Flex Mentallo

Anthropologists working closely with the Yanomami such as Alcida Ramos cite this three year period as a genocide allowed by the Brazilian government.

In 1987, FUNAI President Romero Jucá denied that the sharp increase in Yanomami deaths were due to garimpeiros invasions, and then-Brazilian President Sarney also supported the economic venture of the garimpeiros over the land rights of the Yanomami.

“ The miners threaten the Indians, they destroy nature and they are still bringing diseases to our people… We are fighting for our people, our land and our forest.” Davi Kopenawa, spokesman of the Yanomami people

The Yanomami population has consequently been severely decimated from malaria, mercury poisoning, malnourishment, and violence.

By 1990, more than 40,000 garimpeiros had entered the Yanomami land.

In addition, mining techniques by the garimpeiros led to environmental degradation.

In the mid-1970s, garimpeiros (small independent gold-diggers) started to enter the Yanomami country. Where these garimpeiros settled, they killed members of the Yanomami tribe in conflict over land.

This is the region where the English adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh believed he would discover the untold riches of El Dorado - he launched two expeditions up the Orinoco in 1595 and 1616. (I'll be covering the search for El Dorado and the true story behind the myth in a later series of posts.)

The Yanomami live in 200-250 villages in an area of 60,000 square miles (96,500 square kilometres) of jungle, sprawling across the Venezuela-Brazil border.

Yanomami

“The world needs human diversity as much as it needs bio-diversity" Stephen Corry “I do know that the measure of a civilization is not how tall its buildings of concrete are, but rather how well its people have learned to relate to their environment and fellow man” Chippewa Now that loneliness and depression in industrialized societies is so prevalent, this consideration of the individual only as part of a dynamic whole is perhaps particularly compelling. Especially for someone like myself, working in mental health, witnessing everyday the destructive power of stress and anxiety that seem to grow more intense day by day, year by year. However tall our buildings, however fast our computers, within ourselves we as a society have cultivated a wasteland, a theme to which I will return later, because the wasteland theme is to be found in all our fables and mythologies - and that is because it recurs throughout history. That is why virtual communities like these boards can be so helpful, by giving us a sense of being connected to each other and some of the things we care about in an increasingly fragmented world.

Until they choose otherwise, they must be allowed to live in peace, not condemned to suffer from the mindless repetition of history - destroyed by those interested not in their unique cultures and values, but in the minerals beneath their soil, the trees around them and the gold that washes through their rivers.They understand that once the forests, trees and mountains have been depleted, mutilated or polluted too severely, no technological quick fixes will restore them. Joanna Eede “The great difference between the indigenous and the western world is that we live in communities. The individual is important as a measure of the whole. Together, we are strong.” Aguaruna Today, there are over 100 uncontacted tribal peoples worldwide - living free from the influence of governments, the subliminal powers of the media and the thoughts of others.They belong: to a place, and to each other. Dependent on their community for survival in remote and often harsh environments, many tribal peoples have lived — and often still live — in complex societies, where the solidarity of the group is of utmost importance. Tribal peoples - both uncontacted and contacted - show us that humanity is still part of nature, and that we ignore this at our peril.Their lifestyles are not inferior for their lack of “modern” technology, material goods or formal education. Nor do the people who practice them need civilizing or “developing.”

"The true meaning of what it is to be “civilized” lies not in accruing power and wealth but in respecting the differences of others and accepting the value of human diversity... showing us that humanity is about “we”, not “I”, belonging not ownership, human values not economics, balance with nature, not destruction." Joanna Eede “This land keeps us together within its mountains. We come to understand that we are not just a few people … but one people belonging to a homeland.” Akawaio Survival International published these images in June 2010 in order to help protect the lives of the tribe by proving their existence. They caused a worldwide sensation. The moment they were published, thousands of people per minute were looking at the images on Survival’s website; since then, over 2 million have seen them. http://www.survivalinternational.org/ Importantly, the Peruvian Government announced within 2 days of publication that they would work with Brazilian authorities to stop loggers entering isolated Indians’ territory along the two countries’ joint border.

