Message-ID: <001a01bf367b$73b9d8a0$010300c0@LocalHost> Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 08:57:15 -0400 From: Jose Rafael Leal <mailto:trastor@TRUEVISION.NET> Subject: From South America: Re: Road to Pan-Africanism - another To: mailto:DEVEL-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
Greetings to a DEVEL-L subscribers!I have been reading the messages regarding International Help to Africa, I need to thank you all for the light that brings to my heart...
I have been fighting against great international NGOs that brings "help" to my country Venezuela, in South America. Those NGOs, like WRI (World Resources Institute), are planning great programs in Venezuela for the Forest Global Observer project. But they are missing all the thing!, They are planning to invest great amounts of money in making an information system of where are the indicators for forest loose... But they are very interested in where the gold mines are located... And the potential of diamond and gold that is still to be discovered out there... They are acting more like an enterprise, with greed, than with the mind of the real helpers of the earth. They are not doing it in cooperation of other countries, (The Guyana Shield -the geolical system where is all the gold that they want to map- is a great extension of terrain that includes countries as Venezuela, Colombia, Guyana and Brasil) They say that they will begin with Venezuela and later they will copy this model to do the same in Colombia, Brasil, etc.
The greatest Venezuelan environmentalists NGOs (The most rich and wealthy ones) are of course involved in this project supporting and working in close cooperation with the WRI.
We, the poor environmentalists NGOs of Venezuela, strongly oppose to this project, because (besides it is financed by the World Bank) we feel that this kind of projects will work in reality when all countries involved are working on it in a team, deciding and making the maps of where the gold is, everything, but in cooperation of all countriues involved, and not in a bilateral cooperation between each country individually and the WRI... Also all indigenous organizations are being lefting out of this project, despite all the territory WRI wants to map for "forest protection" porpouses, is crowded with aboriginal communities, But in the meetings of this project I was present, and those peoples of WRI and the Venezuelan richs NGOs talks about the indians like the perfect colonialists... Like racists... Is annoying...
I just wanted to say thank you to Nicole and the others, because the words I read from their discussion brings me lots of light to fuel my hopes that still there is chance to live in a better world...
I am Venezuelan, I am poor, and I also hate the International help of this kind !!! There are few International helps indeed good in Venezuela and the rest of Latin America, but these are few, very few, and also here are LOTS of bad helps like the WRI and World Bank projects...
Jose Rafael Leal Caracas - Venezuela