Cascadian Radical Faeries's topics - tribe.net

8/29-9/2 Men’s Labor Day Camping

bartchurch — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:24:05 GMT

MEN'S LABOR DAY ECO-CAMPING WILDERNESS TRIP
8/29-9/2 Friday-Monday (or Tuesday if you can stay an extra day),

In this amazing 3-4 day hiking & camping adventure, Sierra Willoughby, a queer US Park Service Forest Ranger who has worked for 7 summers in Mt. Rainier, will introduce us to the incredible wild flowers meadows, sub-alpine lakes, glacial & volcanic geology, and stunning waterfalls of one of the oldest national parks and one of the largest expanses of old growth forest in the Northwest.

FACILITATOR: Sierra Willoughby is a National Park Service Ranger who has worked for seven summers at Mt. Rainier National Park. He has a M.S. in Geology and passionate knowledge of the plants, animals, geology (both glaciation & volcanism) of Mt. Rainier. He has hiked and led hiking trips all over the world for about 20 years.

DONATION: $150-$200 sliding scale donation includes delicious veggie meals & camping fees; proceeds benefit Manifest, a non-profit men's wellness community.

INFO: Bart at 503-223-8822 x1

RSVP website: manifestpdx.org/calendar

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Anyone need a ride to Breitenbush (leaving from So. Oregon)

wiscocheez — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:40:38 GMT

Hey Faeries ~

Im headed up to the gathering on Wed morning and if anyone needs a ride, I have space. Im leaving from Ashland, but can pick you up along the way if you live close to the 5. Let me know

Blessings,
Da Lish

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A “Taste of Square Dancing"

Mark — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 20:29:19 GMT

Modern Western Square Dancing is nothing like you remember from grade school! With Puddletown it is upbeat and energetic without a single hay-bale in site. Our “Taste of Square Dancing” events allow us to share the fun with everyone for an evening.

Square dancing is fun for all ages and is a great alternative to the bars for the gay community. It is a highly social activity, one of the few where gay men, lesbians, straight people, and all the other groups that are part of the gay and lesbian community all join hands (literally) to dance, and the first night of lessons is often the first time we see people who are about to become life long friends.

We hold our “Taste of Square Dancing” events right before the next cycle of lessons begins so if you fall in love with Square Dancing like we all have, you can jump right in and join us! http://www.iagsdc.org/puddletown/taste.php

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Looking for a place to stay - the night of August 12, 2008 in Portland

faeriebud — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:28:12 GMT

Dear Faeries,

I am so excited to be going to BB! I arrive at the Portland Airport from Kelowna at 2:50pm. I would love to stay with a Faerie or Faeries for that night before going to Breitenbush the following day. Can anyone offer me refuge?

Faeriebud ( Kevin )

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Mead Moon

Aeolus — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:41:02 GMT

Tomorrow is the Mead Moon. Tonight we dance it into being. Here is some WISHCRAFT for you to enjoy as you read it allow these wishes to be given to you. I wish you celebration. I wish you reprieve from the harshness of life. I wish you Love of your partners, friends, family and the random stranger that smiles and changes the flow of energy. I wish you Peace in your heart calming, soothing Peace that resets all your energy centers. I wish you illumination in the dark places. I wish you a windfall of cash that pays all those bills. I wish you orgasms that identify every hair on your body. I wish you a burst of creative ideas. I wish you success in your job, I wish you a way out of something you feel stuck in. I wish you acceptance from all you encounter. I wish you hugs from the people you love so much you could cry just thinking of their way of being, I wish you the best next step you could imagine. I wish you strength to help your Self and Others, I wish you Joy vision the ability to find the Joy. I wish you Flower Power go ahead and smell one. I wish you a nap. I wish you a delicious meal cooked for you and served in your favorite way. I wish you a walk in the woods. I wish for you a moment of sweet release. i wish for you a dream come true. i wish for you the recognition of your merit. I wish for you to feel your worth. I wish for you something ideal. I wish for you a glimmer of hope. I wish for you satisfaction. I wish for you a smile that lasts and lasts. I wish for you Healing Touch. I wish for you Healing.I wish for you a great surprise. I wish you a vacation. I wish for you to receive all the Universal Love you can handle. I wish for you expansion of potential. I wish you positive self image. I wish you validation. I wish you Magick. I wish you the knowledge that you are DIVINE and a child of the Goddess and God. I wish you a change of heart in a constant disappointment. I wish you Love that transforms the Soul. I wish you an unexpected present just for being you. I wish you understanding of your boundaries. I wish you a voice to speak your truth in a way that you are heard and not discredited. I wish you a way out of trouble. I wish you stamina. I wish you release from Karma. I wish you a way to give back to the world that makes you happy. I wish you knowledge of the Way to Happiness. I wish you the ability to show others the way. I wish you resolution to an ongoing situation that is bothering you. I wish you wonderment. I wish you physical strength and health. I wish you Animal Magick. I wish you a talent you never knew you had. I wish you to reach back when someone reaches out. I wish you a victory you have been waiting for. I wish you a break through in you life. I wish you a sense of how far you have come on the journey. I wish you limitless opportunities put before you. I wish you feel cared for and about. I wish you the ability to let go. I wish you feel safe and protected. I wish you satiation. I wish you the power to go on when you just can't believe it. I wish you a poem or prose of delight. I wish you Faerie Magick and Faerie sight. I wish you a personal audience with the Goddess and the God. I wish you Love everlasting. I wish for you to wish again and again. Sail these wishes from my heart deep down where only I can know and I let them go on the winds to circle the Earth and find all my brothers and sisters. All my being I will it so . All my being I Love. I will it and it is .

Mead moon and Honey wine, celebration for us all it's time. Let go and let be... Pleasure You Pleasure Me. Let it be. Let it be... Full Moon Goddess Bold and Bright guiding us to Midnight Delight. Waiting wrapped in cooling mists open my hands from these clenched fists. Mother Goddess Sister Night Help me let go of this Fucking Fight. Soothing, Cooling, noticing beyond. Of things that bring the things I'm fond. Raise the cup and fill it up tonight it's time to be, The Fool, the Lover, the Dreamer of Dreams the one who lives in me. Arise Sweet Soul and Meet the Moon Help is on it's way. Let go of trouble, fear and fright and trials of the day. Put down the woe, package and bag, put on the glitter and treasured drag. For tonight the light is bright and your Magick is full of might. So drink it in and move your bone and know this now YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Faeries far and Faeries wide circle up like you, to make these wishes and more wishes and make this Magick True. Heart beat, Sacred Breath, I Whisper and I Shout and I will this Magick into being , to the world I Send it out. Do my bidding hear me now to the sacred Soul of Fae and to my tribe I humbly bow.

Blessed Be on the Full Moon
Love
Aeolus~

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Planning Meeting THIS WEDNESDAY in Portland about the 2008/08/08 Doug Honours Ceremony

Alexander — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:09:28 GMT

Planning Meeting THIS WEDNESDAY in Portland about the 2008/08/08 Doug Honours Ceremony

from Collin's post

Wednesday is now the night for Community Outreach at 7 PM. We will meet again at the new Virginia Cafe, 820 SW 10th Ave Portland, OR 97205. A very important discussion that will take place this Wednesday is preparation for the Doug Honours Ceremony at Peace Arch Park, August 8th, 2008.

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getting to the crux of fae youth/elder visionary seeing, re: women on our lands

carlos-ity — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:31:13 GMT

This is an excerpt of an exchange i'm having with a certain elder in our community. i thought i'd share it here with an invite to add to my (and your?) consciousness on this topic. Feel free to take this and post it on other faerie communal sites/boards!

i have to say that while i find myself on the fence on this topic, i am in agreement with you and the other elders whom have been taking the stand your are speaking of. Having said that, i see that the youth that you all have collectivley held on your shoulders (i.e. after, what, more than 20 years of fae community) are now only trying to take fae sensibility into places that their desires are going. New directions like becoming inclusive of women; and that those new directions make sense in today's realities as these youth feel them.

Even tho they are missing the polytricks of a lot of this, i think (i.e. where their approach has become "black and white" or "either/or").

Still, my own seeing is that the way in which this is happening sounds a lot like the political police (i.e. today's version of COINTELPRO) are influencing the nastier parts of how this vision wants to be implemented; i.e. as "each side" seemingly remains incapable of bridging between (and empathizing with) each others' positions. [Note: What the contexts of this seemingly impossible gap are, are perhaps many even tho i think they can all 'boil down to' one prevalent phenomenon, the one doing with "the generation gap"--which in itself is an artificially-promoted gap led by the political police both overtly and covertly]

Where our oft-spoken empathy *should* bring ecstatic room (much room) for dissent and grey area seeing, in actuality we are experiencing the superficiality of those claims and desires that have not been able to be practiced in such a way where they can be pivotal when *it truly counts*.

As far as faggot-centered decision-making on this? Well, a lot of the young generation are in on this; they are the leaders as far as i can tell; sooo, that means, FAGGOTS ARE making these decisions, divisive as they are, apparently.

i know my own experience in the context of faggots wanting women on the land; in the initial phases of women being invited, they become *more equal* than common faggot males like myself. So that's certainly an interesting phenomenon. Our need for sanctuary is being relegated to the sidelines as womenfolk are recruited (right word?) into the creation of something more dynamic (ultimately) than earlier renditions of faggotry and faggot community.

So it's the transition that i think we ought to cast our magick upon, my friend.

But of course, we are dealing with such in the context of more than 30 years of political police/Rollback efforts to divide our generations from each other (and not to mention the ramifications and reflections of oppressed faggot elder sensibilities now judged without empathy and in the most alienating ways; i.e. the prevalence of the phenomenon called "objectification" of each other amongst the elder portion of faggots, and today's safer approaches where "objectification" has to be evolved from in the younger generations' desires).

