Fair Trade and the Indigenous People
Fr Shay Cullen with Indigenous People
The most recent discovery of a human fossil, a jawbone with four teeth in Ethiopia has amazed anthropologists because of its age. It strengthens the theory that the migration of the first humans out of Africa occurred about 1.5 million years ago.
Some of them moved through Asia and across land bridges into South East Asia and the Philippines.
Their descendants could well be the Filipino indigenous people, the real survivors of an ancient past and the true owners of the Philippine ancestral lands. Marginalized as they are now-a-days their valid claims to ancestral land rights has been largely ignored by the dominating elite families that claim ownership and control 70 percent of the wealth of the country.
The goal of the Preda Fair Trade is to help these indigenous people and the small mango and coconut growers. We call on all who respect human rights to support them in their lawful and rightful claims to their ancestral land. They need help to resist the incursions of mining companies and land grabbers into the last remaining lands that they have occupied and for hundreds for thousands of years. The rich corrupt politicians have cut down the once magnificent rain forests. Fighting for social justice for the poor, the oppressed people is an important part of Fair Trade.
Continue here.
Other Recent Columns by Fr Cullen
The Preda Philosophy and Methods of Empowering Youth [5March 2015]
What is Fair Trade All About? [1 March 2015]
Does God Allow Human Suffering? [26 February 2015]
The Hell Fires of Climate Change [26 February 2015]
Knowing the Truth Saved Andrea [24 February 2015]