[News] Galeano: Message to the Summit on Mother Earth

[Anti-Imperialist News]

MESSAGE TO THE SUMMMIT ON MOTHER EARTH
Eduardo Galeano


“Human rights and the rights of nature are two names for the same dignity”

Regretably, I will not be able to be with you.  A 
branch hit my tire and it keeps me from traveling.

But I would like to join your gathering, our 
gathering,  in some way, because I have little 
choice but to do the very little that I can and 
not the very much that I would like to do.

And because I am with you without being there, at 
least I can send you these words.

I want to tell you that hopefully we will do 
everything possible, as well as the impossible, 
so that the Summit of The Mother Earth be a step 
towards the collective expression of the peoples 
who do not dictate world politics, but who suffer from it.

I hope we are capable of moving ahead with the 
two initiatives of compañero Evo, The World Court 
of Climatic Justice and the World Referendum, 
against the world system of power founded on war 
and waste, which does not respect human life and 
puts a "for sale" sign on the riches of our Earth.

I hope we are capable of talking less and doing 
more. Grave damage has been done to us, and is 
still being done now; by the inflation of words 
that in Latin America is doing more damage than financial inflation.

Also, and above all, we are fed up with the 
hypocrisy of the rich countries that are leaving 
us without a planet while they give pompous 
speeches to cover up the rape they have committed.

There are those who say that hypocrisy is the tax 
vice pays to virtue. Others say that hypocrisy is 
the only proof of the existence of the infinite. 
And the speech-making of the so called 
"International Community," that club of bankers 
and war mongers, proves that both definitions are correct.

I want to celebrate, on the contrary, the 
strength of the truth that radiates from the 
words and silences born of the human communion 
with nature. And it is not by chance that this 
Summit of Mother Earth is taking place in 
Bolivia, this nation of nations that is 
rediscovering herself after two centuries of living lies.

Bolivia just celebrated the tenth anniversary of 
the people's victory in the war over water, when 
the people of Cochabamba were able to defeat the 
all too powerful company from California, which 
owned the water, thanks to a government that 
claimed to be Bolivian but was too generous with other people's goods.

That war over the water is one of the battles 
this land is fighting in defense of her natural 
resources, that is: in defense of her identity with nature.

There are voices of the past that speak to the future.

Bolivia is one of the nations of our continent 
where the indigenous cultures have been able to 
survive, and those voices now resound stronger 
than ever, in spite of the long periods of persecution and rejection.

The whole world, stunned as it is, walking like a 
blind man into a firefight, will have to listen 
to those voices. They teach us that we, the 
little humans, are part of nature, relatives of 
all who have legs, feet, wings or roots. The 
European conquest condemned for idolatry the 
indigenous who lived that communion, and because 
the people believed in it, they were whipped, beheaded or burned alive.

Since the times of the European Renaissance, 
nature has been turned in merchandise, or an 
obstacle to human progress. And up to the 
present, that rift between us and nature has 
persisted, to such an extent that there still are 
people of good will who are moved at seeing poor 
nature, so mistreated, so hurt, but still they see her from the outside.

The Indigenous cultures see nature from within. 
Seeing her... I see myself.  What I do against 
her, I do against myself. I find myself in her, 
my legs are also the path that they walk.

Let us celebrate then, this Summit of Mother 
Earth. And let us hope that the deaf hear: human 
rights and the rights of nature are two names for the same dignity.

 From Montevideo, Uruguay,  embraces fly.

______________________________________________

* The World Conference of The People on Climatic 
Change and The Rights of Mother Earth, convoked 
by Bolivian President Evo Morales, is happening in Cochabamba, Bolivia.



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