In a four-day meeting in Patate, Ecuador in 2008 the Global Alliance for Rights of Nature was formed. People from countries around the world attended, including South Africa, the United States, Australia, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. The Alliance called for all organizations and people of the Earth to join in a Minka Pachamama , a global project to bring forth the universal adoption and implementation of the Rights of Nature. (Minka is Kichwa and means a collective community work for the betterment of all. Pachamama is Kichwas for Mother Earth)

Ecuador added legal rights for nature in to the national constitution in 2008 (Bolivia has recently done the same). The new constitution incluides the prohibition of the cultivation of transgenic crops and seeds and the patenting of "collective knowledge" associated with national biodiversity, the recognition of water as a human right, and makes nature in general a rights-bearing entity. It was the first country in the world to do so.The Provincial Court in Loja, Ecuador has now recognised and acted on this new constitutional right marking the first successful case enforcing the Rights of Nature.

The case was brought in response to excessive dumping of large quantities of rock and excavation material in the Vilcabamba River from a project to widen a nearby road.  This road project had been underway for three years without studies on its environmental impact. The associated dumping violated the Rights of Nature by altering the river’s flow, increasing the risk of disastrous floods and dangerously fast currents, and negatively affecting the riverside populations who utilize the river’s resources. The Provincial Court of Loja ruled in favor of the river and its indigenous communities, detailed in Protective Action 11121-2011-0010.

In the photo at right, the blue line indicates the path of the river prior to dumping, while the red line indicates the path after dumping.

This message of acknowledgement from  Pachamama Alliance website: 

The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, the Ecuadorian Coordinator of Organizations for the Defense of Nature and the Environment (CEDENMA), and Fundación Pachamama extend enormous congratulations to those who were instrumental in this first favorable ruling, including lawyer Carlos Eduardo Bravo González, who legally advised the plaintiffs and brought the case before the Court.

Most of all, we praise and applaud the work of the plaintiffs in the case, Richard Frederick Wheeler and Eleanor Geer Huddle. By investing their time and resources, they effectively defended the Vilcabamba river and successfully established a precedent for the enforcement of Rights of Nature. 

We urge citizens and organizations in Ecuador and around the world to follow this good example of the defense of the Pacha Mama.

When Two Worlds Collide traces the heroic journey of a young indigenous leader forced into exile after resisting environmental ruin of Amazonian lands by big business. The filmmakers hope to bring this important documentary to completion by Sept 2012.

So far the project has received financial support from: Amiel & Melburn Trust, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Cinereach, Lush, Rooftop Films, The Sundance Institute, and The Tribecca Film Institute. However more funding is required.

I asked Matthew Orzel from Yachaywasi Films a few questions about the film.

Tell me about Yachaywasi Films

We are a team of three at Yachaywasi Films and have been living in Peru for the past 4 years working on When Two Worlds Collide. Yachaywasi' (ya-chai-wasi) vision is to create innovative, artistic and thought provoking documentary films with a call to action, which explore world and socio-environmental issues. Whilst pushing the boundaries of how documentary films are made and perceived, YFs aim to strengthen the personal, intuitive response of the audience. We bring under-reported issues to international attention through the power of cinematic filmmaking and passionate story telling aiming to inspire individuals and societies to become catalysts for change - both locally and internationally.


I note that you require another $5000 for 'When Two Worlds Collide' How much is needed in total?

We are asking for $5000 as it is what we need for the next stage. Fundraising is an on-going process and at the moment we are trying to raise enough to pay for immediate production costs. The entire budget is almost $400,000. we have raised at least $200,000. I know it sounds like an awful lot but for high end docs it really isnt. Also.... more public (non-returnable funding) funds we get... more we can give back to the communities involved in the production.

In the past few weeks the fight for the Amazon has led to the murder of several high profile activists. Why is a documentary so important?

Film and television can be very powerful tools. After finding out what was happening in Peru, we knew it was our responsibility as filmmakers to get the message out there, to provide a voice to the voiceless. In addition to the amazing work of the NGO's on the ground working to do this, we hope this film will compliment their efforts by taking this issue to the mainstream. We are planning to attach the film to an international campaign that will bring further awareness to the issue. The film will be screened throughout South America, the U.S and Europe in cinemas and film festivals as well as Universities, Schools, Colleges and local communities. We want to build awareness about the problems facing communities of the Amazon and will provide positive actions for audiences to take.

