The fragile raft

Between 31 October and 14 November, international leaders gathered in Glasgow for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference. A crucial moment for the present and future of the planet and humanity. Just last August, the International panel on climate change launched a red code: if carbon neutrality is not achieved - that is, the zeroing of net emissions - it will not be possible to contain the temperature increase within the threshold of 1.5 degrees. Each further increase will cause incalculable damage to entire parts of the world and to millions of women, men and children.

Is it still possible to reverse the course?
Yes, the scientists themselves say. But a change is urgently needed. To use an evangelical language, a "metanoia" is necessary, a change of heart. Reason, while seeing the problem alone, is not enough to trigger the transformation. It is essential to hear deeply the cries of the earth and the cries of the poor, those most affected by the climate emergency. We must learn to "contemplate" the common home, Pope Francis repeats, approach it with awe, since it is a gift from God.
For this reason, the pontiff himself uses the language of poetry to tell us about the drama of the Amazon in Querida Amazonia. Verses can be written in words. Or in pictures. Anamei, los guardianes del bosque is a sixty-three minute long visual poem. The documentary, just released in Italy and presented at the Trieste Latin American Film Festival, not only tells but makes the viewer feel, from within, the wounded beauty of the Amazon and its indomitable strength. The author, Alessandro Galassi, chooses to narrate from the point of view of the natives. In particular, of a small people - the Harakbut of Madre de Dios - decimated by the sacking of natural resources, first with the fever of rubber, now with that of gold. Illegal mines have swallowed over 50,000 hectares of forest, turning much of the Tampobata reserve into a patch of cracked earth. Together with trees, the precious metal devours the lives of hundreds of thousands of women and men, hostages of slave labor and forced prostitution. Madre de Dios is, therefore, the concrete metaphor of how much the environmental crisis and the social crisis are intimately connected. For this reason, Pope Francis has decided to open the Synod on the Amazon there in January 2018. Moving delicately from one side of the Atlantic to the other, from the cracked earth from the quarries to the Vatican, Alessandro Galassi stitches these stories together with the red thread of the myth, that of Anamei, the tree of salvation. At the beginning of time, the Harakbut people turned to Anamei to save themselves from destruction. And it continues to do so today to find the strength to resist the extraction of gold. The myth of Anamei is the backbone of the documentary, narrated in audio by the poetess Ana Varela Tafur - whose verses are quoted in Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation - and in video from a graphic with drawings made by Harakbut children.

The narrative unfolds in four narrative blocks.
The first presents the gold rush and its devastating impact on the environment and native populations.
The second narrative core focuses on Pope Francis' trip to Puerto Maldonado, the capital of Madre de Dios, a gesture that attracted the world's eyes to the region and its drama.
The celebration of the Synod, which took place in Rome in October 2019, constitutes the third block of the story. The historical significance of an ecclesial confrontation on Amazonian spirituality, on the profound wisdom of the indigenous people and on the possibility of an equal dialogue between cultures, has unfortunately taken a back seat in the media tam tam. The voices of Yesica and Delio and other indigenous exponents bring the comparison back to its original dimension, and express the amazement at the resistance, inside and outside the Church, to the perspective of the pope who considers them guardians of Mother Earth and, therefore, indispensable allies of humanity.
In the fourth narrative block, Covid scourges the old and new world, a few months after the conclusion of the Synod.
The pandemic forces humanity into the same boat. A fragile raft, due to the violence with which humans attack nature, causing zoonoses, at the origin of the virus. In a deserted Piazza San Pietro, Francesco walks wearily in the rain. Not all, however, is lost.
Salvation is still possible. For everyone. It is just a matter of having the courage to choose it. And to change. Together.
An important message for the powerful of the earth gathered at COP26. And for each of us.
 

Lucia Capuzzi
NP November 2021

Madre de Dios is a region of Peru that has Puerto Maldonado as its capital and is part of the Peruvian Amazon.
"By learning from the original peoples, we can contemplate the Amazon and not just analyze it, to recognize the precious mystery that surpasses us.
We can love it and not just use it, so that love awakens a deep and sincere interest.
Moreover, we can feel intimately united with it and not only defend it, then the Amazon will become like a mother ". (Francis, Querida Amazonia)