What do YOU think about all of THIS?

re: My friend said, in part:
but I truly feel they have no interest in understanding the roots of the fae movement and more pointedly the purchase of Wolf Creek. Because I know where those ideals came from and who made some of those decisions I am now the bad guy... Guess what.... I didn't really fit into any group when i was younger and now I find I do not fit in with another group.... another one that is finding no problem in opressing me.

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Job Opening In SE PDX

Drew — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:40:50 GMT

Our little hippie store is accepting resumes for a part-time retail position that could evolve into management. We are seeking self-motivated, responsible and creative people. Must be able to multi-task and work unsupervised. We sell clothing, drums, glassware (smoking accessories), free trade items, crystals, masks, incense etc. Is an awesome job for the right person.

Position must be filled post haste - so please drop off your resume in an envelope to the attention of Drew. No phone calls or e-mails please.

Namaste,

Drew

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ride to WC for witchcamp/permaculter share

Cloud_Forest_Creature — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:30:49 GMT

H i !

I live in seattle and i want to go to witchcamp and permaculture share. (7/19-8/03)
thing is, i dont have a car. sad? no, not really, but inconvenient for sure..

so..

do you wanna take me with you?
yes!?
Alright!
Im even a low maintenance travel companion. like a cat, i can take care of myself!
And i come with all the great perks; i have money for gas, we can rendezvous in seattle or portland (seattle preferred, as i live here), capable of introvesion AND extroversion - i can match the mood!, good natured and friendly Itll be no time before we ride together again! truly!

see you soon,

xoxo
Oso

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HELP>port to wolf creek for "the dance"?...

Sizzle — Sat, 31 May 2008 18:59:40 GMT

i arrive in portland this coming tues eve at 9:05 pm,
from wash, dc.... long trip...
looking for a ride to the sanctuary for "the dance"
call me if you can help me out asap...202-321-3263
blessed be
kuggs and hisses
siz'l moon song

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Oregon Country fair pass sought; faerie camp out nearby?

kwai — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 05:13:50 GMT

Hi All, a longtime dream of mine is to get a 'pass' for the Oregon Country Fair and stay in at night for the festivities...any leads would be appreciated... I can offer a variety of skills: from running group kitchens to healing energy work, reiki and massage to photography, video and web & marketing design...

This will be a special year for me: my 50th!

Hugz around
Kwai from Santa Cruz

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Re:Wolf Creek ride?

Cloud_Forest_Creature — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:49:17 GMT

Hi,

I am looking for a ride down to Wolf Creek for Beltane. I live in seattle and do not have a car, as may be expected by a post like this. In exchange for a ride i would be willing to trade gas money and some potentially interesting conversation. My would have been a ride changed plans. I have never been to WC, or a radfae gathering, and really wanna make it! Help my beltane wish come true!

thanks,

Oso

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greetings from a neighbour.

patrick — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 21:42:58 GMT

hello. i live in the peace river country bioregion to the north east of cascadia. i might be one of the only peace country people that thinks in bioregional terms. at least i haven't ever met anyone who isn't so busy making money in the oilpatch, forestry or agri-business to think outside the paradigm. i would love to be proven wrong and find some like minded folks.
are there any members here that live in the peace?

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Moving to Portland

AfflictedNeptune — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:20:48 GMT

Forgive the east coast boy, for he does not know, but is Portland Cascadian? In any event, Im moving to Portland in June. If you get to SMS now and then, you may know me as Flash. If not then you will know me as Flash.

I'm moving to Portland in June on a wing, a prayer and a 3 month housesitting job. Need help with all the other stuff. You know, friends, lovers, tricks, jobs, communities, housing...all that.

Drop me a line if you're in the Portland area.

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3 movies on Post Cheap Petroleum Cuba

Alexander — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:05:31 GMT

3 movies on Post Cheap Petroleum Cuba

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=4981871524314644822&q=peak+oil
Cuba The Accidental Revolution PT-1
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=5350731284170267256
Cuba The Accidental Revolution PT-2
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-3045843288423571289

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
thescarface1989
52 min 46 sec - 30-Sep-07
for Video iPod/Sony PSP

In 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba experienced an 'energy famine.' Transportation and agriculture virtually came to a stop due to lack of diesel fuel and fertilizer shortages. This film explores what changes were put in place. The makers of the film "The End Of Suburbia" went to Cuba to explore it as a test case for what the conditions after Peak Oil would look like. This is that story.

This documentary takes you through various aspects of life in Cuba - Economy, transportation, health-care, agriculture, education - and explores how they dealt with the dramatic reduction of fossil fuels to a mere fraction of their pre 1990 levels. It was nice to meet the people, see the sights, and hear the sounds. The overall feeling was that the Cubans had improved the quality of their life (after a difficult "Special Period"). Their health was better, greater sense of community, better food and healthier land. I was left with the question: Why should we wait until we run out of oil? Let's do it now. The part that I did not expect was how it challenged my understanding of the difference between a Communist country and Capitalism. Did you know that a greater percentage of Cubans own their own home than in America? More farmers now own their own land? Sort of turns the notion of what a "Free-Market" is on its head! Check it out

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=4981871524314644822&q=peak+oil

Cuba The Accidental Revolution PT-1
thescarface1989
45 min 37 sec - 17-Oct-07
for Video iPod/Sony PSP

Cuba: The Accidental Revolution are two one-hour documentaries celebrating the country’s success in providing for itself in the face of a massive economic crisis, and how it’s latest revolutions, an agricultural revolution and a revolution in science and medicine are having repercussions around the world.

Cuba: The Accidental Revolution (Part 1), airing Sunday, July 30 at 7 P.M. on CBC Television, examines Cuba’s response to the food crisis created by the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989. At one time Cuba’s agrarian culture was as conventional as the rest of the world. It experienced its first “Green Revolution” when Russia was supplying Cuba with chemical and mechanical “inputs.” However, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 ended all of that, and almost overnight threw Cuba’s whole economic system into crisis. Factories closed, food supplies plummeted. Within a year the country had lost over 80% of its foreign trade. With the loss of their export markets and the foreign exchange to pay for imports, Cuba was unable to feed its population and the country was thrown into a crisis. The average daily caloric intake of Cubans dropped by a third.

Without fertilizer and pesticides, Cubans turned to organic methods. Without fuel and machinery parts, Cubans turned to oxen. Without fuel to transport food, Cubans started to grow food in the cities where it is consumed. Urban gardens were established in vacant lots, school playgrounds, patios and back yards. As a result Cuba created the largest program in sustainable agriculture ever undertaken. By 1999 Cuba’s agricultural production had recovered and in some cases reached historic levels.

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=5350731284170267256

Cuba The Accidental Revolution PT-2
thescarface1989
45 min 37 sec - 17-Oct-07
for Video iPod/Sony PSP
In Cuba: The Accidental Revolution (Part 2), airing Sunday, August 6 at 7 P.M. on CBC Television, we learn that the country has been blockaded since 1961, but today Cuba has the highest quality of life in the region, the highest life expectancy, and one of the highest literacy rates in all of Latin America.

With the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, Cuba lost the foreign exchange needed to pay for expensive drugs and medicines. As a result, much of Cuba’s medicine today is based on medicinal plants. These are grown on farms, processed in small labs and made available to patients through an extensive network of medical clinics. Today Cuba’s advances in alternative medicine could have important consequences for other countries around the world.

Cuba boasts other firsts as well: The Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana is regarded as the flagship biosciences lab in the developing world. Cuban scientists are working on an HIV vaccine, a meningitis vaccine, a Hepatitis C vaccine, and other pharmaceuticals.

Cuba has also embarked on a program of medical internationalism. There are 25,000 Cuba doctors serving in 68 poor countries around the world. The Latin American School of Medical Science has 10,000 students from developing countries primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean. They are educated for free with the understanding they will return to their home countries to practice.

Fidel Castro has survived many perils and at 78, he is rumoured to suffer from a number of afflictions. As his health declines the world wonders: what will become of Cuba’s Green Revolution after he is gone? Even now Castro presides over a political system, which although socialist, has an economy where bartering and quasi-entrepreneurial practice seemingly influence many trades and professions, including the “green” sector. There is also ever-increasing pressure from Canada and European nations for the U.S. to come to terms with Cuba’s political dissent

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-3045843288423571289

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day of the dead dance

everdmann — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 23:36:12 GMT

Dear hearts, the Day of the Dead is coming up next Sunday evening. With a great new location, live musicians, the creative energies of the Cauldron, and the blessing of the ancestors, it's coming through even more fabulous than last year.

Here's how you can help:

* Invite your friends. People of all ages, genders, and traditions are welcome -- they don't have to be Faeries or pagans. The Call is below -- feel free to forward it or post it online.

* We are looking to borrow the following:

Rugs or large carpet pieces
Folding tables and chairs (especially in quantity)
Tablecloths
Floor lamps
Long extension cords
Power strips

We promise to treat them with care and return them promptly and in good condition. If you have any of these or know where we can borrow them, please drop us a line at info@queermagic.org.

* We need helpers!

Picking up and returning borrowed items (flexible)
Space clearing/setup (Saturday afternoon)
Decorating (Sunday early afternoon)
Final fluffing (Sunday late afternoon)
Door/hostess 5-7 p.
Feast: 4:30-7 p.
Cleanup: Sunday after the event and Monday << help especially needed!

If you can lend a hand for an hour or two, drop us a line at info@queermagic.org.

A bunch of us will be out of town this week at Samhain in Wolf Creek, so there may be a lag in phone and e-mail response. We'll get back to you just as soon as we return.

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Free Cascadia

Daniel — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 19:33:34 GMT

I've established a couple of new sites and I've posted them on the yahoo group but I forgot to mention them here.

