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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums“To get the gold, they will have to kill every one of us”
The most-storied warrior tribe in Ecuador prepares to fight as the government sells gold-laden land to China
BY ALEXANDER ZAITCHIK
Of the thousands of Avatar screenings held during the films record global release wave, none tethered the animated allegory to reality like a rainy day matinee in Quito, Ecuador.
It was late January 2010 when a non-governmental organization bused Indian chiefs from the Ecuadorean Amazon to a multiplex in the capital. The surprise decampment of the tribal congress triggered a smattering of cheers, but mostly drew stares of apprehension from urban Ecuadoreans who attribute a legendary savagery to their indigenous compatriots, whose violent land disputes in the jungle are as alien as events on Avatars Pandora.
The chiefs who watched the film through plastic 3-D glasses perched beneath feathered headdress saw something else in the film: a reflection. The only fantastical touches they noticed in the sci-fi struggle were the blue beanstalk bodies and the Hollywood gringo savior. As in the film, the government here has closed the dialogue, a Shuar chief told a reporter after the screening. Does this mean that we do something similar to the film? We are ready.
Three years after Avatars Quito premiere, declarations of martial readiness are multiplying and gaining volume throughout the tribal territories of Ecuadors mountainous southeast. The warnings bare sharpest teeth in the Shuar country of the Cordillera del Condor, the rain forest mountain range targeted by President Rafael Correa for the introduction of mega-mining.
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http://www.salon.com/2013/02/10/to_get_the_gold_they_will_have_to_kill_every_one_of_us/
Smilo
(1,944 posts)I believe, because of this greed, that within a century it is going to be difficult to recognize that the earth was once beautiful and lush.
Initech
(100,102 posts)Flaxbee
(13,661 posts)do to this beautiful planet and all of its creatures.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)© Universal Press Syndicate
"We prefer your extinction to the loss of our job."
What is life really about?
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Flaxbee
(13,661 posts).