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De mayo de 2009:

Crash Into Me

Un aspecto de la destrucción de la civilización que a menudo se pasa por alto es la sexualidad. Todos sabemos que la sociedad necesita de una propiedad de nuestros genitales. Lo que hacemos, cómo nos sentimos y cómo expresamos nuestro deseo es dictado por la cultura que vivimos, pero la sexualidad es diseñado para ser dictado por las normas? Más específicamente, se supone que debemos expresar nuestra sexualidad de la misma manera que nuestros vecinos?

Desmontaje civilzation significa que debemos encontrar una manera de t0 existe en un paradigma de la igualdad y hermoso. Sabemos que la forma en que vivimos ahora se presta a la dominación, el patriarcado y el capitalismo. Tenemos que aprender a ser explícitamente libre y amorosa de manera inequívoca. Todo el mundo tiene un método diferente de amar, y el problema es que nadie habla de ello. Todo el concepto de una "norma" significa que hay una manera correcta, un camino equivocado, y todo lo demás.

¿Qué pasaría si no había ninguna norma? Si nos decidimos por nosotros mismos cómo nos amamos unos a otros y hacer el amor el uno al otro? Por supuesto que hacemos lo que queremos ahora, independientemente de lo que otros piensan, pero es muy reservado y privado. Tal vez hay un medio en el que se podría decidir que no importa lo que alguien elige como la sexualidad, sigue siendo maravilloso y perfecto. Todavía estamos muy lejos de eso ahora. Los que apoyan que se etiquetan como "liberales", mientras que aquellos que se oponen a ella están etiquetados como "conservadores". ¿Por qué tiene que haber toda una teología del pensamiento detrás de estos dos puntos de vista? Y lo más importante, ¿por qué tiene que haber sólo dos puntos de vista? ¿Por qué no puede haber un mil goteo en una forma fácil de asimilar conocida como una dicotomía?

Parte

Resistir no se ajusten

Esto no es un video sobre los osos polares, de verdad, aunque si lo que desea es ver un video acerca de los osos polares, a continuación, siéntase libre de ver esto de todos modos. La diferencia es que hay algo más en todo esto - un mensaje simple pero potencialmente eficaz acerca de usted.

¿Por qué no se defendió todavía?

Parte

911 Trek - gracioso si no fuera cierto

Parte

Pesadilla de los Estados Unidos: la distopía de Obama

La manipulación, la propaganda, la imagen y relaciones públicas magia

por Andrew Hughes, en Global Research.

Después de 8 años de la pesadilla de Bush y Cheney durante el cual vimos la destrucción arbitraria de Afganistán e Irak, la negación cínica de los siglos de la Ley destinada a proteger los derechos humanos más básicos y una política exterior digna de Gengis Khan, llegó a lo largo del " Gran Esperanza Negro "en la persona de Barack Obama. La conciencia colectiva mundial se volvió sin sentido crítico de lo que se presenta como una nueva era para la paz, el cambio y la confianza en el gobierno.

Nunca antes había visto un tal uso realizado de la manipulación, la propaganda, las imágenes y la magia de relaciones públicas para vender al público a un hombre que fue a tomar el relevo de Bush y correr con ella en la carrera por destruir la economía, los derechos de las personas y ayudar al nacimiento de una nación totalmente controlada por aquellos que siempre han acechado en las sombras del poder. "Cambio" se le prometió y dio a luz en forma de una profundización de la pesadilla distópica ya.

Las promesas se rompieron sin ninguna disculpa, la misma jerga legal creativa que infestaban la administración Bush, en la forma de John Yoo y Alberto González, fue de nuevo utilizado para negar la justicia a los presos de Guantánamo, que se utilizó para justificar la tortura más, más destrucción de la vigilancia y la Constitución ilegal más de los ciudadanos estadounidenses.

El Presidente que se extendía la mano de la paz en el mundo musulmán ha asesinado a cientos de paquistaníes hombres, mujeres y niños. El Presidente que prometió la rendición de cuentas en el Gobierno ha llenado su personal con grupos de presión, banqueros y belicistas. Su Fiscal General se niega a enjuiciar a algunos de los peores crímenes de guerra cometidos en la historia moderna y continúa dando cobertura legal a los criminales que torturaron impunemente.

El país se ha visto quebrado por el robo continuo de dinero de los contribuyentes como los donantes de Wall Street de la campaña reciben su quid pro quo. Obama se ha mantenido con los brazos cruzados como estados Bernancke que la Reserva Federal privada no es responsable ante el Congreso ya sea de la opinión pública estadounidense. El contribuyente de EE.UU. se encuentra ahora en el gancho por $ 14,3 billones y en aumento. Las ejecuciones hipotecarias y el desempleo van en aumento, sin esfuerzos significativos por parte de la administración para aliviar los síntomas, no importa la causa. La nueva imagen de Estados Unidos es una de las ciudades de tiendas de campaña, alargando las líneas de sopa de cocina, sherrifs desalojar a miles y miles de jóvenes y ancianos de sus hogares, ciudades prósperas, una vez que descienden en la quietud de una escalofriante y una población cada vez más desilusionados.

La "guerra contra el terrorismo" ha mutado en una rejilla de control para una población cada vez más conscientes. La base para esto ya se había puesto en marcha por Bush con el Patriot Act, la Ley Patriota 2, Ley de Comisiones Militares y numerosas órdenes ejecutivas que ahogado lo que quedaba de Posse Comitatus y la Constitución.

Departamento de Seguridad Nacional define ahora como "terroristas" a los que creen en la Constitución, las enmiendas primera, segunda y cuarta. Los veteranos que regresan están siendo objeto de una negación de sus derechos de la segunda enmienda. Una "lista de observación del terrorismo" de más de un millón y en rápido crecimiento, está siendo utilizado como base para negar a los ciudadanos el derecho a viajar y trabajar.

Obama está reflexionando sobre la idea de la detención indefinida sin juicio para los ciudadanos estadounidenses. Esto, de un maestro de la Constitución! Las cuentas son en el Congreso para tipificar como delito la libertad de expresión en Internet a través de la Ley de Acoso cibernético que hará daño a los sentimientos de alguien un delito grave. Al igual que la Ley Patriota este se transformará en una criminalización de la libertad de expresión política y cualquier crítica al Gobierno.

"Ciberterrorismo" está siendo utilizada como un pretexto para que la regulación gubernamental en el último reducto de la información imparcial. Washington ha dado cuenta de que cada vez es más difícil salirse con su agenda fascista y se están moviendo para controlar el campo. El pueblo se han vuelto más conscientes de qué tipo de "cambio" de Obama pretende dar a luz.

Ha habido una resistencia creciente a nivel estatal con varios invocar sus derechos constitucionales 9 º y 10 º en un valiente intento de detener el Vampiro Federal de drenaje de las últimas gotas de sangre, los últimos vestigios de libertad y esperanza.

Esta es la pesadilla distópica que Estados Unidos se encuentra en la actualidad y cada día trae nuevos ataques sobre la libertad y la cordura. El marco para el control total de la ciudadanía, la economía y los medios de comunicación se basa en una aggrandization implacable del poder Govermental. Obama se sienta encima de su nuevo imperio sin dejar de sonreír esa sonrisa asquerosamente hipócrita rodeado de sus cortesanos experimentados que han trabajado durante décadas para que los Estados Unidos en esta nueva era del Nuevo Orden Mundial.

¿Cuánto estadounidenses aguantar? Este Nuevo Orden Mundial también han envenenado, saqueado y stripmined la naturaleza, nuestras comunidades y prácticamente cualquier cosa en nombre de sus ganancias. Necesitamos un cambio completo.

Parte

El hundimiento del Titanic: entrevista con Michael C. Ruppert

El colapso de la civilización industrial en los próximos cinco-diez
año (quizás antes) es inevitable. Es el grado de colapso,
lo que se destruye en el colapso, ¿cuánta gente tendrá que morir
en el colapso, y lo que va a sobrevivir el colapso que yo y muchos
los demás están luchando por el momento. Eso es lo que todo ser humano debe ser
preocupado y nada menos. Opciones que persiguen al mismo tiempo no es rápidamente
la desvinculación del actual paradigma económico de crecimiento infinito es
el único problema real frente a toda la especie. Para no hacer eso
será, literalmente, a consignar las generaciones futuras y los menores de 40 años de
la muerte o un infierno.

por Lars Schall, publicado 22 de mayo 2009 por el Boletín de la Energía

Lars Schall: Sr. Ruppert, estás a punto de publicar un nuevo libro. ¿Cuál es el título de este libro y lo que se trata todo esto?

Michael C. Ruppert: Una Política Energética Presidencial: veinticinco puntos de direccionamiento los gemelos siameses de energía y dinero es un libro frente a lo que un presidente de Estados Unidos debería estar haciendo y diciendo acerca de los problemas de energía libre de ataduras ideológicas, mentales políticos, o de otra índole. Se trata de un análisis simple y cruda de la imagen del mundo actual de energía del escrito para los que sólo tienen una educación secundaria que los recortes de forma rápida y clara a través de las tonterías que se han vendido acerca de la energía, el dinero y el crecimiento. También tiene un gran atractivo para los planificadores y líderes (sobre todo locales) en todos los países. Energía se comporta de la misma manera en todas partes. La previsión alemana en materia de energía - en particular, su implementación agresiva de Feed-in-Tarifas - ha ofrecido algunas novedades muy positivas que me han recomendado que se adopten por el presidente Obama aquí en los EE.UU.

¿Cuándo y por qué hizo usted comienza a tomar interés en el pico del petróleo? Si hubiera habido una sola vez una visión de pesadilla, como "el camino hacia la Garganta de Olduvai" en frente de tus ojos? [2]

Mi primer contacto con el concepto del cenit del petróleo por el geólogo Dale Allen Pfeiffer poco después de 9-11. Me llamó la atención por la forma clara y sencilla la ciencia real fue, cómo es fácil el tema era tanto comprender y validar usando nada más que la matemática básica y simple lógica. Fue absolutamente una visión de pesadilla entonces (y todavía lo es), sino que se explica tanto por la geopolítica, la macro economía, la guerra y los mercados que salté en ella de inmediato. - Todavía estamos en el camino hacia la Garganta de Olduvai y que es precisamente lo que mi libro trata de evitar.

Los años han pasado desde entonces. A pesar de que los principales periódicos como el New York Times admite en estos días que el fin del petróleo barato está cerca, más bien evitar discutir sobre las consecuencias subyacentes del Cenit del Petróleo. ¿Cómo explicar esas consecuencias? ¿No es el cenit del petróleo de alguna manera el fin de la globalización?

