Sovereignty and the Citizen Ship

Michael Meacher and Andreas Von Bülow express their serious doubts about 9/11 - Google Video

Link: Michael Meacher and Andreas Von Bülow express their serious doubts about 9/11 - Google Video.

16 minute video on 9/11, made in late 2005, with former British and German public officials  questioning the veracity of the US government's formal position on what really happened on 9/11.

Cyborg Democracy

Link: Cyborg Democracy.

CPA Iraq - Coalition Provisional Authority Orders

Orders – are binding instructions or directives to the Iraqi people that create penal consequences or have a direct bearing on the way Iraqis are regulated, including changes to Iraqi law.

Link: Read more on cite: CPA Iraq.

EBF Book Reviews - "Will" By By E. James Lieberman, MD

Link: EBF Book Reviews.

By E. James Lieberman, MD

"...We talk about strong-willed people and we act as though we have free will. The idea is old but elusive and controversial. Like music, family, and love, we recognize it better than we can define it. Sigmund Freud left it out of his psychology, panning will, like religion, as mostly illusion. Without will (which is conscious and free, unlike unconscious wish, id impulse or instinctual drive) there can be no personal responsibility, no sin or virtue, ethics or morals. Pride and guilt lose meaning. Psychologists before and since have reckoned with will, e.g. William James, Otto Rank, Jessie Taft, Rollo May, and Irvin Yalom. If will is only an illusion, it appears to be an essential one. ...read more on site

Jim Kaminski's Letter To The FBI

Link: .
--Why do you protect criminals instead of catching them?

[Actually, this is really a letter to any current member of the FBI who is ashamed of what it has become, and longs to uphold the values that they're encouraged to pursue; this is for the new FBI, who are ready to blow whistles, end the corruption, and walk the talk. --QR/RRE]

In Ray Bradbury's famous sci-fi novel "Fahrenheit 451," firemen didn't put out fires, they started them. They burned books - which were banned - and the houses that held them, and then giggled salaciously as the dreams of innocent people went up in flames. This is an apt portrayal of what today's FBI has become, a cowardly secret police protecting the evil interests of the powers that be at the expense of ordinary citizens trying to live decent and honest lives.

..." --John Kaminski, read more on cite

Full post with hyperlinks at next level of map.

Protecting Whales from Dangerous Sonar

--Natural Resources Defense Council

[Check out the short video on cite about sonar's effects. --QR/RRE]

"Even as evidence of its threat to marine life continues to mount, the use of deadly military sonar in the world's oceans is spreading.

The use of the biggest gun in the U.S. Navy's active-sonar arsenal, a low-frequency system known as SURTASS LFA, was restricted in a 2003 agreement with an NRDC-led coalition of wildlife advocates. But the fight is hardly over; the Bush administration is now appealing the legal victory that compelled the Navy into compromise. Meanwhile, other nations are developing LFA-type systems of their own. And sonar testing in coastal waters -- using the same mid-frequency systems that have been implicated in numerous strandings of whales -- is actually on the rise, putting more and more marine mammals and fisheries at risk..." ---NRDC; read more on cite

Devolved Popular Sovereignty; Reconciling Majority Rule and Individual Liberty

Liberty

Reconciling Majority Rule and Individual Liberty;
by Basiclaw.net

"...The purpose of this chapter is to define devolved popular sovereignty and reconcile popular sovereignty and majority rule with individual liberty. The central premise of the proposed model is that the shortcomings of majority rule and the risk of minority oppression can be alleviated by combining the Rousseauean idea of popular sovereignty with the idea of devolution.

Historical Background - Individual Liberty and Hobbes's Social Contract

The ultimate basis for political power is often thought to have been a real or implied social contract. The real or implied social contract is an agreement that every individual entered with every other individual to protect himself against the dangers of the state of nature.

In Hobbes's version the first and only task of political society is to name the sovereign (whether individual or group). The contract itself is permanent and irrevocable and commits the individual to absolute obedience.

The main problem with this view of the world is its lack of legitimacy with respect to the descendants of the original contractors. Even if we assume that an individual can sign away his own liberty, is it legitimate that he can commit his descendants to slavery? Can it really be true that we are bound by our ancestors and have to accept any government we happen to inherit?..."--BasicLaw's "Blueprint for a New Confederation"; read more on cite

Indigenous Virtue Education and Self-Determination

--for American Indians and Non-Indians Alike
by Don Trent Jacobs

"In the absence of traditional American Indian wisdom that holds that morality stems from the natural world, current efforts to teach virtues fail. In failing, the demise of self-determination, the crucial element of tribal sovereignty and American democracy, continues, as does destruction of the environmental systems upon which we all depend. Until education recognizes this traditional wisdom, it will continue to be oppressive to Indian children and a threat to all life on earth. Until a new generation of parents embraces the stories that reconnect us to nature and its virtues, teachers have the responsibility for bringing these stories into the hearts and minds of children. Even if it requires civil disobedience to teach in this way, the goal of developing sufficient free will and character for following nature's path of beauty will be worth the effort. ..." --Don Trent Jacobs; read more on cite

Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples

--Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organizations

"Whereas the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (jointly referred to as the International Bill of Human Rights) are universal and should be universally respected and implemented,

Whereas not all states respect human rights, including the right to self-determination of peoples, and the International Bill of Human Rights has not yet achieved universal implementation,..." --UNPO; read more on cite

Declaration of our Unified State of Consciousness

--U S N I S A

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for people to dissolve the connection to political and commercial mentalities which have endeavored to disconnect them from themselves and one another, and to assume among the powers of the Earth, the sovereign equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a rational respect to the voice of evolution requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to unification. ..." --UNISA; read more on cite

Letter to Neil Freer - the ET/Sovereignty Thing

This is a letter to Neil Freer, explicator of Zararia Sitchin's work and author of "God Games". In it, I ask him to consider formulating a declaration of sovereignty. I would be fascinated to hear how he would frame it.

