WARNING. LONG TEXT. PLEASE PRINT FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE.
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On Tue, 5 Dec 1995, Bret Diamond wrote:
> On 12/3/95 Nelson Wong writes:
>
>
> > A lot has been said without a single piece of evidence. In this case, you
> > have to bear the burden of proof. The abovementioned hypothesis is null and
> > void of intellectual integrity. The timber industry is not a corrupt and
> > sordid industry, as you have painted.
>
> Mr. Wong--a recent GAO audit of Forest Service timber sales for fiscal
> year 1994 found that the Siskiyou National Forest lost $28.6 million, and
> the Klamath National Forest lost $26.3 million. Between 1992-1994, the
> Forest Service spent $1.3 *billion* preparing timber sales, and only
> collected $300 million in timber-sale reciepts. A Febuary 1994 report by
> the Interior Department's inspector general found that $5.4 million that
> had been specifically budgeted for reforestation of BLM public lands in
> Oregon, had been illegally diverted to other uses such as purchasing
> office furniture, building maintenance, and staff salaries. Is this
> sufficient evidence?
>
Sufficient evidence to blanket the whole world ? Sufficient evidence to
prove that the furniture industry in High Point and all of North Carolina is
corrupt ? Sufficient evidence to prove that the world's timber industry
is corrupt ? What is true of the USA is not necessary true of the world.
>
> > Malaysia is moving in the direction by which, all timber products exported
> > will be from forest plantations by the year 2000. This way, the
> > virgin/old growth forests will be left alone. We want to maintain a 75
> > per cent tree cover for the whole country. Of course, the
> > environmentalists will have something else to say. How else can they
> > raise funds and stay in 'business' ?
> Mr. Wong--approximately what percentage of your original virgin/old
> growth forests are still there? 10%? 5%?
>
Let's see...Let's see the facts and figures...
(1) YEAR 1989 to 1991 YEAR 1990
Country Land Area(A) Forest & Woodland(B) Natural Forest(C)
(000 hectares) (000 hectares) (000 hectares)
USA 916,660 287,400 209,573
Malaysia 32,855 19,361 17,583
(2)
Country Percentage of B/A Percentage of C/A
(%) (%)
USA 31.35 22.86
Malaysia 58.93 53.52
In additional, pollutants discharged into environment (see below):
(3) YEAR 1991
Greenhouse Gases, etc: USA Malaysia
(000 M/T) (000 M/T)
CO2-Industrial Processes 4,931,630 61,196
Methane-Anthropogenic 29,000 640
CFC 90 2
Of course, we can go on and on....
Sources: World Resources 1994-1995, A Report by The World Resources
Institute in collaboration with the UNEP and the UNDP. Published by the
Oxford University Press.
Of course, you can pretend that the US is 90 per cent forested, and
Malaysia is only 5 per cent.
>
> Could you give us a status
> report on the indigenous peoples of your country, like the Penan People
> of Sarawak who are being displaced from the ancestral lands that they
> have inhabited for thousands of years in order to make way for your
> "forest plantations?" What percentage of your country's timber reciepts
> go to the indigenous peoples whom represent some of the last known
> hunter-gatherer bands in the world? Are the Penan to be reduced to a
> tourist attraction in the Mulu National Park in order to convert your
> native forests to "plantations."
>
On the same score, why don't you give all of us a status report on the
North American Red Indians ? Explain why were the Sioux massacred at
Wounded Knee in 1890 ? Explain to us why the following statements were
made ?
"The white people who are trying to make us over into their image, they
want us to be what they call assimilated, bringing the Indians into the
mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural
patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of
happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way.
We want freedom from the white man rather than to be integrated. We don't
want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our
children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and to
live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen,
bankers, we want to be ourselves. We want to have our heritage, because
we are the owners of this land and because we belong here.
The white man says there is freedom and justice for all. We have had
"freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated.
We shall not forget this."
- Grand Council of American Indians, 1927
"....But we have learned that there are many papers in Washington upon
which are written promises to pay us for our lands; no white man seems to
remember them.
The Indian needs no writings; words that are true sink deep into his
heart where they remain in silence; he never forgets them."
- Oglala Sioux Chief Four Guns, 1891
"....Many of you are familiar with the history of the indigenous peoples
in the Americas, a succession of friendships and betrayals, treaties and
surrenders, ethnocides and genocide. It is unpleasant, and most Americans
prefer not to dwell on it. The goal--to remove the indigenous peoples
from the land--was largely accomplished; and it was all done "according
to law," although presumably in violation of principles of international
human rights law that we accept today as valid. To compound the
injustice, it was also done in such a way to deny the indigenous peoples
any means of redress to the international community. This, we might say,
is old and unpleasant history, and we should move on. The problem is that
we cannot, for the very simple reason that what we take to be past
history, is not really over--it persists. It persists throughout this
hemisphere....
My own people, the Ouje-Bougoumou Crees, have been forcefully relocated
seven times between 1925 and 1975; and "relocated" is the polite way to
describe what was done to us.
....Unfortunately, Canada and the US opposed recognition of our
fundamental rights during discussions on the draft (Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples, August 1994). Both countries fought against
the inclusion of the right of self-determination; both opposed the right
of consent. Neither Canada nor the US wanted to recognize the existence
of the indigenous peoples as "peoples" under international law. Both
countries take the position that aboriginals, Native Americans and
indigenous peoples are domestic subjects, outside of the scope of
international law...."
- Chief Abel Bosum, Ouje-Bougoumou Cree Nation, Kennedy Library,
Boston, MA, December 10th., 1994.
>
> You forget that environmentalists also
> have the annoying habit of fighting against human rights abuses, that is
> when were not busy making up stories about environmental degradation just
> to keep ourselves employed.
>
> Bret Diamond
> Oregon, USA
> diam9018@tao.sosc.osshe.edu
>
Tell us, which North American Indian tribe's rights did you and your
fellow environmentalists fought for ? What have you accomplished for
these Indians, if any ? I have not found a single document on the
problems faced by these Indians in any of the 'green' home pages. Not in
the Rainforest Action Network's, Greenpeace's, Friends of the Earth's,
over the last three months.
You can't even keep your own back-yard clean, and you want to teach us
how to run our country ? Of course, you can call the Indians, a bunch of
ungrateful liars. Don't try to remove that speck of saw-dust in our eyes,
when you have a piece of log in your own eyes. Do you assume that by
harping about the Penans, your wrongs and those of your fore-fathers
against the North American Indians will disappear into thin air. No, I
can tell you it won't happen !
'The white man made us many promises. They kept not but one. They
promised to take away our land. And they took it.'
- from the book, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee.
Nelson Wong
Malaysian Timber Council
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