Viewing page 6 of 14

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Transcription: [00:16:49]
{SPEAKER name="Lisa Chickering"}
Just across this small but relatively busy bridge - a short distance outside of Paramaribo - bright red roads lash through the wild, undeveloped country. And in the middle of nowhere, pink factories send forth billows of pink smoke-- an unusual sight, but not in Suriname where the red bauxite ore, from which aluminum is made, richly covers the earth. The mining and smelting of it accounts for 81% of the country's economy.

[00:17:18]
In the district of Brokopondo, on the Suriname River, a huge dam and hydroelectric plant are being constructed by Alcoa, the Aluminum Company of America. This operation, called the Brokopondo Project, will provide an enormous amount of electric power for the betterment of the country. Also it will furnish power for Alcoa's aluminum plants which, in turn, will make it one of the major industries of the Caribbean area.

[00:17:45]
From this next sign post meaning 'lookout' and pronounced "ite cake", as I'm sure we all knew, we went further into the interior. Once away from Paramaribo, there are no bridges over the rivers just ferry boats.

[00:18:06]
Reaching the other side and the Coronie District - known for its numerous coconut groves - one immediately feels the slow, languid pace of this undeveloped area where the chief means of transportation along the dirt roads is the ageless, time-worn ox cart. Dense foliage and palm trees crowd the banks of rivers and quiet streams and here, as everywhere, boys turn almost any body of water into their favorite swimming hole.

[00:18:36]
The people of Coronie live in primitive grass-roofed dwellings. And along the road these Javanese children seem very wary of our presence, as outsiders rarely come into their district. Thousands of coconut trees stretch gracefully to the sky and if one happens along at the right time, it's interesting to watch a picker, with the aide of nothing but a rope around his bare feet, shimmy effortlessly up a tall tree.

[00:19:03]
Before the discovery of bauxite 50 years ago, agriculture was the main economy. And before slavery was abolished, there were over 600 plantations raising coffee, tobacco, sugar cane, and cocoa. Well now there are only about 60 plantations left, numerous rice paddies, and these coconut groves.

[00:19:23]