Excellent written piece as all of yr articles are. I am one that had absolutely no idea about the Palestinian plight before 7/10. But my gut was saying immediately something is seriously wrong here. All media sprouting the same thing no matter time zones and that struck me as strange. Time zones i am so aware of as was raised the other side of the world. Immediately felt something is not right. Gut feeling totally. So when someone who had been involved in the Palestinian plight for over 50yrs i listened. And then got working on getting as much info as i could. I have never liked politics as basically they are all liars. The last 8 months i have basically stopped everything in my life (besides my children and grandchildren) but everything on hold. I do not apologise for not knowing beforehand (and because of this i realise this is the biggest mistake of all movements; they assume people know and i say they don’t. Get the info out, tell them the complicity of yr own gov, what this means to the average person-as this is a great tool). We have to become smarter and that means go back to the old-fashioned ways of leaflets on letterboxes as most people watch MSM; don’t blame them but educate them. Tell them facts they can easily look up themselves but show them how. Slogans are great but mean nothing if people don’t know. Nakba meant nothing to me. Also with slogans free Palestine. Why? State it. And saw post of Shihad Bolson and am sure he has his own agenda but the man is incredibly intelligent. So when he says when you demand Ceasefire now or Free Palestine put a consequence to it by adding or else invoke article 6. He is spot on. I freakin know too much about international law already. But point out what article 6 is: expel goddamned US. Pressure is there as all those institutions have played all of us way too long. I agree and yet we need to keep pressuring them. And contrary to the BS of US (and by god i actually H A T E them with a passion) we need to keep adding all these institutions constantly. No matter that we know US is still abusing them. It is the pressure that counts. We have to make it clear either you want to crumble along with US empire or you finally stand for what you are supposed to be
Well said Greet, we are totally on the same page. The past 7 horrible months have been a total revelation to me, l will never see the world the same again.
Like you, but as a person who has been involved in advocacy for Palestine since 1967, the date of the USS Liberty call back by Zionist Lyndon Johnstone, (not knowing at that time of the Zionist involvement in the assassination of JFK), my worst feeling in the whole matter since October has been the way the Israelis and their fellow travellers, the majority of Jewish people, everywhere, have represented the fact that they are almost fighting an impossible battle against an army called Hamas. Must be multi thousands of them everywhere the way the media plays up the word Hamas as though it is an army of millions, thick on the ground, which of course it isn't and never has been. But listening to the media one would never know that.
But the clue is, how seldom do we hear from the propagandists in Israel of how many Hamas they have killed? Never, because there are so few Hamas anywhere, now an undisputed fact.. But on it goes with the same lying Israeli and Jewish mouthpieces spruiking the same rubbish, the media going along for the ride, as the media do these days, non-stop.
Another point that always concerns me is the complete disregard that is shown by Israel in their blocking of food supplies for the Palestinian people, forgetting (or not giving a damn) about the Israeli hostages who also need food as well.
Joseph Goebbels fame as a propagandist in WWII, pales when compared to the liars of Israel, now the most hated country in the world. By far.
If this horror and genocide has done one good thing it is that it has awoken good people like you to the basic and continuing psychopathic behaviour of the Zionists .No longer will they be able to hide in the shadow of a long ago genocide against the Jewish people .
The defeat of all forms of fascism (zionism, aristocracy, nazism, corporatism) is the test of the human species. If we cant defeat it, we don't deserve to continue.
There's also an effect of accumulation. I can remember Reagan's contras and the bloody "freedom fighters" in Honduras and Nicaragua. I can also remember going with a group in Vancouver to a wine store to drop South African bottles onto the concrete. I can remember Bush 1 going into Iraq. And, of course, after 9/11, when we could see what was coming from Bush 2. All the way through this there was the Palestinian struggle. It all collects, accumulates, reaches a critical mass, and finally it seems that - led by young people - everyone is saying "enough."
Your use of the word "idiotic" says a lot about the direction any discussion with you would take. I'll say this, though: I have no idea where you're from, but unless you're Black and on the ground in South Africa, you (like me) probably have no business judging the political process there. The ANC was the prime movement behind the overturning of a thoroughly unjust apartheid regime. Like Hamas in Palestine, they were elected by the people, and if they've bent to the temptation of White business-sourced funding the people will hold them accountable. Which is what has just happened. I'd be careful about joining in the gleeful celebration of their electoral setback, though; it wasn't a repudiation, it was an adjustment. The governance of that country should be left to the majority Black population, not the monied White minority.
Are you defending the anti-White Bantus in South Africa that now call for the genocide of the Whites there, decades after Whites gave up power and are now trying to live equally with everyone? Because that is what is actually happening in South Africa.
Nelson Mandela was a convicted double-murderer, and his wife Winnie and her security guards killed their enemies by "necklacing," which is putting a car tire around someones neck, dousing them with petrol, and then setting them on fire, so that the rubber melts and causes extra pain while they burn to death. I hope you don't idolize those two criminal frauds, simply because they were pushed by the corrupt Western press as peacemakers? (Nelson Mandela was a good actor, I'll give him that.)
Also, are you aware that the Bantu (behind the genocidal ANC) were the last group to inhabit South Africa? It's not "their country" in the way that the Western press sold it to you. The Bushmen are the true natives. The Boers (Dutch) came second, inhabiting the southwest by spreading out from Cape Town and establishing farms. The Bantu came last and are genocidal maniacs who murdered Boers and Bushmen alike. They are also currently destroying what used to be a prosperous, and much safer, developed country.
Racism and racist sentiments and inclinations are typically acquired during childhood -- regardless of skin color -- sometimes even passed down generationally like a communicable virus/sickness. It may be further cemented by a misguided yet strong sense of entitlement, perhaps also environmentally acquired.
Rearing one’s very impressionable young children in such an environment of baseless contempt and overt bigotry amounts to a formidable form of child abuse. It fails to prepare children for the practical reality of an increasingly diverse and populous society and workplace.
It also makes it so much less likely those children will be emotionally content or (preferably) harmonious with their multicultural and multi-ethnic/-racial surroundings.
Children reared into their adolescence and, eventually, young adulthood this way can often be angry yet not fully realize at precisely what. Then they may feel left with little choice but to move to another part of the land, where their own ethnicity/race predominates, preferably overwhelmingly so.
Parents should really do their kids a big favor by NOT passing down onto them such destructive sentiments and perceptions, as such rearing can make life so much harder for one’s own children.
Yes, the Bantu are extremely racist, it's a spiritual sickness, much as self-loathing in Whites is a spiritual sickness. They threaten to genocide the Boers who are trying to live in peace and do their farming; what effect will this hatred have on the next generation of Bantus?
I have been consuming mainstream news for 36 years and tend to notice things that many other people don't. [Or maybe they do notice but feel like they are supposed not to notice and behave accordingly.]
One thing is the thick social-issue politics within the mostly neoliberal mainstream news-media. Notably, when it comes to victimization, there are injustices that the said news-media seem to consider, cover or ignore as though those injustices are increasingly ideologically, socially and therefore politically acceptable.
The Western media (news, social and entertainment) can be mostly credited for the creation and maintenance of the current racial, sexual, gender — and now gender bending — social/political standards and even hypocrisies.
As a good example, anti-Caucasian racism can be expected to not receive coverage by the said neo-liberal mainstream news-media, in particular The New York Times and Washington Post, quite unlike when the victim is non-Caucasian.
Such ‘journalism’ has become systematic, yet many reporters and editors continue to lamely reply to their critics with, ‘Who, me? I’m just the messenger.’ But, whatever the news media may be, they are not ‘just the messenger’; nor are they just a reflection of the communities in which they circulate.
