Botswana’s hunting ban: Bushmen starve, trophy hunters carry on. Bushmen hunting with spear, for food. 'You talk to him and look into his eyes. And then he knows he must give you his strength so your children can live.’ © Philippe Clotuche/Survival Is this an April Fool or not? Go to the bottom to find out Botswana’s President Khama has banned all hunting nationwide, even for Bushmen who hunt to feed their families – but an exception is being made for trophy hunters paying up to $8,000 to hunt giraffes and zebras. Wealthy tourists are being invited to travel to Botswana to hunt big game on private ranches that have been exempted from the ban.
The ban openly flouts Botswana’s landmark high court ruling in 2006, which upheld the Bushmen’s right to hunt on their ancestral land in the reserve. Bushmen put on staged 'hunts' for tourists, but in reality have now been banned from hunting. © Botswana Tourism/www.botswanatourism.co.bw Hunting for food is now banned in Botswana, but trophy hunting by wealthy foreigners is allowed. © Public Domain.
Le mouvement écologiste, nouvel ennemi intérieur. "Adversaire radical de la destruction de la biosphère par le système capitaliste, donc de ce système, le mouvement écologiste en devient de fait l’adversaire principal. " Greenpeace a pénétré dans la centrale de Fessenheim mardi 18 mars. Une façon spectaculaire et non-violente de rappeler le danger que fait peser cette centrale - et d’autres -, ainsi que la nécessité d’engager une véritable transition énergétique.
Réponse du gouvernement, par le communiqué de Philippe Martin, ministre de l’Ecologie : en vertu de la Loi de programmation militaire, les installations nucléaires seront désormais considérées comme "zones nucléaires à accès réglementé". C’est le mot "militaire" qui ici importe. On ne saurait mieux dire que les centrales nucléaires ne sont pas, ne peuvent pas être, des usines comme les autres.
Mais un autre terme interpelle, dans ce communiqué : "renseignement amont". Source : Hervé Kempf pour Reporterre. Photo : Lesazas. The dark side of Brazil: Congressman receives Survival's ‘Racist of the year’ award. Deputy Luis Carlos Heinze made racist comments about Brazilian Indians, homosexuals and black people. © Survival A prominent Brazilian congressman has received Survival International’s ‘Racist of the Year’ award on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 21 March. During a public meeting last November, Deputy Luis Carlos Heinze made deeply offensive remarks against Brazilian Indians, homosexuals and black people.
Another congressman, Deputy Alceu Moreira, called for the eviction of tribal people attempting to reoccupy their ancestral lands. Deputy Heinze, the President of the Chamber of Deputies’ Agriculture Commission, said that ‘the government … is in bed with the blacks, the Indians, the gays, the lesbians, all the losers. Watch a video of their speeches. APIB, the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, described this in a letter to Brazil’s Minister of Justice, as ‘a deadly campaign of discrimination, racism and extermination of indigenous peoples’.
FIFA World Cup and rainforest plants: an Amazon Indian in London speaks out. Nixiwaka Yawanawá, an Amazon Indian in London, has described London as a city 'rich in history and filled with ghosts'. © Helen Saunders/Survival Nixiwaka Yawanawá, a Yawanawá Indian from the Brazilian Amazon, came to London to learn English and in 2013 joined Survival International to speak out for indigenous rights. Nixiwaka plans to raise awareness of the threats to Amazon Indians ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2014, as Brazil continues its onslaught against indigenous peoples’ rights to their land. The land of the Yawanawá – meaning ‘the People of the Wild Boar’ – is in Acre state, western Brazil, which is home to several tribes, including at least 6 that are uncontacted. Most rely on their lands to sustain themselves physically and culturally. All are threatened by a set of controversial draft bills, which would open up indigenous territories for mining, dams, army bases and other industrial projects. © Survival Nixiwaka also reveals: Notes to Editors: Share this news story.
The dark side of Brazil: Amazon Indian protests at World Cup trophy tour. Nixiwaka Yawanawá wore a T-shirt saying ‘BRAZIL: STOP DESTROYING INDIANS’, but Coca-Cola and FIFA prevented him from displaying the full message while standing next to the trophy. Nixiwaka Yawanawá, an Amazon Indian from Brazil, greeted the World Cup trophy on its arrival in London with a T-shirt saying ‘BRAZIL: STOP DESTROYING INDIANS’. Sporting his tribe’s headdress and facial decorations, Nixiwaka drew attention to Brazil’s attacks on the rights of its indigenous population. Coca-Cola and FIFA prevented Nixiwaka from displaying the full message on his T-Shirt while standing next to the trophy. In the run-up to the FIFA World Cup in June 2014, Nixiwaka and Survival International are highlighting that five hundred years after colonization, Brazilian Indians are still being killed for their lands and resources.
