There are many facets to the conflict in Ukraine that have been overlooked by most media outlets. The role of western biotech firms is just one of them. (Image: via Natural Society)
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) is helping biotech run the latest war in Ukraine. Make no mistake that what is happening in the Ukraine now is deeply tied to the interests of Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, and other big players in the poison food game.
Monsanto has an office in Ukraine. While this does not shout ‘culpability’ from every corner, it is no different than the US military’s habit to place bases in places that they want to gain political control. The opening of this office coincided with land grabs with loans from the IMF and World Bank to one of the world’s most hated corporations – all in support of their biotech takeover.
Previously, there was a ban on private sector land ownership in the country – but it was lifted ‘just in time’ for Monsanto to have its way with the Ukraine.
In fact, a bit of political maneuvering by the IMF gave the Ukraine a $17 billion loan – but only if they would open up to biotech farming and the selling of Monsanto’s poison crops and chemicals – destroying a farmland that is one of the most pristine in all of Europe. Farm equipment dealer, Deere, along with seed producers Dupont and Monsanto, will have a heyday.
In the guise of ‘aid,’ a claim has been made on Ukraine’s vast agricultural riches. It is the world’s third largest exporter of corn and fifth largest exporter of wheat. Ukraine has deep, rich, black soil that can grow almost anything, and its ability to produce high volumes of GM grain is what made biotech come rushing to take it over.
As reported by The Ecologist, according to the Oakland Institute:
“Whereas Ukraine does not allow the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture, Article 404 of the EU agreement, which relates to agriculture, includes a clause that has generally gone unnoticed: it indicates, among other things, that both parties will cooperate to extend the use of biotechnologies.
There is no doubt that this provision meets the expectations of the agribusiness industry. As observed by Michael Cox, research director at the investment bank Piper Jaffray, ‘Ukraine and, to a wider extent, Eastern Europe, are among the most promising growth markets for farm-equipment giant Deere, as well as seed producers Monsanto and DuPont’.”
The nation WAS Europe’s breadbasket – and now in an act of bio-warfare, it will become the wasteland that many US farmlands have become due to copious amounts of herbicide spraying, the depletion of soil, and the overall disruption of a perfect ecosystem.
The aim of US government entities is to support the takeover of Ukraine for biotech interests (among other strategies involving the prop-up of a failing cabalistic banking system that Russia has also refused with its new alignment with BRICS and its own payment system called SWIFT). This is similar to biotech’s desiredtakeover of Hawaiian islands and land in Africa.
The Ukraine war has many angles that haven’t been exposed to the general public – and you can bet that biotech has their hands in the proverbial corn pie.
For this MLK Day and 50th anniversary of Selma, much inspiring action intent on reclaiming what Cornel West proudly deems “the Radical King” – anti-colonial, anti-racist, anti-war, democratic socialist – and his “revolutionary witness.” Protests from Ferguson to Oakland, updates from #ReclaimMLK and #MLKalsoSaid, Selma’s “bottom-up” history, and King’s fierce Letter From Birmingham Jail “because injustice is here…(and) injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
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Though the western world clearly does not want to go there, an open discussion about recent violence in Paris, argues Baraka, “might have framed it as a classic blowback operation resulting from the weaponization of radical Whabbanism as a tool of Western power from the late 1970s to its current assignment in Syria.” (Photo: Romain Lefort/flickr/cc)
The “civilized” have created the wretched, quite coldly and deliberately, and do not intend to change the status quo; are responsible for their slaughter and enslavement; rain down bombs on defenseless children whenever and wherever they decide that their “vital interests” are menaced, and think nothing of torturing a man to death; these people are not to be taken seriously when they speak of the “sanctity” of human life, or the conscience of civilized world. —James Baldwin
I have witnessed the spectacle of Eurocentric arrogance many times over my long years of struggle and resistance to colonial/capitalist domination and dehumanization. The grotesque, 21st Century version of the “white man’s burden,” which asserts that the international community (meaning the West) has a moral and legal “responsibility to protect,” is one current example; the generalized acceptance by many in the West that their governments have a right to wage permanent war against the global “others” to maintain international order is another.
