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Last week U.S. mailman Doug Hughes made national headlines when he flew a tiny personal aircraft known as a gyrocopter on to the lawn of the U.S. Capitol in an act of civil disobedience. Hughes was carrying letters to every member of Congress urging them to address corruption and to pass campaign finance reform. The letter began with a quote from John Kerry’s farewell speech to the Senate: "The unending chase for money I believe threatens to steal our democracy itself." After landing on the Capitol Mall, Doug Hughes was arrested and could now face up to four years in prison on charges of violating national defense airspace and operating an unregistered aircraft. Despite being under house arrest and forced to wear a GPS monitoring device, Doug Hughes has decided to keep speaking out about the need for campaign finance reform.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We begin today’s show with Doug Hughes, the U.S. mailman who made national headlines last week when he flew a tiny personal aircraft known as the gyrocopter onto the lawn of the U.S. Capitol in an act of civil disobedience. Hughes was carrying letters to every member of Congress urging them to address corruption and to pass campaign finance reform. The letter began with a quote from John Kerry’s farewell speech to the Senate: "The unending chase for money I believe threatens to steal our democracy itself."
Doug Hughes flew about an hour from Maryland into restricted airspace and onto the Capitol’s West Lawn, stunning authorities and bystanders. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Hughes literally flew below the radar, going undetected, before landing on the Capitol lawn. Before taking off, Hughes had spoken about his plans to the Tampa Bay Times.
DOUG HUGHES: I’m going to violate the no-fly zone nonviolently. I intend for nobody to get hurt. And I’m going to land on the Capitol Mall in front of the Capitol building. I’m going to have 535 letters trapped to the landing gear in boxes, and those letters are going to be addressed to every member of Congress. I don’t believe that the authorities are going to shoot down a 60-year-old mailman in a flying bicycle.
AMY GOODMAN: After landing on the Capitol Mall, Doug Hughes was arrested and could now face up to four years in prison on charges of violating national defense airspace and operating an unregistered aircraft. Despite being under house arrest and forced to wear a GPS monitoring device, Doug Hughes has decided to keep speaking out about the need for campaign finance reform. He joins us now from his home in Ruskin, Florida, under house arrest.
Doug Hughes, welcome to Democracy Now!
DOUG HUGHES: Good morning. Thank you for inviting me.
AMY GOODMAN: It’s very good to have you with us. We’re just going to try to bring up the sound of your microphone, because we can hardly hear you. But can you describe what exactly you did?
DOUG HUGHES: Well, this [inaudible] for quite a while. A key part of my plan was—
AMY GOODMAN: It looks like we just lost Doug Hughes. Now we’re getting him back on. You have to understand, we have a truck at his house, because he is under house arrest inside, as he sits inside in front of his piano. Let’s go to the congressmember, Walter Jones of North Carolina, who took to the House floor and talked about the gyrocopter protest and the need for campaign finance reform.
REP. WALTER JONES JR.: ... onto the Capitol lawn to make a point about influence of money in politics. While I don’t condone violating restricted airspace and putting innocent people at risk by flying a gyrocopter on the Capitol lawn, Mr. Hughes does have a point about the pervasive influence of money in politics. I’ve seen it get worse and worse in my 20 years in Congress. The Citizens United decision by the United States Supreme Court in 2010 created super PACs and multimillionaires that buy candidates.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Republican Congressmember Walter Jones speaking on the floor of the House. One day after Doug Hughes landed his gyrocopter on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol, we spoke with Congressmember Alan Grayson about money in politics. Grayson is a Democrat representing Florida’s 9th Congressional District.
REP. ALAN GRAYSON: I’m the only member of the House of Representatives who raised most of his campaign funds in the last election from small contributions of less than $200. Thousands of people came to our website, CongressmanWithGuts.com, and made contributions. I am one—one—out of 435. On the other side of the building, over at the U.S. Senate, there’s only one member of the U.S. Senate who raised most of his campaign from some small contributions. That’s Bernie Sanders, who you heard earlier in this broadcast. That tells you something. In fact, to a large degree, in both parties, because of the absence of campaign finance reform, the place is bought and paid for. And the only question is: Do the members stay bought? That’s what the corporate lobbyists stay up late at night wondering about: Is that member going to stay bought?
Now, I was actually in the courtroom when this disastrous Citizens United decision was decided five years ago. Mitch McConnell was two seats to my left. We were the only public officials who were in the courtroom. Mitch McConnell was the happiest I have ever seen him that day. He was literally chortling when the decision was rendered. And I said on MSNBC that night five years ago that if we do nothing, you can kiss this country goodbye. Well, pucker up, because right now the millionaires and the billionaires and the multinational corporations are calling the shots with whatever they want in TPP, whatever they want in fast track—more generally, whatever they want. They get the bailouts. They get the tax breaks. They get the so-called deregulation. They get what they want here because they get what they pay for.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: That was Congressman Alan Grayson talking about campaign finance reform. Doug Hughes is the mailman from Florida who landed a personal aircraft known as a gyrocopter on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol last week, and we have him back in the feed. I wanted to ask you, Doug, were you surprised that you were able to get as far as you did onto the Capitol Mall?
