Thursday, June 3, 2010
Quote of the Week - Monday May 31, 2010
"Revolutionary change does not come as one cataclysmic moment....but as an endless succession of surprises, moving zigzag toward a more decent society. We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. - Howard Zinn.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
The People's Summit 2010 - Birth of a World People's Movement: Climate Justice and the Cochabamba Conference
"Birth of a World's People Movement: Climate Justice and the Cochabamba ( Bolivia ) Conference"
Birth of a World People's Movement for Climate Justice: The Cochabamba Conference
When: SUNDAY, June 20, 10 a.m. - Noon
Where: Thomas Lounge in the Student Campus Centre at Ryerson University . The address is 55 Gould Street (North Dundas, East of Younge) Toronto .
Speakers: Conference delegates: Velcrow Ripper, filmmaker, and Raul Burbano of Toronto Bolivia Solidarity, will show their videos of their experiences at the Cochabamba conference. Also speaking will be Kimia Ghomeshi, Campaign Director, Canadian Youth Climate Coalition; and Sonja Killoran-McKibbin, of Toronto Bolivia Solidarity; Robert Lovelace, Ardoch Algonquin First Nations.
Description of the session: An assembly of more than 35,000 people from 140 countries, meeting in April in Cochabamba , Bolivia , adopted an ambitious agenda to defend Mother Earth against climate change and ecological devastation. The Cochabamba conference challenges us to join in a world people's movement to assure the safety and protection of Mother Earth. Conference delegates will lead off discussion of this initiative and its meaning for us and show videos made at the conference.
Read: http://readingfromtheleft.com/PDF/CochabambaDocuments.pdf
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Toronto-Bolivia-Solidarity/116064481749710?v=app_2344061033&ref=ts
Birth of a World People's Movement for Climate Justice: The Cochabamba Conference
When: SUNDAY, June 20, 10 a.m. - Noon
Where: Thomas Lounge in the Student Campus Centre at Ryerson University . The address is 55 Gould Street (North Dundas, East of Younge) Toronto .
Speakers: Conference delegates: Velcrow Ripper, filmmaker, and Raul Burbano of Toronto Bolivia Solidarity, will show their videos of their experiences at the Cochabamba conference. Also speaking will be Kimia Ghomeshi, Campaign Director, Canadian Youth Climate Coalition; and Sonja Killoran-McKibbin, of Toronto Bolivia Solidarity; Robert Lovelace, Ardoch Algonquin First Nations.
Description of the session: An assembly of more than 35,000 people from 140 countries, meeting in April in Cochabamba , Bolivia , adopted an ambitious agenda to defend Mother Earth against climate change and ecological devastation. The Cochabamba conference challenges us to join in a world people's movement to assure the safety and protection of Mother Earth. Conference delegates will lead off discussion of this initiative and its meaning for us and show videos made at the conference.
Read: http://readingfromtheleft.com/PDF/CochabambaDocuments.pdf
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Toronto-Bolivia-Solidarity/116064481749710?v=app_2344061033&ref=ts
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Bolivia's Lithium Chapter
In the lat couple of months Bolivia has made headlines for a few different reasons. First, on a couple of different occasions, Evo Morales has made demands and declarations at the United-Nations in the name of Mother Earth. He has talked about a global referendum on climate change, about the climate debt that the industrialized countries owe to the Global South for decades of environmental destruction, and about establishing an international tribunal for crimes against Mother Earth. Second, Cochabamba, Bolivia in April hosted the first ever World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. To a degree the eyes of the world were fixed on Bolivia for a few days during the summit, although the mainstream media imposed a blackout on the gathering for obvious reasons. Good publicity for Bolivia is bad publicity for capitalism, and with popularity comes responsibility. As such, the Conference also had the effect of putting Bolivia in the spotlight regarding its own domestic environmental record and policies. And finally, in March and April broke the news that Bolivia holds massive untapped lithium deposits in its south-west, which also presents itself as somewhat of a double-edged sword for a couple of reasons.
Briefly the facts are as follows. Currently the two biggest lithium sites in the world are held by U.S., Chilean, and Canadian capital in Chile’s Atacama Salt Flats, and in Argentina. Bolivia’s share of lithium located in the Uyuni Salt Flats would trump both of these sites holding anywhere from 5.4 to 140 million tons, many different sources quote different figures, but what is widely agreed is that Uyuni possesses roughly around half or slightly more of the world’s known supply. The potential of Uyuni and the large-scale lithium extraction that will go along with it presents two problems for Bolivia.
Internationally it puts the Morales government in a difficult and potentially compromising position, with its recent ambitions and incursions of resolutions at the United-Nations, and its talk in defense of Mother Earth and against the capitalist system. There is no doubt that the Bolivian government and the Bolivian people are sincere about their earth loving intentions, but now they find themselves with a natural resource extraction juggling act of their own, and they must tread carefully. Of course this will be open season for the right-wing media if Bolivia makes any wrong moves, but all that has to be put aside, and their decisions must be based on the wishes and input of the local population, and on whether or not the operation will have negative or harmful affects on Mother Earth. Politically, the government must leave these major decisions mainly in the hands of the Bolivian people, as autonomy and decentralization has been one of the central priorities of the government in the last year and a half, it must now remain responsible to those commitments.
