Monday, April 23, 2012

Xingu and Rio + 20




"Xingu" by Cao Hamburguer/Brazil, 2012: produced by Meirelles and Globo (among others); it would be fair enough to give it more publicity before an event such as Rio+20, since the actual Brazilian government, in issues concerning growing and development, maintains pretty much the same views as all the previous ones;
Other movies connected with similar issues: 
- Los Silencios (Beatriz Seigner, Brasil/França 2018);
- Chuva é Cantoria na Aldeia dos Mortos (João Salaviza e Renée Nader Messora, Brasil/Portugal 2018);
- Além do Homem (Willy Biondani, 2018);
- Paralelo 10 (Silvio Da-Rin, 2012);
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"During the construction of one Amazon highway in the seventies, the armed forces tried to scare off the Waimiri-Atroari tribe by firing machine guns into the forest, setting off grenades and dynamite. Thirty-three members of the tribe allegedly died when a military aircraft dropped a toxic powder on their village" (Alex Cuadros, Brazillionaires, p. 69).

"Que notícias são estas, as de 70? São as que mostram o processo de demarcação das Reservas Xavante, sua disputa por terras com posseiros e com as grandes empresas agro-pecuárias incentivadas e subdisiadas pela política desenvolvimentista do Estado brasileiro. São notícias que fazem o leitor pensar o Xavante como um índio 'consciente', reivindicandor, sabedor do valor do seu próprio universo cultural e pronto a defendê-lo; um índio não mais enfeitiçado pelo mundo da civilização ocidental e que reage à dependência e à dominação, buscando formas mais justas de relacionamento entre os dois mundos. O exemplo dos Xavante chega, por vezes, a sugerir um padrão alternativo de relacionamento entre comunidades indígenas e o órgão tutelar; sugere novas perspectivas para a própria política indigenista na medida em que prova a possibilidade de uma minoria indígena fazer-se ouvir" (Aracy Lopes da Silva, Nomes e Amigos, p. 30).
"Em termos de orientação e aplicação de recursos em áreas Xavante, a iniciativa mais significativa da FUNAI nos últimos anos foi o "Plano de Desenvolvimento da Nação Xavante" [1974-78]... O projeto parece ter sido encarado pelos Xavante como uma fonte segura de verbas a serem consumidas na aquisição de bens imediatamente necessários (e não investidas em iniciativas que garantissem, de fato sua maior autonomia em relação ao órgão tutelar)... permite duvidar do real interesse do órgão tutelar com relação ao desenvolvimento comunitário efetivo e à criação de condições para retomada da autonomia pelos Xavante. Nunca antes da implantação deste Plano estiveram tantas vezes os Xavante nas cidades, pedindo rifles, máquinas de costuras, roupas e cobertores. Perdeu-se a oportunidade da criação de condições infra-estruturais mínimas para a tão falada auto-suficiência. Por outro lado, conseguiu-se que os Xavante procurassem menos os jornais para reclamar e difamar a imagem do órgão tutelar" (Aracy Lopes da Silva, Nomes e Amigos, p. 52-53).

"Ces Indians répartis de part de d'autre de la frontière entre l'Équateur et le Pérou ne se distinguent guère des autres tribus de l'ensemble jivaro, auquel ils se rattachent par la langue et la culture, lorsqu'ils disent que la plupart des plantes et des animaux possèdent une âme (wakan) similaire à celle des humains, une faculté qui les range parmi les 'personnes' (aents) en ce qu'elle leur assure la conscience réflexive et l'intentionnalité, qu'elle les rend capables d'éprouver des émotions et leur permet d'échanger des messages avec leurs pairs comme avec les membres d'autres espèces..."
"La forme visible des animaux n'est en effet qu'un déguisement. Lorsqu'ils regagnent leurs demeures, c'est pour se dépouiller de leur apparence, revêtir parures de plumes et ornements cérémoniels, et redevenir de manière ostensible les 'gens' qu'ils n'avaient pas cessé d'être lorsqu'ils ondoyaient dans les rivières et fourrageaient dans la forêt."
"Si les animaux diffèrent des hommes, c'est donc uniquement par l'apparence, une simple illusion des sens puisque les enveloppes corporelles distinctives qu'ils arborent d'ordinaire ne sont que des déguisements destinés à tromper les Indiens. Lorsqu'ils visitent ces derniers en rêve, les animaux se révèlent tels qu'ils sont en réalité... il faut éviter le gâchis, tuer proprement et sans souffrances inutiles, traiter ave dignité les os et la dépouille, ne pas céder aux tartarinades ni même évoquer trop clairement le sort réservé aux proies."
"Comme le confiait le chamane Ivaluardjuk à Rasmussen, 'le plus grand péril de l'existence vient du fait que la nourriture des hommes est tout entière faites d'âmes.'" 
(Philippe Descola, Par-delà nature et culture)

