April 19, 2008   What was it about Pope Benedict that caught the world's attention this last week as he addressed the United Nations and spoke frankly across Washington, D.C. and New York? Why is it that millions were energized by his simple, plain spoken and frankly boring talks? What was it that resonated with millions and millions about this Pope's message- so infectious and so awe-inspiring? There is no question that Rome's leader hit a nerve, more appropriately he hit the ball and knocked it out of the ball park with a home run that is resonating still today. The head of the Catholic Church plainly warned that all humans alive today have a major problem- their own manipulative selves succumbing to `moral relevancy'- wobbly, weak and goofy self proscribed selfishness.
 
The NATIONAL REVIEW -read it here- notes, " [Pope] Benedict’s point was that if relativists consider any claims of moral truth as inherently oppressive, they feel justified in attempting to muzzle those who make them. In Benedict’s words, they `seek to subordinate all religions to the super-dogma of relativism.' This tendency is particularly well-advanced in Europe, where the European Union is a relativist superstate hostile to traditional Christian morality. One of Benedict’s missions in his trip here is to provide Americans a common vocabulary for resisting an aggressive secularism...The Holy Father quoted the Father of Our Country for the proposition that morality and religion are the “indispensable supports” of our political order."
 
Superstates, currently installing themselves in the Andes, are propelled by their denial of basic human rights where no one has meaningful free speech and none have equal protection under the law and none feel safe or secure in their futures. La nerviosa-psychoses has taken over. But this Pope warns that this is because we ourselves let this happen and we ourselves are not powerless in the face of the cascading, energy sapping mental instability we preach to ourselves and our families. No indeed- this Pope warned that la vida manipulativa/moral relevancy is the scourge of our days and like any pestilence must end before our contract with society and our contract with ourselves ends.
 
Any cult tries to control human thinking, whether it is the cult of smallish Christian sub groups or violent Iranian fascists.

Mainstream religion does not seek to control but rather work hand in glove with civil society for the requisite moral backbone all too often missing in action, as if each depended on the other for they do.
 
La vida manipulativa is a cult in many ways and it deteriorates our moral clarity with a thousand cuts and slides in to the moral relevancy- where no morals are relevant- every day. This Pope warned that each of us must define and uphold each day the truths which are indeed self evident in a moral compass of any meaning. In fact, a moral compass- like any touring road map- must be well defined or the person is lost. And if we are lost, we will stay lost unless and until we track a well defined step by step road map out of being lost and stop giving ourselves over to the deteriorating disease of inertia, stupidity, moral relativism where nothing is moral and everything is about cutting the deal.
 
Valladares yesterday in the WALL STREET JOURNAL told us incorrectly that President Bush has an immense obligation to righting the wrongs inside Cuba. Valladares once again had the right string [Cuba has massive dictatorial disasters under its cruel communism] but the wrong yo-yo [this is neither the fault of the Church nor Bush's fault] Indeed the USA has alone stood to denounce Castro's hell hole while every Latin nation kisses the ring of the depraved murderous thug called Fidel Castro instead of the ring of the Pope. Valladares has succumbed to the decades old disease of blaming the USA and the Church for "not doing enough to help the poor" when he should be blaming each of us for we are each of us obligated to stand side by side with the Church and with our governments for the good and not the moral slide in to making excuses, hiding facts and enabling- what do they call it-? alternative democracy and alternative law and order- to replace the essentials and bedrock of society. All of South America- indeed the Americas- has an immense obligation to righting the wrongs in Cuba and to date none have stood with the USA on anything meaningful. Like Lula, most Latin nations suck up to Castro and take illegal campaign monies out of Cuba and Chavez now. Yes- the Church has been seen to have sold out to the dictatorship of Cuba. Yes- this Pope will rip down the Iron Curtain on the games being played not only by half of the Catholic Church today by its priests and leaders who actually support Chavez and Castro but do also insist that Cuba be treated as a land of integrity with full nation rights, also called the removal of the Cuban embargo. We appreciate Vallardes and his organization but it is time to stop whining and blaming Bush, the USA and the church writ large. Vallardes blames the wrong group. Like many pro Castro apologists who blame the Embargo [which is not a real embargo anyway] from the USA against Cuba for Cuba's own failings, neither the embargo nor Bush is the problem howevermuch even Hugo Chavez and Rafael Correa tell us that it is.  The pro Chavez, pro-Correa and pro Castro Catholics may be kissing the Pope's ring this week and seeking holy communion while asking for the Holy Father's Blessings and absolution but they do yet fund and promote Castro and Chavez and Correa behind the scenes and under the table, along with abortion clinics, euthanasia centers, hate Israel propaganda and hate the USA actors across the Soros-backed U.S. Democratic Party. These are not the entirety of the US people, any government, or the Church, although this Pope's recent church-backed foray into the land of Castro was a disaster for Church integrity. A goodly number of church backed folks are pathetic- yes- like many who urge the US Congress to over ride U.S. laws- setting precedents unknown before this month to replace official law and will continue unless and of course this US Congress ceases to over ride US laws by "House Rule" changes which gives the Congress full powers which constitutionally it has not the right to abuse by stripping out advise and consent, debate and the false guise that politics alone overrides law and order and accountability. Valladares is right to report that Cardinal Bertone lied about Cuba and lied that Cuba's problems will be corrected by lifting the Cuban Embargo. Valladares, instead of blaming the Church and blaming the USA, should commend those who ardently disavow Rome's Bertone, who after all simply mimicked the neo Marxist European union, almost every Latin nation, every US funded US AID group which holds the majority of US -Latin funds today [not the smallish meaningless groups which barely exist to promote road building and 4 hectare broccoli farms for good measure] and a goodly majority of the U.S. democrats. Valladares could have begun with the essentials of the problem- paid political propaganda and disinformation plus DISIP agents running amuck. We hope he will deliver some due diligence soon.
 
