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this page Newsletters - The Impact of Globalisation on Families and Communities
Oppression from the global market - Argentina
Six-year-old Vanessa was born into a humble Wichí Indian family in the small village of Chofwayuk in the dry tropical forests of northern Argentina. Her early years were happy ones spent playing with her siblings. Most of all, she loved helping her mother look after her baby brother Jeremías.
Family life changed abruptly the day the bulldozers arrived to knock down the forest. As the trees crashed down, Vanessa’s world was literally wiped out. The beautiful trees were replaced by a barren ocean of soy beans, patrolled by giant agricultural machines and bombarded from the air by crop dusters.
Just when things seemed they could get no worse, an irritation in one of Vanessa’s eyes was diagnosed as cancer. Her father, Eduardo, took her to the city where doctors had to remove the eye. She put on a brave face, and recouped some of her beauty with the aid of a glass eye. Eduardo believes the disease was caused by the pesticides used by farmers on their crops.
The loss of the forest made family life more and more difficult. Vanessa’s parents could no longer find the plants, fruits, honey and animals that provided them with much of their diet. When bulldozers arrived to knock down one of the last patches of forest near her community, Eduardo decided enough was enough. He sought help from local authorities, but when this drew a blank he decided to take direct action. With the rest of his community, he stood in front of the advancing bulldozers - which certainly generated a response, but not one they desired.
Riot police came to the village, beat up the peaceful protestors and arrested all the men. Terrorised by what she witnessed, Vanessa grabbed her baby brother and ran off into the forest. In tears, she wandered aimlessly, dragging Jeremías as she was not strong enough to carry him. She became disoriented, and lost for several hours. Eduardo, back home after his ordeal with the police, found the children in the late evening. They were bruised and cut by thorns but otherwise all right.
The family recounted the day’s events, trying to make sense of the injustice they had suffered. At that same moment, in a lawyer’s office a few miles away, a court injunction was being signed that would make it a legal offence for Eduardo and some other community members to go within 50 metres of the plot being deforested. In practical terms, this now means Eduardo has to break the law in order to travel to and from his village.
The misfortunes of families such as Vanessa’s are often linked to the lives of those of us who live in the developed world. International demand for cheaper crops finds a willing partner in the insatiable greed of agribusinesses that supply products regardless of environmental and social costs. Left unchecked and fuelled by our own consumer demands, these economic forces play havoc with the wellbeing of family life halfway round the globe.
Church Action Editorial Note. For the last 45 years, the Anglican Church in Northern Argentina with support from the South American Mission Society (SAMS) has worked alongside the indigenous Wichi and Chorote communities in their struggle to gain legal recognition of their rights over the land where they have lived from before the Conquest in XV1th Century. This work is currently conducted by the diocesan programme of social justice known as Asociana, which is made up of lawyers, anthropologists and social workers, who work alongside Wichi leaders. Three years ago, the writer of this article, Dr Andrew Leake learned to pilot a light aircraft. This has enabled him to produce evidence through photographs he can take from the air, demonstrating the extent of the deforestation that is taking place. He also takes Indians with him in the plane so that they can see for themselves what is happening to the forest they depend on. In this way, they have been enabled and equipped to challenge Provincial government policies and to promote their own just claims for the conservation of the forest areas.
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