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Crude

When I listen to people talk about heaven I get this feeling that St. Peter is a really sloppy doorman. It might be easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle but when it comes to those you love and yourself, old Pete is going to lift the velvet rope and look the other way even though you don’t meet the dress code. Now, I have read most of the rule books, and it will be closer to Ralph Edwards’ “This Is Your Life.” That television show was a biography where a celebrity or public figure would be surprised by being presented with family members, old friends, and acquaintances from their past with often the goal being to reduce the person to tears. Edwards usually introduced each of the mystery persons with the line, “Do you recognize this voice?” Unlike the Edwards fluff pieces, Peter’s bios would turn into a Flannery O’Connor-like gothic acid trip, with a trap door opening in the clouds beneath the person sending them to hell, complete with canned applause. Everybody likes to think of themselves as good people, but the Greek chorus of condemnation would be voices that we never heard in life.

If you listen to the far right, we are a Christian nation, but if we are, then we are Jesus’ black sheep, red-headed stepchild that probably has not been included in his last will and testament. What am I saying? Whether we like it or not, at times, we are a predatory nation, a wolf among sheep. We like to pat ourselves on the back as the city on the hill, the light of freedom in a dark world, and we are. We have also done some nasty, nasty stuff and for the most part our “liberal” media makes sure these violated voices stay silent. Like the old saying that you should not go into the kitchen if you don’t want to know how the meal is prepared, the government and news media treat the average American like a Victorian-aged female who needs to be protected and sheltered. How many of us would have been in favor of the Iraq War if the nightly news showed pictures of Middle Eastern hospitals filled with children caught in our crossfire. More babies, easily tenfold, have died as a result of our actions than human beings that died on 9/11. How many flag wavers would still be in favor of enhanced interrogation techniques, aka torture, if perky Katie Couric showed the tips we picked up from Stalin and then actually interviewed those who were innocent (and there are a lot of them)? It is easy to be for tax cuts because there is no “way back” machine sending images of our children and grandchildren paying for our party. How often is the average American informed of our monkey business in other nations? Everyone loves a deal, but how great would that designer flock fit if we were actually taken into the sweatshops were they are produced or taken into the third world factories to see how the cheap crap that fill our superstores is made? It is why someone, like former Speaker of the House Tom DeLay, can be lionized as a wonderful Christian and all for family values and still push for policies that sell third world women into inhuman conditions and prostitution.

It is called corporate, systemic or communal sin. While you personally might not do an evil or unjust act, when you profit or benefit from that action, you bear its sin or if your attitude permits an unjust action, you are tainted by it. We are a society that thrives on cheap energy, especially oil, and when it starts not to be cheap, we get a little worked up. Huge companies have been created to promote and meet these needs at a nice profit. As the demand has increased and the search for the supply has expanded, in order to keep prices, low environmental precautions are often overlooked and native peoples exploited. The documentary Crude details one such case.

It is a real David and Goliath story. In one corner is the oil giant Chevron. Headquartered in San Ramon (San Francisco), it is the fourth biggest energy company in the world with operations in 180 countries, over 59,000 employees, and more political strength than you can imagine. In the other corner five Ecuadoran rainforest tribes, around 30,000 people in all, who, in the great scheme of things, have very little power. The field of combat is a court of law. Depending on how it ends, it has all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster, something John Grisham would have penned. The case is about basic morality as director Joe Berlinger stated, “We as a society fill our gas tanks but don't think where these products come from. It's our moral responsibility to know. I hope that's what people get out of this film.” So what is the case?

It has been called the “Amazon Chernobyl,” ‘two Exxon Valdez’ and a modern “black plague.” Over 18 billion gallons of toxic oil waste have been dumped or left in 2.5 million acres of tribal land of the Amazon poisoning the people and the area. For almost three decades, the Texaco oil company drilled for oil in the Ecuador rainforest until 1992 when their drilling rights reverted back to the state controlled oil company Petroecaudor. Texaco claimed to have sent over $40 million in “environmental remediation” to clean up whatever damage they did to the place. Yet, today the soil and water table is still contaminated with oily sludge. At the beginning of the century, Chevron bought Texaco and found itself confronted with a $12 billion class-action lawsuit due to Texaco’s actions. So what does a multi-billion dollar corporation that can hire the best legal power available and hire few public relations firms who could paint Mother Teresa as a scarlet woman do? You call up the oil and gas President and all the other henchmen you have in the administration and you apply the political thumbscrews. While the lawsuit was making its way through the courts, Chevron lobbied the Bush administration to threaten to remove the special trade preferences from the tiny South American country until they found a way to get the lawsuit dropped. One little problem, the latest President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, is not a corrupt corporate toadie and is in league with the indigenous people of the area.

While Berlinger clearly sympathizes with the native peoples’ case and gives them most of the focus, he has produced a piece of cinema vérité that allows both sides to make their cases. On both sides are high-powered, charismatic lawyers who are trying to use every arrow in their quiver to win the case, including pitting various scientists against each other. Berlinger does his best to keep what is going on as simple as possible, even though with the legal wrangling, bureaucracy, and back room dealing it is often difficult. Much like the young man standing in front of the tanks in Tiananmen Square, the powerless, indigenous people are simply trying to get justice for an environment that has been befouled. As I noted earlier, this has all the makings of a great courtroom drama. There was a reason this documentary was the darling of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It is also important because as Americans we act like ostriches burying our heads to certain things that companies and or government do on our behalf. Unless you pay attention, we often do not understand why we are hated in certain countries. Because much like a police officer, God is not going to give you a pass due to ignorance.

Verdict: A Great Documentary