Avatar

I saw the multimillion dollar James Cameron’s blockbuster “Avatar” the other day. It’s a truly captivating story about an innocent humanoid Na'vi tribe being attacked by humans who are after some precious resource. The indigenous Na’vi people are blue and might look like aliens but the story seems very real. Raiding a foreign nation, killing its people just to exploit their land… sounds a lot like Chevron in Ecuador, doesn’t it?

Texaco came to Ecuador and pretended to be everyone’s friend. The company got the oil it wanted but it also contaminated the land and water and destroyed the lives of unsuspecting Ecuadorians.

I wish that story had a good ending! If only Chevron finally understood avoiding responsibility and refusing to bring any relief to the Ecuadorians is simply WRONG!

Here’s an interesting article comparing Na’vi’s struggle to what many small nations are going through while fighting against the big oil:

http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1222-hance_avatar.html