[-empyre-] farewell 'crusades' plus brief break

[Christina McPhee <christina112@earthlink.net>]

dear List,

Thank you so much, Ana Valdes (SE), for being our guest moderator  
this month.   Ana has been an activist for many years and we are  
honored to have her
involvement, not just this month, but quite frequently (see  
especially her contributions for the July 2006 discussion on "bare  
life"  https://mail.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/2006-July/.

As Ana writes,

> As many of you who have been reading my posts know I was a political
> prisoner in Uruguay during the 70:s. We were tortured and beaten in
> the name of the Christian values (for a further reading on the subject
> I recommend an article written by the physician Manuel García Jr,
> published in Counterpunch,
> http://www.counterpunch.org/garcia03282006.html).
>
> The only way I know to fight the Fundamentalism of all religions and
> political ideologies is the way we, intellectuals, scholars, artists
> and activists, act. For me are Literature, Art and Activism related
> and give me a platform to work for a change and to work for peace and
> dialogue.

Thanks  also to Ana's guests Cecilia Parsberg, Jan Erik Lindstrom,  
Loretta Napoleoni, Susan Meiselas, and  Raul Moarquech Ferrera- 
Balanquet for thoughts and views, as well as reader contributers  
Henry Warwick, Aliette Certhoux, Joy Garnett,  and GH Hovagimyan.


We'll be taking a couple of days off to recover from New Year's Eve  
and will start again on the 2nd or 3rd January 2007 (depending on  
which side of the dateline you're on).


Very best wishes for joy and happiness, and especially peace, in the  
new year.


Christina