Indigenous innovations buttress today’s
‘knowledge society’

By Marty Logan

Montreal, Jan. 24 (IPS) — In Ron Wakegijig’s “office” is a cupboard whose many shelves are lined with rows of stacked, stout coffee cans, each containing a quantity of a healing plant.

Most of the plants Wakegijig has gathered himself, in the forests surrounding his home in Wikwemikong, a small native community on Manitoulin Island in the northwest corner of Lake Huron, one of North America’s five Great Lakes.

A former chief of “Wikkie,” as the community is known, Wakegijig figures these herbal remedies — he regularly uses about 50 but has three times that many in his inventory — which he offers to the people who come to him for help have been around for “thousands and thousands” of years.

“There were a lot of medicine people on the reserve at one time that I learned from. I was told to keep it as simple as possible, because life is supposed to be that way,” says Wakegijig, sitting at the edge of a fire that burns slowly in a circular stone pit in the center of the healing lodge that serves as his “consulting room.”

A survey of the community’s residents in the mid-1980s found that nearly 80 percent wanted to use natural medicines as part of their health care.

“The use of traditional medicine has grown quite substantially since that point in time because we have a lot of diabetes in the community,” he says, adding that about one-fifth of his patients are non-indigenous residents of Ontario Province in Central Canada.

According to a recent book, indigenous peoples’ remedies for all sorts of common health ailments are now used by physicians throughout the Americas —North, Central and South America and the Caribbean — and beyond.

But “although 200 of the plants that American Indians used as remedies became part of the ‘US Pharmacopoeia,’ an official list of all effective medicines, the originators of these remedies often remained unacknowledged,” says American Indian Contributions to the World.

“Today more than 120 drugs that are prescribed by physicians were first made from plant extracts, and 75 percent of these were derived from examining plants used in traditional indigenous medicine,” add authors Emory Dean Keoke and Kay Marie Porterfield.

That healing knowledge is only a tiny fraction of the inventions and innovations created by indigenous people of the Americas in the past 15,000 years, many of which remain unrecognized, both by dominant societies and by today’s indigenous communities, points out the book.

“Non-Indians need to know this because I think a lot of prejudice is from just not knowing, being taught falsehoods and accepting those falsehoods and stereotypes,” says Porterfield in an interview.

The authors were also animated by a desire to tell young aboriginal people about their ancestors’ accomplishments, when they set out on the book project in the 1990’s.

“I wanted them to feel good about who they are, and I wanted them to feel proud,” says Keoke, an Indian who called what he learned about American Indians in school “a sad experience.”

He pointed out that compulsory education is an indigenous concept — first practiced by the Aztecs.

Adds Porterfield: “a lot of American Indian students are not aware of their intellectual history. When their grandparents and great-grandparents had been told for hundreds of years, ‘you’re not that smart,’ students felt like they could not study subjects in science and mathematics.

“One purpose of doing the book was so that American Indian students could reclaim their intellectual history.”

That history includes a document that was a model for the US Constitution, which itself has been praised for hundreds of years as the ideal framework for democratic societies.

The Great Law of Peace was created by the Iroquois in what is now called northeastern United States more than 500 years ago, to stop fighting among neighboring tribes, write Keoke and Porterfield.

“Many scholars believe the Great Law was the longest international constitution until that time. Certainly in 15th-century Europe nothing existed to rival this American Indian constitution.”

A printer in the colony of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin, who became one of the “founding fathers” of the United States, became a fan of the Great Law and publicly called on the colonies that joined together to create the nation to adopt many of its provisions, says the book.

“(Another founding father) Thomas Jefferson also acknowledged that he preferred the American Indian concept of liberty over the European monarchy system,” it adds.

Porterfield says that doing research for the book, which was published by New York-based Facts on File in hardcover in 2002 and softcover last year, impressed on her the contrast between European and indigenous approaches to innovations.

“There’s a difference between sharing and exploiting, and I think that’s what European cultures came in and did — exploited. I see that as something that continues to happen, by, for example, medical researchers who scour the world’s forests for cures for cancer and other diseases.”

The authors are now adapting the encyclopedia-style volume for the classroom, where it will be used to teach elementary-school pupils. Keoke says he would also like to see a Spanish version published.

“There’s a much broader audience for it than I anticipated,” he adds.

Abortion’s continuing controversy

By Liz Allen

Jan. 26 (AGR) – Bombs, pictures of bloody fetuses, gunshots, and threats are all part of only the recent history of the abortion scene in Asheville. The 31st anniversary of Roe v. Wade happened at a time when the right to abortion is in danger, as well as the rights of those seeking abortions and those who perform, or help perform, abortions.

