Thanks for the pointers to the documentary, folks (more on that below). That
is, in fact, the source of my question. I'm trying to figure out whether the
expression "Darwin's Nightmare," has significance from the history of Darwin's
work.
Thanks,
-
Ashwani
Vasishth [EMAIL PROTECTED] (323) 462-2884
http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~vasishth
* * *
From: Ashwani Vasishth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Documentary: Darwin's Nightmare
To: International Development News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: Environmental Ecology News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I just saw this documentary, which looks at some socio-economic aspects of the
Nile perch industry around Lake Victoria. It seems that the perch is an
invasive species which is said to be driving eutrophication by killing off
other (native) species of fish that normally would have removed plankton from
the lake's waters. As commentary, I'd rather have seen the film than not, but
it left me quite dissatisfied. Its more interesting as allusion than as
expose, and the sub-plots that are never developed (the political economy of
the arms trade in Africa, the high community costs of AIDS, the constructed
nature of poverty in developing countries, child exploitation and abandonment,
ecological imperialism, the elitist bias induced in societal decision making by
World Bank project officers, etc.) would each surely generate a powerful
documentary in their own right.
The important point, I think, is the implicit critique of the conventional
development paradigm and the international institutions pushing this, which
biases national economies so strongly toward dollar-generating export
structures of a sort that ensure natural resource wealth is kept out of the
hands of local populations. Here's a region that supplies the whole world with
perch, generating huge wealth for some few, but its own people are left to feed
of the maggot-infested carcass remains. As one of the characters comments in
the context of a famine said to be sweeping Tanzania while the film was being
shot, its not that there is not enough food in the country, its that the local
people can't afford to buy any. Wow!!! Development--by whom, for whom?
The recurring theme of cargo planes coming in empty to Tanzania and leaving
filled with fish fillets to feed the world is also an evocative metaphor for
the one-directional flows of wealth out of Africa throughout modern history,
with nothing ever being given back to the people who, properly, should be the
true beneficiaries of that natural wealth. Non-native big fish eating native
little fish, even as they foul the native world and make it increasingly
uninhabitable for local peoples everywhere, seems to be the proper depiction of
development as we know it today.
Take care,
-
Ashwani
Vasishth [EMAIL PROTECTED] (323) 462-2884
http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~vasishth
