Tuesday, 13 October 2015

A Soil Pilgrimage- Vandana Shiva

I have just returned from a soil pilgrimage undertaken to celebrate the International Year of Soil and renew our commitment to a non-violent relationship with the earth, the soil and our society. On October 2, we started the pilgrimage from Bapu Kutir at Sevagram Ashram, Maharashtra. My fellow pilgrims were those who have contributed over half-a-century of their lives to build the organic movement — Andre Leu, president of International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM), Ronnie Cummins, director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) of the United States, and Will Allen, a professor and long-time organic farmer.

At Mahatma Gandhi’s hut, we took a pledge to stop the violence to the soil through chemical fertilisers and poisons and promote organic farming as ahimsa kheti. We dedicated ourselves to a transition from a violent, chemical, industrial agriculture that is destroying soil fertility and trapping farmers in debt through high-cost seeds and chemicals.

Vidarbha, for example, has emerged as the epicentre of debt-induced farmers’ suicides. It is also the region with the highest acreage of genetically modified organism (GMO) Bt cotton. Fields of non-Bt, native cotton — which is totally pest and weed-free — gives more yields than Bt cotton.

The Bt fields are being doused in pesticides because of pest outbreaks, since Bt is failing as a tool to control pests. Bt cotton fields are also being sprayed with Monsanto’s Roundup, a known carcinogen to control weeds

There is no regulation of the poisons being used. Most of the GMO cotton seed is being blended and labelled for sale as vegetable oil. We are being fed GMO cotton seed oil, even though GMOs are not allowed in food in India. And while toxic oils spread without regulation, the new food safety rules have shut down the ghani (virgin oil press) that sold healthy and safe oils like flax, groundnut, sesame and mustard.

The oilcake is being fed to our cows. Those who kill others in the name of cow protection are silent on the fight against the toxic giants who are poisoning our “gau mata”.

The pilgrimage concluded at the Agriculture College, Indore, which started as Albert Howard’s institute on organic farming that contributed to the famous Indore process of composting.

Mahatma Gandhi came to know of the Indore process when he visited London to attend the Round Table Conference. Gandhi and Howard have shown that we can have a peaceful and respectful relationship with the soil and with each other.

Howard was sent to India in 1905 by the British Empire to introduce chemical farming. When he arrived, he found the soils were fertile and there were no pests in the fields. He decided to make the Indian peasant his professor and wrote the book An Agricultural Testament, known as the bible of organic farming.

Organic farming is the original example of “Make in India”. Howard’s book helped spread the organic movement to the US through the Rodale Institute and to the UK through the Soil Association, finding its way to far corners of the world.

The soil pilgrimage was our expression of gratitude to sources of organic farming in India — our fertile and generous land and Mother Earth that have sustained us for millennia.

Ecological and regenerative agriculture is based on recycling organic matter, and hence recycling nutrients. It is based on the Law of Return — giving nutrients back to the soil. As Howard wrote in The Soil and Health: “Taking without giving is a robbery of the soil and a banditry; a particularly mean form of banditry, because it involves the robbing of future generations which are not here to defend themselves.”

In taking care of the soil, we also produce more food on less land. Fertile soils are the sustainable answer to food and nutrition security. Organic agriculture is the only real answer to climate change.

The air pollution that has built up in the atmosphere is roughly 400 parts per million (ppm) carbon dioxide today. This is the reason for the greenhouse effect and climate chaos, including temperature rise. To cap the rise of temperature at two degrees centigrade, we need to reduce the carbon build up in the air to 350 ppm.

There is a need to reduce emissions and phase out fossil fuels, but it also requires reducing the stocks of excess carbon from the atmosphere and putting it back into the soil where it belongs. Here, organic, regenerative agriculture offers us the way out.

In the process, it also addresses food insecurity and hunger, reverses desertification, creates livelihood security by creating ecological security, and, therefore, creates the path to peace.

