they don't sing in captivity.

Fordlândia

How come no one ever told me about Henry Ford's crazy rubber-producing company town in Brazil? This sounds like a great setting for something, like a chapter out of A Hundred Years of Solitude.

"Ford intended to use Fordlândia to provide his company with a source of rubber for the tires on Ford cars... None of Ford's managers had the requisite knowledge of tropical agriculture. The rubber trees, packed closely together in plantations ... were easy prey for tree blight and insects.

"The mostly indigenous workers on the plantations, given unfamiliar food such as hamburgers and forced to live in American style housing, disliked the way they were treated — they had to wear ID badges, and to work midday hours under the tropical sun — and would often refuse to work. In 1930, the native workers actually revolted against the managers, many of whom fled into the jungle for a few days until the Brazilian Army arrived and the revolt ended.

"[By] 1945, synthetic rubber was developed... As a result Fordlândia was a total disaster. In 1945, Henry Ford sold it for a loss of over US$20 million - the equivalent of approximately US$200 million in today's dollars."

More info:
Wikipedia
The Ruins of Fordlândia

"The Island of Lost Homes"

"The Rebeca Tilly Appreciation Society"

"Bodies Making Music"

"Wild Animals I Have Known"