Quotes regarding Honduras from “Banana, the Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World”

Bananas and the resulting relationship between North America and Central America has had a dramatic impact on Honduras. Its helpful to understand some of this past in the context of Honduras’ interest in developing model cities. Building and encouraging mutual respect was not part of the language of the relationship. Loving and respecting our neighbours to the south was not our priority.

According to the book, the banana production began before the turn of the 19th century when a man named Minor Keith worked to develop railways, first in Costa Rica, then in other Central American countries.

“Keith would continue building railroads – and continue financing them with lopsided land-for-track deals – throughout Central and South America, and opening plantations in Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Columbia and Equador” p 60

“There was a clear sense of manifest destiny in the building of the banana empire. It was both part of, and sometimes, the cause of increasing assertion of control over Latin America by the United States..Over the next thirty-five years (from 1898), the U.S. military intervened in Latin America twenty-eight tims: in Mexico, in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba in the Caribbean; and in Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and El Salvador in Central America…the biggest consequence of those incursions was to make the region safe for bananas” p 63.

“The workers had no such voice. Though the banana moguls exhibited some altruism, building hospitals and schools for their workers, the notion that the fruit companies were an unqualified benefit to the countries they controlled – as was frequently claimed – was surely disputable. The public knew little about events like the 1912 invasion of Honduras, which granted United Fruit broad rights to build railroads and grow bananas in the country…They weren’t aware that in 1918 alone, U.S. military forces put down banana worker’s strikes in Panama, Columbia, and Guatemala.” p 64.

“To the public, the banana companies were’t just smart or altruistic, they were heroic entities that uplifted every region they entered. A New York Times article published in 1924 implied that the reign of United Fruit would be remembered as a pinnacle of human achievement. The story, headlined “Lowly Banana Rebuilds an Empire” describes the presence of U.S. enterprises in Central America as “the rehabilitation of an ancient empire..that flourished long before Columbus” The story continued: “The opening up of the humid lowlands of Central America by the new seaports, railroads, and banana plantations of the United Fruit Company is more than a story of business faith and commercial enterprise. It is a demonstration of empire building with a new ingredient capable of correcting the mistakes of the past.” p 69

“Life expectancies for banana laborers were decreasing, while United Fruit’s contol over every facet of life in the region was reaching near total levels. The company rewarded those who cooperated, and began to behave with more and more brutality toward those who didn’t. There was one clear way to distinguish between those who benefited from the company’s growth and those who didn’t. The lucky ones nicknamed the company mamita. Those who weren’t so fortunate called it El Pulpo.” p 70.

“Honduras was in debt, and the American secretary of state, Philander C. Knox, was working to have J.P. Morgan and Company take over the Honduras customs service. The scheme would have allowed any tariffs or duties collected in the Central American nation to be directly funneled to the U.S. bank…Today, Honduras is one of the poorest and least visited countries in Central America; the countryside remains sleepy, and the banana plantations seem little changed from how they must have looked a century ago. The Honduras that Zemurray (president of Cuyamel Fruit starting around 1910) grew.his first bananas in was more like a free-for-all. With no extradition treaty to the United States, the country became a haven for “people on the run.”  p 72.

“The country and much of the region was also filled with mercenaries – usually from the United States – who acted as police, militiamen, and enforcers; they’d played a huge part in the frequently violent relationship between the United States and Central America in the nineteenth century….Zemurray (president of Cyamel Fruit)…employed two of the most legendary of these Central American filibusters: Lee Christmas and Guy “Machine Gun” Molony. The thirty seven year old Christmas had lived in Honduras for several years. He’d worked as an engineer on the banana railroads – he’d been fired from a similar job in the United States because he was color blind and couldn’t read the signals on the tracks – and happily jumped inot an insurrection when a battle between government forces and rebels suddenly erupted around his train. Christmas already had grievances with Honduran officialdome, so he threw his lot in with the insurgents, acquitting himself by killing several soldiers and ending up as one of the region’s most feared fixers – available and well used in multiple exploits and escapades..” p 73.

“In the context of over half a century of American adventures in Central America, what Zemurray planned might have seemed commonplace, but it remains one of the most audacious escapades of the era. According to his United Fruit Historical Society biography, Zemurray and the two mercenaries met at a New Orleans bawdy house. While the Secret Service agents monitored the brothel’s front door, the three men slipped out the back, making their way to a waiting boat. Laden with ammunition, the conspirators sailed south. On their arrival in Honduras, the trio – who’d also brought along former Honduran president Manual Bonilla, who Zermurray had recruited for the plot – drummed up supporters and mounted an insurrection. Six weeks later, Bonilla was again in control of the country. One of his first acts was to sign a bill that allowed Zemurray to operate, tax free, across a broad portion of the nation.” p 74.

“American soldiers were stationed on its (United Fruit) behalf as police officers in Panama in 1918 and as union busters in Guatemala – where it was granted a hundred kilometer wide ministate two years later. Troops were twice called on to “monitor” elections in Honduras and returned to Panama in 1925 to break up a plantation strike.” p 75

“In 1925, Popenoe (a research scientist with experience in the tropics) was hired by United Fruit to open a research station in Lancetilla, a few miles from the company’s Honduran headquarters in Tela. It was a curious job for someone who’d expressed so much sympathy for the exploited, but the scientist was determined that his work could aid people working at both the highest and the lowest levels of the banana industry….the self-made plant expert was charged with a secondary task: determining what crops might be grown on land ruined by Panama disease – or even in the entire region if bananas completely vanished. His proposed replacement crops included rubber, a dozen kinds of timber, the oil palm, and cocoa, all of which are grown across wide stretches of Central America….when Sam Zemurray wanted to curry favor with Honduran president Tiburcio Carias Andino, he ordered Popenoe to develop a local breed of tobacco that could compete with product from Cuba. For bananas, Popenoe helped create an even more controversial legacy: It is called Bordeaux mixture (the conconction of chemicals used to control Panama disease)” p 104

“United Fruit woudl still exert significant control over many of these countries, especially Honduras, but as the McCarthy era ended and the hottest spots of the cold war moved to Southeast Asia, small signs of independence – legislation that increased worker’s rights and even the creation of some independent banana producers emerged. (None of this meant peace for Central America, however, where civil wars, dictatorships, and right-wing governments, propped by the U.S., were the norm through the 1980s).” p 143

“Vaccaro’s enterprise (Vacarro Brothers and Company) became the largest banana grower in northern Honduras (in 1899), centered around the port city of La Ceiba. Vacarro’s enterprise quickly became a scaled-down version of United Fruit, building seaports, railroads, and communications facilities. Vacarro copied another United Fruit tactic as well: using control over growing areas. In order to gain working capital for railroad building, Vacarro enlisted the help of local merchants, who excited by the banana gold rush, put up both cash and their land in return for shares in the newly formed Vacarro Brothers and Company. By 1903 the company was earning huge profits, and the investors began to demand their rightful portion. Instead, according to Honduran author Antonio Canelas, writing in La Ceiba, sus raices y su historia (La Ceiba, its Roots and its History), Vacarro ordered the town’s city hall to be burned down, along with any records of land ownership and business agreements contained inside. With the support of the Honduran government, the banana importer was able to make a blank slate of the region – over which he took control.” p 145 (In 1925, this company became Standard Fruit).

