Radio for Peace International

- a global community radio station -

·   RFPI’s G.M. participates in peace delegation to Libya

Ramsey Clark’s Visit 

Last November while the RFPI staff was protecting the station's office, studios and equipment from an illegal seizer by Industrialist Maurice Strong and Bush energy advisor Bill Martin, James Latham received one last phone call before the telephone line leading into the RFPI office was cut by machete-wielding men in the hire of Strong.  That last call was from Ramsey Clark who served as Attorney General in  President Lyndon Johnson's administration. Ramsey Clark’s sage advice to RFPI’s General Manager: Don't to give up. “Move if you have to and get the radio back on the air as soon as possible!”  
This past June, Clark visited Costa Rica and received an update on the progress of the station. While considerable encouragement was received by the elder statesman regarding RFPI, what brought Clark to Costa Rica was his work on the legal team representing Lori Berenson.  Lori, a political prisoner in Peru, has suffered in captivity fighting for her freedom.  Clark, along with others on Lori’s legal defense team, presented to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San José, Costa Rica the Final Arguments of her case on June 7th, 2004.  It is hoped that the ruling -- due this month -- will add enough clout to free Lori. For more information on Lori's case and how you can help, please check the Free Lori web site.

RFPI pioneered global community radio in the 1980's with our shortwave radio broadcast from Costa Rica covering Peace, Social Justice and Environmental concerns as well as Peace Journalism.

Your financial help is urgently needed now to keep the global voice of Radio For Peace on the air.  Please donate today using our secure server: 

Thank You!

RFPI’s Transmitters On the Move

For the past nine months RFPI’s array of high-power shortwave and FM transmitters have been stored on top of one of the tallest mountains in Costa Rica.  It wasn’t that we had feared a giant apocalyptic flood -- our choice of location was due to a kind offer by a long-time listener who was concerned about the safety of the transmitters and wanted to ensure their return to air, along with the ability for global coverage. A few months back this listener shared with the staff his concern that the extreme weather at his farm (it’s located at 10,000 feet) and the unheated room in which they were kept, might aversely effect their operation.  Due to a generous donation from long-time supporter Gene Nash, we were able to move the transmitters to our San José offices where they await their reawakening.  Stay tuned for updates!

Peace Delegation to Libya    By James Latham

In May I received a phone call from an old friend and RFPI advisory board member Dr. Glen Martin.  Glen serves as the Secretary-General of the World Constitution and Parliament Association and has worked assiduously to bring about a world government elected democratically by the people.  With a sense of history in the making, I accepted Dr Martian’s offer of a seat in a peace delegation with great enthusiasm. This would be one of the first U.S. delegations to visit under the lifted travel ban and was composed of a wide-range of professionals who have contributed to the peace movement. The topics that were to be discussed in the meetings with Libya’s Revolutionary Committee Movement (RCM) included: what is democracy?, definitions of terror, and the warming of Libyan/U.S. relations.

We landed in Tripoli at 2 am, greeted by our hosts amongst a sea of enthusiastic handshakes and genuine greetings of  “welcome to my country”.   While our stay in Libya lasted a little over a week and a half, much was learned about this remarkable country and its people.  In that time we visited a hospital, a school , two ancient Roman cities, several museums, Muammar al- Qaddafi’s home, (which Reagan had bombed in 1986 killing Qaddafi’s infant daughter), a bazaar in downtown Tripoli, the great man-made river project, a community radio station, a community television station, various government officials and ministers and lots of kind Libyans while roaming freely (unsupervised) around the streets of Tripoli and several rural communities.

Libyan Politics
In the West, little information is known about Libya’s form of grass- roots democracy, a form that has a likeness to the New England town hall meetings. Considerable discussions with our hosts centered around what is called in Libya “direct democracy” as opposed to our reprehensive version.  The system consists of basic People’s Congresses that form throughout the country to vote on local or national issues. In addition to the representatives, these congresses can also have elements of unions or associa- tions.  These basic congresses elect by hand vote a secretariat which then go on to form a popular congress at the national level which in turn may vote on a national issue, elect a committee to run a utility or a team to run a Ministry.  Space doesn’t allow for a full description here but it is important to point out that the system is designed to eliminate party politics, lobbyist or voting the party line.  Does it work?  Wandering around the back streets of Tripoli unaccompanied and talking with many vendors and tradesmen, I sensed a genuine feeling of contentment.  Maybe my being a foreigner tainted their feelings -- or was it because of the universal health care they receive?

