Showing posts with label corporations. Show all posts

Wednesday, 9 November 2016

Nature as a Sentient Being

What if nature, like corporations, had the rights and protections of a person?

Mammon or Millennial Eden at the Birthplace of the Australian Nation by R. Ayana

"Mammon or Millennial Eden" - Graven at the Birthplace of the Australian Nation

image by R. Ayana

by Chip Colwell

In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has solidified the concept of corporate personhood. Following rulings in such cases as Hobby Lobby and Citizens United, U.S. law has established that companies are, like people, entitled to certain rights and protections.

But that’s not the only instance of extending legal rights to nonhuman entities. New Zealand took a radically different approach in 2014 with the Te Urewera Act which granted an 821-square-mile forest the legal status of a person. The forest is sacred to the Tūhoe people, an indigenous group of the Maori. For them Te Urewera is an ancient and ancestral homeland that breathes life into their culture. The forest is also a living ancestor. The Te Urewera Act concludes that “Te Urewera has an identity in and of itself,” and thus must be its own entity with “all the rights, powers, duties, and liabilities of a legal person.” Te Urewera holds title to itself.

Although this legal approach is unique to New Zealand, the underlying reason for it is not. Over the last 15 years I have documented similar cultural expressions by Native Americans about their traditional, sacred places. As an anthropologist, this research has often pushed me to search for an answer to the profound question: What does it mean for nature to be a person?

The forest around Lake Waikaremoana in New Zealand has been given legal status of a person because of its cultural significance. Paul Nelhams/flickr, CC BY-SA

The snow-capped mountain

A majestic mountain sits not far northwest of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Like a low triangle, with long gentle slopes, Mount Taylor is clothed in rich forests that appear a velvety charcoal-blue from the distance. Its bald summit, more than 11,000 feet high, is often blanketed in snow – a reminder of the blessing of water, when seen from the blazing desert below.

The Zuni tribe lives about 40 miles west of Mount Taylor. In 2012, I worked with a team to interview 24 tribal members about the values they hold for Dewankwin K’yaba:chu Yalanne (“In the East Snow-capped Mountain”), as Mount Taylor is called in the Zuni language. We were told that their most ancient ancestors began an epic migration in the Grand Canyon.

Mount Taylor in New Mexico, a sacred site to the Zuni who believe it is a living being. Chip Colwell, Author provided

Over millennia they migrated across the Southwest, with important medicine societies and clans living around Mount Taylor. After settling in their current pueblo homes, Zunis returned to this sacred mountain to hunt animals like deer and bear, harvest wild plants like acorns and cattails, and gather minerals used in sacrosanct rituals that keep the universe in order. Across the generations Dewankwin Kyaba:chu Yalanne has come to shape Zuni history, life, and identity no less than the Vatican has for Catholics.

But unlike holy places in the Western world, Zunis believe Mount Taylor is a living being. Zuni elders told me that the mountain was created within the Earth’s womb. As a mountain formed by volcanic activity, it has always grown and aged. The mountain can give life as people do. The mountain’s snow melts in spring and nourishes plants and wildlife for miles. Water is the mountain’s blood; buried minerals are the mountain’s meat. Because it lives, deep below is its beating heart. Zunis consider Mount Taylor to be their kin.

There is a stereotype that Native American peoples have a singular connection to nature. And yet in my experience, they do see the world in a fundamentally different way from most people I know. Whether it is mountains, rivers, rocks, animals, plants, stars or weather, they see the natural world as living and breathing, deeply relational, even at times all-knowing and transcendent.

In my work with Arizona’s Hopi tribe, I have traveled with cultural leaders to study sacred places. They often stop to listen to the wind, or search the sky for an eagle, or smile when it begins to rain, which they believe is a blessing the ancestors bestow upon them.

During one project with the Hopi tribe, we came across a rattlesnake coiled near an ancient fallen pueblo. “Long ago, one of them ancestors lived here and turned into a rattlesnake,” the elder Raleigh H. Puhuyaoma Sr. shared with me, pointing to the nearby archaeological site. “It’s now protecting the place.” The elders left an offering of corn meal to the snake. An elder later told me that it soon rained on his cornfield, a result from this spiritual exchange.

Violent disputes

Understanding these cultural worldviews matters greatly in discussions over protecting places in nature. The American West has a long history of battles over the control of land. We’ve seen this recently from the Bundy family’s takeover of the federal wildlife refuge in Oregon to the current fight over turning Bears Ears – 1.9 million acres of wilderness – into a national monument in Utah.

