Saturday, March 24, 2012

Both Coasts Watch Closely as San Francisco Faces Erosion

Both Coasts Watch Closely as San Francisco Faces Erosion

Holding back the sea here seems as impossible as holding back the fog. But planners see Ocean Beach as a top priority in a long roster of Bay Area sites threatened by inundation because of what lies on its landward side: the Great Highway, a $220 million wastewater treatment plant and a 14-foot-wide underground pipe that keeps sewage-tainted storm water away from the ocean.

Three Links Re: Indigenous Issues

Native Americans Compelled To Protest Keystone XL From A Cage

Native American’s gathering in Cushing, OK today to protest President Obama’s words of praise for the Keystone XL pipeline were forced by local authorities to hold their event in a cage erected in Memorial Park. The protestors were stunned that their community, so long mistreated, would be insulted in such an open manner instead of being given the same freedom of speech expected by all Americans simply for taking a stance consistent with their values.


Indigenous Leaders In Brazil And Abya Yala Shut Out Of Rio+20 Process By UN And Elite NGOs

At Rio+20 an unethical, corrupt and unfortunate reality continues to unfold. The reality is that of an escalating, internal Indigenous power game which has now reared its ugly head once again at the Rio+20 conference. An existing Indigenous elitist UN group, comprised/inclusive of acquiescent NGOs, has grabbed control over the funding and “official organizing powers”, thus isolating the Indigenous peoples who refuse to bow down to corporate interests and sell out their people.


Not What We Were

As one of the more ancient of the world's living cultures, the Aborigines (a collective term used to describe 300 distinct tribes with their own languages) have traveled long and far together to establish a Dreamtime culture that now teeters on the brink of extinction. Like Indigenous societies elsewhere, the loss of stories known only by passing elders leads to the inevitable loss of culture, and that leads to the loss of spirit and a meaningful life. As Moriarty observes, it is a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions.