MORALES at UN Forum: "Duty to put an end to the capitalist system"

[magbana]

Capitalism harms planet - Morales
By Laura Trevelyan
BBC UN correspondent, in New York

Bolivian President Evo Morales speaks at a press conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York on 21 April 2008
Mr Morales is Bolivia's first indigenous president

Bolivian President Evo Morales has told a UN forum that capitalism should be scrapped if the planet is to be saved from the effects of climate change.

"If we want to save our planet earth, we have a duty to put an end to the capitalist system," he said.

Opening an UN meeting in New York on the rights of indigenous people, he also said the development of biofuels harmed the world's poorest people.

The forum's theme is the global impact of climate change on native people.

Mr Morales gave the keynote address at the opening of the seventh session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Duty bound

As a descendent of the Aymara people, he is Bolivia's first indigenous president.

Bolivia's left-wing president said unbridled industrial development was responsible for the pillaging of natural resources.

Speaking through an interpreter at the UN headquarters in New York, he had this uncompromising message: "If we want to save our planet earth, to save life, to save mankind, we have a duty to put an end to the capitalist system."

Mr Morales also argued against biofuels, crops which are used to produce alternative energy rather than food.

Biofuels resulted in poverty and hunger he said, and were very harmful to the poorest people in the world.

In a side swipe at Brazil, major manufacturers of the biofuel ethanol, he said some presidents were putting cars ahead of people.

The forum is scheduled to run until 2 May.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7359880.stm

http://snipurl.com/2585l

[Judi Lynn]

1. Hoping Bolivians stand a chance against the US-supported white racist secessionists.

In many cases they are living on land which belonged to Native Bolivians before Hugo Banzer drove them away in the 1960's, and awarded their land to white South Africans and Rhodesians he imported in hope of creating a new "White Bolivia."

It's THIS land they are attempting to steal from Bolivia permanently, along with the vital revenue Bolivia needs from the gas production. They are being coached, directed, supported by the U.S. embassy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Saturday, April 12, 2008
More Talking but Regional Defiance Continues

~snip~
In December the five governors traveled to Washington D.C. and met with representatives from the OAS, but they failed to successfully secure support for their actions in conflict with the central government.

Officials from the OAS, United Nations and European Union have called for dialogue between both sides. Italian ambassador in Bolivia, Silvio Mignano, said the EU refuses to send observers to Santa Cruz during the referendum vote if it is not held within the legality of Bolivian law.

http://boliviatransitionproject.blogspot.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two days before, whilst the 2nd Summit of the Community of South American Nations was being inaugurated, Costas was calling on his follows to attend an "open town meeting" on December 15, during a speech where he classified Evo Morales as a "disgrace and ignorant" and rejected the legitimacy of the Constituent Assembly.

"At this meeting, we will mark out the path of the 'Nation of the Lowlands' and Bolivia. We will all be there, and together we will sing, as always, our shout of freedom, our shout of independence", affirmed Costas, adding afterwards, in a threatening tone, that "the time of the East, North and South of this homeland has come, and if does not understand this last message, beware of the consequences".

The eastern separatists count with the support of the US government in this venture. George W Bush currently find himself very preoccupied with problems in the Middle East, but his direct representative in Bolivia, ambassador Philip Goldberg, entrusted himself with exercising pressure within the framework of tensions with the eastern region, and the recent extension by the US Congress of the Andean Trade Preference and Drug Eradication Agreement (ATPDEA) for Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

"The country and the government have to decided if they not only want to be a strategic partner of the United States, but also friends", adverted Goldberg on Monday. Washington has found in the eastern separatist leaders its best receptors for its proposal of free trade and a division would assure it a new Free Trade Agreement in the region, after the failure of the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement (FTAA).

The relationship is nothing new. The functionaries, business owners and large landowners from Santa Cruz have maintain excellent contacts with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) since 2004, when it put into place the Project Competitive Bolivia in Trade and Business (BCCN). Together with academics from the International University of Florida, USAID carried out a number of intensive courses for state and private sectors in capacitating in methods of negotiations and strategies with a view towards the FTAA.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=11629

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Washington’s silent war on Venezuela and Bolivia

Eva Golinger
14 September 2007

~snip~
In Bolivia, USAID-OTI has focused its efforts on the separatist movements in regions rich in natural resources, such as Santa Cruz and Cochabamba. The majority of the $13.3 million has been given to organisations and programs working towards “reinforcing regional governments”, with the intention of weakening the national Morales government, “creating links between indigenous groups and democratic structures”, “offering economic opportunities and communitarian development”, “civic education for emergent leaders” and “the spreading of information”.

