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stretches for tiring, monotonous
ho11rs
as your plane wings its way over a
seemingly interminable jungle. Ama–
zonia is
overpowering.
Amazonia is
tmbelievable!
Then think about that newspaper
report touting hundreds of road miles
and a few million dollars.
Here is the lesson.
When you hear about optimistic pro–
grams of development, take a hard, rea–
Jistic Iook at it before you jump on a
bandwagon. When you hear of 500
paved road miles in the Amazon wilder–
ness, try not to laugh ! You may find it
hard not to laugh - especially if you've
been in this jungle, or if you have the
picture
in
mind. A road has to go some–
where, and for sorne purpose. May
1
remind you there is nowhere to go in
Amazonia?
When you hear about hundreds of
thousands, maybe even millions of dol–
lars,
don't be impreued.
These figures
should read in the
htmdredJ
of mil–
Jions, and in the BILLIONS! Otherwise,
neither dollars nor roads will be
noticed. They will melt away into this
green hell ... without a trace.
So much for the geographical prob–
lem.
If
everything counts on geography,
the Amazon will not be developed in
the next
100
years. In fairness, however,
to any starry-eyed armchair philoso–
phers, there
is
more to the story.
The Population Story
Take population for example.
Unfortunately, Brazil's population is
a real puzzle.
On the one hand, Brazil's famous
industrial city, Sao Pauto, is the fastest–
growing city
on earth.
Brazil's national
population
increase
alone threatens to
outstrip the eotire nation's natural
resources. This country's total popu–
lation, at the present rate, will probably
reach two hundred million by the end
of the century!
Yet on the other hand, the entire vast
region of Amazonia contains barely five
million people -
most of them
crowded into three or four cities, and
the rest thinly strung along the Ama–
zon's banks. That leaves two and one-
The
PLAIN TRUTH
half mili ion square miles ( conservatively
estimated)
to populate.
Now just try to talk a Brazilian into
coming here! As Bowen Northrup
reports, "Brazilians elsewhere who rou–
tinely recite the wonders of the Amazon
would be horrified at the prospect of
living there" (
W att Street
J
o11rnat,
December 3,
1968).
Naturally, there are already people in
Amazonia. They create one of the terrors
of jungle life - rude, savage natives
who wander through large areas of
jungle and savannah. My visit to the
Yaguas Indians (tame cousins of wilder
groups) proved a valuable but heart–
rending experience. In sorne ways cute
and childish as Kewpie dolls, the
Yaguas are ignorant, degenerate and
malnourished. They have also gone
to stupefying, mind-dulling
dmgs.
While "hopped up" on sorne drug, the
chief and his warriors beg the tourists
for
sindi, sindi
-
cigarettes. Though
these harmless savages would not dis–
courage
alt
settlers or colonists, neither
could they nor most of their cousins
help civilize Amazonia. Most natives
(indígenas)
are a liability- a financia!
drain - on the government.
Attempting to solve the problem, the
governmeot of Brazil is offering land to
people who will go deep into Ama–
zonia. So far three fantastically remote
wilderness areas with exotic-sounding
names - Amapá, Roodonia and
Roraima - have been "colonized" by
the government Ministry of Interior.
These three areas have a combined total
of 247,000 colonists (government estí–
mate) clustered in a total area of
613,·
424
km2 -
sparse settlemeots at best.
These "colonists" are very hard to
come by; they are still too few to con–
guer the jungle.
Miltiom
more are
needed. Where will the needed myriads
and millions come from? Will the Bra·
zilian government
force
its teeming
population into the green outback? Sup–
pose then the green hell
is
penetrated
by forced labor, or forced colonization.
How will the colonizers survive against
vast distance, unmapped wilderness,
stifling heat, hostile jungle, cruel
loneliness, deadly diseases, destructive
rains, destroying insects, savage indians,
lack of food, lack of a d1ance for eco-
March, 1970
nomic success?
If
excess population
moved into this lost wodd right now,
without superhuman help, chances are
they would not
mrvi-ve.
Amazonia
would win again.
Conclusion
Possibly those problems couJd be
solved if enough money were spent.
How much would it take? No one
knows. We do know it won't be done
in this century, as the Personal Advisor
to Brazil's Minister of the Interior, Mr.
Jose Wady Abuyaghi, told me in a per–
sonal interview. He said, speaking of
developing Amazonia, "We cannot
accomplish much without
significan/
(he meant "massive") foreign aid."
Such foreign aid would have to mount
into BILLIONS to make a dent in this
dense green carpet of death. No
countries have yet offered Brazil these
said billions.
So Amazonia will not be opened
soon. The Sea-river and its sprawling
basin is
not
feeding the starving mil–
lions of Brazil, much less the starving
huodreds of millions of the world. And
it
wilt not
feed the world's starving if
everything counts on communications,
or counts on geography, or counts on
population. Amazonia cannot be culti–
vated without someone "conquering"
the geography, without more trans–
portation, without an increased and
able population. Those three factors are
crucial factors.
However,
not everything
counts on
those three. Science and agriculture are
out to hurdle these "barriers."
New and potent insecticidcs, herbi–
cides, fungicidcs and vermicides, new
giant pieces of earth-moving eguipment,
new and marvelous fertilizers and soil
additives. "The Amazon will yet feed
the ·World."... or so we hear.
What are the real facts behind these
glowing and optimistic slogans of sci–
ence? What are the real
soil
conditions?
What are the chances of significaot
agriculture advances in Amazonia? Will
promised advances come
in time?
Can
food be produced in Brazil before the
famine
scientists say will come in
1975
don strike?
These questions will all
be
answered
in the April PLAIN TRUTH.
Don't miss it!
o