[-empyre-] AMAZON IS BURNING

Tue Oct 1 06:23:34 AEST 2019

Thanks to everyone dedicated to sharing important information and news on
this thread. Its been a rich few weeks -- I hope we can return to this
crisis and get updates from Brazil in coming months on -empyre-.

M

--
beforebefore.net
--

On Wed, Sep 25, 2019 at 1:25 AM isabelle arvers <iarvers at gmail.com> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Gisela,
>
> Reading your post about the US Influence in Latin America made me think
> about a book published by the Judge Eva Joly about France influence in
> Africa, where she explains the France Afrique system, that looks very
> similar to what you describe. Here is a little extract of her book "La
> Force qui nous manque", "tyrants are friends that France has placed in
> power and whose protects their wealth and influence through its extensive
> networks of corruption; in exchange they look after the interests and
> resources of French companies who have come to dig the soil. All this
> beautiful world has an interest in that nothing, ever, stimulates neither
> the institutions nor the economy of the countries."
>
> How could we support and link different activist's movements throughout
> different continents?
>
> Isabelle
> [image:
> http://www.isabellearvers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/animLogo.gif]
> <http://www.isabellearvers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/animLogo.gif>
> Isabelle Arvers
> Curator, art critic and artist
> Wattsap: +33 661 998 386
> http://www.isabellearvers.com
> Director of Kareron www.kareron.com
> https://www.facebook.com/ArtGamesWorldTour
> twitter: @zabarvers
> instagram.com/zabarvers
> youtube.com/zabarvers
> https://vimeo.com/isabellearvers
> Skype ID: iarvers
>
>
> Le mar. 24 sept. 2019 à 07:03, Gisela Domschke <gdomschke at gmail.com> a
> écrit :
>
>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> I've been following the thread, and the reflections presented are of
>> great interest. Following the article published by The Intercept, mentioned
>> by Lucia Agra, about Bolsonaro's plans for the Amazon area, I believe it's
>> important to highlight its connection to the permanent strategic objectives
>> of the United States for Latin America, as pointed by ambassador Samuel
>> Pinheiro Guimarães:
>>
>> 1. to prevent state or alliance of states from reducing US influence in
>> the region; 2. to broaden its cultural / ideological influence on the
>> communication systems of each state; 3. to incorporate all the economies of
>> the region into the American economy; 4. to disarm the states of the
>> region; 5. to maintain the regional policy coordination and alignment
>> system; 6. to prevent the presence, especially military, of adversary
>> powers in the region; 7. to punish states that contradict the principles of
>> American hegemonic leadership; 8. toprevent the development of autonomous
>> industries in advanced areas; 9. to weaken the states of the region; 10. to
>> elect political leaders favorable to US goals.
>>
>> Those are United States' objectives for Latin America in general, but
>> apply in particular to Brazil, the main state in the region by size of
>> territory, natural resources, population, geographical location. Also,
>> since President Lula's election in 2003, Brazilian domestic and foreign
>> policy has opposed, albeit not systematically, some of America's strategic
>> goals.
>>
>> From this new situation in Brazil-United States relations and the growing
>> popularity of President Lula, the American strategy was:
>> · To mobilize the mass media in Brazil against government policies;
>> · Under the Brazil-United States judicial cooperation agreement, to
>> initiate *Operation Lava Jato* that would facilitate the achievement of
>> the US strategic objectives in particular 2, 8, 9 and 10, listed above;
>> · To initiate the political process of preparing impeachment of President
>> Dilma Rousseff;
>> · Directly and indirectly finance the formation of the MBL and *Vem pra
>> Rua* groups (popular anti-Lula movements)
>>
>> The main objective of *Operation Lava Jato* was not the fight against
>> corruption, but to prevent the election of President Lula in 2018.
>> “Corruption” was countered by *Operation Lava Jato*, headed by Sérgio
>> Moro, a lower court judge who had the connivance and even the cooperation
>> of members of the High Courts and the mainstream press for a highly
>> unorthodox and illegal procedural conduct. All the illegal aspects of his
>> conduct have widely been unveiled by the secret files published by The
>> Intercept. However, no action has been taken so far by the High Courts to
>> revert this situation.
>>
>> The United States of America has achieved its main strategic objective:
>> to elect political leaders favorable to US goals. And with Bolsonaro's
>> government they are achieving all the other goals listed above.
>>
>> Besides the great films suggested by Fabi, I'd also add to the list the
>> recently launched "Bacurau", by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano
>> Dornelles. The film received the Jury Prize at Cannes 2019, and represents
>> a strong allegory about local resistancy in the present situation (
>> https://www.indiewire.com/2019/05/kleber-mendonca-filho-bacurau-brazilian-government-lawsuit-1202145457/
>> ).