The dogma of relativism is undone with daily clear moral living and unselfish acts of personal charity.
 
At the White House, President Bush told Benedict, “In a world where some no longer believe that we can distinguish between simple right and wrong, we need your message to reject this ‘dictatorship of relativism.’ ”
 
Ecuador has a dictatorship under Rafael Correa and his cabal of criminal communists simply because its own citizens no longer distinguish between right and wrong Ecuadoreans alone must reject Correa's dictatorship of dishonesty- the dictatorship of relativism which all have succumbed to, following their own depraved indifference to right and wrong and their commitment to selfishness.
 
This unending commitment to running away from the demands of our time, pretending we are irresponsibly "too busy" or worse, preaching the gospel that only cocktail parties contain the nexus of all wisdom, we see Ecuador today as the globe's crime and murder capitol because....we are "too busy" or the even more dishonest complaint: - too nervous to lead a meaningful life. This then is Ecuador and its people- frozen by their own inertia while remaining addicted to manipulative living. It has gotten Ecuador in to a huge problem and rightly so, all Ecuadoreans today are known by the company they keep: dogs and vermin and lazy sycophants. Ecuador is today called a Bank Robber for all its fake claims and dishonest positions before the globe. And Ecuadoreans themselves stay hidden behind their walls and buried away inside their high rise condos, moving in and out of more self imprisoning condos on Brickell Avenue in Miami, and still yet stand for nothing and worse- do nothing. Twice in one week, USA's major newspapers report on Ecuador's epidemic- its refusal to stop manipulating itself and others.
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The Wall Street Journal
Banana Republic and Friends
April 19, 2008; Page A10

Maybe Willie Sutton, the natty thief who robbed banks because "that's where the money is," picked the wrong target. If only he'd gone after oil companies, he could have made more money, avoided jail time, and even picked up an award or two along the way.

Consider Pablo Fajardo and Luis Yanza, two Ecuadorians who on Monday were the toast of San Francisco after winning the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize. Mr. Fajardo, a lawyer, and Mr. Yanza, co-founder of the Amazon Defense Front, have been waging a long legal campaign against Chevron for allegedly despoiling the Amazon hinterland. Late last month, an Ecuadorian court trying the case was handed a report assessing the damages at between $8.3 billion and $16 billion dollars. Chevron is now girding for an adverse ruling from a clearly politicized court.

The story dates back to the 1960s, when Texaco (which merged with Chevron in 2001) became a minority partner with state-run Petroecuador, a partnership that lasted until the early 1990s when the Ecuadorians assumed full control of their oil operations. At the time, an independent environmental auditing firm recommended that Texaco spend $13.2 million cleaning up its well sites. Texaco ended up spending $40 million. Ecuador later "absolved, liberated and forever freed" the company from "any claim or litigation by the Government of Ecuador concerning the obligations acquired" by Texaco.

By its own admission, Petroecuador has since made an environmental mess in the Amazon, with some 1,000 oil spills in the past five years alone. But that hasn't stopped assorted trial lawyers from prospecting for Chevron's gold beneath Petroecuador's sludge. In 1993, "international human-rights lawyer" Cristobal Bonifaz filed a lawsuit against Texaco in the U.S. for $1.5 billion. Mr. Bonifaz's suit was repeatedly tossed from American courts, most recently last fall when the court also fined Mr. Bonifaz $45,000 for his legal chicanery.

Yet the case has lived on in Mr. Fajardo's parallel suit in Ecuador. According to last month's "expert" report, written by a mining engineer named Richard Stalin Cabrera, Chevron owes $2.9 billion in compensation for 428 cancer-related deaths; never mind that the report fails to establish a causal link between oil spills and cancer. Chevron is also supposed to pay $8.3 billion for its "unjust enrichment," another whopper considering that Petroecuador was by far the greatest beneficiary of its consortium with Texaco. Other alleged Texaco sins include introducing alcohol into the region, a claim said to be substantiated by the alcohol-induced death of an indigenous shaman.

Meanwhile, the case has become the latest environmental cause célèbre. In December, CNN awarded Mr. Fajardo one of its "Hero Awards." Actress Daryl Hannah has had herself photographed dipping her hands in oil spills almost certainly caused by Petroecuador. Groups like AmazonWatch offer one-stop shopping for misinformation about the case. Also in on the act is Ecuador's radical president (and Hugo Chavez ally) Rafael Correa, who has his own reasons to seek a huge Chevron payday.

How all this will play out is anyone's guess. Charles James, Chevron's general counsel, says his company does "not intend to succumb to extortion." The company will seek international arbitration should it lose in Ecuador's kangaroo courts. That could take years. In the meantime, we wonder whose interests are served by a case that deflects attention from the real source of Ecuador's pollution while burnishing the country's reputation as a banana republic. Certainly not the people of Ecuador.
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We have seen this story before and will see it again. Rafael Correa's bank robbery approach to leading the nation is costing Ecuadoreans far more money than if he were acting sensibly and upholding what few laws he has not yet already stripped away, which is of course the majority. Ecuador is known for its people- mostly seen as what they are: lazy whiners who do nothing but manipulate and complain while stealing the hard work of others and preaching the gospel that no one needs to believe in anything except their own vapidity and selfishness. This is an expensive string of dysfunctional family values which functionally delivers no benefit to anyone except perhaps on a drunken Friday night which often hides from the dawn of the next day.
 
-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis