[lg policy] Not exactly language policy, but close: Tribes of Amazon Find an Ally Out of ‘Avatar’

Tue Apr 13 13:57:13 UTC 2010

Thanks for that perspective, Stan. I was just thinking the article makes the issue very one-sided.

________________________________
From: Stan Anonby <stan-sandy_anonby at sil.org>
To: Language Policy List <lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu>
Sent: Tue, April 13, 2010 1:13:45 AM
Subject: Re: [lg policy] Not exactly language policy, but close: Tribes of Amazon Find an Ally Out of ‘Avatar’

I live in Brazil, and my work takes me to these remote areas. Most people 
I've met are quite happy to give up their traditional life. Life lived in a 
traditional society is extremely hard. I saw the video which accompanied the 
NYT report, and some of the indigenous people in it were clearly city 
dwellers. I wonder how much of a grass roots protest this really is? 
Sometimes these battles remind me a bit of the Cold War. The two opposing 
groups are actually based in cities in the industrialized world, and the 
Amazonians are doing their work by proxy.

Stan

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harold Schiffman" <hfsclpp at gmail.com>
To: "lp" <lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu>
Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2010 12:56 PM
Subject: [lg policy] Not exactly language policy, but close: Tribes of 
Amazon Find an Ally Out of ‘Avatar’