THE ASILOMAR DECLARATION FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

THE ASILOMAR DECLARATION FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

"...The present system for American agriculture cannot long endure. Our farms have succeeded in producing abundant food and fiber. But the costs and fragility of that success are becoming each day more evident.

Sustainable alternatives already prove their value. Not only are they more efficient in their use of energy, biological sources of fertility and pest management, they also enhance rural communities and encourage families to remain on the land. We commit ourselves to hastening the broad adoption of an agriculture that is environmentally sound, economically viable, fair, and humane.

A sustainable agriculture will require and support a sustainable society. Our challenge is to meet human needs without denying our descendents' birthright to the natural inheritance of this planet. We must revere the earth, sustaining and regenerating both nature and our communities. People are apart of mature, not separate from it. Sustainable agriculture is as attainable as it is necessary. Though we recognize difficulties in this transformation, we can state with confidence that in every region there are fare families profitably growing healthy food through a practical partnership with nature.

"A sustainable agriculture that provides nourishing food, protects those who work the land, helps stabilize the earth's climate, and safeguards soil and water depends on our ability to meet a number of challenges. We must address these challenges without delay. ..." --the Asilomar Declaration; read more on cite

Become a Sovereign Citizen! Johnny Liberty

--Johnny Liberty
Restoring American Citizenship

"...American Citizenship in a republican form of government has been effectively altered over many generations to US Citizenship in a democratic form of government centralized in Washington DC instead of a guaranteed "republican form of government" in the states where it was originally intended.

"American Citizenship is based in the states and their respective constitutions, not the federal. There is no federal US citizenship except for those born in the District of Columbia and the territories of the United States. But US citizenship is NOT American Citizenship with unalienable, sovereign rights. US citizenship has only civil rights as granted by the US Congress, not “constitutional rights.” ..." --Johnny Liberty, 7/4/2004, Rumor Mill News; read more on cite

Agriculture and food sovereignty

"According to Via Campesina, an international movement that coordinates farmer organizations from Asia, Africa, America and Europe, food sovereignty is the right of all peoples, their nations or unions of States to define their agricultural and food policies, without dumping involving third-party countries. Food sovereignty goes beyond the more common concept of food security, which merely seeks to ensure that a sufficient amount of safe food is produced without taking into account the kind of food produced and how, where and on what scale it is produced.

"The concept of food sovereignty was developed by Via Campesina and introduced into the public debate on occasion of the World Food Summit in 1996, with the aim of providing an alternative to neo-liberal policies. Since then, this concept has become a major issue of debate on the international agricultural agenda, even within the United Nations. ..." --Choike; read more on cite

People’s Food Sovereignty is a Right

WTO Out of Food and Agriculture

"...In order to guarantee the independence and food sovereignty of all of the world’s peoples, it is essential that food is produced though diversified, community based production systems. Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to define their own food and agriculture; to protect and regulate domestic agricultural production and trade in
order to achieve sustainable development objectives; to determine the extent to which they want to be self reliant; to restrict the dumping of products in their markets, and; to provide local fisheries-based communities the priority in managing the use of and
the rights to aquatic resources. Food sovereignty does not negate trade, but rather, it promotes the formulation of trade policies and practices that serve the rights of peoples to safe, healthy and ecologically sustainable production.

"Governments must uphold the rights of all peoples to food sovereignty and security, and adopt and implement policies that promote sustainable, family-based production rather than industry- led, high- input and export oriented production. .." --Multiple Signers; Public Citizen Site; read more on cite

Blow Your Rights

--"The hard-to-find truth about piracy"
by Stuart Campbell

"The issue of balance in news reporting is one that's never been more under threat than it is today. With huge chunks of the media owned by a tiny number of individuals, with "embedded" journalists serving as censored mouthpieces for the military in war zones (and non-"embedded" ones liable to being "accidentally" shot by that same military with slightly disturbing frequency), and with governments doing their best to intimidate reporters out of discovering the truth by exerting intolerable pressure on broadcasters, it's becoming increasingly hard to hear both sides of any story - especially where one side of the story has corporate money behind it. Nowhere is this more true than on the topic of piracy.

"Because pirates don't have a representative trade body like FACT or an industry-funded pressure group like the "Industry Trust For IP Awareness", and because going and getting any kind of counterpoint-type input to a story that doesn't involve having a press release delivered directly onto your desk by an official organisation is a bit too much like hard work for many modern journalists, corporate bodies tend to get a pretty much free hand to present any old cobblers they like as fact and have it repeated verbatim as the truth by the media. Now, you might not think that's much of a problem - after all, who cares if criminals aren't having their side of the story given equal screen time to that of the legitimate businesses and creators they're ripping off, right? - but there are much wider issues at stake. ..." --Stuart Campbell, World of Stuart; read more on cite

Jefferson - The 51st State

Northern California / Southern Oregon - A State of Mind

"Jefferson is located in the mountain border region of what has more commonly been known as northern California and southern Oregon.

