Censored News: Thank you readers and supporters!

Thank you to Censored News readers
Photo by Robert Free Galvan: Huicholes at Cancun climate summit 2010

Dear Censored Readers,
Thank you for all your support during 2010. Thanks to readers and supporters, Censored News was able to provide original coverage of the climate summits in both Cochabamba, Bolivia, and Cancun, Mexico, this year. This included the efforts of Bolivian President Evo Morales and the Indigenous Peoples who gathered from around the world.
Censored News was also able to locate sponsors to Cochabamba for Yaqui ceremonial leader Jose Matus, Navajo youth Michelle Cook arriving from New Zealand, Navajo director of Dooda Desert Rock Elouise Brown, and Mohawk youth Chibon Everstz of Canada. A scholarship was also located for Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, for the Cancun climate summit.
Thanks to a sponsor, Censored News provided special coverage in Cancun of the Huicholes in Mexico and Gwich'in in Alaska, and their struggle to protect sacred lands, and the constant events of the grassroots movement La Via Campesina!
Thank you to each and every sponsor and contributor to Censored News in 2010.
A special thank you to Jose Matus and the Indigenous Alliance without Borders for making it possible for Censored News and Earthcycles to provide online video coverage of the Southern Border Indigenous Roundtable.
A very special thank you to each author, photographer and videographer who provided articles, photos and videos to Censored News in 2010.
Thank you to Native youth photographers Ben Powless, Mohawk, and Michelle Cook, Navajo, and photographer Brita Brookes for sharing so many photos.
Thank you to our regular contributors of columns, Kahentinetha Horn of Mohawk Nation News, Ofelia Rivas, O'odham on the border, the American Indian Movement, AIM-West, Western Shoshone Defense Project and other Shoshones, Lakotas' Owe Aku: Bring Back the Way, Navajos on Black Mesa, Dooda Desert Rock, Navajos Forgotten People and other Navajos, Lakotah Republic, Save the Peaks, Roberto Rodriguez, and all the others. Thank you to Leadhorse Choctaw, and Mohawk film crew, for the video of your 'Mississippi Burning' style arrest in Virginia. Thanks to Lakotas for their coverage of chasing away the US helicopter at Wounded Knee, S.D.
Thank you to Victor Rocha of Pechanga Net, the only news source to consistently publish Censored News articles. Thank you to the Indigenous Environmental Network for tireless struggle for Mother Earth.
Thanks to those who resist at Big Mountain on Black Mesa and elsewhere, to expose and halt the corporate beasts, including coal-fired power plants, oil and gas drilling, uranium mining and mineral extraction.
In remembrance, we express gratitude for the Indigenous Peoples who were assassinated and assaulted as they opposed mining and destruction, and stood up for autonomy and dignity, in Chiapas, Guatemala, Easter Island, South America, Australia, Africa, and elsewhere.
Most of all, thank you to all of our readers around the world, from activists in Italy to the families of stolen children in Australia; from Arctic Circle Gwich'in struggling to save the caribou birthing grounds and Indigenous struggling to save the Amazon rainforest, to families of the disappeared children in Argentina and Canada.
Thank you to the Mohawk Warrior Society, Zapatistas, the Nahautl of Guerrero, and all others who act with selfless courage for autonomy, dignity and self-governance.
Thank you to those who fight and expose the profiteering behind war, the civilian deaths from drones, US torture in violation of the Geneva Conventions, US covert drug running, US assassinations, US torture training by the military, and those of you who go to prison to expose these.
Thank you to each of you who sacrifice your time, your energy, your talents and your well-being for the good of mankind.
Wikileaks has given us an idea of how much is really being censored, manipulated and distorted by the mainstream media, who have been bought out and coopted by self-interest, corrupt politicians and decaying governments.
In the pursuit of the individual investigation of truth, Censored News looks forward to another year, our fifth year, of sharing your truths.
Brenda Norrell, publisher
brendanorrell@gmail.com
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

News Years Eve: Blackfire at Shiprock and Dooda Desert Rock!

