Addition to "Darwins Nightmare"

Thank you all for your contributions after the movie. Unfortunately so far the discussion did not go on after this evening, although certainly further exchange could be fruitful.

I am gonna make a short contribution: for those of you speaking German, it might be worth to check the Wikipedia article about the movie (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwins_Alptraum). The controversy around this movie is well documented with “external links”. If you follow the links to Arte, taz, or “Freundeskreis Bagamoyo” you will find the whole range of criticisms.

I am still sort of undecided. From a “scientific” point of view the movie has certainly distinct weaknesses. On the other hand it is art, and the main massage passed (“look, there is suffering in other parts of the world, and Europe is part of the cause”) holds true never the less.

I want to stress the point Katrin brought in, that education might be the only way out of the misery some people in Africa find them self in. One day later I talked to a friend of mine, who is very much engaged in “informal education” in Germany as well as in Africa. He does not run a highly-professional-mirror finish NGO, but he is very engaged and has interesting ideas. He always looks forward to talk to people and tries to motivate them to launch projects in there home countries:

http://www.edeju.de/english/Home_engl.html

Might be worth a visit, and maybe a first step from discussion into action!