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Indigenous protestors file suit in Brazil after violent eviction in Rio
April 4, 2013
More than a week after the Brazilian Police’s Shock Battalion evicted indigenous and allied protestors using tear gas, pepper spray and batons from a contested site in Rio de Janeiro near one of the country’s top sports stadiums, attorneys for the Tamoio Movement of Original Peoples (TMOP) have filed suit at the Federal Public Ministry to halt the eviction and prevent the demolition of the old museum.
On March 22, close to 200 agents of the Shock Battalion marched into the area and attacked the gathered protestors with tear gas and pepper spray, forcing the removal of the last residents of the Aldeia Maracana and arresting at least six indigenous people from the area.
The TMOP, representing the various Indigenous Peoples who have been settling around the former Indian Museum in Rio de Janeiro, filed the lawsuit and issued a press statement on Monday, April 1st. In their statement the TMOP gave an overview of their activities in the area and their negotiations with local and federal authorities.
The conflict over the site dates back to 2006 when Indigenous Peoples began to occupy the area around the museum which had been closed and abandoned, by building huts and reclaiming the area for its historical and spiritual significance to indigenous people in Brazil. The former Indian Museum sits on property next to the Maracana Stadium, one of the sites for the upcoming 2014 World Cup soccer games.
Since the occupation, the TMOP asserted that indigenous activists have developed programs for use in local schools and universities for the purpose of “…deconstructing the distorted history of our peoples in the majority of textbooks…” as well as start to build a small community dedicated to preserving indigenous history and culture. The community members of the TMOP are from the Pataxo, Tukano, Guarani, Puri, Apurina, Tupinamba, Kaingang and Satere-Mauwe peoples and they refer to their settlement as the Maracana Village.
The press statement also noted the reaction of the Indigenous Peoples to the actions of the Shock Battalion troops.
“We want to reaffirm that we repudiate the barbaric and inhuman way that we were treated by Military Police by order of the government, disrespecting that which was established in the document of reintegration… While the military police used pepper spray, tear gas bombs, rubber bullets and sonic weapons against us, all we had to defend us were only our maracas and our songs evoking our ancestors.”
The TMOP activists also said that they were approaching various government officials, such as the Minister of Agriculture, to negotiate a way of preserving the contested area to include a possible indigenous reference center.
They also noted that, “…the property of the old Indian Museum, located in the historic center of resistance Tupinambã¡ and Tamoia against the Portuguese invasion… There were the spirits of our ancestors and it was time to return home.”
Shame on Brazil: Forceful Removal of Indigenous Group Stains World Cup With the Blood of 500 Years of Genocide
While nations competed to go to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil on Friday, more than Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples were clashing with police over a building they’ve used as a community center in Rio de Janeiro for almost 30 years.
With the World Cup and the Olympics around the corner, local authorities have been under pressure from FIFA and International Olympic Committee to make room for housing, parking and administrative offices.
It so happens the space in question is literally steps from the famous Maracanã Stadium and was designated to become a parking lot by the World Cup organizing committee. However, leaders of Aldeia Maracanã (Maracanã Village), the group living in the building that was formerly the National Indigenous Museum, had plans to make their presence permanent and covert the space into an Indigenous school.
The forced removal of Native Brazilians by police was characterized by Aldeia Maracanã leaders as part of “513 years of struggle.”
Brazilian authorities, World Cup and Olympic organizers need to know the world is watching. This blog and many of our readers are very upset that our brothers and sisters in Brazil were treated as foreigners on their own land and violently removed from their center.
We demand accommodations be made for the Aldeia Maracanã to return and for resources to be appropriated for the establishment of an Indigenous cultural and academic center within sight of Maracanã Stadium, so that locals and tourists are forever reminded that the country’s original inhabitants are still very much alive and present in Brazil.
Photo credit: Vanderlei Almeida, AFP
(via sinidentidades)
Indigenous & riverbank communities occupy work camp of Amazon megaproject Bela Monte Dam
March 22, 2013
Yesterday some 150 protestors from four indigenous groups and allied riverbank communities occupied a major work camp and halted construction of the controversial Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon. The occupation paralyzed the project’s strategic Pimental construction site, where an earthen cofferdam traversing the Xingu River was recently completed.