***See also: 
And also:

Clipping: 
'... a coordinated criminal effort among local landowners and cattle ranchers to burn newly cleared rainforest — much of it on public land. The unnamed organizers of the collective action, Mr. Piran wrote, wanted to draw the attention of President Jair Bolsonaro.
“Because of the larger deforestation rate in this area, people were saying they had to burn fires at the same time to get the attention of the president,” Mr. Piran said, “to show there are producers here who want to push ahead with cattle, with the land and be productive in the region.”'
'Isolated or recently contacted indigenous people have little or no contact with the outside world, but are under increasing threat from illegal loggers, land-grabbers and miners who encroach on their territories.
Experts say that under Bolsonaro, violent land invasions have increased significantly. According to a recent report by Brazil’s Indigenous Missionary Council, 153 indigenous territories had been invaded since January – compared to 76 last year.'
-  Brazil’s uncontacted tribes face 'genocide' under Bolsonaro (The Guardian, Oct. 7 2019);
'A hundred years ago the Harakmbut people were nearly wiped out.
Inhabitants of a vast jungle region where Peru intersects with Brazil and Bolivia, the tribespeople were enslaved by rubber barons and murdered en masse, only surviving thanks to the help of Dominican missionaries.'
'Now a new threat of extinction looms, and once again they are appealing to the Catholic church.
As wildfires and deforestation drive the Amazon rainforest towards a tipping point beyond which it cannot recover, Yesica Patiachi, a Harakmbut leader from Peru, is heading to Rome to take part in an unprecedented synod of Catholic bishops from across the region.'
'Xavier Arbex, a Swiss priest who has spent close to 40 years in Madre de Dios, said what the pope is proposing is “socially and politically revolutionary”.
But half a lifetime defending human rights in the Amazon makes the 77-year-old cleric pessimistic the synod can impede the “savage capitalism” driving the destruction.'
'Os indigenistas conclamam "a sociedade nacional a reagir e denunciar em cortes internacionais essa nítida tentativa de desconstrução da política brasileira de defesa e promoção e proteção dos direitos de povos indígenas isolados e de recente contato". "Possíveis interferências ideológicas como as que estamos presenciando nos quadros técnicos da Funai, em especial dessa Coordenação-Geral, são da maior gravidade."'
'O Brasil é um dos países de maior diversidade étnica do mundo, e com o maior número de registro de povos isolados, conferindo, assim, grande riqueza cultural ao país. A atuação nessa área exige conhecimento especializado, pois tem forte apelo junto à opinião pública. Isso ocorre pois os povos indígenas isolados e de recente contato estão submetidos a um imenso leque de vetores de vulnerabilidade, tal como a epidemiológica...'
''Segundo o papa, ecologia também diz respeito às tradições perdidas por comunidades indígenas impactadas por grandes obras, aos humanos que foram substituídos por robôs em indústrias e às pessoas que vivem com crises de ansiedade e são incapazes de admirar a beleza ao redor.'
'Essa noção de ecologia, que Francisco chama de "ecologia integral", será um dos eixos do Sínodo da Amazônia, no qual ele receberá bispos de todos os nove países amazônicos a partir deste domingo (6/10), no Vaticano.''
'More than 30 bullet holes told Awapu Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau a sinister tale.  “Their message is that they’re going to finish us off, isn’t it?” the village chieftan said as he examined the pockmarked sign warning outsiders to stay off the giant Amazon reserve he calls home.'
'Brazil was only 11 days into Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency when dozens of armed land-grabbers rolled up at the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau territory and cut a trail into the forest, claiming Bolsonaro’s anti-indigenous rhetoric meant they would not be stopped.'
'Last week Brazil’s Indigenous Missionary Council rights group denounced that 153 indigenous territories had been invaded since January – more than double last year’s figure of 76 – partly blaming the surge on Bolsonaro’s “aggressive” talk.'
'Vivendo uma tragédia sem precedentes, os Munduruku, que contam hoje com uma população de 13 mil pessoas, tentam resistir aos riscos de contaminação de suas terras, seus rios e seus corpos. Em uma área que deveria estar completamente preservada, o desmatamento aumentou quase seis vezes em dois anos. De acordo com dados do Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (Inpe), em 2017 foram desmatados 2,64 km² de floresta dentro da TI Munduruku; em 2018, foram 4,84 km²; em 2019, foram 15,46 km². O garimpo ilegal é o principal responsável pela destruição: entre agosto de 2018 e agosto de 2019, a atividade consumiu nada menos que 10,71 km² de floresta.'

