After watching James Cameron’s “Avatar”, I couldn’t help but ruminate on its (overly) overt themes – corporatization of the military, pointless destruction of native peoples culture, strong-armed pillaging of natural resources, etc. The hopeful part of me wishes this film would raise the awareness level about how sadly cliché this story has actually become. Its a script that has already played out thousands of times and continues to happen even now, all around the world. Diamonds, oil, ‘unobtanium’ (gag), slug-in-a-resource.
Jay at Arthur Magazine pointed out a sweet muck-racking documentary film called The Coconut Revolution that you can watch free in its entirety here. Here are the first few minutes of the film:
This is an incredible modern-day story of a native people’s victory over Western globalization. Sick of seeing their environment ruined and their people exploited by the Panguna Mine, the Pacific island of Bougainville rose up against the giant mining corporation, Rio Tinto Zinc. The newly formed Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) began fighting with bows and arrows and sticks and stones against a heavily armed adversary. In an attempt to put down the rebellion the Papua New Guinean Army swiftly established a gunboat blockade around the island, backed by Australian Military personnel and equipment. With no shipments allowed in or out of the island, the People of Bougainville learned to become self-dependent and self-sustained.
Browse Timeline
-
j murn
