[Vnbiz] Rain Forest Tribe Out of Contact with Outside World

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

Dear CACC,

To take a short break from all the dry economic discussions and analyses.

The Brazillian government has just released photographs of an
Amazon indigenous tribe who has never had any contact with the outside
world.  The link below will take you to a video taken from an
airplane showing the tribe.

http://www.france24.com/en/20080531-rainforest-tribe-never-had-contact-with-outside-world-brazil-amazonas

VNExpress also has some pictures of them at the following link:
http://www.vnexpress.net/GL/Khoa-hoc/2008/06/3BA02DCF/

We all can see all kinds of implication arising from this discovery, from
environmental to humanitarian to to developmental to anthropological.  For
me personally, I feel extremely sad for this tribe.  Obviously, to them,
this discovery is the end of world.  For thousands of years, they have lived
their own lives in their own world.  All of the sudden, their world now
collides into another huge world that has nothing in common with their world
and that has the potential to wipe them out in a second.  Even a slight
physical contact with the outside world that brings an everyday flu virus
from New York or Hong Kong would have the potential to wipe out the entire
tribe in a week.

If more than a thousands years ago, one of their prophets has said: "When
the end of the world comes, giant birds bigger than our houses whose calls
vibrate our entire nation will appear in the air.  These birds carry beings
from another dark world who will wipe out our entire world as soon as these
beings drop down from their giant birds," then that episode is playing out
in front of their eyes now.

Just want to share my feelings.  Below is the wrtiting from the above
France24 link.

Have a great day!

Hoanh
______________


Saturday 31 May 2008
By AFP

Dramatic images of an isolated Brazilian tribe believed never to have had
contact with the outside world were published by officials Friday to draw
attention to threats posed to their way of life.

The pictures, released by the Brazilian government's National Indian
Foundation (FUNAI), showed alarmed natives pointing bows and arrows at the
aircraft carrying photographers.

The head of FUNAI's environmental protection unit responsible for the
images, Jose Carlos dos Reis Meirelles, told AFP the foundation had known of
the existence of the tribe for years -- located in thick rainforest near the
Peruvian border -- and many photos had been taken.

"We have been watching this isolated indigenous community for at least 20
years. The idea in revealing the photos was to raise the alarm over the risk
threatening them," he said in a telephone interview from western Acre state,
where the indigenous group is located.

He explained the tribe had been pushed slowly out of Peruvian territory into
Brazil by loggers cutting down their Amazon basin habitat, and that the pace
of the illegal deforestation was now accelerating.

"Peruvian authorities recently said this indigenous community doesn't exist.
Well, they do exist and they are facing an enormous risk," Meirelles said.

"But they weren't just discovered today. All this region is a cultural
mosaic and there are four different identified groups living close to one
another," he said.

He said he did not know -- "and didn't care to know" -- what ethnic group
the isolated tribe came from.

"All I care about is protecting them, keeping them in their isolation."

The pictures show the tribe's members, their skin painted red and black, in
a village of huts with thatched roofs.

The head of FUNAI's Isolated Indians Department, Elias Biggio, told
reporters that Meirelles's team had not had any physical contact with the
tribe.

Survival International, a British group lobbying on behalf of indigenous
people around the world, said on its website there were fears illegal
logging in Peru could also endanger the Brazilian tribe by forcing displaced
Peruvian tribes into contact with it.

It said there were an estimated 500 isolated indigenous people living on the
Brazilian side of the border.

"The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is
protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be
made extinct," Survival International director Stephen Corry said.

His group said there were more than 100 uncontacted indigenous tribes
worldwide.
-- 
Tran Dinh Hoanh, Esq., LLB, JD
Washington DC
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