Friday, September 11, 2009
A press release by Survival International:
“An article implying Peruvian Indians should be bombed with napalm has been named by human rights organisation Survival International as the ‘most racist article’ published in the last year by the mainstream media.
The article was published in the Peruvian national newspaper Correo. It calls indigenous people ‘savages’, ‘Palaeolithic’ and ‘primitive’; says that their languages have no more than eighty words; and declares that, in the protests that have recently engulfed much of Peru’s Amazon, they were manipulated by ‘communist excrement’.
‘For those of you who still think of these ‘ethnic groups’ as ‘good’, ‘naïve’ and ‘pure’, I will remind you that it was these same people who perfected the art of shrinking the heads of their enemies and wearing them on the belts holding up their loincloths. If the ‘natives’ didn’t shrink the heads of the policemen they killed (in the recent protests) and eat their remains, it was only because there wasn’t time.’
The article also attacks three indigenous congresswomen, ridiculing their names and referring to them as the ‘three starlets in the parliamentary sewers’. Its response to the indigenous protests against the exploitation of natural resources on their land is: ‘Get f****d, loincloths and all’. The penultimate sentence is: ‘I don’t know what keeps the president from providing the air force with all the napalm necessary.’
The ‘most racist article of the year’ award is part of Survival’s ‘Stamp it Out’ campaign which aims to challenge racist descriptions of indigenous peoples in the world’s media. The winner receives a certificate inscribed with a quotation from Lakota Sioux author Luther Standing Bear: ‘All the years of calling the Indian a savage has never made him one.’
Stamp it Out is supported by eminent journalists such as the BBC’s World Affairs correspondent John Simpson, George Monbiot, John Vidal, and best-selling authors Tim Butcher and Simon Garfield.
Survival’s director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘This article makes depressing reading for anyone who thinks newspapers should educate and inform their readers. We hope the publicity this award receives will make the paper think twice before printing such offensive rubbish again.’
Read an English translation of the article
For more information and images please contact Miriam Ross:
(+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504543367
mr@survival-international.org
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Amazonia, Peru, South America, capitalism is murder, dark forces | Tagged: amazon, indigenous struggle, napalm, Peru, protest, racism, uprising | 
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Posted by colono
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Indigenous People’s Issues Today runs a series of “Five Key Indigenous Peoples Issues” that in the latest edition features a story from Ecuador…
New Ecuador Constitution Addresses Demand for ‘Plurinational’ State
Ecuador’s new constitution, which a constituent assembly expects to finish drafting by mid-June, establishes a united “plurinational” state, recognising equality along with ethnic diversity, as agreed between the government and indigenous organisations.
“’Plurinationalism’ means admitting that several different nationalities coexist within the larger Ecuadorean state, which is obvious in this country and need not scare anyone,” said President Rafael Correa. “Everyone should have the same opportunities,” he added.
“The next step is to properly define the scope of plurinationalism, which basically means recognizing the different peoples, cultures and worldviews that exist, and for all public policies, such as education, health and housing, to recognize the plurinational dimension,” he said.
The Ecuadorean Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE) agrees that the proposed plurinational state reflects reality in the country. Read the rest of the story here….
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Ecuador, Politics, grass-roots | Tagged: CONAIE, correa, Ecuador, indigenous struggle | 
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Posted by colono
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Interview with Marlon Santi, New President of Ecuador’s Indigenous Confederation
Written by Patricio Zhingri T.
Thursday, 17 January 2008
And so it goes, that history repeats itself and the day after the revolution anyone is a conservative, I think Hannah Arendt once wrote. The morning after in Ecuador – after the floods – and we know which way the wind blows. For that we don’t need a weather man.
Here is, however, what CONAIE’s new president, Marlon Santi, reckons about the Correan revolution and the reconstructive Constituent Assembly – well no news there, really, it is business as usual:
“PZT: As the new president of CONAIE, how would you evaluate the first year of this government?
MS: Proposals from the Indigenous movement and other social sectors from the coast, highlands, and Amazon are not present on the national government’s political agenda. Nor are they on the agenda of the Constituent Assembly. The government says a lot and they say that they are going to open petroleum explorations, that they are going to privatize water, rivers, páramos (high communal grasslands). Nothing has changed. The only change is when the Indigenous movement rises up, because even in light of this we have made some advances in Collective Rights and other demands. Rafael Correa has not recognized the demands of Indigenous nationalities and peoples, and he should do so.
PZT: How will the government of Indigenous Nationalities and Peoples act with the current government of Correa?
Read the rest of this entry »
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Amazonia, Anti-capitalism, CONAIE, Capitalism, Ecuador, Environmentalism, Globalisation, Green Politics, Marlon Santi, Miriam Cisneros, Neo-socialism, Politics, Rafael Correa, South America, capitalism is murder, constitutent assembly, ecological justice, environmental destruction, grass-roots, indigenous movements, people power, rain forest, revolution, sarayaku | Tagged: CONAIE, Ecuador, indigenous struggle, Marlon Santi, social change | 
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Posted by colono
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