Peaceful Societies

Manitok Thompson has been frustrated by Facebook lately for blocking her sales of products she has made from the skins of local animals. According to a news story published early last week, the Inuit lady used to rely on the social media giant to reach out to potential customers around the world with her posts about the sealskin mitts, mink-lined hats, and about 40 other products she makes out of animal skins.

Elder Manitok Thompson explains the significance of certain features of a parka (Photo by Tom Thompson in BiblioArchives of Canada on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

But no longer. Despite the fact that in Nunavut it is perfectly legal to harvest and use objects made from those animals, Facebook decided in August to block posts that are trying to sell products made from those animal skins. Thompson argues that she is not doing anything that is illegal. “It’s been very, very frustrating,” she said.

The social media giant blocked a listing of a sealskin hat in May 2018 though it subsequently apologized for its error. But in August 2019 the company changed its policies to prohibit posts that try to sell endangered or threatened animals or their parts. This new policy appears to block the sale of products made from seals, even ones that are neither threatened nor endangered.

An Inuit woman hangs kamiits, sealskin boots, to dry in Pangnirtung, Nunavut (Photo by George Hunter in BiblioArchives of Canada on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

The news story last week quotes Facebook’s response to the controversy. In part, the company maintains, “While we recognize that not all seal species or seal populations are endangered or threatened, many are. As a result, we enforce a broad global standard to ensure the most vulnerable species globally are not put at risk.”

The statement goes on to admit the need to be sensitive to “cultural considerations” of the Inuit and their traditional uses of local animals, but they also claim their recognition of the loss of species globally is essential. Another spokesperson with Facebook added, “We understand that Indigenous peoples and those in Northern Canada have unique needs when pursuing their traditional livelihoods across our platforms.”

Ms. Thompson is aware of the forms available on Facebook with which crafters can appeal the rejections of their posts selling animal products. But filling out the forms without any guarantee they’ll be approved is a hassle. Living in Nunavut is expensive, she argues. There is a lack of jobs in the territory and Facebook is a great way of reaching out to potential customers around the world. “But Facebook is blocking people who are trying to sell their products when they’re trying to put food on the table,” she said.

Thompson, formerly a member of the Nunavut Legislative Assembly and a cabinet member, worries about a future where crafters are unable to effectively sell their traditional products to a worldwide market. She and others in the business are urging the major Inuit organizations to engage the social media firm about the impact of their policies on the Inuit and the Canadian North.

Despite threats to their communities, the peaceful Kadar and four species of large birds, all hornbills, are beginning to thrive in southern Kerala where they live together in the forests. While numerous news reports over the years have chronicled the Kadar love for their natural environment, the critical development in recent years has been their growing involvement with forest protection and wildlife research. A lengthy news story posted in the Indian news website Scroll.in on December 30 reviewed the recent history of the Kadar and their work to protect the hornbills.

A stream in the Athirappilly Vazhachal forest (Photo by Jaseeem Hamza in Wikimedia, Creative Commons license)

The Athirappilly Vazhachal forest of southern Kerala is the only place in India where four species of hornbills now live and breed. The great Indian hornbill (Buceros bicornis), Malabar pied hornbill (Anthracoceros coronatus), Indian grey hornbill (Ocyceros birostris), and Malabar grey hornbill (Ocyceros griseus) nest in the natural hollows that occur in giant forest trees. Although their huge bills prevent them from having binocular vision, their excellent hearing and sharp eyesight do keep them alert to human-caused disturbances on the forest floor. Disturbances have caused populations of hornbills to decline across India.

The news story last week credits the local Kadar for their efforts to protect the hornbills—and the forests in which they live. Senthil Kumar, a Kadar man, told the reporter that his people used to kill the big birds for their meat and gather their eggs from their nests. But in the past 20 years they have stopped doing that and they are now helping keep the nests and eggs of the birds safe.

A great hornbill female in flight in the Anamalai Hills of the Western Ghats (Photo by T.R. Shankar Raman in Wikimedia, Creative Commons license)

His statement to the reporter was inspiring: “Our nine settlements of 174 families inside these forests had a dubious legacy as poachers and predators. But we are fast shrugging it off in our earnest bid to live in perfect harmony with nature and to safe keep these evergreen rainforests for future generations.”

