Govt gives hermit 37 square miles

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You don't suppose the US government could be persuaded. . .? Nah! Well, it was a fun thought while it lasted.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000154642417163&rtmo=rEaSt9EX&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/99/3/9/wbra09.html

Tuesday 9 March 1999

Brazil reserves 37 sq miles for jungle hermit, By Jeremy McDermott Latin America Correspondent

AN indigenous Indian hermit in the Brazilian Amazon, who has had no contact with the outside world, has been allotted a 37-square-mile reserve to allow him to continue living unmolested.

The Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper said a Brazilian court created the zone to protect the hermit, who is in his thirties, from loggers, ranchers, farmers and others who daily encroach further into the rainforest.

Little is known about the hermit. Marcelo dos Santos, head of the government agency Guapore Contact Front, was quoted as saying that a team approached the tribesman last August, but he kept silent, refused gifts and fired an arrow at them.

New tribes are being discovered all the time, but no contact is made with them, to prevent the passing of diseases to which the Indians may have no resistance and to ensure they can continue in their way of life unmolested.

The forest region where the hermit lives is in the state of Rondonia, 2,000 miles north-west of Rio de Janeiro. Farmers called the court order "absurd" and said they planned to challenge the ruling, the newspaper reported. One farmer claimed the agency had "planted" the Indian in the region to attract money from abroad.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 09, 1999

Answers

If only such dreams could come true--------

-- Watchful (seethesea@msn.com), March 09, 1999.

I don't think those Indians have a right to be left alone. We need to bring them to America and teach them the ways of the white man. We need to educate their children, feed and clothe them. Of course, they will live off the American welfare system and will never have to work for a living. No man is an island, no man stands alone......all tongue in cheek....isn't this what we have done to the Hmongs?

-- ~~ (~~@~~.com), March 09, 1999.

I'd fire the arrows too!

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), March 09, 1999.

Speaking of Hmongs, we have a settlement in our area and I assume the will be friction come y2k civil unrest.

Unfortunately, instead of attacking our legislators and Congressmen, the people who put the Hmongs into the community, most people would rather attack the Hmongs. Easier I guess?

Point being, if there is civil unrest will your area have racial violence? If you think so, what are your contingency plans? Or if you are shy, have you made contingency plans?

-- Mitchell Barnes (spanda@inreach.com), March 09, 1999.


Absolutely!! We should also take his 37 sq. miles back and issue him 1/10 of an acre to live on. OBTW that nasty bow has to go. He'll need no defense, we have a great government for that. One more thing, does he have a "proper" education?

-- R. Wright (blaklodg@aol.com), March 09, 1999.


Mitchell

No we will not have any racial unrest. What we WILL have is major battles between the 'haves' and the'have nots'. IF JQP remains a DGI until New Years, the following year will see the "worst of man, and the better of man". I think you will see most of the civil unrest types rounded up and placed in retention centers for a while.

One of the best outlines for what the world could be like, say, next August or September is the background writing in a book called "The General's President". Sci-fi but well written and indirectly informative. Good for a rainy night.

-- Lobo (Hiding@woods.com), March 10, 1999.


Lobo, who wrote that? (Much easier to find with author's name :-).

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), March 10, 1999.

Why are you guys picking on the Hmong? They were a peaceful people who happened to live in the border regions of countries at war. After several hundreds of years of repeatedly emigrating to new and ever more isolated areas to get out of the way of yet another armed conflict that threatened to roll over and involve them, they ran out of places to run to and fought with the US in Vietnam (as opposed to Cambodia, which they had no more reason to have allegiance to). So how should allies be treated? Especially those with- thanks to getting involved with us- no place to go?

-- Maria (encelia@mailexcite.com), March 11, 1999.

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