Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/11/21/remote-uncontacted-island.html
…
5 Likes
sounds like a clearcut case of stand your ground - he was trespassing and refused to exit their private property
41 Likes
As much as i dislike the use of armed force, that action probably saved the tribe from great harm IMHO…
45 Likes
One big danger here is that these uncontacted people arent immune to the diseases that we carry. There is a good chance that some of the islanders will die from simple diseases.
35 Likes
Personally, i consider religion to be one of those diseases, i’m glad they dodged that so far…
50 Likes
…not likely to happen if they keep killing intruders on sight.
2 Likes
I was talking about this with a friend this morning. It’s tragic this person was killed and i understand they had the best of intentions but i have issues with this missionary type of work:
These missions are lowkey about “saving or civilizing the savages” and indirectly about native cultural/religious erasure. I also see these as having the side effect of turning self-sufficient communities into being reliant on external forces. The belief system comes from outside their region so to sustain that it inherently creates dependency, and then I they’re providing material aid that amplifies the effect. If they really wanted to give humanitarian aid they would focus on making sure they’re healthy but able to prosper completely on their own.
Not to mention a lot of these missionary works prey on needy, less educated people. Perhaps i’m just a jaded person when it comes to these things.
Edit: To add, i’ve talked to some people that have done religious missionary work and often times i’ve picked up on a preconceived notions of cultural superiority to a degree that i found very insulting. I’ve mentioned to someone i was from Venezuela and they asked if we lived in huts and had electricity so…
57 Likes
I think we need to send in our President to negotiate with them.
40 Likes
Nope. Spot on. I suggest you do some reading on the history of colonialism to round our your understanding of the dangers of missionary work. It’s pretty much all bad, no good.
25 Likes
“We refuse to call him a tourist. Yes, he came on a tourist visa but he came with a specific purpose to preach on a prohibited island,” said (Dependra Pathak, Director General of Police of the Andaman and Nicobar islands).
Call me a monster, but the ban is quite clear, and he knew what he was doing. This one of those times where people are seriously deluded about the comparison between what’s legal and what’s right. So…
46 Likes
He did not have the best of intentions. He was attempting cultural genocide.
65 Likes
Something inside me also wonders if perhaps things might have had a chance to not be so bad on our continent if the first pilgrims had just been allowed to die.
17 Likes
And nobody came down from the heavens and snatched the arrows in mid-air to protect him… so I guess it was His will that this man should die.
30 Likes
Deus vult.
16 Likes
By the time the Prilgrims arrived, the Native Americans had already been decimated by diseases introduced down south by the Spanish.
10 Likes
I’m quite aware of the perils of religious conversion/missionary work. I said the above because i know i can often be kind of a dick when i criticize something so trying to be mindful of not being aggressively negative 
14 Likes
Everyone wants to be Christopher Columbus.
4 Likes
From reading books like Society Against the State and The Art of not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Highland Southeast Asia it is clear that these “uncontacted” tribes would be better described as “non-contact” tribes. Most of them were at some point the subjects of states, and ran off into the hills to get away from taxes and priests and soldiers. More power to them for shooting this guy.
15 Likes
I was thinking in the geo-political sense, but yes, that’s true.
2 Likes
Wasn’t he a slave trader?
3 Likes
