Friday, November 26, 2010

Youth Activists Plan Co-Operation Over Protest at Cancún Climate Summit

U.S., Chinese Youth Join Forces

Disputes between the U.S. and China, the two biggest emitters of global warming gases, have stymied progress on a global climate deal.

Recognizing that, youth from both nations launched an unofficial collaboration a little over a month ago called the U.S.-China Youth Climate Exchange.

Members of the partnership will carry out workshops and shared actions in Cancun.

"Sino-American relations have been characterized by mistrust," said Jared Schy of the Cascade Climate Network and the new U.S.-China exchange. "We hope to strengthen trust between our countries by growing our own trust. We hope ... to show the world in a more visible way that China and the U.S. are working together now."
===

Youth Activists Plan Co-Operation Over Protest at Cancún Climate Summit

With few government heads expected in Mexico, influence will come behind the scenes, not in front of a camera

by Stacy Feldman from SolveClimate
Published on Friday, November 26, 2010 by The Guardian/UK

What a difference a year makes for climate change activism.

Police made some 400 arrests at a mass rally in Copenhagen, during the 2009 UN climate summit. Such protests and arrests are unlikely at the successor conference, COP16 in Cancún. (Photograph: Mads Nissen/AFP/Getty Images)

Twelve months ago, thousands of young campaigners worldwide converged on Copenhagen to pitch protests against the global political failure to tackle global warming.

They disrupted summit meetings with non-violent civil disobedience to air demands of climate justice. Scores were arrested. Naomi Klein, the writer and activist, said at the time that it felt as though "progressive tectonic plates are shifting."

But a year later — with the start of the next big climate-treaty conference in Cancun, Mexico, days away — activists appear to have dramatically changed their emphasis from confrontation to cooperation.

"There are certain times when it's useful to take a more critical tone and times when it's useful to take a more collaborative tone," said Michael Davidson of SustainUS, an all-volunteer climate action group.

The two meetings "are extremely different," he noted. For one, the eyes of the world were on Copenhagen as 120 heads of state attended, garnering gobs of global media coverage for the summit — and youth-led protests.

But few government heads are expected in Mexico, meaning that a majority of advocates' influence will be behind the scenes, not in front of the camera.

A Model for Progress

In lower-key Cancun, one of the main goals of young people will be to set an example of progress for quarreling climate negotiators, Davidson said.

"Youth have cooperated within negotiations in an extremely intricate way — in some ways much more than other civil society participants," he said. "We're trying to present a model for what delegates should be doing in order to push forward solutions."

"We're not giving up on trying to get countries to actually cooperate," Davidson continued.

Beyond that, SustainUS announced this week that they will use Cancun to fight for a legally binding deal to curb climate-altering emissions — their ultimate goal — and will make the strong link between carbon-cutting clean energy development and job creation.

They also want to stress that vulnerable populations would suffer disproportionately if climate change is ignored — including themselves.

"We're doing this because our future is at stake," Marcie Smith, co-chair of SustainUS, told reporters on a conference call detailing their strategies.

Activists, who align themselves with developing-country governments, suffered defeat at the negotiations in Copenhagen last December, after the 194 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change failed to deliver a post-2012 pact to slow warming.

Agreement is still far off.

The Nov. 29 – Dec. 10 Cancun talks are expected to make progress on some issues, such as green technology transfers and slowing deforestation, but will not a produce a new treaty to succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

U.S., Chinese Youth Join Forces

Disputes between the U.S. and China, the two biggest emitters of global warming gases, have stymied progress on a global climate deal.

Recognizing that, youth from both nations launched an unofficial collaboration a little over a month ago called the U.S.-China Youth Climate Exchange.

Members of the partnership will carry out workshops and shared actions in Cancun.

Influencing U.S. Policy from Cancun

Reed Aronow of SustainUS said activists will lead a "series of creative actions and campaigns" in Cancun centered on getting both meaningful treaty text and climate change legislation in the United States.

Their biggest Cancun campaign, run in conjunction with the Energy Action Coalition, will be the grassroots Rapid Response Network. Organizers will enlist a crew of U.S.-based "climate responders" who will be called on to take action at home when big developments happen in Cancun.

"We're hoping through the ... network to build up media pressure back home," Davidson said.

The goal is to draw 25,000 participants, Aronow said.

Their other tactics may ring a more familiar note. Among planned protests, youth activists, dressed as penguins, will hold signs that read, "Save the humans," in what they're calling the "March of the Penguins."

Davidson said he is "not aware of any actions to shut down the talks."

This article originally appeared at SolveClimate.

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Rethinking the Global Economy: The Case for Sharing

by Rajesh Makwana and Adam Parsons
Published on Friday, November 26, 2010 by Share the World's Resources (STWR)

As the 21st Century unfolds, humanity is faced with a stark reality. Following the world stock market crash in 2008, people everywhere are questioning the unbridled greed, selfishness and competition that has driven the dominant economic model for decades. The old obsession with protecting national interests, the drive to maximise profits at all costs, and the materialistic pursuit of economic growth has failed to benefit the world's poor and led to catastrophic consequences for planet earth.

The incidence of hunger is more widespread than ever before in human history, surpassing 1 billion people in 2009 despite the record harvests of food being reaped in recent years. At least 1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty, a number equivalent to more than four times the population of the United States. One out of every five people does not have access to clean drinking water. More than a billion people lack access to basic health care services, while over a billion people - the majority of them women - lack a basic education. Every week, more than 115,000 people move into a slum somewhere in Africa, Asia or Latin America. Every day, around 50,000 people die needlessly as a result of being denied the essentials of life.