El pico del petróleo no es sólo el fin de la globalización. Me estaba diciendo claramente que la globalización había muerto hace cinco años. Era obvio. Pero el cenit del petróleo es potencialmente el final de la raza humana y que el resultado es tal vez sólo unos pocos años menos que la raza humana, esencialmente lanza cada vaca sagrada ideológica por la ventana y se inicia con un trozo de papel nuevo. Hay alrededor de cinco millones de personas viven en la actualidad que no son sostenibles antes que el petróleo llegó. No hay ninguna combinación de energías alternativas (ni habrá nunca) que posiblemente pueden sostener el edificio construido por el petróleo. En los países industrializados hay diez calorías de energía de hidrocarburos involucrados en la producción de cada caloría de alimentos. Nuestros suelos han sido poco más que las esponjas estériles en las que arrojan grandes cantidades de productos químicos derivados del petróleo y el gas natural.

Las consecuencias más graves puede estar en la producción de alimentos, de todos modos. La agricultura depende de un gran negocio del petróleo. En From the Wilderness (FTW) que había tenido la tesis de que estamos comiendo los combustibles fósiles. [3] ¿Puede explicar esas relaciones un poco?

En nuestro mundo, un granjero lleva a una máquina de aceite de potencia para arar los campos. Él o ella entonces impulsa otra máquina de aceite de potencia a las semillas de las plantas. El agua para riego es - en la mayoría de los casos - se bombea con electricidad generada por carbón, gas natural y petróleo. Alemania ha hecho grandes avances en la generación eléctrica a través de Feed-in-tarifas que han explotado la generación solar y eólica, pero no resuelven toda la ecuación. Después de las semillas se plantan los cultivos de regadío y luego se rocían con pesticidas (derivado del petróleo) y fertilizantes (producido a partir de gas natural). Para cosechar los cultivos de los agricultores después conduce otra máquina de aceite motor. Entonces el aceite se utiliza para transportar el alimento para plantas de procesamiento y para su posterior distribución. La comida es a menudo envueltos en plástico (también el petróleo) y suelen ser tratados con aditivos químicos, también derivados de petróleo y gas.

La globalización sólo ha agravado el problema con el envío de alimentos en todo el mundo (que pierde aceite) en aras de la ganancia en lugar de la sostenibilidad. Yo vivo en California y puede ir a un mercado y encontrar las fresas de Chile, mientras que el sur de California crece fresas grandes. Este patrón es el mismo para la mayoría de los alimentos consumidos en los países industrializados. Esto sólo sucedió porque mano de obra barata y la regulación menos estricta se convirtió en más importante que el sentido común. El dinero supera la lógica cada vez. Pero simplemente observando final la globalización no va a resolver el problema. Como he dicho desde hace años, la globalización muere con energía barata. No tiene mucho sentido en la lucha contra él más a menos que la lucha está en la búsqueda de una visión unificada de la energía.

El lío financiero que estamos en: ¿Tiene algo que ver con el cenit del petróleo, también? ¿Existe esta crisis sistémica, porque nos dirigimos hacia el final de la Era del Petróleo - y nadie le está diciendo a la opinión pública así?

El colapso económico actual es una combinación de dos cosas. En primer lugar, el actual paradigma de la economía mundial - regido por la banca de reserva fraccional, la moneda fiduciaria, y el interés compuesto (el crecimiento debtbased) - es de por sí y por definición de un esquema piramidal. El dinero es inútil sin energía. No se puede comer un billete de un dólar o se desmoronan hacia arriba y tirar en su tanque de gasolina. Cada uno de los billones de dólares creados de la nada desde la caída de 2008 es un compromiso de gastar la energía que no puede y no siempre estar ahí. Las Leyes de la Termodinámica a prevenir esto. Aplaudo la decisión de la canciller Merkel para resistir la tentación de lograr una solución temporal mediante la impresión de dinero sin fin. Yo soy alemana por descendencia. Mi bisabuelo emigró a los EE.UU. a partir de una pequeña ciudad de Essen llama Ruppertsburg a finales del siglo pasado. El pragmatismo y el realismo alemán de la energía ha sido evidente para mí desde mi primera visita a Alemania en 2003. No es perfecto y tiene que mejorar, pero he visto un pensamiento más claro sobre el tema en Alemania que en cualquiera de los 13 países que he visitado. Eso en realidad no es tan bueno una cosa que pueda sonar. No puede haber una "recuperación", sin retorno al crecimiento (que es lo que demanda el paradigma económico), sin energía.

¿Por qué no hablar de esto: Los dinosaurios del viejo paradigma - que están a punto de pasar a la extinción - no puede admitir esto, porque tendría un efecto inmediato en los mercados financieros que ya están muriendo. La gente dejaría de comprar acciones si entiende que un retorno al crecimiento es imposible. Creo, sin embargo, que en un nivel más fundamental de los dinosaurios no puede ver a su inminente extinción propia. Son incapaces de evolución mental y espiritual que toda nuestra supervivencia depende. Ellos no pueden adaptarse. A medida que cambia el medio ambiente mundial para siempre, de las cuestiones relacionadas con el cambio climático, la escasez de energía, y el colapso económico todos los dinosaurios que podemos hacer es morir. Eso es lo que Darwin lo demostró claramente en relación con toda la vida en este planeta. Aquellas especies que no pueden adaptarse debe extinguirse. Vemos los multimillonarios y los dinosaurios desaparecen o perder dinero en todas partes. Incluso Warren Buffet y George Soros están perdiendo dinero porque no pueden comprender que el crecimiento infinito no es posible. El término "crecimiento sostenible" es quizás la mayor contradicción jamás acuñada y un indicador instantáneo de deselección darwiniana inminente para cualquier persona que lo utiliza. Guardo una distancia segura de estas personas.

Los principales medios de todo el mundo es propiedad de grandes corporaciones, un dinosaurio, por definición. En Estados Unidos la CNN es propiedad de Time-Warner, CBS es propiedad de Viacom, NBC es propiedad de General Electric, ABC por Disney, el Wall Street Journal es propiedad de Rupert Murdoch y Newscorp, ad infinitum. Todos los medios de prensa grandes vender acciones y - mucho peor - están vinculados en una burbuja de los derivados mundial ahora se estima en $ 700 billones de dólares en valor teórico que no sólo se está derrumbando. La Madre de todas las burbujas [4] Decir la verdad a la gente significa que las personas dejará de comprar GE, Time Warner, Viacom y acciones Newscorp por lo que es lo último que los medios de comunicación convencionales pueden reconocer.

Los que producir, editar y reportar las "noticias" son ciudadanos corporativos en lugar de los seres humanos. Ellos han optado por asesinar a sus propios hijos a proteger sus puestos de trabajo actuales (la comida que reciben de un padre abusivo). Ser de ascendencia alemana que soy sensible a las cuestiones acerca de ser intencionalmente ignorante (cobarde) en la cara de un gran mal. También soy consciente y agradecido por la Rosa Blanca y Stauffenberg y sus colegas von heroicos. Me he sentido como esos grandes alemanes que se han sentido desde hace muchos años. Todavía tenemos una gran deuda de gratitud con mi viejo amigo, Andreas von Bülow de Köln [5], que amablemente me puso en contacto con la cultura alemana auténtica. He perdido el contacto con Andrés y su esposa Anne y le pido que estén bien. Ahora nos encontramos con que esta ceguera es una parte inherente de los seres humanos en todos los países y lo único que debe y se extinguirá con el viejo paradigma. [6]

Pero los dinosaurios están perdiendo el control. Desde el comienzo del colapso de la civilización industrial, las empresas de propiedad de los medios de comunicación se ha convertido en una especie de broma. "Comprobar la presión de los neumáticos en su curriculum vitae" es sobre el mejor consejo que puede ofrecer. Entonces dicen: "Creemos que hemos tocado fondo, por lo que la compra de acciones y no tire su jubilación fuera de los mercados", mientras que al mismo tiempo, la emisión de informes que muestran que estamos muy lejos de un fondo y que todo está empeorando . ¿Quién puede confiar en esas tonterías. Debe haber una gran palabra alemana que significa idiota, contradictoria y una mierda, al mismo tiempo. [Kokolores]

El dinero que se gastan miles de millones y billones en estos días serán necesarios en la lucha con las consecuencias del cenit del petróleo - y se ha ido. Siempre. No hace que un colapso de la sociedad industrial es inevitable?

El colapso de la civilización industrial en los próximos cinco a diez años (tal vez antes) es inevitable. Es el grado de colapso, lo que se destruye en el colapso, ¿cuánta gente tendrá que morir en el colapso, y lo que va a sobrevivir el colapso que yo y muchos otros están luchando por el momento. Eso es lo que todo ser humano debe preocuparse y nada menos. Continuar con las opciones aunque no rápidamente se desenganche de la actual paradigma económico de crecimiento infinito es el único problema real frente a toda la especie. Para no hacer que sea, literalmente, a consignar las generaciones futuras y los menores de 40 años a la muerte o un infierno.

Sr. Ruppert, si sabemos algo con certeza acerca de 9/11 es el hecho de que la opinión pública mundial no se dejó engañar. La información sobre la televisión y en los periódicos fue muy parcial e incompleta. ¿Qué nos dice esto sobre el manejo de la situación que estamos enfrentando ahora en el 2009? Y no ha 09.11 se convierta en una distracción importante desde el colapso de la civilización industrial?

Pocos han hecho la investigación más detallada de los ataques del 9-11 que tengo. A pesar de que Rubicón está en la Biblioteca de Negocios de Harvard y ha vendido alrededor de 100.000 copias en dos países, que nunca ha sido reconocido por mi gobierno. 9-11 fue un acontecimiento previsible y que fue motivado, precisamente, y únicamente por el cenit del petróleo y nada más. Creo que he demostrado de manera concluyente que en el Rubicón, que nunca ha sido cuestionada, sólo hizo caso omiso. Es absolutamente demasiado tarde para volver atrás y buscar la justicia por los delitos de Richard Cheney y George W. Bush. Creo que se contaba con ello. Sería, literalmente, un desperdicio de energía. Petróleo y el gas natural sólo puede ser quemado o se consume una vez. La crisis actual es tan grave que no podemos perder de petróleo, gas natural y las energías limitadas de la conciencia humana para volver allí.

