Message-ID: <32E2772D.586@mind.net> Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 19:34:05 +0000 From: "B. Diamond" <mailto:bdiamond@MIND.NET> Subject: Re: Who speaks for Mandalay? To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
mailto:EUNSteve@AOL.COM wrote:> Here is the heartbreaking and mindwrenching dilemma for all to see.
>
> The farmers are local residents.
>
> The "government" is also local residents.
>
> One group of local residents believes Mandalay will benefit from a growing
> tourist industry--a choice that many local residents, many indigenous
> citizens have made when not influenced by outside interveners who urge
> preserving the rural culture against the depredations of the vulgar cash-rich
> tourist.
And the people who initiate the idea to develop tourism, they are not "outside intervenors?" The indigenous you speak of came up with the idea of their own accord? There are hundreds of examples of where the much-lauded "eco-tourism" idea has only served to enrich the bank accounts of wealthy developers and local government officials. Take, for example, the Deer Caves tourist development in Sarawak, E. Malaysia. The Deer Caves are located in the Mulu area, about 500 kilometers east of the state capital of Kuching. The caves were developed so that tourists could come and watch the millions of bats who fly out of the caves at dusk to feed on insects. The local Penan people view the caves as sacred butial places,and they have protested development of the area since the plan was announced. The lands surrounding the caves were seized from Penan control in 1989, and the land was subsequently allocated to the State Economic Development Corp. who invited private investors to develop the area as an eco-tourist resort. The M$60 million Royal Mulu Resort opened in 1991, and it is equipped with a 4-star restaurant, air conditioning, and room service. The resort employs over 100 people, but contrary to government promises of employment for the Penan themselves, only a handful of Penan are employed at the resort, most in the grounds maintenance dept. As logging revenues plunge (90% of Malaysia's native forests have been clearcut since 1975) Malaysian government officials are embracing eco-tourism as an economic savior. The Malaysian government promised to share timber reciepts with the Penan from logging concessions on their lands, to date they have received little or no compensation--thus the Berawan and Kayan tribes remain skeptical that eco-tourism that despoils their lands and destroys sacred sights will bring the benefits promised by Malaysian government officials and private investors who profit at the destruction of Penan culture.
> The other group of local residents wants to preserve rural life--or at least
> get a suitable amount of cash for their property.
Most don't want cash, they just want their ancestral lands protected. To many indigenous cultures, the land itself is of far greater value than money.
> If the government of Mandalay asks for help--from USAID, say--to develop its
> tourist industry should we urge our government to respect this voice of the
> indigenous--or do we listen to our own American "experts" who favor the
> protection of rural life over the cultivation of tourism?
Listen to the people who are affected by the project, especially the marginalized who have little or no voice because money and development pale in comparison to community, culture, and family.
BD