Transcript By Rachel Wilsey Click on the bullet to view a chapter Chapter One: Latin America Chapter Two: Sub-Saharan Africa Chapter Three: Middle East Chapter Four:

By Rachel Wilsey
Click on the bullet to view a chapter
Chapter One: Latin America
Chapter Two: Sub-Saharan Africa
Chapter Three: Middle East
Chapter Four: Europe
Chapter Five: Asia
Chapter Six: Australia/New Zealand
CHAPTER ONE
Destination: Natal, Brazil
The Amazon
Rainforest, home
to many natural
wonders...
Is quickly
disappearing.
When the forest is
cut, the area
surrounding the
cut loses moisture.
This area of the
the forest dies
quickly.
Click mouse to move on
Most of the
deforestation is
done through slash
and burn
techniques.
Sometimes the
smoke from these
fires is so thick
that schools have
to be closed and
flights have to be
delayed or
canceled.
Click mouse to move on
Tribal life is disappearing. The peoples
and cultures of the amazon are being
wiped out or assimilated.
It is not uncommon for ranchers to
terrorize, kill and force the removal of
Indians. Once they have done so, they
bulldoze the land to erase the evidence
of the Indian's presence.
This pattern of genocide has yet to be
investigated by the police, although the
government grants “equal protection”
to indigenous peoples under the
constitution.
Click mouse to move on
Women, the last hope for the
Ecuadorian Amazon?
The Atlantic Richfield Oil Co. has begun
construction of a pipeline through the Panshpanshu
Biological reserve in Ecuador. If this project is allowed to
continue, it will destroy the ecosystem and end the natural
way of life for the Shuar and Quichua peoples. They will
be forced to either live on the petroleum contaminated,
clear cut “dead zones” or migrate to the city.
While the men of these indigenous communities
fall into the trap of corporate deceit, the women demand
that their voices be heard. They organized the First
Congress of Women of the Amazon in 1996. They continue
to provide bi-cultural and bi-lingual education for their
children. These remarkable women have even created a
Natural Indigenous University where foreign students are
able to experience natural living and health restoration
traditions.
Click mouse to move on
One half the species on earth live in the
rainforest, and they too are loosing their
homes.
If nothing is done
to prevent it, By
the year 2035, all
the tropical
rainforests in the
world will be
gone.
Click mouse to move on
To see more,
click on an icon.
Letter home
Action alert
Currency and
other souvenirs
•Bibliography
Radar map of the
amazon
«—» Distance
Master Travelouge
•Back to table of contents
Dear Mother Earth,
I am currently in Brazil visiting your amazing Amazon rainforest. It is so
shocking to learn what is going on here. So much of the forest is gone, it has been cut down
for its natural resources; for the tropical hardwood, oil, gas, uranium, gold, iron, diamonds and
for farming. It’s amazing to think Brazil has more remaining rainforest then any other
country, when I see so much being destroyed. They tell me that if the current rate of
deforestation continues, there will be no tropical rainforests left in the world in a mere 35
years. What will we do when the “lungs of the earth” are gone? You give us natural wonders
to sustain our life, and we destroy them.
It angers me that people slash and burn to clear the land for agriculture. Farming in the
Amazon is not even efficient. Once the land has been cleared, it can sustain intense
farming for two to three years. After that, soil erosion renders the fields unusable.
Think of all the different species of plants and animals that will become extinct. And what
about all the indigenous people, they are having their way of life ripped out from under them.
They are faced with an ultimatum, abandon their homes and way fo life to move to the city
or die. It saddens me to see us throw away such a wealth of life and culture. Today’s society
allows affluent, “civilized” people to determine the fate of the indigenous peoples. No human
being on this earth has the right to hold the welfare and life of another human in their hands.
Being here has made me more aware of the problem. But it has also made me more aware of
the solution. This is not a problem of the distant future, something for my children’s, children
to deal with. Now is the time for action to prevent any further destruction. There are many
things that an individual can do, such as write letters and petition the government. To see
some current issues and find out what you can do to help,see the action alert page.
