Thousands of indigenous Brazilians are marching on the country’s capital for three days of lobbying and activism to protect the South American country’s vast natural resources—which are under heightened threat from President Jair Bolsonaro’s pro-exploitation regime.
Up to 5,000 indigenous activists are expected in the city of Brasilia between Wednesday and Friday. As of Wednesday afternoon, at least 2,000 people had shown up and most were encamped in the heart of the city.
“We are defenders of the land, we are defenders of the Amazon, of the forest,” Alessandra Munduruku, a representative of the Munduruku tribe from the northern state of Pará, told The Guardian. “The white man is our finishing off our planet and we want to defend it.”
The Guardian detailed the grievances against the Bolsonaro government that prompted the protest.
Indigenous leaders are incensed by the Bolsonaro government’s decision to transfer responsibility for demarcation of indigenous reserves to Brazil’s agriculture ministry, which is controlled by members of a powerful farming lobby that has long opposed indigenous land rights. They also object to a decision to hand control of Brazil’s cash-strapped indigenous agency Funai to a new ministry of women, family and human rights presided over by a conservative evangelical pastor.
The effort to stem the tide of opening the Amazon rainforest and other tribal lands to development comes as Bolsonaro faces pushback over his environmental policies from across the world.
Earlier this month, as Common Dreams reported, an event to honor the Brazilian leader was moved from the American Museum of Natural History in large part because of Bolsonaro’s positions on the Amazon.
The Brazilian activists hope they can add to the pressure.
“We came here for an important cause,” said Camila Silveiro, who came to the city from the southern Brazilian state of Paraná. “It was very difficult for us, our ancestors, to win these rights and little by little they are decreasing.”
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The protest has backing from across the world.
A petition at the site Avaaz showed signatures from six continents expressing support and solidarity.
In Austria, Greenpeace activists held a protest outside the Brazilian Embassy in solidarity with the indigenous activists.
Indigenous leaders and allies protested in front of the Brazilian Mission to the U.N. in New York.
“Let’s stand with them,” said Scottish language activist Àdhamh Ó Broin.
The protests will continue until Friday. Glenn Shepard, an anthropologist at the Emílio Goeldi Museum in Belém, capital of Pará, told The Financial Times that the stewardship of the indigenous people of Brazil has thus far stopped deforestation.
“This is their land,” said Shepard, “they owe nothing to anybody.”
Internal ExxonMobil documents show that the company’s scientists predicted in 1982 that by 2020, parts per million of carbon dioxide in earth’s atmosphere would reach 410-420 ppm. For the first time this spring ppm of CO2 exceeded 415.
The memo says in part,
Considerable uncertainty also surrounds the possible impact on society of such a warming trend, should it occur. At the low end of the predicted temperature range there could be some impact on agricultural growth and rainfall patterns which could be beneficial in some regions and detrimental in others.
At the high end, some scientists suggest there could be considerable adverse impact including the flooding of some coastal land masses as a result of a rise in sea level due to melting of the Antarctic ice sheet.
They understood that the full effect of this vast increase in heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere would cause enormous changes, though much of the damage would occur centuries down the line.
The company covered up these memos and staged a multi-million-dollar disinformation campaign to throw doubt on the reality of human-made climate change, to ensure that ExxonMobil could go on making billions in profits each year from selling gasoline.
The scientists nailed it. ExxonMobil nailed it. They can be proud of their scientific prowess and predictive abilities, right?
Wrong. They are evil.
They are the most evil human beings to walk the earth since Homo Sapiens emerged in southern Africa around 200,000 years ago.
ExxonMobil has single-handedly been conducting a vast terraforming experiment that will displace hundreds of millions of people. Some two-thirds of Egypt’s 100 million people live in the Nile River delta, which has low elevations and some of which will be submerged even in the current century. Bangladesh isn’t going to be there after a while, displacing 150 million people.
This is not to account for the increased destructiveness of tropical storms or the acidification of the oceans, which will likely kill off half of marine life.
Characters in science fiction that wreck a whole planet are rare. George Lucas’s Darth Vader destroyed a planet with the Death Star in Star Wars. Stan Lee’s Thanatos wiped out half the population of earth in The Avengers: Endgame. In 2009’s Star Trek the mad Romulan Nero destroyed the planet of Vulcan with 6 billion people on it.
