Human Planet

Beast & Being....(one "sapien" each). Let's teach Anthropology in Kindergarten and Middle School and High School on this theme of beastly reality and being reality. (Another way of saying Good & Evil). That way we could even bring god back into the classroom intelligently. Now we know that god is even a science so there will be a course one day: "The Science of God" about the absolute reality of god in the human experience and in human anatomy. Just as we teach and tell the students young and old about war. [Anthropology is my passion. It saved me from a lifetime of confusion so I praise the possibilities of making the curricula even better because the school was founded on ethnocentricism but now we can develop the Science of Anthropologic to help us move forward in the Human Universe.]ABOUT THE DRAMATIC DOCUMENTARY: "THE HUMAN PLANET"--Everybody seem to be put on an even plane as a human with human events and I like that. It brings home the message that humans live all sorts of ways in all sorts of environments. but even so, people are people and will have a basic human life no matter where they live and how they live. It's a reminder to us all in the "developed world" what life is really like and that LIFE IS LIFE everywhere to all life--it is the same, but we can create events to live; we can develop traditions, design fashions, write comedy, sing and dance and make music forms but still LIFE IS LIFE everywhere in all life forms. And I think that all life-forms try as hard as we do to make their living better in their environments as we do. Apparently, creating a "better" way to live is a hard sale to most humans since so few live the highly "developed" living styles in cities and civilization. But then, somebody said, "The natural-livers have freedom, real freedom, like in the open, in the wild, carefree, really, really free." [That person was likely thinking of taxes.] The natural-livers may be free and all but they are hungry most days, but then we, the innovative-livers eat too much anyway.The natural-livers are most concerned about survival not so much about being comfortable or cute but they do have their sense of beauty and can go overboard at times like we do, but healthcare is not an issue; village members will take care of them. If the problem goes away then it goes away but if it doesn't they are disabled or they die. In natural life death is a common companion. But we innovative-livers, we believe in a concept called 'healthy' and 'healthy living' and we live our lives by these principles and practices but if we do not have enough money we suffer and succumb to death from illness and if we don't have family because we have not practiced family values above all else, we meet death seemingly alone but we are never alone.These are the terms of life, not just human life but life itself! And it is to be lived however it is lived, however one gets on, because we all have our turns in and around misery and disasters, but then love, compassion and kindness too..--MO

After watching it on Discovery, there are three reasons I bought this DVD:1. It is surprisingly raw for American TV. Normally Americans prefer to watch cute people eat dirty things, rather than watching dirty people eat cute things. Audiences complain when people living in harsh conditions kill whales to survive. Not everyone wants to be confronted with the messier, complicated reality when they can find solace in a simplified television narrative. That this show has the temerity and honesty to require a parental a advisory for "disturbing content and indigenous nudity" instantly wins a place in my heart.2. This series presents what I believe is our best way forward with the environment. It shows an alternative to our conquer or be conquered conflict with nature. The idea that man can live as part of nature rather than as either as it's master or at its mercy is ultimately the key to our own survival. The key is not to absent ourselves from nature, but reconnect with it. Although many of the people in this series maintain ancient traditions, most are by no means primitive, living modern lifestyles combined with traditional ways.3. Human Planet, like the actual humans of the planet, is refreshingly polyglot. Abandoned is the obnoxious convention where a person begins speaking in a different language, only to be talked over by a translator. Instead they are granted the dignity of speaking in their own voice, with translations appearing in creatively inserted subtitles. This also allows me to practice my listening skills in some obscure languages.But now that I've got the DVDs, there are three things that really surprised me:1. John Hurt has a lot more gravitas as a narrator than Mike Rowe, who just seems a little too smug to narrate this kind of documentary as he did in the American release.2. There is a hilarious advertisement for BBC America narrated by John Oliver (of Daily Show fame)3. MOST IMPORTANTLY! THERE IS A LOT MORE. Not to overshadow it's other virtues, but the reason to buy these DVDs is simply there is a lot more to see. Discovery truncated the series down to 5 episodes and a sixth rehash of clips from previous episodes. The Original, contained on these DVDs, has 8 episodes: 1. Oceans 2. Deserts 3.Arctic 4. Jungles 5. Mountains 6. Grasslands 7. Rivers 8. Cities (and 9. Extras) The Discovery condensation was not only unwarranted (what's the hurry? Did they need to finish quickly in order to have more reruns of Desert Car Kings?) but also awkward. Although the episodes on Rivers and Oceans did combine smoothly, the juxtaposition of Jungles and Grasslands was jarring and disjointed. Worst of all, they entirely omitted the final episode on Cities, which re-contextualizes the entire series as a voyeuristic museum of the primitive, rather than a nuanced articulation of the place of nature and tradition in modernity and society.In its entirety, this forms a vital document of humanity, nature, and a possible solution to some of our greatest problems today.