Lia Tarachansky
Lia Tarachansky Reporting
Published in Rabble.ca, April 30th, 200
As
we celebrate the sixty-first anniversary of the creation of our state,
Palestinians commemorate their Catastrophe, al-Nakba in Arabic. After
all these years, it is time for us to recognize what has happened, and
continues to happen in our name, and by hour hands.
Our national denial of the events of 1948, of the dispossession of at least 418 Palestinian villages, is at the root of our so-called conflict. Many historians have uncovered what has actually happened, though the Israeli state and its educational system refuse to change the denial narrative.
Until it is recognized, no peace talks can take place in good faith. Maram Massarweh, a Palestinian descendent of survivors of the 1948 expulsion from al-Haram (Sidna Ali) illuminates this in a testimony to Zochrot, an Israeli organization dedicated to the commemoration of the uncovered events of that year.
“This denial has been the method chosen by Jewish society to cope with the story of the Nakba in general.” She then poses two questions we have been running away from for more than six decades. “Is Israeli-Jewish society so immersed in its own pain that it is emotionally unavailable to deal with or acknowledge the suffering of others? Is there a competition here on degrees of pain, as if pain is a monopoly, or has the right to be a victim been appropriated?” I hope not.
Read rest of article.... or Leave CommentThe Importance of Being disEarnest
Published on Canadian Dimension, August 8th, 2008, Co-written by Jesse Freeston
“It was the emergence of
modern Zionism that would set the stage for modern conflict,” He began. His
proposed solution to this roughly century-long conflict is “recognition of two
states, new governance for
Contradicting himself
several times throughout his speech, Rae paid lip service to the social justice
movement while adding to the pile of anti-Iran rhetoric.
“
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Barriere Lake Algonquins Arrested, Jailed, and Released
Published in The Dominion Weblogs, June 26th, 2008
BUCKINGHAM, QC- After a six hour occupation of MP Lawrence Cannon's Office in Buckingham, QC, yesterday, six Algonquin activists and allies were arrested by Surite Quebec police officers.
The arrestees were detained for four hours and were finally released at 9:30 p.m. into the arms of cheering family and friends outside the Gatineau Police Department building.
Among the awaiting crowd was Customary Chief Benjamin Nottaway (seen in video) whom the government attempted to revoke from power in the Barriere Lake reserve by imposing a minority appointed government. The so called Coup D'etat was the latest in a long series of governmental interventions in the impoverished reserve and led to the office occupation which took place yesterday. Previously, the indigenous representatives attempted to raise awareness of neo-Colonial internvention in their community by camping on Parliament Hill one year ago.
Barriere Lake Algonquins Occupy MP Cannon's Office
Published in The Dominion Weblog, June 26th, 2008
GATINEAU,QC - On Thursday, June 26th, Algonquin representatives from
Barriere Lake and allies assembled outside the Gatineau offices of
Indian Affairs, across the river from Ottawa. The demonstration was a
diversion, intended to draw attention from peaceful occupation of
Lawrence Cannon's office, MP for the Barriere Lake region. The
Algonquins demanded a meeting with Cannon to discuss the recent
government ousting of the Customary Chief and Council as well as a
re-election monitored by outside observers.
The Barriere Lake Solidarity Collective, based in Montreal, as well as Algonquin representatives from Barriere Lake itself have vowed they will not leave the office until their demands are met. They have been threatened with arrest, and are welcoming support from anyone willing or able to assemble in Buckingham, QC.
Algonquin media liaisons inside the office occupation were
unreachable, but Django, a spokesperson of the Solidarity Collective
answered a few questions. Speaking to the situation on the ground he
noted that “on the inside the police have asked some of the people to
leave peacefully. There were three people that left [because they]
weren’t willing to be arrested. [Those were] a cameraman and two
Algonquins.” When asked what he predicts will take place later in the
day, he replied “we’re still waiting for the demands to be met. The
office normally closes at 4:00 p.m. or 4:30 p.m. so we’re thinking
that’s probably the time [the police are] going to try and do the
arrests.”
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McCain visits Ottawa in vain
Published in The Dominion Weblogs, June 21st, 2008
A crowd of
roughly 100 protesters from the Student Coalition Against War, No War/Paix, Graduate
Students Association of the
the world cannot afford another George [W.] Bush, it cannot afford the
presidency of Senator McCain.”
Jews for Palestine: Remembering the Nakbah
OTTAWA,ON- On May 15th, the State of Israel turned 60. Celebrations around the world were held to mark Israel's Day of Independence. Remarked also for different reasons, this day has made a global impact under its other title, the Catastrophe, or Al Nakbah in Arabic. It is mourned as a day that commemorates the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, as a result of which Israel is today a Jewish majority state.