"Indigenous people of Jefferson have an inborn desire to be free from the influence of the population centers of California and Oregon because voters in those areas tend to vote against the lifestyles and livelihoods of their rural counterparts. We are outvoted and under represented.

"We haven't established absolute borders for our home state yet but a good choice would be from the Pacific coast on the west to the Nevada border on the east. The northern and southern boundaries are not as easily defined. ..." --State of Jefferson Home Page; read more on cite

A Bioregional Perspective

- on Planning and Regional Economics" --by Joel Russ

"BIOREGIONALISM IS A TERM THAT REFERS to a perspective or set of conceptual tools...The movement has roots in the environmentalism of the '60s and later. In the mid '70s, Nova Scotia's Institute for Bioregional Research was among the early and influential organizations. Bioregionalism continues to draw sustenance in the contemporary soil of the so-called "new conservation." Today, bioregional organizations and projects function in North, Central, and South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the Hawaiian Islands.

"It can be argued that bioregionalism represents a major step beyond environmental localism, in the sense that while it is a stewardship philosophy, its focus isn't restricted to the immediate neighbourhood or community. There is practical significance to the fact that problems occurring at one place (say, a specific watershed) in a large region may have further ramifications in one or more other parts (i.e., "downstream effects").

...A bioregion is a naturally defined region (e.g. defined by physiography, stream flows, weather, or floral and faunal communities), and in this sense has a similarity to the biologist's biome or biogeoclimatic zone, or the geographer's drainage basin. However, unlike field biologists, who may focus on a given area in its function as habitat for certain animals, bioregionalists never lose sight of the fact that people live in and interact with the region.

"Hence, usually "bioregion" refers to an area in which people draw some necessities of life (water, crops grown in the soil, trees for building or other uses, various raw materials for manufacturing, etc.). Otherwise, terms like biome would be equally useful. Many bioregionalists would maintain that, however much the movement is informed by natural and social sciences, the term bioregion is meant to remain primarily a layman's term. Bioregionalists may appreciate specialists, may in fact sometimes be specialists themselves, but bioregionalism is intended to be for everybody. ..." --Joell Russ, Trumpeter 1995; read more on cite

Traditional Ecological Knowledge

"Giving Traditional Ecological Knowledge Its Rightful Place in Environmental Impact Assessment"
by John Sallenave

"...In essence, EIAs are reductionist in their approach, breaking down each study into various biophysical components, which are then measured and evaluated independently from one another and from the human components. This process of compartmentalizing biophysical components is inconsistent with the aboriginal view of the world, which sees all aspects of the environment as equally important. In aboriginal peoples' "holistic" view, biophysical components can be separated neither from each other nor from the human components—the social, cultural, spiritual, and economic aspects of the environment. One significant reason that monitoring systems such as the EMP have not been successful is that they have not incorporated a "human ecology" factor.

"If social and environmental impacts are to be linked, aboriginal communities and their traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) must be part of the environmental assessment process. One of the most difficult tasks in achieving this integration will be to create a framework for research and planning that views science and TEK as complementary—not competing—forms of knowledge. By undertaking co-operative field research and by allowing for varying perspectives and views, researchers will discover the commonalities between TEK and science. ..." --John Salave, Canadian Arctic Resources Committee; read on cite

Mad Farmer Liberation Front

--Wendell Berry

"Love the quick profits, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know. ..."

Report Card: Pesticides in Produce

--Environmental Working Group: Food News

snip: "Adjusting your eating habits can lower your intake of pesticides -- sometimes dramatically so. Substitute organic for conventional produce that is consistently contaminated with pesticides. When organic is not available, eat fruits and vegetables with consistently low pesticide loads.

Our Declaration of Sovereignty

"The Walla Walla, Umatilla, and Cayuse ("Tribes") have always exercised our sovereignty. We have governed and protected ourselves as well as regulated our commerce.

"The Tribes entered into the Treaty of 1855 with the United States of America ("United States") but not as a conquered people. Both parties negotiated the Treaty and recognized the sovereign authority of all parties to the Treaty.

"The Tribes ceded certain aspects of their aboriginal title to more than 6.4 million acres of land to the United States. Yet, we reserved an area as our homeland under full sovereign authority and retained extensive off-Reservation rights. The United States assumed certain trust responsibilities to protect the Reservation and all off-Reservation rights from outside forces. Both sovereigns agreed to honor the letter and intent of all obligations in the Treaty of 1855.

The Tribes declare our national and inherent sovereign authority. We have the absolute right to govern, determine our destiny, provide for tribal members, and manage our property, land, water, resources, rights, and activities throughout our homeland from all interference. We declare that the Treaty of 1855 only alters our sovereignty to the extent expressly stated in the Treaty and that all inherent sovereign rights and authority remain with the Tribes. ..." --Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation; read more on cite

Stimulus - Sovereignty Questions

The questions in this thread can influence sovereignty, permaculture, and citizenship musings and help push the envelope of the discussion.

REM V- Map Focus Links - Sovereignty and Permaculture

Attn: Sovereignty and Permaculture Conversationalists -

READING

Feel free to browse any links in the map (and anywhere else), but the links under the REM V-Map Focus Link list on the right and below are the primary links this conversation is roiling our 2004 exploration of Sovereignty, Citizen Ships, and Permaculture around. The Map is connected to thousands of links that are constantly shifting so stay centered. :-)

COMMENT FOCUS LINKS

The links below have comments enabled. They are the main threads to hold conversation for the "2004 Eugene Sovereignty and Permaculture Tour". Staying focused around these fires will help, for the Map is a big place, and growing every day. If the group desires, a regular forum may develop from this thread. REM Comment space is enabled everywhere, and unpredictably wiped. The comments you leave in the threads at this link will endure for awhile, however, so you can mail them to yourself if you like them a lot.

