Peaceful Societies

Naxalite sabotage of an Indian express train late last week killed over 100 people and heightened tensions over the treatment of the Birhor and the other tribal peoples of eastern India. Media around the world carried the story of the horrible railway accident, and the increased severity of recent battles between the Naxalite Maoist rebel group responsible for the sabotage and security forces. But the Indian press has covered the details of recent violence, and the sometimes brutal police responses, in much greater detail.

For instance, on May 18th, a report came out about the police follow-up to a Naxalite attack at the beginning of the month. The security people in Andhra Pradesh allegedly surrounded an Adivasi (tribal) village after the fighting had ended and rounded up 17 villagers at random, assuming they were all at least sympathizers to the Naxalite cause. The tribals were beaten, dragged two km, bundled into a helicopter, blindfolded, and taken to a police station a distance away. The newspaper interviewed four of the villagers.

“They tied our hands behind our back and repeatedly struck us with lathis,” said one victim, who was covered with bruises from the police treatment. “They kept asking us about Maoists, but we couldn’t understand what they were saying.” The people speak only their tribal tongue, and don’t understand Hindi or the other major Indian languages.

The newspaper reporter talked to the police as well as the tribal people. The police spokesman admitted that they had interviewed the villagers, but he denied that people had been beaten. Discrimination against tribal peoples has been well-known, and humanitarian groups have become involved. The Amnesty International office in New Delhi weighed in on May 22 to condemn the killing of an Adivasi leader during a demonstration in Orissa state. Over 1,000 villagers had gathered to protest the government’s condemnation of their farms for the construction of a steel plant by a South Korean firm. AI reminded officials that they must honor international human rights standards and be careful to not use excessive force.

Adivasis in India The Foundation for Agrarian Studies in India joined the discussion last week by issuing a detailed report, titled Socio-Economic Surveys of Three Villages in Andhra Pradesh: A Study of Agrarian Relations, which analyses the social and economic discrimination that exists in rural India. It is a follow-up to analyses that were reported in June and October 2009—and others. The thrust of the latest study is that discrimination, and a sense of injustice, pervade the treatment of rural agriculturalists, particularly the Adivasi peoples. The fact that simmering resentment has resulted in violent resistance is not surprising.

The latest study surveyed three villages in Andhra Pradesh. It found that the income of the Adivasi villagers was much lower than the incomes of other, rural farmers. The more prosperous landowners incurred much lower costs than the landless, Adivasi peasants, who had to pay exorbitant rents for the lands they leased. The degree of landlessness and inequality in the state was surprising, and the situation has gotten worse over the years. Also, the state has neglected making investments in their agricultural sector.

The study concluded that the Adivasi and Muslim villages have been the most discriminated against in the state. Their income is half that of the people in neighboring villages. In the three communities studied, not one house was judged to be even adequate, and many are severely deficient. Only five percent have toilets, and four percent have a source of water. Their levels of education are also exceptionally low.

Everything is not hopeless among the rural tribal people, of course. Another news report last week carried a story about a pioneering silk cultivation project in Jharkhand state, one which appears to be drawing disaffected Adivasi into profitable employment. A local entrepreneur, Arjun Munda, himself a tribal, started a silk industry in the forests of Jharkhand in 2004. At first, he employed just 23 farmers who produced 19 tons of silk.

The operation has grown to where it now employs thousands of tribal people, who turn out 700 tons per year, 40 percent of India’s total silk production. Dhirendra Kumar, a state official, argues that investments in better equipment will allow the industry to grow to 900 tons of production by next year.

The reporter talked with a Birhor man working on a silk plantation. He still had a visible scar from a bullet wound he had gotten from an encounter two years ago. He said he was glad to give away his rifle and take the job. It is evident from the article that at least that one Birhor individual had abandoned the peaceful values of his society and joined the Naxalite cause, at least temporarily. Mr. Kumar told the reporter that he is constantly getting calls from within Naxalite areas, from people interested in working in silk production. Officials are beginning to be welcomed into villages which formerly they did not dare approach.

The silk is being sold as nonviolent and organic, since the variety grown in Jharkhand is not based on mulberry trees. Instead, the farmers grow the silk worms on Sal, Arjuna, and Saja trees, without using any chemicals. The extra-fine silk is commanding higher prices in the markets.

