We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Victims of Colombia's Civil Conflict Exceeds 7 Million: Media Yawns

Click here to access article by Daniel Kovalik from TeleSur.

Kovalik reports on some "inconvenient" truths about another close ally of the US ruling class.
...a notable fact in the Victims Unit report is that "that the majority of victimization occurred after 2000, peaking in 2002 at 744,799 victims." It is not coincidental that "Plan Colombia," or "Plan Washington" as many Colombians have called it, was inaugurated by President Bill Clinton in 2000, thus escalating the conflict to new heights and new levels of barbarity. Plan Colombia is the plan pursuant to which the U.S. has given Colombia over $8 billion of mostly military and police assistance. 
So, who are the victims? According to Human Rights Watch:
Human rights defenders, trade unionists, journalists, indigenous and Afro-Colombian leaders, and IDP [internally displaced persons] leaders face death threats and other abuses.