This film ambitiously weaves together interviews, indigenous poetry and music with clips from imported French and US television programs to show how Caribbean viewers receive a distorted view of the world that alienates them from their own cultural heritage. Also included are a glimpse of how Cuba has tackled the problem and the US response in the form of Radio Marti. The film examines the links between Brazil's economic crisis and its tragic social and ecological plight following 500 years of domination and exploitation by Europeans, Americans, and now Japanese. The oil threatens not just marine life but the existence of the entire community. People and animals get sick.
Many villagers leave.
The film chronicles the efforts of Lucia and her family to stay in the village. But the social forces at play are too strong and Lucia is powerless to stop the disintegration of her family as they are forced into the slums of Manila. The boy's fascination with nature manifests itself in turning his pet on its back and watching it struggle. The boy is heartbroken when the tortoise is taken away from him, but his grandfather helps him find his own tortoise which speaks to him so eloquently about his abuse that the boy eventually sets it free. But this film reveals that in India it has helped to create a new serf class and the dramatic yields of the early years have fallen away in the wake of pesticide poisoning and the short-lived miracle wheat strains.