objectified child, originally uploaded by naica.

So it has taken me a while to cobble some sort of critique of the Amazonia Brasil exhibit that’s down at the South Street Seaport now until July or something.
What can I say about it except it was a multi-media fiasco of diorama sized proportions. Literally. Dioramas your kid could probably make, though maybe not a detailed, proliferated throughout the large space as well as potted plants packed close together along thie sides of the river/forest-dioramaii. Ensconced within the lush-like confines of the foliage were card board cutouts of the Native peoples who were supposed to have been part of the whole shebang. At least according to a press release I had read on the Seaport website. Well, maybe they could get visas? I, for one, was diappointed. it truly was an under-whelming experience since I along with NAICA contributing writer and resident anthropologist, Logan Green paid $16.00 dollars to enter, but not before a vaguely Indian looking Latina prompted us to go all the way through to the back where the giftshop was located. Ahhh but of course there would be a giftshop! And come to find out this “giftshop” was really a separate store that sold trinkets and such purchased for pennies from the Native peoples of the beleaguered rainforest. It would probably not come as a surprise but that shit was expensive!
I bought a necklace.
I felt bad for ten minutes. It’s a pretty cool necklace made from some shell or another. I feel like an asshole. Worse than a tourist.
Anyway, a booze cruise (a cruise ship you pay to float around on and drink ’til you puke) had just docked to let off it’s white Jersey-drunk inhabitants who made idiotic comments about the jungle and their “jungle fever” which could only be squelched by more “jungle juice.”
Logan and I would later see this same group of morons getting even more drunk at a bar in the mall, also along Pier 17.
See how convenient it is to visit the Amazon, purchase some khaki shorts at Banana Republic and get drunk at a happy hour in one of several drinking establishments? Lower Manhattan Commercial developers have thought of nothing but your pleasure: conveniently located exoticism coupled with cheap alcohol and sweatshop attire = An all-American good time.

For more of the horrible exhibit visit our gallery page up top. If you have a conscience of any kind you will feel disgusted too.

“A spokesman for the Japanese cabinet said Friday that the government would officially recognize the Ainu [backgrounder] - an ethnic minority mainly concentrated on Japan’s Hokkaido island who traditionally lived by hunting, gathering and fishing - as an indigenous population after both houses of the country’s parliament unanimously endorsed a non-binding resolution urging the move. The spokesman added that the government will establish a committee to discuss measures to protect members of the group. The long-resisted official recognition comes in response to Japan’s obligations under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People [PDF text], passed [JURIST report] by the UN General Assembly last September with Japan’s support. This will be the first time that Japan has recognized a group as indigenous. Bloomberg has more. The Mainichi Daily News has local coverage.”

“The Japanese government has long been accused of discriminating against the Ainu, despite a 1997 law [text] meant to protect Ainu rights. Previous to that, the Ainu fell under the 1899 Hokkaido Former Aborigine Protection Law, which promoted their assimilation with mainstream Japanese society. Experts say that the government’s traditional assimilation policy [CWIS backgrounder] and wide-spread discrimination have reduced the Ainu population and has led to the group trailing behind the rest of the nation in education and income.”

[Source]