Battered kids - the hope for the future?

Please, go ahead and hit your child! The authorities won’t care. It’s more; they think it’s a great idea that parents punish their kids with their bare hands!! To legalize it is a step forward. This is true development, folks! Battered citizens are the hope for the future of El Salvador.

The new law, Ley de Protección de la Niñez, declares that “…children shall not be victims of corporal or psychological punishment, however, the parents’ right to direct, orient and correct them moderately and adequately is not restrained” (article 35). In tiny El Salvador, with a population of 5,6 million, 3 984 cases of child maltreatment were reported in 2007. And then there’s the number of unknown cases. Furthermore, millions of Salvadoran children suffer from less physically, still psychologically, harmful forms of corporal punishment. The kinds of punishment that the new law is permitting. The kinds of punishment that open up for more and more violence in society.

Many of the advocates of the new law use conservative arguments like “prohibiting corporal punishment would be discordant and against our culture” (Juán Pablo Durán, Partido Cambio Democrático) and “we cannot obviate what’s written in the Bible” (Jeremías Bolaños Anaya, la Conferencia Evengélica de las Asambleas de Dios). Some underline the importance of first explaining pedagogically to the child why it will be punished, before carrying out the act. So to speak; spontaneous, uncontrolled violence is not accepted, but calculated, systematic violence is.

Everyone in El Salvador is well aware of the serious problems of violence in the country. How can anyone, at anytime sustain that using violence against a child benefits development? That fear is better than reasoning? That, if other forms of child education was to be preferred, the result would be “lost generations” (Antonio Almendáriz, Partido de Conciliacion Nacional)? And who decides what is a “moderate and adequate” corporal punishment? Who protects the child, when not even the law does?

If there’s anything that could be called protective safe havens in El Salvador, I sustain that schools have the biggest potential. Of course, a lot of children suffer from violence at school, too. They are victims of maltreatment from other children and sometimes from teachers. However, I have met so many teachers at public schools struggling daily to teach the children how to solve conflicts through dialogue instead of violence. They claim that, when handling a student who misbehaves, one cannot get to the roots of the problem by yelling or hitting, since the child’s conduct in school originates from that kind of violent treatment she or he suffers at home. Violence feeds violence. The school, the teachers underline, has to be a place where vicious circles are broken, not reinforced.

But when the teacher explains to the bruised student that her mother’s treatment is wrong, that it is against the rights of the child, how is she going to explain the fact that according to national law, chastise is totally acceptable? As long as the punishment was “moderate and adequate”: “Mr National Law here says that maybe you deserved that slap. You see, kids who grow up without bruises become criminals. They never get to learn things like love and respect… Be grateful of the values that slap taught you!”

I am more convinced than ever that organizations like Schools for the Future and projects like ours have an important role to play in El Salvador. And that Salvadoran teachers are the hope of a less violent future where battered kids is the exception rather than the rule.

Please, visit http://www.schoolsforthefuture.org/ for more information about my work in El Salvador, and how you can help!

The bulletproof surfer

It was a beautiful afternoon, around five a clock, waves were perfect. Just like any other day, Ricardo grabbed his board and headed for the break.

On weekends the beach had its visitors, and every now and then dead bodies arrived at the shore. Corpses of men, women and children, marked by torture; badly burned, with their nails pulled out. But not today. The beach was empty and the waves belonged to Ricardo alone.

He stepped into the water and started to paddle. In the very moment he was diving through a wave, he felt a fierce pain in his left arm. He got his head over the water and saw blood pumping from a deep wound just above the bend of the arm. Chocked, he pressed his hand against the wound and started to head back to the shore. He felt weaker and weaker by the minute, but made it to the beach where a lonely vendor was still lingering in the soft late afternoon sunlight. Ricardo lay down in the sand, blood still pumping from his arm, and passed out. He didn’t know yet that the wound was caused by a bullet, probably fired from some random drunk who’d seen Ricardo from a viewpoint along the highway, encouraged by his friends to play a little game. The bullet had hit a central vein and Ricardo was dying.