Resistance to these celebrations has also taken place across North America under a campaign entitled “No Time To Celebrate: Jews Remember the Nakbah.” This activism demonstrates a growing Jewish presence within the movement to oppose Israeli policies, the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and the ongoing oppression of Palestinians. In Canada, this presence was strongly felt on March 29th when over a hundred representatives of various organizations joined at the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadian's (ACJC) conference. The aim of the conference was to create an effective and justice-oriented strategy for future collaboration of jews critical of Israel's policies.
A jewish stance in solidarity with Palestinians is particularly
significant, given recent remarks by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Reminding the world of the Holocaust, Harper announced that Israel was
"threatened by those groups and regimes who deny to this day its right
to exist." Despite Israel’s refusal to acknowledge a Palestinian state,
in deed if not in word, Harper further emphasized his alliance with the
State of Israel by calling it "one of the most successful countries on
earth... Israel truly is the ‘miracle in the desert.’”
Published on Rabble.ca on May 14th, 2008
Once the catastrophe hit it was a long time before people started to
understand what was really going on. By then, the world had abandoned
the already marginalized communities, leaving them to fend for
themselves while being largely displaced and devoid of rights. Walking through the still devastated neighbourhoods, the poverty is simply striking. Abandoned, barely standing homes are interspersed with a few renovated ones here and there. International and national volunteers converge to pour their efforts into single projects, but what they leave behind is perhaps even more telling than what they've originally found.
As they scrape together the resources to rebuild, others see an opportunity in the devastation. A large evacuation, such as that of the 9th Ward of whose 17,000 original residents 14,000 remain displaced, produces quite a business opening. Cheap real estate has become the market of choice for opportunists as every abandoned plot boasts a "for sale" sign.
Effectively, an ethic cleansing is underway as the predominantly black population of such neighbourhoods as New Orleans East and the 9th Ward has disappeared. In the former, it is actively and aggressively being replaced by suburban, predominantly white residents. In the latter, the destruction is still too significant for a strong gentrification to take place. In the city's centre, public housing projects have decreased by 80 per cent largely thanks to home demolitions.Read rest of article...
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Waking Up Jewish
Published in (Cult)u're Magazine, April 1st, 2008
Growing up Jewish in North America can be about as thrilling as a
gefilte fish in Matzah ball soup. It can also be revolutionary, as two
Jewish activists, Ben and Corey, explain to me how it shaped their
dreams and views. They speak of how they pushed away from the
blindfolding and brainwashing of Zionism.
“I grew up in Toronto. My mother’s from Montreal and my Father’s from Winnipeg” tells Ben Saifer. Now living in Ottawa, he is an activist with Not In Our Name (NION): Jews Against Israeli Wars. “I grew up relatively secular. We’d go to synagogue on the high holidays, but I think it was mostly for the tradition, as opposed to any particularly religious sentiment.”
During the Second World War, Ben’s paternal grandfather served as a soldier on the Canadian side while his maternal grandparents fled from Romania and Austria. “They lost a lot of close friends and family members during the Holocaust and were forced to constantly be on the run in order to stay alive.”
To Leave Comment...Benjamin Powless: a young activist's journey
Published on Rabble.ca, March 17th, 2008
Benjamin
Powless of the Mohawk Nation is a delegate representing youth at
innumerable UN conferences, and a dedicated Native rights advocate.
Turning a remarkable personal journey into a source of strength, he
fights devotedly for what he believes. The son of Native rights activists, Powless was raised in an
environment that encouraged returning to aboriginal roots. "I spent
many of my formative years with my mother," he remarks, describing her
as "an amazing woman and a dedicated community activist [who] helped
start the Aboriginal Women's Support Centre in Ottawa." This centre,
also known as the Minwaashin Lodge, runs counselling services, a
woman's shelter, and cultural programs.
His father, he explains, has "dedicated his career to work for Native self-government and sovereignty, including a lot of work with the assembly of First Nations." He continues, "I've always respected my dad's work… I remember at the age of six knowing he was fighting for Native rights."
His parents served as a "great influence in helping develop a Native identity," but Powless wasn't always involved. "I was never one of those high achievers," he says of his high school years. "I did well in class but couldn't be bothered for other stuff."
Tyendinaga Declares Victory
Originally Published at The Dominion on April 30th, 2008
After a week of tension the police services have declared withdrawal
from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. Though announcing today all
Ontario Provincial Police barricades are to be removed, cruisers and
helicopters continue to survey the area.
Satisfied with the outcome, the Mohawk defenders of the Quarry have declared victory, consequent to which all solidarity blockades at Six Nations in Caledonia have also been removed.