This is the third indigenous protest in less than a year that has halted dam construction as tensions have mounted over human rights violations, environmental impacts, devastated livelihoods and false promises made by the government-led dam consortium Norte Energia.
The occupation began at 4 am as a group of Juruna, Xipaia, Kuruaia, and Canela protestors from the Jericoá indigenous community, together with representatives of local riverbank populations, blocked an access road to the Pimental construction camp.
Protestors pushed forward to occupy the camp, rejecting attempts by agents of Brazil’s National Security Force to impede their progress by demanding that they first negotiate with the company. Upon entering the camp, the group asked workers on site to leave their installations. According to protestors the workers were helpful and supported the occupation, claiming that they are working under inhumane conditions without recourse.
Indigenous protestors charge that construction of the cofferdams at the Pimental site has already had disastrous effects on the Jericoá community, located downstream on the “Big Bend” of the Xingu River. According to indigenous leaders, the quality of water has declined so drastically that the Xingu is no longer a source of potable water, and even bathing has been affected. Polluted water and explosions from dam construction have devastated fish stocks, a dietary staple and source of income for many families.
While blocking off approximately 5km of the Xingu’s main channels, the Pimental cofferdams have diverted the river’s flow into a narrow channel of 450 meters, making boat transport extremely dangerous. Indigenous communities and other local populations are dependent on boat transportation for the marketing of goods and basic health and education services. A “boat transposition” system constructed by Norte Energia to supposedly address the problem has proven to be a failure.
Indigenous protestors argue that Norte Energia has systematically reneged on promises of compensation for impacts of Belo Monte. According to a statement issued today by members of the Jericoá community, “the complete lack of implementation of actions to mitigate and compensate indigenous communities for the disastrous impacts of Belo Monte shows us that the project is being constructed in complete disregard for the rule of law. The rights of traditional populations are being steamrolled in the name of profits for the dam builders. We want to make it clear that we do not accept this situation and do not believe in the vague promises of NESA and the Brazilian government, that have acted irresponsibly, using the money of taxpayers channeled through the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) to assassinate the Xingu and the people that depend upon the river for their survival.”
The protestors are demanding official recognition of their land rights and implementation of effective measures to mitigate and compensate Belo Monte’s impacts, including construction of wells, compensation for lost fisheries and alternative solutions for boat transportation. According to protestors, it’s likely that members of other local indigenous groups will join the occupation in the coming days.
“The protest launched today led by the Jericoá indigenous community and other riverbank populations is evidence of a much larger problem. The legally-binding conditions of the project’s environmental licenses have been continually flouted by Norte Energia and the Brazilian government,” said Maira Irigaray of Amazon Watch. “The rule of law in Brazil must be taken seriously by President Dilma Rousseff. Belo Monte should be immediately cancelled.”
“At the time of project approval, the federal government launched an expensive propaganda campaign claiming that Belo Monte would have no impact on downstream communities of the Xingu River,” said Brent Millikan, Amazon Program Director at International Rivers. “The protest of the Jericoá community and other riverbank populations is further proof of what scientific experts have said from the beginning: Belo Monte will have a profound impact on the Big Bend of the Xingu and its indigenous populations. The Federal government has been lying to the Brazilian public about Belo Monte.”
The People’s Record News Update: this week on our dying planet
March 17, 2013
- In Brazil, environmental authorities in Rio de Janeiro have launched a huge clean-up operation after an estimated 65 tonnes of dead fish filled up the 2016 Olympic rowing lake.
- Greenpeace released a report on pollution in India that indicated one Indian coal power plants kills 120,000 people a year. Also, the report on pollution in the country warns emissions may cause 20 million new asthma cases a year.
- In China, more dead pigs have been recovered from the Huangpu river in Shanghai following the discovery of more than 2,800 floating carcasses earlier this week. The find brings the total to more than 6,600 carcasses since last Friday.