The article in Scroll.in reports that only 1,848 Kadar now live in Kerala. Many of them take an active interest in their forests. Although the history of their opposition to the controversial Athirappilly Hydroelectric Dam project on the Chalakudy River has been covered in older news stories in this website, recent developments mentioned by the current article are worth noting.

About two years ago the traditional Kadar village meetings passed resolutions opposing the dam proposal. The resolution they passed invoked the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act of 2006. Reports claimed that those resolutions represented the first time that the law was invoked for the purpose of protecting a forest. The law stipulates that private or governmental projects can only be undertaken after local tribal meetings have approved them.

Ms. Geetha at the river that she is trying to protect (Photo by Parineeta Dandekar on SANDRP website, Creative Commons license)

Ms. Geetha Vazhachal, the leader in one of the Kadar villages that would be affected by the proposed dam, told the reporter that if the Kerala State Electricity board did approve the construction of the dam despite the opposition from the Kadar, “the first casualty will be the region’s rich hornbill population.”

A lot of credit for inspiring the Kadar to become protectors of the hornbills should go to researcher K.H. Amitha Bachan. He has been affiliated with the Kerala Forest Department and the World Wildlife Fund-India Ecological Monitoring Programme. Most critically, he provided the leadership for organizing the Western Ghats Hornbill Foundation (WGHF).

A great hornbill male visiting a nest (Photo by Aparajita Datta in Wikimedia, Creative Commons license)

The WGHF pioneered, along with the Kerala Forest Department, a project which induced Kadar young people to begin hornbill nest monitoring. At first, 72 Kadar youths were involved with helping the Forest Department protect known hornbill nest trees from poaching. The initiative started out by protecting 57 nests, though the number has expanded to 114 nests today. The Kadar activists also work with forestry personnel in planting trees and helping protect the forest from wildfires.

The foundation, which began in 1999 as a group of hornbill lovers, has evolved into a successful community-based conservation and research organization. It has conducted research on the hornbills and, while protecting the birds, it has also enhanced protection of the forest and the lives of the Kadar themselves. The young Kadar who work with the WGHF have gained training in monitoring techniques and protecting the big birds.

They are also trained to collect data and conduct scientific surveys. The foundation is aware of the value of the traditional forest knowledge of the Kadar in their work for science. “Through [the Kadar], we are in the process of developing a long-term monitoring system to assess changes in the rainforest and that is crucial for future conservation activities,” said one official who is involved with the foundation.

The Athirappilly waterfall (Photo by Isabel Schulz on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

Another benefit for the Kadar is the steady income that the people employed in the forest protection work gain. A previous source of income was menial work in the eateries and shops located near the Athirappilly waterfalls on the Chalakudy River, a major destination for tourists in southern Kerala.

In Mr. Bachan’s opinion, protecting and enhancing the forest serves to promote both the Kadars and the hornbills. They are equally important and interlinked. “No conservation would be possible without cooperation of the local community, especially the aborigines. Integrating their traditional wisdom with [a] modern-day scientific approach would definitely yield results,” he said.

He emphasized the importance of treating the Kadar employees as equals working toward the goal of protecting the ecosystem. They require as much attention as animals, birds, and trees in the forest. He said that the economic boost the Kadars gain from their employment plays an essential role in converting them into protectors of the hornbills and the rest of the natural world.

Just before Christmas, the Salvation Army in the small city of Swift Current, Saskatchewan, held a Hutterite Appreciation Lunch to honor the local colonies that have supplied tons of free food to help them feed people throughout the year.

Winter in Swift Current, Saskatchewan (Photo by ffunyman in Flickr, Creative Commons license)

Captain Ed Dean of the Swift Current Salvation Army told a reporter that the Hutterites donate a lot of vegetables, chickens, and turkeys every year. The luncheon was his way of saying “thank you for all the generosity they bring …. If it wasn’t for the Hutterites, we would have very little vegetables throughout the year….”

Captain Charlotte Dean told the press that they are emphasizing more than ever before giving healthy foods to the people they feed. They are providing as much non-processed food as possible, a goal that the Hutterite colonies support with their donations. A lot of the food from the colonies at this time of year goes into the Christmas food hampers that the Salvation Army gives out to needy families.

Hutterites at a farmers market in Saskatchewan — Hutterites at a farm market in Saskatchewan (Photo by Peter Merholz on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

A different reporter attending the festive luncheon mentioned the local business partners supporting the feeding programs. Jennifer Bingham from a firm called Pioneer Co-op Agro said that her company has been involved with the Salvation Army’s feeding program for years. “The food that [the Hutterite colonies] have provided makes a big difference in a lot of people’s lives and it’s really been wonderful for us to see … how happy people are to receive that food for Christmas,” she said.

