Sunday, August 31, 2008

 

Unity and Independence

Unity and independence is the goal of Ireland's Sinn Fein. It's not a bad goal for Americans to consider as well.

Unity means everyone gets what they need to live a decent life, not just a privileged few who operate the levers of power through a corrupt, two-party state. Independence means withdrawing support for this corrupt system by refusing to be bribed or threatened with economic or social sanctions.

Taking a principled stand for unity and independence requires commitment and determination rarely found in self-centered societies. Unfortunately, we cannot have social unity without political independence; severing ties with politicians and corporations is the only way to stand on our own.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 10:11 AM |

Saturday, August 30, 2008

 

The Two-Party System

Police raids across St. Paul target groups planning to protest Republican National Convention. Warrantless arrests and detention part of coordinated police harassment in advance of convention. National Lawyers Guild representatives have posted observers and advisors throughout the area.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 12:52 PM |

Thursday, August 28, 2008

 

Only a Sin

In the movie The Kite Runner, the father tells his son that the only sin is theft: if you kill someone, you rob them of life; if you take their property, you rob them of comfort; if you destroy their memory, you rob them of happiness. He might also have included lying, an act that robs one of truth, but his point about theft causing harm is well-taken, and it serves as an entry to discussion on violence.

Stealing stories is also an act of violence, especially those upon which cultures depend. Theft of sacred stories diminishes their usefulness and demeans ceremonies and rituals in which they are performed. Stealing names for commercial exploitation likewise. Yakima, Cherokee, Apache--what right have manufacturers to these names?

Knowledge, too, is stolen and misused. Knowledge systems are fractured for marketing, disintegrated and distorted for power. More harm is done, more sins committed. If this theft is not a crime, then it is only a sin, and what is a sin in a sacrilegious society?

# posted by Jay Taber @ 8:21 AM |

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

 

Chasing Geese

As Wampum notes, the FAA airspace data system failure yesterday was closer to catastrophic than they want us to know. As Wampum's editor observes, the failure to maintain US public infrastructure (like database redundancy and interstate bridges) is a much greater threat to public safety than a handful of terrorists hiding out in Waziristan. Blowing our treasury reserves on running our military around the planet on wild goose chases, while this infrastructure collapses before our eyes, is the height of bipartisan folly.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 11:32 AM |
 

Surviving US Corruption

Native American Finance Officers meet to discuss surviving economic corruption in the US government. Blackfeet warrior Elouise Cobell to deliver the keynote address. Wish we were there.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 7:37 AM |

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

 

Mining India's Corruption

Western mining companies are gorging on Indian ores at the expense of the tribes who own them. Unchecked by corrupt government officials, transnational corporations like De Beers are devastating the forests and homelands of India's 90 million tribal people. Under these cruel conditions of displacement (a.k.a. ethnic cleansing), government talk of "rehabilitation" of the tribal refugees is nothing more than a cruel hoax.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 3:23 PM |

Monday, August 25, 2008

 

A Worthy Project

Your help is always appreciated.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 7:15 PM |
 

Escaping the Corporate Narrative

Watching the Witness video on Real News recently, I was struck by the images of Fourth World people suffering brutal repression by Third World militaries. As stateless nations attempting to maintain their aboriginal way of life, these indigenous peoples worldwide suffer not only police and military brutality, but also the indignity of being maligned as misfits by corporate media. As First, Second and Third World states intensify their longstanding mission to rape the resources of the Fourth World, escaping the corporate narrative is the only means by which we can make sense of things. Producing and supporting independent news is thus a matter of life and death.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 8:59 AM |

Sunday, August 24, 2008

 

Melting-Pot Theory

One hears progressives promoting the melting-pot theory of social organization even today, long after that theory has been shown to undermine cultural diversity. The human dignity at the root of multiculturalism requires a respect for the sovereignty and self-determination of each unique people; while white supremacy denies different peoples equal rights as citizens, the melting-pot theory denies the human dignity of multiculturalism.

In the United States of America, we have equal rights as citizens, but we have unique rights as nations. As one country composed of many nations, our constitution recognizes these differences.

The Anti-Indian message of racist organizations like One Nation United is an attack on Native American sovereignty. The melting-pot theory of homogeneity unwittingly aids and abets that message.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 10:12 AM |

Saturday, August 23, 2008

 

Targeting American Citizens

Tom Burghardt reports on the avalanche of repressive measures going into effect as Bush Two winds down. An imminent threat according to the ACLU, the secret investigations targeting American citizens opposing war, government corruption, or environmental destruction will continue as part of FBI/Department of Defense programs, only now they can be outsourced without Congressional oversight.

The privatized black ops against unions, antiwar groups, and organizations like Greenpeace and Amnesty International, will now be aided by local police and communications companies.

Has anyone heard a peep about this from Congress? I didn't think so.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 12:46 PM |

Friday, August 22, 2008

 

S.O.P.

