"Borneo Tribesmen Armed with Blowpipes Block Roads, Stop Palm Oil Plantations"

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Here's a very concrete example of how roads into rainforests can bring indigenous people into the firing line: TimesOnline reports that hundreds of men from Borneo's Penan people are blockading roads, armed with blowpipes and dressed in traditional costumes, in protest over what palm oil companies are doing to the forests:

The Penan live in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, existing for hundreds of years as hunter-gatherers.

They are protesting the palm oil plantations not the grounds of climate change and carbon emissions like many of us around the globe who are concerned about them, but on the very immediate grounds that the river which the Penan depend on are being polluted and with the dwindling amount of forest area, the future of their food supplies is in jeopardy.

So far timber operations by four companies have been stopped as police and local politicians attempt to negotiate with the Penan.

I love this. I love to see those who the modern world often views as backwards and destitute remnants of a world long gone stand up for the culture and life they hold so dear.

I love that these guys are blocking the progress of these plantations with blow guns.

It reminds me of the paper the Original Affluent Society

I also recommend watching the documentary series Ring of Fire. One of the movies deals with the Penan of Borneo and it is AMAZING!

So they are saying these "tribesmen" are doing this to protest carbon emissions?

Seems like they are defending their home and someone with an agenda wrote the story.

Originally posted by breakingdradles
So they are saying these "tribesmen" are doing this to protest carbon emissions?

Seems like they are defending their home and someone with an agenda wrote the story.

lets reread from the article:

They are protesting the palm oil plantations not the grounds of climate change and carbon emissions like many of us around the globe who are concerned about them, but on the very immediate grounds that the river which the Penan depend on are being polluted and with the dwindling amount of forest area, the future of their food supplies is in jeopardy.

That should sort things out.

I was reading what I wanted to see again

Oh well, couple bumps for your thread! Cheers!

Thanks for the thread, I know my wife will be interested to read this since
she lived with mountain dayak (or Iban) people in Borneo as a child. She
has photos of the bags of japanese skulls they had hanging in their longhouses.

Short and very muscular, those guys were pretty badass. We're trying to plan
a trip to go see them someday but she's afriad they've all become westernized.
It sounds like they haven't!

Awesome, absolutely awesome. I for one would be terrified of those blowguns. Sure they are primitive technology, but poison is poison my friends. (judging by the location and the population of poison dart frogs, I would say its a safe bet they are poisonous.)

I hope they do some good and get exactly what they are fighting for! I for one am behind them 100%.

this is great. people standing up for what they believe in!
imagine that!
maybe it will be come a trend.
(off sarcasm)

thumbs up!