The Courage To Say, "NO!"

This is the kind of thing that drives me crazy. 

In the first place, none of what was agreed to in Copenhagen is binding. It cannot be enforced? How can it possibly be enforced and by whom?  Anyone not living up to their promises will be  nuked, invaded, bombed....what? 

Maybe the powers- that-be will cut them off from everyone's favorite drug of choice, m-o-n-e-y. Those who don't have it are for some reason, known only to the god-of-stupidity, super-impressed with the crap-load of money in the bank accounts of others. They want all that money can bring, including power, yet there is no way in hell they can benefit from the largess of the super-wealthy. People with money have money because they don't give it away. Most of the time, one cannot even earn it.

Who is really responsible for the state of the environment in Africa as well as the rest of the world?  

 Empires throughout history, but especially those of the 20th century. They have robbed and pillaged native peoples, their lands and resources, who were helpless in the face of overwhelming military and economic strength. 

The U.S. Empire, which really began in earnest after WWI and the Great Depression leading to WWII, is a corporate empire. (Mussolini would be proud. after all, it was the Father of Fascism, himself, who stated that corporatism and fascism were the same animal.)  The huge corporations, international and national, have wreaked havoc on the so-called "developing world," as well as the American people themselves. 

Poor American Clucks! How many near economic collapses must we endure before we say, "NO!" Maybe this one is the magic one, in which we finally become conscious: Awareness dawns....we become seekers of the truth as well as The Truth.... or as close as we can get to it without the Happy Hippie Trail.

Perhaps this Great Depression, because that is what it is no matter what politicians call it, will finally awaken people to the need for simplicity and the real abundance which exists absent the deadly sin of greed.

It's not just the U.S.; the French, the Germans, the Brits and their empire's legitimate children-nations, Russia and even the Netherlands have invaded foreign lands or fought wars which destroyed entire civilizations. Not many Americans today realize that there was a time when Kabul was quite a cosmopolitan city. Americans wandered around the globe in the 60s and 70s with stops in Tehran, Kabul, and various places in the Kashmir, into India and points east in the Orient. I remember a place called The Blue Hippie, somewhere in the Kashmir, I think. Maybe it was Kathmandu....

Americans, in particular, have no real sense of history, generally speaking. Many of those who wandered and wondered, in the 60s and 70s, do have that sense of history. Of course, the rest of the world, many of whom have a sense of history that goes back over hundreds of generations (which may be a bit much, especially when it is used for purposes of instilling hatred in young children, much as instilling spiritual values), cannot understand why we are so bereft of any historical context. Maybe in the world of the Internet they will understand that Americans are rarely allowed to hear or speak about the failings, and certainly not the crimes, of the last administration, let alone the long-view  which the Internet makes available if one should avail themselves of an objective source. The dumbing-down of America is the last 40 years, in particular, has been highly successful.

Naomi is a true progressive Lady. God bless her. She speaks the truth as far as it goes. 

Solutions to what seems such over-whelming global problems must begin with the worldwide recognition of corporate crimes and the refusal to participate in  those crimes.This will take great courage on the part of the economically disadvantaged of every nation The term "poor" is relative.

Lookout: The Courage to Say No by Naomi Klein

On the ninth day of the Copenhagen climate summit, Africa was sacrificed. The position of the G-77 negotiating bloc, including African states, had been clear: a 2 degree Celsius increase in average global temperatures translates into a 3-3.5 degree increase in Africa. That means, according to the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, "an additional 55 million people could be at risk from hunger" and "water stress could affect between 350 and 600 million more people." Archbishop Desmond Tutu puts the stakes like this: "We are facing impending disaster on a monstrous scale.... A global goal of about 2 degrees C is to condemn Africa to incineration and no modern development." 

And yet that is precisely what Ethiopia's prime minister, Meles Zenawi, proposed to do when he stopped off in Paris on his way to Copenhagen: standing with President Nicolas Sarkozy, and claiming to speak on behalf of all of Africa (he is the head of the African climate-negotiating group), he unveiled a plan that includes the dreaded 2 degree increase and offers developing countries just $10 billion a year to help pay for everything climate related, from sea walls to malaria treatment to fighting deforestation. It's hard to believe this is the same man who only three months ago was saying this: "We will use our numbers to delegitimize any agreement that is not consistent with our minimal position.... If need be, we are prepared to walk out of any negotiations that threaten to be another rape of our continent.... What we are not prepared to live with is global warming above the minimum avoidable level."

And this: "We will participate in the upcoming negotiations not as supplicants pleading for our case but as negotiators defending our views and interests." We don't yet know what Zenawi got in exchange for so radically changing his tune or how, exactly, you go from a position calling for $400 billion a year in financing (the Africa group's position) to a mere $10 billion. Similarly, we do not know what happened when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Philippine President Gloria Arroyo just weeks before the summit and all of a sudden the toughest..........(Read On; link above)