2013

  • The Public Wonders: Where is Our IPO?- A PNN WeSearch Report

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body

    Us, the Public, the Evicted— the Displaced, the Poor, The Working Class, — Speak Back

    To The Tech Billionaires as They Release Their IPO (Initial Public Offering)

     

    (Co-Editors Note- WeSearch© is poor people-led research created by POOR Magazine)


    (English Follows)

    “Yo pienso que eso del Twitter es solo de los ricos. Dia a dia crecen mas en sus bolsillos y por eso se estan aduenando de las casas de los terrenos que los pobres y los indocumentados no podemos comprar por que cada dia nos cierran las puertas. Pues como dice un dicho, el dinero es raiz de los males. Twitter dice se va a habrir una oportunidad para que investe pero no es verdad para nosotros los pobres. “


     

    “I believe that Twitter is only for the rich. Day by day the money grows in their pockets and because of that they are taking ownership of the homes, the lands that the poor and the undocumented can’t even buy because everyday they close the doors on our faces. It’s like the saying goes: money is from the roots of evil. Twitter suggests it’s an opportunity to invest but that is not true for us poor people.”

    -Ingrid de Leon/Poverty Migrante/Mama Skola

     

    “November 7th I went outside the Twitter office. They are starting to incorporate their thing. One of the lies that the public relations person said is, “we have helped this City. As a poverty scholar, I know personally, that is not true. For the next ten years Twitter will not have to pay property taxes and they have been given an exclusive bus line. At the same time they are cutting bus lines in my community and other poor and elder communities. ”

    -Bruce Allison/Poverty. Elder Skola

     

    Twitter will be offering IPOS for $17-$20 when the bell rings on the stock exchange the morning of November 7th. I, Braden Johnson, houseless youth dealing with poverty in the streets of San Francisco would like to know— where’s my IPO?? Twitter should just keep the stock options but use their extensive wealth to provide resources for the people in the community who cannot afford an IPO no matter how reasonably priced.”

    -Braden Johnson/Youth Poverty Skola


     

    “As a current low-income student who relies on public transportation to commute to San Francisco State University, I am appalled at the idea of a guaranteed bus line that ensures that twitter employees have a route to work during a time where the combination of an underfunded public education system and Bart strikes make it so students can barely get to school. If Twitter has truly “given the community incredible gifts”, they could share the wealth and take some of the millions they saved in tax breaks to give back to our schools. “

    -Corinne Stricker/Poverty Skola-Mentee


     

    “The economic boom continues in San Francisco and may further destructive practices that put profit over people. Today Twitter announced their release of an IPO on the Stock Exchange November 7th.. As a Mentee at Poor Magazine, I am not alone in feeling a fresh wave of fear from this news. As a recent transplant to San Francisco I am experiencing the high cost of living and witnessing the displacement of elderly and poor peoples. Perhaps creating public forums to address concerns and challenges is trivial on this timeline but voicing public response is critical.”

     

    -Sasha/Mentee

     

    “I have just heard the news that Twitter has received a 34 million tax break.  I sit in the Poor Magazine computer room, mulling over the news.  As a native New Yorker and recent college student, Twitter was merely a part of my internet life and lexicon, but today, studying under the tutelage of the Poverty Scholaz at POOR Magazine in San Francisco, this announcement takes on a whole new meaning. As a billion dollar corporation, whose headquarters are on Market Street in the City of San Francisco, Twitter’s actions have a severe impact on the city’s inhabitants. Twitter has been a major cause of recent evictions and rent raises for people in San Francisco.  And those hit the hardest are poor families, struggling to make ends meet.”

    -Maia Nikitovich/Mentee

     

     

    #ThrownOutByTwitter

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  • The Birthplace of Hip-Hop, South Bronx, Namel TapWaterz Norris Shared Another History of South Bronx

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Leroy
    Original Body

    Krip-Hop Nation (KHN) – You are from the birthplace of Hip-Hop, South Bronx and you are a Hip-Hop artist with disability. Tell us what was the Bronx like for people with disabilities when you were growing up.

    Namel TapWaterz Norris - First off one of the things that I'm most proud of as a hip hop artist is the fact I was born and raised in the Boogie down Bronx the Bx, the birth place of hip hop. It's an honor for me and something that can never be taking a way from me. The thing about being a artist with a disability from the Bronx is that I wasn't born with a disability so I know the best of both worlds as an artist and Bronx native. And given the fact my injury happened in the BX as well as my partner Rick's and then we met after the fact living in the same neighborhood in the Bronx. So essentially the Bronx is the birthplace of Hip-Hop and 4 Wheel City. With that being said we had to go thru and still going thru a lot of the struggles that Hip-Hop went thru itself when it started. We had to become very independent, record on our on and do a lot networking on our own because a lot of people didn't believe two guys in wheel chairs could do anything or be accepted or successful no matter how talented we are. Hip-Hop went thru the same struggles when it first started out. Now it’s all over the world and accepted by all ages and races similar to us now. We are getting accepted and traveling all over the world with our music and disabilities and it started in the BX.

    KHN: Tell us about the mission of 4Wheel City in your community and beyond.

    Namel TapWaterz Norris - The mission of 4 Wheel City in our community is to inspire, educate, advocate, and entertain. We have several communities we do that for first and for most are our fellow people with spinal cord injuries and with all types of disabilities. In addition to that we also try to serve as advocates for Hip-Hop music, the Bronx, New York where we come from, minorities and young black men as well. Our whole goal across the board is to inspire people to never give up, and break down barriers for all the communities and people we represent.

    KHN: What is the difference in the Bronx now compare the golden days of Hip-Hop in the late 80’s and 90’s?

    Namel TapWaterz Norris - I think the biggest difference now is the essence of Hip-Hop has changed or disappeared. When I was growing up in the Bx and wanted to be a rapper it was about having the skill set and the enjoyment of sharing and building with your peers. Now a days most rappers just want to rap cause they think its cool or want to be on TV and make money. Which is nothing wrong with that but back in those days rappers were more iconic like super heroes and had their own identities and were respected for their lyrics not how many records they sale. I remember when in order to say you were a rapper back then and to get in the studio you had to be good and prove it in a cypher or battle. Nowadays with the progress of digital technology and social media it's not like that anymore. Now anyone can say they are a rapper and go thru the motions and put them self out there. There are no more cyphers or development of the skill set or respect of the history.

    KHN: Do you think Hip-Hop history includes disabled history/artists?

    Namel TapWaterz Norris - Not really and not yet, but I can say that it has come a long way with the Internet being a big reason for that. Since my partner Rick and I have started 4 Wheel City like 7 years ago we have seen and met a lot of disabled artist. And have been recognized by several Hip-Hop entities like The Source magazine and XXL magazine. And have also been nominated for a Justo's Mixtape Award and the Underground Music Awards twice. Haven't won yet but it feels good to be recognized and paid homage to. However we are still waiting and working towards our big break in the industry. So the struggle still continues for all artist with disabilities.

    KHN: The South Bronx today is it better for people with disabilities and from your viewpoints what needs to work on for people with disabilities?

    Namel TapWaterz Norris - The south Bronx is getting better for people with disabilities as is every place else in the world. A lot of new transportation, construction and more places being built in compliance with the ADA. But still more work needs to be done. There are still no accessible taxis in Bx or the other boroughs like there is in Manhattan. Still a lot of curbs that need cut outs. And those are the things we are fighting for and speaking about in our song "Welcome to 4 Wheel City". It was created born and raised in Bx just like our movement.

    KHN: What is your feeling on Hip-Hop Journalism as a Hip-Hop artist with a disability?

    Namel TapWaterz Norris - As I stated earlier we been featured in XXL and the Source magazines two of hip hops most biggest and popular publications. That was a big deal for us just as artist period aside from being disabled, because they came looking for us. For that fact I'm a lil bias toward those magazines. But overall most Hip-Hop publications and journalism are like any other news media outlets, they are looking for the next story that will catch their readers attention or ready to hop on the band wagon of what's hot. We don't take it personal, we just keep rolling and making our own moves and hopefully they catch up with us. But can say overall I can't complain personally because 4 Wheel City story has been written about in many other news papers, magazines, and online publications and the majority of them respect our talent as Hip- Hop artists as much as do our disabilities.

    KHN: What is next for 4Wheel City

    Namel TapWaterz Norris - More shows, more videos, more music, more money, more changing people lives for the better. I have a solo mixtape coming out, we have our latest mixtape Motivation Music popping right now, touring high schools to promote a new song we made for Peer Mediation programs, have performer at James Madison coming up, the clothing line and still working on the documentary and new website

    KHN: Any last words?

    Namel TapWaterz Norris - Not much just want to thank everyone who has been following and supporting us since the beginning and believe in us. We do this for y'all and won't stop so stay tuned! 4's Up!

     

     

    Tags
  • Getting off the Google Bus 4 Dummies- A Decolonized Guide for the GentryTechNation

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body

    They sat there. Eyes ahead or faced down, digital symbols from phones, I-pads and laptops scrolling across their eyeballs in the tinted light of their luxury transport bus.

     

    It was an “Apple” bus. And it was filled. Every seat occupied by tech employees, the majority of whom were earning anywhere between $80-150,000 per year and up, recent transplants to a town they weren’t born, raised or invested in. and with their very presence, were displacing hundreds or possibly thousands of very poor, working poor, and even middle-class elders, families and children who could never begin to pay the increased rents now being asked, demanded and evicted for by greed-filled, landlords, and real estate spekkkulators.

     

    There are mildly distinct differences for the buses of tech companies like Apple, Google, Yahoo and the Bio Tech giant Genentech. They form a collective of companies providing 21st century carriages to shuttle the too-delicate for public transportation feet of  what I am now affectionately calling the gentryTechNation

     

    For the last three weeks activists from many walks of life, including elders, disabled folks, communities of color, working poor and many white middle-class activists have begun stopping the buses at their illegal, non-paid for, “bus” stops, conveniently located in front of coffee houses or near BART stations or just in the neighborhoods they already gentriFUKEd.

     

    But this is where it gets downright surreal. The protests and protestors aren’t abrasive or angry. In fact, they say things like Join Us – Get off the Bus! They are filled with the humble stories of elders and folks who will have nowhere to go once they are evicted, and yet, today in front of a booshie San Francisco coffee shop, in a MUNI bus stop, I witnessed not only complete disinterest from the passengers of the filled to capacity bus, but two more people right in the middle of the protest, pushed past the protestors and… Got On the Bus!…

     

    All of which made me realize I need to write a simple guideline for the gentryTechNation who have obviously been built and made from the deepest message of race and class supremacist values, are so completely engaged in the pursuit of the mighty dolla and the subsequent hegemony of disinterest and the prestige of their trendy tech job that they have become completely bereft of even trace aspects of spirit, empathy, culture and consciousness. 

    And for this you truly can’t completely blame them. They are told that they have achieved the ultimate in success in the stolen indigenous land called Amerikkka. Most of us are taught at the youngest ages to succeed means to make the most money, by any means necessary, no matter who gets hurt, how it lands on other peoples and who gets left behind. Throw in race and class privilege and unseen, multiple benefits, from this race, class privilege. Fear and hate of everything you don’t know or never knew and lies about security and safety created by the plantation, prisons and po’ lice and you have built a gentrytechnator. Peoples of the US and all of the places we have colonized with our media, wars, land and resource theft are also taught a whole gaggle of lies about the non-profit industrial complex savior complexes (give away some money every year at tax time or volunteer at a soup kitchen over the holidaze, or donate some of your old, broken down laptops or not cool anymore clothes to the Goodwill and you have “given Back”

     

    So for all confused, befuddled, knowing in their gut that this just isn’t right, for all the tech CEO’s who are open to some real decolonization,  for all the peoples on those buses who entertained, if even for a minute, that they needed to in fact, Step off the Bus.. here is a short excerpt of Guru Tech-Decolonizers’ guide to Getting off the Google-Bus for Dummies:

     


    1)    In a protest, and on any day, Get off the tech Bus- pick up a protest sign and begin saying your humble sorries for your oblivious role in the displacement of so many communities of origin of San Francisco, Oakland, Fremont and San Jose


    2)    Take public transportation – no matter how “inconvenient” it is


    3)    Send a text, email, tweet and pinterist, google+ msg and old skool phone call to the company you work for and ask them to stop running the buses.


    4)    In the same digital streets listed above-ask your company to pay the several million dollars in tax breaks they stole from this city back to the city and that you will even take a $1,000 a year pay cut to support this give-back


    5)    Spend a large percentage of your hoarded wealth (after you support your own family and parents if they are working class and need your help) to buy back the buildings so many of us poor peoples who have been evicted, so the thousands of elders can slowly be re-housed. Begin with the support and re-housing of Rene Yanez


    6)    DO NOT MAKE AN APP to do any of this – just do it and tell your friends and family everything you do and ask them to support and join you in this walk of decolonization and change.


    7)    Get involved yourself with financial support and as well ask your company to financially support the efforts to stop the genocidal Ellis Act.


    8)    Ask your company to pay the City for the use of the Bus Stop and streets that it colonizes.


    9)    Buy a Street Sheet or Street Spirit everyday and Read it


    10) Give your bottles and cans to houseless peoples and elders who are recycling and ask Safeway to put their recycling centers back in


    11) Ask Whole Foods to put in a public recycling center


    12) Support the poor people-led, indigenous people-led grassroots media, art, and organizing movements that support the work and resistance of other poor and displaced people below is a short list

    -The San Francisco Bay View Newspaper - & their work to ensure that African-American residents of the Bayview are employed in ALL housing construction

    -The Kenny Harding Foundation

    -Peoples Community Medics

    -Manilatown Heritage Foundation and the I-Hotel

    -Healthy Hoods

    -Black Riders Liberation Party - Oakland

    -WRAP (Western Regional Advocacy Project)

    -The Coalition on Homelessness

    -the Brown Berets

    -POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE

    -Idriss Stelley Foundation

    -City College of San Francisco

    -PODER

    -Save Sacred Sites

    -Longest Walk 4

    -Reparations Movement for African Peoples in Diaspora

          10) Give Financial Support to landless peoples movements in taking back land locally and globally to house houseless peoples and support poor folks of color

    -United Playaz- San Francisco- buy a building for their power-ful youth programs

    -Homefulness in Deep East Oakland- build straw bale homes for houseless, poor families in struggle

    -ShackDwellers Union in South Africa-


    13) Invite the Tech-Decolonizer Guru into your company for some important Tech Decolonization Action Steps


    14) GET OFF THE BUS


    For a consultation with the Tech Decolonizer guru call 510-435-7500 or email us at deeandtiny@poormagazine.org

    Tags
  • Caretakers of Mother Earth on Fukishima - The Council Statement

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body

                       COUNCIL STATEMENT

    This statement reflects the wisdom of the Spiritual People of the Earth, of North and South America, working in unity to restore peace, harmony and balance for our collective future and for all living beings. This statement is written in black and white with a foreign language that is not our own and does not convey the full depth of our concerns.

    The Creator created the People of the Earth into the Land at the beginning of Creation and gave us a way of life. This way of life has been passed down generation-to-generation since the beginning. We have not honored this way of life through our own actions and we must live these original instructions in order to restore universal balance and harmony. We are a part of Creation; thus, if we break the Laws of Creation, we destroy ourselves.

    We, the Original Caretakers of Mother Earth, have no choice but to follow and uphold the Original Instructions, which sustains the continuity of Life. We recognize our umbilical connection to Mother Earth and understand that she is the source of life, not a resource to be exploited. We speak on behalf of all Creation today, to communicate an urgent message that man has gone too far, placing us in the state of survival. We warned that one day you would not be able to control what you have created. That day is here. Not heeding warnings from both Nature and the People of the Earth keeps us on the path of self destruction. This self destructive path has led to the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Gulf oil spill, tar sands devastation, pipeline failures, impacts of carbon dioxide emissions and the destruction of ground water through hydraulic fracking, just to name a few. In addition, these activities and development continue to cause the deterioration and destruction of sacred places and sacred waters that are vital for Life.