We're trying to become the de facto Cascadian independence group to help everyone organize around Cascadia and free ourselves of this dying empire.

The sites are:

The Evergreen Revolution - A peaceful organization site to help us coordinate (it's still being constructed)
http://www.evergreenrevolution.org

The Cascadian Guard - Mercenary watch blog. This is my blog where I post anything of relevance regarding Mercs and their potential influence in Cascadia
http://www.cascadianguard.org

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The Call for Samhain at Wolf Creek 2007

stella_maris — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:32:07 GMT

WOLF CREEK SAMHAIN 2007
October 27 thru November 9, 2007

Come Faeries, as the wheel of the year turns toward darkness and the dead draw closer, let us gather at our Sanctuary. Let us join in the Wild Hunt for the Barley King, so the land will be fruitful and the King return with the spring. As the veil between the worlds thins, let us remember, invoke and heal our ancestors back to the beginning of time. They, our allies on the other side, offer us power immense, frightening and deep-if only we dare call on them!

Come honored elders: we need to hear your stories of our ancestors and the origins of our tribe. We, the new fae of our tribe, implore you to come forward through the Dark, join us at the hearth and share your stories of our ancestors--your friends, your loves, lovers and rituals past. Together we will weave the web of our history, beautiful and rich with lessons, laughter and stories.

They deserve your remembrance, we deserve your companionship, you deserve our love. Come home. We miss you. The Land misses you. We want the wisdom of lessons hard won! Let us share in our history, lest we repeat rather than build upon it.

We call you to join in stepping through the crack between the worlds, to work with our ancestors, the custodians of our community and the earth. Meet the ones who have come before and will follow us. Become them and allow them to become you, and their memories will become in you, for they are who you are becoming. You stand on their shoulders, we dance on the pile of their bones. Someday others will stand on us, invoke our power, call on us as allies and chant our stories.

Come to Wolf Creek, where the land is replete with our-story of gatherings past and lovers departed. From its early days as a Maoist Sissy Commune, Faggots and Class Struggle (1976), to Nomenus's Homecoming (1986, with the Pink Poodle Procession), to the many faery gatherings and Narayas since, we build upon the energies and memories of ancestors and allies, seen and unseen, called and released (and sometimes unreleased 'cause we forgot).

The time for hurt and division is over. Long past. We invite you to look beyond the hurt, leave the labels, hunt the healing. We invite you to join with us in magical work this Samhain to burn and put to rest the struggles that (we allow to) divide our tribe: gender, generation, drugs, looks, and other aspects amongst our infinite arsenal of arbitrary alienations.

Here we can draw on the wisdom of our ancestors: "Twelve steps is 9 steps too many," Gryphon Blackswan, a fierce faery who lived at Wolf Creek and drove a pink hearse used to say, "I have a three-step program: breath in, breath out, and get over it" (the last accompanied by a loud finger snap and diva's wave.

It is time to lay to rest the metaphor of war, to celebrate the richness that our diversities offer as we co-create the multiverse. Ritually we invoke the shadow beliefs that lie at the heart of this conflict, to give them to the earth so they can become rich loam for new community, new dreams.

Let us come together on Saturday, October 27th, and create a container. Let us cast, scrye, sing, make sacred celebration -- burn, release, renew, re-wild -- share stories, mourn, frolic, make love, and share our harvests.

We are calling you. The land is calling you. Come home for Samhain!

Practical Stuff
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

Sat 10/27: Arrivals & Registration
Sun 10/28: Opening Circle
Tue 10/30: The Rite of the Barley King / Libation Night / Clean and Sober Sweat Lodge
Wed 10/31: Samhain Fire
Thurs 11/1: Day of the Dead
Fri 11/2: Men's Circle
Sat 11/3: Closing Circle
Sun 11/4: Departures
Fri 11/9: Lunar Samhain (for those feeling the call to stay or return)

Other potential events:
Workshop on making fetish offerings
Heart circles
Reiki attunements
Dumb Feast
Sacred flogging circle
Labyrinth walks
Spiral dance
Know-Talent Show
Loving the land and each other
Your ritual/workshop/offering here!

MAKING IT HAPPEN

This gathering is created and sustained by each one of us. Our magic flourishes with what we each bring to the land.

Suggested donation is $35 dollars per day, more if you can, less if you can't, no one turned away for lack of funds. Please register ahead of time (see below).

We will prepare meals and dine together as a family three times a day. Vegetarian, vegan, and allergies will be respected, as long as you let us know your needs.

If you are a vegan/veggie cook, please consider helping out in the kitchen. Your eating options are only as good as the skill of the cooks. Meat eaters, this goes for you too -- when only vegan/veggies are in the kitchen, guess what gets prepared?

HOW CAN I HELP?

Queen, we thought you'd never ask. Here are some jobs just waiting for your loving attention. Check the Barn door for signups.

Volunteer Coordinator: The "unseen hand" that helps people hook up with jobs needing to be done.

Firewood Czar: Organize woodcutting parties while looking all butch with a chainsaw. (By the way, if you can come down and spend a few days cutting wood between now and then, that would be fabulous. Also needed is an extra chainsaw at the gathering.)

Firetenders: Help with firewood and keep our tribal fires burning.

Cook: Sign up with a friend to cook a meal. Nourish your Faerie kin and make their tummies happy. E-mail Atomic (glamarchy at riseup.net) if you'd like to cook.

Dishwasher: Dishwashers eat first, and are considered especially desirable as sexual partners.

Ritual Planning: Help hold the container and guide the energy for our personal and communal magic.

Shitter Patrol: Keep our trusty shitters clean and well-stocked. A humble yet vital job.

Welcome Wagon: Hang out at the Qiosk in the Parking Lot and greet new arrivals.

Zombie Nurses: Be a clear and grounded presence to safeguard and provide first aid to your fellow Faeries.

Zombie Surgeon General: Make sure the first aid kits are stocked and organize other Zombie Nurses.

To volunteer and find out more about planning for this Gathering, check out tribes.tribe.net/wlfcrksam07.

WHAT TO BRING

Indoor sleeping space is available for those with special needs. (This year there will be additional space in some of the caretaker houses.) Please call the Sanctuary ahead of time to reserve a space.

Otherwise, it's a camping scenario. Samhain has been 9 degrees before, so come prepared for the COLD and WET.

Tent, tarps, sleeping bag, flashlight
Hot water bottle
Warm clothes, hat, gloves, long underwear
Raingear
Towel
Biodegradable shampoo and toothpaste (all water drains into the Creek!)
Weatherproofed pictures and offerings for Ancestor Altar
Books and pictures of Faerie lore and ancestors
Fabulous outfits and drag to share
Drums, musical instruments, songs to share
Tarot cards, tools of magick
High heels, floggers, cuffs, leather, furs, lace
Body paint, glitter, nail polish, sex toys
Art supplies and craft projects, poetry to read
An idea for a circle or workshop
Favorite recipes and cooking skills
Willingness to pitch in
A vision of what you want this community to be/look like/feel like
A sense of humor and appreciation for our differences
A number for the talent show
A clearly divined Intention
Your best and most fabulous friends!

If you can bring food for the gathering -- such as day-old bread or enough other healthy yummy food to feed 75-100 people -- that is simply fabulous! Please call and let us know ahead of time so we can plan it into our shopping.

SANCTUARY WISH LIST

If you have any of these items, please bring them to donate to the Sanctuary.

We want to create a stockpile of non-perishable food in case of emergency, so whole grains and beans (5 lbs or more of rice, oats, beans, etc.) and canned food are especially welcome.

Canning supplies (quart jars, rings, lids, pectin)
Towels
Water glasses, plastic cups, coffee mugs, bowls
Five-gallon buckets
Candle-making supplies for Imbolc (paraffin, beeswax, wicks, molds, etc.)
Mattresses, especially a queen-sized mattress for the Whores' Bed in the Barn (please call ahead of time before bringing mattresses)

SOME THOUGHTS ON SUBSTANCES

These are our intentions for the use of medicines such as tobacco and other herbs and substances:

*To create a strong container and a clear conduit for our personal and tribal magic.
*To respect the diversity of experiences, beliefs, and boundaries around substance use.
*To support the healing work of those in recovery or struggling with addiction.
*To honor the medicine spirits and to ask for their blessings.

There is an ongoing dialogue in our community regarding substance use, particularly smoking. There will be a talking circle on Sunday, 10/28, to discuss our community agreements on these topics, with the goal of making sure these are agreements that everyone can live with.

COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS

We ask you to respect these agreements while at this Gathering:

*Please use all substances intentionally, mindfully, and with respect for yourself and those around you.

*Please smoke only in these areas:
In the Smoking Circle behind the Barn
Behind Garden House
On the South side of the firepit
In the parking lot

*Please DON'T smoke on the paths, at your campsite, in Garden House, in the Barn, or on the North side of the firepit.

*Halston and the Heart Circle are substance-free space. Please don't smoke, use, or be under the influence in those places.

*Please use alcohol in moderation, and only in the parking lot. The exception is Libation Night, beginning after dinner on Tuesday, October 30th, when there will be ritual use of alcohol in circle.

*Please be responsible for all items you bring to the Sanctuary. If you pack it in, pack it out. Please leave your camping space and our whole Sanctuary in a better condition than you found it.

Please NO:

*Speed, heroin, or cocaine-not in you, not on you, not in your car.

*Violence or intolerance.

*Fire, smoking, candles, or incense on paths or at campsites.

*Pets. Yes, your dog is lovely. But a dozen dogs in a barking, fighting, pooping pack? Not so lovely. For the safety and comfort of everyone at the Gathering, please leave your dog at home. A kennel is available in Merlin, the next town south, where you can board your furry loved one for $10/day. It is called Creekside Boarding, (541) 471-7144, ask for Donna.