Al final de Cruzar el Rubicón que ha indicado que este escenario: "Tenemos que pagar por $ 100 - (orhigher) un barril de petróleo de alguna manera. ¿Por qué no acaba de imprimir el dinero? Cualquiera que haya oído hablar de los daños causados ​​por la inflación y la hiperinflación, al menos aquellos que puedan hacer frente a ella debe pensar de nuevo a la Alemania de Weimar de la República en los años 1920 ". [7] No hay necesidad de volver a escribir este pasaje en la medida en que parece que este recesión, quiere demostrar que tiene razón, ¿no te parece?

Al estilo de Weimar la inflación es inevitable en los Estados Unidos, especialmente en las principales economías empiezan a desvincularse del dólar. Yo predije esto por lo menos hace seis años. Es sólo una cuestión de tiempo. Esta es la secuencia básica de eventos que veo venir: la insolvencia FDIC, por defecto del Tesoro de bonos del Tesoro y todas las notas del Tesoro, el fin del dólar como moneda de reserva mundial, la hiperinflación, la insolvencia y la quiebra de la Reserva Federal, que es una empresa privada- banco de propiedad estatal. Esto será seguido por el eventual colapso del gobierno de Estados Unidos. Todas estas cosas son inevitables en mi opinión y podría pasar en su totalidad en tan sólo tres años. Los dinosaurios se niegan a aceptar esto porque no va a cuestionar un ecosistema monetaria que ellos mismos crearon y que les ha permitido crecer desde el Jardín del Edén hasta ahora. Aquellos que deseen sobrevivir y entender el problema va a hacer todo lo posible para desentenderse de un Titanic que se hunde es claramente mediante la construcción de botes salvavidas locales, adaptados a sus necesidades locales.

Afortunadamente, hay muchas cosas que se pueden hacer, independientemente de la acción del gobierno, y es por eso que una política energética presidencial fue escrito.

En febrero de este año, la Agencia Internacional de Energía (AIE) en París, puso a un pronóstico en el que están prediciendo una crisis económica aún mayor en los próximos años. Según la AIE, la razón de esto es la cancelación de nuevas inversiones en nuevos proyectos de perforación por las grandes compañías petroleras. En el caso de aumento de la demanda en 2010, el precio del petróleo podría explotar, la inflación podría aumentar y el resultado podría ser que el crecimiento económico mundial probablemente llegará a su fin. Vamos a hablar sobre el problema de infraestructura en primer lugar: ¿Por qué crees que las grandes petroleras no invierten más en nuevos proyectos?

Todos estos proyectos, ya sea por el petróleo en alta mar o en la búsqueda de energías alternativas eran sólo es rentable cuando el petróleo estaba en o cerca de $ 100. En todo el mundo, la infraestructura energética se está desmoronando como consecuencia de los precios del petróleo colapsados ​​por lo que es rentable invertir en infraestructura o las alternativas. Hace unos años Robert Hirsch de SAIC, escribió un estudio de la advertencia de gobierno de los EE.UU. de la crisis que se establecía claramente que el tiempo que han comenzado a prepararse para esto fue hace 30 años. [8] Se examinó escenarios en los que se iniciaron los preparativos de veinte, diez y cero pico de años antes. Todos los escenarios fueron catastróficos. Sus observaciones eran sólo las confirmaciones de las alertas emitidas por el Vice Canciller David Goodstein de Cal Tech, que dijo claramente en su libro que lleva treinta años y un montón de dinero para cambiar una infraestructura energética. [9] La humanidad ha esperado hasta el último minuto y no No queda dinero. Es así de simple. La gente ha estado advirtiendo precisamente en este momento desde 1949, cuando el gran M. King Hubbert establecido este paisaje a la vista de todos. [10] Hay poco o ningún dinero fue a la inversión en infraestructura esencial y la infraestructura de la que no puede ser reconstruido bajo la actual crisis económica paradigma. Como economista holandés Martin van Mourek dijo en 2003: "Puede que no sea rentable para frenar la caída." Él tenía toda la razón y yo lo sabía en el instante en que le oí decir en París. [11]

Y ahora vamos a hablar de la subida de los precios del petróleo. En 2006, usted y Michael Kane escribió un artículo para FTW llamado "Los mercados reaccionan al Pico del Petróleo. Sociedad Industrial monta una meseta insostenible ante el Acantilado ", en el que se escribe sobre la meseta llena de baches. Usted lo ha explicado así:
"Cambios recientes de los precios, tanto arriba y abajo - se han previsto como parte del escenario el pico del petróleo durante años. Vi las primeras predicciones de disco duro de la meseta llena de baches en el año 2002, y que tenía sentido.

¿Qué es la "meseta desigual"?

Así es como Colin Campbell describió al FTW en contacto con él para este informe especial:

  • Crisis de los precios (como el límite de capacidad se rompe)
  • La recesión económica la demanda de corte
  • Precio colapso (el mercado reacciona de forma exagerada a los pequeños desequilibrios entre los excedentes y la escasez)
  • La recuperación económica (seguido por una mayor demanda)
  • Crisis de los precios (como los límites de capacidad que caen de nuevo violada) En pocas palabras, todo lo que es provocada por la incapacidad del planeta para aumentar la oferta más allá de un cierto punto, independientemente de la demanda. Esa es la definición de pico. Pico sigue siendo alta si se lleva a la fuerte caída y se cierra inmediatamente o en la meseta llena de baches que estamos viendo ahora ". [12]

¿Es este modelo sigue siendo el procedimiento después de que "todo se desencadena"? ¿Es la meseta de baches que la AIE está hablando para el 2010? Y fue la meseta de Bumpy hemos sido testigos de que ya en 2008?

Estamos en la meseta llena de baches en estos momentos. La descripción y las predicciones ofrecido por Campbell y muchos otros eran muy buenas, pero sólo en dos dimensiones en que se dirigieron precio y la demanda sólo. Creo que mi mayor contribución en la parte superior de su trabajo pionero ha sido el de explorar a fondo e iluminar la corrupción del paradigma económico, la importancia de los derivados [13] y que, como introducir un tercer factor. Esto me ha permitido hacer predicciones sorprendentemente precisas para una década. La implosión de la burbuja de los derivados que se ha hecho más que empezar puede impedir que cualquier real o incluso temporal "recuperación" de tener lugar. Toda la energía que gasta en una "recuperación" en el paradigma del crecimiento infinito habrá sido en vano. Una cosa que también estoy seguro es de que no habrá muchos baches en la meseta llena de baches. Tan pronto como cualquier tipo de recuperación se inicia, se chocan inmediatamente contra la pared de ladrillo de la disminución de la energía. Hemos pasado de pico estoy seguro. La AIE ha admitido prácticamente en todo esto. Después del golpe última es hacia abajo el precipicio de nuevo a la Edad de Piedra menos que la gente tome medidas inmediatamente.

En 2001, cuando la administración Bush llegó al poder, el público en general sabía nada sobre el cenit del petróleo. La Administración de Bush. En su libro "Crossing the Rubicon" que apuntan a un discurso de Dick Cheney que pronunció en Londres, en el Instituto del Petróleo en 1999. [14] Cheney era director ejecutivo de Halliburton en aquel entonces. Fue en el circuito, ¿no?

Cheney era el lazo. Existe un registro abundante que las más poderosas instituciones de la formulación de políticas han conocido el pico del petróleo, al menos desde la década de 1970. Eso incluye nuestra CIA [15], el liderazgo en Rusia, Gran Bretaña, China y Japón. Mis estudios sugieren que Alemania se entiende mejor y más ha hecho para abordar las implicaciones de los años.

Un tema importante de su investigación con respecto al 9/11 son los registros desconocidos de la "Fuerza de Tareas de Energía", dirigido por Dick Cheney, la Política Nacional de Energía para el Desarrollo. En Crossing the Rubicon que escribió:
"He dicho hace dos años que los más profundos y oscuros secretos de la mentira 11 de septiembre enterrado en los registros de los EE.UU. Nacional de directiva de grupo para el Desarrollo (NEPDG), que comenzó su trabajo casi el mismo día de la administración Bush asumió el cargo y presentó su informe final en el de mayo de 2001, apenas cuatro meses antes de que el World Trade Center dejó de existir ". [16]

¿Puede explicar esto con más detalle para aquellos que nunca han oído hablar de esto antes?

It's explained in detail both in A Presidential Energy Policy and in Crossing the Rubicon. Essentially the NEPDG appears to have been set up, almost from the first day of the Bush administration, to find out how much oil was left, who had it, and how it could be obtained (bought or stolen) to support US hegemony, US consumption, and the monetary paradigm. Those things are all dinosaurs anyway and they are dying in the New Paradigm as they must. The fact that the NEPDG records have been kept secret from the American people who paid for it is one of the greatest crimes of all time. Seeing those records now would save a lot of duplicated effort in trying to inventory how much oil there is left.

The figures on oil reserves quoted by producing nations and companies are as fraudulent and cooked as the books on mortgages, banking, and even Bernie Madoff. The Saudis cannot hide the fact that they have passed Peak anymore. I prove that in my new book. The world's largest energy investment banker Matthew Simmons proved it before I did in his book Twilight in the Desert. [17] I have proved the same thing a different way. If Saudi Arabia has passed Peak then the whole world has passed Peak. It was Peak Oil that was driving Dick Cheney's Task Force and nothing else.

Is there a chance that we will ever know about the real content of the NEPDG files?

Espero que sí. That's what I have called for in A Presidential Energy Policy.

You are known for using this quote by Benito Mussolini:
“Fascism ought more properly be called corporatism because it is the perfect merger of power between the corporation and the state.”
Isn't Dick Cheney a perfect example for this? He did made a whole lot of money as a main-shareholder of Halliburton through the foreign policy of the Bush Administration, didn't he?

He shouldn't be singled out. The Bush-Cheney administration had its “base”. Some of that base is shared with the Obama administration. The Bush-Cheney administration, knowing that collapse was coming, looted the US economy on behalf of its base. It was perhaps the largest wealth transfer (theft) in history. I predicted and warned about each step in precise detail for eight years. [18]

I was dead-on accurate and there's a clear record to prove that. And I suffered for it. I was harassed, sabotaged, my offices were burglarized and my computers smashed in 2006 prompting me to flee the US for four months. What did we Americans do as Bush and Cheney rode out of town with all that wealth? We gave them a parade and called it inauguration day.

