Tag Archive for 'Philippines'Page 3 of 4

11
Jun

Indigenous People and Satellite technology

For as long as Indigenous People have been defending themselves from the encroachment of modern civilization, there has been a steady debate regarding the so-called need for indigenous people to modernize themselves, “lest perish by the sheer weight of their own irrelevance.”

We can talk more about this another day. For now here are a couple recent stories about how technology, specifically satellite imaging, is being used to assist indigenous people… (I am actually hearing about the utilization of satellite technology for this ends. See my post Protecting Shipibo Territory for another example.)

While in the San Fransisco area last month, Chief Almir Surui of the Surui People paid a visit to Google, asking them for help in obtaining high-quality satellite imagery so his people can “monitor loggers and miners, who have no legal right to operate on the tribe’s …

Published on
June 11, 2007
  0 Comments 1,012 views

17
Mar

On Colonial Sovereignty

Colonial Sovereignty - November 2, 2006
by Michael Lujan Bevacqua (and Jodi Blanco?)
http://minagahet.blogspot.com

According to Peter Fitzpatrick, the law becomes the curious fetish of the colonies. From the perspective of the colonizer, a sort of sudden sovereignty emerges at the moments of contact with a “new” world which cannot readily be accounted for in his current imagination. As he bumps up against this “new” gap in the symbolic network, which is never truly a gap, but only the appearance of one, sovereignty erupts as the ability to map not just this new land, but also himself. The double gesture which makes the term “sovereignty” appropriate to this moment is that this new land is filled through a brutal emptying of its content, the production of terra nullius, and at the same time is a self-determining process, whereby the subject creates authority and transparency by virtue of its recognition and the knowledge …

Published on
March 17, 2007
  0 Comments 862 views

04
Mar

Philippines - Tribal Folks Demand they be consulted

Tribal Folks Demand Right to be Consulted over Mining Claims
BY ACE ALEGRE
Contributed to Bulatlat

Learning from past transgressions on their rights by government agencies and private corporations made tribal folks more aware of their rights. Indigenous peoples are pushing that they be consulted first before projects start in their communities.

BAGUIO CITY (246 kms. north of Manila) Learning from past transgressions on their rights by government agencies and private corporations made tribal folks more aware of their rights. Indigenous peoples are pushing that they be consulted first before projects start in their communities.

“We can be the best partners in development provided we participate and get involved in the process,” Kalinga tribal folks said during a recently-held public consultation held at Davidson Hotel in Tabuk, the capital town of Kalinga province, home of the fiercest warriors who fought and stopped the World Bank-funded Chico River Dam Project in the 70’s.

Jointly sponsored by …

Published on
March 4, 2007
  0 Comments 841 views

26
Jan

Philippines: Mining firm eyes Canadian tribe as model for development

KORONADAL CITY — A major mining company in Mindanao has set as example an indigenous community in Canada to further entice local tribal communities to support its huge copper and gold venture.

Rolando Doria, Sagittarius Mines Inc. project coordinator, cited the experience of aboriginal group Manitoba in dealing with industrial development in their area.

Sagittarius, now 62.5 percent owned by global mining player Xstrata Queensland Limited or Xstrata Copper, is eyeing world-class mineral deposits in the towns of Tampakan in South Cotabato, Columbio in Sultan and Kiblawan in Davao del Sur.

Doria said building long-term partnership between communities and industry is a practical way to alleviate poverty and spur development in the countryside.

His office released a statement recently that quoted Don Clark, who represents the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Secretariat based in Portage, La Prairie in Canada, apparently to inspire local tribal communities living in and near the Tampakan project site.

Clark, a tribal …

Published on
January 26, 2007
  2 Comments 1,552 views

10
Jan

15 Audio Shows: A look back at 2006 and a look ahead to 2007

The audio on this page was part of a special 12-hour New Year’s Day broadcast on CKUT 90.3FM in Montreal. The shows combined are a look back at the resistance of local and global social justice movements in 2006, and a look ahead to the struggles to come in 2007.

In the audio player to the right you can listen to 16 of the 28 shows. If you want to listen to the rest, please head over to this page on the CKUT blog

Thanks to Jaggi for sending this out.

A look back at 2006 and a look ahead to 2007

Interview with Aarti Shahani, organizer with Families for Freedom in New York City
Families for Freedom is a New York-based multi-ethnic defense network by and for immigrants facing and fighting deportation. Aarti, who herself has fought against the detention and deportation …

Published on
January 10, 2007
  0 Comments 1,172 views

12
Nov

Phillipines: Indicting the Arroyo regime

In simple rites held under historically significant circumstances, the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal: Second Session on the Philippines was convened in the Hague, the Netherlands last October 30, upon the appeal of Philippine human rights and people’s organizations. The first session on the Philippines held twenty six years ago in 1980, in Antwerp, Belgium had indicted the United States-backed Marcos dictatorship of grave crimes against the Filipino people.

The government of Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has reacted to the filing of charges by victims of grievous human rights violations with the dismissive remark of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, a former military general, that this is again the handiwork of the “leftists” and “militants,” with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) as the “brains”. Mr. Ermita concludes that this legal action is biased and underhanded, part and parcel of the general plan to “topple the government and establish communist rule”. …

Published on
November 12, 2006
  0 Comments 914 views

05
Nov

Phillipines: Indigenous people speak up on ancestral domain

THE Indigenous People (IP) of Mindanao, represented by Panagtagbo Mindanao secretary general Datu Victorino Migketay Saway, gave their official support to the ancestral domain claim of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) during a conference Saturday

The government is negotiating peace with the MILF, which is fighting the past three decades for the establishment of a strict Islamic state in Mindanao. One of the three major aspects of the talks is the issue on ancestral domain.

Ancestral domain refers to the MILF demand for territory that will constitute a Muslim homeland. It is the single most important issue in the peace negotiations before the rebel group can reach a political settlement.

The IP’s position paper, signed on July 24, states that the IPs strongly support the peace talks on ancestral domain and that the peace agreement that will be signed in the future will not sever peaceful relationships between the …

Published on
November 5, 2006
  0 Comments 1,041 views

Eight Mayan Women

Eight Mayan Women is a story of continued resistance to the Canadian mining company Goldcorp.

For the past three years the company has been extracting gold and silver in the municipality of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, Guatemala. The people of San Miguel have been opposed the operation, primarily out of a concern that it is destroying the environment and draining the region of its water. Many also say they were deceived and forced into selling their lands, and that …


Underreported Struggles #20, November 2008

In the month’s Underreported Struggles: Talisman decides to ignore warning from the Achuar to “get out now”; A spontaneous tribal uprising forms in West Bengal; Vedanta Resources gets chased away by more than …


I Am A Defender of the Rainforest

Known as ‘Soy defensor de la selva’ in Spanish, I am a Defender of the Rainforest is an award-winning documentary that was filmed, edited, and directed by members of the Sarayaku community in southern Ecuador.

The film shows how the …


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