Unlike you I enjoyed South African wine in that country for about four decades. You should have maybe tried it before smashing the bottles? There is so much else that is wonderful about South Africa. Governance should be based on merit, as a principle, in my humble opinion.
"Merit" is undoubtedly subject to definition. I don't believe full-blown apartheid and White supremacy sustained by Euro-American money and weapons to be particularly meritorious.
Dear Peter, I am not black. Are you? You are entitled to believe anything you wish, of course, but this appears to perfectly match the smashing of wine bottles in protest.
So a bottle of wine is worth more than saving thousands and thousands of human lives, eh? I guess no one will ever think of you as worthy then. Must be lonely.
People have not been ready to hear just how horrible the US Empire has been. Gaza, being live streamed, and being everything, everywhere all at once, has forced people to see. And it has taken this disgusting, over the top killing by the Israeli military with lots of help from the US to get people to see. I was saying how wrong and colonialist I thought Israel was 40 years ago and was told to go back to grade one. The evidence is there that humans are destroying the earth by war, consumption, and now the threat of nuclear bombs, but people just do not want to see. Gaza is pushing people to a place they have been trying to avoid for decades.
There's none so blind as those that won't see, and that willingness to be ignorant often comes with a benefit: social, financial, or political. We must be steadfast in awakening our fellow human beings in whatever ways we can, especially now, when the Panopticon can as easily be turned on the powerful as the powerless.
What an ugly thing to say. Sure, there are humans who are savage - but all humans? Such a patently false and crass generalization. There is a great deal of light in the world as well, and beautiful human beings. And that beauty is worth fighting for.
"Civilised" came from the Romans, who called the surrounding, much older, wealthier, more egalitarian, more HUMANIST, and considerably more decent civilisations "Barbarians".
The word/concept has been contentious from day 1.
The most "civilised" [at least, according to themselves] are usually the most murderous fuckwits. While the "barbarians" are often quite civilised societies.
Given a choice, who would prefer to live in "civilised" Victorian England, or their "barbarian" victims living relaxed and chilled out lives on tropical islands before the Redcoats and RN arrived?
Thank you, Caitlin! This piece ties in perfectly with your previous article. I had originally thought this evil Genocide, war on Russia, and China was about a failing u.s. financial system 34.7 Trillion and counting at 2 million a min. BTW, we in the u.s. should cross the 35 Trillion debt level by Aug. 11th. or close. 1 Trillion in interest debt payment this year. With the u.s. dollar as a weapon I assume there is a limit to printed money the world will choke down. You are right there is no government in most countries of the West, only the primary military empire with it's puppet states. I now believe On the Beach is inevitable, escalation continues daily now and at some point Russia will no longer have the space to allow for Morons in washington/nato (yes lowercase) to continue escalation without a punch in the face. That punch will have to be a, we are done with playing games hoping you are intelligent enough to understand nuclear war is not winnable so here is a sample for you.
Australian engineer/writer Nevil Shute wrote one of the darkest books I had ever read. When I was in grade school the Librarian let me read in the adult section. What we are experiencing now leads to this book. The movies are garbage, the book sums it up.
Thank you for all the light you shed on this moment in history. I would add that before this genocide, there was and has been another live streamed. Will go out on a limb and possibly (possibly not) against what seems to be a prevailing sense of affairs on the left -- not with regards to the involvement of NATO and the West, but with regards to what I believe has been Putin's mission for a very long time -- and point out that the horrors inflicted on those in the Ukraine were starting to be streamed, first picked up by the corporate media (of course, in this case), then live streamed. I think this event, the genocide in Ukraine, horribly brought into focus what social media is capable of, to bend toward the intention of chronicling atrocity after atrocity. We in this so-called west, on Turtle Island and in Europe, were primed as well, then. Some of us were following events in the regions of Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Occupied Palestine, but many so rarely heard anywhere about these regions and the US' continued war through its proxy Israel. Little do we still hear about Iraq, and what a different situation it would have been, at least in terms of the numbers of those resisting (but not probably to the amount of atrocities) had there been this level of consciousness in and through social media when the US invaded that country. Drips and drabs have been coming out on what the US troops did...but...
Sometimes I think you are a collection of people, I don't know how you can be so spot on all the time. Your writing is an inspiration to so many of us out here, who may feel isolated in our liberal communities b/c we think what is happening in Israel is, indeed, a genocide, the war in Ukraine could have been avoided and should be brought to an end, the suppression of the student protests, with threats to their futures and to those of university officials who don't clamp down on them, which are termed "anti-semitic," are unconstitutional and unjust, about not voting for a man for whom we have little respect and consider corrupt in order to prevent Trump from becoming president. I'm glad you're here and writing.
Marianna Chambless, You write beautifully in praise of what Caitlin is trying to do here. We who can comment on her Newsletter think it's a great place in exchanging ideas and feelings and facts. Most of all in spreading the truth with kindness and caring.
Along with awareness is the humble local 'action' of living, working & sharing together. All humanity's worldwide 'indigenous' (Latin 'self-generating') ancestors & 1st Nations realize how humans are connected through our collective family, extended-family, the ~100 (50-150) person Multihome-Dwelling-Complex (eg. Longhouse-apartment, Pueblo-townhouse & Kanata-Village), in mutual-aid with whom & where 70% of us live today. While our agency to act is as individuals, the garden we cultivate is best done together. Indigenous people cultivate the collective Domestic (mostly women) 'economy' (Greek 'oikos' = 'home' + 'namein' = 'care-&-nurture') as the core, with supportive industry & commerce (mostly men) as subsets. All collective work needs to be recognized, accounted for & empowered in its contribution, experience, expertise & decision-making acumen.
What is a PEACENIK? Unless we exemplify 'peace' in our own lives & collectively, then governments & the public at large really don't have a clue as to what we really mean by ''peace'. The following description of some aspects of all humanity's 'indigenous' (Latin 'self-generating') peace heritage practice, will give the reader some direction as to applying peace to one's own life as daily action. Worldwide 'indigenous' nations cultivated what the 'Haudenosaunee' (Iroquois 'People-of-the-extended-rafters' aka 'Welcome') refer to as the 'Kaianere'kowa = 'Great-good-way-of-kindness' aka 'Great-Law-of-Peace' aka 'Constitution'. The Great-good-way is based in individual & collective cultural peace. In Central America the Maya refer to Kindness as 'In Lakesh' (I am another you. You are another me.). In the Amazon, Aymara, Jamamadi, Apurina nations refer to Kindness as Maloka = 'Longhouse', Indigenous Celtic-Slavic Europe refer to the 'System of 100s' for their longhouse & other housing economies. In southern Africa, Nguni people refer to 'Ubuntu' meaning 'Human Kindness'. Eastern Europe Serbs & Croatians refer to 'Zadruga' meaning 'economy of friends', India as 'Swadeshi' (Hindi 'indigenous' = 'self-sufficiency' more below), China's character for 'money' refers to the ancient indigenous 'Bei' or 'Cowrie Shell', Korea as 'Chaebol' & Japan as 'Keiretsu' referring to 'Family Economy'.
All these indigenous practices carry the same 3 indigenous-Cultural-Economy practices as below. Peace is established culturally from the person, friends, family, extended-family, Multihome, village, city, region, nation with ~110 nations across Turtle-Island (N. America) organized into ~23 Confederacies, into Continental & Hemispheric Councils. The mathematics of organization & governance in indigenous society is based in cultural 'fractals' ('fraction, multiplier, building-block, where-the-part-contains-the-whole'). One can compare this fractal organization with the autonomous organization of the genes, cells, tissue & organs of the human & other animal bodies. Economic Memory with bodily autonomy. Modern neurology has established how each part has both neurons, memory, intelligence & the autonomous mandate to act with their specific knowledge. The brain is considered as one of several body Nexus for the inter-communication of these events & coordinated action by the whole body, often well after the fact. The body is synonymous with the body-politic or society at various levels. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/d-participatory-structure/3-economic-memory EXAMPLE OF PUTTING PEACE INTO PERSONAL PRACTICE: Mohandas Gandhi as part of India's 'Swadeshi' (Hindi 'Indigenous' aka 'Self-sufficiency') program advocated 'Become the change, you want to see in the world'. Gandhi's last 32 years since returning from his 2 decades in India in 1915, as a British trained lawyer & 'activist' for government change, rethought his strategy upon the influence of Swadeshi. India's 'Swaraj' (H. 'self-rule') or independence was based in 'economic' (Greek ''oikos' = 'home' + 'namein' = 'care-&-nurture') engine.
