So here is the first blog installment of an idea I had about 7, 8 months ago, to tour across Latin America from Mexico to the end of Argentina on my bicycle, kind of like the Ernesto Guevara and Alberto Granados tour in 1952, only in reverse and with no motor on my wheels. The tour would be to raise funds for three causes, three important elements of Social Justice.
The first being alternative media, with the funds raised for that chapter most likely going to Democracy Now (democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report), in my opinion the world leader in alternative news and reporting the Truth. Alternative Media as one of my choices because information is the newest religion. The world is so devastated to a large extent because of the control and manipulation of information, The universal System of the Lie, as Eduardo Galeano puts it, and the majority of people, at least from the wealthy North, are reliant on mainstream media which delivers only duplicity, slander, and lies, or are simply not interested in knowing whats going on. If we don't first manage to address the problem of deceit and disinformation, and if Alternative Media does not flourish, social injustice will remain. Truth is one of the main pillars of our struggle.
The second element I have chosen, the second chapter of the fundraising tour would be Fair Trade. I have not yet decided which organization would receive funds for the Fair Trade chapter, and this will most likely be decided by my friend, companero, and colleague Kenny Porter who is more educated than I am with the topic of Fair Trade. Fair Trade because it appropriates or takes back resources, production, and market share from free trade, open markets, capitalism. It allows the economy to restructure itself into a smaller-scale, locally oriented, equitable, ecological, and sustainable system of production, trade, and consumption. Fair Trade encompasses elements such cooperatives, democratic workers' control and decision making, participatory management and budgeting, and in general, equality and stability with employment.
The third Chapter would be Campesino and Indigenous Movements. Both can be either owners of territory, often struggling to retain their traditional lands, or can be completely landless, either poor dating back decades, or recently chased from their lands by neoliberal displacement. The recipient organization for the Campesino/Indigenous chapter of the fundraiser would be possibly the Movimiento Sem Terra (MST, Movement Without Land) of Brazil, or any other Latin American affiliate member organizations of the Via Campesina. The Via Campesina is the world's largest genuine, militant Peasant and Indigenous organization which comprises dozens of social movements from all over the world. Organizations such as the Via Campesina and social movements such as the MST fight against neoliberalism and the global corporatization of agriculture, and for fair, organic, and sustainable farming, while maintaining a "harmonious relationship between community and the biosphere based on smallholder agriculture."
Fair Trade and a communitarian agrarian system together will eventually yield self-sufficiency and food sovereignty for all peoples of the world.
Information, Economy, and Food. If we can reclaim control over all three, then the Communitarian Future of the 21st Century
will begin to take shape.
I will finish giving details of the project, mainly on the fundraising and structure of the tour in a second blog installment to be posted soon.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Verse of the Week - Jan.29.2010
More or Less
"More franchising less sanitizing,
More Uprising less downsizing,
More enterprising less sympathizing,
More building less destroying,
More jobs less unemployment,
Lets give the Devil less enjoyment,
More originality less bittin off Pac and Big,
More community activism less pigs,
More blacksmithin, Def Chucks, less Geffen then the rest,
Cause the West sucks, they got this shit all messed up,
More Marijuana less coke,
More accountability for politicians,
Before we shopping lets vote,
More schools less prisons,
More freestyles less written,
More serious shit and less kidding,
More history less mystery,
More Beyonce less Britney,
More happiness less misery,
More victory less losses,
More workers, We all bosses,
Of course its Reflection."
- Talib Kweli.
"More franchising less sanitizing,
More Uprising less downsizing,
More enterprising less sympathizing,
More building less destroying,
More jobs less unemployment,
Lets give the Devil less enjoyment,
More originality less bittin off Pac and Big,
More community activism less pigs,
More blacksmithin, Def Chucks, less Geffen then the rest,
Cause the West sucks, they got this shit all messed up,
More Marijuana less coke,
More accountability for politicians,
Before we shopping lets vote,
More schools less prisons,
More freestyles less written,
More serious shit and less kidding,
More history less mystery,
More Beyonce less Britney,
More happiness less misery,
More victory less losses,
More workers, We all bosses,
Of course its Reflection."
- Talib Kweli.
Passage of the Week Jan.29.2010
"Everything that happens on the planet gets translated in the centers of power, translated into the language of the Universal System of the Lie, and then returned to the world converted into sounds and images for mass consumption. Objectivity? We distrust an objectivity that reduces us to objects. The misery of the Third World is turned into a commodity. The wealthy nations consume it from time to time as a way of congratulating themselves on how well life has treated them. The universal system of the lie practices amnesia. The North behaves as if it had won the lottery. Its wealth, however, is not the result of good fortune, but of a long, very long historical process of usurpation, which goes back to colonial times and has been greatly intensified by today's modern and sophisticated techniques of pillage. The more resonant the speeches in international forums extolling justice and equality, the more prices of Southern products fall on the world market, and the higher the interest climbs on Northern money, which loans with one hand and steals with the other. These techniques of pillage force the South to pay the bill for what the North squanders, including the broken dishes at the end of every party: the crises of the system's centers are unloaded onto the backs of the outskirts." - Eduardo Galeano.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Palestine, Haiti, and the Culture of Life
Haiti
Since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti on January 12th, 2010, dozens, hundreds, and thousands of articles and think pieces have been written. In the face of one of the greatest disasters in human history, what else can one really write about? Although the international community, and solidarity workers, activists, and reporters for the most part have demonstrated and carried out tremendous support for the devastated masses of Haiti, the United-States has declared itself the leader in heading the 'humanitarian' effort and has taken control of the Port-Au-Prince airport, but has demonstrated leadership only in its disregard for human life.
As of January 21st, 80,000 people have been confirmed dead, the number climbs daily and will rise most likely to as high 200,000, maybe even 300,000, but with extremely scarce resources and logistical capacity, and with mass graves being the only possible solution, the true number of dead will never be known.