>>
>> On the topic of local resistancy, I'd like to mention the relevance of
>> indigenous actions.
>>
>> Gisela
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, 23 Sep 2019 at 13:53, Shu Lea Cheang <shulea at earthlink.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>>>
>>> dear Oliver
>>>
>>> indeed, i never read about this connection you made here with HIV virus.
>>> I have myself done a scifi cyherpunk film about HIV virus mutation in the
>>> future. (http://fluidthemovie.com).
>>>
>>> "The rich biodiversity of primary forests might start resisting in
>>> completely unanticipated and catastrophic ways."
>>> This warning is alarming.
>>>
>>> AMAZON continues burning... just want to mention as we enter into the
>>> 4th week of our sejour here in -empyre-, but feel free to continue the
>>> AMAZON IS BURNING thread...
>>> closely watched.
>>>
>>> thanks lots
>>>
>>> sl
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 23.09.19 18:33, Dean Wilson wrote:
>>>
>>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks for this razor sharp contribution to the slowly expanding
>>> awareness of what living beings innately understand. Hasn’t the rich
>>> biodiversity of primary forests been resisting in unanticipated and
>>> catastrophic ways for centuries? Are we not witnessing accelerated and
>>> conflated natural disasters? Not long from today, the word Sargassum, for
>>> example, may refer to phenomena that presently have no explicit meaning in
>>> the mode of empirical observation:
>>>
>>>
>>> DW
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 10:36 AM Oliver Kellhammer <
>>> okellhammer at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>>>> The multispecies resistance can cut both ways once primary ecosystems
>>>> are parsed up with roads and exposed to globalized trade flows. Freed from
>>>> their predators or other ecologies of containment, some of the more protean
>>>> species will take this as an opportunity to explore new habitats, and with
>>>> viruses and microbes, that can be super bad news.
>>>> When the rainforest of equatorial Africa started getting fragmented by
>>>> resource extraction,  there arose the set of perfect conditions to allow
>>>> HIV to jump from its simian to human hosts - the bushmeat trade,
>>>> long-distance trucking, roadside sex trade workers, systemic poverty and
>>>> displacement. The result was an epidemic for which the world was completely
>>>> unprepared. I remember in the '80s (along with many others) trying to piece
>>>> together the epidemiology of how it was that friends in Toronto were dying
>>>> by the score of illness completely unknown a few years before. Who would
>>>> have guessed that it stemmed from roadbuilding, mining and logging in the
>>>> vast watersheds of the Congo?
>>>> The rich biodiversity of primary forests might start resisting in
>>>> completely unanticipated and catastrophic ways.
>>>>
>>>> O.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Sep 22, 2019 at 1:38 PM margaretha haughwout <
>>>> margaretha.anne.haughwout at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>>>>> Good morning -empyre-,
>>>>>
>>>>> And yes thank you so much Lucio for this insight, and for the link. It
>>>>> is very important. I believe I found the English version:
>>>>> https://theintercept.com/2019/09/20/amazon-brazil-army-bolsanaro/
>>>>>
>>>>> It does seem like it all starts with the roads. The roads introduce
>>>>> new species in the area as they get made, possibilities for logging come
>>>>> about. New edge effects are created and microclimates emerge that allow for
>>>>> a greater chance of fires, ultimately directing the landscape away from
>>>>> rainforest and toward savannah where the plantationocene can take hold --
>>>>> radically depleting species diversity and introducing new species that also
>>>>> exhaust the soil (cattle deplete nutrients in the pastures). The roads are
>>>>> resource frontiers, and also involve the process of 'making cheap' -- a
>>>>> process Jason Moore describes (and who is referenced by Escher in another
>>>>> thread). Perhaps we can pick up the epistemological question again in the
>>>>> future -- the question of distance, speed, and totalizing views (yes,
>>>>> creating the 'we' vision).
>>>>>
>>>>> On the ground, I am so interested in the foreign species that travel
>>>>> along these roads -- how invasive plant species *sometimes* give big ag
>>>>> grief and can often remediate the landscape, reintroducing nutrients and re
>>>>> texturing the soil, sometimes so the more native species can move back in
>>>>> (Oliver has many examples of this happening in North America) . I'd love to
>>>>> learn what plants could do such things along these new roads in Brazil.
>>>>> Also interested in species that help fight big ag in alliance with humans.
>>>>> In Argentina for example anti gmo activists throw amaranth into fields (a
>>>>> superweed, a spinach, a grain): PDF:
>>>>> https://read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/article-pdf/9/2/204/517303/204beilin.pdf
>>>>> (also see
>>>>> https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/rethinking-a-weed-the-truth-about-amaranth)
>>>>> A big shout out to multispecies resistance.