DOUG HUGHES: Well, my expectation was that my letter would get through, they’d find out who I was, and the decision would be made that it’s less dangerous to let me land, since I had already been vetted by the Secret Service and they knew I wasn’t carrying a bomb. That didn’t work. And it turned out I was able to land safely anyway.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Now, you did everything possible to warn folks ahead of time that you were doing this protest?
DOUG HUGHES: Yeah. I sent an email, which some people have said was inadequate, but the email gave the reasons why they didn’t need to shoot me down. And I had a website, and on the website I asked people to call the White House to tell them to read the email, what address it went to and who it was from. And the Tampa Bay Times called in to the White House to tell them that I was coming in. So, every effort was made to give the Homeland Security advance warning of my arrival and who I was and that I wasn’t a threat.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you fly under the radar, Doug Hughes, in this kind of flying bicycle contraption, a gyrocopter, and you land on the West Lawn of the Capitol. You could have been blown out of the sky. Was [campaign] finance reform that important to you?
DOUG HUGHES: Yes. I’m a father, I’m a grandfather, and I can see the change over the decades as we slide from a democracy to a plutocracy. Just like Alan Grayson said, the fat cats are calling the shots. They’re getting everything they want. And the voters know it. Across the political spectrum—center, left and right—they know that this Congress isn’t representing the people. And yes, it was worth risking my life, it was worth risking my freedom, to get reform so that Congress works for the people.
AMY GOODMAN: You’re a letter carrier. You’re a postal carrier, a mailman. How many letters were you carrying in your gyrocopter to deliver to Congress?
DOUG HUGHES: I believe the count was 535, but I never actually counted them. I handle a lot of them in the process of printing them, signing them, stamping them. There was a lot of hours that went into getting the letters done.
AMY GOODMAN: Were you planning to hand-deliver them individually to each member of Congress?
DOUG HUGHES: No, no. At no time did I expect that was going to happen. The plan was to get the letters there in such a way that—let me step back. Congress knows what’s going on. I wasn’t telling Congress anything that they’re not aware of. I was telling them something they don’t want the people to be aware of. And I was telling the people that there are solutions in place. They know there’s a problem. I’m telling people something they don’t know: There are solutions that have already been designed; they only have to be implemented. And it’s in our power to implement them.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you talk about some of those solutions and what your letter actually said?
DOUG HUGHES: What my letter actually said to the Congress critters was they’ve got to decide whether they’re going to deny that corruption exists, or they’re going to pretend that they’re doing something about it, or they’re going to really roll up their sleeves and be a part of reform. But I’m looking to the local media, particularly the print media, OK, at the local level, to hold the candidates’ feet to the fire and force them to take a stand on real reform and whether or not they’re going to vote for it or whether or not they’re going to try and take a halfway, mealy-mouthed stand on it, which means they’re going to try and preserve the status quo. The idea is, the voters can decide well if they’re informed. The national media can’t and won’t inform the voters about where the candidates stand. But the local media, which has been, you know, very weak and impotent in the political process, can really take the ball, and they can be the moving force in informing the voters.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your own evolution of your thinking. You were formerly in the U.S. Navy, served on the USS Enterprise. Talk about the evolution of your thinking on this issue.
DOUG HUGHES: Well, I wound up hanging out with a friend of mine, Mike Shanahan, and over a bunch of beers in his backyard, we came up with a written action plan, which we weren’t able to take anywhere. That was called The Civilist Papers. But Mike came up with the idea that what we needed to do is take our written plan and send certified copies of it to every member of Congress, and that was the nucleus of the idea. But we observed that it wouldn’t work, because Congress already knows; what we really need to do is get that letter to the public. They need to be aware. And during the time that we were working on this, we discovered the existence of other groups and other very sophisticated plans that had been written by people a lot smarter than me. But we also observed these groups weren’t getting any traction. They had managed to get through to the people who were sympathetic to the idea, but it wasn’t going a lot further than that, nor could they get any attention in the media about what they wanted to do.
AMY GOODMAN: Earlier this month, Hillary Rodham Clinton kicked off her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination with her first formal campaigning in Iowa, and she talked about this issue, as she has for a few days now, campaign finance reform.
HILLARY CLINTON: We need to fix our dysfunctional political system and get unaccountable money out of it once and for all, even if that takes a constitutional amendment.
AMY GOODMAN: Is that what you’re calling for, Doug Hughes? Does that hearten you?
DOUG HUGHES: Yes, I’m glad to hear the candidates are talking about this. Cenk Ungar [sic], who’s a liberal media figure—
AMY GOODMAN: Cenk Uygur.
DOUG HUGHES: —has been working on an Article V—say again?
AMY GOODMAN: Cenk Uygur.
DOUG HUGHES: He’s been working on an Article V convention, and this does an entire end-around on Congress, so that Congress doesn’t ever even vote on the amendment. It can be done completely through the states through an Article V convention that would be called. The amendment would be designed, then it goes back to the states, and three-quarters of the states have to ratify that constitutional amendment. At that point it becomes law, without the House or the Senate ever voting on it. So the states can put limits on the Congress, OK, and fix this problem so that there’s no backsliding that would ever happen. The constitutional amendment can protect legislation from it being struck down by the courts. So, this whole thing can happen, and it can stay.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Doug Hughes, are you encouraging other like-minded Americans who feel this way about campaign finance reform to come up with other creative ways to get the issue before the American public?