Above all, it allows a transition from the violent paradigm, structures and systems of capitalist patriarchy to the non-violent paradigm, structures and systems based on ahimsa, which include the well being of all.

Organic farming is the answer to drought and climate change. It is also a peace solution. If we do not respect the soil and our cultural diversity and if we do not collectively recommit ourselves to ahimsa, we can rapidly disintegrate as a civilisation.

For me, organic agriculture is the dharma that sows the seeds of peace and prosperity for all. It helps us break out of the vicious cycle of violence and degeneration, and create virtuous cycles based on non-violence and regeneration.

Just as humus in soil binds soil particles and prevents soil erosion, it also binds the society and prevents violence and social disintegration. Since humus provides food, livelihood, water and climate security, it also contributes to peace. Just as wet straw cannot be put on fire by a matchstick, communities that are secure cannot be put on fire by violent elements feeding on insecurity created by an economic model that is killing swadeshi and is only designed for global economic powers to extract what they want.

In taking care of the soil, we reclaim our humanity. Our future is inseparable from the future of the earth. It is no accident that the word human has its roots in humus — soil in Latin. And Adam, the first human in Abrahamanic traditions, is derived from Adamus, soil in Hebrew.

Mahatma Gandhi wrote: “To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves.” We must never forget that ahimsa must be the basis of our relationship with the earth and each other.

Dr. Vandana Shiva is a philosopher, environmental activist and eco feminist. She is the founder/director of Navdanya Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology. She is author of numerous books including, Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis;Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply; Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace; and Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development. Shiva has also served as an adviser to governments in India and abroad as well as NGOs, including the International Forum on Globalization, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization and the Third World Network. She has received numerous awards, including 1993 Right Livelihood Award (Alternative Nobel Prize) and the 2010 Sydney Peace Prize.

http://www.asianage.com/columnists/soil-pilgrimage-994

Iraq: Caliph Not Killed But Still A 4+1 Intelligence Room Success

By Moon Of Alabama

The Islamic State Caliph Baghdadi was nearly killed today. This also happened on two earlier occasions one last year and one in April this year. But today at least a few IS honchos found their end. The probably decisive difference was the involvement of the 4+1 intelligence operations room in Baghdad on which I reported here ten days ago.

How the news developed:

Conflict News @Conflicts
BREAKING: #Iraq says their air-force has struck the convoy of #ISIS leader al-Baghdadi. More to come.Borzou Daragahi @borzou
Iraq claims "many Daish leaders killed" in air force bombing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's convoy in Anbar.pic.twitter.com/NDm0C92BoP

Reuters: Iraqi air force hits convoy of Islamic State leader Baghdadi

The Iraqi air force struck a convoy of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in western Anbar province close to the Syrian border on Sunday, a military statement said.
...
"Iraqi air forces have bombed the convoy of the terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi while he was heading to Karabla to attend a meeting with Daesh commanders," the statement read, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
...
"The location of the meeting was also bombed and many of the group's leaders were killed and wounded. Fate of murderer al-Baghdadi is unknown and he was carried away by a vehicle. His health condition is still unclear," the military said.

Any NATO movement toward Russia’s borders will lead to reciprocal steps - Kremlin

Vladimir Putin’s press secretary has said that the excuses used by NATO to move its infrastructure to Russian borders were nothing but camouflage and warned that none of such steps would be left unanswered.

“An invented excuse about the suggested threat coming from Russia is possibly just camouflage used to disguise the plans to further expand NATO toward our borders,” RIA Novosti quoted Dmitry Peskov as saying.

“We are talking about a buildup, there have been statements about larger contingent, we are talking about an increase of military presence. And it is military presence practically near the Russian borders,” he said, adding that this project was not new and that it could cause no other feelings but regret.

“Of course, any plans to bring NATO’s military infrastructure closer to the Russian Federation lead to reciprocal steps needed to restore the necessary parity,” Peskov said.

