Original article on Huffintonpost

Does Mother Nature deserve the same protection as your own mother?
Lawmakers in Bolivia think so. The South American country’s leaders are on the brink of passing a revolutionary set of rules that would grant nature equal rights to humans–a first of its kind.
Known as the Law of Mother Earth (”Ley de Derechos de La Madre Tierra” in Spanish), the legislation will create 11 distinguished rights for the environment, as The Guardian outlines:
They include: the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered.

Bolivians have long revered the Pachamama, Andean goddess of Mother Earth, and the law is said to be greatly inspired by a resurgence in the indigenous belief that the deity is central to all life. As Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said when describing the measure, “Earth is the mother of all…the harmony [between man and nature] must be preserved as a guarantee of its regeneration.”

Spiritual views aside, Bolivia’s natural resources have been threatened by environmental changes in recent years, a trend the Law of Mother Earth aims to curtail. Glaciers, long a source of water and electricity for Bolivians, are disappearing much faster than scientists predicted, the New York Times found. And the nation’s temperatures have steadily risen for decades.

The Guardian’s John Vidal visited the country to explore the effects of climate change, meeting with residents whose neighborhood in the capital city of La Paz completely vanished after a powerful landslide. Watch a video of Vidal’s visit:

VIDEO

But as Wired noted, disruptive industries like mining contribute to a large portion of Bolivia’s GDP, and the largely-abstract legislation has yet to define how such practices will be regulated. It does, however, specify that the natural world has the right “to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities.”

You can read the full text of the law (in Spanish) here.

To watch Videos:
Kony, M23 and the real rebels of Congo

Conflict, Minerals and Child Soldiers in Congo

By Rebecca Sommer

In an impressively bold action, the source of the NSA leaks identified himself and his reasons.

“I do not want to live in such a world”

Me neither.

Our hero’s name is Edward Snowden, 29 years young. He worked for several years as an IT analyst for the CIA, and later at NSA surveillance subcontractor Booz Allen Hamilton. He was among “thousands upon thousands” of such analysts hired to manage and sift through “huge amounts of data.” Yours and mine.

Edward fled to Hong Kong in the hope that the U.S. would have difficulties to get access to him, but ultimately he wants to seek asylum in Iceland. Sadly, Iceland announced that its asylum procedure demands the person to apply within the country, and not from the outside. Ridiculous, if there is political will - there is a way. Come on Iceland, let this brave man have his deserved freedom in your hauntingly beautiful country!

I hope that the Icelandic people will stand up for him, and pressure their government to make an exception to the asylum rules.

In the meantime, leftist German party “Linke” requested that Germany must grant him asylum - which is the exact right move any government should do, and I am sure that ~7 billion people from around the world agree.

So let’s start to demand this from our governments!

When Edward Snowden explained his motivation to leak the information despite the fact that he knew that he would be targeted by the US, he said that he does not want to live in a world in which you have no privacy. In addition:

“You can not wait around for someone else to act. I had been looking for leaders, but I did realized leadership is about being the first to act…. I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things”

One could now summarize a lot of what Glenn Greenwald writes in the Guardian about it, or what Snowden says in the video interview with Greenwald. But you can also just watch yourself there. Again: Impressive.

Edward Snowden, THANK YOU.

WATCH VIDEO at the original source ! The Guardian

Daniel Ellsberg, who in 1971 leaked the Pentagon Papers, and thus uncovered massive wrongdoing by the U.S. government during the Vietnam War, was quoted as saying that he has been waiting for such a moment for 40 years.

Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist,  who should really get the Pulitzer Prize for the entire NSA stories this week, points out that Snowden is not on Facebook or Twitter, so all subsequent sounding accounts are fake.

For the matter of fact, I also refused to open a Facebook or Twitter account, suspicious that it was/is a spy machine. Little did I knew that any information that I was sending and receiving through my personal e-mail account, my skype conversations, my pdf or word files, my pictures . . are surveilled and stored by Prism for years anyhow, and my human right to privacy severely violated.

A comment on youtube said that his song reflects a worldwide cry against authoritarian systems and in defense of the web of life.
Watch Video

(10th meeting) United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 12th session
28 May 2013 - Discussion on the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples [item 6].
12th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (20-31 May 2013)
Watch VIDEO (ENGLISH)

San people removed from their land (Roy Sesana), Botswana (VIDEO Earth Peoples)

Watch VIDEO: San people removed from their land (Roy Sesana) 2007

Botswana govt proceeding with San relocation
BY RICHARD LEE 05 June 2013

Despite a court order halting the relocation of a San community from Ranyane, the Botswana government seems intent on proceeding with its unlawful plans to move San families from land that they have lived on for decades.
According to the latest reports from Ranyane, government officials have arrived at the settlement with trucks and are trying to ‘persuade’ people to leave.
“The San residents of Ranyane had hoped that court order would deter the government from relocating them and violating their rights once again but this is clearly not the case,” said Keikabile Mogodu, Director of the Khwedom Council, which advocates on behalf of the San in Botswana.
“By continuing with its plans to forcibly relocate this community, the Botswana government is acting in clear violation of a court order and demonstrating its contempt for the rule of law,” he added.
As part of their ‘persuasion’, the government officials told the chief of Ranyane that he would be dethroned if he – and his people – did not relocate. The chief flatly refused.
“We thought this was a democratic society and we believed that the San had the same rights as everyone else in Botswana – clearly we were wrong,” said Mogodu.

