This video about the Pilgrim Relief Society's development project shows the struggle that the San (or Bushmen) of the Kalahari Desert are facing today. As circumstances beyond their control press for change, the San leave behind that which makes them unique: elements of their culture and lifestyle which they have practised and preserved for millennia.
The Pilgrim Relief Society is a non-profit, charitable organization dedicated to improving the quality of life of indigenous people in remote places around the world. Since its establishment in 2001, the organization has developed projects for various remote communities including the Ju!hoansi Bushmen of the Kalahari, the Bambute pygmies and Lugbara tribe of Central Africa, the Kiai tribe of Vanuatu, the Inuit community of the north pole and the Inca community of South America.
Showing posts with label bushmen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bushmen. Show all posts
27 September 2010
Survival International calls to boycott Botswana
Survival International, a non-governmental human rights organization working for tribal peoples, today (27 Sept 2010) called for tourists to boycott the Southern African country Botswana until the government ends a brutal campaign of persecution against Kalahari Bushmen. The call coincides with World Tourism Day (27 Sept 2010), so that SI is especially blaming Botswana for using describtions such as cultural diversity and welcoming people to promote tourism in the country.
What do you think about it? Should tourists boycott Botswana?
What do you think about it? Should tourists boycott Botswana?
10 November 2009
Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought
I just stumbled over a very interesting book titled Heart of Dryness, which discusses how the bushmen of the Kalahari Desert can teach us what we need to know about how to live in dry climates, something we're all increasingly finding ourselves in as we drill ourselves further into a global water crisis.
The dramatic story of the Bushmen of the Kalahari is a cautionary tale about water in the twenty-first century—and offers unexpected solutions for our time.
“We don’t govern water. Water governs us,” writes James G. Workman. In Heart of Dryness, he chronicles the memorable saga of the famed Bushmen of the Kalahari — remnants of one of the world’s most successful civilizations, today at the exact epicenter of Africa’s drought—in their widely publicized recent battle with the government of Botswana, in the process of exploring the larger story of what many feel has become the primary resource battleground of the twenty-first century: the supply of water.
The Bushmen’s story could well prefigure our own. In the United States, even the most upbeat optimists concede we now face an unprecedented water crisis. Reservoirs behind large dams on the Colorado River, which serve thirty million in many states, will be dry in thirteen years. Southeastern drought recently cut Tennessee Valley Authority hydropower in half, exposed Lake Okeechobee’s floor, dried up thousands of acres of Georgia’s crops, and left Atlanta with sixty days of water. Cities east and west are drying up. As reservoirs and aquifers fail, officials ration water, neighbors snitch on one another, corporations move in, and states fight states to control shared rivers.
Each year, around the world, inadequate water kills more humans than AIDS, malaria, and all wars combined. Global leaders pray for rain. Bushmen tap more pragmatic solutions. James G . Workman illuminates the present and coming tensions we will all face over water and shows how, from the remoteness of the Kalahari, an ancient and resilient people is showing the world a viable path through the encroaching Dry Age. (src.: amazon.com)
The dramatic story of the Bushmen of the Kalahari is a cautionary tale about water in the twenty-first century—and offers unexpected solutions for our time.
“We don’t govern water. Water governs us,” writes James G. Workman. In Heart of Dryness, he chronicles the memorable saga of the famed Bushmen of the Kalahari — remnants of one of the world’s most successful civilizations, today at the exact epicenter of Africa’s drought—in their widely publicized recent battle with the government of Botswana, in the process of exploring the larger story of what many feel has become the primary resource battleground of the twenty-first century: the supply of water.
The Bushmen’s story could well prefigure our own. In the United States, even the most upbeat optimists concede we now face an unprecedented water crisis. Reservoirs behind large dams on the Colorado River, which serve thirty million in many states, will be dry in thirteen years. Southeastern drought recently cut Tennessee Valley Authority hydropower in half, exposed Lake Okeechobee’s floor, dried up thousands of acres of Georgia’s crops, and left Atlanta with sixty days of water. Cities east and west are drying up. As reservoirs and aquifers fail, officials ration water, neighbors snitch on one another, corporations move in, and states fight states to control shared rivers.
Each year, around the world, inadequate water kills more humans than AIDS, malaria, and all wars combined. Global leaders pray for rain. Bushmen tap more pragmatic solutions. James G . Workman illuminates the present and coming tensions we will all face over water and shows how, from the remoteness of the Kalahari, an ancient and resilient people is showing the world a viable path through the encroaching Dry Age. (src.: amazon.com)
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