In the face of these immense challenges, international aid has proven largely ineffective, inadequate, and incapable of enabling governments to secure the basic needs of all citizens. Developed countries were cutting back on foreign aid commitments even before the economic downturn, while the agreed aid target of 0.7 percent of rich countries' GDP has never been met since it was first conceived 40 years ago. The Millennium Development Goals of merely halving the incidence of hunger and extreme poverty, even if reached by 2015, will still leave hundreds of millions of people in a state of undernourishment and deprivation. When several trillion dollars was rapidly summoned to bail out failed banks in late 2008, it became impossible to understand why the governments of rich nations could not afford a fraction of this sum to ‘bail out' the world's poor.

The enduring gap between rich and poor, both within and between countries, is a crisis that lies at the heart of our political and economic problems. For decades, 20 percent of the world population have controlled 80 percent of the economy and resources. By 2008, more than half of the world's assets were owned by the richest 2 percent of adults, while the bottom half of the world adult population owned only 1 percent of wealth. The vast discrepancies in living standards between the Global North and South, which provides no basis for a stable and secure future, can only be redressed through a more equitable distribution of resources at the international level. This will require more inclusive structures of global governance and a new economic framework that goes far beyond existing development efforts to reduce poverty, decrease poor country debt and provide overseas aid.

In both the richest and poorest nations, commercialisation has infiltrated every aspect of life and compromised spiritual, ethical and moral values. The globalised consumer culture holds no higher aspiration than the accumulation of material wealth, even though studies have shown that rising income fails to significantly increase an individual's well-being once a minimum standard of living is secured. The organisation of society as a competitive struggle for social position through wealth and acquisition has led to rampant individualism and the consequences of crime, disaffection and the disintegration of family and community ties. Yet governments continue to measure success in terms of economic growth, pursuing ever-greater levels of GDP - regardless of the harmful social consequences of a consumption-driven economy.

Although the crises we face are interlinked and multidimensional, the G20 and other rich nations offer no vision of change towards a more sustainable world. The old formula, based on deregulation, privatisation, and the liberalisation of trade and finance, was unmasked by the economic crisis and shown to be incapable of promoting lasting human development. Multilateral institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have failed the world's poor, and the myth that economic growth will eventually benefit all has long been shattered. As we also know, endless growth is unsustainable on a planet with finite resources. This impasse is further compounded by ecological degradation and climate change - the side-effects of economic ‘progress' that disproportionately affect the poorest people who are least to blame for causing these multiple crises.

Humanity's ability to effectively address these interrelated crises requires governments to accept certain fundamental understandings that are instrumental to securing our common future. Firstly, that humankind is part of an extended family that shares the same basic needs and rights, and this must be adequately reflected in the structures and institutions of global governance. And secondly, that many basic assumptions about human nature that inform the thrust of economic decision making - particularly in industrialied nations - are long outdated and fundamentally flawed. The creation of an inclusive economic framework that reflects our global interdependence requires policymakers to move beyond the belief that human beings are competitive and individualistic, and to instead accept humanity's innate propensity to cooperate and share. This more holistic understanding of our relationship to each other and the planet transcends nations and cultures, and builds on ethics and values common to faith groups around the world. It also reflects the strong sense of solidarity and internationalism which lies at the heart of the global justice movement.

International Unity

The first true political expression of our global unity was embodied in the establishment of the United Nations in 1945. Since then, international laws have been devised to help govern relationships between nations and uphold human rights. Cross-border issues such as climate change, global poverty and conflict are uniting world public opinion and compelling governments to cooperate and plan for our collective future. The globalisation of knowledge and cultures, and the ease with which we can communicate and travel around the world, has further served to unite diverse people in distant countries.

But the fact of our global unity is still not sufficiently expressed in our political and economic structures. The international community has yet to ensure that basic human needs, such as access to staple food, clean water and primary healthcare, are universally secured. This cannot be achieved until nations cooperate more effectively, share their natural and economic resources, and ensure that global governance mechanisms reflect and directly support our common needs and rights. At present, the main institutions that govern the global economy are failing to work on behalf of humanity as a whole. In particular, the major bodies that uphold the Bretton Woods mandate (the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organisation) are all widely criticised for being undemocratic and furthering the interests of large corporations and rich countries.

A more inclusive international framework urgently needs to be established through the United Nations (UN) and its agencies. Although in need of being significantly strengthened and renewed, the UN is the only multilateral governmental agency with the necessary experience and resources to coordinate the process of restructuring the world economy. The UN Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights have been adopted by all member states and embody some of the highest ideals expressed by humanity. If the UN is rendered more democratic and entrusted with more authority, it would be in a position to foster the growing sense of community between nations and harmonise global economic relationships.

Being Human

Establishing more inclusive structures of global governance will only remedy one aspect of a complex system. Another key transformation that must take place is in our understanding and practice of ‘economics' so that government policies can become closely aligned with urgent humanitarian and ecological needs.

The economic principles that have fashioned the world's existing global governance framework - particularly in relation to international trade and finance - can be traced back to the moral philosophy of Enlightenment thinkers during the emergence of industrial society in Britain. Drawing on the ideas of these early theorists, mainstream economists have assumed that human beings are inherently selfish, competitive, acquisitive and individualistic. Such notions about human nature are now firmly established as the principles upon which modern economies are built, and have been used to justify the proliferation of free markets as the best way to organise societies.

Particularly since the 1980's, these basic economic assumptions have increasingly dominated public policy and pushed aside ethical considerations in the pursuit of efficiency, short-term growth and profit maximisation. But the ‘neoliberal' ideology that institutionalised greed and self-interest was fundamentally discredited by the collapse of banks and a world stock market crash in 2008. As a consequence, the global financial crisis reinvigorated a long-standing debate about the importance of morality and ethics in relation to the market economy.

