Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Invasion By Technologically Advanced Civilization Reported
A technologically advanced civilization is threatening the people of this corner of eastern India. Although this sounds like the plot of an sf film or book, it is a true story that should be reported more often.
(Village of Golgola)
The people who live in Golgola are isolated from the rest of the world; no road leads there. A trail through a lush valley and a tough climb up a steep jungle slope are required for access. Golgola is a tiny village in a muddy clearing with several lines of low, thatched huts.
The Dongria have lived in the Niyamgiri hills in a remote part of eastern India's Orissa state for centuries. They survive by gathering fruit, growing small crops of millet and selling jungle plants in the towns at the foot of the hills. The modern world has yet to reach Golgola - there's no electricity, no school, no television, no telephones."We get everything from the jungle like the fruits we take to the market. This is like our source of life for our Dongria Kondh peoples," says Jitu Jakeskia, a young Dongria Kondh activist. He's one of the few Dongria to have got a formal education, and he's now fighting to preserve his tribe's way of life.
"We are not paying any money to get these fruits, this is free, it is like paradise for us here."
The invaders? Britain's Vedanta Resources, an industrial mining concern, wants to tear the minerals from Niyamgiri hill. The area is rich in bauxite (from which aluminum is obtained).
(Vedanta Resources factory nearby)
In response to criticism that it has failed to adequately compensate and settle others whose land they have taken, Vedanta Resources points proudly to a nearby village of small concrete huts in which 100 families live. It also employs people in its refinery.
Arthur C. Clarke is famous for saying that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic; in this case, advanced technology is just a tragedy. Ironically, the hill people are trying to use magic (they are animists) to repel the invaders.
I know that this scenario has been repeated many times. But, go take a look at this story at the BBC website; they also have excellent video to go with their story.
From Tribe takes on global mining firm.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 7/18/2008)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 9 )
Related News Stories - (" Culture ")
Warfare Goes Underground In Ukraine
'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...' - Philip K. Dick,
The Wind Phone Calls Those Who Have Passed On
'Only I heard that!' - John Brunner, 1975.
Instant Journalists: Ordinary People With Cell Phones
'We'll show them whose planet this is!' - David Brin, 1990.
Meta's Horizon Studio's Unique Avatars From Text Prompts
'Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set and put together her own...'
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
It's A Giant Robot! You Reporters Have Been Warned!
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
Birds Learn To Sing Pictures ala Frank Herbert's Distrans
'We will fight in the time of fighting.'
ElectionSim: China's 'Ender's Game' Battle Sim, Or Lem's 'Kingdom In A Box'?
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
Flock Stymied By 'Adversarial Fashion'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
Orb Nomad Zero-Emission Electric Aircraft
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
ICE Buys Shock Gloves Like Batman's
What else is the Caped Crusader using?
Factories In The Sky Will Surpass Those Of Earth
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
Sleeper Drones Lie in Wait
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
Warfare Goes Underground In Ukraine
'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...'
3D Printed Organs From Space
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
Robot Bees 3D Printed By Festo
'At first I was struck by the large size of these bees..'
DIY Robot Scorpion Crushes It
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
How To Settle An Argument Between Two Robots
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
The Wind Phone Calls Those Who Have Passed On
'Only I heard that!'
Don't Want To Wear A TIght Shiny Bodysuit?
'He looked a good bit like an elderly, fat beetle.'
