When Visitors Come to Goyena
When visitors listen to folks in the rural community, they hear that the constant fires from the sugar can fields in close proximity are causing respiratory problems; that those community members with cattle have a hard time keeping them healthy because of chemical contamination from the cane fields; that the irrigation systems in the cane fields are lowering the water table for the entire watershed region; that the cane company is buying up the land surrounding them bit by bit, land that is supposed to be protected because it is indigenous. Then they learn that the company is able to do this in part because of a loan it received in 2006 from the World Bank (or rather, the International Finance Corporation, the arm of the WB that deals in private-sector loans), based in Washington, D.C., with money from CitiGroup. Then visitors also hear that the cane company is the only source of regular work in the area, that the cane company has repaired roads and given out free backpacks to the school kids. They hear the teacher at the school say “they are buying us, so that we remain silent, and it is working.” They hear from small-scale cattle farmer from the neighboring community who couldn’t remain silent and spent 45 days in jail last year for his trouble.