At the same time, recent experiments by evolutionary biologists and neuro-cognitive scientists have demonstrated that human beings are biologically predisposed to cooperate and share. Without this evolutionary advantage, we may not have survived as a species. Anthropological findings have long supported this view of human nature with case studies revealing that sharing and gifting often formed the basis of economic life in traditional societies, leading individuals to prioritise their social relationships above all other concerns. As a whole, these findings challenge many of the core assumptions of classical economic theory - in particular the firmly held belief that people in any society will always act competitively to maximise their economic interests.

If humanity is to survive the formidable challenges that define our generation - including climate change, diminishing fossil fuels and global conflict - it is necessary to forge new ethical understandings that embrace our collective values and global interdependence. We urgently need a new paradigm for human advancement, beginning with a fundamental reordering of world priorities: an immediate end to hunger, the securing of universal basic needs, and a rapid safeguarding of the environment and atmosphere. No longer can national self-interest, international competition and excessive commercialisation form the foundation of our global economic framework.

The crucial first step towards creating an inclusive world system requires overhauling our outdated assumptions about human nature, reconnecting our public life with fundamental values, and rethinking the role of markets in achieving the common good. In line with what we now know about human behaviour and psychology, integrating the principle of sharing into our economic system would reflect our global unity and have far-reaching implications for how we distribute and consume the planet's wealth and resources. Sharing the world's resources more equitably can allow us to build a more sustainable, cooperative and inclusive global economy - one that reflects and supports what it really means to be human.

This article has been adapted from sections of a recent booklet entitled Sharing the World's Resources - An Introduction

Rajesh Makwana is the director of Share The World's Resources and can be contacted at rajesh(at)stwr.org. Adam Parsons is the editor at Share The World's Resources and can be contacted at adam(at)stwr.org.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Nutrition & Elimination Of Toxins Prevent & Cure Disease: Antoine Bechamp vs. Louis Pasteur

most illness is due to cellular malfunction caused by cellular toxicities and cellular malnutrition, both of which can be avoided and overcome naturally.

Louis Pasteur, the so-called "father of modern germ theory" so widely revered by mainstream medicine,

a more esteemed contemporary whose works Pasteur plagiarized and distorted.
Antoine Bechamp, one of France`s most prominent and active researchers and biologists whose theories and research results stood in stark opposition to Pasteur`s germ theory.

Bechamp, on the other hand, proved through original research that most diseases are the result of diseased tissue and that bacteria and viruses are largely after-effects instead of causes of disease.

Antoine Bechamp was able to scientifically prove that germs are the chemical by-products and constituents of pleomorphic microorganisms enacting upon the unbalanced, malfunctioning cell metabolism and dead tissue that actually produces disease. Bechamp found that the diseased, acidic, low-oxygen cellular environment is created by a toxic/nutrient deficient diet, toxic emotions, and a toxic lifestyle.

Pasteur`s germ theory ended up winning the day with mainstream medicine - owing in large part to the fact that the theory enabled mainstream medicine to hugely profit from the patented drugs and treatments for fighting germs.

Hippocrates also advised, "Leave your drugs in the chemist`s pots if you can cure your patient with food."

Lack of nutrition combined with exposure to toxins is what causes us to become ill.

the words of Thomas Edison may prove to be a welcome prophesy:
"The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease."
+++

Louis Pasteur vs. Antoine Bechamp: Know the True Causes of Disease

Saturday, November 13, 2010 by: Tony Isaacs, citizen journalist
http://www.naturalnews.com/030384_Louis_Pasteur_disease.html

(NaturalNews) Mainstream medicine believes that virtually all illness is caused by germs or genetic hereditary weakness, as well as deformities and trauma injuries. Their solution and strategy is to have us believe that there are over 10,000 different diseases and that each of these diseases requires outside intervention from drugs and surgery. The truth is that most illness is due to cellular malfunction caused by cellular toxicities and cellular malnutrition, both of which can be avoided and overcome naturally.

It was Louis Pasteur, the so-called "father of modern germ theory" so widely revered by mainstream medicine, who was largely responsible for germ theory being a primary precept of today`s medical practice. Few people are aware of the controversy which surrounded Pasteur in his early days or of the work of a more esteemed contemporary whose works Pasteur plagiarized and distorted. That contemporary was fellow French Academy of Sciences member Antoine Bechamp, one of France`s most prominent and active researchers and biologists whose theories and research results stood in stark opposition to Pasteur`s germ theory.

Pasteur essentially dug up the germ theory of disease and put his name on it. It wasn`t a new idea. The concept, which theorizes that many diseases are caused by germs, had actually been outlined by other people many years before. Pasteur nevertheless claimed to have "discovered" germs. Bechamp, on the other hand, proved through original research that most diseases are the result of diseased tissue and that bacteria and viruses are largely after-effects instead of causes of disease.

Antoine Bechamp was able to scientifically prove that germs are the chemical by-products and constituents of pleomorphic microorganisms enacting upon the unbalanced, malfunctioning cell metabolism and dead tissue that actually produces disease. Bechamp found that the diseased, acidic, low-oxygen cellular environment is created by a toxic/nutrient deficient diet, toxic emotions, and a toxic lifestyle. His findings demonstrate how cancer develops through the morbid changes of germs to bacteria, bacteria to viruses, viruses to fungal forms and fungal forms to cancer cells.

After some initial controversy, Pasteur`s germ theory ended up winning the day with mainstream medicine - owing in large part to the fact that the theory enabled mainstream medicine to hugely profit from the patented drugs and treatments for fighting germs. After all, had Bechamp`s discoveries been incorporated into current medical curriculum, it would likely have meant a virtual elimination of disease and the end of the pharmaceutical industry.

The germ theory of medicine stands in stark contrast to thousands of years of man looking to nature to nourish and heal it, dating back to ancient Chinese medicine which treated the whole body instead of the symptoms of illness. As Hippocrates, "the father of medicine" observed 2400 years ago, "Nature is the physician of man." Hippocrates also advised, "Leave your drugs in the chemist`s pots if you can cure your patient with food."