Yet, when I think I have seen it all, along comes the response to the attack at the racist, Islamophobic publication Charlie Hebdo. Even though I shouldn’t be surprised, I am still left in complete wonderment at the West’s unmitigated self-centeredness and self-righteous arrogance.
The millions who turned out on Sunday claimed to be marching in solidarity with the victims at Charlie Hebdo and against terrorism. They were joined by political leaders from across Europe, Israel and other parts of the world – on the same weekend reports were emerging that 2,000 Nigerians may have lost their lives at the hands of Boko Haram, another Muslim extremist group.
Surely there would be expressions of solidarity with the survivors in Nigeria at a gathering ostensibly to oppose terrorism and uphold the sanctity of life. But the expressions of solidarity never came. In fact, based on the attention the massacre received from the Western press, it was if the massacre had never happened.
It is clear that there was a different agenda for the march and a different set of concerns for Europe. The people of France mobilized themselves to defend what they saw as an attack against Western civilization. However, the events in Paris did not have to be framed as an existential attack on the imagined values of the liberal white West. Providing some context and making some political links may have been beneficial for attempting to understand what happened in the country and a political way forward beyond the appeal to racial jingoism.
The attack could have sparked an honest conversation about how many Muslims experience life in contemporary France and viewed French policies in various Muslim and Arab nations. It could have examined the relationship between the rise of radical Islam and the connection of that rise to the activities of various branches of the French intelligence services. An open discussion might have framed it as a classic blowback operation resulting from the weaponization of radical Whabbanism as a tool of Western power from the late 1970s to its current assignment in Syria. But those ideas were not allowed a forum on that massive stage.
Je Suis Charlie: European lives have always mattered more than others
The Je Suis Charlie slogan like one of those mindless advertising themes meant to appeal to the unconscious and the irrational, nevertheless, has to have cultural reference points, culturally embedded meanings that evoke the desire to want to buy a product, or in this case to identify with an imagined civilization. It does not matter that the supposed superiority of Western civilization and its values is based on constructed lies and myths, it is still the basis of a cross-class, transnational white identity. The white identity is so powerfully inculcated while simultaneously invisibalized that identification is not seen as the essentialized identity politics that people of color supposedly engage in, instead it is just being “human.” And as we witnessed this weekend and throughout the colonial world, identification with whiteness is not limited by one’s racial or national assignment.
It is not necessary in this short essay to even address the contradictory nature of the European self-understanding, how that self-perception is utterly disconnected from its practice, and how many people in the world see the 500-years European hegemony as an interminable nightmare.
However, for those folks who believe the simple assertion that black lives matter and that “racial progress” will be realized through progressive legislative reform derived from a better understanding of the harmful impact of racially discriminatory practices, the unfiltered expressions of white solidarity and the privileging of white life should be a wake-up call.
The humanity and cultures of Arabs and Muslims have been denigrated in France for decades. Full recognition of the humanity of Arabs and Muslims has always come at a cost – Arabs and Muslims are required to “assimilate,” to mimic French lifestyles, embrace the language, adopt the values and worldview of their cosmopolitan patrons. Older generations of fully colonized individuals subjected themselves to that degrading ritual, but later generations see this requirement as the colonial assault on their being that it is and have resisted.
It is the arrogant lack of respect for the ideas and culture of non-European peoples that drove the French ban on the wearing of the niqab and other traditional veiling clothing for Muslim women, just one example of the generalized discriminatory treatment of Arabs and Muslims in France. In this lager context, Charlie Hebdo’s blatant disregard and disrespect for another religion, shielded by an absolute commitment to freedom of speech that gives them blanket immunity, is now compounded by the “Je Suis Charlie campaign,” orchestrated in the name of upholding the values of liberal, Western civilization.
What it means for many of us in the Black community is that Je Suis Charlie has become a sound bite to justify the erasure of non-Europeans, and for ignoring the sentiments, values and views of the racialized “other.” In short, Je Suis Charlie has become an arrogant rallying cry for white supremacy that was echoed at the white power march on Sunday in Paris and in the popularity of the new issue of Charlie Hebdo.
