Stop the Belo Monte Monster Dam
Stop the Belo Monte Monster Dam
http://amazonwatch.org/work/belo-monte-dam
Although the photo below was clarified last Summer as being described slightly out of context, an update on the situation this week underscores just how critical it is for people around the world to show support for Chief Raoni and the Kayapo people:
"Crooked ranchers and illegal settlers have sent armed thugs to try to intimidate Kayapo and Juruna communities in attempts to encroach upon their lands. However, rather than being intimidated, armed Kayapo warriors have gathered in a nearby village, heightening the specter of violence and bloodshed. Yet legendary Chief Raoni and his people want to avoid violent confrontation at all cost. He has called for support from people around the world to pressure the Brazilian government to respect their rights and protect their lands."
Full story and links to the petition: http://amazonwatch.org/news/2012/0213-urgent-chief-raoni-and-the-kayapo-under-attack#readmore
"God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools." ~John Muir
Originally shared by null
I hope that this image travels the world …
"While newspapers and television talk about the lives of celebrities, the chief of the Kayapo tribe received the worst news of his life: Dilma, “The new president of Brazil, has given approval to build a huge hydroelectric plant (the third largest in the world). It is the death sentence for all the people near the river because the dam will flood 400,000 hectares of forest. More than 40,000 Indians will have to find another place to live. The natural habitat destruction, deforestation and the disappearance of many species is a fact.”
What moves me in my very bowels , making me ashamed of being part of Western culture, is the reaction of the chief of the Kayapo community when he learned of the decision—his gesture of dignity and helplessness before the advance of capitalist progress, modern predatory civilization that does not respect the differences …
But we know that a picture is worth a thousand words, showing the reality of the true price of our bourgeois “quality of life”."
While the whole Belo Monte issue is clearly important, I just wish people would check hoax information sites first. You even linked to Amazon Watch, where the following information can be found: The Kayapo protested in the town of Colider. While many people have seen the photo of Chief Raoni crying, he was not crying in reaction to the Brazilian government's announcement of the license to build the Belo Monte Dam. He was crying because he had reunited with a family member, a common practice among the Kayapo.
ReplyDelete"I was not crying because of the government's decision," confirmed Raoni. "I'm going to keep fighting. I am alive and strong, and as long as I'm alive I will continue to fight for my people!"
If people keep spreading these hoaxes, it's more difficult to talk about the actual truth. :-/
Simone Linke I found that quote you referenced, dated June 2011: http://amazonwatch.org/news/2011/0615-protest-the-belo-monte-dam
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the dam is not a hoax, its impact is not a hoax, the current petition to stop it is not a hoax.
Here's an update from 2 days ago:
ReplyDeleteURGENT: Chief Raoni and the Kayapo Under Attack!
February 13, 2012_A shocking crisis unfolded last week on the Kapot Nhinore ancestral territories of the Kayapo people in the Xingu River Basin in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso – the birthplace of legendary Kayapo Chief Raoni._
Crooked ranchers and illegal settlers have sent armed thugs to try to intimidate Kayapo and Juruna communities in attempts to encroach upon their lands. However, rather than being intimidated, armed Kayapo warriors have gathered in a nearby village, heightening the specter of violence and bloodshed. Yet legendary Chief Raoni and his people want to avoid violent confrontation at all cost. He has called for support from people around the world to pressure the Brazilian government to respect their rights and protect their lands.
For several years, Marcio Meira, the President of the Brazilian government's National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI), has assured the Kayapo that this land would be demarcated as an indigenous territory, but the Kayapo have only seen broken promises and persistent threats to their territory, including land invasions, illegal fishing and logging activities. To make matters worse, government-sanctioned repression has begun: Recent reports have emerged that rather than disarm armed thugs, local police have badly beaten two indigenous Juruna men peacefully demonstrating the land invasions before themselves being driven away by Kayapo warriors.
These tragic events follow an alarming and growing pattern of violations of the rights of indigenous peoples aided and abetted by the Brazilian government, such as its illegal and authoritarian decision to proceed with the disastrous Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River. As is their determined way, the Kayapo have chosen to defend their rights and their land but they need your support today.
Take action now! Send a letter to the President of FUNAI Marcio Meira demanding he act swiftly to restore order and honor his promise to demarcate the Kapot Nhinore territory!
Full story and links to the petition:
http://amazonwatch.org/news/2012/0213-urgent-chief-raoni-and-the-kayapo-under-attack#readmore
this is tragic news, i hope the government changes its mind
ReplyDeleteThis is the post Simone Linke was refering to:
ReplyDeletehttp://amazonwatch.org/news/2011/0615-protest-the-belo-monte-dam
Protesters Strike Again At Brazil's "Pandora" Dam In Amazon
ReplyDeletehttp://amazonwatch.org/news/2012/0119-protesters-strike-again-at-brazils-pandora-dam-in-amazon
"Last year, more than one million Brazilians signed a petition against the dam in less than a week and in 2010 American filmmaker James Cameron came to Brazil to take up the cause of fighting against the dam. "
ReplyDeleteDam It: Brazil's Belo Monte Stirs Controversy
About 24,000 people will be displaced from towns in the Amazon to make way for the world's third biggest dam
http://amazonwatch.org/news/2012/0120-dam-it-brazils-belo-monte-stirs-controversy
Amos Bairn Found it about the time you were providing the link, thanks. (I can't edit the shared description, but the caption seems a little trivial compared to recent press updates on the gravity of the situation, so I'll leave the post up.)
ReplyDeleteSaddens me.