The date was heralded locally by Planned Parenthood, National Organization for Women (NOW) and the ACLU here in Asheville by holding a film and musical event at Lourdes’ Auditorium. Folk singer Peggy Seeger told the crowd, “I think it’s time for women to talk about their abortions, because it is a right to have one in this country and not something to be ashamed of.”

During the event a hat was passed and $400 was raised for an already existing fund that helps local women receive birth control or an abortion they may not otherwise be able to afford. Also, during this time pro-life advocates held a 24-hour vigil.

In 1973 on Jan. 22, the US Supreme Court handed down the decision in Roe v. Wade finding the constitutional right to privacy “broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.”

The decision overturned a Texas statute outlawing abortion unless a mother’s life was threatened, thereby automatically rendering similar laws in nearly every state unconstitutional. However, in it’s ruling, the court left open to the state to regulate abortion at the end of the first trimester in the interest of a mother’s health, in terms of where and who may perform abortions. Also, the ruling stated the state may regulate abortion in terms of “viability,” meaning if they believe the baby could survive outside of the womb.

The stability of abortion rights has depleted since the passage of Roe v. Wade. In November, President Bush signed the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, banning the abortion procedure. While signing the bill, Bush said it protects innocent new life and is a reflection of the “compassion and humanity of America.” He promised that the executive branch would “vigorously defend this law against any who would try and overturn it in the courts.” After signing the bill he ended the speech by stating, “god bless.”

State laws, including difficult licensing procedures and requirements for a woman under 18 to receive permission from a parent or guardian prior to receiving an abortion, have been upheld.

Barbara Byrne, of the Asheville chapter of NOW, said already young women who have to receive permission slips before getting an abortion, as is required in NC, are dying. “If we lose Roe v. Wade then there is going to be thousands of women having abortions illegally and dying horribly,” Byrne explained.

Planned Parenthood reported that in 1965, 17 percent of all deaths in pregnancy and childbirth were the results of illegal abortion and as of 2002 abortion is 11 times safer than childbirth.

Another concern is the Supreme Court, as three judges are on the verge of retirement, the next could be appointed by a Republican president and approved by a Republican - ruled senate.

Byrne called the majority of the anti-abortion actions a power grab. “A lot of men are the ones interested. Men were gloating when the partial birth abortion ban was signed. Pro-choice is not pro-abortion. A choice is a choice. I’m not telling these guys what to do with their bodies, but they feel like they can make these personal decisions for masses of women.”

A primary argument of anti-abortion propronants is that abortion is killing children, regardless of what age they are. To this Byrne responded: “Let’s have a little bit of quality of life discussion here. They’re yelling ‘baby killers’ but there is no discussion about quality of life. Just put yourself in someone’s position besides your own.”

She reported that the number one cause of death in pregnant women is domestic violence and repeated the ideas echoed by many pro-choice activists, saying to look at the position that brought a person to want an abortion, lack of money, fear of violence, rape, health, and also the concept that over-consumption by the human population is a concern.

Thinking of the situations of women who want an abortion was an idea echoed by Monroe Gilmore, a local community activists who escorts women past pro- life demonstrators at the local Fem-care clinic.

He said members of a local pro-life organization use emotional blackmail on women seeking assistance from the clinic instead of a sincere effort to help them, ignoring what brought them to the point of getting an abortion in the first place. He reported that they “talk really saccharine to the women,” are hostile to the escorts and call the clinic a terrorist organization and compare it’s operations to chemical warfare in Iraq.

Meredith Hunt, head of the pro - life group Life Advocates, whose mission he summed up as aiming to “transfer culture into one that values human life,” claimed his opinions on abortion were not based on spiritual belief. He said a primary concern was not only the unborn child but also the mother’s psychological health, but claims the most convincing evidence is anecdotal.

Hunt said that if a woman decides not to get an abortion, his organization may give her a baby bag with diapers, and has an OB-GYN who may perform an ultra sound, and could perhaps work out a reasonable price to deliver a baby, but not one that is cheaper than an abortion. He said that once people have made the decision to have an abortion, they are almost impossible to talk out of it, and denies that his group uses emotional blackmail.

He additionally referenced an instance when a woman, Helen Gordon, who was using a bullhorn at the clinic demonstrations, received a free speech award but was unable to keep it after the woman who the award was named for said she did not agree with the award going to Gordon because of the nature of what she was doing.

The Fem-care clinic, is surrounded with a chain-link and barb wire fence and has a security guard, measures taken after a bomb left in a duffle bag detonated in March of 2000 and a woman fired a gun at the clinic at night last year. The clinic staff does not talk to media due to safety concerns.

In Washington, DC on Apr. 25 there will be a march for women’s reproductive rights.

Corporations need treatment, documentary argues

By Stephen Leahy

Toronto, Jan. 20 (IPS) — Corporations are not only the most powerful institutions in the world, they are also psychopathic, a new Canadian documentary on globalization elegantly argues.

