CULTURE

Director of Pinochet film takes on Opus Dei

By Gustavo González

Santiago, Chile, Oct. 5 (IPS)— After her acclaimed, thought-provoking documentary I Love Pinochet, Chilean filmmaker Marcela Said is getting ready to tackle another touchy issue: filming the followers of Opus Dei who are traveling en masse to Rome for the Oct 6. canonization of Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer.

“Opus Dei is an issue that no one in Chile really addresses, about which there is a lot of talk, but no real in-depth discussion. I want to take a good look at it. I like challenges,’’ said Said at a showing of her Pinochet documentary at the University of Chile’s School of Journalism. Escrivá de Balaguer is the Spanish priest who founded the influential Catholic lay movement Opus Dei (Work of God).

The socially conservative group has enjoyed the strong backing of Pope John Paul II, who bestowed a “personal prelature’’ on the organization in 1982, making the group’s members accountable not to their local bishops but to the head of Opus Dei — who in turn is accountable only to the Pope.

The group’s critics say Opus Dei is a cult-like organization, and Escrivá de Balaguer, who died in 1975 and was beatified in 1992, is reviled by socially liberal Catholics.

According to a January Toronto Globe article, Opus Dei “has been called the Holy Mafia and Octopus Dei, a reference to the power it exerts in the Curia, the 2,500-member Vatican bureaucracy of prelates and trusted laity who govern the Church. A parents’ group has been formed in the United States to retrieve children from its grip.

“Critics accuse Opus Dei of being intensely secretive and elitist, of discriminating against women, recruiting young people without parental approval and exerting powerful mind control over its members, and venerating its founder well in advance of sainthood status.’’

Said’s earlier project, I Love Pinochet, is a 52-minute documentary shot by the 30-year-old filmmaker, who lives in France, with the aim of “explaining to Europeans what ‘Pinochetismo’ is.’’

The film made its premiere in November 2001. But although it has been broadcast widely in Europe, it has only been shown around five times in Chile, including its first showing in a university setting on Sept. 25, at the School of Journalism.

The idea for the documentary came to Said during the 503 days that former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), spent under house arrest in London.

The elderly former dictator was arrested after undergoing back surgery, on the basis of a warrant issued by Judge Baltasar Garzón in Spain, who wanted to try him for crimes against humanity. (Some 3,000 people were killed or forcibly disappeared at the hands of the security forces under the Pinochet regime.)

The retired general eventually flew back to Chile in March 2000, after he escaped extradition to Spain because he was deemed physically and mentally unfit to stand trial.

While Pinochet was under house arrest in a London mansion, Chileans whose loved ones were the victims of the dictatorship’s human rights violations demonstrated continually in the British capital to demand that he be brought to justice outside of Chile, since he enjoyed parliamentary immunity at home.

But the British capital was also the center of demonstrations by Pinochet supporters from Chile who traveled back and forth between Santiago and London where, with the backing of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) and other conservatives in Britain, they demanded the release of “the man who saved Chile from communism.’’

“It was the Pinochetistas themselves who gave me the title for the documentary, with their T-shirts reading ‘I Love Pinochet’ on top of a red heart,’’ Said told students who viewed her film at the School of Journalism.

“For most Europeans, being a supporter of Pinochet is like being a follower of (Adolf) Hitler. They couldn’t believe he had so many supporters. They forgot that in the 1988 plebiscite on the presidency, he won the support of 44 percent of the voters,’’ said the filmmaker.

To help Europeans understand the phenomenon, she decided to enter the world of the ex-dictator’s partisans, who are not only comprised of affluent Chileans who benefited by the military regime, but of people of modest means as well, who remain fiercely devoted to “Tata’’ (Granpa), as they fondly call Pinochet.

Said’s “in’’ for entering that world was Mónica Salinas, a blonde former model and fervent admirer of Pinochet, who decked herself out in the colors of the Chilean flag — red, white and blue — in the demonstrations in London.

Salinas and her circle of friends, who are into horseback riding and golf, talk freely in the documentary, vindicating the man who “made Chile number one in Latin America.’’

But Said also interviewed Israel Arcos, who lives in a slum neighborhood in Santiago, where his humble dwelling is tapestried — from the walls to the dining room table — with Pinochet motifs.

Arcos becomes visibly emotional when he listens to old recordings of the former dictator’s voice, and his son gets teary-eyed when he speaks about Pinochet before the camera. His daughter, meanwhile, rails against “those Communists, who have no love, because they don’t have God in their hearts, and that’s why they hate the General.’’

I love Pinochet has been repeatedly aired on television in Europe.

But although it received the Grand Prize at the Chilean Festival of Documentary Filmmaking in September, it has been shown only a handful of times in Santiago, and always in non-commercial settings.