    Powerful technologies are out of control 

    and are threatening the future of all life

    The Fukushima nuclear crisis alone is a threat to the future of humanity. Yet, our concern goes far beyond this single threat. Our concern is with the cumulative and compounding devastation that is being wrought by the actions of human beings around the world. It is the combination of resource extraction, genetically modified organisms, moral failures, pollution, introduction of invasive species and much much more that are threatening the future of life on Earth. The compounding of bad decisions and their corresponding actions are extremely short-sighted. They do not consider the future generations and they do not respect or honor the Creator’s Natural Law. We strongly urge for the governmental authorities to respond with an open invitation to work and consult with us to solve the world’s problems, without war. We must stop waging war against Mother Earth, and ourselves.

    We acknowledge that all of these devastating actions originated in human beings who are living without regard for the Earth as the source of life. They have strayed from the Original Instructions by casting aside the Creator’s Natural Law. It is now critical for humanity to acknowledge that we have created a path to self destruction. We must restore the Original Instructions in our lives to halt this devastation.

    The sanctity of the Original Instructions has been violated. As a result, the Spiritual People of the Earth were called ceremonially to come together at the home of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe Bundle. These Spiritual Leaders and those that carry great responsibility for their people from both North and South America came together with the sacred fire for four days at the end of September 2013 to fulfill their sacred responsibilities. During this time it was revealed that the spirit of destruction gained its’ strength by our spiritually disconnected actions. We are all responsible in varying degrees for calling forth this spirit of destruction, thus we are all bound to begin restoring what we have damaged by helping one another recover our sacred responsibility to the Earth. We, the Original Caretakers of Mother Earth, offer our spiritual insight, wisdom and vision to the global community to help guide the actions needed to overcome the current threats to all life.

    We only have to look at our own bodies to recognize the sacred purpose of water on Mother Earth. We respect and honor our spiritual relationship with the lifeblood of Mother Earth. One does not sell or contaminate their mother’s blood. These capitalistic actions must stop and we must recover our sacred relationship with the Spirit of Water

    The People of the Earth understand that the Fukushima nuclear crisis continues to threaten the future of all life. We understand the full implications of this crisis even with the suppression of information and the filtering of truth by the corporate owned media and Nation States. We strongly urge the media, corporations and Nation States to acknowledge and convey the true facts that threaten us, so that the international community may work together to resolve this crisis, based on the foundation of Truth.

    We urge the international community, government of Japan and TEPCO to unify efforts to stabilize and re-mediate the nuclear threat posed at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. To ensure that the Japanese government and TEPCO are supported with qualified personnel and information, we urge the inclusion of today’s nuclear experts from around the world to collaborate, advise and provide technical assistance to prevent further radioactive contamination or worse, a nuclear explosion that may have apocalyptic consequences.

    The foundation for peace will be strengthened 

    by restoring the Original Instructions in ourselves

    Prophecies have been shared and sacred instructions were given. We, the People of the Earth, were instructed that the original wisdom must be shared again when imbalance and disharmony are upon Mother Earth. In 1994 the sacred white buffalo, the giver of the sacred pipe, returned to the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people bringing forth the sacred message that the winds of change are here. Since that time many more messengers in the form of white animals have come, telling us to wake up my children. It is time. So listen for the sacred instruction.

    All Life is sacred. We come into Life as sacred beings. When we abuse the sacredness of Life we affect all Creation

    We urge all Nations and human beings around the world to work with us, the Original Caretakers of Mother Earth, to restore the Original Instructions and uphold the Creator’s Natural Law as a foundation for all decision making, from this point forward. Our collective future as human beings is in our hands, we must address the Fukushima nuclear crisis and all actions that may violate the Creator’s Natural Law. We have reached the crossroads of life and the end of our existence. We will avert this potentially catastrophic nuclear disaster by coming together with good minds and prayer as a global community of all faiths.

    We are the People of the Earth united under the Creator’s Law with a sacred covenant to protect and a responsibility to extend Life for all future generations. We are expressing deep concern for our shared future and urge everyone to awaken spiritually. We must work in unity to help Mother Earth heal so that she can bring back balance and harmony for all her children.

    Representatives of the Council

    Chief Arvol Looking Horse
    19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe
    Spiritual Leader The Great Sioux Nation
    Bobby C. Billie
    Clan Leader and Spiritual Leader 
    Council of the Original Miccosukee 
    Simanolee Nation Aboriginal Peoples

     

    Faith Spotted Eagle, Tunkan Inajin Win
    Brave Heart Society Grandmother
    Headswoman & Ihanktonwan Treaty Council
    Ihanktonwan Dakota from the Oceti Sakowin
    7 Council Fires
     
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  • Wite Peoples, Run, Don’t walk to 12 Years a Slave- PNN ReViEwsforTheReVoLution Movie Review

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body

    I’m not sure which knife-point of ancestral trauma in the new movie 12 years a slave based on Solomon Northrup’s autobiography, caused me to crumble into a paralyzed ball on the floor. I am not sure when I became unable to breathe or even see straight while watching the continuous acts of graphic genocide, racist hate, hegemony, brutality and oppression filter across the movie screen. And I’m really not sure how I made it through the entire movie. But I did. And I need to issue a solemn warning; In my humble opinion, this movie is not for the descendents of African peoples sold into Chattel slavery in Amerikkka.

     

    As the daughter of a Black/Indian orphan who was in struggle her whole life due to the post traumatic slave- syndrome of her family, the torture of her black-native, orphaned and un-protected child body and the struggle of her to raise me as a disabled single mama of color in amerikkka, I heard the brutal stories of this movie in graphic detail and many more from her all the time, but perhaps more importantly I lived through her hell, my own subsequent hell, and still walk and pray and try to activate change through the daily hell of our collective, un-healed and un-resolved ancestral and present trauma living in amerikkka.

     

    But what I do know is this movie is for ALL peoples who are descendents of slave-owners and all peoples who have benefited from and continue to benefit from the wite-supremacist kkkorporate structure of racism and colonization. From the Wall Street stockkk market (where African peoples bodies were “sold” in addition to other “property) to the bankkks and real estate markkket which continues to buy and sell stolen, indigenous land, devil-op and displace poor peoples and peoples of color, to the corporations who move across Mama Earth, stealing, using, profiting from and committing genocide on indigenous peoples from Africa to Brazil to the new slavery which includes all these false borders, plantation prisons and killer corporations and finally to the lie of US philanthropy and the Poverty Industry. In fact from our perspective at PeopleSkool, this movie will be “required reading” for all of our mentees with race and class privilege as part of an ongoing and living curriculum on what we call Community Reparations.

     

    At POOR Magazine we teach and deconstruct the many layered and deep hypocrisies of philanthropy in amerikkka, which can trace its roots back to some of the original benevolent slave-owners, plantations and eugenicists. We are blessed to be in solidarity with activated young peoples with race, class and formal education privilege who own their spaces of privilege and don’t try to save us, teach us or pimp us. But rather they step up and walk with us in revolution and liberation activating true reparations.

     

     

    Slightly better wite-people, Bad wite-people and other acts of amerikkkan hypocrisy.

     

    “Please don’t take my baby away,” One of the hundreds of terrifying moments of this painstakingly real horror movie, that articulates the genocide of slavery so well, was the broker, who was also an insurance agent (many of the same insurance companies we deal with today can be traced back to the earliest US “insurance companies who insured slaves) selling mothers away from their children. The utter destruction of everyone, including the “benevolent and not so bad slave-owner” was terrifying. And then the desperation that you feel with the mama to convince the wavering “not so bad” slave-owner to just “splurge” and “buy” her  children along with her, their mama. And then when he doesn’t you watch her babies be literally sold to pedophiles and pimps knowing/ feeling/ seeing all of the genocidal consequences of that act in its most graphic detail.

     

    Then there is the hypocritical, “not so bad”, benevolent wite people, who “notice” Solomon Northrup’s talent on the violin and then give him praise and a violin while selling the now crying mama away to an even more brutalizing slave-owner because his wife doesn’t like “her depression” And this same “not so bad” slave-owner who also employs the most racist, sick, brutal cracker overseer so he can make a profit on his cotton field and yet take no responsibility for his actions or the actions of this overseer. How many of us know these kind of folks today?

     

    And as Solomon revolts and beats up the cracker you feel a terrifying happiness and then the sick fear that settles in your gut at what awaits him, making you run out of the theatre, screaming for Nat Turner.

     

    The bizarre, sick and twisted relationship between the brutalizing slave-master who he ends up being “sold” to and the brutalizing slave-masters own sick, hater wife and how their dangerous insane dynamic lands on the humans who they think they “own”.

     

    The weird almost classism of Solomon and another “free” man who were both “free” before they were kidnapped, against some of the other slaves because they see themselves as more evolved, educated or aware and in the case of Solomon who until much later in his torture doesn’t empath with the desperation of Patsy, one of the brutalized,  raped and endlessly tortured members of the brutal slave-masters plantation.

     

    There are many other lessons of hegemony, corporate profit, brutal Christian hypocrisy, US imperialism and genocide in this terrifying movie, that make it required reading for all people un-packing the lie of capitalist, racist amerikkka to help them realize why they need to activate direct and complete reparations immediately.

     

    The Brad Pitt character is not a benevolent slave-master, just a conscious wite person carpenter of the time. In my opinion, he does nothing brave, he only uses his wite privilege to activate justice among so much racist in-justice that counted on people doing what most people tend to do, Nothing. This is something more wite people in Amerikkka need to start doing. Which is why more peoples with privilege in amerikkka need to run, don’t walk, to see 12 years a slave.

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  • Capitalismas Memories - a poem for all my fellow houseless, colonized, families & children of amerikkka..

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body

    Im the residue that sticks to the bottom of the melting pot

    My culture is 7-11, winchells donuts and whatever lie Hollywood taught

     

    I am born from five generations of stolen, displaced, evicted, despised & colonized  Taino, African, Roma, & Irish

    Hidden under the wite-man’s blue eyes

     

    Hated orphan Mama of color oppressed by kin

    derivative eugenics within

    gets wit my colonizer dad to birth the racist genocide

    out of her skin

     

    I am born. Raised on 7-11, Winchells donuts and corner Sto’s – Hollywood myths of family, wite-culture lies of happy

     

    I don’t got no beans or rice, lumpia, tamales or collards, I don’t got no fireplace memories, or *capitalismas candies, I don’t got nothing except the .99 styrofoam cupped coffee.

     

    I don’t got no loving aunties, tias, abuelas or sweet grandmas. It was just me and a very sad, depressed, disabled single Black/Indian mama.

     

    Every year at this time, a terror would seep into my gut,

    knowing what was ahead, how poor we were or how out of luck

     

    A fake smile with our “free” turkey meal after a three hour line at a shelter. Handed out by nice wite people getting rid of their hoarded wealth guilt one day a year

     

    A Capitalismas toy giveaway by an annoyed fireman or po’Lice officer who smiled at me now and put me in jail later

     

    I aint gonna lie, this time makes me wanna die, sometimes makes me so sad I can’t even cry.

     

    But I try

     

    I try to change this all for my sun, teaching him and me bout all our stolen cultures- un-packing all the lies of our stolen traditions – holding my ancestors & creator and spirits close and never for granted.

     

    And as I do-I Never forget the other parts of me, the broken peoples in my her-stories,

    the alonenesses, pain, struggle that so many of us Po’ mamaz and daddyz alone feel, in silence in these times of so much fake colonizers lies about the African revolutionary called Jesus.

     

    the comfort of- that 7-11 .99 coffee as it goes down my lonely throat, washing so much cold-ness and loneliness away until I feel nothing but mama’s love nestled in a free warm coat.

     

     

    Capitalismas Def: Holiday created by capitalists who appropriated multiple pagan and indigenous celebrations and "changed" the birthdate of a revolutionary who cared for gente pobre (Jesus Christ) all in pursuit of consumer-based profits- (Created by tiny for the POOR Magazine colonizer language re-mix glossary 2007)

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  • Prayers Up for the Philippines - Activation Needed

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body


    Prayers and Financial Help are Needed for our Brothers and Sisters in the Philippines

    In San Francisco:

    Beautiful and kind hearted San Francisco tourists, visitors, employees and residents reaching out to the victims of Typhoon Yolanda and donated to Nafcon Us.

    On Monday November 11, a group of us will be at Powell and Market 11:30am until 3pm.

    We will be singing Filipino songs and sharing the current situation. If you or someone you know will be in the area please feel free to stop by and donate. A dollar goes a long way! www.nafconusa.org

    556872_10153424486615526_1247656881_n 945478_10153424487695526_1294339473_n 999637_10153424486635526_1585475965_n 1380416_10153424486630526_758397297_n

     

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  • La Pesadilla Americana/ The American Nightmare

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Muteado
    Original Body

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    La Pesadilla Americana/ The American Nightmare 

    Scroll Down for English

    Lamentablemente ocurre casi todo el tiempo en la frontera de Mexico y los

    EE UU.

    Mueren mas del 50% de migrantes a manos de los agentes del patrulla fronteriza.

    La mayoria son personas de Mexico y Centro America  y paises de sur America.

    Nos Venimos a este pais  dejando nuestras familias en nuestros paises para darles una mejor vida  a nuestros hijos aunque algunos de nosotros venimos uyendo de  la violencia  domestica o simplemente por la pobreza en la cual se encuentra nuestro paiz por culpa de este paiz que a devaluado nuestra moneda   y  por eso es que algunos logramos pasar todas las difilcultades del camino y aunque otros mueren en el camino por falta de comida o agua, tambien y algunas de personas  les quitan la vida alos migrantes sin razon y sin motivo y los  entierran en fosas cladestinas para que nadie sepa y duele el corazon saber que todo esto es por al migracion en la frontera Mexicana.

     

    Los agentes se sienten dueños de la vida de la gente

     Buena y indefensa que no trae nada mas que su mente llena de iluciones

    Les disparan con la intencion de matarlos  y desaserse de los cuerpos de ellos.

     

    cual es la respuesta de la migra?

     

    Esque ellos nos estaban tirando piedras  oye ni que fueran locos Como es el caso de el joven de 14 años que que mataron en el Puente Cuando intentaba cruzar  la frontera,Sergio Adrian Hernandez fue baliado por un agente fronterizo.

    Tambien Anastasio Hernandez fue asesinado en la frontera  y mucha mas Gente han sido asesinados y como no hay camaras su muerte queda inpune.

    Bueno  apesar de que hay camaras y testigos  la muerte de estos jovenes Mexicanos no se resuelve.

    La migra ellos se lavan las manos que los jovenes no murieron en este lado o sea en Estados Unidos a mi me parece realmente una falta de respeto a los seres humanos que les quitan la vida como si fueran cucarachas, murio punto y se acabo.

    Me duele y me da coraje que el departamento de justicia  de Estados Unidos Dijo que no presentaria cargos a los elementos  de la patrulla  fronteriza Porque segun la Justisia  declaro que no se encontraron pruebas sufisientes y que ademas ellos actuaron en defensa propia.

    Mmm pero si fuera uno de los ajentes que hubiese muerto  estubieran peor que tigres para casarlos y acabarlos pero como son gringos  pore eso se lavan las manos pero por eso nunca se acaba la inpunidadnosotros somos personas igual que ustedes  no lo olviden.

    Tambien le pido al govierno  de Estados Unidos,   las politicasque appliqué vien las leyes  federales y que entrenen bien a los agentes antes de entregarles un arma porque no estan entrenados, por eso no maten esa no debe de ser la manera de defenderce de una simple piedra pero como los tapan las mismas autoridades entonces siguen perdiendo la vida los inmigrantes  basta ya.

    English Follows

    The American Nightmare

    It is unfortunate but, injustice & impunity happen all the time in the border of Mexico and the United States.

     More than 50% die at the hands of the border patrol.