DOUG HUGHES: I’m absolutely sympathetic to other people getting involved with whatever their view on it is. I think we’re going to see a lot of Trojan horse legislation and groups come up that are intended to misdirect people into solutions that have no power. OK. I’ve pretty much signed on to the Anti-Corruption Act. And I will look at other ideas that are out there, but the Anti-Corruption Act, which stands no chance of getting out of committee, as we are right now, was written by a former head of the Federal Election [Commission], FEC. This guy is as far to the conservative end as Cenk [Uygur] is liberal, OK? That’s why I say this thing completely goes across the political spectrum. But what this guy wrote will work, if it’s passed without any amendments. That’s got to be a key part of this, is that they can’t take this act, that will work, cut out the key parts so that it has no teeth, and then say they passed reform.
AMY GOODMAN: Doug, one last question. Your son committed suicide last year. Did losing him—in 2012. Did losing him affect what you decided to do this year?
DOUG HUGHES: Yes. No, I wasn’t trying to commit suicide, but his death was pointless. It was a waste. And he had so much potential. I looked at what I had done and accomplished and contributed, and I looked at how we’re going to leave this country and this world if things go on the way they are. I’ve got kids. I’ve got two adult children, and I’ve got an 11-year-old daughter. I want to hand them a real democracy, so that they have the power to control their destiny and their children’s destiny. And right now they’re losing that. We’re losing that. And it’s in our power to restore democracy, and we can find the solutions to the problems that we have, if the people have control.
AMY GOODMAN: Doug, we want to thank you for being with us. Doug Hughes is a postal carrier from Florida who landed a tiny personal aircraft known as a gyrocopter on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol last week in a protest to demand campaign finance reform. He was carrying letters to every member of Congress, calling for them to address corruption. Hughes flew about an hour from Maryland into restricted airspace onto the Capitol’s West Lawn, stunning authorities and bystanders. He is under house arrest. We’re speaking to him at his home in Florida. He faces four years in prison. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back in a minute. Today is Earth Day.
As we continue to mark Earth Day, we look at a new report that finds killings of environmental activists on the rise, with indigenous communities hardest hit. According to Global Witness, at least 116 environmentalists were killed last year — more than two a week. Three-quarters of the deaths occurred in Central and South America. Just recently, three indigenous Tolupán leaders were gunned down during an anti-mining protest in northern Honduras, which has become the most dangerous country for environmental activists. We speak to Billy Kyte, campaigner for Global Witness and author of their new report, "How Many More?"
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: As we continue to mark Earth Day, we end today’s show with a new report that finds at least two people working to save the environment were killed each week in 2014. In total, the group Global Witness documented the murders of at least 116 environmental activists last year. Three-quarters of them were killed in Central and South America.
AMY GOODMAN: The report is called "How Many More?" It looks in detail at an activist who stood up to a mining project in one of the deadliest countries and survived. Her name is Berta Cáceres, and she is another winner of this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize. This is Berta Cáceres describing how she helped organize indigenous communities in Honduras to resist a hydro dam on the Gualcarque River because it could destroy their water supply.
BERTA CÁCERES: [translated] In more than 150 indigenous assemblies, our community decided that it did not want that hydroelectric dam.
NARRATOR: Berta filed complaints with the Honduran government and organized peaceful protests in the nation’s capital. As her visibility increased, she became a target for the government.
BERTA CÁCERES: [translated] We denounced this dam and were threatened with smear campaigns, imprisonment and murder. But nobody heard our voices, until we set up a roadblock to take back control of our territory.
NARRATOR: For well over a year, the Lenca maintained the roadblock, withstanding harassment and violent attacks. Tragically, Rio Blanco community leader Tomás Garcia was shot by the Honduran military at a peaceful protest.
BERTA CÁCERES: [translated] Seeing this man murdered, the community became indignant, forcing a confrontation. The company was told that they had to get out.
PROTESTER: [translated] We have 500 people here, and we are Rio Blanco comrades. We will defend Rio Banco, and we will not let them pass.
BERTA CÁCERES: [translated] And that is how Sinohydro left Rio Blanco. But it cost us in blood.
AMY GOODMAN: Honduran activist Berta Cáceres, who won the 2015 Goldman Prize, as well. For more, we’re joined by Billy Kyte, campaigner for Global Witness, author of their new report, "How Many More?" As it went to press, three more environmental and land activists were killed in Latin America in the space of three days.
Billy, welcome to Democracy Now! Lay out for us this report and what you have found.
BILLY KYTE: Sure. So we found last year that over 116 people, that we know about, were killed defending their rights to the environment and land. A shocking 40 percent of those victims were indigenous communities. So we’re seeing more and more the competition for natural resources intensifying and having very disastrous effects.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And why are so many in Central and South America being killed?