“Starting in the late 1970s, Freedom of Information Act requests revealed thousands of pages of U.S. government papers, including budgets for the operation, intelligence operatives, United Fruit executives, and conspirators in Central America. One document lists over fifty Guatemalan officials targeted for “elimination”. A second contains instructions on how to accomplish that goal, in handbook form.”  p 155

“United Fruit lauched the attack on Jacob Arbenz (Guatemalan president accused of communistic sympathies) from Honduras in 1954. But that country was at that time embroiled in its own banana conflict. A month after the soon to be deposed Guatemalan leader presented United Fruit with a tax bill, a few dozen Honduran workers walked off the job. By the end of the month, the nation’s entire banana industry was frozen in place: thirty thousand workers refused to enter the plantations, loading docks, and railroad depots. The Honduran economy, never strong, was on the verge of collapse, and the banana exporters, already in a state of panic over Guatemala, were terrified that the strikers would succeed and that one Central American country after another would then fall….United Fruit acted first in Guatemala because it was easier to stage an overthrow in a country without strikers than to attack thousands of angry, idled laborers. But the company also knew that success against Arbenz would shift momentum away from the envisioned chain reaction. That is exactly what happened. When the Guatemalan government folded, the morale of the Honduran strikers collapsed, and the country’s government was able to arrest labor leaders by accusing them of having ties to Arbenz.” p 166

“Villeda Morales had also won the 1954 vote, but he’d been denied office, partly because he’d been seen as too left wing. The Honduran…worked as a rural doctor before going into politics – understood the injustices that Honduran peasants had been subjected to for decades. And like the failed Guatemalan, the new Honduran president understood that the key to change was land reform. The Honduran program was strategically modest…small plantations and communities were allowed to form rural cooperatives adn labor laws were reformed to allow security and increased protection for workers. The softer approach didn’t result in immediate disaster, but, by 1963, when it appeared Villeda Morales woudl be reeelected by a large margin, and anticipating even more sweeping reforms, the country’s military stepped in again: Elections were cancelled, Villeda Morales was exiled, and Colonel Oswaldo Lopez Arellano took power. Many of the earlier land reforms were rolled back, and even the United States – which was beginning to feel uneasy about intervening for the banana companies – officially suspended diplomatic relations during the coup. The country’s new leader purged perceived leftists, especially those with ties to Cuba’s Fidel Castro (this pleased the United States, which restored diplomatic relations, with increased military assistance, a year later. For those laboring on Honduran plantations, the coup marked the beginning of decades where gains were lost, gained, and lost again. Some unions were banned and others grew. Land was transferred to workers, then given away. The one taboo was strikes: As recently as 1991, the military was killing workers who walked off the job. p 168.

“In 1972 a new form of Sigatoka (banana disease) hit Honduras…to combat Black Sigatoka, which remains the most widespread banana disease in the world, aerial spraying of the crop was increased, resulting in further damage to the health of the workers on the ground….in other words, though the actors, techniques, and storyline shifted constantly, Honduras remained the quintessential banana republic”. p 169.

We all in North America share responsibility for what happened in Honduras. It resulted from our insatiable desire for bananas. It resulted from our ability to separate moral responsibility to our neighbours to the south from our financial investments in corporations that fed our desires. It resulted from our willful ignorance of how our own people and our own elected leaders were treating our neighbours to the south. May God and the people of Honduras forgive us for that, and may we become better global citizens.

Quotes from “Banana, the Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World” by Dan Koeppel

I’m not sure that I would accept this title in its entirety, however, it is a fruit that changed much for Central America.  I am sad to think that I am part of a North American culture whose major religion allowed us to abuse other nations, whose constitution did not seem to apply to other nations, and whose economy allowed separation of a person’s wealth from the consequences of where the money was used. I puzzle over Jesus’ simple summary of the commandments: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22: 37-39. NIV. I puzzle because the second part of Jesus’s summary of God’s law didn’t always seem to apply to our neighbours in Central America.

“it seems to me that if we allow others to suffer the problems that arise from growing and depending on bananas, and we refuse to shoulder even a portion of that load, then we’re doing nothing but continuing a century of disregard and exploitation….”  p 241

“the only genuine way to make fair trade succeed is not to attempt to transform Chiquita or Dole or Ecuador or Honduras or even individual plantations themselves. The shift needs to begin not where the bananas are produced, but where they are bought. Consumers need to insist on fair trade, and governments need to mandate it. Only then will banana growers attempt the changes in infrastructure needed to make fair trade or organics, or both, a possibility. Such a thing has happened in some parts of the world: almost half the bananas bought in Switzerland are fair-trade products. Worldwide, the amount of organic and fair-trade fruit produced has more than doubled in the last five years. Though the target remains statistically distant, the process is the best hope for th bringing a measure of justice to workers who, for over a century, have known very little.” p 235

“the next few years saw mixed results – and Black under increasing pressure. United Brands earned praise for its efforts in helping Nicaragua recover from a devastating 1972 earthquake; company money was largely responsible for rebuilding the country’s capital, Managua. The same year, the spread of Sigatoka increased across the region. The companyis response was to use more, and increasingly toxic chemical sprays. The health of the banana workers declined again.” p 171

The Use of Pesticides

The Panama disease, a soil borne disease that devastated banana plantations was already present around the turn of the century.

“the banana moguls knew what Panama disease was. They knew what it did. They knew how it spread. But they refused to use any of this knowledge for positive change. It was as if the power of the banana, which had changed both the nations that consumed it and those that grew it, had addicted United Fruit and its rivals to just one method of growth; blunt marauding through the tropics without considering the consequences of, or alternatives to, standard procedure. Now that nature had answered back, the banana companies seemed deaf and baffled.” p 102

“the substance known as the Bordeaux mixture led to a chemical retaking of the tropics. “to deliver the necessary enormous quantities – 250 gallons per acre, twenty to thirty times per year – United Fruit created a fungicide infrastructure of phaeronic scale, ” wrote Steve Marquardt in 2002…Pesticides have been used for thousands of centuries, but United Fruit’s industrialization of the process was the final part of an infamous trio of “innovations” that, in less than two decades, transformed the way people controlled – and reacted to – agricultural maladies. Aerial spraying was invented in 1922. It was followed, ten years later, by the first crop experiments of DDT.” p 107.

“Already burdened by near-indentured status, with substandard housing, poor medical care, and no ability to organize, they now faced a much more insidious threat: Bordeaux mixture made them sick. Workers would return from the field with their skin literally turned blue by the heavy spraying. No longer was the biggest immediate health risk faced by banana workers an industrial accident – wound from a machete or a mishap on a loading dock. After a few months of exposure, workers could no longer scrub the blue tint from their flesh. They’d lose their sense of smell and their ability to hold down food. Then they died.”  p 108

“In 1972,..the same year, the spread of Sigatoka increased across the region (Nicaragua). The company’s (United Fruit) was to use more, and increasingly toxic chemical sprays. The health of the banana workers declined again.”  p 172

“more chemicals are being used to fight Sigatoka (a fungus), and more workers are getting sick. Over the past several years, five lawsuits were filed against Dole on behalf of banana workers in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama. The suits alleged that the former Standard Fruit had, since the 1970s, knowingly used a pesticide called DBCP – mostly to fight Black Sigatoka – that made worker sterile (chemical banned in the US).”

“Just three years ago, a Chiquita spokesperson scoffed when asked whether the company was trying to build a better banana….”we prefer to focus our research on traditional means of control”.  Pesticides over patrimony.” p 239.

Two Suicides

There were two key persons in the banana industry who took their own lives, both who had worked for United Fruit. Both deeply religious persons. Both were affected by the shareholder’s needs to maximize profits. Shareholders were able to separate their own moral obligations to their neighbour from their personal faith convictions. That is how investment has appeared to work in North America.

