Under-Appreciated People Five: The real N’avi. The people of Kalahandi, India, saw the film Avatar and recognised it as their story. The land they had lived in peacefully for thousands of years – and considered sacred – was in their eyes being destroyed and pillaged by a Western bauxite mining corporation called Vedanta, whose majority owner lives in luxury in Mayfair.
The local protesters didn’t give up. They appealed for international solidarity, so Vedanta meetings in London were besieged by people dressed as N’avi. The Indian government finally responded to co-ordinated global democratic pressure and agreed that the corporation had acted “in total contempt of the law”. The real N’avi won. They saved their land.
In 2011 we could all benefit from turning off the tinny, shrill newszak and hearing more real news about people like this – so we can resolve to be a little more like them.
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Dissenting Avatar.
Proof that even the stupidest cultural artifact, if distributed widely enough, enables.
From Johann Hari’s article on the year’s underappreciated people.
