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As a day of great significance for the Christian faith, Good Friday has always been a day of reflection for me, whether such musings have been entirely religious or not. I have used a portion of every Good Friday since I can remember to contemplate life, the world, my place in it and whether I think I’m “measuring up” or not. I confess that the nearly universal conclusion I reach is “Not,” and then I spend the rest of my day wondering what to do about that state of affairs. (Apparently, not enough, since my answer tends to be the –> Read More
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This post is also available in: Spanish
I attended the Nobel Peace Prize Forum during this past weekend. It was the 25th annual gathering of Nobel laureates and an eclectic mix of others who have activist interests in the pursuit of a more just and peaceable world. The Forum has now grown to an attendance of approximately 6,000 at the Minneapolis site, with perhaps thousands more connected by Internet livestreaming technologies that linked up with more than 20 countries around the world. The theme of this year’s gathering was ‘The Power of Ideas: People and Peace,” and there is no question that the big ideas represented by –> Read More
This post is also available in: Spanish
One of the headlines in the news this week was the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Although he died at a relatively young age, Chavez has seemed to be in the news headlines forever, sometimes for his outrageous statements, sometimes for his larger-than-life persona, sometimes for his disparagement of United States policies abroad, and often for his utter disdain for Western-style capitalism. He demonized Western leaders, befriended outcast, “rogue” governments around the world and consolidated his power in Venezuelan politics until he controlled it almost single-handedly. Indeed, there were few agencies of Venezuelan government which did not feel –> Read More
This post is also available in: Spanish
Last month’s visit with partners in Nicaragua included some sobering visits with small coffee producers who are struggling with the after-effects of “coffee rust,” as described here in my previous entry, “Faces of Loss.” This crippling plant disease, along with other afflictions which can occur once the coffee plant is weakened, is taking an enormous toll on the yields of these farmers and threatening their livelihoods. There is truth to the fear that this year’s impact from the disease is more intense than in past years, and that some producers may not survive the onslaught. An initial inclination might be –> Read More
This post is also available in: Spanish
One of the overriding experiences from my travels in Nicaragua last week was my introduction to “coffee rust,” and the toll it will take on rural Nicaraguan lives. Without being too biological, I want to share a sobering reality. This fungal disease of coffee plants has been a fact of life for Nicaraguan coffee producers forever, but conditions this year provided a “perfect storm” of circumstances which have allowed the disease to impact this year’s coffee harvest in unprecedented fashion. Some government estimates suggest that more than 30% of the entire country’s harvest will be lost. But I know from –> Read More I’m preparing for another visit to Nicaragua next week. The staging for each trip usually begins a week or two before I actually travel, as I contemplate our itinerary, the partners with whom we might visit, what I think I can learn, what opportunities for impact we might have, and why I never learned to speak Spanish. There is not only the physical readiness of packing, but also the mental preparation for being in a very different place from where most of my life is lived. And the weeks leading up to every visit are always filled with an internal –> Read More
This post is also available in: Spanish
“When I get older, losing my hair, Many years from now…. Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m sixty-four?” The Beatles recorded a song in 1966 called, “When I’m Sixty-Four,” a whimsical tune sung by a young man to his girl, an inquiry about their life in future. The song is also a cute reference to the generation gap, as the young singer tries to imagine life at that ripe old age. History says that Paul McCartney wrote the song at a very young age and when his father was about to turn sixty-four. Anyone –> Read More
This post is also available in: Spanish
One of the hopes that I had held during my years at Foldcraft Co. was that some day we might be able to compete successfully enough to acquire one of our local competitors, Waymar. We actually engaged in conversations with the owner of the company who was contemplating his own retirement, but we never could advance the conversations in any substantive way. You might imagine my sense of satisfaction, then, when last month Foldcraft completed the process of acquiring that company and its subsidiary in Seattle, Washington. Some good things just take time to develop. The acquisition wasn’t free, of –> Read More
This post is also available in: Spanish
And you thought you had a tough commute! Last month’s visit to Nicaragua was memorable for any number of reasons, not the least of which was an encounter we experienced on our way north for some meetings. Near the community of Ciudad Dario, traffic started to slow down significantly. Within a few miles it had crawled to a halt. Protesters at a major intersection had taken over the highway some miles ahead in a well-planned protest of high bus fares. They made their point by making everything stop. Buses, trucks, cars, all stationary . And there we sat, wedged –> Read More
This post is also available in: Spanish
In comments written here on October 28 (“Community”), I related the story of our visit to the community of Santa Maria de Wasaka and how this remote area had been both ravaged by flash flooding and yet restored in its commitment to regroup and flourish with new garden methodologies. The experience of meeting people faced with difficult circumstances is usually pretty emotional, and often there are few or no opportunities to revisit them later to discover how they might have fared. Fortunately, that has not been the case with the folks at Wasaka. My most recent mental image of that –> Read More |
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