Roy Innes, on the Green Man's Burden. Contrary to Kermit, it's not that hard being green. It's only hard on the benighted objects of the greens' affection.

It's telling that the many in the eco movement count the DDT ban as one of their greatest victories. 10s of millions suffered ugly deaths because of it but eagles are doing well.

they are "stakeholders" wishing to "preserve" indigenous people and villages...

Like a zoo, so that they can come to watch them in their natural habitat on their way to their conference to save the world, drinking Evian water, feasting on lobsters flown from Europe.

Sounds just like the old slave owners in the south, speaking of the happy singing carefree slaves. Come the revolution
(communist or eco, take your pick), this guy will be out in the fields sweating his b*tt off, breaking his back helping them. Hopefully he can be just as enthusiastic about it then.

I'm continually amazed at how knowledgeable the liberal lefty, enviro-weenies are when it comes to running someone else's life. They know how to best control all aspects of my life so it's better, longer, easier, thinner, etc. It just nice to know they hold the uneducated, natives of the 3rd world in such high esteem too. I sleep better knowing they're out there saving the world...for all of us.

Sickening, but hardly new or unusual.

Is anyone surprised?

They believe that they were put here on earth to do good to other people. The other people are here to have good done to them.

They aren't human beings. They're props.

"The Green Man's Burden" is a fine turn of phrase. Did you make that up?

It reminds me of PJ O'Rourke's eco-tourist trip in "All the Trouble in the World".

"The Green Man's Burden" is a fine turn of phrase. Did you make that up?

Yes, as far as I know.

Well, if I didn't like people, and thought that humanity was the cause of the greatest disaster facing the world; then I too would oppose any increase in live births, any decrease in child mortality, and any possibilty for poor areas to get upgraded to be able to afford modern medicine.

It's just good policy to hope these people have as few kids as possible, and die as soon as possible... for the good of the world.

Oddly, these people never work to die sooner themselves... I guess their work is too important.

I see this all the time in Thailand, where entire planeloads of tourists go for a phony "trek" in search of "unspoiled" hill-tribe villages. I even know a superannuated hippie who damns concrete houses: "let them live happily in their grass shacks!" Another person thinks the only purpose of hill-tribe people is to pose for photographs in their quaint and lovely costumes.

Culture is a tool for survival. If that tool/culture is not performing well, it's time for a change. Somehow the same foofooheads insist on social change in their home countries, and fight it tooth and nail in their tourist destinations.

I have been living in Chiang Mai for many years now, and I can only briefly tell you how different the real situation is! My maid and dog-handler are both from the Karen hill-tribe, and are doing their very best to assimilate into Thai society because (gasp) they want houses and motorcycles and money!! My best friend is Akha, and one of his great purposes in life is to rescue as many siblings as possible from that "quaint" penniless life on the hilltop, where there are no jobs and precious little money -- aside from things like plucking bamboo shoots and carrying them to market to sell for 2 or 3 baht per kilogram.

But an enormous amount of people simply do not see this. It's quite astonishing. They will even criticize economic development in Thailand itself, since it ruins the cheapness and the quaintness of the place.