http://www.pechanga.net/
Office of the Board of Directors
California Association of Tribal Governments
For Immediate Release: August 8, 2008
Ione Band of Miwok Indians
Karuk Tribe
Contact: Chairman Matt Franklin (209)274-6753
Contact: Hector Garcia (530) 493-1600
California Tribes Announce the Establishment of
the California Association of Tribal Governments
(SACRAMENTO, CA) – Today, August 8, 2008, California Indian tribes announced the establishment of the California Association of Tribal Governments (“CATG”), a non-profit consortium of federally recognized Indian tribal governments in the State of California, chartered to promote mutual cooperation and to represent their common interests with federal, state and local governments. The CATG non-profit corporation is to be chartered under the tribal code of the Hoopa Valley Tribe.
The Honorable Matt Franklin, Chairman of the Ione Band of Miwok Indians, stated: "Many California Indian tribal governments, particularly non-gaming tribes, have limited resources, impeding their ability to adequately address their needs as well as their relationships with federal, state and local governments. The success of Indian gaming has diverted attention away from the issues of mutual concern many tribe’s face. Today, California Indian tribes chose to come together and unite to establish the California Association of Tribal Governments. Tomorrow, this collective of California Indian tribal governments will combine its resources to improve the future of all107 California Indian tribal governments and individual Native Americans, and to work towards the establishment of better relations with the federal, state, local and other tribal governments.”
The Honorable Manuel Hamilton, Vice Chair of the Ramona Band of Cahuilla Indians, stated: “The Association’s mission will be to promote an understanding of sovereignty, self-determination and the economic needs of tribal governments in a manner that is consistent with our common bonds of culture, history, trade and association among all California tribes, and to amplify the voices of all California tribal governments and individual Native Americans, so we can be heard by federal, state and local governments.”
The Honorable Robert Pinto Sr., Chairman of the Ewiiaapaayp Band of Kumeyaay Indians, stated: “The Association will help make the case for legislative and policy changes that are needed to overcome the inequities and disadvantages Tribal Governments face that diminish opportunities for non-gaming economic development.”
The CATG’s first initiative will be to continue to work towards the protection of the Indian Gaming Revenue Sharing Trust Fund (“RSTF”), to ensure the funds continue to be distributed to California’s non-gaming tribes, as promised by Proposition 1A (State Constitutional Amendment SCA10) and the 1999 tribal-state gaming compacts.
The first official meeting of the CATG is scheduled to occur in Sacramento, California on September 9, 2008. The location is to be determined. The Board of Directors will be elected, and officers selected from among the Board. For more information, contact Chairman Franklin, Ione Band of Miwok Indians, at (209) 274-6753, or Hector Garcia, Karuk Tribe, at (530) 493-1600.
CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF TRIBAL GOVERNMENTS
Mission Statement:
"Promote an understanding of sovereignty, self-determination and the economic needs of tribal governments, in a manner that is consistent with our common bonds of culture, history, trade and association among all California tribes, and to amplify the voices of all California tribal governments so we can be heard by federal, state and local governments."
Vision Statement:
“Strengthen tribal government relations with federal, state, local and other tribal governments, defend inherent sovereign powers, protect individual Native American and tribal government reserved rights, and promote tribal economic and land resources as the basis for the well-being of sovereign tribal governments and their citizens.”
[end]
Share This
Tecpatl
Our Word is Our Weapon, if you have anything you would like us to publish please send us an email @ maiz_centeotl_chicomecoatl@riseup.net
Subscribe To Maiz Today!!!!
Posts
All Comments
8/8/08
Save the Peaks: Struggle to protect San Francisco Peaks continues
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/08/save-peaks-struggle-to-protect-san.html
WHAT: Prayer Vigil
WHEN: Saturday, August 9th, 2008
TIME: 1pm
WHERE: Buffalo Park in Flagstaff, AZ
For more information please call 928-380-8014
Court Reverses Decision Protecting Environmental & Cultural
Integrity of San Francisco Peaks
Tribes & Environmental Groups Affirm Commitment to Protect Holy Mountain
Contact: Jeneda Benally, Save the Peaks Coalition
coalition@savethepeaks.org
(928) 380-8014
http://www.savethepeaks.org/
August 8, 2008, Flagstaff, AZ -- The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a long awaited ruling today in the case to protect the environmental and cultural integrity of Arizona's San Francisco Peaks. The split decision overturned a previous court ruling and has temporarily denied attempts by tribes and environmental groups to stop Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort from expanding development and making fake snow from treated sewage effluent on the holy mountain.
"The cultural survival of more than 13 Indigenous Nations is directly intertwined with the environmental integrity of the holy San Francisco Peaks," said Jeneda Benally, a volunteer with the Save the Peaks Coalition. "Today's decision not only places these ways of life in peril but sets the stage for an ecological and public health catastrophe. We have no choice but to uphold our commitment to protect the holy San Francisco Peaks," continued Benally.
The United States Forest Service manages the San Francisco Peaks as public land and has faced multiple lawsuits by the Navajo Nation, Hopi, White Mountain Apache, Yavapai Apache, Hualapai, and Havasupai tribes, as well as the Sierra Club, Flagstaff Activist Network, Center of Biological Diversity, and others after it initially approved the proposed ski area development in 2005.
In the most recent ruling, the Court found that using reclaimed sewer water to make snow for skiing on an admittedly sacred site posed no 'substantial burden' on the Plaintiffs' exercise of religion in this case. According to the Court, the "only effect of the proposed upgrades is on the Plaintiffs' subjective, emotional religious experience. That is, the presence of recycled wastewater on the Peaks is offensive to the Plaintiffs' religious sensibilities…the diminishment of spiritual fulfillment – serious though it may be – is not a 'substantial burden' on the free exercise of religion." The Court dismissed Plaintiffs' religious beliefs as calling them mere "damaged spiritual feelings."
Tribes' primary arguments focused on religious issues by utilizing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which they had hoped would provide the necessary legal protection where other laws such as the American Religious Freedom Act have failed.
"The opinion is unfortunate and, in my opinion wrong," stated Howard Shanker, who represents Navajo Nation, Havasupai Tribe, White Mountain Apache Nation, Yavapai-Apache Nation, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Flagstaff Activist Network. "The Court places itself in the position of judging the legitimacy of Native American beliefs and practices. It becomes the arbiter of religion which is not the proper role for the courts. The evidence clearly shows that the Peaks are important to 13 of the Tribes in the southwestern United States and that using sewer water to make snow on them constitutes a significant burden on the Tribe's ability to practice their religion."
"In this country Native Americans have no First Amendment rights when it comes to government land use decisions," stated Howard Shanker, who is also running for Congress in Arizona's Congressional District 1. "The federal government likely holds thousands of acres of land that Tribes hold sacred. This case was the last, best chance for the Tribes to be able to provide some legal protection to those lands. In a nation that prides itself on religious liberty, it is unconscionable that Native American beliefs are not respected under the law or the Constitution. We anticipate petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court for review of this matter," said Shanker.
"This ruling sets a negative precedent that impacts the future of Native American religious practice," said Francis Tso of the Save the Peaks Coalition. "We will seek to reverse this appalling decision."
The three dissenting Judges from the en banc Court argued that, "Religious exercise, invariably, and centrally, involves a 'subjective' spiritual experience." The dissenting judges further provided that, "The majority's misunderstanding of the nature of religious beliefs and exercise as merely "subjective" is an excuse for refusing to accept the Indians' religion as worthy of protection under RFRA." As noted by the dissent, "RFRA was passed to protect the exercise of all religions, including the religions of American Indians. If Indians' land-based exercise of religion is not protected by RFRA in this case, I cannot imagine a case in which it will be. I am truly sorry that the majority has effectively read American Indians out of RFRA."
"This decision is a painful affirmation of the lack of protection for our religious freedom," said Alberta Nells with the Youth of the Peaks. Nells continued, "It is a bitter reminder that not all citizens are equal in this country, but just as the civil rights movement did not give up when courts delivered blow after blow, we will not give up until our rights are fully upheld. We, the youth, will continue to stand up for our cultural survival."
"Federal land management policies are inconsistent when addressing Native American religious practice relating to sacred places. This case underscores the fact that we need legislative action to guarantee protection for places held holy by Native American tribes", stated Klee Benally of the Save the Peaks Coalition. "The deeply held religious beliefs of hundreds of thousands of citizens of this country have been trumped by a single for profit private business operating on public lands. What I keep wondering is 'How is that considered justice?'" continued Benally.
