Avatar Assessment
Task 1: Describe Jonathan Glennie’s opinion about the film Avatar
Jonathan Glennie is right that local communities do oppose extractive projects but as a person who has visited a lot of these places, you can see it is a lot more complex than is presented in Avatar. Glennie is very biased towards the indigenous people because he talks about how displaced and how badly the indigenous people culture and environment are treated. He only talks about what the indigenous people believe. Glennie is very affectionate and a caring person towards the indigenous people. In the end of statement made Glennie admits that “we need oil, wood, gold, diamonds, copper”.
On the other hand Glennie puts a strong statement. Glennie made a good point “But you can't just say "no" – you also need a positive "yes" to a different type of development, both to maintain unity and to save that national and international support”. This shows that Glennie wants to find a diplomatic solution when companies want to mine for resources. The indigenous people’s land is being destroyed by companies. The indigenous people have a cultural and spiritual bond between their lands. Economic and resource value drive the companies’ such to destroy the indigenous people’s land. This not only destroys their land but their cultural and spiritual practices. The point Glennie is trying to say is that stop destroying the indigenous people’s land just for economic reasons. People value and their culture are more important.
Glennie gives examples that happen to this day “In August, the Indian government suspended the Vedanta mining company's plan to mine Niyamgiri, a land sacred to the Dongria Kondh tribe”. At the end of the passage Glennie quotes “But are we prepared to see people die and their cultures die out?” Whilst local people do often care about local environments, and maintaining traditions, they rarely just want things to stay the same, which is the idea you´d get