CEOs of ExxonMobil such as Lee Raymond or Rex Tillerson or currently Darren Woods are banal in their evil, as Hannah Arendt would lead us to expect. They probably aren’t even interesting to talk to. They are like wind-up toys, their springs being profit, that can’t change direction, driving toward extinction.
But they are much worse in the practical effect of their evil than Hitler or Pol Pot or any of the other genocidal maniacs we’ve seen in the past century.
They deliberately wrecked a planet to make a few bucks (in Lee Raymond’s case, $400 million of them). Tens of millions of human beings will die so that they can have private planes and huge mansions.
They are Darth Vaders and Thanatoses, they are destroyers of a planet. And they manage in their cupidity and their cunning and their dishonesty to be utterly boring and worthy of no one’s interest as people. They lack a soul.
Sooner or later the judges will permit people to begin suing ExxonMobil for the environmental damage it has caused. The judges are turning these suits back now. But minds will change.
All it would take would be one gigantic glacier from Antarctica to plop in and suddenly raise sea level noticeably, a sort of climate tsunami. I wish it wouldn’t happen, but it will. The question is only when, as Exxon noticed in 1982. Judges in Miami would notice.
The company is doomed to an early bankruptcy.
Get your money out of it if you hope to retire.
And switch to public transportation or an electric car as soon as you can afford to.
That is the only redemption we will have from this cabal of evil, to know that they are already on the trash heap of history and have no part in the future of our increasingly challenged planet.
Their names will be vilified for as long as human beings live.
Bonus Video:
Juan Cole teaches Middle Eastern and South Asian history at the University of Michigan. His new book, The New Arabs: How the Millennial Generation Is Changing the Middle East (Simon and Schuster), will officially be published July 1st. He is also the author of Engaging the Muslim World and Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East (both Palgrave Macmillan). He has appeared widely on television, radio and on op-ed pages as a commentator on Middle East affairs, and has a regular column at Salon.com. He has written, edited, or translated 14 books and has authored 60 journal articles. His weblog on the contemporary Middle East is Informed Comment.
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Sheryl Crow is known for using music as a way to talk about difficult subjects and she proved that once again on Monday with the release of an emotionally charged new song called “The Dreaming Kind.” The tune pays tribute to the 26 children and adults who lost their lives at Sandy Hook Elementary, five years after the school shooting.
“The Dreaming Kind” honors them while also raising awareness for Sandy Hook Promise, a foundation led by several of the families who lost loved ones during the Newtown, Conn., mass shooting that aims to reduce gun violence and prevent gun-related deaths.
“When Sandy Hook happened, we knew it was a life-changing moment where we were going to address the idea that not everyone should be approved to own a gun, especially military-style weaponry and yet, nothing happened,” Crow told People. “At some point, the alarm clock has to go off and we have to wake up.”
Crow said the new song came together after she chose to work with Sandy Hook Promise to work for better gun regulation with regard to mental health.
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“It seemed to give purpose to my writing,” she said.
This project and purpose isn’t something she’s tackling alone. Her 12-year-old niece Ava lends her voice to the song and asks, “Could you imagine it / if love was blind / If on this earth everybody was kind.”
RELATED: Sheryl Crow on the Simple Change That Transformed Her Life
Crow’s nephews Bradley, 19, and Chase, 17, Crow sing on the chorus, and Sheryl said she will be explaining the purpose of the song to her own kids, Wyatt, 10, and Levi, 7.
“I’m going to have to explain to them that at school, before this, it was a place you went that was safe,” she said. “I’m sure it will be a conversation that we will continue to have for as long as this is happening.”
If you want to support the Sandy Hook Promise and Crow’s message, you can download the song here for any price you name, or donate to Sandy Hook Promise’s website directly.
Critics of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies are calling on state and federal lawmakers to follow the lead of Illinois, which banned private immigrant detention centers and enacted other protections for undocumented state residents ahead of the president’s deportation raids that were planned for Sunday but have been temporarily delayed.
“In the face of attempts to stoke fear, exploit division, and force families into the shadows, we are taking action.”
—Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker
On Friday, Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed three bills into law that aim to enhance protections for migrant families in Illinois—just a day before Trump turned to Twitter to announce that he had postponed for two weeks
“Let me be perfectly clear: the state of Illinois stands as a firewall against Donald Trump’s attacks on our immigrant communities,” Pritzker said in a statement. “In the face of attempts to stoke fear, exploit division, and force families into the shadows, we are taking action.”
