The World We Live In
Posted by Mike E on March 15, 2008
Tahawus sent me this picture.
The caption in the mainstream press accounts read:
An indigenous woman holds her child while trying to resist the advance of Amazonas state policemen who were expelling the woman and some 200 other members of the Landless Movement from a privately-owned tract of land on the outskirts of Manaus, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon March 11, 2008. The landless peasants tried in vain to resist the eviction with bows and arrows against police using tear gas and trained dogs. REUTERS/Luiz Vasconcelos-A Critica/AE (BRAZIL)
March 15, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Does this have anything to do with the MST (Movimento Sin Tierra)?
Incredibly sad how the peasants are being forced out of their homelands AND how the incredibly important Amazon region is being destroyed.
March 17, 2008 at 11:08 am
I’m from Manaus, Brazil, and although I didn’t follow the story of this picture, more context is helpful here.
Land invasions are commonplace around Manaus, a sprawling city that the local government refuses to break up into more manageable pieces. They happen most notably around elections, when people feel freer to do so since it would be unpopular for local politicians to do anything about it.
Not all land invasions are the same of course, but a common pattern that has taken place repeatedly is one where a coordinated group of squatters takes over a piece of land and establishes itself there. The government takes a while to respond (because of elections) and when it does, it often buys the land with taxpayer money and gives the land to the squatters.
Quite often as soon as that happens the squatters move out, and the land is taken over by the real invaders, people who coordinated the squatters invasion in order to buy land subsdized by taxpayer money.
I don’t know the story of this particular invasion by the indigenous people, but it certainly was not an indian reservation, which are protected in the federal constitution.
Roberto
March 17, 2008 at 1:05 pm
The common thread of comments on that page are pretty horrible (”why is she endangering her child like that”, “she deserves that”, etcera).
April 9, 2008 at 8:29 am
Poor Haitians Resort to Eating Dirt
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080130-AP-haiti-eatin.html