Panama__Protect_Ngöbe_Lands_and_Rights

The current project in Panama: Protect Ngöbe Lands and Rights is a perfect example of how anthropologists today are making great strides against the influence of government’s power in deprecating the value of a certain group of indigenous people’s land, language and culture. Recently, the Panama government has taken interest in the Ngöbe’s land for profit. An American Company known as AES (Applied Energy Services) has been granted the right to build multiple large hydroelectric dams. The government and the AES are trying to create and maintain groups in order to compete and claim the Ngöbe’s limited material and symbolic resources. These dams would lead to the destruction of the Ngöbe’s territory, homes, fields, communities and families. Anthropologist’s current goal aims to stop this project by filing suit against the government and the AES. A past anthropological concept has proven the discriminatory ways government power has been used against the Ngöbe’s society. Power is most commonly thought of as force and is divided into three areas, authority, persuasion, and coercion. The Panama government’s authority over the country’s land has proved a difficult task in maintaining the Ngöbe’s right to their territory. AES and the government have wrongfully tried to use persuasion in order to make the Ngöbe leave their land by providing them with documents to sign that they cannot read. They have also tried coercing the Ngöbe by using force to eliminate the natives from their land. Another concept known as self-determination helps to enforce the rights of the Ngöbe through this difficult time. Self-determination is the concept that groups with a distinct culture and identity have a right to choose their own political arrangements and their own collective destiny. The AES and Panama Government are trying to strip these rights from them, even by using unprincipled techniques to get what they want. AES has no right to construct the damn without coming to an agreement with the people of the land. A certain culture, technique, history, and habit will be lost along with the people of the Ngöbe if the construction of the dam continues to follow through. The Ngöbe’s ethnic group is one of small proportion to the country of Panama, however their rights and beliefs are held strong in their history. An ethnic group is a cultural group sharing a society and competing for resources with another group. The government is competing (in part taking) the resources away from the Ngöbe without supporting their rights to the land. The indigenous people of the Ngöbe are trying to convince the government to change the new law in order to protect their environment and respect their rights. So far, the government is not listening. Anthropologists from around the world are teaming together to make a difference in the cause of the Ngöbe’s land. The expulsion of their people from the territory in order to gain profit from the land is an unacceptable excuse for their actions and goes against many concepts and ways of life around the globe. I donated to help make a difference in this cause, and hope that we are able to make a difference in saving the Ngöbe’s land.