BILLY KYTE: Well, there’s a long history of social conflicts and social movements in Central and South America. There’s also—it’s a very resource-rich region. And many marginalized groups—for instance, indigenous peoples—are being targeted for the fact their lands are very rich in commodities, which are wanted by companies and political and economic interests. It’s also an area where civil society is very strong, which has—it’s a double-edged sword. One, it means they’re more exposed to violence and conflict around the defense of the environments and land. But also it means that they are better at monitoring these issues. So, although it is a global problem, we certainly see that Central and South America is where it’s been hardest hit.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, talk about the three indigenous Tolupán leaders who were gunned down during an anti-mining protest in northern Honduras. They had received death threats warning them to stop their attempts to protect the environment.
BILLY KYTE: So these were indigenous leaders who stood up against illegal mining and illegal logging in their communities, and they were gunned down, as you say, at a peaceful sit-in protest to stop—checking cars being filled up with illegal timber and minerals from their communities. And they then left the community for six months. They were granted emergency protection measures by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. They returned after six months back to their community. But the perpetrators are still at large. They’re still walking freely in the village without—even though they have police arrest warrants out for them. And even, you know, a couple of weeks ago, one of the leaders was—who had been threatened, was killed. And this person had had protection measures from the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. So it’s still very much an ongoing crisis in that area.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us a little more about the 2015 Goldman Prize winner who we just played a clip of, Berta Cáceres, and her significance and what she’s doing in Honduras?
BILLY KYTE: Well, she’s an emblematic case. I mean, she’s a very courageous activist. She fights for indigenous rights, but also women’s rights, as well. Her leadership in COPINH, indigenous network in Honduras, has been inspirational for many, many people. She’s suffered threats against her life. Two of her children have had to flee the country because of these threats. She continues to receive threats. Even recently, she received attempted plans to kidnap her. And despite this, she still struggles on with the fight to protect indigenous areas and the rivers of the Rio Blanco community.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what is the responsibility of international bodies or governments on this issue of continuing killings of environmental activists around the world?
BILLY KYTE: Well, our report has shown there’s been a 20 percent increase last year from the previous year, and—of these killings. This is almost double the amount of journalists killed in the same period, but it doesn’t have the same amount of attention. This is a hidden crisis, which people need to monitor. International bodies need to really stand up and have a real wake-up call and realize that this is an issue. And what happens—what needs to happen is that governments need to make sure that perpetrators are accountable, that the problem is monitored systematically, that people are actually put in jail for these crimes, and the heightened risk posed to these environmental land rights activists is recognized. For instance, a Human Rights Council resolution would be helpful as a starting point to really put pressure on governments to act and bring perpetrators to account. Impunity breeds violence. And the environment is now seen as a key battleground for human rights, and people are dying every day for the protection of these rights.
AMY GOODMAN: In countries that are seen to have somewhat progressive leaders, like Evo Morales in Bolivia or Rafael Correa in Ecuador, in these particular countries there’s huge battles with the government and indigenous rights activists, environmental activists, around the extractive industries and the governments relying on this. Can you talk about this?
BILLY KYTE: Sure. So I think those governments, we have to be careful, because they have two different discourses: One is the domestic audience; one is the international audience. Internationally, they’re seen as the kind of purveyors of Madre Tierra, you know, Pachamama, Mother Earth, but actually, when the reality is that they are selling off a lot of their countries’ resources, particularly in the Amazon region, for instance. An Ecuadorean activist was killed during the U.N. climate change conference in Lima last year, for instance, and there are links for his activism into the fact that he was murdered. So, yes, we are seeing a lot of resource-rich areas being sold, often in secret resource deals, and this really must end. That’s where the kind of crux of the problem, the fact that governments and companies are allowing indigenous lands, other communities’ territories to be sold off to the highest bidder.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And you mentioned the Amazon, the key role of the Amazon in the fight to save our Earth, and the activism there. Has there been any reduction in the violence against environmental activists in that region of the world?
BILLY KYTE: I wouldn’t say so. No. I mean, just literally in November, December last year, four indigenous leaders in the Peruvian Amazon were killed by illegal loggers. And now these people, Edwin Chota and his compatriots, have been fighting for the official recognition of land title for their areas, of their indigenous communities, for almost over 10, 15 years. And the Peruvian government refused to officially recognize their land title, even though this had been promised over a long period of time. So illegal loggers were able to take advantage of this vacuum of power in those areas and illegally log in their communities. And anyone who stands up, like Edwin Chota and his colleagues, were killed. So, no, it’s particularly prevalent in the Amazon, and it’s an issue which is—which will continue to be—see on the airwaves—
AMY GOODMAN: Billy Kyte, we want to thank you for being with us, campaigner for Global Witness. We’ll link to your report, "How Many More?" which documents the killing of environmental activists worldwide.