Dr. Philip Rowe: “Rowe didn’t invent the painstaking techniques that allowed banana scientists to breed the unbreedable, but he sharpened them, perfected them, and even succeeded with them, through a combination of genius and determination. Rowe arrived in Honduras in 1959, immediately after graduating from college. Since 1958 Phil Rowe had slowly, painstakingly been concocting better bananas….but despite these successes, the 1970s were a time of decline for banana breeders. Eli Black’s cost cutting measures eliminated much of the funding for the La Lima laboratories. Company managers had concluded that there was little need for a better commercial banana after all: Panama disease appeared to be gone, and Sigatoka was controllable with chemicals…It took a quarter century for Phil Rowe to come up with his dream banana. The company that he began with changed its name, lost money, lost its leadership position in the market, and lost Eli Black. Black Sigatoka had begun to decimate plantations across the region and had spread to Africa and Asia. The La Lima research facility was abandoned and reborn as FHIA. Through all those years, just twenty banana varieties out of the twenty thousand tested by the facility showed any of the desired traits….Then came the fruit good enough to be designated FHIA-01. Phil Rowe’s masterpiece does things no other banana can: It never turns brown. The fruit remains firm and solid for far longer than the Cavendish does.Goldfinger is virtually immune (to the Black Sigatoka and the Panama disease)…Goldfinger can be grown across a wider spectrum of terrain and weather conditions than the Cavendish, making it- in sufficient volume – cheaper to produce. Because it resists so many pests, it can be grown organically on land that has already been cleared. How does Goldfinger taste? Some refer to the fruit as the apple banana. The more proper term, when experts characterize the fruit’s taste, is an “acid banana”..Rowe’s greatest banana tastes so different from what we’re now accustomed to that the transition would be much more jarring to the consumer than the Gros Michel changeover…Rowe was an enigmatic genius; he was an accomplished scientist; he was an evangelical Christian. His understanding of how important bananas were made him a beloved character in impoverished Honduras. On many mornings, a half dozen or more locals would queue up at the La Lima research station. Rowe would give them fruit, or jobs, and sometimes even pay for their schooling. It was as if he was trying, all on his own, to right the wrongs of United Fruit – both social and biological. It would be hard to say whether or not Rowe succeeded. His banana varieties are now growing across the world and have been as productive as subsistence bananas. Rowe was reserved and revealed little of his own deepest thoughts, other than to express unbridled optimism, so it is hard to say how much of a toll this took on him or whether he felt that the mission he’d set for himself was too large, too frustrating, too impossible. On Sunday, March 25, 2001, near the La Lima research facilit, Phil Rowe committed suicide. A note he left to his wife and two children said, “Please forgive me”. Rowe’s impact was not just on banana science – he’d also, in a way, helped rehabilitate the reputation of the United States in Honduras. It wasn’t possible for Rowe to erase nearly a hundred years of history, but he accomplished as much as any one person could: “We have lost the best American who ever came to Honduras,” wrote Billy Pena, a columnist for the Tiempo newspaper.”

Eli Black: “Black’s next target was United Fruit. The late 1960s ere a time when many small US companies merged into huge conglomerates….Black won the battle for the banana giant with spectacular fireworks: On September 25, 1969, he bought 733,000 shares of United Fruit in a single day – at the time, the third largest deal in the history of the New York Stock Exchange. Black was known as a take no prisoners businessman… Black also hated defeat. Yet the sixteen hour days he’d been putting in at United Brand’s New York headquarters had failed to yield success; instead, they created grumblings on the part of company executives, shareholders, and banks that Black was better as a dealmaker than a day to day manager. …The police quickly ruled Black’s death a suicide. The only investigation remaining to be made was by the Securities and Exchange Commission, a routine inquiry always performed after such events. Black was working hard to squeeze every dollar out of United Brands. What he’d done was absolutely consistent with the company’s history – in fact, it seemed comparatively minor – but it was absolutely contradictory to Black’s values: in order to reduce the company’s tax liabilities in Honduras, Black had personally authorized a $ 1.25 million bribe to Oswaldo Lopez Arellano. The bribe had the intended effect – the tax on bananas was reduced to a quarter per box….The answer to Black’s suicide may lie in the friction between two poles: the checkered history of United Fruit, and the ethos most important in Black’s life – not business – but faith, as exemplified by the Torah, the holiest Hebrew text, and one that Black, as a rabbi and a scholar, had studied his entire life.”

It appears that Dr. Rowe understood Jesus’ summary of the law – love your neighbour. He found himself very alone trying to do this. It makes me think about our own money, our investments, and that we have a moral obligation for how our money is used. If we don’t invest in companies ourselves, but rather just keep our money in the bank, we have to understand that our banks invest our money for us in various companies. Do we really know what our money is being used for? Do we understand how our neighbours are affected by our money?

This book is humbling in so many ways. In the next post, I will include some more quotations from this book – from a more political perspective.

Quotes from “Conquest of the Tropics” by Frederick Adams

This is a fascinating book published in 1914 that tells the story of the early years of the United Fruit Company and the import of bananas and other commodities from Central America to North America.

One of the key messages that I gleaned from this book was how this industry was perhaps the forerunner and an excellent example of fair trade organic food imported for the North American benefit.  In the early years of the 1900s, almost 50% of the money that a consumer paid for a banana went to the country where it was grown. We also have to recognize that in those early years, there was no access to the fertilizers and agricultural chemicals that there was a few years later. There are some key differences between the banana trade described in this book and the fair trade industry today:

1. The motive for the banana industry was to satisfy the desires of the North American people, the stated motives for fair trade are to benefit the person or organization that grows the food.
2. The banana industry was able to take advantage of cost effective management and transport of goods by owning ships and transportation systems; the development of “the machine”, whereas for the most part, fair trade relies on established transportation means for the transportation and handling of product.
3. The banana industry invested heavily in hospitals and other projects to improve the communities that they were working in, whereas there is less emphasis on community investment in the fair trade industry today.
4. Some of the leaders of the North American companies at that time involved in the banana industry were motivated out of a spirit of adventure, a continuation of the “frontier” mentality that dominated early North American culture.  This is both positive in that amazing things were accomplished, and negative in the attitude towards some of the local persons.

Another message was the story of the development of a publically traded company, where the stage was set for shareholders to be disconnected from the actual activities of the company, and who relied solely on the integrity of the leaders of the company in their quest to maximize shareholder profits.  One can see that it sets the stage for future exploitation of people and the environment. Only recently have we come up the concept of “ethical funds” to begin to connect ourselves with what our money is really being used for.

Banana Import Could be Perceived as Organic and Free Trade in the Early 1900s

“How does it happen that the home-grown apple is placed beyond the reach of the average consumer and that the foreign-grown banana has increased in quality and decreased in price? The banana is a perishable fruit. It must be marketed immediately on its importation, and the business is one which requires millions in investment and the risks incident to fleets sailing in waters menaced by hurricanes. It is a farce when apples grown within ten miles of St. Louis or New York sell by weight for ten times the price charged for bananas shipped from Costa Rica or Colombia, South America. p 339.

 Thus the banana bunch which was sold by the producer and importer for $1 reaches the consumer with not more than another dollar added to it for freight, delivery, and all of the charges imposed by middlemen. Does the American consumer obtain any native farm product at any such proportionate charge? Hardly!  According to one of the railroad authorities of the country the potatoes for which the farmers received $8,437,000 in 1910 were sold to consumers in New York City for more than $60,000,000. Onions, for which the farmers got $821,000, consumers paid $8,212,000. Consumers paid $9,125,000 for cabbages the farmers had sold for $1,825,000. p 346.

This means that when a housewife spends $1 for cabbage that only 20 cents of her money goes to the farmer who raised these cabbages, and that the remaining 80 cents has been absorbed by transportation charges, commissions, profits to various classes of middlemen, and to the retailer. This means that when the housewife spends $1 for potatoes that 14 cents of this represents the farmer’s share, and that 86 cents of her money is absorbed in the process of bringing them from the farm to her. In the case of onions the farmer gets almost exactly 10 cents out of every dollar expended by the consumer. p. 348.

But when this housewife spends $1 for bananas she can rest assured that about 50 cents of this goes to the producer and importer for honest value delivered, and that the remaining 50 cents stands for legitimate and indispensable services rendered by railroads, truckmen, and the retailer.” p. 348.

 The Banana Industry Was Part of the Development of “the Machine”

“The future historian will recognize the fact that the thirty years from 1870 to 1900 constitute a distinct and wonderful period worthy to be designated as “The Age of Invention.” p 14.

This Age of Invention came to a close, as a distinct era, in or about 1900. Since that time there have been no great inventions comparable with those announced to the world in the marvelous period of 1870-1900. The reason is plain. The Machine was perfected, or practically so…It was the Machine which precipitated a series of devastating industrial and financial panics, but the fault lay with the system, or, rather, the lack of an adequate system for handling and distributing the enormously increased products of the Machine… The Machine was the relentless incarnation of efficiency. It had no useless parts. It made no useless motions. It made no mistakes. The quantity and quality of its output was a known factor. It had been created to perform a mission. The outworn institution of petty, planless, and wasteful Competition stood in the way, and the Machine crushed in its massive cogs the type which prevailed prior to 1900. p 15.

