Roy Holman's YogaMundo Peace Project

YogaMundo Peace Project falls under the banner of karma yoga with the global goal of connecting (yoga, as in yoking) us with other cultures and countries, and serving the awakening of all.   Karma Yoga is the Yoga of Action, and has to do with getting off the yoga mat and taking action to heal our world. 

YogaMundo consists of Roy (and others):

• Joining one fact finding delegation each year, often to hot spots where our mainstream media and “embedded journalists” provide very little accurate information regarding the true conditions or effects of our U.S. policies.
• Bring the information back, speak with political reps, organize and show Power Point presentations, and use my weekly radio commentary at KSER, to inform our community of current conditions in each country visited, with a focus on encouraging policies that sincerely support the people of those countries.
• My most recent trip was to Venezuela in June of 2008. We investigated the current socioeconomic and political conditions under Hugo Chavez, and the affects of US policy.  (See overview of what I learnd below)

History: I attended fact-finding delegations in the 1990s, with Witness for Peace, Fellowship of Reconciliation, and Network in Soilidarity with the People of Guatemala, to Panama, Nicaragua and Guatemala. I subsequently lived in Guatemala for nearly 3 years doing solidarity work, continuing my research and doing education work around the effects of U.S policy.  

How can you help (one might ask!):

• Invite me to speak.  I will be doing presentations on what I learn from each trip, to educate our community and connect not only the dots, but us to our neighbors.
• Educate yourself and contact your representatives about our government’s policies towards other nations.
• Come join us on one of our Yoga Retreats: I will use part of the retreat income to help fund this project, and I will share what I am learning on these delegations at our retreats.
• Come join us on a delegation. Believe me, these trips are info-packed and will rock your world!
• Toss me a coin: To cover some of my expenses, I am looking to raise about $5,000 each year.   I also hope to help contribute to Witness For Peace creating an office in Venezuela.  Donations - big or small - greatly appreciated and can be sent to: Roy Holman, 1917 Rockefeller Ave, Everett, WA 98201. Thank you mucho!

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Next Presentations on US Policy and Latin America:

Friday, Aug15th, 7:00pm   Zippy's Lounge, Hewitt & Rockefeller Ave, Everett

Sunday, October 19th, afternoon, Unitarian Church, Marysville

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World Peace Meditation:

Remember  that our thoughts and energy create our world, and the "outer" world is simply a reflection of our collective "inner" world.  As we heal within, we heal the world.

Visualize  the world we wish to see.  Imagine the U.S. recalling its energies inward, back to our own land, so we can not only heal our own land and heart, but allow other nations the freedom to heal themselves.

Connect up energetically with our brothers and sisters : Iraqis, Iranians, Afghanis, Venezuelans, Israelis, Palistinians, and feel the deep commonalities and roots we all share.  Then connect up to our own government and complete the triangle, connecting our government up to our neighbors all over the world - but now with the idea of supporting rather than controling. Heal the rifts and illusionary separations.  Create compassionate connections.

Imagine a shift, consciousness rising.  Dare to dream of something new, peace and interconnectedness, the Earth's rebirth.

Know that all is well, and do not lose ourselves in the world.  Know that beneath the drama is the truth of love and joy and peace.  Celebrate.

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Venezuela 2008 trip overview: 

I joined a group of 13 as part of a fact finding delegation with a group called Witness For Peace, which is a nonpartisan, faith based group that believes in nonviolent solutions to world problems. 

  Our group of 3 men and 10 women went down to listen and learn, not teach or change their country.  Our focus was to learn how US policies are either helping or hurting the people of Venezuela .  We spent 7 days meeting with and interviewing individuals and groups from a wide variety of viewpoints, including the US Embassy.  

   You may have heard of Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela, famous for referring to George Bush as the devil at one United Nations gathering.   In our mainstream media, of course, Chavez is the one referred to as the devil, or sometimes, drug trafficker, dictator, terrorist and even Hitler.   Condoleezza Rice said : “Hugo Chávez is a negative force in the region.” And of course, Pat Robertsen, on his Christian Broadcasting Network in 2005:  You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop.”  

