Human rights accompaniment and news of the struggle for peace and justice in Colombia as observed from the San Jose Peace Community, Colombianoreply@blogger.com (Isaac Beachy)Tue, 10 Sep 2024 14:29:56 -0400Blogger http://www.blogger.com14125http://isaacbeachy.blogspot.com/en-ushttp://isaacbeachy.blogspot.com/2012/05/graffiti-in-bogota.htmlBogotáColombiagraffitinoreply@blogger.com (Isaac Beachy)Mon, 7 May 2012 21:03:00 -0400tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785232635225844966.post-5097649407254854150It's been a good old long time since I've put anything here.  Originally I wanted this to be a space not just to share my thoughts, but stories, images, and information that I'm privy to here that friends and family at home to have as easy access to.  A kind of way of spreading my experience around.  Welp, when I moved to Bogota I didn't have as many interesting emblematic 2http://isaacbeachy.blogspot.com/2011/05/free-trade-agreement-cometh.htmlcampesinoColombiafree tradenoreply@blogger.com (Isaac Beachy)Fri, 13 May 2011 15:17:00 -0400tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785232635225844966.post-5087532970444598898Alright, Obama is about to submit the Colombia free trade agreement to Congress who is about to approve it and I don't have a lot of time right now, so I'm just going to list six reasons I think the free trade agreement would be a terrible idea. If you want a fuller argument, it shouldn't hard to find with a little google searching.A peace community leader recently predicted that the free trade 0http://isaacbeachy.blogspot.com/2011/03/slideshow-of-daily-peace-community-life.htmlaccompanimentcampesinacampesinoColombiacommunity workSan Jose Peace Communitynoreply@blogger.com (Isaac Beachy)Tue, 22 Mar 2011 01:23:00 -0400tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785232635225844966.post-5459573591413346146I convinced Rosa (a nice, but not real name), one of my neighbors and peace community member, to let me follow her around for a day and take a picture about once an hour. As a result, I give you a window into an average day for a Colombian campesino woman. 0http://isaacbeachy.blogspot.com/2011/02/struggle-sucks.htmlaccompanimentColombiapeople's strugglesrevolutionSan Jose Peace Communitynoreply@blogger.com (Isaac Beachy)Sun, 27 Feb 2011 12:05:00 -0500tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785232635225844966.post-7024904696588599466I’ve been in Bogota now for a month with my own apartment, an office job, and beer. So granted, I feel very distanced from the peace community. Recently while walking along a Bogota street and talking with Liza, a fellow FOR worker, I realized one of the very important things my time in the peace community taught me. My time in the peace community was not easy. I always enjoyed it on a very 0http://isaacbeachy.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-job-in-photos.htmlaccompanimentColombiaFellowship of ReconciliationSan Jose Peace Communityslideshownoreply@blogger.com (Isaac Beachy)Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:04:00 -0500tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785232635225844966.post-8588302664005403194I took a picture about once an hour for a day and made a slideshow to show more or less the day to day of accompaniment work. 1http://isaacbeachy.blogspot.com/2010/11/their-best-rifle-is-media.htmlaccompanimentColombiacombatFellowship of Reconciliationguerrillahuman rightsmediamilitarizationmilitarySan Jose Peace Communityvideowarnoreply@blogger.com (Isaac Beachy)Wed, 17 Nov 2010 08:48:00 -0500tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785232635225844966.post-3798090481277096568"I was in my bed when an explosion rocked our house." I tell of combat on the edge of the Peace Community, and analyze how the military reported on it. Meanwhile, community kids carry on in a party. Filmed on October 30, 2010. If you'd rather read about this, look at the previous post.2http://isaacbeachy.blogspot.com/2010/11/combat-near-our-house.htmlaccompanimentColombiacombatFellowship of ReconciliationguerrillamediamilitarizationmilitarypropagandaSan Jose Peace Communitynoreply@blogger.com (Isaac Beachy)Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:50:00 -0500tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785232635225844966.post-4950092637306723889Two weeks ago it was 7:30am and I was in my bed when an explosion rocked our house. I decided to get out of bed. Heavy combat immediately ensued on the hill immediately adjacent to the village we live in including shots from rifles, AK-47s, M-60s (a type of machine gun) and occasional grenades. The combat on the “Hill of the Cross” (named after the cross placed as a memorial for six peace 