11. Content license from you

11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.

More at TapTheHive.

See also the similar theft by Facebook:

"When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing."

The enclosure of knowledge is progressing strongly, fast and the thought police is coming for you any minute.

77 Hannah Arendt's + Albert Einstein's Letter to New York Times 02/04 Dec. 1948

Prominent Jews' December, 1948
Letter To New York Times
From John Wheat Gibson
From RePorterNoteBook@aol.com
8-2-2

Below is a 'copy' in its entirety of a very important letter to the New York Times from Jewish intellectuals including Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, and Sidney Hook that appeared on December 4, 1948 While it is quoted from in brief on several web sites, it appears nowhere in its entirety, and it deserves to be disseminated as it originally appears. [THIS (colonos) EDITOR'S NOTE: a .pdf scan of the letter is linked to on the Wikipedia entry for Arendt]

John Wheat Gibson

Please see also information provided under "Source Notes" at the end of this document.

Letters to The Times New York Times December 4, 1948
New Palestine Party Visit of Menachem Begin and Aims of Political Movement Discussed

TO THE EDITORS OF THE NEW YORK TIMES:
Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the "Freedom Party" (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine.

The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit. It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin's political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents.

Before irreparable damage is done by way of financial contributions, public manifestations in Begin's behalf, and the creation in Palestine of the impression that a large segment of America supports Fascist elements in Israel, the American public must be informed as to the record and objectives of Mr. Begin and his movement.

The public avowals of Begin's party are no guide whatever to its actual character. Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.

Attack on Arab Village
A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (THE NEW YORK TIMES), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants-240 men, women, and children-and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Deir Yassin.

The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party.
Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority. Like other Fascist parties they have been used to break strikes, and have themselves pressed for the destruction of free trade unions. In their stead they have proposed corporate unions on the Italian Fascist model. During the last years of sporadic anti-British violence, the IZL and Stern groups inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community. Teachers were beaten up for speaking against them, adults were shot for not letting their children join them. By gangster methods, beatings, window-smashing, and wide-spread robberies, the terrorists intimidated the population and exacted a heavy tribute. The people of the Freedom Party have had no part in the constructive achievements in Palestine. They have reclaimed no land, built no settlements, and only detracted from the Jewish defense activity. Their much-publicized immigration endeavors were minute, and devoted mainly to bringing in Fascist compatriots.

Discrepancies Seen
The discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin and his party, and their record of past performance in Palestine bear the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a "Leader State" is the goal.

In the light of the foregoing considerations, it is imperative that the truth about Mr. Begin and his movement be made known in this country. It is all the more tragic that the top leadership of American Zionism has refused to campaign against Begin's efforts, or even to expose to its own constituents the dangers to Israel from support to Begin. The undersigned therefore take this means of publicly presenting a few salient facts concerning Begin and his party; and of urging all concerned not to support this latest manifestation of fascism.

(signed)

ISIDORE ABRAMOWITZ, HANNAH ARENDT, ABRAHAM BRICK, RABBI JESSURUN CARDOZO, ALBERT EINSTEIN, HERMAN EISEN, M.D., HAYIM FINEMAN, M. GALLEN, M.D., H.H. HARRIS, ZELIG S. HARRIS, SIDNEY HOOK, FRED KARUSH, BRURIA KAUFMAN, IRMA L. LINDHEIM, NACHMAN MAISEL, SEYMOUR MELMAN, MYER D. MENDELSON, M.D., HARRY M. OSLINSKY, SAMUEL PITLICK, FRITZ ROHRLICH, LOUIS P. ROCKER, RUTH SAGIS, ITZHAK SANKOWSKY, I.J. SHOENBERG, SAMUEL SHUMAN, M. SINGER, IRMA WOLFE, STEFAN WOLFE.

New York, Dec. 2, 1948

Source notes: Laura Nader gave a copy of the microfilmed NYT to Anne Lipow in April. (Nader has been using it in her class at UC). The copy was illegible in parts and the first column was cut off; Laura's original was the same. Anne and UC Anthropology Librarian Suzanne Calpestri then tried to retrieve an electronic version of the letter. It appears nowhere in its entirety on the Internet, and is not in any NYT electronic archive accessible to UC Librarians (i.e., it doesn't exist). Suzanne made another copy from a different microfilm; it solved the mystery of the missing first column but this copy was also "dirty" in other areas. Neither copy was scannable using OCR, so I typed it in by hand exactly the way it appeared in the original, and have proofed it carefully. However, the spelling of some of the signatories was unclear in the microfilmed originals, so there may be a few errors in this rendition. It would be nice if someone were to annotate the list of signatories, so that those less-familiar names could be placed in context. At any rate, this clearly belongs IN FULL TEXT on the web for distribution to as many people as possible. Please circulate this among anyone you think may be interested; I think it especially belongs in the hands of those friends and family members who are still reluctant to criticize the Israeli government.

Source info:
Jenny Lipow Berkeley, CA

John Wheat Gibson

MainPage: http://www.rense.com

"Eco fascism, can be used in two different ways:

1. For specific elements of radical environmentalism which are openly affiliated with neo-fascism, or which share conceptual similarities with fascist theories. It is used critically from an external source, and somewhat less commonly used from within as a self label, to refer to various white nationalist and third positionist groups who incorporate environmentalist positions into their ideology.
2. The term is also used as a political epithet by political conservatives to discredit deep ecology, mainstream environmentalism, and other left and non-left ecological positions, and less frequently by political leftists to discredit environmental movements they see as non-left such as deep ecology."

So who do the conspiracy theorists think are behind this socalled ecofascism? None others than the very same kind of people that actual, radical environmentalists - anyone that I have ever met, and it is quite a few anyway - would call the greenwashers:

"Greenwashing is the unjustified appropriation of environmental virtue by a company, an industry, a government, a politician or even a non-government organization to create a pro-environmental image, sell a product or a policy, or to try and rehabilitate their standing with the public and decision makers after being embroiled in controversy.The U.S.-based watchdog group CorpWatch defines greenwash as "the phenomena of socially and environmentally destructive corporations, attempting to preserve and expand their markets or power by posing as friends of the environment." This definition was shaped by by the group's focus on corporate behavior and the rise of corporate green advertising at the time. However, governments, political candidates, trade associations and non-government organizations have also been accused of greenwashing."

Hence, what warped, right-winger, industrialist cheerleaders call ecofascism, those who radically care for the planet call greenwashing - and you can scroll down this list quickly to get an idea who they are, or read in-depth if you like facts and figures:

"The Rockefeller Foundation (www.rockfound.org) currently values its assets at $3.1 billion. They've been averaging about $175 million per year in grants to various causes over the last several years. They no longer list "population control" and "environment" as distinct programs. They now deploy vague program headings such as "Working Communities", "Global Inclusion", "Food Security" etc., but searching deeper one discovers many of the grants allocated under these program headings are going to the usual neo-Malthusian, eco-activist NGOs.

There are scores of lesser foundations which have chosen to follow the lead of the above-mentioned institutions and presently donate to 'the cause'. For instance, environmentalism in definitely the number one priority at the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation (www.gddf.org) - assets $70 million - total annual grants around $4 million. The same could be said of the Merck Family Foundation (www.merckff.org) - assets $55 million, annual grants around $3 million. Almost all the $4 to $6 million leaving the Beldon Foundation (www.beldon.org) goes to eco-groups. Both the Flintridge Foundation and the Charles Heller Foundation are giving about $500,000 per year to green groups. And there are many others. So the several hundred million dollar annual donation figure cited above has to be supplemented, by some indeterminable amount, to account for the contributions of these hundreds of lesser foundations."