Sue McKeown, a worker in the food bank, told the Hutterites attending the luncheon that the people who need the food very much “appreciate every package of carrots, potatoes, cabbage[s].” The coordinator of the Monday night meal program in Swift Current, Arlene McKenzie, also expressed her appreciation for all the fresh vegetables. She said they help feed 85 to 100 people every Monday.

News stories in 2012 and 2008 described the Hutterite support for the feeding programs by the Salvation Army in Swift Current. Clearly, the colonies are continuing and expanding their generosity toward local needy people.

This website welcomes the new year with special pleasure: it’s the beginning of our 16th year of providing news and reviews about the 25 peaceful societies that we focus on. While some of the societies we follow have lost a lot of their peacefulness over the years, others appear from the news stories to cherish their values as strongly as ever. Most of them are slowly changing as they adapt to the stresses of modernity, though some reject change and do their best to retain their traditions.

But citing the 1,580+ news stories we have published over the years might be construed as a form of bragging. After all, plenty of bloggers have been at it for more than 15 years and have published their posts daily to boot. What’s so special about celebrating an anniversary of a website, anyway? Isn’t it just a form of self-promotion?

A good way to address this question is to ask, what would the peaceful peoples themselves say about the issue? The literature indicates that they are opposed to self-congratulations. Best to let others offer their opinions about important matters. The conviction that modesty is the most effective approach to maintaining a state of harmony comes out in various ways in the classic scholarship about these societies.

An effective approach to checking out this assertion has been to review a bunch of the standard books and articles in the library of peaceful societies and see what jumps out. Specifically, how do these societies handle the braggart? And perhaps more to the point, would they even celebrate something as minor as a 15-year anniversary?

Inuit young people displaying their support for their traditional culture by dancing at a demonstration on Parliament Hill in Ottawa (Screenshot from the video “Inuit Youth Council of Canada –World Suicide Prevention Day 2012-” on Vimeo, Creative Commons license)

A classic article by Jean Briggs about the Inuit almost leaped off the shelf. The Inuit, she wrote, use a variety of strategies to prevent conflicts from occurring. The people are very modest, cautious, and reticent about their own accomplishments; they avoid making direct requests. If they need to ask for something, they turn it into a joke so that a confrontation is avoided, and a denial is part of the joke.

Furthermore, they do not make invitations or promises; they do not ask questions of other people, particularly the question ‘why,’ either about the way others feel or what their plans are. They also avoid confrontations by denials and by joking. They try to anticipate other people’s needs, to be considerate and helpful, and to welcome visitors.

An Amish woman using her cell phone at the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia (Photo by Vilseskogen on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

The Amish have different strategies for avoiding bragging. They evaluate the presence of proper humility in others in many subtle ways: the aggressiveness of a handshake, the curtness of a response, the cocky manner of smiling or laughing by most Americans versus a gentle chuckle, a refined smile, a thoughtful and deliberate manner of speaking by the Amish. According to an outstanding book by Donald Kraybill, they are highly conscious of the danger of pride and any manifestations of individualism. They are careful never to call attention to themselves—articles by Amish authors would normally be published anonymously.

They are as eager to avoid taking personal credit for achievements as outsiders are eager to take credit. If an Amish farmer were to be recognized for his achievements in successful farming, his name would be carefully omitted from a newspaper article about it. The distinctive Amish plain clothing is designed to diminish pride, though traces of pride can be seen at times in fancy harnesses on their buggies, appearances of their horses, or trimmings around their homes.

Ju/’hoansi starting a fire for tourists at the “Little Hunter’s Museum” of the Ju/’hoansi San in //Xa/oba, the Nyae Nyae Conservancy of Namibia (Photo by Gil Eilam was on Flickr with a Creative Commons license)

Some of the best stories about dealing with pride may be found in the literature on the Ju/’hoansi. For instance, in order to repay his Ju/’hoan hosts for their good will during his previous year in their camp, Richard B. Lee purchased a huge ox to be slaughtered for a massive Christmas feast. As the word went out, however, individuals kept coming to him and commenting on how badly he’d been gypped, how thin the beast was, how they’d all go hungry on Christmas, how the ox was only good for its soup bones.

