Jessica
It is an undeniable fact that the destruction of the Amazon rainforest has a tremendous impact on both plants and animals. However, the consequences of deforestation do not only affect wildlife, but also jeopardize the habitats of the rainforest’s indigenous people. Case studies have shown that several outsiders, in the pursuit of personal gains, have invaded native reserves and used various devices to deprive the indigenous population of their traditional lands and forest. Cattle ranchers, loggers, and land speculators, for example, have cleared several forests near navigable streams that most fish species depend on. Fish is the primary source of protein for the indigenous people, but as a result of felling, fish reproductions have been affected. The process of deforestation has forced the native population to turn to legal alternatives. Unfortunately, even with the support of the Church, their efforts have proved ineffective (“Effects of Deforestation”).
The story of Sister Dorothy Stang is a primary example of the Church’s efforts to exemplify the principles of Rights and Responsibilities and Option for the Poor and Vulnerable. Sister Stang moved to Brazil with the intention “to help poor farmers build independent futures for their families.” On February 12, 2005, however, Stang was shot to death by hired gunmen. Her death came less than a week after meeting with the country’s human rights officials about threats to local farmers from illegal loggers and ranchers (Notre Dame de Namur University).
The Catholic Social Teaching principles of Rights and Responsibilities and Option for the Poor and Vulnerable state that “every person has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human decency.” Furthermore, they state that “our tradition, as Catholics, instructs us to put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first” (“Seven Core Values of Catholic Social Teaching”). As a Catholic majority, how can the people of Brazil prevent further deforestation and thus put into effect the principles of Catholic Social Teaching to work toward the common good?
Josh
ReplyDeleteThe slaying of Sister Dorothy Stang, about which Jessica discussed, was perpetrated by “gunmen associated with plantation owners” (Butler). Marking a glaring crest in tensions among “peasants, farmers, and land speculators,” her death contextually corresponds to the progressive escalation of “documented conflicts over land” in Brazil (Butler). The Pastoral Land Commission “found that land battles in Brazil’s countryside reached the highest level in at least 20 years in 2004,” within which year there were 1,801 documented conflicts (Butler).
Of particular concern within Brazil’s Amazon region are miners who “clear forest for building, fuelwood collection, and subsistence agriculture” (Butler). Elizabeth Crittenden indicates that struggles “with indigenous populations arise because so many gold deposits” lie on native lands; numerically, 26 such gold mines plagued the Amazon population in 1990. The preferential option for the poor and vulnerable--namely, for those indigenous to Amazonia--is therefore blatantly disregarded for economic advancement. The disproportionate priorities steering the encroachment upon indigenous peoples are undoubtedly a manifestation of injustice.
It is through levelheaded, sustainable use of rainforests that stewardship is exhibited; perhaps more convincingly, moderation in deforestation ensures the common good—principally, the welfare of those who inhabit the Amazon. Through bold activism, individuals such as Sister Dorothy Stang embody the spirit of social justice consistent with Brazil’s Catholic majority. That which is demanded, consequently, is a collective plea for a responsible use of rainforests. Exploiting the media of an increasingly globalized world, activists now find convenient means of effectively diffusing this message.
Ever since I watched the documentary, "the tears of Amazon", on indigenous people living in the rain forest, I have had great interests in their lives and situations that they have to face. So called "Civilized" people from the outside started to tarnish the forest little by little. "About 140 different tribal people still live deep in the Brazilian forests, covering nearly 800,000 square kilometers" (Oldfield). Also, there are still many unknown tribes living in the purified and untainted environment.
ReplyDeleteBrazilian government divided the indigenous people into two groups: those who had contact with the modern world and those who did not have contact with the modern world. What struck me was how the lives of those two different groups were significantly different. The group with continuous contact with the outside world brought in processed food, clothes, money, and tools and also the contamination and diseases. Those who did not have the contacts lived more clearer and happier lives.
It is the common good of all as the post mentioned in which everybody has to have the equal right. What is the right of "civilized" people with which they can destroy others' goods for their own benefits.
There is this one statement that I had to keep in my heart. "If norm of civilization was determined by the happiness, they are the most civilized people on the earth."
Grace
It is sad to see that the indigenous people of the Amazon Rainforest are being treated like the Native Americans of the Midwest during the 19th Century. The displacement of more than hundreds of Amazonian tribes and the mistreatment of the outsiders caused the tribes strife. "For long period of time the Amazon rainforest was a giant refugee for the indigenous population. This happened because the lack of a clear economic potential to be exploited by the colonizers" (Amazon Rainforest Indigenous Tribes).
ReplyDeleteAlso, the government does little to support the indigenous people in the reservations. "Some days there's food. some days there isn't" (London/Kelly). This mistreatment on the indigenous people is against the Catholic Social Teaching of Stewardship and the Common Good. The tribal people need the rainforest for their survival. But now the government and other outsiders are destroying it and forcing the tribes to be displaced and put into reservations. In order for the government to practice the Catholic Church's teaching of Stewardship as well as the Common Good, they should stop the reservations and they should protect the forest so the indigenous people can survive.
I agree with this post because the indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest, who have been there long before any of the modern settlers, deserve to be treated with respect and care in regards to their way of life and their native land. The Amazon “has been inhabited by native cultures for thousands of years” and they rely completely on the rainforest for their food and shelter (Darv). Those who infiltrate the rainforest to strip it of its resources for profit, like loggers and miners, destroy the land that these native people inhabit. In addition to shrinking the area of land in which the natives can live on, the foreigners also wipe out the native tribes with, “disease and violence at the rate of almost 1 [tribe] per year”. “At one time there were as many as 10 million tribal people living in the Amazon. Today, only 200,000 remain” (Darv).
ReplyDeleteBecause the native tribes have lived in the Amazon for so long, they have the best knowledge of its secrets that modern people overlook. “When a tribe is wiped out, an entire culture is lost. Unique languages, beliefs, and customs disappear forever” (Darv). Modern scientists called Ethnobotanists study how the natives use the plants in the Amazon to further their knowledge of useful plants. The shaman use the plants as medicine, and because “[their] expertise has been passed down…and cannot be found in any book or laboratory” as more and more tribes die, more and more of their experience is lost (Darv). Sister Dorothy Stang and people like her are powerful forces for social justice because they fight for the rights of the natives in the Amazon even though their lives are threatened by those who want to exploit the Amazon for their own profit. The Catholics in Brazil and all over the world need to be more like them and protect the natives’ land and their way of life because as the Option for the Poor and Vulnerable says, everyone deserves to be treated with respect and human decency especially those who cannot protect themselves.
-Carl
couldn't AGREE MORE.
ReplyDelete