Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison [Paperback]

Kathy Kelly (Author)

Book Description

Series: Counterpunch | Publication Date: May 1, 2005

In the spring of 2004, human rights activist Kathy Kelly, twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was sent to Pekin Federal Prison for leading a protest at the School of the Americas. While in prison, Kelly’s organization, Voices in the Wilderness, was targeted by a US State Department lawsuit charging that Kelly violated US-imposed sanctions when she took humanitarian aid to Iraq during numerous visits over the last five years.

In this fiercely eloquent book, Kelly recounts such trips to Iraq, tells the largely unknown story of the School of the Americas and describes daily life inside a federal prison, where America’s poor are warehoused. Like Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, Kelly’s powerful narrative gives voice to the unheard millions suffering at home and abroad.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Advance Praise for Kathy Kelly's Other Lands Have Dreams:

"Activists have always battled the odds... It's a long haul. It's step by step. As Mahalia Jackson sang out, 'We're on our way’-not to Canaan Land, perhaps, but to the world as a better place than it was before. It’s what Kathy Kelly and her Voices in the Wilderness project is all about. She is a direct descendant of Dorothy Day, who when asked why she was making so much trouble for the authorities answered simply, "I’m working toward a world in which it would be easier for people to behave decently." – Studs Terkel, author, Hope Dies Last

"Other Lands Have Dreams provides insight into the heart and mind of an extraordinary woman – known as ‘Missiles’ in a U.S. Federal prison and recognized as an American friend in the slums of Baghdad and Basra. Kathy Kelly shows her love of others and her commitment to nonviolence by standing courageously with the ordinary yet threatened people of America, Haiti and Iraq.

"She shows U.S. foreign policy to be what it is – ugly, violent, tragic and intrusive. She undermines this violence by her quiet inner peace and with her own presence in American prisons, in Haitian squalor and in Iraqi slums.

"She shares with readers the perception of a small Iraqi boy who unwittingly speaking for much of the world – after the events of 9/11 – said he was feeling badly about the attack, but thought that Americans did not understand what happens to other people when they are hit by American bombs.

"Ms. Kelly has a unique way of educating us by having us understand, almost experience, the pain of others better. She has us look at ourselves, feel wanting, yet encouraged to do better and follow her relentless and non-violent lead." – Dennis Halliday, former U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator to Iraq

"On reading these accounts of death and cruelty, we might well lose hope, but we are saved by the other stories, often less told, which Kathy records in her book. Stories of the courage and reslilience of the ordinary Iraqi men, women and children, who continue to maintain their human dignity and in spite of everything, yes, even in the midst of war, show kindness and hospitality to the strangers in their midst.

"These stories of Kathy Kelly’s life and work, touch our soul and renew our hope and belief in humanity. They inspire and challenge us to work for justice." – Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate, 1976

About the Author

Kathy Kelly, twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, is the founder of Voices In The Wilderness, a group dedicated to breaking the US embargo on Iraq by contributing humanitarian aid, and providing 'human shields' to protect against bombing. She is also a key organiser of the protests against the School of the Americas, for which she was imprisoned.

Product Details

• Paperback: 175 pages
• Publisher: AK Press (May 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904859283
• ISBN-13: 978-1904859284
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,478,166 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The kind of energy that champions nonviolent resistance to the works of war.", August 5, 2005

By 

anomie - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison (Paperback)

Author Kathy Kelly is a peace activist. As a member of Voices in the Wilderness, she and fellow activists traveled to Iraq numerous times to deliver medical supplies. Embargoes against Iraq were in effect during this period, but Kelly felt very strongly that the Iraqi people should not be punished just because they had a rotten leader. So, since 1996, defying U.S. law, and at great personal risk, Kelly made the trips and delivered the medical supplies to Iraqis. She was also in Iraq during the March 2003 invasion.

The stories about Kelly's trips to Iraq are just part of the book "Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison." Additional sections in the book are devoted to stories of prisoners she met in Pekin jail, and Kelly's arrest when protesting at the School of the Americas.

I can't say that I agree with all of Kathy Kelly's beliefs, but at the same time, I have to admit that this woman is dedicated. From her teens, Kelly admits she "never wanted to be a spectator," and I don't think anyone could accuse her of that. The book includes a LONG list of arrests for events such as protesting draft registration, planting corn near nuclear missile silos, and posting photos of victims of the Contras on federal buildings, etc. At one point, she was a teacher at a school that enrolled only those students who could prove they couldn't enroll anywhere else. After reading this book, my main sense about Kathy Kelly is that she never gives up.