- In Spain, a majestic sperm whale has been found to have died due to swallowing 40 lbs of plastic. The dead sperm whale that washed up on Spain’s south coast had swallowed 17kg of plastic waste dumped into the sea by farmers tending greenhouses that produce tomatoes and other vegetables for British supermarkets.
Scientists were amazed to find the 4.5 tonne whale had swallowed 59 different bits of plastic – most of it thick transparent sheeting used to build greenhouses in southern Almeria and Granada. A clothes hanger, an ice-cream tub and bits of mattress were also found. The plastic had eventually blocked the animal’s stomach and killed it.
- Big Pharma on Friday won the first round of its fight to defeat a European proposal to ban a trio of commonly used pesticides suspected of killing honeybees. The closely watched measure, which calls for a European Union-wide moratorium on three types of neonicotinoid pesticides, failed to secure the needed votes from the 27 EU member states today, a result cheered by the manufacturers of the chemicals.
Capitalism isn’t working - look at what the private industries who hold all the power in our society are doing to the living things on this planet. We need to restructure the way we organize ourselves and we need to do it fast. This is all just so overwhelming.
Amazon Indians unite against Canadian oil giant
March 14, 2013
Amazon Indians from Peru and Brazil have joined together to stop a Canadian oil company destroying their land and threatening the lives of uncontacted tribes.
Hundreds of Matsés Indians gathered on the border of Peru and Brazil last Saturday and called on their governments to stop the exploration, warning that the work will devastate their forest home.
The oil giant Pacific Rubiales is headquartered in Canada and has already started oil exploration in ‘Block 135’ in Peru, which lies directly over an area proposed as an uncontacted tribes reserve.
In a rare interview with Survival, a Matsés woman said, ‘Oil will destroy the place where our rivers are born. What will happen to the fish? What will the animals drink?’
The Matsés number around 2,200 and live along the Peru-Brazil border. Together with the closely-related Matis tribe, they were known as the ‘Jaguar people’ for their facial decorations and tattoos, which resembled the jaguar’s whiskers and teeth.
The Matsés were first contacted in the 1960s, and have since suffered from diseases introduced by outsiders. Uncontacted tribes are also at extreme risk from contact with outsiders through the introduction of diseases to which they have little or no immunity.
Despite promising to protect the rights of its indigenous citizens, the Peruvian government has allowed the $36 million project to go ahead. Contractors will cut hundreds of miles of seismic testing lines through the forest home of the uncontacted tribes, and drill exploratory wells.
The government has also granted a license for oil explorations to go ahead in ‘Block 137’, just north of ‘Block 135’, which lies directly on Matsés land. Despite massive pressure from the company, the tribe is firmly resisting the oil company’s activities in their forest.
The effects of oil work are also likely to be felt across the border in Brazil’s Javari Valley, home to several other uncontacted tribes, as seismic testing and the construction of wells threaten to pollute the headwaters of several rivers on which the tribes depend.
Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said, ‘The Canadian state was founded on the theft of tribal land. When Europeans invaded Canada, they introduced alien diseases, seized control of natural resources, and brought about the extinction of entire peoples. It’s a great irony that a Canadian company today is poised to commit the same crimes against tribes in Peru. Why doesn’t the Peruvian government uphold its own commitments to tribal rights? History tells us that when uncontacted peoples’ land is invaded, death, disease and destruction follow.’
Chavez muses on US Latin America cancer plot: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has questioned whether the US has developed a secret technology to give cancer to left-wing leaders in Latin America.
(Originally posted on December 28, 2011)
Treated for cancer this year, Mr Chavez was speaking a day after news that Argentina’s president had the disease. Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Dilma Rousseff of Brazil and her predecessor Lula have also had cancer.
Mr Chavez said this was ‘very strange’ but stressed that he was thinking aloud rather than making any accusations. He said the instances of cancer among Latin American leaders were “difficult to explain using the law of probabilities”.
“Would it be strange if they had developed the technology to induce cancer and nobody knew about it?” Mr Chavez asked in a televised speech to soldiers at an army base.
Who next?
Mr Chavez noted that US government scientists had infected Guatemalan prisoners with syphilis and other diseases in the 1940s, but that this had only come to light last year.
