In the blur of statistics that supposedly gauge the economic impact of global trade, one often forgets the people who are living with the daily realities by such transactions. "Darwin's Nightmare" will not let you do that.
While filmmaker Hubert SauperWas explores the nuances of life in Tanzania's Great Lakes region, reputed to be the birthplace of human beings, he comes across an ex-school teacher living in an impoverished camp on the banks of Lake Victoria.
This is his version of Africa's reality. "Earlier, the world fought over African land. Today, it fights over limited resources. It's about the survival of the strongest. And Europe is strong because it owns the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund)," the man says.
The Great Lakes region has been lauded for its economic growth, spurred by the export of the Nile Perch species of fish. Ironically, the very fish introduced as a scientific experiment went on to voraciously consume every native species of fish in the lake. What is left is a precarious industry, zealously exporting its produce until it runs out.
On the surface, the fishing industry is a blessing to the area. Factories operating according to strict European Union regulations employ people in the community. Almost all the locals are fishermen recruited to capture the Nile Perch.
Huge Soviet-era cargo planes make their way daily to Mwanza to export the highly valued fish fillets. As one factory owner puts it, "it is the fish that makes it possible for employment of people all around the area".
From miles around, impoverished villagers flock to the region for employment. The poverty they find there leads to the dysfunctions of an uprooted society -- prostitution, drugs and illness. Homeless street children sniff glue and squabble over food. In a village a distance away from town, a young wife bemoans the loss of her husband to AIDS, knowing well that she will likely be the next victim.
Thus, the focus shifts from abstract processes and structures to the real lives of people. And in the nuances of these revelations are the disguised problems of seemingly successful economic growth.
A young prostitute relates the necessity of education to enable her to escape her circumstances. By the end of the film, she is murdered by an Australian client.
A Christian priest cites the illiteracy of the population as a reason for the spread of AIDS. When asked if he advises his congregation to use condoms, his responds that, "Sex is a sin, like homosexuality. So we cannot preach such advice."
The larger issues begin to be revealed in the simplest of circumstances. At an environmental conference, a documentary shows the dangers of reliance on the Nile Perch species. A spectator sums up the conclusions of the meeting: "We must weigh the negative and positive, and if the positive is greater, then it is alright to sell your country."
A more sinister reality also underlies the situation. Cargo planes that come from Europe presumably arrive empty. But the low security actually enables global arms profiteering.
The planes carry arms for the ongoing conflict in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, known to be one of the bloodiest in the world. A Russian pilot, close to tears, confesses: "We take back fish for the children of Europe and we bring arms to the children of Africa."
The radios broadcast a looming famine in central Tanzania, with U.N. agencies desperately seeking funds to avert food shortages. Yet every day, tonnes of fish leave Tanzania to feed Europeans. What is left are fish carcasses, which are sorted in conditions of extreme filth and distributed to local Tanzanians.
Filmmaker Hubert SauperWas sums up the situation. "After hundreds of years of slavery and colonisation of Africa, the globalisation of African markets is the third and deadliest humiliation for the people of this continent."
"It is incredible that wherever prime raw material is discovered, the locals die in misery, their sons become soldiers, and their daughters are turned into servants and whores," he says. "I could make the same kind of movie in Sierra Leone, only the fish would be diamonds, in Honduras, bananas, and in Libya, Nigeria or Angola, crude oil."
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