Artificial Islands Around British Isles Were Used by Elites for Ancient Parties to Show Wealth and Power

By Louise Franco Sep 28, 2022 03:34 PM EDT

Artificial islands surrounding the British Isles in Europe could once be a site of ancient parties held by our ancient ancestors, according to archaeologists.

A new study indicates that ancient elites partied on these man-made islands around what is now Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and other islets. Also called a crannog, the anthropogenic islands consist of a lake, wetland, and estuary built thousands of years ago.

Artificial Islands and Ancient Parties



(Photo : Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

In the new paper published in the journal Antiquity on Wednesday, September 28, Antony Brown of UiT Arctic University of Norway and his colleagues confirmed that ancient social gatherings which is equivalent to the modern term "partying" were apparently held in some of the hundreds of artificial islands created in Ireland, Scotland, Wales between the year 4,000 B.C. and the 16th century A.D.

The research team believes that elite people in the social hierarchy living in the British Isles gathered in the crannogs to display their power and wealth through the parties.

If proven, the findings will pave the way for evidence showing one of the earliest form social gatherings never seen before from previous anthropological and archaeological studies, as well as from other fields.

. . .



More:
https://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/53342/20220928/artificial-islands-around-british-isles-used-elites-ancient-parties-show.htm

Gloria Naveillan could be stripped of her parliamentary immunity.
September 29, 2022 by Pressenza



By Ximena Soza

In Chile, law 20609 condemns discrimination, whether by virtue of race, ethnicity or gender identity, yet this law has not been widely applied or presented as an argument, let alone met the victims’ need for justice. In the case of the Mapuche people, discrimination and racism have been recurrently evidenced either at a structural level, through the judicial or economic system, among others, and at a symbolic level, through daily acts and hate speech. In the past, despite having been found to be racist, these acts have not been condemned or even identified as such. This situation could be about to change as a Chilean state deputy, Gloria Naveillan, accused of levelling serious slander against a Mapuche Werken, Adán Huentecol, could be on the verge of losing her parliamentary privilege, making it possible for her to be tried on the stipulated charges.

The Mapuche people are an indigenous people living in the south of what is now known as Chile and Argentina. Since the formation of these states, the occupation of Mapuche territory on both sides of the Andes has been an excuse to implement policies aimed at their physical, cultural and spiritual extermination. Invisibilisation, language disappearance, denial of autonomy, imprisonment and murder have been just some of the genocidal strategies used. One of the most frequent and explicit has been the usurpation of their lands, an element that intertwines their worldview and their daily lives. In the struggle for the restitution of territories, many Mapuche communities have resorted to the recovery of their lands, which has been strongly condemned and repressed.

In areas of strong territorial claims and organisation of Mapuche communities, the counter-attack of Chilean or foreign landowners who do not want to lose the privilege of their occupied lands is latent and takes different forms. Organisations such as the Association for Peace and Reconciliation in Araucanía (APRA), which claims to bring together victims of Mapuche violence, in reality cause violence against the Mapuche people, intervening in the processes of self-determination at the expense of the disarticulation of communities, calling for violence and even taking part in false news stories to spread their racist discourse.

One of the leaders of this organisation, Gloria Naivellan, a former member of the Republican Party and now a member of parliament for Araucanía, is being accused of “serious slander and libel” by the Werken (Mapuche authority) Adan Huentecol and his defence lawyer Isabel Figueroa. The Deputy, before taking office, publicly accused the Werken of having made threats against forestry businessman Gerardo Cerda and of being responsible for the burning of machinery on his land. In her statements she also urged that the Mapuche authority be prosecuted. After being charged with the aforementioned offence, she appealed to her parliamentary privilege to have the accusation against her dismissed, despite the fact that the events occurred before she was elected to her seat in the chamber. The appeal filed by Naivillan’s defence was not accepted by the court.

More:
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/its-time-for-the-trial-of-racism-against-the-mapuche-people/





Git outta Gloria's country!