A proposed constitutional amendment would give Brazil’s Congress – heavily influenced by the anti-indigenous farming lobby – a say in the demarcation of indigenous lands. Tell Tetley parent Tata Global Beverages to comply with labour laws and upgrade the working and living conditions at its plantations. Recent reports disclose the horrific reality behind the Tetley tea empire -- workers on plantations in northern India, including children, are paid less than $3 a day to pick our tea. They toil from dawn until dusk, often spraying industrial pesticides with little protection, and going back to run-down homes that are open to rain and wind -- their only option. Researchers say that overflowing latrines have created “a network of cesspools” within the living area for employees and their families. But the massive corporation that owns Tetley, Tata Global Beverages, is refusing to take serious action.
Instead, it’s only committed to a weak, 15 year plan to boost the industry’s “sustainability” -- failing to acknowledge how bad conditions really are. We need to speak out and tell Tetley that the plan isn’t good enough, and 15 years is too long. Tell Tetley parent Tata Global Beverages to comply with labour laws and upgrade the working and living conditions at its plantations now. Nutmeg: A Spice with a Secret That Isn't So Nice. Editor’s note: This is a Care2 favorite, brought back by popular demand. It was originally published on December 9, 2012. Enjoy! It’s a spice whose aroma evokes warm memories of the holidays for many — baked into pumpkin pies, kneaded into sausages and sprinkled atop mugs of eggnog. It has a pungent, earthy and slightly sweet taste, making it versatile for use in a variety of foods and beverages. You can find it just about anywhere these days and especially this time of year. Until the 18th and 19th centuries, nutmeg was a lot harder to come by.
In the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) seized the islands from the Portuguese and moved to monopolize the trade with what Oliver Thring, writing for the Guardian, described as “paranoid brutality, banning the export of the trees, drenching every nutmeg in lime before shipping to render it infertile, and imposing the death penalty on anyone suspected of stealing, growing or selling nutmegs elsewhere.” Related Stories: Penan blockade continues, despite arrests. Penan children are among those blockading the Murum dam site. © Raymond Abin/Survival The Penan tribe’s blockade of the Murum dam is still continuing, despite the arrest of ten Penan, including two children, on November 7th. The Penan, in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, have been blockading the Murum dam site since September, demanding better compensation and more land. The dam will flood the traditional forest homes of Penan and Kenyah tribes. Eight Penan, including a boy of about 13, were arrested at the dam site and taken into police custody.
The impoundment (flooding) of the dam has begun, even though the homes in the Penan’s relocation site are not yet finished and the Penan have not been properly consulted about the resettlement process. Approximately 1,400 Penan have been told they must move to make way for the Murum dam, the first of 12 new dams that are planned across the state of Sarawak. Survival International has condemned the arrest and detention of Penan children. Actualités - Panama : le rapporteur de l'ONU appelle à la reconnaissance des droits des autochtones. Survival's Director attacks Commonwealth for undermining tribal rights.
Survival's Director Stephen Corry with Bushmen of the central Kalahari. © Survival In a hard-hitting speech to representatives of the Commonwealth this Thursday, Survival’s Director Stephen Corry will argue that countries such as the United Kingdom, Botswana and India are not concerned about the rights of tribal peoples and that the Commonwealth’s legacy of ‘dispossession and destruction’ for millions of tribal people is ‘constantly downplayed in the historical record’. Corry will highlight several examples of Commonwealth countries riding roughshod over tribal peoples’ rights: - the United Kingdom claims it has policies about tribal peoples to inform its aid work, but in fact does not. It has also sent over £1bn in aid to the Ethiopian government, but has failed to investigate grave human rights abuses of the tribes of the Lower Omo Valley; Other examples from Guyana, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Tanzania are outlined in the paper which accompanies Corry’s speech. © Bikash Khemka/Survival.
Warren Buffett: stop Posco's human rights disaster. Warren Buffett is investing in a massive steel plant that will force 22,0000 Indian villagers from their homes. Now, eight of the UN's top human rights officials have called for an immediate stop to the project -- and we need to make sure Buffett acts. If this project goes ahead, thousands of acres of forest will be flattened, and tens of thousands of poor Indian villagers will lose their homes and livelihoods. The company behind this disaster is Posco Steel, a South Korean giant, in which Warren Buffett is a major shareholder. If Buffett uses his financial might, he can push Posco Steel to address the UN's human rights concerns or stop the project. Sign the petition to tell Warren Buffett: stand up for human rights and stop Posco's steel plant disaster.