Survival was invited to the recent opening of long-time supporter Colin Firth’s Ecò store in Chiswick, West London. We were pleased to highlight a few environmental lessons that tribal peoples can teach the ‘developed’ world.

Colin Firth and the Eco Age team.

Far from being relics of the past, tribes and their traditions hold solutions to our world’s greatest problems.

They build with the most sustainable, local materials and only biodegradable matter ends up on the tribal waste heap. These peoples are in the best position to protect the world’s rainforests, which in turn are key in the fight against climate change.

Besides all of this, if left alone, their way of life makes them some of the healthiest people on the planet. Obesity is not an issue for tribal people and they eat only organic food avoiding the potential dangers of pesticides and additives.

Ecò offers “a range of household products and building solutions that are stylish as well as ecologically sound”.

The groundbreaking shop aims to be completely self sufficient, with solar panels, wind turbines and state-of-the-art water recycling systems. It will also act as a hub of information and services for anyone interested in the environment.

It is with this green mission in mind that Colin and company have added their weight to our message that tribal peoples are natural environmentalists and guardians of our future.

www.eco-age.com

Time for a quick roundup of responses to Survival’s ‘Most Racist Article of the Year’ award. This year’s worthy recipient was Paraguay’s newspaper La Nacion for an editorial which compared Paraguayan Indians to a ‘dangerous cancer’ and described them as ‘filthy’.

The award triggered a firestorm of commentary at Ultima Hora, Paraguay’s largest daily newspaper website, currently running to six pages of heated discussion (in Spanish, of course).

The Independent’s Pandora noted the occasion…

Champagne flows and the awards season continues apace. Yesterday brought the Most Racist Article of the Year presentation. … Step forward (drum roll)… the Paraguayan paper La Nacion! I’d like to thank my parents, my editor…

… the award got an honourable mention at Racism Review, while over at IndyBlogs Jerome Bell cried foul:

Clearly the awards is a bit of a cheeky PR stunt by Survival but what the heck.

Cheeky PR stunts? Us?

Jerome wondered how the arrival of the award certificate would be received at La Nacion:

For their journalistic excellence the editors of La Nacion will be sent a certificate inscribed with a quotation from a Native American author who died in 1939. The inscription reads: “All the years of calling the Indian a savage has never made him one.”

I wish I could be a fly on the wall when the editor of La Nacion opens up that parcel.

Indeed.

And for your viewing pleasure, here’s the certificate that La Nacion will shortly be receiving:

Our news item is up on Digg and needs a bit of help, so please vote away.

Canadian freelance writer, broadcaster and singer-songwriter Laurie Sarkadi presents a heartfelt rock number in ode to the Kalahari Bushmen.

“Diamonds in the Kalahari” (follow title to download)

Words and Music by Laurie Sarkadi

Laurie explains how her travels in Botswana inspired her to write the song:

“In early 2004 I travelled overland with my husband and our three sons through South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. While in Botswana we ventured into the Central Kalahari Game Reserve largely by chance, having been unable to secure park permits for more fertile pans in the area over the busy Easter weekend. Using local maps and guide books (which we later discovered were outdated) we tried to drive to the San (Bushman) village of Xade. We never reached our destination because of time and vast distance. It wasn’t until we’d left Botswana and I was reading a South African newspaper that I learned of the forced relocations of the San by the Botswana government. Xade no longer existed.

“Upon returning to Canada I began comparing the way the same diamond companies that were exploring the Central Kalahari were operating in northern Canada. The result was a feature article in Canadian Diamonds magazine (PDF download, 9 pages, 2.2mb) and simultaneously, the song ‘Diamonds in the Kahalari’.”