The Medical relief group Partners in Health released a statement saying some 20,000 people are dying each day due to a lack of medical equipment and supplies who could be saved by surgery.
The World Food Program as of january 21st said it had distributed about one million food rations to 200,000 people, only about one fifteenth of the estimated 3 million who are in need and awaiting food. The agency says it needs to hand out 100 million food rations in the next month, but is on pace to have only 16 million available, which means, clearly, that the death toll will continue to climb steadily to monumental proportions.
A French plane of massive support with huge amounts of supplies and food was diverted to Santo Domingo for three straight days, and supplies continue to pile up and stagnate at the airport with very minimal mobilization and distribution to the suffering people, while U.S. soldiers and military capacity continue to unload and set up shop. Humanity knows that Haiti needs water, bread, and medical supplies, not marines and fully-automatics.
U.S. soldiers and marines are now occupying Haiti, over 12,000 of them in the first week alone.
The U.N. security council has authorized the deployment of an additional 3,500 troops to Haiti, on top of the already 7,000 strong presence of the MINUSTAH, the U.N. military mission to Haiti. MINUSTAH is nothing more than an occupation force which controls and punishes the devastated poor working class neighborhoods of Cite Soleil and others in Port-Au-Prince, to maintain the structure of impotence, and to enforce the agenda of privatizations. On top of that, the international force numbers some 3,500 troops. The U.S. troop presence in Haiti is now 15,000, increasing total foreign military presence to close to 30,000 in just a few days. Why, the people of Haiti, and the people of the world wonder, is such massive combat capacity and fire power necessary to deal with a suffering population who are barely alive, and with no existing security threats.
Doctors, activists, and aid and solidarity workers on the ground in Haiti have said repeatedly that there are no security issues in Port-Au-Prince, that they have been traveling around the city moving equipment and patients till 2 and 3 in the morning, and that there is absolutely nothing to worry about. The corrupt Haitian government and the U.S. have used as a pretext for security concerns that the Port-Au-Prince jail collapsed during the earthquake releasing all of its prisoners, those who survived, but human rights activists and lawyers estimate that 60 to 80 % of the prison population are either political prisoners and/or have never even been charged, let alone convicted. So it seems what the U.S. is really worried about is the potential "threat" of political organizing, and a pretext to occupy the country.
In the U.S, over 11,000, almost 12,000 nurses from the National Nurses Union volunteered about a week after the earthquake struck to go to Haiti to contribute to the massive need for health professionals, to fill the gigantic lack of nurses in the country. This offer was made directly to the Obama administration from the executive director of the NNU, was ignored for a few days, then was directed to some low level department with no authority to make decisions, and that was that. Over 11,000 nurses literally awaiting transportation to Haiti, when the U.S is allegedly "spearheading" the humanitarian effort, and their offer doesn't even get a response.
Cuba and ALBA's Response and Presence in Haiti
Meanwhile Cuba, the world's greatest evil, as the U.S would have it, is once again leading the way, leading the humanitarian effort by example in crisis zones, as it always does. As of January 25th, it is reported that 657 Cuban trained healthcare professionals currently working in Haiti, including 417 Cubans and 240 Haitians. In Port-au-Prince, they are working in three hospitals: La Paz, La Renaissance and Ofatma. According to Dr. Carlos Alberto Garcia, head of the Cuban health mission in Haiti, Cuban doctors have performed more than 1,700 surgeries, 800 of which were complicated. All together the Cuban doctors have attended more than 18,000 patients in Haiti.
On January 26, the Yahoo! news group Cuba News, headed by Walter Lippmann reported that "Through January 22, 20,095 patients had been treated and 1,954 surgeries performed.
Cuban doctors are working in 21 care points organized into 3 levels:
- City of Port au Prince: The Renaissence Hospital, Hospital La Paz, Ofatma Hospital and Primary Care Traveling Brigade.
- Capital and Periphery: Leoganne Field Hospital, Arcahaie Island Lagonave, Carrefour, Integral Diagnostic Centers Grand Goave, Petit Goave and Thomasa.
- Other departments: Jacmel Field Hospital, Comprehensive Diagnostic Centers Mirebalais, Anse-a-Veau, Raboteau and Aquin, Les Cayes, Cap Haitien, Port de Paix, Grand Anse and Nippes
Cuba has put into operation in Haiti 14 operating rooms with 16 surgical teams.
Alongside the Cuban personnel are working more than 100 specialists from several countries (Venezuela, Chile, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Canada).
Cuban newspapers report that "Among the other activities being carried out in Haiti by the Cuban medical brigade is a health prevention and protection campaign that includes a tetanus vaccination campaign that has so far administered 400,000 vaccinations donated by Cuba. Cuba has also sent a team of specialist to fumigate and control outbreaks of disease, and a team of physiotherapists to aid in the recovery process of patients."
The Xinhua news agency reported on January 25 that the nine member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), which includes amongst others Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador, met last sunday to discuss a medium-term and long-term plan for the rebuilding of Haiti. The plan will focus of the rebuilding of schools, hospitals, waterworks, as well as projects to boost food production through fishing and agricultural self-sufficiency.
Palestine
About a month ago, Palestinians, accompanied by friends, solidarity activists, and the spirit of humanity, marked one year since the latest of Israel's brutal military assaults on Gaza. Events, rallies, and vigils were held all over the world in a strong show of solidarity with Palestine, which along with Haiti, is one of the most battered, disrespected, mistreated, and exploited people of the world. A tiny strip of land stuffed with nearly two million people who have hardly any food, water, or medical supplies and capacity. Israel continues to lay a brutal siege on this small, resourceless, starving population, scarcely allowing any sort of aid or decency to be delivered to Gaza, while the superstrucutre of power continues to impede even the possibility of progress by blaming the Palestinians themselves. The bottom line is that the Gaza Strip is under apartheid and systematically colonized by Israel.