Though mainstream medicine might have us believe otherwise, the simple truth is that no one ever became ill due to a deficiency in pharmaceutical drugs. Lack of nutrition combined with exposure to toxins is what causes us to become ill.

Someday, germ theory and unnatural drugs will be relegated to the science junk pile where they belong and man will re-discover the value of eating a nutrient-dense organic diet, avoiding toxins and nutritional deficiencies and living a healthy lifestyle. When that happens, the words of Thomas Edison may prove to be a welcome prophesy:

"The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease."

Sources included:

http://arizonaenergy.org/BodyEnergy...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germ_t...
"Cellular Toxicities & Cellular Insufficiencies", The Crusador, May/June 2010 edition
http://www.naturalnews.com/028093_l...

About the author

Tony Isaacs, is a natural health author, advocate and researcher who hosts The Best Years in Life website for baby boomers and others wishing to avoid prescription drugs and mainstream managed illness and live longer, healthier and happier lives naturally. Mr. Isaacs is the author of books and articles about natural health, longevity and beating cancer including "Cancer's Natural Enemy" and is working on a major book project due to be published later this year.
Mr. Isaacs is currently residing in scenic East Texas and frequently commutes to the even more scenic Texas hill country near San Antonio and Austin to give lectures in health seminars. He also hosts the CureZone "Ask Tony Isaacs - featuring Luella May" forum as well as the Yahoo Health Group "Oleander Soup" and he serves as a consultant to the "Utopia Silver Supplement Company".

Articles Related to This Article:

• Disease Economy: How the United States economy runs on "treating" chronic disease

• Disease names like diabetes and osteoporosis are misleading and misinform patients about disease prevention

• Heal yourself in 15 days: Stop making disease by embracing the recipe for health (part eight)

• Psychiatry and disease mongering: Road Rage Disorder is latest spontaneously "discovered" disease

• The Cure Con: how you're being deceived by charities that claim to be racing for the cure for cancer and other chronic diseases

• Medical myths explained: Why health researchers mistakenly think one disease causes another

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Saturday, November 13, 2010

Social Enchantment With Values And Emotions For A Better World For Everyone

Valuing and sharing common people's knowledge and experience, awakening critical consciousness and finding paths for effective social participation

people come together, sharing their own thoughts and feelings, with a strong sense of commitment and full awareness of what they are doing,"

people who train in the methodology of popular education experience "re-enchantment" with values and emotions that are denied by the competitive and individualistic culture of free market societies. "They fall in love again with a social project, with what they do, with service, solidarity and sharing,"

encourage people to become critical subjects who were capable of collectively solving their problems, managing their lives and transforming their surroundings.

"Popular Education is that knowledge that we have and build on, but when we organise it, it frees us from the bonds created by the consumer society."

"a person takes up the reins of their own life,"

it is vital to bring [people] to this kind of learning, so that they
"take power over their own bodies [and minds] and do not allow others to make decisions for them."
+++

Cuba: Popular Education Transforms Lives

November 13, 2010
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=32830

HAVANA TIMES, Nov 13 (IPS) — Valuing and sharing common people’s knowledge and experience, awakening critical consciousness and finding paths for effective social participation are the processes used by more than 1,000 people in Cuba working in Popular Education, a liberating approach to education developed by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire in the 1960s.

“The deepest form of participation is when people come together, sharing their own thoughts and feelings, with a strong sense of commitment and full awareness of what they are doing,” José Ramón Vidal, head of the Popular Communication Program at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Centre (CMMLK), told IPS.

Combining true dedication and horizontal ways of organizing to ensure everyone’s opinion was included, the Fourth National Popular Education Encounter was held Nov. 9-12 in the Cuban capital. Cuba has appropriated this educational approach since 1995, when the first workshop was organized.

This philosophy of critical awareness began to find followers in Cuba during the severe economic crisis suffered by the Cuban population in the 1990s. “The hardship we have endured for so many years creates despair and disillusion,” said Vidal, a psychologist.

Experiencing re-enchantment

In Vidal’s view, people who train in the methodology of popular education experience “re-enchantment” with values and emotions that are denied by the competitive and individualistic culture of free market societies. “They fall in love again with a social project, with what they do, with service, solidarity and sharing,” he said.

In the 15 years since the movement arrived in Cuba and the birth of the National Network of Popular Educators, which has about 1,500 members, Freire’s precepts have reached community groups and institutions around the country.

In Granma province in southeastern Cuba, “local bodies like the People’s Councils are adopting, timidly as yet, this way of doing, learning and organizing,” Yordenis Monge, coordinator of the Food Sovereignty and Local Development Project in the eastern city of Bayamo, told IPS.

Promoted by Cuban and Spanish non-governmental organizations in three provinces on the island, the outreach initiative involves, directly or indirectly, more than 60 institutions. “Leaders and their community work groups are now going through a Popular Education learning process,” Monge said.

Becoming critical subjects

Some authorities have recognized the benefits of this way of doing things. According to Mario Cruz Díaz, a member of the local legislature in the province of Holguín, which borders Granma, the method “is a great help in the work of directing, planning, forecasting and coordinating.”

In his province, which has a population of more than 300,000, distribution of the few resources available is difficult, and they must be used to the best effect. “When a person receives aid as welfare, without consciously participating, he or she is incapable of really valuing the cost of what they are given,” Cruz said.

Freire’s educational goal was to encourage people to become critical subjects who were capable of collectively solving their problems, managing their lives and transforming their surroundings. Community and environmental groups and neighborhoods facing difficulties like poverty and high levels of violence are taking up Popular Education.

Neighborhood Transformation Workshops in the Cuban capital, the Promotion and Education Centre for Sustainable Development (CEPRODESO) in the western province of Pinar del Río, the La Marina social and cultural project in Matanzas province, and some small farmers’ cooperatives are adopting the methodology.