Meanwhile, late last week, as the police ramp up their violent responses to the Maoists, and the Naxalites increase the severity of their attacks, many innocent people are suffering. The express sleeper train left Kolkata (Calcutta) late Thursday evening bound for Mumbai (Bombay), preceded by an engine that was supposed to ensure its security. About 150 km to the west, the engine operator on the express train reported a loud noise, the tracks separated, and the train derailed.

Several of the cars were thrown onto a parallel track, where, a few minutes later, they were hit and crushed by an oncoming freight train. A Naxalite poster was found at the scene of the carnage. A horrible statement of terrorism, forced on people who were, up to the moment, enjoying an overnight luxury train ride. A terrible price to pay in a society blessed with many advances that are often not shared wisely.

Lye Tuck-Po revived her blog two weeks ago with an adorable—and that’s the only appropriate word—picture of three Batek children taken in a forest during her most recent visit. All three kids appear to be under seven. A little boy on the right has a determined look on his face as he chops away with a small machete, while a girl next to him is sucking on a ginger root and a third child kneels on the ground, glancing curiously back at the other two.

Dr. Lye, a Malaysian anthropologist, published a blog until August 2009 that included a lot of her ethnographic research notes about the Batek. But she shut it down due to the pressures of other work. She has just decided to start it again, though this time she plans to focus mostly on her photos.

Titled “Anthropological Notebook: Reflections & Photography from Travels & Fieldwork,” the first entry in the new blog is dated May 21. She indicates in the blog that she has returned many times to visit her Batek friends over the years since she did her field work in 1995, most recently in February 2010. Her observations about the Batek are interesting, and her photos, as they have been in the past, are fascinating.

She comments, about her opening photo, that the children were just as curious about her as she was about them. She writes that she sang songs to them she had learned from others in their community during earlier visits. It was an effective ice-breaker.

She describes her other photos of the Batek, which she posted daily last week. One is of a man who hosts tourists visiting the Taman Negara National Park, near which they live. Another shows a man making blowpipes to sell to park visitors. Still another shows five men waiting their turns to guide visitors to the top of Gunong Tahan, the highest mountain in the park and in Peninsular Malaysia.

She writes that some of the Batek now have cell phones at their forest homes, so it is much easier for her to maintain regular voice communication with them. A tall photo she posted on May 25 shows some people walking along a forest pathway, dwarfed by the towering trees. She has a way of communicating information with her photos so that further explanation is unnecessary.

On Wednesday last week, she posted a photo of a young mother with a wistful look, holding her baby on her hip. Below it, she showed another of the same person, taken in 1995 when she a girl of about nine. At that time, Dr. Lye’s photo caught the girl launching objects at birds from near the top of a tall tree.

A photo on Thursday showed two older men, twin brothers, and she posted below it a group picture from 1995 that included the same two men in the background. She points out that one of the men appeared to be in failing health. When she approached him and sat down, the man did not look directly at her most of the time.

She asked him if he remembered her and he acknowledged that he did. The anthropologist recalls that she, too, had a hard time looking directly at him. They sat back to back looking out into the forest while they talked about old times. They glanced at one another only once when they shared a joke. She explains that that it a characteristic Batek way of avoiding the display of emotions.

She discusses the Batek habit of frequently building new houses—to allow for family expansion, to allow people to move farther away from others they have grown to dislike, and for other such reasons. She includes a photo of someone thatching a new roof. That gave her the idea of taking photos of pathways into and through communities. She has continued posting photos and detailed explanations this week.

Dr. Lye may have intended to confine her new blog mostly to photos, but she nonetheless has already included some substantial information about the Batek in the pictures and text she has posted.

The Mbuti of eastern Congo are living in desperate conditions, in squalid refugee camps, according to a news release last week from UNHCR, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Bylined Goma, capital of the North Kivu Province, the story is most depressing: the Mbuti appear to be suffering from the effects of the interminable wars in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo more than virtually any other group of people.

The report estimates that around 10,000 Mbuti, two thirds of the total population estimated 25 years ago, now live in dozens of camps scattered about the province, refugees from fighting in the Ituri Forest where they traditionally lived. They lack most basic services and have little if any hope of soon being able to return to their forest homes and way of life.

