All or Nothing

Invisible Soldiers: Global Inequality, Mercenaries and Iraq

2009-04-11T02:21:00.003+02:00

What do Peruvians, Chileans, Argentineans, Venezuelans, Mexicans, Colombians, El Salvadorians, Hondurans, Ecuadorians, Bosnians, Filipinos, Indians, Bangladeshis and South Africans have to do with the war in Iraq? Despite the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries of 1989, the U.S. has been contracting people from developing countries to do their dirty work on the front lines in the war in Iraq, to replace its soldiers on security duty, since 2003. Thanks to several grave irregularities and legal loopholes, through private outsourcing companies such as Blackwater USA, (a secretive private military company based in North Carolina), the highly trained mercenaries are hired as “security guards”, to protect the U.S. and British military in the most conflictive areas, as well as places of interest such as the oil fields, paying them an average of US$4000 a month. There are some 180 international private security companies operating in Iraq, among them are Triple Canopy, Zapatas, Titan, CACI, Vinnell Corp, Custer Batle, Armor Group, Kroll Security International, Global Risk Strategies, Meteoric Tactical Solutions, Trig Guard Force, and Aegis. As there are no official figures, it is estimated that the private mercenary force is now the largest group operating in Iraq, outnumbering the U.S. military. Promoting more war with fewer troops, this is a force with no accountability mechanisms such as the U.S. Code of Military Justice, the Pentagon Criminal Investigations Unit and the military chain of command.

Ex-soldiers, police forces and commandos from the war with Lightning Path in Peru, Pinochet’s military regime in Chile, apartheid-era armed forces in South Africa, and the Bosnian war are lured into taking the highest risks in the war in Iraq, for a salary that is much higher than the U.S. military boys receive, and seem to have full impunity: they live above the law and rules of war and social engagement. These mercenaries often have a history of war which knows no rules, no limits. They have been implicated in torture sessions, such as the scandalous Abu Ghraib. They are heavily armed and employ shoot-first-ask-questions-later tactics. They are referred to the “mad dogs of war”, that murder innocent civilians in the streets, open fire on civilian vehicles and terrorize the Iraqi population. They are in turn objects of the Iraqi resistance attacks. The mercenaries are the least desired forces in Iraq. The Iraqi people want them to leave. They have no alliances, no loyalties, and no protection. If they die or are injured, no one is held responsible, they are on their own. Their priorities are survival and earning cash. Whichever company presents the best offer will be their employer, whichever side of the war they are on, they are free to switch whenever it benefits them to do so.

The mercenaries run a high risk for their lives, exposed to dangerous situations without adequate equipment such as dismantling bombs and being subject to Iraqi ambushes, work lengthy hours in poor health conditions, without medical assistance, are to be available twenty-four hours a day, and although contracted for “vigilance”, they are fully involved in conflict. They wear no uniform, and many of them do not even speak English and therefore cannot understand directions from the military personnel. They often have run-ons, tensions and fights with the U.S. soldiers, who see themselves as being superior to the mercenaries, while being all too aware that their salaries are much lower.

The mercenaries are recruited through newspaper ads placed by ghost companies that set up shop for about a month in their country, and then they disappear without a trace. These companies have alliances in top levels of government in the home countries. Only those most resistant to high stress levels are contracted, after being tested in evaluation processes up to six months conducted in inaccessible rural areas. They are then trained in the top-secret training camps in the U.S. From there they are sent to Iraq for six months to a year. If they make it out alive, they return to their home countries with a trauma that no one is responsible for. Since none of the mercenaries are officially registered, more and more are being contracted to replace the dead and returned. The companies and the government of the United States are not held responsible for injury or death resulting by their mission in Iraq, according to the mercenary contract, if there is any. In developing countries, most of the recruiting happens verbally, secretively, not giving the mercenaries any guarantees. Sometimes they return to their home countries to find that they have not even been paid. They are the invisible players in the Iraq war, disposable soldiers of mercy in an unequal globalized world. Due to recent criticism in the U.S. of Blackwater’s lack of legal accountability for misconduct of the mercenaries in Iraq, foreign mercenaries are now punished by being jailed in Iraq and/or discharged without pay for any misconduct. Training camps have also been outsourced to Mexico, increasing the invisibility of the developing country mercenaries.

It is their economic need, in developing countries, which motivates such a risky endeavor. Some mercenaries are paid varyingly from $35 up to $1500 daily for performing the tasks that no sane soldier will undertake willingly, or are even permitted to under international military law. These are extremely high salaries for those coming from developing countries. Mercenaries are often recruited unbeknownst to their family members, so that they cannot plead them to stay alive instead of earning money. They just disappear without a trace. Not only is the U.S. taking advantage of the “free market” and global inequality in their quest for dominance, it has also favoured the war image on the home front, as the mercenaries are not included in the official body count, making the war seem much less bloody in the U.S. media for its taxpayers. However, in Iraq, Latin-Americans are the second largest group to have died, after U.S. soldiers.

Not only is the U.S. saving its troops in the privatization of security in Iraq, money that is supposedly meant for the “aid” budget for Iraqi “reconstruction”, is being diverted to pay the salaries of the mercenaries. Since 2003, Blackwater received a $300-million U.S. State Department contract, away from the eyes of the American public, and without consulting U.S. Congress. This modern war privatisation strategy is a military “revolution”: using taxpayer dollars for military outsourcing. Blackwater was also contracted for the aftermath of Hurrican Katrina: it paid security forces $350 a day, and billed the government $950. These companies in turn donate to the U.S. Republican Party. This is a lucrative market for companies such as Blackwater, and the criminal character of this private war opens up a serious discussion about democracy, ethics, military conduct, laws, human rights and international security.

Under which law would mercenaries be held responsible? U.S. law? Iraqi law? Their home country’s law? Officially, they don’t exist; they are contracted illegally and secretly. Although U.S. mercenaries’ families have filed law suits against Blackwater, those from developing countries do not stand a chance. They are merely an object in the global “free” market. Their lives fall into the global black hole of oblivion, such as the casualties of the arms trade, drug trafficking and the trafficking of women. Most likely, the war must end before these mercenaries’ lives become visible, after the fact.

Sources:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5976.htm

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/05/1078464637030.html

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jan/25/opinion/oe-scahill25

http://www.nodo50.org/csca/agenda06/iraq/mercenarios_16-02-07.html

http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=56507

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/1/26/our_mercenaries_in_iraq_blackwater_inc

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/04/1651

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/74955/

http://blackwaterbook.com/

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6820

http://hnn.us/articles/43286.html

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/3/20/blackwater_the_rise_of_the_worlds

http://www.newstatesman.com/200404260005

http://www.lafogata.org/irak/ira_12-3.htm

http://ipsnoticias.net/nota.asp?idnews=41869

http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=760&Itemid=2&lang=es

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/8770,features,mercenaries-in-iraq,3

Chilean Democracy, Anno 2008

2008-10-26T15:00:00.030+01:00

On Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 in Valdivia, capital of the Rivers Region in Southern Chile, 21 citizens, including the mayor of the municipality of Panguipulli, Alejandro Kohler, and environmental lawyer Vladimir Riesco, were arrested by the military police. This took place during a “citizens participation” consultation for the approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report presented by Chilean energy company Colbún (of the financial conglomerate, Matte), as its plans to build a dam in the San Pedro River are very controversial and criticized by those arrested. The arrestees were not guilty of anything more than voicing opinions in opposition to the proposed projects. The arrests were ordered by the provincial governor, Ivan Flores. The consultations took place behind locked doors at the offices of COREMA (the regional environmental commission) on avenue Yungay in the Seminario building, heavily guarded by the military police performing security checks, registering and accompanying everyone who entered the building, videotaping everything, and only allowing a select few individuals into the overcrowded boardroom. A representative of the Parlamento de Koz Koz (a Mapuche organization in Panguipulli) was physically pushed out of the room, as it was too full, while at the same time, a representative of Colbún, was allowed to enter, as were the press, the mayor and the environmental lawyer. She finally did manage to enter, and read aloud a letter written by the organization, stating their opposition to the project, which caused a discussion between Riesco and a COREMA lawyer, which others joined, after which they were removed by the military police. Others, such as the evaluating environmental technicians from the municipality of Panguipulli, environmentalists and Mapuche representatives, remained locked out outside, and when a few tried to get in, they were immediately detained by police forces and carried off to the police station. There were three busloads of police forces securing the building, far outnumbering the citizens. The intention of such an event is to allow citizens to participate in the evaluation of projects proposed by companies that will affect their communities and surroundings. The EIA mechanism is intended to promote the democratic processes of informed consultation and participation.

According to the CONAMA website (Chile’s National Environmental Commission), citizen participation and access to environmental information are part of the 1994 Environmental Law (no. 19.300). The site further states that the CONAMA has promoted civil society participation in environmental management, as it is also considered a priority of the Concertación government, as formulated in their principles of co-responsibility, as a democratic mechanism. Under the Presidential Instructive on Citizen Participation (of December 2000), the public sector must generated the information required by its citizens, and citizen participation is a contribution to collaboration and mutual respect between the State and the citizenry, in order to strengthen civil society and achieve more legitimacy for public policy. The site further mentions social capital, relationships of trust, solidarity and cooperation, transparency, respect, equal opportunities and incorporating the citizenry in the elaboration and evaluation of environmental plans, projects, policies and norms. The CONAMA considers sustainable development as a national goal. Therefore, they are aiming to “perfect” the mechanisms and amplify the spaces of participation and the right to information, so that the citizenry can contribute to decisions taken concerning the protection of the environment. This was apparently forgotten at the COREMA in Valdivia on October 22nd. Since 1997, one of the principle instruments applied by the CONAMA, as required under the Environmental Law is the EIA system. This system is designed to evaluate the design and execution of projects or activities conducted in the country, according to environmental and sustainability requirements. Any company, such as Colbun in this case, proposing an industrial megaproject, must submit an EIA report to the CONAMA, based on the EIA norms. They normally receive a two-year period to perform the studies necessary to write the report. Colbun had been granted two extentions for the deadline for which they were to submit it. Thereafter, CONAMA publishes the report and the general public has only 60 days to respond to and evaluate the report. The environmental law presents an inequality in that it obviously favours the companies over the public opinion in allowing them more time to complete their reports (in this case, Colbón was allotted two extensions) to submit their reports, and the citizens hardly receive any time at all to respond, nor do they have the same amount of resources to do so. Their feedback is supposed to inform the environmental commission’s decision on whether or not to approve the project. The final decision to approve or reject the plan is made at the end of this period, at the regional office (COREMA), as occurred in Valdivia on October 22nd. The meeting is supposed to be open to the public (which it was not on October 22nd). The approval is won by a majority vote by the board members of the COREMA. In June 2008, Colbún submitted a report that had received 125 observations made by diverse civil society, and public institutions, to which Colbún responded by retracting it, and promised to submit a second report within the very short time frame of three weeks. The “citizen participation” thus proves to be merely a discourse, as in practice the public building was locked shut, and the only elected authority of the municipality of Panguipulli, the mayor Alejandro Kohler, was not allowed to express his opinion on the matter. The decision to approve the project seems to come from above, the centralized and authoritarian State in Santiago. The approval is won by a majority vote by the board members of the COREMA. The board on the 22nd included ten regional ministerial secretaries, four regional counsillors, the governors of Valdivia and Ranco, and the executive secretary of COREMA, as well as the regional governor, Ivan Flores. In June 2008, Colbún submitted a report that had received 125 observations made by diverse civil society, and public institutions, to which Colbún responded by retracting it, and promised to submit a second report within the very short time frame of three weeks.

The plan proposed by Colbún to build a dam in the San Pedro River will affect two municipalities, Los Lagos and Panguipulli. The municipality of Los Lagos had signed their approval of the project on September 5th, 2008, as Colbún has promised to build a lakeside resort and a bus terminal as compensation for any negative impacts generated by the construction of the dam, as written in the third addendum to the EIA. In the recent (October 26, 2008) elections, the mayor was not reelected: the people are not pleased with a mayor who negotiates away the area’s national resources. The municipality of Panguipulli, however, especially the mayor and six of the seven deputy mayors, as well as the director of the National Tourism Service (SERNAM) had made their opposition to the project very publically clear since the beginning. Letters were written and sent to the COREMA evaluating the plan, and rejecting it altogether. In general, the project is rejected due to environmental and sustainability concerns, it will affect nearby Mapuche communities and because it is not deemed favourable to the development of tourism, which is the development strategy of the municipality of Panguipulli since 2000, and it was declared a Zone of Touristic Interest in 2008. Tourism in the area is mainly based on small-scale, locally owned and operated ecotourism outfits. Colbún’s EIA does not include a socio-economic evaluation of the area that considers this industry or the priorities of the Mapuche communities, nor does it include a mitigation or compensation plan. Furthermore, seismological considerations are not included, as the area contains a geological fault to which the Chaitén volcano belongs, a volcano that was previously dormant for thousands of years until its multiple eruptions in May of 2008. Furthermore, the EIA only considers the 12 kilometres of the river that the dam will directly affect, and not the entire surrounding region that will be indirectly affected by the project. The dam will consist of a 56-metre wall that will capture millions of litres of water and in the case of an earthquake or volcanic eruption; the dam could crumble and pose a serious threat to the towns downriver. The San Pedro River becomes the Calle Calle River, on its way to the sea, one of Valdivia’s landmarks. The effects on the Calle Calle were not included in the report, and Valdivia was not included in the citizen participation to evaluate the project.