This empowerment of diverse peoples locally in solidarity 'animated' local 'self-sufficiency' as the key fractal determinant for the autonomy of the whole society. Gandhi cultivated 'Satyagraha' (H. 'Truth-search') as part of India's Swadeshi Council Process with Both-sided, Equal-time, Recorded & Published Dialogues among India's diverse nation, caste-economy, religion & politics as citizens & leaders. (web-link below) ORGANIZING FROM THE TREE ROOTS: One needs to contrast this distributed, decentralized collaboration from the bottom-up, with western colonial society as a top-down, Oligarch commanded & controlled society. The present so-called Peace-Movement adheres to visions of Top-Down change of governments & corporations. Many of us walk home alone at the end of meetings, alone, economically isolated with next to no discussion about what we might do as groups of people together in the first step of Mutual-Aid needed for the distributed autonomous Team Work, we all wish to be a part of. While those in social & environmental movements might characterize governments & corporations as COLD HEARTED, this 'cold-content' is the term Marshall McLuhan in the 'Medium-is-the-message' applies to the 'activist' movement itself. McLuhan called for warmth in the 'process' of our association. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/a-home/9-mutual-aid Three essential aspects of INDIGENOUS CULTURAL ECONOMY Peace include:
1) ~100 (50-150) person Multihome-Dwelling-Complex (eg. Longhouse-apartment, Pueblo-townhouse & Kanata-village). This loving intimate, intergenerational, female-male, interdisciplinary, critical-mass, economies-of-scale. 70% of people today live in multihomes /c an average of 32 dwelling-units = ~100 people. 20% of Multihome-dwellers are extended-families living intentionally in proximity for social & economic collaboration. Multihome-extended-family contribute trillions of $ of the most individually appropriate goods, services, sharing caring/year as Turtle-Island, N-America's largest essential Economic sector, albeit unrecognized by government, education & institutions as well as it seems the 'Peace-movement'. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/c-relational-economy/1-extending-our-welcome-participatory-multihome-cohousing
2) Time-based equivalency accounting once upon the String-shell Value system (eg. Wampum on Turtle-Island, Quipu in S. America, Cowrie in indigenous Celtic-Slavic Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia & all islands), which integrates a) Capital ownership & decision-making rights, b) Currency compensation for spending, c) Condolence social-security of all kinds, d) Collegial Educational Credits in mentored-apprenticeship for youth, e) Time-based analysis in Communication, f) professional Costume for identifying essential expertise. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/c-relational-accounting/2-participatory-accounting
Francis/Clare, RE: "Too many people". You are reciting the foundational Oligarch misanthropic hate trope of supposed 'too many', but me. Mohawk elders helped me understand how in the midst of our cities, exactly as we are, 70% of people are living in Multihome-Dwelling-Complexes (eg. Apartment, Townhouse & Village) within an average of 32 dwelling-units = ~100 people. Even our Oligarch colonial constructed architecture, although not constructed in alignment with the 5 Elements (Sun, air, water, soil & life), has recreated the indigenous intimate, intergenerational, female-male, interdisciplinary, critical-mass, economies-of-scale. What is missing are the animating practices of 2) Time-based Equivalency Accounting once upon the String-shell Value System & 3) COUNCIL-PROCESS for developing, understanding, working contracts & Conflict Resolution. Love is about accepting & cultivating exactly as we are.
Did you know how all humanity's worldwide 3-D Polyculture Orchards in SYLVALIZATION (Latin 'sylva' = 'tree') in which aligned with nature produces 100 times more food, materials, energy & water-cycle than 2-D 'agriculture' (Latin 'ager' = 'field'). As empires spread, hungry for the hardwood Oak for weapons of war, forts, arms, ships etc. the main productivity loss is the indigenous, carefully cultivated 3-D POLYCULTURE ORCHARDs of all humanity's worldwide 'indigenous' ancestors, which because of:
a) Polyculture's 92-98% Photosynthesis compared with 2-D 'agriculture' (L 'ager' = 'field') 2-8% photosynthesis. Agriculture’s all settlers & 1st Nations had left to 'farm' (French 'ferme' = 'contract of servitude by the peasant imposed by the armed aristocrat')
b) Deep Polyculture roots descending many 10s of metres into the substrate mining minerals, pumping water, developing extensive nutrient colonies etc. being 100 times = 10,000% more productivity than agriculture.
c) Polyculture's >95% photosynthesis creates an energy vacuum, which draws warm-moist ocean wind inland. Quadrillions of square kilometres of fractal leaf & bark surfaces condense the warm moist air, providing 60% of water transfer from ocean to land. Only 40% of moisture comes as rain-snow & then only if their are Polyculture orchards to draw winds inland. 2-D Agriculture reflects >95% of solar energy creating a High-Pressure energy zone, which pushes winds from the continent towards the sea, creating permanent desert.
The Ashkenazi (some of my family in 3 branches) who invaded Palestine, cut down Palestinian Polyculture Deciduous Olive, Oak, Pinion-Pine trees mixed with meadow bush & field crops. Palestinians lived in tight walkable Village low-footprint architecture. Ashkenazi stole & bulldozed much of these dwelling & built mass suburban sprawl nuclear homes linked to Shopping Centres & Industrial Zones by mass highway systems. Israel in their false replanting of the desert, stole water from Palestinian Polyculture & then planted monocrop Coniferous Pine & Spruce trees, prone to disease & Lightning strike burning, now mostly gone. Because Ashkenazi created such mass region reflective surfaces, winds now blow from the continent towards the sea. Colonial Oligarch directed Israel has created the longest drought in the Levant region's history.
If Ashkenazi & Sephardic Jews had or still will join with Palestinians, who welcomed them, through formal dialogue in Both-sides-now, Equal-time, Recorded & Published Dialogues then some understanding, collaboration & working contracts as well as Conflict Resolution can be attained. So far the Ashkenazi & Sephardic have taken the path of Intellectual-Coward Bullies, confused by welcome & words, so beholding to violence. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/d-participatory-structure/1-both-sides-now-equal-time-recorded-dialogues
Above all I value our truly miraculous, gorgeous planet that we share with a myriad of flora and fauna, albeit very unequally. The Half Earth Project is a glorious dream that greedy, self-centered, thoughtless, prideful, unappreciative humans will never enact. It would be better if we were gone, taking our murderous, cruel species away, allowing earth to heal and evolve its magic. Homo sapiens: what a laugh.
I'm listening to 86 minute Half Earth, Book Club talk https://vimeo.com/429866444 Interesting talk. I have great appreciation for what they are trying to achieve, but from my 60 years of training with 1st Nations & indigenous peoples, I see them making repetitive unconscious 'exogenous' (Latin 'other-generated') mistakes.