Earlier Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced the alliance’s plans to boost its Response Force and set up two more headquarters in Hungary and Slovakia. Stoltenberg admitted that this will be the biggest reinforcement since the end of the Cold War as six more, smaller headquarters had already appeared in Eastern Europe.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova commented on NATO’s buildup of forces in Eastern Europe, saying that these steps were not contributing to peace and stability on the continent.

“First of all, we need to hear and understand the position of those who take such actions. They need to tell us about their goals and objectives so that we could comment on them. So far, none of the latest events added stability to the European continent. On the contrary, this stability is being put in jeopardy,” Zakharova said.

https://www.rt.com/politics/318018-any-nato-movement-toward-russias/

Tell Washington to Get Lost

Finian CUNNINGHAM

After a year of bombing the Syrian desert with negligible results in terms of defeating terror groups – as memorably noted by Russian lawmaker Alexei Pushkov – all of a sudden the so-called anti-terror coalition led by the United States seems to have discovered a high degree of logistical precision.

The US and its allies claim that Russian air strikes, commencing on September 30, have failed to hit the jihadis of Islamic State (IS, ISIS or ISIL), also known as Daesh. Russia, according to Washington and the Western news media, has been striking»moderate rebels» and civilians, and in the process shoring up the «regime» of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

There’s nothing amiss under international law about supporting the sovereign government of Syria, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently stipulated. So let’s kick that Western objection out first of all.

As for alleged civilian casualties, CNN, BBC, France 24 and so on have so far not provided one report of funerals or hospital scenes, to verify their earlier high-flown accusations. And this after more than a week since the alleged Russian «atrocities» began.

But what is telling about the latest Western protests over Russia’s military intervention is the apparent omniscient precision about who and where the terror groups are.

Washington officials and Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of the US-led NATO military alliance, this weekclaimed that «over 90 per cent of Russian air strikes were not against ISIS or Al Qaeda».

The US and NATO’s precise enumeration chimes with that of Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who claimed that «only two out of 57 Russian air strikes in Syria» hit IS targets.

The question that the supine Western media should be asking the NATO chief and his Washington superiors is this: if you can so clearly quantify and delineate the IS and Al Qaeda bases, then why has the US-led coalition evidently been wasting 12 months bombing empty desert spaces instead of degrading and defeating these groups, as vowed by US President Barack Obama over a year ago?

Since September 2014, the US and some 60 other allied nations, including NATO members, as well as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been bombing Syria and Iraq with the stated purpose of wiping out the IS terror network. So far, more than 9,000 air strikes have been carried out by the US-led coalition, but until Russia opened up its air campaign more than a week ago, the IS and other jihadis had been steadily growing in strength and territory – despite all that US-led air power supposedly raining down on them.

By contrast, Russia’s air strikes in Syria appear to have achieved more in one week than Washington’s coalition has in more than one year. And when we say «achieved more» we mean significant blows against terror groups.

Initial Western claims – citing dubious «opposition sources» – of dozens of civilian casualties caused by Russian attacks have since dissipated without trace. No follow-up evidence, reports or photos of civilian losses has been presented. That indicates that the initial Western claims were nothing more than a despicable disinformation stunt.

Russian military chiefs have been vindicated that their air campaign – now augmented by cruise missiles fired from warships in the Caspian Sea – has been closely coordinated with Syrian government forces in order to avoid any civilian victims.

Russia has directed most of its fire power at Al Qaeda-affiliated groups in the West and North of Syria around Hama, Idlib and Aleppo, where the threat to the Syrian state’s viability was most acute. These militia include Al Nusra, Ahrar al Shams, Jund al Aqsa and a host of others under the umbrella name, Army of Conquest. The IS network is more disposed in the East of Syria towards the border with Iraq. There is every expectation that Russia will turn its fire power to that region next after it has neutralised the threat in the East and North.

Nonetheless, Russia is correct in defining that all these groups come under the rubric of «criminal extremists». They are mainly composed of foreign mercenaries who are fighting to topple the sovereign government of Syria. That makes them legitimate targets for Russian air strikes.