Environmental groups argued that the Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act. "Eight of eleven judges decided to completely ignore the issue of 'What happens if a child were to eat this snow?'" said Rudy Preston of the Flagstaff Activist Network and a plaintiff in the case. Preston continued saying that, "The court dismissed the whole health issue on a procedural error thereby refusing to comment on the true health impacts of this fake snow, which has been proven to contain harmful pharmaceuticals and personal care productions, on our children. The court has obviously cast off this responsibility, and we will continue to demand accountability for our children and the land."
Environmental groups are concerned with the health hazards of using treated sewage effluent to make this snow, and are committed to continuing to challenge this ruling. "We obviously disagree with ruling—snowmaking with sewage is still plainly a bad idea," said Taylor McKinnon, Public Lands Director with the Center for Biological Diversity, "We'll keep fighting along side our partners. This ruling only emboldens our resolve."
The Save the Peaks Coalition will continue their commitment to unify tribes, environmentalists, and all people who care about religious freedom, the health of our communities, and the natural environment.
WHAT: Prayer Vigil
WHEN: Saturday, August 9th, 2008
TIME: 1pm
WHERE: Buffalo Park in Flagstaff, AZ
For more information please call 928-380-8014
Court Reverses Decision Protecting Environmental & Cultural
Integrity of San Francisco Peaks
Tribes & Environmental Groups Affirm Commitment to Protect Holy Mountain
Contact: Jeneda Benally, Save the Peaks Coalition
coalition@savethepeaks.org
(928) 380-8014
http://www.savethepeaks.org/
August 8, 2008, Flagstaff, AZ -- The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a long awaited ruling today in the case to protect the environmental and cultural integrity of Arizona's San Francisco Peaks. The split decision overturned a previous court ruling and has temporarily denied attempts by tribes and environmental groups to stop Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort from expanding development and making fake snow from treated sewage effluent on the holy mountain.
"The cultural survival of more than 13 Indigenous Nations is directly intertwined with the environmental integrity of the holy San Francisco Peaks," said Jeneda Benally, a volunteer with the Save the Peaks Coalition. "Today's decision not only places these ways of life in peril but sets the stage for an ecological and public health catastrophe. We have no choice but to uphold our commitment to protect the holy San Francisco Peaks," continued Benally.
The United States Forest Service manages the San Francisco Peaks as public land and has faced multiple lawsuits by the Navajo Nation, Hopi, White Mountain Apache, Yavapai Apache, Hualapai, and Havasupai tribes, as well as the Sierra Club, Flagstaff Activist Network, Center of Biological Diversity, and others after it initially approved the proposed ski area development in 2005.
In the most recent ruling, the Court found that using reclaimed sewer water to make snow for skiing on an admittedly sacred site posed no 'substantial burden' on the Plaintiffs' exercise of religion in this case. According to the Court, the "only effect of the proposed upgrades is on the Plaintiffs' subjective, emotional religious experience. That is, the presence of recycled wastewater on the Peaks is offensive to the Plaintiffs' religious sensibilities…the diminishment of spiritual fulfillment – serious though it may be – is not a 'substantial burden' on the free exercise of religion." The Court dismissed Plaintiffs' religious beliefs as calling them mere "damaged spiritual feelings."
Tribes' primary arguments focused on religious issues by utilizing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which they had hoped would provide the necessary legal protection where other laws such as the American Religious Freedom Act have failed.
"The opinion is unfortunate and, in my opinion wrong," stated Howard Shanker, who represents Navajo Nation, Havasupai Tribe, White Mountain Apache Nation, Yavapai-Apache Nation, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Flagstaff Activist Network. "The Court places itself in the position of judging the legitimacy of Native American beliefs and practices. It becomes the arbiter of religion which is not the proper role for the courts. The evidence clearly shows that the Peaks are important to 13 of the Tribes in the southwestern United States and that using sewer water to make snow on them constitutes a significant burden on the Tribe's ability to practice their religion."
"In this country Native Americans have no First Amendment rights when it comes to government land use decisions," stated Howard Shanker, who is also running for Congress in Arizona's Congressional District 1. "The federal government likely holds thousands of acres of land that Tribes hold sacred. This case was the last, best chance for the Tribes to be able to provide some legal protection to those lands. In a nation that prides itself on religious liberty, it is unconscionable that Native American beliefs are not respected under the law or the Constitution. We anticipate petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court for review of this matter," said Shanker.
"This ruling sets a negative precedent that impacts the future of Native American religious practice," said Francis Tso of the Save the Peaks Coalition. "We will seek to reverse this appalling decision."
The three dissenting Judges from the en banc Court argued that, "Religious exercise, invariably, and centrally, involves a 'subjective' spiritual experience." The dissenting judges further provided that, "The majority's misunderstanding of the nature of religious beliefs and exercise as merely "subjective" is an excuse for refusing to accept the Indians' religion as worthy of protection under RFRA." As noted by the dissent, "RFRA was passed to protect the exercise of all religions, including the religions of American Indians. If Indians' land-based exercise of religion is not protected by RFRA in this case, I cannot imagine a case in which it will be. I am truly sorry that the majority has effectively read American Indians out of RFRA."
"This decision is a painful affirmation of the lack of protection for our religious freedom," said Alberta Nells with the Youth of the Peaks. Nells continued, "It is a bitter reminder that not all citizens are equal in this country, but just as the civil rights movement did not give up when courts delivered blow after blow, we will not give up until our rights are fully upheld. We, the youth, will continue to stand up for our cultural survival."
"Federal land management policies are inconsistent when addressing Native American religious practice relating to sacred places. This case underscores the fact that we need legislative action to guarantee protection for places held holy by Native American tribes", stated Klee Benally of the Save the Peaks Coalition. "The deeply held religious beliefs of hundreds of thousands of citizens of this country have been trumped by a single for profit private business operating on public lands. What I keep wondering is 'How is that considered justice?'" continued Benally.
Environmental groups argued that the Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act. "Eight of eleven judges decided to completely ignore the issue of 'What happens if a child were to eat this snow?'" said Rudy Preston of the Flagstaff Activist Network and a plaintiff in the case. Preston continued saying that, "The court dismissed the whole health issue on a procedural error thereby refusing to comment on the true health impacts of this fake snow, which has been proven to contain harmful pharmaceuticals and personal care productions, on our children. The court has obviously cast off this responsibility, and we will continue to demand accountability for our children and the land."
Environmental groups are concerned with the health hazards of using treated sewage effluent to make this snow, and are committed to continuing to challenge this ruling. "We obviously disagree with ruling—snowmaking with sewage is still plainly a bad idea," said Taylor McKinnon, Public Lands Director with the Center for Biological Diversity, "We'll keep fighting along side our partners. This ruling only emboldens our resolve."
The Save the Peaks Coalition will continue their commitment to unify tribes, environmentalists, and all people who care about religious freedom, the health of our communities, and the natural environment.
La lucha contra el zapatismo pasó de la represión abierta a la guerra económica
Ángeles Mariscal
La Jornada
A 14 años del levantamiento armado, la política del gobierno mexicano para detener las transformaciones que el Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) impulsa se están haciendo más sutiles: se cambió la represión abierta por una “guerra económica”, coincidieron los indígenas de las comunidades afectadas y los activistas de diversas partes del mundo que se reunieron este día en los diferentes bastiones rebeldes.
Durante la primer reunión que sostuvieron los representantes de la junta de buen gobierno de la zona Altos y la Caravana Nacional e Internacional de Solidaridad y Observación con las comunidades zapatistas, los indígenas explicaron que ahora el gobierno los quiere “matar con su dinero”.
Encapuchados, los comandantes y comandantas del EZLN que se reunieron en Oventic fueron claros al señalar que “Juan Sabines (gobernador de Chiapas) y Felipe Calderón tienen en contra de nosotros una guerra económica y nos quieren matar con su dinero.
“Quieren aniquilar a los zapatistas con sus limosnas, con sus láminas, con sus pollos; quieren comprarnos con su Oportunidades (nombre que tuvo el programa de asistencia social del gobierno federal)”, añadieron.
Los líderes del EZLN detallaron las ocasiones en que los gobiernos federal y estatal han promocionado la presunta aceptación de indígenas de Acteal y otras comunidades emblemáticas a recibir a los programas sociales.
Por su parte, Vilma Mazza, de Italia, y Natividad Almarcegui, de España, explicaron que ahora el gobierno mexicano intenta acallar al movimiento zapatista “de una forma sutil, diferente al hostigamiento directo. Intenta poner problemas; cambió por una represión que no es abierta”.
Para hacer frente a estas acciones, señalaron las activistas, las organizaciones civiles de México y otras partes del mundo, que mantienen una lucha contra el actual sistema económico global, “estamos actuando con una solidaridad que no es paternalista o asistencialista, sino que es política, clara y de compromisos”.
Los participantes en la caravana no asisten en calidad de “personas individuales, sino que están integrados en movimientos y luchas en sus países”. Los activistas provienen de Italia, Francia, Grecia, España, Suiza, Alemania, Noruega, Bélgica, Estados Unidos, Canadá, Argentina y Chile.