Convernor's Message: Opening the Dialog Door

Wendell Berry's "Mad Farmer Liberation Front"

Wikipedia on Sovereignty; Build Strong POVs

MORE COMMENT/FOCUS LINKS AS NICK/GROUP DECIDES ON THEM

Please suggest URLs for further reading in this thread's comments section below. URLs that are especially pertinent to the larger Sovereignty and the Citizen Ship Map may be added down the road or placed in the REM Pool, with gratitude for the pointing.

THE NATURE OF IMPERMANENCE

Practice Sky Mind. The REM is not yet a place to regularly find something, day in and day out, though you can count on the excerpts to stay somewhat permanent - hence the name "permalink". Due to the Beta Nature of this production, things will slip around here for some time. A large and printable version of the Best of the 2004 REM is forthcoming. If you really like a cite, learn how to FURL it(and then share with the Map when you join as a cartographer later on... :-))

Opening the Dialog Door

OPENING THE DIALOG DOOR

"Is the permaculture experience affording us keen insights into what it is to embody authentic freedom?

"Some of you may be aware of Wendell Berry's "Manifesto: The Mad Farmer's Liberation Front", with its "Denounce the government: embrace the flag" rap. Much like his contemporary, Gary Snyder, Berry seems to have done more to tie a "sense of place" to the notion of sovereignty than most.
Indeed, in their attempts to remythologize this communion, these two poets resonate deeply with the endeavors of the visionary permaculture community whose MO is tied inexorably to the grounding presence of "landscape" or "sense of place.""

"This is no news to indigenous peoples, of course. Likewise, savvy cultural anthropologists have long noted that linguistic/cultural pockets or "tribes" or call them wot ya will, tend to be defined by the limits of that tribe's wisdom of the geographic area they inhabit. On that note, a quick para of academic fodder for ya:

"Muhlhausler (1996) suggests that the physical environment is an intrinsic part of traditional linguistic ecologies, in which no separation is felt to exist "between an external reality or environment on the one hand and the description of this reality or environment on the other"; "Life in a particular human environment is dependent on people's ability to talk about it," Muhlhausler (1995); Anthropologist Norman Tindale has stated: "Coincidences of tribal boundaries to local ecology are not uncommon and imply that a given group of people may achieve stability by becoming the most efficient users of a given area and understanding its potentialities"; As linguistic anthropologist Keith Basso (1996) puts it, "wisdom sits in places"; From this perspective, fostering the health and vigour of ecosystems is one and the same goal as fostering the health and vigor of human societies, their cultures and languages."

"Does this suggest that a "permacultural perspective/priority list" for our bioregion(al ecology) may be precisely one and the same thing as a "localized collective declaration of sovereignty"? Is the restoration of authentic freedom tied inexorably to the restoration of local ecologies? What might a collective declaration of sovereignty/local permie manifesto look like? Why do it? What might it mean?

"Perhaps a richer understanding of the relationship between local landscape and local cultures is key to making sense of the sovereignty puzzle; to annihilating the distinction between inner and outer freedoms - a fundamentally eschatological notion, as it happens. Freedom as a concept or potentiality, no matter how nobly worded, always tends toward disembodied abstraction, I find: "Here's a magnificent, high-minded notion on a piece of paper. We're all agreed, let's make the best of it." But what are the concrete individual and collective responsibilities associated with 'making liberty real"? What are freedom's foundation stones, where do we find them and where do they go? What are self-evident truths, here and now, where I stand, embodied?

What permaculture offers, surely, is a living realtime education in authentically _responsible_ action, by deeply rooting nobility of intent in intelligent co-relationship with our ground of being. And it's a path open to all, regardless of caste. As Anita Lange puts it: "The prolonged, earnest practice of tending growth and harvest finely tunes a particular quality of attention that enables intimacy with wisdom inherent in the land. With growing discernment we learn which of our human understandings are in accord with the cycles of nature; a decisive requisite to being fully at home." A sense of sovereignty, the actuality of freedom, grows from and blends with the land.

What, then, can permaculture teach us about repatterning the structures of life and freedom?

And so here's our start..

Sovereignty and Permaculture 2004

The Radiant Edge Map Beta Tour

"This year's Fall Bioregional Permaculture Gathering in Eugene, OR, - the theme is "Advancing Toward an Enduring Bioregion" - includes a track devoted to the topic of Sovereignty and Permaculture. An online pre-conference, warm up conversation devoted to this topic has been quietly simmering away as we brainstorm what in the heck the session might be about! Please feel free to help define this discussion, wherever you are: we'd like to nurture as much co-intelligence around this topic as we can.

Read down this page for a quick browse, or jump straight to:

* OPENING THE DIALOG DOOR, and then add your thoughts about what our gathering should focus on in the Dialog Door's comment space.

* Read the cartographer's Sovereignty and the Citizen Ship SKETCH at About This Map

* Consider the questions (and add more musings) at "STIMULUS"

* Focus your reading on the MAP FOCUS LINKS, in the "On Sovereignty" link-column at right, considering the Sovereignty/Citizenship/Permaculture theme - add comments as you will

* Learn more about the Radiant Edge Map - (coming someday...:-) this is a beta, after all...)

