Friday, November 24, 2006
Already Dead
For all the contrived complexities of commerce taught in business schools, economics boils down to getting what you need versus what someone else wants. There exists no better illustration of this than the global struggle of indigenous peoples to prevent states and corporations from laying waste to the entire planet in the pursuit of luxury goods.
Attempting to arrest economies of wanton destruction from tearing the heart out of Mother Earth and leaving behind toxic radioactive waste, however, is not so simple as appealing to common sense or requesting simple respect for sacred beliefs. As living remnants of free peoples and authentic lifeways, the aboriginal nations that have survived annihilation by hoarding economies now find themselves facing down an insatiable world system of plunder.
Conscious of their history, they know this is the final battle. They also know they need our help. As the Mayan of Mexico lately observed, "We are already dead."
Attempting to arrest economies of wanton destruction from tearing the heart out of Mother Earth and leaving behind toxic radioactive waste, however, is not so simple as appealing to common sense or requesting simple respect for sacred beliefs. As living remnants of free peoples and authentic lifeways, the aboriginal nations that have survived annihilation by hoarding economies now find themselves facing down an insatiable world system of plunder.
Conscious of their history, they know this is the final battle. They also know they need our help. As the Mayan of Mexico lately observed, "We are already dead."