At present, CMMLK is participating in the work of the National Network of Popular Educators in 17 Cuban provinces and municipalities. Most of the network’s members are women, according to María Isabel Romero, the coordinator of CMMLK’s Popular Education and Participating in Local Experiences Program.

Connections abroad

CMMLK also has connections with similar partners abroad, mainly in Latin America, and with social movements. The Cuban centre offers training and promotes Freire’s approach for the work of civil society groups in Latin America, Vidal said.

Brazilian theologian Frei Betto contributed to introducing this educational perspective in Cuba, and has closely followed its development. At the meeting, Betto said he brought “this contribution to the (Cuban) Revolution, out of conviction of the political importance of Popular Education methodology.”

Latin American activists like Messilene Gorete, of Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement (MST), Honduran activist Salvador Zúñiga of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organization (COPINH), a member of the coalition of groups opposed to the June 2009 coup d’état, and Dolores Iveth Velasco of Equipo Maíz, a Salvadoran political education group, also attended the meeting.

Velasco is part of an education project working with a wide range of groups in El Salvador. In her view, “Popular Education is that knowledge that we have and build on, but when we organize it, it frees us from the bonds created by the consumer society.”

As a result of this liberating methodology, “a person takes up the reins of their own life,” she said. According to her social work experience, it is vital to bring women to this kind of learning, so that they “take power over their own bodies and do not allow others to make decisions for them.”
===

Popular Knowledge Can Transform People's Worlds

by Dalia Acosta
Published on Saturday, November 13, 2010 by Inter Press Service
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/13-0

HAVANA - Valuing and sharing common people's knowledge and experience, awakening critical consciousness and finding paths for effective social participation are the processes used by more than 1,000 people in Cuba working in Popular Education, a liberating approach to education developed by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire in the 1960s.

"The deepest form of participation is when people come together, sharing their own thoughts and feelings, with a strong sense of commitment and full awareness of what they are doing," José Ramón Vidal, head of the Popular Communication Programme at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Centre (CMMLK), told IPS. Combining true dedication and horizontal ways of organising to ensure everyone's opinion was included, the Fourth National Popular Education Encounter was held Nov. 9-12 in the Cuban capital. Cuba has appropriated this educational approach since 1995, when the first workshop was organised.

Dolores Iveth Velasco of Equipo Maíz, a Salvadoran political education group, said, "Popular Education is that knowledge that we have and build on, but when we organise it, it frees us from the bonds created by the consumer society."(photo by Flickr user katerha)

This philosophy of critical awareness began to find followers in Cuba during the severe economic crisis suffered by the Cuban population in the 1990s. "The hardship we have endured for so many years creates despair and disillusion," said Vidal, a psychologist.

In Vidal's view, people who train in the methodology of popular education experience "re-enchantment" with values and emotions that are denied by the competitive and individualistic culture of free market societies. "They fall in love again with a social project, with what they do, with service, solidarity and sharing," he said.

In the 15 years since the movement arrived in Cuba and the birth of the National Network of Popular Educators, which has about 1,500 members, Freire's precepts have reached community groups and institutions around the country.

In Granma province in southeastern Cuba, "local bodies like the People's Councils are adopting, timidly as yet, this way of doing, learning and organising," Yordenis Monge, coordinator of the Food Sovereignty and Local Development Project in the eastern city of Bayamo, told IPS.

Promoted by Cuban and Spanish non-governmental organisations in three provinces on the island, the outreach initiative involves, directly or indirectly, more than 60 institutions. "Leaders and their community work groups are now going through a Popular Education learning process," Monge said.

Becoming critical subjects

Some authorities have recognised the benefits of this way of doing things. According to Mario Cruz Díaz, a member of the local legislature in the province of Holguín, which borders Granma, the method "is a great help in the work of directing, planning, forecasting and coordinating."

In his province, which has a population of more than 300,000, distribution of the few resources available is difficult, and they must be used to the best effect. "When a person receives aid as welfare, without consciously participating, he or she is incapable of really valuing the cost of what they are given," Cruz said.

Freire's educational goal was to encourage people to become critical subjects who were capable of collectively solving their problems, managing their lives and transforming their surroundings. Community and environmental groups and neighbourhoods facing difficulties like poverty and high levels of violence are taking up Popular Education.

Neighbourhood Transformation Workshops in the Cuban capital, the Promotion and Education Centre for Sustainable Development (CEPRODESO) in the western province of Pinar del Río, the La Marina social and cultural project in Matanzas province, and some small farmers' cooperatives are adopting the methodology.

At present, CMMLK is participating in the work of the National Network of Popular Educators in 17 Cuban provinces and municipalities. Most of the network's members are women, according to María Isabel Romero, the coordinator of CMMLK's Popular Education and Participating in Local Experiences Programme. CMMLK also has connections with similar partners abroad, mainly in Latin America, and with social movements. The Cuban centre offers training and promotes Freire's approach for the work of civil society groups in Latin America, Vidal said.

Brazilian theologian Frei Betto contributed to introducing this educational perspective in Cuba, and has closely followed its development. At the meeting, Betto said he brought "this contribution to the (Cuban) Revolution, out of conviction of the political importance of Popular Education methodology."

Latin American activists like Messilene Gorete, of Brazil's Landless Workers Movement (MST), Honduran activist Salvador Zúñiga of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisation (COPINH), a member of the coalition of groups opposed to the June 2009 coup d'etat, and Dolores Iveth Velasco of Equipo Maíz, a Salvadoran political education group, also attended the meeting.

Velasco is part of an education project working with a wide range of groups in El Salvador. In her view, "Popular Education is that knowledge that we have and build on, but when we organise it, it frees us from the bonds created by the consumer society."

As a result of this liberating methodology, "a person takes up the reins of their own life," she said. According to her social work experience, it is vital to bring women to this kind of learning, so that they "take power over their own bodies and do not allow others to make decisions for them."

