Entries this day: Dream Leaving Work had-to-flee-oaxaca kaerimasu the-soldiers-reply-to-the-desperate-question-where-shall-we-live-we-gave-you-a-tent-last-time

Dream

10:24am JST Friday 15 December 2006 (day 13414)

Walking in my new neighborhood to meet some friends at 20:00 at a certain cafe, I looked down at my phone to check the time: 14:22. I was like, "what??" wondering how I could be that early. Then I realized it was 14:23, 14:24, 14:25... the phone was counting the length of a call!

"Hello??"

"Rob?"

"Have you been waiting for 14 minutes?"

"Yes."

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I had no idea; I just looked down to check the time, and.."

"That's okay. Are you still in touch with Shama?"

"Not past that email she sent me."

"Oh, well, this is Miffy!"

"HI!" (who? I have no idea who this is.)

"I heard Shama emailed you, so I wanted to call you, and see how you are doing.."

"Thanks!"

"But it looks like we have to start over; press #"

"Okay" and I pressed the # key and the call was disconnected. Hmm. I guess she'll call back, given that she was willing to wait (pay for) 14 minutes of silence. Gotta remember that when she calls back. 14 minutes. I owe her that. Who is this girl? Think think think. What's the best way to tell her I have no idea who she is?

This dream is full of places my warrior did not show up.

Leaving

1:45pm JST Friday 15 December 2006 (day 13414)

As I left for work I wished good luck to Stephen in his first full day in Japan. I forgot to wish bon voyage to Michael, who I won't see for 2 months. Dammit. I was feeling late for work and could hardly detach from the slew of questions from Stephen about how to get around Tokyo ¤â how I prepare before going in to each lesson ¤â something else.

I just tried to call Michael, but his phone is disconnected (?) slash otherwise unavailable.

Work

1:49pm JST Friday 15 December 2006 (day 13414)

At work now. My schedule includes 7.6667 hours of lessons and .3333 hours of break.

10:55pm JST Friday 15 December 2006 (day 13414)

Yarg. That was tough. I did actually get a cancellation, but near the end of the day as I had a student reading, but not understanding and not wanting to understand (I asked her in Japanese), I didn't really want to babysit her reading monotonefully.

had to flee oaxaca

##11:08 Friday 15 December 2006

Hello all...

So I have been experiencing some sort of writers block. I had intended to send this update last week but ended up needing some time to reflect and decompress. The repression by the Mexican government that I described on the 25th has continued. On October 29th the government leaked that they had compiled a list of 100 internationals from video footage who they alleged were committing vandalism alongside the movement and who they intended to deport. I am not sure I believe such a list exists (not to mention I have never seen close to 100 internationals in Oaxaca), it may have simply been a fear tactic but mixed with the news that they had picked up a french woman and her lawyers were unable to speak to her or find out where she was, I decided it was best to go. I had been in Oaxaca for so long and I don't exactly blend in and I did not want to risk deportation, not to mention rape and torture. If I had stayed I would have been stuck in my apartment and decided I could do more just as much writing from a far. So now I am in San Cristóbal Chiapas and looking forward to attending an international encounter planned by the Zapatistas at the end of this month. Then I hope to spend the last month and a half doing volunteer work in the Zapatista villages in the jungle. On the way home I will stop in Oaxaca to say goodbye to many folks and check in with the situation. I will be in the Olympia/Portland area for two weeks the end of February through early March and would love to do a slide show and reportback of the Oaxaca struggle if anyone is willing to help me find a space and do a bit of publicity. Let me know if you are interested. Ok, enough about me. On to the current situation...

There have been over 500 people detained, many tortured by the government throughout the 6 months of this struggle. Currently there are over 200 imprisoned, over 100 of them have been transferred to federal prison in states outside Oaxaca. Stories coming out of these prisons include stories of torture, 60 reports of sexual assault, rape threats and forced confessions. There are still many outstanding arrest warrants for members of APPO. Because one of the major goals of APPO has been to create a democratic governance structure, they have been highly transparent and the names of those involved and elected as representatives of various regions are easily found in meeting minutes and online. This has made it easy for the government to target those involved in the movement. The police have made numerous private home searches and have taken teachers from in front of their students in their classrooms (in front of children as young as kindergardeners). Governor Ulises himself recently acknowledged that up to 80% of those detained on the 25th were not associated with APPO but were concerned citizens in the streets.

On December 1st, Felipe Calderon from the conservative PAN party who took the election through fraud was inaugurated. Thousands gathered outside before dawn, constructing barriers to prevent Calderon's entrance into the Chamber of Deputies. Inside brawls had broken out between member of the PAN and PRD (the party of leftist Lopez Obrador who was cheated out of the position) parties. Chairs had been thrown, doors blockaded, pillows were handed out the members of the different parties had fought over sleeping on the platform where the inauguration was to take place. A fake presidential convoy was used to distract the demonstrators while Calderon snuck in through basement parking garage. The entire ceremony took less than 4 minutes and it was impossible to hear over the screaming from PRD members.

Calderon was able to give a speech later in a military installation. I watched on television as he spoke to an audience of men in uniform standing in formation. Oh democracy. In less that a month he has already made cuts to education and has created a cabinet including Francisco Javier Ramírez Acuña as his Interior Minister, in charge of domestic security. Ramírez, past governor of Jalisco, was accused by Amnesty International of serious human rights violations, including ordering a brutal crackdown on anti-corporate globalization protesters. Eduardo Medina Mora was selected as Secretary of Public Safety. He has strong ties to banking interests and is a member of El Yunque, an ultraconservative group similar to the Christian right in the states. Making his policy clear in dealing with social uprising, on December 4th members of APPO including two highly visible elected reps were arrested in Mexico city two hours after announcing they had come to negotiate with the federal government.

