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Seattle Community Network |
Wednesday
August 9, 2000 |
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August 9
"Cuba presentation by Gwen Stamm on her recent trips to Cuba with slides, works of art, books, and videoclips. Discussion on the Seattle-Cuba Sister City Project now in progress and our first project this fall, including in October co-hosting a week long visit by a dynamic Cuban scholar / journalist Gisela Arandia. "... the Seattle Cuba Friendship Committee (... a program of the Church Council of Greater Seattle) is creating new ties with the people of Cuba. "Last December, during the WTO and the National Network on Cuba Conference, the Cuban delegation met with various business, civic, and community leaders. According to Foreign Minister Felipe Roque, they came away with a very positive experience of Seattle as a whole. Building on this, we aim to establish a broad base of reciprocal support and networking... "Due to the U.S. trade embargo, which prohibits the sale of food, medicine, and educational materials, the people of Cuba have been severely limited in their access to these necessities. "The Sister Cities Association is a viable and creative way... to become involved in citizenship diplomacy. We aim not at political agendas, but at humanitarian, commercial, and cultural concerns beneficial to both countries. ... "Delegates from Seattle met with officials and residents from various Cuban cities and explored possible projects. ... "Please attend our Cuba Coffee Hour every Saturday morning 10:30 - 11:30 am at the Peace Cafe, 5828 Roosevelt Way NE (near the corner of Ravenna in Seattle) to learn more about our organization, upcoming projects, and how to get involved! "The Seattle Cuba Friendship Committee meets every 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month at 7:00 p.m. at the Central Lutheran Church, 1710 10th Ave (Olive St) in Seattle."
SCN Association:
We currently have a dedicated core of individuals who need more structured support, including an expanded volunteer base. The VPC will develop the current volunteer program into one that better serves this great group of talented professionals. The VPC will have oversight authority and responsibility for the entire SCNA Volunteer Program. Duties include working with volunteers, team coordinators and board members to create, implement, and maintain improved volunteer support processes. The VPC will be supported by and report directly to the Co-Presidents of the Board of Directors, Melissa & Steve Guest (guests@scn.org). SCNA has existed as an all-volunteer organization since 1993. With no staff, the current 50+ volunteers of SCNA have very broad responsibilities for providing our programs and services - many of the volunteer tasks require very high skill levels. Most volunteer work is being done virtually (this position is an excellent opportunity to telecommute), with no physical SCNA office at present. There are several monthly coordination meetings, usually in the Seattle area, for the different teams and committees, and a great deal of email and telephone communication. We currently recruit volunteers with a volunteer signup form on our website, volunteer recruiting text at VolunteerMatch, SeattleWorks and Sound Opportunities, and through email to our mailing lists for currently active and "on-reserves" volunteers. We have a process for new volunteer orientation and assignment, as well as a vast list of ideas about what we wish we could do.
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August 6 - 12
Seattle Site of the Week:  The Delegation: Bert Sacks, Larry Kerschner, Brian Mack and Philip Steger 
Citizens Concerned for the People of Iraq
August, 2000 Delegation Letter
"Monday, August 7th at noon at Victor Steinbrueck Park (just north of Pike Place Market) in downtown Seattle. "Respected community leaders will break sanctions law in Seattle. "More than 130 community leaders and citizens of Seattle have committed to publicly break US sanctions law. ... they will give food, seeds, medical journals, and water purifiers to a delegation of four local residents to take to Iraq. ... "Hans von Sponeck, the last oil-for-food program coordinator... resigned in protest over sanctions..." [His predecessor as oil-for-food coordinator, UN Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday, also resigned in protest of the economic embargo against Iraq, in September, 1998. Halliday will speak at the UW's Kane Hall at 7:00 PM on September 24.] "Senator Craig said of US sanctions policy towards Iraq, 'The use of food as a weapon is wrong. Starving populations into submission is poor foreign policy.'
"International law prohibits using food as a weapon - withholding
food from civilians is a crime against humanity.
"'The prime killer of children under five years of age - diarrhoeal diseases - has reached epidemic proportions... Holds on contracts for the water and sanitation sector are a prime reason for the increases in sickness and death.' Of the 18 holds on contracts... all but one was placed by the US. "'Sanctions are the economic nuclear bomb.' - Mairead Maguire, 1976 Nobel Peace Laureate, after a March 1999 visit to Iraq. ... "This is one day after Hiroshima Day - which marks the deaths of over 125,000 Japanese civilians - and it will be the first day of the 11th year of economic sanctions against Iraq - marking the deaths of over 1,000,000 Iraqi civilians, half of them children under the age of five." ... "Can you join the list? Whether or not you can be with us in person, adding your name is a public statement that you're willing to oppose and break an immoral law - a law which withholds food, medicine, and safe drinking water from civilians in order to coerce a foreign government. "The more who'll openly break this law - and the more who can be there on Monday, August 7th to send us off - the more likely we will reach the media and the general public, to awaken our conscience to what is happening in Iraq." ... "The sanctions have been widely condemned as a form of warfare, a 'weapon of mass destruction', directed against the civilian population. Nonetheless, sanctions are being sustained at the insistence of the U.S. government. For the sake of the Iraqi people, such as the child pictured on the right [above], and human rights everywhere the sanctions must be lifted with utmost urgency." |
