Richard Dawkins and P. Z. Myers are the world’s preeminent evolutionary biologists. They are known for their activism and integrity. Recently Dawkins and Myers were contacted by a small Los Angeles production company to speak for a documentary. Producers for Rampant Films most likely knew that including the evolutionary duo would add legitimacy to their story, even as villains, so they misrepresented their motives in order to secure the interviews. Billed as focusing on the “the disconnect/controversy that exists in America between Evolution, Creationism and the Intelligent Design movement,” [sic] Dawkins and Myers agreed to talk on camera.1 It was not until Myers was asked to leave a screening2 four months later that Myers learned the documentary, formerly named Crossroads: The Intersection of Science and Religion, was retitled Expelled and used his and Dawkin’s interviews to further its thesis that “freedom of thought and freedom of inquiry have been expelled from publicly-funded high schools, universities and research institutions.”3 Myers’s response sums up his frustrations.
Phase one of our documentary following the presidential election in Nicaragua will be screened this week in Managua.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
7PM & 8PM
Cinema Galeria
Friday, October 20, 2006
4PM
Plaza Inter
Today I got home from dinner with my parents and grandparents and saw Arthur and Jeremiah for the first time in two weeks. Arthur asked me if I’d checked my messages. No, I’d been at dinner, I told him, and proceeded to do so. While I’d been at dinner, he’d forwarded me a text message from Ana, our producer in Nicaragua. This afternoon, Herty Lewites passed away.
Today was the shortest day of the year for the southern hemisphere. It is winter here. While the cold does not meet Boston’s criteria, the cold can be a problem in a place without “real” heat. Simphiwe waited for us at our scheduled meeting time at nine in the morning. He was our guide for the day, for our tour of the South Western Townships. After passing a theme park, a casino, luxurious downtown buildings, we exited the highway and found ourselves in the Townships known as Soweto. This area was designed as a place to move black and coloured people out of Johannesburg during Apartheid. Soweto is a good distance outside of Jo’burg, but still close enough to allow the people to work in the city.
Arthur and I joined Robbie in Newark International Airport. After exhaustively searching for a power outlet, paying too much for wireless internet, being friended on Facebook by some sweet but random chick we met, and going through security (again…), we jetted across the Atlantic pond.
The weekend did not seem to exist. We left on Saturday morning, connected through Amsterdam on Sunday morning, and arrived in Johannesburg late Sunday night. Days and nights were replaced with periods in a loud, jet-fuel powered time portal.
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