{"id":96041,"date":"2021-03-27T16:08:01","date_gmt":"2021-03-27T16:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=179594"},"modified":"2021-03-27T16:08:01","modified_gmt":"2021-03-27T16:08:01","slug":"the-windigo-disease-of-resource-capitalism-and-global-dispossession-of-indigenous-peoples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/03\/27\/the-windigo-disease-of-resource-capitalism-and-global-dispossession-of-indigenous-peoples\/","title":{"rendered":"The Windigo Disease of Resource Capitalism and Global Dispossession of Indigenous Peoples"},"content":{"rendered":"
This is a version of a speech given outside the headquarters of ReconAfrica in Vancouver BC on Water Day \u2014 March 22, 2021.<\/em> <\/p>\n We are on stolen CS\u1e35wx\u0331w\u00fa7mesh (Squamish), St\u00f3:l\u014d and S\u0259l\u0313i\u0301lw\u0259ta\u0294\/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and x\u02b7m\u0259\u03b8k\u02b7\u0259y\u0313\u0259m (Musqueam) land and what is happening here today, the assault of Indigenous peoples and the invasion of their territories by Canada, its corporations and economic elites is also happening to the San people in Southern Africa. In a recent petition<\/a> by activists we have learned that: \u201cReconAfrica has been given permission to drill for fossil fuels in the Kavango basin between Namibia and Botswana and the Kalahari Desert extending to the south eastern banks of the Okavango River and Delta. This area includes numerous areas of international significance, but for the San indigenous people who live there this is their sacred and ancestral \u2018homeland\u2019. The San people are the rightful current inhabitants and have been the custodians of this land for thousands of years. They have never been consulted, nor have they given their consent to any entities to prospect for oil and gas in their lands. By pursuing oil and gas development in the are the governments of Botswana and Namibia, and the Southern African region contravene their commitments to various international declarations an agreements as well as their own national laws. The oil and gas drilling operations will ruin roads, damage Indigenous livelihoods, deplete water resources and negatively impact biodiversity within the precious region. The Kavango Basin, which includes the Okavango Delta, lies beneath one of Africa\u2019s most biodiverse habitats. It is home to a myriad of bird and megafauna species\u2014including the largest herd of African elephants and African wild do populations\u2014as well as many other threatened and endangered species. Potential impacts to local people and ecosystems include: massive water resource depletion, human induced earthquakes, disruption of avian species communication, breeding and nesting.\u201d<\/p>\n Sounds familiar? This is because it is.<\/p>\n