This documentary is more than just a story, its real life, about real people who are suffering because of unfair corporate and governmental actions. The Peruvian Amazon is the 2nd largest after Brazil and with corporations already taking over 75% of the Amazon and with more to come we have to act with great urgency. Audiences need to understand and feel what is going on in the Amazon, how real people are affected by wrong decisions and where the consequences can lead us - this film will be a portal into the lives of the Amazonians for world audiences to understand and feel what they are going through.

How can people help?

One way the public can show their support  is by donating to our Kickstarter page, bridge funding ends on Wednesday Jun 22,  - 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1882866795/when-two-worlds-collide

Depending on the denomination of your donation you are eligible to free DVD's as well as other unique opportunities.

People can also help by sharing the link for the trailer http://vimeo.com/10805348  and by visiting the facebook fan page and sharing it with as many people as possible: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1251400164#!/event.php?eid=231138216902382

Mainstream reporting from supposedly left leaning publications has in my view been wholly inadequate when addressing the upcoming (Sunday) Peruvian presidential election. It's as if it has been co-opted toward the right without framing the issues adequately with necessary weighting toward those who are most vulnerable and have the most to lose. Instead reports have been weighted around questions such as is neoliberalism correct for Peru? (When was that ever a reasonable question for the left) or non-commital centred around the notion of an overall lack of choice; the oft quoted Vargas Llosa 'Choosing between candidates like Keiko and Humala is like opting between cancer and AIDS'. That's not to deny that there are reasonable grounds to throw mud at both remaining candidates but what about framing the issues from an indigenous perspective, those at the cole-face of social and environmental justice, what do they think? Well here there is no longer need to be bamboozled by the rhetoric, the latest wiki-leaks cable and so on, here the choice is obvious and it's in this spirit this article is written and it's Humala all the way. The following is a montage from various sources referenced below.

1. What do the ‘left’ indigenous peoples, activists and human rights organisations think?

 According a report by the ombudsperson's office, there were 233 protest demonstrations in the country in the month of April alone, most of which were held in the poorest regions, involving socio-environmental complaints and demands. There has been an overt lack of acknowledgment of these concerns in left leaning mainstream western media. In the first round of voting, on April 10, Ollanta Humala won in the regions with the highest poverty rates, predominantly in the rural highland regions of Apurimac, Huancavelica and Ayacucho. Aidesep the organisation of Peruvian indigenous people in the Amazon are calling on all Peruvians to vote for Ollanta. They released this statement, translated by Derek Wall:

 The CDN of Aidesep has today exhorted the people and all Peruvians to vote with hope, without fear, without forgetting, on 5th June voting for a country without discrimination, respecting the rights of indigenous people to free self-determination of their ancestral territories and respecting international law with convention 169 of the ODT and the UN declaration of Indigenous people.

In this context, the polarization of the presidential campaign is depressing where the injury, the lies, the insults are transformed into the main form of media communication, forgetting the suffering of our country in the 1990s during the Fujimara government, the seizure of the main forms of media communication including writing, radio and audiovisual, the forced disappearance of college students, the control of judiciary, the destruction of the constitutional Tribunal, the buying of Congress, the armed forces, etc.

So the (indigenous) people have decided to support the project because Gana Perú as the best replacement option for the country, because they (Humala's Party) supported indigenous peoples during the peaceful protests of 2008 and 2009, where we sought to stop the government of Alan Garcia from meeting his dream of deforesting the Amazon for cash.
 
It’s not just in rural areas that people are mobilizing for Humala and against Fujimori:

 On Thursday, May 26, thousands of people took to the streets in Lima, and activists organized various actions and marches across the nation against Keiko Fujimori, and the political Fujimorismo that she embodies. Silva Santisteban, a human rights leader participating in the march, told La Republica newspaper. . “Keiko Fujimori represents the worst period in our history, we don’t want this dark period of our history to return and that’s why we're in the streets.”

The activists were mobilizing largely under the banner of The National Coordinator of Human Rights and the “Fujimori Never Again” Collective, which brings together 79 social and activist organizations. With their chants and banners they urged voters to not to vote for Fujimori in the upcoming elections.

Concordantly this statement was released in the Peruvian Times, viewing Fujimori as a threat to human rights, democracy and the most vulnerable in Peru:

As political scientists we especially value democratic government, because it permits pluralism and open debate, it protects fundamental liberties and human rights, restrains opportunities for corruption and favours achieving agreements that generate development and public policies in favour of the most vulnerable population.

