Friday, April 30, 2010

Oaxaca: Two dead and three missing after paramilitaries attack peaceful caravan

Two people are dead and three are still missing after a peaceful solidarity caravan was attacked by paramilitaries in Oaxaca, Mexico.

The caravan "came under fire" on Tuesday (April 27) "as it passed through La Sabana, a town controlled by UBISORT, a paramilitary organization that is allied with the ruling Institutional Revolution Party (PRI)," reports the freelance journalist Kristin Bricker.

"One young woman managed to make it to a hospital where she is being treated." In her initial report, the young woman, Monica Citlali Saniago Ortiz, said at least 15 people were wounded.

The caravan was accompanied by about 40 human rights defenders, international observers and two journalists.

The number of injured are still unclear, however, it has been confirmed that CACTUS member Beatriz Alberta Carino Trujillo and an international observer from Finland, Jyri Antero Jaakkola, were shot dead in the attack. The young woman, Monica Citlali Saniago Ortiz, was shot in the back. Three people are also missing, and it is feared that they have been captured by the paramilitaries.

At the time of the attack, the caravan was en route to the autonomous Triqui municipality of San Juan Copala witha fresh supply of food, water, clothing and other basic necessities.

The town has been closed off by a paramilitary blockade for the past 6 months, making it virtually impossible to leave or bring in supplies.

Kristin Bricker explains, "San Juan Copala declared itself autonomous following the 2006 uprising in Oaxaca, and the autonomous government declared itself adherent to the Zapatistas' Other Campaign. The autonomous municipality has been the target of paramilitary violence ever since. Countless San Juan Copala residents have fallen victim to paramilitary violence. The most prominent case was the execution of two young Triqui radio journalists. This past November, paramilitaries opened fire on San Juan Copala's town hall during a caravan that was traveling to San Juan Copala from San Salvador Atenco. UBISORT had put up a highway blockade to stop the caravan, which was comprised of People's Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) members. While the FPDT was trapped outside the town, paramilitaries attacked the town hall. They shot four children, killing one of them." The paramilitary group ultimately took control of the Municipality's offices.

They reamined there until just 7 weeks ago, when the "Independent Movement for Triqui Unification" (MULT-I) peacefully forced them out. It was, however, a sombre victory since the paramilitary blockade has continued to tie down the Municipality.

Since the initital attack in November, at least 17 indigenous Triquis have been murdered.

Concerning the recent attack, Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Freedom (VOCAL) have released a statement demanding "the government of the killer Ulises Ruiz put an end to all paramilitary attacks in the Triqui Region, and to the financing, provision of arms, and impunity enjoyed by these paramilitary groups in our state." They are also demanding "the immediate presentation of our disappeared comrades."

They are also calling on "the people of Oaxaca, Mexico, and the international community and different social organizations, collectives and groups to make a visible show of solidarity and support, demanding the live presentation of our disappeared brothers and punishment of the responsible people. We also ask that you demand an end to the conditions of violence imposed on the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala.

As a starting point, people should direct their attention to the Governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz Tel. +52 951 5015000 ext. 13005 Fax. +52 951 5015000 ext. 13018 Email. gobernador@oaxaca.gob.mx

Gulf Oil Spill Far Worse Than Officials, BP Admit, Says Independent Analyst

Close to 5,000 barrels of oil a day are pouring into the Gulf of Mexico following the destruction of an offshore oil platform last week, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Operator BP originally argued that the amount was far less (only 1,000 barrels or so), but today it concurred with the government's numbers.

Too bad they're both wrong, according to a group of independent analysts who are watching the spill via satellite and aerial data from their offices in West Virginia. They say the spill is far worse than either the company or the government has acknowledged so far.

Five thousand barrels a day is "a bare-bones limit," says John Amos, the president and founder of the nonprofit firm SkyTruth, which specializes in gathering and analyzing satellite and aerial data to promote environmental conservation.

Amos estimates that the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf is more like 40,000 barrels a day -- eight times the Coast Guard estimate, and 40 times what BP originally claimed. That would add up to about 12 million gallons of oil so far, making this spill worse than the 1989 wreck of the Exxon Valdez, which dumped 11 million gallons into Alaska's Prince William Sound -- one of the nation's worst environmental disasters. (NRDC is calling for a temporary halt to plans for new offshore drilling in light of the Gulf explosion. See update below on President Obama's response.)

Amos previously worked as a consulting geologist, "using satellite imagery as a global geologic tool," in his words, to locate natural resources for major oil and mining corporations. Now he assists advocacy organizations, government agencies, and academic researchers with data collection and analysis.