Three members of the Tyendinaga Mohawks remain in custody though two were released on Monday, April 28th, 2008.
Supplies, a trailer, a barbecue, food, and some vehicles belonging to the Mohawk community have been taken by the police forces and are still not returned.
Meanwhile, non-Native allies have been assembling and delivering supplies from various Ontario cities to support the Mohawks in their struggle since Friday, April 25th, 2008.
The community estimates police surveillance will continue until Thursday when the remaining detainees are scheduled to appear in court.
For this purpose they are requesting monetary assistance with legal fees and will be holding various fundraisers.
Tyendinaga: Solidarity Continues
Originally Published at The Dominion on April 29th, 2008
Yesterday morning, Monday April 28th, police forces of mixed origin
invaded the Tyendinaga blockade on Deseronto road. Following a short
confrontation, a trailer belonging to the blockaders along with food
and a barbeque were confiscated.
A trench dug by the Mohawk blockaders was filled in by the police, which forced them to retract to a single point on Deseronto road. Most of the blockades established over the weekend have been taken down or forcibly dismantled by police.
The Quarry is now surrounded with 2-300 police officers along with intelligence and surveillance vehicles.
Of the five arrestees, detained Friday April 28th, 2008, Daniel John Doreen, 34, and Stephen Chartrand, 32, were released.
According to The Whig, the bail conditions the two had to sign include keeping away from the Quarry, reporting to police weekly; not to plan, incite or participate in any protests that "interfere with traffic on highways, airways, railways or public waterways" and not associate with the co-accused, unless for "religious or cultural ceremonies."
Tyendinaga: Blockades, Actions, and Supplies
Originally published at The Dominion on April 27th, 2008
After over 200 police officers raided the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory west of Belleville, Ontario on April 22nd, 2008 actions have escalated. On the evening of Friday, April 25th, the Tyendinaga community was again under attack, while continuing the blockade intended to protect itself and its "disputed" Quarry. Currently the Nation is surrounded by a wide police perimeter that prevents access to the Quarry.
"At the centre of the dispute is the Culbertson Tract, land which rightfully belongs to the Mohawks of Tyendinaga. Community members have been occupying a gravel quarry site for over a year," according to TMT.
Allies attempting to enter the perimeter are being turned away. Only residents holding valid documentation of property ownership within the perimeter are allowed entry.
Earlier in the week Agent Provocateurs were deployed in the local community to incite a conflict with the Mohawk Nation. The attempt failed but prevented local allies from supporting the Nation due to fear of police retaliation.
Police have attempted to dismantle the Mohawk blockade on Friday,
and have beaten and arrested four individuals. These are Matthew James
Kunkel, 21, Clint Brant, 29, Daniel John Dorene, 34, and Steve
Chartrand, 32. They are scheduled to appear on Monday, April 28, 2008
in Napanee court. Prior to these arrests, Shawn Brent, 44, was arrested
at a traffic stop allegedly for his role in preventing racist community
members from attacking a woman and her child.
For more information on Shawn Brant's arrest see APTN footage
Security and Prosperity Partnership
Summit of the State Leaders,
New Orleans, Louisiana, April 21st-23rd, 2008
As part of an Ottawa delegation, I will be traveling to New Orleans, Louisiana to report on the upcoming Summit of the Leaders of Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. As in the spirit of Montebello, QC in August 2007 a strong mobilization is taking place to oppose this Partnership and the processes by which it operates. Meeting with Stephen Harper, George W. Bush, and Felipe Calderon will be heads of North America's top corporations. Together they will make decisions regarding harmonization of standards, border-crossing policies, and trade relations. Innumerable organizations are mobilizing a counter-summit as well as several protests and actions. For more information, please stay tuned to the Ottawa Independent Media Centre where an up-to-date news coverage will be broadcast. A feature article will be prepared at the end of the summit for Rabble.ca. For background information on the SPP please see the Integrate This! research of the Council of Canadians. Also, for information on the Gulf Coast and the current privatization efforts, see Common Frontiers, Democracy Now!, or the People's Hurricane.
Reporting from the Road:
Part 1
Opening up before us is New Orleans as we finish our last leg of the trip from Mobile, Louisiana. Stories of ghosts fill our entry as they fill our first day in this town. Coming here for the People's Summit, opposing this year's Security and Prosperity Partnership, we're beginning to learn the true tales of surviving Katrina from the lives of those America has forgotten. (Read rest here)
Part 2
Intermingled amongst brand new hotels and entertainment swag are the ghosts of New Orleans. Abandoned buildings with boarded up windows are on every side street off Canal. Hidden only by the busy flickering of neon lights and bars begging for your undeserved business. One needs only to turn to any of the buildings behind the flashy palm trees to see Katrina leftovers. (Read rest here)
Press Release
Arriving for the Security and Prosperity Partnership counter summit in New Orleans, Canadian activists are organizing a festive protest parade. Scheduled to take place tonight, it will be one of the only events focusing on the SPP directly. (Read rest here)
Can Sac CANSEC?
