There are at least three types of content which we are all enabled and encouraged to post on the site.

News or Announcements: Stories that will appear in the news stream on the front page, most recent first, until replaced by more current news. They will also appear on lists filtered by initiative, for instance "Indonesia News", available by clicking a menu item on the News page, or the Indonesia Initiative page. Lists of stories have a short introduction, or "teaser", for each story with a link from each to a page with the full story. You can submit your own announcements of upcoming events/opportunities or stories about your own FPT activities, or any people or events of interest to this group and others who may visit our website. Your submission will be reviewed by a web-site editor before it will appear to other site visitors.

Web Links: There is a Links page accessible from "Resources", where we can post links to other FPT sites, pages, or resources, to websites of partner organizations, other quaker organizations, or just other websites which we want to provide. You can add links by following the directions on the Submit Content page.

Documents: Documents can be submitted to our document repository (the software for which is called DOCman) and will then be available by clicking "Resources" and choosing Presentation Materials, PeaceWays, Council Documents, and Articles and Reports. *Note - If your submission is interrupted after uploading a file and before saving the document, and you attempt to resubmit, you will get an error message saying a file by that name already exists. If this happens, you can rename your file on your computer, then resubmit your document.

Steps to Submit Content - read the entire process below, or print it, before actually making any selections.

1. Designate the Content Type - select from menu in the column on the left. Depending on the type of content as described above and, if news or announcements the division on Friends Peace Teams it pertains to, select one of the following:

• AGLI news, (including announcements)
• Indonesia news, (including announcements)
• PLA news, (including announcements)
• Other news, (news and announcements for FPT in general)
• Web Link
• Document - Selecting Document will cause the interface for DOCman, our document Repository software, to be displayed. Click "Submit File" in the top right corner then follow the prompts for uploading a file from your computer.

2. Assign a Category - Now the appropriate text-editor page for the selected Content Type will be displayed.

• For News types, select the category from a dropdown list on the text-editor page
• For Web Link type, select the category from a dropdown list on the text-editor page
• For Document type, select the category from the dropdown list on the Document tab.

3.   Give your Content a Title, or a name in the case of a WebLink, in the field labeled Title or Name respectively.

4. Specify who should have access to your Content item

For News types - When you submit a news/announcement content item, one of the fields on the "Publishing" tab at the bottom of the text-editor page is "Access Level". Choose "Public" if your story is suitable for any visitor to the site to read. Choose "Registered" if you wish to limit access to registered (and logged on) users only, i.e. members of the council and working groups. Articles designated for "Registered" access will appear in the regular news streams (front page, news, and filtered initiative news) for logged-on users, and will simply be skipped for other site visitors.

For Documents - Select an option from the Viewers drop-down list on the Permissions tab. Access to documents in the Document Repository is more granular than access to News items. FPT Council Documents and all of its subcategories are available to registered users only. Other categories are publicly available, however each individual document can have its access set to one of the

• Everybody - if you want any site visitor to be able to access the document.
• All Registered Users - only allows logged-on, registered users access to the document.
• Any one registered user (choose name from list) - unfortunately, there is no multi-select capability, so you cannot specify a group of individuals by name. But the Website Administrator ("Webster" in the Directory) can create any number of groups on request.
• A group (choose from list) - AGLI Working Group, Elise Boulding Fund, Finance Committee for example

5.   Type or paste your content into the text-editor box. 

For News types there are two text-editor boxes. Type a brief  introduction or enter the first paragraph of the article in the first box. This is the part that is displayed in a list of news items. The rest of the article goes in the second text-editor box and is displayed along with the introduction when "read more" is clicked on an item.

For WebLinks, enter the URL (web address) and a description of the page linked to in the appropriate fields.

For Documents, the uploaded file is your content, but you may optionally type a brief description in the text-editor box, especially if the title of the document is not self-descriptive.

Hint: When cutting and pasting from a document or other source into the website text-editor box, first click the "Paste from Word" icon (clipboard with Word logo). Another pop-up window opens - paste into it. This should keep the format from getting messed up. Try to use this even if you are cutting from a source other than Micrsoft Word, but if it doesn't work, try the "Paste from Plain Text", and "Paste" icons, in that order. If you still have a mess, just paste into the main text box (rather than a pop-up window) and the web editor can work on the formatting if it is a mess.If you know HTML you can have more control by working with it directly by clicking on the HTML icon.