This research, even though done by some extremist, anti-environmentalist (does that mean a "planet murderer"?) seems useful enough: see for yourself who they are, those who claim to be washing the planet green. As far as I can tell, probably neither the extremist, anti-environmentalists nor the radical environmentlists are exclusively right. I clearly favour the view of the radical environmentalists and would think more than twice about taking greenwashing money, but it seems to me just as plausible that those rich and educated people, like the trust fund kids of oil, cars and ketchup empires, know all too well that all their wealth is built with blood money and that, merely, they are buying themselves a conscience.

On the other hand, in a moment of charity, one could also give the extremist the benefit of the doubt and agree that Theresa Heinz-Ketchup Kerry, Ted Deception Turner and the Rockefellas are the vegan children of Hitler and Satan, but that says nothing about the hard working anti-capitalist, environmentalists out there, such as RisingTide. On that view, if anything, the ecofascist conspiracy (at best or at worse?) is a conspiracy to write out that very kind of action from the equation: if only rich neo-nazis control from above and blue-eyed, sheepish following below defines environmentalism, then the status quo seems well preserved:

"On a still day you can just hear the plutocracy laughing. Environmentalism is a dark green tarp they have thrown over North America. They have decreed development be slowed to a crawl and enlisted a vast 'army of the night' to implement this command. Here in the trenches we never engage the Kennedys, the Trudeaus or the Windsors. No, down here we get to argue with kids with daisy-counting diplomas from community colleges in their hands and grant applications to the Ford Foundation in their hip pockets; and good luck trying to change the minds of people like this. If not for environmentalist suppression of economic activity North America would be experiencing a tremendous and sustained boom that would reduce unemployment to a smidgeon of its current rate. The responsibility for all of the under-employment, all of the want of opportunity, the lack of housing, the scarcity of public funds, the poverty, the hardship, hard times and heartache people are experiencing shall be layeth upon the well-guarded doorsteps of Big Green. We smolder, we seethe and we type on."

However, there is a different way - different from Gory Al and Ketchup Kerry, different from DiCaprio and Suzuki: anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist and spiritual environmentalism that is shared by many environmental movements, indigenous movements, and campesino movements across the world in their struggles for autonomy and environmental justice.

Environmentalism is an economic issue as much as it is a spiritual challenge. Those who suffer first and foremost from industrial pollution and consequent climate change are the poor - as always. But it also concerns leaving a liveable planet for our children to play in.

What kind of world do we want - one that is run by a filthy few for a bloody buck or one that is lived by all in common? This is "The Future according to Robert Crumb" from Whole Earth Review, Winter 1988:

(the "Fun Future" and the "Ecological Disaster" scenarios are probably the same)

The two first scenarios are two sides of the same future - a rich enclave on the inside and outside the promised land where there is no ecological justice, - the rich enclave, of course, living on borrowed time. The industrial nightmare is what the extremist wants - that is in particular why it is an extreme position - the second illusionary or technofetishist wet dream of the IT nouveau-riche almost exist for some, while the last and only viable option, really, is still on the magic cards.

Let's go do it!

What we've got here is a failure to communicate and a sheepish, dependent and pathetic bunch of business administrators - jacks of all administrative trades, masters of no intellect - who call the anti terror cops on their own students and staff without reflection, without (reasonable) thought and with no sense of reality at all.

Colonos have just written to Alf Nilsen to clarify the exact meaning of the third last paragraph, which commences: "Fourthly, the claim that..." which appears to be written a bit too hastily or merely goes right over my head :)

However, for now - here goes, see for yourself where it's at:

Dear all – some of you may have written to the Registrar at the University of Nottingham, Dr. Paul Greatrix, to protest the recent false terror arrests at our university, and some of you might also have received a reply. My colleagues and I would like to point out a number of inconsistencies in this reply – see below, and as always: please circulate!!

Comments on University Communication on Recent Events

As concerned academics at the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham who have been involved in the campaign for academic freedom and the release of Hicham Yezza in the wake of the false terror arrests at our university last week, we request that the Registrar, Dr. Paul Greatrix, amends the statement that he is currently circulating in response to letters of concern sent by academics from across the world to the University of Nottingham. The statement contains a number of inconsistencies, and we feel it necessary to point these out, both to Dr. Greatrix, and to the wider public.

Firstly, Dr. Greatrix seeks to label the coverage of the incident in the media, and in the Times Higher Education supplement in particular as inaccurate. However, all the evidence he provides for this claim are the two minor points that the administrative member of staff involved in this case was not working at the Department of Engineering, and that there was no armed response by the police during the arrests at the university. These facts, however, are in themselves irrelevant when compared to the fact that the academic freedom and civil liberties of a student and a member of staff have been grossly violated. Indeed, it should be noted that the Times Higher Education supplement was substantially correct in its coverage of the case. Finally, it should also be noted that the claim that there was an armed police response to the campus stems from the BBC news reports on the incident last week, which do not seem to have attracted a correction from the university.

Secondly, Dr. Greatrix claims that this was a low-level investigation. This claim, however, does not stand up to scrutiny. Students had their bags searched by uniformed police before entering the Trent Building the day after the arrests. The student and member of staff that was arrested was held from Wednesday May 14 until Tuesday, May 20 without charge, in spite of the fact that Rizwaan Sabir’s supervisor and personal tutor both confirmed to the police that the document they had downloaded and printed was legitimate research material on Friday, May 16. The homes of the two men were raided; they had their computers impounded and they have still not been returned; the family of Rizwaan Sabir was ejected from their home during the police’s search; several colleagues in the School of politics were interviewed for hours by the police. A low-key investigation would have resolved this matter within hours by contacting the relevant members of staff at the School of Politics and International Relations; indeed, a low-key investigation, to use Dr. Greatrix’s term, would have been conducted by the university itself, without any police involvement at all.

Thirdly, Dr. Greatrix claims that the university has contacted those involved in this matter to offer support and discuss the incident that took place. In fact, none of the staff members interviewed by the police have been contacted by the university with the offer of support. Moreover, the university has offered nothing in terms of official support or counsel to Rizwaan Sabir and Hicham Yezza, thus neglecting the welfare and well-being of its staff and students. To the extent that Rizwaan Sabir and Hicham Yezza have received support it has been from the members of staff and the students that Dr. Greatrix’s statement appear to be slurring.

Fourthly, the claim that the Times Higher Education supplement is wrong in its claim that the university does not deem the document that led to the arrests to be relevant research material is unconvincing. The university did in fact state that it deemed the document illegitimate, and only at a later stage retracted this and replaced with the modified statement that it was appropriate for academic members of staff to be in possession of such materials. This is of course in itself a deeply problematic argument, due to the simple fact that the material is available to the general public via perfectly respectable web-sites. We find it surprising that a university would express such disregard of the rights of engaged citizens to educate themselves on issues of public concern.

The conduct of the university in this matter stands in stark contrast to Dr. Greatrix’s claim that the university is committed to ensuring that its staff and students “are free to study and work in a safe, secure and tolerant environment” and that the university works towards ensuring “that everyone at Nottingham is able to enjoy freedom of speech and expression within the law”. In fact, the university has been deeply reluctant to enter into any kind of dialogue with students and staff that are concerned about the status of academic freedom and civil liberties.