1st Climate Science mistake
Indigenous people approach Biodiversity from the perspective as Primates or humans as Tree-People, keeping & stewarding the tree. As in the 'Polyculture' Orchard Food Production web-link 3-D Polyculture is 100 times (10,000%) more productive than 2-D 'agriculture'. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/b-ecological-design/1-indigenous-welcome-orchard-food-production-efficiencies The 100 year old White Oak, in 1st Nation times, right across Turtle-Island (N. America), typically produces 3 tonnes of sweet acorns per year in a 50 square meter area, compared with only 3 kilograms of Cereal Grain Crops such as wheat, barley, oats & rye = 'inherent poverty'. Monocrop Agriculture requires clear stripping, weeding, ploughing, seeding, watering, weeding, mechanical harvesting, drying, storage & many other human labours & mechanical processing.
Efficiencies in Food production, as the core of the 'economy' lays the template for all other economic endeavors. 1st Nations & indigenous peoples worldwide, look at species conservation through the mutually beneficial SYLVACULTURE (L. 'sylva' = 'tree') cultivation for abundance. Tree nut, fruit, greens, vines, bushes & associated lower crops require just a fraction of the labour & mechanical inputs. Unfortunately what I'm hearing from the Half-earth 'experts' is species conservation but not understanding the 'indigenous' (L. 'self-generating') 'economy' (Greek 'oikos' = 'home' + 'namein' = 'care-&-nurture') template.
The 2nd 'exogenous' (L 'other-generated') Climate Science mistake in seeing people as a liability, is creating climates of rejection, competition, fear, loathing, scarcity, poverty, war & constant policing.
Indigenous people pride themselves particularly on Welcome & Economic Inclusion of the family, neighbours & stranger. The techniques of welcome include the: 1) ~100 (50-150) person intergenerational Multihome-Dwelling-Complex, 2) Time-based Equivalency Accounting on the String-shell Value system, 3) COUNCIL PROCESS Both-sided, Equal-time, Recorded & Published Dialogues
Is it "unappreciative humans" or those who command & control humanity from birth to death? When we research into the issue of western fake 'money' (Greek 'mnemosis' = 'memory'), we find the same family lineage of controllers, 7000 years through empire to empire, who control the levers of institutional, government & economic power. Today the US Federal-Reserve, Bank-of-England (City-of-London) & Bank of International Settlements all have the same minority undeclared share-holders triangulated in all three for absolute control of the Finance, Media, Religion, Education, Military-Industrial, Legislative, Judicial, Pharma-med & Agri-business COMPLEX.
3-D WELCOMING FRIENDSHIP BUILDS HUMAN & BIOSPHERE CAPACITY
In speaking of these things, I would not discount the workings of karma. I suppose a good many of you regard karma as woo, but it is based on a simple, material principle: what goes around comes around. It is unquestionably something those of us who are awake have observed in the world. In Sanskrit and its descendants, _karma_ simply means "action", and in the case of psychology, it is a fact that if one performs an action and succeeds in carrying it out, it increases one's propensity for performing similar actions of the same type. A generous person who performs a generous act becomes more likely to perform another action of that type, and a violent criminal becomes more likely to perform further violent acts. Karma also works on a community level: in the case of the United States, observe the effects of its present government's actions on its political institutions. I doubt if I need to go into detail. In the case of Israel, then, consider the situation of an Israeli citizen walking around in the company of thousands of her or his fellow citizens, many of them well-armed, who have committed grotesque acts of violence even against small children. The prospects do not seem good; indeed, they seem likely to be catastrophic, and not because of the Palestinians or others who may be adversaries, but of the people themselves and the harm they have already done to themselves. One may hope they will turn back, but it doesn't seem likely.
They have decimated their souls ala Voldermort and his Horcruxes
I doubt they have any Soul and Spirit left, but one thing is for sure, God cannot abide in such Soulless Evil beings and the very notion that they are "God's own people" is a Blatant mockery of God
Hate to burst your bubble, but "karma" is a story/narrative people believe in to help them make sense of the world. Same thing for most "spiritual" beliefs. There is no scientific/evidence-based basis for these concepts. People choose to believe in them because:
(1) it makes them feel better about themselves
(2) it makes them feel better about the world
(3) it attempts to explain the unexplainable
(4) it helps people make sense of a senseless world.
(5) it brings a level of comfort and justice in an inherently unjust world
Having said all that, I don't think there is anything wrong in believing in karma (regardless of its factual validity). In fact, believing in it may even be mentally/physically healthy for some people.
Karma, is cause and effect - every action has a reaction. Good actions have a good reaction. Bad actions have a bad reaction. At an individual level compassion arises in us when we see the plight of the Palestinians. Which leads us to right intention and right action - in this case being justice for the Palestinians.
Israel by its sheer brutality has created a society of pathological beings blinded with greed, hatred and delusion. They won't know any peace however many bombs they drop, and however many Palestinians they kill.
Very nice article. I've always wondered how the world's greatest minds from the past couldn't see how slavery, oppression and discrimination against other peoples and misogyny were wrong with their large brains. But it's a consciousness thing. It's like they're asleep to the fact that other people are human just like them. We need to awaken ...
>>"I've always wondered how the world's greatest minds from the past couldn't see how slavery, oppression and discrimination against other peoples and misogyny were wrong with their large brains."
They could see it. They knew it was wrong. They accepted, condoned, tolerated, and went along with it because they benefited from it in some way or form - just as they do so today. Nothing has really changed. "Slavery" was socially accepted in many cultures/societies even though everyone knew it was wrong. Same thing with "Racism", etc.
Do you eat meat? It's definitely wrong in most cases. But most people aren't educated or conscious enough to know that animals are conscious, intelligent, emotional beings that feel pain as much as we do including anxiety, fear, separation, loneliness etc. Even I who knows this clearly, have to ongoingly wake myself up when being offered animal bodies to eat because they are called something else - meat, pork, lasagne, to hide the fact it's the dead body of another sentient being who had a social world, a family, and could experience most feelings I can, albeit in a different sensory way. The totality of suffering of factory farmed animals is far greater than the current suffering of 99% of humanity. This is clear to me, but sometimes I go into a trance when offered pork crackling not being awake enough to realise it's the skin of a pig 🙄
I think words like slaves, Muslims, blacks etc had / have a similar social hypnotising effect on Westerners / everyone allowing them to treat these Others like inferiors / property
Excellent written piece as all of yr articles are. I am one that had absolutely no idea about the Palestinian plight before 7/10. But my gut was saying immediately something is seriously wrong here. All media sprouting the same thing no matter time zones and that struck me as strange. Time zones i am so aware of as was raised the other side of the world. Immediately felt something is not right. Gut feeling totally. So when someone who had been involved in the Palestinian plight for over 50yrs i listened. And then got working on getting as much info as i could. I have never liked politics as basically they are all liars. The last 8 months i have basically stopped everything in my life (besides my children and grandchildren) but everything on hold. I do not apologise for not knowing beforehand (and because of this i realise this is the biggest mistake of all movements; they assume people know and i say they don’t. Get the info out, tell them the complicity of yr own gov, what this means to the average person-as this is a great tool). We have to become smarter and that means go back to the old-fashioned ways of leaflets on letterboxes as most people watch MSM; don’t blame them but educate them. Tell them facts they can easily look up themselves but show them how. Slogans are great but mean nothing if people don’t know. Nakba meant nothing to me. Also with slogans free Palestine. Why? State it. And saw post of Shihad Bolson and am sure he has his own agenda but the man is incredibly intelligent. So when he says when you demand Ceasefire now or Free Palestine put a consequence to it by adding or else invoke article 6. He is spot on. I freakin know too much about international law already. But point out what article 6 is: expel goddamned US. Pressure is there as all those institutions have played all of us way too long. I agree and yet we need to keep pressuring them. And contrary to the BS of US (and by god i actually H A T E them with a passion) we need to keep adding all these institutions constantly. No matter that we know US is still abusing them. It is the pressure that counts. We have to make it clear either you want to crumble along with US empire or you finally stand for what you are supposed to be
Thank you for your awakening, and for sharing it. I believe we are fast approaching the “Hundredth Monkey” moment!