0http://isaacbeachy.blogspot.com/2010/10/peoples-congress-is-cool.htmlBogotáColombiaFellowship of Reconciliationmovementpeople's congresspeople's strugglesvideonoreply@blogger.com (Isaac Beachy)Thu, 21 Oct 2010 12:08:00 -0400tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785232635225844966.post-2481065131510501525I was recently inspired from afar. In early October, 17,000 delagates representing 220 organizations/communities gathered in Bogotá for the People's Congress. A tent city was erected in the national university and soup pots set to bubbling to accomadate the five day gathering. There were human rights organizations, small farmer collectives, indigenous communities, and others. The indigineous 0http://isaacbeachy.blogspot.com/2010/10/pics-of-good-idea_07.htmlanti-capitalistcacaoColombiacommunity workcomunalcomunitarioFellowship of ReconciliationSan Jose Peace Communitynoreply@blogger.com (Isaac Beachy)Thu, 7 Oct 2010 12:57:00 -0400tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785232635225844966.post-6818876406847891565A bunch of fotos showing one of the community’s key processes. Click on the large image to begin.3http://isaacbeachy.blogspot.com/2010/09/bathing-in-dam-lake.htmlColombiadevelopmentdisplacementFellowship of Reconciliationmega projectsmilitaryparamilitariesSan Jose Peace CommunityUrránoreply@blogger.com (Isaac Beachy)Wed, 8 Sep 2010 10:58:00 -0400tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785232635225844966.post-4921325984750551975I like belt buckles. About a year ago my grandfather, who lives in a small town of about 80 in Amish country, Kansas, gave me a buckle with “Yoder”, the name of the town, written in cold steel on the front. On the back of the buckle below a minuscule history of Yoder’s founding the buckle’s maker stamped into steel “183 of 300”. I, along with my aunts and uncles, was one of the few proud 0http://isaacbeachy.blogspot.com/2010/07/my-girlfriend-and-displacement.htmlaccompanimentColombiadisplacementFellowship of Reconciliationpalm oilSan Jose Peace Communitynoreply@blogger.com (Isaac Beachy)Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:28:00 -0400tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785232635225844966.post-8541054160875718363h#g-:;oh – That is all the text that Microsoft Word could recover from my wonderful blog entry after the electricity went out. It also happens to be what I said when I realized I had lost my blog entry. This information will most likely not change how you read this blog, but I just want everyone to know that I’m not happy about it. On with the blog…Amanda, my girlfriend, recently came to visit. 2http://isaacbeachy.blogspot.com/2010/05/were-getting-away-with-it-again.htmlColombiacolombian governmenthuman rightsmilitaryparamilitariespeople's strugglesnoreply@blogger.com (Isaac Beachy)Wed, 26 May 2010 10:56:00 -0400tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785232635225844966.post-3696862454341415811I’m not that unique in my embarrassment of the U.S.’s history of open support for dictators and regimes that destroyed their countries to benefited U.S. interests. Its easy to be so looking back at the U.S.’s relationships with Somoza and the Contras in Nicaragua, the Salvadoran 1980s military, and Pinochet in Chile among others all who were violently repressing their civilian populations and 1http://isaacbeachy.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-had-nice-morning-few-days-ago.htmlaccompanimentColombiaFellowship of ReconciliationmilitarizationSan Jose Peace Communitynoreply@blogger.com (Isaac Beachy)Sat, 10 Apr 2010 14:02:00 -0400tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785232635225844966.post-6896064665019402833I had a nice morning a few days ago. After laser frogs woke me up (they sound like bweiw! bweiw!) I read a little bit in the hammock and warmed up some tinto (strong, black and very sweet coffee) that I had made yesterday. Using the customary black rubber boots, I crossed the rain engorged stream between the FOR house and the house of Lucia, a new friend. Maryeli, Lucia’s oldest daughter, was 1http://isaacbeachy.blogspot.com/2010/03/90-degree-greeting-to-you-all.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Isaac Beachy)Mon, 1 Mar 2010 18:27:00 -0500tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785232635225844966.post-2961531375404935427A 90 degree greeting to you all. If you're reading this its most likely because you are my family, a friend, or someone I've met at a presentation about accompaniment work in Colombia (which I'll start soon here).Right now I'm in Bogota after arriving from Sincelejo on the north coast of Colombia. I came here because a guy that I met seven years ago and hadn't really seen since said that I could 2