It was Alejandro Kohler, Vladimir Riesco and two doctors from Panguipulli who had made it into the meeting at the COREMA and voiced their opinions in opposition of the projects. Their objections during the meeting centred on the many irregularities of the EIA and important information that has been kept from the public about the project, such as rare fish species in the San Pedro River that will be affected by the dam, and the union of the reservoir with lake Riñihue. The COREMA kept refusing them the word, so they started to speak anyway. This was the only reason for their arrests: they spoke out of turn, a turn they had never received, because they were in opposition. Before the start of the meeting, half of the board members were in opposition to the plans. Two days before the meeting, the COREMA had threatened the regional ministerial secretaries that if they did not approve the project, they would lose their jobs. After many hours of discussion, and the governor having called the military police to have the opponents removed from the room and arrested, the votes were 16 to 1 in favour, and one abstained. The project was approved.

This incident has sparked the debate about the state of democracy in Chile once again. Furthermore, a wide public discussion has ensued concerning the EIA process and the type of development that this form of industrialization implies, as well as a discussion on the political power of market forces, reinforcing authoritarian practices in order to extinguish the voices of the citizenry. Protests have taken place in Valdivia, and will most likely mark the beginning of a long conflict over the San Pedro dam. This project is one of three hydroelectric megaprojects for the Rivers Region. There are plans to build seven hydroelectric plants, resulting in the generation of 10% of Chile’s electric consumption, which would drastically alter the economic makeup of the region. One of Chile’s major natural assets is water, and the State is aiming to exploit it to its fullest, so that hydropower will form the major source of energy for the nation. At the same time, the opposition to hydroelectric projects has been the fiercest. At least 25 projects currently in progress, completed, or being planned are found from the first region in the north, down to Aysén, in southern Patagonia. There are at least 10 (multi)national energy companies involved in the installation of these mega-projects throughout Chile. The rights to water were separated from land and privatized in 1982 by the Pinochet regime. In 2006, these rights were further liberalized and have been auctioned off to the highest bidders, which in the Rivers Region meant the sale to the corporate energy companies ENDESA of Spain, SN Power of Norway, and Colbún.

There is a majority opposition to the projects by the locals. However, the energy companies are employing strategies and tactics to convince the locals of the benefits of their projects. One of the tactics employed by the companies is having asados (barbeques) with the people, talking about all the great things their projects will bring them. They have withheld crucial information from the public, they occupy the media to spread propaganda and hold secret meetings with certain individuals behind closed doors, they promise to build roads, cellular phone and internet infrastructure, computers for the schools and jobs for the unemployed. These types of promises are well-known strategies of companies such as Colbún, ENDESA and SN Power to obtain a majority support for their projects and convince the people of their good will. They pretend to be socially responsible, but corporate companies are not social organizations that have experience in rural development. They are capitalist enterprises that wish to take advantage of the lack of implementation of Chilean and international law that protects the rights of the local population and environment. Their sole purpose to generate cheap energy and maximize profits. For a company with that much economic power to offer to pay for a road, equipment for the fire department, computers for the school, internet and cellphone connections is very little. It is an insult to the intelligence of the local people. In reality, the company will install all that is necessary for the construction of the plants. After that, the people will be left to their own devices once again. They are employing the manipulation of the media and the rumour network of the small towns, making the people believe that all are in favour of their projects which is not only good for their corporate image in the Chilean media, but convinces the affected populations that they have no other choice but to support the projects, so that they may receive benefits in the process of negotiation. They are also publicizing their false success stories of "participation" in order to pretend to live up to the "corporate social responsibility" mandate. Therefore, the people are left to turn to alternative forms of communication, in order to inform and publicize their disagreement with the proposed plans and the company's presence in their communities. The civil society organizations in opposition to the megaprojects are made up of local citizens, dozens of Mapuche comunidades and local tourism enterprises and organizations. These are local citizens concerned about their environment and communities and prepared to defend their rights to live in a zone free of interventions by megaprojects. They are concerned about the manner in which the energy company executives are intervening in the area, especially in the unauthorized entrance into indigenous territory and private property; the intimidation of Mapuche leaders, the threatening of people that do not want to cooperate; the bribing of local businessmen to support the projects, the bribing of local and non-local Mapuche who are portrayed as leaders by the company in their reports; but do not actually have any legitimacy or representation within the communities, in order to convince the rest of the community to support the projects; the collection of signatures under false pretences to support the projects, such as having participants in a “development” workshop sign a blank document with their social security numbers, supposedly attesting to their participation; or signatures for the receipt of food aid.

Colbún is not only planning a dam for the San Pedro, but also the third dam in the megaproject started on the Bío Bío River by ENDESA in 1994. The controversial Pangue (457 MW) and Ralco (690 MW) dams built there required the displacement of indigenous communities. The Ralco dam was highly publicized and sparked a national debate on dams and development, and the relationship between the State and indigenous peoples. Having the dam approved required several political manipulations and abuses of power by the Frei Ruiz-Tagle government (1994-2000), who had shares in both ENDESA and the construction company, BESALCO. Frei`s attitude suggested that anyone who did not agree with the government on Ralco, had to go. The Ralco dam would be constructed “Si o Si”. Despite all the protests from countless citizens, institutions, civil society organisations, and every level of government, the construction of the dam continued relentlessly. The National Indigenous Development Corporation (CONADI) had declared the Ralco project as “illegal”, as the Indigenous Law not only requires informed consent, but also equivalent compensation for their lands, requiring the approval of CONADI. Neither was deemed sufficient by CONADI’s indigenous council. However, CONADI was incapable of holding its own under the political force of the Frei government, who had forced two consecutive indigenous directors of the CONADI who did not approve of the land exchanges to resign. The politics of the government were very clear: the land exchanges were to be approved. When the CONAMA rejected the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) mainly due to the social implications, ENDESA wrote an “addendum”, which was also rejected. It was finally the second “addendum”, which actually included a relocation plan for the Pewenche, which was approved, despite repeated protests by the CONADI. The final addendum to the original EIA report included a 10-year commitment of financial support, housing, electricity, schools, technical farming assistance, and medical centres. However, a lot of these have not materialized to date. These types of failed interventions are all too common in Chile today, especially concerning its original peoples. There is no doubt that the energy sector means big business. In Chile, Pinochet’s 1982 Electricity Law continues to ensure that investors will prosper. The CNE (National Energy Commission) fixes the base costs of electricity according to the construction and operational costs of the plants, maintaining a determined level of profit. Due to this amazing amount of State support, a company can construct a very inefficient, expensive project, and the costs will only be borne by the consumers. Thus, the inefficiency of Ralco was convenient and profitable for ENDESA, although it caused inflation in electricity on the national level. However, during the Ralco conflict, an aggressive media campaign was launched to sway Chilean public opinion in favour of the dam, focused on the ‘need for Ralco’s power to support industrial development’ in a period of economic recession.

The US$ 500 million, 360 MW “Angostura Project” Colbún is now proposing for the Bío Bío will again necessitate the displacement of 45 families, many of which had already been relocated for the Pangue dam. The EIA states that the dam would flood 640 hectares, creating an 16 kilometer reservoir along the Bio Bio, and 5 kilometers along the Huequecura River. The inundation would not only require relocations, it would also mean the disappearance of sacred Pehuenche sites. Colbún is employing tactics similar to ENDESA for the Pangue and Ralco dams, as Colbún has already bought land destined for the relocation sites, and has brought the people there to have a look, before the EIA has been approved by the CONAMA, making it seem as if the dam’s construction is a matter of fact. Locals criticize the project and are in opposition, however they have received very little media attention, and are actually tired out from the decade-long Ralco conflict. Contradictorily, the Chilean government stated before the Organization of American States (OAS) in 2004 that it would not allow anymore megaprojects in the Alto Bío Bío area in the future. Locals are urging the state to keep this promise, and hope to share their objections with CONAMA, who is about to decide on the approval of the project. In 2006, Colbun partnered up with ENDESA to form HidroAysén, for the megaproject (2750 MW) they are planning for the Baker and Pascua Rivers in Aysen, Chile’s XIth Region. The project would also require the construction of a transmission line almost 1600 kilometers long. The project’s construction is projected to be conducted from 2008 to 2012. There is enormous opposition to this project, uniting big business such as the salmon farmers, local landowners, operators of local fishing lodges and other small-scale tourism enterprises, and U.S. entrepreneur and conservationist Douglas Tompkins. The protest is highly publicized, although the opponents claim that HydroAysén has not been transparent about their plans. The opposition is concerned about the flooding of 93 billion hectares, its ecological repercussions and the conversion of the small town of Cochrane into a booming industrial hub. They also fear that the dams on the Baker and the Pascua will only be the start of the damming of every river in Patagonia. Additionally, there is concern for the loss of international (eco)tourists visiting the region. Government officials claim that if they do not dam the Baker and the Pascua, which would generate 20% of the country’s energy needs, the only alternative will be nuclear power. HydroAysén’s EIA report is expected in 2008. Tompkins has repeatedly opposed the industrialization of Patagonia. Consecutive governments have tried to delegitimize his conservationist efforts, naming him a communist, terrorist, Zionist cult leader and interventionist preventing foreign investment. The irony of Chile’s liberal climate for foreign investment is shown when it welcomes those companies that want to extract the country’s natural resources, but is hostile towards those that want to invest their fortunes in conserving them.

Foreigners are not the only critics of Chilean policies. Many Chileans oppose industrial megaprojects, such as mining, forestry, cellulose, salmon farming, and hydroelectric plants. They feel that this type of development is out of control, that there is no true consideration for future generations. They fear the loss of biodiversity and natural resources, whose Chile’s economy has always depended upon. Due to all of these environmental conflicts in Chile and the State’s tendency to favour large private companies, many Chileans question the meaning of the “sustainable development” discourse. Cynics criticize EIAs as “only a formality”, as industrial projects tend to be approved in Chile, no matter what the social and environmental consequences. Political decisions have far reaching impacts in democratic processes, such as the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The Ralco case showed that EIAs can reinforce a political decision and uphold its discourse, instead of ensuring a democratic and informed process in practice, that in principle, they are supposed to uphold. Through financing of reports and subsequent ownership of the information, interest groups retain control over their use. Even researchers come to be removed from their own conclusions in ways that are quite alarming. The corrupt EIA process in Chile is a manifestation of the authoritarian culture where dialogue is not practiced, where decisions are taken by a small group of politically and economically powerful elite, and the local peoples, in this case original peoples, are not heard. Energy, thus, being of “national interest” goes above all. This idea is recognized and conformed to by the political structure that imposes this discourse. The institutionalization of this legitimacy is effectively manifested in the institutions that facilitate the attitude of the State towards local peoples and the private sector, and the clear disposition towards economic development without considering the social and environmental costs. The large majority of the private companies that implement hydroelectric, geothermal, biofuel or mining projects in Chile are of from outside the region, such as Spain, Norway, Germany, Italy, England, Switzerland, Canada, and Australia. It all revolves around making money for their CEOs, and maybe a little GDP for Chile. Meanwhile, energy costs within Chile skyrocket, so that not only the local citizens have to live with the negative effects of these projects, they also get the short end of the stick in the actual resulting product. Thus, there is a general discontent, distrust, and disbelief that the “system” will work for them. Especially concerning environmental laws and institutions have lost the respect of the people, as they adhere to corporate pressure, not only in hydroelectric megaprojects, but also in other forms of industrialisation such as mining, forestry, cellulose and salmon farming. To the locals being affected by such megaprojects, the beautiful discourse of “transparency” and “participation” are nothing but that: just empty words. It is definitely not the reality for most of the citizens of Chile.

More Information:

(videos)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cbuKmAhGNg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXud4SkjjoY&feature=related

http://www.dailymotion.com/giubergia/video/12033537

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBst6cogiwQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJLDd8kcKxg&feature=related

(articles)
http://www.valdivianoticias.cl/info.asp?Ob=1&Id=23168
http://www.riosanpedro.cl/?page_id=52
http://www.valdivianoticias.cl/info.asp?Ob=1&Id=22882

http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20070617/pags/20070617200658.html
http://www.unpo.org/content/view/8795/236/
http://www.mapuexpress.net/?act=news&id=2961
http://mapuexpress.net/?act=news&id=2940
http://nomasrepresas.blogspot.com/2008/06/reportaje-canal13-hallazgos.html

http://www.mapuexpress.net/?act=news&id=3408&PHPSESSID=872a34a3893c87a13df058a6c865b3c6
http://www.mapuexpress.net/?act=news&id=3402&PHPSESSID=872a34a3893c87a13df058a6c865b3c6

http://panguipullisustentable.blogspot.com/
http://www.luisemiliorecabarren.cl/?q=node/1146
http://www.elciudadano.cl/2008/10/22/en-la-de-los-rioscolbun-atenta-contra-estrategia-de-desarrollo-regional-ciudadana/
http://www.elciudadano.cl/2008/10/23/corema-de-los-rios-vale-callampa-por-aprobar-hidroelectrica-de-colbun/
http://resistenciapatagona.blogspot.com/

Open letter about SN Power / Trayenko projects in Chile

2008-08-06T09:44:00.005+02:00

From:
http://www.alterinfos.org/spip.php?article2573
http://www.mapuexpress.net/?act=publications&id=1475&PHPSESSID=09dff2a413f021dc7e93d7795fcbdbdf

Here is a translation of a letter written in response to an article in one of Chile's major newspapers, La Segunda.