2. What do the polls say?

Two or three weeks ago the Keiko team had been confident of a safe though perhaps not solid victory.  The latest survey by the Ipsos Apoyo polling firm shows Fujimori in the lead, with 50.5 per cent support, but just one point ahead of Humala, who has 49.5 per cent. According to another leading pollster, Imasen, Humala is the front-runner, with 43.8 per cent support, but barely ahead of Fujimori, with 42.5 per cent.

3. What did daddy do? And will daddy's girl be any different?

When Alberto Fujimori came to power in 1990 he unleashed neoliberal reforms, often referred to as the Fujishock. Electricity costs quintupled, water prices rose eightfold, and gasoline prices rose by 3000%. In this period Peru was made ripe for capitalism and globalisation. It wasn’t enough however for Alberto, feeling that Congress i.e. democracy was holding him back. With the support of the military he carried out a presidential coup and formed a dictatorship.

During his reign torture, murder, rape, and the disappearance of thousands of Peruvians took place in the midst of the Shining Path guerrilla movement. Amnesty International stated “the widespread and systematic nature of human rights violations committed during the government of former head of state Alberto Fujimori (1990–2000) in Peru constitutes crimes against humanity under international law.” He is serving a 25-year sentence for embezzlement and directing death squads.

In addition, from 1996-2000 Fujimori’s administration waged a sterilization campaign against poor, indigenous and rural women. As a result c.300, 000 women in rural and marginalized urban communities were sterilized without consent. Note the image in the top left. This painful past of what could be considered a form of ethnic cleansing has clearly not been forgotten but remarkably has not condemned his daughter’s chances of success. Even more remarkable, when one considers that Fujimori junior is surrounding herself with her father’s advisors, the very same people who supported his ‘crimes against humanity’.

During an interview with Beto Ortiz, the host of TV program Buenos Dias Peru, Keiko Fujimori’s vice president running mate, Rafael Rey, was questioned about the government’s forced sterilization program in the 1990’s and about a specific woman Mrs Victoria Vigo. The interview has caused concern among human rights organizations, Rey said the forced sterilization of Victoria Vigo was not “against” her will, but rather “without” her will. As if this was adequate justification. He went on to say that “while doing an operation, they sterilized her, without being consulted.” When Host  Ortiz pointed out reports in the media that Vigo was forcefully sterilized by the government she made the analogy. “Is that to say that if one is castrated while sleeping, it is not against your will but without your will?”

Rey lamely responded that NGOs and human rights organizations supported the government program. Daniel Roca, the Coordinator of National Organizations of People Affected by Political Violence in Peru (Covanip), rejected that claim. “Human rights organizations and associations for victims of internal violence have never kept silent in the face of the sterilizations,”

Another rare blunder in an otherwise polished campaign came from Ms. Fujimori’s main spokesman Jorge Trelles. When asked about Mr. Fujimori’s record he flippantly replied “We killed fewer people than the two prior governments”

The making of Daddy’s girl: A few years before Fujimori’s reign ended with his incarceration he had separated from his wife Susana Higuchi. He formally stripped her of the First Lady title and gave it to his daughter Keiko instead. Susana Higuchi publicly denounced Fujimori as a “tyrant” and claimed that his administration was corrupt. She claimed that she herself had been tortured.

Many human rights activists in Peru believe the younger Fujimori signals the resurgence of her father’s dictatorial policies, what’s more she has been frank about her mission to free her father. In 2008, she famously said that after being elected president, her “hand would not tremble” if she signed a pardon for her father. She has been more guarded since then, recognizing that a pardon would be unconstitutional, there is little doubt that she’ll do what she can to help her father and that this is a large part of her motivation for running. Upside down world reports that Hector Bejal, a Peruvian lawyer and member of Global Call to Action Against Poverty has stated that:

“There is no doubt that she would encourage judicial powers to end the sentence or give him home detention, citing his age or sickness”

Wikileaks have released cables that corroborate suspicions that if elected Keiko might use her power and influence to gain political amnesty for her disgraced father. In a 2006 communication with US diplomats in Lima  both she and uncle Santiago Fujimori told the Americans that they sought to cut political deals with the government in exchange for an end to "political persecution" of Alberto

The above mentioned views are summarised in this statement reported in the Peruvian Times:
Owing to these considerations of principle we are very concerned about the election of Ms Fujimori as President of the Republic, as it will constitute a vindication of her father’s government which, precisely, wiped out democracy in Peru and imposed an authoritarian regime that committed crimes against humanity as policy organized from the height of power and turned exclusion, patronage, abuse and corruption into its principal mechanisms of government.