Said doubts that it will be released on television here. “This is a country that is still in the midst of a political transition ... where censorship — and, what is worse, self-censorship — continues to reign,’’ she said.

After taking courses in “aesthetics’’ at the Catholic University, Said left Chile for Paris, where she studied “sociology of communications’’ at the Sorbonne.

Said, who has Palestinian forebears, is married to a Jewish stage designer from Argentina, who was her main source of support for the project on ‘Pinochetismo.’ In fact, it was her husband who helped her buy the digital camera which she took to Chile in 2000.

Later she obtained backing for the project from the Pathe firm in France, and from Imago Producciones in Chile. But she had to sign away her rights to royalties in exchange for a good salary as director.

“The Europeans liked I Love Pinochet. The documentary is in the style of ‘filming the enemy’. But I was very respectful, and I was not manipulative. I never work with prejudices. I seek issues that give me ideas. I never have a fixed ‘editorial line’,’’ she told the journalism students.

Armed with these principles, Said will now start filming a documentary on Chilean followers of Opus Dei who will go to Rome for the canonization of Escrivá de Balaguer, the founder of that controversial Roman Catholic Church movement.

Members of Opus Dei are divided into three categories: numeraries, who generally hold postgraduate degrees and live in Opus Dei communities, to which they turn over their incomes; associates, who also take vows of celibacy and obedience but do not live in the organization’s communities; and supernumeraries, who are not celibate.

The members, who number around 90,000 in 80 countries, are instructed not to tell anyone that they belong to the organization, although they are not supposed to lie if asked outright.

Said’s new documentary has the backing of the National Fund for the Development of the Arts, a Chilean government agency that finances artistic and cultural projects that compete in contests for the funds.

Thanks to that support, Said will have a team made up of a camera person, a sound recording engineer and a producer, after having done most of the filming on I Love Pinochet on her own.

“Dream Web” seeks to heighten environmental awareness

On October 11 - 13 Earth Tribe Productions will perform Dream Web at the BeBe Theatre. This production, which incorporates lights, sound, and spoken word to depict a modern day creation story (in which the themes of the following three pieces Corn Mother, Salisa Bonobo, and Spirit of the Trees can be developed,) is an intentional effort to engage our community to address environmental concerns.

Earth Tribe’s present venture is an attempt to bring awareness to our current ecological crises through the exploration of indigenous myth and the relationship of humanity to the natural world. The myths explored are connected to environmental challenges that face us on local, regional, and international levels.

To foster and achieve collaborative community effort, several grass roots organizations will support Earth Tribe Productions by promoting and expanding public exposure to their performances. The Dogwood Alliance is among these supporters and will be present at each performance to provide information on environmental issues, concerns and possible solutions for those attending.

To purchase tickets for Dream Web through the Dogwood Alliance please contact Isabelle Guzman at 828-275-8109.

Earthdance International: dance for global peace

On Saturday, Oct. 12, The Earthdance International celebration will once again unite the planet with dance in the name of global peace. Earthdance 2002 will involve tens of thousands of organizers, DJs, performers and volunteers, hundreds of thousands of dancing partygoers at stadiums, nightclubs, and open areas across five continents, and as many more watching the event live over the world wide web.

The international celebrations in over one hundred cities will be happening simultaneously, and events in some countries will span three or more days and nights. Every year, on the same day, at the same time, the collective holds a party to celebrate peace and to raise funds and awareness for various charities. The highlight of Earthdance is a global dance floor link up (12 midnight, Oct. 13, London time; 7pm in Asheville), when every DJ in every city plays a special track called ‘The Prayer for Peace’ at the same time. This poignant moment will unite all Earthdancers and the Internet audience around the world in the spirit of compassion and for the raising of planetary human consciousness.

This is a non-profit event. Proceeds go to Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project.

South Africa challenges world rules on intellectual property

By Mercedes Sayagues

Pretoria, South Africa, Sept. 30 (IPS)—

What does an anti-pimple cream have to do with the African Renaissance? How can a yellow fruit relished by elephants challenge world rules on intellectual property?

In South Africa, traditional healers treat acne with a wood-based cream. Jumbos get tipsy on wild marula, key ingredient of a popular sweet liqueur and a cure for colds and dysentery.

Both cream and fruit — a cosmetic technology and a natural resource — are part of South Africa’s traditional knowledge.

“This is an unexploited, undeveloped, and misunderstood wealth that we need to tap into,” says Noma Xabiso, chief executive of the African Renaissance South African chapter. A key tenet of the Renaissance vision, popularized by South Africa’s president Thabo Mbeki, is to develop Africa’s own resources such as biodiversity and traditional knowledge.

South Africa, however, is not doing enough to promote and protect indigenous knowledge, say activists.

