Film Forum: Darwin's Nightmare

4pm 8th February, 2009

Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne

In the 1950s or 1960s, the Nile perch was released into the Lake Victoria. In just a few decades, the large, voracious predator has all but eliminated the other species of fish, turning the lake into an ecological wasteland.

"But economically, it's good!" The new fish multiplied so fast that its white fillets are today exported all around the world. Russian pilots fly guns into Africa, then fly fish back out to Europe.

This booming multinational industry of fish and weapons has created an ungodly globalized alliance on the shores of the world’s biggest tropical lake: an army of local fishermen, World bank agents, homeless children, African ministers, EU-commissioners, Tanzanian prostitutes and Russian pilots.

Where do our responsibilities lie when Darwin's "Survival of the Fittest" causes havoc in developing cultures?

Speakers:

Professor John H. Vandermeer

Michaela Sargent

Vandermeer is Margaret Davis Collegiate Professor and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan. He is one of the great names in ecology having undertaken an extraordinary professional journey throughout his career. His work in Central America has not only contributed new practical knowledge in the field of tropical sustainable agriculture, but it has also emphasised the role of ecologists as potential agents of social and political change.

Michaela  Sargent is the Country Program Coordinator for World Vision Australia working with Zimbabwe, DRC and Swaziland.  She has  worked in Asia, the Pacific and Africa for over 6 years.  Michaela was Coordinator for the Make Poverty History advocacy campaign in 2005-06 and has particular interest in advocacy and human rights.  Most recently Michaela has focused on  addressing the protection issues in eastern DRC and is working closely with local NGOs there on the rights of children