Photo: from de ONU Medio Ambiente, the UN programme for the environment.
Note: Berta Caceres was an environmentalist in Honduras who was assassinated in 2016 for her successful work in protecting the Gualcarque River, among other projects and human rights activism. Her murder was initially covered up, but in 2021 the architect of her murder was sentenced to 22 years in prison, but the murderers are still at large. needless to say, these murderers are allegedly a product of the infamous Fort Benning and the former programme of the School of the Americas, which in my understanding is code for training thugs and right wing militants (think Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Panama ….). Berta was 44 years old and leaves four children and a husband, but also a great legacy of what can be achieved even under threat of death – she knew she was on a list.
“They are afraid of us because we are not afraid of them.” Berta Caceres
Berta Caceres
To say this is my home
is to say that I have a place,
somewhere to take sanctuary
from the pressures of the world,
a door to close against the dark hearts
who do not want me to me to have
this place or my voice, which speaks
loudly for my people, for our rivers
and trees, our homes, for the right to say
no to those who have no understanding of
our needs, our ways, our culture, but tonight,
although I do not know that it will be tonight,
you will read that they came to silence my voice,
I am not afraid of them, shooting me will not
silence me, my voice will continue to speak
Photo: from viacampesina.org “Protracted fight against all injustices.” Protestors in Paraguay drawing attention to the loss of land and human rights in the face of mining and forestry businesses.
“Disadvantages faced by indigenous peoples are related to dispossession and exacerbated by powerlessness and poverty.” Roberto Mukaro Borrero
At dVerse Lisa is hosting Prosery (144 words) with an invitation to respond to a line from a poem ‘Notes On Uvalde’ from Girl Du Jour. To read that full poem follow the link below. The line offered is “These are the things they don’t tell us”
Photo: http://www.gettyimages.com (found on Bing) High school students in the US protesting gun violence.
“This is the ultimate weakness of violence: It multiplies evil and violence in the world. It doesn’t solve any problems.” Martin Luther King Jr
The Pain
I grew up torn by love, when the world was bruised by war and violence I was in pain, and I still am. When people are marginalised, hated and discriminated against I hurt too. Sometimes my anger boils in frustration. Why? Why can’t women determine their bodies? Who decides someones sexuality? Why Poverty? Why war? Why guns? Grief can be overwhelming even when it is vicarious. But we’re all in it together, it affects all.
The real pain of it all is the pain that comes from love, compassion and empathy. The alternative is to stoop into that gutter I am calling out. There is a cost to positive, non-violent action, to standing with the underdog, to protest, to speak out. Sometimes the cost is loneliness, sometimes it is wrangling with the impotence to effect change. These are the things they don’t tell us.
“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. it is your spirit, or it is nowhere.” Ursula K. Le Guin
parallax 