The Asian Tsunami in Afrocentrist Perspective I: Africa and the Pied Piper of Europe
by Chinweizu
Response to Tsunami in Perspective by Spartacus R.
Brother Spartacus:
Thank you for drawing our people’s attention to the need for an Afrocentrist perspective on the recent Tsunami in Asia. You conclude your comments with:
This means, in human terms, Africa is haemorrhaging from a disaster much greater in scale than two Asian Earthquake Tsunamis each and every week, year in and year out - and Global Africa, the people whose future is being destroyed on a daily basis say nothing and do nothing.
How true! While your observation is cogent, and should engage the mind of every African on earth, may I add a future dimension that we should attend to. Lets focus on the key question:
Who survived and who didn’t survive the tsunami and why? The answer to that question is the key, I think, to what PanAfrica should start doing, by yesterday, if we intend to physically survive.
Here are some reports and comments to help us find the answers:
1: Agence France-Presse 2004 “Aborigines on islands off India escape harm” Atlanta Journal Constitution. December 31 p. A4
Campbel Bay, India---Groups of rare aboriginal tribes already near the edge of extinction in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands survived a massive tsunami, the Indian coast guard said Thursday.
Five tribes totaling 989 people were safe after Sunday’s onslaught, including the 100-member Onge, 250 of the fiercely independent Sentinelese, 39 of the almost-extinct Andamanese, 350 of the Jarawa and 250 of the hunter-gatherer Shampen.
They were located by helicopter and some were reached by boat and given supplies and medical treatment, coast guard director general Arun Kumar Singh said Thursday.
“The great Andamanese tribes are all OK,” Lt. Gov. Ram Kapse told reporters. “There are no casualties among them.”
The Indian navy had been hunting for the aborigines on the tsunami-savaged Nicobar Islands amid fears that any harm to some of nature’s most enigmatic communities could push them into extinction.
Earlier, anthropologists had feared for the fate of primitive aboriginal tribes on the islands, which lie close to the epicenter of the earthquake Sunday off Indonesian shores that triggered the towering tsunami.
The remote archipelago of 572 islands lies 745 miles from mainland India and is spread over 500 miles north to south.
The mangrove islet of Campbell Bay is one of hundreds in the archipelago, some partly or fully reserved for aborigines.
The Shompen live along riverbanks in the dense mangroves surrounding the settlement of Campbell Bay, 500 miles south of the Andamanese capital, Port Blair.
For centuries they have shied away from outside contact, notably with mainland Indians.
2: The Political Tsunami: Not All Death and Destruction is Natural
by Michael I. Niman, ArtVoice (etc.) 1/13/05
http://mediastudy.com/articles/av1-13-05.html
Humanity deserves a solid pat on the back this week as the global humanitarian outpouring of support for tsunami victims has surpassed all previous relief efforts in history. The American government may have been stingy, but the American people certainly haven't, forking over checks to a host of relief agencies.
We've also seen the tsunami bring out the worst in humanity - the bottom feeders who move in when their prey is injured or disabled. In this arena we're seeing parasitic entrepreneurs bearing their fangs and engaging in the purchase and sale of tsunami orphans. And in the Aceh region, where nearly two thirds of the tsunami victims lived, we're seeing the government of Indonesia attempting to finish off their brutal campaign against the Acehnese people and their movement for self-determination.
Ache is what we call a "breakaway province." Officially part of Indonesia, for 28 years the Acehnese have been fighting a military campaign for independence as a supposedly democratic republic. Using the Bush administration's "War on Terror" and the recent U.S. invasion of Iraq as justifications, the Indonesian military invaded Aceh in May of 2003. They termed this a "Shock and Awe" operation, complete with "embedded journalists" and the blasphemous "blessing of September 11th." Though the Indonesians claimed their military operation was a police action aimed at restoring order in Aceh, it quickly took on the brutal aura of an invasion, complete with F-16 bombing missions and strafing runs using low-flying American-built planes.
The Indonesian military is employing the same tactics in Aceh as they did during their brutal quarter-century occupation of the now independent nation of East Timor, where their military operations killed one third of the Timorese population. In an October 2004 report, Amnesty International documents "a disturbing pattern of grave abuses of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights" in Aceh, including a wave of "unlawful killings, torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary detention" that encompass the entire province. Amnesty International also documents that under Indonesian
military occupation, "women and girls have been subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence," often doled out in retribution when family members are suspected of involvement in the independence fight led by the Free Aceh Movement, which the Indonesians have labeled as a "terrorist organization."