Of course Bolivia has no experience in extracting lithium, so it may need outside help. A French billionaire Vincent Bollore who owns a lithium battery plant and plans to make electric cars has offered technical help to the government with no strings attached, relatively. But Bolivia must be careful not to find itself in a vulnerable position in regards to foreign capital. It would probably best be served by obtaining technical assistance with zero concessions at the bargaining table, and to secure financial support either from Venezuela in the spirit of ALBA (the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas), and/or from other friendly South American countries in the context of Latin American integration. In terms of public industry itself inside Bolivia, NACLA explains well; “According to Bolivia’s new constitution, the country’s natural resources belong to the Bolivian people and must be administered in their collective interest by the state. Instead of exporting raw lithium, the government wants it to be processed, refined, and industrialized, with battery plants and even car factories, on Bolivian soil. The goal is to capture the value added by industrialization for Bolivians.” The multinational corporations are experienced master swindlers, so if it is decided that extraction should proceed, the benefits must remain inside Bolivia and Latin America.
So is Bolivia’s lithium a gift or a curse? The short answer is that Bolivia’s new found resource can be a very good thing, not only for Bolivia but also for the world, if and only if the project is developed properly, responsibly, democratically, and sustainably. Yes, the lithium of Uyuni is a tremendous potential, but that doesn’t mean it all has to be extracted as fast as possible. And, in terms of doing it sustainably, the process must concern itself not only with the rate at which the lithium is extracted, but also with how much and how quickly water and energy are used in the process, to respect the earth, and also to ensure that local populations are not affected negatively.
What can Bolivia’s lithium do for humanity and Mother Earth? Uyuni holds enough to provide lithium for more than 4.8 billion electric cars, which would mean an enormous step forward in ending the petroleum dependency. Extracting natural resources that destroy the planet, and extracting natural resources that have the potential to save the planet are two different things. Mining lithium could provide the solution in sustainable technology to the single biggest problem humanity faces today, oil. Nothing positive comes out of drilling petroleum; extraction displaces communities, devastates the planet, and nature, and its ecosystems, and accidents and disasters are far more likely then we are led to believe. Furthermore, its manufactured result in the form of petro-chemicals, plastics, and fuel is the champion trinity of environmental degradation.
The recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is one of the greatest environmental catastrophes in the history of humanity, and the extension to offshore drilling is another product of the unquenchable greed of capitalism. I hope that this experience has shown us clearly that we don’t have enough time left, nor can we afford to gamble with petroleum any longer. We must not let them kill our Mother. Gasoline is a modern consumption addiction that must be stopped immediately; it is the central symptom of a system in crisis.
Perhaps it is time for the age of the electric car, again.
Briefly the facts are as follows. Currently the two biggest lithium sites in the world are held by U.S., Chilean, and Canadian capital in Chile’s Atacama Salt Flats, and in Argentina. Bolivia’s share of lithium located in the Uyuni Salt Flats would trump both of these sites holding anywhere from 5.4 to 140 million tons, many different sources quote different figures, but what is widely agreed is that Uyuni possesses roughly around half or slightly more of the world’s known supply. The potential of Uyuni and the large-scale lithium extraction that will go along with it presents two problems for Bolivia.
Internationally it puts the Morales government in a difficult and potentially compromising position, with its recent ambitions and incursions of resolutions at the United-Nations, and its talk in defense of Mother Earth and against the capitalist system. There is no doubt that the Bolivian government and the Bolivian people are sincere about their earth loving intentions, but now they find themselves with a natural resource extraction juggling act of their own, and they must tread carefully. Of course this will be open season for the right-wing media if Bolivia makes any wrong moves, but all that has to be put aside, and their decisions must be based on the wishes and input of the local population, and on whether or not the operation will have negative or harmful affects on Mother Earth. Politically, the government must leave these major decisions mainly in the hands of the Bolivian people, as autonomy and decentralization has been one of the central priorities of the government in the last year and a half, it must now remain responsible to those commitments.
Of course Bolivia has no experience in extracting lithium, so it may need outside help. A French billionaire Vincent Bollore who owns a lithium battery plant and plans to make electric cars has offered technical help to the government with no strings attached, relatively. But Bolivia must be careful not to find itself in a vulnerable position in regards to foreign capital. It would probably best be served by obtaining technical assistance with zero concessions at the bargaining table, and to secure financial support either from Venezuela in the spirit of ALBA (the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas), and/or from other friendly South American countries in the context of Latin American integration. In terms of public industry itself inside Bolivia, NACLA explains well; “According to Bolivia’s new constitution, the country’s natural resources belong to the Bolivian people and must be administered in their collective interest by the state. Instead of exporting raw lithium, the government wants it to be processed, refined, and industrialized, with battery plants and even car factories, on Bolivian soil. The goal is to capture the value added by industrialization for Bolivians.” The multinational corporations are experienced master swindlers, so if it is decided that extraction should proceed, the benefits must remain inside Bolivia and Latin America.