As their constant barbs began to get under his skin, they started indicating that the thinness of the feast would probably provoke fights. Thoroughly spooked by what could only be considered as his colossal error, Lee tried to buy another ox, without success, and considered leaving the camp to spend Christmas day in the bush. He was astonished on Christmas morning when the butchering got under way to observe the ox as fat and meaty as he had first judged.

Piecing together the circumstances of the joke on him, he learned that the put-down was standard Ju/’hoansi technique. Every kill is too small, too old, too thin, unworthy; no one brags, everyone puts down the success of others. The reason is to control arrogance. If a person thinks of himself as a big man, it could lead to boasting, pride, and some day to violence.

By denigrating the kill, or in this case the Christmas ox, they were only trying to cool the proud heart of the anthropologist and prompt him to be gentle. He realized that the Ju/’hoansi had maintained a skepticism about his intentions—they had been dividing and sharing their meat with each other all year—and had tried to force a lesson in humility on him.

Patricia Draper, another anthropologist who did fieldwork among the Ju/’hoansi, shared her own story about the ways they avoid displays of pride in an article she wrote for Ashley Montague’s seminal book Learning Non-Aggression. Since the Ju/’hoansi do not have any periods of plenty in their harsh desert environment, as people living in other arid regions do, and they have no way of storing food supplies, their security rests in the solidarity of their groups. They cannot tolerate the braggart, the nonconformist, the unstable, violent or unpredictable person. The group’s peaceful cohesiveness is its stored surplus.

But Draper continued that if an inexperienced hunter were to return to camp from a successful hunt and announce to everyone that he had killed an eland, he would be greeted with general indifference. Everyone would continue with their activities. Were the younger man to persist with his boasting, an older hunter might reply loudly, so his comments would carry across the clearing, “Why only one?”

The approved way of returning to camp and letting others know of his success would be for the hunter to return to the group and take his normal place at his fire. After a while, another hunter or two would join him and ask him if he saw anything today. No, he’d respond, there is hardly anything out there. Then he’d admit he did shoot at something today.

“Perhaps you will go out with me tomorrow morning and see if anything is dead.” The next morning the hunters would venture out to “discover” the success of the first man. Draper concluded that this is just one example of the very delicate ways personal achievements are handled by the Ju/’hoansi.

So what would the Inuit, Amish, or Ju/’hoansi say about celebrating a 15-year website anniversary? We can hope they would not be too hostile to such an event. After all, some of the news stories, following up on the research by anthropologists and other social scientists, may be helpful to them as well as to other peaceful peoples. They might wish to join this website in wishing our readers a Happy New Year!

Many articles are published every week to serve the needs of travelers whose sense of adventure is limited to hotel and ship-board luxuries. Some publications, however, are worth careful study by travelers who want to learn about interesting societies and cultures.

The Heritage House near Rinchenpong, Sikkim (Photo by Lokenrc in Wikimedia, Creative Commons license)

On December 14, Outlook India, a weekly news magazine from New Delhi, published the latter type of travel piece—a brief guide to a remote Lepcha community in the mountains of Sikkim. Rinchenpong, a small village about 30 miles west of the state capital in Gangtok, offers more than just spectacular views of Kanchenjunga and the other Himalayan peaks to the west and northwest.

The travel writer, Uttara Gangopadhyay, stayed on the edge of the village in a farmhouse that was built in1833 and remodeled in 1966 into a luxurious homestay facility. She enjoyed the views of pine forests mixed with various deciduous trees, the understory of rhododendrons, and the fields of cash and food crops.

Nicholas Roerich painting of the Himalayas (Photo by emmeffe6 on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

Right after breakfast, she walked through the village bazaar and then trekked up a steep road through a forest to the Resum Monastery. The Russian artist Nicholas Roerich visited the place in 1924 and painted the snowclad peaks from the spot.

As the visitor climbed toward the monastery, she went past Poison Lake, an algae-covered pond located in a grove of trees. The body of water is so named because the Lepchas living in the community, according to the stories, poisoned the water in 1860 to stop the advance of the British army. It was the only source of drinking water. The British retreated when their soldiers began dying.

The front entrance of the Rinchenpong Monastery (Photo by Alakenanda.s in Wikimedia, Creative Commons license)

The author’s trek uphill ended at the Rinchenpong Monastery. It was founded in 1730 by Lama Sangdag Dorje and updated by Lama Rigdzin Thinlay Gyatso, a native of Rinchenpong village. The monastery has a residential school for monks.

