Korean Job Discussion Forums

[The Great Toad]

http://english.pravda.ru/world/2002/07/05/31830.html

Hmmm well I guess the Government Newspaper of Russia thinks America is helping to kill the last of the African Bushmen. That is sad since I liked "The Gods Must Be Crazy" I'm not too sure how to help in this case. It is good for kids to learn to read but then again maybe a illiterate culture is a destroyed one if the kids learn to read. I doubt America is directly trying to harm these people, maybe they just want to open a few mines.

[JacktheCat]

From a slightly more reputable news source than the Russian government's mouthpiece:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2195640.stm

[The Great Toad]

Thanks Jack! mmm nice read- it seems the BBC does not like the OZ mine companies. The BBC makes subtle hints they are going to take their land - they do not mention the USA at all, unlike the Rus Article. The end of the story sounds scary and hints of dark magic sorcery. Perhaps they are not unfallen noble savages after all, but rather strange shamanists. And just so I can make other shaman people angry and not seem anti-Africa, let me state I think the freakish cultic "Bone Dance" of the American Indianans is also a sorceress evil sadomasochist rite as well. Not that the Bushmen poked skewers through their chest muscles too- but picking up live coals in this case is appears to be a cultic rite. Still, it's ok to kiss hot coals if so led by an angel.

[Tiger Beer]

Russians think that?

I thought they were an educated populace.

Western Europe completely destroyed Africa for centuries.. and most development money still goes into Europe's exploitation of that continent.

The U.S. has had a hands-off approach to the African continent much to the dismay of a number of African leaders who want them meddling into their affairs.

Even today.. the Nigeria explotation is mostly at the hands of a British oil company.. the lists goes on and on with particularly British and French involvement.

The U.S.? What the hell? Its all the U.S.'s fault on anything that goes wrong in Africa as well..

How about the Africans stepping up to the plate.. or the Europeans taking on that responsibility if there is going to be finger-pointing and such. The mass majority of Africans wish there actually was ANY kind of American development (i.e. interest).

[rapier]

Anybody else read the works of Laurens Van der Post? Books like "Venture into the interior" and "Lost world of the Kalahari" were just fascinating explorations of the San Bushman. Unfortunately i never visited Botswana but i have seen many bushman paintings on rocks and caves, as they were the former residents of Zimbabwe.



"Life begins as a quest of the child for the man and ends as a journey by the man to rediscover the child."

Couldn't read the link at all...but I do know that these hunter-gatherer peoples have suffered much persecution and continue to do so today in botswana- forced off the land they have wandered for 20.000 years..barred access to their water sources and so on. Their whole beautiful way of life, living off desert fruits and animals, and their philosophy, is admired by many people.
A wonderful, peaceful and noble group, now restricted to desert areas of Southern Africa, they must be the oldest inhabitants of the continent. As far as i know, nobody is quite sure where they or their distinctive language came from.
They bear no resemblance to the black bantu tribes that drove them out of Zimbabwe..and all they left were paintings such as this one, on the outskirts of Harare (which I have seen).



They deserve to be left alone to follow their harmless traditional existence on their traditional lands. Nothing and no-one should attempt to change or "improve" them. They are very definitely, special.

[The Great Toad]

Maybe not a good source the BBC link was better maybe more truth in it. Yet, according to the Government Russian Newspaper:

http://english.pravda.ru/world/2002/07/05/31830.html

"Now even the remaining Bushmen are prey to yet another wave of greed, under the pretext that the children must be educated and given access to western-style healthcare programmes. At the same time, shady businessmen move in to the area waving documents which they claim gives them the right to exploit tourist resorts and diamond mining activities.

75 m. USD has already been spent on exploratory drilling in an area around Gope
and there are rumours that the attempt to move the Bushmen in the name of education and healthcare is simply a ruse to commit a policy of ethnic cleansing, clearing them out of the way as the millions pour in to the coffers of local and government officials in Gaborone"


Sorry I did not mean to come on too hard on the bushmen. In fact, I kind of feel sorry for all the shaman people out there. At least they will never be as silly as the "rat has a right to life" Jainist. I'd like to go hunt with them sometime it'd be a great weight loss endurance test chasing a slowly dieing antelope for three days. And, I do feel bad about Samuel Rhodes, but like Hernando Cortez the reason he could conquer the people is because they already fought each other and were willing to side with the interloper. But, ahh maybe the bushmen did not fight each other?

[peemil]

You hunk of a man.

[rapier]

To be honest..I dislike westerners judging or pointing fun of these people in any way.



They are a wonderful people..sacred to Africa, you could say. Most cultures nowadays probably couldn't concieve how different, innocent, and peaceable these people are.



In terms of understanding how to live harmoniously, and respectfully in your environment, and with others, they are way ahead of all the other people that have come and gone on that continent in the past 20.000 years.



When I was growing up as a boy, I was always told stories about them. They must've been the most respected "tribe" of Africans in the eyes of whites- Afrikaans and English alike.

[whatthefunk]

[bucheon bum]

WTF needs to contribute to this board more.

[rapier]

[Corporal]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[The Great Toad]

Rapier mmm I'm glad you're fond of your fellow Africans, and ahh Err anyhow I still think the Bushmen sound better than American Indians- American Indianans around the west would d cut a bit of their finger off to show sorrow at anothers death. Further the Northwestern American Indianans had slaves and used to kill and bury a slave under the entrance of a new home. And then of course there were the Pueblo Indians - the Conquistadors noted they were living on mesas and in caves with ladders - why? - because the Apache would raid and kill them. And let's not get started on the evil cannibals or the Hawaiian Kings and Queens who would consistently marry their brothers and sisters.
So as far as I know Bushmen seem pretty mellow and kind as a people.
And not to slight any Indians out there because I avidly read about them, and feel bad too for their slaughter and persecution by now dead Americans. I admire many aspects about Vikings too who were also insane killers who'd slaughter helpless monasteries full of scribes. But, in the end the highest pinnacle of Early Society was New Jerusalem founded by Duke Godfrey in 1099. Well at least it seems to me like a fine time to live not sure where I'd get kim chee, soap, and hot water though. Truth is Rudyard Kippling and I are not far off on world views.

[Ya-ta Boy]