So the one year anniversary of yet another massacre perpetrated by Israeli apartheid, and the early 2010 devastation of Haiti really forces us, citizens of the west, to seriously rethink the meaning of a New Year's resolution. A resolution is something that can effectively change a life, or something that can be easily forgotten in a few weeks. I started thinking about this one night in December as I was having a cigarette outside, and came up with a revelation of sorts, that I really had to embrace the opportunity presented by the dawning of a new year. It presents the opportunity to create positive change, to better ourselves, to redeem ourselves despite the shortcomings of the previous year. Although what we should be striving for in the first place is consistency so as to not have to start anew, or try again at the beginning of each year, we are human, none perfect, and we do make mistakes by nature. Having said that, perhaps the human quality we need to hold on to the tightest, is resiliency, the human ability to dust off the cobwebs and the rust of yesterday, to move past our debilities and live up to our full potential once again, or for the first time.
We must not, and can not, think only of ourselves, individually, and of our immediate surroundings, but we must always think of the world, and of every living being within it, as a whole. We must realize that our undisciplined mass consumption and the Bizarro Buddhism of always ceding to our many urges is a very decadent, selfish, and destructive way of life. We must not allow ourselves to be drowned in the culture of sterility and lethargy, and secondly, once we have gained ourselves, we must not allow our culture to be consumed by the structure of impotence. Historically speaking, we are incorrect to think that we have earned the opulence and luxury in which we live, we do not deserve it, and we are mistaken if we feel more entitled than others to the shelter, abundant food and water, and good health that we take for granted on a daily basis. For example, who am I to smoke cigarettes, the drug of the empire, knowing that it keeps the profit coffers filled while being a detriment to my health. So my idea for an article, along with my resolution of simply getting back to living a healthy life, was Smoke Free for Palestine, and although I've changed the title partly because of Haiti and partly because I have not yet been able to fully declare myself an official non-smoker (on and off periods since Jan.1 even though I am now on a streak of consecutive smoke free days), what could be more beautiful than choosing good health and life in the face of death, for people who must struggle and fight every single day.
We have a debt to humanity, we owe it to humanity to lead healthy, happy, productive lives, and to constantly try to better ourselves mentally and spiritually, to always strive to dismantle the status-quo, and to rebuild an equitable, just, and sustainable world. The Culture of Life is to feel everything together and within you all at the same time; a baby being born in rural India, the struggle of the Palestinians and the Haitians and many more, the Guarani and Aymara indigenous in South America and the Buddhist Monks in Cambodia, a tract of Amazon jungle being destroyed by corporate exploitation and extraction, or saved by campesino activists and indigenous communities, the growth of yucca and corn in the Andes, waking up early in the morning, embracing the lakes, the trees, and the sunshine, achieving Universal Peace so that olive and date trees can thrive again undisturbed in the Middle-East, consuming meat only as a matter of survival and instead eating things that grow from the ground, quite simply not doing something when we know it is harmful to Mother Earth, respecting natural processes everywhere and allowing the cycle of life to regenerate itself.
Eduardo Galeano wrote, "You are told to love thy neighbor and at the same time you are forced to survive by devouring him." Lets deconstruct this malicious system, and start anew with the blocks which are already in place for us. Instead of stagnating in the culture of depletion, oblivion, consumption, indifference, and death, lets join hands to build our better world, and celebrate preservation, sustainability, life, and good health.
Since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti on January 12th, 2010, dozens, hundreds, and thousands of articles and think pieces have been written. In the face of one of the greatest disasters in human history, what else can one really write about? Although the international community, and solidarity workers, activists, and reporters for the most part have demonstrated and carried out tremendous support for the devastated masses of Haiti, the United-States has declared itself the leader in heading the 'humanitarian' effort and has taken control of the Port-Au-Prince airport, but has demonstrated leadership only in its disregard for human life.
As of January 21st, 80,000 people have been confirmed dead, the number climbs daily and will rise most likely to as high 200,000, maybe even 300,000, but with extremely scarce resources and logistical capacity, and with mass graves being the only possible solution, the true number of dead will never be known.
The Medical relief group Partners in Health released a statement saying some 20,000 people are dying each day due to a lack of medical equipment and supplies who could be saved by surgery.
The World Food Program as of january 21st said it had distributed about one million food rations to 200,000 people, only about one fifteenth of the estimated 3 million who are in need and awaiting food. The agency says it needs to hand out 100 million food rations in the next month, but is on pace to have only 16 million available, which means, clearly, that the death toll will continue to climb steadily to monumental proportions.
A French plane of massive support with huge amounts of supplies and food was diverted to Santo Domingo for three straight days, and supplies continue to pile up and stagnate at the airport with very minimal mobilization and distribution to the suffering people, while U.S. soldiers and military capacity continue to unload and set up shop. Humanity knows that Haiti needs water, bread, and medical supplies, not marines and fully-automatics.
U.S. soldiers and marines are now occupying Haiti, over 12,000 of them in the first week alone.
The U.N. security council has authorized the deployment of an additional 3,500 troops to Haiti, on top of the already 7,000 strong presence of the MINUSTAH, the U.N. military mission to Haiti. MINUSTAH is nothing more than an occupation force which controls and punishes the devastated poor working class neighborhoods of Cite Soleil and others in Port-Au-Prince, to maintain the structure of impotence, and to enforce the agenda of privatizations. On top of that, the international force numbers some 3,500 troops. The U.S. troop presence in Haiti is now 15,000, increasing total foreign military presence to close to 30,000 in just a few days. Why, the people of Haiti, and the people of the world wonder, is such massive combat capacity and fire power necessary to deal with a suffering population who are barely alive, and with no existing security threats.
