The looming end of the Mayan long-count calendar has prompted fervid doomsday predictions on the internet, mass arrests in China, and a small tourism boom in southern Mexico. But Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, says the date is the beginning of a new era of peace and love.
“…the Mayan calendar’s 21 December 2012 is the end of the non-time and the beginning of time. It is the end of the Macha and the beginning of the Pacha — the end of selfishness and the beginning of brotherhood, the end of individualism and the beginning of collectivism.”
Morales has pointed to the worldwide destructive effects of unchecked capitalism that seeks profits with little regard for human impacts of industrial processes. Bolivia is the first nation to enshrine the ‘Rights of Mother Earth’ in its constitution.
Perhaps the most obvious and immediate impact is global warming, but when the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat are all contaminated, it’s hard to say which is the most serious.
More information on Morales & the Mayan calendar:
- Bolivian president predicts era of peace and love instead of apocalypse
- Bolivia’s Morales Calls for New Era of Peace & Unity to Break Greed of Capitalism
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