Assasination and attempted kidnapping

A few days ago I learned that someone I had met in Haiti, a Community Human Rights Council leader for Gran Ravine, was assasinated on his way home from a meeting with AUMOHD, the human rights outfit I worked with down there. Mr. Bruner was an advocate for the people of Gran Ravine, who have suffered repeated massacres at the hands of the "Little Machete Army" (Lame Timachet), politically motivated and financed thugs and assasins who have shot, killed, and wounded scores of people and burned hundreds of homes. Mr. Bruner himself was a resident of Gran Ravine and was shot twice in sucessive attacks. A few months ago he held a press confrence denouncing the attackers by name and calling for justice and their arrest. On monday last week he held another press confrence. On thursday he was killed.

Now the head lawyer and president of AUMOHD, Evel Fanfan, the man I lived and worked with for 6 weeks in Haiti, has gone on the air and denounced his attackers and those complicit in the violence, including the U.N. "peacekeepers" who propigate the violence and withhold justice. Now he is under attack and in danger for his life. His son was nearly kidnapped at school and he has been advised to go into hiding, though he remains determined to carry on the crusade for justice for those who have carried out the attacks and are well known for their attrocities in the community but who have not yet been taken into custody.

Now you know the score. What are you going to do?

Here is what I hope you do:

1) Sign the following petition addressed to the Chief of the Haitin Police, the head of the Human Rights section of the UN force, and other leaders within Haiti to bring justice to the people of Gran Ravine and Haiti at large and to protect the life of Attny Evel Fanfan.

2) Donate money to the cause, to provide vital infrastructure such as phone cards, electricity, gas, legal expenses, medical expenses, and so on. It is tax deductible and a new fiscal year, so please give; even a small donation of only $25 makes a big differance, it is those donations which are the lifeblood of our operation. You can click the link to donate through Google, which saves us money, or you can go to the website for more ways to donate.

3) Go to the HURAH website and learn more about how you can help by calling and writing to officials letting them know you are watching the case and expect them to do their job. Also learn how you can get involved in the role of accompanying these brave folks as they do their job, lessening the liklihood of attack while accompanied by international observers. This is what I did Jan-March of 2006. You can do it to, if even for only a week or two, even a couple of days. Contact Tom Luce at the website for more information, or get ahold of me for that matter. I'd go tommorrow if I could, but I'm in New Zealand right now and can't get away just yet.

All for the gumbo

And the muffleta, bengeits, oyster po-boys, coffee with chicory, and bread pudding.

Why else would I leave Flagstaff a day and a half early and fly 1300 miles to spend 16 hours in New Orleans.

All about the food, but to be honest, I don't know if I can do it all in the limited time I have.

Tommorrow I'll fly back to Phoenix and then Wendsday on to Denver, Friday south to Oz and then, well, you know. Ice.

Was a busy last few weeks in Flagstaff before I left early this morning. So many people to see, things to do, good times to be had. Among them, a tango workshop on saturday and dance that night. Wave of the future I tell ya, that tango.

All in all, I was sad to leave Flagstaff, probably more so than in the dozen or so times I've left before. Leaving alot of great people behind. But adventure lies over the horizon, so full speed ahead.

Countdown

14 days. Or is it 13? 15? I’m not really sure, since apparently I will lose a day somewhere over the southern pacific when we cross the international date line. But roughly two weeks is all that separates me from the southern hemisphere and then...Antarctica!

Yep, everything is in motion for me to deploy, first to Denver, then on to Christchurch, NZ via Los Angeles and Sydney. And after a few days in Oz, the big ice. It hasn’t quite registered fully that the day is upon me, like a little kid looking forward to Christmas for so long, when the day finally comes it is fails to fully register.

Sept. 22: BBQ and going away party
Sept. 25th: Fly to New Orleans and eat muffletta sandwich and beneits at the Café du Monde
Sept. 26th: In Phoenix, anybody around fancy a beer?
Sept. 27th: Fly to Denver for training
Sept. 29th: Fly to New Zealand for outfitting
October ?: Down to the ice
Feb/March?: Return from the ice.