Above all - Join us!!!

Nick Routledge and Cynthia Beal, Convenors
SLUG Queen Radia of the Radiant Radical Edge, Cartographer

Samizdata Blog

Who Are We?

"The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.

"We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, libertarians, extropians, futurists, 'Porcupines', Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frederic Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe. ..." --Samizdata Blog Home Page; read more on cite

No Surplus Rivers

RIVER LINKING PROJECT AN ENVIRONMENTAL NIGHTMARE
--Avinash Kalla

"Water scarcity in India is just not confined to the stand-off between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over Cauvery waters or Goa and Karnataka over the Mandel-Mandovi basin or even between Punjab and Haryana over the Yamuna-Sutlej Link. Social scientists say these are gentle disputes compared to the doomsday scenario looming over India. They say the days of easy water are over and if the issue of scarcity of the planet's most essential natural resource is not addressed on a war footing every summer will see severe conflicts over water not just between states but individuals as well.

"The unsustainable equation for the future is staring us starkly in the face: freshwater supply is dwindling at an alarming rate even as the demand for water grows manifold. "Of all the social and natural crises we face, water crisis lies at the heart of our survival," says Kochiro Matsuura, director-general of UNESCO.

"In such a doomsday scenario will the much-hyped River-linking Project (RLP) work? The project proposes to link 14 Himalayan rivers in the north and 16 peninsular rivers in south. The benefits of such a scheme are obvious - it would add 35-37 million hectares of irrigated land, generate 34,000 million kilowatts of electricity and increase navigational efficiency apart from controlling floods and eliminating chances of drought.

"Though votaries of the river linking project say channeling the surplus water to underfed areas will solve the perennial problem of floods and droughts and bring a boom in employment but there's another side to the coin which spoils the rosy picture. A number of leading environmentalists are of the opinion that the project could be an ecological disaster. ..." --Avanish Kalla, cited on Awakened Woman; read more on cite

Big Dead Place

This site is dedicated to Antarctica and to thinking about Antarctica.

"The site is edited by F. Scott Robert, a pseudonym for an enthusiastic lackey at an Antarctic station who enjoys his or her job and has an excellent work record. Considering the National Science Foundation's record of irritable reactions when its tidy iceberg yarns are marred by unauthorized observations, using a pseudonym is a thin but reasonable precaution when one enjoys the mesmerizing activities of The Program, but feels incapable of showering the great Antarctic circus with the unqualified praise of the professional journalists, who wriggle to Antarctica to spawn omissions.

"We welcome submissions and we respect anonymity if you prefer. ..." --F. Scott Robert, Big Dead Place; read more on cite

The Right to Water

Access to Adequate Clean Water is a Human Right

"Water is a basic element of all life. Over 70 percent of the human body is made up of water. While a human being may survive without food for several days, water deprivation can kill a person within a matter of hours. Water is also a requirement for the most basic activities vital to sustaining human life, including agriculture, cooking, and sanitation. Yet while water sustains life, it can also bring death if contaminated. Some of the deadliest diseases, which kill millions around the world each year, are carried in unclean water. Access to adequate amounts of clean water, for both consumption and sanitation, is a prerequisite for a healthy life. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares, “all human beings have the right to life”; this includes the right to water.

"Although the international community recognized the right to water, as a component of the right to life, over fifty years ago, millions around the world are still denied access to adequate amounts of clean water. Violations of the right to water come in many forms: industrial pollution of water sources, failure to provide purification and sanitation for the urban poor, pricing of water delivery beyond the reach of the rural poor. In arid regions, states have regulated access to water as a way of controlling marginalized groups. ..." --The Center for Economic and Social Rights; read more on cite

Eijido Cebadillas and the Wildlands Project

--The Wildlands Project;

"Mexico’s northern Sierra Madre mountains are critical habitat to a number of imperiled species, including the remarkable thick-billed parrot. Once ranging north into the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico, this stunning green-and-red bird is now limited to the Sierra Madre Occidental, where perhaps only 1,500 breeding pairs remain. The thick-billed parrot eats pine nuts, and usually nests in the cavities of old-growth trees—which are also disappearing rapidly from Mexico and throughout the world.

"In 2000, a landmark conservation initiative spearheaded by the Wildlands Project, Naturalia, and Pronatura, Mexico’s largest conservation group, protected 6,000 acres of the thick-billed parrot’s mature forest habitat. Residents of Ejido Cebadillas—the private land cooperative that owns the forest—agreed to defer logging for at least 15 years. In exchange, conservation groups will compensate members of the ejido for some of their lost revenue while helping to foster sustainable community development. Conservationists will also help design a sustainable forestry program on the remaining Ejido Cebadillas land holdings, and will assist community members in developing parrot-based ecotourism. ..." --The Wildlands Project; read more on cite

A Citizens' Alternative to Deep Integration

--Maude Barlow

"As Canadians prepare for a likely spring election, we should be concerned about a constellation of forces coming together to challenge Canadian sovereignty and values in an unprecedented way.

"Not since 1984, when newly elected Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announced to an elite business audience in New York City that Canada was “open for business,” have we seen the groundwork being laid for such major structural changes in Canada’s relations with the United States.

"The same economic and political elite that advanced the Canada-U.S. free trade agenda 20 years ago is now pushing an even more dangerous agenda. The C.D. Howe Institute calls it a “Big Idea.” The Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) calls it the “North American Security and Prosperity Initiative.”