It is clear to us, therefore, that the University of Nottingham will not be an “open and free arena for debate and dissent” until an apology is offered to Rizwaan Sabir and Hicham Yezza, and until the university guarantees the academic freedom, civil liberties and human rights of its staff and students.

Alf Nilsen
Bettina Renz
Vanessa Pupavac

Dr. Alf Gunvald Nilsen
RCUK Fellow, Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice, School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/cssgj/index.php
University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, England, UK

Mobile: (0044) (0) 7973332219

Office: (0044) (0) 1159514032

I have just returned from a meeting where yachaks (shamans) from various regions of "el Oriente" (basically the Ecuadorian Amazon) have gathered all weekend to discuss, among other things, Correa's rejection in the constituent assembly processes of collective rights and a range of specific demands made by the indigenous movements as part of the rewriting of the Ecuadorian constitution. Talks are of strikes and some suggest that another uprising is brewing - at any rate Rafael Correa is very unpopular with indigenous people and campesinos, because he arrogantly have stated that he cares not about their demands since "they only constitute a few percent of his voters".

So what does Mr. Correa care about - well, like the Clintons he seems mostly fascinated by inscribing himself into the white man's history of conquest of the world through an industrial economy that is essentially based on exploitation of labour and pachamama (mother earth).

"Unasur to boost financial self-sufficiency in S America:

BRASILIA, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said here Friday that the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) will boost programs to help realize financial self-sufficiency in the region.

After signing the bloc's constitutive agreement in the Brazilian capital, Correa said it was "a historical day for South America, which brings great expectation and hope."

"We can do like the European Union (EU). As the EU has to explain why they united, we will have to explain to our children and grandchildren why we took so long to do it," he told a press conference.""

Correa's vision and that of UNASUR is about entrance into an economy that many ever since its inception - with the conquest of new worlds and the industrial production apparatus that makes wars for more profit possible - have been fighting. And for quite some years it has been quite clear that it is a very unsustainable economy that the planet cannot sustain.

Of course it is the rich and the powerful who mostly have to change their wasteful ways, but to happily join that horrible economy that Correa is so blinded by and which accelerates climate change and destroys civilization is plain stupid. However, the middle classes who get better roads (this, the year where it seems like we have to take drastic measure and actions to counter climate change, is the year of asphalt in Ecuador), nicer cars to drive them on and bigger supermarkets to park them by and shop in, and of course the capitalists that exploit the natural resources that he so happily gives to foreign and private interests are laughing all the way to the bank while the earth cries.

The rest of the chinese article follows.

"The Ecuadorian president said the integration will bring about fast and concrete results.

"We can no longer be rhetorical, and Unasur must develop itself with concrete improvements in living standard of our peoples," he said.

In addition, Correa mentioned the project of financial integration through the Bank of the South as "fundamental."

"We can be self-sufficient in financial terms," said Correa, adding that, if member states keep their money "together," they will avoid having to "kneel down to get a small loan here and there."

Correa also spoke of the importance of cooperation in energy and transportation in the region, saying that it "would safeguard our sovereignty and enhance our capacity to make our own decisions."

He also agreed with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on the harmonization of social and educational policies in the region.

For example, Correa said certificates are to be recognized in all Unasur countries.

Referring to Brazil's proposal to create a South American defense council, Correa said he approved of it, although it was not his country's priority and that it would be necessary to reach true regional consensus before turning words into action in that matter.

He called on all countries to "permanently commit to following international law," in reference to Colombia's military incursion into Ecuadorian territory on March 1."

How about Correa committing to environmental justice and the human rights of indigenous peoples!??!

====================

COMUNICADO DE PRENSA
Ecuador. Francisco de Orellana, 07 de mayo del 2008. (hora: 11:50)
REMITIMOS COMUNICADO DE PRENSA.

Quito /Ecuador / INREDH

Comunicadores independientes víctimas de arresto arbitrario. El día martes 6 de mayo de 2008, entre las 10 y las 12 de la noche, fueron arrestados los comunicadores sociales Carlos Andrade, Santiago Cadena, Diana Cabascango y Francisco Jaramillo. miembros del Centro de Medios Independientes Indymedia-Ecuador.

El fiscal del caso, Doctor Francisco Noboa, encabezó el operativo de allanamiento a los domicilios y captura. Dicho fiscal se negó a informar al abogado de los detenidos sobre las razones de su detención, no quiso informar cual era el juez que conocía la causa, no mostró la orden de detención, ni la de allanamiento.

Esta actuación es violatoria al artículo 24(4) de la Constitución, el cual señala: Toda persona, al ser detenida, tendrá derecho a conocer en forma clara las razones de su detención, la identidad de la autoridad que la ordenó, la de los agentes que la llevan a cabo y la de los responsables del respectivo interrogatorio.

Por esta razón, el INREDH presentará una denuncia en contra del agente fiscal mencionado. El personal de la Policía Judicial no permitió que los detenidos se entrevisten con su abogado, por lo cual se configura una situación de incomunicación, por lo que el INREDH denunciará ante asuntos internos de la Policía Judicial esta falta para que se impongan sanciones a los policías responsables.

Estos hechos configuran una detención por conciencia, es decir una detención cuyo móvil es político. Las actividades comunicacionales de los detenidos eran de constante crítica al sistema constituido y de denuncia por los atropellos del poder a los derechos de las personas. Los bienes incautados de sus domicilios fueron computadoras, documentos de trabajo y afiches alusivos a su tendencia política.

Este arresto arbitrario esta siendo denunciado ante organismos internacionales como Amnistía Internacional, la Federación Internacional de Derechos Humanos, la Organización Mundial Contra la Tortura y la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos.

Exigimos que se frene la incomunicación de los detenidos, que se señalen las causas de su detención, que se sancionen al Agente Fiscal y a los oficiales de la Policía Judicial por la violación de los derechos
humanos de los detenidos y que si los supuestos legales no se cumplen se los deje en inmediata libertad.

Pedimos a la opinión pública que se mantenga vigilante de estos hechos que parecen configurar un ataque a la libertad de expresión en nuestro país.

Más información: Comunicación INREDH
Amanda Trujillo: 2526365 / 088994039
Ana Cristina Vera: 096200423

In the critical (mainstream environmentalist?) words of Rikke Bruntse-Dahl, writing for smartplanet.com:

"The overall message was that we've forgotten that we're part of nature and even though the Earth as such will survive, it will not be a pleasant -- or indeed habitable -- place to be if we don't start looking after it and each other. While it's undoubtedly a good message, which we'd like as many people as possible to hear, the film itself is just not up to scratch.

An hour and a half of interviews with some interesting, inspiring people (and some random not-so-inspiring people), stock library footage of gigantic factory chimneys, oil rigs, melting icebergs and fires coupled with often cheesy music (uplifting when beautiful nature footage was shown and moody when the camera turned to smoke and fire) seemed dated and not very creative.

And then there were Leo DiCaprio's comments and questions thrown in now and then for good measure. We normally adore him and his passion for the planet, but in The 11th Hour his narrator role came off stilted and unnatural -- almost like he was acting too much for a role that really required earnestness (we wanted Leo, not Jack from Titanic or some other character). The directors could have used him in a much more exciting way, if you ask us.".

I generally agree, that's about it.