A shared ethical framework under the system of capitalist/colonial white supremacy is impossible. Deeply grounded in the European psyche and in the contradictions of its “humanist” traditions, who was considered fully human always had qualifications, and equality was always a nuanced concept.
The contradictory ethical framework that informs the world view of Parisians is grounded in the colonial division of humanity that emerged out of the liberal humanist movement of the 18th Century. This tradition allowed for humanity to be divided into those people who were considered fully human with rights that should be respected and those peoples consigned to non-being. Those non-beings became eligible to have their lands taken, to be enslaved and murdered at will.
The valuation of white life over everyone else is a fundamental component of white supremacy and not limited to those people that might be defined as white. That is why no one cares about the families that weep for their love ones in Nigeria and no one marches for them. That is why anti-Muslim and anti-Arab violence has exploded across France but the only mention in the Western press is the supposed fear in the Jewish community. And that is why that after the attack in Baga, Nigerian authorities were largely silent until Nigerian President Goodluck finally issued a statement on terrorism where he forcefully condemned the attack in Paris!
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The same day a Saudi official marched in Paris for free speech, his country – the one that persecutes/jails writers/activists and considers women drivers terrorists – dragged jailed blogger Raif Badawi into the public square and flogged him 50 times for “insulting Islam,” the first of 20 scheduled floggings. Tuesday he marked his 31st birthday. Friday, despite global outrage, he will likely be lashed again. From one of his last posts: “Let us all live under the roof of human civilization.”
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OUR REASONING MINDS have been wrestling with how to navigate the leaps back and forth between waking reality and the inner realms of meditation, dreaming, and other travels into alternate realities. Is it any wonder we are having a hard time focusing on the practicalities of physical life? And is it surprising that our brains are easily overwhelmed when we ask them to do what seem like routine mental tasks?
Adding to the potential confusion, Mercury slips into Pisces on Monday, on a quest to further blur the boundaries between our conscious minds and the vast, unfathomable realms of infinite wisdom and compassion.
MERCURY actually goes on a very interesting journey this week. On Tuesday, the planet forms a trine aspect with Ceres. This interaction enhances empathy and our ability to merge communication and compassion. It also assists in transforming our negative thinking patterns and lack of trust through holding the space for us to feel greater self-acceptance.
Then, on Saturday, Mercury aligns with Neptune. At first glance, this might seem to be indicative of a foggy day mentally, but one also conducive for meditative or creative activities.
WHILE SOME may have this experience on Saturday, the interpretation of this alignment is altered a bit by the fact that the planets will be aligning in Pisces. This means that the dissolving power of Neptune, while indeed working to soften the boundaries between our thinking minds and the cosmos, is also working to expose our illusions.
It’s a bit like the rules of arithmetic. As confusing as it may be to conceptualize, when we multiply two negative numbers together,the answer is always a positive number. So, the dissolving power of Neptune, when placed in a boundary-less sign like Pisces, is actually working to “undream the dream,” or bring a dose of reality to the fantasy.
Perhaps the best way to use Saturday’s energies would be to engage in extended times of either meditation or creative/artistic endeavors, while also staying open to receiving insights of truth in areas where we have been in denial or illusion.
THIS WEEK, of course, also brings the Aries Equinox, when the Sun begins a new transit of the 12 signs of the zodiac. This is the astrological New Year, and carries all the expectation (and hype) that we culturally assign to January 1.
A chart drawn for the moment of the Sun’s ingress into Aries (Thursday, 9:57am PDT) is said to reveal the themes of the coming season — spring in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern. This means that we can consider the energies of the Neptune-Mercury alignment as continuing, in some form, into the next three months.
ANOTHER strong energy in the Equinox chart is the alignment between Vesta and the North Node in Libra. We’ve only just started working with the North Node in this sign, so this alignment will give us a good opportunity to make our commitment to what the North Node in Libra means for our personal development.
Jan Spiller’s excellent book on the Moon’s nodes, Astrology for the Soul, gives us this list of attributes that we are asked to develop when the North Node is in Libra:
Cooperation, diplomacy, and tact
Awareness of others’ needs
Creating win/win situations
Communicating clearly who we are
These may all sound like excellent qualities to embody. But, as a client asked me this past week, how does someone with North Node in Aries, who is in a lifetime of learning to be independent, self-aware, self-nurturing, and constructively self-interested, deal with what appears to be a contradiction in guidance?