     The majority of people are from Mexico and Central America and South America. We come to this country leaving behind family in our homelands with hopes of giving our children a better life even though some of us are running away from domestic violence or simply running away from poverty that exists in our homeland because of this country’s (United States) fault for devaluing our money. Some of us are capable of successfully surviving the many obstacles on the path and others die in the attempt due to starvation or dehydration. Others kill themselves before their journey is over and others are killed and their bodies dumped in unmarked graves so that no trace is left of them. My heart hurts to know that all this still happens as people travel to reach the Mexican-US border.

    The Border patrol feels like they own the migrant’s lives. Migrants are in defenseless people that do not have any valuables except for their minds filled with hopes and dreams. The Border Patrol shoots at people with the intention to kill and get rid of their bodies.

     And what is the response of the Border Patrol?

     They throw rocks at us as if they were crazy. Just like in the case of the young 14 year old man that was killed at the hands of border patrol on the bridge on the Mexican side of the border.

     Sergio Adrian Hernandez was shot by a border patrol. Likewise, Anastasio Hernandez was killed on the border. Many people have been killed in the border since there are no security cameras and witnesses to the crimes and thriving impunity since they were killed in Mexico and not in the United States. 

     But United State’s citizens shot them.

     But their hands are washed from crime.

     

    The Border Patrol wash their hands by saying that the young man die in the Mexico side of the border, is disrespectful to human life that their life is taking like they are cockroaches, and they die.

     

    It hurts and angers me that the justice department of the United States, will not press charges to the border patrol, stating that there is not enough evidence and the border patrol were acting in self defense.

    Mmm but it was the other way around if one of the Border Patrol would get shot and kill, they would start a manhunt, they forget that we all are human beings.

    I would also like to ask the United States politicians to apply federal laws, and to train their agents how to use weapons and how to respond to emergency calls, taking someone’s life should not be they way to deal with things. This will continue because the authorities cover up for the and migrants keep been kill…Enough is enough

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  • Google Bus Poem

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    PNNscholar1
    Original Body

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Google Bus
    By Tony Robles

    White blight
    Light sweeping
    Across sacred skin

    Impersonal hum
    Of a drone

    Scarring the eyes
    Searing the skin
    With words:
    Eviction and displacement

    Behind tinted glass,
    Digital colonizers
    With eyes that are neither
    Half full or half empty look
    For vacant space

    Back and forth,
    Up and down

    Cutting across
    Our skin and into
    Marrow and bone

    Our Epitaphs written in
    Invisible digital ink
    On the steps and walls
    And floorboards and
    Pots and pans in the
    Murals of our bones

    Songs
    Crying out from
    The soil

    Not to be seen
    In the drone of white
    Blight light

    Or in
    An app

    © 2013 Tony Robles

     

    (Picture by Harvey Castro Photography)

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  • Poemsong With A Deep Meaning: Kick Out Internalize Tactics!

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Leroy
    Original Body

    Kick Out Internalize Tactics!

    Verse 1

    Strip to the bone

    Leave you all alone

    Can’t build back up

    Cause they got your soul

     

    Chorus

    Internalize  tactics got you blind

    No not physically but mentally

    Eats wholes in you like chemotherapy 

    Kills the good and the bad leaving nothing but doubt

     

    Verse 2

    Ouch, open wounds

    Twisted organs

    Need to begin again

    Slate clean get to know the real u

     

    Chorus

    Internalize tactics got you blind

    No not physically but mentally

    Eats wholes in you like chemotherapy 

    Kills the good and the bad leaving nothing but doubt

     

    Bridge

    So sad that we can’t sing our song

    We’ve come so far still so long

    when we internalize society’s bullshit

    And don’t realize that we turned off our own music

    Can’t communicate making each other sick

    Holding our true selves in

    Lets dance to our personal political lyrics

     

    Verse 3

    Words can hurt but they also heal

    Peal back popular culture

    To know you stand on shoulders

    Who resisted by renaming so we can go deeper & feel

     

    Chorus

    Internalize tactics got you blind

    No not physically but mentally

    Eats wholes in you like chemotherapy 

    Kills the good and the bad leaving nothing but doubt

     

    Verse 4

    Don’t fall into the pit

    Display all of it

    Write it sing it dance to it

    Celebrate you  connect to your roots

     

    Outer  Verse

    So when society turns on its internalize tactics

    put on your steal boots

    Like you are in a mosh pit

    Sing your song and kick kick kick

     

    Say it again

     

    So when society turns on its internalize tactics

    put on your steal boots

    Like you are in a mosh pit

    Sing your song and kick kick kick

     

    Sing your song & kick kick kick

    Leroy F Moore Jr.

    12/21/12

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  • Nelson Mandela - Lala Ngokuthulala baba ube yiqhawe kithi/We shall continue where you left off - The Shackdwellers Union in South Africa on Our Hero Nelson Mandela

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body

    Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom has come to an End

    By Bandile Mdlalose/Special From our Comrades at the Shackdwellers Union in South Africa

     

    Our hero, the light of the nation, the father off all who feared nothing when it came to his children has now left us in pain. Our tears flow. Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom has now come to an end.

    Our long struggle for freedom is still beginning. We will be guided by the spirit of Nelson Mandela as we confront Zuma, who does nothing for the people and only takes what he can for himself and his family. We will be guided by the spirit of Nelsom Mandela as we confront Piega and all those who want to use the police to crush our struggles and make sure that the Constitution does not work for poor people. We are highly aware that more of us will be killed by the police, and the assassins, in the years to come. The killing of the youth in struggle that started in 1976 is not yet finished.

     

    The Black Boers have privatized the people’s struggle and they have turned our country into their own personal ATM. The times where English and round tables can take this country further have gone. Protocols have bought us nothing but shame. The Black Boers have made their intensions clear. They will ignore the courts and they will beat, arrest, torture and kill us so that they can keep filling their pockets. We need to fasten our takkies as the new era of oppression is just beginning. They have already killed us in the Free State, in Marikana and in Cato Crest just as the generation of 1976 was killed.

    They kill us because they fear us. They fear us because we are the living truth of their betrayal. They fear us because we do not accept their lies. They fear us because we know our own power. They fear us because we have seen how they killed Andries Tatane, the Marikana Miners, Thembinkosi Qumbela, Nkululeko Gwala and Nqobile Nzuza and yet we refuse to be intimidated and we continue to occupy land and to go to the streets.

    To hell with protocol. The only way for our generation to fulfil Mandela’s dream is to take power into our own hands. Together we must turn this country into a revolutionary democracy.

    Mandela once said that if the ANC does to this country what the apartheid government did the people must not fear to do what the ANC did to the apartheid government. This country was not given to ANC by votes. Voting was a bonus but it was fought for very hard. There was a huge struggle from below. There was bloodshed and arrests. We do not believe that voting will win us our freedom. We will win our freedom when we as the poor build our power from below in struggle, when we build a revolutionary democracy from below.

    The way to go is for us to unite and put on our takkies and go to streets. That is how we will show out loyalty to the Hero Nelson Mandela.

    Lala Ngokuthulala baba ube yiqhawe kithi. We shall continue where you left off.

    The struggle is just beginning.

     

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  • Homefulness is Healing-Help us Manifest this Vision in 2014

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Tiny
    Original Body

    Climate Change is Mama Earth in pain…Homefulness is Climate Healing...Gratitude and love to you all for helping us get this far  Please help us take the next humble step towards self-determined,landless peoples  liberation with your Revolutionary Donations

     

    Message from Muteado Silencio, Poverty, Migrante/Indigenous Skola; Prensa POBRE/POOR Magazine......
    Because of all of your revolutionary donations and community reparations, every Thursday at Homefulness, come rain or shine, us poverty skolaz set up what we call the Street Newsroom and the Sliding Scale Café, which is us providing and sharing free, healthy, non-GMO-filled hot food and organically grown greens from the newly built community gardens at Homefulness called the Pachamama Garden & A Garden for Trayvon with our fellow Poverty Scholars in East Oakland. This is at a time when major cuts have been made to many public assistance programs and resources which we depend on and need such as food stamps, for we know and understand how critical it is to support our community to have healthy hot meals.

    We have also launched the Community Building Circle, which led a multi-racial, multi-generational Revolutionary Work Day grading the land for our first straw bale house. We launched the Revolutionary Summer Camp for East Oakland youth, our second Healing the (Neighbor) Hood event and so much more (see the below list of 2013 activities). 

    These are only a few examples of the decolonized, self-determined, landless peoples movement known as Homefulness activating deep interdependent, off-plantation change for all of us.  Now we are trying to keep going with the vision and build our first home, which will house houseless families and elders. Can you help us?

    Message from Lex Horan, Inter-dependent Community Reparator and Good Son/Solidarity Family at POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE
    Building Homefulness is exquisitely beautiful, but it isn’t idyllic or smooth. To anyone like me who isn’t in daily struggle to get by, let’s hold that close and try to remember it. There’s desperation, like there is in every fight for survival. Homefulnesss is bringing us closer to a world where land, food and housing are for all of us, where they aren’t stolen from the hands of poor people to be sold at a profit. And until that day comes, those of us who have cash, land, race privilege or access have the honor and responsibility of making reparations to poor-people-led movements. 

    Homefulness is possible, it is moving, it is urgent, and it’s what we all need. Please do what you can to match the courage of Homefulness with the resources you have.

    We are on the verge of creating the first homes at Homefulness. With your help, we can lay the foundation for several houses and begin building straw-bale homes early in 2014. At this exciting and important moment, one of our longtime donors has offered a $10,000 matching grant. With your community reparations, we can make homes at Homefulness a reality, literally any day now. 

    From all of us to all of you: Ase-O, Ometeotl, Semign Cacona Guari, Aho… 

    2013 Activities 
    Throughout the year, poor youth, adults and elders in resistance created radio, video and online media in the midst of all of our core poor-people-led projects, actions and advocacy below is a small sampling of what we did in 2013.

    January/February 
    Bed Bug Flash Mob at the Travelodge Motel.
    PeopleSkool Spring 2013: 14 youth and adult poverty skolaz & 5 mentees graduated from Revolutionary Radio, On-line Journalism and Theatre of the POOR with good daughter & Sun certificates from PeopleSkool
    • Co-sponsored, supported Krip-Hop festival for Black Herstory Minute (Month)
    • Launched a multi-layered media-organizing effort in coalition with student leaders to fight the corporate takeover of the City College of San Francisco, one of the largest people’s colleges in the nation 
    March/April 
    • Created several ongoing WeSearch investigations on gentriFUKation
    • Media-organized against Po’Lice brutality of the Rapada Family
    Homeless Bill of Rights 
    May/June 
    Born N Raised in Frisco: Words, Art & Herstory from a Displaced Colonized City (POOR Press): Book release and seed planting
    • Launched the Poor Peoples Plate, a poetic organizing project to center food justice and the anti-GMO movement in the voices of us poor folks who are the most impacted by corporate poisoning
    Healing the (Neighbor) Hood @ Homefulness: Art, Movement, Ceremony and Medicine: A power-full two-day event that rooted healing in poor communities of color 
    July/August 
    Revolutionary Youth, Arts & Permaculture Summer Camp at Homefulness: 15 students in poverty ages 7-21 learned about permaculture, GMO poisoning and how to grow their own food in their own communities
    Garden for Trayvon launched by the youth skolaz who were participants in the summer camp
    Cooking Our Cultures: Youth skolaz in poverty in San Francisco learned how to decolonize their own diets through their own youth-led Wesearch and hands-on cooking projects.
    Prison Hunger Striker Correspondents: Re-launched our “Notes from the Inside” column by our brothers and sisters incarcerated in plantation prisons 
    September 
    • PeopleSkool Fall 2013: 15 poverty skolaz, 5 youth skolaz and 4 mentees
    Revolutionary Work Day at Homefulness: A huge and beautiful intergenerational construction day preparing the sacred land at Homefulness  
    October/November/December 
    -ThrownOutByTwitter- Theatre of the POOR action in collaboration with over 10 CBO's against tech billionaires displacing poor folks one tweet at a time
    • First Herstorical Inter-Generational Council at Homefulness: A powerful meeting of community leadership and accountability that will be our template for a no-Po’Lice zone and decision-making at Homefulness
    • Mercado de Cambio/tha Po’ Sto
     

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  • Tomando Muerte/Drinking Death

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Muteado
    Original Body

     

    (Scroll Down for English)    

    Tomando Muerte

    En la invasión de la tierra de Guatemala se repite la muerte y destrucción aparecen disfrazado  de desarrollo y progreso, este es uno de los  casos de muchas de las minas que están tomando el oro  de territorio guatemalteco con el apoyo del gobierno de turno.

    Mis ancestros mis abuelos dicen que la historia es también un circulo un ciclo de vida y en este círculo de vida la historia se repite de nuevo.

    Invasores disfrazados de (conquistadores) vinieron del mar y destruyeron a la civilización Maya.

    Hoy invasores   bajaron del aire y toman posesión de la tierra ofreciendo regalos y desarrollo con una lista que parece buena y bonita pero esconde la muerte de la vida y del medio ambiente y lo más grave la muerte de la madre tierra.

    La lista dice así:

    Mucho comercio por la mina, mas oportunidad de trabajo para todos, Ayuda a agricultores, Ayuda y para la mujer, jóvenes y niños, incluyen a todos y todas en su lista. Y como una promesa o eslogan dicen cosas bonitas como ejemplo              “Lo mejor está por venir”

    Lentamente como una neblina de polvo y contaminación surge la muerte de bacas caballos y toso ser viviente que utilice el agua que está en los alrededores de la mina que utiliza en su proceso de explotación del preciado metal grandes cantidades de agua que contamina con cianuro, que es un veneno altamente dañino para las fuentes de agua y el medio ambiente, peces aves animales y humanos.

    Somos agua

    El agua es un vital liquido para la vida sin oro podemos vivir pero sin agua podemos morir.

    San Rafael las Flores  a la llegada se los invasores

    La vida y paz y belleza del lugar fue cortada al momento que llego la compañía minera Gold  corp  Muete, brutalidad, represión y amenazas  contra la población que en manifestaciones pacificas han sido brutalmente atacados por guardias privados con que les disparan con escopetas  y además cuentan con el apoyo del Ejército de Guatemala y policía.

    Las plantas de tomate y otros vegetales mueren o desarrollan enferermedades por el agua contaminada con cianuro y metales pesados.

    Los niños y niñas  presentan enfermedades de la piel y enfermedad de pie negro.

    San Rafael antes del arribo de la mina Escobal, que pasara después

    Lo peor está por venir

     Las tierras de san Rafael son altas y todas la venas y mantos acuíferos están conectados como las venas de un cuerpo humano, Cerca de la mina se encuentra una de las reservas de agua naturales mas importantes del area se llama laguna de Ayarza que es un bello lugar de agua cristalina con abundancia de peces y vida acuática.

    De continuar la mina la contaminación la muerte a la madre tierra el agua, que pasara con los habitantes del lugar.

    En el futuro algunos antropólogos y académicos encontraran vestigios y ruinas del lugar y comenzaran a estudiar y a formar teorías sobre la desaparición de los habitantes de san Rafael, San Juan Bosco, Casillas, El Rinconcito, Nueva Santa rosa pues toda el agua que baje de las tierras altas de San Rafael con cianuro bajaran a todo el valle de Santa Rosa y Barberena llegando a la costa y finalmente a Ciudad de Guatemala con agua contaminada por cianuroCuéntale a tod@s

    Que t@dos lo sepan que nadie se quede en silencio.     

     

    English Follow

    Drinking Death

    In the New invasion of Guatemala death and destruction repeats its self, It appears disguised as development and progress, this is the case of one of the many mining companies that are mining out, the gold in Guatemala  with support of the Guatemala Government.

    My ancestors and my grandparents said that history is a cycle of life and it always repeats itself.

    The invaders disguised as Conquistadores came from the ocean and destroy the Mayan civilization.

    Today the invaders came from the sky and took over the land, offering gifts of development and progress, with a list a good things they will accomplish, but behind is hiding the truth about the death and the harm to environment and the death to mother earth.

    The list States

    More commerce for the mine, more opportunities of labor for all, help to farmers,woman, youth and children, always promising the best is yet to come.