I’ll be speaking at Colorado College Thursday night at 7:00. Check out our website. And we’ll be broadcasting from The Hague Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
As the world marks the 45th Earth Day, we speak to Kenyan activist Phyllis Omido, who was just awarded the Africa 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize, the world’s most prestigious environmental award. Omido organized protests to close a lead plant in Mombasa, Kenya, that was exposing the community to toxic chemicals. Her son was one of those affected. She is the founder of the Center for Justice Governance and Environmental Action.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Today is Earth Day. It began in 1970 as a "National Teach-In on the Crisis of the Environment" and has grown to become a worldwide day of action. Forty years ago, one in 10 Americans participated in Earth Day. Now more than a billion people celebrate it in more than 192 countries every year. This year’s Earth Day comes as leading scientists have issued a, quote, "Earth Statement," warning that temperatures could rise by as much as 6 degrees centigrade by 2100, with catastrophic results if steps aren’t taken to address climate change.
AMY GOODMAN: The statement includes a series of recommendations for the U.N. climate summit in Paris this December, saying, quote, "If we do not act now, there is even a 1 in 10 risk of going beyond 6°C by 2100. We would surely not accept such a high risk of disaster in other realms of society. As a comparison, such a 1 in 10 probability is the equivalent of tolerating about 10,000 airplane crashes every day worldwide," they wrote.
In his weekly address, President Obama called climate change the greatest threat to the planet.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Wednesday is Earth Day, a day to appreciate and protect this precious planet we call home. And today there is no greater threat to our planet than climate change. 2014 was the planet’s warmest year on record. Fourteen of the 15 hottest years on record have all fallen in the first 15 years of this century. This winter was cold in parts of our country, as some folks in Congress like to point out, but around the world it was the warmest ever recorded.
AMY GOODMAN: President Obama also said he would be visiting the Florida Everglades today to see how the environment is at risk from rising sea levels there.
Well, we talk now to two of this year’s Goldman winners, those winners of the Goldman Prize, the world’s most prestigious award for grassroots environmental work. Phyllis Omido is the Africa 2015 Goldman Prize recipient, organized protests to close a lead plant in Mombasa, Kenya, that was exposing the community to toxic chemicals. Her son was one of those affected. She’s the founder of the Center for Justice Governance and Environmental Action.
We welcome you to Democracy Now!, Phyllis. Congratulations on the Goldman Prize. Talk about the action you took in Kenya.
PHYLLIS OMIDO: Thank you for having me on the program. What we did—what I did, together with my colleagues, is that we mobilized the community to stand up for our right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, which is guaranteed in the Kenyan constitution, but we had realized that state was asleep at the wheel, and therefore we needed to challenge—we needed to challenge the state to ensure this right for the community of Owino Uhuru.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And how did you first get involved in the movement? I understand you noticed that your son had gotten sick from lead poisoning?
PHYLLIS OMIDO: Yes, my son, over the years, had periodically been with me at the plant, because I’m a single mom, and a lot of the time he had to come with me to the office after the babysitter’s time to go off. And within those short periods that he spent with me, he contracted lead poisoning. And this got me thinking about the immediate community that the smelter is located within. And after my son was discharged from hospital, I went into the community and tested three children randomly, and they all tested positive for lead poisoning. So that was the first time that we started this campaign.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to the testimony of Wandiri—of Jacqueline Wandiri, a resident who lives near Mombasa.
JACQUELINE WANDIRI: [translated] My oldest son was having trouble breathing. By the time we reached the hospital, they discovered that his kidneys were failing. It was too late. He died soon after. All of the hope I had for my firstborn son and his life is gone. Now I’m left to worry about my youngest children.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Jacqueline Wandiri. We’re speaking to Phyllis Omido. Your son was sick. Talk about how officials in the government and the company responded to your protests.
PHYLLIS OMIDO: When we started this campaign, we didn’t immediately start protesting. What we did is to create awareness around the issue by writing letters to the government officials. We wrote to the National Environment Management Authority. We wrote to Public Health. We visited their office and gave them the results of the tests that we have. And over the years, we continued to obtain tests on the soil, on the water, on the vegetation, and there was clear indications. From 2008, the lead in the soil was 0.46 parts per million. In 2009, it was 1,600 parts per million.
So we presented this documentation to the state agents, but what we received was resistance, uncooperation. They were not willing to even look at the issues. Instead, they kept working with the smelter. They would go in and tell us they were going to investigate, and come out and give us no feedback. So this is what left us no choice but to start protesting.
And we did our first protest in 2009, where the whole community gathered, and we went on the roads to create awareness around this issue. And, yes, there was a big traffic block on Mombasa-Nairobi road at that time, which forced them to send the assistant minister for environment to address us. But when he came to address us, what perplexed us was that he shared the podium with one of the local politician who had shares in the smelter, and they told us that the smelter was there to create jobs, and that all the noise we were making is because we are lazy and we didn’t want to work. So this is what infuriated us even more, because we had already provided proof that there was something that was going wrong in the community.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And eventually you were and others were arrested, as well. How did the final decision come to shut the smelter down?
PHYLLIS OMIDO: Yes, in 2012, we were arrested and arraigned in court on charges of inciting violence and illegal gathering. After that, it led to eight months of trial, listening to the state giving evidence against us, but we were acquitted. And after that, we did a petition. The community did a petition, and we sent it to the national Senate. And the Senate Committee on Health was asked to come and investigate our claims. They came into the community, and we provided them with the statistics we had collected over the years. They also saw for themselves how bad the situation was. We showed them the graves that were started in the community because of the infant mortality that was so high. By the time they visited us in 2014, we had lost about three fetuses and newborn babies—300 fetuses and newborn babies in the community. So that is when they issued a—I’ll call it like an order to the National Environment Management Authority that the smelter should not operate again.
