The Constant Gardner (2005)

Director: Fernando Meilleres

Writers: John le Carre (novel), Jeffrey Caine (screenplay)

Casts: Ralph Fiennes (Justin Quayle), Rachel Weisz (Tessa Quayle)

 After watching this film, I wept because of two things… Love and Africa..

First, love…
After Justin perceives that his wife Tessa had been murdered, he starts to dig out the truth.  And finally when the puzzle is all put together, he finds out that Tessa was hidding a lot of facts from him to protect him.  Although Justin understood her intention, he was regretful that she didn’t tell him the truth.
Justin: “Tessa, why didn’t you tell me…?”

 
What first comes to your mind when you think of Africa? 
Violence, starvation, fatal diseases, intranquility…?  However, they don’t originally belong to Africa; we have to understand that civilized countries putting such wastes has provoked all these.  Africa was primarily naive and innocent where people grow up relying on ground and forest. 
Frankly speaking, the so-called civilized countries have big reponsibilities for putting African countries in a chaotic condition.  African countries had an opportunity to develop their own culture in their own way and pace.  They should have deservedly done that.  However, developed countries came in and cut every spout and excessivley burdened the natives yet showcased a proud attitude as if their actions were justified.  It is too late for African countries to go back and start again leaving their society in a helpless, insecure state.  No one seems to know where to begin and how to put their state of affairs straight.  This just breaks my heart.

..Where shall we place the reponsibility for it?

What can I do?
It’s not like I can go there and help them now.  I don’t even have ability nor have courage to do so.  But why does it bother me so much?  A lot of people probably will feel the same way.  The world never gives a chance to those who just sits on the fence.  After all, it’s not the enemies who are killing the world; it’s my silence.

..Who shall be responsible for it?

Ok, so I don’t know about anyone else, but it was hard for me at first to pay attention to The Constant Gardener.  I kept thinking about Ralph Fiennes’ role in Red Dragon, expecting him to go crazy and start killing everyone.  This didn’t happen of course, and so once I got over that initial distraction, I began to realize what a tremendous job Fiennes was doing at getting the audience to truly understand his character, Justin Quayle.  He plays a British diplomat and sometimes a gardener with a very reserved personality.  While the story begins with a romance between Justin and Tessa (Rachel Weisz), the film is certainly more than just a happy sappy chick flick.  The actual movie begins at the end, with Justin being told that his wife has just been killed.  The audience is then brought back to discover what events led up to her unfortunate death, following Justin on this perilous journey for truth.

So Why The Constant Gardener?

As far as I can tell, the movie has absolutely nothing to do with gardening except for the fact that Justin happens to be a gardener.  So why was this title chosen for the film?  Here is what I have come up with: The audience only knows what Justin knows.  We see the world of the film through his eyes, and while we may be given hints about important events before Justin is made aware of them, they aren’t given any meaning until he finds it.  Some may think the film would be better suited with a name that had to do with drug testing  in Africa, or perhaps corruption within biomedical companies.  While these alternatives may be more appropriate for the majority of the events in the movie, they would have had the effect of changing the movie entirely.  Sure, the film would still have the same story line, the same characters, maybe even the same script.  But if the audience knew before it started why Tessa died, that African people were being used as guinea pigs for drug testing, or who the ‘villians’ of the film were, there would be no mystery, no suspense — no point in even watching the film.  So why is it called The Constant Gardener?  Because it keeps us guessing.  It keeps us wondering what lies around the next corner, and what truths the film holds, waiting to be discovered.

What are we supposed to take from this?

Rachel Weisz’s character in The Constant Gardener is all about helping the underprivileged, even if that means only a few people.  At one point in the film, Tessa wants Justin to agree to give a ride to a small family who will have to walk forty kilometers home from the hospital with a newborn baby.  Here is a glimpse into their dialogue in that scene:

Justin: We can’t involve ourselves in their lives, Tessa.
Tessa: Why.
Justin: Be reasonable. There are millions of people, they all need help.  It’s what the agencies are here for.
Tessa: Yeah, but these are three people that WE can help.

This reminds me of an organization called Compassion International, who’s mission statement, is: 

In response to the Great Commission, Compassion International exists as an advocate for children, to release them from their spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enable them to become responsible and fulfilled Christian adults.

Compassion International makes it possible for anyone who posseses the desire to sponser a child in need in hopes of giving them a good education, treatment to keep them in good health, and tools to help them become a well-rounded and fully developed member of society.  My mom is actually a part of this organization, and has been sponsoring a 12 year old girl named Jennifer Zulrika Rodriguez from the Dominican Republic for about 5 years now.  She pays a mere 40 dollars a month, exchanges the occasional letter back and forth, and has helped to make one child happier than she has ever been. 
Compassion International is a great example of showing that not everyone needs to move to Africa in order to help, as Tessa did in The Constant Gardener.  While the characters in the film were trying to bring about change on a large scale, I believe that the movie was also trying to hint at the fact that help on a small scale is where everything starts.  Not every person can go straight to the top of the chain and fix the world’s problems.  We have to simply do what we can and then hand the reins over to another person who will begin where we left off.  All it takes is a little will, and great things, no matter how small, can be accomplished.