    Slowly like the Dusthaze and contamination that slowly kills the cows, horses and anything that uses the water that surrounds the mine, the mine uses the water to extract the precious metal in high quantities, after the water is use, is contaminated with cyanide which is poison that contaminates the water sources killing theenvironment, fish, birds and humans.

    We are Water

    Water is a vital liquid for life, we can live without gold, but without water we can die.

    San Rafaelde las Flores the arrival of the invaders

    Life, peace, and beauty was cut down the moment that the mining company Gold Corp that brought death, brutality, repression and threats against the population that after peaceful demonstrations the protesters were been attack in a brutal way by private guards that fired against them and with the back up of the Guatemala Army and Police.

    The tomatoes and other vegetables are dying and are been contaminated by the water with cyanide and heavy metals.

    Children have shown sickness in the skin.

    The worst is yet to come.

    The terrain of San Rafael are high mountains and the rivers are all connected like the veins in a human body, close to the mine you can find a naturalwater reserves, which one the most important in that area, Is call Ayarza is a beautiful place with crystal clear water with plenty of fish and aquatic life.

    If the mine continues the contamination will bring death to the earth and the water, and will happen with the habitants Ayarza.

    In the future some anthropologies and academics would gain access to study with theories and lies of how the People and Nature disappeared from San Rafael, San Juan Bosco, Casillas, El Riconcito, Nueva Santa rosa which are places where fresh water comes down from the highlands down to the coast to arrive finally in Guatemala already contaminated by cyanide, Tell everyone about the truth, let no one be silence..

     

     

                                                  

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  • A TECH MYSTERY: SHIH IS MISSING--DAY 118

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    PNNscholar1
    Original Body

    Back in August I Wrote an article about Peter Shih, the founder of trycelery.com. Shih unleashed an anti-San Francisco rant, decrying the city's homeless population, condition of its streets, and the weather--among other things. At any rate, my "Open letter to Peter Shih" was an appeal to Shih to consider his insensitive remarks, in light of the fact that the tech industry has been the main cause of evictions of long term San Francisco residents. To see the letter to Peter Shih, go to: http://poormagazine.org/node/4892 My letter to Shih was a polite entreaty, an olive branch of sorts, to start a dialogue with him as a result of what I perceived as his sincere apology for his remarks and to make amends in some kind of way. My letter was written back in August. To date, 113 days have gone by with no response from Shih--no Tweet, no email, no post--nothing. I tried to reach him at trycelery but his name doesn't appear on the site, no email address, and no physical address.

    I started to ask myself if Peter Shih ever really existed. So, I have decided to post a new article called "Shih is missing". So far, he has been missing for 113 days. Will he ever appear?

    Tags
  • We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you this Ellis Act Alert

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    PNNscholar1
    Original Body

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    We interrupt your regularly

    Scheduled program to bring

    You this Ellis act alert

     

    Mom and pop are missing,

    Pry open your eyes

    Let your ears hear

     

    Mom is 79 and pop

    Is 82 and have lived

    In San Francisco all their lives

     

    Mom and pop–unplugged,

    Displaced in a city of wireless wires

    Where friends that never were are

    Flung into heaps of the unfriended,

    Replaced by holograms that begat

    Other holograms who slither behind

    Tinted glass bus windows

     

    In kitchen pot silence

    In floorboard splinters

    In the skin of torn rugs

    We search for stains like

    Maps for clues, traces

     

    This is an Ellis alert

    And mom and pop are gone

    And with them the smell of

    Adobo

    Gumbo

    Black eyed peas

    Malunggay

    Bitter melon

     

    We looked for mom and pop

    In the book of landlords

    And that book, whose edges

    Were a knife, whose pages were

    Not stained by a single memory,

    Read only one name:  Ellis

     

    Ellis cover to cover

    Ellis front to back

    Ellis open and shut

    Case closed

     

    And we searched for

    The book of the evicted

    Whose pages and spines multiplied

    And were strewn on street corners and

    Garbage bins and the names of the

    Evicted were written in the streets by

    The shrill talon of the raven to be

    Paved over by the machinery of

    No memory

     

    This is an Ellis alert

    And mom and pop

    Are out there somewhere

     

    Pry open your eyes

    Let your ears hear

     

    With the click of the

    Tongue, and not the mouse,

    Pop made the birds come and bring

    Together philosophies from every

    Corner of the world

     

    And

     

    Mom is your mom,

    Is my mom, is your skin,

    Is my skin, is my memory

    Is our memory

     

    Pry open your eyes

    Let your ears hear

     

    Mom and pop

    Are missing

     

    We now return

    To your regularly

    Scheduled program

     

     

    © Tony Robles 2013

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  • Justicia Falsa/ False Justice

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Muteado
    Original Body

                (Scroll down for English)

                                         Justicia Falsa

    El ensayo  musical está por terminar el fin de semana, se presentara un grupo chileno son casi las nueve de la noche y una multitud de personas entra por sorpresa toman el escenario y un hombre grita  ha muerto el General.

    Unos gritan de felicidad algunas personas rompen en llanto se escuchan aplausos, cuando  el ambiente  se calma, el hombre finaliza la noticia: El General Augusto Pinochet murió ayer, corría el mes de diciembre de 2006 día 11.

    Se inicio la canción el pueblo Unido Jamás será vencido y los jóvenes chilenos que no habían vivido o no recordaban la dictadura de Pinochet se miraban sorprendidosviendo el caudal de emociones alegría y dolor  como gran rio un  buscando su cauce, expresaban sus familiares.

    Varias personas tomaron la palabra expresando la alegría que por fin alguien que había hecho tanto daño a la humanidad, dejaba el planeta tierra.

    Augusto Pinochet Dictador chileno símbolo de violencia, abuso, y muerte, durante su mandato más de 3,200 personas fueron ejecutadas o desaparecidas, miles de exiliados.

    Recuerdo a mis amigos y hermanos chilenos.     En Guatemala se repite la historia con Generales símbolo de muerte, violencia que manchado de sangre la tierra y viven sus últimos días en libertad y rodeados de lujos nadie los puede tocar, ni la justicia.

    La fotografía de Efraín Ríos Montt  juzgado por Genocidio en Guatemala es una de muchos mensajes que se publicaron en este caso que dio la vuelta al mundo, parecía que por fin la justicia llegaba tarde pero no olvidaba toda la sangre derramada durante el gobierno del General ríos Montt que dejo 200,000 muertos y 45, desaparecidos y otros miles de exiliados.

    El General  es una mescla de el agente cero ceroTe puede sorprender con un mensaje de sabiduría como un gran pensador o confundirte, montarse en un caballo y fingir y decir que no sabe nada, decir un mensaje religioso y todos le aplaudenpredicar del amor,   ponerse el traje pinto pintado la cara  transformarse en un gran maestro al que casi todos sus alumnos admiran por su disciplina y discurso su ropa impecable y de marca, Los cadetes dicen que es yuca.    

    El general es noticia ocupando las primeras páginas de las de periódicos, decir que pertenece a los oficiales  jóvenes  y la satisfacción de ser una figura internacionalMuchos periodistas internacionales le quieren entrevistar,  y cabe la posibilidad de hacer películas

     

     

    El Héroe nacional y ejemplo para futuras generaciones

    En  el futuro puede ser  declarado héroe nacional sobreviviente de combates sangrientos, por su inteligencia militar, donde salió victorioso siempre.

    En la avenida reforma y frente al palacio nacional podremos mirar en el futuro  Al general de hierro en su caballo de bronce como una estatua que adorne los jardinesdiciendo   a las futuras generaciones  en la  escuela que fue un gran héroe que libro a Guatemala de Fantasmas.

    Un amigo me dijo este caso  del Juicio contra  Ríos Montt Por todas las masacres y dolor y muerte que origino puede ser una lección para los futuros gobiernos y el mundo o puede ser un espectáculo  en el que se gaste tiempo dinero tinta y muchos recursos que distraigan al pueblo como el circo romano.

    En las calles de Guatemala la guerra no ha terminado solo basta mirar los periódicos y ver los muertos aparecen todos los días los asaltos, robos, masacres, abusó de poder, racismo.

    La Firma de la paz solo un espectáculo, los acuerdos de paz letra muerta, el caso contra Ríos Montt parece sumarse al espectáculo.

    En el futuro próximo nos daremos cuenta, hay mucho trabajo por realizar en la construcción de una Guatemala con Paz.

    El General  Nunca Pierde

    El circo Romano Guatemalteco termino y el general Efraín Ríos Montt  esta libre todo la distracción termino y el ego del general creció unas pulgadas mas abonado por la corrupción del estado de Guatemala y sus presidentes o como dicen en mi pueblo el señor gobierno  Otto Pérez Molina está cumpliendo con su, promesa de mano dura en contra de la población trabajadora de Guatemala y mano suave o de peluche para los delincuentes, asesinos, traficantes, y ahora vendiendo el territorio a empresas mineras extranjeras como Gold corpExplotación minera, que está matando la madre tierra y las venas de agua aplicándoles veneno llamado cianuro y llevándose el ORO. Cuéntale a tod@s.

     Que  tod@s lo sepan que nadie se quede en silencio.       

     

        False Justice

    The Musical practice will end by the end of the week, a group of chileans will present around 9pm at night, a group of people enter in the scene and yells the General has died.

    Some yell of happiness others break in tears, when everything settles, a man announces The General Augusto Pichochet has died yesterday, it was december 11, 2006.

    People started to chant “ The people united will never be defeated”  the young people who did not suffer under the dictatorship of Pinochet looked surprised by the emotions of happiness and pain that their families express.

    Many people express their happiness that finally someone that brought so much pain, was no longer be here on this earth.

    Augusto Pinochet the chilean dictator a sysmbol of violence, abuse and death who kill over 3,200 people and dissapear and exile under his dictatorship.

    I remember my chilean friends and brothers.

     In Guatemala history repeats it self with generals with the sysmbol of death and violence who stain mother earth with blood, and even on his finals days he is sorrounded by luxury and no body can’t touch him not even the Justice system.

    The photograh of Efraín Ríos Montt  who was judge for genocide in Guatemala made the news around the world, it seems that finally justice will be serve, it was late but all the blood that was spill under his government of Efraín Ríos Montt  that left behind over 200,000 dead people and 45 disappeared and many more in exile.

    The General is a mix of a secret agent zero zero, he can amaze you with a great message of wisdom and great thinker and leave you confused, he can hop on a horse and say he doesn’t know anything, he can say a religous message and everyone will applaud him, he can preach about love, he can wear a fancy suit and transform in a teacher and all his students admire him for his disipline and his fancy suits, they say he is a Yuca..

    The General has become news in front pages of Newspapers , He has become a international figure, Many international Journalist want to interview him, they might even make a movie about him.

    The national Hero and example for future generations

    In he future he can be declare a national hero, survivor of bloody combats, for his wisdom in the military, the victor...

     

     

    In the main Avenue in from of the National Palace we will one day see the General sitting on his horse of steal and bronz in a form of a statue decorating the garden, and saying to the future generations and in the public schools the he was a hero that liberated Guatemala from the Ghosts.

    A friend of mine said this trial against Rios Montt acused of masacres and pain, will be a lesson for the future governments and the world, that you can create a scene to waste money and ink to distract the people, like a roman circus.

    In the streets of Guatemala the war has not ended you can read it in the newspapers, dead people,robberies,masacres, abuse of power,racism.

    The Peace Treaties are only a espectacule, the trial against Rios Montt can be aded it to the espetacule.

    In the future we will find out, that there is a lot work to be done in Guatemala to reach Peace in the streets.

    The General never loses

    The Guatemalan circus has ended and the General Efraín Ríos Montt  is walking free, the distration is over, the ego of the general have grown couple inches, Guatemala and their presidents have acomplish what the President Otto Perez promise, more hars treatment against the working poor and gentle treatment against deliquents,killers,trafficares, and selling Guatemala to mining companies like Gold Corp to be explotied by the mining buissness that is killing mother earth and poluting the water...

    Let everyone know, no one remain silent....

                

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  • 2013 Krip-Hop Nation's Accomplishments

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Leroy
    Original Body

    Hello Peeps,

    Its that time again when we look back on another year and what we did. In 2013 Krp-Hop Nation & Leroy Moore did some amazing stuff with others and on our own so take a look. 2014, we are coming! If you want to get involve drop us an email at kriphopnation@gmail.com.

    1) Feb 8th Leroy helped coordinate Porgy event at UC Berkeley with Susan Schweik brought Damon L. Ford who met Porgy's family to campus
    2) Feb.12-17th Krip-Hop hosted our first Bay Area mini concert tour celebrating the life & music of the late Joe Capers with 5 local venues and six artists/musicians/poets. Look here http://sfbayview.com/2013/keeping-joe-capers-legacy-alive-in-oakland/

    3)Feb 14th Leroy Moore released, The Black Kripple Delivers: Krip Love Mixtape http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/LeroyMoore

    4) March 8th Kounterclockwise released the first Krip-Hop Nation's animated music video of the song WHIP starring Deacon, Kaya of Kounterclockwise and Leroy Moore. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ1leQVhaOE

    5) March 19th helped to bring Narcel Redus with his documentary, Not Home to UCB with Susan Schweik

    6) May 8th Krip-Hop Nation Presented at Stanford University

    7) May 9th Krip-Hop Nation presented and performed with DJ Quad and Gioioa Von Disterlo at University of Washington on the topic of police brutality against people with disabilities.

    8)June 7th Leroy attended and spoke at the Black Disabled Study forum held by the National Black Disabled Coalition in NJ. Look here for more info http://blackdisability.org/

    9) August 17th Krip-Hop Nation hosted Toni Hickman's 16th Strike film documentary at SF Main Library with Poor Magazine and SF Bayview Newspaper. Look & Listen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qrt9ckwjmg

    10) August 31st The first city-wide (Oakland, CA)honored the late Joe Capers with Naru and Joe's family. Now and forever Aug is Joe Capers Month in Oakland, CA thanks to Leroy Moore and Naru.

    11)December 5th Krip-Hop Nation/Leroy presented at Napa Valley College.

    12) Krip-Hop Nation made deep connections with artists in Africa, featured a journalist who wrote about a father and his disabled daughters who were looking for a wheelchair to get around. Because of Ronald Galiwango's article http://sfbayview.com/2013/disabled-and-riding-a-wheelbarrow-a-fathers-love/ And hosted Dagnachew B. Wakene's visit to the Bay Area. Dagnachew is from Ethiopia, Africa.
    __________________________________________________________________

    What is coming up for Krip-Hop Nation in 2014

    1) April Krip-Hop Nation will be hosting a Hip-Hop workshop and performance at Tangled Art + Dsability Festival n Toronto, Canada with Kounterclockwise and Rob Da 'Noize Temple. More info http://abilitiesartsfestival.org/whats-new/

    2) November Krip-Hop Nation goes back to DADA Festival in Liverpool, UK and possible a UK tour. Krip-Hop artists will be Binki Woi, Lady MJ, Rob DA Noize Temple, Kounterclockwise, Ronnie Ronnie and Leroy Moore For more info http://www.dadafest.co.uk/the-festival/

    3)Finally Krip-Hop Nation website coming in March or April

    4) New Krip-Hop logo soon

    5) Krip-Hop international CD by November and more

    KRIP-HOP NATION WISH YOU HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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  • Moan To Me (Calling Blind Willie Johnson)

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    Leroy
    Original Body

     

     

    Intro

    Mmmmmmm

    Mmmmmmm

    Verse 1

    Moan to me no not my baby

    Going back down to the Delta

    In the air you hear them holla

    Sweating in the southern humidity

    Chorus

    Black blind men on corners

    Singing for their rent & dinner

    Blind Willie Johnson moan to me

    Whaling about Black reality

    Verse 2

    No lyrics no words

    It’s all about feelings

    Free like a bird

    But with no wings

    Chorus

    Black blind men on corners

    Singing for their rent & dinner

    Blind Willie Johnson moan to me

    Whaling about Black reality

    Bridge

    Not one tear, Jim Crow fear

    Michelle Alexander yeah it’s still here

    Lets all moan

    Trying to connect with our cell phones

    Verse 3

    All we want is human touch

    Is that asking too much?

