Thursday 14th 2001 Arriving to a so called democratic country...sweeden

As I am getting ready to leave from Oslo towards the top EC minister meeting where George bush was supposed to be, I meet Mauricio and many other people from very different political and organizational backgrounds. The ride takes 5 hours and all the time along the way, we hear that buses are being stopped at the border with Sweden. We also get to know that the sweedish police has invaded and sealed the Hvitfeldska high school where we were supposed to sleep during the weekend. The school is surounded by hundreds of policemen and there more than 500-600 people inside. All the people inside the school have come to protest and demonstrate against the US imperialism and the EC top meeting. The police says that they suspect the people inside the school are preparing an attack against the police.

People at the school do not have weapons or anything like it, there has been a lot of dialogue between the Gotemburgs commune and the demonstrators to have a peaceful protest.

The real reason why the police seales the school with containers is to get off the demontrators attention from George Bush leaving the city after getting through and agreement with the EC about his military star wars program before he heads to meet Vladimir Putin. The police sabotage of the demonstration on the streets against G. bush acomplishes its objective. All other demonstrators cannot understand what it going on, why the police is sealing the highschool and head towards it in an attempt to free their friends. The streets get empty and george Bush is met only by about 1500 demonstrators 150 of them Mooning him as a protest for his starwar program...All of us already know that G.W.Bush has to pay back the funders of his campaign, the military and the arms industry in which Bushes family is very well involved. The star wars program is nothing but a despicable way of wasting billions of dollars while lots of human lives are lost to starvation and western natural created disasters. It is about money, about finding invisible enemies who to fight against, so the arms industry consortiums can make more money...

All the dialogue that had been going on for 6 months is broken by the police, showing clearly that tax payers are only useful to pay the salaries of the police, but the governments have the power to get the police to attack tax payers when they do not agree with what is going on in the country or the world. Is this what democracy is about? The sweedish people have woken up to a reality they never thought could be true. When it comes to the real thing, democracy becomes totalitarism, and it is happening all over the world.

Arrival to Gotemburg was a long walk throughout the city, since the police had seized the whole downtown. By taking the school, the police also ensured to make it more difficult for demonstrators to be at the center of the city. We were placed in schools faraway from downtown.

Friday 15th 2001 Violence created by police attacks to demonstrators ends up in tragedy for what we know as the free world.

Policemenhave made a barricade in front of the demonstration a little further up they are also covering both sides of the street and 11.000 of them carrying batongs and weapons are waiting all along the city. A policeman goes mad an he comes towards me and the journalists I am with and tries to hit me. I am afraid and cannot believe what is happening, the other policemen call at him and tell him to stop, they have not gotten their attack orders yet. I looked inside the underground parking lot under the street and lots of police are awaiting their orders, they have dogs and batongs on the other side of the side street, about 30 policemen riding horses are waiting to make their entrance and divide the demonstration in 2. They have been planning this move for about 6 months. I tell the journalists to move further up so we do not get hit by the police, we do so...

Suddenly the police comes out with their dogs and start attacking the people. They know exactly who they have to intimidate to start a war, the masked youngsters. They divide the demonstration into 2 and horse police make their entrance and start to gallope against the people who scared start running. A riot is started by the police and they come running against us hitting us with batongs and making attacks with their horses and dogs.

The riot continue during the day and there was a second demonstration in which the police opened fire against 3 demonstrators. 2 people were shot from the back and one young boy lies in a comma at a hospital after being shot in the chest and stomach... I guees my anger was totally displaced by a deep sadness, i thought this could only happen in the so called third world, but it was real here in Europe. Neo Nazis were also aiding the police by hitting people in the streets for no reason at all. I can be difficult to say that the police was not involved with them after what I saw with my own eyes.

