Sangihe is one of the countless islands of the Indonesian archipelago. The island was once home to a blue bird. It seemed as if the bird had all but disappeared, when it was recently discovered that he still hops in the forests. But there is not only the sparrow, there are also some tens of thousands of people living on the island. Fishermen, gatherers, craftsmen, teachers, students.
Some time back, a Canadian company obtained a concession on half of the subsoil because it was recently discovered that there is gold. Until recently, Indonesian state law prohibited extraction from the subsoil of the islands, but last year international pressure led to the abolition of that law. Extraction is now legal, and the Canadian company that owns the exploitation rights is coming forward to enforce its rights.
This story — documented in a BBC video you can find
here — is by no means a new one. It has been like this for a few hundred years: white predators arrive in any place on earth, they discover that they can extract a mineral that has value for the white economy (perhaps a useless mineral like gold, loaded with immense religious significance, to the point that it can be considered the totem of that superstitious belief known as "economics”). The white predators destroy everything, they subject the humans who inhabit the territory to an excruciating pace of work in return for which they give them a salary, a car, a house with all the essential accessories of that mousetrap in which salaried workers are accustomed to dwelling. By now they have destroyed almost everything, so now the world has begun to burn, and will certainly burn, until the human race is erased, except perhaps a few specimens that will manage to escape aboard shuttles into outer space, where they will spend the rest of their sad days in cages floating around in the void.
But some islands of the planet earth have not yet been totally captured by the exterminators, because they are too remote. For example, Sangihe.
To the question: “what will you gain by carrying out your project” (cutting down the forests, drilling the ground, extracting the ore that economic superstition considers precious)? the bald peaceful representative of the mining company replies with a good laugh: “Millions and millions of dollars. When we are at full capacity we plan to extract thousands of ounces a month in a few years."
And there will be work for five thousand people. Five thousand people will be able to stop fishing, build useful objects for the community, study, and will finally go a few hundred meters underground eight hours a day in exchange for a salary that allows them to have a car, to replace their home with a mousetrap and so on.
The story left an impression on me, because it contains nearly everything you need to know about modernity in four and a half minutes of film. The destruction of life, pleasure, beauty, affection, joy, sunrise, sunset, food, breath, in exchange for a car, a salary, and lung cancer — in a word: the economy.