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Inside Job

 





Inside Job : What is most brilliant in this movie, no matter its title, is that it actually doesn't have to rely in any kind of conspiracy theory: greed & (academic and professional) stupidity (plus hypocrisy) amounting to what the French call bêtise were (and are still) a yawning crevasse.
Finn Wittrock & John Magaro in Adam's Mckay, The Big Short (2015); 
"I work on Wall Street": American Psycho (Mary Harron, 2000);
***NEW (April 5, 2020): debate concerning the economic crisis following Covid-19 pandemics & State aid to banks in Brazil (Mônica de Bolle, Gabriel Galipolo, Fernando Nogueira da Costa, Luis Nassif/GGN);
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"What's great about this country is that... President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke... A Coke is a Coke and no money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking... when Queen Elizabeth came here and President Eisenhower bought her a hot dog I'm sure he felt confident that she couldn't have had delivered to Buckingham Palace a better hot dog than that one he bought her for maybe twenty cents at the ballpark... Sometimes you fantasize that people who are really up-there and rich and living it up have something you don't have, that their things must be better than your things because they have more money than you. But they drink the same Cokes and eat the same hot dogs and wear the same ILGWU clothes and see the same TV shows... All this is really American. The idea of America is so wonderful because the more equal something is, the more American it is... a lot of places give you special treatment when you're famous, but that's not really American. Wherever it's possible, you should try to pay people in measurements that are the most suitable for their talent or job."
Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

"Everyone's telling Debbie she's gonna be the next Farrah Fawcett, and she was saying that she didn't want to be Farrah Fawcett. All she wanted to do was sing."
James Sliman (Please Kill Me)
"They give this stuff to us just to keep us stoned, I don't even want it. You fucking take it. They just keep giving it to us! That's all the fucking guys give us! They want, they want, they want, and for that they give us this shit! James, this is for you, I don't even want it, my hotel room is full of it."
Blondie/James Sliman (Please Kill me)
"... and I just couldn't stop looking at her [Edie Sedgwick], because I was so fascinated-but-horrified. Her hands kept crawling, they couldn't sleep, they couldn't stay still..."
The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

"Dupés par l'effet de réel de l'accélération des profits, les spéculateurs du moment, fascinés par les écrans du stock exchange, ne remarquent pas, semble-t-il, la déformation provoquée par la courbure du miroir des Bourses de l'ère de la globalisation et donc du caractère 'astronomique' de cette soudaine compression temporelle qui leur permet, certes, d'impressionnants profits mais au prix de 'bulles' de plus en plus fragiles qui déboucheront bientôt sur le krach systémique du turbo-capitalisme, mais, surtout, sur le laïcisme des spéculateurs qui ne pourront plus faire confiance à l'avenir de l'illusion progressiste, ni attendre du dernier logiciel les miracles que leur promettait la modélisation mathématique d'un marché soumis aux excès de vitesse du flash trading hyperactif..."
"L'idée même d'un capitalisme hors-sol et hors champ de toute production véritable, fondé sur une spéculation en apesanteur, n'est jamais qu'un leurre du marché, une aberration économique qui conduit tout droit à la crise systémique redoutée, à l'exemple de ces hedge funds dont la comptabilité est aujourd'hui exilée dans des places offshore, des paradis fiscaux, dont le management se résume souvent à une minuscule équipe qui peut travailler dans un appartement, le fonds de spéculation n'ayant pas vraiment de statut juridique..."
Paul Virilio, Le Grand Accélérateur

"Au-delà de l'erreur, au-delà de la bêtise elle-même: une certaine bassesse de l'âme..."
Deleuze, Nietzsche et la philosophie
"... are you going to major in Business Administration and stampede to Wall Street to sell illegal junk bonds?"
Timothy Leary