Western Culture Tramples Indigenous People

Just by coincidence, I received an article about the very topic I was writing about last night!!! The article is from my colleague Karen in California, who has become a human rights activist. I met her over the Internet in August 1997 shortly after beginning my Great Journey.

In brief, Karen suddenly left for Thailand a couple of weeks ago to help Matthew McDaniel, an advocate for the Akha people of northern Thailand. The Akha are suffering the same challenges that every other indigenous group around the world has faced — the Western-style invaders are moving deeper and deeper into every forest and jungle of the World, and when they come they bring their dysfunctional and unsustainable culture with them. Population pressures and the continual drive for natural resources is affecting every human on this planet, even in the most remote places. These faraway communities live sustainably for thousands of years, until they are typically destroyed by Western ways.

As a result of his activism, Matthew McDaniel has been deported from Thailand. A couple of weeks ago, Karen went to the country to try and get his pregnant wife and children out. She is facing a lot of red tape and bureaucracy, but she is the type of person who gets things done, and I know she will succeed. The following paragraphs reflect exactly what's been on my heart the past few weeks:

They call me Ah-Piew. It could mean 'Hey you' or something less complimentary, but judging from the hugs and tears at the bus station as I see the grandparents off - back to their village to tend to their rice - it must mean something much nicer.

I call them - the Akha hilltribe people and the other tribal and indigenous people - 'the canaries of the world', refering to the old expression, 'canaries in a coal mine'. It is the Akha, along with many other tribal and indigineous peoples, that have a sustainable way of life. The Akha have terraced farms and have been in one location for up to 80 years. It is their simpler life that is sustainable on this planet. Ours, with our modern agriculture (i.e. oil-based fertilizer), and our extensive transportation infrastructure, was built up on a fossil fuel economy. Instead of using our wealth wisely, saving most of it for future generations, we have foolishly spent it until now we are having to wage wars resulting in the deaths of millions of people, to protect what we have become used to - the 'American Way of Life'.

And now it is the Akha and other tribals and indigineous who have become oppressed by those with the wealth and power - their traditional lands and their very culture are being threatened. They are threatened by rich Thais who want their land and their hot springs for mountain retreats; by the government who wants their land to plant pine plantations, to replace the vast teak forests that have all but disappeared from Thailand; and by the border skirmishes between Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand. In other parts of the world, tribal people are pushed off their land when dams are built, or when oil or gold is discovered on their land. The Akha, when moved to other lands, usually inferior lands, cannot feed their families. The women, with their husbands in jail, often have to resort to prostitution just to feed their families.

They are also caught up in the so-called 'war on drugs'. They are near the 'Golden Triangle', where Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand meet, and where gold and drugs have been traded since the British introduced opium to the area in the 1800s. Opium is now a traditional palative for the ailments of old age. Opium users have a place and function in Akha society, but not in Thai society. A large number of Akha men are now in prison for various drug offenses, many without a proper trial, many undergoing beatings or shock treatments as a way of 'rehabilitation'. Last year over 2,000 Akha were killed outright by the Thai police, without a trial.

And then they are also victims of well-meaning (and some not-so-well-meaning) missionaries, who put the Akha children in Christian boarding schools and tell them their language and their culture and their parents are no good. Much like what was done to Native American children during the last centrury.

So now Matthew McDaniel, the champion of the Akha people in the Chiang Rai (Thailand) area has been deported. He had no chance to get his Akha wife, 7 months pregnant, and 3 children, out of the country. That is why I am here, because I believe in what Matthew is doing. I am pushing the paperwork needed to get Ah Chooh (MeeChooh), the mother, and Ah Soh (4), Mee Daw (3), and Ah Tsah (2) on a plane to the U.S. - hopefully a month before the baby comes. There is a serious concern that if the baby is born in a Thai hospital, the mother will be sterilized against her wishes. For more details, see www.akha.org ,

This all ties in with the book I'm currently reading, titled "Story Earth: Native Voices on the Environment." It is a collection of essays by natives from the Americas and Pacific Islands. The overall theme is the same that Karen mentioned above: Human societies lived for thousands of years without plundering and destroying the environment that sustained them. But when the Western culture arrives, their worlds are turned upside down and their communities decline. Is this really progress?


Story Earth: Native Voices of the Environment, by Inter Press Service