Peru protests at huge Conga gold mine in Cajamarca

In this article from the BBC environmental news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15884119 An American company that digs for gold, wanted to explorer new land in the Andes of Peru. This American company claimed it would build man made lakes to replace the ones that they would be destroying to find gold. I recently spent the summer in Peru. I saw how many of these people live. They are very poor and live a basic life style. Most importantly, hard working. I saw these people constantly working trying to meet end meat. It just amazes me that they found time to collect and protest the gold mines. It really shows a sense of place. These people found it necessary to protect their home land and go protest the efforts of the American company. The saw that the plans for the lake replacements were not what they  should be. They saw that the pollution from the mind could cause harm to their plants and animals. This direct relationship they have with their sense of place amazes me! It is simply impressive what we americans let happen in our backyard. Why dont we have this sense of place?