Well said Greet, we are totally on the same page. The past 7 horrible months have been a total revelation to me, l will never see the world the same again.
Free Palestine 🇵🇸
Ann,
Like you, but as a person who has been involved in advocacy for Palestine since 1967, the date of the USS Liberty call back by Zionist Lyndon Johnstone, (not knowing at that time of the Zionist involvement in the assassination of JFK), my worst feeling in the whole matter since October has been the way the Israelis and their fellow travellers, the majority of Jewish people, everywhere, have represented the fact that they are almost fighting an impossible battle against an army called Hamas. Must be multi thousands of them everywhere the way the media plays up the word Hamas as though it is an army of millions, thick on the ground, which of course it isn't and never has been. But listening to the media one would never know that.
But the clue is, how seldom do we hear from the propagandists in Israel of how many Hamas they have killed? Never, because there are so few Hamas anywhere, now an undisputed fact.. But on it goes with the same lying Israeli and Jewish mouthpieces spruiking the same rubbish, the media going along for the ride, as the media do these days, non-stop.
Another point that always concerns me is the complete disregard that is shown by Israel in their blocking of food supplies for the Palestinian people, forgetting (or not giving a damn) about the Israeli hostages who also need food as well.
Joseph Goebbels fame as a propagandist in WWII, pales when compared to the liars of Israel, now the most hated country in the world. By far.
By lies we shall do wars. Israhell founders.
If this horror and genocide has done one good thing it is that it has awoken good people like you to the basic and continuing psychopathic behaviour of the Zionists .No longer will they be able to hide in the shadow of a long ago genocide against the Jewish people .
I’ve said for years that we humans are not fully evolved yet. You’ve captured it in this piece.
People are waking up to the institutionalized evil because we see it being unveiled, which is the meaning of apocalypse.
Be the light.
The defeat of all forms of fascism (zionism, aristocracy, nazism, corporatism) is the test of the human species. If we cant defeat it, we don't deserve to continue.
You may ad another ism? Scientist. Paying prostitutes scientists and do tors to lie to us or even kill us?
This is why Israel intentionally targets journalists.
There's also an effect of accumulation. I can remember Reagan's contras and the bloody "freedom fighters" in Honduras and Nicaragua. I can also remember going with a group in Vancouver to a wine store to drop South African bottles onto the concrete. I can remember Bush 1 going into Iraq. And, of course, after 9/11, when we could see what was coming from Bush 2. All the way through this there was the Palestinian struggle. It all collects, accumulates, reaches a critical mass, and finally it seems that - led by young people - everyone is saying "enough."
What a waste of great wine! Such an idiotic action. And look at the country now, after 30 years of ANC destructive rule!
Your use of the word "idiotic" says a lot about the direction any discussion with you would take. I'll say this, though: I have no idea where you're from, but unless you're Black and on the ground in South Africa, you (like me) probably have no business judging the political process there. The ANC was the prime movement behind the overturning of a thoroughly unjust apartheid regime. Like Hamas in Palestine, they were elected by the people, and if they've bent to the temptation of White business-sourced funding the people will hold them accountable. Which is what has just happened. I'd be careful about joining in the gleeful celebration of their electoral setback, though; it wasn't a repudiation, it was an adjustment. The governance of that country should be left to the majority Black population, not the monied White minority.
Are you defending the anti-White Bantus in South Africa that now call for the genocide of the Whites there, decades after Whites gave up power and are now trying to live equally with everyone? Because that is what is actually happening in South Africa.
Nelson Mandela was a convicted double-murderer, and his wife Winnie and her security guards killed their enemies by "necklacing," which is putting a car tire around someones neck, dousing them with petrol, and then setting them on fire, so that the rubber melts and causes extra pain while they burn to death. I hope you don't idolize those two criminal frauds, simply because they were pushed by the corrupt Western press as peacemakers? (Nelson Mandela was a good actor, I'll give him that.)
Also, are you aware that the Bantu (behind the genocidal ANC) were the last group to inhabit South Africa? It's not "their country" in the way that the Western press sold it to you. The Bushmen are the true natives. The Boers (Dutch) came second, inhabiting the southwest by spreading out from Cape Town and establishing farms. The Bantu came last and are genocidal maniacs who murdered Boers and Bushmen alike. They are also currently destroying what used to be a prosperous, and much safer, developed country.
Racism and racist sentiments and inclinations are typically acquired during childhood -- regardless of skin color -- sometimes even passed down generationally like a communicable virus/sickness. It may be further cemented by a misguided yet strong sense of entitlement, perhaps also environmentally acquired.
Rearing one’s very impressionable young children in such an environment of baseless contempt and overt bigotry amounts to a formidable form of child abuse. It fails to prepare children for the practical reality of an increasingly diverse and populous society and workplace.
It also makes it so much less likely those children will be emotionally content or (preferably) harmonious with their multicultural and multi-ethnic/-racial surroundings.
Children reared into their adolescence and, eventually, young adulthood this way can often be angry yet not fully realize at precisely what. Then they may feel left with little choice but to move to another part of the land, where their own ethnicity/race predominates, preferably overwhelmingly so.
Parents should really do their kids a big favor by NOT passing down onto them such destructive sentiments and perceptions, as such rearing can make life so much harder for one’s own children.
Yes, the Bantu are extremely racist, it's a spiritual sickness, much as self-loathing in Whites is a spiritual sickness. They threaten to genocide the Boers who are trying to live in peace and do their farming; what effect will this hatred have on the next generation of Bantus?
I have been consuming mainstream news for 36 years and tend to notice things that many other people don't. [Or maybe they do notice but feel like they are supposed not to notice and behave accordingly.]
One thing is the thick social-issue politics within the mostly neoliberal mainstream news-media. Notably, when it comes to victimization, there are injustices that the said news-media seem to consider, cover or ignore as though those injustices are increasingly ideologically, socially and therefore politically acceptable.
The Western media (news, social and entertainment) can be mostly credited for the creation and maintenance of the current racial, sexual, gender — and now gender bending — social/political standards and even hypocrisies.
As a good example, anti-Caucasian racism can be expected to not receive coverage by the said neo-liberal mainstream news-media, in particular The New York Times and Washington Post, quite unlike when the victim is non-Caucasian.
Such ‘journalism’ has become systematic, yet many reporters and editors continue to lamely reply to their critics with, ‘Who, me? I’m just the messenger.’ But, whatever the news media may be, they are not ‘just the messenger’; nor are they just a reflection of the communities in which they circulate.
You, ‘The Pork Report’ are the anti-white Bantus and you’re trying to kill yourself so that you can be like the Boers & Bushmen?
Unlike you I enjoyed South African wine in that country for about four decades. You should have maybe tried it before smashing the bottles? There is so much else that is wonderful about South Africa. Governance should be based on merit, as a principle, in my humble opinion.
So you're Black?
"Merit" is undoubtedly subject to definition. I don't believe full-blown apartheid and White supremacy sustained by Euro-American money and weapons to be particularly meritorious.
Dear Peter, I am not black. Are you? You are entitled to believe anything you wish, of course, but this appears to perfectly match the smashing of wine bottles in protest.
So a bottle of wine is worth more than saving thousands and thousands of human lives, eh? I guess no one will ever think of you as worthy then. Must be lonely.
People have not been ready to hear just how horrible the US Empire has been. Gaza, being live streamed, and being everything, everywhere all at once, has forced people to see. And it has taken this disgusting, over the top killing by the Israeli military with lots of help from the US to get people to see. I was saying how wrong and colonialist I thought Israel was 40 years ago and was told to go back to grade one. The evidence is there that humans are destroying the earth by war, consumption, and now the threat of nuclear bombs, but people just do not want to see. Gaza is pushing people to a place they have been trying to avoid for decades.
