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Echoes of Silence: Workers, Not 'Stars'

Page history last edited by Paul Baker 12 years, 9 months ago

ECHOES of SILENCE

Peace. Justice. Beauty.

Workers, not 'Stars' (Victor Jara) 

 

 

Legendary musician Don Felipe Urrutia*, playing Echoes coordinator's guitar. Paul 

made it secretly from table legs and toilet seats while a silent Trappist monk

 

Echoes of Silence - 'artists with broken finger nails' - works to build peace with justice, through active beauty.  Beauty offers a glimpse of wholeness and the vision of a healed world: beauty moves people to firm actions for peace-filled justice - crucially, as the very earth melts beneath us, environmental justice. Besides their intrinsic healing power, the arts are also vital for communication and interchange with so many people still unable to read.

    Resonating with the silences of oppressed peoples and the abused planet, Echoes also celebrates the creativity within each of us, so repressed by tragic consumerism. We particularly support projects to end war, to reduce global warming, and to build community information and action networks locally, nationally and internationally.

    The current world crisis is the direct result of an unsustainable system built on individualism, fear and exploitation. It is also the great opportunity to bring together the millions of positive people and initiatives that are at work throughout the planet, and to weave from them a genuinely new world order, based on communication, cooperation and community.

 

                                  

 

   Like so many, we are inspired by Victor Jara, Chile's greatly-loved singer/songwriter, martyred by Pinochet (plus Kissinger and Nixon) in 1973. In his spirit, we challenge the West's infantile celebrity culture, looking instead to support popular movements and grassroots projects. As Victor put it: 'We're workers, not 'Stars'.  

   So, since there are already many fine programs doing wonderful things, we prefer to support the work of others rather than start our own.  This actually multiplies direct support for Echoes since it assists our own work in support of others.  This model also allows for greater flexibility: thus we can commit ourselves, quickly, wherever we can be most effective.  Examples of Echoes' work are:-

 

  • Organizing/performing at events for all who suffered on 9/11, both in the USA (2001) and in Chile (1973  via the destruction of the elected government of Dr. Salvador Allende by General Pinochet, abetted by the USA and Britain. Victor Jara and thousands more were tortured and murdered.
  • Promoting the Nicaraguan government's Zero Hunger and other programs that enable campesin@s to live with dignity on the land, via trade justice and organic farming, providing food security, reducing water waste and promoting reforestation.   They also transform the life of women who become owners of the means of production and are liberated from cancerous cooking smoke by cooking/lighting gas-from-animal waste systems. Finally, workers stay home, developing their own land and family instead of being forced to go provide cheap labor for the 'American Way of Life'.
  • Providing sound system and live music for the 30th anniversary of the Nicaraguan Community Movement, which develops health, educational, sport and cultural programmes in marginalized neighbourhoods/rural communities
  • Regular reports on current Nicaraguan events for the international community
  • Three tours per year of the USA and Europe, offering analysis, promoting links to community projects and national programs, giving press interviews, concerts and lectures, taking part in conferences and discussions, assisting with campaigns, demonstrations and more.

 

To support Echoes work please send tax-deductible checks, (made out to 'PeaceWorks/Echoes') to: 

Jim Burchell, PeaceWorks, 

6 Dumont Place, 2nd Floor,

Morristown NJ 07960-4149

Or donate online at http://peaceworks.ning.com/group/echoesofsilence

(Times are hard, we know. But Nicaragua has already been blasted to help sustain the West's profligracy. Don't punish her people even more just because our system has run off the rails.  50% of Nicaraguans 'live' on about US$1 per day!! Yet they remain astonishingly full of spirit, song and laughter.

In the truly interdependent world, solidarity is a two-way street. Help share the beauty and courage - particularly through Nicaragua's superb environmental projects - working shoulder-to-shoulder.for peace-filled justice. Join

Echoes of Silence Eco-cultural brigades) .

 

100% of your donation goes to Echoes of Silence; PeaceWorks is our fiscal sponsor but takes no commission.

 

For further information, please contact us directly at: echoespaul@tortillaconsal.com and/or on:

Nicaragua  , UK  , USA  

 

*Photo: Don Felipe Urrutia. Legendary musician (92) who, entirely by ear, rescued the traditional polkas and waltzes of northern Nicaragua from oblivion. His group, Don Felipe y sus Cachorros, continues to sing for the Sandinista Revolution. 

Don Felipe is playing Echoes' co-coordinator's "Green Guitar", homemade from scrap wood.

______________

 

 

 

###  NEXT US TOUR: September 2011 ###

NEXT UK TOUR: October 2011

For information and bookings, please go to Tours Page.

______________

 

Check out other pages:

Tours

SideBar

Projects

 

Echoes of Silence brigades live with ex-guerrillera Fátima Hernández and her British husband, Paul Baker Hernández, in a marginalized neighborhod of Managua. As a teenager, Fátima fought the Somoza dictatorship, then volunteered with the Revolution’s magnificent Literacy Crusade. She has worked untiringly on grassroots health and education projects for over 30 years now, usually for no pay. She was recently given a special "Award for Distinguished Service" by the Nicaraguan National Community Movement.

  Paul, songwriter, author and artist, formerly Nicaragua Network (US) and Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign (UK) representative/delegation worker, is now Echoes of Silence coordinator. Playing his legendary eco-guitar, crafted from recycled garbage, he works with and celebrates similarly creative practical responses to the current eco/economic crisis to help build a new, beautiful and sustainable world, from water collection/reforestation to mosquito-free wash tubs. He worked in Chile with Joan Jara, widow of the great Víctor Jara, lived with Salvadorans fighting off death squads even in Hollywood, and sang for Britain’s largest-ever gathering of 300,001 (the ‘1’ was the Pope). He’s appeared with Inti Illimani, Rita Moreno, Jackson Browne and Martin Sheen. In Nicaragua, he specializes in Victor Jara’s inspiring songs, and he frequently joins the Urrutias, Carlos Mejia Godoy and Salvador Cardenal of Duo Guardabarranco. Paul has two published books and various CDs. His songs include: ‘I Thought I Heard Sweet Víctor, Singing .. ‘, ‘Ode to Starbucks’, and ‘That S*****g Cellphone!’  He tours USA and Europe every year.

    Income supports Echoes of Silence projects and Fátima and Paul’s work. The global financial crisis, sired by the North, has drastic effects in Nicaragua, among other things killing off Fátima's tiny stipend and cutting project income by 1/3.

 

 

Costs per person US$75 per day

Places limited, please book early. Come for the full 14 days if you can; but don't worry if you can't. Flexibility is our middle name.  You'll be welcome no matter what.

 

(This covers: board, lodging, transport, 24/7 support, speakers' fees, translation, analysis, events. Airfare separate. Bring a little extra for that 2nd beer, gifts, and discretionary events.  Nicaragua is very safe and Echoes of Silence supports members at all times. However, modest insurance for personal emergencies may be worthwhile.)

 

Draft itinerary/bookings:  echoespaul@tortillaconsal.com

 

USA/Canada:  973 765 9102; UK:  01225 866181; Nicaragua: 22 49 0979

Or see: http://echoesofsilence-ecosdelsilencio.pbwiki.com – Brigades page

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