Brazil: When progress kills

Liberal lobby groups and commentators in our part of the world tend not unnaturally to be pre-occupied with what they regard as obnoxious political and social trends in Europe, which means that undesirable developments in more distant lands, such as Brazil, attract scant attention.

Widespread dismay was the initial reaction of environmental activists in October last year when Jair Bolsonaro won that country’s presidential election, since when — in the name of progress — he has been getting on with the job of laying waste to Brazil’s rain forests and the indigenous tribes, also known as “uncontacted peoples”, which until now have thrived in the forests without help from what we like to call civilisation.