Sexy Killers

So recently a documentary has hit Indonesia by storm. It is titled Sexy Killers and it's about the negative impacts of the coal industry in Indonesia, and how the elites play a part in this coal empire. It was quite a rather controversial documentary because it was released on YouTube 4 days before the election. And the producer and writer of the documentary was "accused" of trying to "encourage" people not to vote, because something about both candidates were mentioned in the documentary.

Which to me is a ridiculous assumption, because well, it doesn't make me feel that way.

Okay so I've heard about this Sexy Killers documentary via Greenpeace Indonesia. They were documenting the screenings of the documentary in various cities in Indonesia, before the documentary was published on YouTube. So I thought it was an exclusive documentary that's shown for screenings etc. When I found out that it was on YouTube, I was eager to give it a watch.

Well I've watched a few other documentaries about the environment. One was Cowspiracy and another one is... I forgot the title but it was about the Chinese environmental issues. Another one was about the deforestation in Brazil. These documentaries shared a common point - how gigantic empires, and the elites of the country actually play a part in these "businesses". Sometimes it reminds me of terrifying power can be. Especially inside a government and in countries.

Sadly the documentary is in Indonesian but I hope you can still give it a watch.

Okay I want to discuss about two things here.

Firstly, the documentary is criticised for not showing three sides of the issue - positive, negative and neutral. Yes, the documentary only shows the negative impacts of coal mining and the building of coal powered steam power plants. A few artists and Instagrammers show their displease on the fact that there are people who benefited from these plants. Like new workfields are being created, and how some villages' infrastructure are being improved by the companies.

But my question is, is it worth the critic when people are actually dying? Children fell into quarries left open by the mining companies. People suffer from respiratory problems, and people homes' become dirty from the pollution. How farmers' lands are being taken away, some without payment. How fishermen are no longer able to fish because big ships loaded with coals leave a negative impact on the marine life. These are the points highlighted in the documentary.

And another question is: do you really think the companies want to open up and talk about these things? There was a segment where the province head of west Kalimantan was asked to comment about the children drowning issues and his reply is simply something along the line of "oh yes that's the poor fate of those children, we'll take actions etc". I mean like... Doesn't this already show a something in regards of the whole issue? I mean.. Come on.

I had a nice convo with Try regarding this issue, how he mention that a documentary/journalism doesn't really have to do these 3 side documentations thing. I think Sexy Killers wants to show the issue of the coal industry, and they have done just that. Nothing's wrong with that in my opinion. Also I read from another post that we cannot put documentary and journalism side by side. Which I agree.

The second thing I was to discuss is the "accusation" that the documentary is aimed to make people not vote for the election. To me... No. The documentary is simply showing the issues of the industry. Whether people will want to vote or not, isn't that the decision of the people? For me personally I don't think that's the aim of the documentary. Even if I don't vote, it doesn't improve the situation!

Yes, after watching the documentary I feel really hopeless and emotional. So emotional I couldn't sleep heh. It made me truly reflect on everything. Electricity, nature, environment, country, and economy. It made me think what can I do to make things better. What can the government do to make things better. I become more conscious at the things that I do everyday. Electricity consumption, saving the earth and so on. And how much we take things for granted really.

Anyway. To me the documentary made me wonder why isn't the government pushing for green energy? I believe that the money that goes to these industries can also be put into green energy research or something. There are already some companies and other normal people who use solar energy. Why can't the government push for solar? When Indonesia already has an abundance of sunlight. I do know that our current president is looking to install wind energy. There's a wind farm in Sulawesi, and 2 more (I think) are coming to my hometown (yay!) and Kalimantan.

Whenever I think about climate catastrophe, I feel really hopeless. More often I feel very powerless to change things. Because somehow... I feel that it's the people "up there" who holds the power to change. But they don't want to. Because of whatever reasons they have. We can ask them I guess.

Thankfully for me personally my parents always push me to stop wasting electricity since young heh. So it becomes a habit. Switching lights off when not in use, and so on. But I think we can do more than that. Reducing (or even cutting off) our consumption of plastics, going meatless (yes!) and stop buying things we don't need. This planet is dying, and not many people are taking actions.

Okay that's all from me. I just need to let my thoughts and feelings out on this topic heh. I hope you had a great long weekend. And an awesome remainder of April! I will see you soon.