Avatar director James Cameron called 'misguided'

ForeignPolicy.com article Pandora's Box brandished the efforts of Avatar director James Cameron and featured actress Sigourney Weaver in Brazil as 'misguided.' The two joined environmental advocacy group Amazon Watch in the endeavor to block the construction of the Belo Monte dam, a dam in Para, Brazil which will flood 248.4 miles of forest and farming land. The article's author Conor Foley calls Cameron "a serious irritant for Brazilians on all sides of the issue." To learn more about Foley's position read the full article, Pandora's Box.

The article's author makes an interesting point in his closing argument when he says, "Brazilians do care about the environment, but many find the idea that they should be "pressurized into taking a stand" by international campaigners deeply offensive and patronizing...But this is not a battle between the Na'vi and the Unobtanium-greedy earthlings, and Cameron should beware of confusing real life with cartoon fiction." To some degree I can see underpinnings of an anthropological mantra, one that directly opposes the idea that we, as outsiders, can tell a native people what is best for them.

This argument I can agree with and wish that more of the world's do-gooders would be cognizant of the fact that riding in on white stallions with money and high-handed advice isn't always the best way to help those in need. But when he wholly disregards the efforts of figures like James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver, I find such discreditation unfounded. You will find in the article that when the dam project began some two decades ago, native Brazilians were vocalizing opposition on their own. Granted it is important for crusading samaritans to constantly be sensitive to the needs of the people their helping, but I hardly find anything misguided about the director and actress helping give a voice to a people who were already shouting.