Writings & Leftings

Congratulations to Jihan Gearon and Benjamin Powless, the North American indigenous youth leaders who attended the Bali climate change conference last week.

From the Indigenous Environmental Network:Next Generation of North American Indigenous Youth Attend International Climate Meeting

BALI, Indonesia — Today marks the end of the 13th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 13) in Bali. Navajo and Mohawk representatives of the Indigenous Environmental Network leave with frustration about the outcomes of COP 13 but also inspiration from Indigenous leaders.

Jihan Gearon, from the Dine’ (Navajo) Nation and Benjamin Powless, from Mohawk, Six Nations, have been participating in the climate conference in Bali for the past two weeks. Though IEN has been participating in these UNFCCC since 1998, Jihan and Ben came to learn about the proceedings so that the next generation of Indigenous youth will be able to participate in the future. They have been working with other Indigenous Peoples and climate justice organizations to advocate for Indigenous Peoples rights and oppose the false solution of carbon trading.

Gearon says, “What scares me most about this COP isn’t that we came out of it with no targets or plan for post-Kyoto. It’s that the atmosphere of the discussions seems to focus less on stopping climate change and more on how money can be made from the climate change problem, at the expense of Indigenous People.”

Industry representatives came to COP 13 in full force, advocating for market-based solutions to climate change, such as international carbon trading markets. Many industry reps pushed for reforestation projects to take a bigger role in worldwide carbon markets.

“Carbon trading schemes have been detrimental to Indigenous Peoples,” says Powless. “And reforestation projects should not be included in them. Because polluting companies need a forest to stay unused in order to pollute elsewhere, they deny Indigenous Peoples access to their own traditional forests. This is a violation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

Despite their disappointment, both Powless and Gearon agree they have learned a lot and left with one source of inspiration. The Indigenous Peoples Caucus of COP 13 has been pushing for more meaningful inclusion in climate negotiations and both say working with the caucus has been a positive experience for them.

“It’s inspiring to see Indigenous Peoples from every corner of the world not be scared to speak out in their appeals for the rest of the world to include them in this process,” explains Powless. “And even more than just appealing, they’ve been forceful when necessary even to the point where we’ve staged a few protests here about the UNFCCC process keeping us out of the negotiations.”

Gearon adds, “this is really what Indigenous Peoples the world over need to be capable of doing in support of our rights.”

Jim Albertini asks a very important question – are the recent spate of B-2 target runs over Hawaii part of a training program for a near-future US attack on Iran?

An Associated Press story of Nov. 22, 2007 reported that B-2 stealth bombers from Guam are using Hawaii for target practice. Specifically, its been learned that B-2s bombed the Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) in the heart of Hawaii Island in September, October and Novemeber and plan to continue to do so on a monthly basis. Hawaii County Mayor, Harry Kim, was unaware of the B-2 bombings but felt officials and the public need to be informed when such activities are taking place. The news reports said the B-2s dropped 2000 lb inert (dummy) bombs at PTA. A check on the internet confirms that 2000 lb bombs carried by the B-2 can be both conventional and nuclear weapon “bunker busters” to destroy hardened underground facilities. Are the B-2s bombing Hawaii training for a possible attack on Iran? 

 Good question, particularly given Mr. Bush’s refusal to join the world of reality regarding the alleged Iranian nuclear program.

The conventional wisdom has been that US military testing has not taken place on Maui. Apparently that isn’t the case.

Road to Ahihi-Kinau closed after ordnance discovered in lava field
http://www.mauinews.com/news/2007/12/4/04roat1204.html

MAKENA - The discovery of unexploded ordnance in the Ahihi-Kinau Natural Area Reserve last week led state officials to close the road to the reserve on the southern flank of Haleakala.

The road will remain closed until the area is cleared by an Army explosives-disposal team, said Deborah Ward, spokeswoman for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Members of that team were busy Monday removing a 250-pound unexploded bomb at Makua Beach on Oahu, she said. It was not known when the disposal team would be able to fly to Maui to handle th ordnance found late Friday in the reserve’s aa lava fields by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The corps officials were searching the area as a follow-up to the discovery of ordnance in the area a few months ago, she said. That ordnance was disposed of at an Army firing range.

