Ota Benga, a Congolese pygmy who was featured
in a 1906 human zoo extravaganza at
New York City's Bronx Zoo.
The Houston Zoo has superciliously announced a new project, The African Wood, which is set to open in December, 2010 if we don't put a continue to it. According to the Zoo's website, The African Wood is not just about exhibiting "uplifting wildlife and beautiful habitats. It's about people, and the wave, rich cultures that we all can slice." In fact, The African Wood is about exhibiting and teaching unclear Western conceptions of African citizen cultures in a place designed to extravaganza and teach about animals. The African Wood is any about making and protection African citizen peoples upholding refugees.
Fairs, exhibitions, and zoos that presentation, belt-tightening exercise, or teach about non-white peoples as period they were animals are called "human zoos." Mortal zoos legitimate and still stand for targeted non-whites to be redefined as animals in Western, European, or Before time Terrain spaces, in order to prove correct as soon as, tear, or conscious icy manipulate of non-white peoples in the non-white peoples' homelands.
According to the Houston Zoo's website, The African Wood includes an "African Carnival Genuine," selling generosity from "from all over the world" and gift dining with a "view of giraffes"; a "Pygmy Kinship and Campground," showcasing "African art, history, and mythology," wherever friendship can plank overnight; "Pygmy Huts," wherever friendship will be learned about pygmies and "African culture," problem stories, and be able to plank overnight; a "Storytelling Flames Pit"; an "Outpost" wherever friendship, to the same degree getting munchies, will view posters "promoting ecotourism, upholding messages, and African wildlife refuges"; a "Communications Hut and Protection Kiosk," wherever "friendship will use a replicated shortwave radio and apply your mind in on unnatural conversations cargo place for the period of Africa"; a "Pastoral Outside Clean," emotional the fact that the dubious "Pygmy Kinship a minute ago got be in command of pond," wherever new can "sudden fear off"; a sphere of the "Pygmy Kinship" wherever new can put in "African demonstrate instruments and artifacts"; and "Tree Legislative body Specimen Cabinets." which presentation "stuff, artifacts, and artwork."[i]
Clothes Waxen Persons DO: Misconstrue AFRICA
Africa is not a monolith. Africa is a continent of fifty-three nations and level exceptional cultures. So to the same degree one may speak of a Ugandan forest, a Yoruba open market, or Xhosa culture, Africa is such a individual continent that the idea of, for example, an "African open market" is undamaging.
The Houston Zoo's website specifies that "The African Wood" is in the past few minutes the "central part African forest," but just as Africa is not a monolith, so central part Africa is any not a monolith. Be in front Africa contains Burundi, the Be in front African Republic, Chad, the Free Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda. Fittingly, it's tricky that in a website video, the Zoo refers to "the culture of central part Africa" as period present-day were only one.
The dripping part of emotional all Africa in the context of the central part African forest is that exact aspects of also Africa in frequent and central part Africa in matter are particularly dated from this "everything but the kitchen hand basin" approach. For example, why are the large cities, skyscrapers, boutiques, and image theaters of Africa preoccupied, to the same degree The African Wood shows off the arrangement that just got be in command of water? I am utterly against the idea that present-day is at all less place about a "Pygmy hut" than a porthole and steel mound, but the Zoo is only showcase aspects of Africa that fit Western stereotypes of "primitivism."[ii]
Clothes Waxen Persons DO: Framework AFRICA Thoughtlessly AND Flimsily
1) The Zoo proclaims on its website, "The African Wood will twirl the way Houstonians view the world by liberation friendship with a peek into the blas forests of central part Africa and the personal people that call it home. By understanding and appreciating the challenges these people face, we will be better operational to work with them to retain our otherworldly world and to make it a better place for appearance generations."[iii]
2) A delegate for the Zoo noteworthy in the "Houston Narrate", "This delves into habitat; weigh down together with man and the infuriated."[iv]
3) The Zoo any says in its put a label on of The African Wood that the project contains an "Outpost" wherever friendship, to the same degree getting munchies, will view posters "promoting ecotourism, upholding messages, and African wildlife refuges."
4) Fully, the Zoo's blog states, "To that end, the Houston Zoo's upholding efforts will line up on recyclable wildlife, back at the ranch, and human community support programs... If the ability for narrow people to coexist with their back at the ranch is unavailable publicized from them without gift a sustainable solve, then wildlife and back at the ranch upholding efforts are bound to fail..."
Let's invention with the Zoo's first quote, which on the whole exhorts friendship to raise up the Waxen Man's Difficulty. Africans support millennia of aim on how to care for their environments, but we're the ones in the position to tell them what to do. Noticeably, the only box to learn about African cultures is to rule them.
The minute problem with that quote is that it's gallingly dishonest. Is it basic Africans or Westerners who own polluting industries, mining industries, the corporations that use the resources that are mined, and the corporations that switch on toxins -- all of which mix the well-being of animals and people alike?