   Ah, Pat, did you mention oil?  It turns out that Venezuela sits upon one of the world’s largest oil reserves. And the US is starting to demonize their president.  Does this sound at all familiar?   Let me just say that oil is only part of the reason the US is presently undermining and attempting to overthrow the Hugo Chavez Government, but I am getting ahead of myself.  First, yes, the US is doing everything it can to destabilize the democratically elected, widely popular Chavez government.  A few examples of what we discovered:        

  The US has been funding dozens – some say hundreds – of opposition groups, through a variety of sources.  Our tax money is using USAID and the NED for example, to fund opposition groups and parties to deter democracy in Venezuela . In 2002, the US supported the coup attempt against Chávez, but over a million supporters gathered in the streets of Caracas to insist that Chavez be returned to power.   Unlike the result in Haiti where Aristide was successfully removed from the country by the US military, Chavez was able to come back to power after two days, a rare democratic success in Latin America, after countless US supported coups over the years.  (If interested, see the AMAZING documentary, “The Revolution Will Not be Televised.”)     But the US does not give up in its subversion of democracy.  They next backed a Recall Referendum of 2004, but again, Chavez is so widely popular that he won that. Since then our mainstream press has been pounding home the message that Venezuela is not supporting the war on terror or the war on drugs.  There has been a sharp increase in US military presence in the region over the past few years.   Lastly, the US , which will sell weapons to nearly anyone, has banned Venezuela from arms or parts made in the US .  They are currently trying to tie Chavez in with FARC, the radical Columbian guerilla group, as well as money laundering and drug smuggling.  The list goes on and on.  

   Now, let me tell you what I saw.  First, Chavez is imperfect, can be arrogant, and uses strong language.  Does this mean he is dangerous or deserves to be thrown out of office?  If manner of speech is reason to remove someone from office, then Venezuela would have the right to come in and take out our President.  The truth is that Hugo Chavez is doing a darned good job, despite the US having a boot on his back.  And let’s not forget that when he took power back in 1998, the country was stifled, with 75% poverty rate, a tiny percentage of the population benefiting and controlling the power. 

    On our delegation, we saw schools and hospital clinics built in all areas of the country.  There were certainly plenty of varied opinions, and a more dynamic democracy than we currently see here in the US .  We explored all 16 of the nation’s newspapers, nearly all of which are privately owned, and I can attest that there is clearly freedom of press, open debate in the newspapers, television and radio shows.    There are no political prisoners in Venezuela , according to most sources I spoke with.  Even those who contributed to the illegal coup attempt were given amnesty and nobody was imprisoned.   

     The education system was impressive.  The whole idea with the Bolivarian Revolution is to empower and educate the masses, from the poor on up through the entire country, not just feed people or indoctrinate, but truly raise the consciousness of the people.  We like to paint this as all about Hugo and his ego.  The truth is, over and over, from teachers and students and countless people we talked with, is that this revolution is a process, an attempt to truly empower the entire population, to switch the capitalist mindset from individualism to collectivism.  One government person told us, “Consciousness should be the motor of the economy, not competition; competition is war, based on ego, having, not being.  We are choosing people over profits.”  

    And this leads us to the root of the problem.  I believe the main reason the US is concerned about Hugo Chavez and Venezuela is the model.  Yes, the oil and power is important.  But as always, the US has consistently overthrown those leaders and nations that somehow try to show that there is another way, aside from war and competition and unsustainable capitalistic models, the way of cooperation, community and genuine equality and social priorities.  So in this sense, Hugo Chavez is dangerous, to our old way of thinking and living and treating each other.    Aside from the ideological rhetoric, at the least Hugo Chavez is not a demon, dictator or terrorist.  He is a popular, democratically elected President, trying to rebuild a country that has suffered under the neoliberal model for many years, under genuinely abusive leaders - often US allies - who cared nothing for the poor majorities.  At the very least, the US should get out of the way and give this revolution every chance to succeed.  

    One note on the Cuban doctors we interviewed.  Amazing!  There are about 20,000 Cuban volunteer doctors and nurses in the country, bringing free health care to all areas of Venezuela .  They were such healers, obviously trained with a more social, rather than profit mindset.  They could not believe our stories of unaffordable health care in the US , and told us that we are all welcome in Venezuela anytime for operations, dental care, or any healthcare – FREE!  Many of us had tears in our eyes, listening to patients rave about the new system.  

     Lastly, do not believe what you read in our corporate media here at home. And consider buying Citgo gas if you can – it’s a subsidiary of the Venezuelan government, and they actually use their oil profits to help people!  Imagine that!

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