While others enjoyed it, I fell in to a slight depressed state after watching AVATAR.
Yeah sure, I also did the "Uuww"s and "Aahhww"s! But that's not something new, and there is nothing I can add more to this side of the story either than it is a totally recommended movie to all.
Now here is my point on my depression.
Remember that job I was offered, and didn't want, and kinda want again? Well I got accepted. Now I am on the verge of thinking should I leave Wetar or not. A lot of my colleagues think it's a waste of time to think about this, there should be no doubt that I should move. But...
I've been trying to compare both jobs constantly, also been seeking for mere unimportant signs, and praying for an answer to the Al Mighty. But I have yet made a firm decision. For those that don't understand my confusion, Avatar might help you.
Avatar is about mining (or corporations, what ever scale it may be) and I happen to work in it. And as harsh as the movie pictures mining to be it, the reality is as real as it is! All from the money digging corporate, all the way to the native surviving locals. Everything you see is real! IT'S REAL PEOPLE! You think it's sci fi? It's not! It's real. Just because the Na'vi (which maybe is derived from the word native???) are blue, doesn't mean they don't represent another race of humans! Through my eyes, there is nothing sci fi about the movie :(
So what has it got to do with my new job offer and my slight depression? Let's make it short:
1. This new job offer, it's coal. Now coal has a reputation for taking up a LOT of area for production. This is also due to the characteristic of coal that exist in mass volumes. Mass murder as greenies would say, and to the ecological world, that's just plain harsh! When you see people evicted in slum areas, opening up large amount of forest at once is similar. I'm not saying that animals and plants are the same as middle lower class, but they both have no saying in the process. It's a mass wipe out. Just like in the movie, a lot of species die. While mineral mining still have a choice because it's a waste of money to do the unnecessary work thus, opening just enough land for production.
2. The corporate people are describe to be so cold hearted to kill the natives. The reality is, although probably not in Wetar, but a lot of mines (and may I add, a lot of other industries considering a lot of land such as logging, plantations etc) do 'smoke' out the native people. Guns are a choice of weapon. It sounds really cruel, and it is. But considering our lifestyle and the needs we have today, somebody has got to do it.
It's pragmatically unfair that some people really have to be the front line for other people's luxury. For the money? Sure! But it doesn't mean there is no other sacrifices. They have to deal with the remoteness, the limited circumstances, far from their loved ones, the naive natives that want to live on their own land, and deal with the horror look on the natives face once they are evicted by force. They have to do it.
And probably, by the end of the day, or the movie, some people would curse mining and these people in the front line. No matter what they have to go through, no matter how many mouths they have to feed, and no matter how much threat they have to deny. It's pragmatically unfair that miners are cursed. Which comes to the last point:
3. People just watch the movie, even text messaging and making calls during it! It's just a cool movie to watch for them. After that... they go home. They probably would discuss about it, again cursing mining and what they do, and then do their daily lives the next second. So?
God knows why people don't realize that this is happening to day. Mining and all it's crap is happening. It will always be happening because of one simple thing... demand! (Some would say to spin the wheel of economy but poteto potahto) As said in the movie, 1 kg Unobotanium (is it?) cost 20 billion dollars. People somewhere on earth wants it bad! Same to all minerals and oil and gas today. There is a high demand for it.
When it comes down to... what are we (as in me and you, and everyone else) using in our daily lives that is so important to create such war in paradise? What? A question that you and I should ask ourselves. Is it all worth it? If it is... then take the consequences, and don't be blind and simply blame others.
I'm just another person talking crap about the environment.. I hope I never stop talking about it, since many have stopped caring.