Doctors, activists, and aid and solidarity workers on the ground in Haiti have said repeatedly that there are no security issues in Port-Au-Prince, that they have been traveling around the city moving equipment and patients till 2 and 3 in the morning, and that there is absolutely nothing to worry about. The corrupt Haitian government and the U.S. have used as a pretext for security concerns that the Port-Au-Prince jail collapsed during the earthquake releasing all of its prisoners, those who survived, but human rights activists and lawyers estimate that 60 to 80 % of the prison population are either political prisoners and/or have never even been charged, let alone convicted. So it seems what the U.S. is really worried about is the potential "threat" of political organizing, and a pretext to occupy the country.
In the U.S, over 11,000, almost 12,000 nurses from the National Nurses Union volunteered about a week after the earthquake struck to go to Haiti to contribute to the massive need for health professionals, to fill the gigantic lack of nurses in the country. This offer was made directly to the Obama administration from the executive director of the NNU, was ignored for a few days, then was directed to some low level department with no authority to make decisions, and that was that. Over 11,000 nurses literally awaiting transportation to Haiti, when the U.S is allegedly "spearheading" the humanitarian effort, and their offer doesn't even get a response.
Cuba and ALBA's Response and Presence in Haiti
Meanwhile Cuba, the world's greatest evil, as the U.S would have it, is once again leading the way, leading the humanitarian effort by example in crisis zones, as it always does. As of January 25th, it is reported that 657 Cuban trained healthcare professionals currently working in Haiti, including 417 Cubans and 240 Haitians. In Port-au-Prince, they are working in three hospitals: La Paz, La Renaissance and Ofatma. According to Dr. Carlos Alberto Garcia, head of the Cuban health mission in Haiti, Cuban doctors have performed more than 1,700 surgeries, 800 of which were complicated. All together the Cuban doctors have attended more than 18,000 patients in Haiti.
On January 26, the Yahoo! news group Cuba News, headed by Walter Lippmann reported that "Through January 22, 20,095 patients had been treated and 1,954 surgeries performed.
Cuban doctors are working in 21 care points organized into 3 levels:
- City of Port au Prince: The Renaissence Hospital, Hospital La Paz, Ofatma Hospital and Primary Care Traveling Brigade.
- Capital and Periphery: Leoganne Field Hospital, Arcahaie Island Lagonave, Carrefour, Integral Diagnostic Centers Grand Goave, Petit Goave and Thomasa.
- Other departments: Jacmel Field Hospital, Comprehensive Diagnostic Centers Mirebalais, Anse-a-Veau, Raboteau and Aquin, Les Cayes, Cap Haitien, Port de Paix, Grand Anse and Nippes
Cuba has put into operation in Haiti 14 operating rooms with 16 surgical teams.
Alongside the Cuban personnel are working more than 100 specialists from several countries (Venezuela, Chile, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Canada).
Cuban newspapers report that "Among the other activities being carried out in Haiti by the Cuban medical brigade is a health prevention and protection campaign that includes a tetanus vaccination campaign that has so far administered 400,000 vaccinations donated by Cuba. Cuba has also sent a team of specialist to fumigate and control outbreaks of disease, and a team of physiotherapists to aid in the recovery process of patients."
The Xinhua news agency reported on January 25 that the nine member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), which includes amongst others Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador, met last sunday to discuss a medium-term and long-term plan for the rebuilding of Haiti. The plan will focus of the rebuilding of schools, hospitals, waterworks, as well as projects to boost food production through fishing and agricultural self-sufficiency.
Palestine
About a month ago, Palestinians, accompanied by friends, solidarity activists, and the spirit of humanity, marked one year since the latest of Israel's brutal military assaults on Gaza. Events, rallies, and vigils were held all over the world in a strong show of solidarity with Palestine, which along with Haiti, is one of the most battered, disrespected, mistreated, and exploited people of the world. A tiny strip of land stuffed with nearly two million people who have hardly any food, water, or medical supplies and capacity. Israel continues to lay a brutal siege on this small, resourceless, starving population, scarcely allowing any sort of aid or decency to be delivered to Gaza, while the superstrucutre of power continues to impede even the possibility of progress by blaming the Palestinians themselves. The bottom line is that the Gaza Strip is under apartheid and systematically colonized by Israel.
So the one year anniversary of yet another massacre perpetrated by Israeli apartheid, and the early 2010 devastation of Haiti really forces us, citizens of the west, to seriously rethink the meaning of a New Year's resolution. A resolution is something that can effectively change a life, or something that can be easily forgotten in a few weeks. I started thinking about this one night in December as I was having a cigarette outside, and came up with a revelation of sorts, that I really had to embrace the opportunity presented by the dawning of a new year. It presents the opportunity to create positive change, to better ourselves, to redeem ourselves despite the shortcomings of the previous year. Although what we should be striving for in the first place is consistency so as to not have to start anew, or try again at the beginning of each year, we are human, none perfect, and we do make mistakes by nature. Having said that, perhaps the human quality we need to hold on to the tightest, is resiliency, the human ability to dust off the cobwebs and the rust of yesterday, to move past our debilities and live up to our full potential once again, or for the first time.
We must not, and can not, think only of ourselves, individually, and of our immediate surroundings, but we must always think of the world, and of every living being within it, as a whole. We must realize that our undisciplined mass consumption and the Bizarro Buddhism of always ceding to our many urges is a very decadent, selfish, and destructive way of life. We must not allow ourselves to be drowned in the culture of sterility and lethargy, and secondly, once we have gained ourselves, we must not allow our culture to be consumed by the structure of impotence. Historically speaking, we are incorrect to think that we have earned the opulence and luxury in which we live, we do not deserve it, and we are mistaken if we feel more entitled than others to the shelter, abundant food and water, and good health that we take for granted on a daily basis. For example, who am I to smoke cigarettes, the drug of the empire, knowing that it keeps the profit coffers filled while being a detriment to my health. So my idea for an article, along with my resolution of simply getting back to living a healthy life, was Smoke Free for Palestine, and although I've changed the title partly because of Haiti and partly because I have not yet been able to fully declare myself an official non-smoker (on and off periods since Jan.1 even though I am now on a streak of consecutive smoke free days), what could be more beautiful than choosing good health and life in the face of death, for people who must struggle and fight every single day.