ITEMS FOR THE SAMHAIN FIRE

Please bring only natural safe burning items for our community cauldron. The Samhain fire consumes and transmutes that which we release there. Symbols are powerful; synthetics poison the air of your brother/sisters. We will have supplies for making non-synthetic fetish offerings to the fire which you can charge with your intent.

Don't Bring a Mess * Don't Be a Mess * Don't Leave a Mess

REGISTER TODAY!

By registering today, you can make the whole Gathering run a little smoother. Or in other words, registering early plays a poignant part in preventing piss poor planning and petty performance.

The suggested donation is $35 per person per day (more if you can, less if you can't, no one turned away for lack of funds). Please plan to contribute energy in its crystallized form (i.e. money if you can), and also in the form of work, love, and participation.

!!! Right this minute, please email us your registration form, or better yet, print it out and send it with a check. Make checks payable to Nomenus. !!!

Nomenus
Attn: Samhain 2007
PO Box 312
Wolf Creek, OR 97497
541-866-2678

Nomenus@budget.net
www.nomenus.org

REGISTRATION FORM
Samhain 2007

Nomenus Sanctuary for Radical Faeries and Friends
Wolf Creek, OR
Saturday October 27th through Sunday, November 5th

Faerie Name: ____________________________________

Mundane Name: _________________________________

Address (If you want): _____________________________

Email Address: ___________________________________

I'm planning to be at this fabulous gathering
from _______ to _______, for a total of ______days.

I know you are asking $35/day (more if you can, less if you can't,
No One Turned Away For Lack Of Funds), so I am enclosing $________

I would love to help with (X marks the spot):
___ Rituals
___ Firewood
___ Cooking
___ Dishwashing
___ the Know Your Talent Show
___ Holding a Workshop or Ritual
___ Coordinating Rides for _______________ (city name)
___ Being a Zombie Nurse
___ Other ________________________________

What is your intention for the Samhain Gathering at Wolf Creek?
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________

posted in Cascadian Radical Faeries - 0 replies

Triple Global Crises

Alexander — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 14:11:09 GMT

Triple Global Crises

From Empire to Earth Community: Author David Korten on "The Great
Turning"

Listen to Segment || Download Show mp3
Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream Read Transcript
Help Printer-friendly version Email to a friend
Purchase Video/CD

----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
The International Forum on Globalization and Institute for Policy
Studies is hosting a three day teach-in this weekend
titled "Confronting the Global Triple Crisis: Climate Change, Peak
Oil (The End of Cheap Energy) and Global Resource Depletion &
Extinction." We speak with, among others, David Korten - publisher of
the magazine YES! A Journal of Positive Futures and author of "The
Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community." [includes rush
transcript]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
A new study from the nation's preeminent scientific advisory group
has revealed that less than two percent of the money spent by the
federal government on climate change research is used to study how
climate change will affect humans.
According to the report issued by the National Academies, the U.S.
Climate Change Research Program spends just $30 million dollar a year
on examining the impact of global warming on humans. To put that
figure in perspective, the United States is spending an estimated
$275 million per day on the Iraq war and occupation.

Spending cuts have also resulted in the grounding of earth-observing
satellites. The authors of the report state QUOTE "The loss of
existing and planned satellite sensors is perhaps the single greatest
threat to the future success" of climate research.

This weekend, the International Forum on Globalization and Institute
for Policy Studies is hosting a three day teach-in
titled "Confronting the Global Triple Crisis: Climate Change, Peak
Oil (The End of Cheap Energy) and Global Resource Depletion &
Extinction."

We speak with four guests from the forum. We begin with David Korten:

David Korten, author of "When Corporations Rule the World". He is the
co-founder of Positive Futures Network, and publisher of the magazine
YES! A Journal of Positive Futures. His most recent book is
titled "The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community."

----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help
us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our
TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...

JUAN GONZALEZ: A new study from the nation's preeminent scientific
advisory group has revealed that less than 2% of the money spent by
the federal government on climate change research is used to study
how climate change will affect humans.

According to the report issued by the National Academies, the U.S.
Climate Change Research Program spends just $30 million a year on
examining the impact of global warming on humans. To put that figure
in perspective, the United States is spending an estimated $275
million per day on the Iraq war and occupation.

Spending cuts have also resulted in the grounding of earth-observing
satellites. The authors of the report state, "The loss of existing
and planned satellite sensors is perhaps the single greatest threat
to the future success" of climate research.

AMY GOODMAN: This weekend, the International Forum on Globalization
and Institute for Policy Studies is hosting a three day teach-in
titled "Confronting the Global Triple Crisis: Climate Change, Peak
Oil (The End of Cheap Energy) and Global Resource Depletion &
Extinction."

Today, we're joined by four of the guests in that forum. We begin
with Vandana Shiva and David Korten.

Vandana Shiva, world-renowned environmental leader and thinker,
director of the Research Foundation on Science, Technology, and
Ecology, and the founder of Navdanya, "nine seeds," a movement
promoting diversity and use of native seeds. Dr. Shiva was the 1993
recipient of the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize, the Right Livelihood
Award. She's the author of many books, her latest, Earth Democracy:
Justice, Sustainability, and Peace.

David Korten, also with us, author of When Corporations Rule the
World, cofounder of Positive Futures Network and publisher of the
magazine YES! A Journal of Positive Futures. His most recent book is
called The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! David Korten, let's begin with
you. The Great Turning, explain.

DAVID KORTEN: Well, essentially, this gets to the basic theme of the
conference, that we humans have come up at a defining moment in our
experience, in which we're confronting the limits of the ecosystem at
a time when we are in a condition of extreme inequality between the
rich and the poor, and we're dependent on an economic infrastructure
that, in turn, depends on the assumption of everlasting cheap oil.
Now, we've essentially come up to the limits.

What my book, The Great Turning, does is puts it into our current
situation to the deeper context of 5,000 years of human experience,
organizing ourselves, both our relations among nations and among --
all the way down to among family members, based on dominator
hierarchy. And what this -- the underlying pattern of societies, with
a few people on the top, many people on the bottom, and the majority
of the society's resources being expropriated by the ruling elites in
order to maintain a system of domination. And we have played that out
for 5,000 years, empire through empire, each one falling in turn, is
it, through internal corruption and the devastation of its resource
base. And now we're encountering that on a global scale.

And what -- the key point of this conference is that we are facing a
monumental decision point in human experience in which we have to
actively choose our future. And virtually none of the options on the
table being discussed deal, in any adequate way, with the depth of
the problem, and many of them are actually ultimately
counterproductive. What the establishment is doing is looking for
solutions that will maintain the system of power, but not necessarily
deal with the fact that we have to address in fundamental ways our
human relationship to earth and to the life support system of earth.

And in an already overpopulated world, we absolutely have to deal
with the issues of equity and redistribution of not only income, but
ownership, control and access to resources, so that everyone has a
secure means of living. We also, of course, have to be fundamentally
reconstructing our infrastructure to create an infrastructure that is
consistent with living and balance with the earth, localizing our
economies, bringing an end to war and violence and the massive misuse
of resources to support military establishment.

So what this conference is doing, which is also what my book The
Great Turning does, is bring all of these various crises that we're
facing as a species into a common framework that helps us see the
depth of the solutions and the very dramatic nature of the solutions
turning from systems of domination to systems of partnership and
reestablishing a sense of human community and of living communities
that bring us humans into balance with earth.

JUAN GONZALEZ: David Korten, in the United States we're confronted
here with a mass media system now where the oil companies and the
chemical companies are actually the ones advertising their changes
now, in terms of dealing with global warming. It's an enormous
hypocrisy that the very companies that are involved in the worst
aspects of what is happening to the world are now the ones that are
promoting in their advertisements a consciousness about it.

You talk about the prosperity narrative and how the prosperity
narrative distorts the reality of what's happening with global
warming. Could you talk about that?

DAVID KORTEN: Yes. Part of breaking out of this, breaking out of what
I call the cultural trance of empire, is to recognize the stories,
essentially the lies, that the system feeds us to keep us locked into
this trance. And the key in the empire prosperity story is the idea
that money is wealth, that economic growth is the key to prosperity,
that when people are making money, they are creating wealth, and the
idea that inequality is essential to growth because the rich people
have the money to invest, and so we should honor rich people, we
should welcome inequality, because in the end it makes us all better
off. Now, we're seeing that play out, of course, in the corporations
now, you know: we're benevolent, and so forth.

But the thing that -- you know, I spent thirty years of my life
working on third world development, on the effort to end poverty in
low-income countries. And it took me a long time, but I finally came
to realize that mostly what economic growth is about is rich people
expropriating the resources of poor people to turn them into the
garbage of the consumer system in an accelerating rate in order to
make money, which increases the power of people who -- for people who
already have more than they need.

Now, what we need to come to recognize is that real prosperity is
grounded in the health of our children, our families, our communities
and nature, and that a real economic system promoting real prosperity
is one that is serving the health of children, families, community
and the environment. And it absolutely requires a substantial degree
of equity and sharing of resources to assure that everyone's needs
are met. And you begin to see the -- you know, the stories
fundamentally contrast, and they lead to totally different kinds of
outcomes, in terms of how we allocate resources and even how we think
about what it means to be human at our most foundational values.

AMY GOODMAN: Vandana Shiva, talk about how this plays out on the
ground in places like, well, your home country, India.

VANDANA SHIVA: Well, the triple crisis is really seriously converging
on India, India being one of the preferred spots for outsourcing of
all the pollution and energy-intensive production of the world. We
hear of outsourcing of jobs in the information technology sector. We
don't often enough hear about the outsourcing of pollution to the
third world, the resource-intensive, resource-hungry industry like
steel and iron and aluminum and automobile manufacture. India now is
going to be the home of making cheap cars for the rest of the world.
But every car then requires land, which is grabbed from tribals,
peasants. It requires aluminum and steel, which needs to be mined. It
requires coal, which needs to be mined.

