To draw global attention to the battle over Borneo's "soul", a documentary titled Project Borneo 3D: The Rise of the Eco-Warriors is being filmed to show what DeforestAction can do to bring about meaningful change in Borneo.
I do not doubt the good intentions of Dr Willie Smits and the Eco-Warriors, nor disparage the efforts of DeforestAction. However, the documentary teaser makes me uncomfortable for several reasons: slick editing to show scenes of environmental destruction, how Dayaks are portrayed (bordering on romanticised notions), emotional manipulation of the audience and the lack of a clear Dayak voice vis-a-vis other voices in the documentary.
Hopefully, when it is completed, the documentary is much more than all this. Otherwise, it risks oversimplifying the issue and adopting a saviour attitude that is becoming pervasively inherent in advocacy - most recently exemplified by the (now controversial) KONY 2012 video. Please don't go down that path.
What all this tells us, in the words of Don Tapscott, is how "Old approaches are stalled and multi-stakeholder networks are emerging as a powerful force to fix a broken world". Nonetheles, media hype and "liking" something on Facebook are very different from intelligent advocacy, which is becoming something of a rarity these days.
I do not doubt the good intentions of Dr Willie Smits and the Eco-Warriors, nor disparage the efforts of DeforestAction. However, the documentary teaser makes me uncomfortable for several reasons: slick editing to show scenes of environmental destruction, how Dayaks are portrayed (bordering on romanticised notions), emotional manipulation of the audience and the lack of a clear Dayak voice vis-a-vis other voices in the documentary.
Hopefully, when it is completed, the documentary is much more than all this. Otherwise, it risks oversimplifying the issue and adopting a saviour attitude that is becoming pervasively inherent in advocacy - most recently exemplified by the (now controversial) KONY 2012 video. Please don't go down that path.
What all this tells us, in the words of Don Tapscott, is how "Old approaches are stalled and multi-stakeholder networks are emerging as a powerful force to fix a broken world". Nonetheles, media hype and "liking" something on Facebook are very different from intelligent advocacy, which is becoming something of a rarity these days.
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