the Voice of Steely

[David Casseres]

>>> Just a sign of the times, all these Third World Threats to Global
>>> Ecology invading everything! Everywhere you look, it's Asian beetles,
>>> Asian milfoil, African killer bees, Mexican this and South American
>>> that! One longs for the days when North America and Europe were net
>>> exporters of pests to the rest of the world and scandinavian albino rats
>>> ruled the earth! I think I'll have an orgasmic fit!
>>
>>Don't forget water hyacinth, fahr aints (fire ants), nutria, etc.. from
>>South America... but we have introduced raccoons into Austria & the
>>Czech Republic..... ain't revenge suite?
>>
>>And as for an orgasmic fit; don't you take a 7 and 7/8ths?
>
>Okay, howzabout a McDonald's franchise at the Great Wall, and Coca Cola
>swilling Aborigines?  Seems to me we've invaded the rest of the globe in a
>more permanently pestulent way than any lil' ol' fahr aint possibly could.

Oh yeah.  One of the most heartbreaking examples I've read about is the 
passage in Paul Theroux's _Happy Isles of Oceania_ about Cook Islanders, 
who once had a particularly appealing version of Polynesian culture, 
vegging out on the sofa and watching imported porno videos....

Still, if you take the longer view, cultural pollution is just what we've 
all been up to for a few hundred thousand years -- while destruction of 
the last forests is, well, forever.

Cheers,
David