“Esta caravana es para ver lo que está pasando, para escuchar las denuncias de los distintos caracoles, de los municipios autónomos, de las comunidades, pero también para expresar a todos ellos que no están solos, porque en todo el mundo hay movimientos sociales, comunidades, redes, colectivos, organizaciones que están luchando abajo y a la izquierda, y que están construyendo, como aquí, la lucha para un mundo mejor”, expresaron.
Dijeron que en los pasados 14 años han trabajado en solidaridad con las comunidades zapatistas y ahora que sufren presiones de tipo económico, “con nuestra llegada estamos diciendo que hay una atención internacional muy grande a lo que está pasando aquí. Hay un ocultamiento de las cosas por los medios de comunicación oficiales y formales (de México) sobre el apoyo que está habiendo en Europa hacia los zapatistas. Lógicamente, hay que decirlo, el gobierno federal mexicano está actuando a la contraofensiva”, denunciaron.
Dos de los autobuses que transportan a integrantes de la caravana, que se dirigían al caracol de La Garrucha, tuvieron serias dificultades para abastecerse de combustible en San Cristóbal de las Casas, ya que las gasolineras se negaban a vender. Después de recorrer cuatro, una de ellas accedió a vender 124 de los 310 litros que necesitaban para el camión.
Los integrantes de la caravana están siendo fotografiados por personas que, por su aspecto, podrían pertenecer a las fuerzas militares o a grupos policiacos. La caravana finalizará el próximo 12 de agosto.
La Jornada
A 14 años del levantamiento armado, la política del gobierno mexicano para detener las transformaciones que el Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) impulsa se están haciendo más sutiles: se cambió la represión abierta por una “guerra económica”, coincidieron los indígenas de las comunidades afectadas y los activistas de diversas partes del mundo que se reunieron este día en los diferentes bastiones rebeldes.
Durante la primer reunión que sostuvieron los representantes de la junta de buen gobierno de la zona Altos y la Caravana Nacional e Internacional de Solidaridad y Observación con las comunidades zapatistas, los indígenas explicaron que ahora el gobierno los quiere “matar con su dinero”.
Encapuchados, los comandantes y comandantas del EZLN que se reunieron en Oventic fueron claros al señalar que “Juan Sabines (gobernador de Chiapas) y Felipe Calderón tienen en contra de nosotros una guerra económica y nos quieren matar con su dinero.
“Quieren aniquilar a los zapatistas con sus limosnas, con sus láminas, con sus pollos; quieren comprarnos con su Oportunidades (nombre que tuvo el programa de asistencia social del gobierno federal)”, añadieron.
Los líderes del EZLN detallaron las ocasiones en que los gobiernos federal y estatal han promocionado la presunta aceptación de indígenas de Acteal y otras comunidades emblemáticas a recibir a los programas sociales.
Por su parte, Vilma Mazza, de Italia, y Natividad Almarcegui, de España, explicaron que ahora el gobierno mexicano intenta acallar al movimiento zapatista “de una forma sutil, diferente al hostigamiento directo. Intenta poner problemas; cambió por una represión que no es abierta”.
Para hacer frente a estas acciones, señalaron las activistas, las organizaciones civiles de México y otras partes del mundo, que mantienen una lucha contra el actual sistema económico global, “estamos actuando con una solidaridad que no es paternalista o asistencialista, sino que es política, clara y de compromisos”.
Los participantes en la caravana no asisten en calidad de “personas individuales, sino que están integrados en movimientos y luchas en sus países”. Los activistas provienen de Italia, Francia, Grecia, España, Suiza, Alemania, Noruega, Bélgica, Estados Unidos, Canadá, Argentina y Chile.
“Esta caravana es para ver lo que está pasando, para escuchar las denuncias de los distintos caracoles, de los municipios autónomos, de las comunidades, pero también para expresar a todos ellos que no están solos, porque en todo el mundo hay movimientos sociales, comunidades, redes, colectivos, organizaciones que están luchando abajo y a la izquierda, y que están construyendo, como aquí, la lucha para un mundo mejor”, expresaron.
Dijeron que en los pasados 14 años han trabajado en solidaridad con las comunidades zapatistas y ahora que sufren presiones de tipo económico, “con nuestra llegada estamos diciendo que hay una atención internacional muy grande a lo que está pasando aquí. Hay un ocultamiento de las cosas por los medios de comunicación oficiales y formales (de México) sobre el apoyo que está habiendo en Europa hacia los zapatistas. Lógicamente, hay que decirlo, el gobierno federal mexicano está actuando a la contraofensiva”, denunciaron.
Dos de los autobuses que transportan a integrantes de la caravana, que se dirigían al caracol de La Garrucha, tuvieron serias dificultades para abastecerse de combustible en San Cristóbal de las Casas, ya que las gasolineras se negaban a vender. Después de recorrer cuatro, una de ellas accedió a vender 124 de los 310 litros que necesitaban para el camión.
Los integrantes de la caravana están siendo fotografiados por personas que, por su aspecto, podrían pertenecer a las fuerzas militares o a grupos policiacos. La caravana finalizará el próximo 12 de agosto.
8/7/08
The Zapatistas are Still Resisting
What I Re-Discovered in Mexico
http://www.counterpunch.com/estrada08062008.html
By MICHAEL ESTRADA
What ever happened to the Zapatista struggle? This question and others about what was probably the most inspirational social movement and rebellion in the world around seven years ago propelled me to participate in a study abroad program on Zapatismo with the Mexican Solidarity Network this summer. Seven years ago, I was a recent graduate of U.C. Berkeley and was deeply involved in the global justice movement. Since that time, however, for both political and personal reasons (e.g., the post 9/11 climate and the demands of establishing an actual career and taking care of family), I have not been as involved politically and not been able to follow the Zapatista struggle as much as I’ve wanted to. My decision to enroll in the program was in large part an attempt to become politically engaged again. It helped me achieve that and more. For six weeks a group of us studied the history, culture, and political economy of the Zapatista struggle while living in and working with a Zapatista community in the highlands of Chiapas. Among many things I learned and was reminded of is the justness of their cause and the lengths that nation states are wiling to go in protecting their power and interests. Below is an analysis/explanation on the current security situation facing the Zapatistas.
With the recent passage of such policies as the Merida Initiative (Plan Mexico), the evidence suggests that the Mexican government, with U.S. backing and support, is planning on increasing its repression of the Zapatista movement. In fact, in enhancing the Mexican government’s ability to use its military internally as it does, many concerned activists, human rights groups and political commentators describe Mexico’s new security plan as a (re)militarization of Mexican society.
To the Zapatistas, however, their communities and land are already militarized and the repression, harassment and attacks by both military and paramilitary forces that literally surround them (The nearest paramilitary camp was just a ½ mile away from the community we were living with.) will most certainly increase with the passing of the initiative. Indeed, the Zapatistas view the Merida Initiative as an escalation of the repression and violence already being used against them by U.S. and Mexican government and corporate interests.
Thus, to the Zapatistas, the political, economic and military aspects of governance are all very interrelated. In essence, they would say that the government’s economic plans can’t effectively be implemented without using military and political repression against those very social actors (e.g., the poor, indigenous, workers, farmers) who are being hurt by those same economic policies and that are being left with little choice but to resist them.
The Political Economy of the Struggle Today
The economic conditions that the Zapatistas originally rebelled against on January 1st, 1994 are still very much present. Corporate interests want to gain more access to the potential markets, cheap labor pool, ample land and natural resources that the state of Chiapas provides. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is the specific form the corporate economic model took then. Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) is the more specific and extended form that it takes now. While it wouldn’t establish a free trade zone, if implemented, the PPP would attempt to economically integrate Southern Mexico and Central America with each other (Mesoamerica). The plan’s main goal, however, is to open up the area to corporations from Latin America and other countries outside the region, particularly the U.S.
Originally launched in 2001 by the very pro-business Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (PAN), the PPP stalled in 2003 due to its controversial, pro-corporate nature and the resistance generated by nearly a decade of economic dislocation and misery experienced by the large majority of Mexicans from NAFTA. Economic elites around the world, including in Mexico, have not acquired immense wealth by easily giving up, however. Thus, the euphoria experienced by critics and opponents when the PPP was seemingly defeated was proven premature when current Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who is also in the PAN and probably won the election through fraud, announced shortly after taking office in December 2006 that he would reinitiate PPP, though he plans on renaming it the Mesoamerica Initiative.