The current Fujimori campaign, unfortunately, has not broken away from the practices that we deplored in the Alberto Fujimori government. In the past several weeks we have seen how their spokespersons have praised, justified or minimized these practices, which makes it impossible for us to believe that Ms. Fujimori represents a different and democratic government.  Therefore, and because we believe that the defence of democratic values is fundamental to our commitment to Peru, we declare that we are against Keiko Fujimori’s candidacy.

Lastly, independently of who wins the presidential elections, we believe that we will need to remain alert to any attempt to act above the rule of law and democratic institutions.”

4. Who wants K?

Money talks as clearly here as anywhere else and what the market is saying is that it expects from a Fujimori government all the good things and more that it got from Alberto, i.e. pro-business, pro-growth legislation and non-bloated administration (dictatorship!) Stock markets shot up sharply by seven points on Thursday, as polls favoured Fujimori. Backed by record copper, gold, silver and other exports and a massive tract of rainforest to exploit, Wall Street will have a clear favourite. On the flipside Wikileaks cables confirm that the US view Humala as a threat.

5. Don’t believe the spin

Keiko Fujimori’s campaign has been polished and ‘silver-tongued’. She knows rhetoric and how to play the game. For example through grinning teeth she doesn’t say ‘crimes’, she says ‘errors’ or ‘mistakes’. She made light work of Humala in a last-ditch face-to-face TV appearance on Sunday evening Telling him “to go and talk it over with her dad in jail if he wanted to complain about the old days” Propaganda is full of her hugging indigenous women, kissing indigenous babies and wearing indigenous costume. Matt Wootton a member of the England and Wales Green Party is currently in Peru and reports that:  Keiko’s campaign is a million times more slick than Ollanta Humala’s. You see, she even tricks me into calling her “Keiko”. The political party she’s created for this campaign is just the letter “K”. Everybody loves her. Everybody thinks she’s part of their family. With her clear, populist bribes of free school meals, her politics are kind of Jamie Oliver meets Pol Pot.

Distancing herself from the Fujimori name is of course a mindful part of the rhetoric. Her campaign, Fuerza 2011, has handed out t-shirts, cooking utensils and even food, in an open show of patronage. (These practices are not banned by the election laws in Peru) "We simply want to reach the disadvantaged so they will remember the considerations that Alberto Fujimori had towards the neediest segments of society,"

6. What about Humula?

Humala is a nationalist and former lieutenant colonel. In 2000 he led a failed revolt against Fujimori's electoral fraud and even kidnapped a general (he later received a congressional pardon). He ran in 2006 and was beaten by Garcia. He would likely renegotiate contracts with foreign oil and mining companies. According to reports investors are nervous about him emerging as president. In 2006 he was overtly socialist linking with Chavez wearing red through his campaign. This time around he has been doing his best to steer clear of any controversy, even speaking warmly of free markets, and has pledged to support investors' rights citing the World Bank when making his points. This time around he is grey suits and ties. When Chavez described him as a "good soldier", one of Humala's own congressional candidates threatened to launch a lawsuit against the Venezuelan president. Humala reportedly told Chavez to butt out of Peruvian affairs. "The Venezuelan model is not applicable in Peru,"

Keiko says, Grow out of poverty.  Humala says redistribute. The support I feel for Humala is informed primarily for a profound distrust of his opponent. Whichever candidate wins will have half of the country against him or her and a fragmented congress. I doubt Humala if he were to get in would leave on a ‘high note’. Though Humala is the only leftist candidate he seems to lack something to be desired. It would however be a massive understatement to posit that the alternative must not be given the opportunity to follow in her father’s footsteps. This would be a stab in the back for 3000 indigenous and other rural peoples that are no longer able to give birth after being sterilized without consent. These people and thousands more have let their feelings be known in the hundreds of marches and protests that have taken place over this past month. It would be an understatment to suggest that in view of being backed by the same advisors as her  father (who directed death squads, formed a dictatorship and looted the government purse to the tune of 600 million dollars) that democracy and human rights are at stake. Our allegiances are informed by the many issues raised in this article and in this regard it seems bizarre that so much of the coverage has been so non-commital and not overtly backing the Humala camp.

