Letter from the Founder
Dear Jaul,
Several weeks ago, millions of us heard you in an interview which was featured on a program called Latino USA, which originates in Austin, Texas. You are an illegal logger in the rain forests of North Brazil, but the elegance of your words went straight to the hearts of your listeners, including the writer of these remarks. Allow me to paraphrase; you stated that you knew you were contributing to the destruction of an ecosystem. You obviously knew that this was wrong, but you didn't know what else to do to provide for your family. If you could be shown another way, you would cease these activities in the rain forest.
My brother, my relative, there is another way. It is called environmental and cultural restoration at a scale and depth never before attempted in human history. This restoration forms the heart of Kalpulli Turtle Island Multiversity. As its founder and director, I wish to assert that there is no greater mandate for the human race than environmental and cultural restoration, but they must be carried out in 500 year cycles or plans. Let me also assert that if the will and resources are present, Kalpulli Turtle Island Multiversity in collaboration with other NGOs can create literally billions of jobs involving the two restorations. There is no reason why we couldn't create jobs that could pay more than a living wage, plus provide all of the benefits which decent societies provide for their citizens. Jaul, let me put a question before you. If our project could provide you with all the basics to which a worker is entitled, are we safe in assuming that you would be willing to give up illegal logging for legal reforestation, together with your fellow Brazilians, with the leadership and supervisions of general ecologists, botanists, biologists, and members of other disciplines? Based on your statements from the interview, I assume the answer is yes. Therefore, in your name and the names of every misemployed, underemployed, unemployed, and over employed person on this planet, this enterprise, Kalpulli Turtle Island Multiversity, will undertake the following measures. Number one; I shall be sending a letter to your president, Jose Ignico Cola de'Silva, and in this letter I will be asking his permission to take responsibility for up to 60,000 hectares of deforested land. We are going to prove a hypothesis in environmental orthodoxy that says once an ecosystem is destroyed, it can never be put back together. While that claim may be true, we should at least make the effort to disprove that claim for the sake of this planet and all of her species. We would of course consult with local people who know the area. We are not missionaries or any other manifestation of the know-it-all disease so prevalent in the West. This will be a learning experience equal to the energy we put into the effort, but we absolutely must not and will not submit to the current paralysis of will, which, among other things, is pushing our young people into the black holes of cynicism and nihilism.
Secondly, our mission statement, written late in 1996, talks about a minimal fund of a billion dollars. As of this writing, we are embarked upon the long march towards that goal. In actuality, we have much higher monetary goals, but first thing's first. If such figures cause readers to question my sanity, let me respectfully submit that whether we are talking about a billion dollars, 10 billion, or 500 billion, these figures are small change when compared and contrasted with the trillion dollars a year spent on weapons by the entire world and the uncountable billions spent on cosmetics, clothes, entertainment, and the growing volume of gadgets made possible by a consumer society. Our enterprise will not be either a half- starved storefront non-profit or an NGO which pays its staff fantastic wages while accomplishing next to nothing. Some things bear repeating; I have said it before and I'll say it again: If every person on this planet who cares about peace, a healthy environment, women's rights, etc. would send a dollar to KTIMV, our first goal of a billion dollars would be achieved. We could take responsibility for retracted land in Brazil, Carter County MT, and our British Columbia projects. We could start doing serious environmental and cultural restoration under the leadership of local people. We could start radio Turtle Island (see the mission statement) and we could, with the permission of her parents, create the Rachel Cary Center for the Study of Conflict Resolution, a scholarship in her name for both you women and men who wish to study peace issues, and the Rachel Cary Lecture chair, involving a series of lectures by scholar activists.
Respectfully yours for a better world,
Brother Ray
Contact Us: kalpulli@kalpulli.net
Photography by an Siosalaich, 2005
Kalpulli © 2005