To help begin realizing their corporate goals, economists or technocrats in the Mexican government have recently launched ambitious infrastructure projects. They include or have included the construction or repaving of highways, the modernization of the ports of Chiapas, the construction of an International Airport in Tuxtla, electricity distribution upgrades, and the construction of a fiber optic system between Tuxtla and Ciudad Hidalgo. Sectors and/or industries that Mexico’s elites want to eventually establish and that the infrastructure improvements are ultimately for are tourism, manufacturing, or maquilas with all the perks such as tax exemption for foreign companies that go along with them, forestry and agroindustry, which would largely take the form of African Palm and eucalyptus plantations.
This of course does not include ongoing economic plans such as the desire to further open up the Lacandon rain forest, where 20% of Mexico’s biodiversity is located, to pharmaceutical and biotech companies who want to use the organisms of the jungle to develop new drugs, pesticides, perfumes and even new, genetically modified crops. Needless to say, these plans and projects will further displace and exploit indigenous people and communities, ignores their cultural way of life and wreak potential havoc on the environment itself.
In the case of African Palm trees, for example, indigenous families will be expected to give up their farming and/or the cultivation of goods essential to their way of life and survival like corn, beans and coffee in order to produce palm oil for goods like cosmetic products primarily produced for export. Furthermore, the foreign plants excessively drain the nutrients and the water from the soil they grow in and require heavy usage of herbicides and pesticides, all of which greatly draws the environmental sustainability of the PPP into question. And Mexico’s elite won’t of course admit it publicly, but racism certainly permeates their economic ideas, given that it is still very common for elites to think that “in Chiapas, a chicken is worth more than an indio [Indian].”
The Military/Para-Military Component
The revival of the PPP has its military complement in the recent passage and acceptance by both the U.S. and Mexican governments of the Merida Initiative or Plan Mexico. Largely presented as a way to combat spiraling crime and deadly violence spurred by the Mexican drug trade (437 people were killed in drug related violence in Mexico in June alone!), there is little doubt that the Mexican government will use the money it gains from the plan and military/law enforcement equipment to repress social/political dissent and challenges, especially the Zapatistas. This can perhaps be seen by analyzing the plan’s funding priorities and just by recognizing the fact that the plan is actually considered part of a national security plan.
In regard to funding, according to Laura Carlsen’ recent article (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4684 ) under the plan, the U.S. government will provide a three year aid package worth $1.6 billion dollars. In the first installment provided this year, the Mexican government will receive around $400 million dollars in aid. Around 30%, or $116.5 million, will go to the Mexican military. $73 million will go to “judicial reform, institution building, anti-corruption, and rule-of-law activities.” $48 million will go to “narcotics controls and deterrence” which includes surveillance, inspection, training and purchasing of security equipment (Not one penny goes to drug treatment or rehabilitation!). The rest of the $400 million, roughly $112 million, is earmarked for increased criminal justice efficiency (read: quicker prosecution of criminals) in the form of software and training in case-tracking and the centralization of data. Omitting the $73 million earmarked for “judicial reform” (How serious should this be taken, given the immense corruption in the Mexican state?), obviously the bulk of the money is going towards repression and prosecution of perceived “criminals.” And this doesn’t even touch on increased domestic spying powers like phone tapping the Mexican government is contemplating adopting.
Of course, along with the drug trade and problem, terrorism is also cited as a justification for Plan Mexico. Similar to what American elites say, Mexico’s elites are raising the specter of terrorism coming from what they see as a porous southern border too, the one they share with Guatemala. And while nothing in the document is specific about protests or social movements, or any kind of resistance against corporate practices or encroachment, the historical behavior of capitalist countries is proof enough that they will defend their economic power and interests with military and police force when necessary, whether from external or internal threats. Given the Zapatistas are still vehemently resisting the economic and cultural subjugation of their communities and lives, it should come as no surprise, then, that the Mexican government is already making claims that Zapatista communities are illegally cultivating drugs and using the military to conduct raids and/or searches (Read John Gibler’s recent article here: http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/17855.)
Paramilitaries are increasingly being used by the Mexican government as well. In fact, since the early days of the Zapatista uprising, the Mexican government has been fine-tuning its use of paramilitaries. Various groups that were operating throughout the 90s have been forced to disband due to negative publicity, but they have since been unified and given a more public and legitimate face with the creation of the Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Peasant Rights (OPPDIC) in 1998. Publicly, OPPDIC claims to represent indigenous communities by pushing for more services, subsidies and petitioning for land. (A favorite tactic by OPPDIC members is to expel through force a Zapatista family or community and then petition the government for the land that they have just taken.) Privately and militarily, however, its members largely play the same roles they did before. They regularly harass, intimidate, beat and have shown a willingness to even kill Zapatistas.
The close connections the Mexican government has to OPPDIC has been well-documented by such groups as the Center for Political Analysis and Social and Economic Research (CAPISE). CAPISE also has recently reported that over 74,000 hectares of Zapatista territory are under threat of invasion from military and/or paramilitary forces. Quite literally, this means that Zapatista communities are surrounded by and/or even mixed with anti-Zapatista communities (e.g. PRI dominated communities) and paramilitary strongholds or camps. In another Zapatista community we visited, half the town was PRI. It was obvious they did not want us there when we nervously walked through their market to get a feel how they lived and what government control looked like (The Mexican government was handing out welfare checks that day and the community was having a market day just for the occasion. On principle, the Zapatistas don’t accept welfare or any government services, for that matter.) The Zapatistas describe this situation as a perfect example as to how the Mexican government (the mal gobierno or bad government) actively uses divide and conquer strategies to split the indigenous population apart from each other.
U.S. Government Complicity/Involvement
As the Zapatista’s perspective on the modern world would expect, the U.S. government is playing an active and supportive role in their repression in essence because U.S. and Mexico interests (political, economic and military) greatly coincide. In respect to America’s politics, this strong and close relationship is what creates so much continuity between American presidents and the two main parties in the American political system. Applied to the American presidential campaign, what this looks like is pretty straight forward. While John McCain is understandably drawing ire from liberal and progressive activists with his staunch support of the Bush Agenda and openly expressed willingness to use military force to protect American interests, Barack Obama can also be viewed as fundamentally supporting the same aims. The Zapatistas certainly view this as being the case.
Unlike many American progressives and social justice activists who believe Obama can and/or will significantly shift the priorities of American capitalism and U.S. militarism, the Zapatistas don’t expect much of a change if he is elected. Indeed, it doesn’t surprise the Zapatistas at all that Obama supports the Mesoamerica Initiative and is pro-corporate. In fact, in several political and educational conservations, several Zapatistas expressed this exact view. As they regularly told us in political conversation, “Obama is an elite politician. He represents the opinions and interests of corporations and the wealthy, not of the people.” Recent articles by such authors as Naomi Klein on Obama’s circle of advisors certainly suggest this is true.
The Zapatistas, however, do not have to wait for and read critical news pieces like Klein’s to understand how the modern political world works and why it’s important to build an effective social movement for social change. They understand that their vision of democracy, where ordinary people and communities have real control over their lives, where there is true political and social equality and where their economic needs are met, is a fundamental challenge to the elite democracies practiced by the U.S. and Mexico. They also feel that their vision will only be achieved or constructed by ordinary people fighting for it themselves (In fact, the Zapatistas the last 5 years have deepened their vision of democracy by instituting the Juntas de Buen Gobiernos [Juntas of Good Government]). Elites, whether Calderon, Lopez Obrador from the left-of-center party in Mexico, McCain or Obama, are part of the problem, not the solution, given this perspective, and need to be resisted, not placated to. This is a lesson that perhaps liberals and progressives in the U.S. should learn from and contemplate how to put to practice if they are truly serious about building alliances with other struggles for social justice around the world like the Zapatistas. Voting for Obama shouldn’t be considered the wrong thing to do, but failing to hold him accountable, or any politician for that matter, for betraying the interests of the people by taking to the streets en masse should be.
Michael Estrada is a Political Science Instructor at the City College of San Francisco. He would like to think Tom Hansen with the Mexico Solidarity Network with the recommendations he made about the article. He can be contacted at estrada-michael@sbcglobal.net
http://www.counterpunch.com/estrada08062008.html
By MICHAEL ESTRADA
What ever happened to the Zapatista struggle? This question and others about what was probably the most inspirational social movement and rebellion in the world around seven years ago propelled me to participate in a study abroad program on Zapatismo with the Mexican Solidarity Network this summer. Seven years ago, I was a recent graduate of U.C. Berkeley and was deeply involved in the global justice movement. Since that time, however, for both political and personal reasons (e.g., the post 9/11 climate and the demands of establishing an actual career and taking care of family), I have not been as involved politically and not been able to follow the Zapatista struggle as much as I’ve wanted to. My decision to enroll in the program was in large part an attempt to become politically engaged again. It helped me achieve that and more. For six weeks a group of us studied the history, culture, and political economy of the Zapatista struggle while living in and working with a Zapatista community in the highlands of Chiapas. Among many things I learned and was reminded of is the justness of their cause and the lengths that nation states are wiling to go in protecting their power and interests. Below is an analysis/explanation on the current security situation facing the Zapatistas.
