Guns, Germs, and Steel - a review

Guns, Germs, and Steel is a documentary in which the author tries to explain why some civilizations are more advanced than others. It is definitely a unique way to look at the history of the earth, and I do not ever think that I will look at the history of civilizations the same ever again.

Doing his theory injustice due to brevity, his proposal is that the farming animals in certain regions is what allowed those regions to have more free time and prosper above and beyond the civilizations that did not have the great farming animals. He comes at it from a purely secular approach, but it does make one wonder about God and the placement of those animals into the hands of certain culture.

One of the main reasons for the documentary is to explain why Africa lags behind the rest of the world in development. I was convinced by his arguments.

This comes with my highest possible recommendation.

Watch out for the potholes.

The Corporation - a review

Last night I was going to watch The Corporation for an hour and call it an early night. Three hours later, I was just shutting off my DVD player and feeling depressed about the world.

The Corporation was the culprit. It is a documentary about American corporations and their role as plunderer in the world.

My feeling when watching the documentary was a great "what can I do".

I was overwhelmed with the same feeling the other day as I was traveling on the People Mover in Detroit. I saw the giant skyscrapers built by multi-national corporations like GM and EDS. And the same feeling overwhelmed me then. These skyscrapers are maintained on the backs of workers making extremely terrible wages overseas. What can I do?

The documentary does not really give us an answer to that question.

In the movie, we see how corporations market, manufacture, and acquire the natural resources necessary for doing business. One of the most disturbing things is the way corporations dealt with the 14th amendment. Corporate lawyers used the amendment to give corporations the classification of "person" rather than just a corporate entity without individual rights. However, corporations do not bear responsibility for their actions like a person does. They have a special status where they have the rights of a person but not the responsibility.

It is definitely a documentary worth watching.

Watch out for the potholes.