Avatar - A truly remarkable movie reflecting the true events that had already happened or is happening around us today in this world. Is there such a hero like Jake Sully in reality? May be there is. Of course, Hollywood exaggerated how the hero won the battle. The story tells us how a Mat Salleh (white man) made his way into the indigenous rainforest tribes and being accepted into the tribe in a short span of time. Not only just being accepted as part of the tribe but made as a leader too.
In reality, there is really such a Mat Salleh that portrayed the Jake Sully character. And this Mat Salleh is Bruno Manser.
The Swiss guy who came to rescue the Sarawak's indigenous Penan people from losing their precious rainforest to logging. Bruno's anti-logging activities had become a pest to the Malaysian government and henceforth, Bruno became the public enemy number one. Bruno did not have the same fate like the exaggerated hero Jake Sully. He did not win the battle nor did he marry the daughter of the tribal head. Bruno became a wanted man and he either went missing or dead. Up till now, the world do not know the whereabout of Bruno. Bruno may not be as lucky as Jake Sully but Bruno did make an impact by drawing the world's attention on the deforestation of our precious rainforest. Read more on Penan's plight
Avatar, the movie, is a true reflection of us and how greed can turn homosapiens into murderers of native people just to harvest or rob the precious mineral rocks. This reminds me of a friend who told me about Congo and the killings for cobalt and diamonds. Read more on What the world owes Congo
In summary, Avatar did leave some impact on me. It has sort of given me the inspiration to take a step towards being an activist. Me an activist? That will be a thousand miles journey before I can even get to the amateur stage for I have yet to discover this thing called "COURAGE". Never mind, I will watch Avatar again.
Ignore what the critics said about this movie and what good or bad stuffs that James Cameron had done. Just watch this movie. To the people who love development and destroying the rainforest, it will be a sin for you if you don't watch this movie.
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Good one buddy.. thanks for the reminder re Bruno.. other than the Penans & Congo, there were also the copper mines in Papua New Guinea/Irian Jaya & oil in Ecuador/Peru.. both had affected the jungle tribes immensely.. also what about the oils in the middle east? these people may not be jungle 'tribes' but they are somewhat indigenous too..
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