Evidence Of Things Unseen: The Rise of a New Movement

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The chairman of our Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers, has said that "Intelligence doesn't necessarily mean something is true. That's not what intelligence is."

Keep that in mind as I discuss what James Baldwin called the "evidence of things unseen."

A few weeks ago in Cancun, I watched at the barricades as a South Korean farmer appeared to shake his fist in militant anger at the dispossession of his people. I did not see that he was committing ritual suicide with a knife. As far as I know, neither did anyone else. Hours later, the WTO issued a press release stating its "regret" at what it called the "self-inflicted" wound that resulted in the farm leader's death. I began to wonder how many other deaths we see but do not see. Farmers in India poisoning themselves with pesticides. Farmers in America quietly committing suicide. A rise in suicides among American soldiers in Iraq.

These unseen deaths should be seen as signs of the times. They are birth pangs as well. For example, in the past three weeks some 80 Bolivians have given their lives – hardly the first time in their 500-year-long struggle – but these cocoleros, these sweatshop workers, these indios, have overthrown the government over globalization issues and sent their mine-owning, American-trained president packing.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17000