posted by Kamala on Dec 29
The UNFCCC COP-15 is over. We all see the results. The emphasis was changed from serving the Earth and the human race to a financial summit. The last 48 hours of 2 weeks of stalled negotiations, suspended talks and extended recesses, saw the unabashed hijack of the entire process. The dragon came out from under the pretty blue cover of the UN. The World Trade Organization through 26 countries announced its supremacy. The new rules are – “Business as usual. Shut up and consume, idiot people. We’ll make slaves out of you yet!”
How could this happen in an institution that the world thought was filled with human brotherhood, democracy, service to the hungry and human rights, albeit stretched with the newer definitions of ‘peace-keeping’ ?
A brief look at the origins of the UN shows us that under Franklin D. Roosevelt, its precursor was not the League of Nations to which the US never belonged, and which had petered out by 1930, but the original WTO – the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs that was formed at the New Hampshire Bretton-Woods conference in 1944. It was then that the G-6 formed, the Group of Six richest industrialized nations – the US, UK, Canada, France, Japan, Italy, then later Germany and Russia on and off to be the G – 8. Under FDR, the CIA formed, which superceded the FBI. The military defense organ – the Pentagon was built, and the US changed into a military-industrial complex that backed the interests of US industrialists and their cohorts in other nations. The US zoomed out of its financial depression on the blood and backs of the now almost consistently non-white peoples that were dosed with WAR for ills and emancipations that their peaceful simple peoples could not understand or conceive of. Physical comforts and affordable technologies made a huge and compliant middle-class, more eager to enjoy luxuries and leisure than question the sources of them.
Meanwhile, Columbia went under in Banana production, and her leadership now seems to want her to stay that way. Brazil processed cheap leather, cheap everything, while her reasonably small population divided itself sharply into haves and have nots… and so on through out the central and south Americas, then onto Asia.
In 1941, FDR, and Churchill got together in a clandestine boat trip, a few months before US involvement in WW2, and made the Atlantic Charter. While much of it seemed a noble effort to guide mankind by these two powers through 8 points, the 4th insisted that economic trade barriers were to be lowered, and the 5th sought global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare.
In support of these two points, a ‘model of development’ for ’social welfare’ was created that imitated lifestyle, consumer and social patterns of the US and UK and supported industrial development. Countries were then classed as ‘developed’ or 1st world, ‘developing’ or 2nd world, and ‘undeveloped’ or 3rd world.
We have to bear in mind that while FDR was fighting the German Nazi menace for the ‘freedom of the world’ he did not evidence any intolerance for the lack of civil rights in the USA.
When the UN was formed in 1945, its core was a Security Council which was again made up of membership from the G-6 countries. Hmmmm.
And now we find that we, the mass of mankind, are in a kind of pickle.
Democracy is non-existent.
When faced with tyranny and brutality, that cannot even hear a voice of conscience, different tactics are required to awaken the oppressors to their own humanity. We face challenging times. The recent COP-15 ‘Accord’ has shown the world that the World Trade Organization is running the planet, democracy so far has been only allowed by business as an indulgent belief system - we feel we are free, that we have liberty, as long as we choose to cooperate with with consumer based lifestyles, education and medicine. The models of ‘development’ are destroying not only human relationships and society, but the natural systems of the Earth. In many countries now, laws have been passed banning civil disobedience. We are finding it difficult to think clearly or even raise our voice. Confusion is sinking in deep. We no longer understand what rights are. Debates are on in India about legalizing surrogate motherhood, while thousands of babies are abandoned, and have no home.
We have to find different means to confront these forces. Non-cooperation is still a key, but no longer through protest. There is no point to shout at people who are more than tone deaf. We must simply cease to cooperate with the forces of industry, which depend on our pennies, pesos and paisa. We must renounce the material ‘blessings’ which are given to us in exchange for supporting the economic systems that are destroying the ecology of the Earth that sustains our lives, and quickly transplant them with ones that do. We have to work at the local community level, with our towns and councils, and regain the rights to grow gardens in urban areas, to unpave the Earth, to hang out our laundry to dry in the sun and air in our neighborhoods, to recondition ourselves to not find such a sight as being offensive, to reclaim our rivers from polluting sources and to stop the poisoning of our Earth, Sky and Waters, our bodies and our babies by Agri-business. We have to regain control of the Earth foot by foot.
We can start with visualizations - the great suburbs of Chicago, acres and acres of exactly the same middle class homes, with flourishing vegetable, herb and flower gardens, even grains, instead of lawns. Making communities out of those who are now total strangers to us, our neighbors. We can grow the food, take care of it, can and dry it together. Lets put the visualizations into practice this spring.
We need to learn to use our hands again, for more than pushing buttons, for stitching, weaving, carpentry, glass bottle making…not for profit, but for sustainability…and we need to return to the ethic that he who is selfish and amassing while people are hungry has renounced his humanity and become a HOG, not a VIP.
In working with our bodies for the good of the community, we will clear our minds of the unreal. We won’t have well-fed ivy-league educated people sitting around, planning and then bombing the moon, as was done in November, 2009. We won’t have doctors who are the arms of the pharmaceutical industries, who don’t really care about our health, teachers that mould us to fit into a system that is killing the Earth for us.
In his last message to the people of the United States on October 21, 1946 Gandhi urged,
“Dislodge the money God called Mammon from the throne and find a corner for poor God. I think America has a very big future but in spite of what is said to the contrary, it has a dismal future if it swears by Mammon. Mammon has never been known to be a friend of any of us to the last. He is always a false friend.”
We have entered the age of sacrifice. Those of us that have more than we need, need to sacrifice our amassing self-interest, not seek or expect to sacrifice the poor of the Earth, who have become impoverished by our unwitting cooperation with the media conditioning that we have imbibed…
The road actually lies beautiful before us. It is filled with flowers, music, new friendships with the whole of creation. It opens the door to human trust, a human heart fragrance that liscensed greed has destroyed for us. We only have to turn our noses away from the leadership which has deceived us to the core.
In a message to concerned Americans about the directions the USA was going towards over 60 years ago, Gandhi left us with words that now are for all of us who have amassed and materially sought to profit from economic systems built upon premises of individual dominance and greed, systems that have left 2 billion of our human brothers and sisters and children in terrible straits, without even water to drink. He calls us to have the gumption to act like humane human beings and be willing to make the sacrifice needed to be true to the ideals of Truth and Love:
America is today exploiting the so-called weaker nations of the world along with other powers. It has become the richest country in the world, not a thing to be proud of, when we come to think of the means by which she has become rich. Again, to protect these riches you need the assistance of violence. You must be prepared to give up these riches. Therefore, if you really mean to give up violence, you will say, “We shall have nothing to do with the spoils of violence, and if as a result America ceases to be rich, we do not mind.” You will then be qualified to offer a spotless sacrifice. That is the meaning of preparation. The occasion for making the extreme sacrifice may not come if you as a nation have fully learnt to live for peace. It is much more difficult to live for nonviolence than to die for it. Christian Missionaries: Their place in India. pg. 287. January 7, 1939. Age 69.
We have lost sight of the basic equation of Love in our lives.
Love = Responsibility for each other.
A person who loves, really loves, truly loves, has the capacity to take responsibility. Not only the capacity, the Duty. Love is its own dharma, its own Joy, its own greatest satisfaction. Holy Mother Amma, has taken this responsibility, with full capacity, and at present counsels us to turn the page on the current goals of development stating:
“Instead of running after pleasures, we should understand the goal of life, and live for that. Lead a simple life. Give to others what is left after meeting your own needs. Live without causing any harm to others, and teach each other these principles. We should contribute to the creation of a great culture of this kind. Let us be good and virtuous. Let us make our own hearts good and thus help others to become good as well. That is what we need. If we do this, we will always feel peace and contentment within, even if we lack external comforts.” Eternal Wisdom, Volume 1 pps. 7–8.
Lets leave the false leaders and make the turn to the Real and True leaders, the leaders of our hearts.