Friday, August 16, 2013

A truly interesting piece of non-fiction

I read a piece of non-fiction titled "like butterflies in the jungle". It is a story about Brazilian gold miners called garimpeiros who are illegally mining gold in French Guiana. The garimpeiros started mining there when the price of gold went through the roof in 2007. Since they arrived they destroyed much of the rain forest, dumped mercury into many of the rivers and raped and killed many of the natives. The French military soon stepped in and made many arrests, seizing the brazilians gold. But as soon as the French military left the miners got right back to work. The French military soon returned and an all out war between French commandos and the garimpeiros started. The conflict is still happening, with the French military rotating different units in and out of the country and the garimpeiros still trying to mine their gold and make some money.

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