Mohawks: Colonial Collapse of the Western Hemisphere

CAN YOU SEE IT COMING? THE COLONIAL COLLAPSE OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE!

Mohawk Nation News

March 21, 2007. We’ve been trained to think that things are inevitable. We forget to look at the fact that human beings have a basic instincts for law, order and decency. In the April 2007 issue of Vanity Fair there is a major story on “How a Prison Gang took Over a City of 20 Million” by William Langwiesche. He described how a highly organized prison gang launched an attack that shut down Brazil ’s largest city last May, with the authorities powerless to stop it.

The center of Sao Paolo is a gated city of rich non-natives living in lavish luxury. They are guarded by private security. They run multi national corporations and banks from there. Their business is extraction of the resources of Brazil .

The city is ringed by shanty towns and slums where millions upon millions of the ultra poor live. These people have no voice and live completely separate from the upper and middle class. The police have gone into these shanty towns and imprisoned the bright men they considered to be trouble makers. The imprisoned people are the result of extreme colonization. They set up a secretive shapeless network that controls much of Sao Paulo . Government is non-existent to the rich and to the poor. Each has their own systems of “governments”, based on what could be called the “law of a jungle”.

For 7 days last year Sao Paulo was in a wilderness zone. A vast, amorphous "criminal" network was the only government they had. It was controlled by people who have been officially denied and not seen.

One day before this event, out of fear, 765 of those the police thought were “leaders” of 140,000 prisoners in Sao Paolo were moved to a prison outside the city. They could not communicate with their people nor continue running their businesses that were outside prison walls using cell phones. They could not protect their people. The following day the centre of Sao Paulo was swarmed by waves upon waves of people that devastated the entire city, the transportation, buildings and businesses for seven days.

The authorities could find no one to negotiate with. No one made any demands. In the end the prisoners were asked to make demands. So they asked for plasma televisions so they could watch the World Cup and to have more conjugal visits. Did people lose their lives so they could get television sets? We don’t think so!

There are positives and negatives to this story.

We’ve survived centuries of oppression, colonization and imprisonment. We’re in it for the long haul, no matter what they do to us. We’re seeing in the siege of Sao Paolo the kind of conditioning of both the colonizers and the colonized. The positions are polarized.

Human equality is a basic instinct and a reality. In Sao Paolo it developed naturally among the poor. There were cell organizations with none dominating another. Inwardly we will always work towards that. The prison situation proves that the hierarchical model will self-destruct. The distribution of wealth and opportunities must be equitable, otherwise it will fall apart.

The Onkwehonwe of Turtle Island always understood this. That is why the Kaianereh’ko:wa/Great Law is the model for democracy for the world. It takes into account this drive inside of every person for freedom. It was totally contrary to the hierarchical system.

In the hierarchical pyramid system these people do not see others. They only see themselves. It is based on self-centeredness, which is natural to a baby. A baby is dependent and weak and can only think of itself. The “twos” are called terrible because that’s when people have to learn they are not the only people in the world. They give up their childish self-centeredness. They have to co-operate to survive.

The hierarchical system is not based on rational reasonable human characteristics. Ego centrism is a basic survival instinct for a baby. Those caught up in the hierarchical system indicates they have been improperly "potty trained". Psychologically they are what is called an “anal” personality. They regress if they are conditioned to see other humans as being inferior to them. To them we are not human. We are not visible.

They can’t see humans as part of the natural world. They cannot care for the natural world because they cannot see it and are disconnected from it. In a lonely individualist society they can only be part of that which they can control and destroy.

Those who wish to dominate us make us focus so hard on getting the basic things of life like food, water and a place to live. We have no time to think. We can only react. This is a major cause of a lot of crimes.

A lot of property crimes are based on the system of wealth for the few and poverty for the many. In Onkwehonwe communities we are forced to eke out a living. Then our activities are criminalized. If not, then foreign corporate states [ Canada and the U.S. ] try to regulate and tax us, which are extortion.

They make us think all we can do is run casinos for them on our lands. This kind of gambling violates Onkwehonwe law. Those who win at our gambling games end up with the presents but also with the obligations to take care of those they defeated. In the colonial style there is no obligation to winning. It makes them even more self centered.

Colonial states will only support gambling in our communities if they can take money from us with no obligation to us. They don’t give any of that tax back to us. At the same time they use the gambling as a way to demonized us and associate us with illicit behavior.

