Economics still prevails over human needs; the Amazonia is in peril

BY STEVEN KASZAB

The Amazon and its Aboriginal people are at risk of becoming statistics in a world that cares more for immediate profit than human rights, the environment, and other worldly affairs such as our global existence.

Brazil has declared a public health emergency in the Yanomami Community in and near the Amazon because of the continual appearance of severe malnutrition and illnesses that have been ravaging the nation’s largest Indigenous population, some 30,000 people in the Amazon. The past governments of Brazil have allowed many forms of enterprise to harvest, manipulate and destroy the Amazons many natural resources. Illegal gold and diamond mining, which has displaced many citizens, has devastated the land and contaminated its waterways with mercury.

Current President Lula da Silva and other officials have accused former President Bolsonaro of enabling the planned genocide of Brazil’s Indigenous communities. The former president, financially propped up by the mining and illegal farming sector in Brazil, has made millions in illegal funds often sent off short to be hidden for later use.

The present Brazilian federal government has found itself at odds with powerful forces and has sought assistance from their northern friends in: Canada, Mexico and America. Political pronouncements by Deputy Prime Minister Freeland and Vice President Harris aside, President Silva is finding no real assistance from his domestic or foreign friends. Profiteering from the Amazon has made many: Brazilians, foreigners and cartels have made them amazingly wealthy, and they wish to continue as before, with a loose hand and heavy hard stick.

Economics still prevails over human needs. Greed trumps logical compassion towards those who cannot help themselves. Local authorities in the Amazon region are highly corrupt and are in the mining-agricultural and smuggling cartels grasp. Since President Silva’s electoral win, there have been several attempts on his and other official’s lives. Brazil’s “Trump”, Jair Bolsonaro has enthusiastically encouraged political, military and illegal actions against the present administration. Bolsonaro is and will always be the symbol of unmanageable corporate greed.

Calls by global Indigenous organizations to stop the destruction of the Amazon and its people have mostly gone unheard, while other global problems have attracted our attention such as wars and pandemics.

If there were a time when global Indigenous groups could bring wholehearted support and finances to their causes, it is now, and the survival of Amazonia is the cause celeb. One of Amazon’s Indigenous leaders (Junior Yanomami) proclaimed, “The Yanomami people have cried for over four years, mourning the sick children, the dead and dying. We asked for help, and none has arrived.”  

Those who oppose the raping of the Amazon are declared revolutionaries, progressive troublemakers, who are threatened, beaten, disappeared and killed by corporate, cartel and illegal operator’s assassins. Brazil’s Justice Minister has been the target of such actions all because they stand up for the Amazonian nation.

Where are the wealthy celebrities of: New York, Hollywood, Toronto, London, Paris and beyond? If the Amazon fails, so will humanity. The Amazon is the world’s centre of carbon capture just like Canada’s Green Forests. Once the water is polluted and poisoned, and the trees destroyed, the climate will shrivel up good land into dust. The powerful must act.

If I were a wealthy man, a saviour’s hand I would give.

Oppressing the oppressor with justice in hand,

Jails for the many hateful, greedy parasites of Brazil

Justice is a lazy partner we know,

Requiring forever-persistent power to bestow

Lift the curtain of greedy old men,

and work to justify our very existence.

A bullet for a bullet I do say,

for the greed of these people will not easily go away,

Vanquish the enemies of Brazil and our global home,

Bring down the power once more.