Alex Freeman is a sophomore at the University of Washington with an intended major in Computer Science.

The Constant Gardener, a quick recap

For all of you who either haven’t seen it, or for those who are a little rusty on the film, The Constant Gardener is one of those few movies about   Africa (or more specifically in this case, Kenya) that break the presented problems down into small pieces that the viewer can swallow. In this particular film, the perspectives of two British persons are used to communicate the problems found in Africa: Justin, a diplomat, Tessa, who marries Justin largely for the purpose of traveling to Africa.  Tessa is killed early on in the film, and Justin then works to discover whether or not she had been faithful to him. In the process, he discovers the horrible facts about drug companies that Tessa had worked so hard to bring to the light. Drug companies had been testing their new drug on people in Africa without a care of the effects it cause them. Many died in the process, and those deaths were simply hidden away. Tessa uncovered this, and attempted to bring it to the public so that something  might be done. The drug companies involved found out about this, and so Tessa was “taken care of” before their secret could be revealed.

What should I take away from the film?

While the movie's specifics may not be correct, its main ideas are.

“The Constant Gardener” begs the viewer to question the message it’s trying to convey. The audience is meant to get two pieces right away. The first is that the situation in areas such as Kenya are poor enough that many aspects of our lives that we take for granted in the Western world are a rare sight indeed over there. An example, as shown in the video, is that of health care – very few receive proper health care, if any at all. The second piece that the audience was meant to take away is that drug companies are taking advantage of such poverty to experiment with their drugs, regardless of whether or not these experiments are potentially fatal. While these exact situations may or may not be true, the message remains. The movie conveys that there are certainly events similar to this occurring in Africa, and it is up to the viewer to decide how to react to such information. A further piece of information that the viewer may notice about the film is the lack of sympathy or support that Kenya received from any government (especially, in this case, the British government). This point is rather difficult to misinterpret: bad things are happening in Africa, and the governments of the world – especially those in the greatest position to help – do not seem to care.

We can’t all be a “Tessa”…or can we?

Groups like Invisible Children work hard every day to help those in Africa.

So, now that we have a new perspective on the situation, what’s next? In the movie, Tessa not only discovered many of the horrible events occurring in Kenya, but worked actively to present this information to the public. I am going to assume that most of those reading this are not necessarily prone to traveling to Africa and risking their lives in an attempt to recreate the actions of Tessa in the film. However, the film did point a finger toward some groups that are actively working to help out those in need in Africa. Among others, these include Oxfam International, Health Action International, and Medicins Sans Fronteras. If you’re interested in taking an active role in working for a better situation in Africa, those three are viable choices for where to start, among many others. Of course, there are many of us who are either uninterested in taking such an active role, or simply do not have the time. What, then, for the rest of us who still wish to help? There are countless ways that a person can put in any amount of their time, and have it put to good use. One excellent example is that of the Invisible Children group to help out children in Uganda, as first presented by Rochelle earlier in this blog. In April of 2006, I had the pleasure of joining this group and tens of thousands of others across the United States in the Global Night Commute. In this event, everyone involved slept outside in parks or similar areas in order to demonstrate the conditions of those in Uganda (to a much lightened degree, of course). It certainly drew public attention to some of the problems in Uganda, and I was personally able to be part of such an event that made some difference to those in Africa. Events such as the Global Night Commute happen often enough, and all that one needs to do is to look for such an opportunity for it to reveal itself.

“Big pharmaceuticals – they’re right up there with the arms dealers”

- Dr. Brandt, “The Constant Gardener”

In the film, drug companies were the specific group causing the horrible events in Africa. So what are we intended to draw from this? Should we be fearful of all drug companies? Should we stop funding them and refuse to take medication in case it was tested in Africa? This would hardly be a reasonable response. But what are we supposed to do? In truth, there is very little to be done in this regard. The film, while addressing general issues that are indeed a problem in Africa, is still a work of fiction. Thus, we can’t necessarily draw any conclusions regarding drug companies, especially any in particular. The best thing that we can do, unless we are willing to work actively with groups such as the ones mentioned above,  is to be aware. It may not be due to drug companies, but I can guarantee that there is at least one company that has taken advantage of the lack of control that many Africans have over their own lives. The film does an excellent job of bringing this to our attention. While it is very possible that none of those who read this will actually be able to change this, it certainly does not hurt to be informed regarding this subject. Who knows? Simply knowing may lead to one of us to changing things, or we may share this information with someone who will.

