Reality Tours in Solidarity with Ecuador: Visit and Learn about Globalization Issues and Indigenous Health Issues in Ecuador this Summer through the human rights and social justice organization Global Exchange. Trip 1: The Social Forum of the Americas: Otro Mundo es Posible, July 24, 2004 - August 05, 2004 http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/582.htmlEcuador, a bastion of cultural and biological diversity, is home to one of the most successful and peaceful indigenous movements. More than bananas, oil, exported roses, and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador bears a unique blend of social movements and natural beauty. This tour will give participants the opportunity to contribute to the week-long Social Forum of the Americas and then visit local sites including beautiful indigenous markets, destructive cut flower factories, the toxic legacy of Texaco in the Amazon, and cloud forest being bisected by an oil pipeline. Environmental health topics include pesticide runoff, labor standards, cancer rates linked to Plan Colombia aerial fumigation of coca crops, and oil pipeline construction impacting people's livelihoods. After the World Social Forums, first in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and most recently in Mumbai, India (Jan 2004), the Hemispheric Social Forum of the Americas will extend the agenda of debating and creating alternatives for a more socially just and sustainable world order. Meet with NGO's, social movements, indigenous leaders, and environmental, labor, and human rights activists from around the hemisphere committed to creating alternatives to corporate based neoliberal policies. Conferences, Panel Discussions, Seminars, Workshops, and Testimonials will address topics from the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) to transgenic crops and intellectual property rights. This chance to organize and activate with thousands of your hemispheric brothers and sisters is not to be missed! Our site visits will look at how globalization and free trade policies impact Ecuadorian society (from the cut flower industry and factory pollution, and oil and environmental degradation, to intellectual property rights indigenous knowledge and biopiracy, and IMF reforms and social service chopping). Participants will learn about Ecuador's rich ethnic makeup and its indigenous cultural roots. Participants will meet with representatives from strategic governmental agencies, political parties, NGOs and grassroots community projects to examine important social, economic, political and environmental issues. Trip 2: Indigenous Medicine and Public Health: Preserving Our Traditions, Healing the Future, July 01, 2004 - July 10, 2004 http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/587.html
Explore Ecuador's cultural, ecological, and healing diversity through this awesome 10 day adventure, sure to open new realities. The Reality Tour begins with lectures by experts on Andean Indigenous Healing Traditions. You will have private meetings with renowned researchers, healers, and policymakers that deal with traditional indigenous medicine. With the theory firmly in mind, the practice and experience of traditional indigenous medicine will come through trips to Alternative Healing Centers, encounters with shamans and bonesetters, and ceremonies with curanderos; all ranging from the waterfalls in the highest of the Andes Mountains to the rivers in the heart of the Amazon Jungle. Learn about the discrimination, oppression, and struggle against indigenous healing traditions and judge for yourself if it is an essential component of equitable and quality public health care for Ecuador. From cancer-causing flower factories to poorly-planned government anti-malaria policies, learn from the ground about these important public health issues. From Ethnobotany and Medical Anthropology to Bioethics and Health Policy-Making, you will question the why and how of preserving and integrating traditional indigenous medicine to promote public health needs. Click on the website links for more information, contact Malia at malia@globalexchange.org with any questions about these trips, or call toll-free 1-800-497-1994 ext. 233. Peace Match for Classroom Speakers
Peace Match wants to make it easy for you to share your Peace Corps experience. Just go to the Speaker Area on www.PeaceMatch.org and register as a classroom Speaker. For more information contact peacematch@rpcv.org and/or visit www.PeaceMatch.org Fanesca recipe
For a soup with so many ingredients, fanesca is amazingly subtle, with the fish serving as a mere accent. Though inextricably connected with Holy Week, it is also a harvest soup in the highlands, where the Easter season coincides with the arrival of tender grains and legumes in markets. Death of Peace Corps Trainee Gregor Baker
FROM: Gaddi H. Vasquez, Director
It is with deep regret and sadness that I inform you of the death of Gregor V. Baker, a Peace Corps trainee, who died of natural causes in Ecuador on Saturday, March 6... Ecuadoran police destroy 60,000 pirated CDs
QUITO (AFP) - Ecuadoran authorities used a steam roller to pulverize 60,000 illegal CD copies of films, music, computer games and software in a Quito park before two dozen protesting street sellers
Ecuador: Gay rights activist survives attempt on his life, as UN meets to consider protection for LGBT people (Amnesty International)
Amnesty International is very concerned for the safety of a gay rights activist in Ecuador who survived an attempt on his life. |
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