I'm looking forward to seeing Standard Operating Procedure by Erroll Morris, the filmmaker of The Fog of War.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 10:17 AM |

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

 

Deliberate and Effective

Something's Moving, the documentary film about recovering from Indian boarding schools, is seven streaming minutes of Lakota reality. Do you have seven minutes to spare?

# posted by Jay Taber @ 4:09 PM |

Monday, August 18, 2008

 

Developing Independent Models

The UN Human Rights Council stands as one of the significant obstacles to dynamic political development in the Fourth World. Many individuals and the peoples they represent in the Fourth World have come to believe that the UN Human Rights Council will relieve their pain from the violence of colonialism. It cannot, and it will not.

Fourth World nations have in many parts of the world where colonization has been most intensive suffered from static political development. Political institutions that could have been developed to ensure the emergence of nations have remained non-existent or in infant stages for centuries. The new human rights council does not alleviate this fundamental problem.

Where a people lacks the ability to develop politically, they remain unable to advance their own social, economic and human rights. The age of colonialism has prevented the emergence of politically strong Fourth World nations…the Human Rights Council promises to permanently lock these nations into a cage of political subjugation.

Fourth World nations must look to developing independent models for political and human development such as those represented by Catalunya and Kurdistan. Each has its unique cultural framework, but the notion of nations emerging politically to define systems of law and social relations is obviously potentially universal.

—Rudolph Ryser, Center for World Indigenous Studies


# posted by Jay Taber @ 9:29 AM |

Sunday, August 17, 2008

 

Community Cohesion

Choosing Life Over Money by Mirjam Hirch is an article worth reading twice.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 11:20 AM |

Saturday, August 16, 2008

 

Working Outside the System

Intellectual property in the state-centric, market-oriented society is a commodity used to exploit the resources of others. Intellectual property in a tribal society is a collective repository used to protect communal resources from exploitation by others.

Theft of tribal intellectual property by others for state and market purposes diminishes the protective values of this property for the rightful owners, making collective societies more vulnerable to heightened exploitation.

When intellectual property laws are constructed by state-centric, market-oriented institutions like the World Intellectual Property Rights Organization, the interests and indeed survival of tribal societies is dependent upon protocols and laws constructed outside the dominant system. In other words, working within the system when the system doesn't work is not an option for those who value collective ownership.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 10:17 AM |

Friday, August 15, 2008

 

Kissinger Coverage

Even the Wall Street Journal finds it hard to stomach the Kissinger coverage of NBCs Olympics. As a subsidiary of General Electric, I wonder how nauseating NBCs promotion of nuclear energy will be. Given that GE/NBC has the support of both US presidential candidates in this holocaustic enterprise, I imagine it's going to be thoroughly revolting.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 9:27 AM |

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

 

Human Effects Research

Tom Burghardt looks at biochemical non-warfare, euphemistically called Human Effects Research by the Department of Defense. Incapacitating agents are not new, but they are illegal under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which DoD plans to circumvent for use on civilian populations.

Tactical pharmacology is a promising field of research (and contracts) for such ethical giants as General Dynamics and other military contractors looking to cash in on chemical warfare for crowd control. Remote control aerial sprays by unmanned drones are just one of the many allegedly non-lethal applications, but as we saw in Fallujah, Iraq and the Moscow Opera House, sometimes things don't go as planned, or at least as asserted.

Drugs as weapons for social control looks like an exciting new foray for an ethically-challenged Pentagon, not to mention their corporate and academic collaborators. What could be more fun than attacking the central nervous systems of innocent civilians for a good cause?

# posted by Jay Taber @ 8:25 PM |
 

License to Steal

The litigation team spokesman for the plaintiffs in Cobell v Kempthorne says that throughout the twelve year trial, the government never made an offer to settle. What the US government did suggest was that it might be willing to consider a payoff to plaintiffs in exchange for guarantees the license to steal Indian resource royalties in the future would be immune from prosecution.

So without admitting the embezzling of Indian trust funds, the government attorneys were willing to bribe Indian plaintiffs for the right to embezzle. Does this sound like good faith negotiation?

# posted by Jay Taber @ 8:42 AM |

Sunday, August 10, 2008

 

Mediating Markets and Missionaries

Bringing together greed and piety in the public mind as the best world possible, is the challenge of mediating markets and missionaries. As a closed system -- uniting the modern state, transnational corporations, and religious institutions in subduing open minds and cultures existing outside the state-centric framework -- the psychological warfare deployed by the Fourth Estate against the Fourth World epitomizes the term totalitarian. The machinery for vanquishing original peoples and ancient cultures has never before been so absolute; whether indigenous resistance can muster sufficient strength to weather the combined force of militaries, markets and NGOs remains to be seen.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 4:32 PM |
 

Two Interviews

  1. In this radio interview, Richard Atleo discusses indigenous methodologies of accessing the sacred dimension on which all life depends:
    http://www.cwis.org/media/audio/Atleo%20-%20P%20Nelson%2025%20Mar%2005/Atleo-P%20Nelson%2025%20Mar%2005.wma

  2. In this transcribed interview of two indigenous leaders, some surprising natural phenomena are revealed:
    http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC24/Berger.htm

# posted by Jay Taber @ 12:39 PM |

Saturday, August 09, 2008

 

Industrial Degeneracy

Indigenous People as an Economic Obstacle by Daniel Habenicht exposes the unnecessary risk of eliminating independent forms of life as a sign of social decay and loss of roots.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 9:31 PM |
 

Support

If our affiliates and friends all financially supported those who take on America's criminal elite, we'd have a very different country.

