Tonight I enjoyed the hospitality of the IEA to attend the premiere of the documentary "Mine Your Own Business". Journalist Phelim McAleer speaks to a rural Romanian community who live at the site of a potential new mine, currently being blocked by environmental protestors. He then traces a similar story in Madagascar and Chile to shed light on "the dark side of environmentalism".
The film was better than I expected: intelligent, witty and moving. It exposed the vested interests and ignorance/immorality that lie behind anyone who opposes economic development: the ignorance of those who believe Romanian peasants prefer horses to cars; the immorality of those who believe Africans aren't capable of spending money sensibly.
I had a few quibbles (the main one being that it was filmed in winter) but the decision to compare three seperate continents was academically astute, and the elevation of "George" to protagonist was inspired. Bravo to all those concerned, and you can see the trailor here.
"the ignorance of those who believe Romanian peasants prefer horses to cars"
Have you ever tried to have sex with a car?
"the immorality of those who believe Africans aren't capable of spending money sensibly."
Three words: Nelson; Mandela; Shirts.
Posted by: TC | November 02, 2006 at 02:56 PM