We have a debt to humanity, we owe it to humanity to lead healthy, happy, productive lives, and to constantly try to better ourselves mentally and spiritually, to always strive to dismantle the status-quo, and to rebuild an equitable, just, and sustainable world. The Culture of Life is to feel everything together and within you all at the same time; a baby being born in rural India, the struggle of the Palestinians and the Haitians and many more, the Guarani and Aymara indigenous in South America and the Buddhist Monks in Cambodia, a tract of Amazon jungle being destroyed by corporate exploitation and extraction, or saved by campesino activists and indigenous communities, the growth of yucca and corn in the Andes, waking up early in the morning, embracing the lakes, the trees, and the sunshine, achieving Universal Peace so that olive and date trees can thrive again undisturbed in the Middle-East, consuming meat only as a matter of survival and instead eating things that grow from the ground, quite simply not doing something when we know it is harmful to Mother Earth, respecting natural processes everywhere and allowing the cycle of life to regenerate itself.
Eduardo Galeano wrote, "You are told to love thy neighbor and at the same time you are forced to survive by devouring him." Lets deconstruct this malicious system, and start anew with the blocks which are already in place for us. Instead of stagnating in the culture of depletion, oblivion, consumption, indifference, and death, lets join hands to build our better world, and celebrate preservation, sustainability, life, and good health.
Bolivia: El Pais Del Futuro
Posted originally on the WhipAltiplano Blog Jan.1st.2009.
The world today to a greater or lesser extent is controlled by various giant international institutions dominated by the United-States; the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations, and several other smaller regional organizations. U.S. President Obama calls them "an architecture of institutions", we can call it more accurately the imperialist superstructure of power. In the past decade Cuba and Venezuela have done their part to counter the structural dominance of capitalism, by promoting Latin American integration, and by creating ALBA, and the beginnings of the Banco del Sur. ALBA is a regional body of Latin American solidarity for the reciprocal exchange of goods and services aimed at achieving a mutual continental social well-being, and the Banco Del Sur is a continental and potentially international bank to provide funding for projects of self-sufficiency, social programs and development, a tool for economic independence and self-determination. In the past year, it is Bolivia that has led the way, and stepped forward with the hugely significant, original, and advanced ideas and concepts of Evo Morales, Alvaro Garcia Linera, and the MAS party.
Climate Justice and PachaMama Politics: Humanity and Planet Earth's Reciprocal Love Affair
Evo Morales' work on climate justice now has become extensive, but Bolivian thinking in this respect has gone so far that the term 'climate justice' doesn't even begin to accurately describe the scope and depth to which they have developed this topic. The first aspect is considering climate justice from the direct political and legal point of view, and within the existing and would-be existing international structures. Bolivia has spoken in the name of the Bolivian people at dozens of major international gatherings, conferences, and summits, including several times at the United Nations, about the abusive relationship between capitalism and Planet Earth, and about establishing an international climate justice tribunal. They have also pushed to entrench an internationally recognized and respected document similar to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, only one of an environmental nature that would outlaw and prevent the ravages of capitalism against humanity and planet earth.
Pablo Solon, Bolivian ambassador to the United-Nations, and Cormac Cullinan an environmental lawyer have worked on creating a definition:
"One of the most important implications is that it would enable legal systems to maintain vital ecological balances by balancing human rights against the rights of other members of the Earth community. Presently many environmentally harmful human activities (including those that cause climate change) are completely lawful.... Just as slave laws, which turned humans into property, entrenched an exploitative relationship between the two, our legal systems have entrenched an exploitative and inherently damaging relationship between ourselves and Earth. Even most environmental laws do little more than regulate the rate at which environmental destruction may take place."
"If legal systems recognized the rights of other-than-human beings (e.g. mountains, rivers, forests and animals), courts and tribunals could deal with the fundamental issues of environmental contamination rather than being bogged down in the technical details of permitted pollutants and emissions. For example, a rights-based approach could evaluate whether the rights of humans to clear tropical forests for beef ranching should trump the right of species in those forests to continue to exist. Instead of devising ever more complex schemes to authorize environmental damage and to trade in the right to pollute, we would focus on how best to maintain the quality of the relationship between ourselves and Earth."
This definition is a very well rounded basis for a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth, as the document will be called. An alternative international climate conference to rival Copenhagen 2009, to be hosted in Bolivia, is being promoted and scheduled for April 20-22, 2010. Evo has also elaborated on the predictably faulty 'solutions' that capitalist thinking has conjured to 'counter' climate change, namely carbon credits and the trading of emissions, in saying that "even climate change itself has become a business." He is correct in saying that the system of profit seeks to make a commodity even out of the destruction of the planet.
Another element of the climate justice discourse that Bolivia has stressed is that the industrialized countries be held accountable in paying back their ecological debt, to recover the health of southern communities, environments, and resources that have subsidized the wealth and prosperity of the developed world, and to prevent further deterioration where irreparable damage has already been made. An excerpt from the International Climate Justice Tribunal hearing in Cochabamba, Bolivia, on the 13th and 14th of October 2009 explains how "Climate Justice is based on the understanding that, whilst climate change requires global actions, the Northern Industrial Countries are historically responsible for having produced the greatest part (80%) of greenhouse gases over the last 250 years. Low cost energy -oil, coal and gas- has been the power behind their quick industrial and economic growth, without recognizing the ecologic, social, financial and historical debt to the southern communities and nature, for which they are responsible." Honesty and accountability figure prominently in the new international values system being promoted by ALBA and the Bolivian agenda, and as such the justice of truth will come down hard on the hypocritical politics of lies and status-quo regression that were the product of the climate talks of Brokenhagen 2009.