A morning, fishes had been rushed to a shallow on the beach by the storm last night. The fishes were trapped in the shallow. Although the sea was just next to them, they could not swim back. A little boy picked up fish from the shallow and put them back to the sea. People walked to him and asked, “There’re hundreds of thousands of fishes in the shallow, you can’t save all of them.” “I know” the boy answered without looking at them. “So why are you still doing this? Who cares?” “This fish cares!” the boy answered while he put another fish back to sea. “ This fish cares, this fish also cares! And that one, and the one over there…”

Everyone only cares about things that affect his or her own life, health or family. We know there are many problems in the world. Some of them have already affected our lives, like the green house effect, soil erosion and the EL Nino phenomenon. There are also many problems happened in the other country that not affect our life. The question is do we have to take care about problems that are far away from us? Many people may answer yes. But do people really do something about it?

As an assignment, I watched The Constant Gardener this quarter. When I first heard about this movie, I thought it must be a boring movie. But after watching it, I love this movie. Fernando Meirelles filmed this movie in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. Justin (Ralph Fiennes) was a British diplomat whose complacency was challenged when he was forced into a soul-searching quest for the reasons behind the tragic death of his wife, Tessa (Rachel Weisz). People started thinking the reason caused the death of Tessa. Suspicion thoughts came to Justin. Still loving his wife, he decided to find out the truth and reclaim his wife’s besmirched reputation. He discovered a political intrigue between British and Kenyan governments testing a new TB drug on Africans.  The Constant Gardener reminded me of two the other movies, Lord of War and Hotel Rwanda.

Lord of War

“Lord of War” is all about the big business of war, and the cost of selling one’s soul. The whole movie did not talk about Africa until the last part and it was also the most impressing part to me. Yuri reentered the arms market when Baptiste approached him. He was reluctant at first. But when Baptiste told him that he would pay more than the usual rates, Yuri said yes and he decided to bring Vitaly along because he was nervous about the current climate of Liberia. However, they finally noticed that the business was actually taking place in Sierra Leone to the Revolutionary United Front. He said, “all these groups call themselves freedom this and democracy that, when they’re really just worse bunches of oppressors than the last bunch.” During the transaction, Vitaly witnessed a group of Revolutionary United Front rebels killing a mother and her child with machetes. He discovered if the deal got done, the entire village would be massacred. Then he pleaded with Yuri to stop the transaction, but Yuri said, “It’s not our conflict.” Later, Vitaly responded this by taking a grenade and blowing up a truck with half of the guns. Several guards watching the transaction shot Vitaly to death. When Vitaly lied on the ground, he was still trying to throw a grenade, his brother hold his hands and put the leading-wire back. Later, Yuri still accepted the deal and all the villagers were then slaughtered. This scene reminded me that the drug company gave the expired medicine to African People for tax free in The Constant Gardener. In the movie, when Justin went to the village, Dr. Lorbeer showed him these drugs and said that the best way to deal with these drugs was to burn them.

Here, you may ask that: “wait a minute, we have the UN, why won’t UN help to solve these problems?” In the following example, we will see the role UN plays in such situations.

Hotel Rwanda

Hotel Rwanda recorded a true historical event during the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. During the Rwandan Genocide, over hundreds of thousands of people were killed. Paul Rusesabagina was a hotel manager, this movie documented Rusesabagina’s act to save more than a thousand refugees by granting them shelter in the besieged Hotel. The race problem still exits in Rwanda right now. People might wonder why UN did not go to help them? UN did, but they came back. The reason was that they thought they should not intervene other country’s politics. If this is true, one can also argue that the nuclear problem in North Korea and Iran, the human rights problem in Iraq are other countries’ internal problem. But why do UN and other countries step into these countries? My guess is these problems are large enough to threaten our lives whereas the Rwandan Genocide won’t affect the rest of the world at all. In the movie, UN helped save people’s lives, but without Paul it never would happen. UN Colonel Oliver said, “We are peacekeepers, not peace makers”. However, without a “peace maker” where will UN find peace to keep?

Yuri chose to sell weapon to the Revolutionary United Front, even though he knew all the villagers would be killed. UN chose to leave, even though they knew they were “peacekeepers”.  Back to The Constant Gardener, where Tessa asked him to give one family a ride, but Justin refused because he thought there are too many people who need help, they can’t help all of them. But Tessa tried to help any one of them by her best.  After Tessa’s death, when Justin tried to help a black girl get on the UN plane, the staff from UN refused his request. Justin also tried to bribe that staff. The answer was still no. That staff said: “It’s the rule! There’s too many who need help”. Justin just replied to him, “But we can help this one! Just here!”

Why was death the destiny of Tessa and the other people like her who cared enough to other people?  Are they wrong? Do we have to wait until we lost the one we love, until it actually affects our own life, and then we start to care about the other people?