And just as when the first colonization took place, it was assumed
that the earth was empty, terra nullius, no matter how many
indigenous people existed. India, a land of 1.2 billion people, is
being treated as an empty land for global capital, making 80% of
India redundant.

But people are fighting back. And place after place, in Dadri, in
Nandigram, in Singur, people are just getting together in a new earth
democracy and saying, "This land is our land. We will decide what we
do with it. You cannot force a polluting industry on us.
Globalization cannot force it." And we are really seeing a whole new
political practice emerge.

India is engaged in this debate also centrally in another way that
brings the resource question: the alternative -- fuel alternatives to
global warming, as well as the new militarization, on a global scale
together. The three, four options being offered to contain emissions
are biofuels, which, in fact, will increase emissions; carbon and
emissions trading, which is reversing the "polluter pays" principle
and is making the society pay the polluter, rewarding them with
credits. Most of these credits are then being given to polluting
industry: HFC companies, sponge iron plants, cutting down forests and
then planting palm oil. These are becoming clean development
mechanisms, which are really dirty.

But the dirtiest of all, dirtiest of all the new clean options is
nuclear. The US-India nuclear agreement is being offered as a clean
energy option, as a solution to climate change. But it is, in effect,
an instrument of permanent war. In the Hyde Act, which overrides the
India-US agreement, Iran has been mentioned fifteen times. An
agreement between India and the US mentions a third country fifteen
times. This is about a new security policy, a new security policy in
which a militarized empire seeks the last resources of the poorest
person and wants to use the worst form of violence to appropriate the
resources that people need for living.

And across the world, people are saying, "No. We want peace. We want
democracy. We want sustainability. We will live in a different way."
And those alternatives are growing. Our work, in Navdanya, we are
saving seeds that can tolerate the salt after cyclones, seeds that
can survive the floods, in which we have lost 2,000 people in India
this particular extreme monsoon. And around the world people are
creating alternatives, so we really have these two trends right now:
one, a declining trend, but very visible trend because it's so
violent, and violent is always visible; and the other, a peaceful
trend and nonviolent trend, quiet, but much more pervasive.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Vandana Shiva, you've been a spokesperson for years
over the impact on the world's agriculture, of this corporate
dominance. A new battleground has developed recently in Burma with
Bayer and Bayer's efforts, the German giant, in terms of rice. Could
you talk about that?

VANDANA SHIVA: Yeah, but it's not just the German giant in Burma.
It's the American giant, Monsanto, literally killing Indian farmers.
Since 1997, I've been doing studies in every area where farmer
suicides have happened. These happen to be the cotton belt, the
cotton areas where Monsanto has now gained total monopoly. The Bt
cotton seeds that Monsanto is selling have pushed farmers to the
edge, because of the high prices, because of the high levels of
failure and the high requirements, exactly like the rice of Bayer for
Burma will be.

As the corporations that came out of warfare gained control over the
chemical industry for warfare, they became agrichemical giants,
because they deployed chemicals used for war into agriculture. Over
time, they bought up the seed industry. Over time, they bought up the
biotech industry. And, of course, these guys are the same people who
sell us the medicine in pharmaceuticals. So what we've got, a
convergence of death. We've got a convergence of destruction.

And in India, we are witnessing this destruction from the seed end
through Monsanto's monopolies on seed, and that is why I have been
working with Indian farmers, both to save our native seeds and save
our freedom, and do the seed Satyagraha, like Gandhi a hundred years
ago in South Africa -- and we're remembering Steve Biko today -- when
Gandhi started the Satyagraha, the non-cooperation with an unjust
brutal regime. But the global economy has become an unjust brutal
regime. And everywhere -- we are defending the Yamana, because they
want to even use the land where the rivers flow for real estate. I
don't know why land becomes real estate when it moves into the hands
of the rich, and it's treated as nobody's land, no man's land, when
it's generating survival for the poor. So India is definitely at the
heart of the new debate about the real democracy.

AMY GOODMAN: Vandana Shiva and David Korten, I want to thank you for
being with us. Vandana Shiva's latest book is Earth Democracy:
Justice, Sustainability, and Peace. David Korten's latest book is
called The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. They're
both part of the International Forum on Globalization that is holding
a conference this weekend in Washington, D.C. at George Washington
University at the Lisner Auditorium.

When we come back, we'll be joined from two others who are
participating: the author and professor Michael Klare and the British
climate change activist Simon Retallack.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/14/1421257

Vandana Shiva Decries the "Outsourcing of Pollution to the Third
World"

Listen to Segment || Download Show mp3
Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream Read Transcript
Help Printer-friendly version Email to a friend
Purchase Video/CD

----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
We speak world-renowned environmental leader and thinker, Vandana
Shiva about India and global resource depletion. Shiva says, "India
is one of the preferred spots for outsourcing of all the pollution
and energy-intensive production of the world. We hear of outsourcing
of jobs and informational technology sector. We don't often enough
hear about the outsourcing of pollution to the third world."
[includes rush transcript]

Vandana Shiva, world-renowned environmental leader and thinker. She
is also a physicist and ecologist and the Director of the Research
Foundation on Science, Technology, and Ecology. She is the founder of
Navdanya -"nine seeds", a movement promoting diversity and use of
native seeds. Dr. Shiva was the 1993 recipient of the Alternative
Nobel Peace Prize -the Right Livelihood Award. And she is the author
of many books, her latest is "Earth Democracy: Justice,
Sustainability, and Peace."

----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help
us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our
TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...

JUAN GONZALEZ: A new study from the nation's preeminent scientific
advisory group has revealed that less than 2% of the money spent by
the federal government on climate change research is used to study
how climate change will affect humans.

According to the report issued by the National Academies, the U.S.
Climate Change Research Program spends just $30 million a year on
examining the impact of global warming on humans. To put that figure
in perspective, the United States is spending an estimated $275
million per day on the Iraq war and occupation.

Spending cuts have also resulted in the grounding of earth-observing
satellites. The authors of the report state, "The loss of existing
and planned satellite sensors is perhaps the single greatest threat
to the future success" of climate research.

AMY GOODMAN: This weekend, the International Forum on Globalization
and Institute for Policy Studies is hosting a three day teach-in
titled "Confronting the Global Triple Crisis: Climate Change, Peak
Oil (The End of Cheap Energy) and Global Resource Depletion &
Extinction."

Today, we're joined by four of the guests in that forum. We begin
with Vandana Shiva and David Korten.

Vandana Shiva, world-renowned environmental leader and thinker,
director of the Research Foundation on Science, Technology, and
Ecology, and the founder of Navdanya, "nine seeds," a movement
promoting diversity and use of native seeds. Dr. Shiva was the 1993
recipient of the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize, the Right Livelihood
Award. She's the author of many books, her latest, Earth Democracy:
Justice, Sustainability, and Peace.

David Korten, also with us, author of When Corporations Rule the
World, cofounder of Positive Futures Network and publisher of the
magazine YES! A Journal of Positive Futures. His most recent book is
called The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! David Korten, let's begin with
you. The Great Turning, explain.

DAVID KORTEN: Well, essentially, this gets to the basic theme of the
conference, that we humans have come up at a defining moment in our
experience, in which we're confronting the limits of the ecosystem at
a time when we are in a condition of extreme inequality between the
rich and the poor, and we're dependent on an economic infrastructure
that, in turn, depends on the assumption of everlasting cheap oil.
Now, we've essentially come up to the limits.

What my book, The Great Turning, does is puts it into our current
situation to the deeper context of 5,000 years of human experience,
organizing ourselves, both our relations among nations and among --
all the way down to among family members, based on dominator
hierarchy. And what this -- the underlying pattern of societies, with
a few people on the top, many people on the bottom, and the majority
of the society's resources being expropriated by the ruling elites in
order to maintain a system of domination. And we have played that out
for 5,000 years, empire through empire, each one falling in turn, is
it, through internal corruption and the devastation of its resource
base. And now we're encountering that on a global scale.

And what -- the key point of this conference is that we are facing a
monumental decision point in human experience in which we have to
actively choose our future. And virtually none of the options on the
table being discussed deal, in any adequate way, with the depth of
the problem, and many of them are actually ultimately
counterproductive. What the establishment is doing is looking for
solutions that will maintain the system of power, but not necessarily
deal with the fact that we have to address in fundamental ways our
human relationship to earth and to the life support system of earth.

And in an already overpopulated world, we absolutely have to deal
with the issues of equity and redistribution of not only income, but
ownership, control and access to resources, so that everyone has a
secure means of living. We also, of course, have to be fundamentally
reconstructing our infrastructure to create an infrastructure that is
consistent with living and balance with the earth, localizing our
economies, bringing an end to war and violence and the massive misuse
of resources to support military establishment.

So what this conference is doing, which is also what my book The
Great Turning does, is bring all of these various crises that we're
facing as a species into a common framework that helps us see the
depth of the solutions and the very dramatic nature of the solutions
turning from systems of domination to systems of partnership and
reestablishing a sense of human community and of living communities
that bring us humans into balance with earth.

JUAN GONZALEZ: David Korten, in the United States we're confronted
here with a mass media system now where the oil companies and the
chemical companies are actually the ones advertising their changes
now, in terms of dealing with global warming. It's an enormous
hypocrisy that the very companies that are involved in the worst
aspects of what is happening to the world are now the ones that are
promoting in their advertisements a consciousness about it.

You talk about the prosperity narrative and how the prosperity
narrative distorts the reality of what's happening with global
warming. Could you talk about that?