At the UN General Assembly in October Evo said; "I came here today to speak plainly with you all. The origin of this crisis is the exaggerated accumulation of capital in far too few hands. It is the permanent removal of natural resources and the commercialization of Mother Earth."
Evo Morales is an incredible analyst of the dynamic between the preservation of life vs. the culture of consumption, depletion, and death. He is able to illustrate in simple terms the impossibility of massive and disrespectful consumption, that in the necessity of eliminating the linear system on a finite planet, in order to redistribute equitably to end poverty, we must first end wealth, we must end this "exaggerated accumulation of capital." The strength of the Bolivian Revolution is its capacity to combine themes of class relations, with political and economic independence, with environmental justice, with gender equality, with communitarian sustainability, etc., to leave no element untouched, no rock unturned, and to formulate everything together into a very unique humanitarian, emancipatory paradigm of the future.
To give further examples of this, again I quote Evo Morales from the General Assembly: "Mother Earth, Planet Earth, will exist without human life, but human life cannot exist without Mother Earth.... I’ve concluded that in this new twenty- first century, defending Mother Earth will be more important than defending human rights. If we do not defend the rights of Mother Earth, there is no use in defending human rights. I am willing to debate this concept, but now or later it will be proven that the rights of Mother Earth supersede the rights of human beings. We must protect what gives us life."
Although Bolivia has become a leader in environmental justice and a lot of attention has been focused on the environmental discourse, there are also a lot of other elements of Bolivian ideology that deserve a close focus.
As much as the media tries to spin that the socialist governments of South America want to control resources only for their benefit and their so-called 'populist' advancement, the autonomy that was such a central theme throughout the Bolivian election shows just how committed to decentralization the MAS government really is.
Alongside the Dec. 6 presidential and legislative elections, 12 of Bolivia's 327 municipalities voted in favour of indigenous autonomy, which will give them control over the natural resources on their land and a greater say in how to use state funds, introducing a new type of budgetary autonomy. Indigenous autonomy has never been seriously talked about or implemented anywhere in the world, and that Bolivia is doing it now demonstrates a very progressive and advanced form of participatory democracy.
Since first taking office in January 2006, Morales has accelerated and expanded the country's land reform efforts through INRA, the national Institute of Agrarian Reform granting formal collective land titles to indigenous communities, known as Tierras Comunitarias de Origen or TCOs, a process that also involves recognition of native communities and their collective legal rights. The process involves mainly the seizing and reactivation of idle lands from huge private landholdings. It is interesting and romantic to note that the agrarian efforts in Cuba were also titled INRA during the early years of the Revolution, headed by one Che Guevara.
Simultaneously with the elections, the departments of Chuquisaca, La Paz, Cochabamba, Oruro and Potosà also voted for provincial autonomy.
Evo Morales has also suggested to organize and host a World Youth Summit Against Capitalism in Bolivia. Many similar summits have been held in Venezuela and promoted by Hugo Chavez. Evo said he wanted to bring together the “youth of the world", young supporters of “revolutionary processes to put an end to capitalism.”
Another important and original idea proposed by Bolivia, which Evo suggested during a recent ALBA summit, is a continental referendum on the US-Colombia Military Deal: "If the Colombian president wants his bases to be used, I say I want a referendum in South America so the people of Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina all 12 countries can decide." The possibility of US bases in Colombia is an afront and a threat not only to Venezuela, but to all the people of Latin America, and it is of crucial importance that South America as a continent unite in opposition. A continent wide referendum might be difficult to orchestrate, but it is something that has never taken place or been talked about before. Doing so would be a gigantic democratic exercise and a channel for continental integration and solidarity building. Evo, Alvaro and the MAS understand well that full political sovereignty and economic independence hinges largely on regional strength, and that their revolution is a responsibility and a mandate not only for the people of Bolivia, but also for the continent as a whole and for humanity.
But perhaps the idea that best defines Bolivia's humanist philosophy, is the proposal for the establishment of Universal Citizenship. Evo has made a statement saying that “everyone has the right to live in any part of the world, respecting the norms of each country.” Bolivia's government is working with the United Nations in support of the proposal of universal citizenship. A document circulated at the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, entitled ‘World Citizenship: A Global Ethic for Sustainable Development’, defines Universal Citizenship in part as follows: "World Citizenship begins with an acceptance of the oneness of the human family and the interconnectedness of the nations of "the earth, our home......Its hallmark is "unity in diversity." World citizenship encompasses the principles of social and economic justice, both within and between nations; non-adversarial decision making at all levels of society; equality of the sexes; racial, ethnic, national and religious harmony; and the willingness to sacrifice for the common good. Other facets of world citizenship -- including the promotion of human honor and dignity, understanding, amity, cooperation, trustworthiness, compassion and the desire to serve."
This move to install a Universal Citizenship through the UN is a recognition that we need to take this human way of thinking, this movement, internationally. Universal Citizenship would be our greatest and most symbolic tool in democratizing and humanizing the planet, embodying unity and togetherness instead of exclusiveness and divisions. We are one together and we must all work together; a necessary first step is a message and a contract recognizing that we are all bound by blood and love. This is a reminder that we cannot allow human beings to be moved or displaced forcefully like money or commodities, that human life and dignity stand above artificial borders and arbitrary hierarchy laws.
Bolivia's leaders and thinkers are proposing ideas and discussing things that were almost unimaginable even ten years ago, ideas that have never been talked about before now. Although it has not yet fully reached mainstream discourse, it is fact that with ideas being born and developing such as participatory democracy, collective community management and budgeting, cooperatives, fair trade, genuine sustainable energy of all kinds, renewable alternative fuels, and sustainable housing and architecture, we have the political, economic, technological, and environmental infrastructure of the future in place and ready for the taking, standing and ready to be implemented. With its cultural Revolution successfully moving forward, and with ideas such as continent-wide referendums, Climate Justice, respect and implementation of the reciprocal ecological balance and exchange between mother earth and human life, living well instead of living better, Indigenous Self-Actualization, and Universal Citizenship Bolivia has established the socio-political, social, and ideological framework of the future.
