In the news recently is highlighted yet another trial, yet another tribulation, yet another reason for the native peoples of the Amazon, in this case the Kayapo, to be violently ousted from their home. The reason today? Electricity. The reasons in the past? Logging and cattle farming are two of the most prominent. In the past, this sort of news has been fairly inaccessible to the general public though the truths have been even more shocking than currently, stretching to include even the genocide of Amazonian native people.
photo credit: The Washington Post
This sort of truth is not unique to Brazil, to the Amazon, though its result and its root are just as heartbreaking. In 2010 native people in Vancouver, Canada were forcibly removed from their homes in order to make way for Olympics-related industries, such as new strip malls and larger hotels for Olympics visitors. Similarly, in the US legislative battles still occur in order to protect and expand upon native peoples’ rights while the country also wavers in its significant issues with both institutionalized racism and racial profiling. More