It begins with a series of footage that reminds you of Baraka (gone wrong)- which is a truly beautiful film - but rather than a stylish and self-respecting reference to Baraka it felt like poor plagiarism in a dis-jointed and at times essay-like unfolding. However, the opening message that, for a change, a certain degree of anthropocentrism is required (in the context of climate chaos and change) positively commenced the experience of the 11th Hour for me: "it is not a question of saving the planet, but saving ourselves (from ourselves)". It somehow requires a self-transcendence to come to terms with changing our own lives so profoundly as we need to, now, we know, in order to save our selves. It's a bit like the exercise thing if you have a modern knowledge economy job, if you don't do it you degenerate - and we degenerate. The human being is a sick, unintelligent species collective speaking.

A good starting point and thread picked up on here and there - and I also liked the choice of many philosophical statements (from the environmental elite), some of which have profound anti-capitalist logical conclusions if you think about it and live it for while, but such conclusions, I found, were never reached (also rarely in the minds of the environmental establishment/vanguard, so perhaps no wonder...).

The 11th Hour - the last chance to act - goes as far as to tell us that the corporate board rooms of oil companies are to blame, that we as complicit consumers are to blame ("we cast a vote when we buy things" - [quoted from memory]) and that opportunism and greed defines human culture and always has defined human culture - given its bestial origins - but what is crucially missing from this "analysis" is that we live under an authoritative (patriarchal) system called capitalism which enhances, accentuates and rewards opportunism and greed. Our culture is based on a narrow, indeed opportunistic and greedy conception of property. It is not enough to discipline the politicians and the filthy few of the €xxonMobil, sHell et al. to reorganise our global culture. We live in a system that basically perpetuates our very worst of qualities - something at which we are bestially good: opportunism and greed.

To reconfigure our culture wholesale changes have to happen - from collective land rights and indigenous/permacultural stewardship and reforestation of forests (no more capitalistic logging, farming, and other destructive industrial processes) to solar and wind powered (no more fossil fuel, no industrial, large scale, monocultural biofuel either and so on, you know what I mean - a total micro production society, non-central, networked) Free information and communication networks (no more non-free software, no more AT&T, and google fully disclosing all code, no Micro$oft). If not opportunism and greed: then cooperate and share!

Hence, our culture of opportunism and greed won't change through opportunistic and greedy companies designing and selling us green houses with renewable energy built in, or multimillion dollar profit stewardship of operating systems (Novell, RedHat etc.) to bring us into cyberspace "freely" ... it goes a little deeper than that, it's a ... necessity to change that very basic system that ru(i)ns our world and which rewards opportunism and greed; in other words: capitalism is the primary obstacle to saving ourselves from total climatic disaster.

Despite the lacking political edge we agree that it is worth seeing (but we didnt have very high expectation at all, indeed it exceeded our expectations of a Hollywood production distributed by Warner Brother$) - smartplanet.com's Rikke continues: "We admit we had high expectations, and despite our disappointment we do encourage everybody to go and see it anyway when it's out in March." So it was out last month in the UK and also to be found everywhere in the information piracy sphere.

In another related dimension we find old school, old guard Lester Brown, who was a pioneering founder of Worldwatch.org, with the - I dare say - great Matters of Scale (..oh those walls...) and other things like Vital Signs. He went on to present the policies necessary to save ourselves with Earth-Policy.org which publishes Plan B - now in its third edition:

Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. You can - naturally - get the whole book directly here.

.......and here is Brown's take on the latest disaster - where capitalist globalisation and climate change comes fully together, there were you cannot even feed those who run away from the wars that you call freedom fights. Recall that Fidel Castro long since warned about the food crisis, "when he launched an attack on the biofuels policy of his ideological enemy, the United States, saying it was pushing up food prices and threatening global famine.

“More than three billion people in the world are being condemned to a premature death from hunger and thirst,” Castro wrote in his first column.

“It is not an exaggeration; this is rather a conservative figure,” he wrote, criticizing plans to turn food crops into fuel as a “sinister idea” hatched by the Bush administration and the U.S. auto industry.

In recent weeks, riots have broken out in more than a dozen countries, from Indonesia to Egypt and Cameroon, some countries are restricting food exports, and global panic buying of rice forced even some U.S. retail chains to limit purchases."

So here we go:

April 16, 2008 - 4

Copyright © 2008 Earth Policy Institute

WORLD FACING HUGE NEW CHALLENGE ON FOOD FRONT
Business-as-Usual Not a Viable Option

Lester R. Brown

A fast-unfolding food shortage is engulfing the entire world, driving food prices to record highs. Over the past half-century grain prices have spiked from time to time because of weather-related events, such as the 1972 Soviet crop failure that led to a doubling of world wheat, rice, and corn prices. The situation today is entirely different, however. The current doubling of grain prices is trend-driven, the cumulative effect of some trends that are accelerating growth in demand and other trends that are slowing the growth in supply.

The world has not experienced anything quite like this before. In the face of rising food prices and spreading hunger, the social order is beginning to break down in some countries. In several provinces in Thailand, for instance, rustlers steal rice by harvesting fields during the night. In response, Thai villagers with distant fields have taken to guarding ripe rice fields at night with loaded shotguns.

In Sudan, the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), which is responsible for supplying grain to 2 million people in Darfur refugee camps, is facing a difficult mission to say the least. During the first three months of this year, 56 grain-laden trucks were hijacked. Thus far, only 20 of the trucks have been recovered and some 24 drivers are still unaccounted for. This threat to U.N.-supplied food to the Darfur camps has reduced the flow of food into the region by half, raising the specter of starvation if supply lines cannot be secured.

In Pakistan, where flour prices have doubled, food insecurity is a national concern. Thousands of armed Pakistani troops have been assigned to guard grain elevators and to accompany the trucks that transport grain.

Food riots are now becoming commonplace. In Egypt, the bread lines at bakeries that distribute state-subsidized bread are often the scene of fights. In Morocco, 34 food rioters were jailed. In Yemen, food riots turned deadly, taking at least a dozen lives. In Cameroon, dozens of people have died in food riots and hundreds have been arrested. Other countries with food riots include Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, and Senegal. (See additional examples of food price unrest.)

The doubling of world wheat, rice, and corn prices has sharply reduced the availability of food aid, putting the 37 countries that depend on the WFP’s emergency food assistance at risk. In March, the WFP issued an urgent appeal for $500 million of additional funds.

Around the world, a politics of food scarcity is emerging. Most fundamentally, it involves the restriction of grain exports by countries that want to check the rise in their domestic food prices. Russia, the Ukraine, and Argentina are among the governments that are currently restricting wheat exports. Countries restricting rice exports include Viet Nam, Cambodia, and Egypt. These export restrictions simply drive prices higher in the world market.

The chronically tight food supply the world is now facing is driven by the cumulative effect of several well established trends that are affecting both global demand and supply. On the demand side, the trends include the continuing addition of 70 million people per year to the earth’s population, the desire of some 4 billion people to move up the food chain and consume more grain-intensive livestock products, and the recent sharp acceleration in the U.S. use of grain to produce ethanol for cars. Since 2005, this last source of demand has raised the annual growth in world grain consumption from roughly 20 million tons to 50 million tons.

Meanwhile, on the supply side, there is little new land to be brought under the plow unless it comes from clearing tropical rainforests in the Amazon and Congo basins and in Indonesia, or from clearing land in the Brazilian cerrado, a savannah-like region south of the Amazon rainforest. Unfortunately, this has heavy environmental costs: the release of sequestered carbon, the loss of plant and animal species, and increased rainfall runoff and soil erosion. And in scores of countries prime cropland is being lost to both industrial and residential construction and to the paving of land for roads, highways, and parking lots for fast-growing automobile fleets.

