“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children.” – Native American proverb

THIS IS AN ARCHIVED SITE. ONLY ARTICLES RECOMMENDED IN APRIL AND MAY BY THE AUTHOR SHOULD BE READ. EACH PIECE HERE IS WRITTEN FOR SPECIFIC AUDIENCES FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES, AND NOT HAVING THE PROPER CONTEXTS CAN BE PUZZLING OR OFF-PUTTING. This article was written primarily for the dedicated souls at Amazon Watch. It is UNEDITED, a first draft, rushed out to encourage movement in solidarity ASAP. [Updated note: Having reached Q'orianka directly in Bolivia tonight, I now understand that Amazon Watch is only one of many organizations she connects with on her socially/environmentally conscious rounds. I'm just now learning about her and Sonia Rockwell's work with homeless women in L.A., and I look forward to blending the causes addressed here with that.]

BOUNCING OFF OF WHAT Q’ORIANKA KILCHER SAID
by Richard Martin Oxman

The following exchange took place on Democracy Now! today:

“SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And finally, as an actor, why do you feel it’s important to be here and speak out?

Q’ORIANKA KILCHER: That’s one thing I want to urge all the public figures, as well as celebrities, to really help be amplifiers for the indigenous leaders’ messages to be able to be spread.”

[The exchange took place just outside Cochabamba, in Bolivia, where The World Peoples’ Summit on Climate Change and Rights of Mother Earth opened on Monday.]

Amy Goodman and her colleagues should be applauded for providing coverage of the Amazon’s plight, the challenges of indigenous people. That’s a no-brainer. The problem is that people concerned with the abominations being inflicted on our indigenous brothers and sisters cannot be addressed merely via documentation and conferences. There is virtually no acknowledgment that the reins of power must be taken over in the U.S. much along the lines that it has been done in, say, Bolivia. Taken over soon. For there are — quite obviously — deadlines.

We need to have someone at the helm who can speak with heart, head and soul in a healthy place in terms of the concerns of indigenous people worldwide. [Pause.] Since that will not happen on the federal level in the U.S., we must consider what other high profile position will do the trick.

TOSCA http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/pumping-green-iron-calif ornia.html is in the process of “taking over” the State of California for that express purpose, among others.

What Q’orianka Kilcher addresses — about spreading the word — can be accomplished sooner and better through the Sacred Seat in Sacramento than by any other means available in the U.S. TOSCA’s gubernatorial coalition could not only secure the celebrity participation Ms. Kilcher touches upon, it could guarantee that that participation was ongoing, and backed up by daily educational presentations through the gubernatorial office. It’s one thing for a high profile person to announce an association, say, with Amazon Watch… and to donate time and money here and there in support, encouraging others to do the same. It’s quite another thing, for the Governor of California to declare a STATE OF EMERGENCY with regard to indigenous people and their land, and to act accordingly.

I’m talking about someone in high office doing something other than providing a token gesture toward indigenous people. I’m talking about the Governor of California — who can do many, many things unilaterally in the state — without even any discussion with career politicians who have other priorities — devoting an enormous amount of energy toward helping the public to not only self-educate, but get active along very particular lines. BECAUSE OUR LIVES ARE CONTINGENT UPON THE WELFARE OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, CLIMATE CHANGE, MOTHER EARTH.

I’m talking about a glint in the eye, a undeniable vibration that would be sent out from the Governor’s own media outlet DAILY… repeatedly, vigorously, and creatively. I’m talking about calling a spade a spade with a sense of passion that people would pick up on, way above and beyond what celebrities usually project… as they come and go… with their various causes… getting back to their careers ASAP… doing what they can as long as it doesn’t interfere with their… priorities. [Please, I do not mean to offend any particular celebrity. Furthermore, such participation does have value. My critical note comes from an overwhelming sense of urgency, not being satisfied with typical support.]

Our Governor would not have any priorities that were higher than saving Mother Earth, ending our wars which guarantee the demise of indigenous people everywhere.

The Governor of California wields an enormous amount of power respecting BOYCOTTS, as leader of the Regents of California. And there has never been a Governor of California in the state’s history, never a governor of any state in the union, who was willing to pinpoint exactly what atrocities were being perpetrated by what corporations. Certainly, there has never been an executive anywhere who has been interested in walking the public through HOW to apply pressure on other politicians who are reluctant to do the right thing. [It shouldn't be limited to what's embraced at present routinely, exclusively.]

This article was written, in part, because people in TOSCA’s quarter do not want to see additional documentation, environmentally damaging travel (for conferences) and/or further calls for people to be on board for ANY LARGE SOCIETAL/ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE… which does not include following some kind of new paradigm for change.

Petitions and discussions and the like are necessary at times. But what we’re going to have to face up to YESTERDAY is the fact that there needs to be a legal, non-violent revolution in the U.S. [Pause.] A revolution. And not a revolution that proceeds at an arthritic snail’s pace.

Blessings in solidarity,
Ricardo Bueyhombre
831-688-8038 in Aptos, California at any hour
tosca.2010@yahoo.com
P.S. If you click on my biography, you’ll note my experience with speaking out on behalf of the indigenous people of Bolivia vis-a-vis water rights. If you watch the 7′ video of my son, just before authorities from the Bechtel International Center of Stanford University escorted him off of campus for calling a spade a spade… perhaps you’ll get WHY we need to move in solidarity with a singular coalition which occupies high office. It is too easy for the powers that be to remove (or marginalize) people like me, my son and each and every person connected with, say, Amazon Watch… if advances start to break threatening ground. We want to circumvent their controls.