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With this letter I would like to open a dialogue about the article on page 18 of La Segunda on July 28, 2008: "Hydropower Plants. Opinion of the Mapuche community will be key in Norwegian SN Power's decision".

The article quotes executives from SN Power and Trayenko, saying that there is little opposition to the projects proposed for the municipalities of Panguipulli and Futrono in Southern Chile. The journalist wrote exclusively in the discourse of the company, and he did not bother to interview anyone in the area concerned to know whether what they are saying is true. This article does not reflect the reality of the area concerned. The gentlemen Huseby and Marchese are wrong when they say that there is "little opposition" to the projects that they want to develop in the area. There is a majority opposition, especially in the Mapuche communities, which has been developing for over a year, and every day more people join the movement. It is the dream of the executives that everyone agrees with their projects, in order to comply with the terms of "social responsibility" of SN Power in Norway, and in order to receive approval for environmental and social impact studies.

Unfortunately, the truth is that intervention in the area by the executives is far from being "responsible" or ethical. If the journalist who wrote this article had gone to the area, and went to speak with the local people, rural Mapuche and non-Mapuche who have always lived there, he would have written another story. The story is that there is a majority opposition, people are organizing more each day, with support from the municipality, entrepreneurs, institutions and local organizations. They realize that the rumours created by the company, such as in the article which states that there is no opposition, are a strategic way of the company of manipulating public opinion so that the plants are built.

The fact is that local people who are against the project have neither the resources nor access, nor political power in order to demonstrate their struggle in the traditional media, or by other conventional methods.

It is certainly not a lack of opposition or resistance. The issue is very strong in the area, as is the intervention by the company in trying to convince people of their projects, which is already causing irreparable damage to the historical social networks in the area for the long-term. But at the same time alliances are also being created between people of all classes, ethnicities, locations, professions, institutions and organizations that exist in the area, to try to defeat this multinational and powerful firm. They are humble rural people, but most are very clear that they do not want the projects SN Power / Trayenko is proposing for their territory and that there is no dialogue or "citizen participation" in a transparent and democratic manner.

It is important for the development of democracy in Chile that this part of the story is not kept out of the means of communications. Take a role of serious journalistic responsibility to send a reporter to the area to ask people whether they agree with the projects or if they are against, and why. If a newspaper like La Segunda does not take this responsibility, it is not abiding by the basic ethics of journalism, nor is it promoting the democratic right of freedom of expression, because it seems that journalists working for La Segunda only can write in support of the powerful companies and the government's energy policy. And that would mean that the press in Chile, and its journalists, become instruments of manipulation by the interests of big business to carry out its mega projects without taking into account public participation.

Each journalist who wished to learn about the other side of the story, has only to do a search on the internet to find enough articles in local news and specialist sites showing that there is a vast majority of people in the area, in Coñaripe, Liquiñe , Carririñe, Maqueo and elsewhere, that are expressing their disagreement with the projects and the intervention by the company, in various democratic and pacific ways.

It would be very unfortunate if the traditional press do not ackowledge that part of the story and continue to contribute to silencing the voices of resistance from the Chilean citizens who are performing their democratic rights.

On Violence

2008-03-11T19:30:00.001+01:00

On Violence, and Cultural Relativism

I´ve always been a pacifist. As an idealist, I´ve always believed in non-violence and in buddhist philosophy. I believe that if everyone in the world were to return to the source, return to a place of love, we will have peace. Peace IS possible. A conflict is only a conflict if both parties maintain that it is. If either or both decide that there is no conflict, there IS is no conflict. Unfortunately, reality looks a little different on the ground. Each place I travel to I see that different people have different realities, culturally, socially and politically defined. Yet we all create those realities. We all have the power to change them. However, in the reality of economic combined with authoritarian power, democracy and human rights seem to be far-off pipe dreams. In such a case, peace is not always the answer. It is, effectively, a fight-fire-with-fire mechanism that will be effective in order to keep the peace, ironically enough. In Chile, I have found the cultural relativist ability to understand violence. Within the context of all-pervasive exploitation and repression, the reaction is expected: if those in power do not fight the fair fight, why should we? Corruption, extortion, threats and violence from the state and the private sector generate the same among the citizens. They resort to illegal means to survive in the jungle of discontent. It is a discontent, distrust and disbelief that the “system” will work for them. The beautiful discourse of “transparency” and “participation” are nothing but that. Just empty words. Definately not the reality for most citizens of this country. Most people say that not much has changed since the dictatorship. True, there is no military rule, but there is no democracy, either. And now I finally get it, violence IS the answer. But doesn`t it just generate more repression? That is the fear that will prevent violence from occurring.

The True face of Nils Huseby and SN Power

2008-02-12T05:44:00.004+01:00

On the 31st of January, 2008, I witnessed an intense and well-organized meeting with members of the mapuche (indigenous) communities of Panguipulli, Chile and executives of Norwegian energy company SN Power, and their Chilean counterpart, Trayenko, S.A. The purpose of the meeting was for the companies to open a dialogue with the communities about SN Power´s proposed project to build hydroelectric plants in the area. This meeting was agreed upon by the director for the Latin American region of SN Power, Nils Huseby, and Pedro Antimilla, representative of the communities, who had gone all the way to Oslo in December. There, on December 11th, 2007, they had signed an agreement according to Nordic and international laws which respect the rights of indigneous communities, such as land and water rights. The agreement stated that SN Power would not continue their project without entering into dialogue with the communities. The proposed dialogue, intended to start on the 31st of january, was meant to offer a platform for the communities to express their concerns about the project and for the company to take these concerns into consideration in their plans. At this meeting, in the fields of Carirriñe, Mapuche territory, about an hour`s drive on unpaved roads from Coñaripe, over 500 local people were present, including 14 lonkos (chiefs) of the mapuche communities, members of local tourist organizations, and the mayor of the municipality of Panguipulli, Alejandro Kohler. These fields are symbolic land where Mapuche and Non-Mapuche historically meet. The lonkos, other representatives of the communities and the mayor spoke eloquently and clearly for over an hour in the plain sun and scorching heat of the afternoon, articulating their concerns about the proposed hydroelectric projects and how these would affect the communities. It was made absolutely clear that the Mapuche communities, the mayor, and several local (eco)tourism operators and small farmers, representing over 3000 local citizens, are unanimously opposed to the plans being performed in any way, shape or form. However, they also emphasized that they do not wish a violent conflict as those taking place between mapuche communities and forestry companies in the northwest of Chile.

Nils Huseby arrived in his suit and tie, he and his collegues refused to sit on the traditional seats offered by the communities, and stood under the hot sun, listening to each of the lonkos and werken (spokespeople) make their appeals. They appealed to international agreements such as the ILO 169 and the UN`s declaration of indigenous peoples. The Mapuche communities wish to recuperate their ancestral rights to water, which were sold to SN Power by the Chilean state. The rights to water and the rights to land were divided by the Pinochet regime in 1981, allowing for the state to sell and alot land and water seperately. As the territory which the communities occupy is recognized as indigenous land, the water is seen as a distinct resource. The land is, however, useless without water. The rivers running through the land are subject to being rerouted by subterranean aquaducts, to feed the hydroelectric plants SN Power has planned. Furthermore, a large part of the land will be inundated, rendering it useless and possibly entailing the relocation of communities. Local farmers and hotsprings enterpreneurs will lose their water sources as well, which will mean they will no longer be able to survive as such. The region of the rivers and lakes is the most well-developped ecotourism destination in Chile. Tourism is the sole industry in the area, and the transformation of this area will not only mean a great loss to the Mapuche communities, but a great loss to all Chileans.

Finally, when it was Nils Huseby`s turn to respond, he simply said “I`ve heard your concerns and appeals, but we are not prepared to discontinue the project, we will proceed as planned”. An all around shocked reaction and booeing surged spontaneously from the crowd. The Werken Maria Eugenia Calfuñanco responded that this was not in accordance with the agreements made in Oslo, where Mr. Huseby agreed to negotiate with the communities, and then revise the plans. Obviously the decision had already been made prior to the meeting that the plans would proceed regardless of the opinion of the communities, for it was made clear at the meeting that all present were not in favour of the plans: no studies, no plants, no dams. A big “NO” all around. And so Nils Huseby gave them a big “NO” in return. Some dialogue. Why did he even bother coming? He seemed only to laugh cynically at the serious appeals of the Lonkos. Was it just a media stunt? To fulfill his “participation” barometer in the Corporate Social Responsibility charts? Some participation. He even tried to make excuses, saying that he could not do anything about the gap in the Chilean laws, that allows for a company such as SN Power to buy all the rights to water in the area, leaving the locals powerless, and if the company proceeds with the plans, leaving them without a source of life, and some even landless. He said that he was not in the position, due to Chilean law, to return their water rights. He said that they have to take up this problem with the Chilean state, not with him. Meanwhile SN Power is taking advantage of this “gap” in the law. Taking advantage in order to turn a profit, not taking any responsibility for the consequences for the local environment and people in Chile, something which the company would not be able to do in Norway itself. This echoes the long tradition of colonialism and imperialism, exploiting the national resources of latin america to increase the wealth of western nations. The new form of “globalization” is possible due to the tremendous neoliberalism installed by the Pinochet regime which is allowing foreign and transnational companies to transform Chile`s natural resources into capitalist profit, creating enormous impacts for the Chilean people for an unforseen amount of time.

The representatives of the mapuche communities had made a typed statement entailing all that was said during the meeting, and asked all the speakers to sign it, as is traditional in these types of meetings. Nils Huseby, however, also refused to sign this. He was then asked “what is his word worth?” and “why should we ever believe it again?” He does not seem to be complying to any of his promises. He was then asked to leave the territory. The representatives said: “Unfortunately this is our first conversation and also our last.You are no longer welcome in this territory”. All those present, shouted “They must leave!” Other comments made by those locals present and at the end of the meeting proved that this would be the beginning of a long battle, and if any of the workers of SN Power or Trayenko were found working in the territory, they would be sent away again, as they had been in october 2007, when they had begun their “studies” with immense machinery to drill holes into the earth of Mapuche territory, without their permission or even their previous knowledge, because the ministry of economics had signed a contract with SN Power allowing them to conduct subterranean studies of the area for the next two years. It is clear that SN Power will continue to do so regardless of the desires of the local communities, and to this effect, Nils Huseby and his collegues are not taking any responsibility in the so-called “dialogue” with the communities, nor do they respect indigenous and human rights, such as the collective rights to land and water, resources which are invaluable to the people, yet receive a very cheap pricetag in the competitive capitalist market.

See also:

http://pellaifanewen.blogspot.com/

http://pellaifanewen.blogspot.com/2008/03/comunidades-mapuche-y-grupos-locales.html

http://www.australvaldivia.cl/prontus4_nots/site/extra/pdp/pdp.html?sec=2&ts=20080201000636&fp=20080201&pag=4

http://www.termasvergara.cl/todos-contra-las-represas/

http://www.coñaripe.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22&Itemid=28

http://www.travesiaweb.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=65&Itemid=7

http://www.mapuche.info/

http://www.patagoniasinrepresas.cl/

http://www.mapuexpress.net/?act=news&id=2096

www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press1111.htm

www.mapuche.nl/english/natives_rights120507.html

http://www.ecoterritorios.blogspot.com/

http://www.ecosistemas.cl/1776/propertyvalue-29643.html

Los Chilenos

2007-12-03T20:29:00.000+01:00

Chileans remember the violence of the dictatorship all too well. Social reform imposed with brute physical force. Another type of violence resulted from the radical neoliberal economic reforms implemented by Pinochet: poverty, destitution, inequality and injustice. Only strict military rule was to deter the rise of crime. To this day Chile has not completely recovered or recuperated social equality. And so crime rates have risen alongside democracy.

Around the world, Chile is seen as the most democratic, stable, and economically developed country in Latin America. This all depends on the definition of democracy that is applied. An electoral democracy it certainly is, but social justice and equality are still lacking for many. Voices of dissent and protest are all too often repressed by the military police. Macroeconomic development benefits those that have resources and access to the formal market and education. Meanwhile, those that do not enjoy these opportunities are punished in their efforts to survive, as the informal market and petty theft are still reprimanded strictly by the police force. Again and again, no matter how you look at it, the ´little guy´ always gets the short end of the stick. The big guys are given the go ahead as if there is no tomorrow. But there is, and it is for our children and our children’s children that we must plan ahead. Currently, a theft so large it is almost impossible to fathom is occurring in the capitalist democracy that is Chile.

The drive for sovereignty and the growth of the GDP take shape in the form of powerful multinational entrepreneurs and investors who extract natural resources at such a high rate and at an enormous cost of the local peoples and their environment. These foreigners do not seem to have the same love and pride for Chile that Chileans share. The love for the land, with all its natural beauty, and for the kind, warmhearted and generous people. Chileans are proud of their history, the leaders of the past, and of their artistic icons, such as Victor Jara and Violetta Parra. It is a love and pride of Chile that I have come to share with them.

Natural resource-based industrialization has nothing to do with love, peace, equality, justice or democracy, which is something that people generally strive to achieve in their lives. No, it is simply the rape of Chile, leaving a token of GDP growth behind for the father el gobierno, who turns a blind eye.