Ward did not have details on the type or size of the four objects found at Ahihi-Kinau, but she said officials were concerned enough about the discovery to close the area, at least temporarily, out of concern for public safety.

A state enforcement officer and Ahihi-Kinau resource rangers were posted at the parking lot of Kanahena, or “Dumps,” to turn people away from the road into Ahihi-Kinau, she said.

“This is a closure for public safety,” she said.

This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. In the light of these ideas, Negroes will be hunted at the North, and held and flogged at the South so long as they submit to those devilish outrages, and make no resistance, either moral or physical. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must certainly pay for all they get. If we ever get free from the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and if needs be, by our lives and the lives of others.

Frederick Douglass, 1857

A mural at the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, TN.

I don’t have a lot new to say about what’s going on in Venezuela, so here’s some excellent links to pull us through the morass of bad US coverage about the Bolivarian revolution occurring right now in America Latina.

• Article by Eva Golinger: Confused about Venezuela?
• Article by Teresa Arreaza about ALBA, the new solidarity-economy trade pact initiated by Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, and Nicaragua.

Obviously the results of Sunday’s referendum on the proposed constitutional amendments is a blow to Chavez’ momentum, but we can only hope that the core of his reforms – structural economic changes that will benefit the nation’s poor, and emergence from under the shadow of US hegemony – will indeed continue. It’s actually in the long-term interest of us all, regardless of our particular piety to charismatic leaders such as Hugo Chavez, that reforms of this type are successful. As could be expected, coverage in the U.S. press of the referendum results is very narrow. On the drive home tonight, National Public Radio led with a quote from the Bush administration congratulating the Venezuelan people for voting against the reforms. Meanwhile, several news sources are reporting CIA involvement in the right-wing opposition. Given the history of the US in the Americas, one can hardly be surprised.

BBC Global News is covering the media blackout in Pakistan during the current crisis. In the absence of major broadcast news, blogs, social media sites, and SMS seem to be used to relay information. Here’s a link to one of the blogs mentioned in the BBC story. It’s called “Teeth Maestro.” Note the seriousness of the posts, in contrast to the whimsical title. 

Aloha ino – piholo ana ka aina ‘o Tabasco, i ka aoao hema o Mexico, i ka wailana he nui. Aia he hookahi miliona kanaka e nele ana i ka hale’ole, a ua make hookahi kanaka a oi paha.    Eia kekahi ninau a’u e hapai ai: pehea la ho’i keia, aia na ahi ai-hale i San Diego,  ka wa malo’o ma Georgia, a he wai pi’i ma Mexico? He wa ano ‘e keia.

Both bodies of the Hawaii state legislature have authorized versions of a bill to create exemptions for the Superferry corporation. It’s a sad example of the way in which business and military special interests have inserted themselves into our governance, resulting in a state that compromises its laws to support those interests. Disappointing! But not surprising.

State Senate passes compromise Superferry bill

The state Senate this morning voted 20 to 5 to pass a compromise bill that would allow HawaiiSuperferry to resume operations while the state conducts an environmental impact statement. The bill also would set specific operatingconditions to help protect whales and prevent thespread of invasive species. Although the vote appeared lopsided, several senators voted with reservations, reflecting misgivings about the process of coming back into special session to help save the project.

The state House has scheduled committee hearings on the bill this afternoon at 1:30pm. (It will be live on your island’s cable channel.)The Lingle administration and Superferry executives have backed the Senate version of thebill, making it likely that House lawmakers willalso agree. The bill requires the Lingle administration toimpose operating conditions on the ferry to protect the environment. It also would create an oversight task force to monitor the project andreport back to the Legislature. The bill also includes language protecting thestate from liability from lawsuits by Superferrybecause of delays in ferry service. The bill would overturn a Maui court ruling barring the ferry from Kahului Harbor while thestate conducts the environmental review. Lawmakers hope to adjourn the session Thursday.

[from The Honolulu Advertiser]