Racist Gloria Naveillán with former President Piñera,
Pinochet supporter, whose brother was in Pinochet's cabinet



Gloria, feeling butt-hurt





~ ~ ~

02-08-2020
Civilians attack Mapuche community members in the Chilean Araucanía


Dozens of civilians, summoned by far-right groups, violently evicted the Mapuche community members from the municipalities of Victoria and Curacautín, in the Chilean Araucanía, in the center of the South American country, on Saturday night.

Local information media released an audio on the Twitter social network in which Gloria Naveillan, spokeswoman for APRA, a far-right group from Araucanía, calls to act against the Mapuche community members in the municipality of Victoria.

The Mapuche community members had entered the municipalities of Victoria, Curacautín and three more in the Malleco province since last Monday, as a measure of support for their imprisoned companions who are on a hunger strike.

In her Twitter account, the teleSUR correspondent in Chile, Paola Dragnic, published photographs of residents of the Mapuche nation attacked by armed civilians in Curacautín.

"The celebrations for the attack in Curacautín impact, they act like the white supremacists of the United States, ignoring the mestizo origin of the Chilean people," the journalist wrote in another tweet.

. . .



More:
https://www.icslatam.com/civilians-attack-mapuche-community-members-in-the-chilean-araucania





















May all the broken hearts and broken people find peace, and shelter from all that hatred.

Hurricane Fiona shows that Puerto Rico is still an American colony, 124 years later.

Jack Mirkinson
51 min ago

On Wednesday, the United States government, in all of its glory, made a benevolent decision: it decided to allow the people of Puerto Rico to have fuel.

From Politico:

The Biden administration moved Wednesday to allow a non-U.S. flagged ship to transport fuel to Puerto Rico, following pressure to waive a rule in the face of a diesel shortage after Hurricane Fiona.

The decision to make came in “response to urgent and immediate needs of the Puerto Rican people in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona ... to ensure that the people of Puerto Rican have sufficient diesel to run generators needed for electricity and the functioning critical facilities,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement Wednesday.

This special dispensation from the Biden administration was required because of the Jones Act, a century-old law that mandates that ships carrying goods between American ports must be American-made, American-owned, and staffed by American crews. The law ostensibly applies to the entirety of the U.S., but it disproportionately chokes the economies of island territories like Puerto Rico and Hawaii. Unlike Hawaiians, however, Puerto Ricans cannot elect senators or representatives who could vote to overturn the Jones Act. They can’t choose a president to do it either, and their rights in U.S. courts are limited by the fact that the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled, including very recently, that they are functionally second-class citizens.

More:
https://www.discourseblog.com/p/this-is-what-colonialism-looks-like

Brazilians have the chance to correct the error of electing Jair Bolsonaro to the presidency - they should take it



Brazilian president and re-election candidate Jair Bolsonaro greets supporters during a rally in Santos some 60 km from Sao Paulo Brazil on Tuesday. Photograph: Nelson Almeida/AFP


When Brazilians go to the polls in Sunday’s general election they have the chance to correct the mistake they made four years ago, when they catapulted the obscure far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro into the presidency. During nearly four years in office the former army captain has shown himself to be a toxic mix of cruelty and incompetence.

His malevolent nature is perhaps best illustrated by his attempt at the height of a global pandemic that has claimed the lives of almost 700,000 Brazilians to associate Covid vaccines with AIDS. His misogyny and homophobia, not to mention racism in one of the world’s most mixed-race societies, have damaged the public administration of Latin America’s biggest country, reversing decades of hard-won social advances. Under cover of official negligence the most irresponsible and often criminal elements of Brazil’s agricultural and mining sectors have been given license to pillage the environment, with global implications for the fight against climate change.

The true spirit of “bolsonarismo” is the will of the strongest triumphing over the rule of laws which are in place to protect the vulnerable. The latest example of this disregard for rules can be seen in the president’s preparations to challenge the election result. Having claimed to speak in the name of “the people” against the country’s institutions, he is working assiduously to throw Brazil’s highly regarded voting system into chaos if, as every poll predicts, the people now reject him.

