wtf?

[ratcreature]

Okay, the phrasing in this BBC article is really awful. It talks about the Andaman islands, and an isolated indigenous tribe. And it has this sentence (paraphrasing an argument for creating some sort of buffer zone between the tribal area and the rest of the island): "[...] the Jarawas should be totally isolated from human habitation and no commercial activity be allowed near their habitat." Seriously, that article talks about these people like giant pandas, as if they weren't humans as well.

Comments

[sholio]

*boggles* WTF. You know, what bothered me the most about the article (besides, like you said, talking about a group of human beings like they're freaking animals in a zoo) is that no one seems to have even thought of ASKING them what they want. The government doesn't seem to have established diplomatic communications with them or anything of that sort. It's nice that the government isn't simply running amuck over them (and wow, how depressing is it that it's pleasing and impressive when a government doesn't do that?) but they are obviously interested in learning about the outside world -- asking for cell phones and schools -- and it's morally disgusting to let them die of easily preventable diseases under the guise of "keeping them pure" (or at least not to give them the OPTION of having access to hospitals and antibiotics and vaccinations, god! -- some people avoid such things on moral or religious grounds and they might choose likewise, but there's a difference between that and not giving them a CHOICE).

[ratcreature]

I think the running amuck happened earlier already. IIRC they used to live elsewhere on that island before the British settled there in 1800 and then they were decimated by disease and retreated to where they are now, and avoided contact until recently.