"The new deal envisaged by these powerful right-wing think tanks and lobby groups, and supported by various newspaper editorial boards and members of the Liberal and Conservative parties, including Mulroney, would include a greater integration of the Canadian Armed Forces into U.S. military strategies, new security measures in Canada akin to those implemented by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and an iron-clad guarantee of an increasing supply of Canadian energy resources to the United States. ..." --Maude Barlow, Council of Canadians; read more on cite (pdf)

Climate Change - a Threat to Over One Million Species

--Conservation International

"Climate change could drive more than a quarter of land animals and plants into extinction, according to a major new study published in tomorrow's edition of the journal Nature.

The study estimates that climate change projected to take place between now and the year 2050 will place 15 to 37 percent of all species in several biodiversity-rich regions at risk of extinction. The scientists believe there is a high likelihood of extinctions due to climate change in other regions, as well.

Scientists studied six regions around the world representing 20 percent of the planet's land area and projected the future distributions of 1,103 animal and plant species. Three different climate change scenarios were considered - minimal, mid-range and maximum, as was the ability of some species to successfully "disperse," or move to a different area, thus preventing climate change-induced extinction. The study used computer models to simulate the ways species' ranges are expected to move in response to changing temperatures and climate. It represents the largest collaboration of scientists to ever study this problem.

"This study makes it clear that climate change is the most significant new threat for extinctions this century," said co-author Lee Hannah, Climate Change Biology Senior Fellow at the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science (CABS) at Conservation International (CI). "The combination of increasing habitat loss, already recognized as the largest single threat to species, and climate change, is likely to devastate the ability of species to move and survive." ..." --Conservation International, Center for Applied Biodiversity Science; read more on cite

Where Would Jesus Bank?

--Catherine Austin Fitts

"I think of Jesus as a real deal, straight up kind of guy who always cared deeply about his fellow man. That's why we often ask “What would Jesus do?” when looking for the action of highest integrity.[1]

Jesus and the Bankers

"Jesus acted with ferocious and bold integrity when he threw the money changers out of the temple. Needless to say, he hiccuped their cash flows on what otherwise would have been a big grossing day. Their business model threatened, the priests who managed the money changers insisted that the Romans crucify Jesus. The Romans tried to pawn the problem off on the local king, Herod, who ducked and sent Jesus back to the Romans. The Romans, still looking for a way out, tried a flogging. That did not work. The priests meanwhile had succeeded in persuading the crowd to support them and scapegoat Jesus. Thirsting for a crucifixion, the crowd voted to set the criminal Barabbas free instead of Jesus.

"Jesus died because the crowd voted for the criminal enterprise. The crowd voted for the priests and their rich endowments and their alliance with the money changers. The crowd did not ask “Cui Bono?” which is Latin for “who benefits?” If they had, they would have seen the real deal on who was making money on the death of Jesus and voted with their conscience, and for their own best interests instead.

"It's 2000 Years Later and We're Still Voting for the Criminals..." --Catherine Austin Fitts, Scoop; read more on cite

Petro Apocalypse

--Yves Cochet,

"...If, in spite of everything, we want to maintain a bit of humanity in life on Earth in the 2010s, we ought, as the geologist Colin Campbell has suggested, to call on the United Nations to agree immediately on the following: to guarantee that poor countries will still be able to import a little oil; to forbid oil profiteering; to encourage saving energy; to promote renewable sources of energy. In order to attain these objectives, this universal agreement should impose the following measures: every State must regulate oil imports and exports; no oil-exporting country may produce more oil than its annual depletion, scientifically calculated, allows; every State must reduce its oil imports to an agreed-upon global depletion rate. .." --Yves Cochet, Le Monde; read more on cite

Reclaim the Genetic and Water Commons

--Vandana Shiva

"...Since sovereignty based on the doctrine of eminent domain is becoming the conduit for global usurpation of people’s resources and undermining of people’s sovereign rights, reclaiming the biodiversity and water commons must go hand in hand with reclaiming sovereignty and defining a new partnership between people and governments on the basis of subsidiarity and the public trust doctrine. .." --Vandana Shiva, Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Natural Resource Policy; read more on cite

Could Such Things Be True?

--Bernard Haisch

"...When Prof. Peter Sturrock, a prominent Stanford University plasma physicist, conducted a survey of the membership of the American Astronomical Socieity in the 1970s, he made an interesting finding: astronomers who spent time reading up on the UFO phenomenon developed more interest in it. If there were nothing to it, you would expect the opposite: lack of credible evidence would cause interest to wane. But the fact of the matter is, there does exist a vast amount of high quality, albeit enigmatic, data. UFO sightings are not limited to farmers in backward rural areas. There are astronomers and pilots and NASA engineers -- and others who have been around the block a few times when it comes to observing natural phenomena -- who have witnessed events for which there is no plausible explanation.... Could such things possibly be true? ...We scientists tend to think that we know better than anyone else what is possible and what is impossible, and that we of all people could surely not be kept in the dark for very long. Over the course of time I have learned how it would indeed be possible to maintain decades-long secrecy on this topic and why this might be justified, concepts I myself once dismissed..." --Bernard Haisch, UFO Skeptic.org; read more on cite

Vandana Shiva on Water Wars

--Nic Paget-Clarke

"...The book “Water Wars” is a synthesis of thirty years of my engagement with communities defending their eco-systems and resources. These movements are called the environment movements but they are also the anti-poverty movements because in the South the forces that make people poor are the same forces that destroy their resources. ...