When I think of Bolivia I think of all these beautiful and colorful ideas. This collective thread which has been weaved by the people of Bolivia is like a paradigm mosaic of humanity's most profound and righteous ideas and spirituality. Because of these progressive, future-leaning, sustainable, and humanistic ideas, Evo Morales, Alvaro Linera, and the MAS party are international leaders in political and conscious maturity, and examples for the rest of the world to follow. They are laying the ideological foundations which have the power to effectively change the world, in solidifying the message that another world is in fact possible.
The world today to a greater or lesser extent is controlled by various giant international institutions dominated by the United-States; the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations, and several other smaller regional organizations. U.S. President Obama calls them "an architecture of institutions", we can call it more accurately the imperialist superstructure of power. In the past decade Cuba and Venezuela have done their part to counter the structural dominance of capitalism, by promoting Latin American integration, and by creating ALBA, and the beginnings of the Banco del Sur. ALBA is a regional body of Latin American solidarity for the reciprocal exchange of goods and services aimed at achieving a mutual continental social well-being, and the Banco Del Sur is a continental and potentially international bank to provide funding for projects of self-sufficiency, social programs and development, a tool for economic independence and self-determination. In the past year, it is Bolivia that has led the way, and stepped forward with the hugely significant, original, and advanced ideas and concepts of Evo Morales, Alvaro Garcia Linera, and the MAS party.
Climate Justice and PachaMama Politics: Humanity and Planet Earth's Reciprocal Love Affair
Evo Morales' work on climate justice now has become extensive, but Bolivian thinking in this respect has gone so far that the term 'climate justice' doesn't even begin to accurately describe the scope and depth to which they have developed this topic. The first aspect is considering climate justice from the direct political and legal point of view, and within the existing and would-be existing international structures. Bolivia has spoken in the name of the Bolivian people at dozens of major international gatherings, conferences, and summits, including several times at the United Nations, about the abusive relationship between capitalism and Planet Earth, and about establishing an international climate justice tribunal. They have also pushed to entrench an internationally recognized and respected document similar to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, only one of an environmental nature that would outlaw and prevent the ravages of capitalism against humanity and planet earth.
Pablo Solon, Bolivian ambassador to the United-Nations, and Cormac Cullinan an environmental lawyer have worked on creating a definition:
"One of the most important implications is that it would enable legal systems to maintain vital ecological balances by balancing human rights against the rights of other members of the Earth community. Presently many environmentally harmful human activities (including those that cause climate change) are completely lawful.... Just as slave laws, which turned humans into property, entrenched an exploitative relationship between the two, our legal systems have entrenched an exploitative and inherently damaging relationship between ourselves and Earth. Even most environmental laws do little more than regulate the rate at which environmental destruction may take place."
"If legal systems recognized the rights of other-than-human beings (e.g. mountains, rivers, forests and animals), courts and tribunals could deal with the fundamental issues of environmental contamination rather than being bogged down in the technical details of permitted pollutants and emissions. For example, a rights-based approach could evaluate whether the rights of humans to clear tropical forests for beef ranching should trump the right of species in those forests to continue to exist. Instead of devising ever more complex schemes to authorize environmental damage and to trade in the right to pollute, we would focus on how best to maintain the quality of the relationship between ourselves and Earth."
This definition is a very well rounded basis for a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth, as the document will be called. An alternative international climate conference to rival Copenhagen 2009, to be hosted in Bolivia, is being promoted and scheduled for April 20-22, 2010. Evo has also elaborated on the predictably faulty 'solutions' that capitalist thinking has conjured to 'counter' climate change, namely carbon credits and the trading of emissions, in saying that "even climate change itself has become a business." He is correct in saying that the system of profit seeks to make a commodity even out of the destruction of the planet.
Another element of the climate justice discourse that Bolivia has stressed is that the industrialized countries be held accountable in paying back their ecological debt, to recover the health of southern communities, environments, and resources that have subsidized the wealth and prosperity of the developed world, and to prevent further deterioration where irreparable damage has already been made. An excerpt from the International Climate Justice Tribunal hearing in Cochabamba, Bolivia, on the 13th and 14th of October 2009 explains how "Climate Justice is based on the understanding that, whilst climate change requires global actions, the Northern Industrial Countries are historically responsible for having produced the greatest part (80%) of greenhouse gases over the last 250 years. Low cost energy -oil, coal and gas- has been the power behind their quick industrial and economic growth, without recognizing the ecologic, social, financial and historical debt to the southern communities and nature, for which they are responsible." Honesty and accountability figure prominently in the new international values system being promoted by ALBA and the Bolivian agenda, and as such the justice of truth will come down hard on the hypocritical politics of lies and status-quo regression that were the product of the climate talks of Brokenhagen 2009.
At the UN General Assembly in October Evo said; "I came here today to speak plainly with you all. The origin of this crisis is the exaggerated accumulation of capital in far too few hands. It is the permanent removal of natural resources and the commercialization of Mother Earth."
Evo Morales is an incredible analyst of the dynamic between the preservation of life vs. the culture of consumption, depletion, and death. He is able to illustrate in simple terms the impossibility of massive and disrespectful consumption, that in the necessity of eliminating the linear system on a finite planet, in order to redistribute equitably to end poverty, we must first end wealth, we must end this "exaggerated accumulation of capital." The strength of the Bolivian Revolution is its capacity to combine themes of class relations, with political and economic independence, with environmental justice, with gender equality, with communitarian sustainability, etc., to leave no element untouched, no rock unturned, and to formulate everything together into a very unique humanitarian, emancipatory paradigm of the future.