Published on Rabble, April 17th, 2008
"Do you know why they're protesting?!" yells a business man in a perfectly ironed suit. His screaming is just barely audible over the chanting and yelling of the demonstrators and police.
"They are protesting CANSEC!" I explain.
"What's CANSEC?" he asks, as I prepare for my now memorized rebuttal: "CANSEC is Canada's largest arms fair. This is the tenth year of it taking place but because it was banned from all City of Ottawa property in 1991, it now takes place at the Ottawa Congress Centre, which is technically provincial property."
"Arms fair?" comes the now predictable surprise, "There's an arms fair taking place here? In Ottawa? In Canada?"
"Yes, Canadian corporations produce much of the ammunition, weaponry, and support technology for the U.S. military and the Canadian Forces…"
Published on the Ottawa IndyMedia, April 9th, 2008
Only one d
ay into Canada's largest armsfair, the
delegates and corporations attending CANSEC have already felt Ottawa's
dissent against them. Before the conference even began, the Rideau
centre was forced to evacuate the black-tie dinner kicking off the
conference due to a fire alarm.
The
conference hosted 620 corporations displaying weaponry, support, and
surveillance technology and served 6-7000 delegates. Attendees ranged
from government and military employees to company representatives.
International delegates were also expected at the conference, namely
from the United States, and due to a recently signed security deal
between Canada and Israel, Israeli officials were also expected.
The first official day of the conference was faced with two actions; a
Noon hour "March of the Victims of War" that demonstrated the offices
of war profiteers and a 5:00 p.m. disruptive action. The later saw a
crowd of roughly 60-70 demonstrators and a very loud speaker which sent
the sounds of war to the delegates who attempted to enjoy a dinner
inside.
A number of speeches were along with songs from the Raging
Grannies. For video footage of the events please see the television footage section.
For a photo essay of the day's events, see part 1, part 2, and part 3 on Ottawa IndyMedia.
Go Guin Go: Female Artists Challenge Racism
Published on Rabble, March 7th, 2008
**This article was selected for the 2008 Best of Rabble 2.0 Book**
Woman with a Mango- Meera Karanunananthan
History, as is Art History, is sprinkled with great leaders who have fast-tracked the course of developments. They more often than not were individuals who have brought to the day an unmatched ingenuity, imagination, and drive. Their influence is often accounted for only in retrospect through the eyes of the follower, the student, or the descendant.
Through these eyes we see (mostly) men of strong character of (mostly) weak will power. They are (mostly) white and are (mostly) from Europe. They are men of influence and presence. Men of their times, in both vision and oppression.
Though George Washington owned almost 400 slaves, he is still celebrated as the great leader of the United States. Though Wilhelm Richard Wagner was openly racist and his operas are known to have influenced Nazi Germany, he is still recognized worldwide for his talent.
Similarly, Paul Gauguin, a remarkable painter who shaped modern art unequivocally, was a man of pathologies. His sexual tourism and escapades are well documented, yet he remains in the eternal hall-of-fame of Post-Impressionism. Though his acts today would have landed him in prison if not the electric chair, in 1921 he was sainted by the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica.
What Are We Fighting Here?
Published in ROADnetwork
Friday October 05, 2007
Behind the SPPA short introduction to the SPP, the collective love-child of the CCCE’s sick love triangle with the NCC and our three “leaders”- a post 9/11 affair.
In search for the answer to how the SPP was conceived in the first place, the money trail lead me to “Embassy”- Canada’s Foreign Policy Newsweekly. According to this and The Hill publication, the egg that proliferated into the full grown adult was impregnated by the proper seeding of an opportune time. The matrimonial bed looked something like this: some Canadian chief executives plus one right-winged president plus 9/11 equals the Smart Border Accord (SBA). Within itself, the SBA includes FAST, the Free and Secure Trade Program. It, in turn grew into a hypertrophic embryo known as NSPI, the North American Security and Prosperity Initiative. After a slow but healthy maturity it has successfully clawed its way out of the corporate birth canal into what we today call the SPP.
