Culture and Coexistence into the Great Unknown
The Michael Moore-produced, Jeff Gibbs video, Planet of the Humans, uses the capitalism onslaught that has caused disaster across the planet as an Earth Day opportunity to lob spitballs at environmental movements and prominent advocates. While it can’t even manage any more cogent solutions than vague assertions about curbing population and over-consumption, it also fails to see the monster who stands before it: the system, which needs to be overcome, immediately.
As we see another coup against Venezuela’s democratically-elected government, we revisit the 2002 coup attempt in the documentary, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (a.k.a. Chavez: Inside the Coup), which briefly deposed Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. A television crew from Ireland’s Radio Telifís Éireann happened to be recording a documentary about Chávez during the events of April 11, 2002.
An attempted coup is underway in Venezuela, call it what you like. While the Bolivarian Revolution has had its problems, U.S. sanctions have devastated its economy and people. Negotiations led by Mexico, Uruguay, and the Vatican are the only sane way forward.
The coup-backed neo-liberal government of Honduras, pushing tourism and expatriate resort developments, continues to repress and evict Garífuna communities along the Caribbean Coast. The Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) reports, with multiple personal statement videos.
Guy Zimmerman, in reviewing the new Wall Street film The Big Short, muses on the desperate conformity required in today’s entertainment in this new Gilded Age of oligarchy and disempowerment that has overtaken culture in the U.S.
Dana Frank writes on why the U.S. must stop funneling money to Honduras for repressive militarization and “free trade” projects that sacrifice labor and environmental standards in favor of multinational corporate hegemony. He must start treating its president like the corrupt ruler he really is.
The model planners and economists touted as “sustainable development” has only exacerbated ecologic distress and community dislocation through its focus on wealth-creation. The needs of our ailing planet facing an impending 11 billion population calls for ecology and human welfare to dominate economy, but how to achieve this in a world bought and paid for by finance capitalism?