This is a story told by a child of the war (“niño de la guerra”), a Salvadoran who experienced the civil war first through the eyes of a child, later through those of an adolescent growing up and becoming an adult. During the war, which was fought between 1981 and 1992, random violence like that in Ricardo’s story threatened the Salvadoran people on a daily basis. On buses, in the streets, everywhere. The same Ricardo was almost killed by gang members (“mareros”) in a bus hijack earlier during the war. At the same time, organized political violence constantly haunted the population. The tortured bodies that sometimes floated ashore at Ricardo’s beach were testimonies of the numerous massacres carried out by the para-militarian death squads sent out by the Government. Whole villages were wiped out. The same para-military used to wait outside public schools and by force pick up young boys, sending a note to the parents saying that their son was now serving in the army. Of course, the guerrilla got a lot of blood on its hands, too.

Ricardo didn’t die that day on the beach. He was transported to a public clinic, where the doctor saw no other solution than to amputate the arm. However, thanks to his upper class surfer friends, he got access to the best medical care and got to keep his arm. In a segregated class society like that of El Salvador, there are few forums where people from different social groups actually get to mingle, and the surf community is one of those.

They say that the presidential election on the 15th of March is historic. For the first time, the left wing party FMLN (founded by the guerrilla after the war) has good chances of winning. The right-wing party ARENA (founded in 1982 by the leader of the death squads) currently running the country has a lot to fear. Indeed, fear is the result of political polarization, and whoever wins the elections the legacies of the war cannot be forgotten. Ricardo surfs the waves as he’s been doing every day since he was a kid, but the memories remain and so does the broad scar on his left arm.

The land of many fears

On our way back from Suchitoto this weekend, I experienced Salvadoran corruption for the first time when a policeman along the highway demanded 60 dollars in bribe for not confiscating our car. The powerlessness, anger and frustration you feel when you’re in the hands of a (or actually two, one of them the boss) corrupted police officer is overwhelming. As a Swede you want to head to the nearest police station and announce it, but you never really know what will happen if you do. To fear the police is nothing strange here, and the incident once again made me think about how fear in many ways shapes the Salvadoran society.

Fear puts limits on people’s lives and is used by those in power as a tool for attracting and keeping the loyalty and trust of the people. It sounds dramatic, I know, but I’m certainly not the first one to draw this conclusion about the situation in many Latin American countries. I will try to explain better.

For example, I know people who have never went anywhere by bus. Those who can afford to have cars or have friends with cars simply never set foot on a local bus. Why? Do you get killed the minute you enter one of those? Do you get kidnapped? Robbed? Abused? The answer is: It might happen. Of course it might happen, and the risk is higher in El Salvador than in almost all other countries in the world. But still, ordinary people take the bus every day, and ordinary people are more honest than the policeman that used his power to bribe us on the highway. In the end, the probability that you end up without money in your pocket on a given day is equal whether you take the bus or stay in your “safe” car. When it comes to the aspect of physical violence, buses are probably less safe since drugged robbers with arms have better chances to enter. And it happens. However, the risk that you will end up dead or wounded walking down the street or in a car accident is higher than that a bus hijacker shoots you down.