    Going back down to the Delta

    News coming from the Blues, don’t need media

    Chorus

    Black blind men on corners

    Singing for their rent & dinner

    Blind Willie Johnson moan to me

    Whaling about Black reality

    Verse 4

    Blues women show Hip-Hop queens

    How to get it done and work behind the scenes

    Reveal to them who were really pulling the strings

    On guitar and yeah we have come so far

    Verse 5

    Moan for me

    Moan about the game we still have to play

    Moan cause nothing has change

    Moan there are no words to say

     Outro

    Moan for me

    Mmmmmmm

    Mmmmmmm

    Blind Willie Johnson moan to me

    By Leroy F. Moore Jr.

    11/16/13

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  • Greg Gopman and Peter Shih: The Diet Koch Brothers Who Have Their Heads up Their Apps

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    PNNscholar1
    Original Body

    Another example of yet another tech boy executive who doesn’t know his app from a hole in the ground: Greg Gopman.  A tech boy that can be diagnosed with having "backside verbosity" (IE: a tendency to talk out of one's ass). Another uninvited pest from out of town—apparently from the “Ain’t No Sunshine/Stand your ground” state of Florida—spewing a rant-filled tirade about the city of my birth; the city that is home to the I-Hotel and the city that is home to a deep and long labor history that was not without violence and sacrifice and people working together to better the lives of every day people. The city I refer to is San Francisco, of which I am a fourth generation resident. It is a city that is fighting for its soul from the onslaught of the soul less who see nothing more than apps, applications, dollar signs and their own visions of themselves. Many of these folks who are blighting our city happen to be tech washed. But in the overall picture, it extends beyond the boundaries of tech and its multifarious churches.  

     

    In August it was Peter Shih who first put his digital footprint in his mouth by ranting about how ugly and inconvenient San Francisco is.  He decried “those homeless” (an easy target for those with privilege who are oblivious that they even have it), the city's nightlife, certain elements of the community--in short, he portrayed the city as barely short of a cesspool.  Shih later apologized for his remarks and has seemingly dropped into the digital rabbit hole/abyss.   I wrote him an open letter challenging him to be a part of the city’s Asian American community, which he is, by default, a part of.  I challenged him to be cognizant of the eviction of elders such as the Lee family and to do something with his money and privilege to serve someone other than that guy he sees in the mirror each morning (or whatever it is he happens to see).  114 days have elapsed since I wrote that letter to Shih.  His response, nothing—not a tweet, post, email—nothing.  Well, Shih happens, and so does the occasional miracle.  I might hear from him, but I won't be losing sleep over it.  (To read "An Open Letter to Peter Shih", open the link:  http://poormagazine.org/node/4892)

     

    Enter Greg GopmanGopman is apparently the founder of something called Angel Hack.  He apparently thinks that the homeless should be put in labor camps and that the poor and those who survive through underground economic strategies should be relegated to places out of the way—sight unseen.  I read these statements and thought about Peter Shih, and how these two clowns must be joined at the lip; another digital footprint in the mouth.  When I first heard the name Greg Gopman, I asked myself, Greg who?  Then I asked a few other questions such as, who gave him a speaking part?  Who invited him to my city?  What qualifies him to say anything about my city at all?  Oh, I get it—having money entitles him a big corn dog sized microphone.

     

    I looked at this tech boy’s face and wondered if he ever really worked in his life.  He has pampered written all over his face.  He says he been all over the world, to third world countries even (clap clap clap). I hope he wasn't as big an assh**e overseas as he is here in the bay area.  At any rate, he’s a well -traveled fool who has showed that he knows how to talk out of his ass--if not his app.

     

    If Mr. Gopman is so concerned with the cleanliness of San Francisco, I have an idea—have him and a few of his buddies grab a broom and start sweeping.  Sweeping is good for the arms and mind—both of which, in Mr. Gopman’s case, have gone lax.

     

    I'll tell you about real work.  Real work was the I-Hotel--the symbol of the struggle for affordable housing in San Francisco.  When the I-Hotel was slated for demolition in the late 60's, community mobilized to fight the eviction of its mostly senior residents.  The demolition would cap off the slow demolition of the San Francisco's Manilatown neighborhood, a  Filipino neighborhood with a long labor history.  As the financial district expanded, it saw no use to have "those" people close by.  So their expansion meant the destruction of a neighborhood. 

     

    The International hotel was the site for massive direct action on behalf of the tenants, that brought together students, labor, artists, the church, community organizations and even local politicians.  When the hotel was torn down after an eviction that saw more than 3000 people surround the building in defense of its tenants, the community did not give up the fight.  My uncle, the poet Al Robles was one of those that fought.  It took 30 years of meetings and coalition building and not giving up to finally rebuild the I-Hotel, which stands at the corner of Jackson and Kearny Street--103 Units of affordable senior housing.  That was real work--done without apps, email and/or laptops.


    The Gopman’s and Shih’s of the world aren’t concerned with humanity, or improving anybody’s lives except for those in their immediate circle.  They want a nice clean place alright, one in which nobody disturbs or inconveniences them with any kind of real concerns or problems--except for those that can be solved at a distance with an app.  Absent from their list of complaints are the multimillion dollar tax breaks that their industry receives in San Francisco, or how their business fuels evictions of seniors and families at unprecedented numbers. 

     

    Greg and Peter, you sound like the Koch brothers but, since you aren’t quite as wealthy, I’ll refer to you as the diet Koch Brothers.  We are in San Francisco—people of color, the poor, the elders--here before you digital Barnum and Bailies ever saw the light of day. Perhaps if you pulled your heads out of your apps, you might have known that.   Which begs another question, Who invited you here anyway?

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  • It's Time To Stop This Madness

    09/24/2021 - 08:54 by Anonymous (not verified)
    Original Author
    PNNscholar1
    Original Body

    Mr. President, I have the honor to speak on behalf of the resilient people of the Republic of the Philippines.

    At the onset, allow me to fully associate my delegation with the statement made by the distinguished Ambassador of the Republic of Fiji, on behalf of G77 and China as well as the statement made by Nicaragua on behalf of the Like-Minded Developing Countries.

    First and foremost, the people of the Philippines, and our delegation here for the United Nations Climate Change Convention’s 19th Conference of the Parties here in Warsaw, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your expression of sympathy to my country in the face of this national difficulty.

    In the midst of this tragedy, the delegation of the Philippines is comforted by the warm hospitality of Poland, with your people offering us warm smiles everywhere we go. Hotel staff and people on the streets, volunteers and personnel within the National Stadium have warmly offered us kind words of sympathy. So, thank you Poland.

    The arrangements you have made for this COP is also most excellent and we highly appreciate the tremendous effort you have put into the preparations for this important gathering.

    We also thank all of you, friends and colleagues in this hall and from all corners of the world as you stand beside us in this difficult time. I thank all countries and governments who have extended your solidarity and for offering assistance to the Philippines. I thank the youth present here and the billions of young people around the world who stand steadfast behind my delegation and who are watching us shape their future. I thank civil society, both who are working on the ground as we race against time in the hardest hit areas, and those who are here in Warsaw prodding us to have a sense of urgency and ambition. We are deeply moved by this manifestation of human solidarity. This outpouring of support proves to us that as a human race, we can unite; that as a species, we care.

    It was barely 11 months ago in Doha when my delegation appealed to the world… to open our eyes to the stark reality that we face… as then we confronted a catastrophic storm that resulted in the costliest disaster in Philippine history. Less than a year hence, we cannot imagine that a disaster much bigger would come. With an apparent cruel twist of fate, my country is being tested by this hellstorm called Super Typhoon Haiyan, which has been described by experts as the strongest typhoon that has ever made landfall in the course of recorded human history. It was so strong that if there was a Category 6, it would have fallen squarely in that box. Up to this hour, we remain uncertain as to the full extent of the devastation, as information trickles in in an agonizingly slow manner because electricity lines and communication lines have been cut off and may take a while before these are restored. The initial assessment show that Haiyan left a wake of massive devastation that is unprecedented, unthinkable and horrific, affecting 2/3 of the Philippines, with about half a million people now rendered homeless, and with scenes reminiscent of the aftermath of a tsunami, with a vast wasteland of mud and debris and dead bodies. According to satellite estimates, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also estimated that Haiyan achieved a minimum pressure between around 860 mbar (hPa; 25.34 inHg) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center estimated Haiyan to have attained one-minute sustained winds of 315 km/h (195 mph) and gusts up to 378 km/h (235 mph) making it the strongest typhoon in modern recorded history. Despite the massive efforts that my country had exerted in preparing for the onslaught of this monster of a storm, it was just a force too powerful and even as a nation familiar with storms, Super Typhoon Haiyan was nothing we have ever experienced before, or perhaps nothing that any country has every experienced before.

    The picture in the aftermath is ever so slowly coming into clearer focus. The devastation is colossal. And as if this is not enough, another storm is brewing again in the warm waters of the western Pacific. I shudder at the thought of another typhoon hitting the same places where people have not yet even managed to begin standing up.

    To anyone who continues to deny the reality that is climate change, I dare you to get off your ivory tower and away from the comfort of you armchair. I dare you to go to the islands of the Pacific, the islands of the Caribbean and the islands of the Indian ocean and see the impacts of rising sea levels; to the mountainous regions of the Himalayas and the Andes to see communities confronting glacial floods, to the Arctic where communities grapple with the fast dwindling polar ice caps, to the large deltas of the Mekong, the Ganges, the Amazon, and the Nile where lives and livelihoods are drowned, to the hills of Central America that confronts similar monstrous hurricanes, to the vast savannas of Africa where climate change has likewise become a matter of life and death as food and water becomes scarce. Not to forget the massive hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern seaboard of North America. And if that is not enough, you may want to pay a visit to the Philippines right now.

    The science has given us a picture that has become much more in focus. The IPCC report on climate change and extreme events underscored the risks associated with changes in the patterns as well as frequency of extreme weather events. Science tells us that simply, climate change will mean more intense tropical storms. As the Earth warms up, that would include the oceans. The energy that is stored in the waters off the Philippines will increase the intensity of typhoons and the trend we now see is that more destructive storms will be the new norm.

    This will have profound implications on many of our communities, especially who struggle against the twin challenges of the development crisis and the climate change crisis. Typhoons such as Yolanda (Haiyan) and its impacts represent a sobering reminder to the international community that we cannot afford to procrastinate on climate action. Warsaw must deliver on enhancing ambition and should muster the political will to address climate change.

    In Doha, we asked “If not us then who? If not now, then when? If not here, then where?” (borrowed from Philippine student leader Ditto Sarmiento during Martial Law). It may have fell on deaf ears. But here in Warsaw, we may very well ask these same forthright questions. “If not us, then who? If not now, then when? If not here in Warsaw, where?”

    What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness. The climate crisis is madness.

    We can stop this madness. Right here in Warsaw.

    It is the 19th COP, but we might as well stop counting, because my country refuses to accept that a COP30 or a COP40 will be needed to solve climate change. And because it seems that despite the significant gains we have had since the UNFCCC was born, 20 years hence we continue to fail in fulfilling the ultimate objective of the Convention.  Now, we find ourselves in a situation where we have to ask ourselves – can we ever attain the objective set out in Article 2 – which is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system? By failing to meet the objective the Convention, we may have ratified the doom of vulnerable countries.

    And if we have failed to meet the objective of the Convention, we have to confront the issue of loss and damage. Loss and damage from climate change is a reality today across the world. Developed country emissions reductions targets are dangerously low and must be raised immediately, but even if they were in line with the demand of reducing 40-50% below 1990 levels, we would still have locked-in climate change and would still need to address the issue of loss and damage.

    We find ourselves at a critical juncture and the situation is such that even the most ambitious emissions reductions by developed countries, who should have been taking the lead in combatting climate change in the past 2 decades, will not be enough to avert the crisis. It is now too late, too late to talk about the world being able to rely on Annex I countries to solve the climate crisis. We have entered a new era that demands global solidarity in order to fight climate change and ensure that pursuit of sustainable human development remains at the fore of the global community’s efforts. This is why means of implementation for developing countries is ever more crucial.

    It was the Secretary general of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, 1992, Maurice Strong who said that “History reminds us that what is not possible today, may be inevitable tomorrow.”

    We cannot sit and stay helpless staring at this international climate stalemate. It is now time to take action. We need an emergency climate pathway.

    I speak for my delegation. But more than that, I speak for the countless people who will no longer be able to speak for themselves after perishing from the storm. I also speak for those who have been orphaned by this tragedy. I also speak for the people now racing against time to save survivors and alleviate the suffering of the people affected by the disaster.

    We can take drastic action now to ensure that we prevent a future where super typhoons are a way of life. Because we refuse, as a nation, to accept a future where super typhoons like Haiyan become a fact of life. We refuse to accept that running away from storms, evacuating our families, suffering the devastation and misery, having to count our dead, become a way of life. We simply refuse to.

    We must stop calling events like these as natural disasters. It is not natural when people continue to struggle to eradicate poverty and pursue development and gets battered by the onslaught of a monster storm now considered as the strongest storm ever to hit land. It is not natural when science already tells us that global warming will induce more intense storms. It is not natural when the human species has already profoundly changed the climate.

    Disasters are never natural. They are the intersection of factors other than physical. They are the accumulation of the constant breach of economic, social, and environmental thresholds. Most of the time disasters is a result of inequity and the poorest people of the world are at greatest risk because of their vulnerability and decades of maldevelopment, which I must assert is connected to the kind of pursuit of economic growth that dominates the world; the same kind of pursuit of so-called economic growth and unsustainable consumption that has altered the climate system.

    Now, if you will allow me, to speak on a more personal note.

    Super Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in my family’s hometown and the devastation is staggering. I struggle to find words even for the images that we see from the news coverage. I struggle to find words to describe how I feel about the losses and damages we have suffered from this cataclysm.

    Up to this hour, I agonize while waiting for word as to the fate of my very own relatives. What gives me renewed strength and great relief was when my brother succeeded in communicating with us that he has survived the onslaught. In the last two days, he has been gathering bodies of the dead with his own two hands. He is hungry and weary as food supplies find it difficult to arrive in the hardest hit areas.

    We call on this COP to pursue work until the most meaningful outcome is in sight. Until concrete pledges have been made to ensure mobilization of resources for the Green Climate Fund. Until the promise of the establishment of a loss and damage mechanism has been fulfilled; until there is assurance on finance for adaptation; until concrete pathways for reaching the committed 100 billion dollars have been made; until we see real ambition on stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations. We must put the money where our mouths are.

    This process under the UNFCCC has been called many names. It has been called a farce. It has been called an annual carbon-intensive gathering of useless frequent flyers. It has been called many names. But it has also been called the Project to save the planet. It has been called “saving tomorrow today”. We can fix this. We can stop this madness. Right now. Right here, in the middle of this football field.

    I call on you to lead us. And let Poland be forever known as the place we truly cared to stop this madness. Can humanity rise to the occasion? I still believe we can.

    - See more at: http://www.rtcc.org/2013/11/11/its-time-to-stop-this-madness-philippines...

    Mr. President, I have the honor to speak on behalf of the resilient people of the Republic of the Philippines.

    At the onset, allow me to fully associate my delegation with the statement made by the distinguished Ambassador of the Republic of Fiji, on behalf of G77 and China as well as the statement made by Nicaragua on behalf of the Like-Minded Developing Countries.

    First and foremost, the people of the Philippines, and our delegation here for the United Nations Climate Change Convention’s 19th Conference of the Parties here in Warsaw, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your expression of sympathy to my country in the face of this national difficulty.

    In the midst of this tragedy, the delegation of the Philippines is comforted by the warm hospitality of Poland, with your people offering us warm smiles everywhere we go. Hotel staff and people on the streets, volunteers and personnel within the National Stadium have warmly offered us kind words of sympathy. So, thank you Poland.

