DVD Review: "Mine Your Own Business" (2007)

Not too long ago, my good friend David over at Out In the Parking Lot reviewed a documentary, "Manufacturing Dissent", which takes America's phoniest filmmaker to task. In the Comments section, another pal, the Webber, agreed with David's take on the flick and said that if "Manufacturing Dissent" makes it to your town, readers ought to go.

Therein lies a key problem.

It probably won't make it to most people's towns, because the film world - art houses specifically - is anchored firmly on the left side of the political spectrum. This is why a few fellas and I decided to start up the Free Thinking Film Society here in Ottawa. The showing of "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" drew a healthy number of people to the Ottawa Public Library on a cold Monday night in late January, so we're following that up with "Mine Your Own Business", an hour-long investigation into the dark side of environmentalism.

In "Mine", an Irish filmmaker by the name of Phelim McAleer exposes the duplicity, propaganda, elitism, and anti-growth agenda that underpins some elements of the modern environmental movement. First, he travels to Romania where he takes a look at the attempt by a multinational corporation to transition a closed-up, polluting state-run mine from the Iron Curtain era to a new privately-owned gold-producing facility, and as McAleer soon finds out, environmental paternalists from other countries in Europe attempt to halt those efforts despite the local townspeople crying out for something - anything - to lift them out of poverty. During his travels in Romania, McAleer meets George, a twenty-something youth who lives in a one-bedroom apartment with his parents and five brothers and sisters.

McAleer and George then travel together to Madagascar to take a look at another example of eco-imperialists trying to prevent economic development from taking place. Here, another private mining company is attempting to invest $600 million in an impoverished seaside fishing community. Over 2,000 jobs are expected to be created along with a myriad number of infrastructure improvements as well, and despite hiring a former activist with CARE to make the case for development, the company can't sway other Greenpeace-esque NGO officials who have been fighting the proposal for 15 years, obtaining luxury homes and catamarans along the way while the locals have neither a steady income nor suitable housing.

Lastly, the two friends travel to Chile where another mine is under development over the objections of London-based do-gooders who admit that they've never been to the site but still find themselves able to pontificate about maintaining the locals' unique sense of spirituality (as 27,000 of those same locals apply for the 5,000 jobs the enterprise will create).

All of the locals are interviewed and all of them are in opposition to the perspectives espoused by the eco-imperialists, who insist that they know what's best for the people who live in these communities. So much for cultural affirmation and self-determination, I suppose. What is particularly galling is the moralizing lecture delivered by an American do-gooder in Madagascar to George about the nature of real wealth and the definition of poverty - this, to a fellow who doesn't have indoor plumbing at home!

Everyone who is interested in both the issue itself and honest debate for fairness' sake ought to take a look at "Mine Your Own Business", but don't expect to see it playing alongside "An Inconvenient Truth" anytime soon as part of a double bill at your local independent cinema. Luckily, interested people in Ottawa who want to check it out can do so by coming to the main branch of the Ottawa Public Library at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, May 29 where this will be showing at a cost of $6.00.

Keep an eye on this space for future announcements concerning the Free-Thinking Film Society, and challenge yourself to take in some unconventional media voices offering fresh perspectives which you might not agree with but will certainly leave you with something to take away.

Overall rating: 8/10

Wednesday digest

- According to this article, the Cuban health care system has two tiers, one for foreigners and Castro's buddies, and a second for regular folks - food, bed sheets and soap not included.

I wonder if that's going to make it into "Sicko".

- Speaking of the inspirational Mr. Moore, about 40 people came out to see "Mine Your Own Business" at the Ottawa Public Library last night, which isn't a bad crowd considering we had very little media attention and it was a stunningly beautiful evening.

If all goes according to plan, the Free-Thinking Film Society is going to have its next event in September featuring "Indoctrinate U", a documentary about the narrowness of debate on North American university campuses as we continue to bring alternatives to the "alternative" to Ottawa moviegoers.

- Usually one of the more sensible councillors in Ottawa, Maria McRae has come up with a very stupid suggestion and that's sending the Senators the bill for the cost of increased policing downtown during the Stanley Cup final. How typically Canadian - always finding a way to penalize success. I'd guess that with the increased economic activity in the city of Ottawa because of the Sens' run, the city can afford to cover it. Plus, I don't recall the Senators being the ones who decided to shut down Elgin Street. Besides, why not take the cash from some money-losing festival and use that to pay for it? Lord knows we have plenty of those.

- Yesterday, Hillary Clinton equated the concept of the "ownership society" with an "on your own" society and argued for more "fairness" while suggesting that "we're all in this together".

You know what that means? More and bigger government dipping into your pocket, corresponding to how much a success you make of yourself in life based on the choices and sacrifices you make and the hard work you put into your endeavours. But, for the Democratic front-runner, it seems she's suggesting that you should only get to enjoy the fruits of your labour after the state arbitrarily decides how much it needs to take in the name of coercion, paternalism and redistribution.

It's important to be aware of code words like those Clinton used yesterday and read between the lines, as Thomas Sowell points out here and here.