The most enjoyable feature for her was the peace and quiet. The silence was broken occasionally by the calls of birds and the wind blowing through the nearby trees. She felt shielded from the surrounding world as she watched the sun shining on Mt. Kanchenjunga and other peaks nearby.

In September 2019, Welcoming America, an NGO that encourages communities to embrace immigrants and refugees, designated Lancaster as a “certified welcoming city.” It became the first place in Pennsylvania to be so named. A news story in October 2017 indicated that for a long time Lancaster has welcomed refugees and others who are different, a popular attitude that city leaders attribute to the enduring presence of the Amish in the community and the surrounding Lancaster County.

Some Amish in Lancaster County (Photo by Andrew Dallos on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

A news report in The Philadelphia Inquirer last week fleshed out the details of the way groups are striving to build inter-cultural understanding among the different communities in the city, including the Amish. The article discussed a series of events held in Lancaster to foster cross-cultural dialogs between members of the refugee/immigrant communities in the small city and other residents such as the Amish.

The person-to-person conversations that are so important in fosterng inter-cultural understanding take place at meals hosted by two organizations: LoKal Experiences, a company that seeks to open the Amish community to outsiders and Bridge, a venture that is working to build contacts with the immigrants in the county. The founder of Bridge, a refugee from Somalia named Mustafa Nuur, emphasizes dinners in private homes to which guests are required to bring someone who has never met a refugee.

Mustafa Nuur in Lancaster (Photo by TEDx Lancaster in Flickr, Creative Commons license)

Since 2017, Mr. Nuur has organized over 2,300 events seeking to bridge the divides among different culture groups. His perception of the U.S. is that, despite the size and diversity of the country, individuals don’t socialize with people from other cultures. “You don’t know your neighbor or anybody that doesn’t look like you,” he told The Inquirer before one dinner event was set to begin. “I realized that to love your neighbor, you need to get to know them first,” the refugee added.

The event that the Inquirer attended was a lunch held a couple weekends ago at the farm of Ivan Beiler, an Amishman, and his wife Martha. Roughly 75 guests had paid $45 for a meal consisting of dishes such as chicken pot pies, eggplant stew, and stuffed grape leaves with whoopie pies for desert. The point of the meal was to foster conversations with others: across the table from Mrs. Beiler sat a woman wearing a hijab.

Mr. Beiler told the crowd of immigrants that the Amish experience their differences from most Americans the same as they do. “I can actually relate to their stories of moving here and trying to fit in, because we’re so different, too,” he said.

Lancaster County Amish (Photo by Ted Knudsen on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

Phil Lapp, who owns LoKal, had Amish grandparents and an Amish father. He admits their values pervade his life. “The Amish have taught me the value of simplicity and minimalism. They are culturally rich and financially poor. They are, to me, the most kind, sweet people you can meet.”

After the meal was over, conversation and speeches continued. Ahmad Khilo, a 22-year-old refugee from Syria, spoke about his experience. He, his four siblings, and their parents survived in Aleppo when their home and family business were destroyed by bombs. They fled to Turkey and then to Lancaster. He said that they speak Kurdish, Arabic, and Turkish and they are now learning English, their fourth language.

When 23 Kadar families had to flee their community in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, located in India’s Tamil Nadu state back in August, they told everyone who would listen that they desperately wanted to remain in the forest. During the night of August 11, the 90 or so members of the Kallar Kadar settlement had to flee because very heavy rains were causing landslides that threatened them. They moved to a nearby, but less steep, area and quickly started rebuilding.

The problem was that Forest Department officials had not given them permission to rebuild in the area which they had chosen. News stories in The Hindu and covered by this website reported that government officials ignored the arguments of the Kadar people, that they had never before left their forest homes and they would be completely helpless and mostly hopeless if they were forced to live outside it. Despite their pleas, they were forcibly resettled in an abandoned building on an old tea estate near the town of Valparai.

The newspaper sent the same reporter back to the Kallar Kadar community to see how they were doing. In his story last week, the reporter, Wilson Thomas, found them still languishing in the abandoned, dilapidated tea estate facility at Thaimudi, near Valparai. The community includes women, children and the elderly.

