Many people showed up at Heritage Park over the past couple days for the International Day of Peace festivities. It was quite a celebration. There was music, conversations with different peace groups and activists from various locations including Afghanistan, Israel, and Palestine, a planet Earth ball, the major continental land masses were outlined in a huge map on the lawn, and there were many banners with the word peace written on them in different languages.

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FOR IMMEDATE RELEASE DATE: March 10th, 2010 CONTACT: travelqueeries@gmail.com Post-Gay Productions presents “Travel Queeries” Olympia Premiere Screening Followed by Q&A with Director/Producers Date: (Saturday) April 3rd, 2010 Location: Olympia Film Society/Capitol Theater Time: 9:00pm-10:30pm Admission: $5 member/$8 non-members "(Travel Queeries presents a) subjective take on radical queer art, culture, and activism in today's Europe. Interviews, performances, and a great soundtrack prove that 'queer' is not just a cosy umbrella term for all things non-heterosexual, but clearly a political identity." Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage Hamburg, Germany (October 2009) www.lsf-hamburg.de Travel Queeries is a feature-length documentary film that examines the culture, art and activism of radical queers in contemporary Europe. Through personal interviews, documentation of performances, festivals, multi-media arts and community spaces, the film explores queer as a political identity in 21st century Europe, how language and identities translate over cultural and physical borders. The film visits queers explaining the first Pride in Serbia, stories of the drag scene in Berlin, a queer anarchist black-lingerie block at London Pride, and Barcelona’s queer squatters organizing the 8th international Queeruption. With this exciting international lens on queer fringe culture, Travel Queeries uses storytelling as a tool for bridge building between diverse perspectives within the LGBT/queer community, increasing knowledge and understanding of queer European culture. Audiences in both the US and Europe have voiced amazement at the lack of knowledge or access to information about these queer activists and projects based in Europe. Travel Queeries – International Screenings have taken place all over Europe, the Middle East, North America (with screenings in Asia, Australia, and Latin America currently being booked).

The earthquake that has devastated Haiti has been on my mind, and I have been thinking about the inherent problems and inequities (and iniquities) of our exploitative fossil fuel dependent society. The people of Haiti are victims. But many news sources won't provide the full story, which would detail a long past of colonialism, interference, and exploitation by European and European-Americans. Since OlyBlog exists in part to challenge the status quo of our corporate dominated mainstream news media - I think that this important story, at this time, deserves to be shared.

S. Brian Willson alerted me to this Robert Parry story about Haiti on Consortium News: Haiti and America's Historic Debt, By Robert Parry, January 13, 2010

Willson then supplemented the Robert Parry article with some of his own writing (on Facebook,) which I have permission to re-post here. For more information and writings from Brian Willson please visit S. Brian Willson. Citations for the information contained in the following passage are also available:

U.S. air power in Haiti in 1919 witnessed the 1st known use of U.S. aerial bombings of civilians & the utilization of aircraft in close air-support of ground combat troops.

U.S. warships were sent into Haitian harbors at least 24 times between 1849 & 1913 to "protect American lives & property," landing Marines on at least 3 of those occasions (1888, 1891, 1914).

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Interested to learn about education in China and to encounter an ancient civilization that is currently going through an unprecedented transformation, development and economic change? Join the Children and Education: a Silk Roads Perspective academic program for a unique opportunity to travel, and study in China on March 11-April 1st. Approximate cost of $2,550.00 includes international and in-China travel and all expenses. The information evening about the program is this Saturday, December 8, 5-6pm at the Evergreen State College, seminar II, room A 1105.