The Future Is In Our Past -
Did your mother fill a spray gun with DDT and spray everything in sight when you were a child? It often crosses my mind that it's a wonder we're still alive; with the constant exposure to oil lamp fumes, wood smoke and DDT during our childhood. Perhaps the pollution was offset by the good food from the gardens and the sea.
We do not seem to use spray much anymore, but insect spray is part of the cleaning ritual in Guiana. Before coming here we learned that the insects carry deadly diseases, and to be prepared with insect spray and clothing that covered exposed areas.
Imagine my surprise to find that Cayenne is pretty much the same as any other city. There are plenty of insects, millions of insects, but they aren't much of a threat to anyone - no doubt because of the constant spraying. And one very strange thing...they don't seem to splatter all over the windshields.
The poor little buggers are kept off guard by an army of spray cans. There's hardly a live insect in sight. One morning, after torrential rain in the night - it's the beginning of the rainy season - the corridor was filled with a carpet of dead insects. Whether they use DDT or not, insects don't last long.
It surprises me that rights groups haven't taken up the cause of insects. They are always into causes and now that the seal hunt is just about dead, they have taken up another equally appealing cause - that of dolphins.
Yesterday there was an email from a friend imploring me to give generously to his favourite animal rights group, and to pass the email along so that others can give, too.
According to activists, "Every autumn and winter, hunters in a craggy Japanese fishing village corral thousands of dolphins into a tiny, isolated cove and kill them for meat and fertilizer, turning the water red with their blood."
Enclosed was a picture of a man in a boat, sailing in a river of blood. There is also a petition against a similar killing of dolphins in the Faeroe Islands that is used as a rite of passage, much like the moose hunt in Newfoundland.
There are plenty of worthy causes, underfed children for one, that could use a group with a bit of excess energy. But no! Activists focus on the traditions of people in small villages who know no other life. They pass by the obvious, like the slaughter of millions of insects (which also have a purpose), to focus on the issues that tug at the heartstrings.
It's also strange that they attack groups of people, for their behaviours, that live off the beaten track preferably on (small) islands, but never city dwellers. In this way the traditional islanders are the scapegoats for normal city life.
The cute little dolphins will never have wide-eyed seal appeal but it comes a close second. Red blood and wide black eyes against a background of white ice is the best picture for tugging at the heartstrings but a boat sailing in a river of blood is not bad.
If you look you can see a lot of things that don't make sense. Perhaps the insect spray makes some sense, in a strange way. We do not like insects. But in a hotel, do two parrots in a small cage, in a tropical paradise like this, make any sense whatsoever? Birds are plentiful and flying around in and out of the building, but those two parrots are caged.
Then there are the four large fish in small tank. Why don't we think of the comfort of fish that don't have enough room to swim free? The smallest of the four lives in terror of the others and has lost half his tail from attacks.
All our daily actions are dictated by outside interests of the animal rights groups or globalized corporate interests. You can walk outside the door here and pick up any fruit imaginable rotting on the ground. Yet, you can't find them in the supermarket.
The supermarket is stocked with the same products, from the same countries, as the supermarket in Gander. There is little local produce. The hotels are the same. They follow the standard promoted worldwide.
What has been amazing recently is to find hotels everywhere serving canned fruit cocktail for breakfast. Even here, where they can pick up every kind of fruit from their own garden, they are serving canned fruit.
It would be good to know what genius came up with the idea to bypass local products and import food. Perhaps the same genius that took our fish from our control.
In the corporate world, the rule is to find the cheapest products no matter how far away and nonsensical it seems to transport them. In the end we "simple" islanders in the land of plenty just eat cans from exploited workers in far away countries, letting our own fruit rot, with the money going into the pockets of the top two per cent. Does it make any sense? Bring on a new breed of activist!
Bring on a new breed of activist
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