corimagua

George Catlin was an American painter, author and traveler born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. After a brief career as a lawyer he set out to record the appearance and customs of America’s native people. He produced two major collections of paintings of American Indians and published a series of books chronicling his travels among the native peoples of North, Central and South America. The following is an excerpt from his book, Last Rambles.

George Catlin’s Creed

• I love a people that have always made me welcome to the very best that they had.
• I love a people who are honest without laws, who have no jails and no poorhouses.
• I love a people who keep the commandments without ever having read or heard them preached from the pulpit.
• I love a people who never swear or take the name of God in vain.
• I love a people “who love their neighbors as they love themselves”
• I love a people who worship God without a Bible, for I believe that God loves them also.
• I love a people whose religion is all the same, and who are free from religious animosities.
• I love a people who have never raised a hand against me, or stolen my property, when there was no law to punish either.
• I love and don’t fear mankind where God has made and left them, for they are his children.
• I love a people who have never fought a battle with the white man, except on their own ground.
• I love a people who live and keep what is their own without lock and keys.
• I love a people who do the best they can.
• And oh how I love a people who don’t live for the love of money.

The following post is a commentary written by Robert Bowman, a catholic Bishop and ex-Fighter Pilot and U.S Air Force Lieutenant colonel and a former director of the advanced Space Program Development. He explains, with much more clarity and foresight, some of the ideas I presented in my previous post. Please take the time to read it. 

The “Security” Charade

If deceptions about terrorism go unchallenged, then the threat will continue until it destroys us. The truth is that none of our thousands of nuclear weapons can protect us from these threats. No Star Wars system no matter how technically advanced, no matter how many trillions of dollars are poured into it, can protect us from a nuclear weapon delivered in a sailboat or a Cessna or a suitcase or a Ryder rental truck. Not one weapon in our vast arsenal, not a penny of the $270 billion a year we spend on so-called defense can defend against a terrorist bomb. That is a military fact.

As a retired lieutenant colonel and a frequent lecturer on national security issues, I have often quoted Psalm 33: “A king is not saved by his mighty army. A warrior is not saved by his great strength.” The obvious reaction is, “Then what can we do?” Is there nothing we can do to provide security for our people?”There is. But to understand it requires that we know the truth about the threat. President Clinton did not tell the American people the truth about why we are the targets of terrorism when he explained why we bombed Afghanistan and Sudan. He said that we are a target because we stand for democracy, freedom, and human rights in the world. Nonsense!

We are the target of terrorists because, in much of the world, our government stands for dictatorship, bondage, and human exploitation. We are the target of terrorists because we are hated. And we are hated because our government has done hateful things.

In how many countries have agents of our government deposed popularly elected leaders and replaced them with puppet military dictators who were willing to sell out their own people to American multinational corporations?

We did it in Iran when the US Marines and the CIA deposed Mossadegh because he wanted to nationalize the oil industry. We replaced him with the Shah and armed, trained, and paid his hated Savak National Guard, which enslaved and brutalized the people of Iran, all to protect the financial interests of our oil companies. Is it any wonder that there are people in Iran who hate us?

What about Japan? We did it in Chile. We did it in Vietnam. More recently, we tried to do it in Iraq.

And, of course, how many times have we done it in Nicaragua and all the other banana republics of Latin America? Time after time we have ousted popular leaders who wanted the riches of the land to be shared by the people who worked it. We replaced them with murderous tyrants who would sell out their own people so the wealth of the land could be taken out by the likes of Domino Sugar, Folgers, and Chiquita Banana.

In country after country, our government has thwarted democracy, stifled freedom, and trampled human rights. That’s why it is hated around the world. And that’s why we’re the target of terrorists.

People in Canada enjoy democracy, freedom, and human rights. So do the people of Norway and Sweden. Have you heard of Canadian embassies being bombed? Or Norwegian, or Swedish?

We are not hated because we practice democracy, value freedom, or uphold human rights. We are hated because our government denies these things to people in Third World countries whose resources are coveted by our multinational corporations. That hatred we have sown has come back to haunt us in the form of terrorism.