Who cares?

“I care”, a little fish

Rochelle Jones

A view of the Hollywood sign courtesy of maggieandannie.com

Often while watching movies we look for story lines, main characters, and other little details that society has taught us to look for throughout time such as romance, guts, and victory. We often overlook the social issues movies can often represent, and we neglect to realize that perhaps there is some truth behind the “lights, camera, action” mindset of Hollywood and other major movie producers. We’ve been conditioned to recognize films’ plots as being completely false, and we ignore the details that may be the most important aspects of the director’s work.

Tessa and Justin Quayle, courtesy of BBC News Images.

“Movies are something people see all over the world because there is a certain need for it.”

The audience enters the world of Justin and Tessa Quayle in the opening scenes where Justin has just been informed of her disappearance and supposed death. From there, we flash back to the very beginning of the time together where we learn that Justin is a very calm, British diplomat who falls in love with an outspoken woman. There’s Hollywood. It’s love, it’s mushy, and it captivates us. I am guilty of this captivation, and I’ll admit from the beginning I felt intrigued by their relationship. Then, the British High Commission sent the Quayles to Africa, which changed their entire lives. Tessa, enticed by the pharmaceutical companies visible in African villages, begins to research KDH and Three Bees. While this may just seem a part of the plot, it brings to light some incredibly important issues that have continued to be swept under the rug for far too long. Tricky little game the media industry played on us. They roped us in with kisses and smiles, and then BAM! Something that actually really matters came along. Pharmaceutical companies have taken advantage of an innocent group of people and have viewed their lives as “disposable”. According to Karl Marx, at the point where the citizens have lost their values as humans are the same points where their lives become commodified. Their value is that they are part of the test subject market, and they completely lose their rights as people. While this is only one aspect of the crisis occurring in Africa, it still brings attention to the fact that problems overseas have not been addressed with enough action even if the U.N. does claim to be involved.

“Falsehood is easy, truth so difficult.”

We all see the images. Starving, mistreated, deathly ill people all left to suffer just because of the place in which they were born. Everyday you hear people complaining about the current state of our economy. We live in a society where we don’t think things could be worse than the condition we’re in.  Imagine things being an infinite amount worse than how we live, and I’m sure that’s close to the lifestyle of most African villagers. The first time I really heard any startling facts about the treatment of Africans is when an organization called Invisible Children visited my high school. With them, they brought a film that really startled me because I knew it was one hundred percent true. Images flashed of young children being taken away from their families in order to become soldiers, walking miles to school in the rain, and taking care of their siblings because their parents had died from HIV/AIDS. Young boys become stripped of their rights and have been forced to become soldiers, being controlled entirely from the time they are brought into the army.

Video courtesy of Youtube

Need proof that troubles in Africa really are occurring?

“A Congolese government spokesperson told Agence France-Presse that multi-national forces have a large contingent of LRA fighters trapped in a swampy area in a remote portion of Garamba Forest. “We think that Joseph Kony is with them,” the spokesperson said, however, many of the reports coming from the multi-national force pursuing the LRA have been met by intense international scrutiny and have been seen as an attempt to validate the increasingly controversial operation to destroy LRA strongholds within the DR Congo. Since “Operation: Lightning Thunder” commenced in mid-September (2008), the LRA has responded by killing over 800 civilians and abducting approximately 500 Congolese men, women and children (LRA attacks highlighted in above map). According to UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes, the multi-national operation organized against the LRA must go on, “I think they need to see the operation through. I don’t know how long that will take…but I think there is no point in putting a premature end to it,” he then highlighted the “catastrophic consequences” of the operation and reassured the international community that the UN will “continue to pick up the pieces.”

-www.invisiblechildren.com 4/1/2009

“Treat others the way you want to be treated.”

As general citizens of the world, we are all guilty of it. In no way can I claim that at all times I put others’ feelings first. Whether it is innate nature or not, as humans we all strive to make ourselves happy whether that be through profit (pharmaceutical companies) or reaching out to global communities (Tessa).

Our society has largely influenced us to lean more towards the profit seeking attitude. Hollywood especially perpetuates this image through multi-million dollar making celebrities with lavish houses and fancy cars. America has become so fixated on the image that we have spiraled into an economic crisis, when in fact compared to most countries we still have more comfort, health, and happiness available to us. 

While there are organizations already in existence that have been providing aid to Africa, the problems in existence continue to grow larger. Although The Constant Gardener was only two hours in length, the impact it can potentially have on viewers is endless. Whether or not you decide to act upon the hidden truths this movie has unveiled, such as the ledgers do in “The Bear” by William Faulkner, is entirely up to you. Although at first we may view the movie as unrealistic and misinforming, the facts can be found on multiple government and organizational websites. There’s no way so many groups can “make up” the same news reports.

