Paraiso For Sale = AMAZEDAWGZ

Just got back from watching Paraiso for Sale at The LA Film Fest.  I’m so exhausted. My body aches from a week of non-stop overbooking.  No complaints.  I’m blessed to live in a city brimming with pulsating brilliance that channels itself through diverse art & artists, which I have the privilege to experience.

That being said, I need to continue to work on cultivating BALANCE in my daily life.  I have to stop saying YES to everyone I love & everything I want to do or my hair will finish its final crossover from 75% grey to a full 100%.  Although my brain is mush at the moment and all it yearns for is a good 8 – 10 hours of rest, I must blog about one of the week’s most moving 2 hours: Paraiso for Sale.

Paraiso (Paradise) for Sale was a profoundly piercing, educational and endearing documentary that still has my entire being vibrating from essence to bone.  In summary, it was RAD.

Film Trailer & Brief Summary:

PARADISE FOR SALE takes a look at the effects the fast-growing migration of American retirees and developers to Bocas del Toro, Panama is having on the local community.

What price would you pay for paradise? And who would you be willing to take it from? Panama is one of the most sought after real estate destinations in the world. The archipelago of Bocas del Toro, a gem hidden away in the Caribbean side of Panama, attracts retirees and developers from the US with its crystal clear waters and luscious trees.

Filmmaker Anayansi Prado returns to her homeland to document the effects the fast-growing migration of American retirees and developers to Bocas del Toro is having on the local community.

Feliciano, a Ngobe Bugle indigenous leader, organizes his people in an effort to protect their land from the government and foreign developers. Local boatsman Dario runs for Mayor with the hopes of bringing change to development in Bocas del Toro. American retiree couple Karan and Willy spent their life savings on their dream home in paradise, only to pay the real price for it later.

PARAISO FOR SALE explores issues of modern day colonialism, residential tourism and global gentrification and reveals that migration between Latin America and the US is not just a one-way street.

2 Actions I HIGHLY recommend taking: 

1) Watching Paraiso For Sale at The LA Film Festival’s last two showings: Mon, Jun 20th OR  Wed, Jun 22nd.

2) Take a stand for GLOBAL INDIGENOUS RIGHTS by checking out Cultural Survival and “liking” its Facebook Page.

Mission Statement: “Cultural Survival” is a global leader in the fight to protect indigenous lands, languages, and cultures around the world. In partnership with indigenous peoples, we advocate for native communities whose rights, cultures, and dignity are under threat.

Thanks for reading & enjoy exercising your powerful voice in the world!

xo ~ V

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This Movie ROCKED my socks off: “Schooling The World”!!!

Yesterday night I went to the opening night film of the Awareness Film Festival, which is taking place through May 8th.  I saw the documentary called Schooling The World: The White Man’s Last Burden.

I absolutely EFFING LOOOOOOVVVVED IT & found it truly AMAZEDAWGS!!!

The Film’s Summary (according to their website):

If you wanted to change/destroy an ancient culture in a generation, where would you start?

With the children.

How would you do it?

You would change the way it educates its children.

The U.S. Government knew this in the 19th century when it forced Native American children into government boarding schools. Today, volunteers build schools in traditional societies around the world, convinced that school is the only way to a ‘better’ life for indigenous children.

But is this true? What really happens when we replace a traditional culture’s way of learning and understanding the world with our own? SCHOOLING THE WORLD takes a challenging, sometimes funny, ultimately deeply disturbing look at the effects of modern education on the world’s last sustainable indigenous cultures.

Beautifully shot on location in the Buddhist culture of Ladakh in the northern Indian Himalayas, the film weaves the voices of Ladakhi people through a conversation between four carefully chosen original thinkers; anthropologist and ethnobotanist Wade Davis, a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence; Helena Norberg-Hodge and Vandana Shiva, both recipients of the Right Livelihood Award for their work with traditional peoples in India; and Manish Jain, a former architect of education programs with UNESCO, USAID, and the World Bank.

The film examines the hidden assumption of cultural superiority behind education aid projects, which overtly aim to help children “escape” to a “better life.” – despite mounting evidence of the environmental, social, and mental health costs of our own modern consumer lifestyles, from epidemic rates of childhood depression and substance abuse to pollution and climate change.

It looks at the failure of institutional education to deliver on its promise of a way out of poverty – here in the United States as well as in the so-called “developing” world.

And it questions our very definitions of wealth and poverty – and of knowledge and ignorance – as it uncovers the role of schools in the destruction of traditional sustainable agricultural and ecological knowledge, in the breakup of extended families and communities, and in the devaluation of elders and ancient spiritual traditions.

Finally, “Schooling the World” calls for a “deeper dialogue” between cultures, suggesting that we have at least as much to learn as we have to teach, and that these ancient sustainable societies may harbor knowledge which is vital for our own survival in the coming millennia.

I highly recommend watching this brazen, brilliant, and mind-broadening flick!  It’ll prove a priceless addition to your thought collection.

Please check out Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden Main Website, “like” their Facebook Fan Page, and keep up to date with it on Twitter.

Enjoy!!!!

Big Hug ~ 🙂 V