We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, June 7, 2012

The people of the world confront the advance of capitalism: Rio +20 and beyond

Click here to access article from La Via Campesina. (Note: there are typos in the article.)

This organization that represents those closest to the earth is ringing the alarm bells that corporations are preparing to inflict more damage to our ecosystem, on which we all depend, in their continuing mad pursuit of profits. First, they review the results of agribusiness methods over the past 20 years, and the slick public relations themes they've used to sell these methods. It ain't pretty, folks.
Governments from all over the world will meet in Río de Janeiro, Brasil from June 20-22 2012, to supposedly commemorate 20 years since the “Earth Summit”, the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, that established for the first time a global agenda for “sustainable development”. During this summit, in 1992, three international conventions were adopted: the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, and the Convention to Fight Desertification. Each of these promised to initiate a series of actions destined to protect the planet and all of the life on it, and to allow all human beings to enjoy a life of dignity.

At that time , many social organizations congratulated and supported these new conventions with hope. Twenty years later, we see the real causes of environmental, economic, and social deterioration continuing without being attacked.
On another post on their website I found this 2:09m video testimonial:
...Nettie Wiebe, from Canada, talks about the corporate land grabs as part of the Rio+20 agenda. “With the dominance of corporate agriculture, we are seeing many landgrabs, watergra[b]s and seagra[b]s — grabs of all living materials — by the corporate sectors for their profitability, for their investment and their control,” says Wiebe.