Irreplaceable by Julian Hoffman

Author:Julian Hoffman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241979501
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2019-06-26T16:00:00+00:00

Valuable beyond price. It might seem an elusive and romantic notion in an increasingly corporatized world, the structure of economies both industrial and developing harnessed to the engines of extraction and commodification, but at times human societies have shown a concern for the natural world that reflects a more enlightened and inclusive approach, such as the Small Islands Law that the Indonesian government implemented with considerable sensitivity to other valuations of marine ecosystems. It was a vision born of a belief in something beyond price, too valuable in its own right to be sacrificed solely for human material gain. But for philosophy to rise above rhetoric, however progressive its guiding principles might be, requires the enactment and enforcement of such creeds, honouring the underlying commitment they entail. Without it, words are just the chaff that’s been winnowed from wisdom.

There existed on Bangka the clear sense of an ending. If iron-ore mining was allowed to proceed, despite the court decisions and actions of local communities, this place and its encircling ecosystems would be emptied of its natural and cultural meaning. Without its mangroves and coral reefs, the community would wither and leave, and the island would be shorn of its soul. From such home grounds as these flow the base materials of human consumption. In the case of mining, there are mountains and islands throughout the world that are scoured, shipped and shaped into desirable items – iron ore transfigured to steel for our vehicles, gold fashioned into beautiful jewellery, rare earths moulded inside mobile phones. We hold some of these places and their people in our hands when we text, or nip out in the car to the shops, when the light catches a ring on our fingers. But while Bangka Island had made the international news because of the prominent environmental organizations advocating its cause, most places do not. For every Bangka there are hundreds of threatened islands scattered about the seas that receive no attention at all, unheard of or forgotten except by those who dwell there.

The distance that negates responsibility is the same distance that divides people from one another, easily disenfranchising whole communities through their physical and political isolation. Out of sight and out of mind, their stories go unheard, fading away on those vast spans of sea. According to JATAM, an organization that advocates on behalf of Indonesian communities threatened by mining, 1,890 of the country’s 9,721 mining licences are in violation of the Small Islands Law, meaning that the stories I’d been hearing on Bangka were just fragments of a far larger narrative of loss. ‘Everybody has to help,’ Ulva said, explaining the reason why their legally successful challenge had gained traction. ‘The only way is if you fight together, as a coalition. It cannot be just the villagers from an island.’ She paused for a few moments before continuing. ‘They will disappear, and nobody will ever know.’

Perhaps this is the deeper, more enduring meaning of Bangka, irrespective of whether the mine opens or not.

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