Pope Francis: Native Americans Should Have Final Say About Their Land

Fri, 02/17/2017 - 07:38

by Amanda Froelich, True Activist

Pope Francis declared that Native Americans deserve the right to give prior consent to any economic activity that affects their ancestral lands.

On Wednesday, Pope Francis attended the Indigenous Peoples Forum in Rome and defended the rights of indigenous tribes. The meeting was part of the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development, and Pope Francis addressed 40 representatives of the 300 largest indigenous groups in the world.

According to Reuters, he stated that “The particular characteristics of indigenous peoples and their territories” must be protected. The Pope then mentioned that this is especially true “when planning economic activities which may interfere with indigenous cultures and their ancestral relationship to the earth.”

During his speech, Pope Francis also promoted the full participation of indigenous peoples in local and national government. His insistence that indigenous groups must give prior consent to any economic activity affecting their ancestral lands clashes with action recently taken by the Trump administration. Even though the U.S. Army Corps under the Obama administration denied an easement to the parent company responsible for constructing the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), Donald Trump signed an executive order just days after being sworn in which gives a green light to the project.

“In this regard, the right to prior and informed consent should always prevail,” he said.“Only then is it possible to guarantee peaceful cooperation between governing authorities and indigenous peoples, overcoming confrontation and conflict.”

Though Pope Francis did not cite the DAPL directly during his address, a number of media outlets were quick to pick up on his suggestion. The Vatican press office said he was not making a direct reference to the four-state pipeline which would potentially contaminate the Missouri river and uproot sacred burial ground of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

The Pope has a record of defending the environment. As EcoWatch relays, the religious leader shared a prayer for the Earth in 2015, declaring: “Bring healing to our lives, that we may protect the world and not prey on it, that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.”

“For governments, this means recognizing that indigenous communities are a part of the population to be appreciated and consulted, and whose full participation should be promoted at the local and national level,” Francis told the leaders on Wednesday.

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Progressive Groups Call For Kissinger’s Arrest At Nobel Peace Prize Forum

Activism · News · Politics · War

By Whitney Webb

RootsAction and Nobel Peace Prize Watch issued a petition last Tuesday demanding that Norwegian authorities arrest Kissinger for his war crimes and genocidal legacy.

Credit – Reuters

Though the corporate media often describe him as an “internationally prestigious” political scientist and “uber-diplomat,” Henry A. Kissinger’s penchant for death, destruction, and genocide is well-documented. Kissinger, as Secretary of State under former President Nixon, transformed US foreign policy into one of perpetual wars waged throughout the world. Kissinger oversaw a bloody coup in Chile, an illegal bombing campaign in Cambodia, and millions dead in Vietnam. His disregard for human life shows no limits as he once famously said that US “military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.” Despite this dark legacy, US politicians and officials sing his praises. Hillary Clinton has publicly called Kissinger her “mentor” while President-Elect Donald Trump, despite his anti-establishment rhetoric, has met privately with Kissinger twice since being elected. At 92 years old, Kissinger remains a powerful figure in US foreign policy even though he only serves as a “consultant” via his international consulting firm Kissinger Associates Inc.

Last month, the Nobel Peace Prize committee created a stir by choosing Kissinger to speak at a forum entitled “The United States and World Peace after the Presidential Election.” The choice was allegedly made because Kissinger was once awarded the Nobel Peace Prize himself in 1973 for his role in “peacefully resolving” the Vietnam War, despite the fact that Kissinger prolonged the war for five years which cost millions of lives on both sides. At the time, the decision to award Kissinger with the Nobel Peace Prize caused two members of the Nobel committee to resign in protest.

WhileYou Were Distracted By The US Election, The Senate Outlawed GMO Labeling Nationwide

WhileYou Were Distracted By The US Election, The Senate Outlawed GMO Labeling Nationwide

Environment · Health · News · Politics · Rights

ByWhitney Webb

Posted on December 3, 2016

While attention was diverted to the US election for much of this year, the Senate quietly made null and void state laws that require that GMO foods be labeled.

Credit – Modern Farmer

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are a concern for a number of reasons. When consumed, GMOs have been shown to cause gastrointestinal problems, increase cancer risk, and even silence human genes, not to mention their harmful effects on the environment and endangered species such as bees. Within the US, there is also a dearth of safety testing as most tests that show that GMOs are “safe” are short-term studies, lasting only a matter of months. Longer-term studies, even those conducted for just a few months longer than industry-funded studies, have found that the consumption of GMOs causes serious problems, such as an increase in tumor risk. For those US consumers who are rightly concerned about the presence of GMOs in their food, mandatory GMO labeling is one solution that gives consumers the right to know what is in their food while not affecting the GMO food purchases of those who support biotechnology. A handful of US states have successfully passed GMO labeling laws such as Connecticut, Maine, and Vermont. Similar initiatives in other states, like California, only failed due to the massive amounts of money funneled to the opposition by Industrial Agriculture and Food companies as well as the corporations who create GMO seeds and associated agrochemicals, such as Monsanto.