Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

September 20, 2014

Lakotas Owe Aku: 'Uranium investors got the blues again'

FORUM: Powertech Uranium investors got the blues again, mama

Owe Aku is a grassroots organization of Lakota people and our allies founded to promote the protection of sacred water and preservation of our territorial lands.  Our actions for environmental justice rely upon cultural revitalization as our major tool in achieving our goals.  The principle location from which are operations are based are on Lakota territory along Wounded Knee Creek on what is called the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation .  More information on our work can be found atwww.oweakuinternational.org
This was shared with us from an ally and is further evidence of how the convergence of circumstances, including our own grass roots action, along with that of the allies, is slowly killing this project, we pray.  In some ways it's one of the grass roots peoples' biggest victories so far.  Uranium mining in Lakota country is becoming more and more unrealistic because of both financial factors on market driven capitalism as well as, and more importantly, the activism of Lakota and other peoples. Local action is particularly important because many enviro groups are either consciously or unconsciously not taking on uranium mining.  That's wrong.  Fukushima will come to a power plant near you and it all starts with uranium mining.  

Powertech Uranium Can't Get Its Financial Act Together

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

    Powertech Uranium is the company that has been trying to set up a uranium mining operation in the southern Black Hills for a few years.  That the company has met with some ferocious resistance in the region is well-documented, both hereand elsewhere. That the company has been suffering financially as a result of the long delays in Powertech's efforts to get the necessary state and federal permits is a sidebar of particular interest.   This isn't about the science of in situ mining (which amounts to using groundwater as the source for extracting uranium and forever altering the composition of that water as a result), this is about the company's ability remain financially viable as the expenses and delays involved in the permitting process mount up. 
     There's been an eye-catching jump in Powertech stock's trading volume in recent days, even as the stock price has been hitting all-time lows of 5 cents/share.  High volume and a plummeting stock price don't augur very well for a publicly traded (PWE.TO) company, especially one like Powertech that languishes in the nether world of penny stocks, a market where speculation, rumor and hype are often the drivers of share prices.  Just from the price and volume action in PWE stock it seems obvious that something with this company is out of whack.  Then suddenly last Friday along came confirmation.  In a news release dated 9/17, Powertech announced that another delay in its long-planned merger with Azarga resources is occurring.  Azarga is the deep-pocketed, Asian-based company that essentially planned to take over Powertech, effective last July.  That union was later pushed back to this month, and now the deal isn't supposed to take place until late October.
    Checking a little more deeply into the latest news, I got some tangible support for my opinion of this company's weak financial condition.  Powertech is on the ropes.  In fact, I think the company is essentially broke, a conclusion that comes clear if you scan the news release I linked.  Powertech is now borrowing cash from Azarga, probably in order to maintain its meager operations, in 6-figure units that have to be repaid at usurious rates before the merger occurs.  I mean, if you have to borrow money and pay it back, plus 15% to 30%, in less than two years, I can tell you that you're cash-strapped to the point of desperation.
     Analyzing this last bit of news, I'd also say that further delays in the merger are forthcoming, considering that Azarga's lending timelines stretch out over the next few months. There's some wiggle room around the planned merger completion date of 10/31/14.  Something is seriously amiss.  Given the dump-it-now action in Powertech stock, given that Azarga is essentially lending money to its weak sister in order to keep the company afloat, given the continued delays in the permitting process, and given the shaky nature of the various entities (including--here's the story about the troubled Singapore-based Blumont Mining) involved in the coming merger, I'd have to conclude that something is not right in the house of Powertech.  As I noted in an earlier post, there's a whole lotta shakiness goin' on. 

From John Tsitrian:  http://theconstantcommoner.blogspot.com/2014/09/powertech-uranium-cant-get-its.html
 

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720 W. 173rd St., #59
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'Harmony with Nature' Living Well, UN Secretary General report



Harmony with Nature
Report of the UN Secretary General 
 Shared by our friends in Bolivia, Boletin Ruta Critica
Read document: http://ucordillera.edu.bo/descarga/harmony.pdf
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September 18, 2014