    The arrangements you have made for this COP is also most excellent and we highly appreciate the tremendous effort you have put into the preparations for this important gathering.

    We also thank all of you, friends and colleagues in this hall and from all corners of the world as you stand beside us in this difficult time. I thank all countries and governments who have extended your solidarity and for offering assistance to the Philippines. I thank the youth present here and the billions of young people around the world who stand steadfast behind my delegation and who are watching us shape their future. I thank civil society, both who are working on the ground as we race against time in the hardest hit areas, and those who are here in Warsaw prodding us to have a sense of urgency and ambition. We are deeply moved by this manifestation of human solidarity. This outpouring of support proves to us that as a human race, we can unite; that as a species, we care.

    It was barely 11 months ago in Doha when my delegation appealed to the world… to open our eyes to the stark reality that we face… as then we confronted a catastrophic storm that resulted in the costliest disaster in Philippine history. Less than a year hence, we cannot imagine that a disaster much bigger would come. With an apparent cruel twist of fate, my country is being tested by this hellstorm called Super Typhoon Haiyan, which has been described by experts as the strongest typhoon that has ever made landfall in the course of recorded human history. It was so strong that if there was a Category 6, it would have fallen squarely in that box. Up to this hour, we remain uncertain as to the full extent of the devastation, as information trickles in in an agonizingly slow manner because electricity lines and communication lines have been cut off and may take a while before these are restored. The initial assessment show that Haiyan left a wake of massive devastation that is unprecedented, unthinkable and horrific, affecting 2/3 of the Philippines, with about half a million people now rendered homeless, and with scenes reminiscent of the aftermath of a tsunami, with a vast wasteland of mud and debris and dead bodies. According to satellite estimates, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also estimated that Haiyan achieved a minimum pressure between around 860 mbar (hPa; 25.34 inHg) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center estimated Haiyan to have attained one-minute sustained winds of 315 km/h (195 mph) and gusts up to 378 km/h (235 mph) making it the strongest typhoon in modern recorded history. Despite the massive efforts that my country had exerted in preparing for the onslaught of this monster of a storm, it was just a force too powerful and even as a nation familiar with storms, Super Typhoon Haiyan was nothing we have ever experienced before, or perhaps nothing that any country has every experienced before.

    The picture in the aftermath is ever so slowly coming into clearer focus. The devastation is colossal. And as if this is not enough, another storm is brewing again in the warm waters of the western Pacific. I shudder at the thought of another typhoon hitting the same places where people have not yet even managed to begin standing up.

    To anyone who continues to deny the reality that is climate change, I dare you to get off your ivory tower and away from the comfort of you armchair. I dare you to go to the islands of the Pacific, the islands of the Caribbean and the islands of the Indian ocean and see the impacts of rising sea levels; to the mountainous regions of the Himalayas and the Andes to see communities confronting glacial floods, to the Arctic where communities grapple with the fast dwindling polar ice caps, to the large deltas of the Mekong, the Ganges, the Amazon, and the Nile where lives and livelihoods are drowned, to the hills of Central America that confronts similar monstrous hurricanes, to the vast savannas of Africa where climate change has likewise become a matter of life and death as food and water becomes scarce. Not to forget the massive hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern seaboard of North America. And if that is not enough, you may want to pay a visit to the Philippines right now.

    The science has given us a picture that has become much more in focus. The IPCC report on climate change and extreme events underscored the risks associated with changes in the patterns as well as frequency of extreme weather events. Science tells us that simply, climate change will mean more intense tropical storms. As the Earth warms up, that would include the oceans. The energy that is stored in the waters off the Philippines will increase the intensity of typhoons and the trend we now see is that more destructive storms will be the new norm.

    This will have profound implications on many of our communities, especially who struggle against the twin challenges of the development crisis and the climate change crisis. Typhoons such as Yolanda (Haiyan) and its impacts represent a sobering reminder to the international community that we cannot afford to procrastinate on climate action. Warsaw must deliver on enhancing ambition and should muster the political will to address climate change.

    In Doha, we asked “If not us then who? If not now, then when? If not here, then where?” (borrowed from Philippine student leader Ditto Sarmiento during Martial Law). It may have fell on deaf ears. But here in Warsaw, we may very well ask these same forthright questions. “If not us, then who? If not now, then when? If not here in Warsaw, where?”

    What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness. The climate crisis is madness.

    We can stop this madness. Right here in Warsaw.

    It is the 19th COP, but we might as well stop counting, because my country refuses to accept that a COP30 or a COP40 will be needed to solve climate change. And because it seems that despite the significant gains we have had since the UNFCCC was born, 20 years hence we continue to fail in fulfilling the ultimate objective of the Convention.  Now, we find ourselves in a situation where we have to ask ourselves – can we ever attain the objective set out in Article 2 – which is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system? By failing to meet the objective the Convention, we may have ratified the doom of vulnerable countries.

    And if we have failed to meet the objective of the Convention, we have to confront the issue of loss and damage. Loss and damage from climate change is a reality today across the world. Developed country emissions reductions targets are dangerously low and must be raised immediately, but even if they were in line with the demand of reducing 40-50% below 1990 levels, we would still have locked-in climate change and would still need to address the issue of loss and damage.

    We find ourselves at a critical juncture and the situation is such that even the most ambitious emissions reductions by developed countries, who should have been taking the lead in combatting climate change in the past 2 decades, will not be enough to avert the crisis. It is now too late, too late to talk about the world being able to rely on Annex I countries to solve the climate crisis. We have entered a new era that demands global solidarity in order to fight climate change and ensure that pursuit of sustainable human development remains at the fore of the global community’s efforts. This is why means of implementation for developing countries is ever more crucial.

    It was the Secretary general of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, 1992, Maurice Strong who said that “History reminds us that what is not possible today, may be inevitable tomorrow.”

    We cannot sit and stay helpless staring at this international climate stalemate. It is now time to take action. We need an emergency climate pathway.

    I speak for my delegation. But more than that, I speak for the countless people who will no longer be able to speak for themselves after perishing from the storm. I also speak for those who have been orphaned by this tragedy. I also speak for the people now racing against time to save survivors and alleviate the suffering of the people affected by the disaster.

    We can take drastic action now to ensure that we prevent a future where super typhoons are a way of life. Because we refuse, as a nation, to accept a future where super typhoons like Haiyan become a fact of life. We refuse to accept that running away from storms, evacuating our families, suffering the devastation and misery, having to count our dead, become a way of life. We simply refuse to.

    We must stop calling events like these as natural disasters. It is not natural when people continue to struggle to eradicate poverty and pursue development and gets battered by the onslaught of a monster storm now considered as the strongest storm ever to hit land. It is not natural when science already tells us that global warming will induce more intense storms. It is not natural when the human species has already profoundly changed the climate.

    Disasters are never natural. They are the intersection of factors other than physical. They are the accumulation of the constant breach of economic, social, and environmental thresholds. Most of the time disasters is a result of inequity and the poorest people of the world are at greatest risk because of their vulnerability and decades of maldevelopment, which I must assert is connected to the kind of pursuit of economic growth that dominates the world; the same kind of pursuit of so-called economic growth and unsustainable consumption that has altered the climate system.

    Now, if you will allow me, to speak on a more personal note.

    Super Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in my family’s hometown and the devastation is staggering. I struggle to find words even for the images that we see from the news coverage. I struggle to find words to describe how I feel about the losses and damages we have suffered from this cataclysm.

    Up to this hour, I agonize while waiting for word as to the fate of my very own relatives. What gives me renewed strength and great relief was when my brother succeeded in communicating with us that he has survived the onslaught. In the last two days, he has been gathering bodies of the dead with his own two hands. He is hungry and weary as food supplies find it difficult to arrive in the hardest hit areas.

    We call on this COP to pursue work until the most meaningful outcome is in sight. Until concrete pledges have been made to ensure mobilization of resources for the Green Climate Fund. Until the promise of the establishment of a loss and damage mechanism has been fulfilled; until there is assurance on finance for adaptation; until concrete pathways for reaching the committed 100 billion dollars have been made; until we see real ambition on stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations. We must put the money where our mouths are.

    This process under the UNFCCC has been called many names. It has been called a farce. It has been called an annual carbon-intensive gathering of useless frequent flyers. It has been called many names. But it has also been called the Project to save the planet. It has been called “saving tomorrow today”. We can fix this. We can stop this madness. Right now. Right here, in the middle of this football field.

    I call on you to lead us. And let Poland be forever known as the place we truly cared to stop this madness. Can humanity rise to the occasion? I still believe we can.

    - See more at: http://www.rtcc.org/2013/11/11/its-time-to-stop-this-madness-philippines-plea-at-un-climate-talks/#sthash.TYlrJ6Lg.dpuf

    Mr. President, I have the honor to speak on behalf of the resilient people of the Republic of the Philippines.

    At the onset, allow me to fully associate my delegation with the statement made by the distinguished Ambassador of the Republic of Fiji, on behalf of G77 and China as well as the statement made by Nicaragua on behalf of the Like-Minded Developing Countries.

    First and foremost, the people of the Philippines, and our delegation here for the United Nations Climate Change Convention’s 19th Conference of the Parties here in Warsaw, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your expression of sympathy to my country in the face of this national difficulty.

    In the midst of this tragedy, the delegation of the Philippines is comforted by the warm hospitality of Poland, with your people offering us warm smiles everywhere we go. Hotel staff and people on the streets, volunteers and personnel within the National Stadium have warmly offered us kind words of sympathy. So, thank you Poland.

    The arrangements you have made for this COP is also most excellent and we highly appreciate the tremendous effort you have put into the preparations for this important gathering.

    We also thank all of you, friends and colleagues in this hall and from all corners of the world as you stand beside us in this difficult time. I thank all countries and governments who have extended your solidarity and for offering assistance to the Philippines. I thank the youth present here and the billions of young people around the world who stand steadfast behind my delegation and who are watching us shape their future. I thank civil society, both who are working on the ground as we race against time in the hardest hit areas, and those who are here in Warsaw prodding us to have a sense of urgency and ambition. We are deeply moved by this manifestation of human solidarity. This outpouring of support proves to us that as a human race, we can unite; that as a species, we care.

    It was barely 11 months ago in Doha when my delegation appealed to the world… to open our eyes to the stark reality that we face… as then we confronted a catastrophic storm that resulted in the costliest disaster in Philippine history. Less than a year hence, we cannot imagine that a disaster much bigger would come. With an apparent cruel twist of fate, my country is being tested by this hellstorm called Super Typhoon Haiyan, which has been described by experts as the strongest typhoon that has ever made landfall in the course of recorded human history. It was so strong that if there was a Category 6, it would have fallen squarely in that box. Up to this hour, we remain uncertain as to the full extent of the devastation, as information trickles in in an agonizingly slow manner because electricity lines and communication lines have been cut off and may take a while before these are restored. The initial assessment show that Haiyan left a wake of massive devastation that is unprecedented, unthinkable and horrific, affecting 2/3 of the Philippines, with about half a million people now rendered homeless, and with scenes reminiscent of the aftermath of a tsunami, with a vast wasteland of mud and debris and dead bodies. According to satellite estimates, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also estimated that Haiyan achieved a minimum pressure between around 860 mbar (hPa; 25.34 inHg) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center estimated Haiyan to have attained one-minute sustained winds of 315 km/h (195 mph) and gusts up to 378 km/h (235 mph) making it the strongest typhoon in modern recorded history. Despite the massive efforts that my country had exerted in preparing for the onslaught of this monster of a storm, it was just a force too powerful and even as a nation familiar with storms, Super Typhoon Haiyan was nothing we have ever experienced before, or perhaps nothing that any country has every experienced before.

    The picture in the aftermath is ever so slowly coming into clearer focus. The devastation is colossal. And as if this is not enough, another storm is brewing again in the warm waters of the western Pacific. I shudder at the thought of another typhoon hitting the same places where people have not yet even managed to begin standing up.

    To anyone who continues to deny the reality that is climate change, I dare you to get off your ivory tower and away from the comfort of you armchair. I dare you to go to the islands of the Pacific, the islands of the Caribbean and the islands of the Indian ocean and see the impacts of rising sea levels; to the mountainous regions of the Himalayas and the Andes to see communities confronting glacial floods, to the Arctic where communities grapple with the fast dwindling polar ice caps, to the large deltas of the Mekong, the Ganges, the Amazon, and the Nile where lives and livelihoods are drowned, to the hills of Central America that confronts similar monstrous hurricanes, to the vast savannas of Africa where climate change has likewise become a matter of life and death as food and water becomes scarce. Not to forget the massive hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern seaboard of North America. And if that is not enough, you may want to pay a visit to the Philippines right now.

    The science has given us a picture that has become much more in focus. The IPCC report on climate change and extreme events underscored the risks associated with changes in the patterns as well as frequency of extreme weather events. Science tells us that simply, climate change will mean more intense tropical storms. As the Earth warms up, that would include the oceans. The energy that is stored in the waters off the Philippines will increase the intensity of typhoons and the trend we now see is that more destructive storms will be the new norm.

    This will have profound implications on many of our communities, especially who struggle against the twin challenges of the development crisis and the climate change crisis. Typhoons such as Yolanda (Haiyan) and its impacts represent a sobering reminder to the international community that we cannot afford to procrastinate on climate action. Warsaw must deliver on enhancing ambition and should muster the political will to address climate change.

    In Doha, we asked “If not us then who? If not now, then when? If not here, then where?” (borrowed from Philippine student leader Ditto Sarmiento during Martial Law). It may have fell on deaf ears. But here in Warsaw, we may very well ask these same forthright questions. “If not us, then who? If not now, then when? If not here in Warsaw, where?”

    What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness. The climate crisis is madness.

    We can stop this madness. Right here in Warsaw.

    It is the 19th COP, but we might as well stop counting, because my country refuses to accept that a COP30 or a COP40 will be needed to solve climate change. And because it seems that despite the significant gains we have had since the UNFCCC was born, 20 years hence we continue to fail in fulfilling the ultimate objective of the Convention.  Now, we find ourselves in a situation where we have to ask ourselves – can we ever attain the objective set out in Article 2 – which is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system? By failing to meet the objective the Convention, we may have ratified the doom of vulnerable countries.

    And if we have failed to meet the objective of the Convention, we have to confront the issue of loss and damage. Loss and damage from climate change is a reality today across the world. Developed country emissions reductions targets are dangerously low and must be raised immediately, but even if they were in line with the demand of reducing 40-50% below 1990 levels, we would still have locked-in climate change and would still need to address the issue of loss and damage.

    We find ourselves at a critical juncture and the situation is such that even the most ambitious emissions reductions by developed countries, who should have been taking the lead in combatting climate change in the past 2 decades, will not be enough to avert the crisis. It is now too late, too late to talk about the world being able to rely on Annex I countries to solve the climate crisis. We have entered a new era that demands global solidarity in order to fight climate change and ensure that pursuit of sustainable human development remains at the fore of the global community’s efforts. This is why means of implementation for developing countries is ever more crucial.

    It was the Secretary general of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, 1992, Maurice Strong who said that “History reminds us that what is not possible today, may be inevitable tomorrow.”

    We cannot sit and stay helpless staring at this international climate stalemate. It is now time to take action. We need an emergency climate pathway.

    I speak for my delegation. But more than that, I speak for the countless people who will no longer be able to speak for themselves after perishing from the storm. I also speak for those who have been orphaned by this tragedy. I also speak for the people now racing against time to save survivors and alleviate the suffering of the people affected by the disaster.

    We can take drastic action now to ensure that we prevent a future where super typhoons are a way of life. Because we refuse, as a nation, to accept a future where super typhoons like Haiyan become a fact of life. We refuse to accept that running away from storms, evacuating our families, suffering the devastation and misery, having to count our dead, become a way of life. We simply refuse to.

    We must stop calling events like these as natural disasters. It is not natural when people continue to struggle to eradicate poverty and pursue development and gets battered by the onslaught of a monster storm now considered as the strongest storm ever to hit land. It is not natural when science already tells us that global warming will induce more intense storms. It is not natural when the human species has already profoundly changed the climate.

