Weekly Wire for August 14, 2013

 

Upcoming Events at a Glance

Aug 30-Sept 1 Canada West Mission Conference Edmonton, Alberta

September 27-29 Men’s Retreat Hills of Peace

October 4-6 Young Adult Retreat Samish Island

October 4-6 Women’s Retreat Chilliwack

November 8-10 Singles’ Retreat Samish Island

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Mission Conference August 30 - September 1

Be friendly to the environment

Remember to bring your Travel Mug and/or Water Bottle to

Mission Conference!

Photo of Mission Conference in Regina 2012

Register Today for Mission Conference in Edmonton!

Have you booked your hotel room yet?

All of our reserved rooms have been booked, but The Days Inn will honor our rate of $119.99 per night for 2 Queen Beds. These are on a first come first served basis. There are only a few of these rooms left in the hotel.  Please reserve your room today at 780-430-0011 and use ‘Community of Christ Conference’ as your reference.

or contact Joyce Cook at 780-464-0199 or gjcook@telusplanet.net for billeting.  Very limited billeting available!

Please advise Debra if you have any food allergies or if you are vegetarian debra@communityofchrist.ca

Youth Classes added!  See schedule.

Registration Form here 

or email debra@communityofchrist.ca

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Application deadline is approaching!

Get God 2013/14

New Year – New Program

Follow the link above to get all the details!

  Application forms, information and more for the 2013/14 season can be found at Get God 2013/14

Be sure to encourage all youth 16-21 years old to apply.

Contact Greg Goheen greg@communityofchrist.ca  or

Debra Donohue debra@communityofchrist.ca for more details

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Register now for the Women’s Retreat in Chilliwack

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Singles Retreat at Samish Island

Please note new dates

New Dates for Singles Fall Retreat: November 8-10
Susan Webber is scheduled to bring guest ministry to the Singles Fall Retreat at Samish Island, now rescheduled for

Friday, November 8 - Sunday November 10,

  at Samish Island Campground.

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We still have a few camps and retreats coming up.  Get all the details here!

2013 Camping Brochure

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Live at Hills of Peace!

Caretaker Job Opportunity

The Caretaker of the Hills of Peace Campground is responsible for maintaining the grounds, buildings, and services of the Hills of Peace Campground in a safe and attractive condition for the benefit of all users. For a complete list of duties, go to Caretaker Job Opportunity. Accommodations, utilities and a small remuneration are included.

Please send your application to Courtney Znak at courtneynhaley@hotmail.com

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Peace and Justice  --  Human Rights

 

July 31, 2013

Welcome to this issue from the “In The Forefront” mailing list. 

TUNISIA: FREE WOMAN UPHOLDING WOMEN’S EQUALITY

Tunisia was the start of the “Arab Spring.”  Recently, an 18 year old woman was alarmed by a Salafist (conservative Islamic) group who were opposing the equality of women.  She wrote a single word (“Femen”, the name of an international women’s movement) on a wall surrounding a cemetery, for which she has been jailed.  The charges and possible lengthy sentences are considered politically motivated and are deemed an infringement her right to freedom of expression.

Tell Tunisia to release Activist:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/Amina

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TURKEY: STOP EXCESSIVE FORCE AGAINST PEACFUL PROTESTORS

As with many of the recent popular protests, the one in Turkey started with a dispute over the use of a park, in this case Gezi Park, in Istanbul, Turkey.  Prime Minister Erdogan dug in his heels and has tried to quell the protests with violence, rather than listening to the demands.  Of course behind the park issue, are complex dynamics, including a long-simmering distrust of the conservative leanings of the Prime Minister. 

Tell Turkey to Stop Using excessive Force:
http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1770&ea.campaign.id=20914

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SYRIA: STOP EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS OF CIVILIANS

If you use Twitter or Facebook, you may want to mobilize your social media skills to spread this report about stopping extra-juridical killings in Syria.  Basically, as has been part of the brutal campaign, some areas are being targeted to terrorize the civilian population as a means of reducing support for the rebels, as documented in the following Amnesty briefing:

Take Social Media Action:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/syria-civilians-killed-2013-07-25

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=== FOLLOW-UP TO PREVIOUS ISSUES ===
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Darfur: Sill Mired in Problems

Darfur is our longitudinal study.  There is no action for this month, but you can see a sketch of the latest events at www.UntilAll.org/darfur.htm.

