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UndercoverElephant
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biffvernon
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 Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 9:58 am Post subject: |
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Yes. Such a sad film. It really shows, through one small group of people, how we have messed up. Particularly poignant for Baka Beyond fans.
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UndercoverElephant
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| Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2012 12:35 am Post subject: |
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Biff,
Who do you think is the "we" who have messed up in this case? What is the connection between people like you and me, and the people in this film, apart from that we share the same planet?
UE |
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kenneal - lagger
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Joined: 20 Sep 2006
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Location: Newbury, Berkshire
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| Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2012 5:14 am Post subject: |
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| UndercoverElephant wrote: | Biff,
Who do you think is the "we" who have messed up in this case? What is the connection between people like you and me, and the people in this film, apart from that we share the same planet?
UE |
It a western idea to make National Parks that exclude indigenous people from them. And its western environmental and business practice that encourages the felling of rain forests to extract a small number of the commercially attractive trees.
We are not too blame, however, for the fact that the Baka, and all pygmy populations throughout Africa, are both practically and figuratively looked down on by the Bantu population.
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UndercoverElephant
Joined: 10 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2012 11:24 am Post subject: |
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| kenneal - lagger wrote: | | UndercoverElephant wrote: | Biff,
Who do you think is the "we" who have messed up in this case? What is the connection between people like you and me, and the people in this film, apart from that we share the same planet?
UE |
It a western idea to make National Parks that exclude indigenous people from them.
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That's pretty tenuous. There's nothing inherently wrong with the idea of protecting a chunk of rainforest so that humans can't hunt the animals there, especially when there's hunting going on in the forest all around.
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We are not too blame, however, for the fact that the Baka, and all pygmy populations throughout Africa, are both practically and figuratively looked down on by the Bantu population. |
That looked to me like the main problem. The biggest problem for the Baka are the Bantu (and themselves.) Westerners are responsible for a lot of the problems in the world, but not all of them. The Bantu "invasion" of the territory of earlier indigenous people had nothing to do with white colonialists. It happened (in Cameroon) before 500BC.
And white people didn't invent alcohol either... |
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biffvernon
Joined: 24 Nov 2005
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Location: Lincolnshire
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UndercoverElephant
Joined: 10 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 11:40 am Post subject: |
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| biffvernon wrote: | | Our demand for timber and coltan bear a heavy responsibility. |
Why? We have no influence and control over how "third world" countries use their resources. This is not white colonialists stripping the forests. It's the natives, or at least those who have been in control for most of the last 2000 years. I still don't understand what you mean by "we". At least 90% of the enormous problems suffered by these Baka tribesmen have no connection at all to anything you or I have ever done.
It is very sad, but this is partly about one group of Africans taking advantage of another group, and partly about the Baka themselves not being able to adjust to their world being drastically changed around them.
We're guilty of enough already without taking on blame for stuff we can't do anything about. |
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biffvernon
Joined: 24 Nov 2005
Posts: 13901
Location: Lincolnshire
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| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 12:30 pm Post subject: |
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Britain is Europe's biggest market for West African timber. I don't buy it. I only use British timber.
In the case of the Baka, they have been in control of their own destiny, living in harmony with their forest, possibly for tens of thousands of years. Their music, heard in the films and much promoted by Baka Beyond, is possibly the oldest music on the planet.
It's only in the last couple of decades that the system has collapsed, primarily the result of timber and metals demands from the developed world.
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