Good Reads: Amazon mysteries, Africans step up, state of the states, knowing voters
The Amazon Basin is often cited as a global repository of biodiversity. But it鈥檚 also the last bastion, perhaps, of human cultural diversity. In recounts the recent spotting of what may be the last two isolated tribes in the Colombian Amazon: the Yuri and the Pass茅. They were spotted from airplanes by experts seeking to confirm their existence and to strengthen protections against outside intrusion.
Mr. Hammer points out that the common term 鈥渦ncontacted tribes鈥� is not strictly accurate. These tribes first encountered Spanish explorers seeking gold some 500 years ago. They fled deeper into the jungle to avoid slave traders. Around 1900, the rubber boom brought new slave traders into the rain forest and the tribes fled farther.
They were thought to be extinct, but when a jaguar hunter and his guide disappeared in 1969, the search party ran into a village of people painted with zebralike stripes. None of the native guides could recognize their language, but an expert in the United States identified them as Yuri. Then they disappeared again.
Ironically, for governments to protect the privacy of these native peoples, they must know where they are. Roberto Franco, the Colombian historian who was in the airplane that spotted the Yuri and Pass茅 settlements, says: 鈥淲e must respect their decision not to be our friends 鈥� even to hate us.鈥�
Where Africans make strides
Meanwhile, one continent over, Africa has been shedding its isolation posthaste. takes a survey of the growing dynamism in the region that still populates the bottom of development rankings.
Life expectancies have increased by 10 percent. Foreign investment has tripled in the past decade. In the next 10 years, consumer spending is expected to triple. Average growth of gross domestic product is running about 6 percent, more African children than ever are in school, cellphones are everywhere, and the countries hit worst with the AIDS crisis have seen infections fall by three-quarters.
The Economist gives the main credit to African people themselves. 鈥淭hey are embracing modern technology, voting in ever more elections and pressing their leaders to do better. A sense of hope abounds.鈥�
One sign that governance is improving, too: The correspondent visited 23 African countries to research the survey and wasn鈥檛 once asked for a bribe 鈥� 鈥渋nconceivable only ten years ago.鈥�
鈥楬ey America, how ya doin鈥�?鈥�
Back in these United States, every year asks hundreds of thousands of Americans to rate their own well-being from emotional and physical health to their work environment and overall life evaluation. The top-ranked state? Hawaii, for the fourth year in a row. (And Gallup didn鈥檛 even ask about the weather. The next two states, after all, are Colorado and Minnesota.) Hawaii residents were most likely to 鈥渆xperience daily enjoyment and least likely to have daily worry or stress,鈥� says Alyssa Brown in Gallup鈥檚 new report. They also most often rated their lives as 鈥渢hriving.鈥�
West Virginians were the least 鈥渢hriving鈥� in the nation, and ranked lowest in overall well-being. Hawaiians also rated their work environments more highly than did residents of any other state. The lowest? Rhode Island. When it comes to healthy eating, getting exercise, and not smoking, Vermont rules and Kentucky takes the hindmost position. For access to basic services, from affordable food to a safe place to exercise, Massachusetts leads and Mississippi lags.
What the pundits don鈥檛 know
If you are tempted to argue with TV political pundits, you鈥檙e in good company. Morris Fiorina, a prominent political scientist at Stanford University, says his wife hates political season because of his running argument against what he sees as misinformed cable commentators. In The Forum, a political science quarterly, Professor Fiorina outlines what he, as a political scientist, wishes media talking heads could learn:
鈥S voters are not becoming more polarized. Congress is. Cable TV and talk radio are. But the moderate middle among voters is not shrinking. 鈥淢ost Americans are not ideologues and do not hold extreme views.鈥� Voters have re-sorted themselves: Conservatives have left the Democratic Party for the GOP and liberals have fled the other way. But that鈥檚 a shift of parties, not a shift of views.
鈥he US electorate is closely divided, but there is little evidence that the divide has grown deeper. Fiorina suspects that when the data is available, the 2012 election will prove to have been less intensely divided than the elections in 2008 or 2004.
鈥he hundreds of millions of dollars spent on political advertising 鈥減robably does not make much difference.鈥� You would never know it from watching TV, but scholars find little evidence of any impact.
鈥inally, voters are not stupid. They may be often uninformed and distracted. 鈥淵et the collective electorate manifests a degree of knowledge and wisdom that gives those of us who have studied that electorate for decades some cause for optimism.鈥�
