"I didn't know we were doing this to you all!"

So, I just came back from watching the movie District 9, and I got to say that Neil Blomkamp hit the ball out of the park! Not only did the movie address issues ranging from society's treatment of the economically disenfranchised, the cyclical nature of the military-industrial complex, and the lack of societal empathy for the struggle of others, but Blomkamp did so artfully in a movie that had me on the edge of my seat for its entirety.

I won't go into a detailed synopsis here, but I found the central theme of the movie to be quite revealing and enlightening. During the movie, the main character, after entering D-9 with the intent to "persuade" the alien refugees to move from their slums into a concentration camp, is sprayed with a mysterious fluid. This fluid begins to alter his genetic structure, changing him from a human into a alien. Because he has become half human, half alien, he is capable of using the aliens' weapon technology (which binds to their DNA structure). After a large corporate weapons manufacturer (MNU) finds out that they can use him to develop similar weapons for humans, he flees to D-9, where he is also deemed valuable to the Nigerian war lord who effectively runs the slum. The Nigerian gang also tries to cut up our friend into tiny little pieces, believing that if they ate his arm, he would have the power to fire the weapons.

I feared, as I left the theater, that many people missed the parallel between the Nigerian gang and the corporate weapons manufacturer. Although the Nigerian gang could seem to most as primitive and insignificant compared to the very scientific and mammoth multinational corporation, both parties were driven by the same desire to acquire more power through the obtaining of weapons. These men were of the same vine, the same ones who first picked up their hunting spears, and chucked it at the tribesmen from across the stream because he looked funny.

They benefit from the suffering from others, and blatantly disregard the the horrid conditions their actions create. Because the United States has benefited from such a system, many Americans do not see the inhuman consequences of our actions. The American weapons manufacturing companies sell weapons to oppressive regimes around the world, all in the name of profit. People suffer and die needlessly, all for stock values.

("GREED, IS GOOD!"- Gordon Gekko, Wall Street)

Empathy and action, my friends, is all that can stop this.