The Right Livelihood Award
- Bushmen children
A court ruling denies Botswana's bushmen access to a water well in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
The struggle for water has been going on for eight years and has been part of an eviction campaign, which was declared illegal by the Botswana High Court in 2006.
In 2005, Roy Sesana and his organisation First People of the Kalahari received a Right Livelihood Award. In their struggle for their rights, they are supported by Laureate organisation Survival International.
Are we heading towards the next BANG? asks Pat Mooney in his new book, or will we manage to change course?
In a series of fictional stories Mooney describes alternatives paths our world might take over the next 30 years.
What will happen, for example, if the world keeps on tracking the trend line promoting bio engineering, nano- and biotech as the solutions to the world’s challenges, e.g. global warming, diseases and hunger?
What could different scenarios look like? How will life be in 30 years when one of these other scenarios come true? Is there still hope for another world? Follow Pat Mooney on different paths and decide for yourself what world you will live for.
More information from the publisher in German
- Maude Barlow
The UN General Assembly has recognized water and sanitation to be a fundamental human right. 122 countries supported the resolution, while over forty countries abstained from voting, including the United States, Canada and several European and other industrialized countries.
Amy Goodman interviewed Maude Barlow on the significance of this declaration that has taken her and fellow activists years and years to get to the UN:
Maude Barlow: "So, really, what you’re seeing is a split between those countries that see water as a public trust, although that wasn’t in the language of the legislation, but that see water as a public trust and a human right and that should belong to all, as opposed to those who are going to move to a market model. And I think that’s the truth behind what happened."
"What it is is a moral statement, a guiding principle, of the countries of the world—and basically the UN is the closest thing we have to a global parliament—that they have taken a step in a direction of saying that water is a human right (...)"
The failure of the Copenhagen Climate Conference opened the door for corporations and governments to opt for other solutions than their overdue emissions reductions to stop climate change. And they came up with ... strange sci-fi ideas?
Watch Amy Goodman interviewing Pat Mooney on the dangers of geo-engineering:
With his H.O.M.E.-campaign, Pat Mooney (RLA 1985) is at the forefront of the struggle against turning our earth into a laboratory of profit-driven corporations.
But he is not alone: several Laureates have already reacted to his call to join forces against this insanity.
Read Pat's appeal and David Suzuki's and Herman Daly's reaction, and get more information!
On April 30th, a new website went live, providing you with information about the upcoming 30th Anniversary Conference of the Right Livelihood Award in Bonn.
We will feed this website over the coming months with the topics of the conference, and hopefully you will add your comments and insights, too. Please subscribe so that you get informed as soon as our online community gets active on the site and to always be up-to-date.
The website is in German and English.
- Vandana Shiva © Orla Connolly
Hunger is everywhere in Ethiopia. Nevertheless the country exports daily food to rich countries in the Middle East and the Western World. Even worse, it grows and exports food processed into biofuel for Europe.
The Ethiopian area owned or leased by rich countries has already double the size of the UK. Ethiopia is only one of about twenty more African countries selling land and food to the rich, taking it from the poor. Vandana Shiva (India, RLA 1993) states:
"We are seeing dispossession on a massive scale. It means less food is available and local people will have less. There will be more conflict and political instability and cultures will be uprooted.“
- Davi Kopenawa Yanomami © Fiona Watson/Survival
The rising gold price has brought over 1,000 gold miners illegally to the Brazilian indigenous territory of the Yanomami. Yanomami spokesman Davi Kopenawa appeals for support, as the miners are transmitting deadly diseases, destroying land and polluting the rivers with mercury, thus poisoning drinking water and food.
During the 1980s, the Yanomami territory was invaded by up to 40,000 gold miners. As a result, about twenty percent of the Yanomami died in just seven years. The Brazilian congress is currently debating a bill which might permit large-scale mining in indigenous territories.
Join Survival International (UK, RLA 1989) in supporting the Yanomami, write to the Brazilian Government!
For further information please see
Survial International’s homepage