Hollywood has started numerous trends, and recently it has been more apparent that celebrities have become involved in numerous social advocacy groups. While many aspects of Hollywood are false from the movie plots to spray-tanned blondes, this is one lesson the whole world should actually focus on learning from the famous.

You may only be one person, but one person holds the power to create an infinite amount of change. We hold the power to make a huge difference. Use that power.

-Angelina Jolie is well known for her work in Africa and other foreign countries in need. Photo Courtesy of thebosh.com 

The Constant Gardener presumed me sympathetic, frustrated, while at the same time infuriating me, but I’m going to focus on the closing scene, analyzing what I read from it and how I believe it affects the overall concept or the motive of the film and what viewers should see in Justin’s character.

Please follow along, and enjoy. (There are a few dozen SPOILERS below)

Play the Video as You’re Reading…Just to get a touch of Kenyan Vibes Flowing

From Diplomat to Humanitarian

Fernando Meirelles opens up the film with a scene in which the viewer immediately assumes that there is some form of distrust or infidelity within the marriage of Tessa (Rachel Weisz) and Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), a man who is first shown watching his wife walk away with another man into the distance.  Justin epitomizes the mold that the perfect diplomat must follow; being void of most emotion, bland, and even holding a solid demeanor when told his wife is suspected to be dead.  The first half of the film is a potpourri of real time scenes and flashbacks as he slowly uncovers the hidden life and work of his wife. Through all of this he still remains stone-faced and detached, and the viewer never sees the suspected breakdown and grief individuals usually suffer.

After hitting wall after wall while trying to find the cause of Tessa’s death, Justin finally breaks down in London at his wife’s home where they had one of their first encounters.  His passport had been revoked and Pellegrin (Justin’s superior who is revealed to be in the pocket of the Three Bees) had bluntly warned that it would “do [him] no good poking under rocks…some very nasty things live under rocks.”  The casual lack of interest in Pellegrin’s voice is simply offensive and demeaning, and Justin should have thrown the fish in his face, but alas that may have detracted from his character development.  At this moment the audience may have empathy for Fiennes’ character as Justin continues his search for Tessa’s motives and where all the barriers arose and why.

Justin’s Discovery

The plot of the movie is permeated with traditional big-budget film devices – high profile actors, plots of infidelity, and government corruption – but the society viewers are thrust into is so similar, it’s too similar.  To clarify, you either have to watch this movie as an active or a passive viewer, asking yourself if the plot should spark investigation, or a wiggle and a smile as you walk out the theater door to move on with your life uninterrupted.  It’s difficult to take much away from the film without changing your life philosophy and questioning if this really happens; if all of this Hollywood mumbo-jumbo is actually based on something .  Not based on some past event like the Cold War, but based on something that could be going on right now, this very moment as you read this blog.  It’s hard to think about what humans are capable of and still remain optimistic.

Justin had a similar reaction in the beginning of the film, not really caring about the plight of the Kenyans even if they needed to walk forty kilometers from the only hospital to their home.  It does seem a tad ludicrous to attempt to uncover a ring of murders committed by a billion-dollar corporation, which the first-world nations see as producing needed pharmaceuticals.  However, Justin does resolve to risk his own life for the benefit of the many and the underrepresented. It seems noble and viable to sacrifice one to save many – if that one volunteers for it – yet deceptive and cowardly to coerce that one with bribes and lies.

Using his Body After Death

In the closing scene of the film, Justin is admiring the landscape in the same locale where Tessa was killed, revealing that he is at home where he is, in the land he loves reflecting on the woman he adored.  If you look closely you can see Justin take the clip of bullets out of the gun given to him, and he throws it on the ground away from him.  Yet he still holds the gun firmly in his hand and stands up with it when the assassins come to carry out their job.  What I see but don’t see (as we never do view Justin’s killing) is that as they approach him, he would turn around with the gun in his hand.  The first reaction from all of the shooters after a gun is pointed at them would be to fire and in turn guarantee that Justin’s death will never look like a suicide.  “There were no less than eight holes in his body, from three different guns,” and I believe that after understanding that through Pellegrin’s letter and his death, the cover-up and testing would begin to unfold, and could only snowball into something much, much grander.

Meirelles developed the idea that even if you can only help one individual at a time, that one still makes a difference; a person’s life is saved.  Everyone has to start somewhere, and even Justin doesn’t realize this until the final half of the film.  The tale closes with the Three Bees having approved another African drug company to utilize the TB testing supplies even after Pellegrin’s letter was leaked.  Major corporations never fall overnight, and the ones who seem to be doing ‘God’s work’ by producing drugs to cure the weak – no matter how corrupt – are extremely arduous to replace with the valiant.