New sources of irrigation water are even more scarce than new land to plow. During the last half of the twentieth century, world irrigated area nearly tripled, expanding from 94 million hectares in 1950 to 276 million hectares in 2000. In the years since then there has been little, if any, growth. As a result, irrigated area per person is shrinking by 1 percent a year.

Meanwhile, the backlog of agricultural technology that can be used to raise cropland productivity is dwindling. Between 1950 and 1990 the world’s farmers raised grainland productivity by 2.1 percent a year, but from 1990 until 2007 this growth rate slowed to 1.2 percent a year. And the rising price of oil is boosting the costs of both food production and transport while at the same time making it more profitable to convert grain into fuel for cars.

Beyond this, climate change presents new risks. Crop-withering heat waves, more-destructive storms, and the melting of the Asian mountain glaciers that sustain the dry-season flow of that region’s major rivers, are combining to make harvest expansion more difficult. In the past the negative effect of unusual weather events was always temporary; within a year or two things would return to normal. But with climate in flux, there is no norm to return to.

The collective effect of these trends makes it more and more difficult for farmers to keep pace with the growth in demand. During seven of the last eight years, grain consumption exceeded production. After seven years of drawing down stocks, world grain carryover stocks in 2008 have fallen to 55 days of world consumption, the lowest on record. The result is a new era of tightening food supplies, rising food prices, and political instability. With grain stocks at an all-time low, the world is only one poor harvest away from total chaos in world grain markets.

Business-as-usual is no longer a viable option. Food security will deteriorate further unless leading countries can collectively mobilize to stabilize population, restrict the use of grain to produce automotive fuel, stabilize climate, stabilize water tables and aquifers, protect cropland, and conserve soils. Stabilizing population is not simply a matter of providing reproductive health care and family planning services. It requires a worldwide effort to eradicate poverty. Eliminating water shortages depends on a global attempt to raise water productivity similar to the effort launched a half-century ago to raise land productivity, an initiative that has nearly tripled the world grain yield per hectare. None of these goals can be achieved quickly, but progress toward all is essential to restoring a semblance of food security.

This troubling situation is unlike any the world has faced before. The challenge is not simply to deal with a temporary rise in grain prices, as in the past, but rather to quickly alter those trends whose cumulative effects collectively threaten the food security that is a hallmark of civilization. If food security cannot be restored quickly, social unrest and political instability will spread and the number of failing states will likely increase dramatically, threatening the very stability of civilization itself.

=================================

So that's all for now folks!

Correa and Chavez are gesturing and posing, moving troops to the border with Colombia, and condemning the attack in which several laptops belonging to FARC were seized from rebels shot dead in their sleep, on Ecuadorian soil, that contained details of relations to Ecuador and Venezuela. That makes it possible for the war on terror coalition of the willing to lump Ecuador and Venezuela together with Iran and FARC with Al-Qaeda; and, then, all that is needed is a paragraph circulating with the words "weapons of mass destruction" before the whole world knows that we are talking about "the evil ones".

"Ahmadinejad and Chavez have called themselves the "Axis of Unity." Some security experts call them something else: a potential threat to American security."

But who is who and what's the history?

Consider first the credentials of the Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe, who is accusing Ecuador and Venezuela of aiding terrorists and drug dealers:

"In 1997 and 1998, alert U.S. Customs agents in California seized three suspicious Colombia-bound ships that, the agents discovered, were laden with 50,000 kilos of potassium permanganate, a key "precursor chemical" necessary for the manufacture of cocaine.

According to a document signed by then-DEA chief Donnie R. Marshall on August 3, 2001, the ships were each destined for Medellín, Colombia, to a company called GMP Productos Quimicos, S. A. (GMP Chemical Products).
The 50,000 kilos of the precursor chemical destined for GMP were enough to make half-a-million kilos of cocaine hydrochloride, with a street value of $15 billion U.S. dollars.

The owner of GMP Chemical Products, according to the 2001 DEA chief's report, is Pedro Juan Moreno Villa, the campaign manager, former chief of staff, and longtime right-hand-man for front-running Colombian presidential candidate Alvaro Uribe Vélez.

Mr. Moreno was Uribe's political alter-ego before, during and after those nervous 1997 and 1998 months when he awaited those contraband shipments.

When Uribe was governor of the state of Antioquia from 1995 to 1997 - from its capitol of Medellín - Moreno was chief of staff in Governor Uribe's office. During those years, according to then-DEA chief Marshall, ""Between 1994 and 1998, GMP was the largest importer of potassium permanganate into Colombia."

This is the story of the Narco-Candidate, Alvaro Uribe, whose 1982 election as mayor of Medellín, whose 1995 election as governor of Antioquia and whose pending ascendance this year to the presidency of Colombia each mark new chapters in the evolution of the modern Narco-State." - see also:

Presidential Candidate Alvaro Uribe's Newsweek Interview

/and/

U.S. INTELLIGENCE LISTED COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT URIBE AMONG
"IMPORTANT COLOMBIAN NARCO-TRAFFICKERS" IN 1991: Then-Senator "Dedicated to Collaboration with the Medellín Cartel at High Government Levels"

So it is easy to see what kind of guy this is - cocaine made him rich and an alliance with Washington powerful.

Chavez and the revolution in Venezuela is a complex issue, as is Ecuador. Many good things are happening, but there is always the issue of, I dare say, despotic rule when too many powers are invested in one person. It is a perfect recipe for schizophrenia and madness in general when one person rules over millions of people.Wouldn't it make you mad?

However, what does it take to keep the social-democratic revolution going when constantly faced with a right-wing contra-revolution that disregards the majority of the people, human rights and what not (i.e. an anti-democratic revolution, also supported, of course, by Washington) ??

"• LATIN American right-wing forces are not happy at the failure of their maneuvers against the popular nationalist and revolutionary processes unfolding in the region with the support of the vast majority of the electorate, and which have swept them off the political stage.

First it was Venezuela, where the Bolivarian Revolution has been, and is, the target of the most vicious campaigns to discredit its efforts, including sabotage of its oil industry, the kidnapping of Chávez and multiple plots to assassinate him, the fascist 47-hour coup and innumerable actions that for more than 10 years now simply corroborate the bankruptcy of the opposition within the country, despite the extensive support that it receives from the United States.

The opposition, which is none other than the displaced oligarchy, can feel the earth moving under its feet, with the loss of its privileges spreading irreversibly throughout the region

It is no accident that a number of oppositions are beginning to design a common strategy, something like an international terror blanco (white terror) organization, establishing alliances – always with White House money – to obstruct and subvert internal order with the goal of regaining power in countries whose governments are not in tune with the so-called Washington consensus.

Bolivia and Ecuador have not escaped these machinations. The new year has barely begun, with Evo Morales and Rafael Correa starting the second and third years of their terms, respectively, and confrontations with the most violent sectors of the national oligarchies, entrenched in separatist positions, have increased."

Revolutions are complex things, politrix are messy even in the best case scenario, which this clearly isn't. So where does that leave all the people in the middle? Some get richer and get to drive cars and shop in supermarkets, others just stay poor and wither in the sunset of progress.

The dark side of it all is that at the end of the day, the indigenous people, the campesinos and their ways of life are most often excluded from the benefits and displaced by the costs of progress (based on an industrial mode of production and a simplistic, economistic model of development). Increased development and extraction in key areas continue to threaten life in the Amazon - although some extraction resistance is successful - /and/ terror laws are used internally to keep crowds of illiterate bodies subdued painting a grim future for the Ecuadorian Amazon, which has been halved in the last ten years.