After the first demonstration was over and before the police shooting started, I was eager to meet the people from the Global Ecovillage Network GEN Europe. Both Mauricio and I thought that they may have a stand at this important meeting where about 30.000 young people from Europe were demonstrating against the new world order, Globalization, the WTO(World trade organization), against developing countries debt and against free trade which is nothing but free for the club of the seven where Russia is invited to watch... Young people who are looking forward to knowing about possible peaceful solutions for the future, young people who do not believe in the system anymore... it seems that genetically manipulated food has not made zombies out of everybody, there are many beautiful beings out there ready to sacrifice themselves and their lives for the the rest of us... I cried in silence and even though violence is not a solution to violence, these youngsters were there defending us with their lives because no other solutions are presented to them. Some critisized the AFA, YA BASTA and other groups for the violence, but they are the only army who were there to defend the people. It is easy for some to critisize these youngsters, I am greatful to them and always will be greatful because they are brave, they have not sold their integrity to the system as the fucking police have done, they have only one another to trust and they are no different from any poor farmer or native in the Americas. They have been marginalized by the system and they have nothing to loose by fighting slavery in the world. They are Gods army and the only army the people of the world can rely on... they do not better than fight violence with violence, and as I was looking for the the stand of GEN in all the seminaries that were held, a deep sadness run through my veins when I discovered that no one, no one at all was there to tell the people about our strategies, no permaculturists and no ecovillagers present in one of the greatest protests for freedom and change... Mauricio told me that at least we were there. I had my hammocks and some other ecovillage products to sell, but most of the youngsters did not have any money, they were as poor as I was, but they had their hearts richer than any fortune any dam politician can make with their corrupted lifestyles and conduct. We had a few ENA brochures and asked if we could sell our products at the fare trade stand. The people were so kind with one another, we only had one another to trust. I started calling people and they aproached us and when they got to know about ecovillages being a mean to fight back peacefully against the system, they fell in love with us, I think we may have gotten 20 volunteers who will come to bolivia and Latin America to learn with us on how to defeat the system by being selfreliant. It was like many of these youngsters found a gold mine when they listened to us. i could see their eyes glow, they huged us and asked for info.... what a waste not being able to be present and show slides shows constantly, what a waste my dear collegues...

I would strongly advise to be present at the political arena, it is our duty to bring the message to the people. I felt so ashamed that some of us at some point were quarreling about permaculture issues, when in reality the state of the world cannot wait for us to be waiting to make a name or a carrier inside our movement. We have to bring and spread the message to the people. We have to be present, otherwise we will be doing what Jeff says, preaching to the converted.

During this same day I had the oportunity to listen to 3 outstanding speakers. Susan George, an economist who has written about 4 books always showing and uncovering the dirty tricks multinationals and governments and the military have been trying to do behind our backs. I was a great fan of Susan in the early 90´s and meeting her was a highlight in my life. She and Dot keet, another economist from South Africa were so incredibly clear about what is happening with the WTO. They showed how the WTO is nothing but the continuation of the GATT. 140 countries participate from the WTO and they are supposed to have each one 1 vote and no desicions were taken unless they are by consensus of every country. The real picture is that the WTO is controled by the club of 7 and they blackmail small governments to get away with trade agreements that only benefit big corporations all over the world. free trade they say, but in reality genocide is being commited by industrialized countries against the poorest countries. WTO want to make it possible for industrialized countries to sell their surpluss products in developing countries and developing countries can only sell their row products, because the more they refine their products, the higher the taxes on them. Susan and Dot said that developing countries are more competitive in food and textiles, but they are not allowed to export them because of protectionism. Japans wheat costs 4 times more to produce than European wheat, other countries like Argentina could be very competitive, but are not allowed to trade this foodstuff. So there is a free trade in the items which are produced in industrialized countries, the consecuence of it is that small and middle industries cannot compete with big consortiums in just about every high technological aspect. The WTO also is forcing developing countries to privatize and reduce as much as possible the state involvement with a disastrous consecuense where people loose their jobs and any public benefit from the state. Big consortiums start owning all natural resources and unemployed people try to imigrate to the west in order to survive, but then they have to face closed borders and visa problems. The main result from these affairs is SILENT GENOCIDE of the people in developing countries, while exports and commodities are regulated by the WTO, developing country help is declining, instead governments want to use billions of dollars for a ridiculous starwar program. The idea of Bush junio is to create a cold war front against China... you may wonder why the pentagon made such a terrible mistake of bombing the Chinese embassy in Beograd, well at the military seminary in which David Korten from the US from the positive future Network explained that the US wants a cold war front against China and the latest news a couple of months ago about the US spy plane in China, was another attempt to acomplish this goal. We do not have to forget that democrats are funded by Wall Street, while republicans are funded by the military. The whole star war program is just a program about money and weapon industry. Silicon valley gets the opportunity to develop even further enterprises and the rich get richer while the poor die in their countries. What a warfare!!! it reaminds me that Hitlers spirit is very much alive and kicking in our world leaders, the only difference is that they do not need gas chambers, they can kill remote control and still get away with it...

Ricardo Navarro, Chairman of friends of the Earth and the representative for the ILP El Salvador was present at the mmeting. He confronted Javier de Solana the EC representative in a TV link and remainded him of the corruption acusations and the ecological debt that the industrialized world has with the developing world. He also confronted him with the bombing of the Chinese embassy and the use of radioactive uranium in Kosovo and the militarization of Europe and the space... Javier de Solana like all the other politicians on the panel, used very much the police alibi of dialogue instead of violence. The Portugues prime minister also said very clearly that he is willing to hear the peoples concerns, but that he is in no obligation at all in considering any of the peoples proposals.

Satuday 16th 2001 - No police... no violence!!!

