The impressive realness of the movie avatar is not in its incredible graphic technology and C.G.I. but in its story. One needs only a brief survey of history to see the legacy of this theme; look at Tasmania, Australia, Congo, South Africa, North America, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Japan, Chile, Brazil and Iraq just to name a random few. Indigenous populations who, like the Na’vi, are poor (in the way we understand value, mainly income and material-wealth), less militarized, more communal and whose knowledge is devalued, for it’s not empirically backed are taken advantage of. One can't compete with the resources of the powerful. Within Inequality and power Democracy does not function nor exist, especially in the presence of a military state. How do you stand up for yourself your people your cause in the midst’s of 771 Billion dollars of military spending a year? (41.5% of the world’s total military spending distantly followed by the China with 5.8% of world share, France with 4.5%, the U.K. with 4.5% and Russia with 4%. Or how do you stand up for yourself your people your cause in the midst’s of a monopoly on all economic activity (World Bank, World Trade Organizations…structural adjustments and the free market). How do you stand up for yourself your people your cause in the midst’s of though control on that can make you, your people and your cause anything they want (Savage, Communist, Terrorist ect. FEAR, FEAR, FEAR!)…and how do you stand up and fight for yourself your people your cause while your children go hungry and your environment is depleted?
It would be nice to pretend that that the Avatar story was just mere story on a screen: to enjoy, experience and be wooed by but it is a story that continues:
La Via Campesina
Durban Shack Dwelers
The National Family Farm Coalition
Movimento dos Trabalhadores sem Terra
Argentina Kraft Unions
The Indigenous Peoples Network
Indigenous Activists Criticize Proposed deal to save Rain forests.
Peruvian Police Accused of Massacring Indigenous Protesters in Amazon Jungle
Yaqui Indian pueblo of Potam in Sonora, Mexico and Petrochemicals
No Olympic Games on Stolen Ground
Australian Aborigines Nuclear Ground
Native American Land struggle.
Detailed List of Peasant Movements world wide
Book: new world on indigenous resistance
( This is a short list I generated off the top of my head...plenty more struggles to discuss these are just resent ones
Sadly when people leave the movie theater, deposit there 3D glasses and pitch their bags of butter and un-popped kernels they will think little of the story at large. We can find it in our hearts to care and be moved by the struggle of blue people but shades of brown (and white) we don't care for so much.
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