1. Interviews: Ordinary People

A series of dialogues with Basques in their homeland and the
diaspora provide rare profiles of these men and women as they talk
about their lives and hopes for a better society. Although of diverse
backgrounds and dissimilar points of view, they all share the idea
that individuals have the power to create social change.

The first dialogue of Ordinary People published last November,
featured a talk with Marcos Irizarry, the founder and director of a
travelling theatre group in Chile that went from village to village
performing socio-political plays while the country was under the
dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte.

In the second dialogue of the series produced by Ina Davant, three
young people, a man and two women, discuss the problems they
face in the Basque Country due to economic difficulties and the
lack of adequate social support at the local level. They talk about
their experiences, the issues and dilemmas facing them, and their
hopes for the Basque Country's future. In doing so, they provide
insight onto not only their lifeworlds, but the life of a community
which is in a state of flux.

On the Road to Utopia in a Fractious Basque Country
An interview with three youths

Elena, Nerea and Gaizka live together in a small village in the
Basque Country in France. Elena, an anthropology student born in
Madrid, developed a keen interest in Basque culture while
researching images of medieval demons in Nafarroa. Nerea is a
music composition student born and raised in a farm in Nafarroa.
And Gaizka, from Hondarribia, is a photographer making his first
directorial debut, a video that explores the friendship between two
young women in 12th century Nafarroa.

The three were unemployed for almost three years and felt
"excluded," a word that in many European languages means being
outside mainstream society and carries the connotation of
alienation and poverty. Their luck turned last year after an art
gallery in Milan exhibited Gaizka's erotic pictures of Elena and
Nerea. Three other exhibitions followed in Rome, Prague and
Hanover. But Elena and Nerea are not just Gaizka's models. Last
year they started their own photography agency, and this year
they're producing Gaizka's first video. Despite their disilusions with
a system they say ignores young people, the three youths explain
how they shook off their blues when they met and started to build
their friendship. "In contrast to the unhealthy atmosphere in much
of the Basque Country, there is the reality of different people who
can live together, who can all laugh together," says Gaizka.

                        http://www.freespeech.org/ehj/html/frinterv.html

2. News Briefs

Accidents in the workplace up in Nafarroa.

Iparralde's Big Benat (Big Mac's rival) a favorite in NY's Catskills

Spanish court In Bilbo jailed six people linked to street incidents.

Police video surveillance implemented in Bilbo.

Southern Basque Country contributed 228,498 millions to Spain's military in
1998

Basque senators back NATO bombing in Yugoslavia and deployment
of ground troops.  PNV Jon Gangoiti: "It's a struggle for freedom and
against Milosevic's imperialism."

                        http://www.freespeech.org/ehj/html/newsb.html

3. Prison Notes

Basque political prisoners in France on hunger strike

                        http://www.freespeech.org/ehj/html/newsb.html

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