An annual thought.

Although, in Eduardo Galeano’s words, January the first is not the first day of the year for the Mayans, Jews, Arabs, Chinese and many other inhabitants of this world[1], this day is usually a phase of balance for many.

We revise the mistakes made, we establish new objectives and try and refresh our values, blow the dust from them, to start up a new year with our energy renewed.

If we think of all the issues pointed out in these awareness newsletters throughout the year, they all aim to the same call of attention, a scream for a better world, a future where we do not own the land, but protect it and live like simple passengers through nature.

We have got global communication in our favor, the possibility of sharing our experiences of change with people from all around the world who share our values. If we are to be protectors of our land, global communication allows us to stay put and get informed on real environmental trouble, which traditional media seems not to care.

This excellent video, “Man” by Steve Cutts, summarizes what happened while we were worrying about sustaining our routines, false pillars of our sense of security in this world.

“It is Latin America, the region of the open veins. Since its discovery until today, everything has always transmuted into European capital or, later, Northamerican, and as such was and is accumulated in distant centers of power. Everything: the soil, its fruits and its mineral-rich depths, the people and their ability to work and consume, natural resources and human resources. The mode of production and the class structure of each site have been successively determined from outside, for their incorporation in the universal gear of capitalism.

(…) We lost, others gained. But it happens that those who won, won because others lost: the history of Latin American’s underdevelopment integrates, as has been said, the history of the development of world’s capitalism. Our defeat was always implicit in the victory of other; our wealth has always generated our poverty by nourishing the prosperity of others.”[2]

What else can I desire for this new year than we all accept these facts as a common failure of all our species, and face together a vision of change?

“… We have held a silence quite similar to stupidity…”[3]

All the best!

Brian Longstaf.-

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