Guatemala Genocide Trial a Landmark . . . Then Scrapped . . . Then Conviction . . . Then Overturned

The last newsletter indicated that the landmark trial had been derailed by a separate court ruling but was holding out hope for an appeal.  So it is both a relief and a triumph of justice and vindication of those who testified that Efraín Ríos Montt, former leader of Guatemala, has been found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/10/guatemala-rios-montt-convicted-genocide

However that relief was short-lived sine the verdict was then overturned [The Guardian (May 21)] . . . though as of June 4, in yet another twist, the Guatemalan Supreme Court rejected a motion to quash proceedings, and has set a new trial date of April 2014.

Bees:  Good News, Bad News:

A previous action called for the ban of a certain pesticide in the European Union.  The good news is that it has been banned, so thank you for all who took action.  As has been reviewed previously, such web actions seldom bring change on the own, but can help provide crucial support and backing as part of an overall strategy to bring change.  The following link provides a window into the pieces that were involved to getting the ban passed:
http://www.dailycensored.com/we-did-it-europe-just-banned-bee-killing-pesticides/

But in the U.S., the EPA just allowed a different but also toxic pesticide, sulfoxaflor, to be used on several crops, even while acknowledging it is highly toxic to honey bees.  It added an advisory for honey bees, but one which sounds quite unworkable, such as having to notify beekeepers before and after usage, advising them to keep their bees in the hive, etc.  This is not a precautionary approach to protecting such a vital link in the food chain:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/05/09-3

Finally - recently in - researchers have discovered that the application of fungicides may be behind some of the rapid decline in bees.  Thus it is looking like a more complicated cocktail of interactions:
http://qz.com/107970/scientists-discover-whats-killing-the-bees-and-its-worse-than-you-thought/

Burma & the Rohingya: Violent Buddhists, a silent Aung San Suu Kyi, and maybe an Al-Qaeda link?

Burma was noted in an earlier newsletter for its surprising, puzzling (and world-hesitant to acknowledge) overtures to open up its previously iron-clad country.  Recently there have been several articles highlighting the recent problems with two minority groups.  There is a long history behind it all, and on its face one sees the contradictions of, for example, supposedly nonviolent Buddhists being extremely violent (although other Buddhists did come to protect the victims), the world acclaimed human rights defender Aung San Suu Kyi being silent about the repugnant human rights violations, and even a possible Al-Qaeda thread in among there.  Again deeper analysis is needed, but the following are just a couple of articles trying to sketch the terrain.
TIME Magazine article
Toronto Star article

DRC: Searching For An Internal Solution For The Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been enmeshed in one of the world’s longest and deadliest conflicts (most often given as over 5 million deaths as a result of the conflict), stunningly for the most part off the mainstream news radar.  This newsletter has highlighted some of the initiatives that have been made.  Here is another analysis
Towards internal solutions to the DRC crisis [IRIN]

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=== ARTICLES OF INTEREST ===
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Brazil Protests:

Given the above actions on popular protests, and while there are many more than simply Brazil, there is an essay on openDemocracy that gives an interesting sketch of the basic issues and challenges facing the country and protestors.  Sparked initialling by student demand for better transportation given a hike in rates, the protest has spread, becoming neither anti-Brazil nor anti-football, but very broadly a call to implement a higher vision for Brazil.  It covers many areas and includes the broad dissatisfaction found within a rising country that now has a sufficiently large middle-class.  They have joined the protest over government policies that have led to hosting the Confederation Cup then the FIFA Cup then the Olympics – “first-world football stadiums and third-world hospitals, schools, and sewage facilities.”
http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/jeff-garmany/football-politics-and-protest-in-brazil

Yemen: A Life on Hold

For those who prefer short videos, the following helps give some sense of the millions of people living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.  This video is about family who has been living for three years in IDP camp in Yemen, noting that many IDPs end up in such camps for 10 or 20 years.  The broader question about the value and perils of such videos must await another newsletter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFlX0Lz9SFw&feature=youtu.be

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Missed an action email?  An archive is kept at:
http://www.cofchrist.org/humanrights/hr-newsletter/default.asp.
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In appreciation and support,
  Rod Downing

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2013 Camping/Event Calendar

Aug 30-Sept 1 Canada West Mission Conference Edmonton AB

September 27-29 Men’s Retreat Hills of Peace

October 4-6 Young Adult Retreat Samish Island

October 4-6 Women’s Retreat Chilliwack

November 8-10 Singles’ Retreat Samish Island

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"Not everything that can be counted counts,

and not everything that counts can be counted."

- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)-