And he joked that he would now take extra care of the presidents of Bolivia and Ecuador - Evo Morales and Rafael Correa - lest they also be diagnosed with cancer.
The Venezuelan leader, who is 57, has often accused the US of plotting to overthrow or even kill him.
The exact details of his illness have not been made public, fuelling speculation that his condition may be worse than he has let on.
Mr Chavez was the first regional leader to offer support to the Argentine President, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, after it was announced on Tuesday that she had thyroid cancer.
“We will live and we will conquer!” he told her.
Ms Fernandez, 58, is due to have an operation on 4 January, but doctors say her prognosis is very good.
Survivors’ summit
Doctors treating former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for throat cancer say the 66-year-old is responding well to chemotherapy and should make a full recovery.
Dilma Rousseff, 64 - who took over from Lula as Brazilian president a year ago - is fully recovered after receiving treatment for lymphoma cancer in 2009.
Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, 60, was diagnosed with lymphoma in August 2010 but is now in remission after chemotherapy.
Lula and Mr Chavez have previously joked that they would hold a summit of Latin American leaders who had beaten cancer.
Ms Fernandez has now said that she will insist on being the “honorary president” of the summit of cancer survivors.
Racist anthropologist publishes more problematic racist nonsense; other anthropologists outraged
March 3, 2013
It became one of the fiercest scientific arguments in recent times: are the Yanomami Indians of the Amazon rainforest a symbol of how to live in peace and harmony with nature or remnants of humanity’s brutal early history?
Now a debate that has divided anthropologists, journalists, human rights campaigners and even governments has been given a fresh burst of life by the publication of a lengthy memoir by outspoken US anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon.
Chagnon has spent decades studying and living with the Yanomami (also known as the Yanomamö) and wrote the best-selling – and hugely controversial – Yanomamö: The Fierce People. In that book, which came out in 1968, he portrayed the 20,000-strong tribe, who live in isolated jungle homelands in Venezuela and Brazil, as a warlike group whose members fought and battled each other in near-constant duels and raids. He described Yanomami communities as prone to violence, with warriors who killed rivals far more likely to win wives and produce children.
His analysis was criticised as a reductive presentation of human behaviour, seen as primarily driven by a desire to mate and eliminate rivals. Opponents of that view believed the Yanomami were still pursuing a lifestyle dating from mankind’s early past, when people lived mostly peacefully in smaller communities, free from modern sources of stress and far more in equilibrium with their surroundings.
Chagnon’s new 500-page book, Noble Savages, is set to reignite the argument. In it he launches an impassioned defence both of his work and life among the Yanomami and an equally spirited attack on his critics and fellow scientists. The book’s subtitle perhaps sums up his attitude to both groups: “My life among two dangerous tribes – the Yanomamö and the anthropologists.”
Chagnon describes life in the rainforest spent constructing villages, hunting for food, and, as shamans take powerful hallucinogens, bloody raids on rival groups. “The most inexplicable thing to me in all of this was that they were fighting over women… I anticipated scepticism when I reported this after I returned to my university,” he wrote. He was not wrong. His research created a huge storm and accusations that it allowed Amazonian tribes to be depicted by governments and outside interests as bloodthirsty savages who deserved to lose their land to the developers.
Chagnon defends himself from that charge, using much of the book to attack fellow scientists’ conclusions and saying that too many anthropologists are ignoring the pursuit of pure research in favour of becoming activists for the civil rights of their subjects.
“In the past 20 or so years the field of cultural anthropology in the United States has come precipitously close to abandoning the very notion of science,” he writes.
But Noble Savages has prompted a fresh wave of attacks on Chagnon. Last week a group of prominent anthropologists who have worked with the Yanomami issued a joint statement.
“We absolutely disagree with Napoleon Chagnon’s public characterisation of the Yanomamö as a fierce, violent and archaic people,” they said. “We also deplore how Chagnon’s work has been used throughout the years – and could still be used – by governments to deny the Yanomamö their land and cultural rights.”
