Arts/Review

Books’ sales help preserve Amazon forests

JUNGLE STORIES: The fight for the Amazon. By Jean-Pierre Dutilleux and Sting. High gloss paper back, $17.95. Available at People’s Co-op Bookstore.

Jungle Stories is a fascinating account of the experiences of its two authors, who worked with the Kayapos people and their chief, Raoni, in the Xingu region of the Brazilian jungle. Their purpose.was to form a Rainforest Foundation and bring interna- tional attention to the destruction of the great forests of the Amazon and the indi- genous people who live in them.

Theirs is a personal story. Jean-Pierre Dutilleux had for some time been working with Chief Raoni and the Kayapos to form this Rainforest Foundation. His friend Sting, the famous British rock star, joined with him to bring his talent and fame to help publicize these efforts.

The authors warn: “The Amazon is dying. Rain forests around the world are dying.” They write: “Every minute that goes by, 60 acres of raintorest are destroyed world wide. Every 16 minutes we lose an acre of rainforest the size of New York’s central park and in 1988, an area the size of Belgium is cut down and destroyed beyond hope of recovery.”

In 1980, Dutilleux produced a documen- tary film, starring chief Raoni. It was nomi- nated for an Academy Award and his star became an international symbol of the “fourth world,” and earned him the unoffi- cial title, “the ecological war chief.”

It has been a long struggle, and even though Brazil’s new constitution has granted Indians the right to permanent pos- session of the lands they inhabit as well as exclusive use of the resources of the land, this constitutional right has not really been implemented. Two-thirds of all tribal lands have yet to be officially marked, and infil- tration of cattle ranches, gold mines, squat- ters, hydro electric dams, logging operations and so on, goes on to this day.

To get one valuable hardwood tree, the logging companies have to slash and burna whole acre of forest. ‘““The only protection the forests have are the Indians who are fighting to preserve them.” Does this sound familiar?

This book is almost a picture. book. Beautiful coloured photographs by Dutil- leux fill almost every page and take you into the jungle and the people — most of whom were unknown to the rest of the world until the early Fifties — who live there.

The authors note that.whereas Europe and North America have a relatively limited variety of trees, the Amazon contains hundreds of varieties. There are 1,600 spe- cies of birds and it is estimated that there are

_ Amazon.

one billion species* of plant, insect and animal life in the Amazon.

According to scientists, 100 species of plant and animal are lost every day in the “Who knows,” the authors observe, “‘a cure for AIDS or cancer could have existed there.”

When these forests are cut and burned for farming, the initial richness of the soil is short-lived and can only support crops fora

-couple of years. Yet thousands of poor pea- sants were given squatters rights on this land to live or starve and if they weren’t killed by the Indians who claim the land as their own, they were driven off by the big corporations and the army to make room for huge cattle ranches — for “jungle burgers,” the authors say, since most of the meat is sold to North American fast food chains.

The National Indian Foundation in Brazil (FUNAI), which deals with the prob- lems facing Indian people, granted the authors permission to enter the jungle. Many members of this organization have been murdered trying to protect the Indians from the army and corporate developers.

It was through FUNAT that Dutilleux brought Floyd Westerman — Red Crow — a Dakota Sioux Indian chief, to visit “‘his cousins” in the rain forests — following the wishes of Raoni, who wanted to meet Indian representatives from the. United States.

There are some marvelous coloured pho- tographs of this meeting — pictures you could hang on the wall. Red Crow saw Raoni’s struggle as identical with that of North American Indians a century ago. He called Raoni, “a 20th-Century Sitting Bull.”

Red Crow was told that entire tribes which had not had previous contact with whites have been murdered by large land holders.

Red Crow discussed with them the new democratized Brazilian constitution, and since he had made many trips to Geneva on behalf of his people; warned them to be adamant on two points: that they have the right to their own religion, which is con- nected with sacred land; that the constitu- tion must forbid any government to decrease the size of Indian lands. “If not, you will lose everything bit by bit,” he told them.

In February, 1989, Chief Raoni, with Dutilleux and Sting, were given permission by Brazil’s president to form the Rainforest Foundation. It is Chief Raoni’s dream to join the three large existing reservations with a vast unexplored area of a protected

- national park.

