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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (8265)	3/13/2001 1:33:39 PM
From: Win Smith	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

Anyway, all sorts of barbaric things have been done for greed, power, and profit, whether under "color of law" or cover of religion. That is not quite the same as ideological mass murder or persecution, nor is it, frankly, on the same scale. Compare and contrast: Hochschild's sketches of these three individuals are vivid, and his depiction of what they and many others were confronting is masterly. It shows, above all, that during Leopold's rule in Africa from 1885 to 1908, and in the years on either side of it, the peoples of the Congo River Basin suffered, in Hochschild's words, ''a death toll of Holocaust dimensions.'' This is not said lightly. The strategy adopted to plunder the area was, in effect, a war of enslavement against the indigenous population. Much of the death toll was the result of killing, pure and simple. Villages were dragooned into tapping rubber, and if they refused to comply, or complied but failed to meet European quotas, they were punished. The hands of dead Congolese were severed and kept by militias to account to their quartermasters for spent ammunition. And, as Morel said, the practice of mutilation was extended to the living. By far the greatest number of deaths, however, were caused by sickness and starvation. The effect of the terror was to drive communities from their sources of food. A Belgian Government commission estimated that from the late 1870's, when the explorer Henry Morton Stanley made his first forays into the Congo on King Leopold's behalf, until 1919, the year the commission published its findings, the population of the Congo Basin had been reduced by half. In 1924 there were thought to be some 10 million inhabitants -- which means, Hochschild says, that ''during the Leopold period and its immediate aftermath the population of the territory dropped by approximately 10 million.'' 10 million out of 20 million dead seems, frankly, pretty much on the same scale. Ideologically, I can't say if these people thought they were doing the Lord's work or were just good capitalists, but they sure weren't commies.

To: Neocon who wrote (8265)	3/13/2001 2:02:02 PM
From: cosmicforce	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

That defense applies to all Germans born in post-war Germany. However, the attitudes persist there. The disease, while incidental, was exacerbated by the poor conditions in which they were living. Certainly we did not consider it a high priority to treat indigenous people that were sick with our diseases and one could argue that it was convenient to have them die. This moral oversight exacerbated the effects of the diseases. As for the population estimates, I see ample evidence for high population density in my hikes in the local hills. The destruction of these places seems to be coincident with the arrival of the 49'ers (based upon tree sizes nearby). There is also evidence of intentional damage being done to these sites. Most places that could support people did (as evidenced by archeological remains). The skeletal remains of Native Americans is consistent with a historic habitation density similar to that of European lowlands. That is hardly "pulled out of the air". Mechanisms and Trends in the Decline of the Costanoan Indian Population of Central California: Health and Nutrition in Pre-contact and Mission Period Environments by Ann Lucy Wiener Stodder (1986). The decimation of the California Indian population during the Mission Period was due to many interrelated causes, but the results were clear. Among the Costanoan Indians of the Monterey and San Francisco Bay areas, the population dropped by 80% during the Mission Period. This study focuses on the change from traditional adaptation to mission conditions. Both environments are discussed, with an emphasis on nutrition and health. Age and sex-selective patterns in mortality and depressed birth and fertility rates constituted the mechanisms of population decline. Selective pressures were exerted on infants, children, and women of childbearing age. These pressures also acted upon the adult male. The food producing labor was more sustained than the hunting and gathering activities they were accustomed to, and although they may have had more access to wild foods and meat, their diet was marginal. While the men were the primary food producers for the missions, they were not the food providers for their families. In terms of their output of labor and energy, the food energy returned to the Indians in their diets represented an immense loss, and was inadequate for the maintenance and reproduction of their population and for the survival and growth of their children.