Their culture and traditions are threatened. Other ethnic groups across the province discriminate against them, and attempts to help them by humanitarian agencies have not amounted to anything. Karl Steinacker, who coordinates the UNHCR work in eastern D.R. Congo, says that they are suffering more than other displaced peoples. He believes his agency’s challenge is to help them integrate into the surrounding society, to “prevent the Pygmies from becoming the real losers of this war.” Evidently, ending the fighting in the Ituri Forest, their homeland, is not an option.

Mbuti Refugee Camps Muhindo Mupepe, an Mbuti representative at the Hewa Bora camp, about 16 km west of Goma, says that they sleep on bare, volcanic rock, the outflows of volcanoes in the area. “Our life here is one of suffering,” he said. “We don’t get any assistance like the other displaced people. When our children fall ill, we have to go and search for medicinal plants in the forest.” The photo that accompanies the story shows a man seated in front of a hut made of sticks with a spectacular, but bleak looking, volcanic landscape in the background.

The reporter visited another Mbuti camp, Shasha, located in the Masisi district, a rolling, agricultural area about 50 km northwest of Goma. But if anything, conditions are even worse there than at Hewa Bora. About 280 Mbuti living there lack sufficient food, health care, clothing, household goods, or adequate shelter. Their children cannot go to a basic school in the area because they have no money to pay the required fees. One old man pointed to his ragged jacket and told the reporter, “this is my clothing, my blanket and my sleeping mat—it’s all I’ve got left.”

An Mbuti spokesman, Secper Asumani, expressed his frustration that no one had bothered to help them, despite several surveys of their needs by various organizations. In order to survive, their children have become bandits, creating problems for local residents. The Mbuti work for local farmers doing backbreaking labor for miniscule pay. They also forage in the forest for wood to cut and sell as fuel. This is especially dangerous for the women because armed gangs also forage in the forests, take any wood if they catch the Mbuti, and frequently rape the women as well.

The article argues that the Mbuti simply cannot return to their own forests. Instead, the UNHCR is lobbying the government on their behalf so they can gain access to lands where they have resettled and can become integrated into the local agricultural communities. The agency is supporting the construction of shelters, agricultural training, and projects that will generate income.

This dispersal into the resettlement areas will of course destroy the forest-based Mbuti culture. The peacefulness that Colin Turnbull described in their society 40 years ago may be gone by now in the resettlement camps, though the article did not deal with that issue.

But Mr. Mupepe, the Mbuti spokesperson in Hewa Bora, told the reporter that his people were starting to adapt. “In the past, we did not have the chance to study, but we [now] ask that our children can go to school. Perhaps one day,” he added hopefully, “one of them will be among the leaders of the country.”

The citizens of Viroqua, Wisconsin, find manure on their city streets, dropped by horses pulling Amish buggies, to be offensive—and the city council is listening to their complaints. David Treptow, a resident of the city quoted in a news article last week, told the council that he is tired of shoveling horse manure off the road in front of his home.

“One time it was right in front of the driveway,” he said. He cleaned up the manure, but he was unable to identify the guilty horse. All he could tell was that it was pulling a black buggy. But he was able to solve the problem in his own way. He waited until another Amish buggy came past and delivered the horse droppings to them. “And if it happens again, I will deliver it to the first black buggy I see since there is no identification.”

Larry Fanta, the mayor of Viroqua, a town in southwest Wisconsin near the tri-state boundary with Minnesota and Iowa, said that he had approached Amish elders last year about the issue and nothing seems to have been done. Horses continue to drop their excrement as they move along the streets, he said. One of the city aldermen, Marc Polsean, suggested that a permit be required for every horse entering the city limits.

Mr. Polsean indicated that horse owners in other states had successfully used diapers for their animals, which alleviated the problem. Another alderman, Charles Steinhoff, agreed. He urged the community to put up a sign requiring horses to be diapered, or at least that horse owners clean up after their animals.

Mr. Treptow said that the council should consider the Amish horses to be littering, and that they be subject to the local anti-littering laws. He argued that owners of other animals were required to clean up after their pets, so horse owners should do the same. “If they [the Amish] don’t want to address it, then we need to take care of it,” he said.

The council decided to draft a letter to the Amish elders requiring them to clean up after their horses. If they don’t, the city will take enforcement action. Alderman Dave Tryggestad said that this should be considered a last warning. “I think it’s about time the city did something about it.”