Love your daughter,
Rachel Wilsey
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This space radar image of a tropical rainforest in western
Brazil shows the rapidly changing and use. The pink
areas are pristine tropical rainforest. The blue and green
areas have been cleared for agriculture.
Back to link page
Distance between Denver, Colorado, United States and Natal,
Brazil, as the crow flies:
5361 miles (8628 km) (4659 nautical miles)
Initial heading from Denver to Natal:
east-southeast (107.6 degrees)
Initial heading from Natal to Denver:
northwest (312.5 degrees)
Back to link page
Area Visiting City Chosen Miles
traveled
long/lat
Cum.
Latin
America
Sub-Saharan
Africa
Middle
East
Europe
Asia
Australia/
New Zealand
North
America
Days
Traveled
Cum.
Present
Bank
Balance
Cost of
Travel
(Subtract)
Natal
5361
1
0
0
Salary
Earned
(Add)
Bonus
Drawn
(Add)
New
Balance
Area Visiting City Chosen Miles
traveled
long/lat
Cum.
Latin
America
Natal,
Brazil
Sub-Saharan Khartoum,
Africa
Middle
East
Europe
Asia
Australia/
New Zealand
North
America
Sudan
5361
10316
Days
Traveled
Cum.
1
Present
Bank
Balance
0
Cost of
Travel
(Subtract)
0
Salary
Earned
(Add)
Bonus
Drawn
(Add)
$15
New
Balance
Area Visiting City Chosen Miles
traveled
long/lat
Cum.
Latin
America
Natal,
Brazil
Sub-Saharan Khartoum,
Africa
Middle
East
Europe
Asia
Australia/
New Zealand
North
America
5361
10316
Sudan
Baghdad,
Iraq
1799
Days
Traveled
Cum.
1
Present
Bank
Balance
0
Cost of
Travel
(Subtract)
0
Salary
Earned
(Add)
Bonus
Drawn
(Add)
$15
New
Balance
Picture of Capoeira,
a traditional form
of dance/martial art
10,000 Cruzeiros
Portuguese: Bom dia (good morning)
Spanish: Hola
Silver butterfly
earrings from
the Galeria
Soho
Sergio Mendes
and Brasil ‘66
album. Mendes
is a renowned
Brazilian
keyboardist
ABC World Book, http://www.theodora.com
Amazon, the green inferno, http://www.barralink.com.br/hbell/amazon.html
http://www.barralink.com.br/hball/amazon2.html
Anthony’s currency, coins and collectables, http://www.currencyandcoins.com
Brazil, http://www.barralink.com.br/hbell/brazil.html
http://www.barralink.com.br.hbell/brazil2.html
Brazil Online http://www.brazilonline.com/lita/phmen.html
Brazil Rainforest, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/radar/sircxsar/radon.html
Carnival One, http://members.aol.com/musicco/CARNIVAL/HTM
Icon Bazaar, http://www.iconbazzar.com
Lonely Planet, http://www.lonelyplanet.com.au/dest.sam/graphics/map-bra.htm
Native Web, http://abyayala.nativeweb.org/cultures/equador/amazon/women.html
http://abayala/nativeweb.org/cultures/brazil/xavante.html
Tropical American Tree Farms, http://tropicaltrees.co.cr/htm/main/tropical_rainforests.htm
Back to link page
CHAPTER TWO
Destination: Khartoum, Sudan
Sudan,
A country in famine.
“Look at us, you can
see with your own
eyes we are hungry.
As you can see we
are now eating leaves.
The leaves are not
sweet, it is just food
in your stomach so
that you can hold on.
You feel as if you are
eating.”
Independence for the south
National religion and government
Natural resources
The Sudanese government is fighting the Sudan People’s Liberation
Army, the SPLA is fighting the government as well as itself...