DAVID KORTEN: Yes. Part of breaking out of this, breaking out of what
I call the cultural trance of empire, is to recognize the stories,
essentially the lies, that the system feeds us to keep us locked into
this trance. And the key in the empire prosperity story is the idea
that money is wealth, that economic growth is the key to prosperity,
that when people are making money, they are creating wealth, and the
idea that inequality is essential to growth because the rich people
have the money to invest, and so we should honor rich people, we
should welcome inequality, because in the end it makes us all better
off. Now, we're seeing that play out, of course, in the corporations
now, you know: we're benevolent, and so forth.

But the thing that -- you know, I spent thirty years of my life
working on third world development, on the effort to end poverty in
low-income countries. And it took me a long time, but I finally came
to realize that mostly what economic growth is about is rich people
expropriating the resources of poor people to turn them into the
garbage of the consumer system in an accelerating rate in order to
make money, which increases the power of people who -- for people who
already have more than they need.

Now, what we need to come to recognize is that real prosperity is
grounded in the health of our children, our families, our communities
and nature, and that a real economic system promoting real prosperity
is one that is serving the health of children, families, community
and the environment. And it absolutely requires a substantial degree
of equity and sharing of resources to assure that everyone's needs
are met. And you begin to see the -- you know, the stories
fundamentally contrast, and they lead to totally different kinds of
outcomes, in terms of how we allocate resources and even how we think
about what it means to be human at our most foundational values.

AMY GOODMAN: Vandana Shiva, talk about how this plays out on the
ground in places like, well, your home country, India.

VANDANA SHIVA: Well, the triple crisis is really seriously converging
on India, India being one of the preferred spots for outsourcing of
all the pollution and energy-intensive production of the world. We
hear of outsourcing of jobs in the information technology sector. We
don't often enough hear about the outsourcing of pollution to the
third world, the resource-intensive, resource-hungry industry like
steel and iron and aluminum and automobile manufacture. India now is
going to be the home of making cheap cars for the rest of the world.
But every car then requires land, which is grabbed from tribals,
peasants. It requires aluminum and steel, which needs to be mined. It
requires coal, which needs to be mined.

And just as when the first colonization took place, it was assumed
that the earth was empty, terra nullius, no matter how many
indigenous people existed. India, a land of 1.2 billion people, is
being treated as an empty land for global capital, making 80% of
India redundant.

But people are fighting back. And place after place, in Dadri, in
Nandigram, in Singur, people are just getting together in a new earth
democracy and saying, "This land is our land. We will decide what we
do with it. You cannot force a polluting industry on us.
Globalization cannot force it." And we are really seeing a whole new
political practice emerge.

India is engaged in this debate also centrally in another way that
brings the resource question: the alternative -- fuel alternatives to
global warming, as well as the new militarization, on a global scale
together. The three, four options being offered to contain emissions
are biofuels, which, in fact, will increase emissions; carbon and
emissions trading, which is reversing the "polluter pays" principle
and is making the society pay the polluter, rewarding them with
credits. Most of these credits are then being given to polluting
industry: HFC companies, sponge iron plants, cutting down forests and
then planting palm oil. These are becoming clean development
mechanisms, which are really dirty.

But the dirtiest of all, dirtiest of all the new clean options is
nuclear. The US-India nuclear agreement is being offered as a clean
energy option, as a solution to climate change. But it is, in effect,
an instrument of permanent war. In the Hyde Act, which overrides the
India-US agreement, Iran has been mentioned fifteen times. An
agreement between India and the US mentions a third country fifteen
times. This is about a new security policy, a new security policy in
which a militarized empire seeks the last resources of the poorest
person and wants to use the worst form of violence to appropriate the
resources that people need for living.

And across the world, people are saying, "No. We want peace. We want
democracy. We want sustainability. We will live in a different way."
And those alternatives are growing. Our work, in Navdanya, we are
saving seeds that can tolerate the salt after cyclones, seeds that
can survive the floods, in which we have lost 2,000 people in India
this particular extreme monsoon. And around the world people are
creating alternatives, so we really have these two trends right now:
one, a declining trend, but very visible trend because it's so
violent, and violent is always visible; and the other, a peaceful
trend and nonviolent trend, quiet, but much more pervasive.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Vandana Shiva, you've been a spokesperson for years
over the impact on the world's agriculture, of this corporate
dominance. A new battleground has developed recently in Burma with
Bayer and Bayer's efforts, the German giant, in terms of rice. Could
you talk about that?

VANDANA SHIVA: Yeah, but it's not just the German giant in Burma.
It's the American giant, Monsanto, literally killing Indian farmers.
Since 1997, I've been doing studies in every area where farmer
suicides have happened. These happen to be the cotton belt, the
cotton areas where Monsanto has now gained total monopoly. The Bt
cotton seeds that Monsanto is selling have pushed farmers to the
edge, because of the high prices, because of the high levels of
failure and the high requirements, exactly like the rice of Bayer for
Burma will be.

As the corporations that came out of warfare gained control over the
chemical industry for warfare, they became agrichemical giants,
because they deployed chemicals used for war into agriculture. Over
time, they bought up the seed industry. Over time, they bought up the
biotech industry. And, of course, these guys are the same people who
sell us the medicine in pharmaceuticals. So what we've got, a
convergence of death. We've got a convergence of destruction.

And in India, we are witnessing this destruction from the seed end
through Monsanto's monopolies on seed, and that is why I have been
working with Indian farmers, both to save our native seeds and save
our freedom, and do the seed Satyagraha, like Gandhi a hundred years
ago in South Africa -- and we're remembering Steve Biko today -- when
Gandhi started the Satyagraha, the non-cooperation with an unjust
brutal regime. But the global economy has become an unjust brutal
regime. And everywhere -- we are defending the Yamana, because they
want to even use the land where the rivers flow for real estate. I
don't know why land becomes real estate when it moves into the hands
of the rich, and it's treated as nobody's land, no man's land, when
it's generating survival for the poor. So India is definitely at the
heart of the new debate about the real democracy.

AMY GOODMAN: Vandana Shiva and David Korten, I want to thank you for
being with us. Vandana Shiva's latest book is Earth Democracy:
Justice, Sustainability, and Peace. David Korten's latest book is
called The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. They're
both part of the International Forum on Globalization that is holding
a conference this weekend in Washington, D.C. at George Washington
University at the Lisner Auditorium.

When we come back, we'll be joined from two others who are
participating: the author and professor Michael Klare and the British
climate change activist Simon Retallack.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/14/1422203

Michael Klare on the Internal War For Control of Iraq's Oil

Listen to Segment || Download Show mp3
Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream Read Transcript
Help Printer-friendly version Email to a friend
Purchase Video/CD

----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
We speak with Michael Klare, author of "Blood and Oil: The Dangers
and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported
Petroleum." Klare says, "There's a second war underway in Iraq that's
a war for the control of the oil wealth. That's a war that is pitting
Kurds against the Arabs of the country, Shiites against Sunnis, and
Shiite against Shiite. Because eventually the Americans are going to
leave and the people of Iraq know this." [includes rush transcript]

Michael Klare, Professor of Peace and World Security Studies at
Hampshire College. He is author of several books including "Blood and
Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on
Imported Petroleum."

----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help
us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our
TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...

AMY GOODMAN: Last week, tens of thousands of people attended Farm Aid
here in New York City. It's an annual concert to raise support for
family farmers. This is the musician Neil Young, one of the
organizers of Farm Aid.

NEIL YOUNG: Transporting food around the world to other countries and
using all of that fuel and all of that packaging and all of that air-
conditioning fuel and all of those things that need to happen to get,
say, a tomato -- since that's on our mind today, we're coming with a
tomato now -- from Chile to California, it costs a lot of
environmental damage just getting that one tomato up there.

And so, if you look at the world and you figure one of the things
about our big agriculture is that we want to feed the world --
doesn't that sound great? You know? We're going to help everybody.
OK, you know, that's great. But I don't think it's really that way. I
think we ought to feed ourselves, the people that are close to us,
and we ought to let the people around the world feed themselves with
their own crops so that we don't go in there and take their food crop
away and give them a cash crop and then say we're going to give you
food. And that's what we do. We have people growing textile materials
and cotton and things in third world countries, and we do business
with them through China, and we do all of these things with our
economics. And we undermine the sustainability of the countries that
we say we're helping. And then, if these countries don't cooperate
with us, we control their food supply.

AMY GOODMAN: Musician Neil Young at the Farm Aid concert this past
weekend.

As we continue looking at issues of climate change, energy and the
environment, we're joined by two more guest speakers at this
weekend's International Forum on Globalization in D.C.: Michael
Klare, professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire
College, author of a number of books, including Blood and Oil: The
Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported
Petroleum; and Simon Retallack, head of the climate change team at
the Institute for Public Policy Research in Britain, coauthor of the
new report, "Positive Energy: Harnessing People Power to Prevent
Climate Change."

We're going to turn first to Michael Klare. President Bush spoke last
night, addressed the nation, talked about why we continue the war in
Iraq. Can you talk about the connections between war and oil or, as
you put it, the title your book, Blood and Oil.

MICHAEL KLARE: Well, Amy, good to talk with you. There are really two
wars now underway, I think, in Iraq, maybe more than two. There's the
US effort to retain, as what President Bush said last night, an
enduring presence in Iraq. And I believe that's connected to our,
that is America's, long-lasting geopolitical imperative of being the
dominant power in the Persian Gulf. And, of course, he also refers a
lot to Iran, now the next threat perceived on the horizon to American
dominance. So one part of the war in Iraq, I believe, have always
believed, is part of this long-standing US effort to dominate the
region geopolitically and control the oil spigot from the Gulf, where
two-thirds of the world's oil is located.