So is Bolivia’s lithium a gift or a curse? The short answer is that Bolivia’s new found resource can be a very good thing, not only for Bolivia but also for the world, if and only if the project is developed properly, responsibly, democratically, and sustainably. Yes, the lithium of Uyuni is a tremendous potential, but that doesn’t mean it all has to be extracted as fast as possible. And, in terms of doing it sustainably, the process must concern itself not only with the rate at which the lithium is extracted, but also with how much and how quickly water and energy are used in the process, to respect the earth, and also to ensure that local populations are not affected negatively.
What can Bolivia’s lithium do for humanity and Mother Earth? Uyuni holds enough to provide lithium for more than 4.8 billion electric cars, which would mean an enormous step forward in ending the petroleum dependency. Extracting natural resources that destroy the planet, and extracting natural resources that have the potential to save the planet are two different things. Mining lithium could provide the solution in sustainable technology to the single biggest problem humanity faces today, oil. Nothing positive comes out of drilling petroleum; extraction displaces communities, devastates the planet, and nature, and its ecosystems, and accidents and disasters are far more likely then we are led to believe. Furthermore, its manufactured result in the form of petro-chemicals, plastics, and fuel is the champion trinity of environmental degradation.
The recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is one of the greatest environmental catastrophes in the history of humanity, and the extension to offshore drilling is another product of the unquenchable greed of capitalism. I hope that this experience has shown us clearly that we don’t have enough time left, nor can we afford to gamble with petroleum any longer. We must not let them kill our Mother. Gasoline is a modern consumption addiction that must be stopped immediately; it is the central symptom of a system in crisis.
Perhaps it is time for the age of the electric car, again.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
First American Ban on Sales of Bottled Water!
A very enthusiastic Congratulations to the town of Conquered, Massachusetts which has become the first ever in the United-States to ban all sales of bottled water. The ban was lead by 82 year old activist Gene Hill who said "All these discarded bottles are damaging our planet, causing clumps of garbage in the ocean that hurt fish, and are creating more pollution on our streets."
I just wanted to touch down quickly with this important and very symbolic news piece while it is fresh, which is relevant for so many reasons. I will write a response and analysis to this shortly.
Again a huge congratulations for the courage of Conquered, Massachusetts!
I just wanted to touch down quickly with this important and very symbolic news piece while it is fresh, which is relevant for so many reasons. I will write a response and analysis to this shortly.
Again a huge congratulations for the courage of Conquered, Massachusetts!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
An analysis on Naomi Klein, Bolivia and the Rights of Mother Earth Summit, and Our Working Groups!
The quoted content appears in Naomi Klein's April 21st, 2010 article in the Nation entitled 'A New Climate Movement in Bolivia'.
Speaking about the statements made by Jonathan Pershing, the U.S. climate negotiator in Copenhagen, Naomi writes: "Pershing's message was chilling: if you are poor, you don't have the right to prioritize your own survival." That is right on point, and exactly the type of hypocrisy and arrogance that is reflected from the actions of the US and neoliberalism.
She describes the call for the conference as "a revolt against this experience of helplessness," ei. that the small economically disadvantaged countries are not allowed a voice in the international forum. I do not agree that the call for the Rights of Mother Earth Summit was a response to a feeling of helplessness, perhaps that is the feeling coming from the victimized governments who feel cheated and short-handed following the experience of Copenhagen, but NOT from the people. The new Climate Change, Ecosocialist, Rights of Mother Earth, 'Bien Vivir', Indigenist social movement, whatever you want to call it - that is the beauty of it, that it appeals to so many different constituencies - from the people's point of view and contrary to a response to helplessness, is an action and a show of strength and confidence, an understanding that it is our responsibility to take the fight into our own hands, a recognition that the struggle is entering into a new era, and a display of the momentum that we have gained in the last year. But she goes on to say, and provides a great explanation, in describing the new movement as "an attempt to build a base of power behind the right to survive."
Next she writes about the structure of the Conference itself and the way the working groups were carried out; "The next stage was to invite global civil society to hash out the details. Seventeen working groups were struck, and after weeks of online discussion, they met for a week in Cochabamba with the goal of presenting their final recommendations at the summit's end. The process is fascinating but far from perfect..." Yes, the working group process did have its problems and weaknesses, which I will not discuss here because it is a large topic on its own, but with hundreds of people involved in every working group, seemingly unsolvable disagreements and long drawn-out discussions were inevitable.
Nevertheless, the working groups were fruitful, and creative, and very educational for many people who had the opportunity to participate in this kind of process for the first time. Essentially the summit organizers reflected that the grassroots remains relatively voiceless vis-a-vis the climate change crisis which affects them most directly, so lets create a channel for their ideas to take shape and be concretized, to let them decide, to let them create, and to let them articulate their demands. Naomi comments that "Bolivia's enthusiastic commitment to participatory democracy may well prove the summit's most important contribution." I think this is an accurate and insightful analysis of what transpired in Cochabamba/Tiquipaya.
As successful as the Summit was, the declarations and demands drafted in Cochabamba were far from perfect, and far from complete. At times encumbered, at times lacking in content, they are nevertheless a great start and a work in progress, and we can hope that next year's Climate Change and Rights of Mother Earth Summit will yield, with more scrutiny and more detail, an even better, more dynamic and more comprehensive product.
Naomi closes with this analysis:
"in reality, it is such small groupings—like the invitation-only club that rammed through the Copenhagen Accord—that have caused us to lose ground, weakening already inadequate existing agreements. By contrast, the climate change policy brought to Copenhagen by Bolivia was drafted by social movements through a participatory process, and the end result was the most transformative and radical vision so far."
