[RFPI-Vista] RFPI Online NewsLetter Part Two

[Radio For Peace International <info at rfpi.org>]

		Radio For Peace International In Nicaragua

Yes, we get everywhere! At the end of April, our program director Naomi
Fowler visited Nicaragua where she helped deliver a three-day radio
production workshop and gave a talk about Radio For Peace International at
the Ben Linder house in Managua. (Ben Linder was an engineer who worked in
Nicaragua as a volunteer helping to set up electricity systems to serve
remote areas and was killed by the US-sponsored Contras. The house was
built in his memory.) Some of the people who came for the talk at the Ben
Linder house had also attended the week-long radio production workshop
held at the Radio For Peace studios in Costa Rica back in January with
Pauline Bartelone of Free Speech Radio News. Here's the story:

I arrived in Managua in the early afternoon, having left San Jose in
Costa Rica in the early hours of the morning and travelling through the
beautiful mountain ranges between the two countries, passing by the huge
lake once across the border in Nicaragua which is surrounded by three
dramatic volcanoes, one with the top completely blown off.

I was whisked off to a political meeting where I sat in on a discussion
about the state of affairs in Nicaragua and criticism of National
Assembly representatives who earn huge amounts of money and have perks
too numerous to mention whilst so many in Nicaragua are living way below
the poverty level with little prospect of anything being done to improve
their lot. There was then a speaker talking about the pressure from the
IMF on Nicaragua to nationalize their water and the possibilities for
resisting this and a discussion on the effectiveness (or otherwise) of
Bolanos, Nicaragua's current president who took over from the notorious
Aleman, who appears to have stolen more money from his country than all
other Nicaraguan presidents put together.

I met some members of the Witness for Peace team, some of whom took
part in the radio production workshop. Witness for Peace, like the World
Association of Christian Churches (WACC) seems to be one of many religious
organizations based in Nicaragua with a progressive agenda. Witness for
Peace dedicates its time to informing the US public about the effects
of their foreign policies on other countries, such as Nicaragua, through
visits from delegations which they organize as well as many articles and
pamphlets that they research and write aimed at informing and inspiring
action back in the US.

In the sense that we at Radio For Peace International are all about
making visible the connections between actions and consequences (for
example, of corporations, governments and of world citizens who allow
these things to take place), so are some of these organizations based
in Nicaragua. I was impressed by the work many were involved in, and
their very thorough knowledge, understanding and sensitivity about
Nicaragua. It is not always the case. Although RFP I does not share
their religious views, we certainly do share the same vision for the
future we would like to see in terms of a total change in the foreign
policies of the most powerful governments in the world and we recognize
that we are working for the same goals.

Some of the streets in Managua and the politically charged atmosphere
reminded me in some ways of Cuba. Managua is a surprisingly spread-out
city with lots of unexpected greenery and very wide streets. The greenery,
it was explained to me, was because of past earthquake damage and fear
and lack of money to rebuild.

I kept coming back to a feeling of disbelief that there can be so
many incidences where a country and its people can be cheated so
outrageously, so many times by so many different ideologies, individuals
and organizations. I plan to return again soon to make some programming
about Nicaragua and the realities of life there today after such a
history of revolution, terrible war and its complex aftermath. So,
listen out for that on Radio For Peace International.

I was interested to visit Nicaragua after having encountered such
negative reactions from so many Costa Ricans about Nicaraguans. As is
often the case with such attitudes, they often serve among other things
as a marker against which we measure ourselves and that which we wish to
consider ourselves not to be; something that has its roots in a feeling
of insecurity that actually has little to do with Nicaragua or whoever it
is who has become the 'bottom of the pile.' The anti-immigration lobby
is strong in Costa Rica, despite a tiny population and the fact that
immigration boosts the economy. Their largest immigrant population is
from Nicaragua and they work at the jobs Costa Ricans tend to consider
beneath them.