    Disasters are never natural. They are the intersection of factors other than physical. They are the accumulation of the constant breach of economic, social, and environmental thresholds. Most of the time disasters is a result of inequity and the poorest people of the world are at greatest risk because of their vulnerability and decades of maldevelopment, which I must assert is connected to the kind of pursuit of economic growth that dominates the world; the same kind of pursuit of so-called economic growth and unsustainable consumption that has altered the climate system.

    Now, if you will allow me, to speak on a more personal note.

    Super Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in my family’s hometown and the devastation is staggering. I struggle to find words even for the images that we see from the news coverage. I struggle to find words to describe how I feel about the losses and damages we have suffered from this cataclysm.

    Up to this hour, I agonize while waiting for word as to the fate of my very own relatives. What gives me renewed strength and great relief was when my brother succeeded in communicating with us that he has survived the onslaught. In the last two days, he has been gathering bodies of the dead with his own two hands. He is hungry and weary as food supplies find it difficult to arrive in the hardest hit areas.

    We call on this COP to pursue work until the most meaningful outcome is in sight. Until concrete pledges have been made to ensure mobilization of resources for the Green Climate Fund. Until the promise of the establishment of a loss and damage mechanism has been fulfilled; until there is assurance on finance for adaptation; until concrete pathways for reaching the committed 100 billion dollars have been made; until we see real ambition on stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations. We must put the money where our mouths are.

    This process under the UNFCCC has been called many names. It has been called a farce. It has been called an annual carbon-intensive gathering of useless frequent flyers. It has been called many names. But it has also been called the Project to save the planet. It has been called “saving tomorrow today”. We can fix this. We can stop this madness. Right now. Right here, in the middle of this football field.

    I call on you to lead us. And let Poland be forever known as the place we truly cared to stop this madness. Can humanity rise to the occasion? I still believe we can.

    Update

    During his speech, Sano added an unscripted pledge to fast during the conference, until meaningful progress had been made. He said:

    “In solidarity with my countrymen who are struggling to find food back home and with my brother who has not had food for the last three days, in all due respect Mr. President, and I mean no disrespect for your kind hospitality, I will now commence a voluntary fasting for the climate. This means I will voluntarily refrain from eating food during this COP until a meaningful outcome is in sight.”

    - See more at: http://www.rtcc.org/2013/11/11/its-time-to-stop-this-madness-philippines-plea-at-un-climate-talks/#sthash.TYlrJ6Lg.dpuf

    Mr. President, I have the honor to speak on behalf of the resilient people of the Republic of the Philippines.

    At the onset, allow me to fully associate my delegation with the statement made by the distinguished Ambassador of the Republic of Fiji, on behalf of G77 and China as well as the statement made by Nicaragua on behalf of the Like-Minded Developing Countries.

    First and foremost, the people of the Philippines, and our delegation here for the United Nations Climate Change Convention’s 19th Conference of the Parties here in Warsaw, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your expression of sympathy to my country in the face of this national difficulty.

    In the midst of this tragedy, the delegation of the Philippines is comforted by the warm hospitality of Poland, with your people offering us warm smiles everywhere we go. Hotel staff and people on the streets, volunteers and personnel within the National Stadium have warmly offered us kind words of sympathy. So, thank you Poland.

    The arrangements you have made for this COP is also most excellent and we highly appreciate the tremendous effort you have put into the preparations for this important gathering.

    We also thank all of you, friends and colleagues in this hall and from all corners of the world as you stand beside us in this difficult time. I thank all countries and governments who have extended your solidarity and for offering assistance to the Philippines. I thank the youth present here and the billions of young people around the world who stand steadfast behind my delegation and who are watching us shape their future. I thank civil society, both who are working on the ground as we race against time in the hardest hit areas, and those who are here in Warsaw prodding us to have a sense of urgency and ambition. We are deeply moved by this manifestation of human solidarity. This outpouring of support proves to us that as a human race, we can unite; that as a species, we care.

    It was barely 11 months ago in Doha when my delegation appealed to the world… to open our eyes to the stark reality that we face… as then we confronted a catastrophic storm that resulted in the costliest disaster in Philippine history. Less than a year hence, we cannot imagine that a disaster much bigger would come. With an apparent cruel twist of fate, my country is being tested by this hellstorm called Super Typhoon Haiyan, which has been described by experts as the strongest typhoon that has ever made landfall in the course of recorded human history. It was so strong that if there was a Category 6, it would have fallen squarely in that box. Up to this hour, we remain uncertain as to the full extent of the devastation, as information trickles in in an agonizingly slow manner because electricity lines and communication lines have been cut off and may take a while before these are restored. The initial assessment show that Haiyan left a wake of massive devastation that is unprecedented, unthinkable and horrific, affecting 2/3 of the Philippines, with about half a million people now rendered homeless, and with scenes reminiscent of the aftermath of a tsunami, with a vast wasteland of mud and debris and dead bodies. According to satellite estimates, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also estimated that Haiyan achieved a minimum pressure between around 860 mbar (hPa; 25.34 inHg) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center estimated Haiyan to have attained one-minute sustained winds of 315 km/h (195 mph) and gusts up to 378 km/h (235 mph) making it the strongest typhoon in modern recorded history. Despite the massive efforts that my country had exerted in preparing for the onslaught of this monster of a storm, it was just a force too powerful and even as a nation familiar with storms, Super Typhoon Haiyan was nothing we have ever experienced before, or perhaps nothing that any country has every experienced before.

    The picture in the aftermath is ever so slowly coming into clearer focus. The devastation is colossal. And as if this is not enough, another storm is brewing again in the warm waters of the western Pacific. I shudder at the thought of another typhoon hitting the same places where people have not yet even managed to begin standing up.

    To anyone who continues to deny the reality that is climate change, I dare you to get off your ivory tower and away from the comfort of you armchair. I dare you to go to the islands of the Pacific, the islands of the Caribbean and the islands of the Indian ocean and see the impacts of rising sea levels; to the mountainous regions of the Himalayas and the Andes to see communities confronting glacial floods, to the Arctic where communities grapple with the fast dwindling polar ice caps, to the large deltas of the Mekong, the Ganges, the Amazon, and the Nile where lives and livelihoods are drowned, to the hills of Central America that confronts similar monstrous hurricanes, to the vast savannas of Africa where climate change has likewise become a matter of life and death as food and water becomes scarce. Not to forget the massive hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern seaboard of North America. And if that is not enough, you may want to pay a visit to the Philippines right now.

    The science has given us a picture that has become much more in focus. The IPCC report on climate change and extreme events underscored the risks associated with changes in the patterns as well as frequency of extreme weather events. Science tells us that simply, climate change will mean more intense tropical storms. As the Earth warms up, that would include the oceans. The energy that is stored in the waters off the Philippines will increase the intensity of typhoons and the trend we now see is that more destructive storms will be the new norm.

    This will have profound implications on many of our communities, especially who struggle against the twin challenges of the development crisis and the climate change crisis. Typhoons such as Yolanda (Haiyan) and its impacts represent a sobering reminder to the international community that we cannot afford to procrastinate on climate action. Warsaw must deliver on enhancing ambition and should muster the political will to address climate change.

    In Doha, we asked “If not us then who? If not now, then when? If not here, then where?” (borrowed from Philippine student leader Ditto Sarmiento during Martial Law). It may have fell on deaf ears. But here in Warsaw, we may very well ask these same forthright questions. “If not us, then who? If not now, then when? If not here in Warsaw, where?”

    What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness. The climate crisis is madness.

    We can stop this madness. Right here in Warsaw.

    It is the 19th COP, but we might as well stop counting, because my country refuses to accept that a COP30 or a COP40 will be needed to solve climate change. And because it seems that despite the significant gains we have had since the UNFCCC was born, 20 years hence we continue to fail in fulfilling the ultimate objective of the Convention.  Now, we find ourselves in a situation where we have to ask ourselves – can we ever attain the objective set out in Article 2 – which is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system? By failing to meet the objective the Convention, we may have ratified the doom of vulnerable countries.

    And if we have failed to meet the objective of the Convention, we have to confront the issue of loss and damage. Loss and damage from climate change is a reality today across the world. Developed country emissions reductions targets are dangerously low and must be raised immediately, but even if they were in line with the demand of reducing 40-50% below 1990 levels, we would still have locked-in climate change and would still need to address the issue of loss and damage.

    We find ourselves at a critical juncture and the situation is such that even the most ambitious emissions reductions by developed countries, who should have been taking the lead in combatting climate change in the past 2 decades, will not be enough to avert the crisis. It is now too late, too late to talk about the world being able to rely on Annex I countries to solve the climate crisis. We have entered a new era that demands global solidarity in order to fight climate change and ensure that pursuit of sustainable human development remains at the fore of the global community’s efforts. This is why means of implementation for developing countries is ever more crucial.

    It was the Secretary general of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, 1992, Maurice Strong who said that “History reminds us that what is not possible today, may be inevitable tomorrow.”

    We cannot sit and stay helpless staring at this international climate stalemate. It is now time to take action. We need an emergency climate pathway.

    I speak for my delegation. But more than that, I speak for the countless people who will no longer be able to speak for themselves after perishing from the storm. I also speak for those who have been orphaned by this tragedy. I also speak for the people now racing against time to save survivors and alleviate the suffering of the people affected by the disaster.

    We can take drastic action now to ensure that we prevent a future where super typhoons are a way of life. Because we refuse, as a nation, to accept a future where super typhoons like Haiyan become a fact of life. We refuse to accept that running away from storms, evacuating our families, suffering the devastation and misery, having to count our dead, become a way of life. We simply refuse to.

    We must stop calling events like these as natural disasters. It is not natural when people continue to struggle to eradicate poverty and pursue development and gets battered by the onslaught of a monster storm now considered as the strongest storm ever to hit land. It is not natural when science already tells us that global warming will induce more intense storms. It is not natural when the human species has already profoundly changed the climate.

    Disasters are never natural. They are the intersection of factors other than physical. They are the accumulation of the constant breach of economic, social, and environmental thresholds. Most of the time disasters is a result of inequity and the poorest people of the world are at greatest risk because of their vulnerability and decades of maldevelopment, which I must assert is connected to the kind of pursuit of economic growth that dominates the world; the same kind of pursuit of so-called economic growth and unsustainable consumption that has altered the climate system.

    Now, if you will allow me, to speak on a more personal note.

    Super Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in my family’s hometown and the devastation is staggering. I struggle to find words even for the images that we see from the news coverage. I struggle to find words to describe how I feel about the losses and damages we have suffered from this cataclysm.

    Up to this hour, I agonize while waiting for word as to the fate of my very own relatives. What gives me renewed strength and great relief was when my brother succeeded in communicating with us that he has survived the onslaught. In the last two days, he has been gathering bodies of the dead with his own two hands. He is hungry and weary as food supplies find it difficult to arrive in the hardest hit areas.

    We call on this COP to pursue work until the most meaningful outcome is in sight. Until concrete pledges have been made to ensure mobilization of resources for the Green Climate Fund. Until the promise of the establishment of a loss and damage mechanism has been fulfilled; until there is assurance on finance for adaptation; until concrete pathways for reaching the committed 100 billion dollars have been made; until we see real ambition on stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations. We must put the money where our mouths are.

    This process under the UNFCCC has been called many names. It has been called a farce. It has been called an annual carbon-intensive gathering of useless frequent flyers. It has been called many names. But it has also been called the Project to save the planet. It has been called “saving tomorrow today”. We can fix this. We can stop this madness. Right now. Right here, in the middle of this football field.

    I call on you to lead us. And let Poland be forever known as the place we truly cared to stop this madness. Can humanity rise to the occasion? I still believe we can.

    Update

    During his speech, Sano added an unscripted pledge to fast during the conference, until meaningful progress had been made. He said:

    “In solidarity with my countrymen who are struggling to find food back home and with my brother who has not had food for the last three days, in all due respect Mr. President, and I mean no disrespect for your kind hospitality, I will now commence a voluntary fasting for the climate. This means I will voluntarily refrain from eating food during this COP until a meaningful outcome is in sight.”

    - See more at: http://www.rtcc.org/2013/11/11/its-time-to-stop-this-madness-philippines-plea-at-un-climate-talks/#sthash.TYlrJ6Lg.dpuf

    Mr. President, I have the honor to speak on behalf of the resilient people of the Republic of the Philippines.

    At the onset, allow me to fully associate my delegation with the statement made by the distinguished Ambassador of the Republic of Fiji, on behalf of G77 and China as well as the statement made by Nicaragua on behalf of the Like-Minded Developing Countries.

    First and foremost, the people of the Philippines, and our delegation here for the United Nations Climate Change Convention’s 19th Conference of the Parties here in Warsaw, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your expression of sympathy to my country in the face of this national difficulty.

    In the midst of this tragedy, the delegation of the Philippines is comforted by the warm hospitality of Poland, with your people offering us warm smiles everywhere we go. Hotel staff and people on the streets, volunteers and personnel within the National Stadium have warmly offered us kind words of sympathy. So, thank you Poland.

    The arrangements you have made for this COP is also most excellent and we highly appreciate the tremendous effort you have put into the preparations for this important gathering.

    We also thank all of you, friends and colleagues in this hall and from all corners of the world as you stand beside us in this difficult time. I thank all countries and governments who have extended your solidarity and for offering assistance to the Philippines. I thank the youth present here and the billions of young people around the world who stand steadfast behind my delegation and who are watching us shape their future. I thank civil society, both who are working on the ground as we race against time in the hardest hit areas, and those who are here in Warsaw prodding us to have a sense of urgency and ambition. We are deeply moved by this manifestation of human solidarity. This outpouring of support proves to us that as a human race, we can unite; that as a species, we care.

    It was barely 11 months ago in Doha when my delegation appealed to the world… to open our eyes to the stark reality that we face… as then we confronted a catastrophic storm that resulted in the costliest disaster in Philippine history. Less than a year hence, we cannot imagine that a disaster much bigger would come. With an apparent cruel twist of fate, my country is being tested by this hellstorm called Super Typhoon Haiyan, which has been described by experts as the strongest typhoon that has ever made landfall in the course of recorded human history. It was so strong that if there was a Category 6, it would have fallen squarely in that box. Up to this hour, we remain uncertain as to the full extent of the devastation, as information trickles in in an agonizingly slow manner because electricity lines and communication lines have been cut off and may take a while before these are restored. The initial assessment show that Haiyan left a wake of massive devastation that is unprecedented, unthinkable and horrific, affecting 2/3 of the Philippines, with about half a million people now rendered homeless, and with scenes reminiscent of the aftermath of a tsunami, with a vast wasteland of mud and debris and dead bodies. According to satellite estimates, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also estimated that Haiyan achieved a minimum pressure between around 860 mbar (hPa; 25.34 inHg) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center estimated Haiyan to have attained one-minute sustained winds of 315 km/h (195 mph) and gusts up to 378 km/h (235 mph) making it the strongest typhoon in modern recorded history. Despite the massive efforts that my country had exerted in preparing for the onslaught of this monster of a storm, it was just a force too powerful and even as a nation familiar with storms, Super Typhoon Haiyan was nothing we have ever experienced before, or perhaps nothing that any country has every experienced before.

    The picture in the aftermath is ever so slowly coming into clearer focus. The devastation is colossal. And as if this is not enough, another storm is brewing again in the warm waters of the western Pacific. I shudder at the thought of another typhoon hitting the same places where people have not yet even managed to begin standing up.

    To anyone who continues to deny the reality that is climate change, I dare you to get off your ivory tower and away from the comfort of you armchair. I dare you to go to the islands of the Pacific, the islands of the Caribbean and the islands of the Indian ocean and see the impacts of rising sea levels; to the mountainous regions of the Himalayas and the Andes to see communities confronting glacial floods, to the Arctic where communities grapple with the fast dwindling polar ice caps, to the large deltas of the Mekong, the Ganges, the Amazon, and the Nile where lives and livelihoods are drowned, to the hills of Central America that confronts similar monstrous hurricanes, to the vast savannas of Africa where climate change has likewise become a matter of life and death as food and water becomes scarce. Not to forget the massive hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern seaboard of North America. And if that is not enough, you may want to pay a visit to the Philippines right now.

