Om Shanti friends - firstly I aplogise for the length of this post but pls read and show your support by signing the online petition :peace:
>Please read and distribute this email from my friend to as many likeminded
individuals as you can think of, we need to get as many people to sign this
petition against Walmart building a huge store in Mexico, right next to the
ancient Pyramids of Teoticuacan!
We need to make the world realise that these treasures must be kept sacred and
not marred by the fear and consumerism that big business forces into our society
and onto poor (and 'rich')countries. The indigenous peoples seem to be best equipped when it comes to understanding 2012 and what we need to do in these years leading upto the change - lets start respecting and listening...
Your help in this is most appreciated guys!
love & light
Emma x
From: Bert Gunn <bertgunn33@earthlink.net>
> To:
bertgunn33@earthlink.net
> Subject: walmart in Teotihuacan
> Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 13:34:56 -0400
>
> hi my friends,
> this is a rare political message about a new wal-mart store
> being constructed right near the anciant pyramids of Teotihuacan,
> Mexico, yet another expansion of the local-business-eating monster.
> First is a short article on what is happening, and then a couple of
> ways you can send a protest message, and then another article if you
> want more. please help stop this tragedy.
> Tiahui,
> Bert
>
<
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/09/11/mexico.walmart.reut/index.html&
gt;
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/09/11/mexico.walmart.reut/index.html
> Fight over Wal-Mart at Mexico ruins
>
> TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico (Reuters) -- Burning incense and sounding a
> conch shell horn, residents of an ancient Mexican city protested on
> Saturday at the construction of a Wal-Mart store on the edge of the
> ruins.
>
> The sprawling warehouse-style Bodega Aurrera, a unit of Wal-Mart in
> Mexico, is due to open in December in Teotihuacan, a major
> archeological site outside Mexico City.
>
> Opponents say it will ruin a way of life that dates back centuries
> and have taken legal action to stop it, in a fight that gives a
> grand dimension to the classic battle between big business and
> small-town values.
>
> "What they are doing in Teotihuacan is destroying Mexico's deepest
> roots for short-term interests like lower prices," local teacher
> Emanuel D'Herrera told about a dozen protesters outside
> Teotihuacan's town hall. "This is the flag of conquest by global
> interests, the symbol of the destruction of our culture."
>
> Other protesters bearing placards against the "gringo business"
> entered the town hall and pledged to stay there until the mayor
> heard them out.
>
> U.S.-based Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, faces increasing
> opposition in the United States as it stretches beyond its rural
> roots and into urban areas. Voters in a Los Angeles suburb recently
> rejected a Wal-Mart supercenter, and other communities have passed
> ordinances blocking its so-called big-box stores.
>
> The Teotihuacan construction site lies less than a mile (1.6 km)
> from the gated tourist park housing the main ruins and is visible
> from atop the Pyramid of the Sun that has defined the skyline for
> 2,000 years. Uphill battle
>
> Local activists know they are fighting a steep uphill battle.
> Wal-Mart Mexico has local and state approval for the store and
> construction is well under way.
>
> "I support the store, it will save me time and money," said Camilo
> Olivas, a father of four who works for the federal electricity
> commission in Teotihuacan.
>
> He drives 10 minutes every two weeks to shop at a Wal-Mart store in
> another town to find low prices.
>
> But a handful of opponents say Wal-Mart will kill local family-owned
> enterprises and erode a lifestyle dating back centuries, while
> sucking income from locals.
>
> They have filed a criminal complaint, charging authorities with
> acting illegally in approving the project. They filed a civil
> complaint on the same grounds and asked the nation's rights
> ombudsman to step in.
>
> Amid rising controversy, Mexico's government this month said a small
> pre-Hispanic altar was found buried at the construction site. Plans
> call for preserving the small structure under plexiglass in what
> will be the store's parking lot.
>
> "Mexico is one of the few places in the world where the seeds of
> culture and religion remain," said Tim Sikyea, or Lonely Eagle, a
> Dene Indian from the Northwest Territories in Canada who came to
> Teotihuacan this weekend for an annual ceremony with indigenous
> peoples from across the continent.
>
> "When you have big business come in you lose touch with that
> culture."
>
> No one knows for sure who founded the ancient seat of power and then
> abandoned it around 600 A.D. The Aztecs later came upon it and named
> it Teotihuacan (The Place Where Men Become Gods).
>
> --
> "I'm just a human being trying to make it in a world that is very
> rapidly losing its understanding of being human." John Trudell
>
> for more info, try going to the CNN website and searching with;
> wal-mart teotihuacan or just try this link;
>
http://websearch.cnn.com/search/search?source=cnn&invocationType=search/top&si
tes=web&query=wal-mart+teotihuacan
>
>
> to sign an on line petition;
>
http://www.petitiononline.com/chicano1/petition.html
>
> to send your own message to wal-mart;
>
>
http://www.walmartstores.com/wmstore/wmstores/HomePage.jsp?template=OnlineForm.j
sp
> here is a copy of the message I sent;
> Dear friends,
> I think that it is outrageous for you to consider building a
> store in Teotihuacan, Mexico. I travel there a great deal, and work
> with indigenous people, who feel like building your store is a
> sacrededge to their ancestors. Don't you make enough money in this
> country, that you need to pull your profits from the poor pockets of
> the people of Mexico and drive the small shops out of business? We
> should be supporting local small business and supporting the economy
> of Mexico, not extracting profits from the poor of other countries,
> and also driving small businesses out, both in this country and
> internationally. Please stop the construction in Teotihuacan
> immediately, and preserve the archaelogical treasures that belong to
> the Mexican people, as well as what is left of their local economy.