They are both attacking the civilians.
The South was originally added onto the northern part of Sudan by the British.
Culturally it is completely different. The south is black African, mainly Christian and
animist while the north is Arab and Muslim. There are about eight million
southerners - near half a million have died in the fighting and the famine that has
resulted from the civil war.
The main southern rebel group is the Sudan People's Liberation Army led by John
Garang. But the politics of the area are extremely complicated and there are other
small rebel groups. Some of the rebels say they would settle for autonomy within the
existing borders of Sudan. As the fighting rages on, more have been leaning toward
their own separate state. It is highly unlikely that the Khartoum government will ever
agree to this.
Military strategy has been to
gain advantage by killing
non combatants, looting and
destroying their means of
livelihood, and driving them
off their land.
This has lead to ethnic
cleansing and mass famine.
Nubans are a people that the Sudanese government has seen as a
threat to its Islamic fundamentalist ideology because of its culture and
traditions. Nubans (not to be confused with Nubians who live in
northern Sudan and southern Egypt) often wear no clothes, freely mix
between men and women and find organized religion to be not very
significant.
The Nuba Mountain region is being “cleansed” by ethnic Arab militias
armed by the Sudanese government. There have been wholesale
population movements and massacres by the Baggara tribe of Arab
herdsmen.
The civil war along with two
years of crop failure due to
drought, has created a
massive famine in Sudan. Six
months ago the World Food
Program estimated that
350,000 people were at risk
of starving, now the figure is
up to 2.6 million. Unicef
estimates that in the south
over 50% of children are
malnourished. Most
Sudanese children weigh less
then one half of what they
should for their height.
"There's only one other time--in Somalia-that I've seen grown men, barely skeletons,
in this kind of shape."
The military strategy of
attacking non-combatants has
made the situation even worse,
and this isn’t the first time
either. The military has caused
3 such famines in the last
decade More then 3 million
people have been internally
displaced. These internal
refugees flee to areas where
food is already scarce, adding
pressure to already dwindling
Bob LaParde, veteran aid worker with CARE.
resources.
Theft of life. A man steals a bag of maize from a malnourished, starving child outside a
United Nations feeding center in Ajiep, southern Sudan. He is well dressed and rich by
Sudanese standards. Government and rebel troops also steal humanitarian aid–but in a
more systematic way.
The picture perfectly captures the fact that any modern famine is
manmade, with the haves literally stealing from the have-nots.
--Joe Otterbein
«—»
Letter home
• Bibliography
Master travelogue
• Back to table of contents
Distance
Dear Mom,
I am currently visiting Sudan. It is absolutely amazing!! The country side in Sudan is full of
fertile soil, yet it idles bearing no crops for its starving people. The rich are well fed, while the
poor are living skeletons. The haves steal from the have-nots. The famine in Sudan is
completely man made. The government and the SPLA have declared war against each other,
but in all actuality, they are fighting the civilians. This is what angers me the most, it is not as
if the Sudanese people are starving because there has been a drought or because the land can’t
sustain agriculture. They are starving because the government chooses for them to starve.
You would be horrified to hear of what I saw during my stay in Khartoum. The city is
surrounded by camps of starving, displaced civilians. In order to get rid of them, the
government dropped bombs on the camps, on their own people. Camps like these can be
found throughout the country. They are routinely destroyed by the government or attacked by
the SPLA.
The Inter Government Authority on Development has been meeting to try and solve the
conflict. Their efforts have been fruitless. The last meeting to take steps towards a
referendum for self determination in the south was halted because the parties couldn’t even
agree on what constitutes the south.
International food aid continues to be sent to Sudan. A large portion is skimmed off the top by
the government while some reaches the starving people. Unfortunately some of the food is
stolen by the rich, from the hands of the poor before they can get it home. Clearly, sending
more food aid will not solve the problem in Sudan. In order to stop the wave of famine, the
human rights issues that lie at the root of the famine must be addressed. Only when the
Sudanese civil war is ended, will the people be able to sustain themselves.