One of the signatories, Professor Gale Goodwin Gomez of Rhode Island College, who has also spent several decades studying the tribe, told theObserver she was dismayed that Chagnon had published a new book. “This is just another attempt to grab attention. I have lived in Yanomamö villages and have never needed a weapon,” she said.
Human rights organisation Survival International, which campaigns on behalf of indigenous peoples, has also attacked Chagnon. “Chagnon’s work is frequently used by writers… who want to portray tribal peoples as ‘brutal savages’ far more violent than ‘us’,” said Survival’s director, Stephen Corry.
The group also published a statement from Davi Kopenawa, spokesman for a Yanomami group in Brazil, that was critical of Chagnon’s core conclusions. “For us, we Yanomamö who live in the forest, the anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon is not our friend. He does not say good things, he doesn’t transmit good words. He talks about the Yanomamö but his words are only hostile,” he said.
I hate that this is even framed as a debate. Publishers should be more responsible with the work they publish; there’s no excuse for racist anthropologists.
Loggers burned Amazon tribe girl alive to force Awá tribe off of their land
February 19, 2013
Loggers in Brazil captured an eight-year-old girl from one of the Amazon’s last uncontacted tribes and burned her alive as part of a campaign to force the indigenous population from its land, reports claimed on Tuesday night.
The child was said to have wandered away from her village, where around 60 members of the Awá tribe live in complete isolation from the modern world, and fallen into the hands of the loggers.
Luis Carlos Guajajaras, a local leader from a separate tribe, told a Brazilian news website that they tied to her a tree and set her alight as a warning to other natives, who live in a protected reserve in the north-eastern state of Maranhão .
“She was from another tribe, they live deep in the jungle, and have no contact with the outside world. It would have been the first time she had ever seen white men. We heard that they laughed as they burned her to death,” he said.
Reports of the killing, which was said to have happened in October or November last year, were seconded by the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI), a Catholic group which said it had seen footage of her charred remains.
A spokesman for the Brazil’s Indian Affairs Department said the government was urgently investigating the claims.
Huge iron ore deposits and valuable timber have encouraged mining and logging companies to enter the forests of Maranhão despite laws designed to protect the few remaining uncontacted tribes, often leading to violent clashes.
Around 450 tribes people have were murdered in Brazil between 2003 and 2010, according to figures from CIMI.
Survival International, a charity for tribal groups, warned that a third of the Awá’s land had already been destroyed and that their nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle was being threatened as animals fled in the face of the approaching logging companies.
This is an email we just received and it breaks my heart:
In regards to this post.
Hi,I just read your post on Tumblr about the Brazilian Natives. It sadly made me remember it’s not an isolated episode, not even a new one. This has been happening in Latin America ever since the colonialism process started. Just an hour away from my city Bogotá, Colombia, 5,000 Tausa, Suta and Cucunubae Natives committed suicide in 1541, at the Farayones of Sutatausa to avoid slavery and the cruelty of Spanish tropes (who used to cut noses and ears from the natives during its expansion process).
I’m glad you highlight these kind of terrible doings, enabling young people to have an opportunity to be aware of them and maybe try to stop them. I started to follow you.
We appreciate your support, and appreciate even more the additional historical perspective you bring to this terrible situation. Reading that this has happened before really weighs heavily on me. If you come across additional ways we can show solidarity and enact support for these human beings put into this desperate situation, let us know. We’d like to help however we can. Thanks for reaching out.
Brazilian Indians threaten mass suicide over loss of land
October 24, 2012
Approximately 100 adults and 70 children members of the indigenous tribe Guarani-Kaiowa announced this week that they prefer collective death to leave the Cambar’s farm in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, where they settled, than to accept the Federal Court rule that everyone should leave immediately.
The collective death threat, interpreted as a warning of collective suicide, was made in a letter to the Indigenous Missionary Council, which reaffirms that the Indians will not abide by the decision of the court. The Indians say they are not going to leave the region. They call this region ‘tekoha’ which means ancestral cemetery.
According to the Federal Court’s decision, the Indians must leave the farm and if they do not, the National Foundation of Indians, FUNAI, will have to pay a fine of approximately $ 250 per day.