The notion contrived by the West that the only terrorist danger in Syria is that posed by the IS group is a meaningless game of semantics. It is just a way for the West to try to impose restrictions on Russia’s legitimate operations.

More importantly, at the very least it shows that the US and its allies are up to their criminal eyes in collusion with the non-IS factions, who are largely dominated by al Qaeda-affiliates. The «moderate» epithet is just a PR charade, without which the Western governments would be scandalised among their own public for their association with terror groups who were supposed to be the post-9/11 enemy.

What’s more, Russia’s head of Syrian operations Col General Andrei Kartapolov this week said that Moscow has proposed sharing coordinates on IS targets with the US-led coalition. But, he said, the Americans have not responded to the offer of military cooperation.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov added wryly that the Western-backed so-called Free Syrian Army – the supposed moderate rebels – appear to be nothing more than a «phantom army». This is the chimeric «ethical rebel group» that the West accuses Russia of targeting instead of «extremists». Lavrov said: «We have asked the US where and who are these Free Syrian Army groups, but have got no answer».

Slowly, painfully, the precise truth is emerging about Syria. Washington and its supposedly virtuous allies have been destroying Syria for nearly five years with a criminal covert war for regime change, involving the dispatch of mercenary terror groups to do the dirty work. Now that Russia has moved decisively to put an end to this criminal conspiracy, the West is up in arms over its regime-change «investment» being obliterated.

Washington is not sharing precise information on its terror brigades with Russia because that would only compound its already mounting losses. Instead, Washington is covering up its criminality by appointing itself as some of kind of arbiter about which militant group Russia should and should not strike. Moscow should tell Washington to get lost, precisely.

Tags: Al Qaeda NATO Middle East Russia Syria US

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2015/10/11/tell-washington-get-lost.html

This Just In: We Are Officially in a New Gilded Age

by

Justin Miller

Yesterday, The New York Times dropped an investigative bombshell that confirmed in detail what most of us already know: The ultra-rich are in control of our electoral process.

As the Times reports, just 158 families have contributed nearly half of all the money raised so far for the numerous presidential campaigns. “Not since before Watergate,” the story states, “have so few people and businesses provided so much early money in a campaign, most of it through channels legalized by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision five years ago.”

Not surprisingly, these donors are overwhelmingly white, male, old, Republican, and rich—very, very rich. These are the people who have made their wealth by cashing in on the under-regulated frontiers of fracking and speculative finance. And they are backing candidates who will ensure that their interests are kept at the front of the agenda.

“[R]egardless of industry, the families investing the most in presidential politics overwhelmingly lean right, contributing tens of millions of dollars to support Republican candidates who have pledged to pare regulations; cut taxes on income, capital gains and inheritances; and shrink entitlement programs. While such measures would help protect their own wealth, the donors describe their embrace of them more broadly, as the surest means of promoting economic growth and preserving a system that would allow others to prosper, too.”

Most of these donors are concentrated around only nine cities, and if you combine the neighborhoods—elite, mostly white enclaves—that these political benefactors live in, it would be roughly equivalent to the area of New Orleans. Here’s a great breakdown of just where these donors come from, and how they’ve made their fortunes.

We’ve known for some time now that the mega-rich, who have a very specific political agenda, have captured the campaign-finance system. This investigation serves, however, to turn that notion from an abstract to a very tangible concept and brings these political power-players out from the shadows.

Justin Miller is a writing fellow for The American Prospect. Follow him on Twitter: @by_jmiller

http://prospect.org/blog/tapped/just-we-are-officially-new-gilded-age

'Capitalism is Mother Earth's Cancer': World People's Summit Issues 12 Demands

The establishment of an independent climate tribunal to hold wealthy nations accountable emerged as a central goal of conference in Bolivia

by

Deirdre Fulton, staff writer

Decrying capitalism as a "threat to life," an estimated 7,000 environmentalists, farmers, and Indigenous activists from 40 countries convened in the Bolivian town of Tiquipaya for this weekend's World People's Conference on Climate Change, aiming to elevate the demands of social movements and developing countries in the lead-up to upcoming United Nations-led climate talks.