Beyond Peak Oil as a motive for the Bush Administration to “arrange” the thing that we know as “9/11”, you wrote extensively about the importance of Afghani drug traffic. Since the military engagement of NATO forces in Afghanistan, the profits from heroin trade are at an all time high, aren't they?

The global drug trade is evolving. I won't go back now and explain what happened between 2001 and today. The global drug trade was estimated by me to be generating around $600 billion a year in total revenues in 2004. That was fine as long as the infinite growth bubble appeared to be functioning. Drug cash was chased by banks and major corporations like General Electric, AIG, Philip Morris, Citigroup, etc. back then. Europe was no exception. But now the collapse of a $700 trillion derivatives bubble has changed everything. What was a lubricant to allow further expansion of the bubble in 2001 is today less than the minimum monthly payment on a credit card.

The reason why the US is having all this drug violence now is, I am certain, because US banks are crying for all the illegal cash they can launder to service the “minimum monthly payments” on their derivative exposure. The drug violence is here because all over Mexico the word is out on the streets, “Get a kilo of grass across the border and you get $500.” It's a stampede because Mexicans are starving. That is because their largest oil field Cantarell is collapsing and oil revenues have plummeted. It always comes back to energy and money.

¿Quién sabe cuántas drogas se están consumiendo ahora? Personalmente, no creo que sea significativamente más alto de lo que era hace cinco años o veinticinco. He escrito extensamente - citando estudios científicos - que sólo alrededor del 10% al 12% de cualquier población es susceptible a la adicción. El resto de las personas pueden consumir drogas, pero nunca se hará adicto porque se dan cuenta que no es beneficioso. No me gusta. Uno no crea adictos a las drogas mediante el bombeo de más en una sociedad. Sólo se alimenta de que un porcentaje fijo que son susceptibles a la adicción. Eso es lo que se llama un mercado cautivo bajo el régimen monetario actual.

Echemos un vistazo a este artículo de noticias de Reuters, por favor:

Jefe de la ONU dice que la delincuencia dinero de la droga fluyó hacia los bancos
Dom Ene 25, 2009 9:17 am EST
VIENA, 25 ene (Reuters) - El crimen de las Naciones Unidas y el organismo de control de drogas tiene indicios de que dinero hecho en tráfico ilícito de drogas se ha utilizado para mantener a los bancos a flote en la crisis financiera global, con la cabeza, según fue citado el domingo.

Con sede en Viena director ejecutivo de UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa, dijo en una entrevista publicada por el semanario austríaco Profil que dinero de la droga a menudo se convirtió en el único capital disponible cuando la crisis fuera de control el año pasado. ...

¿Puedes comentar sobre esto?

Como dijo Claude Rains en Casablanca, "Estoy en shock! No está pasando en los juegos de azar en este establecimiento. "

Sr. Ruppert, estamos hablando aquí acerca de la delincuencia organizada en los primeros lugares en las finanzas, la economía y el gobierno. Uno podría pensar: "Bueno, es que alguna vez ha sido diferente antes?" En mi opinión la principal diferencia es que el crimen organizado es hoy en día casi oficialmente parte del juego - que realmente no se oculta más. Un ejemplo de esto es la manipulación del mercado de valores por el Equipo de Protección contra Desplomes infame (PPT). ¿Puede explicar cómo funciona el PPT, que está involucrado y por qué de su existencia no es sólo una "teoría de la conspiración"?

El PPT se siente abrumado ahora. Este colapso ha sido un tsunami que ha hecho que el PPT en gran medida ineficaz. Tenía la capacidad de intervenir artificialmente para evitar colapsos del mercado cuando era sólo miles de millones de dólares involucrados.

Ahora que estamos tratando con miles de millones el PPT es de poco interés. En términos generales, el Tesoro de EE.UU. (casi una propiedad de Goldman Sachs) se ha convertido en sí mismo un PPT con creciente ineficacia. Los EE.UU. tiene actualmente el más grande "Sucker rally" no será jamás.

También me gustaría hablar un poco con ustedes sobre el oro en las circunstancias del Cenit del Petróleo. Recuerdo que usted ha escrito hace un tiempo que la "nueva" la riqueza es el oro - que es el "viejo" la riqueza. ¿Qué quieres decir con eso exactamente?

Mira, el hecho es que cuando la FDIC y la Reserva Federal de quedar insolvente, el oro será el único lugar que queda a la vuelta. Propuestas de nuevas monedas no puede resolver el problema. Sólo va a destruir la evidencia y la gente persiguiendo el espejismo más profundo en el agujero. Nuevas monedas sólo se volverá a crear el mismo problema en una forma diferente y más vicioso. Desde hace siete mil años la raza humana ha optado por una sola opción como una tienda universal de valor en tiempos difíciles - de oro. Para protegerse contra la inflación - el oro. He visto muchos informes que dicen que hay cinco veces más papel que el oro no es oro físico fuera de la tierra. El oro es finito. No se pueden imprimir. Tiene una conexión con la tierra. Le recomiendo a todos mis lectores a comprar y mantener el oro físico y lo han hecho durante años. La raza humana no tiene que quedarse con el oro para siempre. Pero va a ayudar a las personas con él para sobrevivir y funcionar económicamente como el colapso se desarrolla.

Otra pregunta, recta y seca: ¿Es el mercado del oro manipulado, y si es así, ¿cómo?

Por supuesto los precios del oro han sido manipulados. For the best discussion of that I recommend the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) and ttp://www.lemetropolecafe.com [19]

You have said over and over again during the last years: “As long as you don't change the way money works, you change nothing.” For example you wrote recently in an open letter to President Obama: “All you are doing is buying time to prevent the collapse of a totally dysfunctional marriage where the mother (the government) kills the children (us) to save her relationship with the father (the way money works).” Two simple questions: How does money work, and: How should it work in future?

These are addressed clearly and succinctly in my book.

In order to sum our interview up so far: What we need is a paradigm shift. How should it look like, besides a change of the way money works?

The way the paradigm shift should occur and what it should look like is a discussion for the entire human race. I choose not even try to answer that. I do offer some ideas on how to start the dialogue in the book.

Let us take at the end of this interview a look into the future. Ten years from now: Give us your best case scenario, please .

There is a mass awakening of human consciousness; the equivalent of mankind taking the red pill from the movie The Matrix. We stop chasing an impossible notion of infinite growth and begin to change our minds about life and what it means right now. We accurately, clearly and fearlessly accept and embrace the crisis and begin implementing available solutions today. We stop feeding the economic beast which has no option but to kill us in order to save itself. Maybe instead of four or five billion people starving and or dying in resource wars, or in nuclear exchanges over resources, we can reduce that number to two or three billion and also identify, redefine and preserve the best parts of human civilization for the generations that follow. We find a way to live in balance and true sustainability with the planet that gives us life and all the life that we share it with.

And now give us your worst case scenario, please.

Human extinction and the possible extinction of all life on the planet, either as a result of climate collapse or a global nuclear exchange over energy.

The coming situation of Peak Oil will be a turbulent event. When I got you right, you argue in “Crossing the Rubicon” that the Patriot Act and the cut-back of the Posse Comitatus Act were implemented by the American government to prepare itself against civil unrest during the “hard times” of Peak Oil. Is your country heading into a future where freedom is again a privilege, not a given right? And why should people in Europe and around the world be very interested in the freedom of the citizens in the United States?

I disagree with the Russian analyst who predicted a civil war here.[20] Civil wars are defined by geographic boundaries. I do however think it inevitable that the United Sates will dis-integrate and there are clear signs of that beginning right now. But what's going to happen here is no different than what will happen all over the world. As human industrial civilization collapses everything will be governed by a force as powerful and unyielding as gravity. That is geography. Things do not break up. They break down. They get smaller. Problems in Essen or the Rhineland will be different from problems in East Prussia or Bavaria. There will be massive social unrest here but I do not believe it can be accurately predicted how that will play out. There can be only one end result.

Everything will revolve around what is within 50 or 100 kilometers of where one lives. The reason why the United States is so important is because my country still exerts so much political, social, economic and cultural influence around the world. In writing “A Presidential Energy Policy” I not only recognized the difficulties we face here but the fact that if the United States can change, if it can drop the suicidal notion of infinite growth and its defense of a corrupt and murderous economic paradigm, then the whole world will be that much more empowered to save itself… country by country, region by region, and neighborhood by neighborhood.

Thank you very much, Mr Ruppert, and nothing but the very best to you!

Parte

Why Are Indian Farmers Committing Suicide and How Can We Stop This Tragedy?

More by Vandana Shiva, reprinted from Alternet .

This is a problem for all of us. Where 100 years ago many of us would be involved in agriculture and would eat fresh health local foods, corporations have now taken over the worlds food supply. These corporations rely on huge quantities of energy in the form of fossil fuels, that are going to get more and more expensive, pushing the prices of staples out of the reach of many of us, and making vast profits or (which could be worse in the shortterm, but far better in the long term, collapsing those corporations).

We have been foolish to allow psycopaths who value doallrs over life to dominate our food systems, and we must now rise up and say 'Basta', enough!

One of our writers reently commented that there is a disaster in the pipeline, and we need to do something about it, but we also must recognise that the dominant culture of empire is a perpetual disaster, destroying people, species and planet. It must be stopped by all means necessary.

The factors that have caused 200,000 suicides are rooted in the policies of trade liberalization and corporate globalization.

In a land where reincarnation is a commonly held belief, where the balance sheet of life is sorted out over lifetimes, where resilience and recovery has been the characteristic of the “kisan,” the peasant cultivation, why are Indian farmers committing suicide on a mass scale?

200,000 farmers have ended their lives since 1997.

Farmers' suicides are the most tragic and dramatic symptom of the crisis of survival faced by Indian peasants.

Rapid increase in indebtedness is at the root of farmers' taking their lives. Debt is a reflection of a negative economy. Two factors have transformed agriculture from a positive economy into a negative economy for peasants: the rising of costs of production and the falling prices of farm commodities. Both these factors are rooted in the policies of trade liberalization and corporate globalization.

In 1998, the World Bank's structural adjustment policies forced India to open up its seed sector to global corporations like Cargill, Monsanto and Syngenta. The global corporations changed the input economy overnight. Farm saved seeds were replaced by corporate seeds, which need fertilizers and pesticides and cannot be saved.

Corporations prevent seed savings through patents and by engineering seeds with non-renewable traits. As a result, poor peasants have to buy new seeds for every planting season and what was traditionally a free resource, available by putting aside a small portion of the crop, becomes a commodity. This new expense increases poverty and leads to indebtness.