The Costa Rican experience of a not so distant harsher economic reality
is still in their recent past and very much motivates what I see as
their headlong and largely uncritical rush towards 'Gringolandia' and
all things 'Gringo,' cheer-led on by their extremely commercialized
media. The Nicaraguan relationship with and concepts of the US are of
course flavored by a very different experience.

People in Nicaragua told me that the only reason the Nicaraguan economy
is still standing is due to migrant workers sending in their wages to
their families from all over the world, including from within Costa Rica,
and that an average of $2 million US dollars comes into Nicaragua this
way each day.

2003 is a pivotal year for Central America with the CAFTA talks (so
called Free Trade in Central America). Abel Pacheco (the Costa Rican
president) looks set to roll over and say 'yes' to everything. The
Nicaraguan President looks set to say 'yes' to whatever he can manage
logistically, which, bearing in mind the current complicated state of
affairs and the power, not to mention money vacuum, may not be very
much very fast. Costa Rica may come to regret their greater state of
preparedness and their more positive view of the US.

There is at least some talk at least in the media in Costa Rica (and
much more in the Nicaraguan media) about Mexico's experience so far of
'free trade' and the very good economic reasons why Costa Rica and
Nicaragua should really be thinking very carefully about making any
agreements at all. It is going to be a turbulent time. Neither country
wants their water privatized and they will come out onto the streets
to stop it happening. I can only hope that their governments are more
democratically minded than in my own country, Britain and take some notice

Costa Rica is in great danger of falling foul of US foreign policy,
like the neighboring countries it has tended to distance itself from
in the past. II am reminded of John Donne's poem, 'no man is an island
entire of itself' and in some ways I am reminded of my own country Britain
isolating itself within Europe (as Charles de Gaul so rightly predicted)
in favor of the 'special relationship' with the US and how that continues
to problematize our participation in Europe and a lot more besides.

I sat and talked with two long distance lorry drivers on the border
between Nicaragua and Costa Rica on my way back to RFPI and found
myself being asked which Latin American country I liked best. It was
obviously a loaded question and when I said I had found Nicaraguans to be
extremely friendly, they smiled approvingly. I asked them if they were
Nicaraguan. No, they told me, one was from Guatemala and the other from
El Salvador. They told me that of all the Central American countries
they drive through each week, they disliked driving through Costa Rica
because of the discrimination they said they were subjected to, but when
they entered Nicaragua, they felt they were coming home.

I wonder how opposition to the CAFTA talks will manifest itself this
year in Central America. In Nicaragua, it looks like the struggle against
water privatization is gaining momentum and will be big. In Costa Rica,
those such as Rodrigo Carazo (Costa Rican ex-president and RFPI Board
member) will continue to speak out against the agreement and RFPI will
focus increasingly this year on covering this issue.

We are also focusing more and more on bringing you independent news
from the Central American region in our new daily RFPI news shorts at
21.30 UTC. We hope to build on this Central American progressive news
service with help from our colleagues in Nicaragua in the future. You,
like us, will have noticed that some parts of the world do not seem to
exist in other parts of the world. That's what we are all about here at
Radio For Peace International and with your help and support, we will go
on trying to facilitate access to the airwaves of these issues, people
and countries who seem to be invisible or 'un-newsworthy' to other media
groups who are not motivated by the same principles as we are.

Members of the group I met in Managua plan to work on a weekly progressive
news report about Nicaragua for RFPI, and I also talked with people who
work with indigenous groups in Nicaragua with whom we may work in the
future in a project similar to the one we are currently embarking on
with the Huetar indigenous group in Costa Rica where the radio station
is located. We are helping them set up an AM community radio station
and there are also plans to make a series of recordings of their oral
history as well as a special project to preserve their language which
is dying out. The Huetar eventually want to build a National Indigenous
Learning Center and a school not just for indigenous children but for all
children. We are very happy to be a part of such projects and we will
update you on their progress as well as any new ones which may come up
in Nicaragua in the future.

With trips such as this latest one to Nicaragua, we can build on our
network bringing you even more independently sourced information and
analysis from around the world.

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Costa Rica
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Email:	info at rfpi.org

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