Is there just no place on the planet that shall not have its people displaced, its plants shaved and the ground paved? What is the end of progress? What is improvement?

Well, according to Correa, such questions are "romantic" and "infantile" (quote from forthcoming article in Red Pepper - see also "Sharks and other politicians" in the The Econofascist) and progress and improvement is set to override environmental concerns in Ecuador, business as usual the trees are falling for the man.

Better take some more picture before it is all gone......

Lene Espersen, den store bekæmper af rets-staten, hende som kontinuerligt introducerer love der undergraver rets-staten's fundament - ja, Danmark's justitsminister er ansvarlig for statsundergravende virksomhed - snakker nu i sammenhæng med bekæmpelse af islamistisk ekstremisme om "syndere" og om at blive genfødt:

"»Villy Søvndal er sprunget ud som kriger i kampen mod ekstremisme og islamisme, og der er ingen ende på offentlighedens begejstring – og det er jo klart, der er jo ikke noget så spændende som omvendte syndere og folk, der pludselig indtager det modsatte synspunkt af det de hidtil har haft«. "

Der skal ikke meget diskurs analyse blandet med et sobert rets-filosofisk perspektiv på de love som hun har været ansvarlig for i hendes korstog med "de fremmede", de autonome, og enhver anden som måtte synes at kristen-kapitalismen er problematisk, for at se tingene som de er: ekstremisten er Lene E.

Og hvem beskytter os mod Lene E. og hendes korstogsfarende venner?

"An investigating team made up of the leaders of several indigenous groups, is travelling in the Amazon jungle unarmed and without police escort. ... "We're going in to investigate, but it's not going to be easy because of [the area's] remoteness," said Domingo Anguash, president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nations of the Ecuadorian Amazon."

http://ecuador-rising.blogspot.com/2008/02/ecuadors-government-investigates-report.html

http://ecuador-rising.blogspot.com/2008/02/ecuador-investigates-indian-massacre.html

http://ecuador-rising.blogspot.com/2008/02/rights-group-15-indians-shot-to-death.html

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7245308.stm

"Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa removed the head of the state-owned oil company, saying the government needed to re-establish order at PetroEcuador after protests shut $3 million of daily production in the country. PetroEcuador President Carlos Pareja was fired today and replaced by Fernando Zurita, a Navy admiral, the government said in a statement. Oil produces about a quarter of state revenue.... Correa declared a state of emergency for the company, saying it was so badly run he was left with no option other than bringing in the Navy. An emergency order may be applied to Orellana province, Ecuador's main oil-producing area, if the protests over jobs and environmental concerns don't end, he said....``It is necessary to urgently intervene in the whole of the PetroEcuador system to safeguard national interests,'' Correa said today in the statement. Correa named Pareja to the post when he took power in January.... Protesters demanding jobs, better roads and environmental cleanup forced the company to shut 47 oil wells at the Auca and Cononaco fields this week, trimming 20 percent of production at PetroEcuador's biggest unit. Ecuador is South America's fifth- largest oil producer, with average daily output of 500,000 barrels....``A lot of money is being lost daily'' because of the protests, said Zurita, speaking at the presidential palace in Quito. He said his first task will be to establish order in Orellana and arrest protesters, PetroEcuador employees or anyone else who hampered oil production."

Reuters managed to report on Correa without mentioning that he was a "leftist" - perhaps in shock and awe, after all this is a proper job that only few right-wingers can match:

"Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa on Thursday declared an Amazonian province under a state of emergency to quell a protest that has slashed the state's oil output by 20 percent, said a presidential spokeswoman....He also removed Interior Minister Gustavo Larrea, a close adviser, for not stamping out the protest of villagers in the oil-rich province of Orellana, the spokeswoman said. They are demanding more funding for infrastructure projects....The state of emergency bans public gatherings and marches and sets curfews."

It was still in the early days of Correa's presidency - back in April - that more powers were invested in the army and the police for these purposes - he obviously knew what the increased development with the Chinese partners in the Amazon would mean: environmental protest against the exploitation and labour protest against not getting any jobs as part of new developments (the jobs mostly go to crews from the outside). It was that same week that Correa first spoke of leaving the oil in the soil....... What oil is to be left in what soil?? one thinks as part of the Ecuadorian Amazon sinks into a state of emergency and the control over the oil is left in the hands of the army..

"Manuela Omari Ima, who is the new chairperson of Waorani women’s organization, Amwae, has first hand experience in the devastating consequences of oil exploration. “The indigenous peoples of the Ecuadorian Amazon have been decimated in just a few decades,” she says. “The Waorani people alone numbered around 16,000 at the end of the 1960s, when the oil exploration began. Today, there are no more than about a thousand of us left... I don’t know how much longer we can survive under the current conditions. Perhaps the industry will out-live us – judging by how it has wiped out other tribal peoples in the Amazon. Maybe the earth will have nothing left to give when the companies leave.” ... Altogether, an estimated 90% of the indigenous peoples in the Amazon region of Ecuador have been wiped out over the past few decades"

An airport in the Ecuadorian Amazon can serve only people employed by the extractive industries, politicians and celebrities on photo shoots, cocaine gangsters, mercenaries and stupid tourists that should stay at home - it is total disrespect for the people of the Amazon, many of whom have serious financial problems getting on a 50 cent bus to take a dying child to the hospital in town. There is already one airport too many - in Tena.

"President Correa will seek Chinese investment in a major airport in the Ecuadorian Amazon, where construction is planned to start in 2008, the ministry said... Ecuador is seeking and enlarging cooperation with and investment from China, the ministry said. "The diplomatic relations between the two countries, since established in 1980, have witnessed more progress," the ministry added... Ecuador has received 1.8 billion U.S. dollars of investment from China, making it the leading recipient of Chinese investment in Latin America. In the first nine months this year the bilateral trade volume has topped 669 million dollars."

In the last ten years the Ecuadorian Amazon has been halved and towns like Tena doubled. Some peoples almost eradicated. Will it never stop? If Correa's government is a socialist revolution, then what does it take to challenge the destruction of the Amazon rain forest?

"In the heart of the Amazon basin lies the most biologically diverse forest on the planet, Yasuní. Yasuní National Park is home to the Waorani and some of the last indigenous peoples still living in isolation in the Amazon, whose ancestral lands sit atop Ecuador’s largest undeveloped oil reserves, the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oil block ... In 2007, the new government of President Correa has offered an unprecedented and historic proposal: Ecuador will not allow extraction of the ITT oil fields in Yasuní, if the world community can create a compensation trust to leave the oil permanently in the ground and fund Ecuador’s sustainable development into the future. The groups listed on this website portal, LiveYasuni.org, endorse this policy."

For a general overview visit http://www.sosyasuni.org/ - which is part of the Amazonia por la Vida Campaign (which is incidentally also the subtitle of the colonos blog) - and which is a social movement to expand the "keep the oil in the soil" proposal to include not only the ITT blocks, but the whole region, which is home to one of the world's greatest diversity of species (some of which are from before last ice age) and home also to the Huaorani people and along the Napo river there are many Kichwa communities as well. Missing from the proposal, then, are at least:

- block 31 (70% inside the Yasuni National park, 100% inside the Yasuni biosphere Reserve, which is Yasuni Park + the Huaorani Territory), contracted to Petrobras (previously to Argentinian Perez Companc, which in 1997/1998 seismic studies estimated the block to contain 230 million barrels of heavy crude "18 degrees API";

- block 16 (which used to be within Yasuni, but the boundaries of the park were altered so as to allow for oil drilling in what is essentially Huaorani territory --- the Yasuni National Park + the Huaorani territory = Yasuni Biosphere Reserve, which has been declared by UNESCO in 1989 as a "Reserva Mundial de la Biosfera" (UNESCO "World Biosphere Reserve"));

- block 14, of which 65% is inside the Yasuni National Park.