New Years Eve Concert: Blackfire, My Deadly Dears and special guests

Dec. 31, 2010
7p.m.-12:30a.m. - $5.00
At Chieftan Track Records
Shiprock, New Mexico (491 East of bridge)
All Ages! No Drugs or Alcohol Allowed
http://www.blackfire.net/
Join us after the show at:
Annual Dooda Desert Rock New Years Eve Celebration!
Dec. 31st, 2010
Navajo Winter Stories - 12:00 PM
SHOE GAME, Potluck, and Camp-out! - 7:00 PM
At Dooda Desert Rock Camp; Chaco Rio, NM; Directions: From Shiprock: Go south to Littlewater on Hwy 491, go East on Rd 5092 for 10 miles to DDR Camp. For more information: 505-947-6159 www.doodadesertrock.com

Russell Means: Opening of Indigenous Bank, I Bank, National Bank of the Republic

Republic of Lakotah
For Immediate Release
Chief facilitator: Russell Means 605-867-1025
December 21, 2010
The Republic of Lakotah announces the opening of the Indigenous Bank or I Bank as the first National Bank of the Republic.
The I Bank has operated for over seven years as an independent sovereign American Indian Bank and now comes under the protection of the Republic of Lakotah.
The Chairman/President and CEO of the I Bank is Mr. Ben Cummings.
The I Bank assets are in silver and gold bullion and are valued at just under $100,000.00 USD. The bank presently has over two hundred depositors.
For further information, please contact Mr. Ben Cummings at 605-867-2036 or cell 605-381-2028

Why Bolivia Stood Alone in Opposing the Cancun Climate Agreement

Published on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 by The Guardian/UK
Why Bolivia Stood Alone in Opposing the Cancún Climate Agreement

by Pablo Solon

Diplomacy is traditionally a game of alliance and compromise. Yet in the early hours of Saturday 11 December, Bolivia found itself alone against the world: the only nation to oppose the outcome of the United Nations climate change summit in Cancún. We were accused of being obstructionist, obstinate and unrealistic. Yet in truth we did not feel alone, nor are we offended by the attacks. Instead, we feel an enormous obligation to set aside diplomacy and tell the truth.

The "Cancún accord" was presented late Friday afternoon, and we were given two hours to read it. Despite pressure to sign something – anything – immediately, Bolivia requested further deliberations. This text, we said, would be a sad conclusion to the negotiations. After we were denied any opportunity to discuss the text, despite a lack of consensus, the president banged her gavel to approve the document.

Many commentators have called the Cancún accord a "step in the right direction." We disagree: it is a giant step backward. The text replaces binding mechanisms for reducing greenhouse gas emissions with voluntary pledges that are wholly insufficient. These pledges contradict the stated goal of capping the rise in temperature at 2C, instead guiding us to 4C or more. The text is full of loopholes for polluters, opportunities for expanding carbon markets and similar mechanisms – like the forestry scheme Redd – that reduce the obligation of developed countries to act.

Bolivia may have been the only country to speak out against these failures, but several negotiators told us privately that they support us. Anyone who has seen the science on climate change knows that the Cancún agreement was irresponsible.

In addition to having science on our side, another reason we did not feel alone in opposing an unbalanced text at Cancún is that we received thousands of messages of support from the women, men, and young people of the social movements that have stood by us and have helped inform our position. It is out of respect for them, and humanity as a whole, that we feel a deep responsibility not to sign off on any paper that threatens millions of lives.

Some claim the best thing is to be realistic and recognise that at the very least the agreement saved the UN process from collapse.

Unfortunately, a convenient realism has become all that powerful nations are willing to offer, while they ignore scientists' exhortations to act radically now. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found that in order to have a 50% chance of keeping the rise in temperature below 1.5C, emissions must peak by 2015. The attempt in Cancún to delay critical decisions until next year could have catastrophic consequences.

Bolivia is a small country. This means we are among the nations most vulnerable to climate change, but with the least responsibility for causing the problem. Studies indicate that our capital city of La Paz could become a desert within 30 years. What we do have is the privilege of being able to stand by our ideals, of not letting partisan agendas obscure our principal aim: defending life and Earth. We are not desperate for money. Last year, after we rejected the Copenhagen accord, the US cut our climate funding. We are not beholden to the World Bank, as so many of us in the south once were. We can act freely and do what is right.

Bolivia may have acted unusually by upsetting the established way of dealing with things. But we face an unprecedented crisis, and false victories won't save the planet. False agreements will not guarantee a future for our children. We all must stand up and demand a climate agreement strong enough to match the crisis we confront.

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010
Pablo Solon is the ambassador of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to the United Nations.