Everyday Activist - Saving Mes Aynak

Posted on Monday, January 11, 2016 at 11:00 PM

Saving Mes Aynak

Movie Review by Everyday Activist X CalgaryMovies.com

Talk about a tough day at the office. All you want to do is to go to work, excavate your archeological dig site, catalogue the day’s finds and go home. The reality of many of the workers on the Mes Anyak site is quite different. They go to their dig site, which is the 5000 year old temple called Mes Anyak. The temple lies on the path of 2000 year old Silk Road. The pre Islam, Buddhist artifacts they have discovered here is of comparable value to those found at Machu Picchu. Given the violence of the area, the commute usually involves stepping carefully around Soviet land mines and avoiding being kidnapped or murdered.

After arriving at work, hopefully, the site is as they left it the previous day, because looters are notorious for stealing precious artifacts and selling them to tourists. Just to keep the archeologists and their many volunteers on their toes, they get to dodge bullets fired at them from the Taliban, who don’t like the idea of a Buddhist temple on Islamic grounds. If that weren’t enough, they get to deal with the Chinese mining company itching to do its own version of excavation to the tune of an estimated $100 billion dollars in copper. If they make it home alive they might even get paid.

Watching this is heart breaking. The archeologists do their best to rescue as many artifacts as they can before the mine gets to have its way with the land. Due to public pressure the mine might not get operate. Resource extraction is resource intensive. Copper extraction requires millions of litres of water to process ore, which might be tough to get into a drought stricken area, no matter how much money will be pumped into the economy. Once the artifacts are excavated, the added challenge remains; to store the artifacts somewhere secure. If all that goes well, they need more people to analyze and in some cases restore the discoveries.

The film makers have launched a campaign to bring awareness about the site to people around the world. Visiting the official website http://www.savingmesaynak.com/get-involved/ provides you with ideas on how you can help. National Geographic (pre firing all its staff) has great information within this article http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/mes-aynak/bloch-text and has videos online.

Saving Mes Anyak will be screened for free at the River Park Church in Marda Loop at 7 PM on Tuesday, January 12th, 2016 as part of the Marda Loop Justice Film Festival's justREEL film series.

Calgary Showtimes: justREEL: Saving Mes Aynak >