Journal Entries
Tales of Genocide
Posted Jul 14, 2012
British Colonist to Australia and the Tasmanian Palawa people:
"When Trugernanner died, the Tasmanian Government declared the island’s aborigines to be extinct. Its intention was to make everyone understand that the native problem was over, but the government was wrong on both counts. Other aboriginal women born from full-blooded tribal parents outlived her. For example, two indigenous women named Betty and Suke died towards the end of the nineteenth century on Kangaroo Island, off the coast of South Australia, where they had lived most of their lives in the forced company of sealers (though, living on Kangaroo Island, they were not "problems" to the Tasmanian authorities). Fanny Cochrane Smith, born on the Flinders Island aboriginal settlement, died in 1905 at Port Cygnet, Tasmania."
"In combination with epidemic impacts of introduced Eurasian infectious diseases, to which the Tasmanian Aborigines had no immunity, the conflict [the Black War] had such impact on the Tasmanian Aboriginal population that they were reported to have been exterminated".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_War
"All of the Indigenous Tasmanian languages have been lost".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmanian_Aborigines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmanian_languages
List of massacres of Indigenous Australians by British Colonists:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_of_Indigenous_Australians
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Latest reply: Jul 14, 2012
Turning a Blind Eye.
Posted Jul 2, 2012
Okapis and conservationists killed by DRC rebels:
The okapi is only found in Democratic Republic of Congo and it is under threat.
A conservation station dedicated to these animals has been attacked - at least five people and 14 okapis were killed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18679625
Discuss this Journal entry [3]
Latest reply: Jul 2, 2012
Human heritage - going going gone.
Posted Jun 30, 2012
The ancient city of Timbuktu in Mali has been earmarked for destruction after being captured by Islamist fighters of the Ansar Dine group, which controls much of northern Mali.
Witnesses say they have attacked the mausoleum of Sidi Mahmoud, one of 16 shrines in the city: "They have already completely destroyed the mausoleum of Sidi Mahmoud (Ben Amar) and two others," Malian journalist Yeya Tandina told the Reuters news agency.
"They [the fighters] said they would continue all day and destroy all 16 [mausoleums] in the city."
Last week, the UN cultural organisation Unesco put Timbuktu on its list of endangered world heritage sites, fearing damage following the coup which toppled the Malian government in March.
In addition to at least 16 shrines, Timbuktu is home to some 700,000 ancient manuscripts held in about 60 private libraries.
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Latest reply: Jun 30, 2012
Going, Going, Gone
Posted Jun 26, 2012
Last Pinta giant tortoise Lonesome George dies: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18574279
Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni, known as the Pinta Island tortoise, Pinta giant tortoise, Abingdon Island tortoise, or Abingdon Island giant tortoise, is a subspecies of Galápagos tortoise native to Ecuador's Pinta Island, believed to have become extinct in June 2012.
George was first seen on the island of Pinta on 1 December 1971 by Hungarian malacologist József Vágvölgyi. The island's vegetation had been devastated by introduced feral goats, and the indigenous C. n. abingdoni population had been reduced to a single individual. ... Relocated for his safety to the Charles Darwin Research Station, George was penned with two females of a different subspecies. Although eggs were produced, none hatched. The Pinta tortoise was pronounced functionally extinct as George was in captivity. On 24 June 2012, Lonesome George died of unknown causes
http://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Chelonoidis_nigra_abingdoni
Goodbye George, within you lay 100,000 to a few million years of genetic information, and hundreds to thouusands of years of cultural information - it must be awfully lonely being the last of your kind, all your family, relatives and all your ancestors gone.
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Latest reply: Jun 26, 2012
Indigenous Peoples and Culture
Posted May 13, 2012
BBC Report on "Nepal's mystery language on the verge of extinction" : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17537845
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Latest reply: May 13, 2012
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