The shift from saved seed to corporate monopoly of the seed supply also represents a shift from biodiversity to monoculture in agriculture. The district of Warangal in Andhra Pradesh used to grow diverse legumes, millets, and oilseeds. Now the imposition of cotton monocultures has led to the loss of the wealth of farmer's breeding and nature's evolution.

Monocultures and uniformity increase the risk of crop failure, as diverse seeds adapted to diverse to eco-systems are replaced by the rushed introduction of uniform and often untested seeds into the market. When Monsanto first introduced Bt Cotton in 2002, the farmers lost 1 billion rupees due to crop failure. Instead of 1,500 kilos per acre as promised by the company, the harvest was as low as 200 kilos per acre. Instead of incomes of 10,000 rupees an acre, farmers ran into losses of 6,400 rupees an acre. In the state of Bihar, when farm-saved corn seed was displaced by Monsanto's hybrid corn, the entire crop failed, creating 4 billion rupees in losses and increased poverty for desperately poor farmers. Poor peasants of the South cannot survive seed monopolies. The crisis of suicides shows how the survival of small farmers is incompatible with the seed monopolies of global corporations.

The second pressure Indian farmers are facing is the dramatic fall in prices of farm produce as a result of the WTO's free trade policies. The WTO rules for trade in agriculture are, in essence, rules for dumping. They have allowed wealthy countries to increase agribusiness subsidies while preventing other countries from protecting their farmers from artificially cheap imported produce. Cuatrocientos mil millones de dólares en subsidios, combinados con la separación forzosa de restricción de las importaciones es una receta ya preparada para el suicidio agricultor. Global wheat prices have dropped from $216 a ton in 1995 to $133 a ton in 2001; cotton prices from $98.2 a ton in 1995 to $49.1 a ton in 2001; Soya bean prices from $273 a ton in 1995 to $178 a ton. This reduction is due not to a change in productivity, but to an increase in subsidies and an increase in market monopolies controlled by a handful of agribusiness corporations.

The region in India with the highest level of farmers suicides is the Vidharbha region in Maharashtra — 4000 suicides per year, 10 per day. This is also the region with the highest acreage of Monsanto's GMO Bt cotton. Monsanto's GM seeds create a suicide economy by transforming seed from a renewable resource to a non-renewable input which must be bought every year at high prices. Cotton seed used to cost Rs 7/kg. Bt-cotton seeds were sold at Rs 17,000/kg. Indigenous cotton varieties can be intercropped with food crops. Bt-cotton can only be grown as a monoculture. Indigenous cotton is rain fed. Bt-cotton needs irrigation. Indigenous varieties are pest resistant. Bt-cotton, even though promoted as resistant to the boll worm, has created new pests, and to control these new pests, farmers are using 13 times more pesticides then they were using prior to introduction of Bt-cotton. And finally, Monsanto sells its GMO seeds on fraudulent claims of yields of 1500/kg/year when farmers harvest 300-400 kg/year on an average. High costs and unreliable output make for a debt trap, and a suicide economy.

While Monsanto pushes the costs of cultivation up, agribusiness subsidies drive down the price farmers get for their produce.

Cotton producers in the US are given a subsidy of $4 billion annually. This has artificially brought down cotton prices, allowing the US to capture world markets previously accessible to poor African countries such as Burkina Faso, Benin, and Mali. This subsidy of $230 per acre in the US is untenable for the African farmers. African cotton farmers are losing $250 million every year. That is why small African countries walked out of the Cancun negotiations, leading to the collapse of the WTO ministerial.

The rigged prices of globally traded agriculture commodities steal from poor peasants of the South. A study carried out by the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE) shows that due to falling farm prices, Indian peasants are losing $26 billion annually. This is a burden their poverty does not allow them t bear. As debts increase — unpayable from farm proceeds — farmers are compelled to sell a kidney or even commit suicide. Seed saving gives farmers life. Seed monopolies rob farmers of life.

Farmers suicides in the state of Chattisgarh have recently been before in the news. 1593 farmers committed suicide in Chattisgarh in 2007. Before 2000 no farmers suicides are reported in the state.

Chattisgarh is the Centre of Diversity of the indice varieties of rice. More than 200,000 rices used to grow in India. This is where eminent rice scientists Dr. Richaria did his collections and showed that tribals had bred many rices with higher yields than the green Revolution varieties.

Today the rice farming of Chattisgarh is under assault. When indigenous rice is replaced with green Revolution varieties, irrigation becomes necessary. Under globalization pressures, rice is anyway a lower priority than exotic vegetables. The farmers are sold hybrid seeds, the seeds need heavy inputs of fertilizers and pesticides, as well as intensive irrigation. And crop failure is frequent. This pushes farmers into debt and suicide.

Chattisgarh is also a prime target for growing of Jatropha for biofuel. Tribals farms are being forcefully appropriated for Jatropha plantations, aggravating the food and livelihood crisis in Chattisgarh. The diesel demand of the automobile industry is given a priority above the food needs of the poor.

The suicide economy of industrialized, globalised agriculture is suicidal at 3 levels — it is suicidal for farmers, it is suicidal for the poor who are derived food, and it is suicidal at the level of the human species as we destroy the natural capital of seed, biodiversity, soil and water on which our biological survival depends.

The suicide economy is not an inevitability. Navdanya has started a Seeds of Hope campaign to stop farmers suicides. The transition from seeds of suicide to seeds of hope includes:

  • A shift from GMO and non renewable seeds to organic, open pollinated seed varieties which farmers can save and share
  • A shift from chemical farming to organic farming
  • A shift from unfair trade based on false prices to fair trade based on real and just prices

The farmers who have made this shift are earning 10 times more than the farmers growing Monsanto's Bt-cotton.

Parte

Corporate Agriculture Is to Blame for the Hundreds of Thousands of Farmer Suicides in India

By Tara Lohan, AlterNet

Vandana Shiva says industrial agriculture has left Indian farmers indebted and destitute, and explains how to stem the tide of suicides.

Last month, the world got a glimpse of an epidemic that has hit India in the last decade when news reports alerted readers to the suicides of 1,500 farmers in the Indian state of Chattisgarh.

But this has been only a fraction of the suicides committed by farmers since 1997, says Vandana Shiva, Ph.D., a physicist, environmentalist, feminist, science policy advocate and director of Navdanya and the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology.

While initial news reports blamed the recent suicides on falling water levels, Shiva explains that the suicide epidemic in India is a lot more complicated and far-reaching.

“Rapid increase in indebtedness is at the root of farmers' taking their lives,” she wrote recently. “Debt is a reflection of a negative economy. Two factors have transformed agriculture from a positive economy into a negative economy for peasants: the rising of costs of production and the falling prices of farm commodities. Both these factors are rooted in the policies of trade liberalization and corporate globalization.”

At the heart of this is a circle of indebtedness that has resulted from the so-called Green Revolution, which exported industrial agricultural practices to places like India and in doing so, made seeds, a once-renewable resource for farmers, into something that had be bought from corporations.

“In 1998, the World Bank's structural-adjustment policies forced India to open up its seed sector to global corporations like Cargill, Monsanto and Syngenta,” Shiva wrote. “The global corporations changed the input economy overnight. Farm-saved seeds were replaced by corporate seeds, which need fertilizers and pesticides and cannot be saved. … The shift from saved seed to corporate monopoly of the seed supply also represents a shift from biodiversity to monoculture in agriculture.”

In an interview with AlterNet, Shiva explained how Monsanto's Bt cotton has exemplified what can go wrong with industrial agriculture; what happens to farming communities when traditional farming methods are replaced by corporate sponsored mono-cropping; and how to stem the tide of farmer suicides.

Tara Lohan: Farmer suicides in India recently made the news when stories broke last month about 1,500 farmers taking their own lives, what do you attribute these deaths to?

Vandana Shiva: Over the last decade, 200,000 farmers have committed suicide. The 1,500 figure is for the state of Chattisgarh. In Vidharbha, 4,000 are committing suicide annually. This is the region where 4 million acres of cotton have been grown with Monsanto's Bt cotton. The suicides are a direct result of a debt trap created by ever-increasing costs of seeds and chemicals and constantly falling prices of agricultural produce.

When Monsanto's Bt cotton was introduced, the seed costs jumped from 7 rupees per kilo to 17,000 rupees per kilo. Our survey shows a thirteenfold increase in pesticide use in cotton in Vidharbha. Meantime, the $4 billion subsidy given to US agribusiness for cotton has led to dumping and depression of international prices.

Squeezed between high costs and negative incomes, farmers commit suicide when their land is being appropriated by the money lenders who are the agents of the agrichemical and seed corporations. The suicides are thus a direct result of industrial globalized agriculture and corporate monopoly on seeds.

TL: Suicides of Indian farmers unfortunately is not news — how long has this been a problem, how serious is the problem, what are the underlying causes?

VS: The first suicide that we studied took place in Warrangal in Andhra Pradesh in 1997. This region is a rain-fed dry region and used to grow dry land crops such as millets, pigeon pea etc. In 1997, the seed corporations converted the region from biodiverse agriculture to monocultures of cotton hybrid. The farmers were not told they would need irrigation. They were not told that they would need fertilizers and pesticides. They were not told they could not save the seeds. The cotton seeds were sold as “White Gold,” with a false promise that farmers would become millionaires. Instead, the farmers landed in severe unpayable debt. This is how the suicides began.

TL: You said that 200,000 farmers have ended their lives since 1997 — where does that statistic come from? Are there numbers to compare suicide rates for farmers pre-Green Revolution with the numbers we are seeing today?

VS: The statistics on farmers suicides are kept by the National Crime Bureau. Since there were no large-scale suicides prior to 1997, the statistics was not maintained before that. The combination of the spread of nonrenewable seeds and globalized trade has triggered the epidemic of suicides.

TL: What role does water and water management play in the problems Indian farmers are facing?

VS: India is a land of varied climates, from rainforests to deserts. Seventy percent of Indian farming is rain-fed (dependent on rain not irrigation). Introducing inappropriate crops and cropping patterns has aggravated the water crisis and precipitated more frequent crop failure. Ecological agriculture needs 10 times less water than chemical farming. Green Revolution varieties, hybrids and GM crops are all bred for irrigation. On the one hand, this puts pressure on farmers in low-rainfall zones to drill tube wells, which fail — on the other hand, it leads to more frequent crop failure.

TL: How has the Green Revolution changed things for farmers? Is the most significant change in the ownership of seeds by corporations?