Inserting Images - 

• Put the cursor in the text where you want the image to be positioned.
• Click the "insert/edit" image icon (looks like a picture of a tree, and is next to the easier-to-discern smiley face).
• A rather complicated-looking pop-up opens. Go down about halfway to the line that says "Current Directory". There is a row of four icons at the right end of that line. The third icon in the row says "Upload" if you hover on it. Click the Upload icon. An "Upload" pop-up opens.
• Browse for the image on your computer,
• accept or edit the default name,
• check "Select file after upload",
• click the "Create Unique File" radio button,
• click "OK".
• Now, go back up to the "Article Image" section, if should be filled out with info for the image you just uploaded.
• Adjust the dimensions if you need to, to a reasonable size. Check proportional first, then change either the width or the height. The other dimension will change automatically.
• Looking at the sample image at the right, you can add whitespace around the image with vspace and hspace, and you can try different alignments (usually left or right are the only ones that make sense).
• Add a border if you think it needs one, 1px solid #000000 gives a basic thin black border.
• Click Insert.

Inserting Video - 

Just enter the link (URL, including http//:) in your text where you want the video player to appear. That's it!

6.   Save your content - click on the Disk icon, 
 ,to save your entry.

Monday, July 20 was Colombian Independence Day, and there were parades and other celebrations throughout the country. President Uribe read a long speech in a monotone on TV in the middle of the afternoon. (Doesn’t he have access to, at least, a teleprompter? You could see the papers in his hand and he very seldom even looked up, much less, changed the tone of his voice.) One of the main topics was defending the government’s decision to open three Colombian military bases to US military presence, which he insists is only intended to provide more assistance with the war on drugs. But since two of the bases, (one an air base and one a naval base, I think) are very near the Venezuelan border, President Hugo Chavez is complaining of feeling menaced, and threatening to cut off trade with Colombia. The third base is near the Ecuadoran border, not too far from the US base at Palmerola being closed by Ecuadoran President Correa. Both countries are part of the Latin American leftist/anti US bloc that includes Bolivia and Cuba, and depending on the issue, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and now El Salvador among others. One of the accusations lodged against President Zelaya of Honduras, deposed last month in a military coup that still has not been resolved is that he was bringing Honduras into this bloc, too.

Bogota is a very large city, with millions of inhabitants. Some live very comfortable lives indeed, I suppose, because I’ve been in a few neighborhoods that look like upper-middle class neighborhoods in the US, with cars (including SUVs, Hummers, and Mercedes), servants, and parks. (Perhaps by Colombian standards these areas would be considered upper class, but I expect that the truly rich live in even grander areas.) Even people with professional jobs, businesses, or other middle class occupations, live pretty comfortably, with access to familiar amenities, including small cars, television, refrigerators, shopping malls, and nice homes or apartments—and most send their children to private schools. Although the middle class in Colombia has been declining in its numbers and strength since the 90s, many are hanging on to their lifestyles by their fingernails and by accruing large debt loads, like some of the middle class in the US. Even people who would be categorized as working class can be fairly comfortable, with good public transportation, pretty reliable public utilities (I have not noticed any power outages on this trip, the phones seem to work, although most people have cell phones as well as landlines) and again, there are many ways to purchase other things on credit. So if you stayed out of the poorest areas, where people live in precarious shanty-towns one might think things are pretty normal here. (Note: I have not visited these dangerous areas, but there are photos on the news every day of one or another area where there were awful sanitary situations, or a crime, or a natural disaster such as flooding and landslides.)

I write to you as a citizen of the world to voice my concern regarding the establishment of U.S. military bases in Colombia. I believe that if democracy still exists in Colombia, it is in a state of crisis, and that U.S. foreign policy toward such a State must be changed.  U.S. investment in this war cannot continue under the pretense of promoting security and peace.  I urge you to consider the creation of a high-level U.S. commission that will engage in dialogue with members of Colombian civil society.  The purpose of this commission would be to give people of Colombia a chance to voice opinions that diverge from those of the Colombian government, its economic groups, its embassy in Washington, and the Pentagon. The commission would make an effort to understand the Colombian people’s point of view and the reasons for their opposition of the US military bases in Colombia.

Your Signature

Please send the above letter to President Obama via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and/or www.whitehouse.gov/contact