ALTHOUGH I do not retain much of what I say within personal astrology sessions, I believe my answer was centered around the themes of Balance and Fairness. This is, after all, what Libra the Scales is all about.
Each of us must be self-aware enough to know where we’ve been for most of our lives on this scale of balance between Self and Other. Some have spent years in self-denial or self-sacrifice, perhaps not even knowing their true needs or desires due to an over-focus on others’ needs.
FOR THESE FOLKS who have struggled with claiming their needs and wants, it will be helpful to consider this 18-month transit of the North Node in Libra as an opportunity to check their balance point. The questions to ask are:
Do I know what I want, or is my wanting still colored by my perception of what would make others happy?
When was the last time my mouth said “Yes” while my gut was saying “No”? Have I gained the self-awareness needed to catch myself in this habit?
If I consider that my needs are as valid as anyone else’s, how does that awareness change this decision?
And, ultimately, if what is truly best for ME is actually best for EVERYONE, how does that change my perception of the situation?
We can all benefit, of course, from those Libra aspirations of being creators of harmony. The greatest challenge is often to realize that inner harmony needs to be first priority, and that outer harmony will follow — perhaps not immediately (!), but in time.
I ALSO FIND Demetra George’s book Asteroid Goddesses helpful as I’m considering the meanings of the Vesta-North Node alignment. Her interpretation of Vesta in Libra reads in part:
“The need to be recognized as an equal and to exchange reciprocal give-and-take is an important factor. Due to the need to be accepted, there is a tendency to give up one’s own needs and desires. Achieving a sensible balance between personal preferences and those of others is vital.”
In mythology, Vesta is the goddess of the heart and the keeper of the sacred flame. Her priestesses in ancient Rome were the “vestal virgins,” known for their dedication to their spiritual purpose above all else. Astrologically, Vesta represents our capacity for commitment and devotion.
AS WE WORK with the intentions of the Vesta-North Node alignment — both this week and over the next three months — we may want to think about our dedication to what we have determined is most important in our lives.
We may also consider ways to adjust our energy field so that we are working with rather than against — not in accommodation of others’ needs over our own, but in alignment with and acknowledgement of the flowing river of positive energy we all are traveling upon.
Today’s energy goes extreme and out of bounds. This requires us to be extra-grounded. Methodical, logical, slow analysis is the key. Impulses are rampant and are designed to show us something in neon lights. But impulsive reactions are not a good idea. Give thought and consideration to things or ask a trusted friend’s advice before taking big action.
The energy leaves us feeling more vulnerable than usual, which is an uncomfortable place for many. This is where Matangi comes in. Matangi is masterful at bringing calm to situations. She comes to the aid of those who need her. She provides concrete solutions and when you are feeling at loose ends and ungrounded, a slow pour of Matangi Quik-Crete is heavenly. Ask for her assistance if needed.
We continue our mission this month of taking care of details, situations, and issues that we do not want to carry with us into the new year (the astrological new year begins March 30, 2014). In other words, we want to clean the slate.
Have a wonderful day, everyone, and remember to find beauty. (The beauty in today’s picture is courtesy of wise owl Marina.)
New Moon Phase – Moon: Pisces – Ruling Mahavidya: Matangi
Saturday’s energy involves gauging, judging, or measuring situations. There is an undercurrent of anticipation that can manifest as anxiety and fear, particularly fears about the future. The Moon will conjunct Chiron Saturday, bringing tendencies to self-sabotage (harshly gauge and judge ourselves) and become lost in wounding or victimization. So it is better to stay on the high step, seeing far ahead, knowing that we are in place and supported. It may not look like it, but spring is on its way in the northern hemisphere, bringing much to celebrate. Start looking for signs. (There is joy simply in the additional sunlight each day; we perk up as Sabaoth, the Sun, calls us.)
