Nestlé and the nannies

One of the things that annoys me about the Left is how they treat primitive people like they were some sort of wildlife. In fact, it wasn't so long ago that if you were reading an article about a South American Indian tribe on the BBC website it would be filed under Nature rather than South America–as if the Yanamano were some species of exotic parrot rather than living, breathing human beings. When the Left complains about how tribesman are treated, their posturing is less that of a tribune of the people than it is that of an irate gamekeeper.

Case in point is this story from Bloomberg that tells of how the Nestlé SA company has noticed that Brazilians in the upper reaches of the Para and Xingu rivers have become wealthy enough to afford the odd chocolate bar or ice cream. In order to serve this potential market of 800,000 people, Nestle is sending a barge converted into a supermarket up the river to do a bit of business and brighten the lives of people who might be a bit sick of eating plantains three times a day.

You'd think that this would be something to pass over with a smile at a floating tuck shop or at the most hope that this will spur a bit of competition to keep prices down and supply up for the locals. However, a certain Michele Simon, a public health lawyer, takes the "how dare they do this to my lovely primitives, whom I regard as my personal property!" attitude about this "disgusting" development.

I'm not surprised. City-dwelling Lefites of a certain type, who get into a hissy fit with the waiter if their pan-seared talapia with arugula isn't just so, see no contradiction in keeping their brethren in a state of poverty. In fact, they revel in it and call it... God knows what drivel they label it with this week. I had considered comparing them to the Ancien Regime, but at least pre-revolutionary aristocrats were indifferent about their subjects not having bread. Their spiritual descendants are so perverted that they get a warm, fuzzy feeling about it.