Meanwhile, a little tutorial on one of the foundations of shared prosperity - free trade, from John Stossel.

- With the deafening silence coming from the "international community", is it any wonder that Hugo Chavez is closing yet another TV station that is critical of his dictatorial Marxist regime?

- The last of the neocons makes the case for bombing Iran, here.

- We're just a few short weeks away from road trip season. Unfortunately, one I'd really like to take but can't would bring me to Pryor, Oklahoma for Rockfest, a three-day festival including the likes of Ratt, Slaughter, Winger, Skid Row, Faster Pussycat, Great White and LA Guns. All you can eat and drink VIP packages with reserved seating are $275.

Now that is awesome.

- Speaking of my youth, the flagship store of Sam the Record Man in Toronto is about to close. I remember going to the one on King Street in Kitchener back in grade 9, buying tapes like "Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits" that were priced at about $5.99 in sweeping orange writing by some kind of weird pen that only seemed to be used in record stores. I also took buses that were run by Sam's from Kitchener to a couple of shows in Toronto, like the GNR/Metallica/Faith No More tour that hit Exhibition Stadium in September 1992 and the Van Halen/Alice in Chains show at the Skydome in November 1991. The main outlet on Yonge in TO was also a mandatory stop during trips to Toronto for Jays games, shady head shops in search of fake ID or other shows like Motley Crue and Tesla in 1990, KISS in 1992 at Maple Leaf Gardens and Def Leppard at the same venue one month later. This was around the same time that the Tragically Hip's "Fully Completely" album cover was plastered in a huge mural on the side of Sam's facing south, and it wasn't soon after that that the Kingston bar band exploded.

And to think kids today are already nostalgic for Napster.

Saturday digest

- So Rosie O'Donnell has picked up her marbles and gone home after no one came to her defence after inferring that American troops were terrorists a couple of weeks back. Here's what she said back on May 17.

What's next for the Angry Left icon? I'm not sure, but I would suggest that there's an a opening here. With her "poor, fat, lesbian me" victim routine, she'd fit in quite nicely.

- Continuing the Liberal legacy of overtaxation, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conformatory federal government took in almost $14 billion dollars more than they needed to cover operating expenses last year. As I recall, there were no broad-based tax cuts in this spring's budget and only a token amount of debt repayment, so according to my admittedly amateurish math, that means the feds have basically stolen about $450 from every man, woman and child living in this country for no reason other than the simple fact that they can.

And on that note, here's the Neal Boortz graduation speech, just in time for spring convocation ceremonies that are about to take place all across the land.

- Pathetically, Quebec Premier Jean Charest played the race card in defending his budget this week. I suppose in la belle province, when your back is against the wall, your best course of action is to accuse your political opponent of being in bed with "les anglais".

- Thirty years ago this weekend, the first "Star Wars" movie was released. I wish I was born in 1960 - a summer full of KISS concerts, a brand-new baseball team in Toronto to cheer for, sneaking stubbies into the drive-in to see the Death Star explode while listening to Boston's debut album, Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" and "Hotel California" all summer long?

That's the stuff that dreams are made of for this guy.

- Finally, a friendly reminder that this Tuesday evening, May 29 at 7:00 PM, the Free-Thinking Film Society is going to be showing the hour-long documentary "Mine Your Own Business" in the auditorium at the main branch of the Ottawa Public Library.

Cost is $6.00.

Tuesday digest

- Mentally unbalanced see no evil, hear no evil "peace" activist Cindy Sheehan, pictured above with Marxist dictator Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, is pulling a Rosie O'Donnell and quitting. Among her reasons: America is descending into a "fascist, corporate wasteland" and the sacrifice implicit in her hunger strike last summer, the one which included smoothies and coffee with ice cream, when she "almost died", went unrecognized. (With that kind of ego, is it any wonder she chose Memorial Day, a day to remember those who have given their lives for freedom, to hold a pity party for herself? She has no limits when it comes to exploitation.) Sheehan is also offering up "Camp Casey" for sale, the Crawford, Texas protest site where she allegedly buried her uterus, apparently so she could be one with the earth for all eternity.

I hope this delusional woman gets the help she so obviously needs.

- The federal Liberal party is proposing a three-month freeze on foreign takeovers of Canadian companies. I suppose this means that they believe that pre-West Jet-era Air Canada is the business model to which all captains of industry in the Great White North should aspire.

- The province of Quebec, with North America's biggest public sector, highest rates of regulation, most punitive tax rates and most militant unions is lagging behind when it comes to economic growth and is projected to face steep decline over the medium to long term future. Clearly, statism has led to deep trouble, but this hasn't stopped Quebec's opposition parties from threatening Premier Jean Charest with defeat because of the reform-oriented budget that he introduced earlier this month.

- The bottom fifth of earners in America saw an 80% increase in income from 1991 to 2005, in no small part because of welfare reform.

- Final reminder that tonight is the Free Thinking Film Society's showing of "Mine Your Own Business", a documentary about the hidden costs of the environmentalist agenda, being held at the main branch of the Ottawa Public Library at 7 PM. Cost is $6.00.