For More information, see:

http://www.patagoniasinrepresas.cl/

http://www.pellaifanewen.blogspot.com/
http://pellaifanewen.blogspot.com/2007/12/comunidades-de-carrirrie-convocan.html
http://www.termasvergara.cl/todos-contra-las-represas/

http://www.mapuexpress.net/?act=news&id=2096

http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press1111.htm

http://www.mapuche.nl/english/natives_rights120507.html

http://www.ecoterritorios.blogspot.com/

Coñaripe, Chile

2007-11-27T23:36:00.002+01:00

Coñaripe, situated to the north of lake Calafquen, near the Villarrica National Park, which was declared a UNESCO sight in 1999, in the XIVth region in Southern Chile. The environment of a large part of the seven lakes region will be seriously affected and its sustainability will be threatened by the plans of a foreign energy company, SN Power, to build a series of hydroelectric plants, in a hydroelectric megaproject.

In the Mapuche language, Mapudungun, ‘Mapu’ means earth, or land, and ‘che’ means people; they are the people of the land. This linguistic symbolism signals the historic importance of land and its resources to the Mapuche people, and it is an integral and significant part of their existence to this day. Yet, it has also been the cause of most of their grief and strife. Most anthropologists and observers recognize the integral role the land and the environment play in the Mapuche culture. The valley in which Coñaripe is located has always been Mapuche land. The Mapuche originally populated the mountain ranges of Challupén, Traitraico y Pucura. Throughout history, they have been resettled and their land has been reduced significantly, so that they now live on a handful of reserves in and around Coñaripe. Now SN Power´s plan threatens to further reduce their living space and ability to survive, displacing them even further.

If this project will be effectuated, flora, fauna and the local people will no longer be able to survive as they currently do. Water will diverted from flowing its natural course through this area, and inundate other parts of the region. One of the rivers that will be largerly affected is the Llancahue, which presently provides water to the surrounding flora, fauna and people alike for their survival, as well as there sustenance needs such as sustainable fishing, a sustainable energy source, and sustainable tourism such as hotsprings, rafting and trekking. This form of income will be lost if the plans go through. This will further affect the local businesses in the region who profit indirectly from tourism. This area does not currently have any other industry that can provide employment. Therefore, if the plans for the hydroelectric megaproject by SN Power take effect, the livelihoods of approximately 1400 people (30 families and communities) will be threatened, as well as causing unforeseeable consequences for the ecosystem, surrounding region, and mountains, not to mention the pollution the construction will cause.

Currently, the energy company holds an agreement with the Ministry of Economy, Promotion and Reconstruction, so that it may perform ´studies´ in the next two years. These ´studies´ commenced on October 22nd of this year, on indigenous lands, without permission of the inhabitants, which is in contradiction with Chile´s 1993 Indigenous Law. Leaders of the Antimilla community, part of the Round table Pellaifa Newen, are willing to talk and defend their rights. But they have been victims of acts of force by SN Power, as the installation of materials and machinery for exploration sites without permission from the community forced them to take physical action to make the company withdraw its materials and leave the unauthorized sites. The affected communities will continue to raise awareness and conduct protests locally.

However, due to the ethnic and socio-economic politics in Chile, their voices are not being heard, their protest is not being headed. This situation has long historical premises, and indigenous rights have repeatedly been negated in the quest for industrialization and capitalist expansion. The most recent example was the prolific and polemic Pangue and Ralco dams built on the Bio Bio river in the XVIIth region from 1997-2004, comissioned by ENDESA. (see previous post)Approximately 92 Mapuche families were relocated away from their ancestral lands, burial grounds and sacred sites, which were inundated due to the damming of the river. The Mapuche comunities in Coñaripe fear that they will also see a similar fate, as the actions of the energy company have shown absolute disregard for their lands, customs and the Indigenous law to date. This is why we feel it is imperative that this project does take any physical shape. Experience has taught us that once construction has commenced and investments have been made, the power of capital will overrule any human or environmental right. Taking away their water will be literally taking away their last drop of life.

Body Talk

2007-11-15T00:32:00.000+01:00

A conversation with a couple in Chile reminds me of a similar conversation I had with a couple in India, about women´s bodies. It seems that the world over men and women are brainwashed with the ideal of a ´perfect´, desirable, sexy and healthy body is that of a barbie doll. Her skin being tanned in the West and white in the Rest. And yet, talking to people from around the world it seems that this ideal is just that, as it is not naturally achievable for many, it is rather a mechanism which keeps women insecure and vulnerable to eating disorders. To be happy, to be healthy, to reproduce and live a long life is to be at peace with your own body in its natural form. To feed yourself for nutrition as well as social pleasure. And men seem to actually truly desire a ´real´woman´s body (una mujer) and not a barbie doll or una chica. If he says otherwise, he is lyng or a product of this brainwashing. A result of our western media, hollywood-glamour magazines and the like. Do we seek approval from the stars? Are they happy? Would they not much rather live without such inhuman pressure to conform to something they are not? It used to be desirable-popular-mainstream to be a round, voluptuous, well-fed woman, in almost all parts of the world. It was seen as a sign of wealth, prestige, power and presence. When did it become fashionable to look like a weak, meek, insecure and vulnerable shadow of a girl? A poor excuse of a woman, I´d say. It is sad enough that professional athletes, dancers, models and actresses must adhere to this pressure as a part of their professional choice. But it is atrocious that the normal, day-to-day, wives, mothers, sisters, friends (ie. the majority of the population) of this world feel pressured to do so. An absolute outrage, a scandal of unhealthy proportions, in fact! Figuratively and literally speaking. Times are changing, though, for the better I hope, as awareness is growing. We, the real people of the world, have the power to change the expectations of what a woman should be. Let us reverse the tides, my friends. Swallow your food, enjoy, drink and be merry if you can, if you are priveleged to do so. Don´t forget it!

The Hypocracy of the Climate Change hype

2007-11-07T17:01:00.001+01:00

On a flight with Delta airlines, I was handed the following bag:

Filled with an eyeshade, body lotion, a toothbrush and toothpaste (labelled biodegradable) and earplugs. I'm guessing that only about half the people will use these things and then they will be thrown out. the other half will almost all use them once and then throw them out. So great, that the packaging is environmentally friendly, but they were still made in China, and that certainly does nothing for the 'carbon footprint' of the airline itself. Not to mention that they encourage passengers to take the inflight magazines with them when they leave = more printing and more trees clearcut and more waste! It's an industry that is impossibly carbon-neutral. BIG changes need to take place before I would call an airline 'green'. Yet these promoting themselves as such is all part of image marketing. Although as an environmentalist I cheer every little step towards change, and I truly believe every little bit counts, I am worried about environmentalism being a passing fad, a short-lived trend. Environmental awareness, and adapting behaviour according to environmental principles, requires a long-term internalisation, as if it were second-nature. (when it actually is first).

The Alphabet of Indigenous Simpatico

2007-10-14T15:06:00.001+02:00

Ancestors

Beauty

Coexistence

Community

Culture

Dialogue

Earth

Ecosystem

Energy

Exchange

Fairness

Future

Genuine

Gift

Grace

Identity

Integrity

Knowledge

Land

Language

Life

Love

Morality

Mother

Nature

Obligation

Philosophy

Positive

Reciprocity

Relationship

Respect

Responsibility

Sacred

Social

Solidarity

Spirit

Spiritual

Subsistence

Sun

Wisdom

Worldview

Reflections on the Oneness

2007-09-15T10:17:00.000+02:00

To experience the oneness
One must relinquish the mind
In order to relinquish the mind
One must experience the oneness
It is without the mind
That one experiences that vast connection
Of life, movement, rhythm on earth
Existing mellifluously with one another
And inanimate objects
It is this perception of spiritual and physical interrelatedness
That occurs when the mind is switched off
It is beyond the mind's comprehension
Yet when experienced
It is the mind's desires to recognize,
Give it a name, give it a form, in words.
When experiencing the oneness
The mind feels light
Yet has difficulty cognizing
The experiential realm of consciousness
Without this realm thought has no form,
Thought becomes a superfluous human function.
Although most of our human lives
Are consumed by thinking.
If life can exist without thought,
Then life itself is all, but thought.
Thought is merely a desire to understand
This miraculous phenomenon called life
All life is one,
Whether we understand it or not.

The War on Terror is Everywhere...History repeats itself.

2007-08-29T11:13:00.001+02:00

Much like the time the 'commies' were suspect EVERYWHERE, now we repeat history and replace the word 'commie' with 'terrorist', even though it is clearly defined as one who inflicts fear, or terror on others most often by the threat of violence or the use of violence. Now, the new 'terrorist' is EVERYWHERE. Even in the university lecture halls. Be afraid, be very afraid. He actually used the words 'gentrification' and 'inequality' in his publications! The nerve of some people! This professor has actually been detained, according to the German police, for acts of terror because these words were used by a terrorist group in their publications as well. In this line of reasoning almost every sociologist and most anthropologists should be considered terrorists or at least affiliating with terrorists. Yes, I said the word affiliate. Just as in the cold war, any insinuation that you support the ideas of communism would lead to your arrest and trial as a communist. Yet you had not committed a single illegal act. Today, suggesting with full academic argumentation that a possible explanation for civil unrest and dissatisfaction with society's current state of affairs could be associated with concepts like 'gentrification' and 'inequality' is equated with supporting terrorism, acts of terror and terrorists. How far will the nation-state spread this fear of the dreaded enemy, the elusive Other, the iconic terrorist, before we realize that it is the state itself that is acting as a terrorist and is actually legitimized in its actions due to our irrepressable and irrational fear of terrorism, or rather fear of fear itself.

For more, read: Guantanamo in Germany

Sign the petition by Policing Crowds.

The Three Stages of Truth

2007-08-15T12:21:00.000+02:00

Watch the film Earthlinks.
For wisdom and inspiration, however, viewer discretion is advised.

Quote of the Month

2007-07-15T08:38:00.000+02:00

I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got to hold up for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

-George Bernard Shaw

Poetry of the Month

2007-07-15T07:46:00.001+02:00

Bird call

Surf crashing

Sunset on wheat hill

Distant silhouettes

Arbutus shadow

Cat’s meow

Beach cry

I gaze at all the beauty

My mind light

There is less here

Less of everything

When less is more

Crisp, clear calls

The song of birds

Enveloped by silence

A soft breeze

Washing my face

So much silence

Envelops everything

Like a thick blanket

Unlike anything else I’ve known

The Ralco Dam Conflict

2007-06-16T07:41:00.000+02:00

After the Enron scandal in 2001, when it was revealed that Enron’s reported financial condition was sustained mostly by institutionalised, systematic, and creatively planned accounting fraud, the world awoke to corporate greed. Enron has since become a popular symbol of wilful corporate fraud and corruption. Did this awakening to corporate greed arise because it involved leaders of the world’s ‘most powerful’ nation? Or was it because it involved enormous amounts of money? Or because many ordinary citizens had been duped of their lifesavings and their jobs? In any case, the Enron scandal was far from unique in being an exemplary case of capitalism gone wrong. The greed for more and more capital accumulation has had far-reaching and negative impacts throughout the world. More and more activists are keen on exposing wrongfully acquired capital or capitalist interests that fuelled the destruction of societies and the environment.

Such a case that was exposed was the construction of the Ralco dam in Chile, for which an indigenous group was relocated and a protest ensued, supported by international human rights and environmental organisations. Unfortunately, the protests were not strong enough to overcome the power of the wealthy elite, and the building of the dam continued relentlessly. Chile is often named one of the most democratic countries in Latin America. How can a democratic government allow for this to happen?

Unfortunately, I can only conclude that this dam was constructed for the economic interests of the powerful elite, and that this process was far from democratic. Such processes leave me feeling uneasy, as not only are those whose lives are most affected the ones that are most excluded, but it is derived from a one-track development teleology that does not have any consideration for what people on the ground really want and need. The reality of a ‘minority group’ is thus the opposite pole to the reality of a technocratic, powerful elite, and the tensions between these poles result in conflicts such as the one surrounding Ralco in Chile.

The Empresa Nacional de Energia (ENDESA) and various actors of the Chilean state manipulated contradictory laws which allowed the rights of the Mapuche-Pehuenche to be repressed for a project that is in the end unviable economically and ecologically, as the area has seen severe droughts in the past ten years. Furthermore, the project depletes the possibility of achieving sustainable development, as a balance in the three dimensions – social, economic and ecological – were not taken into account in the plans.

In the early nineties, a land conflict developed in Chile, between the Mapuche-Pehuenche and the Spanish energy consortium ENDESA, as it had plans for an industrial mega-project consisting of six hydroelectric dams on the Upper Bío Bío River (Keijzer et 1992: 69; Wilson and Allaway 2001: 4). The conflict was at its height during the construction of the second dam, the Ralco dam, from 1997-2002, and received worldwide attention due to protests by environmental and human rights activists, and therefore is the most famous land conflict in Chile (Skjævestad 2006: 14).