"With the Cochabamba summit, Bolivia is trying to take what it has accomplished at the national level and globalize it, inviting the world to participate in drafting a joint climate agenda ahead of the next UN climate gathering, in Cancún. In the words of Bolivia's ambassador to the UN, Pablo Solón, "The only thing that can save mankind from a tragedy is the exercise of global democracy.""
"If he is right, the Bolivian process might save not just our warming planet but our failing democracies as well. Not a bad deal at all."
Good words worth quoting. And with that,
Cheers, Solidarity,
And Viva the New Movement and its March of Giants, which finally links Humanity and Mother Earth as one!
Viva!
Speaking about the statements made by Jonathan Pershing, the U.S. climate negotiator in Copenhagen, Naomi writes: "Pershing's message was chilling: if you are poor, you don't have the right to prioritize your own survival." That is right on point, and exactly the type of hypocrisy and arrogance that is reflected from the actions of the US and neoliberalism.
She describes the call for the conference as "a revolt against this experience of helplessness," ei. that the small economically disadvantaged countries are not allowed a voice in the international forum. I do not agree that the call for the Rights of Mother Earth Summit was a response to a feeling of helplessness, perhaps that is the feeling coming from the victimized governments who feel cheated and short-handed following the experience of Copenhagen, but NOT from the people. The new Climate Change, Ecosocialist, Rights of Mother Earth, 'Bien Vivir', Indigenist social movement, whatever you want to call it - that is the beauty of it, that it appeals to so many different constituencies - from the people's point of view and contrary to a response to helplessness, is an action and a show of strength and confidence, an understanding that it is our responsibility to take the fight into our own hands, a recognition that the struggle is entering into a new era, and a display of the momentum that we have gained in the last year. But she goes on to say, and provides a great explanation, in describing the new movement as "an attempt to build a base of power behind the right to survive."
Next she writes about the structure of the Conference itself and the way the working groups were carried out; "The next stage was to invite global civil society to hash out the details. Seventeen working groups were struck, and after weeks of online discussion, they met for a week in Cochabamba with the goal of presenting their final recommendations at the summit's end. The process is fascinating but far from perfect..." Yes, the working group process did have its problems and weaknesses, which I will not discuss here because it is a large topic on its own, but with hundreds of people involved in every working group, seemingly unsolvable disagreements and long drawn-out discussions were inevitable.
Nevertheless, the working groups were fruitful, and creative, and very educational for many people who had the opportunity to participate in this kind of process for the first time. Essentially the summit organizers reflected that the grassroots remains relatively voiceless vis-a-vis the climate change crisis which affects them most directly, so lets create a channel for their ideas to take shape and be concretized, to let them decide, to let them create, and to let them articulate their demands. Naomi comments that "Bolivia's enthusiastic commitment to participatory democracy may well prove the summit's most important contribution." I think this is an accurate and insightful analysis of what transpired in Cochabamba/Tiquipaya.
As successful as the Summit was, the declarations and demands drafted in Cochabamba were far from perfect, and far from complete. At times encumbered, at times lacking in content, they are nevertheless a great start and a work in progress, and we can hope that next year's Climate Change and Rights of Mother Earth Summit will yield, with more scrutiny and more detail, an even better, more dynamic and more comprehensive product.
Naomi closes with this analysis:
"in reality, it is such small groupings—like the invitation-only club that rammed through the Copenhagen Accord—that have caused us to lose ground, weakening already inadequate existing agreements. By contrast, the climate change policy brought to Copenhagen by Bolivia was drafted by social movements through a participatory process, and the end result was the most transformative and radical vision so far."
"With the Cochabamba summit, Bolivia is trying to take what it has accomplished at the national level and globalize it, inviting the world to participate in drafting a joint climate agenda ahead of the next UN climate gathering, in Cancún. In the words of Bolivia's ambassador to the UN, Pablo Solón, "The only thing that can save mankind from a tragedy is the exercise of global democracy.""
"If he is right, the Bolivian process might save not just our warming planet but our failing democracies as well. Not a bad deal at all."
Good words worth quoting. And with that,
Cheers, Solidarity,
And Viva the New Movement and its March of Giants, which finally links Humanity and Mother Earth as one!
Viva!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Love Quote
"Pressure pushing down on me,
Pressing down on you no man ask for,
Under pressure - that burns a building down,
Splits a family in two,
Puts people on streets,
Pray tomorrow - gets me higher,
Pressure on people - people on streets,
Chippin' around - kick my brains around the floor,
These are the days it never rains but it pours,
Turned away from it all like a blind man,
Sat on a fence but it don't work,
Keep coming up with love,
but it's so slashed and torn,
Why - why - why ?
Love love love love love,
Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking,
Can't we give ourselves one more chance,
Why can't we give love that one more chance,
Why can't we give love give love give love give love,
give love give love give love give love give love,
'Cause love's such an old fashioned word,
And love dares you to care for,
The people on the edge of the night,
And love dares you to change our way of,
Caring about ourselves,
This is our last dance,
This is our last dance,
This is ourselves,
Under pressure,
Under pressure,
Pressure."