The best defence against an attempt to steal the election would be for voters to hand the frontrunner, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, outright victory on Sunday, thus avoiding the need for a run-off round. Another four weeks of campaigning would be highly fraught. The European Union should also make clear to Brazil’s military, which the president is seeking to recruit for his authoritarian adventure, that the country faces isolation should the democratic will of the people be thwarted. For all its shortcomings the world’s fifth-largest democracy deserves to outlive the failed Bolsonaro experiment.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/editorials/2022/09/29/the-irish-times-view-on-the-brazilian-election-time-for-a-change/

By Maria Ramirez Uribe
September 29, 2022

Republicans have praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent decision to use taxpayer money to fly two planes of Venezuelan asylum seekers from Texas to Florida to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, in Congress, some GOP lawmakers have raised flags about Venezuelan immigrants at the southern border, citing an alleged Department of Homeland Security report saying the Venezuelan government is sending prisoners to the southern U.S. border.

"DHS confirms that Venezuela empties prisons and sends violent criminals to our southern border," Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, tweeted on Sept. 18.

The lawmakers’ letter says, "It has been widely reported that the Venezuelan regime, under the control of Nicolás Maduro Moros, is deliberately releasing violent prisoners early, including inmates convicted of ‘murder, rape, and extortion,’ and pushing them to join caravans heading to the United States."

More:
https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/sep/29/fact-checking-claim-about-venezuela-sending-prison/

Indigenous from nine towns and four states protest against the increase in the murders of indigenous people in Brazil (ANSA)

Murders of environmental and land activists on the rise globally

Global Witness' annual report reveals that some 200 environmental and land defense activists were killed around the world in 2021, a big percentage of them in Mexico.

By Linda Bordoni

54 land and environment activists were killed in Mexico in 2021, that‘s over 20 more deaths of land and nature defenders than the previous year.

This is according to the annual report by the nongovernmental organization Global Witness that found that more than three-quarters of the killings took place in Latin America, where Colombia, Brazil and Nicaragua also proved deadly for land and nature defenders.

The report said that "Most of these crimes happen in places that are far away from power and are inflicted on those with the least amount of power.''

Global Witness also said its data on killings is likely to be an underestimate, given that many murders go unreported, particularly in rural areas and in particular countries.
These are all victims who 'died fighting resource exploitation and in land disputes. Conflicts over mining were tied to 27 deaths worldwide, the most for any sector.

More:
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/world/news/2022-09/environmental-land-activists-report-global-witness-2021.html

DEMOCRACIAABIERTA: OPINION

OPINION: Brazil’s president may well lose Sunday’s election, but he has ensured he has plenty of armed supporters

ESPAÑOL
Carolina Ricardo
29 September 2022, 11.58am



Firearms for sale in a shopping centre in São Paolo, Brazil, 2019 | Alamy stock
Comparta el artículo vía

Afew weeks ago, The Economist released an issue with Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro on the cover. Comparing him to Donald Trump, the magazine said that the Brazilian is preparing to tell his own “big lie” about the validity of elections if he loses. Win or lose, The Economist argued, Bolsonaro represents a “threat to democracy in Brazil”.



cover of The Economist with picture of Jair Bolsonaro,
September 2022, with coverline "The man who would be
Trump"
The Economist

Over the months, Bolsonaro has repeatedly said that he can disrespect the decisions of the Brazilian Supreme Court. He harasses journalists daily and encourages his followers to take to the streets to scream for the closing of the Supreme Court and Congress. In July, he gathered foreign ambassadors in the capital, Brasília, repeating unsubstantiated untruths about the electronic voting system that Brazil has used since 1996 and often cited by the international community as a model.

Brazilian society has countered with public letters in defence of democracy. One was signed by hundreds of civil society organisations, including representatives from industry, unions and academics; another has the support of almost 1 million people at the time of writing.

. . .

Bolsonaro has legitimised the political use of these weapons. At a notorious ministerial meeting in April 2020, he said: “I want to open up the issue of gun ownership,” with the argument that “if a shitty mayor makes a decree forcing citizens to stay at home” – in other words, ordering a lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus – “they must be able to defend themselves”.

More:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/bolsonaro-brazil-president-election-gun-violence-2022/

Brazil’s presidential election on Sunday will be closely watched by the world.