The good side of the Sao Paolo event shows that respect for fellow human beings will always emerge. Even in a jungle like a prison. This is the basis of legality. The depressing side of this is that Canadian and U.S. societies have not come to that realization. To colonial society sharing is a loss of control.

The large metropolitan areas in the United States are developing the same symptoms as South American cities where roving bands of youth are organizing themselves and are going to try to take over. Turtle Island cities are going to face the same situation if they don’t share the resources equitably. They think they have to steal from and brutalize people to keep control, by using armies, police, government and all levers of the military to keep control. They don’t know that “power” is in the people.

They think if they obey their own laws and recognize Onkwehonwe rights, they will fall. They don’t realize in an egalitarian society there is no place to fall. The energy wasted on that kind of fear should be directed to problem solving that makes life better for everyone.

Like South America , more "private" prisons are being built. It’s been proven that a crack down by the police precedes lawlessness. Imprisonment does not foster lawful behavior. The more police the more crime there is. Many have been falsely accused. Many are appealing, with DNA and other means. Many have been wrongfully convicted.

Those who were not criminals became criminal minded. They learned inside from thieves, rapists, killers and liars. When placed in their midst, how do you survive? You have to fit in. Otherwise you will be their victim. Many become part of that swinging door society. The burden falls on the tax payer, not on the corporate crooks.

In fact, we are seeing prime examples of corrupt governments. Look at all the political scandals, the politicians trying to hide their crimes, each cutting the others throats and protecting their private interests. The difference between them and those in jail is that the bars are not on their windows yet.

This corruption is based on fear by those who think that society has to be set up so that everybody is afraid of them. If not, they will lose out to those they have no control over.

As it looks now, the upper class of South America are going to be eaten up by American companies. This model is being played out on Turtle Island . Here we have two corporations, the U.S. and Canada . The U.S. amoeba is going to swallow up the Canadian one.

Remember Britain thought it “ruled the wave” forever. Rule Brittania! It collapsed. The U.S. thinks it will rule everything. It will collapse too. The symptom of its collapse is that it is trying to swallow everything in its sight.

We have to hold onto our hats. We’re in for a rough ride. We Onkwehonwe have survived devastation before by hanging in there. We remembered our culture. We looked after our children. We thought about our future generations. We kept our sense of humor. We got rid of our spies and traitors. We never bought the story that we were any less than anyone else as human beings. That’s how we beat colonialism before. That’s how we will beat it again!

Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News
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With a $25 million fine, Chiquita washes its hands in death squad case

With a $25 Million Fine, Chiquita Washes its Hands in Death Squad Case

By Sean Donahue, Posted on Sat Mar 17th, 2007 at 11:16:47 PM EST

Narco News
http://www.narconews.com


Chiquita has admitted to making payments to Colombian death squads -- but the death squads' victims won't get any money from the multinational, and none of the company's executives are facing jail time.
Marino Cordoba used to live in the town of Riosucio, a small town populated by the descendants of freed slaves in the Colombian department of Choco, in a region called Uraba – a region famous for its banana and palm plantations, its gold, its forests, and its rivers.
In recent years the region has also become famous for its death squads – right wing paramilitary groups that terrorize communities that refuse to bend to the will of foreign companies and big investors. These militias are organized under an umbrella group, the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC,) that has strong ties to the Colombian military and government and to cocaine and heroin traffickers.
In 1996, Riosucio became the first community in the region to gain legal title to its land under provisions of Colombia's 1991 Constitution that granted Afro-Colombian communities collective rights to the land their ancestors settled. In a 2002 article, Cordoba described what happened next:
Seven days later, at 5:00 AM on Dec. 13, 1996, paramilitary groups arrived in my town, Riosucio, intent on murdering the leaders and their families. Many were taken from their beds and paraded naked through the streets. Anyone who resisted was killed. The shouts woke me up. I ran to take refuge in the swamp along with many others. . . .At 8:00 AM, army helicopters started patrolling. The paramilitaries radioed the pilots to attack the swamp, claiming the people were guerrillas. The army attacked us with bombs and rifles, killing many people. Those who survived stayed in the water for three days until hunger and desperation forced us out. Some of us sneaked through the town and reached a rural community across the river. I recuperated there, then fled to Bogota,
I thought of Marino Cordoba and the other survivors of the Riosucio massacre the other day when I read that Chiquita (the former United Fruit Company)had plead guilty to charges of financing a terrorist group in federal court after admitting to paying $1.7 million to the AUC over a ten year period. Their punishment a $25 million fine – less than half the money the company made by selling its Colombian subsidiary, a company that could never have grown as big as it did were it not for the role the paramilitaries played in preventing union organizing on the banana plantations and forcing communities off prime farming land. Chiquita Colombia made a lot of its money in Uraba.
None of the survivors of the AUC's crimes will ever see a penny of that money.
And even though top executives personally approved the payments to the AUC,none of them are facing a single day in jail.
A bitter irony for Arab-Americans locked away in federal prison in the name of the war on terror, whose crimes pale in comparisson to Chiquita's: People like Dr.Rafil Dhafir an Iraqi-American who is serving 22 years in prison -- not for giving money to terrorists, but for sending food, medicine, and blankets to needy Iraqis in violation of U.S. sanctions.
When Dafir was arrested, then Attorney General John Ashcroft held a [press conference] at which he told reporters that:
"As President Bush leads an international coalition to end Saddam Hussein's tyranny and support for terror, the Justice Department will see that individuals within our borders cannot undermine these efforts,"
and that
"Those who covertly seek to channel money into Iraq under the guise of charitable work will be caught and prosecuted."
In contrast, the U.S. Justice Department doesn't have single posting about the Chiquita site on its website.
Nor has the U.S. Justice Department shown any interest in investigating companies like Coca Cola or Drummond Coal that have even clearer links to paramilitary violence in Colombia than Chiquita.
Once again proving that for the U.S. Justice Department, its not really terrorism unless the victims live in the U.S. or the perpetrators are Muslim.