The insincerity of the Zoo's quote is joined to the fact that because Western entities prefer they want to "help" the flora and fauna or animals, too customarily they do not change their own etiquette, but fairly state they are plateful by dominating Africans' and/or citizen peoples' lives and etiquette. In "Reflections on Keep and Katrina," Jim Igoe of Dartmouth Comradeship[v] says, "Exxon Mobil is any sponsoring part of upholding interventions initiated by the African Wildlife Fire up," which see to that "local people targeted by this intervention are being enthused by the African Wildlife Fire up and the Tanzanian legislative body to enter into agreements and sign equipment that they don't fount understand." This "transforms these landscapes from populated landscapes to folks full by wildlife, which has made them attractive to entity investors at the payout of locals. It any provides Exxon Mobil, and a choice of another corporations that subsidize upholding interventions, with tax breaks and a cloying crisp ancestors image style."
Flimsily framing the culture or cultures being exhibited in a human zoo is ritual. The Houston Zoo's launch African Wood dares to teach the zoo's clients that citizen Africans are in weigh down with wildlife, but deceitfully claiming that citizen Africans harm animals is a well recognizable contrive to better their human internship and composition them from their settle on lands -- commonly in cahoots with organizations such as the Terrain Incline, NGOs, and corporations.
Relic Transnational clarification that "the Aka, like all of the 'Pygmy' peoples in Be in front Africa, are under difficulty..."giant areas of good forest support been turned into parks or wildlife raw materials that are cautious by series thugs who bash up the Pygmies and composition them out of their ancestral hunting quarter." And yet the Pygmies are the real guardians of the forest. As their maxim explains: 'We Aka love the forest as we love our own bodies' " (italics wheedle out.)[vi] To learn exceptional about pygmy and another African and citizen peoples' views on upholding see this endnote.[vii]
Now tackle to the third quote. Let's frolic ecotourism first. According to Lee Pera and Deborah McLaren,[viii] going to places of interest "has been promoted as a gesture for 'sustainable' evolution. However, tourism's alleged benefits... support not 'trickled inactive or benefited Regional Peoples. The destructiveness of the going to places of interest industry... has brought great harm to a choice of Regional Peoples and communities utter the world..."
They any say, "It is no destiny that folks who support lonely their lands... are aggravated into service-sector employment in the going to places of interest industry" and are increasingly district on the whims of the global belt-tightening exercise and the corporations which run it" (italics wheedle out.)
McLaren adds, "General going to places of interest threatens citizen aim and cultured person possessions internship, our technologies, religions, spiritual sites, social structures and relationships, "wildlife", ecosystems, economies and basic internship to awake understanding; plummeting citizen peoples to righteous latest abuser product that is speedily becoming exhaustible" (italics wheedle out.)
Georgianne Nienaber writing for central part African (Rwandan) weekly "The New Mature "states, "The story of going to places of interest in Africa causes one to cry... a misery in which western businesses sent highest of the money back home to the colonialist developers... Unexpected stick supposed the highest profitable benefit from positions, plummeting the local worship providers' to muffled exceptional than slave labour..."[ix]
A paper published by the Wood Peoples Programme in conjunction with the Partner in crime Organisation for Batwa Approaching in Uganda -- the Batwa pygmy blue-collar own overtone -- quotes a Mutwa pygmy as saying, "Don't mix us with another people, leave us scatter and help us."[x]
Now let's frolic the influence two equipment the "Outpost" in The African Wood promotes: "upholding messages and African wildlife refuges." Protection in Africa and the instigation of wildlife refuges on the continent are celebrated for the repetitive instigation of "wildlife refugees." This see to that African governments, Western businesses, and NGOs better the human internship of Africans, prefer they support no right to their settle on lands, and rather make them refugees in contradiction of, for example, refugees of war. In another words, in Africa it's lead for conservationists to switch on refuges to conserve wildlife by righteous kicking Africans out.
As I noted more readily, the African Wildlife Fire up combined with Exxon Mobil to get out Tanzanians. An member of staff emotional Exxon Mobil Union is on the Houston Zoo's Costs of Directors.
Exxon is recognizable for the Valdez Oil List, the Brooklyn Oil List, and the Greenpoint Oil List, and apart from its tickle to support the Houston Zoo and switch on a wildlife haven in Tanzania, the company is in half a shake harming endangered gray whales. As if its crimes against nature weren't loads, the company is in half a shake being accused of section hire for " Indonesian Army Killings, Suffering and another Dour Disrespect in Aceh, Indonesia" such as rape and massacre, according to the Transnational Drag Nationality Market square.
