A new trail of tears, a new rant from your Queen
I recently heard on the radio that the San Bushmen of the Kalahari are being driven from their most ancient home, which had been declared a "wildlife preserve". Fewer than 2 dozen are said to remain in the Kalihari. The government of Botswana claims that they are evicting the San people so that they can be provided with schools and medical clinics but other sources suggest that this is but an excuse for pillaging the mineral resources of the Kalahari. Once again a hunter gather culture is deemed "inconvenient" and shoved aside so that wealthier and greedier people can garner the resources once protected by the poisoned arrows of the bushpeople. The Botswana government claims to be wiser than the San, but who could know the desert better than those who have dwelt there for 20,000 years or more. The government of Botswana hasn't existed for one century yet they have the hubris to destroy the homeland and culture of the oldest people on earth. I am reminded of the plight of the Guichen who live on caribou in the Arctic National Wildlife reserve. American Senators and other conservative party aparatchiks would despoil the home of the Guichens for treasure beneath the permafrost just as Botswana is evicting the San for hypothetical diamonds in the sands. But the Kalahari belongs to the San just as the ANWR belongs to the Guichen, the bones of their ancestors hallow the ground. Despite the self rightious procamations of corporate pharisees, it is still wrong to dispossess a people and destroy their way of life, even if technocrats think they need the money. It's called Genocide, and there will be Hel to pay...
