While
the hustle-bustle of capitalism was going
on, deep in the Brazilian
rain forest, a lone man quietly readied
himself for death recently.
He climbed into his hand-made dried grass
hammock, covered himself
with feathers and leaves, and made his
peaceful transition from the
physical world. The man was the last of his
indigenous Amazon tribe.
His tribe made a conscious refusal never to
have contact with the
outside world, choosing total isolation
instead. As the last man
standing, he remained true to his tribe’s
ancient code to his last
dying breath.
Outsiders
had given the man unflattering names, like
“Man in the Hole.” I
respect his anonymity but for the sake of
this article, I decided to
temporarily name him Msitu. Msitu means
forest in Swahili. He was a
man of the forest who lived in harmony with
nature.
There’s
a part of me that says of the indigenous
peoples, good for them - not
wanting any interaction with the hostile and
uncivilized world around
them. There’s another part of me that
wonders what stories, what
wisdom about life was buried with them as
they went they way of the
dinosaur. The extinction of a human species
is an unforgiving thing.
Msitu
was part of an “uncontacted” tribe,
meaning he chose to avoid
contact with the outside world.
With
no
historic documentation, the origin and
life of Msitu’s tribe is not
nearly as apparent as their demise. The
massacre of indigenous tribes
has been well-documented over time by
company thugs to make room for
logging, ranching and mining. These three
industries will be the
death of the Amazon rainforest and whoever
else is in the way of big
profits.
The
Amazon rainforest covers nine countries in
South America. The vast
majority of the rainforest is in Brazil.
That means Brazil has a
special obligation to show the other eight
countries how to protect
and nurture an ecosystem central to the
well-being of the entire
planet. The Brazilian government is failing
miserably in that
responsibility.
FUNAI
was created in 1967 with the sole purpose of
monitoring tribes and
protecting their lands from unscrupulous
developers. The agency -
intentionally understaffed and underfunded -
has identified at least
114 such tribes but only 28 have been
officially documented. This
means those not on FUNAI’s list are not
eligible for government
protection. In reality, no tribe seems to be
protected.
Over
the last forty years, the Brazilian
government has sanctioned
highways through parts of the Amazon. It
has opened the forest doors
to mining companies to exploit the
country’s natural resources such
as silver, gold and diamonds. Oil
extraction has decimated the
habitat with pipelines and roads while
creating pollution. Since
2019, thousands of wildfires caused by
irresponsible logging
techniques have destroyed human,
animal
and plant lives. Companies are being given
access to the half
billion trees in the Amazon for the
lucrative timber industry and for
clearing the land for agribusiness’ cash
crop of cattle.
Current
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has taken
greed to new highs and
the disrespect of indigenous people and
their habitat to new lows.
Since coming into office, deforestation has
increased by 50%. The
destruction of indigenous tribal territories
by miners and ranchers
has dramatically increased by 135%. The
situation is so bad under
Bolsonaro’s regime that last year indigenous
leaders and human
rights groups demanded that the president be
criminally prosecuted in
the international court. A brazen partner to
the exploitative
agribusiness, mining and lumber industries,
Bolsonaro has no shame in
his open-door policy to destroy the rain
forest and any living
creatures in it. He is a criminal.
Msitu
and his people lived a simple life. He had
no knowledge of the
ferociousness of men who put profit over
people. He didn’t know
that people were starving and unhoused in
the face of abundant
natural resources. Although he lived among
them, Msitu didn’t know
the rain forest still has not revealed its
many unknown species of
plants and animals. He didn’t know that
Brazilians are killing one
another because of who they support in the
upcoming presidential
elections.
The
last
man standing from a tribe unknown did not
have a mind cluttered
with the foolishness of the day. He took
with him the profound love
of his people and their sacred environment.
The rest of us must bear
witness to the corporate vultures swallowing
the land, and the people
who inhabit it. We must wage a merciless
battle against the
ecological destroyers because the future of
our planet depends on it.