Just ask yourself if you would sacrifice a TB vaccine for yourself and your entire family,  or let a few unknowns die so you can live……

What is it that actually defines being an adult? Does it happen at a specific age? Is it necessary to prove oneself or partake in an epic journey? Or can we only grow up when we experience an event that is life-altering?

What age makes us “mature?”

The term coming of age is defined in the Dictionary as: “reaching maturity, respectability, or prominence.” In the United States, a person is no longer a minor at the age of 18; they are a “legal adult,” and gain the right to vote among  other things. However, responsibilities are granted before and after that age: in most states, teenagers can receive their license to drive at either 16 or 17, but the legal age to purchase and consume alcohol isn’t until 21. A certain level of personal and civil responsibility is required in each of these cases, so which is the one that actually defines a person’s maturity age-wise?

Making a journey

In “The Bear,” a boy’s first kill on a hunting trip defined his crossover to manhood, the animal’s hot blood was marked on the young man’s face to prove it. At thirteen, Isaac McCaslin shot and killed his first deer and his mentor, Sam Fathers, took the buck’s blood and smeared it on Isaac. He had journeyed all over and across the forests, and could pick up an animal’s trail almost anywhere; but it was not until Isaac had found the elusive bear, Old Ben, that he felt as experienced and mature as the other men who had hunted there for years. When he hiked deep within the forest, as Sam had suggested, he found the bear, but he also learned not to fear solitude and isolation, which more greatly defined his manhood.

The Experiences We Have

At this point, Isaac had learned much from Sam Fathers and his knowledge of the hunt had nearly surpassed most of the men there, but did that make him more mature? The other men were certainly older, and nearly all of them had gone on many more hunts than Isaac had, so they were more experienced. Nothing that had occurred in Isaac’s life thus far could have prepared him for the loss of Sam Fathers. Overcome with grief, he found comfort in his past experiences, those of solitude and isolation. When he found the ledgers documenting the sales and bits and pieces of the lives of his hidden relatives, Isaac realized the true and unidentifiable value of each and every human life.

When did Isaac grow up?

I think that Isaac matured into manhood when he found Old Ben and looked fear in the eyes as he lay beneath the great beast, but it was not until he understood the significance and actual meaning in the ledgers that Isaac matured as a person. This was a great defining point in his life. He had to choose between living with his secretive family, who had wreaked tremendous physical and emotional damage upon their slave relatives, and abandoning them so that he could begin a new life independent of their actions. Although I believe that this extremely trying experience pushed Isaac to grow and mature, I also questioned whether or not he could forgive his family for what they had done. Surely it would have been unbearable for Isaac, but it is possible his family felt remorse for what had happened. Searching for his long lost relatives demonstrated his extreme concern as well as curiosity for the truth.

Truth within “The Bear”

William Faulkner‘s novel Go Down, Moses falls under the ‘Southern Gothic genre,’ in which the degradation of human life–especially evident through slavery–is a central idea. Paralleled in Karl Marx’s The Commodity, a determined quantity is placed upon fruits of human labor, but the extent to which they work and effort put forth is not considered. Taking for granted the products of human labor, without the slightest consideration of whose hand(s) helped to complete it is exactly what the McCaslin family did. Isaac realized that it was completely unacceptable and inhumane to treat any human being this way, whether or not they were family members.

“The truth hurts” holds true, as Isaac discovered. Learning family secrets like those he found would severely pain anyone who encountered them. But learning to cope with and understand the results and extent of the problems showed Isaac’s sophistication and levelheadedness, which he gained through his personal experiences. Isaac’s maturity was defined both through his quest for manhood with the help of his mentor and by the life-changing decisions made by and for himself.

“In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make our ultimately our own responsibility” -Eleanor Roosevelt

Life is too short to not enjoy it.

I cried when I while watching The Constant Gardener. I started to think about the people in Africa. Life is too short to not enjoy it, but, what about the people in Africa for example. They are given no choice at all, and sometimes kids are born into a dead end because their mothers died. People are starving, no food, no fresh water, and no roof over their heads, and diseases are killing many every day. These people are living on the edge of a cliff and they are relying on a tiny string to hold them from falling down the cliff. Life like this is not fun. They are constantly fighting to survive. Many of us think that life is too short not to enjoy it, so we spend whatever we make, wearing all brand name clothes, and do whatever we can to look better than other people around us. Some put their lives in danger by having plastic surgery. I feel like this is too much, and if these people can spend all this money just to make themselves look better then why can’t they help a child, or do something.

Another thing that I cannot imagine is how the drug companies in the movie are so inhumane, and this has happened in the past before. They are treating people like animals by testing drugs on them. The drug companies are trying to make money and they are totally ignoring the health other people.

I really admire Tessa in the movie who is risking her life to help the people in Africa. Not everyone can do it, and I don’t expect anyone to do it. She is really brave and generous. However, there are other small things that I know I can do to help them such as joining an organization or just by donating.