The first dam, Pangue, was constructed from 1992-1997. This project had been approved by President Aylwin, before his administration had formed the National Corporation for Indigenous Development, (CONADI) and the National Environmental Commission (CONAMA). Both these institutions had declared the Ralco dam as illegal, initially, according to their respective laws (Haughney 2006: 125; Wilson and Allaway 2001: 6; Aylwin 2002: 15). Construction on the Ralco dam commenced in 1997, although a plan for the relocation of the Mapuche-Pehuenche living in the area was not even considered when ENDESA first announced that they would construct another dam (Wilson and Allaway 2001: 6). The reservoir on the Bío Bío River created by ENDESA’s dams covers an area of approximately 3,467 hectares in the VIIIth region (Nixon 2003). It has inundated the communities Wupuca-Ralco and Ralco-Lepoy and lands of approximately 600 people, amounting to 92 Mapuche-Pehuenche extended families, who were relocated higher up in the Andes to make way for ‘progress’ (Haughney 2006: 125; Palacios and Du Roy 2003: 24).

ENDESA, named “one of the most powerful Chilean private companies” saw the Bío Bío river as a means to produce cheap energy (Palacios and Du Roy 2003: 25). ENDESA is the former national energy enterprise, and now a privatised energy company from Spain who monopolises the energy sector in Chile (Haughney 2006; Malmborg 1999). Since the Pangue dam had negative impacts, protests were instigated upon its completion in order to stop the building of Ralco, the second and largest dam. Despite the highly controversial and highly profiled conflict, ENDESA continued construction until its completion in 2004 (Palacios and Du Roy 2003: 24).

The Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia is a coalition of democratic parties formed in the 1990s, and under President Eduardo Frei, promoted the projects as a matter of national security (so that they are not dependent on gas imports from Argentina) and national development (in terms of GDP). Yet the privatisation of ENDESA, and thus the President’s, members of his family and other political elites’ shares in the company raises questions about the legitimacy of this claim (Wilson and Allaway 2001: 6; Palacios and Du Roy 2003: 35; and Aylwin 2003: 15). The Frei administration played an enormous role in ensuring that the Ralco project would be approved. The approximately 20 independent assessments and reports by CONADI, CONAMA, human rights groups and anthropologists all denounced the project for its disregard for the environment and the lack of consultation with those Pehuenche that were to be displaced. The indigenous law not only requires informed consent, but also equivalent compensation for their lands, neither of which CONADI deemed sufficient in the permutas (relocation contracts). These reports were repressed by ENDESA, and the government fired two consecutive indigenous leaders of CONADI who did not support the project, after which he appointed a non-indigenous leader whose political affiliations supported the project, as well as forcing CONAMA to re-write their assessment of the Ralco dam so that they would approve it (Aylwin 2003: 14-15; Haughney 2006: 110 and Johnston and Garcia-Downing 2003: 4-5). Furthermore, an aggressive media campaign was launched to sway Chilean public opinion in favour of the dam, focussed on the “need for Ralco’s power to support industrial development” in a period of economic recession (Aylwin 2002: 10). This would further promote the invisibility of the Mapuche-Pehuenche, the ‘Chileans’ whose lives were to be directly, completely and irrevocably affected by the construction of the dam.

“The Mapuche population of 1.2 million accounts for approximately ten per cent of Chile’s total population and together with the 200 000 living in Argentina, Mapuche constitute the third largest indigenous people in South-America” (Nesti 2002: 2). In the Mapuche language, Mapudungun, ‘Mapu’ means earth, or land, and ‘che’ means people; they are the people of the land. Pehuenche, in turn, means people of the Pehuen, the pine tree which provided nuts for their subsistence (Haughney 2006: 102; Nesti 2002). This linguistic symbolism signals the historic importance of land and its resources to the Mapuche people, and it is an integral and significant part of their existence to this day. Yet, it has also been the cause of most of their grief and strife. Most anthropologists and observers recognise the integral role the land and the environment play in the Pehuenche culture (Malmborg 1999; Palacios and Du Roy 2003; Nesti 2002). Due to their relative isolation before 1992, when the construction of the Pangue dam commenced, their culture and society evolved and revolved around subsistence, and this isolation, in turn, allowed for a preservation of their culture and livelihood (Keijzer et al. 1992). It is argued that their world view is based on their relationship with the earth and nature, as they have always used medicinal plants from the area and invoked the ancestors for their religious and medicinal ceremonies (Malmborg 1999; Nesti 2002; Wilson and Allaway 2001). The lands which were flooded contained ancient and modern burial sites, sacred sites, as well as over 70 archaeological sites, not to mention, it formed the habitat for over 70 endangered species. The Alto Bío Bío area is estimated to have been occupied by the Pehuenche since the year 1200, and their historical settlements, burial sites and religious sites are now underwater in the reservoir created by the Ralco dam (Nixon 2003 and Estrada 2004).

Neoliberalism consumed the continent of Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s like a fever. Especially Chile, under the military dictatorship of Pinochet, was praised for its far-reaching privatisation and liberalisation of services, such as energy. Thus, neoliberal reforms and privatisation policies implemented during the Pinochet regime allowed for ENDESA’s monopoly over Chile’s energy production and distribution, which is echoed by the fact that ENDESA’s owners held “strong liaisons to the Pinochet regime” (Nordbø 2001: 5-6; Haughney 2006: 101).

Liberalisation also allowed for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), so that powerful actors outside of Chile also had control over the project, although the Chilean government had to camp with the internal conflict and protests. The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) funded the Pangue dam, along with Canada’s Export Development Corporation, the Swedish Agency for International Technical and Economic Co-operation and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Wilson and Allaway 2001; Nordbø 2001; and Aylwin 2002). They were initially to fund the Ralco dam, but when international attention was drawn to the conflict, public opinion and litigations persuaded them to withdraw their support, and thus their funding (Skjævestad 2006). ENDESA was able to secure other sources, however, and the project continued.

The usurpation of Mapuche lands has created conflicts between the Mapuche and the state for several hundred years; however, the laws that allowed for this have historically favoured the interests of the Chilean state and its mestizo population (Keijzer et al. 1992: 4 and 7; Azócar et al. 2005). Land reform policies installed during the Pinochet period had reduced the Pehuenche land and organised them in a number of reserves and communities, and required the registration of individual land titles, contrary to the collective practices of the Pehuenche in the past (Haughney 2006). Due to the individual property titles, construction of the dam was possible. If the indigenous law recognised customary law in terms of collective land rights, ENDESA would not have been able to buy the land, for it allowed ENDESA to make individual contracts with the Pehuenche for their relocation, so that they did not legally need the consent of the entire community.

The Ley Indígena of 1993, however, requires that the entire community be consulted, and that they give their consent before a project is approved that will impact their lands, homes and subsistence (Malmborg 1999 and Haughney 2006: 135). The Environmental law of 1997 requires an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to be conducted before such projects are approved. The Electricity law of 1982 does, however, allows the sale of indigenous land if it is to benefit the Chilean society as a whole, in terms of energy supply. The courts have ruled in favour of Pinochet’s electricity law in all cases, subsuming the later laws, which were meant to be a priority of the government since 1993 (Haughney 2006: 131 and Aylwin 1998). However, Nancy Yáñez, a Chilean Lawyer, demonstrates the two-way tension between the laws:

The electricity law…stipulates that industrial projects for the generation and transmission of energy benefit the entire society and therefore should have priority over the rights of individual property owners. Article 24 of the Constitution also allows the state to expropriate private property for reasons of national interest or public good. Yet…the indigenous law declares that indigenous lands should be protected for “reasons of national interest”…The courts should apply the following criteria to decide: the more recent law has precedence over earlier law, and a special law takes precedence over a general law…the indigenous law took precedence by virtue of being both a special law and the more recent one (Haughney 2006: 128).

Simultaneously, Pinochet’s Counter-Terrorism Act of 1973 provides for the prosecution of illicit acts intended to terrorise the population. The provisions of the Act modify some aspects of criminal procedure, permitting some elements of secrecy in the pre-trial investigation phase, eliminating preventative measures other than pre-trial detention, and increasing sentences (Parra-Jerez 1999: 3; Skjævestad 2006: 49; Haughney 2006: 151; and Stavenhagen 2003). Unfortunately, the activists protesting against the dam have been detained without trial on account of the Act, and thus portrayed as ‘terrorists’ in the media as well. Furthermore, protests and demonstrations have been met with military and police violence, arrests and the deportation of foreigners, as Chilean law stipulates that foreigners may not interfere with internal politics (Haughney 2006: 130; Stavenhagen 2003). After the protests, however, the Pehuenche continually endured harassment in their homes by their neighbours who supported the project and wanted to relocate, and by the military police. The Pehuenche who refused to leave their lands were threatened, blackmailed and terrorised into doing so, and different uses of force were inflicted: physical, economic, and psychological (Haughney 2006: 121).

Although he had personal economic interests in the project, President Frei promoted Ralco in the name of Chile’s national ‘development’. “According to the ENDESA study, the poverty of the indigenous communities is considered evidence of cultural disintegration and even of an inferior culture in the process of yielding to a supposedly modern and `superior’ culture. This characterisation of the Mapuche culture as an `obstacle to progress’ has been echoed by the noted Chilean historian Sergio Villalobos” (Haughney 2006: 112). The assumption of inevitability of their integration into the dominant Chilean culture echoes the nationalistic assimilation policies of the Pinochet era, in which the Mapuche language and other cultural expressions were repressed (Skjævestad 2006: 9). Since the original plans had not even considered their existence in the area, and the relocation plan was only devised after pressure from human rights organisations, it is clear that ENDESA’s objectives, as well as the Chilean state’s, were purely economic. Furthermore, the idea that ENDESA and the state know what is best for the Pehuenche echoes a modernisation and colonisation logic which is now considered an ethnocentric discourse at best, and imperialist domination at worst.

Since 1997, especially the Pehuenche women protested against the Ralco dam, organised under the banner Mapu Domuche Newen (Women with the Strength of the Earth), and headed by the now famous sisters Nicolasa and Berta Quintreman, who formed a protest and claimed they would not leave their lands behind alive. They received several international human rights prizes for their struggle against the dam. This has, in turn, spurred on popular support for their cause in Chile. However, this occurred at a time when construction was nearly completed (Fletcher 2001: 40).

The Pehuenche and other contesters of the projects went to the courts to fight for their rights, but after long trials and delays, the claims were finally overthrown by congress. The protests conducted by the Pehuenche who refused to be relocated, or whom wanted to reverse the permutas because they had signed them without knowing the extent of their contents, were supported by international environmental and human rights groups. During all the protests, legal battles and international outcry, the construction of the dam continued almost relentlessly, albeit a short period when the hearing of the Quintremann sisters made the courts rule a halt to construction, but a higher appeal by ENDESA in congress reversed the process (Haughney 2006).

ENDESA persuaded some of the Pehuenche families to sign the permutas by offering them jobs in the construction of the dam, and alternative land elsewhere, as well as monetary compensation. However, there has been criticism that these measures were not sufficiently executed. ENDESA representatives only offered these packages for a short period of time, letting the Pehuenche believe that they would be relocated either way, by saying that the government had already approved the project, which was not true at the time. Therefore, those that accepted the offers did so under false pretences, and felt pressured to do so (Nixon 2003).

This process led to tensions within the communities, between those choosing to relocate and those protesting against the dam. Eventually, most of the families signed the permutas, and left the remaining eight resisting families in conflict with their neighbours and family members. Thus, the Ralco communities were divided and fragmented during the course of the conflict (Malmborg 1999). Some Pehuenche chose to relocate in order to receive jobs offered in the construction of the dam. Others were adamant never to leave their lands, due to its cultural, spiritual and economic significance. Still others were uncertain, and thought they had no choice, their insecurity motivating them to sign the permutas, without actually knowing its stipulations, nor what their rights actually were or how to defend them (Malmborg 1999).

Environmental activists lamented the loss of an ecosystem, its biodiversity, and the endangered species. Led by the Grupo de Accion del Bío Bío (GABB), a coalition of individuals and organisations protested the construction of the dam, and wanted to protect the ecosystem of the river and the surrounding forests, as the reservoir would create irreversible damage (Aylwin 2002 and Nixon 2003). The Chilean Mapuche movement was brought together for the marches and demonstrations, but thereafter they returned to their respective regions and protests. However, Mapuche “organisations disagreed among themselves over tactics, strategies, and goals. These divisions continued throughout the protest campaign, preventing the Mapuche movement form uniting to demand collective rights and allowing the government to dictate the terms of the conflict” (Haughney 2006: 131). Observers have suggested that ENDESA and the government exploited this phenomenon as a “Divide and Rule” strategy (Malmborg 1999).

Unfortunately, one can only conclude that the Ralco dam was constructed for the economic interests of the powerful elite, and that this process was far from democratic. Not only are those whose lives are most affected the ones that are the most excluded, but it is derived from a one-track development teleology that does not have any consideration for what people on the ground really want and need. The reality of a ‘minority group’ is thus the opposite pole to the reality of a technocratic, powerful elite, and the tensions between these poles result in conflicts such as the one surrounding Ralco in Chile.

This conflict is another example of the way in which global changes have local effects. The neoliberal model often generates negative consequences for small or marginal groups in Latin America. This is why it is important that macro policy is informed by micro reality. How a state treats its ‘minorities’ reveals how democratic that state truly is. Democracy is overridden when pressure, blackmail and corrupt practices force interest groups and institutions – such as CONADI and CONAMA – to adhere to the higher hand (the President and the National government, because their interests were represented by ENDESA).

