Hindu and Muslim families have lived for decades in and around the newly-constructed Ram temple, now a major religious and tourist attraction. The Qureshis and the Sainis speak fondly of their friendship and familial ties. Both say that development projects worth hundreds of crores are muscling into their homes in Ayodhya, threatening to end their neighbourly attachment.
Briahna Joy Gray brings up the families of Israeli hostages who broke into parliament, criticized Netanyahu for refusing to negotiate with Hamas and demanded more negotiations. Mouin Rabbani and Norman Finkelstein respond that they are not very optimistic about what this means for the future, however.
Since assuming office last October, John Nalwang, the National Coordinator of the Customary Land Management Office (CLMO), has uncovered extensive corrupt practices dating back several years.
PNG's Porgera gold mine could potentially transform the fortunes of an impoverished province now that it has reopened. But some locals say they've experienced considerable environmental damage from the mine's waste and tailings.
Two elderly Dalit farmers fighting case against TN BJP leader, summoned by ED
The ED is alleged to be pursuing the Dalit farmers – who subsist on a Rs 1,000 monthly pension – as they are engaged in a land dispute case, where they have accused a local BJP leader of trying to illegally grab their land.
Areas of the Apurinã territory in the Lower Seruini area, in southern Amazonas state, were sold by Nemus under an NFT project that promises to preserve the forest and generate carbon credits.
The reporters found 1,482 areas in the Apurinã Indigenous land registered as NFTs, which are digital certificates of ownership of unique (non-fungible) assets such as works of art, collectibles or properties. In this case, buyers make virtual purchases of plots in the territory, which they can sell to others anytime. It works like a stock exchange. NFT prices vary according to the prices of encrypted virtual money — cryptocurrencies — and the value of the environmental asset that is supposed to be contributing to preserve the forest. At least 665 clients purchased forest land plots and continue trading them as NFTs on specialized platforms.
According to Nemus, NFT holders can navigate the area they acquired and detect wildlife or environmental threats, monitoring and auditing the conservation of the area.
Nemus’ businesses are associated with European investors and ASF BRAZIL LTD, a London-based holding company founded by Italian businessman Maurizio Totta. In Brazil, Totta is a partner of Pedro Ruhs da Silva and Flávio Meira Penna, who appear as owners of Nemus and other companies in partnership with ASF. The group’s main investments in the Amazon are focused on timber extraction, with the recovery of bankrupt or indebted companies.
In an interview on American TV in the Break It Down Show, Nemus’ founder Meira Penna said the Indigenous people “are sort of like squatters” in the areas acquired by Nemus, but he stated that “they’ll live there forever” and “they will jump to the digital world very quickly.”
In the video, which can be seen in full on YouTube, the businessman details his NFT project in the area claimed by the Indigenous people. The deal is meant to raise up to $5 million, with NFTs selling for $150-$51,000. With that money, Nemus would buy more areas in the region to launch more NFTs, as explained in the video.
In addition to Manasa, Meira Penna also acquired a timber company, Laminados Triunfo, in Acre state and exported the product to the U.S. In April, the company was the target of a “timber laundering” investigation by the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA).
ILO Convention 169 provides for the right to consultation on any project that interferes with Indigenous lands. Regardless of whether or not the territory has already been officially recognized, the entire recognized Indigenous community must be aware of what is being proposed and has the right to approve the project or not. The matter must be discussed internally by the Indigenous people, with the adoption of a consultation protocol that allows everyone in the territory to have access to information about the projects.
To the Prosecution Service, Nemus said the property was not on “actually demarcated Indigenous land,” and therefore the company’s understanding was that “no article of ILO 169 convention on consultation applies.”
In the same document from August 2022, Nemus said it was not yet developing economic activities in the area. However, at the time, the company had already launched its NFTs on the market, for which sales began in March 2022.
"The way in which the government got around the need to have compensation agreements in place before the issue of a special mining lease was to pass a piece of legislation, which basically said, 'look, the existing compensation agreements before the closure of the mine will allow us to continue in the interim, while New compensation agreements are relocated'."
A Papua New Guinea academic, who grew up in Porgera in the early years of the mine, Andrew Anton Mako, has called for structures to be put in place to ensure returns from the re-opened mine are not wasted.
The Australian National University staffer has written about what he calls the blessings and the curse the mine brought back in the 1990s.
He said with a bigger stake he hopes the community doesn't squander the money. "In the past it was only 2.5 percent of the mine equity stake," Mako said.
"Now the landowners have been given ten percent, free carry, by the government. So, it will be a lot of money. It is estimated around 25 billion kina. That's a lot of money for the next 20 years.