AMY GOODMAN: And you’ve gone from being arrested to saving many children and people’s lives from this potent neurotoxin, which is lead, to founding a center, a Center for Justice Governance and Environmental Action. Tonight, you will receive the Goldman Prize in Washington, D.C. What is this center doing now?
PHYLLIS OMIDO: I realized, when—after we started working on the case in Owino Uhuru, that many other slum communities were going through the same issue. Just in the vicinity of Changamwe area in Mombasa, there were three smelters in total, all right in the middle of these slum communities in Mombasa. And so, that is why I started the center, to assist these other communities, to assure them that the constitution gives them a right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and that they must stand up and demand for it. And so far, the two other smelters were also shut, with metal refinery. And we are also working with other communities who are going through the same issues of pollution and toxic waste being dumped within communities. So, my center is working with that, as well as mentoring the other upcoming generation. We are working with schoolchildren and helping the schools to start environment clubs as an extracurriculum activity. And we are also working on policies with our Kenyan Senate, because we need policies passed that will address the evolving environment challenges in Kenya.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Phyllis Omido, we want to thank you very much for being with us, a winner of the 2015 Africa Goldman Prize. She is being referred to as "the East African Erin Brockovich." She organized protests to close a lead plant in a slum just outside of Mombasa, Kenya, that was exposing the community to toxic chemicals, her son one of those affected, and is founder of the Center for Justice Governance and Environmental Action, as we turn to a second Goldman Prize winner.
The Asia 2015 Goldman Prize has been awarded to Myint Zaw, a Burmese journalist and activist who used photographs and art to organize protests against a dam on the Irrawaddy River that would have displaced 18,000 indigenous people and impacted millions more.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We want to turn now to Myint Zaw, who’s a Burmese journalist and activist who used art to organize protests against a dam on the Irrawaddy River that would have displaced 18,000 indigenous people and impacted millions more.
Welcome to Democracy Now!
MYINT ZAW: Thanks. Thanks for having me.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Tell us how you became involved in the issue of the dam.
MYINT ZAW: As a journalist, I cover pretty much on the environmental issue of our country, and including rivers. So when we heard about that proposed mega dam in the very important watershed area of our main river inside the country, we are very much compelled to act. But back then, we are living under the military regime, a quite oppressive military regime, so we move slowly, and we—but we try to come up with the ideas and the different approaches to raise awareness, to communicate the message across to the people.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask about some of the problems you faced while organizing opposition to the Myitsone Dam on the Irrawaddy River. This is social activist Kyaw Thu, who also participated in the protest.
KYAW THU: [translated] To intimidate and suppress us, the intelligence service would try to find out who was organizing these events. Then they’d place us under surveillance.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us—can you tell us, Myint Zaw—
MYINT ZAW: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: —who most benefits from the dam and who is most hurt by it, and where it is in Burma, what the military regime calls Myanmar?
MYINT ZAW: Yeah, the proposed mega dam, it would—the electricity generated from the dam, 90 percent would go to China, but just the less than 10 percent for our country. But even then, that 10 percent, in all these kind of agreement, the benefit will mainly go to the military, the official military regime, and not going to benefit to the people. But the negative impact is quite huge, not only for the people displaced by back of the dam, but also it’s going to flood the very crucial, globally important—the biodiversity, the biologically diverse area. And also, what we worry most is the downstream impacts of the proposed dam, because this is the main artery—the Irrawaddy River is the main artery of our country coming from the north to the south. It covers 60, 70 percent of the country. So, that’s negative impact. Because majority of our peoples are farmers and fishermen, so they need the healthy river. So the changes in the river flow are going to impact hugely to these majority rural population who reside along the Irrawaddy River. That’s most worrying for us. And also, this proposed dam are located in the northern Burma, or Myanmar, of which is the ethnic—the Kachin people, their traditional area and also their cultural heartland. So this is very much inappropriate in terms of the respect to the indigenous culture and their cultural heartland, also unacceptable for the people are the—for the downstream impacts and other negative environmental impact.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Myint Zaw, how were you able, as a journalist, especially given the enormous, overwhelming power of the military in your country, to get out the message and use art specifically to get out the message of the problems with the dam?
MYINT ZAW: Yeah, initially we wrote about the dams in other country, for the audience to get some of the comparison and some knowledge, but later on we thought that we should—we should write on or we should kind of express directly. And then we got an idea about the art gallery, because in our country, for the—we cannot—according to that military regime law, we cannot gather more than five people for any sort of the activities, for the social activities or political activities, but they allow to have the art gallery. So, we thought that this is a good place for us to gather people from different—across the community, like artists and media and civil society leaders. And also, they somehow relaxed to publish the gallery guidebook. But we changed that gallery guidebook in form of the publication that can raise awareness, that can communicate some basic sort of facts and figures and concept. And yeah, so this way we are working under the restriction and pushing bit—a little bit by bit that limit of censorship and expanding the space available to us, which is—back then, is the art exhibit is one place.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Myint Zaw, we want to thank you for being with us, Asia 2015 Goldman Prize recipient, also a Burmese journalist and activist who used art to organize protests against this mega dam on the Irrawaddy River that would have displaced [18,000] indigenous people and impacted millions more. And their struggle continues in Burma. This is Democracy Now! We’ll continue our Earth Day special in a moment.