"Capitalism is Mother Earth's cancer," Bolivian President Evo Morales told the crowd, which also heard over the course of the three-day conference from United Nations Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon as well as other Latin American leaders.

The people's summit, which concluded Monday afternoon, produced a 12-point declaration (Spanish) that will be presented during the COP21 climate negotiations taking place November 30-December 11 in Paris, France, during which 200 countries will attempt to cement an agreement to curb global warming. The COP21 agenda has been criticized for its sidestepping of issues like the role of capitalism in climate change and for the robust involvement of multinational corporations in the talks.

According to a translation, the Declaración de Tiquipaya calls for, among other things:

the creation of an international tribunal with "a binding legal capacity to prevent, prosecute and punish states that pollute and cause climate change by action or omission";
compensation from wealthy countries to developing nations for "climate, social, and ecological debt accumulated over time";
reclamation of the global commons; and
wholesale rejection of global capitalist and colonialist systems.

"We demand that the Paris Agreement does address the structural causes of capitalism," the declaration reads. "It does not have to be an agreement that reinforces the capitalist model, through more market mechanisms, allowing volunteer commitments, encouraging the private sector and strengthening patriarchy and neo-colonialism."

In advance of the Bolivia summit, the World People's Conference websiteelaborated further:

The world is being buffeted by multiple global crisis that manifests itself in a climate, financial, food, energy, institutional, cultural, ethical and spiritual crisis. These are the manifestations of unbridled consumerism and a model of society where the human being claims to be superior to Mother Earth... It is a system characterized by the domination of the economy by gigantic transnational corporations whose targets are the accumulation of power and benefits, and for which the market values are more important than the lives of human beings and Mother Earth.

Though the establishment of an independent climate tribunal emerged as a central goal of the Bolivian summit, Reuters noted on Monday that the idea "is a non-starter with almost every other country going to the Paris talks."

Even the European Union, which as recently as December argued for a strong, legally binding deal, "is increasingly talking about a' pledge and review'

system," Reuters wrote, "under which national commitments would be re-assessed every five years against a goal of halving world emissions by 2050."

As for Bolivia, teleSUR reports: "The South American nation has taken it upon itself to advocate for climate change issues on behalf of other developing nations," with environmental activist Moira Zuazo telling the publication that "70 percent of the Bolivian people say that development is less important than Mother Earth and we are listening to them."

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/10/12/capitalism-mother-earths-cancer-world-peoples-summit-issues-12-demands

As Cities Give Columbus the Boot, Indigenous Peoples Day Spreads Across US

'Knowing the facts of Columbus’s life, it seems astonishing that he is still treated with honor in many places.'

by

Lauren McCauley, staff writer

While the annual celebration of Christopher Columbus has fueled years of outrage, satire, and resistance, this year an alternative holiday recognizing the original inhabitants of the United States appears to have reached the mainstream.

In the past two months alone, eight major municipalities—including Albuquerque, New Mexico; Portland, Oregon; St. Paul, Minnesota; Bexar County, Texas; Anadarko, Oklahoma; Alpena, Michigan; Lawrence, Kansas; Carrboro, North Carolina; and Olympia, Washington—have opted to pay homage to the history and culture of the country's true native people by celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day on the second Monday in October. This wave follows other recent moves in Seattle and Minneapolis, among others.

"For the Native community here, Indigenous Peoples Day means a lot," Nick Estes, who helped coordinate the city celebration after Albuquerque city council issued a declaration on the matter, told the Associated Press. "We actually have something. We understand it’s just a proclamation, but at the same time, we also understand this is the beginning of something greater."