The banana, as an article of import and consumption in the United States, is purely a product of what I designate as the Machine. p 16.

This reorganization of corporate industry was, whether its participants knew it or not, an evolutionary movement calculated to build for the Machine a foundation fitted to its stupendous energy and possible productivity.” p 17.

 The Banana Industry Was Built with a Spirit of Adventure

“Our school-books and our histories dwell with pride on the records of the pioneers who braved the wildernesses and paved the way of our empire from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Our national prosperity is founded largely on the achievements of those who risked their lives in the conquest of nature. p 11.

There was no native agriculture in the American tropics to “exploit,” and it may astound the reader to know that there never has been and that none exists today. These tropics are productive just about in proportion as American initiative, American capital, and American enterprise make them productive. p 37.

To-day these former wildernesses constitute one of the most productive agricultural sections of the globe. Today the ships from all the world enter the beautiful harbors of Central America and land their passengers in ports which are as sanitary as those of Massachusetts. To-day most republics in Central America are served with well-managed and modernly equipped railway lines. The day is near at hand when one will be able to travel by rail from New York or San Francisco to Panama City in safety and luxury. Who performed these miracles ? They were wrought by American citizens who had the imagination, the courage, and the ability to attack and conquer the countless dangers and problems of the tropical wildernesses, and who did this through the organization of enterprises which helped lay the foundations of the United Fruit Company. p 51-52

By the same token, the men who believed that it was possible to convert the miasmic swamps and jungles of Central America into vast plantations of nodding banana plants, and who had the courage and fortitude to act on that belief, need not fear that honest and intelligent men will fail to give them credit when the facts are known. It was not solely a desire for profits which  caused these men to combat the seen and invisible dangers of the tropical vastness. They did it in response to that instinctive spirit which ever has urged the American to face and conquer the frontier. p 54

Everywhere the observer sees the manifestations of a carefully designed machine calculated to yield the greatest possible result from a given application of endeavor. Here is an industrial army engaged in a constant battle with the forces of tropical nature. There is no telling when nature may strike an unexpected and dangerous blow. p 177

The United Fruit Company is more than a corporation. It is an institution, an American institution founded by certain of its citizens and conducted with a broadness of policy and an industrial statesmanship which lift it out of the class of mere money making and profit hunting corporations. It is doing for the American tropics and the American people what the Hudson Bay Company did for the British Empire in the frozen north of Canada. It has awakened the slumbering nations bordering on the Caribbean with the quickening tonic of Yankee enterprise. It has proved to the world that these tropics can be converted from a harassing liability into an asset of stupendous value, and it has solved for the world the problem of transforming deadly swamps and jungles to gardens on which can be raised the food products demanded to keep pace with the ever-increasing hunger of the city-housed multitudes.” p 357.

 The Prime Expected Result of that Adventure was Economic Gain

“Those who risk their lives and their fortunes in tropical investments have a right to expect that success will yield handsome returns. There is always the chance that weather disasters or political revolutions will blot the ordinary tropical enterprise out of existence. This fact is recognized and acted on by bankers and private money lenders. The banks of Cuba, Mexico, and of Central and South America demand from 10 to 20 per cent interest on high class tropical loans. The sugar planter, tobacco grower, small banana raiser, or other participant in tropical agriculture is satisfied to pay 12 per cent for money borrowed to conduct his operations. He has an expectation of making from 20 to as high as 100 per cent under favorable conditions, and money is not forthcoming when an enterprise cannot prove that it has a reasonable chance of realizing from 20 to 30 per cent net profit. p 101.

This bonus meant far more than a mere money return. It meant the realization of years of hard work, relentless energy, courage, and fortitude. It meant that the banana industry had “arrived,” to quote a descriptive word. It was a token and a reward of the faith which had supported those who had struggled against the hardships and dangers of the tropics. It proved to the world that the industrial and commercial conquest of the American tropics was possible, and it should have proved to the United States that it was the bounden duty of its people, its press, and its government to encourage and foster the speedy development of the tropics. Not for the mere purpose of obtaining money rewards, but for the larger, broader, and statesmanlike object of obtaining from the tropics such of its other products as would add to the happiness and raise the standard of living of the people of the United States.” p 116.

 The Banana Industry at that Time Paid a Fair Wage to Workers

“The wages paid by the United Fruit Company and by other concerns engaged in productive enterprises in the tropics are practically as high as those commanded in the United States, which means that they are many times the rate ever before offered to labor in Central America. p 162.

If the Nobel Peace Prize could be awarded to a corporation, the United Fruit Company would have valid claims to recognition. It has done more to pave the way for peace and prosperity in Central America and in the Caribbean countries than all of the statesmanship and oratory which have vainly been directed to the same purpose. p 166.

The wages paid by the company average more than double that paid by the coffee planters of the highlands, and the drainage of the swamps and the rigid enforcement of scientific sanitary measures has rendered this section as safe and healthful as any part of the republic. Most of the manual labor on a banana plantation is what may be termed “piece work,” the laborer contracting to perform certain duties on a certain tract of land. He may, for instance, contract to keep clear of weeds and dead fronds or leaves five or ten acres of bananas, or he may contract to cut and deliver to the railroad platforms the bananas grown in a similar tract. As a rule the workman on a banana plantation selects his own time for the performance of the duties he assumes. Little or no work is done in the heat of the day… Under this system a worker can set his own pace and earn as much as he cares to attempt, but none is assigned to work who cannot perform a reasonable minimum, the pay for which exceeds a dollar a day. There are skilled and sturdy negroes who have no difficulty in making two and three times this amount, and the task is far less arduous than that done by the average white laborer in the United States. Their rent is nominal, and every occupant of a house or cabin has, rent-free, a garden patch on which he can raise at all times of the year the vegetables which respond to almost no attention. You may search the world over and not find a more happy and contented class than those who work in the banana plantations.  p 174.

It is to be doubted if anybody of colored men anywhere in the world receive as high pay, enjoy as much comfort, freedom, and happiness as the 60,000 or more Jamaican negroes who make possible the giant activities of the United Fruit Company and competitors….That corporation has many thousands of acres of banana plantations along the lowlands of the Motagua River and extending to the Caribbean Sea. It pays its laborers a dollar a day, eleven times as much as the laws of Guatemala say shall constitute a day’s wage. One can readily imagine what a boon this is to poor Indians who have formerly been paid only nine cents. Yet the United Fruit Company voluntarily pays this wage, and is able to give work to every Guatemalan Indian who applies for a job. p 202.

There is every likelihood that the payment of good wages, coupled with sanitary surroundings and civilizing influences, will breed in Guatemala and in all of Central America strong, self-reliant, and progressive races of people, and with these traits will come that sense of responsibility and real patriotism which ever serves as the foundation for orderly government and national advancement. p 203.

the United Fruit Company has loaned tens of millions of dollars to those who otherwise would not have been able to use their lands for banana cultivation. These loans have ranged from a few hundred dollars to loans of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Such loans have been made to residents of Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Jamaica, and have also been made to citizens of the United States, of Germany, Spain, and other countries… It has encouraged native landowners to undertake the cultivation of bananas on as large a scale as their circumstances would permit. It has offered to lend, and has actually lent, millions of dollars to such native landowners. This money was not advanced by the United Fruit Company at 12, 20 or 25 per cent interest, which rates are eagerly paid by borrowers with good security in most parts of these sections, but at low and reasonable rates of interest.  p 239.

Under this broad and liberal plan the United Fruit Company had deservedly won the loyalty and cooperation of thousands of planters who have shared in the prosperity which always accrues when men of energy deal fairly one with the other.” p 240.

