2012年2月21日 星期二
2012年2月8日 星期三
Risking it all - The river traders of Brazil
Source:
Al Jazeera
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/2011/05/201153142852595854.html
There is a unique commerce system at work along the narrowest stretch of the Tajaparu River in Amazonia, northern Brazil.
This is where the boats pass close to the shore and it is the best place for the small canoes selling sweets and jams to do their business.
The children who operate the canoes weave in and out among the boats, shouting directions and warnings to one another as the propellers of ferries churn just below them. They then climb aboard in a bid to sell their wares to the ferry passengers.
The best-selling item is the ingas, a jungle fruit that is only found around this stretch of the river and which is much in demand among the ferry passengers. But it is a dangerous harvest. The ingas is only found at the top of some trees, often more than 30 metres above ground. Four ingas sell for one real, barely $0.25.
Santos, the captain of the Bom Jesus, is worried about just how young some of the children who climb aboard his ferry are.
"I keep a list of all the children's names. There seems to be more of them lately," Santos explains. "There are so many now, especially little ones, less than six years old, on their own."
About a dozen canoes attach themselves to the Bom Jesus as it approaches the shore, but the captain must maintain his speed as he has a schedule to keep to.
Brazilian law holds a river captain responsible in the case of accidents.
"I let the authorities know about them, because it's dangerous what they do, especially at night," he says. "I tell them not to do it at night. By day, it's okay."
'Sometimes we eat, sometimes we don't'
Fourteen-year-old Jesse is among those who risk death just to make a few pennies.
The little money Jesse brings home is a small contribution to his family's income. His family of 12 adults and 16 children live in a house on stilts over the water. Theirs is a life that revolves entirely around the river.
Jesse's mother, Benedicta, wakes him up each morning to work the river boats.
"My husband's too old to work now," Benedicta explains. "Sometimes we get up in the morning and there's nothing to eat for the whole day.
"We hope there'll be something for the next day. That's the way it is here; sometimes we eat, and sometimes we don't."
In the Amazonian basin, the rivers are the main arteries for virtually everything. The waterways are a constant ebb and flow of people and trade, with barges forming the public transport system - bus, train and tram all rolled into one.
The passenger ferries - 1,500 tonnes of iron and steel travelling at 30km an hour - are the hardest ships to board. But Jesse knows the safest place to board is in the bow, far from the dangerous eddies at the stern.
The trickiest are the merchant ships and barges, whose crews are much less accommodating and do not tolerate the children climbing on board.
But the crews have good reason to be cautious. In recent months incidents of piracy have increased on the river. Bandits, who hold the merchant boats at gunpoint during the night, use the same type of canoes as the children.
The river traders of Brazil follows Jesse, but his is a story that ends in tragedy. The youngster turns to piracy and is shot dead by the captain of a river barge during an attempted robbery.
But, as this film shows, life and trade on the river goes on. And for the children of this area, there is little alternative.
2012年2月5日 星期日
2012年2月2日 星期四
Peru struggles to protect Indian tribe
source: Al Jazeera and agencies
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/02/201221152019610835.html
Peru struggles to protect Indian tribe - Americas - Al Jazeera English
Peruvian authorities say they are struggling to keep outsiders away from a previously isolated Amazon people who began appearing on the banks of a river popular with environmental tourists.
The advocacy group Survival International released photos on Tuesday showing members of the Mashco-Piro tribe on the river bank, described as the most detailed sightings of uncontacted indigenous people ever recorded on camera.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Survival International’s Rebecca Spooner said the release of the photographs comes on the back of increased violence as the tribe looks to steer away outsiders, including curious onlookers and logging and mining companies who are trying to force them off their land.
The UK-based group provided the photos exactly a year after releasing aerial photos from Brazil of another tribe classified as uncontacted, one of about 100 such groups it says still exist around the world.
“We really want to highlight this volatile situation so as to put pressure on the Peruvian government to do something," Spooner said.
“They were known to be a peaceful tribe up until 2001 but there has been an increasing level of violence when they started shooting at people with bows and arrows because they started coming under increasing threat as their land became encroached upon".
Bow-and-arrow attacks
Tribe members have been blamed for two bow-and-arrow attacks. One badly wounded a forest ranger in October. The following month, another fatally pierced the heart of Nicolas "Shaco'' Flores, an indigenous person from the Matsiguenka tribe, who had long maintained a relationship with the Mashco-Piro.
One of the Mashco-Piro photos was taken by a bird watcher in August, Survival International said.
Others were shot by Spanish archaeologist Diego Cortijo on November 16, six days before Flores was killed.
The Mashco-Piro tribe is believed to number in the hundreds and lives in Peru's Manu National Park.