    The science has given us a picture that has become much more in focus. The IPCC report on climate change and extreme events underscored the risks associated with changes in the patterns as well as frequency of extreme weather events. Science tells us that simply, climate change will mean more intense tropical storms. As the Earth warms up, that would include the oceans. The energy that is stored in the waters off the Philippines will increase the intensity of typhoons and the trend we now see is that more destructive storms will be the new norm.

    This will have profound implications on many of our communities, especially who struggle against the twin challenges of the development crisis and the climate change crisis. Typhoons such as Yolanda (Haiyan) and its impacts represent a sobering reminder to the international community that we cannot afford to procrastinate on climate action. Warsaw must deliver on enhancing ambition and should muster the political will to address climate change.

    In Doha, we asked “If not us then who? If not now, then when? If not here, then where?” (borrowed from Philippine student leader Ditto Sarmiento during Martial Law). It may have fell on deaf ears. But here in Warsaw, we may very well ask these same forthright questions. “If not us, then who? If not now, then when? If not here in Warsaw, where?”

    What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness. The climate crisis is madness.

    We can stop this madness. Right here in Warsaw.

    It is the 19th COP, but we might as well stop counting, because my country refuses to accept that a COP30 or a COP40 will be needed to solve climate change. And because it seems that despite the significant gains we have had since the UNFCCC was born, 20 years hence we continue to fail in fulfilling the ultimate objective of the Convention.  Now, we find ourselves in a situation where we have to ask ourselves – can we ever attain the objective set out in Article 2 – which is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system? By failing to meet the objective the Convention, we may have ratified the doom of vulnerable countries.

    And if we have failed to meet the objective of the Convention, we have to confront the issue of loss and damage. Loss and damage from climate change is a reality today across the world. Developed country emissions reductions targets are dangerously low and must be raised immediately, but even if they were in line with the demand of reducing 40-50% below 1990 levels, we would still have locked-in climate change and would still need to address the issue of loss and damage.

    We find ourselves at a critical juncture and the situation is such that even the most ambitious emissions reductions by developed countries, who should have been taking the lead in combatting climate change in the past 2 decades, will not be enough to avert the crisis. It is now too late, too late to talk about the world being able to rely on Annex I countries to solve the climate crisis. We have entered a new era that demands global solidarity in order to fight climate change and ensure that pursuit of sustainable human development remains at the fore of the global community’s efforts. This is why means of implementation for developing countries is ever more crucial.

    It was the Secretary general of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, 1992, Maurice Strong who said that “History reminds us that what is not possible today, may be inevitable tomorrow.”

    We cannot sit and stay helpless staring at this international climate stalemate. It is now time to take action. We need an emergency climate pathway.

    I speak for my delegation. But more than that, I speak for the countless people who will no longer be able to speak for themselves after perishing from the storm. I also speak for those who have been orphaned by this tragedy. I also speak for the people now racing against time to save survivors and alleviate the suffering of the people affected by the disaster.

    We can take drastic action now to ensure that we prevent a future where super typhoons are a way of life. Because we refuse, as a nation, to accept a future where super typhoons like Haiyan become a fact of life. We refuse to accept that running away from storms, evacuating our families, suffering the devastation and misery, having to count our dead, become a way of life. We simply refuse to.

    We must stop calling events like these as natural disasters. It is not natural when people continue to struggle to eradicate poverty and pursue development and gets battered by the onslaught of a monster storm now considered as the strongest storm ever to hit land. It is not natural when science already tells us that global warming will induce more intense storms. It is not natural when the human species has already profoundly changed the climate.

    Disasters are never natural. They are the intersection of factors other than physical. They are the accumulation of the constant breach of economic, social, and environmental thresholds. Most of the time disasters is a result of inequity and the poorest people of the world are at greatest risk because of their vulnerability and decades of maldevelopment, which I must assert is connected to the kind of pursuit of economic growth that dominates the world; the same kind of pursuit of so-called economic growth and unsustainable consumption that has altered the climate system.

    Now, if you will allow me, to speak on a more personal note.

    Super Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in my family’s hometown and the devastation is staggering. I struggle to find words even for the images that we see from the news coverage. I struggle to find words to describe how I feel about the losses and damages we have suffered from this cataclysm.

    Up to this hour, I agonize while waiting for word as to the fate of my very own relatives. What gives me renewed strength and great relief was when my brother succeeded in communicating with us that he has survived the onslaught. In the last two days, he has been gathering bodies of the dead with his own two hands. He is hungry and weary as food supplies find it difficult to arrive in the hardest hit areas.

    We call on this COP to pursue work until the most meaningful outcome is in sight. Until concrete pledges have been made to ensure mobilization of resources for the Green Climate Fund. Until the promise of the establishment of a loss and damage mechanism has been fulfilled; until there is assurance on finance for adaptation; until concrete pathways for reaching the committed 100 billion dollars have been made; until we see real ambition on stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations. We must put the money where our mouths are.

    This process under the UNFCCC has been called many names. It has been called a farce. It has been called an annual carbon-intensive gathering of useless frequent flyers. It has been called many names. But it has also been called the Project to save the planet. It has been called “saving tomorrow today”. We can fix this. We can stop this madness. Right now. Right here, in the middle of this football field.

    I call on you to lead us. And let Poland be forever known as the place we truly cared to stop this madness. Can humanity rise to the occasion? I still believe we can.

    Update

    During his speech, Sano added an unscripted pledge to fast during the conference, until meaningful progress had been made. He said:

    “In solidarity with my countrymen who are struggling to find food back home and with my brother who has not had food for the last three days, in all due respect Mr. President, and I mean no disrespect for your kind hospitality, I will now commence a voluntary fasting for the climate. This means I will voluntarily refrain from eating food during this COP until a meaningful outcome is in sight.”

    - See more at: http://www.rtcc.org/2013/11/11/its-time-to-stop-this-madness-philippines-plea-at-un-climate-talks/#sthash.TYlrJ6Lg.dpuf

    Mr. President, I have the honor to speak on behalf of the resilient people of the Republic of the Philippines.

    At the onset, allow me to fully associate my delegation with the statement made by the distinguished Ambassador of the Republic of Fiji, on behalf of G77 and China as well as the statement made by Nicaragua on behalf of the Like-Minded Developing Countries.

    First and foremost, the people of the Philippines, and our delegation here for the United Nations Climate Change Convention’s 19th Conference of the Parties here in Warsaw, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your expression of sympathy to my country in the face of this national difficulty.

    In the midst of this tragedy, the delegation of the Philippines is comforted by the warm hospitality of Poland, with your people offering us warm smiles everywhere we go. Hotel staff and people on the streets, volunteers and personnel within the National Stadium have warmly offered us kind words of sympathy. So, thank you Poland.

    The arrangements you have made for this COP is also most excellent and we highly appreciate the tremendous effort you have put into the preparations for this important gathering.

    We also thank all of you, friends and colleagues in this hall and from all corners of the world as you stand beside us in this difficult time. I thank all countries and governments who have extended your solidarity and for offering assistance to the Philippines. I thank the youth present here and the billions of young people around the world who stand steadfast behind my delegation and who are watching us shape their future. I thank civil society, both who are working on the ground as we race against time in the hardest hit areas, and those who are here in Warsaw prodding us to have a sense of urgency and ambition. We are deeply moved by this manifestation of human solidarity. This outpouring of support proves to us that as a human race, we can unite; that as a species, we care.

    It was barely 11 months ago in Doha when my delegation appealed to the world… to open our eyes to the stark reality that we face… as then we confronted a catastrophic storm that resulted in the costliest disaster in Philippine history. Less than a year hence, we cannot imagine that a disaster much bigger would come. With an apparent cruel twist of fate, my country is being tested by this hellstorm called Super Typhoon Haiyan, which has been described by experts as the strongest typhoon that has ever made landfall in the course of recorded human history. It was so strong that if there was a Category 6, it would have fallen squarely in that box. Up to this hour, we remain uncertain as to the full extent of the devastation, as information trickles in in an agonizingly slow manner because electricity lines and communication lines have been cut off and may take a while before these are restored. The initial assessment show that Haiyan left a wake of massive devastation that is unprecedented, unthinkable and horrific, affecting 2/3 of the Philippines, with about half a million people now rendered homeless, and with scenes reminiscent of the aftermath of a tsunami, with a vast wasteland of mud and debris and dead bodies. According to satellite estimates, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also estimated that Haiyan achieved a minimum pressure between around 860 mbar (hPa; 25.34 inHg) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center estimated Haiyan to have attained one-minute sustained winds of 315 km/h (195 mph) and gusts up to 378 km/h (235 mph) making it the strongest typhoon in modern recorded history. Despite the massive efforts that my country had exerted in preparing for the onslaught of this monster of a storm, it was just a force too powerful and even as a nation familiar with storms, Super Typhoon Haiyan was nothing we have ever experienced before, or perhaps nothing that any country has every experienced before.

    The picture in the aftermath is ever so slowly coming into clearer focus. The devastation is colossal. And as if this is not enough, another storm is brewing again in the warm waters of the western Pacific. I shudder at the thought of another typhoon hitting the same places where people have not yet even managed to begin standing up.

    To anyone who continues to deny the reality that is climate change, I dare you to get off your ivory tower and away from the comfort of you armchair. I dare you to go to the islands of the Pacific, the islands of the Caribbean and the islands of the Indian ocean and see the impacts of rising sea levels; to the mountainous regions of the Himalayas and the Andes to see communities confronting glacial floods, to the Arctic where communities grapple with the fast dwindling polar ice caps, to the large deltas of the Mekong, the Ganges, the Amazon, and the Nile where lives and livelihoods are drowned, to the hills of Central America that confronts similar monstrous hurricanes, to the vast savannas of Africa where climate change has likewise become a matter of life and death as food and water becomes scarce. Not to forget the massive hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern seaboard of North America. And if that is not enough, you may want to pay a visit to the Philippines right now.

    The science has given us a picture that has become much more in focus. The IPCC report on climate change and extreme events underscored the risks associated with changes in the patterns as well as frequency of extreme weather events. Science tells us that simply, climate change will mean more intense tropical storms. As the Earth warms up, that would include the oceans. The energy that is stored in the waters off the Philippines will increase the intensity of typhoons and the trend we now see is that more destructive storms will be the new norm.

    This will have profound implications on many of our communities, especially who struggle against the twin challenges of the development crisis and the climate change crisis. Typhoons such as Yolanda (Haiyan) and its impacts represent a sobering reminder to the international community that we cannot afford to procrastinate on climate action. Warsaw must deliver on enhancing ambition and should muster the political will to address climate change.

    In Doha, we asked “If not us then who? If not now, then when? If not here, then where?” (borrowed from Philippine student leader Ditto Sarmiento during Martial Law). It may have fell on deaf ears. But here in Warsaw, we may very well ask these same forthright questions. “If not us, then who? If not now, then when? If not here in Warsaw, where?”

    What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness. The climate crisis is madness.

    We can stop this madness. Right here in Warsaw.

    It is the 19th COP, but we might as well stop counting, because my country refuses to accept that a COP30 or a COP40 will be needed to solve climate change. And because it seems that despite the significant gains we have had since the UNFCCC was born, 20 years hence we continue to fail in fulfilling the ultimate objective of the Convention.  Now, we find ourselves in a situation where we have to ask ourselves – can we ever attain the objective set out in Article 2 – which is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system? By failing to meet the objective the Convention, we may have ratified the doom of vulnerable countries.

    And if we have failed to meet the objective of the Convention, we have to confront the issue of loss and damage. Loss and damage from climate change is a reality today across the world. Developed country emissions reductions targets are dangerously low and must be raised immediately, but even if they were in line with the demand of reducing 40-50% below 1990 levels, we would still have locked-in climate change and would still need to address the issue of loss and damage.

    We find ourselves at a critical juncture and the situation is such that even the most ambitious emissions reductions by developed countries, who should have been taking the lead in combatting climate change in the past 2 decades, will not be enough to avert the crisis. It is now too late, too late to talk about the world being able to rely on Annex I countries to solve the climate crisis. We have entered a new era that demands global solidarity in order to fight climate change and ensure that pursuit of sustainable human development remains at the fore of the global community’s efforts. This is why means of implementation for developing countries is ever more crucial.

    It was the Secretary general of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, 1992, Maurice Strong who said that “History reminds us that what is not possible today, may be inevitable tomorrow.”

    We cannot sit and stay helpless staring at this international climate stalemate. It is now time to take action. We need an emergency climate pathway.

    I speak for my delegation. But more than that, I speak for the countless people who will no longer be able to speak for themselves after perishing from the storm. I also speak for those who have been orphaned by this tragedy. I also speak for the people now racing against time to save survivors and alleviate the suffering of the people affected by the disaster.

    We can take drastic action now to ensure that we prevent a future where super typhoons are a way of life. Because we refuse, as a nation, to accept a future where super typhoons like Haiyan become a fact of life. We refuse to accept that running away from storms, evacuating our families, suffering the devastation and misery, having to count our dead, become a way of life. We simply refuse to.

    We must stop calling events like these as natural disasters. It is not natural when people continue to struggle to eradicate poverty and pursue development and gets battered by the onslaught of a monster storm now considered as the strongest storm ever to hit land. It is not natural when science already tells us that global warming will induce more intense storms. It is not natural when the human species has already profoundly changed the climate.

    Disasters are never natural. They are the intersection of factors other than physical. They are the accumulation of the constant breach of economic, social, and environmental thresholds. Most of the time disasters is a result of inequity and the poorest people of the world are at greatest risk because of their vulnerability and decades of maldevelopment, which I must assert is connected to the kind of pursuit of economic growth that dominates the world; the same kind of pursuit of so-called economic growth and unsustainable consumption that has altered the climate system.

    Now, if you will allow me, to speak on a more personal note.

    Super Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in my family’s hometown and the devastation is staggering. I struggle to find words even for the images that we see from the news coverage. I struggle to find words to describe how I feel about the losses and damages we have suffered from this cataclysm.

    Up to this hour, I agonize while waiting for word as to the fate of my very own relatives. What gives me renewed strength and great relief was when my brother succeeded in communicating with us that he has survived the onslaught. In the last two days, he has been gathering bodies of the dead with his own two hands. He is hungry and weary as food supplies find it difficult to arrive in the hardest hit areas.

    We call on this COP to pursue work until the most meaningful outcome is in sight. Until concrete pledges have been made to ensure mobilization of resources for the Green Climate Fund. Until the promise of the establishment of a loss and damage mechanism has been fulfilled; until there is assurance on finance for adaptation; until concrete pathways for reaching the committed 100 billion dollars have been made; until we see real ambition on stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations. We must put the money where our mouths are.

    This process under the UNFCCC has been called many names. It has been called a farce. It has been called an annual carbon-intensive gathering of useless frequent flyers. It has been called many names. But it has also been called the Project to save the planet. It has been called “saving tomorrow today”. We can fix this. We can stop this madness. Right now. Right here, in the middle of this football field.

    I call on you to lead us. And let Poland be forever known as the place we truly cared to stop this madness. Can humanity rise to the occasion? I still believe we can.

    Update

    During his speech, Sano added an unscripted pledge to fast during the conference, until meaningful progress had been made. He said:

    “In solidarity with my countrymen who are struggling to find food back home and with my brother who has not had food for the last three days, in all due respect Mr. President, and I mean no disrespect for your kind hospitality, I will now commence a voluntary fasting for the climate. This means I will voluntarily refrain from eating food during this COP until a meaningful outcome is in sight.”

    - See more at: http://www.rtcc.org/2013/11/11/its-time-to-stop-this-madness-philippines-plea-at-un-climate-talks/#sthash.TYlrJ6Lg.dpuf

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