Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Indian tribe responds to invasive do-gooders
Two weeks ago the media was thrilled and alarmed by a film of a “lost” tribe of naked, painted Indians, living somewhere on the Brazil-Peru border and firing arrows at a helicopter flying overhead. Some reports claimed that this tribe was previously uncontacted by the modern world. But some anthropologists admitted that “this group is one of many in the Amazon that have chosen isolation.”
The fact that this tribe chose isolation did not stop the activists from the Brazilian government’s National Indian Foundation from distributing these films worldwide. They deliberately violated this tribe’s privacy because they wanted to use these Indians to prove that logging can be harmful to indigenous people.
Of course, the film shows no proof that loggers have violated this indigenous group’s privacy. It only shows proof that environmentalists violated their privacy. It also shows how much the natives appreciated their presence. Writing for Haaretz, thousands of miles away from the Brazil-Peru border, environmentalist Dan Rabinowitz projects his own heartfelt feelings onto the Indians and their arrows:
The arrows fired at the helicopter, which could have been seen as an instinctive, boorish response to an unfamiliar entity, should perhaps be read by us as a piercing critique of modernity. … If the pictures cause the liberal public around the world to lean on governments and make them save primordial forests, those who fired arrows at the helicopters will have done a huge service for a modern civilization bent on self-destruction. Perhaps as a sign of gratitude for their participation in this crucial campaign, they could be granted the ultimate prize: to be left alone, free of contact with a civilization they clearly do not want.
They will be left alone — until other “helpful” people decide that they can be a useful tool in a war against the logging companies. Then the helicopters will descend again, to take colorful pictures of the natives and their piercing critiques of modernity.
These films are just the latest, and least harmful, illustration of the fact that the environmentalist movement is a road to hell paved with good intentions. Yes, their goals sound noble — they want to preserve the wild spaces, clean up the oceans, save endangered species. But their actions often create more harm than good....
..more at Pajamas Media
Utter nonsense. Whether these Indians are uncontacted or contacted, they have staked a part of the forest for themselves and want exclusive use of it. The logging companies, meanwhile, deny these Indians even exist, and are staffed with people ghastly enough to make it so with AK-47s.
The logging companies, meanwhile, deny these Indians even exist, and are staffed with people ghastly enough to make it so with AK-47s
Can you cite any specific examples of logging company employees threatening or killing members of this specific tribe with AK-47s?
Can you cite proof that this specific tribe has claimed to own the entire forest?
Brazil has an extensively documented history of public and private brutality towards these tribes. It's not necessary to identify the specific tribes and firearms involved to question your airy calculation of "more harm than good".
In general, this piece reminds me of the way Chomskyites criticize Western governments and corporations: three or four random complaints, some of which aren't even true, so clearly the whole thing is beyond redemption and should be replaced by an alternative with a vastly worse record.
Incidentally, I always can't help but notice that the people who are so up in arms about DDT seem to have about as much interest in any other area of malaria control as the people upset about Valerie Plame do in any other instance of security violations.
It's not necessary to identify the specific tribes and firearms involved to question your airy calculation of "more harm than good".
If we want to deal in facts, it kind of is necessary to identify the facts.
In this piece, I listed a few complaints because the number of words you can use in a PJ media article are limited. If I had unlimited space, I could go on and on about the people who have been sickened, the people who have died and the people who have needlessly suffered as a result of dumb and malign environmentalism.
Environmentalism wasn't always malign. Teddy Roosevelt-style environmentalism did help us understand our place in the world, and the need to preserve wild spaces. But, like most forms of activism, it was corrupted by marxist influence and weird rage against capitalism, corporations and 'inequality' among species.
When environmentalism lost its love of humanity, it lost its whole reason for being.
They better not fire arrows at MY helicopter, I'll tell you that right now. I'll come back with an industrial-sized barrel of Round-Up and defoliate their habitat pronto!