Such noble-sounding themes indicate that Washington is seeking to suffocate the national government, infiltrate the indigenous communities — which constitute the majority of the country, promote the capitalist model and have influence over the mass media, promoting pro-US, pro-capitalist and anti-socialist propaganda.

The USAID-OTI program in Bolivia is openly supporting the autonomy of certain resource-rich regions, and therefore promoting the destabilisation of the country and the Morales government. The NED is also funding groups in regions, such as Santa Cruz, which fight for separatism. The current US ambassador in Bolivia, Philip Goldberg, is an expert in issues of separatism, having been the head of the US mission in the former-Yugoslavia that divided into two countries, Bosnia and Serbia, with US “help”.

More:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/724/37577

[magbana]

2. MORALES' 10 Commandments

From Walter Lippmann's Cuba News list

(Thanks to Mike Lebowitz in Caracas, Venezuela.)

===============================================
The 10 commandments president Morales suggested to save the planet, life and humanity are:

1-Acabar con el sistema capitalista
1-Stopping the capitalist system

2-Renunciar a las guerras
2-Renouncing wars

3-Un mundo sin imperialismo ni colonialismo
3-A world without imperialism or colonialism

4-Derecho al agua
4-Right to water

5-Desarrollo de energías limpias
5-Development of clean energies

6-Respeto a la madre tierra
6-Respect for Mother Earth

7-Servicios básicos como derechos humanos
7-Basic services such as human rights

8-Combatir las desigualdades
8-Fighting inequalities

9-Promover la diversidad de culturas y economías
9-Promoting diversity of cultures and economies

10-Vivir bien, no vivir mejor a costa del otro
10-Living well, not living better at the expense of others

--
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6

Director, Programme in 'Transformative Practice and Human Development'
Centro Internacional Miranda, P.H.
Residencias Anauco Suites, Parque Central, final Av. Bolivar
Caracas, Venezuela
fax: [phone] 5777231
http//:centrointernacionalmiranda.gob.ve
[e-mail]

[Judi Lynn]

3. Perfect. People KNOW this is the right way,but some will fight you to the death for the "right " to

harm, exploit, devastate other people.

[Texano78704]

6. A more detailed list

Here:

http://www.latinalista.net/blogcasts/2008/04/bolivias_president_evo_morales_opens_uni.html

[Judi Lynn]

4. ALBA nations express support for Bolivian gov't

ALBA nations express support for Bolivian gov't


www.chinaview.cn 2008-04-24 10:29:16

CARACAS, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) expressed their support for Bolivia, which is facing a political and social crisis, at a special summit in the Venezuelan capital Wednesday.

In a joint declaration, ALBA countries called on the international community, especially Latin America, to halt the deterioration of Bolivia's political situation.

The declaration was delivered by Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage who attended the ALBA special summit as a representative of Cuban leader Raul Castro.

The summit was also attended by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Bolivian President Evo Morales and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

More:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/24/content_8040359.htm

[Judi Lynn]

5. BOLIVIA: ALBA Closes Ranks Around Morales

BOLIVIA: ALBA Closes Ranks Around Morales
By Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Apr 23 (IPS) - The danger of Bolivia "exploding" as a result of the "separatist plan behind the (May 4) autonomy referendum" in the eastern province of Santa Cruz was warned of Wednesday at a Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) summit.

Bolivian President Evo Morales received the backing of the alternative trade bloc in a statement signed in Caracas with his counterparts Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, as well as Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage.

The leaders of Dominica, the fifth ALBA partner, were unable to attend the emergency meeting convened by Chávez.

The statement expressed the presidents’ "staunch rejection of the destabilisation plans that seek to undermine peace and unity in Bolivia" and the "separatist attempt" based on "a referendum that clearly violates Bolivia’s constitution and laws."

Wealthier eastern provinces where Bolivia’s natural gas is concentrated are pressing for greater autonomy and local control over the administration of natural resources and the taxies levied on them.

Bolivia, South America’s poorest country, is basically divided between the western highlands, home to the impoverished indigenous majority, and the much better off eastern provinces, which account for most of the country's natural gas production, industry and gross domestic product (GDP). The population of eastern Bolivia tends to be of more European (Spanish) than indigenous descent.

The ALBA leaders said they would not recognise any attempt by provinces in Bolivia to break off from the federal state and hurt the country’s "territorial integrity." They also demanded that the political crisis in that country be resolved by its citizens, "without foreign meddling of any kind."

The statement was an allusion to alleged involvement in the situation by the U.S. government of George W. Bush.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42105