fotojournalismus:

Kekchi Aborigines from Coban protest a day before the Oxlajuj Baktun celebration at the Tikal Mayan ruins in Peten, Guatemala on Dec. 20, 2012. Indigenous activists protested outside Guatemala’s ancient ruins of Tikal on Thursday as members of the country’s poverty-stricken Mayan communities sought to draw international attention to their plight ahead of festivities to mark the end of the Mayan calendar, Reuters reports.

[Credit : William Gularte/Reuters]

(via theyoungradical)

(Source: nutopiancitizen, via theyoungradical)

think-progress:

On women’s issues, men are quoted overwhelmingly more often than women. 

(via politicsd00d)

(Source: kourtnoelle, via politicsd00d)

theyoungradical:

politics-war:

The Kayapo being expelled from their homes for the construction of the Belo Monte Dam, which will flood 400.000 acres of the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil.

People talk about change but we’re still going backwards at rocket speed.

cynicalidealism:

IMF singles out wealthy Greeks with Swiss accounts, journalist arrested for publishing list

Wealthy people around the world have stashed their money in secret accounts, avoiding taxes and scrutiny, yet the Greeks are targeted in order to blame the Greek government for failing to enforce taxes and justify the imposed austerity measures. Will the IMF director Christine Lagarde release names of people around the world who also reap rewards from society but do not return them?

-Greek Editor Is Arrested After Publishing a List of Swiss Bank Accounts

(via theyoungradical)

Monsanto’s GM seeds contributing to farmer suicides every 30 minutes
October 28, 2012

In what has been called the single largest wave of recorded suicides in human history, Indian farmers are now killing themselves in record numbers. It has been extensively reported, even in mainstream news, but nothing has been done about the issue. The cause? Monsanto’s cost-inflated and ineffective seeds have been driving farmers to suicide, and is considered to be one of the largest — if not the largest — cause of the quarter of a million farmer suicides over the past 16 years.

According to the most recent figures (provided by the New York University School of Law), 17,638 Indian farmers committed suicide in 2009 — about one death every 30 minutes. In 2008, theDaily Mail labeled the continual and disturbing suicide spree as ‘The GM (genetically modified) Genocide’. Due to failing harvests and inflated prices that bankrupt the poor farmers, struggling Indian farmers began to kill themselves. Oftentimes, they would commit the act by drinking the very same insecticide that Monsanto supplied them with — a gruesome testament to the extent in which Monsanto has wrecked the lives of independent and traditional farmers.

To further add backing to the tragedy, the rate of Indian farmer suicides massively increased since the introduction of Monsanto’s Bt cotton in 2002. It is no wonder that a large percentage of farmers who take their own lives are cotton farmers, the demographic that is thought to be among the most impacted. Dr. Mercola, an osteopathic doctor that has been educating the world about natural health for many years, recently saw the destruction of traditional Indian farmers first hand. Dr. Mercola found out about the notorious ‘suicide belt’ of India, where 4,238 farmer suicides took place in 2007 alone.

Many families are now ruined thanks to the mass suicides, and are left to economic ruin and must struggle to fight off starvation:

‘We are ruined now,’ said one dead man’s 38-year-old wife. ‘We bought 100 grams of BT Cotton. Our crop failed twice. My husband had become depressed. He went out to his field, lay down in the cotton and swallowed insecticide.’

In India, around 60 percent of the population (currently standing at 1.1 billion) are directly or indirectly reliant on agriculture. Monsanto’s intrusion into India’s traditional and sustainable farming community is not only concerning for health and wellness reasons, but it is now clear that the issue is much more serious.

Source

(Source: thepeoplesrecord, via theyoungradical)