Yucatan Diary Day 8
Merida and Progreso, Yucatan
by Ben White
posted 01/13/05
Executive Summary:
Progreso port Captain changes mind and declares Manuel Jimenez´s boat the Alacran Reef prohibited to take human shields and reporters out to confront Research Vessel Maurice Ewing. Further, he sends a message to all of the fishermen living along the entire northern coast ordering them not to assist us. Maurice Ewing here, but, as far as I know, not yet cleared for blasting. We explore alternative means.
This land has suffered such a long history of successful brutality, only a fool would think that the forces of life and beauty and wonder would triumph today over pure brute power and money. Yesterday I learned about the huge 16th century stone cathedral that dominates the main square in Merida about 50´from where I now sit typing. It was built on the same site as a destroyed Mayan temple. Using the same stones stacked by Mayan slaves.
Last night we got the word that Cap. Alt Luis Isauro Contreras Garcia (capprogreso@hotmail.com), the Captain of the port of Progreso and all of the other ports in Yucatan state, had decided to just say no. He refuses to issue permission to fisherman Manuel Jimenez to take six journalists, three human shields and crew out in his boat the Alacran Reef to meet the Ewing. Plus, he has ordered all of the collectives and fishermen along the coast not to help us.
Then this morning, gleaning the morning crop of newspapers, I discover that Captain Garcia also was quoted as saying that the Ewing was, for the moment, prevented in beginning their experiments. So, for the moment, stalemate.
Except that I expect the Ewing will be cleared momentarily. And the threat I have had explained to me is formidable. The Mexican Navy is allegedly planning on 'protecting' the Ewing from the likes of me and my other mojado (wet) brothers. If I jump into the water next to the Ewing, their plans are to immediately haul me away. To deport, I asked? No, I was told, Just take and keep.
I think about the time we were trying to stop the cutting of Rocky Brook old growth forest near the Dosewallips River in Washington -that last day when 200 of us broke through the police do-not-cross line to march to the little 55 acre forest in jeopardy. Rocky Brook was a refugia- the last area in the whole watershed with the original flora and fauna, to be left for all time to re-seed the surrounding clearcut National Forest. This is what they were cutting, the seed bank of life, leaving no trees, right down to the salmon stream.
Once through the line, we started marching the five miles or so to the forest. Got just far enough, rounded a corner to find a line of police dogs and a hundred cops with bunches of those plastic handcuffs hanging like garlands from their wide leather belts. We scattered. Pursued, I climbed a tree, of course. They were able to cut Rocky Brook with the might of lots of guns and dogs and cops. The armed might of the state.
Fight like water. Water doesn´t fight back, but it surrounds its obstacles. All those little drops of rain. Insignificant little things. One by one hitting the ground, or the old buildings here in Merida with the melting stone faces. Water perseveres. It never has to hurry. Water always wins. We are as water.
Sometimes we win by losing and our opponent loses by winning. If the Ewing and Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory pull off this assault on the seas over the objections of just about all of the Yucatan peninsula with the use of the Navy and multiple flyovers, with the world finally paying attention to the drama, they lose. They cannot put this particular genie back into the bottle now.
I leave Merida tomorrow to look for other boats we can use. I will go back to talk to the fishermen in the little ports along the north to see if they have been so pervasively intimidated as reported. I will not chose, however, any action that could lead to an even tougher life for any of them- if they or their boat is threatened. If anyone out there knows someone with a boat in the Caribbean or Florida that they would like used to protect the life of the Yucatan, please have them contact Susan at AWI in Virginia at 703-836-4300. If prevented from leaving a Yucatan port, maybe we can come in from somewhere else.
The news coverage is, perhaps predictably, rising to a fever pitch just as I wish they would go away and let me figure out how to go around the obstacles and carry on. Agence France, London Guardian, AP. Radio interview tonight. Big press conference tomorrow. My picture is in the Por Esto today with the headline BENJAMIN WHITE- YES I AM SCARED. I am weary of it all and just want to join this battle. But never before has a seismic test anywhere been so hard fought, with the din of battle being heard around the world. I see from the Lamont Doherty web site that the amount of seismic shots has been reduced 38% from that 'originally planned' in order to reduce the potential effects of their sound blasting. We have the seismic industry scrambling to clean up their act, which is highly in need of it.
I will do anything that I can think of to get out next to that blasted blasting ship. Even though I generally distrust true believers of any path, I have not the slightest doubt but that this seismic experiment is a really bad idea. But if I am unable to stop the ship with this mortal coil, I will start patrolling the northern coast for bodies of my brothers and sister critters who have no choice but to be too near to the ship. I will increase my canvassing of the fishermen for their help. My understanding is, with only an Incidental Harassment Authorization in hand, the death of one whale, dolphin or turtle would exceed the ship´s permit from the US and cause the 're-initiation of the public consultation process', meaning the jig would be up. I called the Office of Permits of the National Marine Fisheries Service from Merida last week and asked for an explanation of exactly the things that could shut down this study. For example, if we find an endangered turtle dead from no apparent reason on the beach, is this enough? Or will there then be a big argument as to whether the Ewing caused it? I have learned not to trust the process. We´ll get right back to you, they said. A week later still no answer.
I am in this for the long haul. After over thirty years of activism I shall not be daunted by a bad day. I want to stop the Ewing from blasting these waters. But I want more to get international regulation of the release of manmade sounds from seismic, sonar and ship traffic. Weirdly, a brutal victory of the Ewing here could generate such global antipathy for this antiquated method of obtaining information that it will serve the greater effort. I hope so. We will be going to the UN this year to make our argument. Of course, it hasn´t escaped our notice that we are stepping on the toes of the oil and gas industry as well as the military industrial complex.
But what's the fun of going after easy targets?
Mexican culinary mysteries to close the page:
Why is it that Mexicans only eat sea animals (fish and shellfish) during the day, never at night?
What are those roots for sale that look like giant garlic?
How does the twirled leaf I bought from the Mayan grandmother cure nose and throat problems when swirled around the mouth (but not bitten) nine times?
Why is lime and pepper put on everything, especially sweet things?
Like other tropical places, the curtain of night doesn´t fall slowly but of a moment. It is light and then it isn't. I give thanks for the lessons of another day. Death has no struggle. Give this fool life.
Love and Revolution,
Ben
An article about protest appears in The Guardian.
Yucatan Diary Day 9
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