November 9, 2005
Dear Friends and Family,
For those of you who returned assurance of prayers and good thoughts
on behalf of Argentina in the wake of President Bush’s visit
for the IV Summit of the Americas, I and many of my friends and
colleagues here send you thanks.
As has occurred in each of the previous summits of the Organization
of American States (OAS), there were protests, both peaceful and
violent. The violence that occurred here in Argentina was not
life threatening. There were no casualties, thank God, but there
was significant property damage. In Mar del Plata, the city where
the Summit took place, the property damage was random. More than
70 businesses were destroyed and ransacked. Most of these businesses
had no affiliation with capital investments from the United States.
The violence came from extreme sectors of protest and resulted
in violence against micro-, small-, and medium-sized Argentine
businesses. Most of the Argentine population is ashamed and saddened
by this violence that has occurred against themselves.
The violence that occurred in the Federal Capital, Buenos Aires,
was much more restricted than in Mar del Plata, and was limited
to attacks on multinational corporations fed by U.S. capital investments,
such as McDonalds, Walmart, Bank Boston, and others. There was
also a bomb threat against the hotel where the U.S. women’s
field hockey team was staying, but this proved to be a vacant
threat.
On a more positive note, at least from an Argentine perspective,
the summit did not come to an agreement on ALCA / FTAA.
Now that I have heard various different analyses of the Summit
of the Americas, I am not sure that anyone is very happy about
the results. But I personally think that an ambiguous result on
ALCA (FTAA) is best for now. If that agreement can be stalled
until the United States decides to elect a more responsible president
with a wiser group of counselors, so much the better for the world.
I think that most governments (both in the north and the south)
want immediate success, without considering long-term and in-depth
consequences. The document produced by the III Summit of the People
(or “Counter Summit”) indicates that many NGOs and
experts in many different areas from academic institutions and
from grassroots organizations are urging the governments to consider
ecological, micro-economic, health, educational, and other issues.
It is frustrating that the destiny of the nations is in the hands
of the incompetent governments of the moment, rather than in the
hands of experts with proven research experience and wisdom.
The tremendous violence that has been going on in France for
two weeks is in some ways one of the terrible consequences of
the neo-liberal free market system that governs the majority of
the world’s economies. This is a system that in many parts
of the world excludes and oppresses the poor and benefits the
upper socio-economic classes.
What I have heard on the news here is that two youth died by
electrocution when they were escaping from police who were chasing
them for something they didn’t do. Being young, male, and
of African descent rather than of French descent made them easy
but false targets.
I have the intuition that the case is similar to the Rodney King
beating in Los Angeles in April 1992, when all of a sudden southern
California area went up in arms and in flames. I was living in
Pasadena then.
The news reporters here are also interpreting the incident in
terms of the ALCA / FTAA negotiations. What happens when the countries
get wealthier, but important sectors of the populations become
ever more excluded from the wealth of the nation? Evidently, according
to Argentine news sources, the French children of African immigrants
in France do not receive the same benefits from a slightly socialist
government as do the French children of French parents and grandparents.
Not only are they excluded from the social welfare system, but
because they are easily differentiated visually for their skin
color, they are also easy targets for those who are looking for
scapegoats. This oppression leads to increasing mistrust, anger,
hopelessness, extreme stress at emotional, psychological, and
physical levels that has exploded into social stress and violence.
Protestant theologians in Latin America insist over and over
again that the Church, the People of God, members of Christian
communities of all denominations, must represent Christ in the
world in such a way that the world becomes a more humane place
for those whom the governments and major business enterprises
would prefer to forget and even eliminate.
May the unsettling and disquieting peace of Christ be with us
all, until the true peace of Christ’s Reign is finally revealed.
Blessings,
Katie Griffin
The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
40
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