waiting for the moon to rise, waiting for run away inflation to strike, waiting for a pension payment which hasn’t come in months, waiting for someone to drop a dime in their cup, waiting in lines that stretch down the block and around the corner so they can maybe get their money out, waiting in line to buy bread which cost 10 percent more with a salary that has dropped 30 percent.

ACTION: Connections readers can learn more about Chris’ and Tirza’s latest discoveries at the Nomads Lounge: www.jprconsulting.com/nomads/

Conference: Beyond Terrorism and U.S. Policy in the Middle East

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), A Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), United Muslims of America (UMA), Interfaith Witness for Peace (IWP), and Forum Committee of the San Francisco Unitarian Universalist Society will hold a conference, Moving Beyond Terrorism: Shaping a Just U.S. Policy in the Middle East on Saturday, March 2, 2002 at the Unitarian Church in San Francisco, and on Sunday, March 3 at International House in Berkeley.

Joel Beinin, Professor of Middle East History at Stanford University will be keynote speaker.

Worshop topics include: the impact of U.S policies on the Middle East and the Islamic world; how U.S. policy affects the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan; the impact of our foreign policy on  U.S. civil rights and democracy; and seeking ways to encourage peace and reconciliation rather than violence and terror.

ACTION: Contact Allan Solomonow, AFSC, 415-565-0201, email: asolomonow@afsc.org, for information.