> Tribes of Amazon Find an Ally Out of ‘Avatar’
>
> André Vieira for The New York Times
> The director James Cameron backs efforts to halt the building of a dam
> in Brazil.
>
> By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
> Published: April 10, 2010
>
>
> VOLTA GRANDE DO XINGU, Brazil — They came from the far reaches of the
> Amazon, traveling in small boats and canoes for up to three days to
> discuss their fate. James Cameron, the Hollywood titan, stood before
> them with orange warrior streaks painted on his face, comparing the
> threats on their lands to a snake eating its prey.
>
>
>
> André Vieira for The New York Times
>
> The Arara tribe, who live along the Xingu River in Brazil, are among
> the indigenous peoples who oppose a proposed dam.
>
> “The snake kills by squeezing very slowly,” Mr. Cameron said to more
> than 70 indigenous people, some holding spears and bows and arrows,
> under a tree here along the Xingu River. “This is how the civilized
> world slowly, slowly pushes into the forest and takes away the world
> that used to be,” he added.
>
> As if to underscore the point, seconds later a poisonous green snake
> fell out of a tree, just feet from where Mr. Cameron’s wife sat on a
> log. Screams rang out. Villagers scattered. The snake was killed. Then
> indigenous leaders set off on a dance of appreciation, ending at the
> boat that took Mr. Cameron away. All the while, Mr. Cameron danced
> haltingly, shaking a spear, a chief’s feathery yellow and white
> headdress atop his head.
>
> In the 15 years since he wrote the script for “Avatar,” his epic tale
> of greed versus nature, Mr. Cameron said, he had become an avid
> environmentalist. But he said that until his trip to the Brazilian
> Amazon last month, his advocacy was mostly limited to the
> environmentally responsible way he tried to live his life: solar and
> wind energy power his Santa Barbara home, he said, and he and his wife
> drive hybrid vehicles and do their own organic gardening.
>
> “Avatar” — and its nearly $2.7 billion in global tickets sales — has
> changed all that, flooding Mr. Cameron with kudos for helping to
> “emotionalize” environmental issues and pleas to get more involved.
>
> Now, Mr. Cameron said, he has been spurred to action, to speak out
> against the looming environmental destruction endangering indigenous
> groups around the world — a cause that is fueling his inner rage and
> inspiring his work on an “Avatar” sequel.
>
> “Any direct experience that I have with indigenous peoples and their
> plights may feed into the nature of the story I choose to tell,” he
> said. “In fact, it almost certainly will.” Referring to his Amazon
> trip, he added, “It just makes me madder.”
>
> Mr. Cameron is so fired up, in fact, that he said he was planning to
> go back to the Amazon this week, this time with Sigourney Weaver and
> at least another member of the “Avatar” cast in tow.
>
> The focus is the huge Belo Monte dam planned by the Brazilian
> government. It would be the third largest in the world, and
> environmentalists say it would flood hundreds of square miles of the
> Amazon and dry up a 60-mile stretch of the Xingu River, devastating
> the indigenous communities that live along it. For years the project
> was on the shelf, but the government now plans to hold an April 20
> auction to award contracts for its construction.
>
> Stopping the dam has become a fresh personal crusade for the director,
> who came here as indigenous leaders from 13 tribes held a special
> council to discuss their last-ditch options. It was Mr. Cameron’s
> first visit to the Amazon, he said, even though he based the fictional
> planet in “Avatar” on Amazon rain forests. Still, he found the
> real-life similarities to the themes in his movie undeniable.
>
> The dam is a “quintessential example of the type of thing we are
> showing in ‘Avatar’ — the collision of a technological civilization’s
> vision for progress at the expense of the natural world and the
> cultures of the indigenous people that live there,” he said.
>
> Mr. Cameron said that he was writing a letter to President Luiz Inácio
> Lula da Silva urging him to reconsider the dam and that he would press
> for a meeting with the president. “They need to listen to these people
> here,” he said.
>
> Mr. Cameron, 55, first encountered the cause in February, after being
> presented with a letter from advocacy organizations and Native
> American groups saying they wanted Mr. Cameron to highlight “the real
> Pandoras in the world,” referring to the lush world under assault in
> his movie.
>
> Atossa Soltani, executive director of Amazon Watch, who accompanied
> him on his trip last month, said Mr. Cameron lit up at the idea of
> learning more, saying he had grown up in the Canadian woods and had
> even logged thousands of hours underwater exploring the world’s
> oceans.
>
> As for Mr. Cameron’s Amazon adventure, it got off to a rocky start.
> The boat he traveled to the village in flooded when a hose became
> disconnected. Mr. Cameron chipped in, grabbing a plastic bucket to
> help bail for a few hours in the searing midday heat, he and others on
> the boat said.
>
> Many of the indigenous leaders he was planning to meet with had never
> heard of him before, much less seen his movie. All they knew was that
> “a powerful ally” would be attending their gathering, Ms. Soltani
> said.
>
> So, the night before Mr. Cameron and his wife, Suzy Amis, arrived with
> three bodyguards, a dozen or so villagers gathered in the house of
> José Carlos Arara, the chief of the Arara tribe here, to watch a DVD
> of “Avatar.”
>
> “What happens in the film is what is happening here,” said Chief Arara, 
> 30.
>
> The morning after Mr. Cameron’s party arrived in the village, Chief
> Arara led them on a walk through the rain forest. Mr. Cameron, almost
> mirroring the enraptured scientists in his movie, was calm but
> wide-eyed, peppering the chief with questions about the local fauna
> and flora and traditional indigenous ways. In seconds, the chief
> showed how he could fashion ankle braces from leaves to help him scale
> an açaí tree.
>
> The leaders then invited Mr. Cameron to participate in their meeting.
> He sat at a small wooden school desk as they made speeches condemning
> the impending dam and the Brazilian government. Mr. Cameron seemed to
> tear up when some leaders said they would be willing to die to stop
> the dam.
>
> Finally, Mr. Cameron was asked to speak. He stood and complimented the
> leaders on their unity, saying they needed to fight off efforts by the
> government to divide them and weaken their resistance.
>
> “That is what can stop the snake; that is what can stop the dam,” he said.
>
> A rush of applause swept through the crowd. When the real snake fell
> from the tree, the director seemed unfazed. After clearing it away,
> indigenous leaders thanked him with gifts. One gave him a spear,
> another a black and red necklace of seeds. A third, Chief Jaguar from
> the Kaiapo nation, one of Brazil’s most respected, gave him his
> headdress before the dances in Mr. Cameron’s honor began.
>
> “It’s not like there is any pressure on me or anything,” he said,
> half-joking, moments before boarding the boat. “These people really
> are looking for me to do something about their situation. We have to
> try to stop this dam. Their whole way of life, their society as they
> know it, depends on it.”
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/world/americas/11brazil.html?src=me&ref=general
>
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