SkyTruth receives a bit of foundation funding, and it also partners with green groups in the United States and overseas on specific projects. Last year, when a Montara oil rig exploded in the Timor Sea off the northern coast of western Australia, SkyTruth tracked and documented the spill for a coalition of groups advocating for protected marine reserves in the area. That spill lasted for 10 weeks.

"On this Gulf spill, we're not officially partnered with anyone," Amos says. "We are doing what we think is the best thing we can do right now, hoping at some point groups will work with us to make it sustainable over the long haul." He's assisted by a technical volunteer and consultations with professional cohorts.

The Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, about 130 miles southeast of New Orleans, exploded and caught fire on April 20 and sank a week ago today. There were 126 people on board; 11 are missing and likely dead. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency today because of the spreading oil slick -- which is expected to reach the state's coast late tonight -- and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano called it a spill of "national significance."

SkyTruth has access to much of (but not all) the same data that the government and BP are using. It's publicly available from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the agency's Aqua satellite, as well as other sources, including aerial flights.

Based on a map released from a flyover on Wednesday and compared to "the last good satellite image that we got, from the afternoon of April 27," Amos believes that the slick covers about 4,400 square miles. Official estimates to date have put the slick at about 2,200 square miles.

So how did Amos calculate the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf?

"We saw a published statement by a BP executive that about 3 percent of the slick was about 100 microns thick, and that the rest was about one or two molecules thick," he says. "We took him at his word on the microns, but not on the rest," because to see an observable sheen of oil at sea, the petro-goo needs to be at least 1 micron thick, explains Amos.

"A molecule's thickness is measured in billionths of a meter. For a micron, we're talking millionths of a meter," he says. And over thousands of square miles of ocean surface, even millionths of a meter add up.

Using BP's estimate that 3 percent of the slick's area is 100 microns thick, and assessing its size at around 4,400 square miles, Amos calculated that this part of the spill contains about 9 million gallons of oil.

Allowing for the remaining 97 percent of the slick to be 1 micron thick (the minimum necessary for that visible shimmer), Amos estimates another 3 million gallons of oil.

Total: 12 million gallons of slick, give or take a couple hundred thousand, and more oil pouring into the ocean every day.

To make even a rough estimate, Amos used BP's higher-end figure of 100 microns. But the oil is actually much thicker in some parts of the visible spill, he says. Aerial imagery is showing "thick ropy strands of oil, oil that's much thicker than 1 micron," according to Amos. "That's floating froth of oil mixed with water and probably bacteria ... the sloppy thick end of an oil spill where it could be anywhere from a millimeter thick to centimeters thick."

Amos says he doesn't question the Coast Guard's sincerity -- just its data analysis. "They are swamped by the magnitude of this spill and their effort to control it, and stop it from doing worse damage," he says. "I don't blame them for not questioning the numbers they've been provided by others, or spending their precious resources just trying to come up with better number."

From the Coast Guard's perspective, Amos say, "It's just a heck of a lot of oil."

The Coast Guard has not responded to requests for comment.

As for how BP arrived at its initial, much lower estimate of 1,000 barrels per day, Amos says: "I hope it was based on some real thoughtful analysis. But I haven't seen any justification."

UPDATE 4/30/2010: In response to calls from NRDC and others for a halt to drilling expansion in light of the latest disaster, the White House said today that no new offshore oil drilling will take place until a full investigation into the Deepwater Horizon explosion is completed.

Image: Gulf oil spill, captured on April 25 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/MODIS Rapid Response Team

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Leonard Peltier to the climate conference attendees (Bolivia)

Monday, April 19, 2010 lpdoc.blogspot.com
My warmest regards to our host, Bolivian President
Evo Morales.

To Presidents Rafael Correa, Daniel Ortega, Hugo
Chavez, and other esteemed Heads of State;
national representatives; and all concerned
citizens in attendance at the People’s Conference
on Climate Change: I send warm greetings and thank
you for your participation.

Today, environmentalists are often portrayed as
marginal intellects and labeled “lunatic fringe,”
rather than progressive thinkers with the ability
to foresee the true cost of destructive corporate
practices. I applaud your intent to ignore your
detractors and admire your efforts to refine the
proposals from the Copenhagen meetings ­in
particular, towards the creation of a world
tribunal for climate issues and a global
referendum on environmental choices. I know the
calculus of this work is difficult to solve.
Listening to the voices of so many to create a
common solution is a unique and difficult
challenge, but also a special opportunity.
I offer prayers for your success.