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Taking Back The Power
Published in the Ottawa Indy Media 13.08.2007 02:25
Protests
to Montebello Summit of North American Leaders is off to a strong start
as Ottawa march targeted by authorities. Two arrested while
confrontations and solidarity builds.Last Saturday, August 11th, protesters from Canada's capital have gathered in the center of downtown Ottawa to protest the upcoming summit of North America's three leaders. The gathering is directed towards ratifying the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), a vague agreement between Mexican President Felipe Calderon, U.S. President George W. Bush, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and North America's 30 most influential CEOs. The agreement, which is not a signed treaty but rather a general statement, has been originated in 2005 by Thomas d'Aquino of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) who resides at the Penthouse apartment of 700 Sussex Drive. This is precisely the location the protest targeted as representatives from the People's Global Action-Bloc Ottawa and friends began the protest. Unfortunately, Mr. d'Aquino wasn't available to answer some of the questions raised by protesters in regards to the complete bypass of democratic process in the ratification of this highly powerful agreement.
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Power over Rights in Ontario
Human Rights Column
Published in The Peak Winter 2007
At
the end of Spring 2006, the Attorney General, Hon. Michael Bryant, has
put forward Bill 107, an amendment to the Ontario Human Rights Code. At
its first reading in April the amendment was presented to be a move
forward in speeding up and improving the human rights system in
Ontario. The explanatory notes read this bill will revise the function
of the Ontario Human Rights Commission and Tribunal, and will produce a
more efficient system1. By rewiring the entire human rights system,
this bill has left behind holes which shift further the already growing
disbalance in power between the rich and the poor, the privileged, and
the disadvantaged.By the original Human Rights Code, wherever human rights are infringed, complaints can be filed to the Commission which then decides to mediate, investigate, or assist in filing for legal action to the Tribunal. The Commission though works to always stay as a legal resource and representative of the people of Ontario. After legal hearing at the Tribunal, a ruling is made which produced a final and binding decision regarding the complaint. This process would take an average of 27 months, but would assure that each human rights complaint is dealt with, and where grounds are found, be granted a hearing and legal decision.
The new bill restructured this system and was supposed to speed up the process from complaint to decision by delineating the complaint to Commission to Tribunal hierarchy, and simply assigning all cases to the Tribunal. The Commission in turn is now assigned an educational role, that of public inquiry and liaison. To speed it up even further, the Tribunal is now given a right to dismiss complaints without hearing and to implement certain ‘service fees’ as it sees fit. Further, the Tribunal forces the administration of mandatory mediation sessions between the complainant and the respondent instead of allowing them to be voluntary with the option of investigation, as decided upon by the complainant. This now means that individuals who are of low economic standing and of little legal significance (those individuals whose rights are most likely to be infringed upon in the first place) are effectively discouraged from filing human rights complaints. Further, if they do not get dismissed, they must undergo a mandatory process of facing the individual(s) who has infringed upon their basic rights in the first place with the purpose of mediation. And finally, if the Tribunal decides, it may in fact inflict reparation payments upon the complainant if it sees fit.
Many human rights organizations have seen this new bill as a violation in and of itself and have tried to raise public awareness about the legislature proposal for months without success. In the meantime the bill passes second hearing on June 6th, one away from becoming law.
Following public outcry and official statement after statement issued by both the commission and various legal organizations, the Attorney General announced he will allow public hearings about the issue and will amend the bill to the following criteria: entrenching a range of legal support services including the creation of a publicly funded Human Rights Legal Support Center, strengthening the commission’s power and its right to intervene with the decisions of the Tribunal, promoting transparent decision-making and criteria for dismissal of hearings by the Tribunal, eliminating the Tribunal’s ability to establish and charge fees, and extending the ability of the tribunal to establish and charge fees.
These changes of course would have worked to produce a fair and strong human rights system, fuelled by further improvements as suggested by the scheduled public hearings and protests. Unfortunately, this was not the case as the public hearings were surprisingly cancelled, and 5 days before Christmas 2006 the bill was submitted for third and final hearing and passed.
Although these proceedings are final, and are seen by many as a defeating move by the government against human rights organizations and those advocating on behalf of the people of Ontario, the real and major violation is that of the media. During the entire 9 months this bill was circulating throughout the government bureaucracy not a single medium, not the newspapers, not television, or the radio covered the issue. This meant that most human rights organizations weren’t even aware of it, if it wasn’t for the few legal firms who look out for the rights of the people. This is why our office is putting on an awareness campaign in association with the CSA Legal Resource Room in the UC Courtyard during the week of February 26th-29th. Please approach us in that time or contact us for more information.