- block 17 - it comprises 5764 hectares inside the Yasuni.

- block 15 - of which 209km2 is inside the Yasuni.
Data from: "Atlas Amazonico del Ecuador: Agresiones y reistancias". Ed. 2006 (issued in 2000 copies) - by Accion Ecologica and CONAIE. (funded by Oil Watch et al.).

Note also that there is already a lot of development in the area, private roads secured by mercenaries and drilling and what not, here some shots from the River Napo:

^^ this is in the Yasuni region ^^

^^ on the River Napo, which flows right through Hauorani territory and the Yasuni ^^

However, notwithstanding how much or how little of the oil stays in the soil, then it is absolutely important that the arrangement is configured as an ecological justice issue - a debt, a reparation - rather than as a market solution to market disasters. Patrick Bond does some very good work with the Durban group for Climate Justice to establish this:

"...a movement is growing for the North’s repayment of a multi-trillion dollar ecological debt which the richest people owe the world’s poorest for their disproportionate use of the world’s environmental space; one example is the September 2007 decision by the Ecuadoran government to refrain from petroleum exploitation in a national park (‘keep the oil in the soil’), to be partially financed by Northern ecological debt repayment. These are interrelated struggles for historical social justice whose courtroom and economic aspects are important, but less so than the implications for a deeper, more durable politics of resistance to primitive accumulation. They deserve support and extension so as to establish not only legal precedent and monetary compensation, but also disincentivise capital from maintaining the current imperial power structure (e.g. the looting of Iraq), and, most importantly, link social movements in international campaigns for economic justice."

However, another severe threat to the region is the Manta-Manaus corridor! Another struggle....

Hasta la Victoria Siempre! Amazonia - por la Vida!

So what does Correa's understanding with China mean? Firstly, it means annihilation of Taiwan and Tibet:

"Correa said China has a time-honored history and is full of vigor and vitality and it has made enormous achievements in embarking on the path of development suitable to its national realities. Ecuador shares brotherly friendship with China, he said, expressing hope that both sides will show mutual understanding and learn from each other so as to push bilateral ties for new progress. He reaffirmed Ecuador would adhere to the one-China policy."

Well, you might say, this is a socialist revolution and takes time to build - the means justify the end - and you win some and you lose some. But is it really best understood as socialism, this "21st century socialism"?

"Hu said China would encourage more Chinese entrepreneurs to invest in Ecuador and participate in economic construction there. He also voiced the hope to enhance cooperation on agriculture, energy resources, infrastructure construction, finance and quality control"

Perhaps it makes more sense to locate these things in the realm of what is sometimes identified as "social-democracy in capitalist nation states", where a slightly more just distribution of wealth is organized by a strong central state (that miraculously stays uncorrupt with all that power in their hands), and where the de facto mode of production is of a classical industrialist nature: big factories, mass workers, simple processes, assembly lines, heavy pollution and so on. Wage-slavery.

Of course the Ecuador-China relationship underlines the Manta-Manaus madness:

"Correa also said he thought there was room for improvement in ties between the two countries, particularly in managing a flow of Chinese products across the Pacific. Cooperation between China and Ecuador are at this moment very good but they can improve a lot," he said. We have a huge trade deficit with China. For China that is not interesting, it's just $500 million but for us it is a lot and increasing," he added."

So, it is necessary to keep working on keeping Correa on his toes.

Correa, of course, is also under attack from the Old Skool, white nation Capitalists -- the pathetic Reuter's and their corporate copy-and-paste customers keep spreading Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt - whenever they mention Correa they have a randomly inserted paragraph - they only have a few of them on the same variations - and always noting that Correa is leftist. Some linguistics, discourse theory, media, statistics student could have some fun with what Reuter's have said about Correa. Why do they never say "Bush, who is a neo-conservative", when they mention him, or speak of the threat of impeachment (which they've reported on 149 times) when they mention him? Is the otherwise clear, publicly known political party affiliation of Correa more newsworthy than a president threatened by a whole movement?? The public imagination must in their perception be nothing other than a programmable homogeneity:

"The leftist president shocked investors in October by raising the tax to 99 percent from 50 percent of the extra oil revenues generated by companies above a contractual price."

Anyway, this was one of the things that Correa talked to the Chinese about - and in essence Correa seeks to reconfigure the relationship: the Ecuadorian will own all oil that comes out of the oil, leaving only a "simple" contractual relation to the Chinese (and other) oil companies, who then "merely" deliver services. The state will take control of the oil capital. What they want to avoid is this:

"Visiting China for the first time since his election, Correa said the two countries would set up a special working group to discuss the tax but in the long term he would like to see Latin American tribunals deciding similar spats... (We aim to) construct regional tribunals to discuss any problem within Latin America, knowing that justice will be applied," he said... With an institution which is a cheerleader for transnational capital, which is financed by this capital and is in debt to these countries where the capital is -- what guarantee of impartiality are we going to have?" ... Last month, Ecuador also said it wants companies to switch to new deals that give the state all of the oil they extract and the companies a service fee payment instead... Since then one firm, U.S.-owned City Oriente, has already filed an arbitration claim. Repsol (REP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) is considering similar action and Chinese industry executives said the country's state oil firms may also turn to the courts... An international tribunal has sided with City in the spat, ordering Ecuador to temporarily halt demands to charge the controversial windfall tax, according to court documents released by the company on Wednesday."

Correa is smart, he is negotiating an entirely new arrangement and considering all previous arrangements and dispute settlement institutions invalid. The forest and its peoples will suffer under each system.

Back to the title of the entry, Network of Sub-Empires: Babylon Under Siege?

Maybe there is a new structuration of global capitalism emerging - one in which China, India and the integrated UNASURified Latin America play stronger roles. But what that means, really, is just relevant for the industrial elites - for the rest of us it is just another step towards the solidification, cementation of a global, state capitalist/industrial complex - never mind climate chaos and deforestation.....

Make it free or burn it down - take Bush the Second down now!

"A number of organizations provide online voting and petitions regarding Bush/Cheney impeachment. The MSNBC "Live Vote: Should Bush be impeached?" is ongoing and has garnered in excess of 584,000 votes, 89% in favor of impeachment (as of November 19, 2007). However, MSNBC provides the disclaimer that "MSNBC's online surveys ... are not necessarily representative of the general population." Democrats.com has an active online petition, "Ten Reasons to Impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney", which has received more than 124,000 of its targeted 1,000,000 signatures.

MoveOn has not officially taken up the cause for Bush/Cheney impeachment; however, they have quietly initiated an online survey entitled "Dealing with the Administration". Ironically, MoveOn's reluctance to act more forcefully has led to yet another online petition, "It's Time for MoveOn to Start Talking about Impeachment", endorsed by Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, with more than 2,300 additional signatures."

Contemporary developments in the global economy are very significant for the Amazon rain forest. While this might be said to be true for anywhere at any point in time there are nevertheless good reasons for paying special attention to what maybe the last battle for the survival of the largest rain forest in the world, the loss of which it should need no further justification to lament – and that is the basis upon which this invitation is written....

