Movie Recommendation from World Bank

By Paul

film_12.jpg“If you cannot imagine how a movie about electricity privatization can move you to tears …” - Jonathan Walters, World Bank

Pablo recommends the film ‘Power Trip’- a documentary about electricity privatization in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Watching the trailer it gave me the feeling it was very one-sided as commented by one critic;

“Paul Devlin's documentary focuses on Piers Lewis, project director of AES-Telasi. A former classmate of Devlin's, their relationship slants the film in favor of AES managers, portraying them as a fun-loving group of world travelers on an altruistic crusade to save a picturesque country from a descent into a new dark age…

While his interviews with Lewis, AES general director Michael Scholey and CEO Dennis Bakke amply express management's point of view, the people of Tbilisi are either portrayed as thieves who vandalize company equipment, rigging dangerous and illegal connections to siphon off the electricity, or are shown in various stages of distress. Devlin takes his camera into the street to film impressions of the people, but he shoots them, not as individuals, but as a chaotic mob..”

Here is John Giraudo, VP and Chief Compliance Officer, AES Corp. talking about corruption;

“My company, The AES Corporation, is in the thick of improving economic development. We provide an essential good— electricity to many third world countries—27 countries in fact. We are part of the local infrastructure in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria, China, India, Pakistan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and many other developing countries. Through 15 distribution companies we deliver electricity to more than 10 million people---for example we keep the lights on for nearly everyone in the city of San Paolo Brazil, the entire country of Cameroon and many of the suburbs of Kiev. As a company, listed on the US stock exchange, we are one of the biggest channels of private sector money to poor countries. It is difficult to think of another private-sector company with such a large investment in third world infrastructure.

Because of our presence in all these places in the world we see lots of corruption—petty corruption and official corruption. Indeed, the biggest challenge our people face in doing business overseas is to resist the corruption around us…”

Now I think I would definitely see the film. I wonder what Georgians think of the movie.

More reviews; The Boston Globe, Village Voice

-- June 28, 2006 12:36 AM |

Comments

Alex Singleton wrote:

This film is wonderful. Thanks for flagging it up.

-- June 28, 2006 6:03 AM ∞

Mike wrote:

I've been a fan of Power Trip since I first saw it 2 years ago. Here is part of what I said back in July 2004:

The film offers a perspective on capitalism and corporations hard to get in the Western world, because in the West so much of the institutional framework is taken for granted. In the beginning only 10 percent of Tbilisi customers were paying their electric bills, because they were used to power being "free" (i.e. provided by the government). Of course, electric power was also unreliable (unless you had good political connections). In Power Trip you can get a flavor of such abstract phrases as "institutional framework," and why they might matter to making the world a better place.

Should be required viewing for international development professionals and students of comparative economic systems, development studies, or the economics of institutions. Actually, everybody should go see it. [From http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/archives/000881.html]

Just a few days ago I read an account of AES operations in Cameroon that reminded me of the movie again. See the comment posted here: http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/archives/001667.html

-- June 28, 2006 9:35 AM ∞

mgp wrote:

Paul, have you seen the movie Syriana? picking up on a major theme of this blog, there is what may soon be a classic movie line - comparable to Gecko's "Greed is good" comment in Wall Street - where an American businessman who has been indicted proclaims: "corruption is why we win."

-- June 28, 2006 4:10 PM ∞

paul wrote:

Lots of people have recommeded Syriana. I guess it must be very good.

-- June 29, 2006 12:42 AM ∞

Mike wrote:

I liked Syriana for the way it tried to tie big picture and, uh, small picture story lines together - broad economic and polical movements linked with family drama. A lot of critics complained about the incomprehensible plot line, but I found it life like. I'm not sure the main story is much more plausible than your typical season of "24", but I give the movie points for trying to engage the world in its complexities (unlike "24" which twists and turns, but ultimately simplifies the world).

But, being fond of the work of Milton Friedman, I really disliked the invocation of Friedman's name by the American businessman mgp mentions above, which came right before the "corruption is why we win" line:

Corruption ain’t nothing more than government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulation. That’s Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it.

Anyone who had understood even a sliver of "Capitalism and Freedom" or "Free to Choose" would see how wrong it would be to read Friedman as favoring corruption or passing corruption off as some sort of free market idea. As I recall, the businessman comes to a bad end, so maybe that was the director's way of punishing the businessman for his bastardization of Friedman's work.

-- June 29, 2006 9:18 PM ∞

paul wrote:

What do you guys think of Lord of War; a clip of which i posted in the following post
http://truckandbarter.com/mt/archives/2006/06/a_flavor_of_bol.html

-- June 29, 2006 11:27 PM ∞

mgp wrote:

I think Mike is mis-interpreting the quote from the film - or rather the film is mis-interpreting Friedman. The businessman isn't agreeing with Milton Friedman, he's pointing out what Friedman dislikes about corruption: corruption is a form of government intervention. This is exactly why free market proponents dislike corruption. Corruption equals market distortion.

What's interesting about Syriana then, is that it draws us back into the morality of corruption. Which is inevitable. As much as institutions like the World Bank would like to separate corruption and make it an economic problem, morality and ethics play a key role, thus making corruption a political problem, too.

But there's something else at play and that's the "winning." Is there a connection between free market ideology and do-what-you-must-to-win thinking/justification?

-- June 30, 2006 4:31 PM ∞

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