Reply #1: Interesting development. The poor tribespeople had given up. Then Cameron arrived!

[Peace Patriot]

None of them had seen the movie. But when they heard Cameron was coming, they got hold of a DVD and watched it, and said, "Hey, that's us!"

This is what artists SHOULD BE DOING, when they can--supporting the poorest of the poor, saving their environment, and saving our only home, Planet Earth.

Latin American countries with vast poor--and often displaced--populations face excruciating dilemmas with regard to development and natural resources. I think of the case of Venezuela, where previous rightwing governments pursued policies of great neglect and malfeasance, creating a rich urban elite dependent on the oil money and imported products and culture, and utterly failed to provide education, health care and other bootstrapping for the vast poor majority, who were driven from their farms by rich landowners, and also neglected local manufacturing and food production, and other bottom line provisions for a healthy economy and decent society. The Chavez government renegotiated the oil contracts with the multinationals, to give Venezuela and its social programs a much better deal, and has been pursuing many forward-looking policies, yet Venezuela is still dependent for half its government budget on a substance--oil--that pollutes the oceans and the air. The new leftist presidents, elected all over Latin America--such as Chavez in Venezuela and Lula da Silva in Brazil (who are close allies) all face this dilemma, in one way or another. It is, as I said, excruciating. There are no easy solutions. They MUST feed, house, educate and "bootstrap" the poor majority. But how?