>>>>>
>>>>> -M
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> beforebefore.net
>>>>> --
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, Sep 20, 2019 at 2:19 PM Sergio Basbaum <sbasbaum at gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>>>>>> Thank you Lucio, for this account
>>>>>>
>>>>>> s
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Fri, Sep 20, 2019 at 1:24 PM Lucio Agra <lucioagra at gmail.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>>>>>>> Hi, everybody.
>>>>>>> I've been lurking until now, following the discussion and
>>>>>>> preferably trying to do not interfere.  Margaretha, though, has put a good
>>>>>>> point here.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Today I waked up with a message sent by a colleague  through Whats
>>>>>>> Up, with a link to The Intercept ,where a young brazilian journalist, from
>>>>>>> their crew, grabbed some information about the plans that the Govern - and
>>>>>>> particularly the Army - have been preparing concerning Amazon area. The
>>>>>>> militaries basically reedited an ancient doctrine about security on the
>>>>>>> Amazon frontier. Among several conspiration theories involving the
>>>>>>> construction of an independent country for Yanomoanis in collaboration with
>>>>>>> Venezuela, and other klind of misconception there is an intention to get
>>>>>>> around ancient plans of roads construction in the region. There is already
>>>>>>> a road that connects Cuiabá (in the middle of the country) to Santarem. Up
>>>>>>> to this place, there begins the region known as Calha Norte, which was
>>>>>>> involved in disputes and projects since Military Dictatorship in the 70s
>>>>>>> and 80s. It gave raise to a rumorous situation that involved, in the past,
>>>>>>> some militaires and empresarios. Well, here they come again, projecting the
>>>>>>> occupation of Indigenous areas with mining and people brought from other
>>>>>>> parts of the country, with the aim to avoid a supposed "invasion" of
>>>>>>> Chinese immigrants that also supposedly have benn growing in Suriname.
>>>>>>> Several detais, including a presentation with maps and some audio
>>>>>>> registering the meetings done in the state of Pará, were disclosed by
>>>>>>> Intercept. The material is astonishing even to those of us who were born
>>>>>>> and in Brazil and to all that live here.
>>>>>>> Now I  arrive to the important point Margaretha sustained in her
>>>>>>> commentaries. The roads we see in the map, part of it, probably represent
>>>>>>> these efforts to open ways up to North Amazon, a place, as an specialst
>>>>>>> heard by Intercept says, so isolated that does not demand concerns on
>>>>>>> fronteer security. There is indeed a plan to occupy Amazon with roads and
>>>>>>> it is really important for some *tactical* reasons: first, because
>>>>>>> it increases petrol and cars lobby, second because it was one of the main
>>>>>>> politics of Dictatorship in the 70s, through the absurd project of
>>>>>>> TransAmazonica road. Nowaday it seems to be a reedition of ancient
>>>>>>> positions susteinad by  some falcons from the Army.
>>>>>>> If, from one side, says Margaretha, perhaps the world get
>>>>>>> information that constructs a "we vision" (from the standpoint of the ones
>>>>>>> who did not suffer colonization directly - "seeing from afar") , on the
>>>>>>> other there is an analogous situation concerning people that live in  in
>>>>>>> southwest or south parts of the Country, which means also "seeing from
>>>>>>> afar". Nevertheless, the same network has been making it possible to have
>>>>>>> fast access to such an information as it was disclosed by journalist
>>>>>>> Tatiana Dias through Intercept today. Intercept uses the same Network that
>>>>>>> can either reinforce distances, either eliminate them. To use a cliché,
>>>>>>> information is a crucial tool to this very moment.
