Originally posted by Paulo Nilson
The rain forest still is a vast repository of new specimens, that can be used for medicine, and the brazilian indians know many ways of healing with plants.
I wish the christian missionarys (mostly americans) don't finish their cultures at all.
Paulo there are a few North Americans that are doing their very best to see that the rainforests aren't totally devastated just for the medicine aspects alone.
We Cherokee have a Story that says the Animal People visited disease on us because we were hunting them just for sport and then letting them go to waste.
When hunting is done properly the animal places itself in your gunsights and gives up it's breath willingly.
The story continues with the Plant People took pity on us because so many of us were dieing needlessly because the innocents hadn't deserved that kind of treatment so they stepped in and said, "That for every disease there would be a plant to cure it."
There are some few of us that still believe the old
ways.
Hopefully we will be able to save what we need...........
I believe in many ways our Brothers to the South are being worse treated than the North American Indin People.
The bottom line is that the effects are the same. The men of the tribe are left with nothing to do that will earn them a living better than what they had in the forests.
And our Brothers on the African continent aren't fareing any better than the ndns og either continent.
There's an excellent book by Patrick Same' "Of Water and the Spirit" who under went the treatment of the missionaries. (My computer doesn't have the little pronounciation marks, but it's Same' with the little mark on the "e".
He was *taken* from his village kraal when he was 5 years old, taught gardening and French and then inducted into seminary far away.
I won't get into the whole story because some of y'all might want to read it. I recommend it highly!!!!
The gist of it is is that he escaped from the seminary and made it home to his village after much trials and tribulations.
When he got there no one trusted him because he hadn't under went the initiation into manhood and therefore didn't know how to behave properly.
Patrick *did* finally go through the initiation and the stories he tells about the transition really go hand in hand with some American Indin ceremonies.
I believe the stories even if no one else does.
But basically for me the story brought home the fact that our African Brothers are still under going much the same fate as we once did on this continent and what's still happening in the South American Countries.
It's a damned travesty and a damned shame such actions are permitted to go on in this day and age.
The "Church" has apologised to the people native to this land while still doing the same thing in others.
That tells me their apology doesn't mean a damned thing!!!!!!!
dunno
