KERRY KENNEDY ADDRESSES U.N. PRESS CONFERENCE (MaximsNews Network)
Kerry Kennedy, founder of the Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Memorial Centre for Human Rights, addresses a press conference on the upcoming conference on "Innovative Policies to Advance Security Governance," organized by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute at U.N. headquarters in New York. 22 January 2009. UN Photo# 290939/Mark Garten
KERRY KENNEDY: "SHeroes," Hope to Action: One Million Women for a Greener Planet: 07/03/2009 (MaximsNews Network)
UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / 07 March 2009 -- Women and men across the world stand up to government repression and face imprisonment, torture and death simply for demanding that the air they breathe, the water they drink, and the earth they sow are protected. These are today’s "SHeroes". They are people like:
|
Marties Vitug, the 30-year-old Filipina journalist who uncovered sweetheart deals between logging companies and local officials that permitted illegal logging in the rain forests. After her exposé, anonymous callers threatened her life. Still, she continued to report the truth. Because of her work along with local environmental activists, loggers have abandoned the island of Palawan, which now hosts one of the most pristine rain forests in the world and is a Mecca for ecotourism. They are people like the American photographer arrested in Illinois after she stood on a public road and snapped pictures of a hog farm, an action that the hog industry has managed to render illegal so as to stop the documentation of the devastating impact of their sewage on the land and water supply. |
|
If a corporation like Smithfield can overrun the first amendment in the land of Lincoln, just think about what they can do in a place like Belize.
They are people like Sharon Mottola, the Belize zoo keeper who was threatened with retribution for speaking out against local politicians who made a backroom deal with the Canadian electric company, Fortis, under which Fortis will construct a 30 million dollar dam over a creek, that will destroy the wildest place left in Central America – the only breeding ground of the scarlet macaw, and an important breeding ground for tapirs, and jaguars.
But we must stop thinking of environmental activism as solely saving animal species, and realize that what’s at stake here is human survival.
Under Fortis, the entire population of Belize is mortgaging their future and destroying their land, all to pay substantially higher electric bills than the rate paid to Fortis in Canada, where government controls forbid this type of price gauging.
In Belize as elsewhere, this is the result of the collusion of corrupt politicians in sweetheart deals with a multinational corporation in a faltering democracy.
Because of Mottolla’s activism, the government of Belize threatened to place a municipal waste dump on the property adjoining her zoo. She was constantly harassed, and repeatedly attacked by the government newspaper.
Undeterred when a government official menaced Mottolla to “…be careful. You will get really burned. If I were you I’d buy asbestos underwear…,” Mottolla replied, “I don’t were underwear. And I’m not going stop speaking out.”
Too often, the only hope rests in activists like Sharon and her sisters worldwide who share the quest for environmental protection.
With few arrows in their quivers beyond their heart, nerve, and sinew to support them, they take on long john silver, Monsanto, Smithfield, Unocal.
Today you, as a growing movement of women for a greener planet, can add important bows to their quivers.
That’s why I am proud to join one million sisters at Hope to Action to take action to protect our planet, one person at a time.
There are many actions we can take, but remember – if anyone asks what’s the one thing you can do to make a difference on the environment or human rights – as my brother, Robert Kennedy Jr., says, “It’s better to change a politician than a light bulb.”
Labels: Kerry Kennedy, Robert Kennedy Jr., Marties Vitug, Palawan, Hope to Action, Sharon Mottolla, Fortis, Smithfield, Monsanto, Smithfield, Unocal, Belize, RFK Speak Truth Power, UNICRI Conference on Terrorism, Bush Administration, Global War on Terror, Comprehensive Convention against Terrorism, Matthew Alexander put it in his book How to Break a Terrorist, Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, Barak Obama, Bertrand Russell, Ahmadinejad, Robert F Kennedy Center for Human Rights, Speak Truth to Power, Timothy McVeigh, Osama bin Laden, On Being Catholic Now, Robert F. Kennedy for Justice and Human Rights, Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who are Changing our World, United Nations, MaximsNews Network, U.N., MaximsNews.tv, Video MaximsNews YouTube,