To give further examples of this, again I quote Evo Morales from the General Assembly: "Mother Earth, Planet Earth, will exist without human life, but human life cannot exist without Mother Earth.... I’ve concluded that in this new twenty- first century, defending Mother Earth will be more important than defending human rights. If we do not defend the rights of Mother Earth, there is no use in defending human rights. I am willing to debate this concept, but now or later it will be proven that the rights of Mother Earth supersede the rights of human beings. We must protect what gives us life."
Although Bolivia has become a leader in environmental justice and a lot of attention has been focused on the environmental discourse, there are also a lot of other elements of Bolivian ideology that deserve a close focus.
As much as the media tries to spin that the socialist governments of South America want to control resources only for their benefit and their so-called 'populist' advancement, the autonomy that was such a central theme throughout the Bolivian election shows just how committed to decentralization the MAS government really is.
Alongside the Dec. 6 presidential and legislative elections, 12 of Bolivia's 327 municipalities voted in favour of indigenous autonomy, which will give them control over the natural resources on their land and a greater say in how to use state funds, introducing a new type of budgetary autonomy. Indigenous autonomy has never been seriously talked about or implemented anywhere in the world, and that Bolivia is doing it now demonstrates a very progressive and advanced form of participatory democracy.
Since first taking office in January 2006, Morales has accelerated and expanded the country's land reform efforts through INRA, the national Institute of Agrarian Reform granting formal collective land titles to indigenous communities, known as Tierras Comunitarias de Origen or TCOs, a process that also involves recognition of native communities and their collective legal rights. The process involves mainly the seizing and reactivation of idle lands from huge private landholdings. It is interesting and romantic to note that the agrarian efforts in Cuba were also titled INRA during the early years of the Revolution, headed by one Che Guevara.
Simultaneously with the elections, the departments of Chuquisaca, La Paz, Cochabamba, Oruro and Potosà also voted for provincial autonomy.
Evo Morales has also suggested to organize and host a World Youth Summit Against Capitalism in Bolivia. Many similar summits have been held in Venezuela and promoted by Hugo Chavez. Evo said he wanted to bring together the “youth of the world", young supporters of “revolutionary processes to put an end to capitalism.”
Another important and original idea proposed by Bolivia, which Evo suggested during a recent ALBA summit, is a continental referendum on the US-Colombia Military Deal: "If the Colombian president wants his bases to be used, I say I want a referendum in South America so the people of Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina all 12 countries can decide." The possibility of US bases in Colombia is an afront and a threat not only to Venezuela, but to all the people of Latin America, and it is of crucial importance that South America as a continent unite in opposition. A continent wide referendum might be difficult to orchestrate, but it is something that has never taken place or been talked about before. Doing so would be a gigantic democratic exercise and a channel for continental integration and solidarity building. Evo, Alvaro and the MAS understand well that full political sovereignty and economic independence hinges largely on regional strength, and that their revolution is a responsibility and a mandate not only for the people of Bolivia, but also for the continent as a whole and for humanity.
But perhaps the idea that best defines Bolivia's humanist philosophy, is the proposal for the establishment of Universal Citizenship. Evo has made a statement saying that “everyone has the right to live in any part of the world, respecting the norms of each country.” Bolivia's government is working with the United Nations in support of the proposal of universal citizenship. A document circulated at the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, entitled ‘World Citizenship: A Global Ethic for Sustainable Development’, defines Universal Citizenship in part as follows: "World Citizenship begins with an acceptance of the oneness of the human family and the interconnectedness of the nations of "the earth, our home......Its hallmark is "unity in diversity." World citizenship encompasses the principles of social and economic justice, both within and between nations; non-adversarial decision making at all levels of society; equality of the sexes; racial, ethnic, national and religious harmony; and the willingness to sacrifice for the common good. Other facets of world citizenship -- including the promotion of human honor and dignity, understanding, amity, cooperation, trustworthiness, compassion and the desire to serve."
This move to install a Universal Citizenship through the UN is a recognition that we need to take this human way of thinking, this movement, internationally. Universal Citizenship would be our greatest and most symbolic tool in democratizing and humanizing the planet, embodying unity and togetherness instead of exclusiveness and divisions. We are one together and we must all work together; a necessary first step is a message and a contract recognizing that we are all bound by blood and love. This is a reminder that we cannot allow human beings to be moved or displaced forcefully like money or commodities, that human life and dignity stand above artificial borders and arbitrary hierarchy laws.
Bolivia's leaders and thinkers are proposing ideas and discussing things that were almost unimaginable even ten years ago, ideas that have never been talked about before now. Although it has not yet fully reached mainstream discourse, it is fact that with ideas being born and developing such as participatory democracy, collective community management and budgeting, cooperatives, fair trade, genuine sustainable energy of all kinds, renewable alternative fuels, and sustainable housing and architecture, we have the political, economic, technological, and environmental infrastructure of the future in place and ready for the taking, standing and ready to be implemented. With its cultural Revolution successfully moving forward, and with ideas such as continent-wide referendums, Climate Justice, respect and implementation of the reciprocal ecological balance and exchange between mother earth and human life, living well instead of living better, Indigenous Self-Actualization, and Universal Citizenship Bolivia has established the socio-political, social, and ideological framework of the future.
When I think of Bolivia I think of all these beautiful and colorful ideas. This collective thread which has been weaved by the people of Bolivia is like a paradigm mosaic of humanity's most profound and righteous ideas and spirituality. Because of these progressive, future-leaning, sustainable, and humanistic ideas, Evo Morales, Alvaro Linera, and the MAS party are international leaders in political and conscious maturity, and examples for the rest of the world to follow. They are laying the ideological foundations which have the power to effectively change the world, in solidifying the message that another world is in fact possible.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)