[dohboi]

from the report:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t is rapidly expanding energy use, mainly driven by fossil fuels, that explains why humanity is on the verge of breaching planetary sustainability boundaries through global warming, biodiversity loss, and disturbance of the nitrogen-cycle balance and other measures of the sustainability of the earth’s ecosystem

[AgentR11]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dohboi', 'I') have not yet read the whole report, so maybe there is deeper thought in there somewhere about these issues.

[Poordogabone]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')ll those people in the developing world, if they’re to live healthier, less environmentally damaging lives the very last thing they need is hand-outs from richer economies.

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Poordogabone', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')ll those people in the developing world, if they’re to live healthier, less environmentally damaging lives the very last thing they need is hand-outs from richer economies.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Poordogabone', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')ll those people in the developing world, if they’re to live healthier, less environmentally damaging lives the very last thing they need is hand-outs from richer economies.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'U')S should return stolen land to Indian tribes, says United Nations

A United Nations investigator probing discrimination against Native Americans has called on the US government to return some of the land stolen from Indian tribes as a step toward combatting continuing and systemic racial discrimination.

James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, said no member of the US Congress would meet him as he investigated the part played by the government in the considerable difficulties faced by Indian tribes.

Anaya said that in nearly two weeks of visiting Indian reservations, indigenous communities in Alaska and Hawaii, and Native Americans now living in cities, he encountered people who suffered a history of dispossession of their lands and resources, the breakdown of their societies and "numerous instances of outright brutality, all grounded on racial discrimination".

...

Last month, the US justice and interior departments announced a $1 billion settlement over nearly 56 million acres of Indian land held in trust by Washington but exploited by commercial interests for timber, farming, mining and other uses with little benefit to the tribes.

The attorney general, Eric Holder, said the settlement "fairly and honourably resolves historical grievances over the accounting and management of tribal trust funds, trust lands and other non-monetary trust resources that, for far too long, have been a source of conflict between Indian tribes and the United States."

But Anaya said that was only a step in the right direction.

"These are important steps but we're talking about mismanagement by the government of assets that were left to indigenous peoples," he said. "This money for the insults on top of the injury. It's not money for the initial problem itself, which is the taking of vast territories. This is very important and I think the administration should be commended for moving forward to settle these claims but there are these deeper issues that need to be addressed."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/04/us-stolen-land-indian-tribes-un

[KingM]

I'm sure the US will soon do just that, as will Canada and Australia. In other news, Russia will be moving out of eastern Poland, with Poland moving out of eastern Prussia to show their gratitude, Israel will be returning Palestine, China is giving up Tibet, and the Turks will shortly be moving back to central Asia so that the Greeks can reclaim their Byzantine possessions.

[TreeFarmer]

Who has to give up land and who gets the land? What about people like me who can trace their ancestors back to the early 1700's? I can point to at least one and maybe two American Indian ancestors so do I take land from myself and give it back to myself? Almost everyone who can trace their family history back to the 1700's here in the US had an indian ancestor.

This was nothing but busy-body UN claptrap. We should build the UN new offices free of charge, they would be on a giant submarine with screen doors so we could gather a bunch of those useless fuckers together in one place and drown them. Then repeat...

TF

[dissident]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KingM', 'I')'m sure the US will soon do just that, as will Canada and Australia. In other news, Russia will be moving out of eastern Poland, with Poland moving out of eastern Prussia to show their gratitude, Israel will be returning Palestine, China is giving up Tibet, and the Turks will shortly be moving back to central Asia so that the Greeks can reclaim their Byzantine possessions.

[Keith_McClary]

[dissident]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Keith_McClary', '[')img]http://northernblue.ca/common/FirstNationsTreaties.jpg[/img]

[AgentR11]

I think it would be really cool to transfer most, if not all BLM land to the various Native American tribal groups and let them decide what to do with them; give'em a ten year exemption on taxes, and pretty much unconditional wavers for whatever they want to build.

[DomusAlbion]

My farm is on an Indian Reservation and the tribe (Nez Perce) are doing quite well thank you, Mr UN reporteur. They have the best school in the entire county. They've got the casino and a thriving tax-free smokes business. I've got several native neighbors; they're Catholic mostly, well behaved and friendly. They have their own Sheriff department that handles all Indian law enforcement. I don't think they need any extra-national help from some dang fureigners.

[kpeavey]

The UN needs to give its land back the the people of NY.

[dohboi]

US out of America!

[Plantagenet]

We also stole Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California from Mexico.


Does the UN think we should give those states back as well?

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dissident', 'M')eanwhile these self-anointed global do-gooders are telling aboriginals within their own borders to lump it. Simple, bloody hypocrisy.

[dinopello]

Yeah, nothing going to be given back to nobody. I think the best we can do is do a better job teaching what actually happened to the various peoples that were here when the white man came. I grew up near Jamestown, VA and we did several field trips where we viewed restored native dwellings with either actors or figurines making dinner in the thatched huts - basically a museum. But what we were taught, left us with the impression that the natives just kind of left voluntarily after welcoming the visitors with bountiful gifts of corn and turkey. Everyone was happy happy.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', 'B')ut what we were taught, left us with the impression that the natives just kind of left voluntarily after welcoming the visitors with bountiful gifts of corn and turkey. Everyone was happy happy.

[Loki]

Nowhere in the article is it suggested that we give back all of the United States to the Indians. This is just knee jerk nonsense.

What this UN bureaucrat suggested is that the US government actually adhere to the promises it made in the hundreds of treaties with Indian nations (I know, radical stuff, huh?), specifically by restoring their original reservations, which make up a tiny fraction of US territory. Indirect reference was made to the Dawes Act, which severely fragmented many Indian reservations and led to a multi-billion dollar clusterfuck of epic mismanagement by the federal government.

And this land theft isn't exactly all ancient history. Here in Oregon several tribes were “terminated” in the 1950s and their reservations sold off to the highest bidders. Most of these tribes have been re-recognized (mostly in the 1980s and 90s) but they have little if any of their original reservations left. Google the Klamath Tribe.