Pressing down on you no man ask for,
Under pressure - that burns a building down,
Splits a family in two,
Puts people on streets,
Pray tomorrow - gets me higher,
Pressure on people - people on streets,
Chippin' around - kick my brains around the floor,
These are the days it never rains but it pours,
Turned away from it all like a blind man,
Sat on a fence but it don't work,
Keep coming up with love,
but it's so slashed and torn,
Why - why - why ?
Love love love love love,
Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking,
Can't we give ourselves one more chance,
Why can't we give love that one more chance,
Why can't we give love give love give love give love,
give love give love give love give love give love,
'Cause love's such an old fashioned word,
And love dares you to care for,
The people on the edge of the night,
And love dares you to change our way of,
Caring about ourselves,
This is our last dance,
This is our last dance,
This is ourselves,
Under pressure,
Under pressure,
Pressure."
Friday, April 30, 2010
Quote of the Week - Positive & Negative
"Promoe the number one public enemy with split personalities/
and both rap for anarchy./
Keeping my beard long like pops in the seventies/
burning flags screaming fuck the Kennedies./
many see me as a hoodlum at best a good bum/
letting out anger over bass and snare drums./
Fucking up eardrums of those with high income/
holding king Carl Gustav for ransom./
Leaving Madeleine in labour pains while I'm bombin' trains/
tryin' to bring back the days of '36 in Spain/
and y'all claim I'm too negative/
talkin' bout Sweden's really a nice place to live./
Oh I'm supposed to be satisfied cause I got a fatter life/
than my brothers and sisters who die on the other side of the planet/
It's all connected god damn it/
if you leave the third world stranded./
The first and the second will soon be drowned/
in the blood sweat and tears of the people we hold down./
Hold up! That's something you will never understand/
fuck that man, I'm tryin' to take a stand./
You might just laugh but I'm tryin' to walk a righteous path/
stumblin' though, drunk off of wine made from grapes of wrath/
Me I'm tired of doing the math when nothing adds up/
the good's always down the bad's up that sucks/
Life's a bitch and then you die/
wrong life's a biiatch and then you decide/
To do something about it/
shit'll only drive you crazy if you allow it/"
- Promoe.
and both rap for anarchy./
Keeping my beard long like pops in the seventies/
burning flags screaming fuck the Kennedies./
many see me as a hoodlum at best a good bum/
letting out anger over bass and snare drums./
Fucking up eardrums of those with high income/
holding king Carl Gustav for ransom./
Leaving Madeleine in labour pains while I'm bombin' trains/
tryin' to bring back the days of '36 in Spain/
and y'all claim I'm too negative/
talkin' bout Sweden's really a nice place to live./
Oh I'm supposed to be satisfied cause I got a fatter life/
than my brothers and sisters who die on the other side of the planet/
It's all connected god damn it/
if you leave the third world stranded./
The first and the second will soon be drowned/
in the blood sweat and tears of the people we hold down./
Hold up! That's something you will never understand/
fuck that man, I'm tryin' to take a stand./
You might just laugh but I'm tryin' to walk a righteous path/
stumblin' though, drunk off of wine made from grapes of wrath/
Me I'm tired of doing the math when nothing adds up/
the good's always down the bad's up that sucks/
Life's a bitch and then you die/
wrong life's a biiatch and then you decide/
To do something about it/
shit'll only drive you crazy if you allow it/"
- Promoe.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Rights of Mother Earth Conference and Bien Vivir in Cochabamba
They say that Cochabamba is the 'corazon', heart of Bolivia, and that Bolivia is the heart of South America, so it was very appropriate and only fitting that the heart of the world's epicenter of social change became the focal point of solidarity in hosting from April 19th to 22nd, 2010, the first ever World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. International presence and exchange was remarkable, with people and delegations from the U.S., France, Italy, Zambia, Colombia, England, Brazil, Tanzania, Venezuela, Cuba, Chile, Argentina, and even great companeros from Paraguay, and Greece, to name only a few, and a significant presence from Canadian activists.
The conference featured international organizations of all sorts with about five or six different venues with panels and presentations going on around the clock, so information was accessible and plentiful, the possibilities and options of what you could take in and what you could participate in were boundless. There was a lot of activity condensed into four days and letting it all permeate was a task and a beautiful privilege. The conference was structured for 17 different working groups; action strategies, structural causes, climate debt, agriculture and food sovereignty, the Right of Mother Earth, and harmony with nature and Vivir Bien amongst others. The goal was to draft a declaration for each theme as an official position statement document for the conference, which will also be sent as a set of demands in the name of Humanity and Mother Earth to the
U.N. Climate Summit in Cancun in November/December of this year.
For all its academic content, its theory, and its endless panels, one of the most positive and effective aspects of the summit is that it created new spaces, new connections, and new hope. The experience was networking, exchanging contacts, meeting new people and gaining new perspectives. To have countless brothers and sisters from all around the world at your disposal to exchange stories, ideas, smiles, handshakes, and hugs, is an empowering experience. Its our duty to take these messages back home, to draw the best ideas from the best places from the most inspiring people and to mesh everything together. Strength lies in the complexity of our mosaic, in the confidence of our collective threads, and the summit illustrated this very successfully.