Brazil
Politics
14 hours ago| Mark Manduca|2
7 min read



Towels with the images of presidential candidates Jair Bolsonaro and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are seen for sale at a street in Brasilia. PHOTO: AFP

One of the most consequential elections in the world will be taking place on Sunday, October 2. Jair Bolsonaro, the incumbent Brazilian President, is being challenged by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, the former president of Brazil. Lula is currently leading in the polls with 43.4% of the vote to Bolsonaro’s 34.8%.

The election is extremely important, with Brazilian democracy at stake. In the past, Bolsonaro has expressed his admiration for the military dictatorship of 1964-1985; a dictatorship which saw two decades of widespread human rights abuses such as torture and killings.

He has in recent weeks challenged the democratic process in the country stating that he would not trust the election results of October 2, while also criticizing Brazil’s institutions and threatening a coup. His response to COVID-19 was so disastrous that it led to an investigation by Brazilian authorities which were later dropped.

The man he is facing for re-election is a political giant and an icon of the left. Lula, having first been elected in 2002 on the Workers’ Party ticket served as President of Brazil from January 1 2003 to January 1 2011, winning a landslide re-election in 2006 and having an approval rating of 87% when he left office, a record for Brazilian politics.

More:
https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/brazil-south-america-world-need-lula-win-mark-manduca.983666

Incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro’s aggressive rhetoric may lead to post-election violence if he loses the September 25 vote.

Erika Robb Larkins
Associate Professor of Anthropology at California State University, San Diego

Lucas Louback
Human rights activist
Published On 29 Sep 2022



Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro points up during a military parade to celebrate the bicentennial of the country's independence from Portugal, in Brasília, on September 7, 2022 [File: Eraldo Peres/AP Photo]


On October 2, Brazil will hold its ninth democratic election since military rule ended in 1985. But this young democracy, the second largest in the Western hemisphere, is under threat. The greatest menace comes from current far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who is seeking re-election.

Bolsonaro lags considerably behind challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, with recent polls showing only 31 percent of the electorate supports him. But a Bolsonaro defeat doesn’t mean that Brazil will immediately get back on the path to democracy, prosperity or political sanity.

Bolsonaro enjoys a fervent base of supporters, many of whom are armed extremists, hailing from the military, police and militias analogous to the Proud Boys in the United States. If he were to lose at the polls, there is an imminent risk that Brazil will experience something similar to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Or worse.

As president, Bolsonaro has used the highest office in the country to aggressively fan the flames of disinformation. This tendency became tragically clear during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he personally promoted the use of unproven (and now disproven) treatments and opposed vaccination. As a result, Brazil suffered some of the highest death rates in the world.

More:
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/9/29/brazil-may-have-its-own-january-6-moment-or-worse

by Karla Mendes on 29 September 2022

A yearlong investigation by Mongabay and Earthsight has uncovered new evidence of corrupt deals and illegal practices used by Brazil’s largest flooring exporter, Indusparquet, and its suppliers.

From its headquarters in São Paulo to the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest, Indusparquet has used fixers to secure secret timber deals from suppliers who have been fined millions for their illegal sourcing practices, while claiming to supply products to high-profile projects like Las Vegas’ Mirage Hotel, the Vatican and Taj Mahal.

The company was charged in two bribery lawsuits in Brazil over its use of public officials to gain access to timber supplies. Following a tip-off from an anonymous source, we obtained access to dozens of hours of wiretaps and video footage revealing how Jose Antonio Baggio, the company’s co-founder and defendant in one of the cases, used a local official to secure bracatinga (Mimosa scabrella), a tree species native to the Atlantic Forest — the most threatened Brazilian biome.

Requests for further information confirmed that Indusparquet had bought bracatinga from suppliers named in the court case against Baggio during the same period, which the wiretaps show was for an unnamed “U.S. client.” Despite Indusparquet’s claims that court decisions cleared the charges against Baggio and closed the case, there is still room for appeal, as the prosecutors’ office confirmed to Mongabay.

More:
https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/the-fixers-top-u-s-flooring-retailers-linked-to-brazilian-firm-probed-for-corruption/