[Imc-newsroom] Proposal to fund a stringer in Palestine . . .

[Andrew C. Kennis]

--- Mark Enslin <enslin at prairienet.org> wrote:

Hello Mark and the rest of the UC-IMC'ers . . . 

> I don't know if anyone has responded to your proposal yet. 
> 

No, yours is the first I have received. 

> I like the proposal and, though I'm about to leave the country for a
> month soon myself, I'll bring up your proposal at the steering group
> and radio news group meetings this Sunday. 
> 


> The Uc-Imc budget has been tight lately, so that may be a hang-up.
> Does it make sense to keep some kind of partial support as a fallback
> proposal?
> 

Partial support is definitely a fallback option, as I tried to indicate
in the proposal itself. There are other options as well . . . one, that
I recently thought of and was not contained in the proposal, was to dip
into the $2000 that was allotted for IMC-Palestine but is not currently
used. When in Palestine, I obviously will be, in a way, part of
IMC-Palestine. But by the same token, the money was quite clearly
intended more for the folks who are there on a permanent basis.
Nevertheless, we could maybe dip into the $2000 with the intention of
replenishing it. How could we replenish it? 

Here's where I come back to my proposal. In the proposal, I suggest
that we could have a panel discussion that would feature not only
myself (er, I'm kinda not a big name), but known activists from Voices
in the Wilderness who have already been to Palestine and who could draw
a big crowd (at least they did as much in Chicago, drawing over 200
people). In the event that they participated in this past Sunday at
DePaul University, they raised over $750 merely from passing a hat
around after Kathy and Jeff (Voices folks) spoke. 

Now, here is some recent news. I spoke to Kathy and Jeff at least about
whether they would be interested in taking the two hour plus hike down
south to Urbana and they said *yes.* This is extremely good news. What
remains to be done now, is merely arranging times and such. It seems
that sometime between June 3rd and 8th might be a workable date for the
three of us. 

One more thing to add: this is by no means the last panel discussion I
plan to organize. There are many others I would like to do as well . .
. and in Latin America: Mexico City, Chiapas, Guatemala City and Buenos
Aires. I will be in these places for other reasons as it is (for
instance, as I said in the proposal, I normally live in Mexico City)
within the next four months or so. By helping me out to make this trip
happen, I could relay my experiences, and even better, the experiences
of the Palestinian people (and directly, i.e. via MD recordings) to
Latin America. I speak Spanish fluently and am capable of translation
as well. I thought that it was relevant to mention this as well, but
forgot to do as much in my original proposal. 

That's it for now. I am very excited about this possibility and have
decided to call in to the UC-IMC between 1:30pm and 2:00pm on Sunday,
to be available for any questions and concerns that any of you may
have. Alternatively, feel free to respond via e-mail as Mark did, for
any questions and/or concerns that anyone may have. 

In solidarity,
--AK  

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness
http://health.yahoo.com