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Vandana Shiva: Earth Democracy And Rights Of Mother Earth - Ending War Against Earth

The richer we get, the poorer we become ecologically and culturally.
The growth of affluence, measured in money, is leading to a growth in poverty at the material, cultural, ecological and spiritual levels.

The real currency of life is life itself
we have a higher purpose, a higher end

''earth democracy'' enables us to envision and create living democracies based on the intrinsic worth of all species, all peoples, all cultures - a just and equal sharing of this earth's vital resources, and sharing the decisions about the use of the earth's resources.

Earth democracy protects the ecological processes that maintain life and the fundamental human rights that are the basis of the right to life, including the right to water, food, health, education, jobs and livelihoods.

obey ... Gaia's laws for maintenance of the earth's ecosystems and the diversity of its beings

nature's capacity to provide food and water is protected.

[Nurturing] the rights of Mother Earth is ... the most important human rights and social justice struggle.
It is the broadest peace movement of our times.
+++

Time to End War Against the Earth

by Vandana Shiva
Published on Sunday, November 7, 2010 by The Age (Australia)
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/11/07-5

When we think of wars in our times, our minds turn to Iraq and Afghanistan. But the bigger war is the war against the planet. This war has its roots in an economy that fails to respect ecological and ethical limits - limits to inequality, limits to injustice, limits to greed and economic concentration.

A handful of corporations and of powerful countries seeks to control the earth's resources and transform the planet into a supermarket in which everything is for sale. They want to sell our water, genes, cells, organs, knowledge, cultures and future.

Vandana Shiva The continuing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and onwards are not only about "blood for oil". As they unfold, we will see that they are about blood for food, blood for genes and biodiversity and blood for water.

The war mentality underlying military-industrial agriculture is evident from the names of Monsanto's herbicides - ''Round-Up'', ''Machete'', ''Lasso''. American Home Products, which has merged with Monsanto, gives its herbicides similarly aggressive names, including ''Pentagon'' and ''Squadron''.This is the language of war. Sustainability is based on peace with the earth.

The war against the earth begins in the mind. Violent thoughts shape violent actions. Violent categories construct violent tools. And nowhere is this more vivid than in the metaphors and methods on which industrial, agricultural and food production is based. Factories that produced poisons and explosives to kill people during wars were transformed into factories producing agri-chemicals after the wars.

The year 1984 woke me up to the fact that something was terribly wrong with the way food was produced. With the violence in Punjab and the disaster in Bhopal, agriculture looked like war. That is when I wrote The Violence of the Green Revolution and why I started Navdanya as a movement for an agriculture free of poisons and toxics.

Pesticides, which started as war chemicals, have failed to control pests. Genetic engineering was supposed to provide an alternative to toxic chemicals. Instead, it has led to increased use of pesticides and herbicides and unleashed a war against farmers.

The high-cost feeds and high-cost chemicals are trapping farmers in debt - and the debt trap is pushing farmers to suicide. According to official data, more than 200,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide in India since 1997.

Making peace with the earth was always an ethical and ecological imperative. It has now become a survival imperative for our species.

Violence to the soil, to biodiversity, to water, to atmosphere, to farms and farmers produces a warlike food system that is unable to feed people. One billion people are hungry. Two billion suffer food-related diseases - obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cancers.

There are three levels of violence involved in non-sustainable development. The first is the violence against the earth, which is expressed as the ecological crisis. The second is the violence against people, which is expressed as poverty, destitution and displacement. The third is the violence of war and conflict, as the powerful reach for the resources that lie in other communities and countries for their limitless appetites.

When every aspect of life is commercialized, living becomes more costly, and people are poor, even if they earn more than a dollar a day. On the other hand, people can be affluent in material terms, even without the money economy, if they have access to land, their soils are fertile, their rivers flow clean, their cultures are rich and carry traditions of producing beautiful homes and clothing and delicious food, and there is social cohesion, solidarity and spirit of community.

The elevation of the domain of the market, and money as man-made capital, to the position of the highest organizing principle for societies and the only measure of our well-being has led to the undermining of the processes that maintain and sustain life in nature and society.

The richer we get, the poorer we become ecologically and culturally. The growth of affluence, measured in money, is leading to a growth in poverty at the material, cultural, ecological and spiritual levels.

The real currency of life is life itself and this view raises questions: how do we look at ourselves in this world? What are humans for? And are we merely a money-making and resource-guzzling machine? Or do we have a higher purpose, a higher end?

I believe that ''earth democracy'' enables us to envision and create living democracies based on the intrinsic worth of all species, all peoples, all cultures - a just and equal sharing of this earth's vital resources, and sharing the decisions about the use of the earth's resources.

We have to make a choice. Will we obey the market laws of corporate greed or Gaia's laws for maintenance of the earth's ecosystems and the diversity of its beings?

People's need for food and water can be met only if nature's capacity to provide food and water is protected. Dead soils and dead rivers cannot give food and water.

Defending the rights of Mother Earth is therefore the most important human rights and social justice struggle. It is the broadest peace movement of our times.

This is an edited version of Dr Vandana Shiva's speech at the Sydney Opera House last night.

Vandana Shiva is an Indian feminist and environmental activist. She is the founder/director of Navdanya Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Child Gives Great Lecture - What's Wrong With Our Food System

Nov 05, 2010

What's Wrong With Our Food System

Birke Baehr wants adults to know that while they might be oblivious for a while, once they are in the know kids are interested and concerned about what is happening to the American food system. They want to learn more about where the food they are eating is coming from, what they can do to make the system better, and what their choices are. Watch an articulate and upbeat Birke tell it like it is.

