Mexico's Xcaret park: A symbol of the insidious
'Disney-fication'
of the world, or a way to preserve the natural
environment?
La Jornada, Mexico
Mexico Now Shares the Tragedy of Disneyland
"The empire is without doubt a great factory of anesthetization; a gigantic, world encompassing brain-washing facility that has endured for five decades. ... Disney's banalization of nature and indigenous cultures has left its mark on millions of
human beings (particularly children)."
Thirty years ago, Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart wrote what would
later become a classic of Latin American political science: How to Read Donald
Duck (1972), a book in which the authors reveal the maddening
ideological messages of Walt Disney stories that have now been converted into
readings for the masses. In reality, the book only addresses one dimension of
Disney - that of dressing up the world in magic, lights and illusion, while its
other dimension, its sequel of amusement parks - hasn't even been touched and,
as far as I know, awaits critical analysis and deconstruction. Disney is
credited, with reason, as being the great anesthetist of modern times, the
greatest virtuoso in the art of masking reality, coming close to the
achievements of Hollywood and Las Vegas.
Five decades after the
creation of Disneyland in California, that complex and its affiliates are
visited today by over 30 million people a year, leading the list of
global-scale theme parks with a presence in 26 countries. To the parks they
have added hotels, TV channels and other services, and, so as not to be left
behind, have initiated a program called Eco-Disney. The empire is without doubt
a great factory of anesthetization; a gigantic, world encompassing
brain-washing facility that has endured for five decades.
How did Disney and his team
enclose the universe of nature within their imaginary one, for a world in need
of entertainment and diversion just after the Second World War? At Disneyland,
the natural world not only appears as a fantastic reality, as a backdrop for
the adventures of the Western man, industrious and urban, in an alien and
inhospitable environment; Disney also highlights the power of industrial
technology by depositing robotic animals in the jungle, along with heroic
figures from Hollywood's repertoire like Tarzan and Indiana Jones.
The tropical forest is turned into a movie set devoid of its ancient
inhabitants (indigenous cultures), static and controlled, i.e. devoid of its
processes and adapted to the needs of the story being told or lived. In
addition to the jungle, since its inception, the park has featured the
temperate forests and original cultures of North America, but with the passage
of time the latter were substituted with the spectacle of Winnie the Pooh
and other inanities in a ride known as the "Critter Country."
With this, Disney transcended
the concepts of the zoo and the museum, as well as the nature preserve and the
archeological site. Disney's banalization of nature and indigenous cultures has
left its mark on millions of human beings (particularly children), injecting
into their minds a twisted and superficial idea of the natural world and those
who for thousands of years lived in it and with it. Disneyland has become a
model to imitate. Today, hunting paths and golf courses are turned into
eco-oriented theme parks … Like Xcaret, an
entertainment complex on the "Riviera Maya," which is said to
violate a number of Mexico's environmental laws.
Mayan
'natives' in Mexico's Disney-like Xcaret amusement park.
After committing electoral
fraud, “saving humanity” from the [H1N1] flu virus, battling drug trafficking,
endorsing the use of transgenic corn in agriculture and celebrating Wal-Mart’s
birthday, [President] Felipe Calderón offered our country another sampling of
his brand of ideology by confusing Xcaret Park, which is a private
entertainment center, with a preserve for the conservation of biodiversity.
Strange that his academic advisors haven't warned him against such a mockery,
since, by commemorating World Environment Day in Xcaret Park, Calderón revealed
a Manichean, superficial and commercialized vision of conservation.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
The preference for Xcaret is highly
significant, if one considers that the Yucatan Peninsula, and especially
Quintana Roo, has been a fertile field for numerous social experiments in the
wise management and conservation of biological treasures - a phenomenon known
and recognized around the world. These experiments have been conducted in
dozens of Mayan communities; they include forest co-operatives that produce timber
products that are internationally certified, producers of organic honey and
gum, and 50 Quintana Roo
communities that, in a gesture worthy of imitation, collectively decided to
cede part of their territories to the conservation of flora and fauna.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
By ignoring the experiences of these Mayan communities, of Mayan
culture that counts well over 3,000 years of exploring, managing, utilizing and
respecting nature, Calderón [photo, left] again showed his shallowness and
unwittingly inaugurated a new category of biological conservation in Mexico:
The Disneyland of nature. With one stroke, he negated the millenary history and
culture of our country and again paid homage to elitism. What was left out of
the picture were not only the natives, but also environmentalists led by
Greenpeace Mexico and, I am afraid, four decades of research into conservation
biology.
Fortunately, all news
agencies, reporters and TV and radio channels bore witness to the event on
June 5th. Holding hands were Goofy, [Mexican billionaire] Carlos Slim, Mickey
Mouse, the director of the U.N. Environment Program [Achim Steiner], Donald Duck, Fher (singer from the rock group Maná) and the
head of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, together with Dumbo
and other similar assistants celebrated the World Environment Day under the
baton of one of the Seven Dwarfs, with Snow White substituting for Mother
Earth. Luckily, thanks to the military forces deployed in advance, neither the
wicked witch, nor Captain Hook nor Uncle Scrooge managed to infiltrate the
festivities. And for this, we Mexicans, without exception, surely ought to be
grateful.
