Earth Hour – March 28, 2009
The World Wildlife Fund has announced that Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, and San Francisco would lead the list of U.S. cities committed turn off the lights for one hour on March 28, 2009 at 8:30 p.m.. These cities will join 62 countries in “going dark” for Earth Hour. WWF officials hope that Earth Hour will reach more than a billion people worldwide, and will serve to inspire citizens and politicians to act swiftly to stem climate change.
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propz: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/11/earth-hour-an-hour-of-dar_n_150390.html
Breakdown or Breakthrough? by Daniel Pinchbeck
Witnessing the unraveling of the global financial system, I find myself gripped by contrasting emotions. While part of me feels like heading for the hills and hoarding cans of sardines, another part of me is giddy, almost celebratory. The tyrannical rule of Wall Street is ending, along with the self-serving free market ideology of Neo-conservatives. The massive amounts of fictitious capital created by our corrupt financial system must be destroyed, so we can address our immediate situation on this planet.
I feel sorry for the millions of people who may suffer during a transition that will be extremely difficult. On the other hand, our rapacious economic system is destroying the integrity of the biosphere, threatening our future as a species. Taking a wider perspective, we can see a new social structure that creates sustainable patterns of behavior is necessary, if we want our descendents to continue on the earth.
In my last book, I looked at many predictions of systemic financial dissolution at this time. I discussed the possibility that a financial H-bomb could melt down the economic system while leaving the “tangible assets” — people, infrastructure, land — still standing. I suggested this could be the best thing to happen to our world. Such a systemic collapse is a tremendous opportunity to change the direction of our society. Those who believe civilization can be run according to different principles — humane, equitable, and collaborative ones — need to step forward now with concrete proposals and put ideals into practice.
Several factors made the collapse of the global financial system inevitable. One problem with capitalism is that it is not self-sufficient, but depends on the constant availability of new markets, forcing expansion by creating ever-increasing amounts of debt. We now have a globalized world market, so exploitation of new territories can no longer take place. As Naomi Klein analyzed in The Shock Doctrine, this led to a policy of “disaster capitalism,” where cataclysms like hurricanes and terrorist acts were seized as opportunities to redevelop internal markets. Such a practice is inherently unsustainable.
Another crucial element that is rarely discussed in the media is the connection between the current financial meltdown and peak oil. Just as our debt-based economic system needed new markets to penetrate, it also required an ever-increasing supply of cheap energy to fuel its expansion. The decreasing supply of fossil fuels relative to global demand has brought the second law of thermodynamics into play, breaking the delusionary spell cast by the financier-sorcerers, who decoupled financial value from real value back in the early 1970s. When we consider the permanent reduction in the supply of cheap energy combined with the lack of new markets, it is obvious the amassed debts will never be repaid.
Over the last decades, we have suffered through a massive transfer of financial assets from the poor and middle class to a tiny elite of the extremely wealthy. By a recent count, 691 billionaires had a combined net worth of $2.2 trillion. At the same time, an estimated 2.8 billion people survive on less than $2 a day. In the United States, fewer than 7,500 individuals control “almost three-quarters of the nation’s industrial (nonfinancial) assets, almost two-thirds of all banking assets, and more than three-quarters of all insurance assets,” according to Thomas Dye’s Who’s Running America? Members of this tiny group are found in the top echelons of our most exclusive law firms, investment banks, federal government posts and military commands. Our current system is one of financial apartheid that rewards the most ecologically destructive and sociopathic behavior.
We face the possibility that money will soon lose its value as a medium of exchange. Given this, we will need to develop alternative ways of creating, exchanging and sharing value. One interesting option is the potential for digital networks based on trust and reputation to replace many of the services now provided by our dollar-based economy. We may return to local currencies. Bernard Lietaer’s proposal for a negative-interest currency linked to tangible assets that could act as a global trading medium should be taken seriously as an option.
In the near term, we face an increasingly turbulent and dangerous situation in the U.S. Demagogues may attempt to control the situation with force. Some form of martial law is a real option. However, any attempt to impose martial law will only accelerate the collapse of our financial system. The ruling elite faces insoluble paradoxes. There is the potential for a triggering event similar to the nonviolent populist revolt that overcame the Soviet Union in 1989, surprising political experts and think tank analysts.