The video below is from the 'no a Keiko Fujimori' campaign.



http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/201163192227799551.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/2011627179165204.html
http://www.peruviantimes.com/02/human-rights-groups-question-reys-remarks-on-forced-sterilizations/12483/
http://www.peruviantimes.com/31/political-scientists-say-no-to-keiko-fujimori/12443/
http://www.peruviantimes.com/03/business-is-betting-that-keiko-will-be-first-past-the-post-in-a-photo-finish/12498/
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/peru-archives-76/3062-elections-in-peru-a-battle-over-memory-and-justice
http://www.dailyplanet.org.uk/04/06/2011/something-rotten-in-the-state-of-peru/
http://noakeikofujimori.wordpress.com/

How to gather the disparate and somewhat anachronistic strands from the article title together? 'Even The Rain' is a film, about uh..making a film. The film within the film is about Columbus and the genocide of the native Americans. The film is being shot in Bolivia casting Bolivians as Native Americans for the Columbus film. Despite the fact that the topography is wrong and the native Quechua Indians look nothing like the native American Indians. The present day (year 2000) Bolivians will work for peanuts and are cast in several morally and culturally compromising scenes. Hence the Indigenous peoples are being exploited as they were by Columbus 500 years before.

As the film progresses the Bolivian uprising against the private ownership of their water by American company Bectal breaks out. As we know this became this millenniums first great triumph for people power against capitalism, corporatism and for the commons. Key indigenous actors have parts in the Columbus film that are analogous to leadership positions in the Bolivian uprising.

One only hopes that when another layer of the onion is peeled back we find that no actors were underpaid during the making of Even the Rain. As reported in Socialist Worker  Slumdog Millionaire and The Kite Runner, for example, hired local people from India and Afghanistan, respectively, and paid ridiculously low wages.

Good to see our guy García Bernal in the starring role. Best known for playing Che Guevara In The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) Interestingly he has played Che Guevara twice , initially in 2002 in the Film Fidel . García took part in the Chiapas uprising in 1994.

So in short, a film about rebuking tyranny in one arena and perpetuating the repressive status quo in another. But more than that, whatever the buffs say this is a mainstream film that raises awareness of Indigenous Struggle, the Commons, Latin America, the obscenities of capitalism and private ownership and the realisation of people power.

The film was released in the US last month. It was shown in the UK at some of the film festivals in late 2010. No release dates for DVD available yet.

Send the following message to the Peruvian President:

"President Garcia: Oil drilling and logging in uncontacted tribes' territories could wipe the Indians out. Please protect these peoples' right to live in peace and security – stop the loggers and oil companies from entering their land."

More information in the video below.

Click here to sign the petition and read more or follow the link at the end of the video.

Cable 08LIMA389, RADICALS HIJACK CUSCO PROTESTS; CITY LOSES APEC

"e) Hugo Blanco: Blanco is an unaffiliated radical
leader that led the effort to block roads in Anta Province
outside Cusco city, according to local contacts. Blanco is a
prominent anti-systemic actor who was jailed for leading an
indigenous insurgency in Cusco in the 1960s. He now
publishes a newspaper called "La Lucha Indigena" (The
Indigenous Battle)."

Latest Lucha Indigena below

If possession of Das Kapital is grounds for a jail sentence then I would like to come clean. Not only do I have a copy of Das Kapital, I also have copies of various Buddhist texts that teach compassion, psychological texts by Carl Rodgers that teach 'unconditional positive regard', my music collection is loaded with songs of peace and of protest by artists such as John Lennon, Bob Marley, Bob Dylan and Tracey Chapman and the stories of those most remarkable of people, Mohandas Gandhi and Che Guevara can be found in my film collection. But please don't stop reading my confession just yet, I have only just begun and it gets worse; my desk has a stack of papers that link me to various shady organizations such as the free tibet campaign and Oxfam, I even support charities for people with ill heath such as the national society for epilepsy, and hey if you were to read the kind of things I write about on the internet, well you would want to banish me from society immediately.

No doubt nearly everyone who reads this foreword can relate to pretty much this same level of  immoral lawlessness and in many cases I would expect are much worse than I.

Dr Binayak Sen is a respected paediatrician and is well known for his human rights work; and is/was vice  president  of the peoples union for civil liberties and an advocate of non-violent protest. it appears that  this is his only crime. This video although clearly carrying a bias was designed to have a 'friendly face' and seems to be very well researched and factual. It deals with the trial and the evidence or lack thereof that was used to convict Dr Sen. In fact the prosecution could not find anything to support  any of its allegations and there is an implication that fake evidence may have been planted. The only tangible evidence for the charge of sedition i.e. incitement of  rebellion against the government, is based on possession of literature such as Das Kapital. There  are allegations of communications with Maoists; many of whom are active in the same geographical areas but this wouldn't be unreasonable for other activists or aid workers of various flavours. Dr Sen’s real “offence”, and that of many others under arrest in the Chhattisgarh region, appears to have been to try to draw attention to brutal government-backed vigilantes, the Salwa Judum, who raided rebel-dominated villages in the mid-2000s, forcing tens of thousands to abandon their homes.