The journey will build on last year's experiences (and, of course, on our autonomous development work in the Amazon in general): - and will begin in Tena with ayahuasca brewing and drinking sessions to get to know each other:

We're looking for a few dedicated, preferably Spanish speaking people with sincere cultural and political interests - researchers, journalists, media makers... - for a journey that will take 2-3 weeks, all depending, in small canoas through the Amazon. We will be in Tena from March onwards and can also help organize tours of the area (whether you want to join the expedition or not) - great crystal clear rivers (very good rafting) and ayahuasqueros in the Kichwa tradition (substantially different from the Shipibo tradition). In Ecuador it is also commonplace to be in session with many shamans, as they often have political gatherings. Drinking with many shamans can be quite an experience

Fidel Andi, a very active shaman, will be welcoming people for sessions in his home in Tena by the riverside (great swims) and be part of the journey - like last year Fidel will be one of the invited curanderos at the conference in Iquitos.

Part of the journey will also be in support of a network of community based botanical gardens (or in situ natural medicine pharmacies) that we're helping indigenous activists to create. We're working with communities in Ecuador and Pucallpa (1 / 2) and indigenous student activists in Peru, who are fighting for their rights. The aim is to facilitate the creation of a cultural and political network of resistance in the Napo-Ucayali corridor, which is severely threatened by global capitalism and the Latin America integration projects (background info below).

As such we're also looking for any financial help we can get - there is little time, a lot to lose and a lot to win, if we can help the people in the corridor prepare (autonomy and self-determination are key words here) for the transition that will inevitably come knocking on their shores. We also hope to do a presentation of the journey and the network at the conference in Peru.

The journey does not have any fixed cost - it all depends on what you can spend, but we need to gather at a minimum enough money to invite Fidel and hopefully another or two (or three!) local people with us. You should count as a minimum $4-500, but if you have $4000 to share, then they will go to a good cause!

For more information about the threat to the River Napo, see the blog entries that are collected primarily under this tag:
http://colonos.wordpress.com/tag/corridors/

- and the primary entries about the corridor are:

http://colonos.wordpress.com/2007/10/01/correas-sunshine-story-itt/
and
http://colonos.wordpress.com/2007/10/01/who-builds-the-manta-manaus-corridor-and-why/
and
http://colonos.wordpress.com/2007/09/26/correan-corridor-contradictions-speaking-with-two-tongues/
and
http://colonos.wordpress.com/2007/09/26/killing-the-amazon-correa-and-lula-in-agreement/
and
http://colonos.wordpress.com/2007/04/06/correa-and-lula-plot-to-cut-down-the-forest-and-and-scoop-out-the-rivers/

Here is an academic article about the issues that I blogged:
http://colonos.wordpress.com/2007/04/15/comprehensive-corridor-critique/

and here is our first attempt at conceptualising organising against it:
http://colonos.wordpress.com/2007/04/04/cultural-corridor-letter-to-the-world/

HELP SAVE THE NAPO RIVER, CREATE A GREAT NETWORK AND HAVE A JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME!

"In the Brazilian state of Paraná, Valmir Mota de Oliveira of Via Campesina, an international peasant organization, was shot twice in the chest at point blank range by armed gunmen on an experimental farm of Syngenta Seeds, a multinational agribusiness corporation. The cold blooded murder took place on Sunday, October 21 after Via Campesina had occupied the site because of Syngenta’s illegal development of genetically modified (GM) seeds." - read the rest of the story..

But take a look at this video, too, and consider the natural beauty that will have to be destroyed in order to pave the way, literally, for the Latin American integration, as the neo-socialist improvement or progress based on capitalist commodity forms is called (in English):

The YouTube initiatives are part of the hip strategies of Correa's government, appealing to a whole new demographic class in Ecuador - a middle class consuming the remittances that their migratory family members send back from, mainly, the U.S. and Spain. Both the cash and the migrant workers are in the millions - only oil and bananas in that republic are greater posts in the economy. These are the people behind Correa - and they want more cars, more roads to drive them on (Quito is already suffocating with cars, which have more then doubled in recent years!) and more plastics from China and more sausages from Spain - that is the essence of Latin American integration: global capitalism and commodity circulation.

"Projects to upgrade road and river transport, combined with work to create dams and lay down extensive power and communications cabling, will open up previously inaccessible parts of the rainforest, raising the risk of widespread deforestation that could see the loss of the entire Amazon jungle within 40 years, the environmental group said."

What kind of sunshine stories, Mr. Correa, can make up for that?

"Tomás Peribonio, ex-Minister of Foreign Trade under President Alfred Palacio, is now working as a contractor for the current Correa government designing the Manaos-Manta multi-modal corridor. He's a handsome, friendly fellow who has also granted me a spur of the moment interview when I showed up at his penthouse office in the Ministry of Public Works building. He offers to do the interview in his excellent English, but quickly slips into Spanish as he emphasizes that "the most important thing is regional unity." The construction of this multi-modal corridor, he describes as a "mega-project" that would be constructed "over the course of years and perhaps even decades." The aim, he says, is to unite "Pacific Asia, which, from my point of view, is the area of major world commerce, managing about fifty percent of world trade" with the Atlantic, specifically Brazil, which is increasing its cultivation of soy and other grains with an eye on exports."

This new empire - regularly criticized here - of plastic consumption will spell the end of the Amazon rain forest - and a wide range of indigenous cultures.....

It seems that the political project of Correa - and those of the Latin American revolutions in general - are World Bank big style developments: roads, dams, power stations. All in order to better circulate the commodities that most people didn't even know that they needed.

We may say that the upper techno-bureaucratic classes of the Latin American integration project suffer from a variety of World Domination Disorder in its early phases:

"For Peribonio regional integration begins at home, with Ecuador, a country that commonly characterizes itself as the "nation of four regions," which are the Amazon, the mountains, the plains and coast, and the Galapagos. These regions have experienced strong tensions and this fact has often been posed as a primary problem confronting national leaders as they attempted to unite the country. This multi-modal corridor, Peribonio hopes, will serve to first unite the country and then go on to unite Ecuador with Peru and Brazil, since the corridor would also go through Peru. Finally, says Peribonio, the corridor would integrate Ecuador more firmly into the world economy.

Will that be Venezuela or Brazil, the plan of Chavez for what Napoleon calls the "Bolivarian Coordinate" as embodied in ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or will it be the model defined by Brazil's need for growth, or an alliance between these two models? Is there another option? Peribonio shrugs. "Our countries have to unite in order to grow and develop. Europe, for instance, has grown enormously as a result of a complete integration. The model which has the greatest support will be the one that wins. But we can learn a lot from Europe and the approach it has taken toward integrating the smaller, poorer countries into its Union. But what's most important is convincing our people, the workers, indigenous people and people in the neighborhoods that alone we're small and weak, but that it's only through regional integration and unity that we'll become strong."

As Clifton Ross begins his article, after having noted that "Back in 1989 or 1990, as I watched, along with the rest of the world, the collapse of the "Evil Empire," I remember thinking to myself, "one down, one to go"":

"What I didn't expect was that new empires would emerge, or attempt to do so, in the wake of the collapse of the two empires that jostled for position throughout the Cold War years. Brazilian revolutionary theorist Ruy Mauro Marini would dub these rising empires, "sub-empires," and he claimed that the seeds of sub-empires are already visible in Latin America. Of course that's what we USAmericans were back in the early 19th century, an ex-colony aspiring to sub-imperial status, mingling with the full-fledged, grown up empires of Britain, France and Spain and hoping one day to play in the Major League ourselves".

........Bury the rag deep in your face, - for now's the time for your tears.