Despite the financial meltdown, the decline of resources and the acceleration of climate change, we do not have to undergo a cataclysmic collapse. Through the new social technologies we have developed, we could quickly reorganize our society to allocate resources rationally. We could create collaborative networks that support a rapid evolution of collective intelligence. We could shift from oligarchy to a true democracy, the “rule of all by all,” developing a society capable of rapid adaptation and resilient response.
This article originally appeared in Conscious Choice.
Photo by canonsnapper, courtesy of Creative Commons.
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via http://realitysandwich.com/breakdown_or_breakthrough
Dr. Riki Ott Proposes 28th Amendment – Separation of Corporation and State
Dr. Riki Ott is launching the movement for the 28th Amendment to the Constitution: Separation of Corporation and State. In the video above, she explains what a 28th Amendment will accomplish, how it is possible, why it is necessary for our democracy.
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propz: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/10/fishermaam-proposes-28th_n_142735.html
Obama Plans Guantanamo Close, US Trials
WASHINGTON — President-elect Obama’s advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice.
During his campaign, Obama described Guantanamo as a “sad chapter in American history” and has said generally that the U.S. legal system is equipped to handle the detainees. But he has offered few details on what he planned to do once the facility is closed.
Under plans being put together in Obama’s camp, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts.
A third group of detainees _ the ones whose cases are most entangled in highly classified information _ might have to go before a new court designed especially to handle sensitive national security cases, according to advisers and Democrats involved in the talks. Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans aren’t final.
The move would be a sharp deviation from the Bush administration, which established military tribunals to prosecute detainees at the Navy base in Cuba and strongly opposes bringing prisoners to the United States. Obama’s Republican challenger, John McCain, had also pledged to close Guantanamo. But McCain opposed criminal trials, saying the Bush administration’s tribunals should continue on U.S. soil.
The plan being developed by Obama’s team has been championed by legal scholars from both political parties. But it is almost certain to face opposition from Republicans who oppose bringing terrorism suspects to the U.S. and from Democrats who oppose creating a new court system with fewer rights for detainees.
The plan drew criticism from some detainee lawyers shortly after it surfaced Monday.
“I think that creating a new alternative court system in response to the abject failure of Guantanamo would be a profound mistake,” said Jonathan Hafetz, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who represents detainees. “We do not need a new court system. The last eight years are a testament to the problems of trying to create new systems.”
Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor and Obama legal adviser, said discussions about plans for Guantanamo had been “theoretical” before the election but would quickly become very focused because closing the prison is a top priority. Bringing the detainees to the United States will be controversial, he said, but could be accomplished.
“I think the answer is going to be, they can be as securely guarded on U.S. soil as anywhere else,” Tribe said. “We can’t put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there.”
The tougher challenge will be allaying fears by Democrats who believe the Bush administration’s military commissions were a farce and dislike the idea of giving detainees anything less than the full constitutional rights normally enjoyed by everyone on U.S. soil.
“There would be concern about establishing a completely new system,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House Judiciary Committee and former federal prosecutor who is aware of the discussions in the Obama camp. “And in the sense that establishing a regimen of detention that includes American citizens and foreign nationals that takes place on U.S. soil and departs from the criminal justice system _ trying to establish that would be very difficult.”
Obama has said the civilian and military court-martial systems provide “a framework for dealing with the terrorists,” and Tribe said the administration would look to those venues before creating a new legal system. But discussions of what a new system would look like have already started.
“It would have to be some sort of hybrid that involves military commissions that actually administer justice rather than just serve as kangaroo courts,” Tribe said. “It will have to both be and appear to be fundamentally fair in light of the circumstances. I think people are going to give an Obama administration the benefit of the doubt in that regard.”
Though a hybrid court may be unpopular, other advisers and Democrats involved in the Guantanamo Bay discussions say Obama has few other options.
Prosecuting all detainees in federal courts raises a host of problems. Evidence gathered through military interrogation or from intelligence sources might be thrown out. Defendants would have the right to confront witnesses, meaning undercover CIA officers or terrorist turncoats might have to take the stand, jeopardizing their cover and revealing classified intelligence tactics.
But Tribe said the current military commission system represents a “nonstarter” and other advisers agreed. With lax evidence rules and intense secrecy, the commissions have been criticized by human rights groups, defense attorneys and even some military prosecutors who quit in protest.