With the recent passage of such policies as the Merida Initiative (Plan Mexico), the evidence suggests that the Mexican government, with U.S. backing and support, is planning on increasing its repression of the Zapatista movement. In fact, in enhancing the Mexican government’s ability to use its military internally as it does, many concerned activists, human rights groups and political commentators describe Mexico’s new security plan as a (re)militarization of Mexican society.
To the Zapatistas, however, their communities and land are already militarized and the repression, harassment and attacks by both military and paramilitary forces that literally surround them (The nearest paramilitary camp was just a ½ mile away from the community we were living with.) will most certainly increase with the passing of the initiative. Indeed, the Zapatistas view the Merida Initiative as an escalation of the repression and violence already being used against them by U.S. and Mexican government and corporate interests.
Thus, to the Zapatistas, the political, economic and military aspects of governance are all very interrelated. In essence, they would say that the government’s economic plans can’t effectively be implemented without using military and political repression against those very social actors (e.g., the poor, indigenous, workers, farmers) who are being hurt by those same economic policies and that are being left with little choice but to resist them.
The Political Economy of the Struggle Today
The economic conditions that the Zapatistas originally rebelled against on January 1st, 1994 are still very much present. Corporate interests want to gain more access to the potential markets, cheap labor pool, ample land and natural resources that the state of Chiapas provides. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is the specific form the corporate economic model took then. Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) is the more specific and extended form that it takes now. While it wouldn’t establish a free trade zone, if implemented, the PPP would attempt to economically integrate Southern Mexico and Central America with each other (Mesoamerica). The plan’s main goal, however, is to open up the area to corporations from Latin America and other countries outside the region, particularly the U.S.
Originally launched in 2001 by the very pro-business Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (PAN), the PPP stalled in 2003 due to its controversial, pro-corporate nature and the resistance generated by nearly a decade of economic dislocation and misery experienced by the large majority of Mexicans from NAFTA. Economic elites around the world, including in Mexico, have not acquired immense wealth by easily giving up, however. Thus, the euphoria experienced by critics and opponents when the PPP was seemingly defeated was proven premature when current Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who is also in the PAN and probably won the election through fraud, announced shortly after taking office in December 2006 that he would reinitiate PPP, though he plans on renaming it the Mesoamerica Initiative.
To help begin realizing their corporate goals, economists or technocrats in the Mexican government have recently launched ambitious infrastructure projects. They include or have included the construction or repaving of highways, the modernization of the ports of Chiapas, the construction of an International Airport in Tuxtla, electricity distribution upgrades, and the construction of a fiber optic system between Tuxtla and Ciudad Hidalgo. Sectors and/or industries that Mexico’s elites want to eventually establish and that the infrastructure improvements are ultimately for are tourism, manufacturing, or maquilas with all the perks such as tax exemption for foreign companies that go along with them, forestry and agroindustry, which would largely take the form of African Palm and eucalyptus plantations.
This of course does not include ongoing economic plans such as the desire to further open up the Lacandon rain forest, where 20% of Mexico’s biodiversity is located, to pharmaceutical and biotech companies who want to use the organisms of the jungle to develop new drugs, pesticides, perfumes and even new, genetically modified crops. Needless to say, these plans and projects will further displace and exploit indigenous people and communities, ignores their cultural way of life and wreak potential havoc on the environment itself.
In the case of African Palm trees, for example, indigenous families will be expected to give up their farming and/or the cultivation of goods essential to their way of life and survival like corn, beans and coffee in order to produce palm oil for goods like cosmetic products primarily produced for export. Furthermore, the foreign plants excessively drain the nutrients and the water from the soil they grow in and require heavy usage of herbicides and pesticides, all of which greatly draws the environmental sustainability of the PPP into question. And Mexico’s elite won’t of course admit it publicly, but racism certainly permeates their economic ideas, given that it is still very common for elites to think that “in Chiapas, a chicken is worth more than an indio [Indian].”
The Military/Para-Military Component
The revival of the PPP has its military complement in the recent passage and acceptance by both the U.S. and Mexican governments of the Merida Initiative or Plan Mexico. Largely presented as a way to combat spiraling crime and deadly violence spurred by the Mexican drug trade (437 people were killed in drug related violence in Mexico in June alone!), there is little doubt that the Mexican government will use the money it gains from the plan and military/law enforcement equipment to repress social/political dissent and challenges, especially the Zapatistas. This can perhaps be seen by analyzing the plan’s funding priorities and just by recognizing the fact that the plan is actually considered part of a national security plan.
In regard to funding, according to Laura Carlsen’ recent article (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4684 ) under the plan, the U.S. government will provide a three year aid package worth $1.6 billion dollars. In the first installment provided this year, the Mexican government will receive around $400 million dollars in aid. Around 30%, or $116.5 million, will go to the Mexican military. $73 million will go to “judicial reform, institution building, anti-corruption, and rule-of-law activities.” $48 million will go to “narcotics controls and deterrence” which includes surveillance, inspection, training and purchasing of security equipment (Not one penny goes to drug treatment or rehabilitation!). The rest of the $400 million, roughly $112 million, is earmarked for increased criminal justice efficiency (read: quicker prosecution of criminals) in the form of software and training in case-tracking and the centralization of data. Omitting the $73 million earmarked for “judicial reform” (How serious should this be taken, given the immense corruption in the Mexican state?), obviously the bulk of the money is going towards repression and prosecution of perceived “criminals.” And this doesn’t even touch on increased domestic spying powers like phone tapping the Mexican government is contemplating adopting.
Of course, along with the drug trade and problem, terrorism is also cited as a justification for Plan Mexico. Similar to what American elites say, Mexico’s elites are raising the specter of terrorism coming from what they see as a porous southern border too, the one they share with Guatemala. And while nothing in the document is specific about protests or social movements, or any kind of resistance against corporate practices or encroachment, the historical behavior of capitalist countries is proof enough that they will defend their economic power and interests with military and police force when necessary, whether from external or internal threats. Given the Zapatistas are still vehemently resisting the economic and cultural subjugation of their communities and lives, it should come as no surprise, then, that the Mexican government is already making claims that Zapatista communities are illegally cultivating drugs and using the military to conduct raids and/or searches (Read John Gibler’s recent article here: http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/17855.)
Paramilitaries are increasingly being used by the Mexican government as well. In fact, since the early days of the Zapatista uprising, the Mexican government has been fine-tuning its use of paramilitaries. Various groups that were operating throughout the 90s have been forced to disband due to negative publicity, but they have since been unified and given a more public and legitimate face with the creation of the Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Peasant Rights (OPPDIC) in 1998. Publicly, OPPDIC claims to represent indigenous communities by pushing for more services, subsidies and petitioning for land. (A favorite tactic by OPPDIC members is to expel through force a Zapatista family or community and then petition the government for the land that they have just taken.) Privately and militarily, however, its members largely play the same roles they did before. They regularly harass, intimidate, beat and have shown a willingness to even kill Zapatistas.
The close connections the Mexican government has to OPPDIC has been well-documented by such groups as the Center for Political Analysis and Social and Economic Research (CAPISE). CAPISE also has recently reported that over 74,000 hectares of Zapatista territory are under threat of invasion from military and/or paramilitary forces. Quite literally, this means that Zapatista communities are surrounded by and/or even mixed with anti-Zapatista communities (e.g. PRI dominated communities) and paramilitary strongholds or camps. In another Zapatista community we visited, half the town was PRI. It was obvious they did not want us there when we nervously walked through their market to get a feel how they lived and what government control looked like (The Mexican government was handing out welfare checks that day and the community was having a market day just for the occasion. On principle, the Zapatistas don’t accept welfare or any government services, for that matter.) The Zapatistas describe this situation as a perfect example as to how the Mexican government (the mal gobierno or bad government) actively uses divide and conquer strategies to split the indigenous population apart from each other.
U.S. Government Complicity/Involvement
As the Zapatista’s perspective on the modern world would expect, the U.S. government is playing an active and supportive role in their repression in essence because U.S. and Mexico interests (political, economic and military) greatly coincide. In respect to America’s politics, this strong and close relationship is what creates so much continuity between American presidents and the two main parties in the American political system. Applied to the American presidential campaign, what this looks like is pretty straight forward. While John McCain is understandably drawing ire from liberal and progressive activists with his staunch support of the Bush Agenda and openly expressed willingness to use military force to protect American interests, Barack Obama can also be viewed as fundamentally supporting the same aims. The Zapatistas certainly view this as being the case.