However, another alderman at the council meeting, Gary Krause, said that the only way to resolve the problem would be to work with the Amish and solicit their cooperation. Apparently more of a peacemaker than the others, Mr. Krause suggested that the council should seek a meeting with the local Amish people to explore the issue, so there would not be any misunderstandings.

Alderman Cyndy Hubbard evidently concurred, suggesting that such a meeting should be held on a Saturday afternoon, when the farmer’s market was closing down and many Amish would be in town anyway. Mayor Fanta concluded that the matter had been discussed many times before and “we’ve got to put an end to it.” He added, “we’ll send the letter out as a courtesy and then go from there.”

A feature article last week in Express Buzz, a major South Indian magazine, provides an in depth review of the continuing controversy over the proposed Athirappilly hydropower project on the Chalakudy River. Unlike many such articles in recent years, this one describes the effects of the dam on the two Kadar villages located near the proposed site, as well as the serious environmental problems analyzed by earlier reviewers.

The magazine article states, erroneously, that the forests along the Chalakudy River “are the only habitat of the hunter-gatherer Kadar tribal community.” In fact, the Kadar live in more than one location. Seetha Kakkoth’s 2005 journal article “The Primitive Tribal Groups of Kerala: A Situational Appraisal,” reviewed on this website in 2006, includes a brief scholarly description of 15 different Kadar settlements located along several rivers in the Western Ghats mountain range of Kerala and neighboring Tami Nadu states.

Last week’s magazine article indicates that the Kadar are “completely dependent on the forest and the river,” which, to judge by Kakkoth, appears to be a bit of an exaggeration. The 2005 journal article maintains that the people are no longer nomadic. They now live in settled villages where they do agricultural work and cultivate gardens. But the forests and streams are still very important to them. They rely on small game hunting and fishing for a lot of their food, and they gather non-wood forest products which they fabricate into ropes, mats and baskets for sale. Kakkoth makes it clear that the literacy rate among the Kadar, by 1997, had reached 40 percent.

According to Sudha Nambudiri, the author of the current magazine article, many of the Kadar living in the two villages nearest to the dam site are employed by the Kerala Forest Department in Vana Samrakshana Samithis—a village level forest protection committee. They work at miscellaneous jobs, such as janitorial work, related to the well-known Athirappilly waterfall on the Chalakudy River. The waterfall is a major tourist draw for the entire state.

One of the villagers, V. K. Geetha, who filed litigation in the Kerala High Court in 2007 to challenge the environmental clearance in effect at that time, indicated that the forest is her home. “We all continue to make our living from the forests.”

Ms. Geetha is eloquent in expressing the need to protect the forests for the local Kadar villages. “Initially we were told by officials and the party that the project was for our good. But when I spoke to my father, who is the Mooppen (head), he told me that we had already come down from the high ranges in the mountains when the Poringalkuthu dam was constructed. If this dam comes up, we will have to migrate into the plains and that would be giving up our culture and customs.”

Ms. Nambudiri writes that two Kadar villages would be affected by the proposed dam. Pokalapara, with 25 families, is upstream from the dam site and Vazhachal, with 67 families, is half a kilometer downstream. Both will be destroyed, according to the author.

The magazine also reviews some environmental implications of the project—destruction of prime, lowland forest habitat and harm to important animal species—but those issues have been reviewed by numerous earlier articles, such as one in November 2009, which described the Chalakudy River basin as one of India’s major biodiversity hotspots. Nambudiri concludes that the battle over the proposed dam will be long and bitter.

Over the past year, Herero farmers have been invading the Ju/’hoansi territory—the Nyae Nyae Conservancy—in Namibia. The nation does not seem able, or willing, to help. AllAfrica.com, a large Internet distributor of news about Africa, ran a story last week on the first anniversary of the invasion. The current situation sounds quite discouraging for the peaceful San people.

In May 2009, some Herero farmers from Gam, a community immediately south of the Nyae Nyae Conservancy, cut the Nyae Nyae reserve fences and invaded with their cattle, and as of last November, legal negotiations were still going on. The national government seemed to be mostly concerned about destroying the cattle the invaders had brought into the reserve because some wild animals in the Ju/’hoansi territory may have become infected with foot and mouth disease. International certification that the beef industry is absolutely free from the disease is important to the nation’s economy. Last week’s news story provides an important update.

