Word: borneo
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Penan, an aboriginal tribe of hunters and gatherers on the island of Borneo, are a people under siege. They have watched in horror as logging companies inexorably cut down the forests that supply the tribe with food, medicines and even the poison for blowgun darts used to kill monkeys and hornbill. Outraged at seeing their way of life destroyed, the Penan have periodically blockaded roads leading into the forest in a losing effort to keep the loggers out. Says Penan headman Asik Nyelit, who has twice been arrested by Malaysian authorities for his role in the blockades: "If we just...
While the Penan are fighting the local loggers, the tribe's real antagonists are some 2,600 miles away, in Japan. Most of the trees cut in the Malaysian part of Borneo (the rest of the island is controlled by Indonesia and Brunei) are shipped to Japan, where the lumber is most often made into throwaway plywood construction forms used to mold concrete. Nor is the situation in Borneo unusual. Japan's heavy demand for wood has led to the deforestation of vast tracts in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. Last April the Japan Tropical Forest Action...
Nearly 90% of the lumber now comes from Sarawak and Sabah, the two Malaysian states on Borneo. On paper at least, Malaysia, a well-off country with a relatively small population (17.4 million), has a model plan for the "sustainable development" of its forests. The reality is that neither the overall plan nor specific regulations have had much impact, and logging operations continue essentially uncontrolled. "In theory everything is fine," says S.C. Chin, a Malaysian forestry expert. "But 20 years ago, Thailand and the Philippines said everything was fine too, and now they have largely been stripped...
...current world of witchcraft that Floyd and Vinnie describe, is a far cry from the historical facts of the trade. Let's start with some history. The ancient pagans of Ireland and England--not pagans as in the cannibals of Borneo, but simply non-Christians who worshipped nature--threw big parties every year on the day of Samhain, or "Summer's End." These were the first Hallowe'ens, according to The Origin of Festivals and Feasts by Jean Harrowven...
...private life, the professor seemed just as successful. Married in 1950 to Vina Mallowitz, the daughter of a prominent New Orleans physician and herself a dedicated biochemist, Buettner-Janusch and his wife worked together both in the field--studying lemurs in Borneo and Madagascar--and in the laboratory. They enjoyed concerts and theater; one of Buettner-Janusch's common complaints about Duke was its isolated location...