"Mine
Your Own Business" exposes the dark side of environmentalism. The documentary
hacks away at the cosy image of environmentalists' as well meaning, harmless
activists. *Mine Your Own Business* is the first documentary which asks
the hard questions of foreigners who lead campaigns to "save"
remote areas from development. Their answers are often disturbing, with
racist overtones, but we, in the west, blindly support such campaigns that
want to keep people in poverty. Now for the first time "Mine Your Own
Business" asks local people about their lives and what they want for
the future.
Their answers are very often different from what the foreign environmentalists
say and what is reported in the mainstream international media.
"Mine Your Own Business" is a journey through the dark side of
environmentalism. It demolishes the cosy consensus that environmentalists
are well meaning agenda free activists and shows them to be anti-development
ideologues who think the poor are happy being poor and don't want the development
that we, in the west, take for granted.
"Mine Your Own Business" goes beyond the voice of the foreign
environmentalists that we so often hear in the media and meets those who
will be most affected by these projects and the well-run campaigns against
them.
"Mine Your Own Business" follows George, a 23-year-old unemployed
miner from northern Romania whose life has been put on hold after an anti-mining
campaign orchestrated by foreign environmentalists. George explains his
hopes and dreams for the future - which are different from those prescribed
for him by foreign environmentalists. He then travels to other impoverished
communities in Madagascar and Chile who are also desperately waiting for
large mining projects. George finds people similar to himself with similar
hopes and dreams of a decent job and house and a decent education and better
life for their children.
"Mine Your Own Business" will be hugely controversial as it makes
us all think about the unintended consequences of blindly supporting environmentalist/anti-development
campaigns across the globe. It is a challenge to the cosy consensus that
allows westerners to deny progress to those who need it most. |