Yet often these battles are less about the struggle between private and public interests, and more about basic questions of nature’s purpose. Do wild places have intrinsic worth? Or is the land a mere tool for human uses?

A Hopi elder making an offering to a snake to protect a sacred space. Chip Colwell, Author provided

Much of my research has involved documenting sacred places because they are being threatened by development projects on public land. The Zuni’s sacred Mount Taylor, much of it managed by the U.S. National Forest Service, has been extensively mined for uranium, and is the cause of violent disputes over whether it should be developed or protected.

Even though the U.S. does not legally recognize natural places as people, some legal protections exist for sacred places. Under the National Historic Preservation Act, for example, the U.S. government must take into consideration the potential impacts of certain development projects on “traditional cultural properties.”

This and other federal heritage laws, however, provide tribes a small voice in the process, little power, and rarely lead to preservation. More to the point, these laws reduce what tribes see as living places to “properties,” obscuring their inherent spiritual value.

In New Zealand, the Te Urewera Act offers a higher level of protection, empowering a board to be the land’s guardian. The Te Urewera Act, though, does not remove its connection to humans. With a permit, people can hunt, fish, farm and more. The public still has access to the forest. One section of the law even allows Te Urewera to be mined.

Te Urewera teaches us that acknowledging cultural views of places as living does not mean ending the relationship between humans and nature, but reordering it – recognizing nature’s intrinsic worth and respecting indigenous philosophies.

In the U.S. and elsewhere, I believe we can do better to align our legal system with the cultural expressions of the people it serves. For instance, the U.S. Congress could amend the NHPA or the American Indian Religious Freedom Act to acknowledge the deep cultural connection between tribes and natural places, and afford better protections for sacred landscapes like New Mexico’s Mount Taylor.

Until then, it says much about us when companies are considered people before nature is.

Chip Colwell - Lecturer on Anthropology, University of Colorado Denver

Chip Colwell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

From The Conversation @ https://theconversation.com/what-if-nature-like-corporations-had-the-rights-and-protections-of-a-person-64947

For more information about Gaia see http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.com/search/label/gaia

- Scroll down through ‘Older Posts’ at the end of each section

Do you LIKE this uniquely informative site?

A genuinely incapacitated invalid maintains, writes, edits, researches, illustrates, moderates and publishes this website from a tiny cabin in a remote forest.

Now that most people use ad blockers and view these posts on phones and other mobile devices, sites like this earn an ever shrinking pittance from advertising sponsorship.

This site needs your help.

Like what you see? Please give anything you can -

Contribute any amount and receive at least one New Illuminati eBook!

(You can use a card securely if you don’t use Paypal)

Please click below -

And it costs nothing to share this post on Social Media!

Dare to care and share - YOU are our only advertisement!

Xtra Image by R. Ayana – https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3899/14522420767_81c50ecbd3_k.jpg

For further enlightening information enter a word or phrase into the random synchronistic search box @ the top left of http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.com

And see

New Illuminati – http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.com

New Illuminati on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/the.new.illuminati

New Illuminati Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/newilluminati/playlists

New Illuminati’s OWN Youtube Videos -

https://www.youtube.com/user/new1lluminati/videos

New Illuminati on Google+ @ For New Illuminati posts - https://plus.google.com/u/0/+RamAyana0/posts

and see https://plus.google.com/115562482213600937809/posts

and google.com/+newilluminati-channel

New Illuminati on Twitter @ www.twitter.com/new_illuminati

New Illuminati on Google Follow - http://www.google.com/friendconnect/settings/edit?smpl=true&st=e%3DAOG8GaCFDeBRZ1yDY2DjCaq61tFDiwO07s%252Fwv3x8%252B%252FJgZJTLx5igbMomJIu3796Ja6n05WaS8qnJ0DLyeGk1q49tLD8m%252FhV1K%252Bq%252BQIOGOwLeWznnm5IGhzjfWzVnq5I4UJr3fw8yk%252B8W2OqwlCbL7BNsW32uouSc79Br%252BkOZQ1Fpzg6J3KMIZkzmg0%252FcPHsWUPqZv845VKS31S%252FbCm8NpINhlK1kDxUdRmcCkT37dIc4RB6PNurjCcd2%252BVkNBveCm4kAgeb8A3Q5hNj6%252FHplvQxKFI%252BW1TYBJVYqHHTKsnBPGcL6wlZdxTUwtfxWU2ZvANJQ%252F%252FUrolBwP7ovb92SZqSWMFJRnN2rsQ%253D%253D%26c%3Dpeoplesense

New Illuminations –Art(icles) by R. Ayana @ http://newilluminations.blogspot.com

The Her(m)etic Hermit - http://hermetic.blog.com

DISGRUNTLED SITE ADMINS PLEASE NOTE –

We provide a live link to your original material on your site (and links via social networking services) - which raises your ranking on search engines and helps spread your info further!