The part of the Mashco-Piro tribe that showed up at the river is believed to number about 60, including some 25 adults, according to Carlos Soria, a professor at Lima's Catholic University who used to run Peru's park protection agency.
The Mashco-Piro live by their own social code, which Soria said includes the practice of kidnapping other tribes' women and children.
"Isolated tribes never show themselves," Soria said. "But if this group is doing so it is because they have a certain capacity to defend and protect themselves. They don't fear people from outside."
Valuable land targetted
The Mashco-Piro are believed to be one of about 15 uncontacted tribes in Peru that together are estimated to number between 12,000 and 15,000 people living in jungles east of the Andes.
Beatriz Huerta, an anthropologist who works with Peru's agency for indigenous affairs, speculated that the tribe left the relative safety of their tribe's jungle home because their habitat was becoming increasingly encroached upon.
"To the west of the territories of the Mashco-Piro in Madre de Dios is the basin of the Urubamba river," Huerta said.
"That's where the oil and gas drilling project of Camisea is located. We are very worried because there is a great possibility that the helicopters flying over are scaring the animals away. These animals are the source of food for indigenous people."
Experts were concerned the tribe may be decimated by a disease borne by outsiders, as has occurred with other uncontacted peoples, but it is still a mystery to them why the Mashco-Piro have appeared in an area so heavily trafficked.
After the first sightings, and after tourists left clothing for the Mashco-Piro, state authorities issued a directive in August barring all boats from going ashore in the area. But enforcing it has been difficult as there is no effective policing.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/02/201221152019610835.html
Peru struggles to protect Indian tribe - Americas - Al Jazeera English
Peruvian authorities say they are struggling to keep outsiders away from a previously isolated Amazon people who began appearing on the banks of a river popular with environmental tourists.
The advocacy group Survival International released photos on Tuesday showing members of the Mashco-Piro tribe on the river bank, described as the most detailed sightings of uncontacted indigenous people ever recorded on camera.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Survival International’s Rebecca Spooner said the release of the photographs comes on the back of increased violence as the tribe looks to steer away outsiders, including curious onlookers and logging and mining companies who are trying to force them off their land.
The UK-based group provided the photos exactly a year after releasing aerial photos from Brazil of another tribe classified as uncontacted, one of about 100 such groups it says still exist around the world.
“We really want to highlight this volatile situation so as to put pressure on the Peruvian government to do something," Spooner said.
“They were known to be a peaceful tribe up until 2001 but there has been an increasing level of violence when they started shooting at people with bows and arrows because they started coming under increasing threat as their land became encroached upon".
Bow-and-arrow attacks
Tribe members have been blamed for two bow-and-arrow attacks. One badly wounded a forest ranger in October. The following month, another fatally pierced the heart of Nicolas "Shaco'' Flores, an indigenous person from the Matsiguenka tribe, who had long maintained a relationship with the Mashco-Piro.
One of the Mashco-Piro photos was taken by a bird watcher in August, Survival International said.
Others were shot by Spanish archaeologist Diego Cortijo on November 16, six days before Flores was killed.
The Mashco-Piro tribe is believed to number in the hundreds and lives in Peru's Manu National Park.
The part of the Mashco-Piro tribe that showed up at the river is believed to number about 60, including some 25 adults, according to Carlos Soria, a professor at Lima's Catholic University who used to run Peru's park protection agency.
The Mashco-Piro live by their own social code, which Soria said includes the practice of kidnapping other tribes' women and children.
"Isolated tribes never show themselves," Soria said. "But if this group is doing so it is because they have a certain capacity to defend and protect themselves. They don't fear people from outside."
Valuable land targetted
The Mashco-Piro are believed to be one of about 15 uncontacted tribes in Peru that together are estimated to number between 12,000 and 15,000 people living in jungles east of the Andes.
Beatriz Huerta, an anthropologist who works with Peru's agency for indigenous affairs, speculated that the tribe left the relative safety of their tribe's jungle home because their habitat was becoming increasingly encroached upon.
"To the west of the territories of the Mashco-Piro in Madre de Dios is the basin of the Urubamba river," Huerta said.
"That's where the oil and gas drilling project of Camisea is located. We are very worried because there is a great possibility that the helicopters flying over are scaring the animals away. These animals are the source of food for indigenous people."
Experts were concerned the tribe may be decimated by a disease borne by outsiders, as has occurred with other uncontacted peoples, but it is still a mystery to them why the Mashco-Piro have appeared in an area so heavily trafficked.
After the first sightings, and after tourists left clothing for the Mashco-Piro, state authorities issued a directive in August barring all boats from going ashore in the area. But enforcing it has been difficult as there is no effective policing.
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