EcoWellness: Race and hazardous waste
By Christine dell’amore, UPI
March 22, 2007

WASHINGTON, March 22 (UPI) — Twenty years after a landmark study proved a link between hazardous-waste sites and minority neighborhoods, the phenomenon has only settled deeper into U.S. towns and cities, a new report says.

What’s more, the racial differences are much greater than previously thought, according to “Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty,” a preliminary anniversary report released today. The full report will be made public on April 22, Earth Day.

The updated report found more than 9 million Americans live in neighborhoods within about 2 miles of the 413 commercial …

Supporting Genocide In West Papua
from www.heathlander.wordpress.com
March 4, 2007

note by Ahni - the following is slightly skimmed-down version of the original article, which can be found here.

“Since Indonesia gained control of West Papua, the West Papuan people have suffered persistent and horrible abuses at the hands of the government. The Indonesian military and security forces have engaged in widespread violence and extrajudicial killings in West Papua. They have subjected Papuan men and women to acts of torture, disappearance, rape, and sexual violence, thus causing serious bodily and mental harm. Systematic resource exploitation, the destruction of Papuan resources and …

Passport restrictions fly in face of tradition
By Doug Cuthand, January 29, 2007
The Leader-Post

A new chapter began this week in Canada’s relationship with the United States with new American regulations that require passports for air passengers entering the U.S. All non-Americans need a passport to enter the U.S. and Americans require one to re-enter.

This is not going over well in Indian Country and for good reason. The border has been in place only for about 200 years and it’s totally arbitrary when it comes to our traditional national boundaries.

In Saskatchewan, members of the Dakota Nation sought asylum in Canada following …

by Josh Wolf, independent journalist in prison for over 170 days for refusing to comply with a Federal Grand Jury
[More about his case at www.joshwolf.net]

It’s been purported that not a single prisoner will admit they are guilty. My experience at the FDC completely contradicts this assertion. In fact, very few of the people I’ve spoken to have professed to be innocent. This does not mean that our justice system is reasonable or effective; almost everyone’s story demonstrates how brutal and disturbing the sentences handed out by the Feds really are. Amongst all of these victims of state oppression, the …

It boggles my mind how a few students going to Bolivia makes the United States into a hero for indigenous People…

The United States continues to support the aspirations of the world’s more than 370 million indigenous people, who historically have been largely excluded from positions of influence in both politics and industry in their own countries.

In Bolivia, for example, U.S. programs have trained nearly 4,500 representatives of indigenous groups on the importance of democracy and the rule of law, and produced democracy-oriented radio programs in widely understood indigenous languages.

A State Department-sponsored program for the second consecutive year recently brought 15

…

(Duckwater — February 2007) The Western Shoshone Nation responds to the threat of another explosion at the Nevada Test Site code named “Divine Strake” intended to simulate effects of a nuclear weapon. The Western Shoshone government calls attention to the legacy of adverse health impacts and disproportionate burden of risk borne by the people downwind. The US has conducted more than 1000 explosions for development of weapons of mass destruction within the boundaries of the Western Shoshone Nation identified by the Treaty of Ruby Valley in 1863, killing thousands of Americans and Western Shoshone nationals alike. The potential for …

Here are a few recent stories regarding NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), followed by some background information.

NAFTA Toll-Highway Destroying Prime Agricultural Land
excerpt from the article: The Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) is its official name. Critics call it the NAFTA Highway. The publicized TTC is being treated as a regional story because of the disruption to Texas farmers and other property owners.

The TTC is no ordinary highway. The toll road would be four football fields wide. It includes separate lanes (up to six for automobiles, four for large trucks), plus tracks for freight trains, separate tracks for high-speed and …

What the U.S. Social Forum Means to Me.
by Alice Lovelace - Atlanta, Georgia

Imagine a world where everyone has what they need, where people make the decisions that matter and where government truly is for and by the people. Now, imagine we are working, talking, debating and planning to bring that world into being.

This is the World Social Forum (WSF) process, an open space where tens of thousands gather together to imagine and then work to realize that “other” world. Over the years, the World Social Forum has helped to advance fundamental regime change throughout the world. In places …

By Ghida Fakhry in Nevada - For more than 30 years, Carrie Dann, a native Shoshone American, has been fighting the US government for her people’s rights to their ancestral land.

Dann accuses the US government of ignoring her case in favour of multi-national corporations whose interests she says lie in their bottom lines and not in the environment.

Since the dispute began 30 years ago, US armed federal agents have seized hundreds of horses from Dann’s Crescent Valley ranch in Nevada, leaving her with only a few cows.

The US government’s actions were a response to Dann’s refusal to pay …

by: Valerie Taliman / Indian Country Today

NEW YORK - The stage is set for a showdown at the United Nations between countries favoring adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples and a handful of nations - including the United States - that are actively opposing it.

The U.N. General Assembly, comprised of 191 nation states, is expected to adopt the long-awaited declaration within the next two weeks, pending political roadblocks that may delay its passage.

The nations opposing the declaration are the United States, Canada, Australia, Russia and New Zealand - countries with large populations of indigenous …