Here is a little note to call attention to a funny situation in which a
village is destroyed, the destroyer is rewarded, the village is invited
to the destroyer's award ceremony, and the awarder (a festival called
"Infowar," whose subject should be self-explanatory) attempts to control
information about the village's anger. We hope all this results in a
laugh or two here and there.

The situation begins in Popotla, Mexico, with the construction of a
cheap-labor movie studio (maquiladora) by 21st Century Fox, for the
filming of a big blockbuster movie, Titanic. Fox builds a giant wall
topped with razor wire to keep the Popotla people out of their expensive
studio, which contains a giant fake Titanic. The precious giant fake
Titanic leaks badly, and it leaks into the sea, and this leakage from
the giant fake ship destroys the livelihood of the Popotla people, who
are fishermen, by killing the sea urchins, which the Popotla people use
as bait in their fishing, which keeps them alive. So now not only is the
Popotla people's purview destroyed by the wall, but their lives are
endangered.

As it happens, Fox's original public relations about the Popotla
location (http://www.tri-national.com/titanic.html; San Diego was passed
up because "there was too much civilization around") implied the studio
would benefit the local economy. This has of course not happened at all.

Popotla reacts to all this unfortunate behavior by decorating the
studio's defensive wall with nice artwork, because it has no tanks and
cannot really influence 21st Century Fox. (This has changed: the Mexican
government has somehow been forced to sue Fox for the sea urchin
fiasco.)

Meanwhile, Ars Electronica's Infowar jury awards $10,000 to a Fox
contractor that worked on the Titanic in the Popotla maquiladora. They
seem like nice people; "When we create our movies," the contractor
explains in a Wired article
(http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/14294.html), "it's
essentially in a temporary setting. As soon as you're done, you sweep up
and you're on to the next one; you try to be as unobtrusive as
possible."

Ars Electronica's Infoweapon jury awards $1000 to Popotla for its
wall-decoration behavior.

But when we (RTMARK, as members of the Infoweapon jury) speak with the
Popotla people, we realize they are nevertheless very angry, despite
this $1000.

They seem to be angry, for one thing, that Ars Electronica is not flying
them to Linz, even though they are flying the Titanic people who
destroyed the livelihood of Popotla. (The Popotla people will come
anyway; their flight will be funded by RevolucionArte, a group that
knows how to raise funds for this sort of thing.)

The Popotla people are also angry that Ars Electronica has not put them
on the schedule in Linz. (This oversight has now been cleared up, and
was due to a misunderstanding. An official Ars document will be
presented.)

But most of all, of course, they are angry because the Titanic studio,
and/or its contractors, has destroyed their village without giving them
anything in return. They do not care that this contractor has said he
cleans up, they have noticed he hasn't and are really very angry.

We (RTMARK), not wanting anyone to be embarrassed or endangered by the
angry Popotla people's behavior at Ars (where the Titanic contractor
will be, after all), send the following text to some Ars Electronica
people, and we also post it on the Ars Electronica list about things to
do with the Infowar festival:

"We have been informed that the ejido [fishermen's union] of Popotla is
as a whole rather angry at the Titanic's award, and that its
representatives may not be in the most agreeable mood while in Linz,
despite the hospitality of Ars. In order to prevent any behaviors or
activities that might embarrass the Titanic awardees or awarders either
during the ceremony or afterwards, we have been asked to convey the
ejido's request that Ars Electronica facilitate an informal meeting
between the ejido and the Titanic awardees (and any other Fox
representatives, contractees or employees who might be on hand). This
could not only help build a so-far nonexistent bridge between the studio
and the ejido, but also provide an excellent public relations
opportunity for Ars Electronica. Thank you very much for your
attention…. We are excited at this excellent opportunity to further a
dialogue between the two sides of a very unfortunate economic
situation."

Unfortunately, no one at Ars Electronica responds to this request, and
in fact they refuse to post it on the once-open, now suddenly moderated
list, infowar-en@aec.at. Several attempts to post it finally result in
the following note from the new moderator:

"why do you think this has to be posted on the list?"

to which we respond defensively that whatever our motives, it is
interesting, it is Infowar in some tiny way, and these matters should
not be hidden from view but rather aired openly, for all to enjoy, at
least on the Infowar list.

There has been no response and no posting.

We think that this is very funny, even funnier than the whole silly
thing about the village and the contractor–very funny that a technology
festival called "Infowar" would so blatantly try to control information
in this way. We hope that at least a few members of the
infowar-en@aec.at list will see this and find it as funny as we do. We
thank the moderators of RHIZOME and other lists on which this is posted
for their curiosity, openness and generosity.

For those who wish for yet more stuff to read, please look at our <a
href="/cgi/to.cgi?t=1212">interview with the Wired reporter</a>.