Saudi Arabia Bombs Yemen Hours After Declaring Campaign’s End
Saudi Arabia has resumed airstrikes against Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen, hours after announcing an end to its nearly month-long bombing campaign. The Saudi Defense Ministry said it would conclude the airstrikes and shift to a new strategy focused on a political solution. But after rebels gained ground in the central city of Taiz, the strikes resumed. Meanwhile on Tuesday, two airstrikes killed at least 40 people, most of them civilians. On Monday, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported a TV journalist and three staff members of the TV station Yemen Today were killed in an airstrike in the capital Sana’a.
U.N. Official: Rich Countries Should Take Refugees to End Sea Deaths
A United Nations official has called for wealthy countries to collectively accept one million Syrian refugees over the next five years in order to curtail the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean. U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants François Crépeau told The Guardian the plan could also extend to Eritreans and other refugees who are fleeing from war. Over 1,750 migrants have died this year in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe, 30 times higher than the same period last year. Libya says it has detained 600 migrants in the past few days after stopping boats poised to depart for Italy.
French Authorities Arrest Man Accused of Plotting Church Attacks
French authorities say they have arrested a man suspected of planning imminent attacks on Paris churches. Officials say the man is an Algerian national who expressed a desire to travel to Syria. He is also suspected of murdering a woman before being detained Sunday, when he allegedly shot himself by accident and called an ambulance. Authorities say they found a trove of weapons and notes about the planned attack in his car.
Senate Reaches Deal on Trafficking Bill, Schedules Vote on Lynch
In the United States, Senate lawmakers have reached a deal on an anti-abortion provision tucked into a human trafficking bill, paving the way for a Thursday vote on the stalled confirmation of attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had refused to proceed with the confirmation of Lynch — who would be the first African-American woman attorney general — until after the Senate passed the trafficking bill. But Democrats objected to a provision they say would have expanded a ban on federal funding for abortion by applying it to a victims’ fund created by criminal fines. The compromise separates the victims’ fund into two streams: criminal fines, which won’t be used for healthcare, and health-related money subject to the existing ban on federal abortion funding.
Obama: Elizabeth Warren is "Wrong" on TPP
President Obama has criticized fellow Democrats who oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, or TPP. The 12-nation pact would encompass 40 percent of the global economy and is being negotiated in secret. In an interview on MSNBC, Obama responded to criticism from Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who says the TPP would undermine U.S. sovereignty and help the rich get richer.
President Obama: "I love Elizabeth. We’re allies on a whole host of issues. But she’s wrong on this. ... Everything I do has been focused on how do we make sure the middle class is getting a fair deal. Now, I would not be doing this trade deal if I did not think it was good for the middle class. And when you hear folks make a lot of suggestions about how bad this trade deal is, when you dig into the facts, they are wrong."
The Senate is expected to vote today on a bill that would grant Obama so-called fast-track authority to negotiate the TPP, then present it to Congress for a yes-or-no vote, with no amendments allowed. The measure has received a growing chorus of protest, including from Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who said his stance on fast track is "hell no." Public Citizen and the libertarian Cato Institute recently joined together to write an op-ed criticizing a component of the TPP that would allow corporations to sue countries in front of a tribunal of private attorneys if a law interferes with their claimed future profits. "Analysts with the Cato Institute and Public Citizen usually stand on opposing sides of trade policy issues, but we find common ground in opposing this system of special privileges for foreign firms," they wrote.
Anti-Marijuana DEA Chief to Retire Following "Sex Parties" Scandal
The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration will retire next month following a scandal over reports DEA agents in Colombia participated in sex parties with prostitutes hired by drug cartels. Michele Leonhart has also opposed Obama on marijuana policy, criticizing the Justice Department for deciding not to sue states that have legalized pot. The Drug Policy Alliance has launched a petition calling for Obama to appoint a replacement who will "help reduce mass incarceration that is a result of the failed war on drugs."
DOJ Launches Civil Rights Probe of Freddie Gray’s Death
The Justice Department has launched a civil rights investigation into the death of an African-American man who died a week after his spinal cord was severed in Baltimore police custody. At least 1,000 people rallied Tuesday at the site of the arrest of Freddie Gray. Police have released the names of the officers involved in his arrest, including the lieutenant who led the initial chase of Gray after he said Gray made eye contact with him, then ran away. According to The Guardian, Lieutenant Brian Rice has a history of domestic violence accusations. An attorney for Freddie Gray’s family questioned Rice’s decision to pursue Gray in the first place, saying, "Running while black is not probable cause. Felony running doesn’t exist, and you can’t arrest someone for looking you in the eye."