My name is Leonard Peltier. I am a citizen of the
Dakota/Lakota and Anishinabe Nations of North
America. Like many of you, I am a tribal person.
As Aboriginal peoples, we have always struggled
to live in harmony with the Earth. We have
maintained our vigilance and bear witness to a
blatant disregard for our planet and sustainable
life ways. We’ve seen that the pursuit of
maximized profits through globalization,
privatization, and corporate personhood has
become a plague that destroys life. We know that
it is not only the land that suffers as a result
of these practices. The people most closely
associated with the Earth suffer first and most.

The enormous pressures of corporate profits have
intruded on our tribal lands, but also on our
ancient cultures ­even to the extent that many
Indigenous cultures have virtually disappeared.
Just as our relatives in the animal kingdom are
threatened, many more cultures are on the brink
of extinction.

In America, we are at ground zero of this war for
survival and most often have been left with no
mechanism to fight this globalization monster. On
those occasions when we are forced into a
defensive posture, we are disappeared, tortured,
killed, and imprisoned. I myself have served over
34 years in prison for resisting an invasion
intent on violating our treaties and stealing our
land for the precious resource of uranium. The
same desire for uranium has decimated and
poisoned the Diné Nation of Arizona and New
Mexico. The quest for land for dumping and hiding
the toxic waste from various nuclear processes
has caused a war to be waged on the Shoshone
people of Nevada, as well. These are just a few
examples of what “progress” has meant for our
peoples. As many can attest, the same struggle is
occurring throughout Central and South America.
While my defense of my tribal lands made me a
political prisoner, I know I’m not at all unique.
This struggle has created countless other
prisoners of conscience­ not to mention prisoners
of poor health and loss of life way, as well as
victims of guilt and rage.

To live as we were meant to live is our first
right. To live free of the fear of forced
removal, destroyed homelands, poisoned water, and
loss of habitat, food sources, and our overall
life way is our righteous demand. We, therefore,
continue our struggle to survive in the face of
those who deny climate change and refuse to curb
corporate powers.

It is time for all our voices to be heard.

It is time we all listen, too­ or else our
collective Mother will dramatically and forcefully
unstop our ears.

The Indigenous Peoples have been the keepers of
knowledge and wisdom­ long ago bringing forth
foods, medicines, and other products from which
the world population still benefits. The loss of
our lands and cultures, therefore, is a loss for
the entire human family. We are all citizens of
Earth and this planet is our only home. What
affects one, affects us all. We are all
interconnected and our fates are intertwined.

We can indefinitely survive here, but only if we
work together to adopt sustainable models for
living responsibly. We cannot continue to destroy
Creator’s work, or allow others to do so, in the
belief that there will be no consequences.

I pray for a new age­ a new understanding,
consciousness, and way of being­ a new path for all
the peoples of the world.

Aho! Mitakuye Oyasin!

(Thank you to all my relations. We are all related.)

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,



Leonard Peltier 89637-132
USP-Lewisburg
US Penitentiary
PO Box 1000
Lewisburg, PA 17837
USA

Monday, April 12, 2010

Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again

April 11, 2010

Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again

As a retired clinical psychologist, Clark Martin was well acquainted with traditional treatments for depression, but his own case seemed untreatable as he struggled through chemotherapy and other grueling regimens for kidney cancer. Counseling seemed futile to him. So did the antidepressant pills he tried.

Nothing had any lasting effect until, at the age of 65, he had his first psychedelic experience. He left his home in Vancouver, Wash., to take part in an experiment at Johns Hopkins medical school involving psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient found in certain mushrooms.

Scientists are taking a new look at hallucinogens, which became taboo among regulators after enthusiasts like Timothy Leary promoted them in the 1960s with the slogan “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Now, using rigorous protocols and safeguards, scientists have won permission to study once again the drugs’ potential for treating mental problems and illuminating the nature of consciousness.

After taking the hallucinogen, Dr. Martin put on an eye mask and headphones, and lay on a couch listening to classical music as he contemplated the universe.

“All of a sudden, everything familiar started evaporating,” he recalled. “Imagine you fall off a boat out in the open ocean, and you turn around, and the boat is gone. And then the water’s gone. And then you’re gone.”

Today, more than a year later, Dr. Martin credits that six-hour experience with helping him overcome his depression and profoundly transforming his relationships with his daughter and friends. He ranks it among the most meaningful events of his life, which makes him a fairly typical member of a growing club of experimental subjects.

