January 18, 2007

Greenpeace Seeks to Squelch Speech

It's been said by others that the Left likes free speech, but only if you speak in agreement with them, and the environmentalist organization Greenpeace is providing more evidence that is true. Greenpeace is trying to squelch speech that it doesn't agree with by pressuring the National Geographic Society to cancel a screening next week of the documentary Mine Your Own Business, which looks at how foreign environmentalists' opposition to a proposed mining project in the village of Rosia Montana, Romania, is contributing to the continued poverty for the people of the village near the proposed mine.

National Geo didn't produce the documentary, mind you, and probably doesn't agree with its content - they just rented the theater to the movie's producers for an evening. And, judging from the comments of the National Geo spokesperson quoted in the story, the National Geographic Society still respects freedom of speech and the right to hold - and express - a different point of view.

According to the director of the film, "Mine Your Own Business is the first documentary to take a hard look at the environmental movement, and what we found was not pretty. Activists believe that people in remote areas are 'poor but happy.' They think that development will spoil their idyllic rural existence. But I've been there, and poverty is neither charming nor quaint, nor is it a lifestyle choice."

In New York, environmental activists are apparently organizing to disrupt the screening.

Perhaps a sequel to Mine Your Own Business will examine the various ways environmental activist groups try to squelch or disrupt the speech of their opposition.

The movie is being screened in New York City on Friday night and in Washington DC on Wednesday Jan. 24. The screenings are sold out, I'm told. The directors and producers of the film will be there to answer questions and discuss their experiences in Rosia Montana, where the majority of people support the mine and the 600-plus jobs it would bring.

I'm hoping they'll add more screenings around the country as I missed a chance to see it last October when it played at Vanderbilt University here in Nashville.

You can view the trailer by clicking the movie poster image above, or on YouTube. or on YouTube. You can read more about the film and the issues surrounding it on Persistence of Vision, the blog of the Moving Picture Institute.