The global commentary about the movie Avatar keeps on coming – and one might say, getting stranger. Along with reports that Russian communists want to have James Cameron arrested for pilfering the work of Russian science fiction writers, this article from Bolivia likens the film’s main character to Jesus Christ.
For the BolPress of Bolivia, columnist Huascar Vega Ledo writes in part:
The word “avatar” comes from the Sanskrit word avatara, and signifies something born without human intervention, i.e.: without intercourse, without sin, father unkown. Jesus Christ is an avatar, as is Krishna, Manco Capac, Mama Ocllo [both from Incan mythology], and other illuminated ones in earth’s history. These are people born without human intervention.
The film Avatar takes this name because the lead character is formed by terrestrial genetic engineering, which creates a being from a mixture of human DNA and DNA from the indigenous people of an alien moon called Pandora … a being created without intercourse and with little intervention from nature.
The plot pits imperialism against biodiversity. Pachamama [Mother Earth] is the main “character” around which the others revolve. Mother Earth is present without being named; it’s spoken of and seen as a harmonious connection between all living beings. It’s spoken of as the reciprocity of choosing and being chosen, of the possibility to communicating and interacting with all types of beings or species, of respect for life and of surviving in harmony with the environment.
The goal of protecting the environment makes Cameron’s Avatar current. The intention that Bolivia is now forcefully bringing to the world’s attention are the rights of Mother Earth. But deep down, imperial domination and abuse continues. I hope that this year, 2010, will see substantial changes. … Hopefully a little dialogue that goes almost unnoticed in the film Avatar – about a military campaign in the jungles of Venezuela – will not be part of our reality in the future. … Jesus Christ is an avatar who for more than 2010 years has struggled to give us a more cohesive society. Let us help him. Let us help ourselves.
Also today, we posted an article from Angola headlined, Avatar Holds Out Hope for Something Better. Jornal De Angola columnist Altino Matos writes in part:
The changes that follow within the human mind as it leaps from one body to another, sometimes human and sometimes alien, is another triumph of the director, which reflects the disquiet of humanity about the origins of other species. … With this union of humans and aliens comes a feeling that something better exists in the universe: the respect for life.’
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