Early on the summit took on a unique complexion as a dynamic evolved between the conventional anti-capitalist and
anti-imperialist discourse, and the new call for the ideas of sustainability, permaculture, Bien Vivir or living well instead of living better, and an embrace of traditional indigenous values and practices to get back to a communitarian way of life in harmony, reciprocity, and respect with Mother Earth. This centrifugal creative energy was manifest in the working groups at every turn, the action of collective creation, of two correlative schools interacting with each other, which made for a very interesting and fiery exchange of ideas.
Evo Morales in his opening ceremony speech chose to speak, very wisely, not about the ravages and inequalities of capitalism, and the destruction of our planet, but about rejecting foreign, artificial consumption habits, and about making small daily changes, telling anecdotes about changes that we need to make in our personal lives. He talked about not drinking Coca-Cola and that we need to check our indifference with plastic waste. The message was about the fact that the answers already exist, that sustainable solutions are at our fingertips, and that our model way of life is there for the taking. Politically, your mentality can be changed and advanced tenfold, but if you keep consuming like the system compels you to consume, if you don't change your way of life, your energy, if personal commitments are not made, then we are running on treadmills. The indigenous culture, their values and their practices, of living a life only in affinity with Mother Earth, and of severing the artificial, the chemical, the unnatural, is where we will seek, and find our answers. We need to be living as we should be living; of the earth.
The changes ahead, the changes that we need to establish, are not simply a distant vision. We have to see the path of change for the tangible entity that it is, and no longer think of sustainability, equality, peace and justice, a world free of exploitation, and a communitarian way of life in harmony with nature only as possibilities. Humanity has to rediscover humanity, and we have to understand that the practices needed for a natural and sustainable world already exist, and that the consciousness and values required to effect that change are already inside of us. And, perhaps most importantly, as a great friend of the earth has said, we have to understand that "the answers to the future lie in the traditions of the past." (Galeano)
There is much to discuss, and much to build on moving forward. Now, internationally, the local chapters of this gigantic endeavor of the human family must begin with enthusiasm and adherence.
Jajaja Suma Qamana y Nandereko!
The conference featured international organizations of all sorts with about five or six different venues with panels and presentations going on around the clock, so information was accessible and plentiful, the possibilities and options of what you could take in and what you could participate in were boundless. There was a lot of activity condensed into four days and letting it all permeate was a task and a beautiful privilege. The conference was structured for 17 different working groups; action strategies, structural causes, climate debt, agriculture and food sovereignty, the Right of Mother Earth, and harmony with nature and Vivir Bien amongst others. The goal was to draft a declaration for each theme as an official position statement document for the conference, which will also be sent as a set of demands in the name of Humanity and Mother Earth to the
U.N. Climate Summit in Cancun in November/December of this year.
For all its academic content, its theory, and its endless panels, one of the most positive and effective aspects of the summit is that it created new spaces, new connections, and new hope. The experience was networking, exchanging contacts, meeting new people and gaining new perspectives. To have countless brothers and sisters from all around the world at your disposal to exchange stories, ideas, smiles, handshakes, and hugs, is an empowering experience. Its our duty to take these messages back home, to draw the best ideas from the best places from the most inspiring people and to mesh everything together. Strength lies in the complexity of our mosaic, in the confidence of our collective threads, and the summit illustrated this very successfully.
Early on the summit took on a unique complexion as a dynamic evolved between the conventional anti-capitalist and
anti-imperialist discourse, and the new call for the ideas of sustainability, permaculture, Bien Vivir or living well instead of living better, and an embrace of traditional indigenous values and practices to get back to a communitarian way of life in harmony, reciprocity, and respect with Mother Earth. This centrifugal creative energy was manifest in the working groups at every turn, the action of collective creation, of two correlative schools interacting with each other, which made for a very interesting and fiery exchange of ideas.
Evo Morales in his opening ceremony speech chose to speak, very wisely, not about the ravages and inequalities of capitalism, and the destruction of our planet, but about rejecting foreign, artificial consumption habits, and about making small daily changes, telling anecdotes about changes that we need to make in our personal lives. He talked about not drinking Coca-Cola and that we need to check our indifference with plastic waste. The message was about the fact that the answers already exist, that sustainable solutions are at our fingertips, and that our model way of life is there for the taking. Politically, your mentality can be changed and advanced tenfold, but if you keep consuming like the system compels you to consume, if you don't change your way of life, your energy, if personal commitments are not made, then we are running on treadmills. The indigenous culture, their values and their practices, of living a life only in affinity with Mother Earth, and of severing the artificial, the chemical, the unnatural, is where we will seek, and find our answers. We need to be living as we should be living; of the earth.
The changes ahead, the changes that we need to establish, are not simply a distant vision. We have to see the path of change for the tangible entity that it is, and no longer think of sustainability, equality, peace and justice, a world free of exploitation, and a communitarian way of life in harmony with nature only as possibilities. Humanity has to rediscover humanity, and we have to understand that the practices needed for a natural and sustainable world already exist, and that the consciousness and values required to effect that change are already inside of us. And, perhaps most importantly, as a great friend of the earth has said, we have to understand that "the answers to the future lie in the traditions of the past." (Galeano)
There is much to discuss, and much to build on moving forward. Now, internationally, the local chapters of this gigantic endeavor of the human family must begin with enthusiasm and adherence.