>
> another article from interpress news service;
> MEXICO:
> Wal-Mart, the Pyramids' New Neighbour
>
> Diego Cevallos
>
>
> MEXICO CITY, Sep 3 (IPS) - Less than two km from the heart of the
> Mexican archaeological zone of Teotihuacan and its awe-inspiring
> pyramids, the U.S.-based retail giant Wal-Mart is overcoming the
> resistance of a group of local residents and, to the amazement of
> UNESCO, is building one of its hypermarkets.
>
> Wal-Mart's 652 stores in Mexico serve a total of 600 million
> customers a year and sell more than 12 billion dollars in retail
> goods.
>
> The new store going in near the Teotihuacan citadel, 50 km north of
> Mexico City, is 80 percent complete, and is being built on land
> where a vibrant culture whose history is still full of enigmas
> flourished hundreds of years ago.
>
> "We'll put a stop to this with demolition, because a transnational
> corporation can't just come and trample on our historical
> patrimony," Lorenzo Trujillo, head of the Civic Front for the
> Defence of the Valley of Teotihuacan, a group that represents some
> 100 local residents from the area around the world-renowned
> archaeological zone, told IPS.
>
> With the backing of municipal permits and authorisation from the
> National Institute of Archaeology and History, Wal-Mart is building
> its new store on a 1.5-hectare plot of land which forms part of the
> nearly 500 hectares that are left of Tollan Teotihuacan, an
> indigenous name that means "Where Men Become Gods".
>
> The store's neighbours are the pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, the
> numerous temples and the Avenue of the Dead in Teotihuacan,
> estimated to be more than 1,400 years old.
>
> The construction of the store "is absurd, but in this country,
> anything can happen," said Lorenzo.
>
> In response to the Civic Front's protests, the governmental National
> Council for Culture and the Arts promised that it would review the
> legal aspects of the project, about which it claims to have received
> no prior notice before construction began.
>
> UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
> Organisation) also said it would investigate.
>
> "We are prepared to take drastic measures, but sadly there are
> people living near the pyramids who support the store, because they
> say it represents progress," said Lorenzo.
>
> In late July, around 50 members of the Civic Front, which is mainly
> made up of peasant farmers, teachers and a few owners of small local
> businesses, occupied the building site for three days, demanding
> that construction be brought to a halt.
>
> The protest ended peacefully, but the construction work continued,
> and a few days later Wal-Mart called for trials of those who
> occupied "its property."
>
> "The Teotihuacan community is divided, that's true, but those who
> believe in the defence of our history, culture and identity will
> fight to the very end to prevent a transnational corporation from
> stealing our history," said Trujillo.
>
> The National Council for Culture and the Arts said it would examine
> the building permits, and would block completion of the new store if
> irregularities are found.
>
> After the Civic Front filed complaints and the authorities
> investigated, the incomplete construction sites of two shopping
> centres were demolished in 1993 and 1997, not far from where the new
> Wal-Mart store is going in.
>
> When it laid the foundations of its new store, Wal-Mart reported
> that a private archaeologist it hired found just a few isolated
> artifacts, like a ceramic container and an arrowhead.
>
> But Trujillo said that could not possibly be true. "We are from this
> place, and we know that there is much more than that beneath the
> ground in this area," he argued.
>
> Teotihuacan is a religious citadel built at the dawn of the
> Christian era. The city reached its peak of splendour between the
> years 450 and 600 AC, but by the year 700, the local residents had
> left the area for unknown reasons.
>
> The name Teotihuacán came from the Aztecs, who discovered the
> abandoned buildings around the year 1300.
>
> Impressed by what they had found, the Aztecs thought the pyramids
> had been built by giants with the help of the gods, according to
> historians.
>
> The citadel originally covered about 3,500 hectares. But with the
> passage of time, settlements grew up around it, leaving unoccupied
> only the main ceremonial centres, where the pyramids are located,
> and a "buffer zone" where construction is limited.
>
> But that zone, where Wal-Mart is building, has gradually shrunk.
>
> Most of the area that was once Teotihuacan, a city that at its
> height had a population of 200,000, is now covered by houses and
> roads -- and, soon, a giant Wal-Mart hypermarket, if the Civic
> Front's efforts are unsuccessful.
>
> Within the 3,500-hectare area occupied by the ancient inhabitants,
> towns have cropped up like San Juan Teotihuacan, Santa MarÃa
> Coatlán, San MartÃn de las Pirámides and San Sebastián Xolapan,
> which are already home to more than 500,000 people. (END/2004)
>
>
>
>
> Thank you,
> Bert Gunn
>
> Bert Gunn at;
> Kalpulli Chaplin
> 18 Bedlam Rd
> Chaplin, CT 06235
> (860) 455-9203
>
bertgunn33@earthlink.net
In the past they have been pretty good at pissing off the goverment ... The only thing i can recall they did that attracted major controversy was stopping the florida recount ...