A Kadar woman with two children (Photo by Dpradeepkumar in Wikimedia, Creative Commons license)

Mr. Thomas spoke with Sakthivel, the 50-year-old head of the community, who said that the Kadar families had not, as yet, come to accept their quarters. They felt like they were “living in a cage.” The reporter learned that no officials had visited them to check on their condition or examine the quarters they were living in. So much for the hopes for official concern expressed back in August.

Mr. Thomas checked with the Forest Department and received a bureaucratic run-around. He was told that they had not yet gotten instructions from officials in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve who had not been told by their superiors what to do with the Kadar community.

S. Thanraj, a prominent tribal rights advocate in Tamil Nadu, told Mr. Thomas that the issue is one of apathy on the part of Forest Department officials. Thanraj told him, “The residents continue to stay in the old quarters as they do not know how to get back to their forest settlement. The Forest Department should allow them to live in their settlement and accord them due rights under the Forest Rights Act [of 2006].”

At the beginning of last week, The Hindu ran a story about a pregnant Yanadi girl and the efforts of her family to get proper care for her. The focus of the report was on the need for her to get an identification card so she could obtain the care that she is entitled to. She and her husband clearly needed help in navigating the bureaucratic system, particularly since she had no way to prove her identity.

The Aadhaar card is a national identity card in India (Screencapture from a video explaining how to apply for the card on YouTube, Creative Commons license)

The young couple shared their story with the reporter. The husband’s identity card, called an Aadhaar card, indicates he is 16 years old and his wife is younger, though they don’t know her exact age. With the permission of their families, they got married two years ago. They collect plastic trash to earn a living.

In October they left the city of Vijayawada to return to Pedana, their home town in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, to seek help from their families. They confirmed she was pregnant. They decided to seek advice from the local Accredited Social Health Activist, Ms. K. Mary Varakumari. The ASHA is a system of health workers established by the Indian government. Ms. Varakumari told the reporter that the girl and her in-laws visited her during the last week in October. The girl got the appropriate tests: she is expecting her baby in February.

Yanadi women who still forage in the forest (Photo by the International Institute for Environment and Development on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

She went to the Anganwadi center, part of the Indian rural care system for children. The staff there prescribed a nutritious food program for her. The administrator of the Anganwadi facility, P. Devikarani plus Ms. Varakumari from the ASHA program both advised the girl to obtain her Aadhaar card so she could be admitted to a government hospital and have a safe delivery. Without the official registration and the card that proves it, she could not participate in the national health system.

Ignorant of the government requirements to gain access to a hospital, the couple was planning to have her deliver their baby at home. The couple also lacked their own birth certificates and a certificate of their marriage. It sounds as if the Yanadi youngsters, with the help of supportive family members and concerned officials in the Krishna District, may get good, even if unexpected, medical care from the health system—once they obtain the necessary forms, that is.

It is never wise to romanticize societies designated as “peaceful”—many of them have the same or very similar problems as the rest of humanity. For some of them, their pacifist beliefs and practices are still very important; for others, the peace traditions analyzed by prominent scholars now play only minor roles in their rhythms of daily life. The purpose of these news stories is to provide information that may foster our understanding of the rich tapestry of peacefulness and the ways very real societies cope with their problems.

Crystal meth or ice (photo by Find Rehab Centers in Flickr, Creative Commons license)

An article published on December 1 in Tahiti Infos, a prominent news service for French Polynesia, described a major problem that is besetting Tahitian society: a drug scourge that is afflicting the people. Ice, the term used for crystal methamphetamine, is flooding into Tahiti and the surrounding Society Islands and wreaking havoc with those who have become addicted. Police and other officials are doing what they can to stem the scourge.

Addiction to ice is hitting the young Tahitians especially hard, according to the news story. Cases handled by the police services and customs agents increased more than 44 percent in 2018 compared to 2017—653 cases, up from 452 the year before. A Tahitian official who administers public security has called on parents to work with the police to try and curb the increasing use of the drug among young people.

Mario Banner, the Director of Public Safety, called a press conference on November 29 to alert the public about the growing danger. He had just returned from a meeting of an international crime control organization at which the problem of the growing use of ice was an important topic for consideration. He pointed out that it is an issue for the Pacific region particularly in Fiji, Tonga, and Polynesia. He said that the ice is made in southern China.

