Newsletters

Date: December 4th 2009

Vigil at Peace Park
by Phyllis Stutzman
November 25, 2009

Tonight several hundred people gathered for a vigil at Parque de la Paz (Peace Park) in Barranquilla, observing the International Day to End Violence Against Women. Groups from the offices of the President, governor, and mayor, NGOs such as World Vision, and churches were among the organizers and supporters. How remarkable so many abhor violence against women!

Domestic violence statistics in Colombia are disturbingly high –as everyplace where violence is the star policy tool that dominates at national and community levels. Not only war, but poverty and too few jobs are policies of violence.

Parque de la Paz symbolically represents the hard work of peace. It's possibly the largest slab of solid concrete I've ever seen –exception being highways and runways. Not a tree, not a flower, no soil, no benches, no water. Barranquilla day temperatures range between 88 and 97 degrees fahrenheit! The slab park is mostly vacant by day. After sundown, food vendors set up their grills and fruit stands in one corner where commuters pass. Precarious lanterns on the carts provide light. This evening scene reminds me of fragile and small acts that are part of constructing peace; of transforming the massive, hard and impervious into space for friendly interaction around common needs and interests.

The music and poems on the stage at tonight's vigil brought laments, determination, and hope. An angel with arms outstretched to wave large gauze wings walked the concrete slab on dangerously high stilts.

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For more of Phyllis's reflections, visit her blog: http://phyllisstutzman.blogspot.com/

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