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Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Empathetic & Kind - Not Selfish & Cruel -- How Progressive Ideas Become Main Stream

Empathetic & Kind - Not Selfish & Cruel
-- How Progressive Ideas Can Become Main Stream

we must lead this shift ourselves. People with strong intrinsic values must cease to be embarrassed by them.

argue for the policies we want not on the grounds of expediency but
on the grounds that they are empathetic and kind;

and against others
on the grounds that they are selfish and cruel.

In asserting our values we become the change we want to see.
+++

The Values of Everything

Posted October 11, 2010
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2010/10/11/the-values-of-everything/

Progressive causes are failing: here’s how they could be turned around

By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 12th October 2010

So here we are, forming an orderly queue at the slaughterhouse gate. The punishment of the poor for the errors of the rich, the abandonment of universalism, the dismantling of the shelter the state provides: apart from a few small protests, none of this has yet brought us out fighting.

The acceptance of policies which counteract our interests is the pervasive mystery of the 21st Century. In the United States, blue-collar workers angrily demand that they be left without healthcare, and insist that millionaires should pay less tax. In the UK we appear ready to abandon the social progress for which our ancestors risked their lives with barely a mutter of protest. What has happened to us?

The answer, I think, is provided by the most interesting report I have read this year. Common Cause, written by Tom Crompton of the environment group WWF, examines a series of fascinating recent advances in the field of psychology(1). It offers, I believe, a remedy to the blight which now afflicts every good cause from welfare to climate change.

Progressives, he shows, have been suckers for a myth of human cognition he labels the Enlightenment model. This holds that people make rational decisions by assessing facts. All that has to be done to persuade people is to lay out the data: they will then use it to decide which options best support their interests and desires.

A host of psychological experiments demonstrates that it doesn’t work like this. Instead of performing a rational cost-benefit analysis, we accept information which confirms our identity and values, and reject information that conflicts with them. We mould our thinking around our social identity, protecting it from serious challenge. Confronting people with inconvenient facts is likely only to harden their resistance to change.

Our social identity is shaped by values which psychologists classify as either extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic values concern status and self-advancement. People with a strong set of extrinsic values fixate on how others see them. They cherish financial success, image and fame. Intrinsic values concern relationships with friends, family and community, and self-acceptance. Those who have a strong set of intrinsic values are not dependent on praise or rewards from other people. They have beliefs which transcend their self-interest.

Few people are all-extrinsic or all-intrinsic. Our social identity is formed by a mixture of values. But psychological tests in nearly 70 countries show that values cluster together in remarkably consistent patterns. Those who strongly value financial success, for example, have less empathy, stronger manipulative tendencies, a stronger attraction to hierarchy and inequality, stronger prejudices towards strangers and less concern about human rights and the environment. Those who have a strong sense of self-acceptance have more empathy and a greater concern about human rights, social justice and the environment. These values suppress each other: the stronger someone’s extrinsic aspirations, the weaker his or her intrinsic goals.

We are not born with our values. They are shaped by the social environment. By changing our perception of what is normal and acceptable, politics alters our minds as much as our circumstances. Free, universal health provision, for example, tends to reinforce intrinsic values. Shutting the poor out of healthcare normalises inequality, reinforcing extrinsic values. The sharp rightward shift which began with Margaret Thatcher and persisted under Blair and Brown, all of whose governments emphasised the virtues of competition, the market and financial success, has changed our values. The British Social Attitudes survey, for example, shows a sharp fall over this period in public support for policies which redistribute wealth and opportunity(2).

This shift has been reinforced by advertising and the media. The media’s fascination with power politics, its rich lists, its catalogues of the 100 most powerful, influential, intelligent or beautiful people, its obsessive promotion of celebrity, fashion, fast cars, expensive holidays: all these inculcate extrinsic values. By generating feelings of insecurity and inadequacy - which means reducing self-acceptance - they also suppress intrinsic goals.

Advertisers, who employ large numbers of psychologists, are well aware of this. Crompton quotes Guy Murphy, global planning director for the marketing company JWT. Marketers, Murphy says, “should see themselves as trying to manipulate culture; being social engineers, not brand managers; manipulating cultural forces, not brand impressions”(3). The more they foster extrinsic values, the easier it is to sell their products.

Rightwing politicians have also, instinctively, understood the importance of values in changing the political map. Margaret Thatcher famously remarked that “economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul.”(4) Conservatives in the United States generally avoid debating facts and figures. Instead they frame issues in ways that both appeal to and reinforce extrinsic values. Every year, through mechanisms that are rarely visible and seldom discussed, the space in which progressive ideas can flourish shrinks a little more. The progressive response to this trend has been disastrous.

Instead of confronting the shift in values, we have sought to adapt to it. Once-progressive political parties have tried to appease altered public attitudes: think of all those New Labour appeals to Middle England, which was often just a code for self-interest. In doing so they endorse and legitimise extrinsic values. Many greens and social justice campaigners have also tried to reach people by appealing to self-interest: explaining how, for example, relieving poverty in the developing world will build a market for British products, or suggesting that, by buying a hybrid car, you can impress your friends and enhance your social status. This tactic also strengthens extrinsic values, making future campaigns even less likely to succeed. Green consumerism has been a catastrophic mistake.

Common Cause proposes a simple remedy: that we stop seeking to bury our values and instead explain and champion them. Progressive campaigners, it suggests, should help to foster an understanding of the psychology which informs political change and show how it has been manipulated. They should also come together to challenge forces – particularly the advertising industry – which make us insecure and selfish.

Ed Miliband appears to understands this need. He told the Labour conference that he “wants to change our society so that it values community and family, not just work” and “wants to change our foreign policy so that it’s always based on values, not just alliances … We must shed old thinking and stand up for those who believe there is more to life than the bottom line.”(5) But there’s a paradox here, which means that we cannot rely on politicians to drive these changes. Those who succeed in politics are, by definition, people who prioritise extrinsic values. Their ambition must supplant peace of mind, family life, friendship - even brotherly love.

