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Anorak News | The Reality TV Virus Kills Native Peruvian Indians

The Reality TV Virus Kills Native Peruvian Indians

by | 27th, March 2008

reality-tv.jpgMARK And Olly is must-see TV for anyone interested in witnessing tribes on the brink of destruction.

Mark Anstice and Olly Steeds, two British presenters, would live with a remote tribe in New Guinea. In preparation, the film crew are considering other dwindling tribes, and visiting the Yomybato tribe of Peru.  .

And get it while you can because reality TV film company Cicada Films, the power behind such documentaries as “Ancient Plastic Surgery” and “Fat Fiancées,” strands accused of spreading disease among the indigenous populations.  Four of that tribe are dead and others are sick

Whereas once native Indian tribes received beads and smallpox in exchange for being exploited, they now get fifteen minutes of TV fame and MRSA.

The company says it behaved responsibly and did not spread any disease. 

Says Cicada: “We emphatically deny being responsible for the introduction of the reported respiratory diseases, since when we arrived we found local people already ill with symptoms and signs of respiratory disease in the settlements we visited. We only visited settlements where we were invited beforehand. We believe it more likely that the already existing illness could have been introduced by any group of visitors, who circulate constantly.”

But the regional Indian rights organisation Fenama, government officials US anthropologist, Dr Glenn Shepard says in statements seen by the Guardian that Cicada Films had visited groups of isolated Indian communities despite being warned not to.

As the Guardian notes: “Fenama said the film team travelled far upriver and provoked an epidemic. It accused them of threatening the lives of Indians and called for Cicada Films to be barred from entering the area again.”

Such is the plague of reality TV…



Posted: 27th, March 2008 | In: Broadsheets, TV & Radio Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink