http://www.counterpunch.org/dickinson05262006.html
http://www.noapascualama.org/
May 26, 2006
Early last year former US presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush flew to Asia to meet survivors of the tsunami and pledged to help them rebuild their lives after that terrible disaster. Later in the year they visited the southern states of America hit by hurricane Katrina and set up the Bush Clinton Katrina Fund, calling for donations from the sympathetic public to help the survivors of that disaster.
'Poppy' Bush enjoys presenting himself as a humane and caring man of the people. All the more surprising then to discover that he should be counted as a leading instigator in creating ands supporting potentially one of the most serious environmental man-made disasters in recent times.
Among the armory of titles acquired by ex-President Bush during his eventful life is that of Honorary Senior Advisor to the Canada-based Barrick Gold Corporation (with 22 mines in four continents, the world's largest gold miner), a position he has held since 1995 when he was brought on board by founder Peter Munk to develop the company's international holdings. The job title may sound innocuous, but Bush senior plays an important role as chief business developer for the company, his connections with the upper echelons of society have reaped rich dividends for Barrick in mining deals.
Describing itself, the company claims: "Barrick's vision is to be the world's best gold mining company by finding, acquiring, developing, and producing quality reserves in a safe, profitable and socially responsible manner. It has quality assets, an unrivalled pipeline of projects and more than 20,000 dedicated employees working on five continents to deliver value. In 2006, the Company will start to realize the opportunities that are available as a result of its new strength, breadth and scale."
One of the projects in its unrivalled pipeline due to go ahead this year in the Atacama mountains between Chile and Argentina is the Pascua Lama Project, where Barrick plan to dig out an enormous reserve of gold and silver deposits detected under three of the glaciers there. Barrick said the Pascua Lama project entails an investment of billions of dollars and has reserves of some 18.3 million ounces of gold, which will be accessed through an open-pit mine over a period of 20 years.
The process, which Barrick describes as 'relocating ice-resources' will entail breaking and destroying the majestic glaciers of Chile--an action unheard of in the history of the world - and the creation of two huge holes, each as big as a whole mountain, one for extraction and the other as the mine's rubbish tip.
The assault on the glaciers will destroy the source of the special pure water which flows into the two rivers of the Valle de San Felix, and upon which the indigenous farmers rely to nourish their fields in a region of low rainfall. Apart from the water shortages and illnesses caused by the pollution that will result from the working of the massive open-pit mine, it is feared that the rivers will become so contaminated by the use of cyanide and sulphuric acid in the extraction process that they will never again be fit for human or animal consumption.
The farmers of the area have spoken out vociferously against plans for this exploitation of their land, but protests have been stifled. A TV appeal calling for support in their cause was banned by the Chilean Ministry of the Interior.
A letter calling for the cancellation of the Pascua Lama project with over 18,000 signatures presented to the President of Chile in 2005 was met by police violence. Protesters were charged when they tried to place chunks of ice representing the glaciers that the project will destroy in front of the La Moneda government palace:
We are the inhabitants of the Huasco Valley, Third Region of Chile, from different political, religious, cultural and ethnical origins, who have been affected by the mining activities in the high Andes Mountains," the letter read.
We consider that the risks involved in these mining activities threaten the economical, social, cultural and environmental sustainability of the valley, to the quality of life of its inhabitants and to their traditional activities.
The threats to the ecosystem, to the life and the plans of the present and future communities of the valley, lead us to reject with determination any mining activity that has been proven to be non compatible with agriculture, the health of the people, the water quality and the conservation of the ecosystems in the middle and the long term.
We live in an agricultural valley that has proved to be viable, economically profitable and with a promising future for the population. We will defend this sustainability against the aggressive activities that threaten the valley and its people.
Mr. President, we state once again, after you made a commitment with us, that the air we breathe, the water we drink and the land we cultivate have more value than the gold coveted by the multinationals Barrick Gold, Noranda and the others that will come behind them, in he hope of increasing their wealth in this Chilean mining paradise.
We will never rest until the safety of the valley and its people is ensured and we will fight for it. The people chose you to protect the interests of all the inhabitants of Chile, not for the benefit of the multinational mining companies. Mr. President, our interest is to protect the valley, please respect it, promote it, and safeguard it.
Mining at the headwaters of the river basins will pollute our water and will destroy our invaluable glaciers, while the mining agreement with Argentina tries to tie our hands. We will no longer be able to export our products, and trade agreements will be of no use for us.
Chile is trying to elevate its name in the international community but the destruction of our valley will do the opposite. We and all our future generations need you, Mr. President, as well as all the elected officials, to assume your mandates with ethics and responsibility.