"...The first movement that taught me about water was the Chipko movement in the early ’70s. Women came out in the Himalayan villages hugging trees and said, “We won’t let them be logged. You’ll have to kill us before you kill our trees.” And they were laughed at and the government said, “Logging is a big revenue in these regions,” and the women said, “Forests do not bare timber and raise them as revenue.” Their real yield is water and soil conservation and fresh air..." --Interview by Nic Paget-Clarke, Global Eyes, In Motion Magazine: read more on cite

Lakota Declaration of Sovereignty

--Lakota, Northern Cheyenne

"We the LAKOTA, NORTHERN CHEYENNE and on behalf of signatories of the 1851 TREATY OF FT. LARAMIE, 1868, charge the United States with the infringement of our territorial sovereignty. This violation has been recorded in history as the 1871 Appropriations Act (Rider). Our LAKOTA DECLARATION hereby terminates colonial occupation and interests of the territory defined as "PERMANENT INDIAN TERRITORY" in the previously mentioned treaties. LAKOTA unwritten sovereignty over this territory since time immemorial has now come into conflict with the claim of the United States, for their laws are written in the form of a constitution, based on an assumption of superiority of written words. However LAKOTA laws are original, customary, traditional, oral and inherent. Our claim to jurisdiction is inherent and it is for the natives of this territory to determine the destiny of our territory and not the territory to determine from afar the destiny of the people. LAKOTA hunting fishing trading land and water mineral and sovereignty rights have not been yielded to the United States during peacetime, at war, nor through the conveyance of a treaty. A treaty was not a grant of rights to the indians but a grant of rights from them. There was an exclusive right to jurisdiction and sovereignty reserved within them. We the LAKOTA challenge the Supreme Court rulings and legislation introduced by acts of Congress as inapplicapable to the natives of the respected territory. Hence the claim to jurisdiction based on the Conquest and Discovery has never occurred. ..." --read more on cite

The Primitivist Critique of Civilization

--Richard Heinberg

"...Now, it can be argued that civilization per se is not at fault, that the problems we face have to do with unique economic and historical circumstances. But we should at least consider the possibility that our modern industrial system represents the flowering of tendencies that go back quite far. This, at any rate, is the implication of recent assessments of the ecological ruin left in the wake of the Roman, Mesopotamian, Chinese, and other prior civilizations. Are we perhaps repeating their errors on a gargantuan scale? ...--Richard Heinberg, Museletter; read more on cite

EARTH CHARTER USA: The Earth Charter

"...The dominant patterns of production and consumption are causing environmental devastation, the depletion of resources, and a massive extinction of species. Communities are being undermined. The benefits of development are not shared equitably and the gap between rich and poor is widening. Injustice, poverty, ignorance, and violent conflict are widespread and the cause of great suffering. An unprecedented rise in human population has overburdened ecological and social systems. The foundations of global security are threatened. These trends are perilous-but not inevitable. "...The Earth Charter Preamble; read more on cite

ASILOMAR DECLARATION

--Committee for Sustainable Agriculture

"The present system for American agriculture cannot long endure. Our farms have succeeded in producing abundant food and fiber. But the costs and fragility of that success are becoming each day more evident.

"Sustainable alternatives already prove their value. Not only are they more efficient in their use of energy, biological sources of fertility and pest management, they also enhance rural communities and encourage families to remain on the land. We commit ourselves to hastening the broad adoption of an agriculture that is environmentally sound, economically viable, fair, and humane.

Psychedelics in the Suburbs

--Erowid Psychoactives & Families Vault

"...Pat and Tom live in a suburban neighborhood. Erowid first spoke with them when their son had left for college and their daughter was a senior in high school. At that time, they had been participating for many years in guided psychedelic sessions, referred to in conversation as "medicine work" or simply "the work" or "medicine." They had never spoken of this interest with their children. Over a year later, both children have flown the nest, and Tom has talked to their son, Derek.

In their explorations of consciousness, self, and spirituality, Tom and Pat have used cannabis and the psychedelics ayahuasca, MDMA, mushrooms, ibogaine, San Pedro cactus, LSD, Jaguar (5-MeO-DMT), and peyote...." --Erowid Interview; read more on cite

Blogging and the New Citizenship

cell.01

Evatt Foundation: Publication: If you build it they will come - 17 June 2003

...To some people, weblogs (blogs, as the word is almost universally abbreviated to) are a geek hula-hoop, a fad that will pass once the novelty wears off; a bit of fun, but not something to get too excited about. To others they represent a rebirth of participatory democracy, a new form of journalism, and even the home of the new public intellectuals....It would be dull to simply declare that blogs are something in between these extremes, so let me tilt towards the argument that says they are, at least potentially, the home of a new type of public intellectual, a type that breaks down the usual images of the detached wise person or topical expert explaining things to an uninformed public, and that blogging brings public debate back within coo-ee of those to whom it should belong anyway, the ordinary citizens. Blogging, potentially on a large scale, puts the public in public intellectual...." --Tim Dunlop, Evatt Foundation; read more on cite

Her Beautiful Mind

cell.01

Her Beautiful Mind

"...What could be behind the Bush Administration's decision to censor the photographs of flag-draped coffins returning from Iraq? Could it really be, as the government says, to respect "the privacy of the families?" Or is it to hide the realities of war for political reasons? Or is it to protect the delicate sensitivities of the ruling class as Americans die to build them an empire?

As the argument over this censorship continues, I hope people remember a widely-quoted remark made by the president's mother, Barbara Bush, last year during the build-up of the war - the lying time.

