Face the Animals

Last week, I was in Varanasi and, as usual, visited Durga Mandir, Manas Mandir, and Sankatmochan Mandir, which are on the way to Banaras Hindu …

Face the Animals

Israeli settlers attack foreign pro-Palestinian activists in northern West Bank | The Times of Israel

Foreign pro-Palestinian volunteers receive treatment at Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, after they were attacked by Jewish Israeli settlers in the village of Qusra, in the West Bank, July 21, 2024. (Nasser Ishtayeh/ Flash90)

Video captured on Sunday shows extremist settlers attack foreign pro-Palestinian activists in the northern West Bank, beating them with clubs and causing injuries to some, including two US citizens.

In Sunday’s incident, a group of men, some masked but others with their faces visible and sporting long pe’ot, or sidelocks, and tzitzit, fringes that are part of traditional male Orthodox attire, were seen attacking the activists and beating them with wooden clubs.

In the video, the group of men is seen approaching the activists and after a short verbal exchange, charges into them while raining down blows with the clubs. Some of the pro-Palestinian activists can be heard imploring them to stop.

Source: Israeli settlers attack foreign pro-Palestinian activists in northern West Bank | The Times of Israel

Hey, Survival, Which side are you on? – The side of Indigenous Peoples or the Gold Industry? – I’d like to point out that #5 of your “Six Point Plan” helps ONLY the Gold Industry! | Barbara Crane Navarro

Barrick Gold Corporation: Legal gold mining destroys forests and contaminates water sources globally! An open pit at Barrick Gold Corp.’s Veladero gold mine in Argentina’s San Juan province. The mine has estimated reserves of 10 million oz of gold. – Photo by Marcos Brindicci/Reuters files 

On January 24, 2023, Survival International’s statement on “Yanomami health emergency: a genocide foretold” was published with a “Six Point Plan” – a list of “solutions” which included as – “Clean up the supply chains to ensure anyone buying Brazilian gold can be sure it’s been legally produced. » ???

The reality is that illegal & legal gold mining are both destructive & toxic!

Ilegal gold mining destroys forests and contaminates water sources in Indigenous territory in the Amazon region! – photo João Laet 

Here, Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman discusses the ravages of gold mining in Yanomami territory and its effects on the community with Davi Kopenawa, the Yanomami leader. He explains how the toxic substances used in gold ming contaminate rivers, wildlife and people. As always, he has nothing positive to say about gold, not even the “legally produced” gold that Survival, and others, are promoting.

AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned disease that the Yanomami people face, that the illegal gold miners bring in. But it’s also mercury contamination. This issue of the use of mercury for gold mining, needed to extract the gold, over 90% of the Yanomami have mercury levels in a number of communities that are far higher than the World Health Organization recommends. Mercury is not found natively in the area. Can you talk about the effects of mercury poisoning on the children, on the Yanomami people, adults, as well?

DAVI KOPENAWA YANOMAMI: [translated] I’m going to explain. Our forest peoples don’t know of any illegal gold miner who doesn’t use mercury. Mercury is poison. It harms our health. Mercury, what you’re asking about, well, the miners who work without mercury aren’t going to get the gold. They place the mercury where the gold is, to separate it out, to clean it, and then the mercury stays in the water.

And we, the community, we’re downriver. So the Yanomami draw their water from the river for cooking, to drink and for bathing. Children, adults and the elders are all getting mercury poisoning. And now it’s killing my people.

It flows through the rivers in the Yanomami area. The rivers that are contaminated are the Catrimani, the Apiaú, the Mucajaí and the Uraricoera. And it also impacts the Orinoco River in Venezuela in the Yanomami region, as well, in the Mutuacá. The water originates in the mountains, and that’s where the gold miners are, at the headwaters in the mountains.”

The fact that “legal” gold corporations are systematically polluting groundwater, air, soil, and glaciers and causing a loss of biodiversity around their legal gold mines makes the notion of “Cleaning up the supply chains to ensure anyone buying gold can be sure it’s been legally produced” ludicrous and counter-productive for Indigenous peoples, wildlife and the environment.