There's none so blind as those that won't see, and that willingness to be ignorant often comes with a benefit: social, financial, or political. We must be steadfast in awakening our fellow human beings in whatever ways we can, especially now, when the Panopticon can as easily be turned on the powerful as the powerless.
Love this article Caitlin. Takes me to the heart of an essential matter and instills a soupçon of hope in me
Is soupcon a real word? I've never heard it
No, but soupçon is.
Humans are the dumbest and most savage species on Earth. I laugh when anyone calls us civilized. We most assuredly are not.
And this ties into what Catlin is saying about raising our individual and collective consciousness.. This is what is needed now more than ever
We either evolve and grow in consciousness as a species or we perish.. It's that simple
Absolutely correct🫂
BINGO!!!! We have a winner!
What an ugly thing to say. Sure, there are humans who are savage - but all humans? Such a patently false and crass generalization. There is a great deal of light in the world as well, and beautiful human beings. And that beauty is worth fighting for.
"Civilised" came from the Romans, who called the surrounding, much older, wealthier, more egalitarian, more HUMANIST, and considerably more decent civilisations "Barbarians".
The word/concept has been contentious from day 1.
The most "civilised" [at least, according to themselves] are usually the most murderous fuckwits. While the "barbarians" are often quite civilised societies.
Given a choice, who would prefer to live in "civilised" Victorian England, or their "barbarian" victims living relaxed and chilled out lives on tropical islands before the Redcoats and RN arrived?
I didn't know that. That makes sense. Thank you ☺
For excellent info on it: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Terry-Jones-Barbarians-Alan-Ereira/dp/056353916X
There's an accompanying TV series (4 episodes), here's the first: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x72r71p
The book is better though. :)
Cool😎 Thank you☺
Thank you, Caitlin! This piece ties in perfectly with your previous article. I had originally thought this evil Genocide, war on Russia, and China was about a failing u.s. financial system 34.7 Trillion and counting at 2 million a min. BTW, we in the u.s. should cross the 35 Trillion debt level by Aug. 11th. or close. 1 Trillion in interest debt payment this year. With the u.s. dollar as a weapon I assume there is a limit to printed money the world will choke down. You are right there is no government in most countries of the West, only the primary military empire with it's puppet states. I now believe On the Beach is inevitable, escalation continues daily now and at some point Russia will no longer have the space to allow for Morons in washington/nato (yes lowercase) to continue escalation without a punch in the face. That punch will have to be a, we are done with playing games hoping you are intelligent enough to understand nuclear war is not winnable so here is a sample for you.
What is on the beach?
Australian engineer/writer Nevil Shute wrote one of the darkest books I had ever read. When I was in grade school the Librarian let me read in the adult section. What we are experiencing now leads to this book. The movies are garbage, the book sums it up.
“Melkor hated the Sea, for he could not subdue it.”
~JRR Tolkien, #TheSilmarillion
Exactly so.
Thank you for all the light you shed on this moment in history. I would add that before this genocide, there was and has been another live streamed. Will go out on a limb and possibly (possibly not) against what seems to be a prevailing sense of affairs on the left -- not with regards to the involvement of NATO and the West, but with regards to what I believe has been Putin's mission for a very long time -- and point out that the horrors inflicted on those in the Ukraine were starting to be streamed, first picked up by the corporate media (of course, in this case), then live streamed. I think this event, the genocide in Ukraine, horribly brought into focus what social media is capable of, to bend toward the intention of chronicling atrocity after atrocity. We in this so-called west, on Turtle Island and in Europe, were primed as well, then. Some of us were following events in the regions of Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Occupied Palestine, but many so rarely heard anywhere about these regions and the US' continued war through its proxy Israel. Little do we still hear about Iraq, and what a different situation it would have been, at least in terms of the numbers of those resisting (but not probably to the amount of atrocities) had there been this level of consciousness in and through social media when the US invaded that country. Drips and drabs have been coming out on what the US troops did...but...
We sure aren’t hearing about what’s going on in Kashmir, another occupation of long-standing duration. Still awaiting that UN-promised plebiscite.
Sometimes I think you are a collection of people, I don't know how you can be so spot on all the time. Your writing is an inspiration to so many of us out here, who may feel isolated in our liberal communities b/c we think what is happening in Israel is, indeed, a genocide, the war in Ukraine could have been avoided and should be brought to an end, the suppression of the student protests, with threats to their futures and to those of university officials who don't clamp down on them, which are termed "anti-semitic," are unconstitutional and unjust, about not voting for a man for whom we have little respect and consider corrupt in order to prevent Trump from becoming president. I'm glad you're here and writing.
Marianna Chambless, You write beautifully in praise of what Caitlin is trying to do here. We who can comment on her Newsletter think it's a great place in exchanging ideas and feelings and facts. Most of all in spreading the truth with kindness and caring.
Along with awareness is the humble local 'action' of living, working & sharing together. All humanity's worldwide 'indigenous' (Latin 'self-generating') ancestors & 1st Nations realize how humans are connected through our collective family, extended-family, the ~100 (50-150) person Multihome-Dwelling-Complex (eg. Longhouse-apartment, Pueblo-townhouse & Kanata-Village), in mutual-aid with whom & where 70% of us live today. While our agency to act is as individuals, the garden we cultivate is best done together. Indigenous people cultivate the collective Domestic (mostly women) 'economy' (Greek 'oikos' = 'home' + 'namein' = 'care-&-nurture') as the core, with supportive industry & commerce (mostly men) as subsets. All collective work needs to be recognized, accounted for & empowered in its contribution, experience, expertise & decision-making acumen.
What is a PEACENIK? Unless we exemplify 'peace' in our own lives & collectively, then governments & the public at large really don't have a clue as to what we really mean by ''peace'. The following description of some aspects of all humanity's 'indigenous' (Latin 'self-generating') peace heritage practice, will give the reader some direction as to applying peace to one's own life as daily action. Worldwide 'indigenous' nations cultivated what the 'Haudenosaunee' (Iroquois 'People-of-the-extended-rafters' aka 'Welcome') refer to as the 'Kaianere'kowa = 'Great-good-way-of-kindness' aka 'Great-Law-of-Peace' aka 'Constitution'. The Great-good-way is based in individual & collective cultural peace. In Central America the Maya refer to Kindness as 'In Lakesh' (I am another you. You are another me.). In the Amazon, Aymara, Jamamadi, Apurina nations refer to Kindness as Maloka = 'Longhouse', Indigenous Celtic-Slavic Europe refer to the 'System of 100s' for their longhouse & other housing economies. In southern Africa, Nguni people refer to 'Ubuntu' meaning 'Human Kindness'. Eastern Europe Serbs & Croatians refer to 'Zadruga' meaning 'economy of friends', India as 'Swadeshi' (Hindi 'indigenous' = 'self-sufficiency' more below), China's character for 'money' refers to the ancient indigenous 'Bei' or 'Cowrie Shell', Korea as 'Chaebol' & Japan as 'Keiretsu' referring to 'Family Economy'.