Unlike many American progressives and social justice activists who believe Obama can and/or will significantly shift the priorities of American capitalism and U.S. militarism, the Zapatistas don’t expect much of a change if he is elected. Indeed, it doesn’t surprise the Zapatistas at all that Obama supports the Mesoamerica Initiative and is pro-corporate. In fact, in several political and educational conservations, several Zapatistas expressed this exact view. As they regularly told us in political conversation, “Obama is an elite politician. He represents the opinions and interests of corporations and the wealthy, not of the people.” Recent articles by such authors as Naomi Klein on Obama’s circle of advisors certainly suggest this is true.
The Zapatistas, however, do not have to wait for and read critical news pieces like Klein’s to understand how the modern political world works and why it’s important to build an effective social movement for social change. They understand that their vision of democracy, where ordinary people and communities have real control over their lives, where there is true political and social equality and where their economic needs are met, is a fundamental challenge to the elite democracies practiced by the U.S. and Mexico. They also feel that their vision will only be achieved or constructed by ordinary people fighting for it themselves (In fact, the Zapatistas the last 5 years have deepened their vision of democracy by instituting the Juntas de Buen Gobiernos [Juntas of Good Government]). Elites, whether Calderon, Lopez Obrador from the left-of-center party in Mexico, McCain or Obama, are part of the problem, not the solution, given this perspective, and need to be resisted, not placated to. This is a lesson that perhaps liberals and progressives in the U.S. should learn from and contemplate how to put to practice if they are truly serious about building alliances with other struggles for social justice around the world like the Zapatistas. Voting for Obama shouldn’t be considered the wrong thing to do, but failing to hold him accountable, or any politician for that matter, for betraying the interests of the people by taking to the streets en masse should be.
Michael Estrada is a Political Science Instructor at the City College of San Francisco. He would like to think Tom Hansen with the Mexico Solidarity Network with the recommendations he made about the article. He can be contacted at estrada-michael@sbcglobal.net
8/3/08
May I suggest ...
© Indian Country Today July 30, 2008. All Rights Reserved
Posted: July 30, 2008
'Techqua Ikachi: Aboriginal Warning'
By Gwyndolin Lee -- Special to Today
The prophecy by the Hopi, the Dine' and others expressed in the new educational DVD film ''Techqua Ikachi: Aboriginal Warning'' (43 minutes) from www.venicevisionarymedia.net spells out a very specific cause for a potential doomsday. Science has now caught up with those long-dead prophets to confirm the amazing accuracy of their vision with the new prediction of a global warming disaster from the continued dominance of coal and oil as our principal energy sources. The words techqua ikachi refer to Hopi for ''land and life.''
For decades and continuing to this day, the Hopi and Dine' have protested at Black Mesa in northern Arizona on those same reservation lands where in prior years many had died from the carcinogenic effects of uranium mining. One center for this widespread local opposition has been the traditional Hopi village of Hotevilla, founded in 1906 after a clash between Hopi traditionals and those ''progressives'' who had decided to give up their traditions, convert to Christianity, and seek the material benefits of Western technology and industry. The traditionals were purged out of the ancient village of Oraibi into the desert wilderness in the cold and snow of winter and founded their own new village at Hotevilla.
In 1969, the federal government brought in contractors to provide the first electric power to the village of Hotevilla. Power poles were trucked in, and heavy equipment arrived to clear the way for the installation. At this point, a group of Hopi elders arrived on the scene to block the work. Those old men lied down in the path of the bulldozers, ready to sacrifice their lives if necessary to prevent electric power from coming to their village. One 90-year-old man was injured and did not survive long after. Why would anyone resist or even criticize progress?
Like many indigenous peoples, the traditional Hopi share a widespread belief and prophecy that taking oil and minerals is a transgression on Mother Earth and will bring disaster. Modern evidence supporting this belief can be found in the toxicity at all mining sites everywhere and in the new specter of a potential doomsday from the continued dominance of coal as our principal energy source.
This prophecy, like scriptural prophecies, foretells doom for those who forsake the right way of life; but the Hopi and Dine' prophecy is very specific in describing mining and drilling as the sources of the coming catastrophe, and this focus is proving accurate with the rise of the specter of global warming.
The Arizona conflict is but one aspect of a worldwide epidemic of appropriation and exploitation of lands of indigenous peoples, including many other locations in the U.S. Among sites of recent protest demonstrations are Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah, Florida, the Dakotas, Alaska, Canada, Burma, Colombia, Indonesia, Tibet, the Arctic, Mexico, Madagascar, the Philippines, Russia, Chile, Brazil, Guatemala, Australia, Thailand and India; thousands of demonstrations have also been held in China. Many others are not reported. Civil war over oil has broken out in Sudan, Nigeria and Pakistan, and mass murder in Ethiopia. More than 5 million are dead from wars over mining in the Congo.
There is no organizational link between these peoples. What they have in common is the despoiling of their lands for the profit of others.
Those elders requested a film be made about the Hopi prophecy. The elders risked their lives to block the bulldozers, as in the film. Those elders are gone now, yet the protest demonstrations by the Hopi and Dine' have not only continued, the conflict there has grown and expanded. Similar conflicts worldwide continue and worsen. A long list of URLs for news reports is available at www.geocities.com/alankentgorg.
Almost 40 years after that demonstration in Hotevilla, the docudrama ''Techqua Ikachi'' has been finished, aimed at schools and colleges, and dedicated to the Hopi elders who provided the inspiration. The film won the Neptune Award at the Moondance International Film Festival and has been honored at the Columbus Film Festival and at international film festivals in China, India, Canada, Korea and Latin America.
The Hopi people knew how to be civil to others long before modern so-called civilization, which brought money and modern things but no peace and little civility. The Hopi had lived their quiet life in a difficult desert for many centuries in peace, but now the lust for energy and minerals leaves them and many other indigenous peoples little chance for peace.
Ultimately our environmental problems are connected to the sufferings of others around the world from exploitation of their lands by oil and mining interest - but in the end, as their prophecies state, everyone may all go down together.
Posted: July 30, 2008
'Techqua Ikachi: Aboriginal Warning'
By Gwyndolin Lee -- Special to Today
The prophecy by the Hopi, the Dine' and others expressed in the new educational DVD film ''Techqua Ikachi: Aboriginal Warning'' (43 minutes) from www.venicevisionarymedia.net spells out a very specific cause for a potential doomsday. Science has now caught up with those long-dead prophets to confirm the amazing accuracy of their vision with the new prediction of a global warming disaster from the continued dominance of coal and oil as our principal energy sources. The words techqua ikachi refer to Hopi for ''land and life.''
For decades and continuing to this day, the Hopi and Dine' have protested at Black Mesa in northern Arizona on those same reservation lands where in prior years many had died from the carcinogenic effects of uranium mining. One center for this widespread local opposition has been the traditional Hopi village of Hotevilla, founded in 1906 after a clash between Hopi traditionals and those ''progressives'' who had decided to give up their traditions, convert to Christianity, and seek the material benefits of Western technology and industry. The traditionals were purged out of the ancient village of Oraibi into the desert wilderness in the cold and snow of winter and founded their own new village at Hotevilla.
In 1969, the federal government brought in contractors to provide the first electric power to the village of Hotevilla. Power poles were trucked in, and heavy equipment arrived to clear the way for the installation. At this point, a group of Hopi elders arrived on the scene to block the work. Those old men lied down in the path of the bulldozers, ready to sacrifice their lives if necessary to prevent electric power from coming to their village. One 90-year-old man was injured and did not survive long after. Why would anyone resist or even criticize progress?
Like many indigenous peoples, the traditional Hopi share a widespread belief and prophecy that taking oil and minerals is a transgression on Mother Earth and will bring disaster. Modern evidence supporting this belief can be found in the toxicity at all mining sites everywhere and in the new specter of a potential doomsday from the continued dominance of coal as our principal energy source.
This prophecy, like scriptural prophecies, foretells doom for those who forsake the right way of life; but the Hopi and Dine' prophecy is very specific in describing mining and drilling as the sources of the coming catastrophe, and this focus is proving accurate with the rise of the specter of global warming.
The Arizona conflict is but one aspect of a worldwide epidemic of appropriation and exploitation of lands of indigenous peoples, including many other locations in the U.S. Among sites of recent protest demonstrations are Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah, Florida, the Dakotas, Alaska, Canada, Burma, Colombia, Indonesia, Tibet, the Arctic, Mexico, Madagascar, the Philippines, Russia, Chile, Brazil, Guatemala, Australia, Thailand and India; thousands of demonstrations have also been held in China. Many others are not reported. Civil war over oil has broken out in Sudan, Nigeria and Pakistan, and mass murder in Ethiopia. More than 5 million are dead from wars over mining in the Congo.
