Anyway, funny side-story: the film stars Chad Allen, an openly gay actor. The conservative Christian base that was supposed to be The End of the Spear’s target audience turned against the filmmakers because of this. Just casting a gay actor in the film, even though all the other filmmakers were conservative Christians who opposed gay rights and the script contained no hint of homosexuality whatsoever, was enough for a full-fledged boycott.

The one real propaganda thing that I noticed. In the movie it is indicated that the tribe was killing itself off because of their ritualized retribution. In the documentary trailer it is indicated that the Oil Companies were killing them off because they had resisted encroachment into their territory in the usual way (raiding and spearing).

Yeah, that would have been the kind of thing that he civilization-addicted latte-liberals in the “LJ” Peak Oil community in whic I post would have been tripping all over themselves to throw in my face. (Let me put it this way: That bunch thinks that Native Americans were defecting from their tribes in droves to join civilization, as opposed to white people in the colonies “going native”, which actually happened.) When I saw the movie, I simply thought, “Well, every tribe is different, and tribes in rough environments may well be predisposed towards more aggression.”

I’m not surprised to hear that just wasn’t true, though I’m sure the LJ latte-liberals would keep on thinking it was even when you tried to tell them it wasn’t.

I actually really liked the tail-end segment. I thought it helped show up some of the superficiality of life in the States, but that may have just been me….

I think I actually might have appreciated it on that level, too. It was definitely an opportunity for a little smirking for those of us who know what’s really going on and how things really work.

Yeah, that, I would agree, is some propaganda, no doubt….

I did think the retribution thing seemed a bit odd, but it was nothing I could specifically put my finger on, so I wrote it off. I shouldn’t have done that…

The one real propaganda thing that I noticed. In the movie it is indicated that the tribe was killing itself off because of their ritualized retribution. In the documentary trailer it is indicated that the Oil Companies were killing them off because they had resisted encroachment into their territory in the usual way (raiding and spearing).

JimFive

I’m not completely sure I would call it civilization propaganda, but then I’ve gotten really good at ignoring that stuff!

I actually really liked the tail-end segment. I thought it helped show up some of the superficiality of life in the States, but that may have just been me….

A few weeks ago, I saw a movie called The End of the Spear. It was basically missionary/ civilization proppaganda involving a tribe of primitive peoples in the Amazon, and its supposedly based on a true story. The tail-end segment was just weird. It featured the real-life primitive character being taken to the grocery store in America by the real-life missionary and how wowed the primitive guy was by the whole thing. My response to that would be to suggest that people read Richard Manning’s “The Oil We Eat” so that they can be made to realize that big, impressive set-up at the grocery store ain’t gonna last forever.

Venezuela is a leading oil supplier to the US, but Mr Chavez is seeking to develop diversified energy ties with the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia.

The Petrocaribe initiative aims to reduce the prices Caribbean nations pay for oil imports. Venezuela already gives preferential treatment to communist Cuba and other nations.

Venezuela’s state oil firm PDVSA has created an affiliate, PDV Caribe, to implement the initiative.

Mr Chavez has pledged highly preferential oil prices, with Caracas picking up 40% of the cost if oil is selling at more than $50 a barrel, as it is now.

He has promised further concessions to the Petrocaribe signatories if prices hit the $100 a barrel mark.

[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4219190.stm]link[/url]