Indigenous denounce Climate Summit, Indigenous World Conference

Indigenous denounce Climate Summit, Indigenous World Conference

By Brenda Norrell
Photo by La Via Campesina
French translation by Christine Prat
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=2488
While the corporate interests hijack the upcoming UN Climate Summit, and frauds attempt to take control of the upcoming UN Indigenous World Conference, both in New York, Indigenous around the world are speaking out to denounce those who are co-opting their struggles for personal and corporate gain.
With only select participants invited to participate in the Indigenous World Conference, Indigenous Peoples around the world are denouncing the self-appointed, and highly funded non-profits, often with hidden salaries, travel budgets, and hidden agendas, who have become self-appointed spokespeople for Indigenous grassroots people.
However, many of the uninvited -- the authentic grassroots people living in their communities and fighting mining, fracking and destruction -- will participate in the Peoples Climate March and lead the March in New York on Sept. 21, 2014.
Meanwhile, many Indigenous denounce both the Ban-Ki Moon Climate Summit, and the select agenda of the UN World Conference on Indigenous Peoples.
The Indigenous Environmental Network and La Via Campesina join other social, justice and environmental movements to denounce the upcoming Ban-Ki Moon Climate Summit, Sept. 23.
In a joint statement, the movements call for “systemic change rather than the voluntary pledges and market-based and destructive public-private partnership initiatives that currently feature on the Summit’s agenda, like REDD+ Climate-Smart Agriculture and the Sustainable Energy for All initiative."
The statement calls for "10 concrete actions to be taken to prevent climate chaos including immediate binding commitments to keep the temperature rise to no more than 1.5degrees Centigrade. The social movements go on to warn against what they call the 'false solutions' and harmful actions that the big corporations that have been invited by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to play the lead role at the upcoming Climate Summit in New York are pushing for.”
In Ixim Uleu Maya Territories in Guatemala, the Abya Yala Council denounced the select agenda of the UN World Conference on Indigenous Peoples,  Sept. 22 -- 23, in New York.
“We denounce the lack of legitimacy of the representation of self-appointed indigenous peoples or those appointed by successive governments states who do not represent the legitimate demands of our peoples as in the case of the upcoming "World Conference on Indigenous Peoples" which is nothing more than a plenary assembly of the UN member states.  We demand that these governments instead comply with the relevant international covenants and treaties in full recognition, respect, and protection of the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
"Likewise, we reject the representation of the Central American Indigenous Council (CICA) because they do not represent us as Indigenous Peoples, instead they represent the interests of successive national governments and oligarchies.” Read more: http://indigenousresistancejuly2014.blogspot.com/2014/09/guatemala-indigenous-council-denounces.html
With the collapse of the media, especially of the national news covering Indian country, the frauds within the non-profits have been popularized by the frauds in the media: Armchair journalists who plagiarize the web and seldom leave their homes. Print journalism has been neutered by stay-at-home reporters who systematically plagiarize and rewrite others hard work, disguise it with a brief phone call interview, and add a photo stolen from the web.
The result is widespread fraud within journalism in Indian country, and the popularization of frauds within non-profits. In both cases, they rely on spin and deception to stay in power.
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Climate March, World Conference and Indigenous Resistance

Carrying forward the work of Censored News, your favorite writers and voices at these two new blogs
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September 6, 2014

CLIMATE TRAIN AND 'OUTSIDE THE GATE' AT THE UNITED NATIONS

Censored News photo mural 2006 -- 2014
CLIMATE TRAIN AND 'OUTSIDE THE GATE' at the UN

 By Brenda Norrell 
brendanorrell@gmail.com
Govinda/Earthcycles
govinda@earthcycles.net
Censored News
Sept. 6, 2014

 Govinda at Earthcycles is interested in providing a live broadcast from the Climate Train, across America on Amtrak in September 2014. We are also interested in providing, as always, the voice of grassroots people who may not be able to attend the Climate March in New York on Sept. 21, 2014.
We could provide an online broadcast for Indigenous Peoples who will have no opportunity to speak -- or have their issues addressed -- at the Indigenous World Conference, Sept. 22 -- 23, 2014. 
We could broadcast live from New York, with live telephone interviews, and interviews with Native people who are 'Outside the Gate' at the UN. We would need to raise travel and lodging funds if there is enough interest or support. We would love to hear your thoughts.
In case you've missed it, check out the Earthcycles audio files, which includes Longest Walk 2, Uranium summit at Supai and Acoma/Laguna Pueblos, AIM West, Border Summit, IEN at Western Shoshone, and more spanning the past 8 years: www.earthcycles.net
The Peltier Tribunal video files of testimony, recorded by Earthcycles, from Oneida, Wisconsin in 2013, are at: http://www.livestream.com/earthcycles/folder

 Meanwhile, Censored News archives continue to be discovered around the world. Here's the current top  article, about Buffy Sainte Marie -- blacklisted out of the music business by US President Johnson, and censored by Indian Country Today. The largest number of our global readers continues to be in Russia, Ukraine, China, France, Poland, Turkey and Indonesia.
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-blacklisting-of-buffy-sainte-marie.html
Censored News was our 8 year labor of love, published without advertising or grants after I was censored and terminated as a staff reporter by Indian Country Today. Censored News archives continues to be read by thousands each month.

 Also, on Censored News Blogtalk Radio, there are powerful audio files, including Charlie Hill at AIM West and Natives fighting the good fight on their homelands. There's some of our best interviews across America on Long Walk 2: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/brenda-norrell

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Censored News photo murals



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