I have been reading people's opinions about the money being charged to see
Princess Parrots and can hold off no longer. There is an underlying racism that
lurks, a nasty little secret, beneath the comments of many. How else to explain
well-meaning discussions along these lines (and I paraphrase):
'If it teaches them - Indigenous people - to run birding tours then I approve'
(for our - whitefellas' - benefit, of course);
'If they share the money among their community then I approve' (since when were
Europeans called upon to share their profits with their communites?);
'They've been given enough money already so I don't approve' (over-simplifying
an unbelievably complex situation); and
'If they can get that sort of money, let them try (but I don't approve)'.
These sentiments imply a superiority and moral high ground we simply don't
possess. They are more offensive for being subtle.
People have also objected to the traditional owner's scruples about (white)
birders running around on his land, when we don't have a clue what it means to
be custodians of the land. To protect the animals, birds and plants; to have a
spiritual connection; to be diminished when the land is trampled on and
ignorantly invaded.
Look at how we have managed custody of our own (stolen) lands, here in our
cities and degraded, agricultural areas - we know only how to exploit.
I am fed up with reading this correspondence, couched in economic terms but
informed by ugly, masked racism. From now on, could it be limited to the facts?
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