<= Index
Enter your name:

     An Amazonian Indian is walking down the streets of Washington in the middle of rush hour traffic. His shoulders are broad and his hair is long and black. He walks as if he isn't used to wearing shoes, as if he finds his clothes heavy and (1 decades culture cumbersome drastic diverse detriment detect dense . He doesn't seem to notice the traffic but he is constantly watching the trees where his hunter's eyes can (2 decades culture cumbersome drastic diverse detriment detect dense the smallest movement of a bird or animal. What is this stranger from the jungles of the Amazon doing in Washington? He has come to make a complaint to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. He has come to say that his people and their (3 decades culture cumbersome drastic diverse detriment detect dense are being destroyed by development. Development should bring benefits to a country but in the case of the Huaorani Indians of the Amazon, it has brought little but (4 decades culture cumbersome drastic diverse detriment detect dense . How did this happen? First, about three (5 decades culture cumbersome drastic diverse detriment detect dense ago, oil was discovered in the part of the jungle where the Huaoranis live. Since the coming of the oil companies, the pipes have burst 27 times, poisoning the drinking water over a huge area and killing plant and animal life. Secondly, the (6 decades culture cumbersome drastic diverse detriment detect dense forests of the Huaorani homeland are being destroyed, tree by tree, and the valuable wood is being exported all over the world. This may be good business but it means the destruction of a natural environment. The wildlife of the Amazon jungle is extremely rare and (7 decades culture cumbersome drastic diverse detriment detect dense . Many of the thousands of different kinds of plants and animals that live there are found nowhere else on earth. Scientists predict that if the present rate of development continues, the Huaorani lands will be completely bare of trees in about twenty years. And their oil resources will be used up too, having satisfied the oil demands of the United States for about 13 days! And what is happening to the Huaorani Indians? Many of them are leaving the Amazon jungle to go and live in cities. But few of them have the job skills or education that they need to succeed there. Most are unable to adjust to the (8 decades culture cumbersome drastic diverse detriment detect dense change in their lives and they rapidly sink to the bottom levels of society. The proud Indian hunters degenerate into people without hope.  Will there be a happy ending to this story? Perhaps, but so far it looks like we may pay a high price for development -- the destruction of life on this planet.

--from the Toronto Globe & Mail, March 1996