We will remain alert and ready for action, exercising our rights to democracy and participation. We will not allow our lives and our valley to suffer the consequences of bad political practices and the abuse of mining companies willing to increase their profits at any price, even at the expense of our ecosystems and our people.
At a world mining conference in Santiago last week, Igor Gonzales, president of Barrick Gold South America, said remaining details of the $1.5 billion project were on track for final approval by the Chilean government, and that the problems the project is confronting are no different from those of its other projects around the world. "The biggest challenges we are facing by far, in both South America and Africa, are 'social' in nature," he said.
The impassioned letter which the people of the Huasco Valley wrote was addressed to the former Chilean president, His Excellency Ricardo Lagos Escobar, a self-described 'Socialist' politician. He has since been replaced by first woman to hold the position of president in the history of the country, (Her Excellency?) Michelle Bachelet. She also describes herself as a Socialist.
Surely, therefore, as such, she might be appealed to in her position of power and authority to champion the cause of her people and country and prevent the inevitable environmental, ecological and social disaster that will result from giving the go-ahead to a gold-hungry foreign corporation to despoil the beauty of the Pascua Lama and ruin the natural livelihood of a people that has depended on the water from the glaciers for centuries.
Water is essential to life. Gold is a soft and pretty metal that has made men mad. And when mad man plays God with the planet for the sake of Mammon, disaster will surely follow.
We await the decision of the Chilean President. Will she give permission for this legalized rape of her country by the gold-diggers?
In the meantime let us turn closer to home and appeal to a self-proclaimed man of the people--(though far from Socialist!) - His Excellency George 'Poppy' Bush - papa of the present President of the USA, one himself in the past. May we not appeal to him, the Appointed Honorary Senior Advisor of the Barrick Corporation to see beyond his own greed and that of his familiars, and to call a halt to this latest massive act of destruction and disaster the company stands poised to inflict upon our poor patient planet?
Or, on review of past behaviour by members of the Bush family, and the consequences thereof, must we ultimately recognize that such an appeal to his humanity would be useless, and admit to ourselves the bitter truth of that well-worn adage - as we stare with horror at the brazen selfish culpability of the Bushes; their unrelenting greed and hypocricy and corruption
"Like Father, Like Son!"
NO A PASCUA-LAMA!
Water is more precious than gold!
Michael Dickinson is an English teacher working in Istanbul Turkey. He can be contacted at www.stuckism.com/Dickinson/Index.html or mdickinson@kablonet.com.tr
"Virginia S."
Email: eeching2004@yahoo.com wrote:
I have posted this petition before. I think it is really important. Anytime they are messing around with WATER we are in deep shite.
Reading the links about this is very informative about what they are up to. They are messing with glaciers.
According to the email: "The only reason it hasn't started yet is because the farmers have got a temporary stay of execution. If they destroy the glaciers, they will not just destroy the source of especially pure water, but they will permanently contaminate the 2 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 gram of gold will go abroad to the multinational company and not one will be left with the people whose land it is. They will only be left with the poisoned water and the resulting illnesses."
Marcel Claude, of Oceana, an environmental NGO, has pointed out: "Gold mining dumps 79 tonnes of waste for every 28 grams of gold, and produces 96% of the world's arsenic emissions."
Barrick has offered to compensate Chile with $60 million and expects to extract over $17 billion worth of gold and silver.
Meanwhile the protesting farmers have even been forbidden to make a TV appeal by a ban from the corrupt Ministry of the Interior.
There are currently, 2,810,000 hits on google just on Valle de San Felix!!
Also see, (I put on ones with photos, too)
http://newconnexion.net/info/pascua
http://www.gnn.tv/threads/16293/Chile_Approves_Glacier_Gold_Mine
www.latintrade.com
http://www.miningwatch.ca/index.php?/104/Pascua_Lama_Background
http://www.barrick.com/Default.aspx?SectionID=AE16ED96-78D3-4451-AB11-281B502746FB&LanguageID=1&ProjectId=8fadb7a7-1b99-4e7b-a37d-9da4b178f0b2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascua_Lama
http://www.flickr.com/groups/pascua_lama6 /
and there is this excellent counterpunch article:
http://www.counterpunch.org/dickinson05262006.html
"Linda C." wrote:
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 10:39 PM
Subject: HELP~
A here~ I too have looked this up at 'Urban Legends & Folklore', and it is true.
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_pascua-lama.htm
However, they suggest that adding your name to the petition (included below) will not have the impact that sending a letter to the President of Chile, their Parliment & their Senate will have. As we all know, petitions on line carry very little weight because there is no way to tell the signatures authenticity. So I suggest going here and sending a letter to each of the 3 emails provided:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/action68.htm
If anyone would like a copy of the ones I've sent, email me and I will be glad to share them with you.. ~Autumn~ Read on....for the email I received:
******************************************************************
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/pascualama.asp
I looked this one up on Snopes and they had it. Yes it is true.