There are a few days each year that provides opportunities for short-cuts through just about anything. Short cuts result from knowledge; we know a different way there. Sunday’s energy brings such opportunities. Startling clarity and insight reveals easier ways to do things, say things, accomplish things, express things. Keep in mind that the opportunity may come in the form of what appears to be an obstacle. Plough through and allow space for changes, no matter how dense things become.
We are coming in situ this month. In situ is defined as “situated in the original, natural, or existing place or position.” We gain equilibrium, sure footing, and clear vision. Allow the energy to put you in situ.
Waking and Nightly Dreams offer Glimpses into Timelines along our ‘Hologram Highways’
Each person has many timelines within their life hologram. At any given time, our life hologram or energetic template for our life, contains timelines we have already experienced and those we have yet to encounter. Every day we glimpse these new potentials in various ways though we may not always recognize them as such. Tuning in these “glimpses” allows us to further explore alternate potentials before choosing which life track we will shift our energy and focus to. We will describe here some ways to perceive alternate life tracks.
Glimpsing Alternate Timelines in Nightly Dreams
Sometimes we glimpse alternate timelines in our nightly dream travels. While some dreams are designed to unravel the events of our day, other dream states allow us to step beyond more mundane dreams into parallel life tracks. These dreams allow us to explore alternate potentials within our life hologram. Often, though not always, we explore timelines more closely related to our present life track.
Those timelines nearest our present life thread will often appear similar to our present reality but with some noticeable differences. Our dream might feature people and themes familiar to our present life thread but it may be set in unfamiliar locations and circumstances. Parallel realities in dreams may at times feature some variation of roads not taken along our present timeline.
Perceiving Distant Future Life Tracks
At times we may wander further afield in our dreams, along timelines further from our present reality thread, and find ourselves in uncharted territories. These life tracks may be so unfamiliar to us they seem fantastical in nature. That is because some of these life tracks are from a future we have yet to conceive of. Imagine how your present moment would have appeared to you 20-30 years ago. This is how the timeline of a distant future might appear to you now.
Many inventions and revolutionary ideas have been shared with the world by those who brought back glimpses of future life tracks from their nightly dreams.
Waking Dreams bring Glimpses of Parallel Realities
Our waking dreams have the power to carry us into alternate life tracks. Waking dreams happen when we break free of mind chatter and enter the still, deep waters of our subconscious mind. From this expansive space, we are able to merge our consciousness with all-that-is and experience true oneness. Our imagination is the portal that carries us into this space.
Writers, artists and other creative souls become adept at traveling through the doorway of their imagination into parallel realities within their life hologram. Artists sometimes find images along these ‘hologram highways’ that they bring back and express in various artistic mediums.
Because the language of the soul comes is in symbols and images, artists are best able to incorporate visions of future timelines into their creations. Images encoded with the frequencies of future times speak to us at a level beyond our conscious mind, awakening us to latent potentials. These frequencies help us tune into future selves that are able to guide us on the path to our highest future.
Some of the greatest literature was created by writers traveling hologram highways where they encountered other versions of themselves in alternate timelines. Many gifted writers populate their novels with characters based on their alternate selves. Writers who frequent their parallel life tracks may find aspects of other timelines merging with their present life thread. This is one form of timeline bleedthrough.
Timeline Bleedthroughs bring Lessons and Revelations
Bleedthroughs between timelines are not uncommon. We are not always aware how strongly we’re influenced by alternate selves existing along nearby timelines. An example might be an alternate self experiencing a traumatic or powerful event. Your present-moment self may not be experiencing the same thing, yet those who are particularly sensitive or psychic may pick up the feelings and experiences of the alternate self. One way we experience a bleedthrough is a sudden and unexplainable pain or sensation, or an unexplainable bout of melancholy, burst of creative inspiration or sudden breakthrough into spiritual “seeing.” Even though these bleedthroughs arise from events along other timelines, we can choose to tune them in and shift the course of our present timeline – or in the case of a perceived undesirable timeline, we can choose to take the understanding and insight gleaned from the bleedthrough to chart a course in a totally different direction.