In addition to making Illinois the first state to outlaw private immigrant detention facilities, the state’s new legislation also prohibits local law enforcement agencies from engaging in federal immigration enforcement with ICE and allows undocumented and transgender students to receive Monetary Award Program (MAP) grants and other aid at public education institutions.
“We will not allow private entities to profit off of the intolerance of this president,” said Pritzker. “We will not allow local police departments [to] act as an extension of ICE. And we will ensure that every student in this state who wants to go to college should be able to do so without saddling themselves with debt for the rest of their lives.”
Recently elected Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a Democrat, took action against the anticipated raids on Friday by instructing the police superintendent to cut off ICE’s access to the department’s databases related to federal immigration enforcement activities. Lightfoot also vowed that the city’s police officers “will not cooperate with or facilitate any ICE enforcement actions.”
“Chicago will always be a welcoming city and a champion for the rights of our immigrant and refugee communities,” Lightfoot tweeted, “and I encourage any resident in need of legal aid to contact the National Immigrant Justice Center.”
Despite Trump’s decision to hold off on the raids for a short period to give federal lawmakers more time to debate national asylum policy, The Washington Post reported Sunday that “faith and immigration leaders said they will continue to mobilize for roundups in case talks between the White House and congressional Democrats break down.”
“We’re ready. We’re going to be vigilant,” Richard Morales, director of the immigrant rights campaign for the national network Faith in Action, told the Post. “Whether it happens today or it happens in two weeks, our congregation, our clergy, they’re ready to respond.”
Trump’s threats of deportation raids and the response from Illinois Democrats have provoked calls for lawmakers at various levels of government nationwide to stand up to the administration.
Such calls also came from lawmakers. In a tweet Monday, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) praised Illinois policymakers for their recent moves and promoted similar federal legislation she is sponsoring: the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act of 2019, which would “provide standards for facilities at which aliens in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security are detained, and for other purposes.”
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As Common Dreams reported Saturday, four other progressive House Democrats—Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.)—announced they would not support legislation introduced by their own party that would provide additional funding to Trump’s “deportation force.”
“We must abolish ICE,” they said in a statement. “We must invest in community-based alternatives to detention. We must end the system of mass detention and deportation of immigrants. We must create an immigration system that reflects our values and respects the dignity and humanity of all.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that the only way to move toward lasting peace in the Middle East is for the United States and other Western powers to immediately leave the Persian Gulf, a call that comes days after the Trump administration announced the deployment of more troops to Saudi Arabia.
“Your presence has always been a calamity for this region, and the farther you go from our region and our nations, the more security would come for our region,” Rouhani said in a speech during a rally on Sunday.
Rouhani also accused the U.S. and other nations of falsely blaming Iran for a recent attack on Saudi oil facilities, which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called “an act of war.”
“Those who want to link the region’s incidents to the Islamic Republic of Iran are lying like their past lies that have been revealed,” said Rouhani. “If they are truthful and really seek security in the region, they must not send weapons, fighter jets, bombs, and dangerous arms to the region.”
To counter the U.S.-led “maritime coalition” purportedly formed to protect shipping in the Persian Gulf in the wake of tanker attacks—which the Trump administration also blamed on Iran on the basis of flimsy evidence—Rouhani said he will unveil a regional peace initiative titled the Hormuz Peace Endeavour (HOPE) at a U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York this week.
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“All countries of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz and the United Nations are invited to join,” Rouhani said Monday before departing for New York.
The world is buzzing over Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal engagement, and as we’re getting more details about the big day, from where it’ll be to what the happy couple will be munching on at the reception, Markle’s family has kept relatively quiet about it all.
Markle’s parents Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland released a joint statement through the palace following the announcement of the engagement, but they haven’t spoken directly about the wedding—until now.
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Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty
Thomas Markle, who lives in Mexico, spoke to the U.K.’s Daily Mirror as reported by E! News while at Rosarito Beach. When the Daily Mirror asked if he planned on walking his daughter down the aisle, he “beamed” and replied, “Yes. I’d love to.”
“I’m very pleased. “I’m delighted,” he said, before adding. “I’m sorry. You know I can’t talk.”