“At the level of rhetoric, there is recognition of its value. At the level of action, little is happening,” says Rachel Wynberg, a South African researcher on biodiversity now with the University of Strathclyde in Britain.

Government’s policies on biodiversity and traditional knowledge are good. Turning them into practice through laws and monitoring mechanisms remains slow.

A Bill to protect indigenous knowledge, to be tabled in parliament before December, has been postponed to 2003, says Mogege Mosimege, director for indigenous knowledge systems at the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology.

An earlier version was returned to drafters by Parliament two years ago for lack of clear regulatory mechanisms.

“We follow a path of caution,” says Gwen Mahlangu, chair of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Environmental Affairs and Tourism.

This is uncharted territory. Only recently has the concept of traditional knowledge acquired legitimacy.

Indigenous people have few legal ways of asserting ownership of knowledge - from local foods, seeds, herbal medicines and cosmetics to pottery, beading and folk tales.

Increasingly, seed, agrochemical and pharmaceutical companies claim and receive intellectual property rights over genetic resources and related knowledge without consent from or compensation to the people who have used these — whether a cream or a fruit — for centuries.

Now developing countries are fighting this theft of knowledge, or biopiracy, in an improbable arena — the world system of intellectual property rights (IPR).

The IPR system is rooted in European industrial and scientific tradition. It sees knowledge as a commodity owned by an individual or company and grants patents for trade and profit.

In contrast, traditional knowledge is developed, handed down and owned by communities. Its cultural and collective nature is hard to grasp by IPR.

“The present system serves the interests of industrialized countries by excluding the richest assets of developing countries — biodiversity and indigenous knowledge,” says Tom Suchanandan, of South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council.

“National legislation must remove the unfair commercial advantages that western intellectual property rights hold over indigenous knowledge,” he adds.

The quandary for South Africa and developing countries is that patent laws mandated by the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) do not accommodate traditional knowledge. (Under pressure from developing countries, the WTO meeting in Doha last November agreed to review the patent system.)

“Does the Bill grapple with the schizophrenic dilemma between our strong patent legislation and the protection of indigenous knowledge?” asks Wynberg. “Is TRIPS delaying the Bill?”

Nolwazi Gcaba, a South African patent and copyright attorney, says the Bill is urgently needed “to defend the rights and property of indigenous communities, to avoid their exploitation.”

Bioprospecting of plants used by traditional healers goes on in South Africa, legally and illegally. “Researchers from all over the world seek the plants we use but give us nothing,” says T.J. Matiba, a traditional healer, founder and president of South Africa’s Council of Traditional Healers since 1985.

Benefit sharing is an especially thorny issue because of South Africa’s history.

The apartheid regime forced blacks off their land and marked vast areas for nature conservation with no benefit for locals. It banned traditional healing and branded indigenous knowledge as backward. Apartheid ideology systematically eroded and devalued the rich and diverse knowledge systems of Africans.

Today, holders of traditional knowledge like T.J. Matiba are recognized, albeit, in Mosimege’s words, they are “still cast in the background.”

Mosimege notes their minimal representation in workshops and an untenable relationship with researchers that “seems to be perpetuating ills of the past without proper benefit-sharing.”

Apartheid-era research and conservation institutions neglected social problems. This history underpins the need to develop a code of ethics for today’s research.

“A code to prevent the unlawful extraction of cultural knowledge will impact on research policies that inadvertently encourage exploitation,” says Suchanandan. “Benefit-sharing is not charity but a responsibility for researchers.”

Unwitting accomplices, some South African academics take foreign colleagues around the country collecting plants and videotaping healers.

“There’s naiveté among some academics, delighted to work with foreign partners after years of apartheid isolation,” says Dr. Martinus Horak, manager of the bioprospecting program at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. “Others are funded by foreign corporations.”

This explains how rare local desert plants turn up in laboratories at American universities, says Horak.

He lobbies for legislation “to control, not prevent, access to our rich biodiversity and indigenous knowledge. We’ve lost so much, we can’t lose more.”

At a workshop on biopiracy held during the Earth Summit in Johannesburg in September, Horak pleaded Malhangu to speed legislation in Parliament.

The issues are tricky: how to reward knowledge and apportion ownership; how to patent biological and cultural resources, sometimes across borders; how to disburse royalties equitably.

Competencies are unclear between the Ministry of Environmental Affairs (for biodiversity), the DACST (for indigenous knowledge) and Trade and Industry for TRIPS.

AIDS, crime, poverty and unemployment relegate this issue to the backburner.

“Our government is more focused on trade regimes and attracting foreign investment than strengthening our indigenous resources,” says Haydee Swanby, of the Cape Town-based Biowatch, a non-governmental organization.