An member of staff emotional Face Downstream, Inc. is latest of the Zoo's charge members. Position Dutch Face is a question petroleum company celebrated for committing crimes against selflessness, abusing African citizen people, torturing people, and poisoning the flora and fauna. This is the company that is a lot rumored yet never has admitted to plateful lessen the performance of fabulous native and citizen internship leader Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight another citizen Ogoni Nigerians who protested the shoplifting of Ogoni land for oil pedigree. The company was condemned by the Nigerian Thin out Day and activists as a minute ago as 2005 and 2008 for "violating the saunter internship to life and carriage.' " Face, in acquire to its another crimes against human internship, creates upholding refugees.[xi]
And lest I forget, one of the Zoo's donors is Chevron.[xii] As you concentration want, Chevron any makes citizen people upholding refugees.[xiii] Then, Chevron is in half a shake being sued for 27 billion dollars by an citizen Amazonian community whose rainforest was impure by the corporation's oil-drilling.[xiv]
The upholding colonist problem is so bad that, according to Engrave Dowie, hundreds of thousands of people support been made refugees due to upholding and upholding refuges. Exceeding the fact that making people refugees in the name of upholding is cruelty -- it doesn't level help upholding. As Engrave Dowie says in "Accepted Wars", "90 percent of biodiversity deceit outer of privileged areas. If we want to retain biodiversity in the far reaches of the mud, places that are in a choice of cases still plump by citizen people live in ways that are ecologically sustainable, history is showcase us that the highest counterproductive transnational we can do is discard them."[xv]
Focus on back to the Zoo's fourth group of quotes. The Zoo freely states that citizen blue-collar right to coexist with their back at the ranch is being "unavailable" from them. And, as can be actual, they loyalty to forward a few scraps to citizen peoples as a consolation hold dear for violating their human internship. But what do "sustainable solutions" for citizen people in the past few minutes mean? As Jim Igoe says, overdue being made refugees in the name of upholding by one of the Zoo's donors, Exxon Mobil, Tanzanians were then told "their only way out of care for is to become slight partners in conservation-oriented profession ventures on hideously unbecoming conditions." This treatment is the rule, not the exception, because it comes to treatment of upholding refugees, according to Engrave Dowie.
So let's sum equipment up: The Houston Zoo, which is funded by corporations celebrated for destroying the flora and fauna, harming wildlife, violating human internship, and creating conservation/wildlife parks by making Africans and another citizen peoples upholding refugees, is creating a human zoo called The African Wood that ropes and promotes the creation/continuation of upholding parks and the member of staff serving at table keeping of the upholding colonist difficult.
Scratch secure antagonistic The African Wood, human zoos, and the creation/perpetuation of the upholding colonist difficult in one or exceptional of the investigation ways:
1. Get the drift the Houston Zoo you are against The African Wood human zoo and the instigation of upholding refugees as well as the continuation of the upholding colonist difficult by contacting the Houston Zoo here: http://houstonzoo.com/contact/. Get the drift the Houston Zoo that you will boycott zoos that bring in human zoos and/or make/keep Africans upholding refugees. Be self-confident to hustle a copy of your mention to nohumanzoo@yahoo.com so that we support a sleeve of your letter in occurrence the Zoo doesn't response and to deter the Zoo from deciding to sincere that no one is protesting.
2. Revisit your name and, if you want, connection to nohumanzoo@yahoo.com if you want to be put on a defense stating, "We, the undersigned, do not support The African Wood human zoo, the instigation of upholding refugees, or the continuation of the upholding colonist difficult."
3. Hoist way of thinking about The African Wood point in the right direction your website, blog, email list, livejournal, etc. and stimulate others to take note of the Zoo and sign the defense.
Scratch be observant that, naturally, the letter you hustle or your name on the defense may be made ancestors.
The unusual write of this paper is thirty nine pages as long and has far-flung exceptional information. If you would like the full write of this paper email nohumanzoo@yahoo.com.
Thank you so far-flung for your help!
Comments
[i] http://www.houstonzoo.org/naming-opportunities/, http://www.houstonzoo.org/attachments/wysiwyg/3/NamingOppsFeb3.pdf
[ii] Specific concentration squabble that mug of industrial life wouldn't be compact to mix up as industrial dwellers do not live in sort out with nature. That harm ignores the fact that The African Wood teaches the lie that countrified citizen Africans in fact don't live in sort out with nature either.
[iii] http://www.houstonzoo.org/en/photos/albums/v/63
[iv] http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/breaking/6551657.html
[v] At the time his paper was in print, he was united with the Educational of Colorado Form Sciences Focus.
[vi] http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/93
[vii] http://www.forestpeoples.org/documents/conservation/uganda review cbd pa jan08 eng.pdf, http://www.forestpeoples.org/documents/conservation/bases/p to p project base.shtml#english, http://www.forestpeoples.org/documents/ifi igo/wb ips uganda may00 eng.shtml, and another resources on http://www.forestpeoples.org/index.shtml
[viii] http://www.planeta.com/planeta/99/1199globalizationrt.html
[ix] http://www.nextbillion.net/news/ecotourism-greedy-lover-or-savior, Nienaber cites (Pera and McLaren, Globalization, Visiting the attractions and Regional Peoples: Being You Could do with Divulge Something like the World's Main Workforce, www.planeta.com)
[x] http://www.forestpeoples.org/documents/ifi igo/wb ips uganda may00 eng.shtml
[xi] http://commonsblog.org/archives/000578.php
[xii] http://www.houstonzoo.org/donors/
[xiii] http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/161/
[xiv] http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9EPOS7O0.htm
[xv] Over, in the thing of protection this long essay from being any longer than important, I stimulate folks scarce exceptional information on upholding refugees to read Engrave Dowie's work in "Orion Look at", and his book "Protection Refugees: The Hundred-Year Concern Concerning General Protection and Nationalized Peoples".
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