VS: The Green Revolution was the name given to the introduction of chemical/industrial farming in India in 1965-66 under the pressure of the US government and World Bank. The Green Revolution was based on seeds bred for responding to chemical inputs. Companies made money from sale of agrichemicals, the seeds were in the public domain.

Genetic engineering is often called the second Green Revolution. Now, the seeds are owned by corporations through intellectual property rights. This leads to a very drastic change in how farming is done and who controls decisions in agriculture.

TL: How have companies like Monsanto, Cargill and others created what you call a “suicide economy” for farmers?

VS: Monsanto's contribution to the suicide economy is by extracting super profits from farmers in the form of royalties and by intentionally transforming seeds from a renewable resource that farmers can save to a nonrenewable resource that they must buy in the market every year. Monsanto had a big role in shaping the TRIPs agreement [on intellectual property] of WTO.

Cargill's contribution to the suicide economy is as the biggest controller of agricultural trade. Cargill was responsible for the Agreement on Agriculture, which has promoted dumping and denying farmers of the Third World their right to fair prices.

TL: Is there a particular area of the country that has been hardest hit? Which are the worst off and what are they growing? Are other areas more successful and if so, why?

VS: The worst-hit suicide areas of the country are Vidharbha, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Karnataka. These are also the cotton-growing areas, and these are the areas where Monsanto has established a monopoly on seed supply through Bt cotton. Areas where farmers have their own seed, where they are growing diversity of food crops and are practicing organic farming are areas free of debt and farmers suicides.

Navdanya has started a seeds-of-hope program in the suicide belt of Vidharbha. Creating seed banks, training farmers in organic agriculture and helping farmers with fair trade has helped farmers increase their incomes tenfold compared to farmers growing Bt cotton.

TL: What should the government of India be doing, and what can the world community do?

VS: The government of India should be playing a major role in public seed supply. Before Monsanto's entry, 80 percent of the seed used to come from farmers' own fields, and 20 percent came from government seed farms. Under privatization, government seed breeding has been wiped out. Seed is a public and common good, and hence seeds should stay in the hands of farming communities and public-sector institutions.

The government should also impose a moratorium on GMO seeds such as Bt cotton until full independent assessment of its performance in small farmers' fields has been completed. The government should also promote organic farming, since from the perspective of farmers this is the only way to get out of the debt and suicide trap.

At the international level, the world community needs to defend seed as a common good and build a strong movement against seed patents and seed monopolies. People can also contribute to Navdanya's Seeds of Hope Campaign.

To learn more, you can also read Shiva's most recent article on the subject.

Parte

Can Cuba Offer An Alternative to Corporate Control Over the World's Food System?

paper presented at the 20th Conference of North American and Cuban Philosophers and Social Scientists, Havana, June, 2008

by Joseph Tharamangalam, Centre for Global Justice.

Danos hoy nuestro pan de cada día. (The only prayer Jesus is reported to have taught his followers)

With all the authority of hindsight, it is important to analyze and criticize the methods Cuba has chosen to eradicate hunger…. But we should never lose sight of the fact that the Cuban revolution declared, from the outset, that no one should go malnourished. No disappointment in food production, no failed economic take-off, no shock wave from world economic crisis has deterred Cuba from freeing itself from the suffering and shame of a single wasted child or an elderly person ignonimously subsisting on pet food. No other country in this hemisphere, including the United States, can make this claim” (Benjamin et al.189)

Introducción

This paper draws on an ongoing research project that compares the human development experience of Cuba and the state of Kerala in India, two well known success stories that have achieved an impressive measure of human well being without waiting for the so called trickle down effect of industrial development or wealth creation. Their remarkable achievements (as measured by UNDP's human development (HD) indictors) have been hailed by many scholars and policy makers. Our research project seeks to identify common patterns in the development experience of these cases and to explore possible lessons for the world, especially for the one fifth of humanity still suffering from chronic poverty and endemic deprivations.

The paper explores the theme of food security in Cuba. Although the UNDP's measure of HD does not directly factor in food security it is obviously at the very foundation of any system of human development and well-being. The issue of food security has assumed a new urgency in the context of the current world food crisis that is threatening to plunge as many as 100 million people into hunger in addition to the 850 million already in a situation of chronic hunger. As is well known, faced with an even more serious food crisis some two decades ago, Cuba launched a daring and unconventional agricultural revolution, regarded by some as the very “anti-thesis” of the Washington consensus and labeled as an “anti model” by a spokesperson of the World Bank. Many experts who have studied the Cuban experience (including some from Oxfam, FAO, and the WFP) now believe that Cuba may offer some lessons to those searching for alternatives to the current world food system that has failed so miserably in providing food security to vast numbers of people and has destroyed the ability of communities and countries to exercise any control over their food system.
The remainder of the paper is divided into 3 parts: A brief overview of Cuba's post- 1990 agricultural revolution is followed by the main part of the paper that discusses some important elements of what may be called Cuba's alternative paradigm. The concluding part will raise questions about sustainability and food security.

Cuba's New Agricultural Revolution: From Crisis to Recovery

Historically, Cuba has had a classical colonial agricultural system that produced sugar for export, and served the interests of a metropolitan elite based first in Spain and then in the US. After the revolution Cuba became dependent on the Soviet Union and its trading partners. This resulted in an agricultural system characterized by three notable features: 1) its dependence on the USSR for almost all its trade albeit on very favorable terms; 2) its adoption of the Soviet model of large-scale high input and state owned agriculture, and 3) its heavy dependence on food imports.

With the dissolution of the Soviet trading system, Cuba was plunged into a major crisis including a 30% fall in food availability. Among the country's highest priorities was the need to transform its agriculture from a high-input to a low input, self-reliant, small scale and viable agriculture. To this end Cuba launched a series of reforms that transformed its agricultural system radically. In sharp contrast to the experience of other third world countries around the same time, Cuba's was structural adjustment with a difference – one that was premised upon relying on the country's own resources and committed to maintaining its social safety net and social programs.

Many careful observers have noted that through a process of intense mobilization of state and society Cuba overcame the worst forms of food shortages in a matter of some five years, and did so without seriously compromising its social programs or human development achievements. (Koont, 2004, Malhotra, 2000, Sinclair and Thompson, 2004). Sinclair and Thompson (Oxfam America) have made the claim that “Cuba has successfully turned a severe food crisis into a sustained recovery in food production”. And a report by the Food First Institute says that “…by mid-1995 the food shortage had been overcome, drastic reductions to the food supply of the vast majority of Cubans was over” (Rosset, 2000). The same report adds (210) that in the 1996-97 growing season, Cuba recorded its highest ever production levels for 10 of the 13 basic food items in the Cuban diet- and the increase came primarily from small farms. The World Wild Life Fund has listed Cuba as the only country following a sustainable path to development in that it has achieved high HD (greater than 0.8) with low ecological footprint (less than 1.8 hectares). In 1999 the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) was awarded to the Cuban Organic Farming Association (GAO).

Towards an Alternative Paradigm

Elements of a Paradigm

Based on the Cuban experience I identify 7 elements of an alternative paradigm for a sustainable agricultural system that may also provide a basis for food security to Cuba and the world. These are indicative rather than exhaustive, and are drawn heavily on the works of such organizations as the Food First Institute (eg., Rosset, 2003), Oxfam America (eg., Sinclair and Thompson, 2004) and supplemented by our own research during the past 3 years.

1. Ecological Farming

The Cuban government confronted the crisis of the 1990s by declaring a Special Period in Peacetime, and launched a national effort to convert the country's agricultural sector from high input to low input and self-reliant farming practices on an unprecedented scale (Rosset, 2003, 207). The principles and strategies of a holistic system of agro-ecology were put into practice (Funes et. Al., xiii). Estos incluían:

-use of biofertilizers such as earthworms, compost, natural rock phosphate, animal and green manures, and the integration of gracing animals.

-use of biopesticides such as resistant plant varieties, crop rotations and natural antagonists to combat plant pathogens, and better rotations and cover cropping to suppress weeds;

-a move from capital-intensive to knowledge-intensive agriculture; knowledge generated not only by extensive and innovative scientific research, but also by recovering people's accumumulated knowledge, integrating the two and maintaining synergy between the two(Claudio, 1999);

-animal traction in place of fuel-hungry tractors and other machines;

- urban farms which were first introduced in the aftermath of the food shortages and rising food prices. “Once the government threw its full support behind a nascent urban gardening movement, it exploded to near epic proportions” (Rosset, 2003, 210). Oxfam America reported that urban gardens were now (2003-2004) producing half of all vegetables consumed by Havana's 2 million inhabitants (Sinclair and Thompson);

-creation and maintenance of within-farm synergies.

Cuba has now proven that organic farming is productive and viable.

2. Decentralization and Diversification:

Emphasis is now placed on small farms and local production, relying on local resources and adaptation to the local ecosystem and the needs of the local community.

Cuba's success in ecological farming is essentially a success of small farms and small farmers. Large state farms were broken up and redistributed precisely because they had proven to be unsuccessful in adapting to the technology and social organization of organic farming. Small farmers were able to put to use their memory and experience of an earlier form of farming. Most important, it was discovered that in state farms worker alienation was high and productivity low. By contrast, the small farms adopting organic farming were characterised by high levels of worker participation and enthusiasm.

Diversification has had several dimensions- products and exports, types of producers and their relationship to land (land tenure), markets, and finally the economy itself which has opened up more space for private actors while maintaining a strong state sector in critical areas.

Local production also eliminates the need for wasteful transportation, packaging and storage while supplying fresh food to local people.

To facilitate the above, the ministry of agriculture and its administrative structure has also been decentralized.

The Cuban experience has shown the viability of small farms. Peter Rosset ( 2003) contrasts these small farms with the high input industrial farms which, he argues, are kept viable only with huge subsidies by government. And this is not counting the high ecological deficits incurred and the massive scale of the externalization of costs. In terms of classical theoretical debates about the viability of the family farm, it would seem that it is Chayanov, not Kautsky who seems to be carrying the day.

3. Redistribution of Land to the Farmers

Redistribution of land is a prerequisite for creating the small farm sector that has proven to be suitable for ecological farming. In sharp contrast to increasing concentration of land that followed neoliberal reforms in other Latin American countries, Cuba's land reforms during the special period effectively broke up state farms and redistributed these to a variety of cooperatives and to large numbers of individual farmers. By 1996 there were 2654 Basic Units of Cooperative Production or UBPCs (Enriqez 204) – data from CEPAL 2000, 313). These played their largest role in sugarcane, also in citrus, rice and livestock. State farm sector fell from 82% to 14.4%.