But there's a second war underway, and that's a war for the control
of Iraq's oil wealth. And that's a war that is pitting Kurds against
the Arabs of the country and Shiites against Sunnis, and Shiite
against Shiite, because eventually the Americans are going to leave,
and the people of Iraq know this, and they are now fighting amongst
themselves for who's going to control that territory. And I believe a
lot of the violence in Iraq today is really about that struggle for
control of Iraq's oil wealth. And American soldiers are caught in the
middle of this.

And I think, frankly, that American military leaders have come to
understand that the prospect of an Iraq, of a national Iraq, has been
lost. That war has been lost. What's left is the fighting over the
remains, the carcass of Iraq.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Michael, on the issue of Iran, especially with all the
saber rattling, and even among many of the Democratic candidates for
president you find some of the same saber rattling toward Iran. Iran
is a huge nation. It is not only oil rich, but considerably
developed, with a huge population. What kind of -- your analysis of
the sense among military people about even talking about any kind of
military action or extension of what's happened in Iraq into Iran?

MICHAEL KLARE: Well, we tend to forget that the US military is not a
monolithic organization. I'm sure if you ask the ground forces, the
Army and the Marine Corps who are baring the brunt of the fighting in
Iraq, they'll say, you know, "Not over my dead body do we want to go
to war with Iran." They are stretched to the limit. They couldn't
take on another single mission anywhere in the world. So they're
saying, "Please don't start any trouble in Iran."

But if you ask the Air Force or the Navy, they feel differently.
They're not overstretched in Iraq. They might feel very differently
about it. They might be looking for missions And I think, in fact,
that the military is divided on this, as is the administration.

It's clear that Condoleezza Rice, I believe, and others of a more
realistic nature, I suppose you'd say, think that attacking Iran
would be a tremendous mistake. But there are clearly ideologues,
neoconservatives, led by the Vice President, who are strongly
committed to attacking Iran. And I fear that they're prevailing in
this debate and that before the administration leaves office that we
will see an attack on Iran.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to Simon Retallack, who is just in from
Britain for the International Forum on Globalization conference. What
is "climate porn"?

SIMON RETALLACK: Good question. It's a phrase that authors of a
report that we commissioned in London came up with to describe the
way in which some journalists, some environmentalists and even some
politicians use alarmist language to talk about climate change, in a
way that you might see headlined, certainly in British newspapers,
saying almost "the end is nigh," using biblical terms to describe the
impacts of climate change. It's a phrase that is certainly not used
to undermine the science. It certainly doesn't mean to do that. What
it seeks to do is try to encourage people to think about what sort of
language will be necessary to motivate the public to take action.

If we talk about climate change in a way that makes it appear that
there's nothing we can do anymore about it, that it's too late, that
it's happening, it's going to be devastating on a global scale,
without giving people the option and making the solutions clear to
act, then I think we're going to turn people off. So it's part of
some research and a long-running project that we're engaged with to
try to find ways of simulating climate-friendly behavior amongst the
public.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Simon, in the previous segment, Vandana Shiva talked
about what she called a fallacy of using fixes like trading in
pollution credits in the United States. So you've analyzed what the
EU is doing in terms of this kind of approach. Could you talk about
that?

SIMON RETALLACK: Yes, certainly. I mean, one of the most commonly
adopted solutions in the world for dealing with climate change has
been the support for cap and trade schemes, where there's a cap
placed on emissions and companies get given quotas, and they can
trade them to meet their reductions. The big problem with the
European scheme, and I foresee a problem with potential US-wide
schemes in the future, is that the caps placed on industry have been
far too weak. Governments have over-allocated pollution permits to
industry, which has meant that the cost of a ton of carbon on the
European markets is far too low, and it isn't delivering the step
change in investments that we need to see in renewable energy and
energy efficiency to do our bit to avoid dangerous climate change.

We're at a critical point, not just in the EU, about here in the US
now, where finally, with a Democratically controlled Congress, we're
going to see this full attempt to pass a cap and trade bill through
Congress. We've got to make sure, and anyone who's listening to this
and watching this needs to do their part to ensure, that the right
caps are put in place. At the moment, most of the bills before
Congress only envisage far too little emission reductions by 2050. We
need to see at least 80% cuts in emissions, at least, by 2050, with
early action being critically important, too, if we're to avoid the
most dangerous impacts from climate change. And we need to put
pressure on our representatives and senators in the US to ensure that
adequate action is taken at this critically important point.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go back to Michael Klare and ask you a
question about the research in global climate change. I was just at
Stanford University. They have the GCEP program, that is Global
Climate Environment Program, that got something like $225 million
from ExxonMobil, General Electric, Shlumberger and Toyota. You have
University of California, Berkeley, got something like half-a-billion
dollars from BP. They call it "Beyond Petroleum" now, British
Petroleum. How is this corporate control of academia or funding of
academia affecting the research? Are you concerned about this?

MICHAEL KLARE: Well, I think everybody should be concerned. What I
think is going on is that the oil companies themselves have realized
what we'll be talking about tonight, which is that we're coming to
the end of conventional petroleum -- that is, liquid petroleum, the
stuff that you stick a drill in the ground, and it comes gushing out.
The days of easy-to-find liquid petroleum are over.

And the oil companies understand this, even if their propaganda says
otherwise. And they want to control whatever is going to replace it,
whatever new liquid fuels come online. So they want to invest
billions of dollars into the research, into whatever new fuels are
going take the place of conventional petroleum, whether it's biofuels
or synthetic liquids from tar sands or shell oil or whatever the next
fuels will be, so that their companies can dominate the production
and the marketing and the retailing of these liquids and retain the
monopoly on our energy, as they have now.

So, of course, we should be very deeply worried about it, because it
could foreclose other solutions that probably would be healthier for
all of us, in the sense that David Korten was speaking about earlier,
of a more egalitarian, a more healthy form of energy system.

AMY GOODMAN: Michael Klare and Simon Retallack, I want to thank you
for being with us. Both will be speaking this weekend, beginning
tonight, at George Washington University at Lisner Auditorium, part
of the International Forum on Globalization. Michael Klare's latest
book, Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's
Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum. Simon Retallack is with the
Climate Change Team at the Institute for Public Policy Research in
Britain, just in for this conference. Thanks so much for being there.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/14/1422209

"Climate Porn" - Simon Retallack on the Dangers of Using Alarmist
Language to Talk About Climate Change

Listen to Segment || Download Show mp3
Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream Read Transcript
Help Printer-friendly version Email to a friend
Purchase Video/CD

----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
We speak with British climate change expert, Simon Retallack about so-
called "climate porn." Retallack says, "It's a phrase that's
certainly not used to undermine the science...But if we talk about
climate change in a way that makes it appear that there's nothing we
can do anymore about it, that it's too late, that it's going to be
devastating on a global scale...I think we're going to turn people
off." [includes rush transcript]

Simon Retallack, head of the Climate Change Team at the Institute for
Public Policy Research in Britain. He is the co-author of the new
report "Positive Energy: Harnessing People Power to Prevent Climate
Change."

----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help
us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our
TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...

AMY GOODMAN: Last week, tens of thousands of people attended Farm Aid
here in New York City. It's an annual concert to raise support for
family farmers. This is the musician Neil Young, one of the
organizers of Farm Aid.

NEIL YOUNG: Transporting food around the world to other countries and
using all of that fuel and all of that packaging and all of that air-
conditioning fuel and all of those things that need to happen to get,
say, a tomato -- since that's on our mind today, we're coming with a
tomato now -- from Chile to California, it costs a lot of
environmental damage just getting that one tomato up there.

And so, if you look at the world and you figure one of the things
about our big agriculture is that we want to feed the world --
doesn't that sound great? You know? We're going to help everybody.
OK, you know, that's great. But I don't think it's really that way. I
think we ought to feed ourselves, the people that are close to us,
and we ought to let the people around the world feed themselves with
their own crops so that we don't go in there and take their food crop
away and give them a cash crop and then say we're going to give you
food. And that's what we do. We have people growing textile materials
and cotton and things in third world countries, and we do business
with them through China, and we do all of these things with our
economics. And we undermine the sustainability of the countries that
we say we're helping. And then, if these countries don't cooperate
with us, we control their food supply.

AMY GOODMAN: Musician Neil Young at the Farm Aid concert this past
weekend.

As we continue looking at issues of climate change, energy and the
environment, we're joined by two more guest speakers at this
weekend's International Forum on Globalization in D.C.: Michael
Klare, professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire
College, author of a number of books, including Blood and Oil: The
Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported
Petroleum; and Simon Retallack, head of the climate change team at
the Institute for Public Policy Research in Britain, coauthor of the
new report, "Positive Energy: Harnessing People Power to Prevent
Climate Change."

We're going to turn first to Michael Klare. President Bush spoke last
night, addressed the nation, talked about why we continue the war in
Iraq. Can you talk about the connections between war and oil or, as
you put it, the title your book, Blood and Oil.

MICHAEL KLARE: Well, Amy, good to talk with you. There are really two
wars now underway, I think, in Iraq, maybe more than two. There's the
US effort to retain, as what President Bush said last night, an
enduring presence in Iraq. And I believe that's connected to our,
that is America's, long-lasting geopolitical imperative of being the
dominant power in the Persian Gulf. And, of course, he also refers a
lot to Iran, now the next threat perceived on the horizon to American
dominance. So one part of the war in Iraq, I believe, have always
believed, is part of this long-standing US effort to dominate the
region geopolitically and control the oil spigot from the Gulf, where
two-thirds of the world's oil is located.

But there's a second war underway, and that's a war for the control
of Iraq's oil wealth. And that's a war that is pitting Kurds against
the Arabs of the country and Shiites against Sunnis, and Shiite
against Shiite, because eventually the Americans are going to leave,
and the people of Iraq know this, and they are now fighting amongst
themselves for who's going to control that territory. And I believe a
lot of the violence in Iraq today is really about that struggle for
control of Iraq's oil wealth. And American soldiers are caught in the
middle of this.