This exaggerated fear is a perfect tool for anyone seeking power in the country. Scared people (NOT being the same as stupid or naïve!!) are easier to manipulate, they are desperately seeking a feeling of security and find comfort in anyone who can prove that measures are taken to fight the threats. The media, indirectly controlled by politicians, gladly inform the Salvadorans about the violent crimes committed during the past 24 hours, accompanied by happy news about the police arresting ten gang members (and pictures of the not yet formally judged criminals). The same strategy is used in order to increase people’s fear of an economic and societal disaster after the elections, would not the party currently in power win the presidency. I don’t prefer any of the two candidates, and I don’t say that El Salvador definitely won’t end up like Venezuela if the left-wing party FMLN would win the elections, but I believe that the Salvadoran people has the right to get proper and unbiased information. When I read the newspaper, I don’t know if I should cry or laugh at the obvious subjectivity. I actually don’t read the newspapers anymore, I’m tired of becoming upset about the propaganda. I’m asking myself how I’m going to survive as an election observer…

That’s all for the pessimism! Luckily, there are many reasons to feel hopeful about the future of El Salvador. Why? Because people may be scared, but they deserve the best and they will get it in the end.

Want to kiss an endangered baby turtle?

I am now back in El Salvador, for the third time! My first time was in the summer of 2003, as a young girl visiting my volunteering parents for a couple of months, looking forward to my first year at Uppsala university. My second time was in April 2008, arriving as a Development Studies student doing a field study on school violence. Much older and more experienced than the first time, and even more so when I returned to Sweden after 2,5 months.

And here I am again, this time as the president of the young non-profit organization Schools for the Future (http://www.schoolsforthefuture.org/) that I founded together with four friends after my last stay in El Salvador. Also, I am going to spend one week as observer in the presidential elections in March (in which the result, who ever ends up as winner, will be "una mierda", shit, as one of my Salvadoran friends put it). How will these completely new roles shape my experiences in the country this time?

For me, El Salvador with its extraordinary landscape, endlessly generous people and committment to social improvement as well as its countless political, cultural and social problems concerning poverty, inequality, environmental decay, political polarization and violence is a country worth telling about. It is interesting, sad, fantastic, horrific, amazing, crazy, spectacular... It is a country worth knowing about and, not least, worth visiting.

This first week, apart from kicking off the literature project preparations and accompanying ny friend and her NGO to La Barra de Santiago/El Zapote as usual, I visited the amazingly blue crater lake Coatepeque and got close to vulcán Izalco and vulcán Santa Ana (two of El Salvador's 25 volcanoes) in Parque Nacional Cerro Verde. The environment in El Salvador is threatened in every possible way, so every time you get to know about preservation projects and meet people dedicated to the environment you become rediculously happy! This was also the feeling I got when I met Samuel, or "papá tortuga" (father turtle) as they call him, in playa El Zonte this weekend. El Zonte is my favourite place in El Salvador, my escape from the urban traffic, noise and stress. Here, you get your deserved share of sun and sea and can recharge the batteries until next weekend.

This time, although the sea turtle season is in Agust-September, a couple of newly born sea turtles were released into the sea, rescued from rich peoples' dinner tables. The sea turtle is an endangered species, because of its delicious, expensive eggs. The eggs are collected right efter they are laid in the sand, under the moonlight, always at the exact same beach where the mother herself was born, and are then sold as a delicacy. However, numerous local projects have developed in order to save the sea turtle, and the eggs are then collected directly or bought from collectors and guarded until hatched. The baby turtles are then released into the sea, often in a ceremony to mark the importance of the project.

Samuel is one of these dedicated souls, spending a lot of time and effort (and money he does not have) on rescuing about 500 turtles every season. He spoke enthusiastically about the importance of information spreading, not least to younger generations. Since we in Schools for the Future, as a part of our project at urban schools, are planning to organize field trips to the countryside (poor kids in urban areas never get to see the countryside, even less so the sea), I asked Samuel if he thought it would be a good idea to bring the children there during the sea turtle season, in order for them to get to know about the problem, to actually see and touch real baby turtles and take part in the release ceremony. How can children be supposed to care about the environment if they never in their lives get the chance to actually experience it? Samuel was optimistic about the idea, it is exactly what he believe is needed, and we decided to stay in touch continuously.

The project preparations continue! Thank you for showing interest, and do not forget to visit http://www.schoolsforthefuture.org/ for more detailed information about the project. Hasta pronto!