Love,
Rachel
Distance between Natal, Brazil and Freetown, Sierra Leone,
as the crow flies:
1822 miles (2933 km) (1583 nautical miles)
Distance between Freetown, Sierra Leone and Khartoum,
Sudan, as the crow flies:
3133 miles (5042 km) (2723 nautical miles)
Amnesty International, http://www.amnesty.org
Community Aid Abroad, http://www.caa.org.au/world/africa/sudan/dodd.html
Icon Bazaar, http://www.iconbazzar.com
Medics Sans Frontiers, http://www.msf.org/ssudan/page1.html
Mega Stories, http://www.megastories.com/sudan/index.html
Rusted Root, Cruel Sun
Theodora, http://www.theodora.com/maps/sudan/map.html
US News and World Report, http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issues/980914/14sudan.htm
World Vision,
http://www.worldvision.ca.wvcweb/spcl_rpt.nsf?OpenDatabase&Start=1&Count=30&Expand=0
Destination: Baghdad, Iraq
“War was the only means by which the Bush
administration could achieve its secret goals in the
Middle East and establish unchangeable control over
the vast oil resources of the region. The destruction
of Iraq -- not just its mere military power, but its
political, social, and economic coherence -- was the
clear and constant objective of President Bush’s acts.
The United stated had started toward that goal long
before the first day of the Bush presidency in
January 1989. This was a war of aggression to
secure American domination of the Persian Gulf and
, through its oil, the world beyond.” -- Ramsey
Clark, former Attorney General
“ Our leaders
committed war crimes
in the Persian Gulf
War no less surely
than Nazis committed
war crimes in World
War II”.
-- Kurt Vonnegut
In 1958, Abdel Karim Kassem came to power in Iraq. His
government formed the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) in order to resist the power of
western oil monopolies. The United States would not
tolerate this. The CIA formed a “health alterations
committee” to plan an invasion of northern Iraq to seize the
oil fields and assassinate Kassem. Kassem and thousand of
his supporters were massacred in a CIA backed coup.
A CIA member joked “The target
suffered a terminal illness before
a firing squad in Baghdad.”
In 1972 The Baathist Party nationalized a US/British owned
petroleum company using the slogan “Arab oil for Arabs”. In
answer to this Washington encouraged the Kurdish people to
rebel against the Iraqi government. The US supplied them with
weapons via the Shah of Iran. In 1975 Iran and the US cut off all
support to the Kurds with no concern for their fate. Kissenger
stated that “Covert operations should not be confused with
missionary work”.
“Neither the foreign head of state [the Shah] nor the
President and Dr. Kissenger desired a victory for our
clients [the Kurds]. They merely hoped to insure the
insurgents would be capable of maintaining a level of
hostilities high enough to sap the resources of the
neighboring state [Iraq].”
-- The Pike Report
In 1973 the Pentagon
began an Annual
training exercise in
the Mojave Desert in
which Marines and
Army Rangers were
pitted against
soldiers in Iraqi and
Libyan uniforms.
After the fall of the Shah in 1979 the US decided to Back Iraq. In
1980 The US provided intelligence reports to Iraq and
encouraged them to Invade Iran. Hussein followed our Advice
and unleashed a bloody war with Iran in which hundreds of
thousands of people died. Washington expressed no moral
outrage at this attack on Iran!!
Kissenger said, “I hope
they kill each other, too
bad they both can’t
loose”.
After the War with Iran, Saddam wanted to peacefully rebuild
his country. The US Army War College predicted that Baghdad
would not “deliberately provoke military confrontations with
anyone”. But the US needed another conflict in the Middle
East to gain control over the regions oil. About this time,
Kuwait’s government took a hard-line, belligerent stance
toward Iraq when dealing with oil.