"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths," Barbara Bush said on ABC's "Good Morning America" on March 18, 2003. "Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"..." --Joyce Marcel, Common Dreams News Center; read more on cite

Drug Harm Reduction™

--RECOVERY ESSENTIALS

"RE specializes in the next level of drug harm reduction and recovery. We are the only company to scientifically develop bionutritional products for reducing the harm and recovering from the undesirable effects of psychoactive & recreational drugs....Consciousness-altering and recreational drugs are used in our culture despite stringent laws and taboos. Due to the predominance of the prohibition and abstinence-only models, practical methods for preventing the harmful effects of drugs have not been made available to the public.

RE is a resource for anyone seeking practical methods for reducing the harm and recovering from the adverse affects of drugs. Our mission is to bridge the gap between the scientific and drug using communities..." --Recovery Essentials, Drug Safety Science; read more on cite

Affirmation of Family Diversity

Statement of Principles, Alternatives to Marriage Project

"We believe that all families should be valued, that the well-being of children is critical to our nation's future, and that people who care for one another should be supported in their efforts to build healthy, happy relationships. One of America's strengths is its diversity, which includes not only a wide range of races, ethnicities, creeds, abilities, genders, and sexual orientations, but also a range of family forms. One family form is marriage, and we agree with the newly-formed "Marriage Movement" that marriages should be supported. What worries us is the mistaken notion that marriage is the only acceptable relationship or family structure...."

"We believe:

* that discrimination on the basis of marital status should be prohibited
* that policies designed to help children should focus on supporting all the types of families in which children live
* that laws and policies should be changed to allow for the full range of families to be recognized (this includes domestic partner benefits, family and medical leave, hospital visitation, and survivors' benefits)
* that more research is needed on unmarried relationships and families, so that we can address their needs directly
* that same-sex couples should be able to choose marriage as an option
* that there is much we can learn from the countries around the world that have already taken steps to recognize diverse families
* that the challenge that lies before us as a nation is how to support ALL relationships and families, not just married ones. ..." Alternatives to Marriage Project; read more on cite

What's Wrong With Copy Protection

--by John Gilmore

"...I think we should embrace the era of plenty and work out how to mutually live in it. I think we should work on understanding how people can make a living by creating new things and providing services, rather than by restricting the duplication of existing things. ... It's no coincidence that the open source, free software, and Linux communities are among the first to become alarmed at copy protection. They are actively making their livings or hobbies out of eliminating scarcity and increasing freedom in the operating system and application software markets. They see the real improvement in the world that results -- and the ugly reactions of the monopolistic and oligopolistic forces that such efforts obsolete.

"Converting the whole world to operate without scarcity is a huge task. Such a large economic shift would take decades to spread through the entire world economy, making billions of new winners and new losers. We will be extremely lucky if by 2030 we are prepared to end scarcity without massive social turmoil, including riots, civil unrest, and world war. If we are to find a peaceful path to an era of plenty, we should be starting HERE AND NOW, transforming the industries we have already eliminated scarcity in -- text, audio, and video. Companies that can't adjust should disappear and be replaced by those who can. As these whole industries learn how to exist and thrive without creating artificial scarcity, they will provide models and expertise for other industries, which will need to change when their own inefficient production is replaced by efficient duplication ten or fifteen years from now. ..." --John Gilmore; read more on cite

Deccan Development Society approaches Food Sovereignty

excerpt: "..At the heart of all activities of DDS is the fundamental principle of access and control, which leads to the autonomy of local communities. The autonomy becomes far more important in a globalising world, shrinking national boundaries, and disappearing national sovereignties. In this context, it is crucial for local communities to take over certain spheres of autonomies to protect themselves from being trampled over by invisible globalising forces. It is in this scenario that the women of the DDS sanghams have worked towards the following autonomies:

* Autonomy over food production
* Autonomy over seeds
* Autonomy over natural resources
* Autonomous market
* Autonomous media

"Responding to the emerging global challenges, the DDS communities, which had worked towards ensuring their food security over the last 20 years, are now moving into a regime of food sovereignty. Their collective effort over the coming years would be to smoothen this transition by ensuring their seed sovereignty, through practicing principles of permaculture, establishing eco-insurance and production of biomass to enhance the fertility of their soils. ..." --Deccan Development Society; read more on cite

Israeli Military Combatant Letter 2002

--Members of the Israeli Military and Signatories to Combat Refusal Letter--

# We, reserve combat officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, who were raised upon the principles of Zionism, sacrifice and giving to the people of Israel and to the State of Israel, who have always served in the front lines, and who were the first to carry out any mission, light or heavy, in order to protect the State of Israel and strengthen it.
# We, combat officers and soldiers who have served the State of Israel for long weeks every year, in spite of the dear cost to our personal lives, have been on reserve duty all over the Occupied Territories, and were issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country, and that had the sole purpose of perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people. We, whose eyes have seen the bloody toll this Occupation exacts from both sides.
# We, who sensed how the commands issued to us in the Territories, destroy all the values we had absorbed while growing up in this country.
# We, who understand now that the price of Occupation is the loss of IDF’s human character and the corruption of the entire Israeli society.
# We, who know that the Territories are not Israel, and that all settlements are bound to be evacuated in the end.
# We hereby declare that we shall not continue to fight this War of the Settlements.
# We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.
# We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel’s defense.
# The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose – and we shall take no part in them. --Combatant's Letter, 2002; read more on cite