Message to the summmit on mother earth

Human rights and the rights of nature are two names for the same dignity

Eduardo Galeano

21/04/2010

Opinión

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Regretably, I will not be able to be with you. A branch hit my tire and it keeps me from traveling.

But I would like to join your gathering, our gathering, in some way, because I have little choice but to do the very little that I can and not the very much that I would like to do.

And because I am with you without being there, at least I can send you these words.

I want to tell you that hopefully we will do everything possible, as well as the impossible, so that the Summit of The Mother Earth be a step towards the collective expression of the peoples who do not dictate world politics, but who suffer from it.

I hope we are capable of moving ahead with the two initiatives of compañero Evo, The World Court of Climatic Justice and the World Referendum, against the world system of power founded on war and waste, which does not respect human life and puts a "for sale" sign on the riches of our Earth.

I hope we are capable of talking less and doing more. Grave damage has been done to us, and is still being done now; by the inflation of words that in Latin America is doing more damage than financial inflation.

Also, and above all, we are fed up with the hypocrisy of the rich countries that are leaving us without a planet while they give pompous speeches to cover up the rape they have committed.

There are those who say that hypocrisy is the tax vice pays to virtue. Others say that hypocrisy is the only proof of the existence of the infinite. And the speech-making of the so called "International Community," that club of bankers and war mongers, proves that both definitions are correct.

I want to celebrate, on the contrary, the strength of the truth that radiates from the words and silences born of the human communion with nature. And it is not by chance that this Summit of Mother Earth is taking place in Bolivia, this nation of nations that is rediscovering herself after two centuries of living lies.

Bolivia just celebrated the tenth anniversary of the people's victory in the war over water, when the people of Cochabamba were able to defeat the all too powerful company from California, which owned the water, thanks to a government that claimed to be Bolivian but was too generous with other people's goods.

That war over the water is one of the battles this land is fighting in defense of her natural resources, that is: in defense of her identity with nature.

There are voices of the past that speak to the future.

Bolivia is one of the nations of our continent where the indigenous cultures have been able to survive, and those voices now resound stronger than ever, in spite of the long periods of persecution and rejection.

The whole world, stunned as it is, walking like a blind man into a firefight, will have to listen to those voices. They teach us that we, the little humans, are part of nature, relatives of all who have legs, feet, wings or roots. The European conquest condemned for idolatry the indigenous who lived that communion, and because the people believed in it, they were whipped, beheaded or burned alive.

Since the times of the European Renaissance, nature has been turned in merchandise, or an obstacle to human progress. And up to the present, that rift between us and nature has persisted, to such an extent that there still are people of good will who are moved at seeing poor nature, so mistreated, so hurt, but still they see her from the outside.

The Indigenous cultures see nature from within. Seeing her... I see myself. What I do against her, I do against myself. I find myself in her, my legs are also the path that they walk.

Let us celebrate then, this Summit of Mother Earth. And let us hope that the deaf hear: human rights and the rights of nature are two names for the same dignity.

From Montevideo, Uruguay, embraces fly.

* The World Conference of The People on Climatic Change and The Rights of Mother Earth, convoked by Bolivian President Evo Morales, is happening in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Free translation from the Spanish sent by Virtin Red Informativa, done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/140841?language=en