31 May 2008

Dr. Livingstone, I presume?

Allow me to digress from the stories of kids and their oddities for a moment (which I originally intended to do more often than I have so far). I figure the weekend is a good time for this kind of post, since most of you presumably spend these days with your family and catch up with me on Monday.

You may have heard of the new "uncontacted" tribe they discovered in the South American rain forest. I find it astounding that's there's enough forest left to host totally isolated tribes of people, but they seem pretty sure.

Incredible pictures of one of Earth's last uncontacted tribes firing bows and arrows

Of course, flying a plane just over the treetops and taking a bunch of pictures, even when doing so to prove their existence to nonbelievers for the tribe's own protection, counts as contact to me. So, so much for that.

Am I the only one that sees this and feels bad for these lucky folks?

And I agree with their reaction to these photographers in the plane-- I think it's distinctly possible they know all about all of us evil humanlike beings in the world outside the forest, with all our wicked technology and strange ways, and they've just said, "No, thanks" and kept to themselves.

Don't they have that right? Can't they just live their own lives their own way? I doubt they're capable of launching any kind of respectable attack on the U.S. any time soon, but then that didn't mean anything for Iraq in 2002, right?

I know leaving them alone and creating some kind of "wildlife preserve" around them will be a hard sell to some of the people of South America who were themselves victimized by the West and are now doing what they can to level the playing field (i.e. ravaging their forests, selling the wood, and raising scrawny cattle for McDonald's in the stubble). But hopefully they can learn from our mistakes and harness our guilt for these people's benefit.

Here's hoping! Back to the funny stuff next week.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know what, I had some of those same thoughts when I saw that news article. I think they deserve to be left in peace and not have to deal with our "mass destruction/consumption" society. It's quite sad, really.

Insane Mama said...

I was just reading that article also... so sad, did they have to send a plane over just to "prove it"
They should be left alone as they have been for centuries.
Unless of course they want help or rescue

family affairs said...

Yes I agree - let them be - good luck with the results of the vote...x

Mama Dawg said...

I was totally going to blog about that photo myself, but I just couldn't find the words.

Too funny. I'd say great minds think alike, but then I'd be giving in to the whole nuts makes a male brain bigger theory you seem to think is accurate! LOL!

LiteralDan said...

Christy: Sad indeed-- I'm sure they add to the too-small amount of people trying not to waste so much. They must be hard up enough for food and such these days without leaving a trail of careless destruction like the rest of us do.

insane mama: You're right-- I bet they know right where to find all of us, without us finding them first (riding atop a tree crusher)

family affairs: Thanks-- you too!

Mama Dawg: Look into your heart, you know it to be true!!

Danielle said...

Heather from Mindless Junque posted about this too.

This is what I said over there: (cheesy, huh- two comments for the price of one!) :)

*****
After going here:

http://www.survival-international.org/campaigns/uncontactedtribes

and reading that "Over one hundred tribes around the world choose to reject contact with outsiders."

it sort of makes the article seem misleading.

They aren't "uncontacted".

They just choose to reject contact. Meaning it probably wasn't the first time they ever saw a helicopter....

Again, haven't researched this too much; just giving initial thoughts. The whole thing is really interesting.
*****

LiteralDan said...

Yeah, I wonder if this particular tribe was really "uncontacted" per se, given the extent of logging down there. But then again, there's still so much forest left, even though it's a small percentage of what there used to be, that I suppose anything's possible.

Anonymous said...

Is exactly the same as when people came to america to populate this area. it was only to make those people's life so miserable.

LiteralDan said...

You have to wonder how different this world would be if those early Westerners had more respect for different ways of life, and had taken some time to study and learn.

What knowledge, what insight, what works of art were lost?