"So even though the proceeds will increase, the main issue is in the governance, the use of that money, whether it will be used productively to improve the lives of the people or whether it will be used mostly on consumption."
Mako also wants some focus on what happens when the mine stops producing in 20 years or so.
While the world’s biggest polluters dominate the headlines this week at the UN climate summit with an array of sensationalist pledges and announcements, designed mainly to distract us all from a lack of real climate action, one of the biggest scandals of all is taking place right under our noses.
The #Kahanist (Israeli #KKK)) Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calls for a ban on Palestinians harvesting olives near Israeli settlements in the West Bank and for the creation of "barren" zones prohibiting the presence of Palestinians in the vicinity of settlements and the main roads leading to them.
Stealing their land and wasn't enough, setting up apartheid walls and isolating them wasn't enough, now he wants to use the Hamas attacks to destroy more Palestinian farmland and homes in occupied #WestBank.
what we call ‘enclosures’ were, and are, ways of abolishing collective land use for the benefit of individuals who become the new, private, exclusive owners. in 15th and 16th century england, enclosing land involved surrounding it with hedges, ditches, or other barriers to movement. as sivlvia federici notes in /caliban and the witch/, although enclosures were often secured through one or another form of legal instrument (purchases, licences, decrees, statutes, etc.), legalization was generally preceeded by prolonged campaigns of harassment, intimidation, and threats of eviction, including on the basis of economic pressures: increases in rents and taxes. as federici writes, ‘i define all these forms as /land expropriation/ because, even when force was not used, the loss of land occurred against the individual’s or the community’s will and undermined their capacity for subsistence.’
in the course of the enclosures, the cottages of people who had hitherto subsisted on the basis of customary rights to engage in fishing, hunting, the collection of wood, and other activities, were pulled down, and people made way for sheep. federici quotes from thomas moore’s /utopia/ (1516), which ‘expressed the anguish and desolation that these mass expulsions produced when he spoke of sheep which had become so great devourers and so wild that “they eat up and swallow the very men themselves.’ ‘Sheep’ – he added – ‘that consume and destroy and devour whole fields, houses and cities.’”
Finally, some reporting in mainstream media on the ongoing violent land grabs by armed illegal settlers on the West Bank, which has ramped up in the last days under cover of the war on Gaza.
"They didn’t leave us air to breathe”
"They came into the village and destroyed houses and sheep pens, beat an 85-year-old man, scared our children. Slowly our lives became unlivable.”
"In the most extreme cases, villagers are so frightened of travelling on roads controlled by settlers that Israeli activists from groups that try to protect Bedouin communities – living with them, walking with them as they herd flocks and documenting abuses –are bringing them food and water.
They too sometimes become targets. Hagar Gefen, 71, was beaten so violently last year that she ended up in hospital with broken ribs and a punctured lung" #Israel#Palestine#LandGrab#WestBank#Settlers
Ayodhya: Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust Stirs Controversy Again
According to the Naga sadhus of the Hanuman Garhi temple in the city, the Trust is trying to annex land by hook or by crook as part of its plan to expand the temple complex.
In Varanasi, Occupants of Iconic Gandhian Institution Thrown Out, Land Taken Over
The fact that the land legally belonged to the Akhil Bharat Sarva Seva Sangh, founded by Vinoba Bhave in 1948, was just a minor irritant for the powers that be.
Vanuatu: Green Certificate scandal exposed (www.dailypost.vu)
Since assuming office last October, John Nalwang, the National Coordinator of the Customary Land Management Office (CLMO), has uncovered extensive corrupt practices dating back several years.
$7bn of gold is buried in these PNG hills. The battle to claim it has been called 'Game of Thrones on crack' (www.abc.net.au)
PNG's Porgera gold mine could potentially transform the fortunes of an impoverished province now that it has reopened. But some locals say they've experienced considerable environmental damage from the mine's waste and tailings.
Company sells Indigenous land in Amazonas as NFTs without community’s knowledge (news.mongabay.com)
Areas of the Apurinã territory in the Lower Seruini area, in southern Amazonas state, were sold by Nemus under an NFT project that promises to preserve the forest and generate carbon credits.
PNG's Porgera set to re-open Friday (www.rnz.co.nz)
The long-awaited re-opening of the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea's Enga Province is set to happen on Friday.
The great global land grab (pina.com.fj)
While the world’s biggest polluters dominate the headlines this week at the UN climate summit with an array of sensationalist pledges and announcements, designed mainly to distract us all from a lack of real climate action, one of the biggest scandals of all is taking place right under our noses.