This site is published under Creative Commons (Attribution) CopyRIGHT (unless an individual article or other item is declared otherwise by the copyright holder). Reproduction for non-profit use is permitted & encouraged - if you give attribution to the work & author and include all links in the original (along with this or a similar notice).

Feel free to make non-commercial hard (printed) or software copies or mirror sites - you never know how long something will stay glued to the web – but remember attribution!

If you like what you see, please send a donation (no amount is too small or too large) or leave a comment – and thanks for reading this far…

Live long and prosper! Together we can create the best of all possible worlds…

From the New Illuminati – http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.com

Tuesday, 1 November 2016

The Military Industrial Complex: Warmongering to Scare You Into Voting for the Establishment

The Military Industrial Complex:

Warmongering to Scare You Into Voting for the Establishment

by Paul Collin

I know I am an idealist in my hopes that we can make the world better. Most people believe the super rich are too big to take down. That could very well be true, because it’s been that way for hundreds of years, but I am still hopeful that awareness can do … something.

The economic game has turned into who can steal more and get away with it. Trust is being challenged and I see a move to computational trust.

The general public chooses to stick its head in the sand. Is it because it’s complicated and boring, or are they dumbed down with media, medication, sugar, caffeine and alcohol? Probably some of that; though maybe they have given up because they think their point of view does not matter or won’t make a difference, as again maybe the system is too big to change and will do what it damn well pleases.

How the Corporation Act has Allowed Corporations (Fascism) to Conquer

Your money is being inflated away to keep the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) funded. The MIC dictates the controlling shares of the major companies in the world and has taken over control through the Corporation Act. 147 companies own 40% of the shares of 43,060 transnational companies. Those 147 chairman of the boards advise the Federal Reserve(which is private and has a controlling interest of shares), through organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations, on how their top few shareholders want things done. If there is a war in the next 30 days it is purely political as the MIC is worried they will lose their grip if their choice (Hillary) loses the election.

Pointless wars are keeping the rich richer and poor poorer. Over the last hundred years the fractional reserve banking system has taken hundreds of millions out of poverty, brought about productivity gains and technology that has been incredible, but over time, greed has crept in deep and eroded the already shaky rigged system to its core i.e., the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) now has the Patriot Act and the National Security Agency (NSA) to do “whatever it takes” in the name of national defense, including breaking the law thus sending millions back into poverty. As George Bush put it during the 2008 meltdown in this short 1 minute clip “I have abandoned free market principles to save the free market.”

The Military Industrial Complex’s (MIC) biggest revenue source is the US Government to the tune of $700 billion being spent on defense each year. That is so large that it has become the budget that controls the world through proxies of controlling the shares of holding companies via the top 49 companies in the world (they are all financial holding companies). While the shareholders are few, their biggest holdings are with the MIC. GE and Westinghouse are two large defense contractors that own much of the mainstream media.

To make things worse the Plunge Protection Team and Exchange Stabilization Fund both should not exist in a true free market. We do not have a free market so start protecting yourself from the unsustainable economic system you are in. You can even do something about it. Firstly, by reading this you are educating yourself – congrats! Please note I am not a financial advisor and suggest you seek one for all of your needs, but in my opinion, they are paid for by corporations and live off your fees, so there is an absolute conflict of interest. You should shop local and or try to avoid all national companies. Next, you could take your money out of the bank and put it in a lock box or buy physical silver coins as the banks are stealing your money with fees and leveraging it with fraud; meaning it is at risk. This article outlines $204 billion dollars in recent bank fines for crimes:

New bail-in rules have made the money you think is yours (in your bank) not yours anymore. You have lent that money to the bank, and you may think it’s insured but the system is so systemic that when one fails all will fail which should tie up your funds way longer then you could imagine, and then all tax payers would be called in to fix it.

