It's a jungle out there.

I have just been watching another episode of Human Planet.  This time it was about people who live in the jungles of the world.

One tribe in Papua New Guinea make their houses in the trees high above the forest floor.  It was amazing to see how they carried everything up the trees and built their homes right near the top.  The cameraman made a very interesting comparison between how he used ropes and pulleys and a lot of safety gear to get him and his camera up to the house while they just seemed to be able to climb up without much difficulty.  They had learnt to be at home in and with the nature around them and have great respect for their surroundings.

In Asia men were using elephants in order to move great logs and so saving their habitat by not forging great roads into the forest and using big machinery and trucks to devastate the land.

A tribe in the Amazon jungle hunted monkeys as one of their food sources but then took any orphaned young of those they had killed and fed them, raised them and loved them as pets.  Their philosophy was that you take out of the jungle but you also have to put something back.  Others have gone into the Amazon and devastated it, chopping down great areas of forest in order to clear the land, destroying everything in their path.  The sad thing is that many believe they are bringing civilisation to the remote tribes.

I am not against modern living with all its technology (otherwise I wouldn't be writing a blog on the Internet!) but there is much to be said for putting something back when we have taken something.  It's a bit like a bank account - you can draw out when you want/need to but if you just keep taking and taking, there comes a time when there is nothing left to take.  And who are we to impose our way of living on other tribes who have lived happily for hundred of years without all that goes into making our modern lifestyle?  When you watch news bulletins you can't help but wonder just who are the more civilised?

It reminded me of a song that Queen used to sing:

        Just think of all those hungry mouths we have to feed
        Take a look at all the suffering we breed
        So many lonely faces scattered all around
        Searching for what they need.

        Is this the world we created?  What did we do it for?
        Is this the world we invaded against the law?
        So it seems in the end
        Is this what we're all living for today,
        The world that we created?

        You know that every day a helpless child is born
        Who needs some loving care inside a happy home
        Somewhere a wealthy man is sitting on his throne
        Waiting for life to go by.

        Is this the world we created?  We made it on our own.
        Is this the world we devastated right to the bone?
        If there's a God in the sky looking down,
        What can He think of what we've done
        To the world that He created?