[hr-education-na] Novel 'Xamon Song' is HRE tool, includes teaching guide

NEW PUBLICATION

Xamon Song, A Novel by Adam E. Stone
Global Dialogue Press
Retail price: US $10.95 for single copy, bulk discounts available for
multiple copies http://www.xamonsong.com

Global Dialogue Press has released Xamon Song, a novel by Adam E. Stone.
The novel, which is appropriate for ages 14 and up, is literary fiction
with a human rights focus, and is an excellent tool for American and
international Human Rights Educators who wish to explore contemporary and
historical human rights issues with their students. At the high school
level (secondary school, ages 14-18), Xamon Song is appropriate for use in
English/Literature classes, as well as History, Social Studies, Geography,
and other classes. At the college level (higher education, ages 18 and
up), Xamon Song is appropriate for use in English/Literature classes, as
well as Anthropology, Political Science, Peace Studies, Business Ethics,
and other classes. Xamon Song is also appropriate for nonformal HRE. A
free, online Teaching Guide is available at the book's website,
http://www.xamonsong.com. Bulk discounts are available, and free shipping
is offered anywhere in the United States.

Some of the issues the novel explores include genocide and ethnic
cleansing, ethnic tension and conflict resolution, rights of indigenous
peoples, corporate accountability, governmental responsibility for
corporate misconduct, democracy and forced military service, the impact,
on a democracy, of having a disproportionately large number of military
members come from lower socioeconomic classes, environmental stewardship
and conservation of resources, and the role of the media in reporting
human rights violations.

Because Xamon Song is at heart a character study, there are also many
personal and psychological themes, including music as a means of
expression and as a refuge from unpleasant realities, the psychological
costs and rewards of taking unpopular political positions or serving as an
activist, the psychological costs of violence, the possibilities and
limits of cultural interaction, and individual determinations of morality
v. cultural norms, particularly in terms of the taking of human life.

A brief synopsis of the novel follows: Mike and Eddie are two young
soldiers from the nation of Carbonia, lifelong best friends and frustrated
musicians who find themselves half a world away from home, conducting
reconnaissance patrols deep in the forests of a tiny country called Xamon.
They are increasingly disillusioned, afraid their military service is no
longer to the people of Carbonia, but to the profit statements of
SangreDenar, a corporation from Carbonia with large logging interests in
Xamon. Digna Giraldo Cardona is a human rights activist from Xamon City
who is drawn to the forests to investigate persistent rumors of human
rights abuses by paramilitary mercenaries linked to SangreDenar. Digna is
determined to see for herself what is happening in the most remote, and
dangerous, part of her country. This is the world of Xamon Song, a view
from the ground of the meeting of cultures, of the human costs of
corporate malfeasance and governmental collusion.The novel may be ordered
online at www.xamonsong.com {http://www.xamonsong.com}. Instructions for
ordering by mail are also available on the website.

Mark Nagel
Global Dialogue Press

 

 

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