“I don’t think we need to completely reinvent the wheel, but we need a better tribunal process that is more transparent,” Schiff said.
That means something different would need to be done if detainees couldn’t be released or prosecuted in traditional courts. Exactly what that something would look like remains unclear.
According to three advisers participating in the process, Obama is expected to propose a new court system, appointing a committee to decide how such a court would operate. Some detainees likely would be returned to the countries where they were first captured for further detention or rehabilitation. The rest could probably be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts, one adviser said. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing talks, which have been private.
Waleed Alshahari, who has been following Guantanamo issues for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, said the plan being discussed by the Obama team was an improvement over the current system. But he said he expects most detainees to be released rather than stand trial.
“If the U.S. government has any evidence against them, they would try them and put them in jail,” Alshahari said. “But it has been obvious they have nothing against them. That is why they have not faced trial.”
With more than 90 Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo, the country is home to the largest group of prisoners. The U.S. and Yemen have negotiated but failed to reach a deal on a prisoner release.
Whatever form Obama’s plan finally takes, Tribe said the next president would move quickly.
“In reality and symbolically, the idea that we have people in legal black holes is an extremely serious black mark,” Tribe said. “It has to be dealt with.”
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propz: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/10/obama-plans-guantanamo-cl_n_142593.html
The World Exhales
by Antonio Lopez via Reality Sandwich
Is it an exaggeration to say the global village’s heart is opening up?
I’ve been accused of giving light poles the benefit of the doubt, so despite the occasional appearance of my snarky writing personality (I am Gen X, after all), I tend to be an optimistic person. So what follows is coming from a space I have never felt in my short but long Republican dominated life: a totally joyous frickin’ feeling. Yeah, joy. I said it.
It won’t be a surprise, then, when I tell you that when I discovered yesterday morning that Obama had won (I’m in Italy so I didn’t know until 6:00 am), I wept. And wept. Never in my life have I cried as a result of the political process (no doubt, when Bush won his second term, my feelings were equally strong, but on the morbid end of the scale).
As I watched reactions and celebrations on the net I felt like I was witnessing something unprecedented in American history, as if a war had ended. I don’t want to analyze too much people’s reactions, because everyone has different reasons for feeling what they are feeling right now (I can’t imagine what those on the right are going through, but maybe a little taste of their own medicine will do them good), but there is little doubt that the spontaneous nature of these public outbursts (such as college kids dancing in front of the White House, or Kenya declaring a national holiday) is reminiscent of those situations when you are released from an oppressive relationship, like quitting a shitty job, or divorcing your business partner, or leaving an abusive spouse.
These are tears of connection and opening, not of mourning or loss.
I think for Americans this is a bit like our Berlin Wall moment. In the end all historical analogies are false, but what is pertinent here is that some kind of bottled-up oppression and fear has now been dissipated (for the moment). And for that I can say wholeheartedly that I have never been happier to see the genie of hope freed from its bottle, to scurry about and do its mischief.
We may end up being disappointed, or find that business as usual will prevail. But I feel as if the evil empire’s illusion of control is melting like the Wicked Witch of the West under a pail of Dorothy’s water. Evidence for such a claim comes from the fact that negative and fear-based election ads backfired on the Replicans. Even if it/they choose to reassert themselves at a later date through some nefarious means (I don’t want to imagine that right now), for now I think all the conspiracy nuts can eat some crow for Thanksgiving and be grateful that we still have a modicum of democracy to emerge with; democracy, after all, is always unfinished business. It’s a process and architecture for change.
This moment is genuinely the first time in my life I have felt good about my country, it has restored my faith in people to take charge when it’s truly necessary. This doesn’t make me a patriot or nationalist, just hopeful that our “newness” is an asset that enables us to innovate and reinvent ourselves, which is particularly important at this crucial juncture in history. The fact that the Internet was so important for getting Obama elected should give us a sense that we are moving in the right direction. In Italy, with its current rebirth of fascism, it’s nice to see hope on the other side of the world energize the opposition here in Europe.
Godspeed the next four years. Now it’s time to do the real work of democracy and to change our culture of separation and destruction one heart at a time.
Photo by mdumla98, courtesy of Creative Commons license.
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propz: http://realitysandwich.com/world_exhales
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