July 31, 2003
Buying peace and tolerance.
Two articles in the Guardian struck my fancy. Entirely different problems and parts of the world, but the same approach: giving money.
This one, by Cesar Garcia, reports on the Columbian governments new plan to buy peace by paying soldiers on both sides to stop fighting.
Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez gave $540 to each of the 28 former combatants. Fourteen had deserted from the ranks of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country's biggest rebel group; 12 from the National Liberation Army, or ELN; and two from paramilitary bands.
The two rebel groups and the paramilitary factions all finance themselves by trafficking in cocaine and ``taxing'' cocaine production, and by extorting money from Colombians. The rebels also kidnap for ransom.
One rebel deserter urged other fighters to abandon the war, saying the fight was no longer about ideology but over control of criminal enterprises.
``I call on all outlawed organizations - because they have lost their bearings - to put down their weapons and begin a dialogue,'' said the former rebel, who was not identified for his own security.
An expensive approach though, and one that doesn't address the roots causes of the wars. Although in Columbia it would appear that the fighting has taken on a life of its own, and that it's no longer about anything but survival and profit.
The other article
reports, by Gary Younge, on a pastor in Louisiana that is attempting to address the segregation in southern religion by simply paying white people to come to its services.
It's a special offer for this month only: a race-based bonus in the name of integration, diversity and the good Lord himself. A church in Louisiana will pay white people to attend its services, offering $5 per hour for those who attend its Sunday services and $10 for anyone who comes on Thursday.
"Our churches are too segregated and the Lord never intended for that to happen. It's time to do something radical," said Bishop Fred Caldwell, of the Greenwood Acres Full Gospel church in Shreveport.
Religion is more racially segregated than anything else in America, including housing and socialising, and nowhere more so than in the south, where 11 o'clock on a Sunday morning is said to be the most segregated hour of the week.
And I guess I could also mention the American government's decision to pay $30 million reward money to those who helped capture Hussein's sons. Money is an awfully strong incentive sometimes, that's for sure. For most people anyway. But not true believers. True believers are willing to even pay to die for their cause.
"For fifteen hundred dollars, you can have anybody killed." -- Bob Dylan, I forget the song.