>>>>>>> Link to the story (I'm afraid it is only in Portuguese):
>>>>>>> https://theintercept.com/2019/09/19/plano-bolsonaro-paranoia-amazonia/
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Best
>>>>>>> Lucio Agra
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Em sex, 20 de set de 2019 às 11:13, margaretha haughwout <
>>>>>>> margaretha.anne.haughwout at gmail.com> escreveu:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>>>>>>>> Dear All,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Hope your day of CLIMATE STRIKE! brings new energy and fresh
>>>>>>>> beginnings to the struggle.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Fabi thank you for your posts so full of energy and for a vision of
>>>>>>>> agroecology. I share your inspiration for this set of cultivation
>>>>>>>> practices, and worry deeply about the ways it can be taken up by
>>>>>>>> capital.... But perhaps as you suggest it is a way out, a tear on the edges
>>>>>>>> of modernity (Eduardo Gudynas argues the way out of modernity will be
>>>>>>>> determined by Latin America....)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I have another question for you Fabi and for Dan. One of the
>>>>>>>> striking things about the arial images of the Amazon, are the fishbone
>>>>>>>> patterns we see as roads get developed. We can actually see the metabolic
>>>>>>>> pathways of capitalism in these patterns. But I'm wondering about the ways
>>>>>>>> 'we' see the Amazon from afar -- the technologies we use, and how they
>>>>>>>> themselves are implicated in colonial histories and colonial futures that
>>>>>>>> have us leaving earth -- could you comment. How do you use these mapping
>>>>>>>> and satellite technologies in your own practice?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> In solidarity,
>>>>>>>> -M
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>> beforebefore.net
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Wed, Sep 18, 2019 at 1:21 PM Dean Wilson <dean at sundialforum.org>
>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> A lurker here ... thanks for the thread. "A thousand years ago"
>>>>>>>>> indeed. Even an eight year interval under the present exploding plastic
>>>>>>>>> inevitable airborne toxic event is a lost slave ship of failure. Pankaj
>>>>>>>>> Mishra's book review of David French scraped the bulbous lard of privilege
>>>>>>>>> and rummaged around thusly back in the day (2011):
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/a-curzon-without-an-empire/270145
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> "Even stranger gaps exist in *India*, which, though subtitled *An
>>>>>>>>> Intimate Biography of 1.2 Billion People*, finds no place for the
>>>>>>>>> nearly 800 million Indians who still depend on agriculture for a living.
>>>>>>>>> The quiet catastrophe in rural areas—the collapse of water tables,
>>>>>>>>> spiralling debt, the poisoning of cultivable land, and tens of thousands of
>>>>>>>>> farmer suicides—is absent from *India*. French does talk to one
>>>>>>>>> man with a farming background at length; but the latter turns out to be an
>>>>>>>>> upwardly mobile adivasi at a Californian-style vineyard owned by Sula
>>>>>>>>> Wines. Claiming that Mahadev Kolis “normally prefer” Chenin Blanc and
>>>>>>>>> Madeira, he leads French into upbeat speculation about the “democratisation
>>>>>>>>> of wine-drinking” in India."
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Parasamgate bodhi svaha.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> DW
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> empyre forum
>>>>>>>> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
>>>>>>>> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> *Lucio Agra*
>>>>>>> Prof. Adjunto • CECULT/UFRB
>>>>>>> Centro de Cultura Linguagens e Tecnologias Aplicadas
>>>>>>> <https://ufrb.edu.br/cecult/>
>>>>>>> http://contemporaryperformance.org/profile/LucioAgra
>>>>>>> Se vc tem urgência de falar comigo, me ligue no celular! É mais
>>>>>>> rápido!
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> empyre forum
>>>>>>> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
>>>>>>> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> -- Prof. Dr. Sérgio Roclaw Basbaum
>>>>>> -- Pós-Graduação Tec.da Inteligência e Design Digital - TIDD (PUC-SP)
>>>>>> -- Coordenador Pós-Graduação em Música e Imagem (FASM)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -- http://soundcloud.com/sergiobasbaum
>>>>>> -- http://soundcloud.com/pantharei <https://soundcloud.com/pantharei>
>>>>>> -- [:a.cinema:] <http://acinemaperformance.blogspot.com.br/>
>>>>>> ...sai dessa fila, vem pra roda festejar..
>>>>>> <http://soundcloud.com/sergiobasbaum/choror-bye-bye>
>>>>>> -- a.cinema <http://acinemaperformance.blogspot.com>
>>>>>> -- pantharei_tube
>>>>>> <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXlPdYtxV5bj5uAQwXC-M_Q>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> B'H'
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "Do mesmo modo como a percepção da coisa me abre ao ser, realizando a
>>>>>> síntese paradoxal de uma infinidade de aspectos perspectivos, a percepção
>>>>>> do outro funda a moralidade (...)"
>>>>>> Maurice Merleau-Ponty
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> empyre forum
>>>>>> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
>>>>>> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> empyre forum
>>>>> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
>>>>> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> http://www.oliverk.org
>>>> twitter: @okellhammer
>>>> mobile: 917-743-0126
>>>> skype: okellhammer
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> empyre forum
>>>> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
>>>> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dean Wilson, PhD
>>> 1(609) 772-2719
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> empyre forumempyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.auhttp://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> empyre forum
>>> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
>>> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> ------------------------------------
>> GISELA DOMSCHKE
>> ------------------------------------
>> CEL +55 11 9 9600 - 9876
>> ------------------------------------
>> SKYPE ID  GDOMSCHKE
>> ------------------------------------
>> www.domproducao.com
>> ------------------------------------
>> _______________________________________________
>> empyre forum
>> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
>> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
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