Wednesday 21 April 2010

The Man from Belo Monte says Yes

It really disheartened me and countless others today to hear that President Lula's government has awarded a consortium of nine companies the right to build the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on a tributary of the Amazon in Brazil. 

Whoever thought that it was acceptable to divert 80% of the flow of the Xingu River, and dry out  the lifeline of tens of thousands of people who depend on it for their survial is surely not human. This kind of madness can only the attributed to a reptilian humanoid pretending to be Human or one of David Icke's Lizard Lot.
Sting and Chief Raoni 

WHAT WENT WRONG,PEOPLE?
The initial dam project was abandoned in the 1990s amid widespread protests both in Brazil and around the world spearheaded by STING, but today in 2010, twenty years on, it seems that we are much tamer or THEY are much stronger, wiser and more determined.

The Belo Monte dam will now be the world’s third biggest. I cannot quite believe that this has happened under our watch. To build Belo Monte, more earth would have to be dug than was moved to build the Panama Canal and; the dam will flood a 500 square km of rainforest and a significant area of the City of Altamira.

And where was Sting in all this? Twenty years ago he was instrumental in gaining attention and stopping the bidding when, along with Chief Raoni, he toured many parts of the world in opposition to a hydro-electric project on the Xingu River in the Amazon.
Did he give up? or was he put off by the fact that James "Avatar" Cameron was getting involved in the issue?

On another note,  I find it quite weird that Cameron's high profile visit was not mentioned at all in the BBC's story about the Dam today.

                                 Cameron at press conference

Apparently, a couple of days ago Cameron, along with Sigourney Weaver and Joel David Morre followed up on their March visit to the Amazon by attending a number of awareness raising activities in Brazil about the indigenous communities' battle to stop the construction of the  Dam. Here are some pics I found of Cameron going all tribal, from the Amazon Watch website.


THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Luis Xipaya, an indigenous leader in the city of Altamira, near the proposed dam, said 150 Xikrin Kayapo Indians would move to the construction site by today.
"There will be bloodshed and the government will be responsible for that," he told the Reuters news agency.
                                       Preparing for Battle

If you are just as outraged, you can call the Brazilian Embassy in the UK to express your concern about the government’s support for the Belo Monte Dam and its impact on indigenous people. 
TELEPHONE: 0207 399 9000

YOU CAN ALSO CALL/EMAIL THE PRESS OFFICER  ASKING WHAT THE FOREIGN MINISTRIE'S POSITION IS, IN ORDER TO PUT PRESSURE ON THEM TO ISSUE ONE. 
Why? because Press Officers always relay concerns they get from the public/press to the relevant department, and push for statements to be made in response to queries.
0207 399 9000

 WHAT'S THE ALTERNATIVE? 
About 80% of the energy in Brazil comes from hydroelectric dams and the government is serious about building new ones. Instead of further pillaging the Amazon and circumventing the rights of the indigenous population, they should be focusing on making the existing dams more efficient, or looking into solar or wind power.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, can't believe this has just slipped by. Terrible. L .x

    ReplyDelete

London Girl also wrote about....

Related Posts with Thumbnails