nomade said:Bambodoggy wrote the last post 3 weeks ago on this thread...
Why didn't we continue?
I would have liked to know what you guys thought of various TV programs. For instance the Monday night programs on an explorer (surname Parry, can't remember his first name).
He visited last week the Kombai people in Papua new Guinea and this Monday a forest nation in Gabon.
Quite distressing to see how close to an end these cultures are, the Kombai living in the depth of the forest just about escape the missionaries who tell them to discard their old culture and "please wear some clothes" (ever heard anything so stupid?).
And the Gabon pygmees see their forest logged away before their eyes, dream of a big raod reaching their village and fell enormous trees only to get at a bee nest (honey)...
Give me your thoughts!
All will be revealed on this thread nomade
I agree it is distressing at times but from most of what the people said themselves they positively welcomed change like the Kombai when he sad something like ' we want [electric] lights like the village and live in peace without fear of the dark [ which inferred the historic dangers of tribal attack and headhunting]
Do we have a right to say to them stay the way you are? The opening up of these tribes to our sadly consumerist ways is almost inevitable (which this series as well filmed and presented as it is makes so clear) and it is the tribes that have to decide how they cope with it.
I think what we can be pro-active on is trying to protect those habitats that are being raped by the incessant demand our society spurs on relentlessly with little regard for the actual cost of such demand (cheap priced products, now) By refusing to purchase exotic hardwoods unless they are clearly produced in sustainable methods (not easy even with the label schemes around but at least they help us) for example.
Really I can't help thinking that until we turn around our own everyday ways with inflated aspiration to ownership and convenience, then why should anyone listen to our hypocritical cries for the 'natives to remain native':?: Only when we fully accept the true costs of what we buy, consume and discard, and bring ourselves down to a more considerate and sustainable level will we deserve to be heard and perhaps then influence how such peoples consider their own futures.
Sorry for the rant; but I feel reasonably helpless and frustrated when the truth is brought home by such an eloquent and insightful programme.