Speak out

There are many people out there like me who do not read or watch the news, or even care about other things on the other side of the world. Our lives are too busy to worry about other things. Right? This is called ignorant. However, there are people who try to speak out for the unfortunate people. This is something that everyone should be aware of and if you are not touched by what I’m been saying yet, take a look at this poem from PoemsofSoul.com by Toris Okotie (The African Poet) NY.

My African Child
 So young in heart 
 He cried for milk 
 So poor and helpless 
 Mama weeps in pain 

 His eyes so red 
 A week he cried 
 A month ago, 
 To the world he came 

 Mama so young 
 Papa has run 
 Under the bridge 
 They lay their heads 

 In storm and rain 
 They search for food 
 Through man and sex 
 Mama fed him well 

 The days went by 
 Mama health decreased 
 Only five months old 
 Mama said goodbye 

 In rain and cold 
 He cried so loud 
 In sun and heat 
 He wept and wept 

 Three days gone by 
 Since mama left 
 And now he sleeps 
 To meet with mama

www.oneafrikan.com

Want more poems? Visit Poems of Soul.

Cliff Plesha is a  freshman at the University of Washington, intending to major in physics.

A Brief Movie Overview

For those readers who have not seen “The Constant Gardener”, it is a film telling the story of Justin Quayle following the footsteps of his late wife in discovering the truth behind a major drug cooperation operating within Africa.  The majority of the film is told through the eyes of Justin.  Let me start of saying that before I draw any misguided criticism I should get a few things out of the way before I start;  I thought the movie was very good, was well written and executed, the movie was very good at pulling the right heartstrings to illustrate the point that it was trying to make, the movie was just that, a movie and they are written and filmed with the idea to sell you something, sometimes just a story, but other times something more, and I believe that movie do not always portray the truth correctly.  Too many times I have seen, “based on a true event” to actually believe Hollywood (although this was a British film, not Hollywood) anymore so from here on out I write only about what I thought about the movie.  I DO NOT CLAIM ANYTHING TO BE THE TRUTH, just ideas for you to take or leave as you please.

I write this in attempt to cause the reader to think and question not only this film, but all media they see. And with that, away we go!

Cooperation = Villains (Subject to Debate)

It seems to be a common theme in movies now days to have villains, that aren’t some crazy guys wanting to hold the world ransom, but rather multinational faceless cooperations that undermined one or more core values have been perceived to be ruthless to make sure they make a profit.  Face it, we have seen it enough that I’m surprised we still trust what we buy, eat, take, and so one.  ”The Constant Gardener” is no different.  The film made Three Bee’s and KVH out to be lying, cheating, indirect-murdering, and all around a rotten group of people.  They bought people and turned them into commodities and in doing so stripped them of their humanity.  Africans were treated like animals, forced to sign consent papers to get tested and tricked them into giving them TB pills that they knew could kill them.  Then they rounded up the dead and secretly mass buried them.  The way the cooperation treated humans within the movie was awful; I’m not going to defend those actions.

But here is where a red flag pops up in my head.  This is a movie trying to show the absolute evils of such action, but does this really happen. Did it happen in the past, is it still happening, is any of this based on real events, or is it an over exaggerations to make a point?  At the current time I am writing this don’t know, this might be true, it might be much worse then the movie illustrated, but I don’t know.  And it because of this lack of knowledge I question whether this really happening.

I have realize that the movie was not made to be a documentary on events happening in Africa, but rather a fictionalized story.  The film could be trying to tell us that we must always be very vigilant of cooperations or it a story like this might become reality. This what I get out of the movie, a warning to the citizens to be aware of what is happening across the globe, especially dealing with drugs, and to keep corruption down.  Yet, if the pharmaceutical companies are really going about; doing illegal testing, murdering, and releasing unsafe products, why do we let them continue to do so.

A Critique of Pure Reason

I approach this section  with the goal to illustrate why one cannot justify the actions that the pharmaceutical companies did, through philosophical ideas.  An easy claim to make would be that the company was doing ill deeds, so they are already not justified, but within the movie it stated that the drug really did work, most of the time, and it could save peoples lives.  Because the TB drug did work that leads to the interesting question of does the ends justify the means. The basis of this theory means that as longs as the end result of the processes does more good than the process itself did harm then doesn’t that justify the process.  If in the process learning how to transplant organs,  leads to the deaths of a few testing animals, can’t you say that in the end we learned how to save countless number of human lives so it was okay to do animal trials.