Signs of Alternate Realities in our Present Moment
Another way we become aware of parallel timelines is by paying close attention to the details of our daily life. Tucked inside every moment, we find symbols, images and signs of other timelines existing parallel to our present moment. When we become adept at decoding the symbols and images of our present moment, we become fluent in the language of our soul. Perceiving and interpreting the images of our life enables us to see through surface reality and enter the vast ocean of our subconscious.
Every moment is holographic to all-that-is and as such contains access points to past, parallel and future timelines. As we still our mind, deepen and fine tune our awareness, we are able to perceive, explore and travel along the timelines of our choosing.
OUR ASTROLOGICAL HIGHLIGHT this first week of September is the New Moon in Virgo, exact September 5 (Thursday) at 4:36am PDT. A New Moon sets the themes for the new lunar month, and provides specific insights into how we can best utilize the next two weeks, until the Full Moon on September 19.
The most important aspect in the lunation chart is an opposition between the New Moon and Chiron. Chiron is currently in Pisces, requiring us to acknowledge and heal the fears we may have around issues of trust, faith and allowing.
AS HUMANS living in a physical world, most of us have learned to be very “Virgo-like” in how we handle our lives. Virgo believes in the ability to control events through careful planning and close attention to details, through figuring out step-by-step processes and following those steps precisely. This approach can be very useful for getting things done — but it doesn’t contain everything that is needed for successful living.
To prove this point, we all have times and situations in our lives where we are not able to control what occurs, no matter how hard we try. Through these experiences, we learn that in addition to having Virgo’s practical skills, we must also develop Pisces’ qualities of faith, trust, accepting and allowing.
But, even though the words themselves make it sound like it should be easy, “accepting” and “allowing” are often very difficult to do.
CHIRON’S OPPOSITION to the New Moon is a strong reminder of the importance of “being” (a Pisces trait) in a world where there is so much emphasis on “doing” (a Virgo trait). And, like most oppositions, the lesson has to do with finding a balance between the two polarities, rather than choosing one behavior as being better than the other.
To get to that place of balance, however, Chiron tells us that we must take another step in self-healing. It is not enough just to close our eyes and pray as a way to “make it through” a rough time — we are asked, with this New Moon, to love (and therefore heal) the aspect of ourselves that is fearful and doesn’t know how to trust that Everything Will Be OK.
As we express love and understanding for that wounded child aspect of self, our hearts expand. This expansion enables us to accept more fully the Piscean concepts of acceptance and allowing, and provides a touchstone for us to remember as we go through our days.
ANOTHER QUALITY we are being asked to develop in this lunar cycle relates to the process by which we create. In the “old days” of creative visualization, we were instructed first to do something very Virgoan — discern what we wanted with clarity and focus on that outcome. We were also then to use the Piscean qualities of trust and allowing as a tool for “attracting” the desired outcome to us.
Our understanding of how to use creative power is changing now. The revised prescription still uses both qualities of both Virgo and Pisces, but in different order.
AS THE FIRST STEP of this revised creative process, we use the Piscean abilities to Sense. We quiet our physical senses and utilize another level of awareness to gain an intuitive knowing of what energies are afoot.
Then, like the kayaker paddling through white water, or the surfer calculating the right moment to engage the energy of a wave, we use the Virgoan skills of discernment and proper timing to move into the energy field before us. But we also continue to use our Pisces qualities to sense, moment by moment, where the energy field is opening and where it is blocked, in the direction we have chosen.
WE WILL HAVE many opportunities to test out this new way to create in the days ahead. Our New Moon on Thursday tells us that it is time to learn the new skills required, and provides the opposition to Chiron so that we will become aware of where we are fearful of trusting a creative process that merges our consciousness with the unseen.
If we choose to participate at this level, our sensitivity to the energy field around us will grow as the Moon waxes over the next two weeks. Then, by the time of the Pisces Full Moon on September 19, we will be well on our way to living at a new level of cooperation with and awareness of energies that are invisible to our physical eyes.
Martin Luther King, Jr
Winnie Byanyima
James Carroll
Brent Patterson
Danielle Belton
Robert Kuttner
Paul Buchheit
Chris Hedges
Eric Darier
Maya Schenwar
Robert Reich
Yohuru Williams