Researchers from around the world are gathering this week in San Jose, Calif., for the largest conference on psychedelic science held in the United States in four decades. They plan to discuss studies of psilocybin and other psychedelics for treating depression in cancer patients, obsessive-compulsive disorder, end-of-life anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction to drugs or alcohol.

The results so far are encouraging but also preliminary, and researchers caution against reading too much into these small-scale studies. They do not want to repeat the mistakes of the 1960s, when some scientists-turned-evangelists exaggerated their understanding of the drugs’ risks and benefits.

Because reactions to hallucinogens can vary so much depending on the setting, experimenters and review boards have developed guidelines to set up a comfortable environment with expert monitors in the room to deal with adverse reactions. They have established standard protocols so that the drugs’ effects can be gauged more accurately, and they have also directly observed the drugs’ effects by scanning the brains of people under the influence of hallucinogens.

Scientists are especially intrigued by the similarities between hallucinogenic experiences and the life-changing revelations reported throughout history by religious mystics and those who meditate. These similarities have been identified in neural imaging studies conducted by Swiss researchers and in experiments led by Roland Griffiths, a professor of behavioral biology at Johns Hopkins.

In one of Dr. Griffiths’s first studies, involving 36 people with no serious physical or emotional problems, he and colleagues found that psilocybin could induce what the experimental subjects described as a profound spiritual experience with lasting positive effects for most of them. None had had any previous experience with hallucinogens, and none were even sure what drug was being administered.

To make the experiment double-blind, neither the subjects nor the two experts monitoring them knew whether the subjects were receiving a placebo, psilocybin or another drug like Ritalin, nicotine, caffeine or an amphetamine. Although veterans of the ’60s psychedelic culture may have a hard time believing it, Dr. Griffiths said that even the monitors sometimes could not tell from the reactions whether the person had taken psilocybin or Ritalin.

The monitors sometimes had to console people through periods of anxiety, Dr. Griffiths said, but these were generally short-lived, and none of the people reported any serious negative effects. In a survey conducted two months later, the people who received psilocybin reported significantly more improvements in their general feelings and behavior than did the members of the control group.

The findings were repeated in another follow-up survey, taken 14 months after the experiment. At that point most of the psilocybin subjects once again expressed more satisfaction with their lives and rated the experience as one of the five most meaningful events of their lives.

Since that study, which was published in 2008, Dr. Griffiths and his colleagues have gone on to give psilocybin to people dealing with cancer and depression, like Dr. Martin, the retired psychologist from Vancouver. Dr. Martin’s experience is fairly typical, Dr. Griffiths said: an improved outlook on life after an experience in which the boundaries between the self and others disappear.

In interviews, Dr. Martin and other subjects described their egos and bodies vanishing as they felt part of some larger state of consciousness in which their personal worries and insecurities vanished. They found themselves reviewing past relationships with lovers and relatives with a new sense of empathy.

“It was a whole personality shift for me,” Dr. Martin said. “I wasn’t any longer attached to my performance and trying to control things. I could see that the really good things in life will happen if you just show up and share your natural enthusiasms with people. You have a feeling of attunement with other people.”

The subjects’ reports mirrored so closely the accounts of religious mystical experiences, Dr. Griffiths said, that it seems likely the human brain is wired to undergo these “unitive” experiences, perhaps because of some evolutionary advantage.

“This feeling that we’re all in it together may have benefited communities by encouraging reciprocal generosity,” Dr. Griffiths said. “On the other hand, universal love isn’t always adaptive, either.”

Although federal regulators have resumed granting approval for controlled experiments with psychedelics, there has been little public money granted for the research, which is being conducted at Hopkins, the University of Arizona; Harvard; New York University; the University of California, Los Angeles; and other places.

The work has been supported by nonprofit groups like the Heffter Research Institute and MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

“There’s this coming together of science and spirituality,” said Rick Doblin, the executive director of MAPS. “We’re hoping that the mainstream and the psychedelic community can meet in the middle and avoid another culture war. Thanks to changes over the last 40 years in the social acceptance of the hospice movement and yoga and meditation, our culture is much more receptive now, and we’re showing that these drugs can provide benefits that current treatments can’t.”

Researchers are reporting preliminary success in using psilocybin to ease the anxiety of patients with terminal illnesses. Dr. Charles S. Grob, a psychiatrist who is involved in an experiment at U.C.L.A., describes it as “existential medicine” that helps dying people overcome fear, panic and depression.

“Under the influences of hallucinogens,” Dr. Grob writes, “individuals transcend their primary identification with their bodies and experience ego-free states before the time of their actual physical demise, and return with a new perspective and profound acceptance of the life constant: change.”