In the early 1980s, when I was researching my M.A. thesis on llama and alpaca herding in the Chilean Andes, Horacio Larraín was my
local mentor. Then a professor of geography at Santiago’s Universidad Católica,
he helped get approval for the project (funded by the Inter-American Foundation).
We still see each other occasionally, though he has since retired to the northern
city of Iquique and the interior desert village of Matilla.
A longtime aficionado of the Atacama Desert, Horacio is
(like me) concerned with the human and environmental destruction wrought by the
annual Dakar Rally, which relocated from Africa to South America in 2009. Since
then, Dakar has killed both participants and spectators, and damaged or threatened
countless archaeological sites and ecosystems in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and
Peru. Last year, a Spanish competitor smuggled 1.4 tons of cocaine back toEurope; this year, there’s been only one death, but two participants – a Dutchman and an Italian – were arrested into Antofagasta for off-route wanderings that damaged an archaeological site.
I’ve only ever seen Dakar at its starting point in BuenosAires (as pictured above in 2010), but I know the Atacama and deplore what this
senseless event has done to it. I rarely if ever do guest posts but, in this case, I
have translated Horacio’s open letter as published on the website Piensa Chile
(Think Chile), where you can see the Spanish-language original.
I have edited Horacio’s essay for brevity and taken some liberties for
clarity in English (I am not a professional translator, though I’m confident I
have conveyed the meaning), and all the hyperlinks are mine. The photographs below
display some of the landscapes and features that Dakar puts at risk.
Open Letter: A Critical Opinion on Dakar and the
Preservation of Cultural Resources
In recent years, we have fought a difficult battle against
this Rally which is presumably a sporting competition, but which really
destroys landscapes and cultural heritage. To summarize, this Rally is a
competition and pleasure for the rich (the entry fee is US$240,000) to try out
the latest model vehicles before they hit the international market.
This pseudo-sport competition contains the following
essential faults that make it totally incompatible with serious and responsible
protection of the natural and cultural patrimony of our Tarapacá region:
1) There’s a maliciously false idea that “there’s nothing in
the desert” and that, for that reason, you can go anywhere and drive through
any part of it. Archaeologists, paleontologists, geologists, paleoecologists
and paleobotanists know perfectly well that the subsoil is genuine mine of
findings of the past, but all of them hidden from view today. For that reason,
a superficial glimpse (which they seem to request) can detect little or
nothing.
2) Many times, specimens of extinct fauna from the Tertiary
and Quaternary, with extraordinary scientific value (species new to science)
have been found on the desert flats.
3) The Pampa del Tamarugal is marked by numerous ancient
trails, full of history, as manifested by the cultural artifacts tossed or left
along them. Thus we can learn about the nitrate industry and the borax
industry, of their abandoned settlements and their ancient ways and circuits of
exchange. The ancient routes constitute living history for anyone who knows how
to read them. For us archaeologists, they are bearers of culture, genuine
archaeological sites.
4) One of the oldest and most venerable routes, the Quahpaqñanor “Inka Trail,” crosses the Pampa, from Quillagua to the north along the Salarde Llamara. Some months ago, we verified that the Dakar heavy support vehicles
of 2012 and 2013 followed this same Inka route for more than 30 km, a criminal
act that we reported, as the Camino del Inka Study Group (Universidad Nacional Arturo Prat) to the National Monuments Council in 2014. We received no reply.
This inaction and apathy by regional and national authorities
worries us. It especially alarms and disturbs us that, to hear their
declarations, our repeated scientific proof seems to carry no weight with them,
and they are demonstrating an unfortunate absence of cultural consciousness.
Even a schoolchild is capable of understanding our fears and
shock, on seeing how they expose the vulnerable desert landscape and destroy
its surface, on which there was life thousands or millions of years ago that’s hidden
to our eyes today. We could cite numerous cases of noteworthy findings in the
open flats, where there’s nothing visible today except for some stones.
The Pampa is not a desert lacking life and bygone human
activity: it is an open book for anyone who wants and has learned to read it.
And that, necessarily, is the job of the scientist who talks about the danger
that these off-road competitions involve, that they respect nothing, they
trample and destroy, competitors and spectators alike, leaving thousands of new
marks, marks that unfortunately will last for centuries.
For us, Dakar is a true hurricane, highly destructive, whose
only objective is to satisfy the insatiable appetite of the powerful automotive
industry and appease that hunger for bread and circuses to a bored and deprived
humanity that lacks any greater cultural stimulus.
My Own Perspective
The Atacama desert, and corresponding parts of neighboring
countries, should not be ecological sacrifice areas to fossil-fuel “sports.”
With luck, Dakar 2015 will the last of its kind, or one of the last, but that
will require the governments in question to remove subsidies and forego the
international publicity they think benefits them - not to mention the
damage Dakar does to their countries.
For earlier commentaries of mine on Dakar, please go to this link.
3 comments:
Dear Wayne Bernhardson,
I live in Riga and I am very sorry, I will not be able to visit these wonderful, amazing places which you describe, at least not in the near future. At the same time I I noticed that in one of your stories you mentioned the name of Georgia Lee, Los Osos, Rapa Nui Foundation. I am interested to get in touch with Georgia Lee as a great specialist of Rapa Nui heritage. I had contact with her more than 12 year ago, but our contacts were irregular and so I lost contact with her. I need to get more information about 19th century photos taken in British Museum, especially images of Hoa Hakananai'a. You mentioned that you know her. Can you be o kind and give her Email so I might be able to contact her directly at this matter?
Thank you for your help and asistance in advance
Sincerely
Irena Email: irenae@apollo.lv
Most of persons know about Dakar rally, It is biggest rally contest in planet for those who do not know, The Dakar Rally can be an annual rally raid ordered from the Amaury Sport Organisation. Here you'll find more info http://dreamracer.tv/
The point, David, is that fossil-fuel competitions are not sports, and that Dakar is an environmental and human disaster, the nadir of irresponsibility in a time of global crisis. It's time to shut down this destructive anachronism.
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