A crash course in changing the world.
I gathered the following chilling fact from the remarks made by UN Secretary General at opening of the ninth session of the United nations permanent forum on indigenous issues on April 19, 2010. I thought of sharing this with all my fellow EVOKERs as well as others who may come accross this post. I do hope this will open up new discussion and help in creating awareness about the importance of indigenous issues:
*Indigenous peoples suffer high levels of poverty, health problems, crime and human rights abuses all over the world.
*Indigenous people make up some five per cent of the world’s population – but one-third of the world’s poorest.
*In some countries, an indigenous person is 600 times more likely to contract tuberculosis than the general population. In others, an indigenous child can expect to die twenty years earlier than his non-native compatriots.
*Every day, indigenous communities face issues of violence, brutality and dispossession.
*Indigenous cultures, languages and ways of life are under constant threat from climate change, armed conflict, lack of educational opportunities and discrimination.
*Elsewhere, cultures of indigenous people are being distorted, commodified, and used to generate profits which do not benefit indigenous people, and can even lead to harm. This is not only a tragedy for indigenous people. It is a tragedy for the wh*** world.
*Slowly but surely, people are coming to understand that the well-being and sustainability of indigenous peoples are matters that concern us all.
*Diversity is strength – in cultures and in languages, just as it is in ecosystems.
*The loss of irreplaceable cultural practices and means of artistic expression makes us all poorer, wherever our roots may lie.
*According to current forecasts, ninety per cent of all languages could disappear within 100 years. The loss of these languages erodes an essential component of a group’s identity.
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