1- 2nd session, 38th Legilstature, Bill 107, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Code, 1st reading by The Hon.M.Bryant, Attorney General. Government Bill. Printed by the Legislature Assembley of Ontario, April 26th, 2006
Downplay Importance of Bill 107
Published in The Ontarion 2007-03-15
Last
April a bill was introduced by the Attorney General which has largely
amended the Ontario Human Rights Code. Since, the bill passed a second
hearing in June and was finally acceptance in December. In this time it
has been considerably changed, and largely so due to its controversial
nature. Our office, in coordination with the Legal Resource Room (LRR)
has been involved with following this bill and its amendments since
September.
Many organizations and individuals, including DAWN (DisAbled Women's Network of Ontario), the PPAO (Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office) and even Barbara Hall, the Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission have spoken in regards to faults (and strengths) within the bill.
Since these issues have been brought to our attention, we have been planning on running an awareness campaign regarding the Bill and have finally done so at the end of February and leading into the beginning of March.
unSchooling Oppression Conference
Noble Aspirations
Published in ROADnetwork 06, 2007 03:09
Completing the first day of a six day conference, Dr. David F. Noble
speaks about breaking the rules. His talk, centered around resistance
to the academic process, shares many a struggle from his own continual
fight for a free classroom where education is directed equally by
students and teachers. This is a review of his talk.Kicking off the unSchooling Oppression conference, David F. Noble filled the Ottawa Public Library's auditorium. Not a surprise from such a high caliber activist and speaker. With an academic career spanning over three decades, he has gained a wide range of experience with the higher education system.
Being let go from the Masachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), fired from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and denied tenure at the Simon Fraser University, his defiance of University systems is deeply rooted. In spite, he is currently a tenured professor at York University and has a long record of publication.
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Weapons of Mass Deschooling
Published in Ottawa Indymedia 08.11.2007 14:14
Continuing the unSchooling Oppression conference, John Taylor Gatto
packs the house on Tuesday night. This is a review of his talk.Speaking about the impacts on societies and individuals of the forced schooling system, John Taylor Gatto propelled forward the momentum gained by the unSchooling Oppression conference. Following in the lead of David F. Noble who opened the conference Monday night, Gatto too believes there are major problems within the educational system. Problems solvable only by deschooling the self. Unlike Noble though, Gatto does not believe in challenging and infiltrating the system but rather in taking it down. In the context of rule-breaking though, Gatto is quite similar to Noble, and like him, professes self-determination, autonomy, and the fight against authority. ‘You cannot replace one educational system with another system’ he says, explaining that education is always a custom-made job that starts at self-examination.
‘You are the architects to your own education. You are the only ones who know precisely what you need’
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CoSchooling For Freedom
Published in Linchpin 11/11/2007 - 01:03.
In her racy and humbly excited nature Cindy invites the audience
into her idea of a better world. As she talks, describing hers and
other’s projects, one really does begin to imagine the possibilities.
Ideas of a better, richer, more fulfilling life, dedicated to actively
and simultaneously deconstructing the oppressive systems of he current
world and replacing them with healthier, anarchistic ones.
“Education is about empowering people in a disempowering time”- Cindy Milstein
In a talk entitled “Education for Freedom”, part of the unSchooling Oppression conference, Cindy Milstein builds a model of anarchism through education and education through anarchism. Personally, a deep proponent and practitioner of both, she comes from a self-made community, operating without hierarchal structures and concentrating on continual learning and action. “Much of what anarchists do is education but it’s not obvious because it doesn’t look like what we have been taught education looks like.” She explains by listing skill-shares, free schools, speaking tours, infoshops, and independent media as examples.
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Greener Revolutions To Come
Human Rights Column
Published in The Peak Fall 2006
To understand how the world economy is shaped today, how it is
polarized, and how food distribution within this economy is upheld,
it’s impossible not to look first at The Green Revolution. This
agricultural insurgency first started in Mexico in 1943, founded by the
Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, had the purpose of feeding the
developing country’s poor. By instructing the local residents on how to
plant massive quantities of high-yielding crops, the plan was to
provide a sufficient amount of food for all without continual import
from developed countries of neither food nor goods. Ideal at first,
though the imposition of the agricultural practices of the developed
USA on areas of the world accustomed to traditional farming and organic
produce resulted in land devastation, ecological and social crises, and
the international spread of the monoculture crop. These crops, like
maze, wheat, and rice, were taught to be grown in ways instructed by
the developed world, which with it brought all the components of the
industrial American farm.
