The God's Must be Crazy

It was the funniest movie I had ever seen when I was little boy. And it was on midday TV the other day. Primarily slapstick there was some more subtle humour in it that would have eluded me at 10 years old. Two things stood out to me the most though.

First, the low-level of technology used in shooting it somehow added something realistic to it - less movie-like and more documentary-like. But the camera work and the shots taken was remarkable, I don't think I've ever been as amazed at the African landscape as I was at some of the footage in this movie (set in Botswana), it really was like nothing I had ever seen and was so beautiful. The African people also, filmed probably more than 20 years ago, before the ravages of AIDS had truly taken hold, seemed so much more real than any other African based film I've seen. It was inspiring dreams of travel there - which Lucas and Farah will be doing soon (and climbing Kilimanjaro!!! ah I'm so jealous).

The second feature that struck me was the story of the little Kalahari bushman. Again a subtlety lost on the younger me. His gentleness, his affinity with nature, indeed his dependence upon nature to sustain his spirit. It made me feel so separated and out of touch with the truest and most beautiful thing on the planet - nature. The importance of doing everything we can to conserve it goes without saying, that much should be obvious to the most ignorant of troglodytes. But I would love to go a step further - perhaps explaining my latent desire to be a self-sufficient farmer. Really being part of nature, understanding the intricacies of the animals, the microbes, the plants, the clouds, the turn of seasons - co-existing rather than dominating and reaping surpluses from the land. That is my dream.

I think humankind has gone too far down the path of individual comfort and leisure to be able to backtrack and choose a path of harmony. I suggest that as human consciousness becomes further enlightened we will move towards that ideal, not all the way - but closer is better.

That is my microeconomics study break. Back to it. SWATVAC at the moment (STUVAC, for NSW people).