According to the Indians Missionary Council, the Guarani-Kaiowa tribe is known for continuing acts of suicide and almost every six days, one tribesman kills himself, because of the stress of the threat of being evicted from their land.
In the letter sent to Federal Court, they demanded that the decision be over ruled, for the reason that they won’t leave the grounds of their ancestors. They also ask that the Justice secure their rights to be buried in these lands, so that even in their dead bed, they will continue to occupy their territory.
This is heartbreaking. We’ll continue to track the story & post updates.
Brazilian Supreme Court caves to executive pressure, overturns Belo Monte Dam suspension
August 29, 2012
The Brazilian Supreme Court has overturned the suspension of the Belo Monte Dam, caving to pressure from President Dilma Rousseff’s administration without giving appropriate consideration to indigenous rights implications of the case, human rights groups said today. The case illustrates the Brazilian judiciary’s alarming lack of independence, when powerful interests are at stake.
On August 27th the Chief Justice of the Brazilian Supreme Court Carlos Ayres Britto unilaterally overturned an August 14th ruling by a regional federal court (TRF-1) to suspend construction of the controversial Belo Monte Dam. The suspension was based on illegalities in the 2005 congressional authorization of the project due to the absence of prior consultations with affected indigenous peoples, as required by the federal constitution and ILO Convention 169.
“This unfortunate decision doesn’t invalidate the TRF1’s judgment that the project is unconstitutional,” said Atossa Soltani, Executive Director of Amazon Watch. “This is a failure of the judiciary to stand up to entrenched interests and the power of a politically motivated executive branch that wants the Belo Monte Dam to move forward at all costs.”
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office is expected to appeal Britto’s decision and demand a review by the full Supreme Court. Yesterday’s decision was not a judgment of the merits of the case and the Supreme Court may still uphold the historic decision that suspended this highly controversial Amazon dam project two weeks ago. “This suspension was based on an instrument dating back to the time of the dictatorship and is still used in Brazil. We’ve had favorable decisions on many of our legal actions, but they can end up suspended by such measures” said Felicio Pontes Jr., a federal public prosecutor in the state of Pará and one of the authors of the lawsuit filed in 2006 that questions Congressional authorization of Belo Monte in the absence of prior consultations with indigenous peoples.
Justice Britto was reported to have received multiple Ministers and other government representatives in recent days who argued against the suspension of Belo Monte and long overdue consultations with indigenous peoples. Despite repeated requests, he was unwilling to meet with representatives of indigenous communities affected by the project, prior to issuing his decision on Monday.
“This case is emblematic of a seriously flawed legal system, where bureaucracy and political interventions allow for systematic violations of human rights and environmental law,” said Brent Millikan, Amazon Program Director at International Rivers. “There is an urgent need to judge the merits of over a dozen lawsuits against Belo Monte that are still awaiting their day in court.”
Occupy the Dam: Brazil’s indigenous uprising
July 30, 2012
Last month, hundreds of indigenous demonstrators began dismantling a dam in the heart of Brazil’s rainforest to protest the destruction it will bring to lands they have loved and honored for centuries. TheBrazilian government is determined to promote construction of the massive, $14 billion Belo Monte Dam, which will be the world’s third largest when it is completed in 2019. It is being developed by Norte Energia, a consortium of ten of the world’s largest construction, engineering, and mining firms set up specifically for the project.
History has shown again and again that dams in general wreak havoc in areas where they are built, despite promises to the contrary by developers and governments. Hydroelectric energy is anything but “clean” when measured in terms of the excruciating pain it causes individuals, social institutions, and local ecology. The costs—often hidden—include those associated with the privatization of water; the extinction of plants that might provide cures for cancer, HIV, and other diseases; the silting up of rivers and lakes; and the disruption of migratory patterns for many species of birds.The Belo Monte Dam is the most controversial of dozens of dams planned in the Amazon region and threatens the lives and livelihoods of thousands of Amazonian people, plants, and animals. Situated on the Xingu River, the dam is set to flood roughly 150 square miles of already-stressed rainforest and deprive an estimated 20,000 people of their homes, their incomes, and—for those who succumb to malaria, bilharzia, and other diseases carried by insects and snails that are predicted to breed in the new reservoir—their lives. Moreover, the influx of immigrants will bring massive disruption to the socioeconomic balance of the region. People whose livelihoods have primarily depended on hunting and gathering or farming may suddenly find themselves forced to take jobs as manual laborers, servants, and prostitutes.