While the corporation has the rights and responsibilities of “a legal person,” its owners and shareholders are not liable for its actions. Moreover, the film explains, a corporation’s directors are legally required to do what is best for the company, regardless of the harm created.

What kind of person would a corporation be? A clinical psychopath, answers the documentary, which is now playing in four Canadian theatres.

“Everything we do in the world is touched by corporations in some way,” says The Corporation writer Joel Bakan.

Six years ago he was researching a book on the subject and teamed up with documentary makers Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, and then set out to drum up enough money to make the film and to do more than 40 interviews.

“Corporations are the most dominant institutions on the planet today. We thought it was worth taking a close look at what that means,” Bakan told IPS.

In law, today’s corporations are treated like a person: they can buy and sell property, have the right to free expression and most other rights that individuals have.

This legal creativity came as a result of US businesses using the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution — designed to protect blacks in the US South after the Civil War — to proclaim that corporations should be treated as “persons.”

The filmmakers show four examples of corporations at work — including garment sweatshops in Honduras and Indonesia — to demonstrate that this “legal person” is inherently amoral, callous and deceitful.

The corporation, the film points out, ignores any social and legal standards to get its way, and does not suffer from guilt while mimicking the human qualities of empathy, caring and altruism.

A person with those character traits would be categorized as a psychopath, based on diagnostic criteria from the World Health Organization (WHO), points out the film.

Unlike Bowling for Columbine — to which it has been compared — The Corporation does not follow a shambling yet crusading interviewer (Michael Moore) into corporate head offices to ask tough questions.

Instead the filmmakers use simple but beautifully lit head and shoulder shots of its subjects against a black background. The interviewer is never seen or heard; the corporate chiefs, professors and activists speak directly to the viewer.

The technique is so compelling that not listening or turning away would seem impolite.

The interviews are interspersed with archival footage from many sources, including scenes from sweatshops and news conferences. It also includes some ironic and darkly humorous excerpts from corporate ad campaigns and training films from the 1940s and ‘50s.

But the film is not a rant. It gives ample time to corporate chief executive officers (CEOs) and representatives of right-wing organizations, like Canada’s Fraser Institute.

Fraser’s Michael Walker tells viewers that hungry people in the developing world are better off when a sweatshop pays them 10 cents an hour to make brand name goods that sell for hundreds of dollars.

And it is just good business sense that a corporation moves to seek out more hungry people when its workers demand higher wages and better working conditions, Walker argues.

Many others are less ruthless. Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, former chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, is honestly concerned about protecting the environment. Under his guidance, Shell adopted many green initiatives and a commitment to developing renewable energy.

At the same time, Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other activists were hung in Nigeria for protesting Shell Oil’s pollution of the Niger Delta.

Social critic and linguist Noam Chomsky —the subject of Achbar’s 1992 award-winning Manufacturing Consent — carefully points out that people who work for corporations, and even those who run them, are often very nice people.

The same could have been said about many slave owners, he observes. The institution — not the people — is the problem, Chomsky argues.

Eminent economist Milton Friedman sums up the role of the corporation succinctly: it creates jobs and wealth but is inherently incapable of dealing with the social consequences of its actions.

The Corporation documents a bewildering array of these consequences — including the deaths of citizens who protest corporate ownership of their water in Cochabamba, Bolivia — that demonstrate the extent and power of today’s corporations.

It looks at the often-cozy relationships between corporations and fascist regimes, such as that of IBM and Nazi leader Adolph Hitler.

It demonstrates the power of advertising to create desires for luxury items, as well as how corporations can suppress information.

The documentary shows agribusiness corporation Monsanto successfully preventing the news media from airing a story about the potential health hazards of a genetically engineered drug given to many US diary cows.

The Corporation also tells a number of success stories, including activists’ successful fight to overturn corporate patents on the neem tree and basmati rice.

Bolivia’s Oscar Olivera describes how citizens of Cochabamba city re-took control of their water. The lesson, he explains, is the people’s capacity for “reflection, rage and rebellion” as an effective counter to corporate globalization

That is one of the film’s messages, says Bakan. “We want people to understand that they can change things.”

“Everyone keeps thanking us for making the film,” says Mark Achbar, from the Sundance festival of independent films in Utah state.

“People are fed up with being talked down to and enjoy being intellectually engaged,” he adds, trying to explain the documentary’s popularity and several international festival awards.

Despite its current limited distribution in Canada, The Corporation has been sold as a three-part, one-hour TV series to international markets, and Achbar is hoping it will be translated into Spanish.

Of course, there will not be a multi-million marketing campaign. The number of people who will see it will depend on those who have, spreading the word.

That is just one way to take back the power that corporations have usurped.