Endurance

When most people read news like this, they assume that someone else in their community will take care of the problem. Law enforcement, human rights groups, churches, some government agency. Were it only so. History teaches us law enforcement responds when there's a corpse, moral authorities when there's malicious harassment. Sometimes human rights groups once there are death threats or physical assaults. Last time the hate campaign organizer noted in this article ran amok, it took a cross-burning and death threats against public officials and candidates to mobilize civil society to organize themselves and act. Let's hope it doesn't take that much to get them mobilized this time.

As noted in The Tyee article on the brief history of mechanical energy produced from ethanol, bio-energy is extremely inefficient. Apart from the fact biofuels offer little or no benefit in reducing greenhouse gases, the soil erosion, nitrate run-off and high food prices resulting from biofuel production make it questionable as a replacement for fossil fuels. While ethanol got the lead out of gasoline, the energy returns for biofuels are dismal.

From the indigenous point of view, there are only two types of land: the sacred and the desecrated. As indigenous nations defy Canada and the US over the Tar Sands and Powder River strip-mines, the notion of homeland security takes on new meaning. If security is the right to a clean environment and healthy way of life, then the nations whose homelands are under attack by Wall Street, Ottawa and the White House are exercising their rights under international law to defend themselves.

When the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank funded genocide in Guatemala under the notorious dictator Rios Montt, they were banking on state-sponsored terror to protect their investments. Now that Montt is on trial for his crimes, human rights organizations like Jubilee International are calling for the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank to be held responsible. Along with the International Monetary Fund, the two international banks are complicit not only in past genocide against Mayan communities, but in present austerity programs that pour salt in the wounds of the impoverished people of Guatemala.

Supply and demand under the Free Market is a rigged game. Unlike natural economic systems that supply needs and demand only what our planet can sustainably provide, the Free Market artificially creates demands for things we don't need and supplies them by destroying our planet. We see this everyday in Free Market propaganda promoting fossil fuel demands to supply us with a cornucopia of toxic junk.

The Free Market is thus a system using unsustainable supplies to create demands, both without our consent or approval. As a system, the Free Market thereby subverts sustainable lifestyles and democratic governance using deceit, coercion and corruption to ensure the system is impenetrable, even unquestionable. It is only when we question the system itself, that we see that it doesn't have to be this way.

Many indigenous nations and some modern states still practice sustainable lifestyles and democratic governance, but they are under constant attack by the Free Market and co-opted modern states. Fighting the Free Market effectively requires we not get trapped by their nonsensical arguments about supply and demand.

Hope, as we know, is not something found in the promises of politicians or the propaganda of public relations puppets, but is mostly an emotional sentiment of the politically infantile. Once freed from this false promise, though, the impossible becomes achievable. Not in the hope of anything, as Momaday wrote, but hopelessly -- neither in fear nor hatred nor despair of evil -- as we venture out to the confrontation.

When I was forty-seven, I liquidated my assets to take a year to travel. Four of those months, from April to August 1999, I toured Western Europe by train.

I had planned nothing in advance, except my point of entry, leaving the rest to chance. Once I landed in Western Europe's oldest city of Lisbon, I began my serendipitous journey, selecting destinations, hotels and restaurants as I went. Sometimes, with a vague direction in mind, I would strike up a casual conversation with a local who spoke some English, and ask what they would recommend. Surprisingly, this turned out to be one of the best ways to go. Combined with my pocket travel guide describing each region, local knowledge led me to marvelous discoveries and delightful encounters.

From Alfama to Amalfi, the first half of my journey was enriched by ancient architecture, dramatic landscapes and rich, authentic culture. The influence of the Phoenicians, Romans, Celts and Iberians emanated from the complex cultures, cuisines and cadences that enveloped me. The unique ambience of locales like Arles and Cauterets put pale to more commercial touristic enclaves. Wandering at leisure without bother was a luxury I treasured, knowing all I had to do was ask if I relished something more invigorating.

Having sampled Iberia and the Mediterranean, with a brief pause in the Alps and Paris, I extended my journey to the British Isles, foregoing London for Penzance, followed by a curious meandering through Ireland's Counties Cork, Kerry and Clare. Had I not been exhausted, I might have then ventured to Scandinavia, but alas, that will have to wait for another window of opportunity.

For now it is enough to extract what was vital from my first great adventure. Then, maybe in a few years, I'll see if I can muster the energy and resources to try it again.