Capitalism returns with another sting in its tail

Twenty-five years ago, Chief Raoni Metuktire, of the indigenous Kayapo population of 8,500, rose to international prominence by the publicity generated by his association with Sting , singer with the band Police.  as his campaign against hydroelectric dams on the Xingu river galvanized The Police’s frontman. The media had a field-day with footage of the Amazonian tribesman in his traditional visiting London in a campaign against hydroelectric dams on the Xingu river, a major tributary of the Amazon where this tribe lives, in the early 1990s.

But the threat has resurfaced, and at a far greater magnitude, with proposals to build up to 60 hydroelectric dams now at various stages of development across the Amazon, including at least six on the Xingu.

Chief Raoni, said: “The white man seems to be destroying everything. Try to change the way you think and tell your children while they’re growing up that it’s very important to respect nature, to respect indigenous peoples, and not to destroy everything, not to finish everything. All over the world indigenous people are having problems with the destruction of their land and forest. Everywhere I look there is occupation and destruction of the natural balance. We should be finding a solution together to preserve the forest for the future of our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren. What’s going to happen when it’s all gone, when it’s all destroyed and there’s nothing left?”

Chief Raoni said: “Before contact with white people everything was normal, everything was beautiful. I went with my father into the forest hunting, now everything has changed. Around our area everything is destroyed and small towns have become bigger, so that things have expanded and are getting worse.” The “white man’s” influence is also taking its toll on Kayapo culture, he says. “Young people go up to the town. It takes them a long time, but they go because they want to see what white people are doing. And they could lose their culture through all these interactions with white people. “Instead of looking for a plant in the forest, they will go and look for an aspirin. Instead of doing our traditional dances, they will go to town and listen to other types of music,” he said.

And for some of his tribe, development could not only threaten their culture, but annihilate them. “The dam would be even worse for isolated communities that still live in our area. In the river there’s a place for isolated people, so they don’t have contact with others. If you close off the river and the flooding starts, they will die and it will never be known,” he said.