just one man, just one bucket
Darwin’s Nightmare. [ a documentary by hubert sauper]
The story goes that early in the 1960’s, a few Nile Perch were introduced into Lake Victoria, the second largest lake in the world situated in northern Tanzania, by a curious man with a bucket. So treachorous would this curiosity prove to be that some 40 years later the predatory fish has wipped out just about every other species in the lake, contributing to its own impending downfall through the subsequent eutrofication of the waters. Unfortunately, by this time the Tanzanian fisherman are completely dependent on the perch for survival. And no, not so they can actually have something to eat for themselves but so they can sell it dirt cheap to Europe while their own people starve to death, comforted only by the fumes of the very plastic used to transport said fish across the sea as they melt it and sniff it like glue. As if this wasn’t hell enough, the foreign cargo planes exporting the fish don’t come into Africa as empty as they seem, smuggling tanks and amution to Sudan, Uganda and the Congo before they swing by Tanzania for a little extra profit.
I defy you to walk out of this film feeling anything less than blessed that you were born into the kind of life you live, guilt stricken and helpless at the knowledge that we’re all on the wrong side of this losing battle and yet desperate to help somehow despite the seeming impossibility of change. After all, if the supposed birthplace of humankind has become such a nightmare, then where are the rest of us headed? By far the most sobering and powerful film I’ve seen in, well, ever.