Jajaja Suma Qamana y Nandereko!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Random Thoughts
Guardar sus ojos en el punto de la vida, acercandonos a nuestra vision por el futuro. "La utopia sirve para caminar."
Part of this thought is an idea and a Galeano quote taken from the Blog El extrano Mundo de Majo.
«La utopía está en el horizonte. Me acerco dos pasos, ella se aleja dos pasos. Camino diez pasos y el horizonte se desplaza diez pasos más allá. Por mucho que camine, nunca la alcanzaré. Entonces, ¿para qué sirve la utopía? Para eso: sirve para caminar.»
- Galeano.
Thank You Majo.
Part of this thought is an idea and a Galeano quote taken from the Blog El extrano Mundo de Majo.
«La utopía está en el horizonte. Me acerco dos pasos, ella se aleja dos pasos. Camino diez pasos y el horizonte se desplaza diez pasos más allá. Por mucho que camine, nunca la alcanzaré. Entonces, ¿para qué sirve la utopía? Para eso: sirve para caminar.»
- Galeano.
Thank You Majo.
Monday, April 5, 2010
The Induced Justification of Over-Consumption
Capitalism, especially in the last three or four decades, has endeavored to ingrain a relentless, and ever expanding desire for consumption as part of human nature. It has become instinct, at least in the opulent consumer societies of the global north and increasingly in large cities worldwide, to consume without thought, without analysis, without awareness. Almost no thought is given to what happens to product waste after consumption, beyond the general misconception that everything is alright if we recycle, and zero thought is given to what has to happen before those products are purchased off the shelves and into our homes. A staggering statistic is that we keep only 1 % of the stuff we buy for longer than six months, which means that 99 % of what we buy is discarded within six months of purchase. Is that not an incredibly revealing fact about what our society has become? Without wanting to oversimplify, today's culture in the global north is nothing more than a culture of consumption, a culture of sterility, decadence, and consumption.
A while back I was talking to a friend at work, a friend named Diana. Diana has a great love for birds and weekly she goes out with a net and catches pigeons to remove the wire and filaments that get caught around their talons and can cause them pain and even losing fingers or an entire foot over time. She also collects small donations at work to buy bird food in order to feed the smaller birds that get outmuscled by the pigeons. I have to say honestly that she is someone who genuinely loves nature. But like the majority of people, Diana is largely unaware of the bigger picture and of the effects of our over-consumption and massive waste.
We were talking a couple of months ago about the incredible waste that our restaurant, Red Lobster, generates on a daily basis, even as an individual unit, without recycling any of it, because it is too expensive to do so. We mentioned how it was completely unnecessary for the printers to be programmed to print extra copies of each bill, even when a print copy is not requested, and an extra one even after the bill gets paid. On a daily basis, even just from our restaurant, this adds up to a lot of wasted, unrecycled paper quickly. I keep the waste paper bills to either bring home for recycling, or to reuse them as notepads for my orders at work. Diana saw me doing this one day and she mentioned how she did it as well, and that became a nice thing in common, a small point of solidarity between us. My initial impression was that Diana was, at least to a small degree, an environmentally conscious person.
So when the idea came to me and some of my friends this spring to start a small community collective, for healthy local mainly vegetarian eating, and anti-corporate, anti-agribusiness, anti-packaging, and sustainable living, I immediately thought of Diana as someone who might be seriously interested in joining our endeavor. At first she seemed slightly interested, but the day after I had originally talked to her about it, she showed up to work with three plastic bottled water. I told her she really shouldn't do that, that she should equip herself with a long-term re-useable stainless steal water bottle, that she should not burn plastic away and feed the petroleum dependency. And I told her that when she went home tonight she should take 20 minutes to watch a small documentary entitled The Story of Bottled Water.
The next day she did the exact same thing, her water again in three disposable plastic bottles. I said it nicely but I was upset, and I asked her why, and she started counseling about how tap water wasn't healthy. I told her that she was wrong, that tap water is in fact perfectly fine and healthy in most cases, especially here in Canada, and that if she is skeptical she should simply buy herself a Brita water filter to fill her newly purchased planet friendly stainless steal water bottle everyday. She responded by saying that she used to have a Brita filter, but that the charcoal filter left black sediment in her water, and that because of that and because of the fact that she wasn't comfortable with tap water, that she needed to find a solution that she was happy with. I told her she needed to find a solution instead that made the planet happy. This is a prime example of the general public's typical attitude of indifference and egotism, and the ignorance and unwillingness to compromise, make sacrifices, or disrupt their personal comfort. As the Diana situation shows, she found herself with various 'inconvenient' options and was faced with a dilemma, so I'll just keep drinking bottled water for now until I find a solution that makes ME happy, ME, never mind ecosystems and sustainability.