Land conflicts mainly arise due to a conflict in laws, and in the case of indigenous rights, there is a conflict between the imposed laws of the dominant system and the customary law of the original population. Individual rights can contradict collective rights and vice versa. In the case of Ralco, individual property titles were exploited, which negate collective land titles of the indigenous population. These property titles were thus manipulated by ENDESA so that the Pehuenche could only fight for their collective rights via the legal system. However, the legal system favoured individual titles and did not recognise their customary law, which is based on collective rights. The Chilean legal system was thus foreign to the Pehuenche way of life, and therefore the individual land titles were the legal crux through which ENDESA was able to rob them of their livelihoods.

The livelihood consequences for the Mapuche-Pehuenche when they were relocated from the Ralco valley were not considered by ENDESA in the planning stage, which resulted in the conflict. The environment and their lands were not just of material value to the Pehuenche, it was of cultural and spiritual importance as well. Furthermore, the weaknesses in their five forms of capital and their lack of access allowed ENDESA to manipulate them so that they would agree to relocate. The strategies employed by ENDESA to coerce the Pehuenche to move forced them to be individually strategic instead of recognising their collective way of life. This way of life was by no means strategic, they lived with relatively little interference from the outside world until ENDESA began construction of the dams. They were not prepared to negotiate nor were they aware of their rights when ENDESA came with many empty promises so that they would leave their lands behind. The Pehuenche who signed the agreements did not seem to know that they had any other choice. The Pehuenche lacked access to the five forms of capital when they were induced into Chilean society, which turned them into five dimensions of poverty and dependence after their relocation.

Thus, the Ralco conflict is a classic example of how macro policies produce undesired and negative effects in the micro context, and how the tension between the macro and the micro level is induced by capitalist greed. There was a hegemonic attitude that said “you can’t stop progress”, so that you may as well accept things as they are; for the ‘greater good’. The Mapuche were seen as ‘externalities’ of economic development, as obstructions for development, although this type of large-scale industrial development actually had detrimental effects on their livelihood.

Therefore, the Ralco project decreased the possibility of achieving sustainable development for Chile, as a balance in the three dimensions – social, economic and ecological – were not taken into account in the plans. In the case of Ralco, among many, macro policies favoured the economic benefits over the ecological and social impacts on the micro level, which makes the Ralco dam unsustainable within this three-dimensional framework. Furthermore, considering that the Pehuenche were not consulted before the construction of the dam began, the dam is most likely not conducive to their cultural worldview, if they had been informed of all the negative impacts it would bring to their environment and their livelihood. Thus, the use of energy is a prime example of the gap between macro and micro, between ‘development’ and sustainability, between ‘progress’ and ‘livelihood’.

To achieve the ideal of balance between the three pillars, (economic, social and ecological) (of sustainable development would require a compromise. A compromise in their values, as one may not be more valuable than the other. Therefore, the actors involved must compromise their own interests on the basis of equality with the other parties involved. The present development model itself is unsustainable, and therefore sustainability is not possible in the current system. Sustainability must represent an alternative approach altogether, not one that takes place within the development paradigm.

Stillness Speaks

2007-06-11T08:14:00.000+02:00

'The transformation of human consciousness is no longer a luxury, so to speak, available only to a few isolated individuals, but a necessity if humankind is not to destroy itself. At the present time, the dysfunction of the old consciousness and the arising of the new are both accelerating. Paradoxically, things are getting worse and better at the same time, although the worse is more apparent because it makes so much "noise". '

- Eckhart Tolle

In the News

2007-06-03T21:31:00.000+02:00

Democracy Now, your critical news source, available in English and Spanish. By Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez.

The History of Oil

2007-05-15T16:50:00.001+02:00

Robert Newman's History of Oil.

How to be Happy

2007-05-15T16:46:00.000+02:00

How to be Happy

Quote of the day

2007-05-05T17:25:00.000+02:00

When one is confronted with the possibility of death, one may tend to contemplate the wonders of life.

Poetry of the Week

2007-05-05T17:04:00.000+02:00

The glass pyramid is a device
For which unknown attention is deserved
Spartan simplicity and institutional design
No one knows the power it holds
The rain revolting against the glass with ferocity
A smooth, weathered surface
Awaits the inevitable
Reaching the summit while flying
Only to walk back down the mountain again
It is a place in which life repeats itself

Isn't it Ironic?

2007-04-13T20:48:00.000+02:00

Yes I really do think.

The hot topic of the World Bank and the IMF is corruption in development countries, and dissolving it is currently a conditionality for them to receive financing from the West. How ironic that Mr. Wolfowitz is now apparently corrupt himself. To think that his arrogance was at the least ethnocentric, (which is a human flaw we are all guilty of, I'm afraid), but it was hypocritical at best!

Secondly, Wolfowitz is one of the orchestrators of the war in Iraq, which is supposedly implementing 'democracy'. How can anyone legitimately impose something that they cannot give a good example of themselves? Wolfowitz' practices have been far from democratic, especially considering they occurred during his 'rookie' days, it seems these kinds of practices were previously institutionalized at the Bank. It's really these kind of 'turn-a-blind-eye' attitudes that make me sick when it is coming from an institution that is demanding 'good governance' and 'transparency' from those that are financially dependent on their 'generosity'. It seems that the more power and money are consolidated, the less democracy and transparency there is. And who foots the bill? The little guy. The environment. The animals.

Weekend Update on the Wars

2007-04-13T20:45:00.000+02:00

Watch the film the Oil Factor.

Poetry of the Day

2007-04-13T20:41:00.000+02:00

Emptiness
Echoes in hollow words
Meaningless encounters
Yet meaningful if rejected
And somehow so fulfilling
When they ring true
Are these the formalities
We are bound to?
Or the pleasantries that
Bind us to social reality?
If we do not abide,
Do we find ourselves alone?
Is it because we are so unimaginative
That we cannot invent new protocol?
Must there be protocol at all?

How to measure human life (why would you even want to?)

2007-04-13T20:11:00.000+02:00

Anthropologists strive to be wary of ethnocentrism, as the application of a ‘universal’ scale to evaluate societies, such as the GDP, is irrelevant and a large obstacle for anthropologists whose goal it is to understand societies from within. The focus of development has often been named ethnocentric because of such measurements. Esteva states that the concept of development itself implies a positive change, from inferior to superior, from worse to better, with individualism, technology, mass consumption and wealth at the top of the ladder. For two-thirds of the world population, he points out, the concept of development, and therein its polar opposite ‘underdevelopment’, is a reminder of what they are not.

Continuing in the logic of modernity, the UN launched the fashionable ‘Human Development Index’, which adds a ‘humanitarian gloss’ to the ethnocentrism of the all-important growth of the GDP as a sign of progress and economic development. The Human Development Index is a pretentious and condescending instrument. Its arrogance rests on the assumption that they know everything about everyone, about how people everywhere should live, what is best for them, and look down on them if they do not meet these expectations. It is derived from an attitude of superiority, assuming another person's inferiority. It is this attitude that offends me, it is this attitude which legitimizes and perpetuates discrimination. Discrimination of any kind, whether it be racial, sexist or otherwise, is most often based on ignorance and misunderstanding. This is not something we should tolerate from anyone, not to mention an institution such as the UNDP.

Yet to this date the HDI is being taken seriously as a way to 'measure' societies, and thus their worth. Can the UNDP get off its high horse please, and take a look at ground level?

On Humour

2007-03-18T19:39:00.000+01:00

Laughter is the best medecine, indeed. For when we can laugh at ourselves we can truly be assured a healing experience. It is humbling, yet gives us the confidence that others are experiencing exactly the same thing. Stand-up comedians are the mirror of society. Giving us a reflection of ourselves that we prefer to hide in closets and brush under rugs. And boy, are we a funny lot! Thank you to all those that make us laugh until we cry. There is enough in the world to despair about, sometimes we need the comic relief.

Mind your Sexuality

2007-03-06T15:24:00.000+01:00

Gender roles and sexuality differ across cultures and societies. The way in which we speak of sex and our sexual behaviour is determined by societal codes of conduct. For the most part, discussing sex is taboo. It is generally an issue we do not like to discuss, but if we do, it must be according to society's conventions and in private spheres, and the topics that seem acceptable must be within society's norms if they are discussed at all. Even now I am writing in the abstract form out of fear of being labelled with any kind of 'abnormal' or controversial view. Although I do believe no one actually adheres to 'normality' in practice. However, I do want to transcend boundaries, to allow people to question conventions and ask themselves if that's what they truly want for themselves, ie. if it's realistic. So at the risk of losing your respect, dear reader, I will say that apparently, the ideal of the monogamous relationship between man and woman and the nuclear family is the norm for the West. This model stems from a Christian, socialist ideal of (re)productive value. However, I believe it remains an ideal, a strategic goal to be achieved, and not actually realistic to life. I have not yet met anyone who has actually achieved this goal without great strain or effort. Forcing yourself to fit this model and denying all other possibilities does not allow you to accept other lines of thought. If my goal is to ultimately open my mind, I will let go of this ideal. For it is but a thought, a social construct, and not actually real.

It is rare when people live up to the monogamous heterosexual nuclear family ideal - it is the exception, and not the rule - yet we all go around pretending it is the norm, and therefore anything that deviates from this ideal is some form of sexual deviance, perversion, or other shameful act, one that is hushed: a taboo. However, in this day and age it is not uncommon for the youth to have multiple partners before they "settle down" and marry, and this is somehow an accepted exception to the monogamy rule. And this in itself comes with all kinds of rules: the partners must follow one another chronologically and may not overlap or occur at the same time, the sex of the partners must follow a pattern: either you are a heterosexual or a homosexual, you may not alternate and furthermore, the partners must fit into your age, ethnic, educational and/or professional group. How boring! Isn't it ridiculous? Isn't it time that our generation break these taboos and break the boundaries of these norms for good?

Poetry of the Day

2007-02-24T12:07:00.000+01:00

We seek perfection
A waking dream
It is within this realm that poetry is born
Living, breathing, art.
If art is pure emotion
It is an unconscious conscious subconscience
Like floating
Nothing else exists
It will not work, he said.
I know, she said.
But it does not matter anymore.
Perfection is just another illusion.
Much like security.
"Ok."
"Ok."

Quote of the Day

2007-02-24T12:06:00.000+01:00

"There is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and others."

-Michel de Montagne

‘Tribal wars’ in Africa: The Case of Darfur.

2007-02-24T11:42:00.000+01:00

“In Africa, it is a tribal war”. This statement, often heard in popular rhetoric, suggests, as would the Sudanese government in Khartoum, that the conflict in Darfur is an ethnic one. However, the war is not a conflict between ethnic groups, it is a political conflict, and when it is assumed otherwise, it is the result of ‘ethnopolitics’. The ethnopolitics of Darfur place ‘Arabs’ in opposition to ‘Africans’, which would lead many to believe that the tensions are racially motivated. In Darfur there is no easily divisible line according to ethnicity, instead political interests divide the population, which makes it a political conflict. Although this conflict may initially have been about resources, the government has ethnicized the political and economic issues, polarising two groups, favouring one to overrun the other, in order to gain power and access to land. The government presents the two groups as being ethnic opposites, yet the conflict really exists between the armed and the unarmed: the government forces and their militia allies, versus the civilian victims. The polarization of Arabs and Africans is falsely simplified, as they are certainly not rigid ethnic groups. This polarization assumes two homogeneous groups opposing one another, yet volumes of ethnographic evidence testify to Darfur’s history of ethnic heterogeneity.

Darfur, like much of the African continent, is ‘ethnically kaleidoscopic’, encompassing countless ethnic groups. Darfur means ‘land of the Fur’, and for centuries the Fur were the ethnic majority Historically, other ethnic (‘tribal’) peoples intermarried with the Fur, or adopted the lifestyle of the Fur, or vice versa, despite the Anglo-Egyptian government’s attempt to prevent ethnic change. Because of decades of intermarriage, almost everyone has dark skin and African features. To a visitor, Darfurians appear indistinguishable. The people comprising the ‘ethnic’ group of the Fur could call themselves this only after their membership was negotiated, hence to label an ethnic identity is an act of ethnic identification at a certain moment in time.

Fruthermore, Darfurians share the cross-cutting cleavage of being a Muslim, ‘Arabs’ and ‘Africans’ alike. This evidence dispels the idea that the conflict is religiously based, or the equation of Arab to Muslim and African to Non-Muslim. Likewise, some Fur have assumed Arab identity. The Islamic Nationalist government in Khartoum would like to see the

Sudan

as an ‘Arab’ state, in an attempt to equate religious, national and ethnic identities within one ideology.

These relationships confuse ethnic and religious identities with political identities. The opposing groups in Darfur are not only ethnically indivisible, they are not even separated politically along ethnic lines: the ‘Arabs’ do not all side with the government, and some ‘Africans’ also join the government forces or its allied militia.

The variety of ethnic groups in Darfur touched upon above can be classified into three socio-economic categories: camel nomads, farmers and cattle semi-nomads. However, identities were complex and overlapping. Individuals and groups could shift from one category to another. In this experience, the nomads and farmers have increasingly been competing for decreasing resources, and their conflicts were, until recently, internally solved. The Sudanese government is taking advantage of this history of resource competition to polarize and politicize the farmers from the nomads, by winning the ‘sentiments’ of the nomads in order to present the conflict as ethnic instead of economic.