In his initial joint statement with ex-wife, Meghan’s mom Doria Ragland, Thomas expressed joy for the couple.
RELATED: Why Kate Middleton Won’t Have a Role in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Nuptials
“We are incredibly happy for Meghan and Harry. Our daughter has always been a kind and loving person. To see her union with Harry, who shares the same qualities, is a source of great joy for us as parents,” they said in a statement issued through Clarence House. “We wish them a lifetime of happiness and are very excited for their future together.”
Sounds like everyone involved is happy. What better way to go into a spring wedding?
If you want a piece of Britney Spears, you’re going to need to be in Las Vegas before the New Year.
On Thursday morning, the 36-year-old pop star announced that she’d be concluding her Las Vegas residency (which began nearly four years ago, in late 2013) with a televised performance on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.
“Going to be ending 2017 with the last #PieceOfMe show ever and a special performance on @rockineve!! Tune in to ABC on 12/31 starting at 8/7c to watch!! #BRITNEYxRockinEve,” Spears captioned a video of her crop-top clad self delivering the exciting news.
No word yet on what the singer has planned for her next move, but knowing her, it’ll be epic. We imagine the end of her residency will allow Spears to spend even more quality time with her sons, Sean, 12, and Jayden, 11, as well as her boyfriend, model Sam Asghari.
In addition to Britney, you can expect to see Rockin’ Eve performances from Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas, Sugarland, Walk the Moon, BTS, Shawn Mendes, Khalid, Charlie Puth, and more.
We can’t wait!
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Climate campaigners demonstrated outside the Brazilian embassies in London, Paris, and Madrid on Friday to protest what they say is the Bolsonaro regime’s role in dozens of fires that have ravaged large swathes of the Amazon rainforest over the past three weeks.
The Extinction Rebellion movement, which helped organize the demonstrations, said “every inch that continues to burn takes us further away from any hope of sustaining life on this earth.”
“The Amazon is fundamental to the life support systems of this planet and for us as humans,” Extinction Rebellion wrote in an Instagram post ahead of the protests. “We cannot sit in silence while life on Earth is being destroyed. We need governments around the world to speak up against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro—and put pressure on him to stop these devastating fires and protect the Amazon.”
The protests came amid growing global outrage over the Bolsonaro government’s support for deforestation and refusal to take action to combat the fires, many of which were intentionally and illegally set to clear land, according to the New York Times.
Carlos Nobre, a senior researcher with the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of São Paulo, blamed Bolsonaro for encouraging the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, which is often called “the lungs of the world” for its capacity to absorb carbon dioxide.
“The situation is very bad. It will be terrible,” Nobre told the Guardian. “A very large number of these fires are due to the cultural push that ministers are giving. They are pushing deforestation because it is good for the economy. Those who do illegal deforestation are feeling empowered.”
Demonstrators on Friday echoed that assessment. Peter McCall, a pub owner based in London who attended the embassy protest, said he decided to take part because “the Amazon is so vital to all life on Earth, including ours.”
“I’m scared that if we lose it then there won’t be any hope for our survival,” said McCall, “and yet the Brazilian government [is] actively encouraging its deforestation and exploitation.”
The fires, which have been burning for nearly a month, forced the Brazilian state of Amazonas to declare an emergency last week.
As the Guardian reported Friday, the fires have “sparked international concerns about the destruction of an essential carbon sink” and increased pressure on France, the U.K., and other countries to cut off trade relations with the Bolsonaro government.
António Guterres, secretary general of the United Nations, said Thursday he is “deeply concerned by the fires in the Amazon rainforest.”
“In the midst of the global climate crisis, we cannot afford more damage to a major source of oxygen and biodiversity,” Guterres tweeted. “The Amazon must be protected.”
Bolsonaro, who campaigned in part on opening the Amazon to corporate exploitation, has not taken action to stop the fires. As Common Dreams reported Wednesday, the Brazilian president suggested without evidence that non-governmental organizations may have started the fires to embarrass him.
In a statement on Friday, the Indigenous Environmental Network and Rainforest Action Network said the fires devastating the Amazon are “not only a global emergency, they are a testament to Bolonsaro’s racism, ignorance, and greed.”
“His words and deeds have paved the way for these man-made fires,” the groups said. “We know that protecting tropical rainforests, stopping fossil fuel emissions, and upholding the rights of Indigenous Peoples are some of the most important ways to address the global impacts of the growing climate crisis. That’s true in the Amazon. That’s true in the Indonesia rainforests. That’s true at Standing Rock.”