With this type of system trust or confidence is eroded, and with current currency and trade wars between countries (China, USA, Russia and Iran to name a few) that don’t trust each other, all this continues to undermine the system. The 2008 Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers collapse all came down to banks not trusting each other’s balance sheets, as some were actually insolvent (broke), and bank overnight lending stopped for 30 days. We were hours away from all ATM’s being closed until further notice.

The shareholders of the 147 largest holding companies in the world have put most people, companies and countries in debt to them (i.e.; enslaved). The top 49 companies are financial companies holding the voting control of the Military Industrial Complex which includes the media.

Global growth has crashed to levels not seen since 1955. Home ownership rates are at 50 year lows in the USA and the job participation rate is also at 38 year lows. So don’t listen to the headlined unemployment rate as that is only reporting on new part-time jobs. The Dry Bulk Index has been at a low for multiple years and a recent report from the WTO said they are lowering their forecast by about a third to its lowest rate since 2009. The smart money has already left holding shares of the European banks as most of their share prices have dropped 40-50% over the last year. The stock market is at a record 25:1 P/E (price to earnings ratio), corporate profits have been down for 6 quarters in a row. This represents the longest and broadest slide in earnings since the financial crisis. During good times and before this near zero interest rate policy the average P/E was something closer to 15:1.

Corporate Capture is Alive and Well in the G20 Countries

Meanwhile, the US has printed over $5-10 Trillion dollars in the last decade and European Central Bank’s (ECB) Mario Draghi saying we will do “whatever it takes.” The ECB has been printing monthly for the last year and a half along with Japan printing full blast monthly for the last three years. The real fraud here is bailing out banks; if true free markets were around, those companies would have been closed or sold off to more trustworthy competitors, or nationalized.

This may blow up (on purpose) around election time, while never mentioning that they caused this or most were too incompetent to see it while the decision makers behind the curtains have big smirks on their faces while front running the swings in the markets.

One of the biggest problems, and the most misunderstood, is that governments don’t have to borrow money; they can print any deficits and therefore avoid interest payments. Those interest payments are transferring your wealth to the rich. For those wanting more on this point, below is Bill Still explaining in his documentary The Money Masters. Canada alone pays over $18 billion per year on interest to the banks shareholders and the US is at $223 billion.

Over the last four years the Plunge Protection Team and Exchange Stabilization Fund or Open Markets Committee has represented 40% of the upside move in the S&P index. This is clear state planning or a banana republic that has abandoned free markets. Can they hold the markets up, and should they? Everyone should be aware of this and place their investments strategies accordingly. This is playing the system for the benefit of the few, and the greatest transfer of wealth in recent history is soon to follow. The global debt is unsustainable and the largest pensions will be looted to pay for it via hyperinflation.

The Japanese Government is currently buying 60% of the Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) on their stock exchange. These are not free market moves, these are moves of desperation.

The risk of errors or poor judgment such as interest rate increases, or withdrawing liquidity is increasing. Intended or accidental breakdowns within the Euro Zone potentially restructuring the single currency (Euro) is no longer unlikely. The global currency war is complete with trade wars, as Trump discusses, and capital movements are likely as countries act independently consistent with their national interests. This is to be expected and could push us into a phase shift – the signs of failure are everywhere pushing central banks into more extreme actions.

The good news is the establishment is scrambling to take more control (mergers & acquisitions, Patriot Act, moving Internet control to the United Nations etc.) to insure they don’t lose it entirely, but this is so vast and complicated that I believe they won’t be able to; they are losing more and more control daily. This current economic fantasy can only be kept going for so long – one can only defy fundamental accounting for so long. Kicking the can down the road or sweeping it under the carpet does not fix a system that is broken…

Many are choosing to opt for a third party option, or even the path of abstention as a political protest of a system that is clearly corrupted and broken.

Fundamental house cleaning at the Federal Reserve is a paramount necessity. Massive intrusions in the financial markets, manipulation of interest rates, and efforts to prop up the market all must come to an end! Abolish the Open Markets Committee; abolish discretionary intervention day in day out; let interest rates be discovered by the market; let price discovery come back into Wall Street; that is the heart of capitalism. Shut down the Federal Reserve as it exists today.

The economy is the single most important and ignored topic to globally bring people out of poverty. I have no motives other than helping people understand that there is a better way. The world now has $152 Trillion in debt and median household income has fallen by 20% since 2000. That kind of drop has not been seen in decades.

From The Last American Vagabond @ http://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/finance/military-industrial-complex-war-mongering-scare-voting-establishment/

For more information about warmongers see http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.com/search/label/warmongers