A U.S. Marine Corps dog sniffing for drugs (Official Marine Corps photo, in the public domain)

Banner doubled the narcotics brigade last year in order to better cope with the growing plague of drugs but he feels more action is needed. He wants a canine brigade—a trained dog and a handler. The government is negotiating with New Zealand to buy a dog and have an officer trained with it to combat the ice trade.

Ice is being brought into Tahiti from more than just China. M. Banner said it is being imported from the United States by mules using many different methods of concealment. At the end of October, for instance, a shipment of the drug was discovered in cans of baby milk and later in November someone attempted to smuggle the stuff into Tahiti from Hawaii hidden in some paddles. He suggested that an anti-narcotics office should be created in French Polynesia to help stem the drug traffic.

Opposition by Zapotec people in the town of San José del Progreso to a polluting and destructive silver mine dates back more than ten years. The violence in the town, located south of Oaxaca City in southern Mexico, was described in news stories in 2012. Leaders of the Zapotec protests were murdered left and right while the owner of the Cuzcatlán mining operation, the Canadian firm Fortuna Silver Mines, and the politicians who supported their opening the mine, denied any involvement in the violence.

Mining in San José del Progreso in November 2012 (Photo by misiondeobservacioncivil in Flickr, Creative Commons license)

An article on December 2 in the Latin American news magazine NACLA Report on the Americas brings the sad story up to date about a formerly peaceful community and their commitment to their Zapotec culture, their desire for clean water, and their willingness to protest the conditions under which they are forced to co-exist with the foreign polluter. The story is not a happy one.

Last year, according to the Zapotec the author spoke with, a toxic spill occurred at the mine and entered the Coyote River. The result was a foul-smelling white mud that was left in the vicinity of the wells that supply drinking water for Magdalena Ocotlán. That community had no safe water to drink. The government’s Environmental Protection Agency assessed a fine on the company but it insisted that the Cuzcatlán mine did not have to prepare a remediation plan. Officials in Magdalena Cuzcatlán say they have never been informed about contaminants and they continue to fear the impact of the spill.

A meeting in San José del Progreso, November 23, 2012 (Photo by misiondeobservacioncivil in Flickr, Creative Commons license)

More recently, on October 5, 2019, the residents of San José chose an unusual, attention-grabbing approach for their latest protest. They gathered in the Fortin hotel in downtown Oaxaca City during the awards ceremony for the annual Oaxaca Film Festival to protest the fact that the mining company was one of the sponsors of the event.

One of the activists, dressed in a skeleton mask and a construction cap, denied that they intended to boycott the ceremony. Instead, “We came to express our firm rejection of the Fortuna Silver Mines company…which with just a few pesos tries to fool us into thinking it’s giving us development and social benefits, when in reality it’s taking the wealth of our subsoil and polluting our communities.”

In the evening the activists disrupted the awards ceremony by shouting phrases against Fortuna Silver Mine and for a land free of mining. The film festival canceled its alliance with Fortuna but the company continues its propaganda outreach program throughout Oaxaca—advertising at the local airport and marketing outreach in tourist spots. As the state government increases its spending to promote tourism, the silver mine raises its budget for its own outreach purposes.

Family Members of Bernardo Mendez, activist in San José who was murdered early in 2012 (Photo by misiondeobservacioncivil in Flickr, Creative Commons license)

The mining company says that it spends about $1 million per year on social programs in the state. It claims that 70 percent of its employees are natives of the region. Opponents argue that those figures are minuscule in comparison to the wealth the company is taking from the ground. The Mexican subsidiary of Fortuna reported in 2017 a net income of $66.3 million while 88 percent of the local people live below the poverty line. Almost half of them live in extreme poverty. The company is one of the top three producers of silver in Mexico.

The divisions in San José between supporters of the mine and opponents appear to be just as bad as they were in 2012. Opponents and supporters use two different taxi services, shop in two markets, and even attend two different churches. The tension is palpable as soon as one enters town. The fabric of the community is broken, argues the organizer of one anti-mine group.

The Fortuna Silver Mine in San José del Progreso in November 2012 (Photo by misiondeobservacioncivil in Flickr, Creative Commons license)

The conflict in San José began in 2006 when Fortuna started signing agreements with local landowners. The company got exploration permits through confidential agreements with government officials but it did not inform the public of its intensions to conduct mining operations.

While the author of the article published last week, Samantha Demby, makes an effort to present the arguments of the Canadian mining company and its Mexican subsidiary, her sympathies for the Zapotec victims of the duplicity of the company come across quite clearly.

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