PT Sep-78 - Herbert W. Armstrong Library and Archives

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· priority. Also the first quality that any human being should have is courage: the courage of believing, the courage of doing what one thinks is right, the courage to stand his ground. And what really destroys people is the fear of growing old, the fear of losing a job, the fear of losing social status. Consumer-product advertising is very much based on exploitation of fear, like the fear of dying. If someone is really faithful and totally believes in God, why should he ever be afraid of dying? I almost died 19 times in my life. But I didn't plan to die, I didn't want to die, and therefore I didn't. It is easy to die, and it's hard to live when you are enduring extreme suffering. When I lost my hand I was bleeding to death and I was 203 miles from a hospital. I had to swim 300 feet among crocodiles and I had to get to my truck and drive around curve after curve on an impossible road. But I decided I had to do it because I think life is worth living. Q. Why do the Pygmies need saving? A. No one questions saving the whales and other endangered species. Why question saving a unique people? When I grew up with the Pygmies in the 1930s there were about 35,000 of these healthy, delightfully happy and highly moral people. Today there are fewer than 4,000. The Pygmies' a'ncestral forest was increasingly being chopped down YOUNG AND OLD FACES reflect both the joy of living and the uncertainty of the future for Pygmies of the African Ituri Forest, The boy is six years old and very close to full physical maturity Already his extensive knowledge of the forest contributes to the tribe 's overall welfare. The old man is Sixty years old and enjoys the great honor and respect younger Pygmies accord their elders. Pygmy culture places heavy emphasis on ;lj !i! both respect for elders and preserva ~ lion of the family unit. Photos on the ~ preceding pages capture these Ituri ~ natives in moments of joy and quiet ~ s reflection. Lower left, Jean-Pierre £ Hallet, " Father of the Pygmies," ~ practices his own brand of forest di- 0> ~ . plomacy as he is escorted through a a: Bantu village, The PLAIN TRUTH September 1978
y greedy lumber operators. When we take away their forest it's like taking away our supermarket, family doctor, pharmacy, everything. Q. How do you go about saving them? A. One thing I don't do is give them anything, because a gift or a handout is an insult to people you want to help. Everything I'm doing is to help them solve their problems with dignity and self-respect, so they feel they are doing it on their own and not because of contemptuous outside help. The most realistic way to help them survive the negative impact of encroaching civilization is to provide them with a slow and realistic transition to a more agrarian way of life. Simple agriculture will provide them with what the forest cannot anymore, Q. What does this help cost? A. If I am helping 3,800 Pygmies for only $20,000, and I rarely spend that much a year, it is $5.26 per Pygmy per year. This is less than the cost of one CARE package that The PLAIN TRUTH September 1978 often does more harm than good. This program is not a project against hunger that can really never be solved. Feeding the hungry stems from a very sentimental, unrealistic attitude. Giving the hungry a means of helping themselves is the only real solution in the long run. But that is hard. You have to go there, you have to teach, you have to persuade, insist over and over, and it's rough. Q. How does the Pygmy view the rest of the world? A. A Pygmy sees the whole world as a speck of dust in the immensity of the universe, that is, the home of God. They have a very sad new song that ends up saying that when the last tree is cut, the last man on earth will die. An airplane once passed overhead while we were sitting around the fire and I said: "Weare so smart. We put together a bird so we can go anywhere in the world in a matter of a few hours." And then an old man replied: "Well, ifmay be okay for you, but I personally feel sorry for people who are so unhappy where they are that they have to go so high to go elsewher~ , to escape from their family, their children. Happiness is a good wife, happiness is the smile of a child, and if you are not happy with that, you will be happy with nothing else." Q. What rules do the Pygmies live by? A. In the primitive culture, especially among the Pygmies, the first . rules are to love the children, respect old people and preserve the family. "Civilized" people, on the other hand, are very much a Disneyland type of culture where people are raised with fantasy from Cinderella to comic-book heroes. My point is this: If you raise a child with fantasy, when he gets to grammar school and he sits in a classroom, the teacher doesn't talk about Pinocchio, Snow White and Charlie Brown. She teaches kids to count, to read, to write. And the kids (Continued on page 43) 25
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Page 4 and 5: FOUNDATIONAL POLICY RESTORED TO ._.
Page 6: he inhumanity which continues to ex
Page 9: with a hoe. The executions took mos
Page 12 and 13: e we earthlings being visited by ex
Page 14 and 15: IS THE WORLD BECOMING CHRISTIAN? Ta
Page 16 and 17: Leonard's Eleven Reasons for the Sp
Page 18 and 19: A California-based nonprofit resear
Page 20 and 21: shows how urban people can do this
Page 22 and 23: THE SABBATH AND THE TEN COMMANDMENT
Page 29 and 30: My father once advised me never to
Page 31 and 32: new gimmicks and games, the amount
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Page 35 and 36: Wh a s ~eoPle write us wondering ju
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Page 41 and 42: POLICY RESTORED (Continued from pag
Page 43 and 44: Why the United Nations Won't Act In
Page 45 and 46: THESABBATH (Continued from page 21)
Page 47 and 48: Spiritual knowledge, the knowledge

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