ECHOES OF SILENCE CAMPAIGNS
1. WATER NOT WAR! - TRANSFORM 9/11
Yes! to 10% military budgets/personnel to reforest watersheds/provide fresh water for all.
No! to War, Trident Renewal and Arms Sales:
Break the Elderly White Male monopoly: participative proportional representation for Women, Young People, Indigenous Nations and the Two Thirds World
Make 9/11 “ Celebrate Inter-Dependence Day”
Global warming is overwhelming us. It needs drastic action. Now! Not wars, Trident, and yet more arms sales. They waste the money, resources and creative lives necessary to ensure fresh water, for all. Require our employees, the politicians, to assign 10% of military budgets and personnel to re-green the world's watersheds, to give all life fresh water/prevent global water-wars.
The white male stranglehold blocks such sane initiatives. Break it! Require fully proportionate participative representation for the vast unheeded majority - women, young people, indigenous nations, the so-called '3rd World'. They carry the future within their very bodies and aspirations; they link us into the very rhythms of Earth itself; and the 'Two Thirds World' is where most people actually live.
Make 9/11 2008 'Celebrate Inter-Dependence Day'.
Join others to achieve these goals by:-
a) 'Customer' Power’: Stop being a meek 'consumer' - challenge companies that make both weapons and household goods through information, selective boycotts, disinvestment and other pressure campaigns. Demand Trade Justice.
b) Redeem Oil: Refuse new cars till they get at least 100 mpg; ban S(tupid) U(gly) V(icous) vehicles in cities; drive less; demand good public transport; fly little or less; buy Venezuelan gas (CITGO); promote sane alternatives to oil.
c) Stop the privatization of water. Join the Trade Justice movement. Become active ‘customers’ rather than passive ‘consumers’: laugh at advertising drivel; refuse/re-use plastic: drink tap water; challenge Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Philip Morris. etc. for their abuse of natural resources and labour, for their direct and indirect poisoning of people and planet.
d) Honor all the 9/11 victims, USA 2001 AND Chile 1973, when the democratically-elected Allende government was brutally destroyed with US connivance. Make it a day of hope, peace and freedom from fear by celebrating local and global Inter-Dependence.
e) Start by signing the 'Declaration of Inter-Dependence' below, personally, in workplace, worship community, college, etc.
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Seize the Time! Join Water! Not War. More information:
http://echoesofsilence.pbwiki.com - paulbaker2004@yahoo.com
Nicaragua 405 2563 - USA 603 764 9948
UK 01225 866181
A PEOPLE'S DECLARATION OF
INTER-DEPENDENCE
We, the People and Peoples of this One Earth,
Hold these Truths to be Self-evident:
That all persons –
children, women and men,
of every race, calling, creed, colour, condition and age –
are created equal.
There are no exceptions.
That they, collectively and individually, are endowed with
certain inalienable rights.
Among these are
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
That the fundamental sources and resources to achieve these rights:
peace without threat, force or weapons,
pure air,
fresh water,
an uncontaminated earth,
nourishing food,
good health,
creative education,
a secure home,
equitable justice,
local and global responsibility,
authentic, proportionate, representation
and worthwhile work –
also belong inalienably to them all, for ever.
That this inheritance - these resources truly without price -
can never be taken over or away by individuals, classes, corporations and/or states
for their own exclusive or majority use, exploitation, profit and control.
That it is the marvellous gift and responsibility of every human generation
to enjoy and utilize these resources with respect and delight,
in interdependence with all peoples and the whole multitude of species,
both animal and plant
with which we co-inhabit this tiny, fragile, and exquisitely wonderful planet
And, finally, to hand them on, enhanced,
to the children of our children’s children.
(Please e-sign (just write 'Yes to Inter-Dependence') and send to Echoes of Silence at paulbaker2004@yahoo.com - Thank you.)
oooOOOooo
Humanity’s abuse of oil is incinerating the planet, rivers are dying everywhere, water-wars have already begun.
As the primary instigator of this disastrous lifestyle, the Global North maintains itself by impoverishing other peoples - through rampant resource abuse, massive labour exploitation and systemic unjust trade. This global imbalance is permitted largely because governments and other foci of power are profoundly unbalanced, being composed almost entirely of men, many of them white, most of them middle-aged or elderly. Thus, in practice and even with the best will in the world, they effectively deny genuine representation to the vast majority of the world’s peoples – women, indigenous nations and young people.
Yet it is precisely this majority’s profound commitment to the future and deep roots in the fundamental realities of our planet that offer balance to the male impulses to impose peace through violence, to put short-term profit before the care of resources, and to accrue material wealth and power at the expense of others.
Within this context, September 11th - 9/11 - has become a rallying point for isolationism and fear, freedom’s true enemy. Every year it is used to rekindle the flames of revenge and to further inflate the spectre of terror.
Yet true freedom and security can only be found in recognizing – celebrating - the absolute interdependence of all individuals, nations and species, by replacing exploitation with cooperation and justice, through listening to the voices of the vast unheard majority, and by behaving responsibly within the world community. As the world’s temporarily powerful continue to exploit 9/11, Echoes of Silence urges you to transform that tragic date by pledging to:
- Honour all those who died on 9/11 Chile, 1973, the USA, 2001, by celebrating our essential Inter-Dependence and Freedom rather than by renewing Isolationism and Fear.
Require that our employees, the governments of the world, dedicate at least 10% of all military budgets to re-greening the world’s watersheds
Require genuine representation for the world’s majority: women, young people, indigenous and ‘Third World’ nations in order to achieve this re-distribution
Enjoin compliance by taking all necessary action and actions, at individual, community, national and/or international levels. These include:
a) Requiring that September 11th be officially declared Celebrate InterDependence Day
b) Seeking the assistance of figures of genuine global stature in achieving this. Currently we are approaching Mary Robinson, Rigoberta Menchú and Nelson Mandela
c) Turning the customer power so hugely invested in the world's actual majority: women and young people, against those who manipulate them - companies such as General Electric that make both home appliances and weapons systems, and the governments that such transnationals control.
Sign the Peoples Declaration of Inter-Dependence above. Promulgate it as widely as you can. Ask your organization to endorse it. Return to ecosnica@yahoo.com or to the postal address given.
Ask for campaign materials with ideas for practical action
Volunteer to assist develop and promote this vitally-needed campaign
Fly the Flag for True Freedom. Independence and Inter-Dependence are indissolubly linked. Fear is freedom’s real enemy, fomenting suspicion and division. Nail your colours to the mast: Fly a beautiful Transform 9/11 flag. Give one to friends to complete Independence Day. Fly it beside your national flag.
Water is far more precious than oil. We use it as though there’s no tomorrow, so there soon won't be. Celebrate the source of all life with a Transform 9/11 ‘copa’, specially handcrafted to reverence water by using them for special water ceremonies.
Arrange for a Water Not War speaker to address your school, church, group or other meeting.
Enable Echoes to organize workshops, speaker tours, give news interviews, write articles. Like you, we’re sick of fear, greed and isolationism; like you, we’re determined to make a better, more balanced and therefore happier future for our children; like you, we also have to eat and pay bills. To help out and/or for more information, please write to ecosnica@yahoo.com or visit http://echoesofsilence.pbwiki.com. Thank you.
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