The indigenous cultures threatened by the Belo Monte Dam, including those of the Xikrin, Juruna, Arara, Parakanã, Kuruaya and Kayapó tribes, are tied to the land: generations have hunted and gathered and cultivated the same areas for centuries. They—as well as local flora and fauna—have suffered disproportionately from the effects of other hydroelectric dams, while rarely gaining any of the potential benefits. Now they are fighting back.
Yet here in the backcountry of Brazil, there is a difference: the makings of a new story. The indigenous people’s occupation of the dam garnered international attention, connecting their situation to other events across the globe—the Arab Spring, democratic revolutions in Latin America, the Occupy Movement, andausterity strikes in Spain and other European nations. Brazil’s indigenous protesters have essentially joined protesters on every continent who are demanding that rights be restored to the people.Indigenous leaders from these groups have asked theBrazilian government to immediately withdraw the installation license for Belo Monte. They demand a halt to work until the government puts into place “effective programs and measures to address the impacts of the dam on local people.” They point out that a promised monetary program to compensate for the negative impacts of the mega-dam has not yet been presented in local villages; also, that a system to ensure small boat navigation in the vicinity of the cofferdams, temporary enclosures built to facilitate the construction process, has not been implemented. Without such a system, many will be isolated from markets, health care facilities, and other services. The cofferdams have already rendered much of the region’s water undrinkable and unsuitable for bathing. Wells promised by the government and Norte Energia have not yet been drilled. The list of grievances goes on and on and is only the latest in a very old story of exploitation of nature and people in the name of “progress.” Far too often, this has meant benefiting only the wealthiest in society and business.
A few years ago I was invited, with a group, to Ladakh, a protectorate of India, to meet with the Dalai Lama. Among a great deal of sage advice he offered was the following: “It is important to pray and meditate for peace, for a more compassionate and better world. But if that is all you do, it is a waste of time. You also must take actions to make that happen. Every single day.”Stories take time to evolve. This one—the story of people awakening on a global level to the need to oppose and replace exploitative dreams—is still in its beginning phase. And the first chapter has been powerful, elegant, and bold.
It is time for each and every one us to follow that advice.
Opposing the Belo Monte Dam project provides an opportunity for you and me to honor those words, and those leading resistance to it can help us understand the importance of looking around—in our neighborhoods as well as globally—to determine what else we can do to change the story.
People’s Summit: An Alternative to UN Convention
June 21, 2012
While presidents and prime ministers gather at the United Nations sustainability conference in Brazil to seek a balance between economic development and environmental protection, 200 non-government groups are hosting their own alternative event.
The nine-day People’s Summit is fostering conversation between social movements, including indigenous groups, environmental activists, unions and land rights groups.
They came to Rio to search for alternatives to those proposed by world leaders, which they say have accomplished little since the last UN summit 20 years ago.
The movement spawned two marches drawing tens of thousands. One protested the removal of communities to make way for projects connected to the 2016 Olympics. The other opposed alleged capitalist appropriation of the Earth Summit.
Monsanto faced with paying farmers $7.5 billion (photo)
June 20, 2012
In April, a Brazilian court ruled that Monsanto was responsible for repaying Brazilian farmers $7.5 billion after the corporation taxed small businesses into ruin & stripped farmers of their rightful income. More than five million farmers filed the lawsuit, which has now forced Monsanto to pay back taxes it has collected since 2004.
Because Monsanto Roundup Ready soybeans are patented creations of the corporation, Monsanto charges an initial royalty on the sale of the crop produced, and a continuing royalty on every subsequent crop, even if the farmer is using a later generation of seed.
Monsanto has appealed the decision, & the lawsuit has been suspended until the Justice Tribune of the local court starts the hearing in Rio Grande do Sul.