All these indigenous practices carry the same 3 indigenous-Cultural-Economy practices as below. Peace is established culturally from the person, friends, family, extended-family, Multihome, village, city, region, nation with ~110 nations across Turtle-Island (N. America) organized into ~23 Confederacies, into Continental & Hemispheric Councils. The mathematics of organization & governance in indigenous society is based in cultural 'fractals' ('fraction, multiplier, building-block, where-the-part-contains-the-whole'). One can compare this fractal organization with the autonomous organization of the genes, cells, tissue & organs of the human & other animal bodies. Economic Memory with bodily autonomy. Modern neurology has established how each part has both neurons, memory, intelligence & the autonomous mandate to act with their specific knowledge. The brain is considered as one of several body Nexus for the inter-communication of these events & coordinated action by the whole body, often well after the fact. The body is synonymous with the body-politic or society at various levels. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/d-participatory-structure/3-economic-memory EXAMPLE OF PUTTING PEACE INTO PERSONAL PRACTICE: Mohandas Gandhi as part of India's 'Swadeshi' (Hindi 'Indigenous' aka 'Self-sufficiency') program advocated 'Become the change, you want to see in the world'. Gandhi's last 32 years since returning from his 2 decades in India in 1915, as a British trained lawyer & 'activist' for government change, rethought his strategy upon the influence of Swadeshi. India's 'Swaraj' (H. 'self-rule') or independence was based in 'economic' (Greek ''oikos' = 'home' + 'namein' = 'care-&-nurture') engine.
This empowerment of diverse peoples locally in solidarity 'animated' local 'self-sufficiency' as the key fractal determinant for the autonomy of the whole society. Gandhi cultivated 'Satyagraha' (H. 'Truth-search') as part of India's Swadeshi Council Process with Both-sided, Equal-time, Recorded & Published Dialogues among India's diverse nation, caste-economy, religion & politics as citizens & leaders. (web-link below) ORGANIZING FROM THE TREE ROOTS: One needs to contrast this distributed, decentralized collaboration from the bottom-up, with western colonial society as a top-down, Oligarch commanded & controlled society. The present so-called Peace-Movement adheres to visions of Top-Down change of governments & corporations. Many of us walk home alone at the end of meetings, alone, economically isolated with next to no discussion about what we might do as groups of people together in the first step of Mutual-Aid needed for the distributed autonomous Team Work, we all wish to be a part of. While those in social & environmental movements might characterize governments & corporations as COLD HEARTED, this 'cold-content' is the term Marshall McLuhan in the 'Medium-is-the-message' applies to the 'activist' movement itself. McLuhan called for warmth in the 'process' of our association. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/a-home/9-mutual-aid Three essential aspects of INDIGENOUS CULTURAL ECONOMY Peace include:
1) ~100 (50-150) person Multihome-Dwelling-Complex (eg. Longhouse-apartment, Pueblo-townhouse & Kanata-village). This loving intimate, intergenerational, female-male, interdisciplinary, critical-mass, economies-of-scale. 70% of people today live in multihomes /c an average of 32 dwelling-units = ~100 people. 20% of Multihome-dwellers are extended-families living intentionally in proximity for social & economic collaboration. Multihome-extended-family contribute trillions of $ of the most individually appropriate goods, services, sharing caring/year as Turtle-Island, N-America's largest essential Economic sector, albeit unrecognized by government, education & institutions as well as it seems the 'Peace-movement'. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/c-relational-economy/1-extending-our-welcome-participatory-multihome-cohousing
2) Time-based equivalency accounting once upon the String-shell Value system (eg. Wampum on Turtle-Island, Quipu in S. America, Cowrie in indigenous Celtic-Slavic Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia & all islands), which integrates a) Capital ownership & decision-making rights, b) Currency compensation for spending, c) Condolence social-security of all kinds, d) Collegial Educational Credits in mentored-apprenticeship for youth, e) Time-based analysis in Communication, f) professional Costume for identifying essential expertise. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/c-relational-accounting/2-participatory-accounting
3) COUNCIL-PROCESS as described below. DO-WE-KNOW-WHO-WE-ARE-? http://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/d-participatory-structure/9-do-we-know-who-we-are web-based Community-Circular-Economy software: A) CATALOGUE intake form. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/a-home/7-membership
B) MAP local proximal collaborative relations for complementary economic concertation. Baseline mapping of 105 Mohawk, Wendat & Algonquian Placenames in the Tiohtiake (greater Montreal archipelago) region https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/a-home/5-tiohtiake-mohawk-placenames
C) ACCOUNT for collective contributions, buying, selling & co-investment. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/c-relational-economy
D) COMMUNICATE such as formally through COUNCIL PROCESS for creating Constructive Agreements & for Conflict Resolution. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/d-participatory-structure/1-both-sides-now-equal-time-recorded-dialogues
I wish we could have remained the type of society I think you're describing. Too many people now, for one.
Francis/Clare, RE: "Too many people". You are reciting the foundational Oligarch misanthropic hate trope of supposed 'too many', but me. Mohawk elders helped me understand how in the midst of our cities, exactly as we are, 70% of people are living in Multihome-Dwelling-Complexes (eg. Apartment, Townhouse & Village) within an average of 32 dwelling-units = ~100 people. Even our Oligarch colonial constructed architecture, although not constructed in alignment with the 5 Elements (Sun, air, water, soil & life), has recreated the indigenous intimate, intergenerational, female-male, interdisciplinary, critical-mass, economies-of-scale. What is missing are the animating practices of 2) Time-based Equivalency Accounting once upon the String-shell Value System & 3) COUNCIL-PROCESS for developing, understanding, working contracts & Conflict Resolution. Love is about accepting & cultivating exactly as we are.
Did you know how all humanity's worldwide 3-D Polyculture Orchards in SYLVALIZATION (Latin 'sylva' = 'tree') in which aligned with nature produces 100 times more food, materials, energy & water-cycle than 2-D 'agriculture' (Latin 'ager' = 'field'). As empires spread, hungry for the hardwood Oak for weapons of war, forts, arms, ships etc. the main productivity loss is the indigenous, carefully cultivated 3-D POLYCULTURE ORCHARDs of all humanity's worldwide 'indigenous' ancestors, which because of:
a) Polyculture's 92-98% Photosynthesis compared with 2-D 'agriculture' (L 'ager' = 'field') 2-8% photosynthesis. Agriculture’s all settlers & 1st Nations had left to 'farm' (French 'ferme' = 'contract of servitude by the peasant imposed by the armed aristocrat')
b) Deep Polyculture roots descending many 10s of metres into the substrate mining minerals, pumping water, developing extensive nutrient colonies etc. being 100 times = 10,000% more productivity than agriculture.
c) Polyculture's >95% photosynthesis creates an energy vacuum, which draws warm-moist ocean wind inland. Quadrillions of square kilometres of fractal leaf & bark surfaces condense the warm moist air, providing 60% of water transfer from ocean to land. Only 40% of moisture comes as rain-snow & then only if their are Polyculture orchards to draw winds inland. 2-D Agriculture reflects >95% of solar energy creating a High-Pressure energy zone, which pushes winds from the continent towards the sea, creating permanent desert.
https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/b-ecological-design/1-indigenous-welcome-orchard-food-production-efficiencies
The Ashkenazi (some of my family in 3 branches) who invaded Palestine, cut down Palestinian Polyculture Deciduous Olive, Oak, Pinion-Pine trees mixed with meadow bush & field crops. Palestinians lived in tight walkable Village low-footprint architecture. Ashkenazi stole & bulldozed much of these dwelling & built mass suburban sprawl nuclear homes linked to Shopping Centres & Industrial Zones by mass highway systems. Israel in their false replanting of the desert, stole water from Palestinian Polyculture & then planted monocrop Coniferous Pine & Spruce trees, prone to disease & Lightning strike burning, now mostly gone. Because Ashkenazi created such mass region reflective surfaces, winds now blow from the continent towards the sea. Colonial Oligarch directed Israel has created the longest drought in the Levant region's history.
