Comment Archive:
Thursday 1st June 2006
Pascua Lama
"In the Valle de San Felix, the purest water in Chile runs from two rivers, fed by two glaciers. Indigenous farmers use the water, there is no unemployment, and they provide the second largest source of income for the area. Under the glaciers has been found a huge deposit of gold, silver and other minerals. To get at these, it would be necessary to break and destroy the glaciers - something never conceived of in the history of the world - and to make two huge holes, each as big as a whole mountain: one for extraction and one for the mine's rubbish tip."
"The project is called PASCUA LAMA. The company is called Barrick Gold. The operation is planned by a multi-national company (one of whose members is George Bush Senior). The Chilean Government has approved the project to start this year, 2006. The only reason it hasn't started yet is because the farmers have got a temporary stay of execution. If the glaciers are destroyed, they will not just destroy the source of specially pure water, but they will permanently contaminate the two rivers so they will never again be fit for human or animal consumption because of the use of cyanide and sulphuric acid in the extraction process. Every last gramme of gold will go abroad to the multi-national company and not one single gramme will be left with the people whose land it is. They will only be left with the poisoned water and the resulting illnesses."
"The farmers have been fighting a long time for their land, but have been forbidden to make a TV appeal by a ban from the Ministry of the Interior. Their only hope now of putting brakes on this project is to get help from international justice. The world must know what is happening in Chile."
The above was contained in an email that I received from a friend last month. I must admit my first reaction was "oh God, yet another email hoax" and hence I diligently started searching on-line to find proof of my suspicions. It’ll come as a shock to some of you that I am so cynical, I know, but it is a sad fact that the harshness of this world has somewhat crushed the beautiful lily of my soul. And then cast it in armour plate.
That armour plate was soon bristling with anger however when, far from proving that the email was fake I discovered that it was, in fact, all true.
Despite my world weary cynicism I remain an idealist at heart and so I am still amazed to the core that such travesties as that proposed in Chile are still occurring. I’m less amazed that America is involved. Given my tirade against the US last month people might be forgiven for thinking I have a personal vendetta. When I read about stories like this I seriously consider acquiring one, I can tell you. What the hell is the American Presidency thinking? What the hell is the Chilean Government thinking? Because it’s damn obvious that both are involved right up to the overflow mark on their mean spirited Swiss bank accounts.
What disturbs me the most about the Chilean Government’s involvement is their blanket ban on the farmers of Valle de San Felix making a televised appeal to save not only their own land but their own livelihoods. Talk about stabbing your own people in the back and then stealing the blood to sell on elsewhere at a profit.
The big question is: what gives America the right to think it can just swan into another sovereign country, rape its landscape, remove its natural resources, leave it irreversibly polluted and its people destitute and then disappear without saying jack-sh*t to anybody let alone reimbursing the locals for what they’ve had stolen?
The answer can only be: the Chilean Government who are undoubtedly receiving a huge golden handshake for greasing America’s pole and allowing them cart blanche entry into their own country to shaft their own people ragged. I’m really not sure who are the bigger c*nts at the moment. As usual the locals - already massively poor compared to Western standards - are the ones who ultimately come off the worst. The only resource of value that these people have is their pure, natural water. Geez, this is a resource that should be highly valued by all of us not just the farmers of Valle de San Felix. But the politicians of Chile in an astounding show of democratic freedom have denied these people a right to voice their objections. What interesting bedfellows America is prepared to snuggle up with provided the price is right. I mean they’ll happily bomb other countries back into the dark ages for the sake of upholding the democratic ideal... and here they are kissing the *rse of another whose democratic record is appalling just to get their hands on cheap gold. Cheap to America of course. I mean it’s not their people who’ll be starving in years to come; not their landscape that will be permanently destroyed. And don’t give me all that crap about the amount of American investment being poured into this region because of the mine - none of that money will go where it’s needed. I doubt it’ll even see the light of day but will pass from one fat cat’s pocket into the silk lining of another’s.
The fact that Bush Senior is involved is the least surprising fact of all. What is it with the Bush family and their desperate need to acquire and stockpile wealth? The fact that Bush Junior is currently in charge (by intent at least) of the world’s richest, most voracious country should be a huge cause of concern to every right minded individual across the globe. This familial connection undoubtedly exerts unfair and highly questionable influence in the global business world and Pascua Lama is a case in point. This whole project has the words "unethical" stamped all over it. I’m saddened that it hasn’t received a bigger proportion of column inches in the national and world press. Is Rooney’s foot really more important in the bigger scheme of things? So much of the double dealing behind this project has occurred behind closed doors. It’s time it was brought out into the open. Here’s a chance for you to do your bit.
Download the Pascua Lama text file. Copy and paste it into an email. Add your own name and country of origin and then pass it onto to everybody in your address book. I don’t usually advocate such devices but this time I’m making an exception. The farmers of Valle de San Felix don’t have a voice. We do. Let’s use it.
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