I will now demonstrate why using Immanuel Kant’s philosophy of the Categorical Imperative, one cannot justify the means.  For the use of my blog I will only concentrate of the second formula, which states that an “act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end and never merely as a means to an end.”  What this says is the when dealing with humanity, you can’t view the use of human life as mearily a means to achieve an end, but as part of the end itself: it is impossible to spereate the two.  Futher implications state that when trying to justify the ends of a process, the end will never justify the means if to achieve the ends you humans in your process: the idea is simple enough, humans should not be used as means.  this is what exactly the pharmaceutical company does within the movie, they use humans to create their pill.  By doing so you cannot justify their actions because all humans have equal right to life, and that is what the drug company takes away.  Therefore using Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative, I can conclude that the actions taken by the drug companies are not justified form a philosophical standpoint.

Final Questions

From my inquiry I still have questions that have yet to be answered;  I question mostly, how much of this movie is fact based, and how much is the work of fiction. Another probing question I have is why is there this trend of making cooperations the bad characters within movies?  The main point I try to get out of watching and questioning, what can we believe, how much is truth, and is there factual evidence out there?  So when watching films such as this one I ask my readers to keep a critical mind about them.  It is fine to enjoy the movie and become submerged in the excellent storytelling, but do not view this movie as a work of fact.

It’s as if I learned a new word and now I suddenly hear it being used all over the place.  I’ve obviously lived within the market and a capitalist society but lately I haven’t been able to stop asking myself whether “the market” and “exploitation” are mutually exclusive or if they go hand in hand.  Perhaps, it’s because of recent economic issues but I’ve come to realize it’s true that either way, there’s no avoiding it- the market is everywhere and to live without it is basically to not live at all.  I’m suddenly posed with the ultimatum of “get in or get out.”  Even if I exclusively buy organic and go green, by virtue of the fact that I’m a U.S. citizen, I’m immersed in the U.S. capitalist market system so ultimately, I’m always “in”.  But what would happen if I chose to be “out?”

I recently came upon an example within the story of “Bartleby” by Hermin Melville.  “Bartleby” encompass the sentiment of living within the market and remarks on the isolation resulting from resigning from it.

Photo Taken by: Satabdi Chakrabarti (me!) December, 2008 on a trip to New York City.

Bartleby is Perfect Dead.

On a first reading, “Bartleby” seems abrupt and disconcerting. It seems almost as if you’re waiting for the plot to develop and suddenly, it ends and Bartleby is dead. The story takes place on Wall St. at a law office and Bartleby is hired as a scrivener to work alongside Turkey and Nippers who are both irrational workers. Turkey has a habit of drinking during his lunch break and because his habit, his productivity is never very high in the afternoons. Nippers is efficient, but picky. So Bartleby is quite the God-send. He quite literally has “no preference” in terms of his work and does exactly what he’s told- which especially in a capitalist system is ideal.

The irony of the story is that Bartleby has no life outside his office. He has no family and quite literally lives at work. It’s eerie, but he is getting more work done than both Turkey and Nippers put together so the boss doesn’t mind. This leads to him resigning completely from his work. Instead of having no preference, he “prefers not to [work].” He becomes lifeless and soon after…well…he dies.

When it comes down to it, it’s all about the “value” we place on things. Bartleby is just an example of the value society puts on labor.  Labor became a commodity due to this high value within society and therefore a competitive market was established for labor.  Bartleby was the most competitive in comparison to Turkey and Nippers and so he became the more worthy commodity. And that is where exploitation starts- when human labor and life can be commodified. This is precisely what we have come to in our society. The catch is, however, there is no way to prevent exploitation of human commodities because, whether we like it or not, the market is the basis of our society and resigning from the market is resigning from society.

“All People Are Created Equal”
It’s unfortunate, but even if all people are created equal, all people are not treated as such.  The commodification of human life has led to an uneven value of people can easily result.  The more money a person has, the more valuable they are so it’s easy to neglect and take advantage of those who aren’t as affluent because they are “worth less.”    The scale of this dynamic isn’t just limited to individual persons, but spans across relationships with corporations and countries as well.

A great film on this subject is The Constant Gardener. The movie’s premise is uncovering the corruption within a pharmaceutical company which distributes medicine while simultaneously testing AIDS and tuberculosis drugs on the general population of a Kenyan city.  The people within the city are virtually lab rats for this pharmaceutical company because there is such a high rate of the diseases within the population and therefore a lot of desperation for medication…because of intense poverty…and because they lack an adequate healthcare system.  Though my brief synopsis is hardly giving this film the credit it deserves, I can assure you that the truth that is unraveled will surprise you and will leave you thinking, “what really is going on in the world?”

It’s not just pharmaceutical companies that are using human lives for their benefit, many corporations are.  The bitter realization that I’ve come to is that despite these types of occurances, the market will ultimately never change when the power lies in the hands of those commodifying lives.  It’s difficult to say whether a change will actually ever occur, especially when we’ve come to the point in history where we are incorporated into the market, not that the market is incorporated into society -and when isolating ourselves from it would serve no purpose except detriment to ourselves.