About This Video
In 1998 WORLDwrite Brazil exchange participants made their first film. To mark the 10th anniversary the charity has digitised their work. Many of the lessons learned and discussions raised remain remarkably pertinent 10 years on. This interview with a Brazilian agronomist sums up the films message :
"Imagine that the history of the world had been different. Imagine that the renaissance, the explosion of scientific knowledge and the agricultural revolution has not taken place in Europe but in one of the tropical countries. We'd visit the vast prairies of the United States, like you visit the Amazon, and tell you that there was no chance of ever building farms there, that the winters were too hard and that there were not enough nutrients in the soil to support regular harvesting. We'd tell you that your only hope was to learn from the native Indians. You should leave the prairies to grass and each year just hunt a number of buffalo guided by strict ecological principles. We'd tell you that to try anything different would destroy the ecosystem for ever. Yes, if history had been a little bit different, that's how it would have turned out. We'd have been providing the stupid advice."
For more please visit www.worldwrite.org.uk/brazil
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andrew2544
8 months ago 0 + -Great assertion of the idea of putting people first. Proof that meeting people from across the world broadens the mind.
snejanka
8 months ago 0 + -Yes, putting people first makes sense, but we have to ask which people are we talking about, and who really benefits. Most of the development projects the Brazilian state( together with the big businesses) has undertaken since the 1950s have benefited few, mainly the elite( local and global), the big land owners, but has done very little for the marginal, really poor populations, like the small scale peasants, cabocols or Indians. In fact, these groups have been systematically exploited, violently displaced, or even killed, in the name of " Development".
snejanka
8 months ago 0 + -In a country where 90% of the land is owned by 2% of the population, the inequalities are as much structural as economic, so I think the real quesion is not so much the environment vs the people, but certain people vs others, and especially those who benefit from keeping the status quo as it is. If anyone should have a say as to what should happen with the Amazon, that's the people who actually live there, but that is and has not been the case, esp, for the really marginal, poor groups who have no real say when it comes to BIg Business interests.
doddycaz
8 months ago 0 + -Is it me, or do some things seem like nothing has changed in the 10 years since this film was made?
worldwri...
6 months ago 0 + -Wow,.... AGAIN this is a radically different perspective.
See,.... my degree was in applied Ecology and i was pretty much of the view that industrialisation of the amazonian rainforest WAS THE biggest issue facing the planet.
But in hindsight so few people actually really change their consumption in any meaningful way based on this belief. Even an ecologist like me who ideologically agreed with the 'green' argument missed the 'people issue' bigtime.
So now i get it..... how is that gonna change my life?
worldwri...
6 months ago 0 + -Well from what i understand South American countries have governments who, for the most part, dont have great records with regards to distribution of wealth. Thats probably very similar to governments elsewhere eh?
So i guess, if the poor continuing to eak out a living with rubber or logging or mining or whatever, and someday we all start gasping for air due to lack of oxygen we will have to wake up to the 'people issues'. The sooned we wake up to the people issues the better. So in one sense 'the sooner we are gasping for air the better'.
worldwri...
6 months ago 0 + -It's like natural justice. Though i dont like the idea of me or my friends choking, it would most certainly cause a reaction in the halls of power. However, if the destruction of the amazonian rainforest really does become a critical issue i imagine the poor people in this film will not benifit from the reaction.
The great thing about this film is that it shows that there are young people interested in using their holiday time to highlight the real issues in these countries. Its great that instead of contributing to the tourist industry of some highly developed economy they choose to spend time listening to and representing the workers of Brasil.
This film changes my view on holidays abroad and helps me to see the value of 'worldwrite' as a youth project..