 The Banana Industry Invested in Hospitals and in Other Community Services

“The company has $240,166 invested in hospitals. Each employee pays a small sum per month for medical service, but this is not sufficient to meet the expenses and there is always a considerable annual loss which the company is glad to meet. It is to be doubted if any private enterprise in the world has originated or maintains any service approaching that under the direction of the United Fruit Company… The sanitary work and discoveries of the United Fruit Company constitute a notable contribution to medical science. At a sacrifice of money and of human lives the means have been found to safeguard the health and lives of those who care to go to the American tropics to participate in the development of its hardly touched resources, or to assist in building up new and important markets for the products of their own country.” p. 296

The North American People Were Disconnected From Their Money That They Invested

“The United Fruit Company was formed in the year when the American public was possessed of a mania for risking its money in new and vast undertakings. Any plan of reorganization or consolidation of industry which could be so presented as to offer a reasonable chance of success had its securities snapped up by thousands of investors who besieged the offices of the underwriters and deluged them with letters containing remittances. It was a period when billions of dollars were turned into the coffers of the “New Industry.” p. 87

The blunt truth of the matter is that the United Fruit Company was forced into its present leadership in the banana industry because of the ignorance and indifference of the investing public of the United States concerning the tropics at their southern gates. p 89.

A corporation has the double duty of conserving the interests of its stockholders and of rendering a service to the public which has authorized its corporate existence. These duties do not conflict. The stockholders are entitled to fair profits on their stock investments, and the public is entitled to the benefits of prices and services based on just dividend rates. The aim of the United Fruit Company is to continue its work of linking the United States commercially and industrially with the American tropics, and to share in the rewards of the mutually enhanced prosperity of both sections. We are proud of what we have already accomplished. We are jealous of a prestige earnestly fought for, and we shall do our best to preserve and increase it.” p 361.

 North American Investors Were Not Interested in the Welfare of Their Neighbours

“We are so sure that the United States is the greatest country in the world that we are inclined at times to act as if it were the only country in the world. Some of us are so narrow that we find it impossible to understand why a citizen of the United States cares to live or dares to invest a dollar outside of the confines of his native country. The broad spirit of initiative and enterprise recognizes no national lines. p 4.

There is one dominant reason why the American tropics have not participated in the stupendous progress of all other tropical sections, and that reason is this: Instability of their governmental conditions has estopped the capital and the enterprise of the world from undertaking the development of their wonderful tropical resources. For this state of affairs the United States is largely to blame. Our national sins are not those of commission, but of omission. We have paid no attention to the welfare of our tropical neighbors for the purely selfish and ignorant reason that we did not consider the matter worth our while…It has not yet dawned on our political leaders that our tropics are a great but unused asset. We are so accustomed to the careless or wilful destruction of forests and other of our own natural resources that it is a matter of slight interest to us whether our tropical neighbors make a specialty of anarchy or of productive peace. We will one day learn, as financiers already have learned at their bitter cost, that each civilized nation shares in the prosperity or distress of all other nations. p 10.

Successive administrations have treated the questions arising from our relations with our tropical neighbors in a manner calculated to convince them that we took slight interest either in their welfare or in that of the Americans who had cast their lot with them. No official in recent years has greatly distinguished himself in tropical affairs, and we are in sad need of men who will take sufficient interest in these questions to qualify as experts.” p 13.

Summary

We know about what happens in subsequent years with the banana industry and other “investments” in the tropics. There are few key trends hinted at in this book that set the stage for the future:

1. The tropics exist for the benefit of North Americans.
2. North American investors are disconnected from where and how their money is used.
3. The goal of financial investment is to maximize profit.

One can argue that the disconnect between investment and where and how their money is used is simply an extension of the dominant religion in North America at that time that seemed to forget the second of the two greatest commandments clearly summarized by Jesus himself: Love God, and love your neighbour. As Jesus then said to the rich man who clearly knew these two commands – then go and do likewise, so I too am challenged to move from talking about loving our neighbour to actually doing it. This is one significant factor in the resurgence of “fair trade”.

Uncommon Decency – by Richard Mouw

Here are some quotes from a book that I read recently. Its an older book, but given to me by my wife for my birthday. It was given partially because I am generally interested in the topic, but specifically because of some legal issues that we are facing. The book is entitled, “Uncommon Decency – Christian Civilty in an Uncivil World” written by Richard Mouw in 1992.

“Civilty is public politeness. It means that we display tact, moderation, refinement and good manners toward people who are different from us. It isn’t enough to make an outward show of politeness. Being civil has an inner side as well… to be civil is to genuinely care about the larger society. It requires a heartfelt commitment to our fellow citizens. It is a willingness to promote the wellbeing of people who are very different, including people who seriously disagreed with you on important matters.” p12

“Being civil is a way of becoming more like what God intends us to be.” p13

“Every human being is a center of value. The value may not always be obvious to us. This is why we have to go out of our way to reflect upon the value of specific human beings. We Christians can do this by reminding ourselves that the person in question is created by God….every human being is a work of divine art….even when we have rebelled against God and distorted his handiwork in our lives, he continues to love us…” p24

“Reflecting on people’s capabilities for betterment is a way of cultivating a gentle and reverent spirit toward them.” p25

“Each of us must attempt to be faithful in the situations where God has placed us and with the resources God has made available to us….our calling is not to bring the kingdom of God in its fullness, it is to witness to the power and presence of that kingdom in ways that are made available to us.” p38

Here is a quote that has a similar theme to the quotes from Miroslav Volf that I presented in a previous blog:

“Honor everyone (I Peter 2:17). Honoring here means having an active regard for someone’s well being. Not that we are simply to give people what they ask for or tell them only what they want to hear… this is what civility is all about: honoring other people – even people whose beliefs and actions we dislike – in a manner that is gentle and reverent.” p44

“Convicted Christians will often be tempted by the crusading spirit. A rule of thumb is necessary. For starters, concentrate on your own sinfulness and on the other person’s humanness. We become more civil by gaining a more honest picture of ourselves and others.” p55

“We learn to act in a way that honors God’s perspective on reality. Having been aware of being seen by God, we can actively being to see in a more truthful and civil manner.” p58

“When we break out of the bonds of self centeredness, entering into the experiences of other people, we come closer to fulfilling God’s purposes for human beings. And we become more Christlike, since the incarnation (entry of Jesus into our world) is the ultimate ministry of empathy.” p63

“Christian people need a strong sense of curiosity. This is God’s world, and we ought to want to understand it better. And since human beings are such an important part of the divine scheme – fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:4), we out to be very curious about the full range of human experience. We want to learn about people who are very different from ourselves…we shouldn’t be too quick to reject the other person’s point of view.” p64

“I have a theological hunch about the diversity of cultural perspectives. I think that many of these differences were a part of God’s good plan from the beginning….the diversity of race, ethnicity and geographic temperament…..the human race as a whole also has the image of God in a collective sense – so that the rich diversity of cultures on the face of the earth shows forth the splendor of God in a way that no individual or group does alone.” p78

“The best leadership is what James MacGregor Burns labels the transforming kind. This happens when both leaders and followers are willing to be changed by their relationship – each party wants to be raised to higher levels of motivation and morality, so that their interaction will have a transforming effect on both.” p111

“Transforming leadership requires that we genuinely listen to others, that we be empathetically open to their point of view on matters that concern them deeply….genuine listening involves a willingness to be changed by what we hear. We cannot hope to transform others without a commitment to being transformed ourselves.” p113

“Christians never have the right to become less than civil people – our only option is to move beyond mere civility.” p129

“In some circumstances, what we think at the time to be a bold moral stand may prove to be a futile gesture that will be quickly forgotten by everyone but ourselves.” p130

I particularly like the following quotation – I am trying to use it as a directive in the current legal battle that I am involved with.

“Being civil means that we never forget that they (others) are indeed persons who are created in God’s image and who are still within the reach of divine mercy. It means we can think about cutting off conversation with them only when it becomes clear that they are, by their clear intent to harm the lives of other persons, asking us to do so. And it means that we may never let go of the hope that they may yet flourish as creatures who have the potential to glorify their Maker.”  p132

“Christian civility takes human freedom seriously. I may want people to believe as I do about some basic matters – but what I want is for them to choose to see things that way. This means that I must rely on testimony and persuasion in presenting my views to them. Civil Christians will be very reluctant to endorse moral and religious programs that rely on coercion.” p143

“Christian civility will display the patience that comes from knowing that the final accounting belongs to God.” p143

“Learning civility is learning to imitate God’s patient dealings with his rebellious creatures.” p145

“When the biblical writers encourage us to show our confidence in Christ’s triumph, they do not tell us to do so by claiming our victory prize here and now. Instead, we best demonstrate our participation in the benefits of Christ’s redemptive work by our willingness to suffer in a Christlike manner as we await the outcome that he has secured.” p 152

“The recognition that God’s standards of truth and morality are the only reliable reference points for our lives should instill in us a humble spirit” p166

 

Quotes from “Divine Conspiracy” by Dallas Willard

My wife gave me this book in 2006. I finally started reading it last year. It has had such an incredible difference in how I understand God, my neighbour and my place in this world. I have attached a number of quotes – its much easier to simply acknowlege the great writing of others than to claim wisdom for myself…!