Polarization and segregation in the

Sudan

have its roots in the British ‘divide-and-rule’ policies during colonisation. These roots are similar to the ethnopolitics of

Rwanda

, where the Hutsi’s and Tutsi’s were first dichotomized by Belgian identification cards. In Darfur, the ‘Arabs’ are armed and ‘non-Arabs’ are disarmed (isolated) by the Sudanese government in Khartoum, much like the British, that only armed tribal groups that supported their authority and were loyal to the colonial administration. Furthermore, these British policies created the North-South divide by the creation of a cordon sanitaire between Moslem northern and western

Sudan

and non-Moslem south

Sudan

.

This North-South divide has led to tensions in Darfur. Since the civil war between the North and South of Sudan, there have been two directions of political movement: to join the militant authoritarian regime in Khartoum and reap the benefits, or to join the rebels that demand access to power and resources from the central government in order to compete with northerners (‘Arabs’) in the economic market, and in order to be sovereign from the ‘Arabization’ of the land. Darfur was torn in two during this war, and their current retaliation is not only a reaction to the North-South peace process, as dissatisfaction with the accord and to express their marginality in the affair, but the conflict was also ignored in order to expedite the US-backed peace process in order for foreign funds to flow to Khartoum. When the government could no longer ignore their discord, (as rebel groups attacked military bases in order to arm themselves and to disarm the government forces) the government retaliated by recruiting and arming local militia groups. The result was the mass murder, torture, rape and displacement of the civilian farmers. Henceforth, food is no longer being produced, resulting in famine, and the survivors find themselves in overcrowded camps in neighbouring Chad, where diseases are rampant, or are being held captive by the same militias that have terrorized and decimated them.

Many will present these atrocities in terms of ‘Africans’ versus ‘Arabs’. However, the ethnographic evidence shows that the categories ‘Arab’ and ‘African’ are not ethnically identifiable, (although they are assumed to be), but they are instead politically polarized groups. One group supports the ‘Arabic’ nationalism that the National Islamic Front (hereafter named NIF, the government regime in Khartoum), promotes, and the other group opposes it. The so-called opposing ‘groups’ are working together and the same ‘groups’ are fighting each other. The Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) is led by a Fur Islamist and represents an alliance of Sudan’s marginalized ‘African’ peoples, but comprises an improbable coalition: The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) an Islamist rebel group and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), self defence units, (formerly named Darfur Liberation Front), made of radical secularists. These ‘militias’ work together to oppose the NIF, challenging Khartoum’s control of Darfur, in response to government oppression, especially of non-Arab tribes.

Thus, ‘Arabs’ and ‘Africans’ are simply abstracted external categories, presented as if they were very real: ‘reification’. An ‘ethnic’ conflict, therefore, is the politicization of ethnicity: ‘ethnopolitics’. It is a creation of the state, it is no more ethnic than it is religious; it is simply a power struggle; one group is armed and the other is disarmed.

Like most African nation-states, the political border of the

Sudan

was drawn on a paper map in a white man’s office during colonial rule, completely disregarding the actual ethnic or linguistic boundaries. This ‘imaginary’ border is merely symbolic of a political community, which assumes that a hegemonic policy will be adopted by all its citizens. In reality, in the

Sudan

this assumption hides the repression of ethnic minorities under an authoritarian militant regime.

Rebel groups formed to resist this ‘Islamic Radicalism’ and hegemony of Khartoum. These groups attack the government forces and its allied militia, but protect the farmers from counterattacks. Unfortunately, the government labels the civilian farmers as ‘rebels’ as well, leaving no one in the vicinity unharmed, and their fertile land up for grabs. The government has recruited and armed local ‘Arab’ militias from Darfur, and surrounding countries. Formerly camel-herding nomads and semi-nomads, currently known as the janjaweed, align themselves with the military forces, which execute and displace or imprison the farmers.

Can we name this ‘annihilatory extreme’ in Darfur ‘ethnic cleansing’? Genocide? These are questions over which the international community (journalists, activists, politicians, and scientists) has been disputing. Kofi Annan, however, would not attest that Darfur was a case of ‘ethnic cleansing’ and refused to define it as genocide. This may be confrontational with the comparisons that are being made to Rwanda, where the differences are merely quantitative and the similarities revolve around the lack of response by the UN and political leaders around the globe.

The debate over semantics was perhaps an ‘official reality’ in order to avoid the need for the international community to intervene and to protect their oil interests in the

Sudan

. International critics have suggested that the case of Darfur is a case of ‘Genocide for Oil’.This chillingly reminds me of the Indonesian occupation of East-Timor. There, the (western) international community denied and ignored a genocide: the ethnic cleansing of the Timorese, out of interest to trade with Indonesia for the oil located off the Timorese coast. Is the same thing happening once again in Darfur? Why is international intervention so lax to respond? For the NIF, oil production and distribution is their sole political leverage on the international market.

Oil was discovered in the

Sudan

by Chevron in the 1970’s, it has been exported since 1999, although there was a ban on sales to the

. The North-South peace talks moved forward due to

involvement: The NIF would receive peace and

business would now gain access to

Sudan

’s oil. Many suggest that the possibility of gaining access to oil, political relations or preoccupations on the world stage deterred intervention in Darfur by creating blinders for the urgency of the conflict. Specifically, Washington and Khartoum preferred to not upset the North-South negotiations by ignoring the Darfur war. Other countries could not point the finger at the lack of intervention by the US, as they themselves were guilty of the same crime, yet European countries no longer had faith in (US-led) intervention since the Iraq war.

The NIF regime sees the

Sudan

as an ‘ethnic’ (meaning ‘Arabic’) state, and demands its citizens to be patriotic. Therefore, political critics see the Darfur war as a government-driven ethnic cleansing, a continuation of the ‘Arabization’ of the

Sudan

. It is a true shame if the international community adhered to the Sudanese government and allowed ‘minorities’ to be exterminated, in the name of oil.

What is the motivation for the violence? Is it resources, is it oil, or is it ideology? We can only speculate. Evidence shows that the root causes of the violence stem out of many sources and areas. They have been bundled into a confused, yet dichotomized world of black-and-white, powerful and helpless, living and dying. Whether or not it is genocide? This seems to me to be irrelevant, as civilians are the victims, there clearly needs to be an intervention.

January 2006

Africa, a continent still in our shackles

2007-02-24T11:36:00.000+01:00

The latest blame for the state of poverty and dispair in Africa is given to the World Bank and the IMF. Before that it was the Cold War. Before that it was colonialism. Somehow they are all related, each one representing a new form of the same repression and abuse, according to historical context. Therefore, we too, as postcolonials are responsible for cleaning up the mess, indeed. Let us stop pretending to know what's best for Africa. We obviously don't, or it would not be such a big mess right now. And they're not just 'Tribal Wars', by the way.

When Blogging is a Crime

2007-02-24T11:27:00.000+01:00

About freedom of speech, about censorship, about conspiracies, about control and the state's monopoly on violence. Be careful what you blog or protest even more audibly? This blogger was arrested in Egypt in November. When our private diaries become public, they are also percieved as a threat, to undermine the administrating authorities and forms of controlling the mind, as the university was the one to turn him in. It makes me wonder what they had to hide. By arresting Abdel, Eqypt has thus drawn international attention to a situation that may not have been known otherwise. Isn't it ironic? Free Kareem! so that the price he has to pay isn't too high! Save the bloggers!

Another beautiful film

2007-02-24T11:08:00.000+01:00

Last night I saw another inspiring film, Bamako, set in Mali, about a tribunal accusing the World Bank and the IMF of generating poverty and unemployment in Africa. The debt problem is eloquantly portrayed in a very realistic yet aesthetically, poetically beautiful portrait of daily life in Africa, including tempo and chaos. I will add it to my recommendation list.

For the Chomsky fans, another inspiring documentary for action: Noam Chomsky, Rebel Without a Pause. What a man, how brave, may we all be so defeatless!
Another one, which I haven't seen at this moment as I write but will be seeing very shortly: Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in our times.

Happiness

2007-02-20T15:08:00.001+01:00

Do you have a job that you don’t enjoy to buy things you don’t want to impress people that you don’t like?

Happiness is not an accident…

Requiem (Mozart)

2007-02-17T10:27:00.000+01:00

Music is our salvation.

It communicates the beauty in the world.

Musicians translate the voice of god

Singers are angels

Lifting our spirits above

To overcome all our sorrows

A chorus of freedom

In our minds

There is light

Drifting up

Floating

Like crystal

Sublime.

A Platform for Change

2007-02-13T23:55:00.000+01:00

The greatest pressure on the earth’s resources is not from large numbers of poor people but from a small number of the world’s ever-consuming elite. The world’s ever-consuming elite are producing money that produces ever more money, which the large numbers of poor people will never benefit from within the current ‘free’ market paradigm.

Over-consumption is apparently easy for people to signal as an environmental problem, but for the majority it remains extremely difficult to consequently act accordingly. It is confronting to realize that the only way to make a true difference in the world is if we change our own behaviour, for this has consequences for the environment as well as the poor and oppressed populations worldwide. Actions are often only undertaken if there is an economic gain or possibility. This is typical of the economic analysis, using the cost/benefit relationship, wherein social and environmental consequences are not considered.

The processes of exploitation, exclusion and marginalization are well-known phenomena of the world capitalist system today, yet powerful players at the top, which are benefiting from this system, are not prepared to part with any of their wealth in order to redistribute it among the poor. Providing opportunities to those people they are exploiting would decrease their power, and diminish their comfortable positions. Such opportunities could be achieved by moving towards an emancipatory discourse for the poor, which would contribute to breaking ‘the culture of silence’. This includes the silence of the academic community towards the poor. The poor, oppressed and marginalized demand a central role in academic discussion, as important actors in our world economy, but most of all to give them a platform so that they are no longer silenced and invisible, but rather to create the potential for change.

Quote of the day

2007-02-13T22:06:00.000+01:00

'When a flower is reborn amidst all that filth, it tells you there's still a moment of hope, and that our love for the earth, for nature, for human beings, must open each day toward the world, toward people, toward all of us.'

- Rosa Isolde Reuque Paillalef, Mapuche Feminist

You, Me and the World

2007-02-12T12:46:00.000+01:00

You and I are among the priveledged few. Let us not forget this and take advantage of all the privileges and opportunities that we are granted, just based on the fact that we were born at the right place at the right time. Let us not take that for granted. Let us not forget the past. We have a responsibility to those that do not have these possibilities, the poor, the oppressed, the exploited and violated. We must not allow them to be invisible and unheard. We have a responsibility to keep the discussion alive, so that we are not implicitly justifying injustice. We (collective human kind) must learn from the past and so that we don't keep repeating history relentlessly into the future. I have hope, that our generation is more aware, and that we take on the responsibility to magnify that awareness so that it may be transformed into action and our world can really be a different place in the future. For those of us which the current system allows to take action in whichever way, shape or form, this is our lifegoal. Life itself deserves our empathy and compassion because every living being has the same right to enjoy life on earth. However small or large, you can make a difference, today.

Energy: At What Cost?

2007-02-12T02:20:00.000+01:00

The correlation between climate change and the burning of fossil fuels has been acknowledged widely for decades. The concern about global warming has led to heated debates about the use of fossil fuels to provide energy, and whether there are feasible alternatives. Renewable energy sources, efficiency and nuclear energy are all presented as low-carbon possibilities, yet agreement on their implementation varies and remains contested. The thirst for oil brings about geopolitical, socio-economic and environmental repercussions. Nuclear energy with all its risks cannot possibly be the best alternative. The political will to implement environmentally friendly, sustainable and renewable forms of energy is presently insufficient, despite the IPCC and the Uppsala Protocol. What remains largely uncontested, yet lurks beneath the surface of these debates is the need for energy itself. The claim that the demand for energy will continue to rise with economic growth and population growth therefore seems indisputable. Do we really need so much energy? The current negative effects of energy use in its different forms must force us to reconsider whether it is desirable to use energy at all for the future. If our need were in demise, our main energy problems would accordingly be solved. The socio-economic, geopolitical, health and environmental costs of energy far exceed our need for energy, and it is our need for energy that needs to be curtailed in order to solve our energy problems and ultimately, achieve sustainability for the future.

The war in Iraq is a recurrent example of negative effects that our thirst for oil brings with it. It is the umpteenth war fought in order to secure oil, and this pattern will continue as oil’s scarcity rises. Price volatility and depletion of oil fuel political uncertainty, yet oil itself fuels so many aspects of life and economy, including transportation, airline travel, agriculture, habitat, urban planning, industry which is why its access has had such a high determining factor in world politics for many decades. Not only is war fought to gain access to oil, oil is necessary for war. As fossil fuels are neither politically, nor economically, nor environmentally desirable, nuclear power is presented as a replacement for oil.

As if Chernobyl was not enough warning, nuclear energy is now once again on the table as a recommended alternative to oil as a source of energy, as it is deemed commercially viable, and economically competitive. Not only are such disasters as Chernobyl a warning, it is the epitome of human destruction our species could cause this earth and ourselves. In this case accidental, the same type of energy can be harnessed for purposeful destruction, as we are reminded by Hiroshima. This reminder was present throughout the cold war, and the fear of nuclear warfare caused countless negative effects in the socio-economic and political spheres, throughout the world. In order to look to the future, plan for the future, and involve ‘future generations’ in an ideal of sustainability, we must learn from the past.