Apparently reviving an earlier idea, the program aimed at “linking people with land”. These farms provided the farmers a greater sense of control and ownership, which, in turn contributed to a greater sense of belonging and greater productivity. “We went to bed as workers and woke up in the morning as owners” as the manager of a successful UBPC told us referring to the creation of that UBPC. (farmer in a UBPC visited by author in December, 2007).

4. A Democratic State Committed to Public Provisioning for its People

The role of the state is critical in two respects. First, it has been amply proven by researchers (especially those associated with the UNDP's HD Reports) that few societies have achieved high human development without substantial state intervention in public provisioning in the areas of education, health and basic social security. This remains true even in societies (including the US) in which free market capitalism is touted as the dominant ideology (Sen, 2000). Cuba is a well known case in this respect. In Cuba such public provisioning has included a food rationing system that is a controversial issue today, re-examined and debated by policy makers within Cuba, vilified by the country's detractors as the quintessential sin of socialism, the subject of continuous complaint by many Cuban citizens, who, nevertheless, have come to take it for granted and to expect the “minimum food basket” it provides as a basic entitlement. First launched in March, 1962, as a temporary measure to deal with food shortages, it has, over the years, been probably the single most important institution responsible for the elimination of hunger and malnutrition, the hallmark of Cuba's uniqueness in the world. But, burdened by high costs, purported inefficiency and a bloated bureaucracy needed to administer it, the system is likely to be redesigned or replaced by such measures as more targeted security or income supplement (Benjamin et al., Alvarez). There is, however, a bottom line that stands out crystal clear: as the quotation at the beginning of this paper makes clear, Cuba's record in eliminating hunger and mal-nutrition remains unmatched in the hemisphere and certainly in the third world. Furthermore, there is ample evidence across the world that no society has eliminated hunger and mal-nutrition, or come close to doing this, without some state-supported public provision for its poorest and vulnerable population. Cuba's ration system has been premised on the principles of universal accessibility and equity, a bold initiative to ensure every person's basic right to food and other basic necessities. It would seem that some policy of this kind would be integral to a paradigm for a just and equitable system of food security.

Second, it is also important to have state support extended to its farmers, especially to the most vulnerable sections of a country's small farmers. In this respect , Cuba stands out as the contrarian par excellence. While other third world governments were abandoning their farmers in the wake of neoliberal reforms, the Cuban government made extraordinary efforts to support its farmers with all the resources at its command. And unlike the former, the Cuban state maintained its sovereignty exercising full control over the policies affecting its agriculture and food security. To be sure, such support for farmers must be subject to international trade agreements, but the absence of real fair trade is the hallmark of the current world system, and at the root of the current food crisis.

5. Democratic Participation

Complementing the strong and proactive state were the newly expanded and strengthened local level democratic institutions of popular participation that now play an increasing role in planning and governance. Popular participation is an essential ingredient of the new agricultural system, especially in the cooperatives. Participation extends to all areas of farming including research, extension, and implementation; and most important, the produce is distributed in accordance with a democratic decision-making process. The instruments of democratic participation are well organized and institutionalized. For example, the UBPCs are managed by committees elected by secret ballots. The high levels of informed participation in these cooperatives can be described by using the concepts of “deep democracy” and “high energy democracy” – concepts that have been used to describe democracy in Kerala.

It is clear that the expansion of space for such participation and control by individuals and communities has meant some reduction in the role and control formerly exercised by the Cuban state. And this process has not been without tension and contradictions (eg., the role of the independent farmers' association, ANAIC, Alvarez, 1999; Claudio, 1999). Nevertheless, the viability and effectiveness of the process has depended on the overall synergy between state and society, between local democratic institutions that continuously feed into the working of the central government which, in turn, supports the former. There can be little doubt that popular participation has been a critical element in the success of these farms.

6. Fair Price for Farmers

One of the sources of the current food crisis afflicting the third world in the world has been the declining incomes of farmers in the wake of neoliberal reforms and the import of cheap food from outside. Many independent farmers in countries such as India and South Korea have been driven to desperation and even suicide. By contrast, Cuba's reforms have led to significant increase in the incomes of farmers relative to other sectors of society, in particular urban salary earners. This has been noted as a major factor behind Cuba's re-peasantization movement though this movement may have been initially triggered by people fleeing the cities in search of food during the period of the earlier food crisis.

The Cuban experience also shows what small farmers can do if they can get the WTO off their backs.

7. A New Process of Re-Peasantization?

During the special period, especially at the height of the food shortages, there was a process of urbanites migrating to rural areas in search of food and work in farming. Many stayed back attracted by more stable jobs, higher income and access to better food. Some sociologists (Enriquez, 2003) have referred to this as a process of re-peasantization. We do not have any precise data about the extent of this process or if it has continued into the present period. Enriqez (p208) reports that in a study she conducted in several cooperatives in different parts of the country 25% of the sample population she interviewed were former urban workers. Farmers in Cuba today have higher incomes relative to salary earners, and this is true even in the poorer eastern provinces. Needless to say, they also eat much better, and have much better food security.

The re-peasantization movement may point to a possible answer to the question of how small-scale organic farming can be made viable in a country with a small population that has now been at the third stage of the demographic transition for some three generations. The problem of a declining and aging population is compounded by historical prejudices that associate farming and rural life with lower status and less desirable life-style. However, we can argue that Cuba has some unique advantages in addressing some of these issues. First, it has the most modernized and educated peasantry in the world which has achieved human development indicators that are on par with, if not higher than, those of their counterparts in the developed world. Its decentralized system of education and healthcare ensures that farmers' access to these valued resources is not very different from that of urban dwellers. Cuba's recent reforms promoting greater decentralization have included the decentralization of tertiary education and its university system. Similarly its political, administrative and cultural systems are also decentralized.

These factors make it possible for Cuba to integrate far more closely not only its agricultural economy with its non-agricultural economy, but also its rural culture and life-style with its urban and national culture and life-style. This process has the potential of creating a rural-urban continuum that will reduce the gap between rural, agricultural life on the one hand and urban non-agricultural life on the other. Arguably, this has reversed the process of rapid urbanization that occurred in Cuba in the 1980s, and may offer a lesson to the countries in the world plagued by an endless process of urbanization and centralization.

The urbanized rural areas which have access to similar educational, health and other services and cultural facilities available in the cities will also complement the cities that have been revitalized with urban farming. Elements of such a model of a rural-urban continuum already exist in the state of Kerala in India where the problem now is one of maintaining the economic viability of growing food crops to ensure long-term food security.

Cuba is experiencing nothing less than a new cultural revolution, a transformation in people's consciousness (especially ecological consciousness) and world-view, a re-definition of people's relationship to nature, a commitment to sustaining the earth, and above all, a renewed commitment to the humanist and socialist project the country embarked on half a century ago.

Food Sovereignty?

While this is too complex an issue to address within the scope of this paper, it can be said that the Cuban state has continued to exercise full control over all the important decisions concerning agriculture and food, and has continued to keep its people free of hunger. By contrast, most third world governments, including those who were democratically elected, have stood helplessly in the face of neoliberal policies and WTO rules that produced greater food insecurity, more food shortages, and increasing hunger in their countries.

A Sustainable Model?

The Cuban experience shows that its innovative model of agriculture has been sustainable ecologically, socially and politically. A major issue of sustainability in the future will be the mode of its integration into the global system, and that will depend very much on what happens to Cuba- US relations. For now all indications are that Cuba will assert its sovereignty over its agricultural and food policy. It is resourceful, and it has some unique resources to export including knowledge and models. Cuban agricultural extension workers (like Cuban doctors, social workers, and literacy promoters) are already working in other countries. It has niche markets for some of its products such as pharmaceuticals, and of course, its organic produce. It is already exporting organic produce to Germany and Canada. The situation may change drastically if a market for its organic produce were to open up in the US.

Another challenge will be whether in a changed international situation Cuba's successful farmers will be tempted to return to the high input model of industrial agriculture.

Food Security?

Cuba still has serious food shortages and depends heavily on imports. It even imports food from the US for hard cash. In 2007 the country spent 1.5 billion dollars on food imports, an increase of some 24% from the previous year due to the higher food prices (Grogg, 2008); its purchase from the US alone amounted to $447, 065,000. (US Census Bureau, Trade Stats for Cuba). Not surprisingly, food is one of the most recurrent themes raised at all policy debates in the country. Raul Castro himself recently assured Cubans that the issue will be given the highest priority (Crogg, 2008). He said: “The country is working on this vital issue with the urgency it requires, because of its direct and daily impact on the lives of the people, especially those with the lowest incomes”.

Cuba faces many problems in reaching self-sufficiency including that of a small, declining and aging population with only less than 20% of them rural. Other issues include the historically low status of farmers, and low productivity. One answer to these problems may be the process described in 1, 7 above.

Assuming Cuba will succeed in substantially increasing its food production, the question still remains if it will ever reach self-sufficiency. But is food security to be equated with self-sufficiency? Or will Cuba (like several other countries) have to resort to the principle of comparative advantage and trade some of its other products for food? Perhaps this question is now premature, if not irrelevant, since the country is still a long way from maximising its productivity and reaching its real potential. It is likely that we will soon witness another major national effort of the kind seen during the special period to increase food production. It is reported that Cuba is already seeking foreign investment in domestic agriculture (Al Campbell, 2008) – presumably in the form of joint ventures and in a manner in which such investment can be integrated into its new paradigm). The analysis provided in this paper seems to provide reasonable grounds to believe that Cuba will be successful in this effort.

Parte

Waking Up in a Former Empire at the End of the Industrial Age

Or: Is It “Mean” to Tell Someone Their House is on Fire?

You can never awaken using the same system that put you to sleep in the first place. – Gurdjieff

by Suzanne Duarte, at Culture Change.

Dearest Ones of Future Generations,

I thought you might find it interesting to hear what I'm observing of those people I know about who are just waking up to what the state of the planet is. Last month saw Earth Day, an international day of observance for the Earth. For nearly 40 years, it has been a day when environmentalists have had a chance to provide a reckoning of the damage that industrial civilization has been inflicting on the natural world. It is usually a time when print media make some obligatory gesture of recognition that humans live on a planet that we depend upon and that needs our attention. This year the statements were a little more urgent than usual, especially about climate change, which is increasingly referred to as “climate emergency.”