“We are invited to make a pilgrimage – into the heart and life of God. The invitation has long been on public record. p 11

God’s desire for us is that we should live in Him. He sends among us the Way to himself. That shows what, in his heart of hearts, God is really like – indeed, what reality is really like. In its deepest nature and meaning our universe is a community of boundless and totally competent love… The Way we speak of is Jesus…Jesus offers himself as God’s doorway into the life that is truly life. p 11

Jesus’ enduring relevance is based on his historically proven ability to speak to, to heal and empower the individual human condition. He matters because of what he brought and what he still brings to ordinary human beings, living their ordinary lives and coping daily with their surroundings. He promises wholeness for their lives. In sharing our weakness, he gives us strength and imparts through his companionship a life that has the quality of eternity. p 13

The obviously well kept secret of the “ordinary” is that it is made to be a receptacle of the divine, a place where the life of God flows…  everyone from the smallest child to the oldest adult, naturally wants in some way to be extraordinary, outstanding, making a unique contribution…. p 14

The drive to significance is a simple extension of the creative impulse of God that gave us being. Our hunger for significance is a signal of who we are and why we are here, and it also is the basis of humanity’s enduring response to Jesus. p 15

This is a call for us to reconsider how we have been approaching our life, in light of the fact that we now, in the presence of Jesus, have the option of living within the surrounding movements of God’s eternal purposes, of taking our life into his life. p 16

When we see Jesus as he is, we must turn away or else shamelessly adore him. p 19

Such a response, along with many others familiar from the Gospels, illustrates how Jesus’ hearers understood the invitation to base their own lives on the rule of God “at hand”. Of course, they had no general understanding of what was involved, but they knew Jesus meant that he was acting with God and God with him, that God’s rule was effectively present through him.  p 19

When he (Jesus) announced that the “governance” or rule of God had become available to human beings, he was primarily referring to what he could do for people, God acting with him. But he was also offering to communicate this same “rule of God” to others who would receive and learn it from him. p 19

When we receive God’s gift of life by relying on Christ, we find that God comes to act with us as we rely on him in our actions. p 20

Every last one of us has a “kingdom” – or a “queendom”, or a “government” – a realm that is uniquely our own, where our choice determines what happens….we are made to “have dominion” within an appropriate realm of reality. This is the core of the likeness or image of God in us and is the basis of the destiny for which we were formed. We are, all of us, never-ceasing spiritual beings with a unique eternal calling to count for good in God’s great universe. p 21

The sense of having some degree of control over things is now recognized as a vital factor in both mental and physical health and can make the difference between life and death in those who are seriously ill….having a place to rule goes to the very heart of who we are, of our integrity, strength, and competence….by contrast, attacks on our personhood always take the form of diminishing what we can do or have say over, sometimes up to the point of forcing us to submit to what we abhor.  p 22

God equipped us for this task by framing our nature to function in a conscious, personal relationship of interactive responsibility with him. We are meant to exercise our “rule” only in union with God, as he acts with us. He intended to be our constant companion or co-worker in the creative enterprise of life on earth. That is what his love for us means in practical terms. p 22

What we can do with these means (our own unassisted strength) is still very small compared to what we could do in acting in union with God himself, who created and ultimately controls all other forces. p 23

The deepest longings of our heart confirm our original calling. Our very being still assigns us to “rule” in our life circumstances…  and we still experience ourselves as creative will, as someone who accomplishes things, constantly desiring to generate value, or what is good, from ourselves and from our environment. We are perhaps all too ready, given our distorted vision and will, to take charge of the earth. p 23

God nevertheless pursues us redemptively and invites us individually, every last one of us, to be faithful to him in the little we truly “have say over.” There, at every moment, we live in the interface between our lives and God’s kingdom among us. If we are faithful to him here, we learn his cooperative faithfulness to us in turn. We discover the effectiveness of his rule with us precisely in the details of day-to-day existence. p 23

God is unlimited creative will and constantly invites us, even now, into an ever larger share in what he is doing. Like Jesus, we can enter into the work we see our Father doing. p 24

In accord with his original intent, the heavenly Father has in fact prepared an individualized kingdom for every person, from the outset of creation.  p 24

As we learn through increasing trust to govern our tiny affairs with him, the kingdom he all along planned for us will be turned over to us, at the appropriate time. p 25

God’s own “kingdom,” or “rule,” is the range of his effective will, where what he wants done is done. The person of God himself and the action of his will are the organizing principles of his kingdom, but everything that obeys those principles, whether by nature or by choice, is within his kingdom…. We have an invitation to be a part of it, but if we refuse, we only hurt ourselves. p 25

The kingdom of God always pervades and governs the whole of the physical universe – parts of planet earth occupied by humans and other personal beings. p 26

When Jesus directs us to pray, “Thy kingdom come,” he does not mean we should pray for it to come into existence. Rather, we pray for it to take over at all points in the personal, social, and political order where it is now excluded: “on earth as it is in heaven.” With this prayer, we are invoking it, as in faith we are acting it, into the real world of our daily existence.  p 26

Within his overarching dominion, God has created us and has given each of us, like him, a range of will – beginning from our minds and bodies and extending outward, ultimately to a point not wholly predetermined but open to the measure of our faith. His intent is for us to learn to mesh our kingdom with the kingdoms of others. Love of neighbor, rightly understood, will make this happen. But if we can only love adequately by taking as our primary aim the integration of our rules with God’s. That is why love of neighbor is the second, not the first, commandment and why we are told to seek first the kingdom, or rule, of God. p 26

Jesus came among us to show and teach the life for which we were made. He came very gently, opening access to the governance of God with him, and set afoot a conspiracy of freedom in truth among human beings. Having overcome death he remains among us. By relying on his word and presence we are enabled to reintegrate the little realm that makes up our life into the infinite rule of God. And that is the eternal kind of life. Caught up in his active rule, our deeds become an element in God’s eternal history. They are what God and we do together, making us part of his life and him a part of ours.  p 27

God inducts us into the eternal kind of life that flows through himself.  He does this first by bringing that life to bear upon our needs, and then by diffusing it throughout our deeds – deeds done with expectation that he and his Father will act with and in our actions. p 27

The reality of God’s rule, and all of the instrumentalities it involves, is present in action and available with and through the person of Jesus. That is Jesus’ gospel. p 28

Those who have been touched by forgiveness and new life and have thus entered into God’s rule become, like Jesus, bearers of that rule.  p 28

Other kingdoms are still present on earth along with the kingdom of the heavens. That is the human condition. Persons other than God, such as you or I, are still allowed on earth to have a “say” that is contrary to his will. A kingdom of darkness is here, certainly, and the kingdoms of many individuals who are still “trying to run their own show.”… so along with the “already here” there obviously remains a “not yet” aspect with regards to God’s present rule on earth. p 29

Sometimes the places where God’s effective or actual rule is not yet carried out, and his will is not yet done, lie within the lives and little kingdoms of those who truly have been invaded by the eternal kind of life itself – those who really do belong to Christ because his life is already present and growing within them. p 30

The “interior castle” of the human soul, as Tersa of Avila called it, has many rooms, and they are slowly occupied by God, allowing us time and room to grow. That is a crucial aspect of the conspiracy. But even this does not detract from the reality of the “kingdom among us” Nor does it destroy the choice that all have to accept it and bring their life increasingly into it. p 30