Inside this unexplored region, Raoni told them, are a number of groups who have

Sioux Chief Red Crow performs ceremony during visit with Kayapo natives of the

Amazon.

never been contacted by the white man, and his fear is that very soon they will be in mortal danger of disease, destruction of their land, and even murder. “Every year the burning of the forest by white settlers gets closer and closer. You must help me to stop it, or there will be no forest left.” Money is needed to help set up the park with clearly defined borders, and that is why

they formed the Rainforest Foundation and arranged to take Raoni and his nephew Megeron to Europe and North America to raise funds. All the royalties for Jungle Sto- ries will go to the Rainforest Foundation. I, personally, am going to order a few for Christmas presents. It is a beautiful book.

— Jonnie Rankin

Slim Evans Records and Tapes is host- ing a party to mark the release of Fiesta en el Barrio, the new tape by the Nicaraguan group, B Cuadro, on Friday, Nov. 3,8 p.m. at the Russian People’s Home, 800 Camp- bell Ave., Vancouver. Guest bands are San- tiago and Key Change, along with B Cuadro, which has been playing a tour for Tools for Peace and will head home early next month. Admission is $10, and $8 for unemployed.

La Quena coffee house is hosting a benefit for the left-wing coalition PAIS, itself a part of the broad coalition aiming to oust the dictatorship in the December elections in Chile. Called La Pena at La Quena,” the event on Saturday, Oct. 28, 8 p-m. features the band. Ancient Cultures along with traditional Latin food and refreshments. And since la pena means “jam session,” musicians are encouraged

sion is by donation, phone 251-6626.

* *

The Vancouver East Cinema presents a new film on South Africa running Friday,

to bring instruments and voices. Admis-.

New S. African film presents

blacks * view

Oct. 27-Thursday, Nov. 2 (with the excep- tion of the intervening Monday and Tues- day). Directed by Oliver Schmitz, who co-wrote the screenplay with the film’s star, Thomas Mogotlane, Mapantsula was actually shot in South Africa and sees the anti-apartheid struggle through the eyes of black people. The story concerns a thief’s conversion to political activism, and also touches on the theme of white women employers’ relations with their black maids and the less appealing aspects of political organizing. It runs at 7:30 and 9:35 p.m.

. excluded) — Vancouver East

of apartheid

The following week — Friday, Nov. 3- Thursday, Nov. 9 (Monday and Tuesday Cinema presents a new Canadian release, The Top of His Head, at 7:15 and 9:30 p.m. (Note: The Vancouver East Cinema is an inde- pendent theatre and is not involved in the lockout of B.C. projectionists imposed by the major theatre chains.)

* *

The tube: Knowledge Network airs the NFB feature, Al Purdy: A Sensitive Man;

concerning the outlook of the noted Can- adian poet on Monday, Oct. 30, 9 p.m. and Wednesday, Nov. 1, 10 p.m.; Reid About the USSR: Shaking off the Past; Nations Apart, continuing the story of British columnist Jimmy Reid’s visit to the Soviet Union, this time in Latvia and Khazakstan, on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 8 p.m.; Cross Currents: Cambodia: Year 10 on the 10th anniver- sary of the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge, on Thursday, Nov. 2, 9 p.m.; The Life Revolution: The Secrets of Life, a brief history of the science of genetics, on Wed- nesday, Nov. 1, 9 p.m.

Continuing in the scientific vein, the Seattle-based KCTS public television sta- tion airs “Decoding the Book of Life” on the series Nova. Concerning the discover- ies into the genetic makeup of human beings, it runs Tuesday, Oct. 31,8 p.m. and Wednesday, Nov. 1, 12 noon. It’s closed- captioned. Also on is The Promise of Per- estroika, concerning the 1988 visit of 300 USS. citizens to the Soviet Union as part of _ the Chautauqua Conference on Soviet- American Relations, on Friday, Nov. 3, 10 p.m. and Thursday, Nov. 30, 12 midnight.

10 ¢ Pacific Tribune, October 23, 1989