It has begun: Belo Monte Dam

[auroraglacialis]

Originally Posted by Raptor

You can't be so naive as to think that the only way of stopping this project is by overthrowing the government

That is not what I said. I said that the government has to be afraid of being toppled over. That does not have to mean that it will actually happen and it does not even mean that it has to be a revolution. In the most benign case this could mean simply that the government fears of loosing public support so much that they will not be in office after the next election or have to resign before that due to public demand. This is the kind of strength a movement needs to actually pressure politics. No one will listen to a small minority with some demands and frankly even a large minority wont do much.
I keep pointing to the German example of the anti nuclear movement. It took decades of large scale activism, protesting, civil disobedience and uncivil disobedience, of lobbying, forming a political party (that then dumped its ideas once in power) and for many years the majority of Germans would have voted against nuclear power. But in the end the final decision was made after the Fukushima incident which enraged people so much that the people in power actually felt that if they do not act to the will of the people now, they will completly loose out, the government coalition of parties could break apart and the two ruling parties could loose all credibility to being democratic for the years to come.

Try not to generalize the indigenous as unequivocally good. True, they should have the right to maintain their culture and their territory, but we shouldn't only consider the viewpoint of the indigenous.

Yes we should. Sorry, there is almost nothing that can justify anything else. It is the land of their ancestors, it is their home, their territory, their livelihood, their world. If they are not "good" - it does not matter - then maybe we have to talk to them, discuss with them, show them things that are not so great that they are doing and explain it to them, support women, provide help if they ask for it - that is all fine. Flooding their territory, deforesting their land or building roads through it is not. That is occupation.

There are reasons that can justify conquest and occupation. I am glad that the land I live in now was conquered by an alliance of different nations. But that is an exception. And a very rare one at that.