Hugo Chávez Endorses Hervé Kempf’s Book at Copenhagen : Chelsea Green

Hugo Chávez Endorses Hervé Kempf’s Book at Copenhagen

Posted on Friday, December 18th, 2009 at 11:25 am by dpacheco

	Tweet this story! Support our efforts for a sustainable world.
Share

***Update: Jonathan has posted a translation of this excerpt from the speech in the Comments section. ***

At the international climate talks in Copenhagen this week, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez railed against capitalism, saying that in order to change the climate we must change the system itself. It is the growth-centric capitalist system that squeezes out true democracy and allows for an iron-fisted global hegemony by a few powerful nations.

He then held up a copy of How the Rich Are Destroying the Earth (Spanish language edition), which was given to him personally by author Hervé Kempf in Copenhagen, and read from the author preface:

To the ecological principle that was so useful at the time we first became aware— “Think globally; act locally”—we must add the principle that the present situation imposes: “Consume less; share better.”

Chávez talks about the book and its conclusions for a full two minutes, beginning at around 5:20. (Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find an English translation of the speech.)

chavezdina16dic
Uploaded by noticias24. - Watch the latest news videos.

Visit DailyMotion here.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 18th, 2009 at 11:25 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Hugo Chávez Endorses Hervé Kempf’s Book at Copenhagen”

Jonathan Says:
December 18th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Here’s a translation http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405×28130:

Look, over there I met, I had the pleasure of meeting this French author Hervé Kempf. Recommending this book, I recommend it, it is available in Spanish – there is Hervé - its also in French, and surely in English, How the Rich are Destroying the Planet. Hervé Kempf: How the Rich are Destroying the Planet. This is what Christ said: it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. This is what our lord Christ said.

The rich are destroying the planet. Do they think the can go to another when they destroy this one? Do they have plans to go to another planet? So far there is none on the horizon of the galaxy.

This book has just reached me, Ignacio Ramonet gave it to me, and he is also around somewhere in this room. Finishing the prologue or the preamble this phrase is very important, Kempf says the following, I’ll read it:

“We can not reduce global material consumption if we don’t make the powerful go down several levels, and if we don’t combat inequality. It is necessary that to the ecological principle that is so useful at the time of becoming conscious, ‘think globally and act locally,’ we add the principle that the situation imposes: ‘Consume less and share better.’”

I think it is good advice that this French author Hervé Kempf gives us.
FN/Frederick Noronha Says:
December 24th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
You can see a video recording of the speech (with an English translation) on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6DbdwN74noz