On 8/8/06, Pavithra Sankaran <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
The story doesn't stop there. See: http://www.darwinsnightmare.com/darwin/html/startset.htm
The continuing saga of Darwin's Nightmare: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1852256,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12 "Tanzania sees malice in Darwin's Nightmare Xan Rice, East Africa correspondent Thursday August 17, 2006 The Guardian An Oscar-nominated documentary highlighting links between fish fillets flown from Lake Victoria to the European Union and the global arms trade has drawn a furious reaction from Tanzania's president and prompted harassment of local people involved in the film. President Jakaya Kikwete said that Darwin's Nightmare, a film by the Austrian director Hubert Sauper, had hurt the country's image and caused a slump in exports of Nile Perch. His tirade, made during his monthly address, triggered angry protests against the film in the western town of Mwanza, where it was shot. Richard Mgamba, a local journalist interviewed in the film, was detained by police and threatened with deportation. Other people who talked on camera have also been intimidated, according to Mr Sauper. Darwin's Nightmare, which was released in 2004 and nominated in the best-documentary category at this year's Oscars, examines the history of Nile Perch in Lake Victoria. Introduced by western scientists as an experiment in the 1950s, the fast-growing predator nearly wiped out several other fish species. The perch's fleshy white fillets proved popular on European dinner tables, however, and spawned an industry worth millions of pounds a month. Mini boomtowns emerged on the lakeshore. But the bulk of the profits still end up in the hands of middlemen. Many locals drawn to the towns remain too poor to eat fish fillets, instead buying the skeletons discarded by the fish factories. And the film shows a still darker side to what Mr Sauper calls "the hidden half of globalisation": Russian pilots interviewed on camera admit that the same planes that flew fish to Europe returned to the Great Lakes region laden with weapons. "This booming multinational industry of fish and weapons has created an ungodly globalised alliance on the shores of the world's biggest tropical lake: an army of local fishermen, World Bank agents, homeless children, African ministers, EU commissioners, Tanzanian prostitutes and Russian pilots," Mr Sauper wrote on the film's website. But Mr Kikwete, who has set up a special parliamentary committee to investigate the film's effect on the fishing industry, took offence. "The documentary is an insult to our country and the people of the lake zone as it does not depict the true nature of the business. Tanzania remains committed to peace and unity in the region and will never allow its land to be turned into a pro-war zone," he said. In its latest report on Nile Perch, Globefish, a division of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation, said the film had only briefly affected fish sales in the EU. Far bigger factors in the decline in Nile Perch exports - worth €90m (£61m) to Tanzania last year, down from €100m in 2004 - were overfishing and low water levels. Mr Sauper told the Guardian that he was worried for the safety of local people involved in the film. He denied the documentary was negative towards Tanzania. "I don't think that the president has even seen the film. This whole thing is insane and has turned into my nightmare. The very last thing you want as a film-maker is for the people left behind to be in danger."" Thaths -- "Marge, anyone could miss Canada, all tucked away down there." -- Homer J. Simpson Sudhakar Chandra Slacker Without Borders
