The humble email is a sign of extraordinary times. It acts like a huge chain of information that spreads out across the world in a way that our forbearers would have thought impossible. Individuals and groups can get their messages out to people in a much more effective way -- particularly when it comes to the petition.
I receive so many petitions for this and that via email, but due to the unfortunate lack of space left in my grey matter vaults for the daily intake of info, I often don't remember what those petitions were about 5 seconds after I press send.
But one email recently stuck in my mind. It may have simply been its reappearance so many times in my inbox, each new sender compounding upon the urgency of the last, or it could be that I was simply dumbstruck by the tragedy it was telling.
The email details a proposed mine in the Valle de San Felix in Chile. The massive deposit of gold and other precious metals are said to be directly underneath glaciers that provide pure drinking water to the region and sustain the agricultural community (which is also stated to have zero unemployment). However, the main problem with this email is trying to get to the source, and this is one of the interesting problems to arise from the world of the email petition. Being unable to enter into any meaningful dialogue with its author has posed some serious questions over its legitimacy, but it could also indicate the need for the author to stay anonymous. Without any clue of how to find them, we can only take a stab at the reasons for such anonymity.
However, turning up information on the company at the centre of the furore, Barrick Gold, was not quite as difficult, with board members including the ex Prime Minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney, and an ex-President as an ex-International Advisory Board member, George Bush Snr, who served on that board for two years in the 1990s. In addition, it is always useful to look at where a company has been, to try to fully grasp where it night be going, and Barrick seems to have made quite a name for itself down in the Congo.
"The former President of the United States, George Bush - the father of the present Bush, in that collection of family trees - in partnership with the former Prime Minister of Canada, was involved with a firm called Barrick Gold," said founder and Contributing Editor of the Executive Intelligence Review, Lyndon H. LaRoche, in a live internet speech to 250 people in Washington and the United Nations in New York on July 24, 2001. "They're sitting in part of Congo, where there are diamonds and there's a lot of gold. And they're looting that area, for profit, and maintaining their looting with the aid of private armies. Throughout Africa, private armies, owned by large multinational corporations, and including people, British Commonwealth figures, like [Brian] Mulroney or U.S. figures like Bush, are engaged in witting genocide against the peoples of Africa, for the purpose of trying to make a profit out of stealing their raw materials, and reducing the population. That's the situation."
The email regarding the mine in the Valle de San Felix, Chile, stated:
"Every last gram of gold will go abroad to the multinational company and not one will be left with the people whose land it is. They will only be left with the poisoned water and the resulting illnesses."
To which Barrick replied:
TThere will be substantial economic benefits that include 5,500 direct jobs during construction, 1,660 jobs during the two decades of operation, and the indirect job creation and tax revenues generated that will flow back to the communities. In addition, there will be substantial investment in infrastructure, the development of hundreds of local suppliers of goods and services and the implementation of sustainable development programs."
What important detail is omitted is, who will actually own the gold and other precious metals drawn from the mine? Barrick, in it omission of this point, is not denying the fact that the people of Chile will in no way own any of their own resources in this case, but will rather end up with 'in-kind' development projects, worth far, far less than the profits they stand to make.
This begs the question: what is the Chilean government doing? If they have all of that gold, and if it must be mined, why, pray tell, are they not mining it themselves, with the profits going back to the Chilean people? Have they not heard of technology transfers? International partnerships?
The issue of who owns the natural resources of a nation is becoming a lot more heated as the world gears up for major policy shifts on energy security. While the neo-liberalists claim free market at every turn, it is clear that something is drastically wrong when people, living on top of a gold mine all these years, will more than likely not be able to afford to have their teeth capped with the stuff, let alone share in its profits.
The question also needs to be asked about what level of employment most local people will reach -- will they receive management training, or will they just do a short course in "Digging101", followed by "Sludge Removal Basics: how to use your broom and dustpan to clean up a mining site" at the makeshift school that was built as a 'bead trade' for their jewels?
The world is getting a lot smaller, and the dissemination of information is getting easier for those who would like to get a message out there. On the other hand, those who send the petitions need to be careful not to undermine themselves by making sure of their facts. Getting involved with an organisation or even a dialogue with the company is a good place to start, and ensures that when your message is heard, it has a chance of moving up the food chain of importance. The original email and Barrick's reply has left me with a million unanswered questions, which could be answered by an effective campaign.
*Below is an excerpt from the original email:
"In the Valle de San Felix, the purest water in Chile runs from 2 rivers, fed by 2 glaciers...Indigenous farmers use the water, there is no unemployment, and they provide the second largest source of income for the area.
Under the glaciers has been found a huge deposit of gold, silver and other minerals. TO GET AT THESE IT IS NECESSARY TO BREAK OR DESTROY THE GLACIERS - something never conceived of in the history of the world - and to make 2 huge holes, each as big as a whole mountain, one for extraction and one for the mine's rubbish tip.
The project is called PASCUA LAMA. The company is called Barrick Gold.
The operation is planned by a multi-national company, one of whose members is George Bush Senior.
The Chilean Government has approved the project to start this year, 2006. The only reason it hasn't started yet is because the farmers have got a temporary stay of execution.
If they destroy the glaciers, they will not just destroy the source of
especially pure water, but they will permanently contaminate the 2
rivers so they will never again be fit for human or animal consumption because of the use of cyanide and sulphuric acid in the extraction process.
Every last gram of gold will go abroad to the multinational company and not one will be left with the people whose land it is. They will only be left with the poisoned water and the resulting illnesses.
The farmers have been fighting a long time for their land, but have been forbidden to make a TV appeal by a ban from the Ministry of the Interior. Their only hope now of putting brakes on this project is to get help from international justice.
The world must know what is happening in Chile. The only place to start changing the world is from here - no to Pascua Lama Open-cast mine in the Andean Cordillera on the Chilean-Argentine frontier. We ask the Chilean Government not to authorize the Pascua Lama project to protect the whole of 3 glaciers, the purity of the water of the San Felix Valley and El Transito, the quality of the agricultural land of the region of Atacama, the quality of life of the Diaguita people and of the whole population of the region."
If you wish to contact Barrick Directly for the PDF containing their reply, go to:
Barrick Gold: http://www.barrick.com (or in Spanish: http://www.barrick.cl)
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