And I think, frankly, that American military leaders have come to
understand that the prospect of an Iraq, of a national Iraq, has been
lost. That war has been lost. What's left is the fighting over the
remains, the carcass of Iraq.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Michael, on the issue of Iran, especially with all the
saber rattling, and even among many of the Democratic candidates for
president you find some of the same saber rattling toward Iran. Iran
is a huge nation. It is not only oil rich, but considerably
developed, with a huge population. What kind of -- your analysis of
the sense among military people about even talking about any kind of
military action or extension of what's happened in Iraq into Iran?

MICHAEL KLARE: Well, we tend to forget that the US military is not a
monolithic organization. I'm sure if you ask the ground forces, the
Army and the Marine Corps who are baring the brunt of the fighting in
Iraq, they'll say, you know, "Not over my dead body do we want to go
to war with Iran." They are stretched to the limit. They couldn't
take on another single mission anywhere in the world. So they're
saying, "Please don't start any trouble in Iran."

But if you ask the Air Force or the Navy, they feel differently.
They're not overstretched in Iraq. They might feel very differently
about it. They might be looking for missions And I think, in fact,
that the military is divided on this, as is the administration.

It's clear that Condoleezza Rice, I believe, and others of a more
realistic nature, I suppose you'd say, think that attacking Iran
would be a tremendous mistake. But there are clearly ideologues,
neoconservatives, led by the Vice President, who are strongly
committed to attacking Iran. And I fear that they're prevailing in
this debate and that before the administration leaves office that we
will see an attack on Iran.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to Simon Retallack, who is just in from
Britain for the International Forum on Globalization conference. What
is "climate porn"?

SIMON RETALLACK: Good question. It's a phrase that authors of a
report that we commissioned in London came up with to describe the
way in which some journalists, some environmentalists and even some
politicians use alarmist language to talk about climate change, in a
way that you might see headlined, certainly in British newspapers,
saying almost "the end is nigh," using biblical terms to describe the
impacts of climate change. It's a phrase that is certainly not used
to undermine the science. It certainly doesn't mean to do that. What
it seeks to do is try to encourage people to think about what sort of
language will be necessary to motivate the public to take action.

If we talk about climate change in a way that makes it appear that
there's nothing we can do anymore about it, that it's too late, that
it's happening, it's going to be devastating on a global scale,
without giving people the option and making the solutions clear to
act, then I think we're going to turn people off. So it's part of
some research and a long-running project that we're engaged with to
try to find ways of simulating climate-friendly behavior amongst the
public.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Simon, in the previous segment, Vandana Shiva talked
about what she called a fallacy of using fixes like trading in
pollution credits in the United States. So you've analyzed what the
EU is doing in terms of this kind of approach. Could you talk about
that?

SIMON RETALLACK: Yes, certainly. I mean, one of the most commonly
adopted solutions in the world for dealing with climate change has
been the support for cap and trade schemes, where there's a cap
placed on emissions and companies get given quotas, and they can
trade them to meet their reductions. The big problem with the
European scheme, and I foresee a problem with potential US-wide
schemes in the future, is that the caps placed on industry have been
far too weak. Governments have over-allocated pollution permits to
industry, which has meant that the cost of a ton of carbon on the
European markets is far too low, and it isn't delivering the step
change in investments that we need to see in renewable energy and
energy efficiency to do our bit to avoid dangerous climate change.

We're at a critical point, not just in the EU, about here in the US
now, where finally, with a Democratically controlled Congress, we're
going to see this full attempt to pass a cap and trade bill through
Congress. We've got to make sure, and anyone who's listening to this
and watching this needs to do their part to ensure, that the right
caps are put in place. At the moment, most of the bills before
Congress only envisage far too little emission reductions by 2050. We
need to see at least 80% cuts in emissions, at least, by 2050, with
early action being critically important, too, if we're to avoid the
most dangerous impacts from climate change. And we need to put
pressure on our representatives and senators in the US to ensure that
adequate action is taken at this critically important point.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go back to Michael Klare and ask you a
question about the research in global climate change. I was just at
Stanford University. They have the GCEP program, that is Global
Climate Environment Program, that got something like $225 million
from ExxonMobil, General Electric, Shlumberger and Toyota. You have
University of California, Berkeley, got something like half-a-billion
dollars from BP. They call it "Beyond Petroleum" now, British
Petroleum. How is this corporate control of academia or funding of
academia affecting the research? Are you concerned about this?

MICHAEL KLARE: Well, I think everybody should be concerned. What I
think is going on is that the oil companies themselves have realized
what we'll be talking about tonight, which is that we're coming to
the end of conventional petroleum -- that is, liquid petroleum, the
stuff that you stick a drill in the ground, and it comes gushing out.
The days of easy-to-find liquid petroleum are over.

And the oil companies understand this, even if their propaganda says
otherwise. And they want to control whatever is going to replace it,
whatever new liquid fuels come online. So they want to invest
billions of dollars into the research, into whatever new fuels are
going take the place of conventional petroleum, whether it's biofuels
or synthetic liquids from tar sands or shell oil or whatever the next
fuels will be, so that their companies can dominate the production
and the marketing and the retailing of these liquids and retain the
monopoly on our energy, as they have now.

So, of course, we should be very deeply worried about it, because it
could foreclose other solutions that probably would be healthier for
all of us, in the sense that David Korten was speaking about earlier,
of a more egalitarian, a more healthy form of energy system.

AMY GOODMAN: Michael Klare and Simon Retallack, I want to thank you
for being with us. Both will be speaking this weekend, beginning
tonight, at George Washington University at Lisner Auditorium, part
of the International Forum on Globalization. Michael Klare's latest
book, Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's
Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum. Simon Retallack is with the
Climate Change Team at the Institute for Public Policy Research in
Britain, just in for this conference. Thanks so much for being there.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/14/1422224

posted in Cascadian Radical Faeries - 0 replies

REquired REading

shadow — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 10:53:12 GMT

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, July 4th, 1776:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for
one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected
them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth,
the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and
of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of
mankind requires that they should declare the causes which
impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among
Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to
abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing its powers
in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate
that Governments long established should not be changed
for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience
hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while
evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing
the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long
train of abuses and usurpation, pursuing invariably the
same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute
Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such
Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

posted in Cascadian Radical Faeries - 1 reply

The Call for Queer Magic: The Cauldron (September 21-23, Portland OR)

stella_maris — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 17:25:09 GMT

QUEER MAGIC: THE CAULDRON
September 21-23, Portland Oregon
An Urban Gatherette
to Vision, Plan, and Organize
Queer Magic 2008

THE CAULDRON is the crucible of creation
where vision quickens and thickens into form...

WE ARE Queer People of Spirit
of various sexes, genders, and orientations
who identify with the traditions and culture
of the Radical Faeries.

OUR VISION is
a pangender urban gathering
called Queer Magic
in Portland Oregon in 2008
where Faeries and friends
can come together to share
our various forms of magic
(which we define as everything we do
with passion and heart and awareness of Spirit).

OUR INTENTIONS are
to revel in our fabulous variety
to practice, share, and celebrate our magic
to step more fully into our sacred Queer work
and to bless our community and this city.

THE CAULDRON
is an intimate gatherette
(space is limited!)
to vision, plan, and organize
a larger Queer Magic gathering
to take place in 2008.

THE CAULDRON
is an immersive container
where a posse of self-empowered instigators
can build trust, hang out, spark ideas
and get down to some serious play
this September 21-23 (that's soon!).

THE CAULDRON
will be held in a residential garden paradise
(the fabulous Chicken Ranch in North Portland)
where we will cook / dance / circle / chant / pray
laugh / plan / drum / dream / scheme together.

THE CAULDRON
like Queer Magic itself
is a co-created, DIY, hands-on experience
where Structure and Chaos make passionate love
in the back seat of a speeding convertible
with Spirit at the wheel
in a chiffon scarf and big sunglasses.

THE CAULDRON
will demonstrate that organizing
can also be organic and orgasmic
and the planning process
indistinguishable from the party.

THE CAULDRON
is a seedbed for an ongoing
community of magical practice
whose work is barely revealed
and whose potential is immeasurable.

THE CAULDRON
will culminate
in an Autumn Equinox event
for the whole community
on Sunday, September 24 (details to come).

THE CAULDRON
is not for tourists
or do-me queens
or scaredy-cats
or those with rigid expectations.

THE CAULDRON
is for community organizers
and other magical practitioners
at any level of experience
who share the vision for a Queer Magic gathering
and want to form a committed working circle
and an ongoing community of practice.

J O I N U S ! ! !

LOGISTICS
The Cauldron begins Friday evening, September 21
and ends Sunday evening September 23.

You can camp at the Chicken Ranch,
or you can sleep at home if you live in Portland,
or we can find you a spot at someone's house.

Registration is $25 to 75 sliding scale
and includes seven cooperatively prepared meals.

REGISTRATION
To register your intention to attend,
come to the next meeting
in person or by phone
Mondays, 7 p.m.
August 27, September 3, 10, 17
at the Chicken Ranch
6507 N. Princeton St., Portland
Call-in Number: 712/451-6000
Access code: 471457#

If you want to join us
but you cannot make it to a meeting
call Stella at 503/753-5396
or e-mail info <at> queermagic.com.

IF YOU'RE NOT CALLED TO THE CAULDRON
but you're excited about Queer Magic
then e-mail info <at> queermagic.com
to get on the mailing list for information
about Queer Magic 2008.
There will be lots of other opportunities
to come and play with us!

www.queermagic.org (work in progress)
info <at> queermagic.org

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