46 years

- Does he know how to read? Asked the visitor, following the chief in the direction of the sea.

- He did not know when he came. Don Hilario has taught him.

- Don Hilario?

- That is, Don Hilario and his son. Don Hilario says: "Work will one day defeat capital with education."

José María Arguedas, "The fox above and the fox below"

Today, 31^st of March our Rural Libraries Network turns 46 years. Thank you for joining us.

Child and Mother (Niño y Madre)

"The fury of water strikes Peru," "Nature continues to scourge us," "Fury of nature continues to punish", "The strikes of nature do not have an end," "Nature without mercy," "The suffering of the Peruvians will continue because nature continues with its brutal blow that affects those who have the least"...

This is how the headlines read and how the speakers proclaim about what is happening in the country. 

For a change, a government representative has even stated that "The disasters are a divine punishment for gender ideology."

It is terrible what is happening in the country. But blaming nature by attributing a perverse intentionality goes beyond ridicule: it is to evade human responsibility, and that of some humans in particular.

Because here also aspects come into play ranging from corruption to depredation, through improvisation, deforestation and the rubbish-filling of minds and environments.

Something is wrong if no one says anything about the increase in global warming as a result of air pollution from the emission of greenhouse gases; Nothing is being said about the removal of thousands of tons of rock and earth by extractivism and the consequent obstruction of the slopes. And none of the propagandists of progress says anything about the decompression of soils and the clamorous absence of environmental policies.

Neither does anyone relate this El Niño presence to the nuclear experiments that have been taking place in the ocean since 1945, from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska to the Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia, to the Montebello Islands in Australia. . And more.

Just a couple of days ago Pope Francis sent a message to the UN Conference negotiating a binding legal instrument on the prohibition of nuclear weapons; The Pope questions the "waste of resources" that "could instead be used for significant priorities such as the promotion of peace and integral development."

There is a graffiti that says: "The floods do not occur because the rivers grow, but because the country sinks."

To say that we are all guilty is like saying that no one is responsible. Or, even worse, it is to render the powerful offender unimpeachable.

Blaming nature for this mess is like telling everyone (and especially the children) that it is her whom it is necessary to subdue, reduce and dominate.

The casualties demand our solidarity and for her we fight, knowing that we have been in emergency for a long time.

Encounter of New Librarians

On 17th March past, the Permanent Coordination Council of our Network met in Cajamarca.

The Council is made up of representative community members from the ten large zones in which our libraries are extended and has as its main function to accompany the journeys of all the sectors and to find solutions to the problems that appear in our organization and what to do.

The Council members themselves remained until the 19th to train and train together with the new librarians who have been incorporated - by decision of their communities - into the Network.

Community Librarians of Cajabamba, Celendín, Bambamarca, Cujillo and two representatives of the Proyecto Amigo de Huamachuco (La Libertad Region), shared this community learning.

It's always a new start and that keeps us going!

Notebook

We usually provide a notebook, a small book or loose sheets - in the meetings of the Network - for those participants who sometimes do not bring anything in which to take note.

To facilitate this contribution and to encourage everyone to write, we have designed and printed a notebook which is light but at the same time sufficient, and which even allows us to note on the cover to which meeting it corresponds.

Addresses!

Through various emails some friends have expressed their interest in our publications, particularly in the diptych "Welcome!".

Many of these emails have been sent to us as comments to the blog posts, but without indicating their addresses.

Please provide us with the names and e-mails that we should use to send our virtual publications.

We will be glad to be in contact!

Calendar

Up until last weekend we still had some 2017 calendars that our Network printed for the libraries in the countryside.

We are grateful for the uptake and enthusiasm of the Library Coordinators to take them and to distribute the productions of the Network in the communities.