September 11, 2009Each year we have a calendar of service learning projects that we are working on, but there are issues and problems in the community and world that inspire us to act also. This month is the Month of Peace at TCHS and the issue of making sure that the world's sailors are safe from pirates has come to our attention.
This year, Mrs. D. told us that the Filipino crew of the ship, the M.V. Irene was captured by pirates along the coast of Somalia in Africa. One of the crew members is Joven (Bob) Casas who is the brother of Mrs. D's friend, Gemma Casas a reporter for the Marianas Variety newspaper in the Marianas Islands where Mrs. D used to live.
Ms. Gemma and some of her friends, including Mrs. D., have set up a Facebook Page, Liberate Pirate Hostages that gives information on the hostage situation of the MV Irene. It also calls on people to sign a petition for their freedom. We are asking you to sign too!
Service Learning Council student Gilbert Aurelis has taken the lead in promoting awareness on this issue and in getting students, faculty and community members to sign the petition. There is a display and table set up during lunches.
Other students in the VPS Class and Ms. Shannon's art class have adopted the project of creating 1,000 cranes. The tradition of folding 1,000 paper cranes comes from the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who contracted Leukemia as a result of radiation from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II.
When she was in the hospital Sadako's best friend came to visit her. She cut a golden piece of paper into a square and folded it into a paper crane. Inspired by the crane, Sadako started folding them herself, thinking of the Japanese saying that the one who folds a 1,000 cranes will be granted a wish. She never reached 1,000 before she died. Her friends folded the remainder of the cranes and she is buried with 1,000 cranes. There is a monument for her in Japan where visitors from all over the world leave paper cranes.
When she was in the hospital Sadako's best friend came to visit her. She cut a golden piece of paper into a square and folded it into a paper crane. Inspired by the crane, Sadako started folding them herself, thinking of the Japanese saying that the one who folds a 1,000 cranes will be granted a wish. She never reached 1,000 before she died. Her friends folded the remainder of the cranes and she is buried with 1,000 cranes. There is a monument for her in Japan where visitors from all over the world leave paper cranes.
Today people around the world fold cranes as a symbol of peace and hope. Maybe you would like to fold one today as a hope for peace on this anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Get the directions at this website. (It's a video!)
We reached folding 1,000 cranes! Next week we will be stringing them for the UN International Day of Peace Assembly and then will send them to Ms. Gemma and her family.
The capture of the MV Irene is not an isolated incident. Over 40 ships have been captured by pirates off of the Somali coast and over 200 hostages are waiting to be freed. We hope that the petition will get government officials to act on this threat to the world's sailors. The cost of human life is worth more than the cargo that the ships carry, but it will probably be a rise in the cost of goods as a result of piracy that gets world leaders to unite to solve this problem.
UPDATE:
We are excited to announce that the crew of the MV Irene was released! The ABS-CBN Philippine News Agency said:
The DFA stated that Bright Maritime Corp., the local manning agency of MV Irene, confirmed the vessel’s release. The agency told the DFA that negotiations for the release of the vessel and its crew had been successful.
It can be recalled that MV Irene was hijacked last April 14, 2009 in the Gulf of Aden.
With MV Irene’s release, the number of Filipino seafarers still in the hands of Somali pirates has gone down to 20, involving two vessels.
On Monday, Agence France Presse reported the vessel’s release as announced by Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenya-based East Africa Seafarers Assistance Programme.
