Projo Offbeat Blog

PHOTO BY GLEISON MIRANDA, FUNAI / Via AP

It might be hard to believe, but there are supposedly 100 tribes around the world that have never had contact with the outside world.

That's right. There are grown people who have never heard of Britney Spears, American Idol or SpongeBob SquarePants.

This came to my attention through reports and photographs out of Brazil about a tribe that lives in the far western Amazon jungle near the Peruvian border.

Photographs were taken from an airplane of tribe members and their huts. One of the photographs appears to show two of the tribe members, nearly naked, pointing bows at the airplane as if they were trying to shoot it down.

Their huts look crude. There are no signs of satellite dishes or cellphone towers.
At first you might think, 'Poor people. How can they live in such conditions? No remote control. No microwaves. No iPods.'

But then you might realize that the advantages outweigh the drawbacks.

Here are a few reasons why I'd like to join that tribe:

-- They're not paying $4 for a gallon of gasoline.

-- And they're not paying monthly bills for three phones.

-- They're not bombarded with messages from Rachael Ray. (On second thought, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a Dunkin Donuts near this village.)

-- They've never been stuck in rush-hour traffic on Route 195.

-- They apparently don't fret about matching shirts and ties. (OK, I don't either, at least not very often.)

-- They're not paying for 57 channels of cable, even though there's nothing on.

-- They didn't care when the Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

-- And they've never had to rush to the airport to catch a flight, only to get delayed on the tarmac for two hours.

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