If Ashkenazi & Sephardic Jews had or still will join with Palestinians, who welcomed them, through formal dialogue in Both-sides-now, Equal-time, Recorded & Published Dialogues then some understanding, collaboration & working contracts as well as Conflict Resolution can be attained. So far the Ashkenazi & Sephardic have taken the path of Intellectual-Coward Bullies, confused by welcome & words, so beholding to violence. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/d-participatory-structure/1-both-sides-now-equal-time-recorded-dialogues
Above all I value our truly miraculous, gorgeous planet that we share with a myriad of flora and fauna, albeit very unequally. The Half Earth Project is a glorious dream that greedy, self-centered, thoughtless, prideful, unappreciative humans will never enact. It would be better if we were gone, taking our murderous, cruel species away, allowing earth to heal and evolve its magic. Homo sapiens: what a laugh.
https://eowilsonfoundation.org/what-is-the-half-earth-project/
I'm listening to 86 minute Half Earth, Book Club talk https://vimeo.com/429866444 Interesting talk. I have great appreciation for what they are trying to achieve, but from my 60 years of training with 1st Nations & indigenous peoples, I see them making repetitive unconscious 'exogenous' (Latin 'other-generated') mistakes.
1st Climate Science mistake
Indigenous people approach Biodiversity from the perspective as Primates or humans as Tree-People, keeping & stewarding the tree. As in the 'Polyculture' Orchard Food Production web-link 3-D Polyculture is 100 times (10,000%) more productive than 2-D 'agriculture'. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/b-ecological-design/1-indigenous-welcome-orchard-food-production-efficiencies The 100 year old White Oak, in 1st Nation times, right across Turtle-Island (N. America), typically produces 3 tonnes of sweet acorns per year in a 50 square meter area, compared with only 3 kilograms of Cereal Grain Crops such as wheat, barley, oats & rye = 'inherent poverty'. Monocrop Agriculture requires clear stripping, weeding, ploughing, seeding, watering, weeding, mechanical harvesting, drying, storage & many other human labours & mechanical processing.
Efficiencies in Food production, as the core of the 'economy' lays the template for all other economic endeavors. 1st Nations & indigenous peoples worldwide, look at species conservation through the mutually beneficial SYLVACULTURE (L. 'sylva' = 'tree') cultivation for abundance. Tree nut, fruit, greens, vines, bushes & associated lower crops require just a fraction of the labour & mechanical inputs. Unfortunately what I'm hearing from the Half-earth 'experts' is species conservation but not understanding the 'indigenous' (L. 'self-generating') 'economy' (Greek 'oikos' = 'home' + 'namein' = 'care-&-nurture') template.
The 2nd 'exogenous' (L 'other-generated') Climate Science mistake in seeing people as a liability, is creating climates of rejection, competition, fear, loathing, scarcity, poverty, war & constant policing.
Indigenous people pride themselves particularly on Welcome & Economic Inclusion of the family, neighbours & stranger. The techniques of welcome include the: 1) ~100 (50-150) person intergenerational Multihome-Dwelling-Complex, 2) Time-based Equivalency Accounting on the String-shell Value system, 3) COUNCIL PROCESS Both-sided, Equal-time, Recorded & Published Dialogues
RELATIONAL ECONOMY https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/c-relational-economy
Is it "unappreciative humans" or those who command & control humanity from birth to death? When we research into the issue of western fake 'money' (Greek 'mnemosis' = 'memory'), we find the same family lineage of controllers, 7000 years through empire to empire, who control the levers of institutional, government & economic power. Today the US Federal-Reserve, Bank-of-England (City-of-London) & Bank of International Settlements all have the same minority undeclared share-holders triangulated in all three for absolute control of the Finance, Media, Religion, Education, Military-Industrial, Legislative, Judicial, Pharma-med & Agri-business COMPLEX.
3-D WELCOMING FRIENDSHIP BUILDS HUMAN & BIOSPHERE CAPACITY
2-D EXCLUSION BUILDS TRAGEDY, POVERITY & DESERTS
https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/c-relational-economy/1-extending-our-welcome-participatory-multihome-cohousing
This is a lot to take in. I need to become more informed about these concepts.
Fertile ground, but I wish it wasn't at the expense of so many lives destroyed, as they're destroyed in other war ravaged countries.
We need to understand the systems that do this, and that many of us are enmeshed in, and do what we can to stop supporting them.
In speaking of these things, I would not discount the workings of karma. I suppose a good many of you regard karma as woo, but it is based on a simple, material principle: what goes around comes around. It is unquestionably something those of us who are awake have observed in the world. In Sanskrit and its descendants, _karma_ simply means "action", and in the case of psychology, it is a fact that if one performs an action and succeeds in carrying it out, it increases one's propensity for performing similar actions of the same type. A generous person who performs a generous act becomes more likely to perform another action of that type, and a violent criminal becomes more likely to perform further violent acts. Karma also works on a community level: in the case of the United States, observe the effects of its present government's actions on its political institutions. I doubt if I need to go into detail. In the case of Israel, then, consider the situation of an Israeli citizen walking around in the company of thousands of her or his fellow citizens, many of them well-armed, who have committed grotesque acts of violence even against small children. The prospects do not seem good; indeed, they seem likely to be catastrophic, and not because of the Palestinians or others who may be adversaries, but of the people themselves and the harm they have already done to themselves. One may hope they will turn back, but it doesn't seem likely.
They have decimated their souls ala Voldermort and his Horcruxes
I doubt they have any Soul and Spirit left, but one thing is for sure, God cannot abide in such Soulless Evil beings and the very notion that they are "God's own people" is a Blatant mockery of God
Hate to burst your bubble, but "karma" is a story/narrative people believe in to help them make sense of the world. Same thing for most "spiritual" beliefs. There is no scientific/evidence-based basis for these concepts. People choose to believe in them because:
(1) it makes them feel better about themselves
(2) it makes them feel better about the world
(3) it attempts to explain the unexplainable
(4) it helps people make sense of a senseless world.
(5) it brings a level of comfort and justice in an inherently unjust world
Having said all that, I don't think there is anything wrong in believing in karma (regardless of its factual validity). In fact, believing in it may even be mentally/physically healthy for some people.
Thank you to Caitlin, and to you Starry Gordon.
Karma, is cause and effect - every action has a reaction. Good actions have a good reaction. Bad actions have a bad reaction. At an individual level compassion arises in us when we see the plight of the Palestinians. Which leads us to right intention and right action - in this case being justice for the Palestinians.
Israel by its sheer brutality has created a society of pathological beings blinded with greed, hatred and delusion. They won't know any peace however many bombs they drop, and however many Palestinians they kill.
Very nice article. I've always wondered how the world's greatest minds from the past couldn't see how slavery, oppression and discrimination against other peoples and misogyny were wrong with their large brains. But it's a consciousness thing. It's like they're asleep to the fact that other people are human just like them. We need to awaken ...
>>"I've always wondered how the world's greatest minds from the past couldn't see how slavery, oppression and discrimination against other peoples and misogyny were wrong with their large brains."
They could see it. They knew it was wrong. They accepted, condoned, tolerated, and went along with it because they benefited from it in some way or form - just as they do so today. Nothing has really changed. "Slavery" was socially accepted in many cultures/societies even though everyone knew it was wrong. Same thing with "Racism", etc.
Do you eat meat? It's definitely wrong in most cases. But most people aren't educated or conscious enough to know that animals are conscious, intelligent, emotional beings that feel pain as much as we do including anxiety, fear, separation, loneliness etc. Even I who knows this clearly, have to ongoingly wake myself up when being offered animal bodies to eat because they are called something else - meat, pork, lasagne, to hide the fact it's the dead body of another sentient being who had a social world, a family, and could experience most feelings I can, albeit in a different sensory way. The totality of suffering of factory farmed animals is far greater than the current suffering of 99% of humanity. This is clear to me, but sometimes I go into a trance when offered pork crackling not being awake enough to realise it's the skin of a pig 🙄
I think words like slaves, Muslims, blacks etc had / have a similar social hypnotising effect on Westerners / everyone allowing them to treat these Others like inferiors / property