Demon

i see a world in which corporations, governments, and the wealthy, stop enacting double standards, and are brought to full accountability for their violations of national and international human rights...................................................... .................. Shouldn't we all be treated equally under the law? And shouldnt the law be updated to current societal expectations of justice? ............................................................ ..........................Is democracy an ideal to strive for or just another justification for war and terror? ............................................................ .......................Why is there a double standard for justice in the US and justice abroad? :........................................................... ....................................Arent actions that are considered criminal here actual crimes elsewhere (such as sweatshop labor, killing union organizers, pollution that destroys local communities, forced labor and servitude) - and if they are real crimes, why do we encourage it by demanding the products that are made from this misery? Why do we allow international businesses and financial institutions the ability to abide by these laws in the US and not elsewhere? Don't they also profit as intermediaries between misery and our ignorance? Why do we live in a society that engorges itself at the expense of people abroad - and then tell the world that we are just and humane? ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------can we better society through awareness only? What ACTION can we take to enact changes involving true respect for culture, individuals, and ideology across all castes within society? ____________________________________________________________ ________________________ oh yeah, and i love ice cream(all flavors) and martial arts... not combined of course... well, now that i think about it, why not? ____________________________________________________________ ___________________________ THE LONG MAPUCHE WAR AGAINST COLONIAL AGGRESSION In 1536, when the Spanish first set foot on Mapuche territory, they were welcomed by the Mapuche. Even when they came again in1541 with the intention of settling in our land they were well received. Only, when the real nature of their enterprise was disclosed did the Mapuche oppose them a fierce resistance which lasted for over 350 year. This war became known as "la guerra de Arauco" or "the Araucanian War".The Spanish arrived from Cuzco, Peru, where they had their Viceroyalty, their main headquarters in South America. Pedro de Valdivia, the Captain General of the "Conquest" of Chile, set out from Peru to conquer the Mapuche land, and in February 1541 founded Santiago (Chile’s capital). The plans and objectives of the Spanish were fundamentally economic as well as ensuring that the geographical expansion of their colony was maintained. Their pretence of coexistence with their hosted nation, was soon to be exposed, when they invaded Mapuche land and began to enslave them, rape their women, pillage their communities and inflict horrendous torture and mutilation on those who resisted or tried to escape from the inhuman treatment inflicted in the mines or encomiendas. The first military action by the Mapuche took place in September 1541 when Toki Michimalongo who was in charge of the north part of the Mapuche territory liberated the Mapuche prisioners and in the process destroyed Santiago. The second encounter with the Mapuche army took place in the Quilicura locality in March 1546 when the Spaniards once against lost the battle, although some of their soldiers managed to escape back to Santiago.In January 1550, the so called Conquistador of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia prepared a new military incursion deep into Mapuche land, during which his army built several military settlements and fortresses throughout the territory, at Tucapel, Puren, Angol, Imperial, Villarrica, Valdivia, and Osorno. By the end of 1553, however, much of this Spanish enclave had been destroyed and on New Year’s Day 1554, Valdivia and his troops were totally defeated by the Mapuche forces under the command of Toki Leftraru. Valdivia was taken prisoner, charged and sentenced according to Mapuche law. He was executed the next day by a blow on the head. The Mapuche forces, under the command of Toki Leftraru, then advanced north, towards Santiago, destroying one by one what remained of the Spanish enclave. In so doing the Spanish were expelled from Mapuche territory.During the first century of the "Araucanian war" the Spanish tried stubbornly to conquer the Mapuche territory; unable to accept defeat from people they considered "inferior and uncivilised". Time and again they constructed new garrisons South of the Bio-Bio river into Mapuche territory, and the Mapuche responded by dispelling them from their land. In the process both the Spanish and Mapuche forces suffered considerable losses. The Mapuche lost powerful Toki (high chiefs); Leftraru was killed and Calfulican was taken prisoner, the Spanish, using their barbaric methods of execution, impaled him in the centre of the square in Cañete village. In 1598 another famous Toki called Pelantaru confronted the Governor Oñez de Loyola in Curralaba and defeated him in battle, leaving the governor dead. Pelentaru then proceeded to destroy all the latest Spanish enclave situated south of the Bio-Bio river.During the war the Mapuche forces employed diverse military strategies and tactics