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

Friday, October 12, 2012

UK owner of Guatemalan energy firm urged to act after protest deaths

Click here to access article by Dawn Paley in Totonicapán and Jonathan Watts from The Guardian. 

Because I am on several human rights email lists, I receive hundreds of such reports about corporate crimes against indigenous people each year. They all involve corporations based in USA, Canada, and Europe. Most reports I receive relate to incidents in Central America, but this goes on in Africa as well--probably on a much larger scale. Few such incidents ever make it into mainstream news media. Thus, citizens of the US led Empire remain mostly, and blissfully, unaware of these crimes.
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