Why is none of this in the news? First there's the "embedded reporter" factor. Indonesia banned all journalists not "embedded" (following the U.S. model - to be in bed with.) with the military. And then there's the economic disincentive. The official economy of Aceh is based on a massive Exxon/Mobil natural gas extraction project which, according to estimates on Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now, has netted $40 billion worth of the resource. Very little of this money has flowed into the local Acehnese economy, where nearly a quarter of the children suffered from malnutrition before the Tsunami struck. This relationship explains both Indonesia's motivation to maintain tight control over the province, and the American corporate media's disincentive to cover this remote region of the world. And the neo-cons in the Bush administration will never have a bad world to say about Indonesia, a "partner" in their "War on Terror."
In this light, the Tsunami has provided a big boost to the Indonesian campaign against Aceh, killing more Acehnese than they could politically get away while reeking chaos upon the province. Not satisfied with this sudden strategic gift, the Indonesian military immediately set upon the survivors, excerpting control over relief operations and using control over food and water as weapons against the independence movement.
Amnesty International has reported that it is difficult to document the extent of the abuses in Aceh since the Indonesians have banned most foreigners (with the notable exception of Exxon/Mobile workers) and all journalists from the province. With relief aid, however, came journalists, who reported on Indonesian troops beating Acehnese who came to relief centers looking for food. The Indonesians were also requiring identification cards from tsunami survivors, many of whose houses are washed away. Acehnese without ID may be interrogated as suspected rebels – an interrogation that in the past often resulted in death. Journalists reporting this story have been ordered to leave Aceh, with one commander admonishing Australian journalists that "Your duty here is to observe the disaster, not the conflict."
On a more inspiring note, indigenous Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Onge, Shompen and Sentinelese people, survived the tsunami with very little loss of life. Much of the world originally feared that entire cultures living on remote islands in India's Andaman and Nicobar island chain were wiped out by the tidal waves. Hence, the global media celebrated the fact that not only did they seem very much alive, but that a naked Sentinelese man fired upon an Indian Air Force helicopter with a bow and arrow.
In covering the story, the BBC reported that the islanders have very little contact with, and by inference, understanding of the outside world - hence the arrows. In reality, the indigenous populations of the Andaman and Nicobar islands have had extensive contact with the outside world. These descendents of African peoples were first visited by Marco Polo who described them as "No better than wild beasts." European slave-traders later raided the islands for slaves. Starting in the 1800s, British troops visited wholesale massacres upon the islanders. An Indian land grab in the 20th century forced most of the remaining islanders from their ancestral lands. Anthropologists report that slavers continued to raid the islands well into the second half of the 20th Century, long after the international slave trade was thought dead. So it seems that the islanders have a much better understanding of the outside world than the BBC would suspect. And that quaint bow and arrow thing might be a bit more complex than a cutesy story about a naked savage.
The same BBC report (since pulled from their website) described the isolated islanders as still living in "the stone-age." On the very next line, the BBC reported how the islanders survived the tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of other people living in similar low-lying environments across the Indian Ocean. According to the BBC, "they survived the devastation by using age-old early warning systems" and running "to high ground for safety after noticing changes in the behavior of birds and marine wildlife." Western tourists vacationing in the region, by contrast, stood still and videotaped each others' deaths as they watched in dumbfounded stupor as the sea rose. Other non "stone aged" people frolicked in the pre-surge tidal ebb or stood transfixed on beaches watching a wall of water approach.
Scientists, the BBC went on to report, are "examining the possibility to see whether it [the indigenous knowledge] can be used to predict earth tremors in the future." D'uh. I guess we don't appreciate what's lost until it's almost gone. Anthropologists studying the Andaman and Nicobar islanders report that one reason they, like other indigenous peoples, shun contact with outsiders is that they fear losing their traditional knowledge which is essential in keeping them alive in harmony with their environment.
Where this environment has been destroyed over the years, the tsunami damage was much greater. The wholesale destruction of coral reefs and mangrove swamps across the Indian Ocean removed the only environmental barriers that have protected coastal environments from tidal waves for eternity. Coral reefs have fallen victim to pollution, dynamite used both in dredging channels and in fishing, and in quarrying operations where crushed coral is used in construction. Mangroves have been cut down to make beaches, towns, shrimp farms and resorts - with the farms and resorts primarily serving western consumers.