Ju/’hoansi leaders last summer were concerned about the problems caused by the invaders living in their communities—destruction of the natural desert environment, introduction of alcohol, and too many children in the schools. A year ago, there were 38 invaders from Gam. Now there are eight times as many, at least 300. Ben Begbie-Clench, Acting Regional Coordinator for an NGO called the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA), compares the invaders to refugees. They already have land allocations in the Gam area but they refuse to live there, he says.

While the constitution of Namibia guarantees citizens the right to live anywhere in the country, the Nyae Nyae Conservancy property is different. It is governed by a traditional authority, a chief who must give permission for outsiders to live in his territory. The Legal Assistance Centre, which was working with the Ju/’hoansi in November, indicated for the story last week that the Ju/’hoansi chief “is the only person that can allocate residential and farming units.”

Moses K. !Coma, a councilor in the region, said he did not really understand why the farmers had invaded. Their excuse is that they feared a plant called poison-leaf, which grows in their area and will kill their cattle, even though the same plant also grows in the Nyae Nyae Conservancy. The situation is calm according to !Coma—most of the invaders have settled in the town, Tsumkwe, in the reserve.

The Ju/’hoansi chief, Bobo, contradicted him. It is not quiet. “There are too many dogs, donkeys and horses,” he said. He added that at night in Tsumkwe, drunken fights cause unrest among the Ju/’hoansi and the Herero. He alleged that the Herero men are threatening and intimidating the San people. Theft is also becoming a problem. He indicates that more and more Herero are invading, daily. “Tsumkwe is almost full,” the chief said.

The chief dismissed the excuse about the poison leaf. There is a lot of it in the Ju/’hoansi reserve. He also dismissed the Herero excuse that there is not enough grass available to them in the Gam region. He expressed hope that the government will support their attempts to have the invaders removed.

Mr. Begbie-Clench was concerned about the impact the invaders were having on the natural and human resources in the Nyae Nyae Conservancy. “The San are suffering the most from the situation. I suspect there is a loss of natural resources because of the extra people in the area. The area exists without much money and resources and the natural environment therefore holds much importance.”

He added that since the Ju/’hoansi try hard to avoid conflict situations, they can easily be coerced by other people such as the Herero farmers.

Although a proposed hydropower dam in India’s Kerala state, which would harm the natural environment and a Kadar village, was recently stopped by the national government, citizens continue to protest. A recent article describes a unique form of protesting against the dam on the Athirappilly River carried out by a group called the Pakkanar Bamboo Music Team. The band is trying to promote appreciation for the natural environment of Kerala through its performances.

An article last Sunday in the Deccan Herald, a leading daily paper from southern India, includes a photo of a bamboo instrument along with the story about the performing style of Unnikrishnan Pakkanar, the lead singer for the group. He starts a performance with a prayer: “Our Bamboo / Our music / Our Planet / Save Bamboo / Save Athirappilly / Save the Western Ghats.” The group accompanies all of the folk songs they sing with instruments made out of bamboo.

The 10 members of the group are from the Thrissur District of the state, near the site of the proposed dam on the Chalakudy River. They have been trying to create environmental awareness through their performances for ten years.

The group has created 80 different instruments out of bamboo, and named them for the different sounds they make. They also have developed several types of tunes with their instruments, such as a song of nature, a tune of god, and a song for the environment.

Unfortunately, four different YouTube videos with the title “Unnikrishna Pakkanar and His Bamboo Band” all require viewers to subscribe in order to watch them. Other videos of his bamboo music are available, however, such as one, also in YouTube, titled “Bamboo Music by Unnikrishna Pakkanar 1.” It has a bit of narration in one of the Indian languages, but most of the six-minute video shows the musicians playing on percussive and wind bamboo instruments. Another YouTube video, titled “Bamboo music-MULA PADUM RAVU1st in India,” provides additional samples of his unique songs.

The Deccan Herald article indicates that he lives in the forest and is especially attuned to the sounds of nature: birds, bees, raindrops, waterfalls. He was inspired by natural sounds; he developed his orchestra as a way of joining the existing chorus. His music, and its basis in nature, prompted him to try and save the river from the unwanted dam.

“We believe that nature is our mother. We therefore joined the battle against the power project through our bamboo music. We voiced our messages through songs,” he said. One of his detractors accused him of hypocrisy, due to the fact that he was using bamboo wood for his instruments. He responded that the bamboo plant quickly produces more stems when it is cut, so it is not harmed.