which constantly surprised the invaders. The intelligence, creativity and determination of the Mapuche made it possible to defeat the, then, most powerful nation on earth. The Araucanian war has been widely documented by Spanish historians who recognize that the Spanish loss in soldiers and resources in this war was greater than losses through all other conquests throughout the Americas combined.One hundred years after their arrival, on the 6th of January 1641 the Spanish were forced to sign a treaty in Quillin acknowledging their failure to defeat the Mapuche peope. With this treaty Spain recognised the independence of the Mapuche nation, an admission of the military capability as well as the determination of the Mapuche people not to accept defeat. It was agreed that the Bio-Bio river was the border and that the Spanish would dismantle the few remaining fortresses and retreat to the North of the river. The Mapuche on the other hand would return the Spanish prisoners of war and allow missionaries to continue with their work. Both sides agreed not to violate the settled borders. The Spanish however, did not stand by their obligations for long. They recognised the border of the Mapuche territory, but from time to time organized military incursions, to pilllage communities, kidnapping people who were sold as slaves to work in mines situated in the North of the country. Their actions maintained a permanent state of war, where the Spanish could not reconcile their demand for slaves and their agreement to keep the peace. In 1542 the Spanish formally declared Indian slavery illegal everywhere in the Americas, except in those regions where indigenous nations resisted and did not accept Spanish jurisdiction. However, a century after this declaration, slavery was still a fact of life everywhere in the Americas. The constant slave raiding in the Mapuche territory forced the Mapuche to retaliate and in 1655, once again the Mapuche forces swept through the Spanish resistance and destroyed the Spanish positions right up to the Maule river, originally the old border with the Inca Empire. The Spanish defeated and demoralised, their feelings of ‘human superiority’ chastised, realised that all they had constructed in over a century of hard work had been swept away. Furthermore, resistance to the Spanish grew overtime, as many indigenous peoples from the north of the continent, attracted by the strength of the Mapuche sought refuge in Mapuche land. The Mapuche welcomed these refugee families and gave them protection.After the Treaty of Quillin, the Spanish promoted a number of parliaments in order to pacify the Mapuche people, as the "Araucanian War" became a military and economic burden to Spain, and therefore difficult to ignore. According to their own sources the Spanish lost, during the period 1603 to 1674, 42.000 Spanish soldiers, a similar number of indians auxiliares (*) and 37 million Pesos. As far as the Mapuche were concerned treaties became increasingly irrelevant as they were constantly violated by the Spanish. Nevertheless there were a number of well known parliaments, one of which took place in Negrete, in February 1726, and another in Lonquillmo January 1784 under Colonel Ambrosio O’Higgins. During this Parliament once again the border treaty of Quillin was ratified and an agreement made to release prisoners. It was also agreed that each side would appoint a permanent ambassador and a mutual security pact was also agreed. The last Parliament took place in Negrete in 1803 just before Chilean independence, under the administration of the governor Luis Muñoz Guzman.These parliaments were called for and organized by the Spanish Crown usually when they suffered major losses in battle. They were designed to neutralize the Mapuche counter-offensive strategy. For the Spanish Governor in the colony such parliaments were not desirable events to look forward to. They felt humiliated having to talk to their adversaries, especially since they knew their word was not being taken seriously by the Mapuche, who were dubious of their intentions and sceptical of Spanish honesty. These Parliaments were celebrated with grand solemnity; and serving as a symbol of their commitment to peace, the Mapuche obliged the Spanish to bury their weapons and on top of them a Canelo tree (Mapuche medicinal tree) was planted. In addition the Spanish had to invest a great deal of money, present gifts to the Mapuche, give parties and military parades. Both sides made speeches, the Mapuches who were great orators often spoke for hours during which time the word "huinca" (referring to the Spanish) was discreetly but effectively used. The Mapuche word "huinca" literally means thief.The cost to the Spanish army during the Araucanian War was around 50.000 soldiers and an estimated 60.000 "indios auxiliares". These indians auxiliares were enlisted (sometimes by force) from others indigenous nations by the Spanish, who were driven ahead of their armies, acting as a sort of battering ram against the enemy. Many Spanish historians referred to Mapuche soil as the Spanish soldiers cemetery of The Americas.The Mapuche losses are unknown but in addition to the losses in the battlefield they also suffered kidnapping and the Spanish brought with them diseases such as yellow fever, measles and smallpox against which the Mapuche had no defence. The effect of these diseases caused major epidemics throughout the Mapuche land, and by the beginning of the 1560’s had caused the death of hundreds of thousands of Mapuche people.