A warning, or threat, from Vancouver:
Read your blogs Mark, and I'm just curious who is paying you off to write what you write...and how you can trust government reports like you do...Your comments show a serious lack of respect for both the family of Brad Will and the great majority of people that are from the land that you are clearly passing through.
I am nervous for what will happen to you once Ruiz actually falls and the PFP, ministrales or priistas dont have your back anymore...
god bless, and for your own sake, id watch your words and who you choose to trust...
best,
mh
michaelahurwitz@gmail.com
Well.
Obviously Michael A, Hurwitz doesn't really read the blog, but that's another matter. And who is Michael A. Hurwitz (not that I really care)? Well, he's a contributor to a group from the University of British Columbia, the usual leftist activists. The group calls itself CIPO Van, or the Vancouver supporters of the Consejo Indígeno Popular de Oaxaca - Ricardo Flores Magon.
The group also called itself Geography 495 and the "Kiosk Team". The kiosk is what people here call what I refer to as the bandstand in the center of the Oaxaca Zócalo. Now this group (Geo 495) maintained a blog for a whole 2 months in March and April of this year but the blog, unforunately, died.
RIP.
Other contributors to the blog were:
Angelo, the PRIDE of UBC?
Sean Lymworth - "an inexperienced fish in a big ocean." Or so says John Whistler.
Hale Jones-Cox, hjonescox@hotmail.com, who investigates crime, sort of.
Lauren Weidel, stage manager; spent some time in Guadalahara which makes her an expert.
Ali
Cali
Michelle
Juanita
Maja of the Translations Group, Dr. Maja Krzic, I would presume. krzic@interchange.ubc.ca
Conan of the Barbarians (just kidding)
Emilie in Oaxaca (more on the unfortunate Emilie, later. And by the way, Emilie Smith, what's wrong with the Irish Rovers and Mi Unicornio Azul?
Michael A. Hurwitz (and his mom)
As I stated before, some or all of these folks were or are members of CIPO Van. Now CIPO Van sponsors fundraising activities for the aforementioned CIPO. In fact, they just had a deal back in June where Bishop Samuel Ruiz was an honored guest and speaker. Bishop Ruiz was the former Bishop of Chiapas and played a part during the mid 90's as a middle man between the Mexican Federal government and the EZLN (Zapatista Lib Army). Bishop Ruiz is also heavy into liberation theology. That was frowned upon by Pope John Paul II and is really disapproved of by Pope Benedict XVI. In fact, Pope John Paul removed Ruiz's right hand man and the next in line of seccession to Ruiz, one Monsignor Raul Vera López, because of his conversion to liberation theology.
Liberation theology, if you're not really on top of these things (I had to research it a bit, myself) views Jesus the Christ not only as the Savior but also as the defender and liberator of the poor, downtrodden and oppressed. That's A-ok in my mind, but problems have arisen when some people have taken the Christ's statements as a literal call to arms, gunned up, and started killing people. Also, most all proponents of liberation theology have adopted many Marxist philosophies, such as that of perpetual class struggle. That has not set well with the Vatican.
Remember that Pope John Paul lived through the communist occupation of Poland and Ma and Pa Ratzinger signed up little Joey in the Hitler Youth. Both men remembered those hard lessons and neither had any truck with those who turn a blind eye to bloodshed in the name of Jesus or who can't seem to understand that the poor, downtrodden and oppressed may inheret the earth but are not destined to rule it. The poor, downtrodden and oppressed are not the ones who build the factories, manufacture and ship the goods and live in the mansion north of town. That's just the way it is.
Now, Pope John Paul was not altogether un-sympathetic to the poor, downtrodden and oppressed who have had their land stolen from them. In fact, it was in Puebla, Mexico, when he stated that property expropriations might be defensible from time to time, depending on how it was done. I do not believe that he included either done at the point of a gun nor done over the bleeding, still warm bodies of the former property owners as approved Catholic methodology.
Also on hand with Bishop Ruiz at this CIPO Van soiree was another fellow. He is identified by CIPO Van as Antonio from Sección 22 of the SNTE - the teachers union. Here he be.
You don't need a history lesson from me on Sección 22 and their maximum leader, Enrique Rueda Pacheco, who is feathering his retirement nest by auctioning off university degrees and teacher's licences to whichever grade school dropout makes the highest bid (30,000 to 50,000 pesos).
That is really moot because I don't think Sr. Villanueva is affiliated with Sección 22 at all. I think he's with CIPO-RFM and is a long time fighter for Zapotec justice. It's just that he moves around an awful lot from one battle to the next. First he's in Huatulco, then in San Antonio de la Cal, then Oaxaca, then touring with Bishop Ruiz and being introduced as a "migrant" Zapotec leader. That would tend to indicate that he's no longer in Mexico. Or, at least, he wasn't until recently, having "migrated" back.
And now we come to Emilie Smith, Anglican priest (priestess?) who has been here in Oaxaca for some time, sleeping in "a small carboard box", or something. She has spent many years in both Guatemala and Mexico encouraging native peoples to get themselves killed to assuage her white guilt which can never be fully assuaged. The photo below may or may not be Emilie. But if you see this person crossing the street in Oaxaca, assume that it is indeed Emilie and cross yourselves.
She recently went nose to nose with the Mexican consul in Toronto, who has about as much influence on political events and justice in Oaxaca as I do. When he more or less informed her of that fact, she told him that he should resign immediately. There now, that ought to fix everything, don't you think?
November 30, 2006
Dear Friends,
It is a silent morning, the silence of death and of the end. It is Saturday of Holy Week, even though it's Thursday, I think. God is absent from the world. Yesterday morning the Barricade of Cinco Señores came down, and later, the University Radio station was handed over. The seven times seven blessing is that it all unfolded without greater violence. The chavos of la Barricada de la Muerte just melted away, it was no use to carry on, and so many had been picked up and have now been beaten to a pulp, and disappeared, or at best, revealed to be in some prison. The Radio turned over their encampment to the rector of the University, in the face of an immediate full on assault by the PFP, and then did likewise, faded into grey nothing.
Does Emilio Carranza #210 ring a bell with anyone?
This morning the always-on radio is not on, there is no news, there are no reports, no phone calls from around the corner, warning about police prowling, neither from Indigenous women talking about faith, from Pandita offering critical analysis, calls of support from Arizona or Vancouver, from somewhere in the world where Oaxaca matters.
Oh, and to Sarah Ferguson: This was your source?
Note: I edited some typos that sneaked into the post because "I wasn't watching my words."
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
Thanks!
TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers strike, Bishop Samuel Ruiz, CIPO-RFM, Emilie Smith
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