Yeah, the "New Tribes" are whacked-out imperialists, theocratic and cleptomanical.
Kick their asses out of the indigenous communities. I can dig it.
Bamm! Giv'em a boot in the ass and say "Seee ya!" "Wouldn't wanna be ya!"
This is a very big win for the indigenous tribes. While the missionaries provide some services to help "modernize" and "educate" the indigenous peoples in reality what they do is kill a culture that deserves to be preserved.
I cannot explain in words the animosity I feel when I read about mission groups translating the bible into an indigenous language. Is this what they mean by education? In fact it is, and their purpose is not simply to evangelize. In fact there is a race that started in the late 1960's by protestant missions to fill every gap within indigenous groups of Latin America to send missions in an effort to incorporate as many of these groups into Protestantism, to plant a seed, that in time will bear fruit against the "lazy" catholic missions who assumed that Latin America was theirs. As some may know the number of missions involved in Latin America are numerous especially in Brazil. Together the Catholics and the Protestants are wiping out what is left of true indigenous cultures.
Nothing brings more joy than the knowledge that Chavez has the gumption to unequivocally kick them out. That there may be a CIA element within these organizations is neither here nor there. That they leave, under any and all circumstances, is of prime importance.
Pulpo, there is a great book and movie by the title "At Play in the Fields of the Lord" that is a 'must see' with respect to the damage that these Evangelicals have wrought in South America. The author is Peter Mathisson, simply kick ass.
Check it out if you haven't already bro'.
Pulpo, I agree completely. Hopefully the Mormons will be next.
Hey there ow,
It's interesting the ferocity of opinion this New Tribes thing engenders on the part of people who have obviously never traveled to the area. Just wanted to throw in a differing opinion. I spent a few weeks video taping in a village of the Panare when a missionary couple there had finished translating the Bible after working on it for about 20 years. People don't give up the comforts of home to live in a tribal village that long if they don't like the people. On the contrary, they are about the only people who actually care about them. According to tribesmen who have spoken in the Venezuelan press lately, Chavez has done precious little for them ever. His move is about as politically motivated as you can get; blame the Americans for problems and create a common enemy. On TV down there a couple of weeks ago, a couple of village men stated that they are tired of anthropologists living in the cities trying to control how they live in the backcountry.
Learning an unwritten language and devising a system to write it and read it provides a people with a powerful tool for preserving their culture: literacy. Yes they want these people to be able to read the Bible they have translated because they love these people and want them to have the opportunity to decide for themselves if what it contains is good news. Nobody forces anyone to convert. But before they had little choice because they were locked in ignorance.
There is no mystery about where the New Tribes people go to work. They go to the remotest areas where the people have been isolated and ignored. There may well be natural resources there as these areas have, as I said, been largely ignored by the outside.
The missionaries I have meet in remote areas are some of the strongest agents for the preservation of these ancient cultures. Their cultural uniqueness is understood in ways that are only possible by spending years living among a people. These things are celebrated and honored. The government, on the contrary, is responsible for allowing development precisely for the exploitation of natural resources with little or no regard for the destruction of idigenous culture. About the only chance tribal people have to know what their government has in mind for them and to make their opinions known is the fact that they can read and write.
The notion that New Tribes missionaries are in it for the money tips the hand of those so opinionated that they have never been to a place where any of these missionaries are working. These missionaries live meagre lives financially, but they are happy to do it as their motivation is not money. These folks sacrifice large chunks of their lives to do good for the people they live among. This is done at great personal sacrifice. They certainly could do much better for themselves by staying home and working in the US economy.
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