Further, in Los Angeles on Sunday, native activists and supporters held a march in protest of the holiday while a growing number of teachers are moving away from the traditional, Euro-centric curriculum on America's so-called "discovery."

The movement dates back to 1990 when South Dakota became the first state to address the controversy over Columbus Day when they renamed the holiday Native American Day. Two years later, Berkeley, California introduced the first Indigenous Peoples Day. And while workers in 23 U.S. states enjoyed a paid day off in his honor, people across the country rallied online under the banner of #IndigenousPeoplesDay to call attention to the atrocities committed by and in the spirit of Christopher Columbus.

"Knowing the facts of Columbus’s life, it seems astonishing that he is still treated with honor in many places," writer and film producer Bayard Johnson wrote in a column on Monday. "Was he elevated to hero status because nobody knew the real story about Columbus’s inhumanity, his atrocities, his delusions, his failures? Or does history consider his crimes insignificant because his victims were mostly Indians?"

Detailing his many voyages and exploits, Johnson notes that while Columbus may not have "discovered the New World," he did lay the groundwork for generations of European's to "loot and plunder."

"He created a blueprint," Johnson continues. "Arrive uninvited. Pretend friendship. Take over. Enslave all natives who aren't slaughtered. Make money shipping slaves overseas. Keep some slaves to dig for gold and treasure. This happened again and again, following the protocol Columbus invented. This was the real discovery of Columbus—how Europe could pillage and get rich off the Americas and the rest of the world."

This legacy of colonialism, argues The Intercept's Jon Schwarz, has influenced everything from global trade deals to Israel's occupation of Palestine. "We shouldn’t celebrate it," Schwarz writes. "But if we want to comprehend the world—and we should, since our lives depend on it—we have to understand it."

As Bill Bigelow, educator, curriculum editor of Rethinking Schools, and the co-director of the Zinn Education Project, wrote at Common Dreams last week. "If Indigenous peoples' lives mattered in our society, and if Black people's lives mattered in our society, it would be inconceivable that we would honor the father of the slave trade with a national holiday.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/10/12/cities-give-columbus-boot-indigenous-peoples-day-spreads-across-us

SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.

Tuesday, 13 October 2015

A Soil Pilgrimage- Vandana Shiva

Iraq: Caliph Not Killed But Still A 4+1 Intelligence Room Success

Any NATO movement toward Russia’s borders will lead to reciprocal steps - Kremlin

Tell Washington to Get Lost

This Just In: We Are Officially in a New Gilded Age

by

Justin Miller

'Capitalism is Mother Earth's Cancer': World People's Summit Issues 12 Demands

The establishment of an independent climate tribunal to hold wealthy nations accountable emerged as a central goal of conference in Bolivia

by

Deirdre Fulton, staff writer

As Cities Give Columbus the Boot, Indigenous Peoples Day Spreads Across US

'Knowing the facts of Columbus’s life, it seems astonishing that he is still treated with honor in many places.'

by

Lauren McCauley, staff writer

About Me

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SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.

Tuesday, 13 October 2015

A Soil Pilgrimage- Vandana Shiva

Iraq: Caliph Not Killed But Still A 4+1 Intelligence Room Success

Any NATO movement toward Russia’s borders will lead to reciprocal steps - Kremlin

Tell Washington to Get Lost

This Just In: We Are Officially in a New Gilded Age

by Justin Miller

'Capitalism is Mother Earth's Cancer': World People's Summit Issues 12 Demands

The establishment of an independent climate tribunal to hold wealthy nations accountable emerged as a central goal of conference in Bolivia

by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer

As Cities Give Columbus the Boot, Indigenous Peoples Day Spreads Across US

'Knowing the facts of Columbus’s life, it seems astonishing that he is still treated with honor in many places.'

by Lauren McCauley, staff writer

About Me

Links

Previous Posts

Archives

by

Justin Miller

by

Deirdre Fulton, staff writer

by

Lauren McCauley, staff writer