Brazil to give Amazonian tribes Internet access to fight deforestation

[Judi Lynn]

Brazil to give Amazonian tribes Internet access to fight deforestation
mongabay.com
March 30, 2007

Brazil will offer free satellite Internet connections to indigenous tribes in the Amazon according to a report from Reuters. It says that the plan will help reduce illegal logging by enabling natives to monitor and report on illicit activities.

"It's a way to open communications between indigenous communities, former slave villages, coconut crackers, river fishermen and the rest of society," said Environment Minister Marina Silva in a statement. "These communities are the true protectors of their areas."

The initiative will bring Internet access to 150 small communities in the Amazon and other remote parts of Brazil. The federal government will not provide computers -- this will be up to state and local governments.

Separately the Brazilian government has ordered more than one million low-cost laptops from the One Laptop Per Child initiative. It is unclear whether any of these laptops will end up in the hands of children in these communities.
(snip/...)

http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0330-brazil.html

[sasha031]

1. Kudo's for Brazil

They were in hell for yrs, with the US's help.

They are now becoming a true Democracy.

I wish I had the means to live in Latin America, really. I am so happy for them, they are all joined at the hip.

[melissinha]

3. As a brazilian

I don't like this at all, yes Brazil has really moved ahead in the information age and really harnessed it with open source programming and the like, but I just don't like messing with their culture and exposing them to our culture, its just wrong. I think Lula could come up with a better plan woith all that money... some type of (very sensitve anthropological) commission that would monitor things.....

[sasha031]

4. how about the military guarding the rain forest

with severe consequences for anyone who harms the rain forest. So much has been lost already, how incredible it must of been at one time.

[melissinha]

5. yeah but the military in brazil is so corrupt

man what a difficult problem!!!!!!

[sasha031]

6. Lula could fire them all

then there would be an at temped coup, yes I see what you mean.

How do change people who were-trained to torture and has very little value on all life. So much damage has been done over the decades.

[Peace Patriot]

2. This is a momentous improvement! Indigenous tribes have been fighting illegal

logging, mining and other devastations of their environment, for years, in isolated pockets in remote rural areas. They block logging roads and hold protests--and get murdered and beaten up and tortured and 'disappeared' by rightwing thugs in the employ of corporate predators. They are in desperate need of communication with the outside world. This is a terrific thing that the Brazilian government is doing. And I am impressed to read that someone in the government recognizes the value of indigenous presence in these areas--that they are the true protectors of the environment--and the terribly difficult and dangerous work they are doing FOR ALL OF US, to save the planet that belongs to all of us, and that nurtures all of us, and that none of us can live without. We owe them so much. And the least that we owe them is a voice and world witness to their sacred and beneficial work.

Viva la revolución!

[NNadir]

7. That'll fix everything I bet.

Some noble folks brought solar powered internet access to Haiti a few years ago and besides showing how noble they are, and how solar they are, the noble westerners were able to create conditions where all of Haiti's forests grew back, the people became wealthy and educated and began to debate whether to build solar powered McMansions with solar water heaters, solar powered stereos, solar powered dishwashers and solar powered ovens.

Knowledge is a powerful thing.