Darién Gap difficulty | Mass migration through one of 'the most IMPENETRABLE jungles in the world'

evolutionary biologist Brett Weinstein joins me now uh to describe amongst other things what he saw uh during a visit to Panama and the Darian Gap Brett thank you for joining me very good to be with you Neil great to see you can you what is happening why were you there in Panama of all places and what did you see I was invited to Panama by Michael Yan who is a former Green Beret who has has been traveling the globe trying to understand uh the hidden story behind uh many of these global patterns and he has been looking in the Darion of Panama at the mass migration that is Flowing up from South America for years he's been sending me materials which uh are quite shocking but there was a part of me that needed to see the story for myself in order even just to establish that the facts were what they appeared what is the scale you know when you talk about this is jungle you know it's probably important to describe the actual geographical context of this place what is the scale of the movement of people through that treacherous place so the Darian Gap is a gap in the Pan-American Highway a road that runs from prudo Bay Alaska to the southern tip of South America with a a 60 mile uh empty stretch in one of the most impenetrable jungles in World there are certainly thousands occasionally tens of thousands of people moving up from South America through the Darian Gap daily uh this migration has been uh ratcheting up in scale over time and on the ground it is quite obvious that there are preparations being made to expand the migration this is all being done without any discussion with the citizens of the United States which is the place where almost all of the migrants are headed and without the agreement of the citizens of the countries through which these migrants will pass what nationalities are coming you know it's in Middle America or Central America they're passing through but who is it that's on the move it is a an extremely diverse group of people there are many people fleeing from South America especially Venezuela but we also met people from Afghanistan Iran Yemen the Caribbean for example Haiti uh it's a very diverse migration but I have to say that one of the things that I concluded upon seeing this in person I should say my son and I traveled there together and and we're in discussion the whole time Chris Martinson was also there but one of the things that we saw was that there appears to be a migration which is economic in nature people fleeing toward the US for uh economic reasons and there also is separately housed a very large Chinese population that is uh seemingly of a different nature the migrants are um all forthcoming about the nature of their migration about the tribulations that they experienced in the Darian Gap with the exception of the chines who will not discuss what they are doing and why and I became became ever more alarmed at seeing the distinction not only in these two populations but also in the treatment of the two populations by the panamanians the panamanians allowed us to range freely across the migrant camps that involved people flowing in from all over the world at the Chinese camp we were not allowed in and we were not allowed to take any pictures so we did take some but they were done covertly and the the distinction is something that really is hard to appreciate until you've seen it in person what do it's a big question and I don't suppose there are any unequivocal answers you can give but what's your assessment of what is happening there in particular why are many many thousands of young Chinese men traveling to Middle America to head north well because they are not forthcoming we have to speculate I would say one thing that is true is that there is a kind of hostility that comes from the Chinese migrants when one attempts to engage them in conversation I find that very surprising if this was a migration of people either fleeing an oppressive regime or seeking a better life in America you would expect them to be curious about Americans and to want to interact with these people from a culture that they aspire to join I got none of that from these migrants they were uh Ki not forthcoming and uh seemed interested in deliberately misleading us at one point uh one uh person tried to trick Michael Yan who has lived in China into believing that he was from Korea and when Michael tripped him up and got him to speak Chinese reflexively there was laughter among uh his compatriots so this felt um it it's frightening to see a disproportionately young male population of uh what appear to be Chinese nationals moving towards the US without our awareness now in in a past life almost well you are an evolutionary biologist which gives you that perspective on everything that you look at you know we all know about you know China having EXP experienced it one child policy there's a there's a an imbalance in the male female demographic in that country as a biologist when you look at us as a species do you get an insight about what might be happening yes and it's a disturbing one there's a principle in biology in evolution that sex ratios tend to default to one to one and the reason for that is because although males and females are different in the way they reproduce on average they produce the same number of Offspring so when a population has a surplus of males it makes sense to produce a female and when it has a surplus of females it makes sense to produce a male the question is why does that logic not apply in China if if you were a Chinese couple and you were going to have a child if there was a surplus of males it would make sense to have a female because not only would she be certain to find a mate but she would have uh her choice because she would be in high demand so the fact that that logic did not obtain in China is curious and it made me wonder if there is an evolutionary adaptation at a higher level in which populations sometimes produce a surplus of males uh in preparation for war um so I it is only a hypothesis but in seeing a migration of military age males flowing from China through the Darian Gap into Cal America and up to the United States I have to wonder if this might not be a military force waiting for orders that is being deployed covertly in the midst of a migration that makes it hard for us to recognize it Jasmine B Jasmine's with me in the in the studio how do you feel listening to that that that story that that that reflection on on sights scene well it it does um mirror what I've been hearing actually particularly in the US I've certainly heard of um Chinese Nationals coming over as as Brett says young um men just men and they've been offered um to to have their passports FASTT tracked their nationalization fast-tracked if they will join the Army so that's something that I've definitely heard and also as uh Brett's speaking it it makes me think of what's happening in Europe not just in the U the United States I mean we're constantly talking about um the young fighting age men who are coming in boats illegally into this country it's happening in other countries in Europe it's it's odd it's not uh you know it it does worry us and of course we're all called um right-wing extremists even for for questioning this but we are questioning it because there's something not right about it it's unbalanced Brett I've been I've been listening to you talk on on various matters for years now and and I remember all the way back in 3 four years ago perhaps you talked about a a trajectory that made you wary of Civil War in the United States of America all the way from defund or abolish the police all the way through are you still joining dots that lead to that kind of intern sign conflict yes and I wonder if that potential which is in evidence uh this month more than it has been at any point in memory um if that's not part of a larger Story one of the things that's uh not obvious VI looking at the migration in Panama uh to the untrained Observer or to somebody who's not on the ground is the degree to which the International Community the UN the International Organization for migration the hisas all of these organizations are facilitating and inspiring the migrants to Transit the Darian gap which is a tragedy in itself in and of itself people are dying in the jungle um but the international Community appears to be uh possessed of the idea that migration is in and of itself a good thing and that it is their job to encourage it and facilitate it which is a large explanation I believe for what is taking place in Panama what is taking place on the US Southern border and what is taking place in Europe and it can surely only lead to trouble because as you pointed out at the top of your of our encounter this evening the the American people the incumbent citizens are not being consulted about this far less their approval sought yes I in fact I think that it is the West itself that is jeopardized and believe me I'm not inherently an opponent of migrants my ancestors certainly migrated and it can be a very good thing for a society but it has to be done at a scale that uh can be absorbed and it also has to be limited to people who actually aspire to join the societies to which they are migrating and nobody is asking these folks whether they really want to be Americans or Europeans and I think it is a tragic error challenging uh Reflections there BR Weinstein evolutionary biologist I can I hope that we will continue and pick up this conversation another time but thank you very much for what you've had to say this evening

Channel: GBNews

Views: 137,043

Keywords: GB news, jungle, crossing, migration, chinese, panama, USA

Id: Pp6ZfoHqkCo

Length: 11min 26sec (686 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 04 2024