Guatemala

I’m in Guatemala, scouting for an upcoming one-hour public television special — and today I had the honor of sitting in on a powerful community gathering of hardworking farmers. I was brought here by Project Concern International, an NGO with a smart approach to development that focuses on empowering women, supporting farmers, and helping communities become self-sustaining.

A much-needed community center here costs about $3,500. (Meanwhile, my hometown is currently building one for 4,000 times that amount — and that’s considered a good value.) Societies develop better and faster when they can unleash people power. And people get power a lot more easily when they have a place to meet. Today, as I watched this community gather to share their little triumphs, one proud citizen at a time, I was struck by the shack that used to be their center — and how just a little money gave them a nice, new cinderblock center.

Pride and dignity give people reason to hope, and give a community energy. These are intangibles — but in struggling communities, they create desperately needed tangible results.

In the developing world, most people live and work on small family farms — and “development” means evolving from being a subsistence farmer into a small business owner, growing diverse crops that are tailored to the needs and appetites of the market.

I’m in Guatemala, scouting for an upcoming one-hour public television special about hunger, hope, and smart development. And today, I visited one of several family farms that are becoming independent with the help of Project Concern International, an NGO that supports farmers and helps communities become self-sustaining. Following their Guatemala director, Pascale Wagner, as she checked in on these hardworking families, I could understand why they love her so much, and why she loves them.

Join me for two minutes in this clip, and you’ll see some results of the great work Pascale and Guatemalan farmers are doing together.

I spent a busy day today in the highlands of western Guatemala with Project Concern International (PCI), an NGO with a smart approach to development that focuses on empowering women, supporting farmers, and helping communities become self-sustaining.

As I learn and scout for my upcoming TV special on global poverty and smart development, I’m especially interested in the “low-hanging fruit” of development aid: simple, low-tech, inexpensive tools, ideas, or innovations that make a huge difference in people’s lives. And smart stoves are a perfect example.

With the help of PCI’s Guatemala director, Pascale Wagner — a brilliant woman who’s dedicated 18 years to helping Guatemala develop — and with no help from my embarrassing lack of Spanish language skills, I enjoyed a fascinating little visit to a home that has benefited greatly from a smart stove. Join me in this little clip and take a look for yourself.

I’m in Guatemala, scouting for an upcoming public television special about global poverty and hunger. This is the most indigenous country in Central America — and much of it reminds me of a sprawling Indian reservation in the USA. As is so often the case in the developing world, big corporations buy up the best farmland (here in Guatemala, that’s for palm oil, coffee, or sugar), and the poor are driven to the rocky high country. (One farmer said he was told, “If you won’t sell, we’ll negotiate with your widow.”)

And with climate change, a bad situation has become worse. The once-gentle Guatemalan rain is now violent, and planting no longer fits the season. Farmers tell me that the “lean time” or “hungry season” historically started in April — but now, it starts in February. Many, in desperation, have abandoned their farms and fled north.

In the USA, views are divided when it comes to issues like climate change and the “caravan” of hungry refugees heading for our southern border. Exploring this quiet farmstead, it occurred to me that the Americans who deny climate change are, generally, the same people who fear the caravan. And the irony is that, as climate change gets worse, this caravan will prove to be just the first trickle of a flood of climate refugees that will soon fill headlines across the developed world.

At the end of this clip, you’ll meet a few of these farmers face-to-face.

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I’m in the jungles of northern Guatemala, scouting for a new public television special about world hunger — and I’m learning that extreme poverty is often rooted in conflict.

Today, Agros International brought me to a cemetery that was filled with tombs dating from 1981 and 1982 — an especially violent period of Guatemala’s civil war, when the government massacred thousands of indigenous civilians. Walking through this poignant cemetery, hearing survivors tell stories of lost loved ones who were struggling for a little corn and a few beans, I felt the scars of that tragic time.

When I traveled through Central America back in 1988, a favorite song was Jackson Browne’s “Lives in the Balance.” Listening to it again, the lyrics — so painfully true back then for me — still pack a punch:

I’ve been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headlines
And the sound of the crowd in my ear
You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that you’ve seen it before
Where a government lies to a people
And a country is drifting to war

And there’s a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interest runs

On the radio talk shows and the T.V.
You hear one thing again and again
How the U.S.A. stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
But who are the ones that we call our friends
These governments killing their own?
Or the people who finally can’t take any more
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
There are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

There’s a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that are fought in places
Where we can’t even say the names

They sell us the President the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us everything from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they’re never the ones to fight or to die
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

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