Stop War & All Of Its Poisons Benefit Concert 9/24 at Chief Ikes

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:09:16 -0400

BENEFIT CONCERT

STOP WAR & ALL OF ITS POISONS!

Wednesday September 24
8:00 pm

Chief Ikes Mambo Room
1725 Columbia Road, NW,
in Adams Morgan
Washington, DC

featuring:

Evil Empire
Yikes McGee
Donald Keesing

$10 - $15 suggested donation
No One Turned Away

These poisons must stop!
No nuclear bombs . agent orange . depleted
uranium . cluster bombs . aerial herbicide spraying in “War on Drugs”

Co-sponsored by
Washington Peace Center . Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee

Report from Vietnam

Tue, 13 May 2008 12:48:53 -0400

5/13/08 Vietnam

When I was 14, my dad took me to Tahiti and Bora Bora. Vietnam reminds me of Papeete (extended for many miles). Lush, green, monster trees, banana trees, coconut trees, bougainvilla and hibiscus, tiny shops, swift rain squalls, people with big smiles who love to test their English on you, motor scooters (multiplied by several million).

[I had my first ride on a motor scooter behind a polyn/asian girl in Papeete. Come to think of it, it was my most recent, as well.]

We're guided by Mr. Loc (pronounced "Lo") of the YMCA, and driven everywhere through the honking streets in a big maroon van by Mr. Thong. Those accompanying us are Sayuri and Eiko of the Dream Bridge Project, and Kozumi of Toyama YMCA. Sayuri and I have a room three times the size of our hotel rooms in Tokyo (about which Jay remarked, "I found the closet, but where's the room?").

The scooters are an overwhelming force here. I stepped out on the balcony at 6 am and rush hour had already started, four lanes plus two sidewalks of motor scooters weaving perilously between buses and cars. Other than a few lights on the main roads (fortunately all one-way) there are seemingly no traffic laws. Traffic circles are bedlam, but Mr. Thong negotiates them with aplomb, a horn, and a shocking lack of alarm as others surge toward him. Many people wear face masks. The pollution is horrid!

The food is marvelous, particularly the noodles. Breakfast yesterday was truly french rolls with butter and pate, pineapple, papaya. Lunch was on the Saigon River, one course after another, starting with the sweetest grapefruit juice imaginable. Grapefruits are the size of bowling balls. Green coconut milk for dinner through a straw, then the waiter lopped the top off the coconut and I scooped out the jelly for dessert. Trees reach to the heavens. There's a huge lumpy green fruit at stands along the roadside in the poorer section (where migrant workers and the YMCA reside), which I'm told smells like Camembert but tastes delicious. I can't wait to try it.

I wish I could stay a month, walk the streets rather than zooming past, rent a scooter, talk to the people. This is a tour, Japanese style, very directed. Not much time for aimless gawking.

Anyhow, having painted the scene, I want to get to the story.

Yesterday we visited four of the projects of the YMCA, which was resurrected in 1992 after a hiatus of 17 years. Between 1968 and 1975, the YMCA was active in Vietnam helping young orphans of the war and providing refugees medical and emergency services, but it became outspokenly anti-war, and Hanoi shut it down after the Americans left. Their purpose is to help poor children develop their gifts in safety, particularly focused on providing a loving environment for disabled children.

We visited a vocational school which housed the students for free during one year courses in motorcycle and scooter repair (a mainstay of the economy, it seems from all the workshops that line the roads), computers, industrial electricity, refrigerator repair, industrial sewing. We visited a club for physically disabled people who learn embroidery and beadwork and computers.

The most inspiring part of the day was when we visited a school for 23 blind children, ranging from ages 9 to 27, who learn English, computers (which require English), produce books in braille, and study music together. They also learn to give massage. The idea is to make the children self-sufficient and happy. The school is the inspiration of a marvelous man, Thien An, who lost his eyesight 17 years ago after an accident. He had already learned French, English, computers, and music. The children are marvelous musicians, and perform publicly. Many of these children have been blind since birth (blindness occurs at a rate five times higher than other countries, and Agent Orange genetic defects are mostly to blame).

The reason Jay and I were blessed with this opportunity is because of the Dream Bridge Concert we have agreed to facilitate this November 15th at UDC.

The purpose of the concert is to raise money for a new project of the Vietnamese YMCA (Youth Movement for Cooperative Action) and the Japanese Dream Bridge Project. We want to help them establish a community center and restaurant for the graduates of the school for the blind, who will help provide good food, music, and massage and live in dormitories at the center, which is near a national tourist site. Whatever money comes in will be applied to construction and provisioning of the community center until it becomes self-supporting.
Let's make this concert a huge success. We need to make broad contacts in the DC community, and keep everyone updated through a web page. We also need to find performers equal to those we've seen in Japan, and Vietnam.

Off to the Mekong Delta. More later.

Volunteers - Sign Up, Show Up!

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 20:42:34 -0400

Here are some jobs that need doing in October, 2006, in order of immediate importance. This list will change as projects change. Email us at wpc@igc.org with your availability and interests.

Renovation:

A new office is being prepared for the Peace Center, and needs volunteers who will help with carpentry, painting, wiring and plumbing. We're having work parties every Sunday at noon (call first - 202-234-2000 or 202-682-4282)

Office Work:

We need five or six regular volunteers who can come at least one afternoon a week to help us:

- maintain and update the mailing list, donor records, and gift acknowledgements
- make sure the Activist Alert gets out each Tuesday

Peacemaker of the Year Awards (December 2nd):

nucnews's blog

Stop War & All Of Its Poisons Benefit Concert 9/24 at Chief Ikes

Report from Vietnam

Volunteers - Sign Up, Show Up!