He says that when his group is giving a concert for an environmental cause, the performance is free. But he does charge admission to concerts that are purely for entertainment. “I’m happy with two meals a day,” he says. “The rest of my time and money is for nature. We take money from private enterprises. They want our music for entertainment whereas conservationists use our services to spread awareness.”

His website provides a lot of additional information about him and his music. He is obviously a tireless champion of the natural environment. The cause of preserving communities of endangered peaceful societies needs just as effective a champion.

The oil blowout catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico over the past two weeks has serious implications for coastlines worldwide that are threatened by offshore drilling and the possibility of similar disasters. Many Inuit are deeply worried about their future livelihood as they watch news about the drama unfolding off the coast of Louisiana. They worry about the Arctic coast of North America, already the scene of oil exploration activity. Fishing and hunting for marine mammals are still essential economic activities for them.

This summer, the Geological Survey of Canada is planning to do undersea mapping for oil and natural gas fields in Lancaster Sound, a large channel just to the west of the northern tip of Baffin Island, in Canada’s Nunavut Territory. Opponents of the exploratory mapping argue that the undersea air guns, used to perform the seismic mapping, will harm the huge numbers of marine mammals in the area.

Inuit spokespersons are not keeping quiet. Abraham Kublu, the mayor of Pond Inlet, a village at the northern end of Baffin Island, condemned the idea of drilling in Arctic waters. Global warming, he says, is increasing the numbers of icebergs in the seas, and the currents are too strong for safe drilling. The Canadian government is spending large amounts of money in the search for oil and other minerals in the Arctic.

In December, Jim Prentice, Environment Minister in Ottawa, initiated a feasibility study aimed at creating a national marine conservation area in Lancaster Sound. Prentice said, when he announced the feasibility study last winter, that the prospect of increasing marine shipping through the northwest passage requires the government to safeguard the Arctic region and to protect its “most special natural features.” Canadian conservationists and the Inuit are concerned that different federal government ministries may be acting at cross purposes over the issue of protecting Arctic waters.

Parks Canada, the agency that manages Canada’s national parks within the Environment Ministry, describes Lancaster Sound as “one of the richest marine mammal areas in the world.” Huge numbers of beluga whales, bowhead whales, and most of the world’s existing population of narwhals summer in the sound, as well as perhaps 50,000 harp seals. Large numbers of polar bears and huge colonies of sea birds also nest and thrive there.

Christopher Debicki, an official with Oceans North, an environmental group, met with many Inuit last week to discuss the implications of offshore oil drilling in the Arctic. Speaking from Pond Inlet, he described the Inuit opposition: “From their perspective, a blowout of the kind we’ve seen now off the coast of Louisiana would be absolutely devastating in Lancaster Sound.” The press secretary for Minister Prentice did not respond to requests for comments.

Pond Inlet Mayor Kublu believes that the federal government has not consulted local people before making plans for development. He also argues that the government has not provided equipment or trained people to handle potential spills. Mayor Meeka Kiguktak, from Grise Fiord, a community still farther north than Pond Inlet, and Jaypatee Akeeagok, another Inuit leader in that town, say that do not have much faith that government regulators will protect the environment as energy prospecting continues. They point to environmental problems that have plagued the Alberta tar sands development as an example of the way exploiters ruin natural ecosystems. “The proposed seismic activities and resource development in our pristine Arctic habitat is tainted by the Alberta footprint,” they write.

In the Beaufort Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean to the west of Nunavut, oil companies are trying to get the government to modify regulations that require drillers to put in safety relief wells when they develop oil fields. Such relief wells might help avert disasters, such as the one in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil giants are asking the National Energy Board to suspend the regulations. There are currently no wells in active production in the Beaufort Sea, but many exploratory wells have been drilled and at least 53 oil and natural gas fields have been identified.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is playing his politics carefully, trying to say the right things. “As we’ve said before, the National Energy Board is clear: there is no drilling unless the environment is protected, unless workers are protected,” he said at the beginning of last week. “That is the bottom line and this government will not tolerate the kind of situation we see in the Gulf of Mexico.”

