Green land turned into killing field

[Judi Lynn]

Green land turned into killing field

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By RANDALL SMITHPosted Friday, July 31 2009 at 16:45

San Salvador, El Salvador. For many years, I’ve been spending my summers here to make a difference. In the 1980s, this country was at war.

My country spent $1 million (Sh80 million) each day to arm the government against an insurrection that was caused by an inequality between rich and poor.

A scorched-earth policy turned the green, fertile land of this country into a killing field that forced millions into refugee camps in Honduras.

Many others, however, could not leave the country, and they were forced into the city. One of my closest friends is a Spanish priest who came to San Salvador in the late 1980s to help those displaced by war, and to give hope to a new generation of children.

At the time, he left a well scrubbed suburb in Madrid to live in a cardboard hut on a hillside in San Salvador that was bordered by railroad tracks and a highly polluted river.

I vowed to join him each summer to hopefully change a few lives. A difference has been made. As I write this column, I sit near the largest clinic for the poor in the country. There is also a social centre, providing both physical and spiritual help.

Because of years of progress, the soggy hillside that provided a home to my Spanish friend does not resemble anything like what was here in the late 1980s.

This community has been adopted by individuals, churches and municipalities from around the world. It’s not unusual to see visitors from Spain, the Netherlands and America on these streets. But it’s not a perfect story.

Poverty and violence, stemming from the war’s aftermath, have made San Salvador one of the 10 most dangerous cities in the world.

Much of it occurs in our community. Still, there are some good stories, and I’d like to share a few.

Continued:
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/632870/-/4mibyx/-/index.html

[flamingdem]

1. I wonder how many Americans know about the damage caused in El Salvador, thanks for this nt