Alarmingly, an increasing number of studies conclude that nuclear energy should be an important part of the strategies towards sustainable energy development, which influence policy such as the OECD’s IEA ‘sustainable development vision scenario’. The focus on carbon emission decrease causes the negative environmental impacts of nuclear waste to disappear into a blind spot. The mere fact that nuclear energy is suggested to be a sustainable source of energy clearly negates the multidimensional aspect of sustainability, which considers environmental, social and economic effects. Furthermore, the health risks accompanying nuclear production and radioactive waste are disastrous at worst: infertility, leukaemia, cancers, diseases, native malformations, death etc. The problem with radioactive waste is that it may not actually become a visible problem until centuries into the future. Therefore, the thought of creating more nuclear energy completely disregards future generations, which is an imperative aspect of any discussion concerning sustainable development.

Whether or not we need energy to survive as a human species seems like a moot point, yet it is certainly the magnitude of energy that we ‘need’ that should be questioned. It is argued that energy is one of the basic human needs; however, the majority of energy is employed in the production of mainly luxury goods and services. This luxury is needed due to our concept of comfort. Energy efficiency not only requires technology, but a fair amount of awareness. Awareness that the earth’s resources are finite, and an awareness that we consume much more than we actually need.

Renewable energy sources have been identified for decades, yet their implementation is problematic. First of all, the political will is lacking when it comes to the implementation of solar energy, as PV panels are not economically viable in the short term. When economic considerations are prioritized above environmental considerations, innovation and sustainability are blocked. Furthermore, certain renewables may not be ecologically sound alternatives. Sustainability is therefore not only a question of technological advance and innovation; it is a matter of political will, and transcending ‘Not In My Backyard ' attitudes.

For example, wind energy is a clean, environmentally friendly, renewable and sustainable form of energy, yet for a number of social and economic reasons, actual construction of wind turbines remains very slow. Many people protest the implementation of wind turbines due to their sight and sound, which are predominantly aesthetic and the sound is certainly no more than any urban centre.

Solar PV systems seem to be the most feasible option, despite their initial price, in terms of sustainability as well as implementation. Solar systems are used more and more in development projects, to increase self-sufficiency as well as sustainability, so that using distributed renewable energy resources will foster local independence from world markets, and create economic, social, and political stability.

In agricultural sectors, biofuels can be considered a sustainable option, albeit they are used on a small scale, such as using cattle manure or plant oils that are produced naturally anyway. On a large scale, biofuels are discouraged as an alternative, as it would require a lot of land, significant energy as inputs, and competes with food by diverting land and water resources, and defeats the purpose of environmental sustainability due to soil degradation, biodiversity loss and the fact that it is not carbon-neutral .

Hydro power is also presented as a carbon-neutral alternative, and it is renewable, however it is not an environmentally benign power source. According to new studies, the amount of greenhouse gases generated by hydropower can be greater than the amount of greenhouse gases produced by a fossil fuel power of the same strength, and increases threats such as erosion, landslides, change of sedimentation, loss of fresh water and biodiversity loss, nor is it socially benign! The implementation of dams has led to the displacement of millions of marginalized and indigenous populations worldwide, such as the Three Gorges Dam in China, The Narmada Dam in India, etc.

Therefore, renewable energies (wind, sun, water, biomass) are harmless to air pollution but face severe limits of feasibility for the world-scale development. True alternative energy sources are often unnoticed and certainly not recognized as plausible solutions to global energy problems. This is due to their small scale and locally-based character. Yet it is precise these two characteristics that make them sustainable, as transport is eliminated and self-sufficiency, and thus independence is increased. The smaller the scale, the greater the energy efficiency can be. Self-sufficiency also implies a limitation to energy use levels, so that they fulfil basic human needs but do not exceed sustainable levels for luxury items and superfluous behaviour.

The possibility of using clean, sustainable and environmentally friendly forms of renewable energy has been around for decades, if not centuries. Yet, the political will to resort to locally-based solutions seems to be lacking. Is it because they do not contribute to the national or global economy? Large-scale schemes are often the solution, (such as the quest for oil, hydro-electric dams etc.) as this contributes to industry, trade and political power, or is it just a matter of economics?

As with most sustainability issues, the interrelation between economics and politics forms the main stumbling block to achieving sustainable energy use. The economic dimension is prioritized above the social and environmental dimensions when energy policy is made, albeit a few exceptions.

The environmental and social costs are at present not included in the pricing of fuel or electricity. These costs are often referred to as ‘externalities’, yet have been known for decades, leading me to wonder when these costs will be internalized in energy policies. Inevitably, the negative social and environmental consequences of our energy use far outweigh any economic cost we may impose on energy sources. Therefore, putting a monetary price tag on the earth and on our survival cannot possibly answer to our ethics as a human species. Being confronted with our own behaviour is one of the hardest tasks we have as a species, yet it is not impossible. The ability to see the consequences of our own actions does not require superhuman abilities; it is rather the prerequisite for our survival and that of the planet. War is the most extreme cost that our ‘need’ for energy can bring. Not only is it traumatic for those directly involved, it threatens our global political security and is disastrous for both the local and the regional socio-economic and environmental stability.

Politics are a human creation, as are economics and energy production and use. These inventions have led to large scale changes in the ecology of this planet, and therefore the welfare of our species as well as every other species. Let us not forget that we have the ability to reinvent our social reality if we choose, which will in turn affect our planet, our natural habitat.

A reduction in the world’s population will not necessarily lead to an improvement in the global environment. The world needs to behave sustainably before the numbers can make a difference. If the world is overpopulated with overconsuming capitalists who do not consider the future of their grandchildren, then overpopulation is indeed a problem. Even if the numbers of these people were to decrease, we would still exceed the so-called ‘carrying capacity’. However, if the world was to have the same population, but of people living according to the sustainability concept, overpopulation would no longer be a problem for the environment.

Instead of reducing emissions by using less fossil fuels, the wealthy elite are seeking to replace oil and coal as energy sources with other risky sources such as nuclear power. Furthermore, over-consumption is apparently easy for people to signal as an environmental problem, but for the majority it remains extremely difficult to consequently act accordingly. It is confronting to realize that the only way to make a true difference in the world is if we change our own behaviour, for this has consequences for the environment as well as the poor and oppressed populations worldwide. The importance of environmentally friendly, renewable and sustainable energy use is recognized globally, yet reducing automobile usage or other forms of energy consumption has not been addressed effectively to date. Actions are often only undertaken if there is an economic gain or possibility. This is typical of the economic analysis, using the cost/benefit relationship, wherein social and environmental consequences are not considered.

To achieve the ideal of balance between the three pillars of sustainable development (economic, ecological, social), would require a compromise. A compromise in their values, as one may not be more valuable than the other. Therefore, the actors involved must compromise their own interests on the basis of equality with the other parties involved. In line with Wolfgang Sachs, among others, the present development model itself is unsustainable, and therefore sustainability is not possible in the current system. Sustainability must represent an alternative approach altogether, not one that takes place within the development paradigm.

today's magnetic poetry

2007-02-12T01:51:00.000+01:00

the forest
whispers to me
of talking animals

a tree
with a good beat
of blue guitars
in a thousand pieces

without fear
another walks in circles
in a million directions
laughs out loud

the mountains
the forest
an ocean
the right place
a perfect world
------------------------------

-----------------------------------

My vision, dreams, thoughts and desires.
A new World.
A solution.
A journey.
A voice.

Beauty
Is the obvious answer.
It is bliss.
It is truth.

The possibility of the universe
Inspires the dream,
A light in my mind.
I believe
In tomorrow.

Books I recommend

2007-02-12T01:38:00.001+01:00

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
Runaway World by Anthony Giddens
Planet Dialectics by Wolfgang Sachs
The Algebra of Infinite Justice By Arundhati Roy
Fences and Windows by Naomi Klein
Stupid White Men by Micheal Moore
The Case Against the Global Economy and For a Turn Toward the Local edited by Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith
Ecofeminism edited by Vandana Shiva and Maria Mies
Seeing Like a State. How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott
Death Without Weeping. The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil by Nancy Scheper-Hughes
The Multicultural Riddle by Gerd Baumann
Globalization and its Discontents by Joseph Stiglitz
Europe and the People Without History by Eric R. Wolf
Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson
Everything written by Farley Mowat
The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle
Young, Damned and Banda. The World of Young Street People in Mexico City, 1990-1997 by Roy Gigengack
Europe and the People without History by Eric R. Wolf

Movies/Documentaries I recommend

2007-02-12T01:23:00.005+01:00

Earthlinks
The Road to Guantanamo
An Inconvenient Truth
The Corporation
Manufactured Consent
Our Daily Bread
Switch-off
City of Photographers (La ciudad de los fotografos)
We feed the World
The real dirt on farmer John
Farenheit 9/11
Internationally Speaking
Asshak
Ibogaine, Rite of Passage
1 Giant Leap
Informed Dissent
Darwin's Nightmare
Bamako
Noam Chomsky: Rebel Without a Pause
Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times
What the bleep do we know?
Loose change
The Constant Gardener (about human suffering on many levels)
The Oil Factor
Sicko
Occupation 101
Democracy Now! Standing up to the Madness
Who killed the electric car?
Howard Zinn: You can't be neutral on a moving train
Into the Wild watch it first, then read this, the real story.

Tea with Evo

2007-02-12T01:09:00.001+01:00

November 28, 2006

Yesterday I went to a lecture by Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, and recognised as the first indigenous president of the Americas. His policies symbolize an unprecedented break with the past. He wants to 'decolonize' Bolivia, starting with the natural resources, which foreign companies have largely been profiting from since the implementation of the World Bank and IMF's SAPs. Instead of the company receiving all the profits, he has reversed the percentages, so that the state now receives 82% and the company receives 18%. He copied this ratio from the Dutch government, whom he had visited years ago before he was president, and this inspired him to implement it in Bolivia. And why not? If the Dutch can do it, why can't the Bolivians? He plans to redistribute the profits in order to relieve poverty and promote 'bottom up' development, instead of the failed 'topdown' strategies of the past. This is not radical, as academics, activists and development critics have been saying it for years. It is, however a radical break from the mainstream, the hegemonic liberalization and economic development above all. Finally a social movement that has come to political power. This is the epitomy of democracy.

Bush used the discourse of democracy to justify his invasion of Iraq. However, the situation in the US is not emblematic of democracy and democratic processes. For example, the dubious circumstances surrounding the vote count during the 2000 elections, the media censorship concerning September 11th and the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. The patriot Act itself does not support the ‘democratic’ ideals of freedom of speech. Not to mention the social and economic problems in the US that many of its citizens feel needs to be addressed before its military intervene or meddle in another country’s affairs. There is an aboriginal wisdom which says: ‘Before passing judgment on another, one must look to oneself.’ This is certainly not a practice of the US foreign policy of the Bush Administration. Furthermore, implementing ‘democracy’ through violence is certainly not democratic; rather it is precisely these techniques that characterize an authoritarian dictatorship, which the US are supposedly dismantling.

Similarly, the world is looking to Latin American countries and fearing the ‘radical’ left wing policies of Chavez and Morales. Will they radicalize? Enforce their policies on their citizens through violence and oppression? Not likely. This is truly an economic fear of investors that want to continue their exploitative relationship with Latin American countries, and must now lose profits for, god forbid, the benefit of the poor. Redistribution is their credo, and to the US it sounds like communism. The fear of the ‘Reds’ has not died, yet now it is wrapped in the package of the terrorism discourse. Yet acts of terror have been reportedly used by foreign companies and their staff against the local population in Bolivia, Peru, Chile… when they received the go-ahead in the age of neoliberalisation and SAPs. Morales raises an interesting question, which echoes Noam Chomsky: liberalization was originally intended (by Adam Smith) to free the movement of goods as well as labour, yet through US hegemony, liberalization has only resulted in the free trade of goods, and restricts the movement of the very people that are producing these goods. In order for the world to be truly ‘liberalized’, the people need to be allowed to move freely across borders. The fear of terrorism (ironically the point of terrorism is to instill fear, so the terrorists have already achieved their goals) does not allow this, yet it is these restrictions that contribute to the origins of terrorism.

I prefer not to make a scientific prediction of the future of indigenous movements in Latin America. Predictions can be dangerous tools in shaping top-down policies for the futures of peoples whom I feel should actually be taking an active role in the creation of their own futures themselves. Nor would I express any specific expectations, out of a personal belief that expectations of any kind inevitably lead to disappointments. What I would like to do is express my hope for the future, as well as contest the present floating fear in the West that Latin American leaders such as Chavez and Morales may ‘radicalize’ their social goals for their countries in the future. After attending the Morales lecture, I am confident his form of governance and societal goals are not ‘radical’. On the contrary, Morales is executing his reforms step by step, proceeding with caution precisely to prevent conflict. Listening at Evo yesterday, I felt he is a mild-mannered man that I would invite over for tea, and his speech, full of humour, was exactly what we've wanted all along. Now he is in the position to make a positive change, in any case for

Bolivia

. Let us hope this seed will spread in Latin America, and that we may learn from it as an example for the future. This is dependent on political will, and it is this will that Morales is showing that is giving me hope for the future of Latin America, and possibly the rest of the world.

welcome

2006-10-20T00:22:00.000+02:00

welcome to my blog, as I am entering a new era...no more old-fashioned telephones.
After this rite of passage, where do we go from here? Is it time yet for ubiquitous computing?
Or shall I retreat to the shadow of a tree? This life only seems to know the extremes.