Protesters March from New York to D.C. Against Police Brutality
Protesters who walked over 200 miles from Staten Island, New York, to Washington, D.C., to oppose police killings of unarmed people of color rallied at the U.S. Capitol Tuesday. Carmen Perez, an organizer of the nine-day March 2 Justice, said the march should be part of a larger cultural shift.
Carmen Perez: "We can’t just sit on our couches anymore. We can’t wait for somebody to come save us. We have to save ourselves. And so, that’s what we’re doing. One of the things that I feel is really important for people to understand is that the march is one of the tactics in a larger strategy. We need to change the hearts and minds of individuals. We need a cultural shift. We’re coming with three pieces of federal legislation that are going to address police brutality and racial profiling, as well as invest back into our communities and our children."
Detroit Cop Who Killed 7-Year-Old Girl Returns to Duty
In Detroit, Michigan, the police officer who shot and killed seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones in her own home during a night raid being filmed by a reality TV show has been reinstated for active duty. Joseph Weekley fatally shot Aiyana as she slept on the couch with her grandmother in 2010. Two attempts to prosecute him resulted in hung juries. Detroit Police Chief James Craig told The Detroit News that Weekley will operate on limited duty and won’t work in the field.
Rising Tide NYC Holds 3 Days of Actions Against Climate Change
Activists rallied at the office of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Tuesday to call for him to reject a proposed deepwater port which would be used to import natural gas. Patrick Robbins of Sane Energy Project said Cuomo should reject Port Ambrose and support renewable energy.
Patrick Robbins: "We’re here today to tell Governor Cuomo to veto Port Ambrose, a liquified natural gas port that would be built off the coast of Long Island. We have other options. We know that we can build offshore wind in that same area. That is what the people want. That is what they need. We want clean, renewable jobs. We’re asking Governor Cuomo to stand with the people and not the private equity and the big banks that want Port Ambrose to be built."
The protest marked the second of three days of action on climate change by Rising Tide NYC. On Monday, the group marked the fifth anniversary of the BP oil disaster. The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20, 2010, killed 11 workers and sparked the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. Kate McNeely and Ana Nogueira said they were standing in solidarity with Gulf Coast residents, who continue to suffer from the spill’s impacts.
Kate McNeely: "Standing in solidarity with Gulf South communities that are asking BP to stop lying, pay what they owe, and that fossil fuels must go."
Ana Nogueira: "Disasters like the BP oil spill that happened five years ago are not one-off things. It’s going to happen again. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. We can no longer have our communities be sacrifice zones. There are alternatives."
NOAA: Last Month was the Hottest March Ever Recorded
Last month was the hottest March on record worldwide. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the first quarter of the year was the hottest start to any year on record, beating the previous record set in 2002. Arctic sea ice meanwhile hit its smallest extent for the month since record keeping began 35 years ago. We’ll have more on the environment as we mark Earth Day later in the broadcast.
Affleck Apologizes for Bid to Conceal Slave-Owning Ancestor
Actor Ben Affleck has apologized after hacked Sony emails published by WikiLeaks showed he asked that the revelation he had a slave-owning ancestor be omitted from the PBS documentary "Finding Your Roots." In a post on social media, Affleck said he regretted the request, but had been "embarrassed" by his link to a slave owner.
Couple Injured in Marathon Bombing Oppose Death Penalty for Tsarnaev
The sentencing phase of the trial of convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has opened in Boston, with the jury to decide whether Tsarnaev faces the death penalty or life in prison. A pair of newlyweds who lost limbs in the bombings have become the latest to call on the federal government to drop its pursuit of the death penalty. In a statement, Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes wrote, "the defendant’s objective on April 15, 2013, and our objective in deciding his punishment should not be one and the same. ... we must overcome the impulse for vengeance." The parents of eight-year-old Martin Richard, who was killed in the attack, have also opposed the death penalty for Tsarnaev.
Educators Oppose Suspension of New Jersey Teacher Whose Students Wrote to Mumia Abu-Jamal
And hundreds of students, educators and scholars from across the country have sent a letter to city authorities in Orange, New Jersey, urging them reinstate a teacher suspended for letting her third grade students write get-well cards to imprisoned journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal. Abu-Jamal was convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer, but Amnesty International has found he was deprived of a fair trial. Speaking before the school board last week after her suspension, Marilyn Zuniga said her students wanted to send letters to Abu-Jamal after learning he was seriously ill.
Marilyn Zuniga: "On February 5th, I presented a 'Do Now' that stated, 'What is the main idea of this quote: So long as one just person is silenced, there is no justice.' This quote is by Mumia Abu-Jamal. In April, I mentioned to my students that Mumia was very ill, and they told me they would like to write get-well letters to Mumia. The most important fact to highlight in this entire matter is my love for and commitment to my students."
In their letter urging Zuniga’s reinstatement, top educators and scholars, including Noam Chomsky, Marc Lamont Hill and Kevin Kumashiro, dean of the University of San Francisco School of Education, wrote, "It seems to us that we are at a moment in world history where it is important to encourage teachers to help their students develop empathy for others, and to see themselves as people who want to strive to make the world a better place. How we pursue these aims is a legitimate question, but threatening to fire teachers who are trying to engage students’ hearts seems to us to be profoundly wrongheaded."
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