Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Holistic Human Rights
In Re-enchanting the World: Indigenous Peoples’ Rights as Essential Parts of a Holistic Human Rights Regime, Siegfried Wiessner–chair of the International Law Association Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples–says, “The mission of the law should be to answer responsibly to the totality of human aspirations in the crucible between individual self-realization and the need for belonging to groups, entities larger than self.” As he argues, law ought to “promote a public order of human dignity.”
As Wiessner observes, the aspiration to live in communion with others in accordance with one’s traditions and culture have to be recognized by the state in order for Indigenous communities to live safely in such communion. The loss of these key spiritual elements of these inherited orders in favor of unrestrained and unguided materialism and individualism, he notes, means that Indigenous peoples are in particular need of protection due to the fact that
survival of their languages, rituals, and cultural identities is often in mortal peril.
Saturday, February 16, 2019
Religious Fascism in Kabul
As the U.S. negotiates with the Taliban over the future of Afghanistan, women and ethnic minorities that were brutally murdered by these religious fanatics fear the expediency of U.S. military withdrawal and official empowerment of the Taliban will end what progress has been made in education, civil liberties and women's rights.
As the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) notes,
The US "War on Terrorism" removed the Taliban regime in October 2001, but it has not removed religious fundamentalism which is the main cause of all our miseries...Whenever fundamentalists exist as a military and political force in our injured land, the problem of Afghanistan will not be solved.
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
All the Crazy
Wednesday, February 06, 2019
Covert Oil Refiners Campaign
As reported at the Vancouver Observer, Tar Sands crooks like Suncor joined fellow American Fuel and Petroleum Manufacturers members, i.e. Exxon, in a 2018 campaign to weaken emission standards in the US, and a 2016 battle against regulation of U.S. power plant pollution.
The U.S. campaign included Facebook ads featuring U.S. President Donald Trump and the message in all capital letters, “support our president’s car freedom agenda!" ...The New York Times reported that over 3,300 public comments to the U.S. Department of Transportation could be traced to the petition.
The ads identified themselves as coming from an organization called Energy4US. ProPublica reported on Nov. 1, 2018 that there was no such company or organization, and that the group "appears to be a front" for AFPM. It noted the Energy4US website was registered to AFPM, and it is first on its list of “coalition members."
Friday, February 01, 2019
Chemours Cocktail
After many years of exporting toxic waste to the Third World, the United States is now importing toxic waste to be dumped here. This imported toxic waste--combined with domestic waste--now threatens the groundwater, drinking water, rivers and streams across America. Throughout, Dupont remains a culprit in Using the U.S. As an Unregulated Dump for Europe's Toxic Gen X Waste.