There is no organizational link between these peoples. What they have in common is the despoiling of their lands for the profit of others.
Those elders requested a film be made about the Hopi prophecy. The elders risked their lives to block the bulldozers, as in the film. Those elders are gone now, yet the protest demonstrations by the Hopi and Dine' have not only continued, the conflict there has grown and expanded. Similar conflicts worldwide continue and worsen. A long list of URLs for news reports is available at www.geocities.com/alankentgorg.
Almost 40 years after that demonstration in Hotevilla, the docudrama ''Techqua Ikachi'' has been finished, aimed at schools and colleges, and dedicated to the Hopi elders who provided the inspiration. The film won the Neptune Award at the Moondance International Film Festival and has been honored at the Columbus Film Festival and at international film festivals in China, India, Canada, Korea and Latin America.
The Hopi people knew how to be civil to others long before modern so-called civilization, which brought money and modern things but no peace and little civility. The Hopi had lived their quiet life in a difficult desert for many centuries in peace, but now the lust for energy and minerals leaves them and many other indigenous peoples little chance for peace.
Ultimately our environmental problems are connected to the sufferings of others around the world from exploitation of their lands by oil and mining interest - but in the end, as their prophecies state, everyone may all go down together.
China’s Colonizing Africa, While We Talk Charity
http://intercontinentalcry.org/chinas-colonizing-africa-while-we-talk-charity/
“From Nigeria in the north, to Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Angola in the west, across Chad and Sudan in the east, and south through Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique,” writes Andrew Malone, “China has seized a vice-like grip on a continent which officials have decided is crucial to the superpower’s long-term survival.”
In fact, it would seem China’s following the same model that Britain first employed to colonize Africa; particularly that expressed by the highly respected and equally racist cousin of Charles Darwin, Sir Francis Galton, just over 130 years ago.
In an 1873 letter to The Times, Galton wrote, ‘My proposal is to make the encouragement of Chinese settlements of Africa a part of our national policy, in the belief that the Chinese immigrants would not only maintain their position, but that they would multiply and their descendants supplant the inferior Negro race.’
‘I should expect that the African seaboard, now sparsely occupied by lazy, palavering savages, might in a few years be tenanted by industrious, order-loving Chinese, living either as a semidetached dependency of China, or else in perfect freedom under their own law.’
With over 750,000 Chinese settling in Africa over the past ten years, and suggestions that anywhere up to 300 million will need to be sent in the future (to offset over-population and pollution), Malone says that Galton’s vision of a colonized Africa is now coming to pass.
Across Africa, the red flag of China is flying. Lucrative deals are being struck to buy its commodities - oil, platinum, gold and minerals. New embassies and air routes are opening up. The continent’s new Chinese elite can be seen everywhere, shopping at their own expensive boutiques, driving Mercedes and BMW limousines, sending their children to exclusive private schools.
The pot-holed roads are cluttered with Chinese buses, taking people to markets filled with cheap Chinese goods. More than a thousand miles of new Chinese railroads are crisscrossing the continent, carrying billions of tons of illegally-logged timber, diamonds and gold.
The trains are linked to ports dotted around the coast, waiting to carry the goods back to Beijing after unloading cargoes of cheap toys made in China.
Confucius Institutes (state-funded Chinese ‘cultural centres’) have sprung up throughout Africa, as far afield as the tiny land-locked countries of Burundi and Rwanda, teaching baffled local people how to do business in Mandarin and Cantonese.
“The Chinese are all over the place,” says Trevor Ncube, a prominent African businessman. “If the British were our masters yesterday, the Chinese have taken their place.”
Meanwhile, Russia tries to get its own foot-hold in Africa; over-eager Americans and civil society groups barrage the continent with good will gestures; and the governments of the world, as always, undermine it with old-fashioned Christian charity and promises of better days… so long as they “play nice.”
Thanks to Shashi for passing on Andrew Malone’s article.
“From Nigeria in the north, to Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Angola in the west, across Chad and Sudan in the east, and south through Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique,” writes Andrew Malone, “China has seized a vice-like grip on a continent which officials have decided is crucial to the superpower’s long-term survival.”
In fact, it would seem China’s following the same model that Britain first employed to colonize Africa; particularly that expressed by the highly respected and equally racist cousin of Charles Darwin, Sir Francis Galton, just over 130 years ago.
In an 1873 letter to The Times, Galton wrote, ‘My proposal is to make the encouragement of Chinese settlements of Africa a part of our national policy, in the belief that the Chinese immigrants would not only maintain their position, but that they would multiply and their descendants supplant the inferior Negro race.’
‘I should expect that the African seaboard, now sparsely occupied by lazy, palavering savages, might in a few years be tenanted by industrious, order-loving Chinese, living either as a semidetached dependency of China, or else in perfect freedom under their own law.’
With over 750,000 Chinese settling in Africa over the past ten years, and suggestions that anywhere up to 300 million will need to be sent in the future (to offset over-population and pollution), Malone says that Galton’s vision of a colonized Africa is now coming to pass.
Across Africa, the red flag of China is flying. Lucrative deals are being struck to buy its commodities - oil, platinum, gold and minerals. New embassies and air routes are opening up. The continent’s new Chinese elite can be seen everywhere, shopping at their own expensive boutiques, driving Mercedes and BMW limousines, sending their children to exclusive private schools.
The pot-holed roads are cluttered with Chinese buses, taking people to markets filled with cheap Chinese goods. More than a thousand miles of new Chinese railroads are crisscrossing the continent, carrying billions of tons of illegally-logged timber, diamonds and gold.
The trains are linked to ports dotted around the coast, waiting to carry the goods back to Beijing after unloading cargoes of cheap toys made in China.
Confucius Institutes (state-funded Chinese ‘cultural centres’) have sprung up throughout Africa, as far afield as the tiny land-locked countries of Burundi and Rwanda, teaching baffled local people how to do business in Mandarin and Cantonese.
“The Chinese are all over the place,” says Trevor Ncube, a prominent African businessman. “If the British were our masters yesterday, the Chinese have taken their place.”
Meanwhile, Russia tries to get its own foot-hold in Africa; over-eager Americans and civil society groups barrage the continent with good will gestures; and the governments of the world, as always, undermine it with old-fashioned Christian charity and promises of better days… so long as they “play nice.”
Thanks to Shashi for passing on Andrew Malone’s article.
Law enforcement groups call for probe of U.S. Rep. Reyes’ handling of kidnapping case
by Bill Conroy
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2008/07/law-enforcement-groups-call-probe-us-rep-reyes%E2%80%99-handling-kidnapping-cas
The Friends of the Border Patrol (FOBP), a nonprofit law-enforcement advocacy group, has filed a complaint with a Congressional committee calling for an ethics investigation into the activities of U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas.
The 23-page complaint, including exhibits, focuses specifically on the alleged impropriety of Reyes' actions in seeking the assistance of a federal law enforcement agency late last month to assist in rescuing his kidnapped relative — a Mexican citizen who was abducted in Juarez, Mexico. The woman was eventually released, with the help of both U.S. and Mexican law enforcement, after a ransom was paid.
The involvement of Reyes' office in that little adventure was exposed after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) memo was leaked to Narco News.
From the FOBP complaint (which can be found at this link):
I am writing to respectfully request an immediate formal investigation by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct into a recent request for assistance from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) by Silvestre Reyes, Member of Congress (El Paso), and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
The matter involved a relative of the Congressman's spouse who had been kidnapped in Juarez, Mexico on June 19, 2008 and was being held for ransom. According to a number of publications, including Narconews.com, which broke the story, a sensitive memo prepared by Donald Bruckschen in ICE Office of International Affairs to ICE Assistant Secretary Julie Myers was leaked, detailing ICE's role in the matter.
... A number of retired senior federal law enforcement officials ... collectively call the ICE request "bizarre, questionable, inappropriate and highly unusual..." and that "it raises serious questions" considering Mr. Reyes' previous employment as Chief Patrol Agent in the McAllen and El Paso Sectors of the U.S. Border Patrol.
Therefore, under the "Code of Official Conduct", it appears Mr. Reyes has violated the following ...
The complaint then goes on to cite the specific alleged violations of the House ethics code.
The FOBP ethics complaint also references a number of other border tragedies — including the House of Death kidnappings and murders and the slaying earlier this year of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agent Luis Aguilar — that involved U.S. citizens or residents who have family members residing in Reyes' Congressional district. The complaint alleges the Congressman has failed to take adequate action to address the plights of the victims in those cases while at the same time he seeks to justify invoking U.S. law enforcement resources to investigate a kidnapping in Mexico involving a foreign citizen — who happens to be related to his wife.
