The Bushmen will surely become extinct, not because of their "failure to adapt," but because people, who do not know how to manage their resources, will cast a greedy eye to wards theirs, as the American Indians were massacred , and the land stolen.

#1 David, I fear you may be correct. Unfortunately or fortunately depending how you view it, man is a beast of expolration. He has a pre programmed yearning to find out as much as he can concerning his surroundings and as such he will often encounter new lands and new races. This quest for knowledge and an understanding of the universe meant that humans from different cultures eventually crossed paths.When that happened the stronger and more advanced of the 2 took command.

I hope the Bushman survive in their natural habitat until the end of time, but as you already said, a greedy eye, or an eye for progress at the expense of another may wipe them out. But then if animals could speak and fish could write, their stories would not differ much from the Bushman's either. Its just the way it is!

I worked in Botswana for about 5 years, and the story has unfortunately been grossly simplified - people want to hear an evil govt. versus noble savage story. I'm amazed that Survival International's spin has been uncritically swallowed by most media. The San in the reserve were not living a hunter-gatherer life by the 1990s, as Survival and others have implied. They were mainly herding cows and goats, sustained by water supplies trucked in by the government. Setswana living around the reserve were of the view that if the San could keep cows in the reserve, so could they; and so the reserve was beginning to suffer the usual effects of overgrazing. The government withdrew water supplies, which would not have troubled San living the traditional way. They also refused hunting licences, which was clearly wrong, stopped food handouts, and in other ways harrassed the San - anti-San racism is prevalent in Botswana.

The issue is really whether the San should be allowed to live a non-traditional lifestyle in the reserve, supported to some degree by government welfare. Almost none wish to live the hunter-gatherer life, unsurprisingly as it is a hard and unstable existence. If they do so, the reserve will cease to contain much in the way of wildlife: it will be a reservation.

It is always worrying when governments do things to people "for their own good". It is usually the first step on the road to totalitarianism.

Calling them Bushmen is an insult to the San people. The headline should be revised. The San have a long history of being brutally exploited by white men. They were classified as subhuman and hunted like animals.

Now, for the first time in ages things are looking up for them. They own partial rights to the hudia plant; the extract of which will apparently help people lose weight safely and effectively. Multi-millions of dollars will be held in trust for them to provide housing, safe water and education.

At present they live in extreme poverty. They drink beer and smoke marijuana like they're going out of style.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/06/22/105622047633...

Festus Moga, described the bushmen as "stone-age creatures... who must change; otherwise, like the dodo, they will perish"

Seems to be fairly racist that comment???

Oh, and #4 - Look at the Scottish Executive... :-)