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by greedy lumber operators. When
we take away their forest it's like
taking away our su permarket, fam–
ily doctor, pharmacy, everything.
a.
How do you go about saving
them?
A.
One thing 1 don't do is give them
anything, because a gift or a hand–
out is an insult to people you want
to help. Everything l'm doing is to
help them solve their problems with
dignity and self-respect, so they feel
they are doing it on thei r own and
not because of contemptuous out–
side help.
The most realistic way to help
them survive the negative impact of
encroaching civilízation is to pro–
vide them with a slow and realistic
transition to a more agrarian way of
life. Simple agriculture will provide
them with what the forest cannot
anymore.
a.
What does thls help cost?
A. If
J
am helping 3,800 Pygmies for
only $20,000, and 1 rarely spend
that much a year. it is $5.26 per
Pygmy per year. This is less than the
cost of one CARE package that
The
PLAIN TRUTH
September
1978
often does more harm than good.
This program is not a project
against hunger that can really never
be solved. Feeding the hungry stems
from a very sentimental, unrealistic
attitude. Giving the hungry a mea ns
of helping themselves is the only
real solution in the long run. But
that is hard. You have to go there,
you have to teach, you have to per–
suade, insist over and over, and it's
rough.
a.
How does the Pygmy vlew the rest
of the world?
A.
A Pygmy sees the whole world as
a speck of dust in the immensity of
the universe, that is, the home of
God. They have a very sad new
song tbat ends up saying that when
the last tree is cut, the last man on
earth will die.
An airplane once passed over–
head while we were sitting around
tbe tire and
I
said: "We a re so
smart. We pul together a bird so we
can go anywhere in the world in a
matter of a few hours."
And then an old man replied:
"Well,
it
may be okay for you, but
1
personally feel sorry for people who
are so unhappy where they are that
they have to go so high to go else–
where, to escape from their family.
their children. Happiness is a good
wife, happiness is the smile of a
child, and if you are not happy with
that , you will be happy with nothing
else."
a.
What rules do the Pygmles llve
by?
A.
In the primitive culture, especi–
ally among the Pygmies, the first
rules are to !ove the children. re–
spect old people and preserve the
family.
"Civilized" people, on the other
hand, are very much a Disneyland
type of culture where people are
raised wi th fantasy from Cinderella
to comic-book heroes.
My point is this: If you raise a
child with fantasy. when he gets to
grammar school and he sits in a
classroom, the teacher doesn' t talk
about Pinocchio, Snow White and
Charlie Brown. She teaches kids to
count , toread , to write. And the kids
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