The Last Free People “In our relentless search for ‘development’ and material progress it is possible we have alienated ourselves from our deepest human needs, which surely lie in our connections to each other and the Earth. Tribal peoples still perhaps understand those connections better than most." Stephen Corry, director of Survival International “This here is my life, my soul. If you take this land away from me, you take my life.” Guarani-Kaiowá These photographs are of one of the last uncontacted tribes in the world. They are in a clearing at the headwaters of the Envira River, deep in one of the remotest parts of the Brazilian Amazon. Very little is known about them. We do not know their name, or how they live, or what they believe. We know that the uncontacted Indians seen in this part of the Amazon move across the rain forest at different times of the year, living in the heart of the forest when water levels are high, and camping on the beaches that form in river bends during the dry seasons.

Cool cover! Looks like a rogues gallery of a certain forum!

Not many. The biggest issue I've had on the 10 or so I've had regraded was page quality. CGC is much more likely to give something a LT/OW or Slightly Brittle when PGX called it OW/W or C/OW. I've had at least four where this happened. If the PQ isn't bad, then I've gotten grades that were comparable. As with CGC slabs, I had some pressed when they were resubmitted and they can get a similar grade bump. I don't believe PGX is as hard on stains as CGC. I seem to recall that the PGX Jumbos I sold you had this PQ issue, and that you only achieved equivalent CGC grade after pressing in a number of cases. I'm not sure there was even a single book that CGC graded higher than PGX even after pressing. And that was out of 20 or 30 books if I'm not mistaken.

Well it's not unsurprising, surprisingly.

Personally speaking BZ, I am always surprised by your collecting habits. But I'm no longer surprised that I'm surprised.

There are many Amazon tribes under real and immediate threat of extinction. The Kayapo are not one of them. Those tribes under threat include the Yanomami, who are not even mentioned on the Rainforest Foundation web site. http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/index Next: Extinction

Or who discreetly donate vast sums to charities that understand how best to ensure that these funds reach the intended target. An example of that premise is the collaboration between the late actor Christopher Reeve and the American Paralysis Association (APA). After Reeve was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident in 1995 he became connected with the APA, which over the next three years saw its revenue double to $5 million, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy. In fact, the results were so positive that the charity was rebranded as Christopher Reeve Foundation. Check out who made the 30 Most Generous Celebrities list according to Forbes magazine in 2010: Sting is not one of them. Between 1999 and 2002 Trudie and Sting reportedly gave somewhere between £51,000 and £100,000 (or between $75,000 and $156,000 dollars) to The Rainforest Foundation UK. Their fortune is estimated to be about $200 million.

There are many celebrities who have worked selflessly on behalf of third world countries. Some, like Audrey Hepburn, will be in our hearts forever.

In 2002 Trudie Styler was honored "for her work to save the Amazonian Rainforest and the peoples who live there from extinction" at a New York City gala event. But it transpires that The Rainforest Foundation US organized the big party itself to honor one of its founders, with funds raised from donations made by the general public, who intended their donations to reach the Indians the Foundation purports to serve.The cost of the party is estimated to be $285,000.

The Foundation currently operates from three offices in New York, London and Oslo. The Rainforest Foundation in New York, according to their own published figures, spent $363,883 in development and general administrative costs in order to give away $518,790 in program services. In 2002 the numbers were more outrageous, costing $648,486 to give away $741,943. So, in 2001, they ate up 70 cents in order to get one dollar to those in need. And in 2002, the administrative costs ballooned to 87 cents for every dollar.

Concerning Dutilleux and his pocketing of some $100,000 USD of Rainforest Foundation book royalties, the documentary was especially damning. Dutilleux denied the money was royalties. To that, Bill Kurtis said bluntly, "Mr. Dutilleux is lying." In summary, World in Action declared The Rainforest Foundation "a charity built on promises that has failed to deliver."

The documentary details the dilemma of the Indians facing a devastating malaria epidemic. Clive Kelly, who had accompanied Sting on his first trip to the Amazon, recounts how he pleaded with Trudie Styler via telephone from Brazil for the money they had been promised to help treat the Indians and how, despite her promises, no money ever arrived. The show explains how many indigenous Indians died from this infestation of the disease. Kelly notes how, instead, the money was used to buy a private airplane for Raoni, so he could secure his position as Chief among Chiefs. Raoni now lives comfortably in a modern suburb of Brazilia.