Indigenous World Water Day March 22

For further information, contact Robert Shimek, 218-751-4967 or 877-436-2121 (USA) rshimek@ienearth.org. Tamara Brennan, 521-962-109-4824 (Mexico) tamonearth@hotmail.com. Chief John French, Takla Lake First Nation (British Columbia, Canada) 250-613-9150.

INDIGENOUS WORLD WATER DAY TO BE CELEBRATED MARCH 22

March 20, Bemidji, Minnesota.

Indigenous Communities around the world will celebrate the first annual Indigenous World Water Day on March 22nd. The celebrations are in response to an appeal sent out by the Minnesota-based Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) for Indigenous communities to take action to protect the water. Honor the Water, Respect the Water, be Thankful for the Water, Protect the Water is the theme of this years activities. Various communities from North America, Asia, and New Zealand will be holding community events to build the awareness to protect local sources of water. “Indigenous communities around the world will be holding a variety of events to mark the first Indigenous World Water Day.” stated Robert Shimek from the IEN national office in Bemidji. “We sent out a call to action earlier this year to encourage Indigenous communities to take action on March 22nd to send the message to all that the water resources of the world continue to be impacted by a variety of contamination and privatization issues, and that we need to take additional action to protect the water. We have had a wonderful response from communities from as far away as India to as close as the Leech Lake Ojibwe reservation here in Minnesota. It is truly an exciting time to see how Indigenous Peoples around the world have embraced this idea.”

A variety of issues are confronting Indigenous communities as this years ceremonies unfold around the world. Agricultural, industrial, human and mining wastes are among the disposal problems that pollute Indigenous community water supplies both in the United States and worldwide. Privatization of public water supplies and sale of bottled water continue to threaten community water supplies in other areas. Mining waste alone contaminates forty percent of the watersheds in the western U.S. Recent efforts to use Submarine Tailings Dumps (STDs) for mine waste hit a road block when the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled in favor of a petition to block the use of a natural lake for a STD at the Kensington Mine in Alaska.

First Nations in Canada haven’t faired as well with STD’s as Northgate Minerals continues to pressure Tse Keh Nay to allow for the destruction of Amazay (Duncan) Lake, a 242-hectare fish-bearing headwater of the Finlay and Peace Rivers in north central British Columbia, Canada. Northgate Minerals has declared this is the only ‘economic’ way to mine at Kemess North gold and copper mine. The mining company plans to destroy Amazay Lake by using it as a dump for over 700 million tons of waste rock. Takla Lake first Nation Chief John French states, "As a Nation we are not opposed to mining or economic development but we have to remember what is important. Gold does not run through our blood. We are all made of water. We have pushed the boundaries too far if we are willing to destroy life itself, water, as a means of getting cheaper gold. The Tse Keh Nay are the true stewards of our land and water. From time immemorial, our laws and principles have compelled us to govern with respect for the lands, water and living things that occupy our traditional territory. We will continue to protect our unextinguished title lands and water, especially when Canada and British Columbia fail to uphold their duty to protect our pristine lakes."