Here’s one of many, many examples:”The complaint alleges that Barrick Gold Corporation has violated Guidelines provisions on disclosure, environment and general policies at the company’s Veladero and Pascua Lama gold mines in the Argentine San Juan province.

The complaint alleges that Barrick has systematically polluted groundwater, air, soil, and glaciers and has caused a loss of biodiversity around the gold mines.

The complainants also highlight the company’s negative impact on the local population’s health and the deteriorating regional economy resulting from the destruction of natural landscapes and restrictions on access to land and water resources.

Moreover, the case alleges that Barrick has violated the right to information, has been improperly involved in local political decision-making, and has used violence against social and environmental organisations.”

But it isn’t an issue for legal gold only in South America: Tanzanian villagers accuse the Canadian mining giant of being complicit in killings and torture at the North Mara gold mine. A group of Tanzanian villagers is suing Barrick Gold over alleged police killings, torture and other abuses at a gold mine in northwestern Tanzania!

Near Barrick Gold’s legal Pueblo Viejo gold mine

“Legally produced gold” is NOT a solution! The only viable solution for Indigenous peoples, wildlife and the environment is for consumers to STOP BUYING GOLD, particularly for useless decorative ornaments like gold jewelry, watches and accessories.

Gold is a colonial relic from an era of global domination of Indigenous peoples and lands.

It’s stupefying that Davi Kopenawa’s friend, the anthropologist Bruce Albert, echoed Survival’s “solution” in a recent interview with O Valor:

Albert stated that “The gold trade must be thoroughly reviewed so that inspection of the origin of the metal produced and destined for the financial and jewelry sector can be systematically implemented.”

I commented on Albert’s interview:  “…just like in the six point plan of Survival International, ‘STOP BUYING GOLD’ is missing.”

Bruce Albert is a consultant for the gold merchant Cartier’s art foundation. Survival has supported Cartier’s “Yanomami – themed” art exhibitions for 20 years. Is that a factor influencing their pro-legal-gold statements?

How long has Survival been supporting Indigenous peoples? 50+ years? That’s long enough to have informed themselves about the reality behind the shiny publicity facade of the gold industry.

I am appalled by the apparent conflict of interest/complicity of people in the hierarchy at Survival International as well as other supporters of Indigenous people and wildlife. Why does denouncing gold appear to be such a dilemma for them?

Not any conceivable reward or donation – Nothing could compensate for the deadly and irreversible outcome for the Yanomami and so many other Indigenous peoples exposed to legal and illegal gold mining globally. Why is that not evident to them?

Rather than giving speeches inside during “The Yanomami Struggle” opening at the Cartier Foundation in January, 2020, representatives of Survival could have been outside the Cartier Foundation to protest with signs such as “Stop the greenwashing of dirty gold!” and “Pas de Cartier!”

 

Source: Hey, Survival, Which side are you on? – The side of Indigenous Peoples or the Gold Industry? – I’d like to point out that #5 of your “Six Point Plan” helps ONLY the Gold Industry! | Barbara Crane Navarro

My Favorite Little Film! – Sometimes we miss the most beautiful moments – DON’T MISS THIS one! A magical 38-second film – “The Yanomami boy’s surprise friend in the jungle”! | Barbara Crane Navarro

Source: My Favorite Little Film! – Sometimes we miss the most beautiful moments – DON’T MISS THIS one! A magical 38-second film – “The Yanomami boy’s surprise friend in the jungle”! | Barbara Crane Navarro

‘I fear they will kill me for talking’: The Pakistani poet abducted for his activism | Pakistan | The Guardian

Ahmad Farhad, far right, with his lawyers. Far left, his wife, Syeda Urooj Zainab, who filed a case in Islamabad’s high court accusing the security agencies of being behind the abduction. Photograph: Supplied

Source: ‘I fear they will kill me for talking’: The Pakistani poet abducted for his activism | Pakistan | The Guardian

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