When we dig deeper we realise that this is in fact not just a case that is of concern to ecosocialists on grounds of  human rights and incorrect incarceration but a case that incorporates indigenous struggles and at its beating core;  the relentless growth paradigm that epitomises capitalist logic. Despite working for the government as a health advisor, Dr Sen opposed the governments mistreatment of India's indigenous peoples, in this regard Dr Binayak Sen's work was essentially,  allbeit  indirectly against 'growth', against corporate greed. But this link is not of Dr Sen's making, this bond between capitalism and disparity of various shades is preset. If we try to rebalance the scales there is less room for profit and any of us that try and promote equality could be in the 'firing line'.

Many of the areas that Dr Sens work centered on are rich in resources; timber and minerals, especially Bauxite and Iron.  Disputes between the neglected indigenous peoples of these areas, maoists and the central goverment of india  has produced much blood shed since the uprising of the late 1960s. The Maoists or Naxolites as they are otherwise known have been guilty of many atrocities that are beyond defense with more than 6000 deaths since the rebellion began. However the frustrations of the indigineous peoples who are being recruited and armed by the maoists are clearly valid. Indeed there are reports of gross atrocities on both sides. The indigenous struggle is the story that we see time and time again. Corporations and governments working together to displace the indigenous  from their land with undelivered promises of remuneration.

A UK based mining company Vedanta is the significant corporate body in the region. This company makes vast sums of money for raping the lands of its precious jewels and as with any body that wields money it also wields power. Indeed when taken to court for tax evasion, their case was handled by a government official that just so happened to be a former employee. Why when they have so much money do they avoid paying tax? It's an addiction surely.  Presumably one they would'nt bother attempting unless they knew they owned a significant number of government officials.

To bring this blog back into focus and to get to the point in time when Dr Sen was incarcerated we have to tell the story of an indigenous struggle for land rights and for civil liberties, a story of corporate greed, of government corruption, and of a violent rebellion with much blood shed. We see a man that it would seem got caught in the middle and was only standing there because he was trying to improve the situation. Indeed a quote from Dr Sen that I imagine we will hear more of over the coming weeks articulates this nicely: "Nobody is giving up violence. Neither the state nor the Maoists are giving up violence. I am interested in furthering my cause, which is the cause of peace with justice"

Perhaps fresh genuine evidence will be presented and we will realise that Dr Banayak Sen is indeed guilty of trying to bring down the government. All moral judgments and biases aside, there is a judicial process under the magnifying glass here. The charge of sedition is based on possession of literature such as Das Kapital and meetings that took place with a Maoist leader in the presence of officials. As a health adviser for the government and as vice president of the people’s union for civil liberties, one would think that the dialogue or bridge between the two sides formed by Dr Sen would be commended. I fail to see how any neutral party could view this as anything other than a complete travesty of justice. The Indian government is focused on the Maoist rebellion and Dr Sen was a noteworthy trophy; a warning. The name of the article by C. Sathyamala about Dr Sen, published in the Indian journal of medical ethics in 2007 "Redefining healthcare in an unjust society " articulates what Dr Sen stood for. He cared for those he was trained to care about, indirectly his influence could have effected immediate short term profit margins; surely this is why he was incarcerated.

Even though there is no evidence, he has been sentenced; not for one year, not for two years or even three years but for life!

Please join the cause by following the link below the video. The cause is focusing on changing a draconian colonial law, (a law used previously against Mohandas Gandhi). An outstanding feature of this case is that Dr Sen is the first person ever to be given life imprisonment under Section 124-A IPC.

This video also provides a fairly thorough dissection of the case.

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"Planet earth is slipping from our hands, now we have to question, how do we unite to save the planet"
This film required additional funds in order to proceed and was recently granted $550,000 from the sundance institute.  Watch the trailer. This film will be extraordinary. Anyone who watches this that has not already questioned the immoral behaviours and shortsightedness of greedy corporations i.e capitalism, will surely find this enlightening.

A perfect introduction to ecosocialism