As I walked around Tripoli,  I was struck by the lack of homeless people -- a sight that is becoming more common in cities throughout the United States and something I’m seeing daily in larger numbers in San José, Costa Rica. When I asked our Libyan friends about this, they pointed off in the distance at a new apartment building going up and said “housing is provided to all”.

Being that there were several journalists in our group we visited a radio and television station on the outskirts of Tripoli which both turned out to be community-based, non-commercial stations. It was a delight to see these enthusiastically-run media outlets and to hear with some pride from one of the local radio staff that the radio station was “operating by authority of the local government” and not that of the central government in Tripoli.  As I was being interviewed over the radio station,  I couldn’t help but think how logical it is to give the local government the ability to license local stations inside their community instead of some government bureaucracy thousands of miles away -- another example of direct democracy I suppose.

Some of our time was spent roaming through the ruins of ancient Roman cities like Laptis Magna [photo 1] [photo 2] [photo 3] or Sabratha -- both overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

Some unexpected highlights included seeing Muammar al-Qaddafi’s car in a Tripoli museum, a very old VW bug, and being followed around by a band of musicians who played traditional Libyan music.

So what about that warming of Libyan relations with the United States and those meetings defining just what is terrorism?  We were reminded by our hosts that after the 9 /11 attacks, Libya shared with the U.S. government sensitive intelligence information regarding the Al-Qaeda network whom the Libyans had eradicated from their country.  A lot of discussions with various Libyan officials revolved around defining just what terrorism is, its many forms and the danger it poses to civil society. Our Libyan hosts shared stories of their losses to terrorism, stories that are largely left out of the Western media. Our visit to Qaddafi’s bombed out home was a somber reminder that terrorism strikes from all sides and that sometimes our tax dollars pay for it.

When I returned from Libya I was asked repeatedly if I felt safe while there.  My answer was "yes". Totally.  As I roamed the avenues of Tripoli looking through the open bazaars, sometimes at midnight or after, I never felt in danger.  I was often able to strike up a conversation with the Libyans on the street as English seemed to be a popular second language.  As an obvious Westerner, I did receive some surprised looks of the polite kind.  Countless times I was asked where was I from, most who asked guessed from Ireland or England.  When they were told "the United States" a generous hand shake would ensue along with a smile and a “Welcome to my country.”

Often our Libyan friends reminded me of how important people to people contact is. As one Libyan stated “political leaders come and go, but lasting friendship between countries rests with the people to people contact”.

Culture of Peace Festival

RFPI’s neighbor and ally Fundacion CEPPA (Center for Peace Studies), is holding a “Culture of Peace” festival in Costa Rica from August 29^th to September 21^st and your help is needed!  CEPPA is helping form a Network of Violence Prevention organization to help transform violence against children and women in the Northern part of Costa Rica.  “In many countries” said CEPPA German volunteer Petra Wolfrum, “a daily activity for children is to go to school. However, this is not the case for many children in Costa Rica. In addition, many suffer violence at home and are victims of abuse in their communities. Together, we could bring profound changes to many lives!”

Fundacion CEPPA is trying to replicate what happened a few years ago when children from many countries of the world got together and acquired a whole forest in Costa Rica, now called Children’s Eternal Forest (Bosque eterno de los niños).  “We would like to build a forest of dreams for our children”, added director Celina Garcia.  

With this idea in mind, the Culture of Peace Festival is being organized with the purpose of distributing materials on human rights and self-esteem to school children and establishing parental workshops to reduce child abuse.  For more information, go to http://www.ceppa.net/eng/index.htm or write directly to ceppa@racsa.co.cr.   If you would like to join CEPPA’s efforts or make a donation, please press here.

Until the next edition of Vista On-Line, Peace be with you!

Vista On-Line editors: Victoria Vargas, Joe Bernard 
RFPI General Manager: James Latham 
U.S. Office Manager: Joe Bernard
English Program Director: Adriane Latham
www.rfpi.org | info@rfpi.org 
PO Box 3165
Newberg, Oregon  97132  USA