The reason that we are in a climate emergency — in fact, a biological holocaust, as it was identified over 20 yrs ago — is that the dominant Western, globalized culture has been in a “cultural trance,” drunk on oil, living in a delusional bubble for about 60 years. Now, the question is, is it unkind or rude or unskillful to try to wake people up from their cultural trance and point out that we are endangering the future of our species, and many others, to remain asleep? Is it “mean” to wake somebody up to tell them that their house is on fire? A lot of people seem to think so. I've lost friends by trying to wake them up. Waking up at this time of the Great Turning from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining way of life is painful. Many people still don't want to know, don't want to think, because it would entail facing painful truths and making hard choices. They can stand to think about it only briefly on one day out of the year. This is the reason I write letters to the future.

I feel that beings of the future need and deserve an explanation for the destruction caused by my generation. And I can be more straightforward with you than with my contemporaries, for the aforementioned reasons. In the last resort, perhaps I am writing only to my future incarnations to remind them of what this lifetime was like, remind them of the dismay, frustration and pain of not being able to wake people up so that the future might be more livable.

In any case, this missive is about what I observe to be the difficult stages of waking up at this time of crisis and danger. There is complex inner terrain to traverse before we can identify the opportunities and the adventure that await us if we have the courage to wake up and make the Great Turning. The challenge is that the Great Turning requires a psychological transformation from childlike dependence on external authorities and their outworn belief systems, to a mature, individuated, authentic sense of responsibility for oneself and one's effects on the world. This is a major transformation, much more than is normally implied when we, at this time, speak of 'growing up.'

It seems that the hardest part of waking up at this time is facing the fact that it is too late to avoid the pain, suffering and loss that could have been forestalled, had humans collectively heeded the warnings. The warnings were and are rational and scientifically based. The denial of the warnings was and is irrational, based on false beliefs. Pointing out that the denial was collective and irrational causes some people to point the 'shame and blame' finger at those who make this point. Instead of allowing themselves to evaluate the truth of the statement, they whine, 'You're shaming and blaming us. That's not healing. You're being apocalyptic. We don't want to hear it, and it's your fault for not giving us the message of hope that we need.' This is a common shoot-the-messenger response, in which people who don't like the message blame, or 'shoot,' the messenger.

The message of 'hope' that is demanded is the hope that we don't have to take responsibility for ourselves and our world by changing how we live, and what we preoccupy ourselves with. The hope that many people want is very conditional. They can only take hope if they are reassured that things will continue as they have been during these very extraordinary last few decades.

The cultural trance prevents people from recognizing that the reality of living on Earth is unconditional. Our survival depends upon facing the reality of the larger living system we depend upon, and that larger living system doesn't make deals. We can't bargain with it. We live within its jurisdiction. The Earth has been very patient. It has put up with a lot of abuse, but the biological life of living systems is quite fragile, very vulnerable to damage by machines. Living systems have limits and tipping points beyond which breakdown and/or evolution can occur. The limits to which we can push living systems have been in view for decades. Because the limits were ignored, we are now seeing and experiencing the tipping point stage, and systemic chaos can therefore be expected.

The reality is that, not only do we have to change the way we live, but we need to recognize our part in creating this necessity. In order to survive we need to own this responsibility and grow up, so that we don't repeat our mistakes again. That this message is taken as an insult is an ego-based default response, which is irrational and childish. This is the crux of the reason that humanity needs to grow up. Growing up resets these immature default settings. Growing up means accepting responsibility, taking the blame upon oneself, acknowledging one's blind spots, and one's dysfunctional social conditioning. Growing up means getting honest and feeling remorse for the consequences of one's childishness and self-deception.

This is the point where we are right now, collectively. The minority of visionary Cassandras is turning out to be correct. But that is small comfort since they/we are still facing the wrath – and the consequences – of the majority who rejected foresight, and want to blame somebody, scapegoat somebody. The stages of grief have to be worked through in the process of waking up: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. Coming out of denial, the next reaction for most people is anger.

But I hope you of future generations can have some sympathy and compassion for those who are just waking up, because the discrepancy between the dream they are coming out of and the reality they must face is quite enormous. Some people talk about how “we need a new story,” a new cosmology, and this is true as far as it goes. But there are two facts that belie the simplicity of that statement. One is that the new story is still in gestation and isn't yet a 'live birth.' The other is that the gap between the cultural trance of the old story and the unfolding reality of the world has never – in the history of our species – been so wide as it has become in Western civilization. The American Dream, in particular, has been so disconnected from the reality of the Earth that waking up from it is truly a 'rude awakening,' as we say, that can seem traumatic. Although waking up may be most difficult for Americans, that dream has also entranced much of the rest of the world.

However, since I am an American, I can identify with the difficulty of waking up from the American Dream. I know from experience that it entails working through layers and layers of collective delusion: the sense of entitlement and security of being a citizen within the “greatest country the world has ever known”; the sense that our country is superior and can do no wrong, and that it is 'exceptional' and will not collapse like other civilizations and empires; the sense that America is entitled to take what it wants from the rest of the world – by force if necessary; the sense that living in the United States is an unsurpassable blessing for which we should be grateful; the sense that 'we' (Americans) are the best people; and the sense that loyalty to our country demands that we turn a blind eye to its wrongdoings and faults. These are the delusions of the citizens of empire, carried over from ancient tribalistic habitual patterns.

Just to wake up to the injustices, lies, and crimes of our empire, and to realize that our arrogant assumptions of entitlement and superiority are baseless, takes a lot of courage; for to face these things means we must step out of the herd, and leave the herd mentality of the majority behind. This is a necessary part of growing up.

But once we've woken up to the injustices of our empire, the next step in growing up and facing reality is the realization that our empire is faltering and failing; in fact, it is disintegrating. At this stage one peeks over the edge of the cloud or the cliff and begins to comprehend how far it is to the ground – how far we have to fall. This is where we truly begin to realize that we are living in a former empire at the end of the industrial age, and that 'progress' as we've known it is over. Then we begin to comprehend that the glories of the way of life we've taken for granted – the glamour, ease and convenience of the industrial age – can never, ever be repeated, because our civilization has stripped the Earth of the resources that are accessible through the use of fossil fuels, and fossil fuels are going away. As Richard Heinberg has detailed for us, we have reached “Peak Everything” and after the peak, the only way is down.

This “Long Descent” or “Long Emergency” – as John Michael Greer and James Howard Kunstler, respectively, have described it – is the future that the majority of citizens of former empires have not yet been able to face. I don't mean just Americans. I live in another former empire, the Netherlands. Here is what I recently observed of the masses in this overcrowded country.

Queens Day, April 30, 2009

With the sun shining and temperatures in the low 60s, boats and barges full of people wearing bright orange, often standing up shoulder-to-shoulder, float by on the canal, blaring loud music. The Dutch make a lot of noise celebrating their Dutchness on this national holiday, celebrating the chance to take a day off in the sunshine after a long, dark winter.

This is the way the Dutch have 'fun': they crowd together in the streets and on barges and boats, and make a lot of noise. They wear their national color, orange, to show their nationalistic solidarity. They play popular music at high volume and wave their arms in the air to express themselves. They get drunk and do crazy things. Today a driver drove his car into a crowd of people, and four people died. My Dutch husband said it was simply 'mania,' a mania he reported seeing on the streets yesterday as people prepared to 'celebrate.' The Dutch are prone to do crazy things when they have an excuse to relax their habitual stiffness.

I catch myself looking at these people unkindly. I am not only detached, but arrogantly so. Yet I immediately recognize that my arrogance is a cover for the sadness I feel, knowing that the loud display of color and sound is a cover for a psychological condition, of which the Dutch are in stubborn denial. I think about all the petroleum that is being wasted to power these people around and around the canals of the city, trying so hard to have a good time. What is behind this frivolity? Why do people waste time, energy and resources on such frivolity, if it isn't an avoidance mechanism – an avoidance of the truth? Do they know at some level that they live in a former empire at the end of the industrial age? Is this the subconscious awareness, the anxiety that is fueling their manic 'fun'?

I am reminded of the drunken parties of the Nazi elites, portrayed in many films, just before the fall of Berlin and Hitler's suicide, which marked the end of World War II. This kind of frivolous abandon – also evoked by the image of the mad emperor Nero fiddling while Rome burned – seems to be a compensatory measure of resistance to facing a reality that cannot be faced. The drunken parties precede suicide.

Not far from the Dutch geographically or politically is another former empire, Britain. Both the UK and the Netherlands have supported the American empire in its military adventures to control the supply of oil. But the Brits seem to be expressing their anxiety slightly less frivolously – by attacking each other for policies that are meant to maintain the status quo and the illusion that economic recovery is possible. (The British are much better at publicly arguing with each other than the Dutch are.) However, things seem to be in a more advanced stage of economic and social breakdown in the UK than in Holland, and grassroots movements – notably Transition initiatives – are far more robust in the UK than in Holland. In fact, they started there. I attribute the Transition movement's birth in the UK to the deeper spiritual connection with the natural world that people traditionally have had in the British Isles, and also a deeper understanding of the dark side of industrialism. After all, the industrial revolution started in England, which provoked several opposition movements – the Romantic poets, the Arts and Crafts movement, and the Luddite protests against machines, not to mention many novels. It's almost as though something in the British cultural psyche has been waiting and preparing for the end of the industrial age since it began.

Waking up to living in a former empire at the end of the industrial age brings gravitas to one's outlook, as Kurt Cobb suggests in Does understanding complexity beget a tragic view of life? One does not and cannot celebrate as the Dutch were celebrating outside my window. That kind of frivolous abandon is no longer possible once one has worked through the cultural trance, come down to Earth, and accepted responsibility. Then celebration takes on a decidedly more sober, mindful, even reverential tone.

But, dear ones of the future, few people in this former empire, Holland, or in America (which will soon be globally recognized as a former empire) have acquired the gravitas – the groundedness in reality – to prepare for the end of cheap oil, or any of the other circumstances that will radically change our supposedly 'non-negotiable' way of life.

So, if you can, try to see the wastefulness and triviality that are so prevalent at this time as the desperation of an immature culture, which is resisting the necessity of a rite of passage that only those capable of growing up are likely to survive. The ones who do survive are likely to be your ancestors. They will probably be the ones who woke up in time and prepared for the end of the industrial age and climate change.

With love and compassion for all future beings,

Suzanne

Parte

Local Living Economies – Protecting What We Love

Parte
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