The kingdom of God is also right beside us. It is indeed the Kingdom Among Us. You can reach it from your heart with your mouth – through even a shaky and stumbling confidence and confession that Jesus is the death conquering Master of all…to be sure, that kingdom has been here as long as we humans have been here, and longer. But it has been available to us through simple confidence in Jesus, the Annointed, only from the time he became a public figure. It is a kingdom that, in the person of Jesus, welcomes us just as we are, just where we are, and makes it possible for us to translate our “ordinary” life into an eternal one. It is so available that every one who from the center of his or her being calls upon Jesus as Master of the Universe and Prince of Life will be heard and will be delivered into the eternal kind of life. p 31

And the God who hears is also the one who speaks. He has spoken and is still speaking. Humanity remains his project, not its own, and his initiatives are always at work among us.  p 33

much time is spent among Christians trying to smooth over hurt feelings and even deep wounds, given and received, and to get people to stop being angry, retaliator, and unforgiving. But suppose instead, we devoted our time to inspiring and enabling Christians and others to be people who are not offendable and not angry and who are forgiving as a matter of course. p 303

you lead people to become disciples of Jesus by ravishing them with a vision of life in the kingdom of the heavens in the fellowship of Jesus. And you do this by proclaiming, manifesting, and teaching the kingdom to them in the manner learned from Jesus himself. You thereby change the belief system that governs their lives p 305

when we bring people to believe differently, they really do become different. One of the greatest weaknesses in our teaching and leadership today is that we spend so much time trying to get people to do things good people are supposed to do, without changing what they really believe. p 307

 

Quotes from “One Church Many Tribes” by Richard Twiss

I had the opportunity to hear Richard Twiss speak at the Justice Conference in Portland in March (www.thejusticeconference.com). He started with a story that he includes in this book, which is an interesting followup from some of the quotations that I shared in my last post on James Michener’s book Chesapeake. I have learned so much from reading this book and am reflecting on how to integrate what I have learned in my life.

“Let’s imagine for a moment that First Nations people had won the war for the North American continent. Our historian, Sees Far, writes that on a warm windless morning, Carribbean tribes discovered and rescued a strange chief and his crew. The tribes had never seen such a canoe or men who looked like these. Intrigued by what and whom htey had discovered on their shore, the tribes showed customary protocol and cared for their uninvited guests. They fed and nursed the men back to health. They helped supply them with food, fresh water and other goods and then wished them well on their journey back to their country far away..”.

“Sees Far might have recorded a First Nations perspective of this event as the arrival of a lost chief or tribe who turned out not be new friends but marauding invaders. His record of history might have witnessed these guests returning after many moons with many more canoes filled with enemy warriors, greedily lusting after the First Nations people’s gold metal and bringing great destruction and death to the First Nations’ way of life.”

“So which of the two historical perspectives is the most accurate? In today’s political stewpot of conservative politics, Sees Far may be accused of presenting a revisionist, non-Christian spin on US history. Yet, as a fellow believer in Jesus Christ, please allow me to challenge your asumptions about nationalism, patriotism and Christian love.”

Richard Twiss goes on to encourage a path of healing.

“In the providence of the almighty God, I believe that it was His plan that the White man from across the great water would deliver the sacred message of Jesus to the First Nations of this continent. Our gracious heavenly Father redeems our worst blunders and causes all things to work together for good. Had the roles been reversed, I doubt that we Native people would have performed any better than the Europeans.”

“there is no biblical basis that would allow us to disengage from one another or disregard our need for one another….Unless all of the various parts that God designed to make up the whole are intact and functioning, there is dysfunction. Each and every part must be connected and engaged, or there is no possible way for the whole to function fully and according to God’s design and best plan. Whithout our Native brethren, the Church only makes do – we limp along, less than we are meant to be.”

“From the very beginning, misunderstanding, lack of respect and eventualy hatred toward Native Americans were evident among the immigrants; and these attitudes were passed down to each progressive generation of European settlers in the colonies. When Native Americans welcomed and helped the White Man, the Natives were viewed as simple pagans who obviously did not deserve this great land, as adolescents who could easily be manipulated and cheated at will”

“Contrary to common belief, the European colonial practice of importing slaves to North America under the guise of serving the advancement of God and country did not begin with the importation of African tribal people, but in fact began with the enslavement of the host people of this land”

“The Puritans of New England punished the Pequot tribespeople for their opposition to European settlement by killing hundreds of Pequot men, women and children and selling hundreds of others into slavery. The captive male Pequots were sold and shipped to the West Indies, while the Puritans made domestic slaves of the tribe’s women and children. This enslavement of Native Americans by colonists of Massachusetts Bay occurred at the very same time that the Puritans were attempting to organize a “holy” colony based on the dictates of the Bible”

RIchard quotes the late President John F. Kennedy who said in 1963,

“It seems a basic requirement to study the history of our Indian people. America has much to lean about the heritage of our American Indians. Only throught this study can we as a nation do what must be done if our treatment of the American Indian is not to be marked down for all time as a national disgrace”

“Native people have a rich spiritual and cultural heritage. It is into this reality that the Creator sent His Son. This was done in order to make a way for all people to once again travel the path of beauty and harmony that God the Father intended al of HIs children to live in and walk in through Jesus Christ, the Waymaker. Jesus is our chanku – the way to God and to successful living. This is the Jesus Way.”

“Our value as a people is determined by God’s sovereign will and design, and HIs kingdom finds its value in its people – all of them”

“I believe that the greatest challenge facing Native peoples is the unresolved anger, distrust, hatred and bitterness in our hearts toward Euro-Americans, based on centuries of injustice and oppression….I am hoping that there will be heard in the land, in our generation, a corporate crying out to God the Father in confession and repentence for our sins, seeking forgiveness and reconciliation…those who have suffered the most are the nonbelieving Native men and women who have been deprived, not only of economic well being, but also of every vestige of true self worth, because they do not know the love of Jesus who alone gives all worth and dignity.”

Richard spends some time discussing how the Native American culture has an integrated view of life and spirituality and that it is much different from the traditional white worldview that somehow religion is somehow separate from the rest of life.

“This conflict between the integrated worldviews of the Indian and the compartmentalized worldviews of most Western Evangelicals has been among the greatest hindrances to effective communication between the White man and Native people. It has also proven a tremendous obstacle to the growth of Native people who profess faith in Jesus Christ, for to them it means they must abandon their entire approach to community and spirit to accept a way that feels foreign and unnatural to them.”

“I now want to show, as clearly as I can, how many Native cultural viewpoints are in fact quite biblical, valuable and even necessary for the life and growth of the Church in North America today….most North American tribes were monotheistic, believing in one universal, absolute being who furnished moral guidelines for their conduct and who motivated every living thing…..Native Americans see themselves as a part of the whole creation. They have long perceived and pursued a balanced relationship between man and the environment – a partnership of equality and respect….traditional Native culture has always emphasized the submission of individuality to corporate identity – seeing ourselves as one of the people…that togetherness is more important than our individuality, that we are members one with another…

Hopefully I can grow as I integrate this into my life. As Richard Twiss says in this book

“the peoples of this world are deeply wounded and tormented by unresolved offenses and guilt…Human beings created in the image of God are designed for the purpose of walking in harmony with their creator….this is a reconciled life”.

Quotes from James Michener’s book: Chesapeake

Somehow I had the illusion that the first white persons who came to North America were escaping religious persecution and were setting up an ideal country. The founding fathers of Confederation declared that all men are created equal, and that they have inalienable rights among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Although I was aware that life was not that simple, I didn’t realize what all really happened. The treatment of the Native Americans and the Africans were far less than respectable. How can we move forward without seeking healing on these two very significant issues?

The book Chesapeake, by James Michener, a historical novel, brings out some of this early history of America. There is an interaction between  Pentaquod, the Native American, and Steed, the English immigrant that speaks strongly about the early relationship between the European immigrants and the Native Americans.

“The realization that old ties were about to be shattered saddened the former leader (Pentaquod), and he spoke gently to his friend. “What is it, Steed?”

“Pentaquod, ally of many years, why do you harm us?”

“There is no way that you and we can both share this river.”