In the Sierra Madre region of Chiapas, Mexico, industrialized forestry has recently caused flooding problems as well as declines in songbird populations. This critical habitat loss has also contributed to the decrease in North American bird populations. Indigenous communities in this region heavily rely on the land and the water to provide for their subsistence. A recent gold mining proposal threatens to exacerbate an already difficult ecological situation. To assure the preservation of Indigenous Peoples’ culture and land base in Chiapis, the Comisión Jurídica para el Autodesarrollo de los Pueblos Originarios Andinos (CAPAJ) and the Organización de Medicos Indígenas de la Sierra are holding celebrations to raise the awareness of the critical role of access to clean water for their communities. “Access to adequate amounts of clean water is a human right that must not be violated,” stated Tamara Brennan, spokesperson for the Sexto Sol Center For Community Action, an organization assisting with the coordinating of events for Indigenous World Water Day in Chiapis. “We will continue to promote the need for clean water for our villages and communities as well as all the ecological functions that sustain the complex web of life.” she went on to say.
The Indigenous World Water Day will be held each year as long as the need exists to protect water for all.

Coal company linked to Chiquita death squads

By JAVIER BAENA, Associated Press Writer 17 minutes ago

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia's chief prosecutor said Tuesday he will demand the extradition of eight people employed by Chiquita allegedly involved with the company's payments to right-wing paramilitaries and leftist rebels to protect its banana-growing operation.
The prosecutor also said his office had opened a formal investigation into allegations that Alabama-based coal producer Drummond Co. Inc. collaborated with paramilitaries to kill union members. A civil lawsuit in the U.S. makes similar allegations, which the company has denied.
Chiquita Brands International pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. federal court to one count of doing business with a terrorist organization. The plea is part of a deal with prosecutors that calls for a $25 million fine and does not identify the several senior executives who approved the illegal protection payments.
The agreement ended a lengthy Justice Department investigation into the company's financial dealings with right-wing paramilitaries and leftist rebels the U.S. government deems terrorist groups.
Prosecutors say the Cincinnati-based company agreed to pay about $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as AUC for its Spanish initials.
The AUC has been responsible for some of the worst massacres in Colombia's civil conflict and for a sizable percentage of the country's cocaine exports. The U.S. government designated the AUC a terrorist group in September 2001.
In addition to paying the AUC, prosecutors said, Chiquita made payments to the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, as control of the company's banana-growing area shifted.
Chiquita has said it was forced to make the payments and was acting only to ensure the safety of its workers.
But federal prosecutors noted that from 2001 to 2004, when Chiquita made $825,000 in illegal payments, the Colombian banana operation Banadex earned $49.4 million and was the company's most profitable unit.
In 2001, a Banadex ship was used to unload 3,000 rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition for the paramilitaries, which were officially listed as a "terrorist organization" by the U.S. government two months earlier.
"They should be judged in Colombia, not only for the extortion payments, but also for the transport and safekeeping of 3,000 rifles," chief federal prosecutor Mario Iguaran told RCN radio.
Iguaran did not identify the people he hopes to extradite, and the U.S. complaint did not identify anyone by name — it simply said that 10 people working for Chiquita or its Banadex subsidiary were involved in the illegal payments.
Mike Mitchell, a spokesman for Chiquita, said the company was not aware of any extradition requests.
"As we have previously noted, Chiquita voluntarily disclosed to the
Department of Justice' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Department of Justice and Chiquita also informed the Colombian government of the situation and the payments almost three years ago," Mitchell said.
Iguaran said the arms were used by the paramilitaries to push leftist rebels out of the zone in northern Colombia where Chiquita had its banana plantations.
Chiquita sold Banadex, its Colombian subsidiary, in June 2004 for around $43.5 million.
Drummond officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
"In the case of Drummond, there's a formal investigation. The investigation is well-advanced. Still, a decision has yet to be made," said Iguaran.
A Colombian union, Sintramienergetica, sued Drummond in 2002 in Birmingham, Ala., with help from the United Steelworkers of America, blaming the company for the paramilitary killings of three union leaders at the company's mine in northern Colombia in 2001.
"What we're seeing is some private business that recruit the (paramilitaries), aware of their conduct, to kill," said Iguaran.
Both companies have operated along the northern coast, long a paramilitary stronghold. Colombia is now in the midst of its worst political crisis in decades as evidence emerges of a symbiotic pact between politicians and the paramilitaries, in which the militias intimidated voters into supporting certain candidates in return for cuts of public contracts.
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