Journal of an Open Sourcee

I have just watched this video about the never ending conflict between Brazilian indigenous natives and the white farmers from small town Brazil. This is the kind of stuff that is well known by the entire country, but avoided by most for fear of retaliation!

Like pretty much anywhere in the Americas, the Brazilian indigenous population was almost completely massacred and enslaved by the the white settlers during the colonial times. The few who survived torture, humiliation, and sub-human living conditions, were shamelessly confined to live with no assistance and left to slowly vanish from human history. As a friend noted, even today in the 21st century, the Brazilian natives are treated worse than animals and are still forced to live under harsh circumstances.

The video shows how an indigeneous organization, together with members of the Green Peace and international reporters were temporarily detained, interrogated, verbally (and nearly physically) threatened, and eventually expelled from a tiny little town in Brazil. The mob that surrounded the peace group was primarily made up of local farmers, who apparently have been taking the land that was allocated to the local indigeneous group back in 1996. They were probably afraid that by letting the group see the current living state of the natives, word would get out and they’d be forced to give the land back.

BACK??? The land belonged to them before anyone set foot there! But that is subject for another post. If you decide to watch the video (which I urge you to do even if you don’t understand what they’re talking about), pay close attention to a guy wearing a yellow shirt. He is the mayor of the town and clearly in the payroll of the farming organization! He demands that the group leave town or else… The group is followed every and each step of the ordeal and needed protection from the police so not to be linched by the “angry” mob!

An interesting “quote” from the video: “They (native indians) belong to us! They can’t come here and see then without our permission!”

And here I thought that slavery had been abolished already in Brazil! This is a disgrace and unacceptable! I am extremelly disgusted with this!

Mr. Luis Inácio Lula da Silva: As the current elected president of Brazil, you are RESPONSIBLE for the well being and safety of EVERY SINGLE CITIZEN of this great nation! Please don’t close your eyes to these acts of atrocity and abuse! A country that cannot take care of its own people should not be allowed to be part of any international organization! How can we proudly claim to have a voice at the UN when we don’t take care of our own?

Utterly shameful!

UPDATE: Video now in English, thanks to Claudio and Sulamita!

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