Yemen. It’s in the news, briefly. But not enough, not nearly enough.
Ruling regimes in the US, UK and Saudi Arabia continue to rain down mass murder on this tiny country far, far away, on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. This is their favourite kind of war, one of many directed from above, with impunity, by one US president after another, along with their collaborators and apologists.
As usual the big media reliably pour out a relentless blur of effluent as to the perpetrators’ motives, goals, and actions. But really it’s not so complicated. As in so many vicious wars far, far away, this one is about oil and control. All the horror is merely collateral damage, invisible to the willfully closed eye.
However, up-to-date insight can be gleaned from a few sources, including yesterday’s post by the remarkably well-informed blogger Moon of Alabama, here.
DNB, the largest bank in Norway, has just sold its assets in the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Reports are unclear on the extent and nature of these assets (or maybe I just don’t know how to translate financialese). However, by all accounts the assets dumped by the bank are substantial.
Further, DNB is now considering the withdrawal of its loans to the project as well, which would leave a major gap in the project’s financing.
A first crack in the banking wall, DNB’s move is a direct result of steadfast resistance to the invading pipeline by the besieged Standing Rock Sioux and their allies, and escalating public pressure on the banks to divest from it.
The stakes are incalculable: on one side, billions of dollars in profits, on the other side, survival.
Contact information for the CEOs of DAPL and other Bakken pipeline-complicit banks is here. If you bank with one of them, how about letting them know you might not?
As early winter chills the Dakota plains, a brutal war continues to escalate against Indigenous people defending land, water and life from the invading Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). The pipeline is meant to carry 500,000 barrels of toxic crude oil per day from North Dakota to Illinois. From years of bitter experience, catastrophic spills should be expected.
The project has faced determined resistance for months from the Standing Rock Sioux and members of nearly 100 indigenous peoples from across the U.S. and Canada. They carry on a centuries’ long struggle against colonial invasion and violence throughout the Americas.
By now 100s of defenders have been arrested, clubbed, pepper-sprayed, and maced. Updates here, and here.
Solidarity protests are being held and planned across the US and in Canada. For those of us who care but are unable to participate, action is still possible:
Behind the uniformed bullies with their military and chemical weapons, attack dogs, sound-cannons, assault vehicles and helicopters, lurk corporate oil/gas plunderers (in this case aka “Energy Transfer Partners”), and behind them hired governments, and behind them all, the international banking mafia safe in their glittering towers.
As well as raking in massive subsidies from governments, the pipeline builders also need major financing from banks. According to researchers at the US nonprofit Food & Water Watch, the $3.8 billion DAPL is financed by 17 banks in the US, Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Holland, Switzerland and Norway. All of them have the power to determine who gets financing and for what.
Contact information for the CEOs of DAPL-complicit banks is here.
Among them are three Canadian banks. One of them, TD (indicated by *), is directly complicit in the Dakota pipeline, and all three of them provide financial backing to the vast Bakken pipeline network, of which DAPL is one piece.
CEO contact information:
* TD Securities. Chairman, CEO, and President Bob Dorrance.
Corporate Office: P.O. Box 1, TD Bank Tower, 66 Wellington Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5K 1A2.
U.S. Office: 31 West 52nd Street, New York, NY 10019-6101. 212-827-7000.
Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank). CEO and President Brian J. Porter.
Corporate Office: Scotia Plaza, 44 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5H 1H1.
416-866-6161. email@scotiabank.com
U.S. Office: 250 Vesey Street, 23rd and 24th floors, New York, NY 10281. 212-225-5000
Scotia Howard Weil (“Energy Investment Boutique”): Energy Centre, 1100 Poydras Street, Suite 3500, New Orleans, LA 70163. 504-582-2500 and 800-322-3005. howardweil@howardweil.com
Royal Bank of Canada/RBC. CEO David I. McKay.
CEO and Board Communications: Paul French. paul.french@rbc.com. 416-974-3718.
Why? It’s not enough for Big Brother to watch and listen to everything we do, say, write, or think. He also wants to know what we exfoliate.
All in a day’s work for the Central Intelligence Agency, which never rests in its mission of protecting The Free World from democracy. As the heading on their website proclaims: The Work of a Nation. The Center of Intelligence.
In darkening times, bright sparks of inspired resistance. In this case, to dangerous pipelines that threaten earth, water, air, and life.
In northwestern Canada, people of the Lax Kw’alaams First Nation are resisting not only a proposed liquid natural gas (LNG) pipeline and coastal shipping terminal, plus a voracious transnational corporation and two enabling governments, but also the toxic ideology that drives these entities. At its stone cold heart it has only one premise: there is no person or thing on earth, in the sea or sky that can’t be bought and sold.
Henry Lickers also takes a longer view. He’s a Seneca First Nation biologist at Kawehno:ke, Akwesasne Mohawk Territory, not far from another pipeline that people are fighting in eastern Canada. In writing Bold Scientists, I explored with him the deep gap that separates his point-of-view, in line with the Lax Kw’alaams’, from the powerfully seductive one that drives the surrounding society. He replied, in part:
“Our society is responsibility-based, so that means I’m responsible for taking care of the environment. The outside society is rights-based – this is my land, so I have a right to do what I want with it… So we’re always in this fight with Canada or the US – over here we’re talking about our responsibility to protect the environment, and over there you’re saying it’s your right to do what you want. That’s not a good way to function, especially in relation to the environment. You should be aiming really high to protect your environment. Oh no, you say, that would cost too much, it can’t be done at present, et cetera. Is it any wonder the world is going the way it is?”
For more on Henry Lickers’ life and work, see Bold Scientists, chapter 1, When the river roared. Excerpt here.
Two more responsibility-based initiatives oppose yet another dangerous pipeline, Line 9. It’s a 40-year-old pipeline that’s due to transport high volumes of corrosive tar sands bitumen and volatile fracked shale oil from Sarnia, Ontario to refineries in Québec. Along the way, the pipeline crosses many First Nation territories, municipalities, and waterways that provide drinking water to millions of people in the most densely populated region of Canada.
The Chippewas of the Thames First Nation have launched a landmark challenge to Line 9 at the Supreme Court of Canada. It’s an initiative that could have enormous impact. It’s also a costly proposition to take on wealthy corporations and governments. Support is needed, and welcome here.
Image: Clearista.com
Lax Kw’alaams: Just say no. Photo: The Guardian.
Michael Riordon 