Oh yeah, and the big question, the one that inspires slack jaws and guffaws in every new acquaintance: what am I doing there?

I’m a janitor.

Guardian of Democracy

Yep, it says that on my resume. Guardian of Democracy. Kinda has a nice ring to it, don’t ya think? Really I am just sitting here, doing some home work for an online nutrition class I’m taking, reading my book, typing this blog entry, and helping the occasional dysfunctional voter cast their ballot. This year I have been honored with the position of elections inspector, meaning that I am responsible for the entire operations of my precinct. Sounds intimidating, and for a general election in November it might be, but for this primary it has hardly been a deluge of voters. Mostly a slight trickle with an occasional splash. I have endured complaints about the location of the poll site, the lack of signage, the excess of sign age, and the requirement to show id at the poll. It is this last one that gets me, as it was voted on and enacted by the ever brilliant voters in Arizona last election and now people piss and moan when they are inconvienced by the fact that they haven’t lived at the address listed on their driver’s licence in ten years and can’t vote a normal ballot. I want to shout at them that this is what they get for enacting a stupid, poorly written, knee jerk political solution to a problem that didn’t exist. And then the complaints about not being able to find the site. Sorry, the 11 different signs posted around the building, the written notice, the addresses in the paper, all this was not enough for you to wander in here and scrawl your mark next to your candidate of choice? I guess I am a bit crotchety some times, but part of me believes you must demonstrate a very small measure of intelligence before you deserve to vote. But I don’t let that sentiment affect the exercise of my duties, by which I mean it is my job to help everyone, idiot or genius, who managed to get registered do their part for democracy. At the break neck pace of about 59 voters in the last seven and a half hours. Yep, everybody has something to say about government and politics, yet we are expecting a 25% voter turn out this go round. I say again, you that do not exercise your rights and take part in this thing we do, this governance of our country can go straight to hell and don’t even think of complaining about the condition of the roads on the way there or the management upon arrival. Why shoot, in Haiti I saw people by the thousands wait for hours in the hot sun having walked miles through a war zone to cast their ballots. Failure to appreciate and exercise the rights we have is an inexcusable offense in my eyes, made worse by fact that millions of others around the world would at this moment die for the chance to do what some lazy pieces of dung in this country haven’t the interest or inclination to bother with.

OK, I’ll give the soap box a rest for now.

Demolition Derby

I went to the county fair this weekend, or more specifically I went to the demolition derby. Two days of cars smashing into each other tournament style, last one running wins. It was a helluva good time, and the grand finale was followed by an exhibition of derby ball, the first ever such event held anywhere, ever. Two blind guys (not blind folded but actually blind) were led to two cars in the field and guided by sighted spotters in communication with radio headsets in trying to run a giant metal soccer ball between the goal posts, consisting of wrecked cars. But it wasn’t just two blind guys playing derby ball, they had to do it in the midst of other cars also playing the soccer/demolition derby. It was an idea that I am certain sounded great on a napkin in a bar, but in reality it was less than spectacular. But as the announcer said, I can tell my grand kids some day that I was there at the first ever derby ball event.

I also went to check out the livestock at the fair, and yesterday morning went to the 4-H Junior Livestock Auction with the intention of perhaps buying a critter and taking it home for a Labor Day BBQ that afternoon. Maybe a goat or a lamb or a pig. Even a goose or some rabbits. But this was no ordinary livestock auction, it was more a charity sale for the 4-H kids, and animals sold for outrageous prices. For example, three rabbits sold for $95 each and a 30 pound goose sold for $340. Swine, beef, lamb, and goats all went for unbelievable prices, so I came home empty handed. But the bbq must go on, so I pulled a three foot long pork tenderloin out of the freeze that I had been saving for a special occasion and cooked that bad boy up: toasting the end of summer.