“But we can! Your children and mine play together, speak the same tongue, love the same animals.”

“No, Steed. In all things we grow apart. The time for separation is upon us”

“No need. When Captain Hackett’s ship comes you can have all the things we have.”

“We do not want your things. They bring us only trouble…During many moons I have told my people that you and we could share the river, but I was wrong. You will and always want to burn more, destroy more. We shall leave you to your fires.”

Ruth Paxmore, the Quaker woman spoke out against slavery already in the 1600s.

“I see a day when the members of any Christian church will be ashamed to hold another man or woman in bondage. They will know without being told that so long as they keep one slave in their possession that they are acting outside the will of God…I see a day when every black human being along this river is taught to read the Bible, and write his or her name, when families are held together and children are educated, and every man works for an honest wage. And this river will be a happier place when that day of freedom comes”

Almost two centuries later, in 1841 we read about the continued support of slavery.

“…the Negro is genetically inferior, requires a master, has many fine qualities when properly guided, and cannot exist without some slave system….contrary to what certain mal-intentioned people are saying, slavery is an economic asset, for it enables landowners to keep in cultivation acreage which could not otherwise be utilized. No white man could possibly work outdoors in areas like the Carolinas, Alabama and Louisiana.”

There is a critical paragraph that helps us understand some of the present day challenges in Haiti, to understand how the Europeans treated their fellow human beings in Haiti.

“By all standards, and in the opinion of all, the one island that represented human slavery at its absolute nadir was Haiti. Here, under a remote French administration, accountable to no one, a band of cruel exploiters accepted those fractious slaves whom no one else could handle, worked them sixteen hours a day like animals, fed them little, beat them constantly, and buried them after four or five years. For a slave to be assigned to Haiti was a sentence of lingering death.”

The irony of the early American leaders in founding Confederation with its rights and freedoms has not been lost.

“The freedom enjoyed by citizens of the United States, to the envy of the know world, was engineered primarily be gentlemen of the South who owned slaves. Of the men who wrote the Declaration of Independence, those who made the greatest contribution were slave owners. Of those who framed the Constitution the majority of true intellects came from the South. Of the twelve Presidents who guided our nation to its present level of enviable success, nine have been slaveholders and their leadership has been the sanest and the most appreciated by the nation at large.”

In summary, I am dismayed at our religious forefathers in North America and how they chose to treat their fellow human beings. But, the book “Chesapeake” is only a novel. I only had to do a small amount of internet searching to understand that there is much historical truth in this book. I will discuss this more in a later post.

Quotes from Miroslav Volf in his book “Free of Charge”

“To live in sync with who we really are means to recognize that we are dependent on God for our very breath and are graced with many good things; it means to be grateful to the giver and attentive to the purpose for which the gifts are given”

Volf suggests that God’s gifts to us obliges us to four things. The first two are faith and gratitude because God is a giver. The second two are availability and participation, so that we can give to others, which is the purpose for which God gives to us.

FAITH “We see ourselves as who we truly are, namely, receivers and receivers only. We do that by relating to God in faith, faith is not something that we give to God, it is the way we receivers relate appropriately to God as the giver. It is empty hands held open for God to fill, to receive from God in faith is the height of human dignity. Faith celebrates what we most properly are – God’s empowered creatures – and it frees us from our greatest accomplishments. Faith is the expression of the fact that we exist so that the infinite God can dwell in us and work through us for the well-being of the whole creation. Faith is the first part of the bridge from self-centeredness to generosity.”

GRATITUDE “Those who thank God tell the divine Giver that they appreciate the gifts received: they honor God for that. I recognize and honor God as the giver, and I implicitly recognize and affirm myself as the recipient of God’s gifts. Faith receives God’s gifts as gifts, gratitude receives them well. God’s gifts establish. They come with the message, “You are loved, and therefore you exist.” With that message, gratitude becomes easy because its not primarily gratitude for getting what we lacked and could have acquired by ourselves if we were not so insignificant, but gratitude for the wonder of just being there as fruits of God’s creativity and objects of God’s blessing.

AVAILABILITY “We live and breathe and have our being in God. The most we can do is to make ourselves available for God to be used as instruments. We give ourselves for God’s use to benefit creation, not to benefit God. What does this availability mean for us? It means that we don’t live in this world as we see fit, but are willing to be and act in the world as we see God being and acting. God provides the model, and we are ready to observe and imitate. God’s setting of purposes and providing the model for us are external aspects of a much more intimate relation between God and human beings. God is closer to us than we are to ourselves. God’s main way of relating to us is to indwell us and to work through us.”

PARTICIPATION “We were created to be and to act like God. Giving to others is the very purpose for which God gave us the gifts. It is not just that Christ sends the goods to flow into us, Christ makes the goods flow from us as well, truly indwelling, motivating and acting through us. God enters the very core of ourselves, the place from which we direct our will. Christ doesn’t circumvent our will, we don’t give apart from our will, we are no lifeless tools in Christ’s hand. We are not reluctant and grumbling servants of Christ. We are cheerful participants in Christ’s giving to the world. When loving truly, the self moves outside of itself to dwell with God and neighbour, and only then it is truly at home. When this happens, we have crossed over from self centeredness to genuine and fulfilling generosity.”

Quotes from Dean Koontz in His Book: Relentless

This book was a mystery thriller, that bordered on unrealistic, but had some fantastic observations on who we are as human beings! I have included a few noteworthy quotations.

“I wanted my son to know much laughter and more love, to appreciate the grace of this world and the abiding mystery of it, to know the pleasure of small achievements, of trifles and of follies, to be always aware of the million wonderful little pictures in the big one, to be a humble master of his gift and the not the servant of it.”

“God has a sense of humor, and because the world is wondrous, He expects us to find reasons to smile, even on the darkest days.”

“truth is paradoxical, that it is always stranger than fiction. We invent fiction either to distract ourselves from the world – and thus from the truth of things – or to explain the world to ourselves, but we cannot invent truth, which simply is. Truth, when we recognize it, always surprises us, which is why we so seldom choose to recognize it; we abhor profound surprises and prefer what is familiar, comfortable and undemanding”

“the greatest punishment is not your own death but instead the loss of those you love. How much worse that loss must be if you have to live with the bitter knowledge that those you trusted and relied on you had been dealt early death as surrogates for you, punished for your offenses.”

“Always, the eye sees more than the mind can comprehend, and we go through life self-blinded to much that lies before us. We want a simple world, but we live in a magnificently complex one, and rather than open ourselves to it, we perceive the world through filters that make it less daunting.
Complexity implies meaning. We are afraid of meaning.”

“Each of us is the sum of his experiences, not in the Freudian sense that we are victims of them, but in the sense that we rely on our experiences as the primary source of our wisdom, unless we are delusional and live by an ideology that refutes reality. At decision points in life, a sane person is guided by the lessons of his past. Among other things, my past had taught me that the very fact of my existence is a cause for amazement and wonder, that we must seize life because we never know how much of it remains for us, that faith is the antidote to despair and that laughter is the music of faith.
But every lesson we learn from past experiences is not always the one we should have learned. One moment of my past had taught me that anger should always be watered down if not extinguished with humor, and I made no distinction between unworthy anger and the righteous kind. Anger is the father of violence, as well I know, but I had not allowed myself to consider that wrath, when it is the product of pure indignation and untainted by ideology, is the father of justice and a necessary answer to evil.”
“this humble interval not only amused me but also struck me as immeasurably precious, one of those prosaic moment from which so much delight can be taken that the world must have been created as a place of joy.”

“here is why Waxx and men like him must not be allowed to achieve their ends. The world wasn’t theirs. They could claim it only with the use of lies, intimidation, and violence. If we let them win, there would be no moments of grace, humble or glorious, ever again.”

“in the hearts of modern men and women, there is an inescapable awareness that something is wrong with this slice of history they have inherited, that in spite of the towering cities and the mighty armies and the science fiction technology made real, the moment is fragile, the foundation undermined.”

“In spite of where we were, how we had gotten here, and why we had come, I felt that at this moment of our lives, this place was exactly where we belonged. We were not drifting but rising, rising toward something right and of significance”