January 7, 2008 by Rudolph Ryser.

The Financial Times, New York Times and BBC increasingly report stories about growing conflicts between Fourth World nations and powerful states like the United States, Britain and Russia. Reports that the United States military will expand its covert operations in the Pashtun tribal areas of Pakistan, NATO’s war against Pashtun forces in Afghanistan, British interventions in Kenya to tamp down conflicts between angry tribal peoples upset over a stolen government election, American military forces surreptitiously in Nigeria’s oil rich Delta Region taking on Ijawa forces while Russia’s state owned Gasprom meets in Ajuba to offer money that will give Russia control over oil in Ijawa, Igbo and Ogoni territories speak loudly about how Fourth World nations are on the front-lines of violent conflicts.

Pakistan is a classic example of a state essentially defined by the presence of Fourth World nations where military forces from the United States threaten violent confrontations. The Pashtun in the so-called tribal areas are the target. But a US intervention will cause an explosion of nations that will make Afghanistan and Iraq look small. The Pashtun, Baluchis, Sindhis and Punjabis were patched together to form Pakistan…a mistake to be sure. These peoples required totally different political options than the formation of a single state.

Russia is making a similar mistake by attempting to grab oil reserves in Nigeria’s Igbo, Ogoni and Igawa south threatening to control a major resources and contribute to destabilization in Fourth World nations. Playing a oil money game in an already highly unstable environment promises to contribute to greater violence there by inserting yet another state into the conflict between Nigeria’s government and these nations.

The United States complains about its security as a rational for intervening in Pakistan and the Pashtun territories.  Russia greedily reaches for control over oil to block US, EU, Indian and Chinese oil interests…threatening further destabilization.

Confrontations between state governments and Fourth World nations isn’t new. Virtually every state with nations inside attempt to use centralized state control to manipulate Fourth World peoples…witness Kenya.  What is increasingly new is the intervention of external states in direct confrontations with Fourth World nations.  The United States government is in the lead of such outside interventions in Afghanistan, the Philippines, Colombia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Iraq just to name a few. External interventions to directly confront Fourth World nations appears to be stimulating a major part of the US government military realignment suggesting that we will see more violent confrontations involving conventional military forces from the United States, Russia, China and India in Fourth World territories.

What are these violent confrontations increasingly about? Control over land and industrially precious resources like oil, diamonds, and minerals, inside Fourth World territories is the central issue. Fourth World nation’s seeking to freely determine their own political future is a secondary rational for violent attacks.  The “war on terror” is transmogrifying into widening violent confrontations between states and Fourth World nations.

This is not necessary, but the military budgets of powerful states fire the fever. The biggest military in the world–the United States–is foremost among violent forces aiming to confront Fourth World nations.  As I have suggested on numerous occasions before, states need a Fourth World policy aimed at peaceful relations and non-violent political transformation. Less military and more diplomacy is necessary. States need to train their diplomats to understand the Fourth World.  Fourth World nations need to train their diplomats and political leaders to more effectively deal with states’ governments.

Escalation of violence is not the answer, but I fear that those with the guns will not listen.

(c) 2008 Center for World Indigenous Studies

Technorati Tags: Pakistan, military, Kenya, nations, states

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August 23, 2007 by Jay Taber.

The 500 million people represented by the World Indigenous Movement do not control nuclear arsenals, central banks, or other weapons of mass destruction. What they do have in abundance, though, is the power of moral sanction. As evidenced in the recent establishment of the United League of Indigenous Nations to govern international trade, travel, health, and security among the remaining 6,000 original nations, they are prepared to use this power to democratize capital ownership and its benefits worldwide.

Gathering for a North American Regional Conference this fall in Mexico, they will be discussing how to further their priorities and projects, “in defense of Mother Earth and Indigenous territories and cultures.” As an authentic, cohesive, and determined movement of peoples presenting a coherent program for remedying the world’s maladies, they have already elevated discussions in the global public mind from the elementary civil and human rights to the more profound right to exist.

For their noble non-indigenous friends around the globe, it is a time to stand and be counted.

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August 9, 2007 by Rudolph Ryser.

There is little in the public press or electronic media that doesn’t simply echo the conventional wisdom quoted from government officials or other “official sources.” The Fourth World Eye has for years served as a venue for stories behind the cryptic references you see or here in the corporate media. When a writer reports an event involving a “tribe” or “ethnic group” the story is usually obscure even when it is apparent that (as recent stories about US government negotiations with “tribes” in Anbar Province, Iraq; or when “lawless tribal areas” harbor Osama ben Laden along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan) there is something missing about those “tribes.” Fourth World Eye helps to understand the people, events, and perspectives from the Fourth World.

Why is it important understand the Fourth World perspective? First it must be understood that Fourth World Nations are a hidden reality which is only recently becoming apparent to the general public: Fourth World nations–denotes nations without states. This meaning emphasizes the non-recognition or exclusion of often ethnically or religiously defined groups from the political and economic world system. Examples of Fourth World nations include the Roma in Europe, pre-WWII Ashkenazi in the region of the Pale of Settlement, Kurds and Palestinians in the Middle East, and Native American Nations/First Nations, Alaskan Natives, Hawaiians and Indian peoples throughout the Americas.

Chief George Manuel (1929 - 1989), the noted leader of the world’s Fourth World nations gave political meaning to the expression “Fourth World” when he lead the formation of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples and advocated global recognition of the rights of Fourth World peoples.

These Fourth World nations have a direct influence over events, territories and natural resources that daily affect the lives of people world-wide. For example, the Ijaw have a great deal to do with global access to sweet crude oil in the delta region of Nigeria when some of their leaders block production of oil there (a 25% reduction in one year). Fourth World nations in Pashtunistan (read an earlier Fourth World Eye story) are the central concern of those states’ government leaders concern with finding Osama ben Laden. The views and decisions of Fourth World peoples in Pashtunistan are pivotal.

We all must understand and respect Fourth World nations for their central role in our lives, even though we are generally unaware of them. They play major roles in our political, economic, social and cultural life. They play a major part in our health whether environmental or medicinal. We can improve our understand here at Fourth World Eye. What is clear…Fourth World nations not only play an important role in
our lives, but constraints put on them by governments, corporations and the like drive them to want their freedom too.

(c) 2007 Center for World Indigenous Studies

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