“If the Americans has not pushed, the
royal family would have never taken
the steps that it did to provoke
Saddam”
-- Kuwaiti Business owner and pro-democracy activist.
On July 17, 1990 Saddam Hussein
publicly accuses the United States and
Kuwait of conspiring to destroy Iraq’s
economy. He said: “If words fail to
protect Iraqis, something effective
must be done to return things to their
natural course and to return usurped
rights to their owners. … O God
Almighty, be witness that we have
warned them”. The next day Iraqi
troops gathered at the Kuwait border.
Thus, President Bush’s public statement that Iraq had
invaded Kuwait with neither warning nor provocation was
sheer deceit.
The United States, immediately began to demonize Saddam
Hussein in order to sell the war to the American public. The
government called Hussein a tyrant “worse than Hitler”, they
said that America’s vital interests were at stake, and if we did not
stop this evil man, more Americans would be out of work,
worsening the current recession.
When a poll showed that 54% of Americans would be in favor
of preventing Iraq from acquiring nuclear weapons, Bush
began exaggerating Iraq’s nuclear capability and military
prowess.
On January 17, 1991 the United States
began a 42-day bombing campaign against
Iraq, in which more then 88,500 tons of
explosives were dropped. The pentagon
asserted that the bombings were “surgical
strikes” and that everything was done to
avoid civilian casualties. This however was
not the case. The bombing of Iraq’s cities
had nothing to do with driving Iraq from
Kuwait. It was intended to cripple Iraq’s
economy.
What was actually
bombed? Homes,
electrical plants, civilian
factories, fuel storage
plants, churches, civilian
airports, hospitals,
vehicles, transportation
facilities, grain silos,
animal vaccination
centers, food storage and
testing laboratories,
schools, communication
towers, stores, and civilian
government office
buildings. All the targets
were hit 2 or 3 times to
ensure their destruction.
“A hellish nightmare of fires and
smoke so dense that witnesses
say the sun hasn't been clearly
visible for several days at at
time…[The bombing is] leveling
some entire city blocks… [and
there are] bomb craters the size
of football fields and an untold
number of casualties”
-- Los Angeles Times
“Three waves of bombings at
night. And I experienced bombing
in Cambodia, but this was noting
like that… After 20 minutes of this
carpet-bombing there would be a
silence and you would hear a
screaming of children and people,
and then the wounded would be
dragged out. I found myself with
everyone else trying to treat
injuries, but the state of people
generally was one of pure shock.”
-- Paul Roberts, Journalist
25,000 bombing deaths
25,000 indirect deaths
100,000 post war deaths (from 1991-1992)
150,000 civilian deaths (by 1992)
AND THE TOLL CONTINUES TO RISE
Long before the war began, US officials were well aware of its
environmental dangers. In August 1990 the White House and the
Pentagon signed an agreement to waive the National Environmental
Protection Act requirements for US military operations in the Gulf.
“ A war in the Gulf would not only result in devastating human
death and injury and tremendous economic loss and prolonged
political confrontation between Orient and Occident, it could
also lead to an environmental catastrophe that would be swift,
severe and devastating. The impact of a war on the 50 million
barrels of oil that Kuwait produces, set in flames, could
increase atmospheric carbon dioxide from there fires and the
result would cause a global warming and result in lower food
production”
-- Jordan’s King Hussein at the 2nd World Climate
Conference.
The fires that resulted from the war exceed 10% of the
2.5-billion-ton annual increase in atmospheric carbon,
undermining international plans to reduce carbon emissions by 20%
by the year 2005.
NUCLEAR AND CHEMICAL FALLOUT
During the Gulf war, the US attacked 18 chemical,
10 biological, and 3 nuclear plants. The result of
these attacks were immediately visible as Iraq was
quickly covered with Chemical fallout, killing
scores of civilians.