The book begins with a brief history of the weapons inspections and the subsequent economic sanctions. Kelly then details the trips made to Iraq with Voices in the Wilderness, and she relates the hardships faced by the Iraqis under economic sanctions. She notes that the sanctions never caused Saddam to "miss a meal," while U.N officials state that the sanctions "contributed to the excess deaths more than 500,000 Iraqi children under the age of five." During Kelly's trips to Iraq, she met many of the dying, starving children, and a fair amount of the book details this. It doesn't make for easy reading.

A large portion of the book is devoted to Kelly's time in Pekin prison and to the women she met there. There are some valuable details here regarding the Federal Prison Industries (FPI) also known as UNICOR. Kelly explains that at Pekin, the prisoners manufacture armoured plates for military Humvees, and earn somewhere between 23 cents to 1.23 an hour. (The author points out that phone calls to home cost around .25 cents a minute.) Apparently, although prisoners may gain valuable employment experience from working in a UNICOR factory, they are not allowed to list this experience on any future resume. This seems counter productive. Prison is supposed to be a punishment for crimes committed, but are prisons then dumping prisoners back into society with more or less problems than they had when they were incarcerated? Kelly details the cases of some of the female prisoners she met, and again, while I don't agree with all of the author's beliefs, I think she has a point that poverty can cause crime, but the prison system often fails to create conditions for prisoners' rehabilitation.

The book includes an index, an afterword from the publishers, and a brief history of Voices in the Wilderness--displacedhuman

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a powerful testament of courage by a catholic worker hera, March 23, 2006

By 

wildflowerboy (planet earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison (Paperback)

Kathy Kelly, a two-time nominee for the Nobel Peace prize, powerfully documents the horrific effects of US military and economic intervention in the Middle East and Latin America. Like all the CounterPunch titles being published by AK Press, this is a necessary read. Kelly's compassion and commitment to peace and social justice shine through on every page. It's a shame that Kelly has not yet won the Nobel Peace prize, when such right-wing nutcases like Kissinger, Rabin and Mother Teresa have. (To learn more about Mother Teresa, read Christopher Hitchen's wonderful book, "The Missionary Position", written when he was still somewhat of a leftist.) It's a shame too that Kelly, who exemplifies the true gospel message, is relatively unknown outside of the peace movement, unlike Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, who instead of preaching peace, preach war, who instead of preaching love, preach homophobia, racism and sexism. (Just look at the connections between evangelical Christians and the Israeli war machine and the efforts of Christian fundamentalists to undermine the Chavez administration in Venezuela!) While I am not myself religious, I nevertheless honor Kelly's courage and solidarity with the poor, as I honor also the thousands of radical nuns and priests who've been tortured and disappeared in Latin America. Like Jesus said, "Blessed be the peacemakers." Anyone interested in 21st century liberation theology, the Catholic Worker movement, and post-1960s' peace and justice activism, look no further. With humility and deep concern for the weakest, poorest, and most oppressed of our sisters and brothers, Kelly speaks like a modern day reincarnation of Dorothy Day.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On the ground, trying to show us the reality of war and sanctions., December 10, 2005

By 

Patricia Kramer (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison (Paperback)

From Letters from Iraq, 4/15/03, Other Hearts
"We joked that he could direct the telephone exchange as he tinkered with our satellite phone's solar powered battery. I told Majid we has some sheet music and a guitar for him. 'What are notes?' he said, 'We don't even remember.'"...

"'Please, ' Majid said, 'we will give you the instruments, give you the furniture, but don't destroy the music, the records, the history.' 'No, ' the armed men said. 'Baghdad is finished.' They ransacked the school, broke many instruments, burnt the music and the records."....

"'Here,'Hisham said,'listen to this. This is all we have left.' He handed me headphones borrowed from a Norwegian television correspondent. The taped orchestra was playing "O Finlandia". Listening to the children craft their music, I softly sang the words: "This is my song, O God of all the nations. A song of peace for lands afar and mine. This is my home, the country where my heart is. Here are my dreams,my hopes, my holy shrine. But other hearts in other lands are beating, with hopes and dreams as deep and true as mine." Then I stopped. Hisham had begun to cry."

(Joan Baez's newest CD begins with this song. It's truly beautiful.)

Kathy Kelly and other members of Voices in the Wilderness are listening to the hopes and dreams of other lands as they stand in witness with the people whose lives have been severely impacted by our country's policies and actions.

Kathy Kelly writes with an easy style without accusations or stridency about inaction to the injustice she has witnessed. She tells her experiences in Iraq and in prison and shares the stories of the people she has met in her journey.

She tells her story and waits for the numbers of the Voices in the Wilderness to grow, and grow.