"I respectfully ask for the [House] committee to conduct an investigation and hearing into all these matters as stated herein, given the fact that this complaint is filled with actions and statements that can be viewed as contradictory and even hypocritical on the part of the former chief and current chairman Reyes," the FOBP complaint concludes."
On another front, the Federal Hispanic Law Enforcement Officers Association (FHLEOA) also issued a press release today in support of the FOBP's call for an investigation into the Reyes kidnapping affair.
From the FHLEOA press release [link here]:
Recent media coverage of a leaked memorandum and official statements relative to Congressman Silvestre Reyes' role in involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the investigation of a relative's kidnapping in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, are cause for concern, particularly when the victim was not a United States citizen, ICE clearly lacks jurisdiction in crimes that occur in foreign countries, and Reyes has failed to make similar efforts for other victims of crimes in his congressional district.
Add to that the statement by Reyes that the investigation was compromised with the release of the ICE memorandum to the press, and that the Inspector General has begun an investigation of the leaked memorandum, and we have yet another all too common occurrence in federal law enforcement -- a government conspiracy to retaliate against a whistleblower.
Congressman Reyes' actions in this case, as well as the official statements released by his office and by ICE, are the height of hypocrisy when considering that in January 2004 it was learned that ICE and the U.S. Attorney's Office in El Paso were allegedly involved in allowing the murders of at least 12 Mexican citizens and one U.S. Permanent Resident in Ciudad Juarez, with the participation of a U.S. informant controlled by ICE. [The House of Death case.]
In the wake of Reyes' involvement in the kidnapping rescue being made public late last month, the Congressman's office issued the following statement to the media.
... Whenever the Office of Congressman Silvestre Reyes is notified of a potential criminal matter, the incident is immediately reported to law enforcement, particularly when an individual may be in imminent danger. This kidnapping was reported to Congressman Reyes's district office by the victim's family, who are citizens of the United States and constituents of the 16th District of Texas. The Congressman's staff immediately notified law enforcement authorities. We notify law enforcement in these circumstances without regard to the victim's identity, country of citizenship, or legal status.
Congressman Reyes was informed of the incident by his staff after law enforcement had been notified. While the Congressman was kept apprised of the situation, he had no other role. Any suggestion that Congressman Reyes somehow influenced the actions of law enforcement is false....
The FOBP and the FHLEOA are not the first groups to question Reyes' explanation of his involvement in the kidnapping case. Last month, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonprofit group focused on ethics and accountability in government, issued the following press statement concerning the kidnapping caper:
CREW is asking [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary Chertoff to immediately order an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding ICE's involvement in the matter to determine the nature of the inquiry by Cong. Reyes' office, whether ICE [part of DHS] had the legal authority to intercede in this matter, why ICE chose to get involved in this matter, whether the State Department was consulted, and whether ICE has offered assistance in other cases involving foreign nationals kidnapped on foreign soil.
CREW's executive director Melanie Sloan stated, "While the release of any kidnapping victim is always a positive development, this matter raises serious questions about whether ICE acted appropriately here." Sloan continued, "Did ICE officials assist in resolving a foreign kidnapping simply because the victim is related to a powerful member of Congress? While Congressman Reyes undoubtedly was overwhelmed by concern for his relative, officials with more objectivity should have been considering the greater political and policy issues raised by ICE's intercession.
Stay tuned....
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2008/07/law-enforcement-groups-call-probe-us-rep-reyes%E2%80%99-handling-kidnapping-cas
The Friends of the Border Patrol (FOBP), a nonprofit law-enforcement advocacy group, has filed a complaint with a Congressional committee calling for an ethics investigation into the activities of U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas.
The 23-page complaint, including exhibits, focuses specifically on the alleged impropriety of Reyes' actions in seeking the assistance of a federal law enforcement agency late last month to assist in rescuing his kidnapped relative — a Mexican citizen who was abducted in Juarez, Mexico. The woman was eventually released, with the help of both U.S. and Mexican law enforcement, after a ransom was paid.
The involvement of Reyes' office in that little adventure was exposed after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) memo was leaked to Narco News.
From the FOBP complaint (which can be found at this link):
I am writing to respectfully request an immediate formal investigation by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct into a recent request for assistance from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) by Silvestre Reyes, Member of Congress (El Paso), and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
The matter involved a relative of the Congressman's spouse who had been kidnapped in Juarez, Mexico on June 19, 2008 and was being held for ransom. According to a number of publications, including Narconews.com, which broke the story, a sensitive memo prepared by Donald Bruckschen in ICE Office of International Affairs to ICE Assistant Secretary Julie Myers was leaked, detailing ICE's role in the matter.
... A number of retired senior federal law enforcement officials ... collectively call the ICE request "bizarre, questionable, inappropriate and highly unusual..." and that "it raises serious questions" considering Mr. Reyes' previous employment as Chief Patrol Agent in the McAllen and El Paso Sectors of the U.S. Border Patrol.
Therefore, under the "Code of Official Conduct", it appears Mr. Reyes has violated the following ...
The complaint then goes on to cite the specific alleged violations of the House ethics code.
The FOBP ethics complaint also references a number of other border tragedies — including the House of Death kidnappings and murders and the slaying earlier this year of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agent Luis Aguilar — that involved U.S. citizens or residents who have family members residing in Reyes' Congressional district. The complaint alleges the Congressman has failed to take adequate action to address the plights of the victims in those cases while at the same time he seeks to justify invoking U.S. law enforcement resources to investigate a kidnapping in Mexico involving a foreign citizen — who happens to be related to his wife.
"I respectfully ask for the [House] committee to conduct an investigation and hearing into all these matters as stated herein, given the fact that this complaint is filled with actions and statements that can be viewed as contradictory and even hypocritical on the part of the former chief and current chairman Reyes," the FOBP complaint concludes."
On another front, the Federal Hispanic Law Enforcement Officers Association (FHLEOA) also issued a press release today in support of the FOBP's call for an investigation into the Reyes kidnapping affair.
From the FHLEOA press release [link here]:
Recent media coverage of a leaked memorandum and official statements relative to Congressman Silvestre Reyes' role in involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the investigation of a relative's kidnapping in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, are cause for concern, particularly when the victim was not a United States citizen, ICE clearly lacks jurisdiction in crimes that occur in foreign countries, and Reyes has failed to make similar efforts for other victims of crimes in his congressional district.
Add to that the statement by Reyes that the investigation was compromised with the release of the ICE memorandum to the press, and that the Inspector General has begun an investigation of the leaked memorandum, and we have yet another all too common occurrence in federal law enforcement -- a government conspiracy to retaliate against a whistleblower.
Congressman Reyes' actions in this case, as well as the official statements released by his office and by ICE, are the height of hypocrisy when considering that in January 2004 it was learned that ICE and the U.S. Attorney's Office in El Paso were allegedly involved in allowing the murders of at least 12 Mexican citizens and one U.S. Permanent Resident in Ciudad Juarez, with the participation of a U.S. informant controlled by ICE. [The House of Death case.]
In the wake of Reyes' involvement in the kidnapping rescue being made public late last month, the Congressman's office issued the following statement to the media.
... Whenever the Office of Congressman Silvestre Reyes is notified of a potential criminal matter, the incident is immediately reported to law enforcement, particularly when an individual may be in imminent danger. This kidnapping was reported to Congressman Reyes's district office by the victim's family, who are citizens of the United States and constituents of the 16th District of Texas. The Congressman's staff immediately notified law enforcement authorities. We notify law enforcement in these circumstances without regard to the victim's identity, country of citizenship, or legal status.
Congressman Reyes was informed of the incident by his staff after law enforcement had been notified. While the Congressman was kept apprised of the situation, he had no other role. Any suggestion that Congressman Reyes somehow influenced the actions of law enforcement is false....
The FOBP and the FHLEOA are not the first groups to question Reyes' explanation of his involvement in the kidnapping case. Last month, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonprofit group focused on ethics and accountability in government, issued the following press statement concerning the kidnapping caper:
CREW is asking [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary Chertoff to immediately order an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding ICE's involvement in the matter to determine the nature of the inquiry by Cong. Reyes' office, whether ICE [part of DHS] had the legal authority to intercede in this matter, why ICE chose to get involved in this matter, whether the State Department was consulted, and whether ICE has offered assistance in other cases involving foreign nationals kidnapped on foreign soil.
CREW's executive director Melanie Sloan stated, "While the release of any kidnapping victim is always a positive development, this matter raises serious questions about whether ICE acted appropriately here." Sloan continued, "Did ICE officials assist in resolving a foreign kidnapping simply because the victim is related to a powerful member of Congress? While Congressman Reyes undoubtedly was overwhelmed by concern for his relative, officials with more objectivity should have been considering the greater political and policy issues raised by ICE's intercession.
Stay tuned....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Armas
