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Indigenous Peoples Left Vulnerable to Disasters |
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By Diego Cevallos*
Disaster prevention plans often fail to take into account the cultures and world views of indigenous communities. If the plans were more inclusive, say activists, there would be fewer tragedies resulting from climate phenomena like the recent Hurricane Stan.
MEXICO CITY - In the areas of Guatemala devastated by Hurricane Stan, which claimed the lives of more than 655 people, indigenous children last year played Kumatzin, a board game in the Maya language and with Mayan illustrations, used as an educational tool on how to prepare for and survive natural disasters.
If that game and other preparedness initiatives had been more widespread, perhaps today the situation in Stan's wake would be different, say its promoters.
In the early days of October, Stan hit hard impoverished areas of Guatemala and southern Mexico. This sector of the population was included in official plans for disaster prevention, evacuation and aid, but without taking into account their unique cultural references.
The howl of the coyotes, the way certain birds fly, the "sound" of the Earth and the position and shine of the moon are some of the manifestations of nature that can predict natural disasters, according to the indigenous "wise ones" and elders.
But none of that has a place in the official plans, which often also ignore the languages and the organizational modes of native communities when it comes to confronting shared problems.
"The tragedy wouldn't have been as serious if plans existed that took into consideration the particularities of the indigenous communities and their cultures," Ramiro Batzin, spokesman for the Sotz'il, a Guatemalan indigenous organization, told Tierramérica.
Together with the Red Cross, Sotz'il is working to create a Maya Network for Disaster Prevention.
The governments recognize that the recent torrential rains associated with Stan worsened the marginalization of the descendents of the ancient Maya, who developed one of the most advanced civilizations in what is now Latin America. In Guatemala and Mexico, the vast majority of these indigenous peoples today live in poverty.
"We weren't listened to. The governments must realize that we live in more vulnerable areas and that we have a different relationship with the Earth; and that must be considered," Nicaraguan Jorge Fredrick said in a Tierramérica interview. Until July he served as the chief councilor of the Central American Indigenous Council.
The game Kumatzin last year went through an adjustment phase after input from children of the San Juan de Comalapa community in the Guatemalan department of Chimaltenango. The game has not been more broadly disseminated due to lack of funding.
Meanwhile, the idea remains on paper to create a network of indigenous communities to evaluate and define natural threats and take appropriate action.
Similar difficulties plague a project to integrate and organize prevention actions with indigenous residents, an issue proposed under the Puebla-Panama Plan (PPP), a regional development initiative extending from Mexico through Central America.
"What happened (with Stan) reaches levels of catastrophe" and serves as a lesson for the PPP, which now "should transcend the world of discourse and treaties" and move "towards action," said David Smith, in Guatemala, director of the Coordination Center for the Prevention of Natural Disasters in Central America, CEPREDENAC.
PPP is an inter-governmental development program for Mesoamerica, a one-million-square-kilometer area extending across nine southern Mexico states and Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
The Kumatzin game is just one step towards a disaster prevention program involving the region's indigenous peoples, but "we hope it will ultimately reach all of the communities," said Batzin.
"Kojetza'n tqetamaj nqato'qi chuwäch k'ayewal" (learn to protect ourselves from disaster) is the motto of Kumatzin, "the plumed serpent", inspired by "Riskland", a children's game created by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.
Translated to one of the Maya languages, Kaqchikel, and adapted to the indigenous context through images that highlight their culture and traditional writings, the game is intended to teach children how to prepare for and prevent the worst impacts of natural disasters -- and to transmit that knowledge to adults.
On the game board, players move along a winding route that crosses rivers, populated areas, bridges and deforested zones. Along the way they encounter a smoking volcano, people cutting down trees, but they also see indigenous homes and smiling children.
Just a few kilometers from where the game was first played, the rains and flooding brought by Hurricane Stan killed dozens of people and caused vast material damages.
A similar thing occurred in the area around San Pedro Yepocapa, a community where the Sotz'il organization put together a compilation in 2004 of ancient indigenous beliefs about the warning signs from animals, the stars and even dreams about impending disaster.
Stan brought to light "the precarious situation in which the indigenous peoples live and the lack of attention paid by the state," Gilberto Atz, head of Guatemala's National Coordinator of Peasant Organizations, told Tierramérica.
According to Batzin, "it's clear that in cases like the recent disaster, the authorities always attend first to the communities where there are no indigenous peoples," as part of the "institutionalized discrimination that exists."
Diego Esquina, mayor of the Guatemalan town Santiago Atitlán, complained to the national government for concentrating its first response to Stan on the people in the south, where sugarcane production is concentrated, and for ignoring the west, which is inhabited mostly by native peoples.
In Mexico, many members of the indigenous communities were the last to receive aid after Stan roared through because they live in the least accessible areas.
Southern Mexico, bordering Guatemala, is home to three-quarters of all Mexicans over age five who speak an indigenous language.
"These disasters underscore the injustices and structural marginalization in which the indigenous peoples live," said Blanca Martínez, director f the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center, based in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
"There is no institutionalized program here for protection or civil defense for indigenous peoples, only a general program, and that has proved insufficient," she said.
* Diego Cevallos is an IPS correspondent. With reporting by Jorge A. Grochembake in Guatemala.
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