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It’s been three months since Selena Gomez and her best friend Francia Raisa revealed that they had undergone kidney surgery to save Gomez’s life, and recovery is going very well for them both.
Yesterday, Raisa, who donated her kidney to Gomez over the summer, stepped out to promote her new show Grown-ish in Hollywood, and she proudly showed off the scar from the life-saving surgery.
Looking healthy and happy on the red carpet to promote her role in the Black-ish spin-off, the actress wore a black crop top and multicolored striped wide-legged pants. If you look closely, you can see a small scar on the upper left part of her stomach where the incision was made.
Amanda Edwards/WireImage
RELATED: Selena Gomez Tearfully Honors Francia Raisa for Life-Saving Kidney Donation
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Two weeks ago, Gomez accepted the Billboard Woman of the Year Award and tearfully thanked her BFF in a touching speech. “To be honest, I think Francia should be getting this award because she saved my life,” the singer began her emotional speech. ”I would like to thank my amazing team and family because they stuck with me through some really hard times.”
We’re so thankful that they’re both doing great.
Human rights advocates on Thursday warned that a “suspect” asylum deal negotiated between the White House and the president of Honduras—along with similar agreements with Guatemala and El Salvador—could endanger thousands of refugees and could even prove deadly for many people in search of safety.
The Trump administration announced on Wednesday it struck a deal with Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, allowing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to send asylum-seekers who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border to Honduras if they have not already sought asylum there en route to the United States.
“This administration is willing to go to great lengths to further endanger the lives of migrants and asylum seekers who are in vulnerable situations, even if it means negotiating a suspect deal with an individual implicated in trafficking drugs to the United States.”
—Geoff Thale, Washington Office on Latin America
“This is yet another move in a string of agreements that continue to make a grotesque mockery of the right to asylum,” said Charanya Krishnaswami, an advocacy director for Amnesty International. “People cannot be forced to seek safety in countries where they will not be safe. Instead of offering protection to people fleeing these conditions, the United States is instead pursuing a disastrous plan that could carry deadly consequences.”
The plan is part of President Donald Trump’s so-called “safe third country” agreements, which he also forged with Guatemala and El Salvador in the last several weeks. The deals demand that refugees who arrive at the southern U.S. border without having tried to gain asylum in the three countries will be sent to one of them. Despite condemnation by rights advocates, Trump also forged similar deals with Guatemala and El Salvador in the last several weeks.
But immigrant rights groups note that under the agreements, the administration will be sending families to countries that thousands have fled over the last several years, escaping gang violence, high murder rates, and poverty.
“Asylum seekers are fleeing lethal conditions in these very countries,” said Geoff Thale of the Washington Office on Latin America. “Potentially forcing them back to regions unprepared to keep them safe is more than cruel: it’s perverse.”
Especially since the 2009 U.S.-backed military coup, supported by the Obama administration, Honduras has become one of the most violent and unstable countries in Central America. In the past 11 months, more than 250,000 people have arrived in the U.S. from Honduras, where the homicide rate is eight times higher than that of the U.S. Thousands of people have also arrived at the border from Guatemala and El Salvador.
On social media, rights groups including the Women’s Refugee Commission and Doctors Without Borders condemned the proposal.
“It’s the third time the Trump administration has targeted families seeking safety by keeping them in harm’s way,” tweeted the Women’s Refugee Commission. “It’s morally reprehensible.”
A federal court blocked Trump’s third-country rule in July, but the Supreme Court this month allowed it to go forward temporarily while court cases are pending.
Critics said Trump’s deal with Hernández is particularly “chilling,” as the Honduran president has been accused of widespread corruption and was recently named by U.S. prosecutors as a co-conspirator in an international drug trafficking case.
Hernández’s younger brother is accused of running a trafficking ring and the president allegedly used funds from the operation to finance his 2013 presidential campaign.
Under the deal, the U.S. and Honduras will expand their information-sharing and cooperation to target international criminal enterprises, according to the Washington Post.
“This administration is willing to go to great lengths to further endanger the lives of migrants and asylum seekers who are in vulnerable situations, even if it means negotiating a suspect deal with an individual implicated in trafficking drugs to the United States,” said Thale.
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