This video shows the Purepecha community’s efforts to reclaim and defend itself from organized crime thugs teamed up with the logging industry and different government agencies.

Watch video Guarda Bosques (Forest Keepers) In Español, with English subtitles

On April 15th 2011, when organized crime thugs teamed up with the logging industry and different government agencies to pillage precious and sacred forests at gun-point, the indigenous Purepecha community of Cheran, Michoacan, Mexico rose up with sticks, rocks, and bottle rockets against what can only be described as their local narco-government. Since then, they have taken the authority’s offices, weapons, and pick-up trucks, ousted all political parties and all local and state police, and have re-established a traditional form of self-governance that includes its own council of elders, a community “police”, known as a “ronda”, and its own forest defense team, or forest keepers, known as the “Guarda Bosques.”

Earth Peoples comment: Watch the documentary ” HUNTED LIKE ANIMALS”, about the plight of indigenous peoples Hmong-Lao living-in-hiding and refugees.

HUNTED LIKE ANIMALS

Amnesty International Lao Report:

Restrictions on freedom of expression, association and assembly continued. Three prisoners of conscience and two Hmong political prisoners remained imprisoned. Harassment of Christians in several provinces was reported. Concerns increased over land disputes caused by development projects affecting livelihoods.

Background

In February, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern about the lack of international access given to Hmong involuntarily returned from Thailand. In September, Laos ratified the UN Convention against Torture. In November, Laos adopted the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration, despite serious concerns that it fell short of international standards. The death penalty remained mandatory for some drug offences; no official statistics were made public. Harassment of Christians in provincial areas continued, with confiscation of property, closing of churches, short-term detention and forced recanting.

Freedom of expression

Freedom of expression remained tightly controlled with media and others conforming to state policies and self-censorship. In January, the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism ordered the radio call-in programme Talk of the News to be taken off air. The programme was popular with callers complaining about land grabs and corruption.

• Prisoners of conscience Thongpaseuth Keuakoun, Bouavanh Chanhmanivong and Seng-Aloun Phengphanh remained in prison, despite the authorities’ claims in September 2011 that two of them would be released. They had been imprisoned since October 1999 for trying to hold a peaceful protest.

• Ethnic Hmong Thao Moua and Pa Fue Khang had nine months deducted from their 12- and 15-year sentences respectively. They were arrested in 2003 for helping two foreign journalists gather information about Hmong groups hiding in the jungle.

Land disputes

Amid concerns over a rise in land disputes, in June the authorities announced a four-year moratorium on new mining investments and concessions for rubber plantations due to environmental and social concerns. Large-scale development projects intruding on villagers’ land affected livelihoods, with lack of adequate compensation reported.

• In June, eight villagers were arrested for petitioning the authorities over a land dispute with a Vietnamese company granted a rubber concession in 2006 which affected Ban Yeup village, Thateng district in Sekong province. All were released within a few days, except for one man who was held for around two weeks and reportedly ill-treated before being freed.

Enforced disappearances

On 15 December, Sombath Somphone, a respected member of Lao civil society well known for his work promoting education and sustainable development, was taken away in a truck by unknown persons after being stopped by police in the capital, Vientiane. He helped to organize the Asia-Europe People’s Forum in Vientiane in October.

Watch Video “A SILENT GENOCIDE”:
PARTS 1 & 2

Renee Kahukura-Iosefa travels to Brazil to talk with the Guaraní-Kaiowá. The indigenous people are locked in a violent battle with local farmers, as they fight to reclaim their ancestral lands. It’s a brutal struggle that’s costing them their lives.

Watch Video on Democracy Now!

President Obama outraged food activists last week when he signed into law a spending bill with a controversial rider that critics have dubbed the “Monsanto Protection Act.” The rider says the government must allow the planting of genetically modified crops even if courts rule they pose health risks. The measure has galvanized the U.S. food justice movement, which is now preparing for its next fight when the provision expires in six months. We host a discussion on the “Monsanto Protection Act” and the safety of genetically modified foods with two guests: Gregory Jaffe, director of the Biotechnology Project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that addresses food and nutrition issues; and Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch and author of the book, “Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America.” On Wednesday, Hauter’s group is releasing a major new report called “Monsanto: A Corporate Profile.”