Saturday was the greates day, 25.000 people got together in a peaceful demonstration. As usual, I was a little late, but Mauricio and I made it just on time to join the one kilometer long line of people. We just joined up front where a samba group played instruments and latin music with the slogan "we want a different Europe" and all of us shouted LOVE in sweedish. No police were to be seen because there were hard criticts all over Europe about thier brutality the day before...

The march was so peaceful and full of love, that the indian in me came out becoming totally wild... I found myself dancing with to women up front and shouting like rainbow and ligh warriors do...from the bottom of my soul... There were many people angel like keeping the energy positive and demon free, ritual instruments and clean smiles in contrast to the mad faces of policemen the day before. beautiful beings dancing and shouting for freedom, for justice, for peace and love... I never felt so proud of being with so many peace warriors... All the people from Gotemburg saluted us from their windows and balconies, no police around, just some of them in civilian clothes and motorcycles... I bet the government was facing their worst crisis since nobody had been shot in Sweeden at a peaceful demonstration since 1941 and the minister in charge Göran Persson was facing a hard time. Later we found out that 11.000 policemen and military, were ready to attack the demonstration if necesary, but the media did not focused at all this demonstration, the greates demonstration of all during the weekend where the police kept away and absolute no violence was triggered. We shouted, no police, no violence! no police, no violence!

That night, there were rumors that the boy who was shot by the police had died... another peaceful demonstration was about to happen at a square called Jerntorget to show the peoples disgust against murderers. 500 policemen surrounded some 600 activists and forced them to sit on the ground for 6 hours. The police was all over arresting people who had long hair or lacked suits. They arrested many innocent citizens as well and drove them in buses and searched them. many of the people arrested was driven far away from town, so they would have to come back by foot. Celular phones were a breakthrough for all of us, since we could be in touch with one another and scape from the police or reunite with friends that had gone other ways while scaping from the dinosaurus rex (police).

Sunday 17th 2001 -

Mauricio and I used the day to talk about ecovillages and Permaculture, showing photos of Bolivia, Senegal and Colombia... people just loved the proposals and concrete solutions. A global answer from the people to Globalization and privatizing, to militarizing and genocide, at the panel where Ricardo navarro confronted Javier de Solana, the leader from the landless movement in Brazil sent a speach to the world leaders telling them that our proposals are far from being utopian, that Capitalism is the real utopi, there are only so many resources available on the planet, they cannot pretend that the game can go forever and that they have to start thinking about the planet they are also a part of. Friends of the Earth spokesman Duncan Mc Farren stressed the fact of the planet being destroyed, poisoned and depleted. Ricardo pointed out the fact that western consumption habits are to blame for hurricanes and ecological disasters, he urged for the South to get together in a coalition among Latin America, Africa and Asia, without us the west cannot survive and that corporations need us to buy their products, without us buying from them they will have to redefine their goals as they go bancrupt. No to the privatizing of the states, no to genetical patents, life belong to all, no to a militarized Europe and no to genocide in developing countries. Drop the debt and avoid sanctions, yes to the unilateral trade from developing countries. This is our world my dear ecovillagers, we have found a real great solution which inspires young people, lets be present where it counts, lets get out there and shout our peaceful strategy, our solutions and our dreams. Gotemburg have changed me a little, my faith on the common citizen has grown this past weekend, I met Mauricio at the SEED conference at bergen in 1990...11 years have passed and we meet again at a very different but similar meeting, the same issues, after the Kioto deal, politicians of the world say that still they have not have enough time to get concrete goals about the environment, it is too soon Javier de Solana said, a total insult to our intelligence, we now know what their real agenda looks like. they do not care about the planet, they want to get more power and more money, it is as simple as that. total irresponsability which leads to planetary chaos and unjustice...

I am not afraid anymore George Jr, I have seen children and youth being bit and hit, shot and arrested, but you will not be able to destroy this planet because it simply belongs to all of us and not only to your presidential dinasty and your seven friends. I have seen with my own eyes what your kind of democracy looks like and more and more people are realizing what kind of monsters you rulers of the world are. Freedom will never give up, love will never be defeated, Peace will never be killed!!!!! after your economical models and warfares have killed all those black children, those indian children, those asian children, you are also starting to kill white children. What will happen to you and your friends when the last child is gone? what about the rivers and the animals? What kind of emptyness rules your heart and the hearts of the ones like you? I know that every human has the power of changing their attitude, some people are remembered because they became martyrs like Che Guevara, Jesus and Ghandi, others because they did good in their lives, like Chico mendez, mother Theresa and Princess Diana...I wonder what would be like to be remembered as a destructive dinosaur, a being who wants to play God with the planet... You know what the difference between God and you is???? the difference between God and you is that God created the planet, God created life...you are destroying both.

Edul N´baraeté