ReplyDeleteThis is an absolute disgrace
ReplyDeleteJeffrey Sullivan, the problem with such hoaxes and misleading photos is that it will backfire. Remember that photo with the lonely polar bear on that tiny floating sheet of ice? It was exploited by the global warming folks. Everybody said "oh, look, that poor polar bear has nowhere to go because all the ice is gone, and now the bear has to die - look how bad global warning is already!" - As it turned out, that polar bear wasn't in danger, and the photo was ripped out of context, too. And what happened? The anti global warning crowd jumped all over it and claimed that this was proof that the whole climate debate was fake and a hoax. This made the whole climate change discourse much more difficult.
ReplyDeleteAnd the same can happen here. I know that the dam and the protests are not a hoax. And as I said, it's a serious issue. But look how many hundred people have already shared Paul Rosen's post without checking the facts first. And that idiot has disabled comments on his post, so that no one can point out the truth. So what do you think will happen when people find out that the photo is from a completely unrelated event? They'll automatically think that the whole Belo Monte project isn't that important (or even true!) after all!
There are enough videos and information (even of Chief Raoni himself) out there. Why spread the fake photo story? The truth is your best ally when you want to fight corrupted capitalist/political ventures!
although the man is not crying about the dam, it helps get attention and awareness out for the cause to stop the dam. using the photo doesn make it a hoax, it helps. The photo gives a false implication, but i think that ppl will be more inclined to read the text because of the photo.
ReplyDeleteSimone Linke I understand your concern, thanks. I didn't share the post for the photo; I shared it for being of the chief at the center of the situation. I considered replacing the photo with one of the rain forest (my quote was a comment on the rain forest), but I didn't have an appropriate photo to fit the context. Frankly, unlike someone writing a news story, its not my job to spend hours combing the Internet to find the exact right photo (and I wouldn't know the copyright implications if I did). So the photo already being shared seems like the only reasonable option, despite a less than perfect caption.
ReplyDeleteThe John Muir quote I used could be labeled a "hoax" since John Muir wasn't talking about the rain forest, but my use of it was illustrative, not literal, so it would be rather pointless for someone to do so.
If someone's really determined to go to great lengths to rationalize that they can ignore a situation, they'll find excuses to do so, no matter what you present them with. Climate change is an excellent example. Using a stock photo or video of a polar bear climbing onto a small ice floe doesn't negate the soundness and 200 year history behind our understanding of how greenhouse gasses warm the earth, the extreme recent warming measured in the arctic, the shortened Arctic ice season and the dramatically reduced ice mass, or the effects on polar bears, including bears swimming unprecedented distances and even drowning. The Bush administration didn't list the polar bear as endangered as a part of some sort of hoax on their part (nor was it influenced by illustrative photos), it simply ran out of room to delay responding to the facts.
U.S. Protects Polar Bears Under Endangered Species Act
The Interior Department lists the polar bear as a "threatened" species--one at risk of becoming endangered--due to dangerous declines in their sea ice habitat
By Larry Greenemeier | May 14, 2008
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=polar-bears-threatened_"The decision was based on evidence that sea ice is vital for polar bear survival, that this sea ice habitat has been reduced, and that this process is likely to continue; if something is not done to change this situation, the polar bear will be extinct within 45 years, Kempthorne said."_
There's not much anyone can do for people engaging in willful denial of any situation; denial is simply one of the natural and predictable human coping strategies for responding to threats and stress. If people want to use the caption on the photo to ignore the situation, that doesn't really concern me. People that eager to ignore the situation wouldn't sign the petition under any circumstances. Trying to fix or change others isn't a productive exercise.
I don't think you really understood what I'm saying. We're not talking about people wanting to deny something. We're talking about people trying to find information on important issues who are bombarded with fake or out-of-context information by both parties (opponents and supporters). This has absolutely nothing to do with willful denial but with the simple fact that you lose credibility when you spread false information. If people read something and then realize that the storry wasn't true, do you really think they'll listen to the same guy again? News flash: they usually don't.
ReplyDeleteAnd that means those telling an important story are hindered by those spreading false information about the very same story.
You didn't just share the image as you claim, you shared Paul's full post with the full fake story so that everybody can read it and be misled. I informed you about the true story behind that picture. Nothing more, nothing less.
Why do people who accidentally share a (partial) hoax always react in denial themselves? Just remove the false information and that's it. No big deal. Nuff said.
Simone Linke "Why do people who accidentally share a (partial) hoax always react in denial themselves? "
ReplyDeleteNo need to get insulting simply because I don't agree with you. You're clearly intelligent enough to observe that I don't deny your point at all, I simply feel it's not particularly interesting or relevant, for exactly the same reason I disagreed with your polar bear example. Photos accompanying a written passage are often illustrative, not literal. That does not make those photos a "hoax", not by the wildest stretch of imagination. Feel free to share whatever version or "correction" you like on your stream, and your audience will decide whether the detail of why someone cries in that culture more accurately summarizes the situation. I think not, but to each his own.
Are you not aware that I can't "just remove the false information" in someone else's post that I've already shared? I'm not going to delete my share, along with everyone's responses, and potentially all the downstream shares, over the nit that bugs you.
This is the part of the post which caught my attention:
“The new president of Brazil, has given approval to build a huge hydroelectric plant (the third largest in the world). It is the death sentence for all the people near the river because the dam will flood 400,000 hectares of forest. More than 40,000 Indians will have to find another place to live. The natural habitat destruction, deforestation and the disappearance of many species is a fact.”
I'm thrilled to have signed the petition, and to have found a second one on Credo Action to sign as well.
Simone Linke By the way, you may have been completing your past passage shortly after I had edited my description at the top to include the following:
ReplyDelete"Although the photo below was clarified last Summer as being described slightly out of context, an update on the situation this week underscores just how critical it is for people around the world to show support for Chief Raoni and the Kayapo people:"
So no, I'm not denying the photo caption snafu at all, I described it up front to not have it distract people from the bigger picture, the point of the post.