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May 30, 2008
Smart
That's the picture all over Yahoo of a Brazilian tribe which has previously been "uncontacted." I figure this means that these natives have never had an encounter with anyone outside of their area, including high-technology, Westernized societies.
How then, to explain this:
Amazon Indians from one of the world's last uncontacted tribes have been photographed from the air, with striking images released on Thursday showing them painted bright red and brandishing bows and arrows.
The photographs of the tribe near the border between Brazil and Peru are rare evidence that such groups exist. A Brazilian official involved in the expedition said many of them are in increasing danger from illegal logging.
"What is happening in this region is a monumental crime against the natural world, the tribes, the fauna and is further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the 'civilized' ones, treat the world," Jose Carlos Meirelles was quoted as saying in a statement by the Survival International group.
One of the pictures, which can be seen on Survival International's Web site (http://www.survival-international.org), shows two Indian men covered in bright red pigment poised to fire arrows at the aircraft while another Indian looks on
Hey, here's a bright idea! Let's find this tribe, which has probably never seen anything that was invented in the last five hundred years, and fly over their villages with an airplane! No wonder they're shooting arrows at the airplane, they probably think it's a gigantic metallic bird.
I understand the need to make the world at large aware of these people and the destruction of their way of life, but I have to question the method of doing so. Those guys are gonna wonder what that airplane was for the rest of their lives, or until some dumbass with a bulldozer comes rolling through.
You'd think they would have learned something from the Prime Directive. Apparently Brazilians don't watch Star Trek. Though I suppose if it was us Americans going to see the villagers, we just would've killed them, and given the survivors a bottle of whiskey and a casino license.
entry no. 1157
Posted at May 30, 2008 08:35 AM