Some of the worst mangrove depletion has occurred over the years in Aceh, where satellite photos show seaside shrimp farms and towns on former mangrove swamps. Hence, it's no surprise that in Aceh, with the mangrove swamps that traditionally absorbed such waves and shored up coastal geology gone, the devastation was so severe. By contrast, areas that still had coral or mangrove in tact, suffered only minor losses of life. People seeing the turmoil of the waves crashing above offshore coral reefs ran for safety before the waters arrived. Likewise, while the waves uprooted millions of mangroves, they lost much of their destructive power in the process.
The point here is that no natural disaster is entirely natural. With mangrove swamps being uprooted for housing and tourist development across the tropics, we'll see more and more unnatural destruction from natural disasters. Likewise, as oppressive militaries look for advantage in whatever disaster comes their way, we'll also see unnatural death and destruction in the wake of supposedly natural death and destruction. This is not acceptable - no matter how much it benefits Exxon/Mobil.
Mike Niman's previous columns are archived at www.mediastudy.com. The documentary film, "2004 - The Under-Reported Stories: Michael Niman" is available streamed or on DVD from www.snowshoefilms.com. For continuing developments concerning the 2004 election controversy, see www.mediastudy.com/election.html
3. "civilization makes people stoopid"
Good ol Mike Niman nails the "civilization makes people stoopid" point at the end of this. I know it's made me stoopid because when I heard that the Andamaneese, all of them, had survived the tsunami on a not very large island in the midddle of the Indian ocean I couldn't figure out how they had done it. They read the signs, looked at other creatures heading inland and followed them, looked back and saw trouble coming and knew trouble when they saw it, ran, etc. In short, they did the normal things ecologically grounded natives with participatory consciousness do. We are all looking at a wave of extinctions engulfing us and we're standing on the beach beckoning other people to come to the beach to see if they see what we see -- hey, do you think that wall of water heading our way and this big suction closer to shore here has a name? Could it be a mirage? A "visual effect"? A sununu? That's a Senator from New Hampshire, right?
pops
--
C. Keil
For mindfulness see http://www.dontbuyin.org
For12/8 Path brass bands see http://www.128path.org
For MUSE, Inc. see http://www.musekids.org
For Bright Balkan Morning see
http://www.uwm.edu/~dickblau/BrightBalkanMorning/
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Let me conclude with two observations.
A] From the variation in the damage done, it seems that the less a society is contaminated by "progress" the better its chance of surviving such disasters. The least contaminated, such as the “stone age” islanders, are the most self-reliant and ecologically grounded. They live entirely within and off their local ecosystem and probably would be worse off taking the industrial world’s AID and thereby acquiring addictions that attach them to the globalized system of disorder.
B] Consider that Sentinelese man. After surviving the tsunami by being part of an ecologically grounded society that lives by its indigenous “stone age” knowledge system, he bravely tried to ward off an air force helicopter with his bow and arrow. I see two morals in this. PanAfrica, in the last two centuries, has followed the pied piper of European civilization and gone astray, losing its ecological groundedness and throwing away its indigenous knowledge systems. As a result, it has become defenseless against ecodisasters, whether natural, like a tsunami, or artificial, like soil exhaustion through the methods of “modern” capitalist agribusiness.
To compound matters, despite some fifty years of the self-delusion that it is engaged in ‘development’, PanAfrica has not actually gotten beyond the bow and arrow in its ability to defend itself from the forces of an Afro-hostile European world. Because of failure at industrialization in their societies, all the armies of the comprador states that plague PanAfrica are, together, no stronger than that lone Sentinelese man with his bow and arrow against a helicopter. When we reckon with the vast arsenal of conventional, nuclear and biological weapons that PanEurope can unleash any day on PanAfrica, we are as naked, militarily, as that naked Sentinelese. In fact, since every one of these anti-Africa armies in PanAfrica depends on PanEurope for each and every weapon it uses, the Sentinelese, who still make their bows and arrows from local resources within their full control, are strategically stronger. By mindlessly following the Pied Piper of Europe, the societies of PanAfrica have not only lost their ecological groundedness, they have also failed to industrialize. These two weaknesses are poignantly highlighted by the Asian tsunami.
If this tsunami has been something of a rehearsal for the cataclysms that will attend the imminent self-destruction of European civilization, guess which societies are likely to survive and carry on the human legacy. That’s something for us to think about.
Whether the deAfricanized, niggerized elites of PanAfrica can urgently see their way to correcting these deadly weaknesses, is the challenge of today.
And are you going to be part of the solution or part of the problem, starting today?
Chinweizu
Lagos, Jan 2005
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The above, I am reliably informed, is a work in progress, so stay tuned for the outcome.
You can contact Chinweizu directly at: sundoor777@hyperia.com
May the Ancestors guide and protect you on our way.
Love and life
Spartacus R.
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