1. Ponies and Small Persons - “A nation's moral state shows in how it treats its animals” (Mahatma Gandhi)
In its initial stages, Ponies and Small Persons is designed to bring street children and street horses together in mutual healing. Increasingly marginalized by S(tupid) U(gly) V(icous) vehicles, they are literally being dumped onto the hard shoulder of the ‘asphalt progress’ currently destroying the very planet. 'Nags and Nippers' sets out to redeem the children from hopelessness and the horses from brutal labor. Together, the animals will at last experience gentle rest while the children can express tenderness, perhaps for the first time ever. All participants, children, carers and supporters alike, will discover more intelligent ways of using finite resources and other ways to happiness than tragic consumerism.
2. Water! Not War - "We must re-discover our reverence for water, for life itself.” (Everywoman)
Few believe that the current astounding gloabl absorption of materials, economic resources and, above all, human intelligence in weapons and war is wise. Yet wars for water will be different in kind not just in degree, since, unlike oil, water is vital to all life - human, animal and plant. Echoes of Silence believes that by recovering our reverence for water as our most precious resource, we can begin to learn to heal both ourselves and the planet. Local potters fashion beautiful goblets from clay; we offer these to be used in rituals to re-awaken that reverence. Income from the goblets promotes the Water Not War campaign calling for the re-dedication of 1% of all military budgets, materiel and personnel to provide fresh water for everyone, through re-forestation, conservation, infrastructure and truly listening to those most profoundly linked to life, women, young people, and indigenous nations. Together they form the vast unsung majority of the Earth's people, yet have little representation/participation in politics-as-usual.
3. Zero Hunger - "That every child shall have milk to drink, every day" (Salvador Allende)
A program to eradicate food hunger in Nicaragua, stimulating a home-grown, sustainable, economy, rolling back global warming and promoting the dignity, health and rights of women and children. Not merely 'food for a day', Zero Hunger is truly revolutionary since it is based on gender equality, organic sustainable land and water use, the rejection of oil-based farming and cutting the supply of 'illegal alien' cheap labour to the North – all measures to confront the current planetary crisis with hope and creativity. (£1000 [US$2000] : Raise a family of six out of hunger forever.)
4. Songs of Loveliness and Courage. “Beauty … that opens us up like a wound, to see with new eyes” (Victor Jara)
Victor Jara's songs are among the most beautiful and profound of the entire New Song Movement. In the slaughter that began with the US/Pinochet coup on 911 One (Chile, 1973), he was tortured and murdered. Yet today, while Pinochet is recognized worldwide as a monster, Victor – now more than ever - goes on giving life and new hope to people the world over, his songs indeed ‘opening us up like wounds, to look out from within ourselves’ to see the world with the new eyes of loving justice, cooperation and beauty vital to heal the planet, and therefore ourselves.
(A presentation of Victor's best-loved songs, interpreted by Echoes' coordinator, Paul Baker Hernandez. Spanish and/or English [singing English translations as needed]. Negotiable fee. Please contact echoespaul@tortillaconsal.com)
5. Art in Times of Renewed Hope - "I Won't Join Your Revolution if I Can't Dance" (Emma Goldman)
Recent governments, tied to the consumerist 'death style', obliterated many of the wonderful murals of peace and hope celebrating cooperation, ecology and gender balance that blossomed throughout Nicaragua after the ejection of the Somoza dictatorship. Repaint the best of them. Join in creating new ones for these times of renewed hope.
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