Translator: Julio Weiss Reviewer: Mariano Landini
I am a filmmaker from Cochabamba, I have been script writer
and co-director of a documentary film called "Lithium Revolution,"
that I made together with the German filmmaker
Andreas Pichler in 2011, 2012.
The subject that currently links me directly to the word innovation
is "Lithium Revolution."
"Lithium Revolution" explores the impact of lithium technologies
in energy and transportation grids of developed countries
and clearly describes the imminent challenge Bolivia is faced
by owning the biggest lithium reserve in the planet.
We are talking about more than 50 percent of the world's reserve.
It is lithium-ion batteries which have allowed
the use of technological innovation in our everyday lives
thanks to their massive use in notebook computers, cell phones,
and the majority of electronic devices we use every day.
The most immediate massive use of this technology is in electric transportation.
In "Lithium Revolution" we also explore the use of lithium
in energy grids, so countries can feed their grids with 100 percent
clean energy coming from sun, wind and other renewable sources,
instead of using carbon and fossil fuels and nuclear energy
which present pollution and create great risks to the environment.
At the present moment the use of renewable energy
in worldwide grids is 16 percent.
It's the hope that with time and the implementation of these systems
this percentage will rise in years to come.
It's necessary to recall the day
when I decided to make this documentary.
I was living in Italy at the time, doing research
on how cities would look like in the future
because I wrote a screenplay which plot took place in the future.
During this research I came to know that lithium was going to be important
because it was that year in the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen in 2009,
where there was a lot of pressure towards making
the Kyoto Protocol measures were met.
This meant that countries with high COÂ˛ emissions,
by law, would have very high costs if they continued using
fossil fuel based transportation with high emissions, and hence
it was time for these nations to re-think their transportation and energy grid too.
The most immediately available solution car producers
had been working on for a long time
by lithium-ion battery technology.
Many nations, by law and environment had to comply with these measures.
So it came as a great surprise
that lithium, was planned to serve as a replacement
to oil, and that 50 percent of the world's reserve, was located
in our wondrous salt flats of Uyuni, in Potosi.
It was exactly in that moment when I bumped into this next video
of which I will share only a small fragment.
John Perkins: We, economic hit men really have been the ones responsible
for creating this first truly global empire,
and we work in many different ways.
But perhaps the most common is that we will identify a country
that has resources that our corporations covet, like oil.
And then arrange a huge loan to that country from the World Bank
or one of its sister organizations.
But the money never actually goes to the country.
Instead, it goes to our corporations to build
infrastructure projects in that country --
power plants, industrial parks, ports -- things that benefit
a few rich people in that country, and our corporations.
But really don't help the majority of the people at all.
However, those people, the whole country, is left holding a huge debt.
Its such a big debt that they can't repay it,
and that's part of the plan.
They can't repay it.
So at some point we economic hit men go back to them and say
"Listen, you owe us a lot of money
and can't pay your debts, so, sell your oil real cheap
to our oil companies, allow us to build a military base in your country."
or, "Send troops in support of ours to someplace in the world, like Iraq"
or "Vote with us on the next U.N. vote..."
Or to have their electric utility companies privatized,
and their water and sewage system privatized,
and sold to US corporations or other multinational corporations.
There is a mushrooming thing, so typical of the IMF and the World Bank:
They put a country in debt, in such a big debt it can't pay it, and then
they offer to refinance that debt, and pay even more interest.
And you demand this "quid pro quo"
which you call a "conditionality" or "good governance"
which means basically that they've got to sell off their resources,
including many of their social services, their utility companies,
their school systems and sometimes their penal and insurance systems...
Julio Weiss: Well I show it till there; the original clip is longer,
I really advise you to search for it.
I obviously realized lithium was turning out to be one of those resources,
somehow my civil duty and love for my homeland awakened in that moment.
What could I possibly do as a filmmaker to prevent such an outcome?
I asked myself.
Inform people, I thought.
I quit my coveted advertising job in Milan
and came back to Bolivia for a couple of months.
Those months turned into four years, and here I am today
showing you this video after this long process.
After living the experience of making this film and several
other projects in the salt flats,
I realized that despite the gloomy scenario
the video you just saw describes, we Bolivians are in a good path.
Plus, we actually have incredible advantage
in front of developed nations.
For the first time the term "developing nation" does not bother me.
