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Darwin's Nightmare
DVD Examines Disastrous Effect of Globalization on Africa
Review by Kam Williams
 In
the 1960s, European venture capitalists introduced Nile perch to the
waters of Tanzania's Lake Victoria, the world's largest tropical
lake. Over the next few decades, this omnivorous, predatory killing
machine multiplied rapidly, gradually gobbling up every other
species that lived there to the point of extinction.
Despite the disastrous effect on the once-teeming habitat, the
experiment in bio-engineering turned into a business bonanza for
Russia which now transports about two million pounds of perch out of
the impoverished African country annually. A nasty, neo-colonial
relationship has evolved in which Russia reaps the benefits of the
harvest, while the natives can no longer support themselves by
living off either the lake or the land.
Darwin's Nightmare is a damning documentary which contrasts European
greed and decadence with the fallout visited upon Africa due to the
relentless rape of its natural resources in the name of profit. This
poignant picture presents a barren wasteland where unemployment and
famine have combined to ruin not only the economy and culture but
family structure, too.
Invariably, the African women we encounter, here, are high and
practicing prostitution, surrendering their bodies in exchange for
favors from the relatively-wealthy white males working in the
fishing industry. Meanwhile, the bulk of the black men are
unemployed and forced to commit crimes to survive, while their
children have been reduced to homeless, glue-sniffing drug addicts.
All of the perch taken out of the lake is exported, except for
maggot-ridden fish heads discarded in the manufacturing process. The
saddest scene, perhaps, shows one desperate soul saying he actually
hopes for a war of some sort to break out, since this would mean he
could land a job as a soldier.
Welcome to globalization's New World Order.
 Excellent
Unrated
In English, Russian and Swahili with subtitles.
Running time: 111 minutes
Distributor: Image Entertainment
DVD Extras: Interview with director Hupert Sauper, plus theatrical
trailers.
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Lloyd Kam Williams
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 Lloyd
Kam Williams is a syndicated film and book critic who
writes for 100+ publications around the U.S. and Canada. He is a member of
the African-American Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics
Online, the NAACP Image Awards Nominating Committee, and Rotten Tomatoes. In
addition to a BA in Black Studies from Cornell, he has an MA in English from
Brown, an MBA from The Wharton School, and a JD from Boston University. Kam
lives in Princeton, NJ with his wife and son.
IMDiversity.com is committed to presenting diverse points of view.
However, the viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of
the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or
employees at IMD.
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