REPPARFJORDEN DOESNT NEED SAVING – HUMANS DO.
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REPPARFJORDEN DOESNT NEED SAVING – HUMANS DO.
The banners say « Save the fjords». But who really need saving are the people…
The Norwegian government just made the decision to open a copper mine in Repparfjorden, in northern Sápmi.
This is the most environmentally damaging project in the country’s history. The mine will have the privilege to to dump 30 million (2 millions a year) tons of mining waste in the see. Some of it containing toxic heavy metals. And mind you, this will happen in the same country, where every household recycles, and dumping snow in the sea is illegal (because there could be rubbish hiding in it). Furthermore only 2 % what is digged up from the mines are actually going to be used, sold abroad to use in electric devices. The rest will be dumped in Repparfjorden – on of the purest fjords in Euorope. Six sami reindeerherding families will be affected. The mine will be built on the land where the reindeers go to give birth to calves. A massiv contamination of both land and see will occur. The decision is made by the government of Norway, going against the advice of the Sami parliament, the Sami council and environmental organizations.
Some call this a declaration of war.
Read more about the shocking news here.
Obviously the emotions are high and there are plans being made about how to stop this disastre. Demonstrations, signing petitions, letters sent to the government, and chaining to the site if nothing else fails. (By the way, our parents generation had to go through all that in the 70s when the Norwegian government decided to interfere with nature close to the same area, Alta).
And we have had many similar cases all around the world the last few years, havent we? They pop up almost every year, somewhere in the world, and every time the indigenous and environmentalist have to fight the same fight.
It is good that people react when things like this happen. It would be a collective suicide not to care. When issues like this come up we are forced into using a crisis-plan (protest and demonstrations). But here are some thoughts about this problem seen in a bigger perspective:
When something like this happens the tendency is to put all the focus on preventing a specific disaster to happen. Weather its a mine, pipeline, damm, clearcutting, road or a contaminating factory. Sometimes it even works, the people and the nature wins! A few mines and other destructions have been stopped from the efforts. But when a large group of people have all their attention on for example stopping a mine, fighting with the government and/or the corporation. The greedy ones create more disasters in other places outside of the spotlight. And because the whole world is interconnected, what happens in for example Borneo effects us here in Sápmi also.
The demonstration approach – typical in politic matters – are necessary in a crisis situation, because it is a political problem ALSO, – but it will not solve the problem – only the symptom. (But be sure we will do it anyway, we will chain ourselves to the site, because this is URGENT and a crisis)
Because where lies the problem? What is the core of the problem? Nature and animals might be threathed by pollution? But if we look at what really is their threat, in most cases we could say it is ignorance, arrogrance and stupidity from us humans. The threat Repparfjorden is facing are us humans. The greedy ones of us.
So what can we do?
Instead of keeping the focus on building shields and weapons, we can focus more on the people, because there is really only one thing that can fix the problem of these reoccurring problems:
If the human race would evolve. Evolve into more concious beings, evole beyond greed. If everybody understod that we are all one with each other and with the nature. This also includes future generations. All life is one and life is all.
Then the whole structure of our global society would change if that insight came to us all.
Many times you can understand something on a intellectual level, for example that certain things are not good for you to eat, white sugar for example, but you still keep doing it.
Committing a murder on the other hand you probably understand is bad, not only on an intellectual level. You also feel it in your heart that its wrong. Thats why you dont do it. Or even feel the desire to do it.
This is the kind of heart insight that we need when it comes to taking care of nature, globally, the whole human race.
That only comes with spiritual growth. We as a human race have to evolve spiritually. Or perish.
That is why Jungle and other shamans have traveled the world doing ceremonies, in some places illegal and thus faced the risk of imprisonment.
What can we expect?
This particular case is not only a political matter. It goes deeper than that. Beyond politics. It is about survival.
What can Samis expect from the government? We have said that the government of Norway DO support us Samis and they do what they can for us Sami people to. What THEY can is a key word here. They do what THEY can. Because what can THEY do?
They can give us funding, cultural events, conferences, the Sami parliament, and other byrocratic inventions that they find valueable. This is what they CAN give us and they DO give us.
We cannot expect from them to understand our culture, because it is not their world. It is not in their interest to make a world where our views are taken into consideration. They couldnt even if they tried – we know that for sure now in 2018. Cause they have tried to do it – on their terms.
They cannot give us back what was taken from us – only we ourselves can, only we can know who we are and what we stand for, what we value in life. As you can read here, the sami culture is not ONE culture, but many. And we don´t seem to have a common ground to stand on, knowing what it means to be a Sami. We cannot expect from them to know who we are if we dont know it ourselves.
Also read : The Sami people, how can we contribute?
But actually there is something that all Sami have in common. WE WANT TO PROTECT THE NATURE.
This situation is beyond politics, it is not a Sami issue or a local issue. There is no need to understand sami culture to know that this decision is wrong. Because this is a global issue!
But what we CAN expect from the government is to protect the country from getting destroyed and polluted. To protect the inhabitants of this country, to serve the Norwegian citizens. The Sami citizens are colonized and never asked to be a part of this country anyway, so the discriminations goes on…
#iifalnussir #jeglenkermeg #neitilnussir
We are sorry if we have not gotten all the facts right in this case. We will do revisions if anything comes up.