Once the truth about why the threat exists is understood, the solution becomes obvious. We must change our ways. Getting rid of our nuclear weapons unilaterally if necessary will enhance our security. Drastically altering our foreign policy will ensure it.

Instead of sending our sons and daughters around the world to kill Arabs so we can have the oil under their sand, we should send them to rebuild their infrastructure, supply clean water, and feed starving children. Instead of continuing to kill hundreds of Iraqi children every day with our sanctions, we should help Iraqis rebuild their electric power plants, their water treatment facilities, their hospitals, and all the things we have destroyed and prevented them from rebuilding.

Instead of training terrorists and death squads, we should close the School of the Americas [Ft. Benning, GA.]. Instead of supporting insurrection, destabilization, assassination, and terror around the world, we should abolish the CIA and give money to relief agencies.

In short, we should do good instead of evil. Who would try to stop us? Who would hate us? Who would want to bomb us? That is the truth the American people need to hear. We need to “respond” NOT “react”.

God Bless
Bishop Bowman

Originally printed in The National Catholic Reporter, Oct. 2, 1998.]

A very old and wise Native American Cherooke story that highlights the dual aspect of life and its oppositional forces, good and evil, yin and yang. The battle wages in the external world and inside every single one of us. We decide which side we listen too. I hope you feed the right wolf and like always, keep growing in the light direction. 

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La siguiente es una una fábula vieja y sabia de los Indios Cherokee del sudeste de Norte America que usaban cuentos para transmitir importantes lecciones y filosofias de vida. Este habla de la las fuerzas de oposición dentro de cada momento y de la estructura dualistica de la vida. El yin y yang, la noche y el dia, la tristeza y la alegria, el odio y el amor, la vida y la muerte. La lucha eterna del bien contra el mal se pelea no solo en el mundo exterior sino también dentro de cada uno de nosotros. Somos creadores de nuestra realidad y como tal decidimos a que lado le hacemos caso, al bien o al mal.  Somos nosotros quienes decidimos con que lado dirigimos nuestros acciones y vivimos nuestras vidas. No dejes de crecer en la dirección de la luz.

Un abuelo hablando con su ñieta le dice, 

“Hay una pelea dentro de mi. Es una pelea terrible entre dos lobos.”

“Uno es malo: Es el ira, la envidia, el dolor, el lamento, la codicia, la culpa, el resentimiento, la ignorancia, la inferioridad, las mentiras, el falso orgullo, las ideas de superioridad….. el ego.”

“El otro es bueno: Es la alegria, la paz, el amor, la esperanza, la serenidad, la humildad, la gentileza, la amabilidad, la benevolencia, la empatia, la generosidad, la verdad, la compasión….. la Fe.”

“La misma pelea se esta luchando dentro de ti y dentro de cada persona”

La ñieta le pregunta, “Cual lobo va a ganar?”

“El que le das de comer”, le responde el abuelo.

I have been busy for the past two weeks and I had to put the blog on a back burner and haven’t posted anything. I have more free time again so I’m back on it, stronger than ever. Expect a lot of material coming out of Corimagua in the near future. Thanks readers !

Little by little, one travels far. It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.

J.R.R. Tolkien 

Lord of the Rings creator

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Poco a poco uno viaja lejos. Lo que cuenta no es la fuerza del cuerpo, sino la fuerza del espíritu. 

J.R.R. Tolkien

Creador de El Senor de los Anillos 

We call it “ubuntu, botho.” It means the essence of being human. You know when it is there and when it is absent. It speaks about humanness, gentleness, hospitality, putting yourself out on the behalf of others, being vulnerable. It recognizes that my humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.

Archbishop  Desmond Tutu

South  Africa

I do not know if you are receiving my letters, but I will keep writing to you as you are always in my mind… We have made an altar to father. We try to keep up our traditions so that we can look forward to the day we can return to our country, although we do not know when that will be. Here we are materially well off, but spiritually deprived. We miss our country. Most of all we miss you. Should Buddha exist, we should keep praying to be reunited. Dear Mother, keep up your mind. Pray to Buddha silently. We will have a future, and i hope it will be soon. 

– Tran Thi Nga

Living in Connecticut, writing to her mother in Vietnam