We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Propaganda as “News”: Ecuador Sells out Indigenous & the Environment to China

Click here to access article by Stansfield Smith from Wrong Kind of Green.

In a world of lies most of which have sources connected with the Empire and serving the Empire's many world interests, this author reports on the participation and collusion of a "human rights" organization and various Empire media corporations to spread disinformation about Ecuador and China, two among the many targets of Empire directors.

Complicating the economic and political situation in Ecuador is that there is a fundamental split between development interests within the country and those who are against further exploitation of the environment via mining and oil developments. Added to this are declining revenues from Ecuador's oil industry which has put a crimp in the government's budget for social services. Although it is likely that this split is being aggravated by Empire sources who want to punish Correa and major corporations who lust after Ecuador's resources, there is a legitimate opposition. This author does not seem to recognize the latter.
Why do we repeatedly see dishonest news articles about President Correa sacrificing the environment and the indigenous to China’s thirst for oil? This has even developed into an anti-Correa campaign by some US NGOs such as Amazon Watch, which is sullying its well-deserved reputation as a leader in the struggle to make Chevron pay for its environmental crimes in Ecuador.