A liberal member of parliament, Larry Bagnell, criticized the government’s energy development activities and its “aggressive plans to drill for oil and gas in our most ecologically sensitive Arctic regions.” “There should be a moratorium on oil and gas leasing in the Beaufort Sea and Lancaster Sound until we know the risks related to drilling in the Arctic,” he said. At least some of the politicians are listening to the Inuit, whose way of life would be seriously affected, if not destroyed, by a major oil spill or blowout.

The fishery for rock lobsters in the South Atlantic off the islands of Tristan da Cunha has applied for certification by the Marine Stewardship Council. If the application is approved, the fishery will be certified as sustainable and well-managed. An article last week in the Tristan Times was based on a report by Dr. Johan Groeneveld, a lobster specialist with the Marine and Coastal Management agency. MCM is the South African government body that manages coastal marine resources.

In an era of depleting marine life worldwide, Dr. Groeneveld points out that the Tristan Islanders are “fiercely protective of the lobster resource,” and they take great pride in their sustainable, well-run fishery. Ovenstone Agencies, a Cape Town fishing firm, has the concession to operate the fishery business using a long-line vessel with small boats that trap the lobsters. The company and the islanders have operated together since 1997.

Groeneveld writes that the fishery has been managed during the past 13 years according to a precautionary principle, which has fostered the steady increase of catches and catch rates. Approximately 450 tons of lobsters have been shipped back to Cape Town every year, where they are prepared for export to the United States and Japan.

If the application for certification is approved, the lobsters will be eligible to receive the blue ecolabels of the Marine Stewardship Council, indicating their approval by the internationally recognized certification body. At the current time, 69 fisheries around the world, primarily in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, have been enrolled in the MSC program.

Groeneveld indicates that he underwent training in MSC methodology in February 2009, and has since been involved in other assessment projects in Tanzania, Kenya, and Mozambique. He assessed the Tristan fishery in April, and is expecting the final review by the MSC to take some months yet.

He concludes that receiving the blue MSC ecolabel “may not be the final answer in bringing a sea-change in fishing behaviour, but it certainly is a large step in the right direction.” A signboard at the entrance to the harbor at Tristan da Cunha may well say, “Welcome to the World’s Remotest Island,” but the islanders are hardly out of touch. They are obviously quite aware of the finite limits of their natural resource. It’s an example that many vastly larger societies could well heed—like their ability to get along peacefully.

Birhor children in the Giridih District of India’s Jharkhand state have been attending school recently and doing well, according to a news report last week. Credit for the advances appears to belong to administrative officials of the district.

Deputy District Commissioner Vandana Dadel put an integrated development plan in place eight months ago and the results have been startling. Birhor children who previously could speak only their native language, Santhali, have learned Hindi and, in some cases, English as well. While one six year old sang for a visitor, another recited nursery rhymes—in English.

Out of a total population of 490 Birhor living in five settlements in the district, there are 64 children between the ages 6 and 14 that are getting some schooling. Five NGOs in the district are responsible for implementing the plan, one for each settlement. The NGOs select volunteers to move in with the Birhor people and to serve as bridges to their communities. They reach out and coax the people to begin sending children to the school programs.

For instance, Mahadev Mahto, one of the volunteers, had been a teacher at a regular school in the area. He agreed to step in and help. “When I first came here, none of the children could speak a word of Hindi. So I had to learn Santhali to win their confidence,” he said. He teaches Hindi, English, and mathematics. Other volunteer teachers are doing preparatory instruction with their students.

The district government has also opened five food grain distribution facilities in what the national government of India calls anganwadi centres, education and development facilities for pre-school children provided within the purview of the government’s Integrated Child Development Scheme. The supervisor of the five food centres in the district, Gajala Yasmeen, said, “we have been told to take special care so that there is no shortage of foodgrain.”

The five areas within the district all now have schools, anganwadi centres, and self help groups. An official involved with the project commented that, while the Birhor used to flee when government vehicles drove into their villages, now they are confident enough to approach and discuss their needs. The government has also provided some livestock to help the villagers.

The news story observes that the communities are making progress on several fronts. Drinking has declined, as has child trafficking and out-migration. The hoped for conclusion is that the villagers will become alienated from the Maoist Naxalite guerillas, who have a strong presence in the district. It is not clear whether the improvements in government services to the villages are due to the tragic deaths of at least eight Birhor in October 2008, which was widely reported in the media, to the Naxalite threat in rural India, which has been growing in areas where the Birhor live, or perhaps to other reasons.

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