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A Day of Beauty with the Landless Movement
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Contributed by Irene Fraser (Saskatoon) and Sue Winn (Montreal),
Delegates from the Anglican Church of Canada's Ecojustice Committee |
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| Children of the MST Community |
Today was a day of beauty. We travelled two hours outside of Porto Alegre to a Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) a settlement community of 35 families who were previously landless people. We saw verdant growth, brilliantly coloured flowers — clusters of purple and yellow, bold reds and delicate pinks — curvaceous hills of green and brown with distant hints of mountains of muted mauves, stark white long-necked birds standing intently, plates of food filled with black beans beside organic brown rice, grated carrots and pickled beets and open air homes of blue, green and yellow. We were warmly welcomed by strong and vibrant members from this community settlement. We saw the beauty of well deserved pride in achievement, against great unimaginable odds. And finally, returning to Porto Alegre, our own group colourfully dressed in our best for an evening of fellowship, tired but excited at the prospect of some relief from the intensity of the past week.
Tomorrow we will leave for Canada, to the cold of winter, the routine of our workplaces, to families who have maintained the homefires for us. Our minds are packed with images and our hearts yearn to share the passionate stories we have heard.
How will we tell those who live in comfort that there is an urgency for action, for opposition to powerful governments and transnational corporations who daily plunder the resources of so many countries, causing hunger, disease and death? Will they understand that war is never justified? That the media is a tool of the powerful that deceives distorts and manipulates the truth?
We have sat at the feet of brilliant minds, radical thinkers and lifelong activists. They have thrown us the torch. We pray for courage and wisdom as we carry forward the message that a new world is possible.
From Porto Alegre,
Irene and Sue
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