The gazillions progressives mindlessly lavish on le sur evil is perhaps their greatest contribution to cynicism, but the millions withheld by cynics also bolsters our evil system.

If we don't fund those who fight, then the war as well as the battles for democracy will be lost.


# posted by Jay Taber @ 10:15 AM |

Friday, August 08, 2008

 

One Way or Another

As Wampum notes, the U.S. District Court decision yesterday on the Indian trust fund case is disappointing, but no surprise. Acknowledging that the government of the United States systematically stole their resource royalties for 120 years (and still is), the court awarded the plaintiffs what the perpetrating agency attorneys recommended -- 1% of what was stolen.

While this may seem patently unfair to a reasonable person, stealing 99% of indigenous assets not previously taken by armed robbery is at least historically consistent with US policy and programs. We expect lead plaintiff Elouise Cobell to fight on, one way or another.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 11:05 AM |

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

 

Destabilizing Bolivia

Last fall, Fourth World Eye examined the need to address balance in Bolivia between haves and have nots. Since then, the United States embassy in La Paz has funded violent subversion of the more equitable constitution supported by President Evo Morales.

Overthrowing governments in Latin America is old hat to US agencies, but with the emergence of indigenous leadership like Morales, the undermining of democracy opposed to US dominance has taken on added importance. In the aftermath of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, destabilizing Bolivia, for the United States, has become a mission in preventing the establishment of an inspiring model of non-violent social change for the Fourth World. It is only a matter of time before the US succeeds in creating another civil war in order to guarantee the larcenous privileges of transnational corporations.

While indigenous leaders and supporters worldwide watch with horror the ongoing prevention of authentic self-governance foisted by a morally decrepit superpower, the reality of the Fourth World War has some preparing for self-defense.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 10:46 AM |

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

 

Think Twice

In The World Made Straight, Ron Rash writes about redemption and the sacrificial sentimentality. His stories from Southern Appalachia maintain an underlying tension released with surprising dexterity. Makes you think twice about the complexity of human existence.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 8:57 AM |

Monday, August 04, 2008

 

A Moral Choice

As this article in Le Monde diplomatique makes clear, every gallon kills. We need to move environmental discussions into the realm of human rights; maybe then our neighbors will talk about BTU consumption as a moral choice. Mother Jones currently has a commentary about the nuclear disasters in France, created in part by the company hoping to cash in on a nuclear energy boom in the US backed by both our presidential candidates.


# posted by Jay Taber @ 2:13 PM |
 

Lying and Spying

US attempts to overthrow the government of Bolivia becoming an embarrassment. Indigenous and independent news cover the lying and spying by US agencies supporting the fascist uprising.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 12:04 PM |

Sunday, August 03, 2008

 

Writing Out of Despair

A year ago, a friend of mine who takes medication for crippling migraines ended up in a psychiatric unit. Apparently her doctor neglected to mention the possible side effects of a new prescription. On a somewhat related topic, Words Without Borders this month looks at The Influence of Anxiety. We hope the selected readings provide some relief.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 11:55 AM |

Saturday, August 02, 2008

 

Rice Remains at Large

Student associations at Auckland and Victoria offered a bounty on Condoleeza Rice. $20,000 was put up for her arrest as a war criminal while Rice met with New Zealand heads of state. A bus load of university students showed up with handcuffs for Rice at her hotel, but were thwarted by police. Fugitive United States Secretary of State Rice remains at large.

# posted by Jay Taber @ 5:31 PM |

Friday, August 01, 2008

 

Myopic Mainstream Media

As a columnist for Fourth World Eye, I regularly seek credible news sources outside the myopic confines of mainstream media. One source I've come to rely on is Real News.

Real News does well at presenting sober analysis and alternative points of view within a largely state-centric framework. What would be truly novel is to include an indigenous point of view on world events as articulated by representatives of the Fourth World (stateless nations).

One of the reasons mainstream media is incoherent is that this point of view is excluded. Real News could break new ground by including them.

Fourth World nations (e.g. Basque, Hopi, Igbo, Pashtun) have a full array of societal structures for maintaining self-governance (i.e. health and education, economics, politics, culture), and indeed are continually negotiating various degrees of autonomy within state-centric structures and alongside their institutions. When negotiations fail, we have conflict.

These ancient bedrock nations are not arcane anomalies, but are rather integral to human survival, now and in the future. Their full participation in world affairs is growing and becoming more organized if not visible. Independent World Television can help.


# posted by Jay Taber @ 11:31 AM |

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?