On December 3rd APPO released a declaration stating... "The APPO is more alive than ever in the hearts of the workers, indigenous people, campesinos, housewives, students, youth, children, and all the exploited and oppressed in Oaxaca and Mexico. The State Terror that has been unleashed on the people of Oaxaca and the international community with increased brutality since November 25 has not weakened our desire to be free men and women." A march was held on December 10th. Even in the face of the incredible risk of being arrested and tortured tens of thousands marched calling for the release of prisoners and continuing the call for Governor Ulises to go. The march was led by families of the disappeared, representatives of APPO and senators from Lopez Obradors PRD party.

The movement has taken a huge blow through the fierce repression but the logic that you can simply wash over a movement with fresh paint and jail, disappear and torture its members without acknowledging the root cause of the unrest shows the barbaric and shortsightedness of the government strategy to deal with this movement. So much of this response is created through pressure from the United States to maintain the status quo to keep the positive climate for foreign investors to come in and take the resources and exploit the labor of Mexico without opposition from the ever growing poor, which in turn keeps the pockets of the Mexican elite lined with dollars. This corruption and repression is facing greater and greater resistance and we can recognize our own role in the situation and support the movement however we deem possible. The Zapatistas have called for an International Day of Action on December 22nd in solidarity with people of Oaxaca. I will include that declaration below.

Thanks for listening and keeping the people of Oaxaca in your minds... rochelle

Communique of the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee - General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Mexico.

December 2 of 2006

To the people of Mexico: To the people of the world:

Brothers and Sisters:

The attack that our brothers, the people of Oaxaca suffered and suffer cannot be ignored by those who fight for freedom, justice and democracy in all corners of the planet.

This is why, the EZLN calls on all honest people, in Mexico and the world, to initiate, starting now, continual actions of solidarity and support to the Oaxacan people, with the following demands:

For the living reappearance of the disappeared, for the freedom of the detained, for the exit of Ulises Ruiz and the federal forces from Oaxaca, for the punishment of those guilty of torture, rape and murder.

We call to those in this international campaign to tell, in all forms and in all places possible, what has occurred and what is occurring in Oaxaca, everyone in their way, time and place. We call for these actions to come together in a worldwide mobilization for Oaxaca on December 22, 2006.

The people of Oaxaca are not alone. We have to say so and demonstrate it, to them and to everyone. Democracy! Freedom! Justice!

By the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee - General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Mexico.

Insurgent Subcommander Marcos. Mexico, December of 2006

kaerimasu

11:37pm JST Friday 15 December 2006 (day 13414)

On my way home, the train got stuck for some unknown reason one station from my station. Prolly someone discarded themselves in front of a train, which mucks up the whole line. People started to escape the train, so I was just like, "fuckit I'll walk" and headed out as well.

Just happened to be at a bus stop as the bus came up, so I used Kellie's bus pass (that I won at her byebye party) to get the rest of the way home.

In a lovely turn of events, I found two train cards on the floor of the bus, with credit on them.

Yoink!

the soldiers reply to the desperate question where shall we live we gave you a tent last time

##10:50 Friday 15 December 2006

Hi everyone, It's been a while since my last mass email and I've had a couple of those "are you still alive" emails that I love as they prove to me that you all miss me (ie they're good for my ego!) and make me laugh! I have to say that I've started writing this email a few times, but every time I've given up as the words seemed a little empty. The past few weeks in my new home have been, typically, both great and heart breaking. I'm now working in the village Walajah that i emailed you all about a few weeks ago. It's great to be part of such a small, close community, and as such I'm having to walk up all of the steep hills around here to work off all of the food I'm being fed at every opportunity! It can be so quiet and peaceful here, that it's easy to forget about the "situation" (as everyone here calls it!), and think that i'm living in some pretty Mediterranean town (which I am). However, and there's always a however, in the past week and a half there's been three incursions by the army. The first was to demolish a building and a house. After much arguing, a local lawyer prevented the home demolition, but the outbuilding was destroyed. The second was in the early hours.The army came and forced a family out of their home with tear gas and sound grenades. They then forced the father of the family to strip to his underwear in the freezing cold and lay on the ground before arresting him. His crime? He works for an orphanage in Bethlehem that is supported by the social services part of Hamas. He is still detained. His teenage daughter who I've been helping with her english homework was too upset to attend an exam last week. The third is the one that always gets me. Two days ago the home of Monder Hamad was demolished for the second time this year, to make way for "the wall" deemed illegal by the International court. So this is my problem: witnessing this was one of the most traumatic points of my life, and this isn't my house, my village or even my country. How can i scrape together the words to describe how heart breaking it is to watch such a personal injustice occur? A family torn apart by well armed teenagers with all of the power, friends and family kept away unable to offer comfort. A few of us able to help the family empty their lives out onto the street before.... Even as I write it now it seems empty. The soldier's reply to the desperate question: "where shall we live?"...."We gave you a tent last time."

So do me a favour, think about how this would make you feel, spare us a thought over the holidays, and next time you hear about Hamas refusing to recognise Israels right to exist bear in mind the continuous humiliations and tragedies inflicted on every Palestinian: man, woman and child.

Suzy xx