Originated by Norman Borlaug, a U.S.
plant pathologist and breeder who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1970, the Green Revolution was going to save the world of hunger. In
1944, Borlaug joined the Rockefeller Foundation, and was assigned to
Mexico to find a way to grow maize for the local population. His plan
was to introduce high-yielding crops which have undergone his selective
breeding and later genetic modification processes, and to sustain their
growth with insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, and various
fertilizers. These agricultural practices used by the U.S. itself were
considered miraculous at the time, and their introduction upon the
developing world was considered an act of graciousness of the highest
regard. After all, this was going to cure famine in a world with a fast
growing population! Also, this provided for a testing ground for
understanding how the various scientific advances in agriculture were
going to pan out on a mass scale.
Latin America was the
experimental laboratory of the Green Revolution which went on to spread
all over the world. Horrors of starvation and insufficiencies have
finally been faced with a solution, and no one stuck around to see the
final results. News of the Bengal Famine, the world’s worst recorded
food disaster, reached North America, and when Britain finally left
India in 1947, the security of food has become a major national
problem. Opening the doors to the Green Revolution was therefore an
easy decision, and from the years of 1967 to 1977 India has changed
from a starving nation to an agricultural hotbed. The Green Revolution
has now become so successful that from 1960 to 1990 global food
production has increased over 1000% and famine decreased by 20%.
Caloric consumption has also increased per capita by 25%, and this has
of course led to a rise in income and the standards of living.
Modern
irrigation strategies brought with them tubewells and electric pumps,
minimized the failures of drought by introducing drought resistant
strains of crops, and added efficiency to rural areas where the supply
of food was dependant upon seasonal changes. Pesticides, herbicides,
and insecticides have become a modern agricultural miracle for the
ability to grow crops and be unaffected by various pests, fungi,
infestations of herbs and insects was a blessing and provided an
unlimited security over food availability from year to year. Also, the
new concept of double cropping was soon to follow in the pursuit of
never ending efficiency. Single cropping has been used for centuries in
traditional agriculture because a rainy season happens only once a
year. Industrialization solved that problem with creation of the
artificial rainy season through huge irrigation projects. Water dams
were built, and large water supplies were shifted away from urban
areas, from living spaces, towards the production of crop. Success was
so prevalent in fact that the developed world has begun to import the
majority of its crops from the developing world. This allowed for an
enormous shift in economy which with it brought an enormous power shift.
All
the while, as farmers were beginning to enjoy the fruits of their
labor, problems began to arise which the developed world did not
address. The introduction of monoculture crops grown in an
industrialized way by machinery to rural areas accustomed to organic
agriculture manifested by hard labor of the farming family was received
like a shock on the land. It has also brought with it the dependence of
the developing world on equipment, chemicals, and genetically modified
crops which had to be bought from the United States and Europe. The
crops for which farmland has been freed, crops grown following these
methods of the developed world required the machinery with which these
crops were introduced. The crops, being genetically modified and
foreign to this land required fertilizers, pesticides, and
insecticides, all of which required purchasing from the developed
world. The average farmer touched by the Green Revolution has become
indebted over a single decade. Some farmers have even resorted to
suicide because of the overwhelming debts they had now owed and knew
could never repay.
Beside the social and economic devastation
which arose post-Green Revolution, environmental issues have become to
come up. From top soil erosion and soil nutrient depletion caused by
the various chemicals implemented, to the development of
pesticide-resistant species and the drying up of aquifers, the
ecological surrounding of farms led by the Revolution have experienced
a great deterioration. In the aftermath of the introduction of
industrial conventional farming of the United States to rural areas of
the world many problems still remain unsolved. Famine is still a great
problem in the majority of the world, and the population of the planet
is only increasing. Production, though initially experiencing a major
thrust forward, is now slowing down while its costs are only increasing
and all the while the land is depleting in nutrients. In the decades
following the Green Revolution, the developing world is now forced to
deal with the problems which lead to the production of food most of
which is today used to feed the developed world. Norman Borlaug though
still adamantly argues the benefits of the Revolution exceed its
negatives, and is fighting to spread these methods across the continent
of Africa.
To learn more:
Green Revolution in Indian Agriculture by S.K.C.Verma
The Future of Genetically Modified Crops: Lessons from the Green Revolution by William P.Butz
The Next Green Revolution: Essential steps to a healthy, sustainable agriculture by Maura MacDermott and James E.Horne
Test This! Hunting For That Human Cure
The Human Rights Column
Published in The Peak Winter 2006
In
1978 a new program had been initiated by the World Health Organization
entitled “Health For All”. Initially it was an effort to stabilize the
distribution of medications and their access throughout the world.
Halfden Mahler, Director-General of the WHO at the time of this plan’s
piloting has said “[Health For All] means that there will be an even
distribution among the population of whatever health resources are
available.” In their book, “Bad Medicine: The prescription Drug Industry in the Third World”, Milton Silverman, Mia Lydecker, and Philip R. Lee have definitely pointed out the origins of the root problem.