US ground forces fired between 5,000 and 6,000
rounds of depleted uranium armor-piercing shells
and aircraft launched 50,000 depleted uranium
rockets and missiles. Leaving behind tons of
radioactive rubble in Kuwait and Iraq.
On January 25, 1991 the pentagon reported an alarming oil slick
spreading in the gulf.
Was this an Iraqi “act of environmental terrorism”?
Not exactly.
On January 24, 1991 US aircraft hit two Iraqi oil tankers
in the Persian Gulf. US bombing purposely targeted
Iraq’s and Kuwait’s oil tankers and storage facilities on
the shores of the Gulf.
Oil covered otter
“ The oil spilled into the Gulf was at
least twenty times greater than the
Exxon Valdez spill. Although about
one-sixth of the oil was recovered, the
remainder has contaminated mangrove
and wetlands areas along 200 miles of
coast. The spill is estimated at 7.5
million barrels, the largest in history.”
--Friends of the Earth International
The movement of 800,00 troops
and thousands of tanks through
the Iraqi Desert, destroyed the
fragile ecosystem. The surface of
a desert is held together by micro
organisms, without them, seeds
from desert brush cannot take
root. Without vegetation the top
sand blows away, speeding
erosion and bringing sand storms.
The chain of ecological events
that occurred in the the desert as a
consequence of the gulf war will
take centuries to correct.
The war against Iraqi
civilians started with
sanctions long before the
1st bomb was dropped and
it continues even now,
seven years after the war
has ended.
“[Sanctions] provide
a peaceful, silent, and
DEADLY remedy.”
--Woodrow Wilson
The bombings tore down Iraq's social infrastructure, while
the continuing sanctions prevent them from rebuilding it.
The war has reduced Iraq to a pre-industrial state, with no
way to care for its people.
Every day, 250
people die in
Iraq due to US
sanction.s.
32% of children
under five are
malnourished.
That number has
increased 72%
since the war
began in 1991.
Letter home
Distance
Master Travelogue
Bibliography
Dear Mom,
As I visit Iraq I am appalled to lean what our country has done. Its amazing,
I can remember when I was 11, calling Saddam Hussein “So Damn Insane” and thinking
it was so funny. I actually bought a dart board with his face on it. At the time I thought
it was very cool, because he was an evil man who invaded a poor helpless country. Talk
about propaganda!! The United States was convicted of 14 counts of international war
crimes in the Gulf war, and the American public never heard a word of it. I wonder why
that is? We targeted innocent civilians and have be planning Iraq’s economic collapse
since the 1950’s. For what? So that we can control their oil and in turn control the world.
I guess what upsets me the most is that our government conducts itself in
such a secretive and hypocritical way. We do things like this all the time, then the
President gets on the news and praises our “peace keeping” policies or condemns
terrorists. We are much worse then they are. They resort to violence because we leave
them no other option.
It is absolutely maddening, in a way ignorance is bliss. I hate that our
government does stuff like this, kills innocent people, ruins a whole nation for its own
advancement, yet I wouldn't give up my seat in the boat. America’s Foreign Policy
Sucks, for lack of a better word. There has to be another way to operate in which we can
still live our lives comfortably without having to play the world policeman and
manipulate other countries like pawns for our own advantage.
Love,
Rachel
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Distance between Khartoum, Sudan and Cairo, Egypt, as the
crow flies:
997 miles (1604 km) (866 nautical miles)
Distance between Cairo, Egypt and Baghdad, Iraq, as the crow
flies:
802 miles (1291 km) (697 nautical miles)
TOTAL 1,799 miles
Aldoush and The Human Exchange, Love II (track 2)
Clark, Ramsey The Fire This Time: U.S. War Crimes In The
Gulf. 1992 Thundermouth Press.
Iraq Action Coalition http://leb.net/IAC/
Newsweek Photo Gallery
http://www.newsweek.con/nw-srv/gallery
Pogue, Alan. “The Salt on the Wound” Texas observer,
http://www.texasobserver.org.ipl.html
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