How sad that they are going to take from these people just for their own gain.
Dear friends who care about our earth. Judge for yourself if you want to take action.
In the Valle de San Felix, the purest water in Chile runs from 2 rivers, fed by 2 glaciers.
Water is a most precious resource, and wars will be fought for it.
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, to destroy the glaciers - something never conceived of in the history of the world - and to make 2 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.
(Barrick Gold is mining at Lake Cowal - NSW Australia at the moment!)
The operation is planned by a multinational 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 they destroy the glaciers, they will not just destroy the source of especially pure water, but they will permanently contaminate the 2 rivers so they will never again be fit for human or animal consumption because of the use of cyanide and sulfuric acid in the extraction process.
Every last gram of gold will go abroad to the multinational company and not one 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 only place to start changing the world is from here.
We ask you to circulate this message amongst your friends in the following way.
Please copy this text, paste it into a new email adding your signature and send it to everyone in your address book.
Please, will the 100th person to receive and sign the petition, send it to noapascualama@yahoo.ca to be forwarded to the Chilean Government.
No to Pascua Lama Open-cast mine in the Andean Cordillera on the Chilean-Argentine frontier.
We ask the Chilean Government not to authorize the Pascua Lama project to protect the whole of 3 glaciers, the purity of the water of the San Felix Valley and El Transito, the quality of the agricultural land of the region of Atacama, the quality of life of the Diaguita people and of the whole population of the region.
Signature, City, Country
1) Katharine Proudfoot, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
2) Laura Cole, London, UK
3) David Platt, London, UK
4) Diane Platt, Manchester, UK
5) Tanya Corker, Manchester, UK
6) Nicola Hargreaves, UK
7) Nicholas Jones, UK
8) Johann Don-Daniel, Germany
9) Ashley Berger, Germany
10) Sarah Downie, Leeds, UK
11) Paula Delahunty, Bingley, UK
12) John O'Driscoll, Bingley, Uk
13) Jordan-Lee Delahunty, Bingley, UK
14) Claire Mulvey, Bradford, UK
15) Marie Malcolm Bradford, UK
16) Ann Clowes, Halifax UK
17) Jayne McGee, Brighouse UK
18) Jason Barratt Oldham UK
19) Lindsay Torrance, Rochdale UK
20) Maggie Ford, Rochdale, U.K.
21) Barry Cook, Todmorden, U.K.
22) Shelley Burgoyne, Todmorden, U.K.
23) Lisa Stuart, Potes, Spain.
24) Michael Stuart, Potes, Spain.
25) Renee Engl, Byron Bay, Australia
26) Adrian Begg, Brunswick Heads, Australia
27) Riana Begg, Brunswick Heads, Australia
28) Oriel Paterson, Brunswick Heads, Australia
29) Alicia Paterson, Brisbane, Australia
30) Lyneve Robinson, Sydney, Australia
31) Jennifer Moalem, Sydney, Australia
32) Alexandra Pope, Sydney Australia
33) Shushann Movsessian, Sydney Australia
34) Amanda Frost, Sydney Australia
35) Tarshito , Montecollum,NSW Australia
36) Eltara
37) Michael Webb, The Channon, NSW Australia
38) Sarah LaRock, New Orleans, USA
39) Annie LaRock, New Orleans, USA
40) Miki Orihara, New York, USA
41) Liliana Amador-Marty, Teaneck, New Jersey, USA
42) Lemor Alcalay, New York, NY, USA
43) Adi sofer, Tel Aviv, Israel
44) Nagisa Hiraoka, Sydney, Australia
45) John Inga, Sydney, Austarlia
46) Deborah Scire, Sydney, Australia
47) Poppy Diamantis, NSW, Australia
48) Colleen Diamantis, NSW, Australia
49) Sonia Parison, Sydney, Australia
50) Warren Brown, Sydney, Australia
51)Tony Green, Sydney, Australia
52)Jon Adamson, Sydney, Australia
53) Christine Normington, UK
54)Connie Parent, USA
55) Jean Bass, USA
56) Peter S. Lopez, Divided States ~aka USA
Tony Green
Administration Officer
State Transit Authority, Leichhardt
Phone: 02 9582 5953
Fax: 02 9582 5913
Email: tony_green@sta.nsw.gov.au
www.ladybroadoak.blogspot.com, www.groups.yahoo.com/group/earthlings_anonymous
Read and spread the message at www.firethegrid.com. We are all ONE, practice the law of one.
"Real truth is always subversive." ~ Zdenek Urbanek
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Thursday, June 15, 2006
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