“Much of the promotion of drugs in undeveloped or developing nations during the late 1960s and the 1970s was marked by the use of claims that could not be supported by scientific evidence. Great reliance was placed upon undocumented
testimonials purchased or otherwise obtained from physicians, generally including some such phrase as "I could not practice medicine without it" and too often ignoring, glossing over, or concealing the known risk of serious or lethal side effects.”
They continue to conclude
“In most instances, it seemed, the ostensible villains were multinational pharmaceutical companies, most of these based in the United States or Europe and depicted as profit-hungry monsters, exploiting the peoples of the Third World in order to satisfy their stockholders.”
Today, it is no secret international pharmaceutical companies test potential life saving drugs on the people of ‘underdeveloped’ countries, one would think. Still, a Hollywood flick titled ‘The Constant Gardener’ has still shocked most viewers. Many attributed the controversial content of it to action-driven script writers and not to reality. Still, the reality is really not so far from the screen.
In an article entitled ‘The Constant Gardener, What the Movie Missed” in The Nation, Sonia Shah criticizes the “catchiness” of the thriller, but illustrates its importance as a first step to publicizing the problem.
“The plot couldn't be more timely. According to a May 16 report in USA Today, giant drug outfits are outsourcing increasing numbers of drug trials outside the United States and Europe. Merck is now conducting 50 percent of its trials outside the United States. By 2006, 70 percent of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals trials are expected to occur offshore. Across Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, the sick are abundant, desperate and doc-trusting, and so recruitment into clinical trials is rapid. As one executive from an outfit specializing in running drug trials in Asia put it, patients in developing countries are "more willing to be guinea pigs."
Sonia Shah is no stranger to the ever increasing problem with major pharmaceutical companies (or as they’re termed Big Pharma) and their testing on the ill and healthy residents of the ‘Third World’. A long time activist and independent journalist she is also the author of The Body Hunters: Testing New Drugs on the World’s Poorest Patients. In a recent article in ZNet titled “The New Tuskegee: Testing New Drugs on the World’s Poor” Shah reports about the growing industrial investment of pharmaceutical companies into testing on the world’s poorest countries:
“More than thirty years after the scandalous Tuskegee Syphilis Study showcased the dangers of unregulated medical research, triggering an avalanche of new laws and oversight on human experimentation, American companies continue to engage in poorly regulated experimentation just beyond our borders. Starved of adequate numbers of Americans willing to enroll in clinical trials for new drugs, over the past few decades pharmaceutical companies have quietly exported their clinical trials business to developing countries, where sick, untreated patients teem and federal oversight is minimal. This year, for example, Wyeth and Merck will conduct at least half of their clinical trials for new drugs outside the United States, and Pfizer is just one among many companies that have opened clinical-trial-hubs in India.
The potential for exploitation and ethics violations in these trials is palpable. The FDA accepts data from overseas trials, but does not require any prior review (as they do for trials in the US), and simply accepts the word of local ethics committees and local regulators that FDA’s ethical standards have been met. And yet many of these countries have weak regulatory infrastructures and poor human rights records, especially toward the impoverished residents who are most likely to enroll in clinical trials. In India, for example, government officials have dismantled rules cramping clinical trials—hoping to increase the foreign drug trials business from $70 million a year to $1 billion—but have enacted not a single law to protect research subjects. The few regulations that do govern the drug industry are lightly enforced at best. “Even if an erring company is caught red-handed indulging in illegal activities,” writes Indian industry analyst Chandra Gulhati, MD, “it is let off…with a light warning.”
Unfortunately, though it started out as a new way to balance the wealth of the world, at least in the sense of access to medicine, Health For All has eventually become an outlet for human drug testing. Eventually shut down, the WHO has now replaced the program with the new, “Occupational Health For All” which promises to supply the world’s 100 Million workers, injured yearly in occupational accidents, with access to treatment. This time around though, the WHO has no false pretences,
“Occupational injuries and diseases play an important role in developing countries where 70% of the working population of the world lives. By affecting the health of the working population, occupational injuries and diseases have profound effects on work productivity and on the economic and social well-being of workers, their families and dependents. According to recent estimates, the cost of work-related health loss and associated productivity loss may amount to several per cent of the total gross national product of the countries of the world.”
Declaration on Occupational Health For All, approved at the Second Meeting of the WHO Collaborating Centers in Occupational Health, Beijing, China (October 1994)
For More Information:
Business and Human Rights: http://www.business-humanrights.org/Categories/Sectors/Health/Drug-testing
Sonia Shah http://www.soniashah.com
Or, contact your Human Rights Office for further information