So we must lead this shift ourselves. People with strong intrinsic values must cease to be embarrassed by them. We should argue for the policies we want not on the grounds of expediency but on the grounds that they are empathetic and kind; and against others on the grounds that they are selfish and cruel. In asserting our values we become the change we want to see.

www.monbiot.com

References:

1. Tom Crompton, September 2010. Common Cause: The Case for Working with our Cultural Values.
WWF, Oxfam, Friends of the Earth, CPRE, Climate Outreach Information Network. http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/common_cause_report.pdf

2. J. Curtice, 2010. Thermostat or weathervane? Public reactions to spending and redistribution under New Labour, in Park, A et al, S (eds.) British Social Attitudes 2009-2010: the 26th report. Sage, London. Cited by Tom Crompton, above.

3. Guy Murphy, 2005. Influencing the size of your market. Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. Cited by Tom Crompton, above.

4. Margaret Thatcher, 3rd May 198. Interview with The Sunday Times. Cited by Tom Crompton, above.

5. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/28/ed-miliband-labour-conference-speech

Monday, November 1, 2010

Storks Return As Community Eliminates Pesticides & Restores Habitats

Inaba became a community leader, determined to "live with the storks"

"I want to pass on the landscape that I saw as a child," said Inaba.
"I hope our efforts here will spread to the rest of the country."

Inaba and other farmers studied how to grow rice without pesticides.

rebuilt waterways and flooded some rice fields for longer or all year-round to bring back fish and frogs that are food sources for the storks.

"When I learnt that frogs eat noxious insects, I was very moved.
I said to myself 'we can do farming without pesticides',"

the local habitats ... recovered,

Now, about 50 storks live in local wetlands and fields and 100 in a public park in Toyooka, a fact that the city proudly promotes to attract tourists.

The birds have become the emblem of the local brand of "Stork-Nurturing Rice", popular with ecologically-minded consumers who can order it online.

Inaba said growing organic rice is more challenging than it was when farmers doused fields in pesticides, but said he was determined never to go back.

"satoyama", a composite of the words for villages (sato) and mountains, woods and grasslands (yama).

Japan is seeking to sign up groups and countries to exchange conservation lessons and ideas through its Satoyama Initiative.
===

Japan Looks to Ancient Village Wisdom to Save Biodiversity

Published on Monday, November 1, 2010 by Agence France Presse
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/01-0

Four decades ago the oriental white stork became extinct in Japan, the victim of rapid industrialisation and modern farm practices and heavy pesticide use that destroyed its habitat.

As Japan hosts a UN conference on biodiversity this week, the high-tech nation is pushing the initiative to promote some of its ancient village wisdom as a way to heal battered environments worldwide. (photo by Flickr user pelican)

Today, the graceful migratory bird soars again over restored wetlands around the small town of Toyooka in western Japan, now a showcase for an ambitious conservation effort called the Satoyama Initiative.

The initiative draws lessons from before Japan became studded with megacities and crisscrossed by bullet train lines, when most people lived in villages near rice paddies, bamboo groves and forests.

In the pre-industrial age, woodlands gave villagers plants, nuts, mushrooms and wildlife as well as natural medicines, textiles, fuel and timber for building, all usually harvested sustainably over the centuries.

These managed ecosystems - neither pristine wilderness nor cultivated agricultural landscapes - are known as "satoyama", a composite of the words for villages (sato) and mountains, woods and grasslands (yama).

Today ecologists, somewhat less poetically, call them "socio-ecological production landscapes".

At the 193-member UN meeting in Nagoya aimed at stemming the loss of plant and animal species, Japan is seeking to sign up groups and countries to exchange conservation lessons and ideas through its Satoyama Initiative.

In Japan, as elsewhere, these human-influenced natural environments have been on the decline as many forests have vanished, agriculture has become modernised, and small farm villages have been abandoned.

Bucking the trend has been Toyooka, a town of about 90,000 people in the west of Honshu island, which prides itself on undoing much of the past damage that had wiped out the oriental white stork.

The bird, which has a wingspan of two metres and is officially designated a national treasure in Japan, became extinct in the country in 1971.

Local farmer Tetsuro Inaba, 68, remembers how when he was a child the birds were still a common sight across the country, before they slowly vanished, with the heavy use of pesticides delivering the final blow.

"When I took over the farm from my father, the farmers here were addicted to pesticides. In hindsight, we used terrifying amounts," he said.

When wild stork numbers in Toyooka fell to just 12 in 1965, the city caught a pair and started an artificial breeding programme. But the conservation attempt failed. And the rest died out in the wild by 1971.

"They had lost their reproductive capacity because of the mercury that had accumulated inside their bodies from pesticides," says Inaba.

In 1992, Inaba became a community leader, determined to "live with the storks" - a species that survived in parts of Russia, China and Korea.

Inaba and other farmers studied how to grow rice without pesticides.

They also rebuilt waterways and flooded some rice fields for longer or all year-round to bring back fish and frogs that are food sources for the storks.

"When I learnt that frogs eat noxious insects, I was very moved. I said to myself 'we can do farming without pesticides'," said Inaba.

As the local habitats slowly recovered, Toyooka released storks into the wild five years ago. They had been bred in captivity from six young birds donated by Russia's far-eastern city of Khabarovsk two decades earlier.

Now, about 50 storks live in local wetlands and fields and 100 in a public park in Toyooka, a fact that the city proudly promotes to attract tourists.

The birds have become the emblem of the local brand of "Stork-Nurturing Rice", popular with ecologically-minded consumers who can order it online.

Inaba said growing organic rice is more challenging than it was when farmers doused fields in pesticides, but said he was determined never to go back.

"I want to pass on the landscape that I saw as a child," said Inaba. "I hope our efforts here will spread to the rest of the country."