They're invisible, odorless, tasteless. They travel the globe on the winds, in the food chain. They're insidious and deadly. They're P.O.P.s--Persistent Organic Pollutants, such as dioxin, DTT and PCBs, the stuff of pesticides, and the byproduct of industrial waste disposal. Drum Beat for Mother Earth is a passionate, but ultimately unsatisfactory, attempt to demonstrate the devastating impact of POPs on the culture and health of indigenous peoples from Alaska to South America. The case is made that the continuing despoliation of the environment by POPs and other causes have meant not only a drastic increase in health problems, but also the loss of fundamental ways of life and identity. While the dangers of POPs to native cultures cannot be denied, the implication throughout this video that this deadly impact is greater for indigenous peoples because of their closer and more integrative and spiritual relationship to the environment is over-romanticized foolishness. Toxic racism, including the exportation of toxic substances to developing nations, and selectively lax industrial regulatory enforcement in minority communities is a major global problem. However, to equate POP contamination of Indian homelands with the conscious genocidal anti-Indian governmental policies of the 19th century, is just plain disingenuous: the corporate perpetrators of these environmental crimes don't give a damn WHOM they kill; POPs threaten us all, regardless of ethnic or racial background or history. The combination of sloppy organization and half-answered questions leaves one hoping for a more competent and intelligent treatment of this pressing subject. A marginal acquisition at best. Aud: C, P. (G. Handman)
Drum Beat for Mother Earth
(1999) 54 min. $250. Bullfrog Films. PPR. Color cover. ISBN: 1-56029-817-0. Vol. 15, Issue 6
Drum Beat for Mother Earth
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