Then about a week ago, I stopped by for a poutine on Queen street, and my girlfriend and I noticed the girl at the front counter preparing dozens of cheese curd portions into small plastic cups, covering them with plastic warp of course. Noticing that this process was just blatant petroleum waste, I asked if they reused the plastic cups afterwards, and she responded "yes we do, but they're biodegradable anyway." Oh! well, case closed then, no cause for concern here. People only consider what is in front of them, what they can see. No consideration is given to how the plastic cup was made; that petroleum had to be extracted, an extractive resource which is very energy intensive, that animals and ecosystems may have been damaged in the process, that indigenous or rural farming communities may have been driven away, displaced from their traditional lands, that additional petroleum was burnt probably transporting the resources halfway across the world to be manufactured, and that more energy was burnt during production creating even more waste from a factory where workers are probably exploited and underpaid. The biodegradable plastic cup scenario is just another typical example of indifference and lack of awareness, and a lack of desire to even become aware in many cases.
The message in short would be that the green 'revolution' is bullshit, that green technologies produce only sugar-coated offsets and together with biodegradable products, recycling, and 'fuel-efficient' vehicles serve as justification for our continued over-consumption, and that the public uses all this as an apology to congratulate themselves on how well they've done.
Ideas that only appear to do good things on the surface are counter productive, and dangerous. We have to apply the real solutions which are not difficult to establish and already at our disposal. We have to establish a universal culture of awareness and accountability.
A while back I was talking to a friend at work, a friend named Diana. Diana has a great love for birds and weekly she goes out with a net and catches pigeons to remove the wire and filaments that get caught around their talons and can cause them pain and even losing fingers or an entire foot over time. She also collects small donations at work to buy bird food in order to feed the smaller birds that get outmuscled by the pigeons. I have to say honestly that she is someone who genuinely loves nature. But like the majority of people, Diana is largely unaware of the bigger picture and of the effects of our over-consumption and massive waste.
We were talking a couple of months ago about the incredible waste that our restaurant, Red Lobster, generates on a daily basis, even as an individual unit, without recycling any of it, because it is too expensive to do so. We mentioned how it was completely unnecessary for the printers to be programmed to print extra copies of each bill, even when a print copy is not requested, and an extra one even after the bill gets paid. On a daily basis, even just from our restaurant, this adds up to a lot of wasted, unrecycled paper quickly. I keep the waste paper bills to either bring home for recycling, or to reuse them as notepads for my orders at work. Diana saw me doing this one day and she mentioned how she did it as well, and that became a nice thing in common, a small point of solidarity between us. My initial impression was that Diana was, at least to a small degree, an environmentally conscious person.
So when the idea came to me and some of my friends this spring to start a small community collective, for healthy local mainly vegetarian eating, and anti-corporate, anti-agribusiness, anti-packaging, and sustainable living, I immediately thought of Diana as someone who might be seriously interested in joining our endeavor. At first she seemed slightly interested, but the day after I had originally talked to her about it, she showed up to work with three plastic bottled water. I told her she really shouldn't do that, that she should equip herself with a long-term re-useable stainless steal water bottle, that she should not burn plastic away and feed the petroleum dependency. And I told her that when she went home tonight she should take 20 minutes to watch a small documentary entitled The Story of Bottled Water.
The next day she did the exact same thing, her water again in three disposable plastic bottles. I said it nicely but I was upset, and I asked her why, and she started counseling about how tap water wasn't healthy. I told her that she was wrong, that tap water is in fact perfectly fine and healthy in most cases, especially here in Canada, and that if she is skeptical she should simply buy herself a Brita water filter to fill her newly purchased planet friendly stainless steal water bottle everyday. She responded by saying that she used to have a Brita filter, but that the charcoal filter left black sediment in her water, and that because of that and because of the fact that she wasn't comfortable with tap water, that she needed to find a solution that she was happy with. I told her she needed to find a solution instead that made the planet happy. This is a prime example of the general public's typical attitude of indifference and egotism, and the ignorance and unwillingness to compromise, make sacrifices, or disrupt their personal comfort. As the Diana situation shows, she found herself with various 'inconvenient' options and was faced with a dilemma, so I'll just keep drinking bottled water for now until I find a solution that makes ME happy, ME, never mind ecosystems and sustainability.
Then about a week ago, I stopped by for a poutine on Queen street, and my girlfriend and I noticed the girl at the front counter preparing dozens of cheese curd portions into small plastic cups, covering them with plastic warp of course. Noticing that this process was just blatant petroleum waste, I asked if they reused the plastic cups afterwards, and she responded "yes we do, but they're biodegradable anyway." Oh! well, case closed then, no cause for concern here. People only consider what is in front of them, what they can see. No consideration is given to how the plastic cup was made; that petroleum had to be extracted, an extractive resource which is very energy intensive, that animals and ecosystems may have been damaged in the process, that indigenous or rural farming communities may have been driven away, displaced from their traditional lands, that additional petroleum was burnt probably transporting the resources halfway across the world to be manufactured, and that more energy was burnt during production creating even more waste from a factory where workers are probably exploited and underpaid. The biodegradable plastic cup scenario is just another typical example of indifference and lack of awareness, and a lack of desire to even become aware in many cases.
The message in short would be that the green 'revolution' is bullshit, that green technologies produce only sugar-coated offsets and together with biodegradable products, recycling, and 'fuel-efficient' vehicles serve as justification for our continued over-consumption, and that the public uses all this as an apology to congratulate themselves on how well they've done.
Ideas that only appear to do good things on the surface are counter productive, and dangerous. We have to apply the real solutions which are not difficult to establish and already at our disposal. We have to establish a universal culture of awareness and accountability.
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