It actually brings me joy.
In a world where the current definition of development has come to an end
and proved to be a failure: economic, environmental, energy crisis,
spiritual crisis.
Chaotic cities where it is no longer possible to live.
To be labeled as "developing" means we are still in time to make
the right decisions to never have to reach states
of extreme poverty, hunger, mental illness and environmental damage
that the current development model has caused.
Bolivia and the Bolivians, with our natural resources
and our broad cultural diversity,
have the potential of being leaders and living example of the social innovation
that the rest of the world in crisis is desperately looking for.
We can choose another type of development that will allow us
to have the benefits of technology and the regenerating
and abundant balance of nature
in our cities, homes, transportation and food
without having to go through the destruction of our environment
because these technologies exist today.
The capability we have to develop them and implement them in our country
is nested in the ability we have to negotiate our resources
for technological know-how that stays in our country and culture.
It is important that we as Bolivians, entrepreneurs,
community leaders, search for these technologies but do not accept
anything less or more than our ecosystem needs.
If we have to adapt or develop these technologies,
it is crucial we make the necessary effort to do so.
If we do not have enough resources,
we have to inform people and ask for support to our own community.
If the community understands the benefit,
everybody will support with what they can.
It's not about the money, if this does not come with love
towards community, any type of prosperity achieved will be temporary.
As a Bolivian I aim for long-term wellbeing, for me and my family.
Technological innovation will not move forward
if it does not go in hand with social innovation.
This process will not happen by itself, it will be fruit of the exchange
of information between cultures and the open dialogue, without prejudice,
between us Bolivians and with foreigners.
Prejudice does not allow spontaneous and fruitful dialogue.
From my professional standpoint I have lived in first person
how informality born in filmmaking, artistic and cultural processes
create an environment of constructive exchange that is difficult to create
between strangers and diverse cultures.
After having long talks with community leaders from villages
surrounding the salt flats of Uyuni,
after sharing and learning for several weeks from kids
living in areas without electricity or television.
After experimenting ceremonies of detox and cleansing of my physical,
energetic, mental and spiritual bodies
through rituals and medicine from this land,
I realized the greatest asset we have
to prosper and protect our territory is our cultural heritage.
We are blessed by the coexistence of so much diversity.
A diversity who's logic does not follow the linear concept of Western economy
where what is over does not regenerate.
But instead, cultures that believe in a multiverse, not a universe,
that understand the cyclic nature of life on this planet
and the regenerative properties of resources.
Cultures that apply this wisdom daily in the caring of their crops and their lives.
Development is rapidly arriving to the remote areas of our country,
whether this is a blessing or not, depends on us.
The children whom I shared with in the village with no energy or television
two years ago now have electricity, they have television.
As a filmmaker and media creator I feel that the content these kids watch on TV
will either bring them closer or further apart from their own culture,
and this will either bring them close or apart from the caring
of the natural balances their ancient cultures have preserved till now.
This has been noticed by the leaders of 54 communities with whom I have worked
in the salt flats of Uyuni: that younger generations don't listen to them anymore
cause they are busy watching television.
As filmmakers and media creators we have the responsibility
to promote dialogue in both directions
so that these cultures don't only receive information
but are able to create and communicate their knowledge, as well.
If Americans and foreigners are so capable of creating documentaries
and film that we watch in cable channels here,
we have to be equally capable of generating quality content
conveying ancient knowledge and the present of these cultures
in a manner far away audiences can understand
and learn, in the same way we understand, learn
and entertain ourselves with foreign content.
Therefore, custom-made innovation for Bolivia
and the rest of the world will depend
on efficient communication of the current know-how in our territory.
I focus on the ancient wisdom, agriculture,
resource management and medicine,
but I do not exclude industrial know how.
This will enable our society and the rest of the world
to apply these principles in their own social and technological innovation,
Restoring in this manner the lost balance caused by the crisis
and fall of the development model the world has lived till now
which is not designed for the reality our future generations have to face.
I can't emphasize enough on the importance of creating quality film
and media for new generations that don't read books anymore
due to the easy access to new technologies.
Be it in a documentary or narrative format, media and film are
the tools that allow us to spread, explore,
research, dialogue, and communicate.
Let's start to invest more seriously in them.
Let's build and export what we are,
a new model for social innovation and new balance for the world.
That's all, thank you. (Applause)