Letters

September 25, 2007

The Body Shop Controversy an Rocha's report on the suing of The Body Shop by Chief Pykati- Re of the Brazilian Kayapo indige- nous group contained substantial inaccuracies, not least its incorrect and misleading headline, "Amazon Chief Sues The Body Shop" [July/August, 1996]. Pykati-Re did not sue The Body Shop, nor did he have any intention of doing so. Rocha reports that Pykati-Re announced his intention of suing The Body Shop for the "unautho- rized use of [his] image for public- ity ends." The source for this quote is correspondence between Pykati- Re and his lawyer. Pykati-Re was duped into writing this note by a former employee of The Body Shop, Saulo Petean, who, Rocha says, was fired for "stirring up trou- ble"-making this correspondence neither a reliable nor an accurate expression of Pykati-Re's wishes. In a letter to his lawyer dated March 2, 1996, Pykati-Re writes, "Saulo made me sign a paper for you without me understanding what the paper was about. He has always done this to us. The Indian cannot read well and does not understand the things of white men. I want to tell you not to speak to Saulo in Redenqso. Saulo does not represent me." Rocha reports that Petean's accu- sations are borne out by an evalua- tion undertaken in 1995. This is tau- tological: it was Petean himself who provided the information that misled the external evaluators in the first place. Petean's contract was not renewed because of financial and management irregularities, which are currently under investigation. In sum, Rocha's report is based on information of suspect validity. The Body Shop began its trading rela- Readers are invited to address letters to The Editors, NACLA Report on the Americas, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 454, New York, NY 10115. Letters can be sent by e-mail to: NACLA @igc.apc.org. tionship with Kayapo villages at their invitation. We are committed to a process of continuous improve- ment of that relationship as long as it is appropriate for the communities, welcomed by them, and for as long as it takes to build an example of sustainable trade. Adrian Hodges The Body Shop London, England Jan Rocha replies: T he title of the story was not written by me, but by the NACLA editors. Nevertheless, my article clearly states that Pykati-Re announced his intention of suing The Body Shop and then backed down because the company offered a new contract for the use of the Kayapo image. I stated that Saulo Petean was fired after being accused of stirring up trouble. Petean, who has been consistently libeled by The Body Shop in its replies to criticisms, is suing The Body Shop for the non- payment of benefits due him under Brazilian labor laws. The police investigation which was opened against Petean at The Body Shop's request has been shelved. The 1995 evaluation--commis- sioned by The Body Shop itself-- was carried out by two respected Brazilian anthropologists, lara Ferraz and Rubem Almeida, together with Pat Stocker, an experi- enced British development worker. They spent 30 days in the area. To suggest that they were "misled" by Petean is insulting to them and to their carefully researched report. The Body Shop's response to crit- icism is to imply that Indians and evaluators are fools who are "duped" and "misled," and the man it employed for five years is a crim- inal. Yet the evaluators' unanswered question remains: Are The Body Shop's trading links with the Kayapo "aid," or are they a deliber- ate profitable investment to market the company's name?

Tags:


Like this article? Support our work. Donate now.