Good and Bad Frenchmen

During the Sundance Film Festival we saw a documentary about our world’s water crisis: “Flow. For Love Of Water.” The movie focuses on all the water-related problems that are popping up trough the world and points to a few villains that are exploiting that situation. Among others, Coke, Nestlé and two French companies are in focus: Suez and Vivendi. The two CEO of these latter companies are saying that they’re helping developing nations with their technology and management skills when in fact, according to the story, they are pocketing huge sums of money at the expense of third-world cities and governments, without improving, yet alone maintaining, the existing infrastructure. So they’re presented like good guys turning evil.
Another documentary we didn’t have a chance to see is “Man on Wire” which tells the story of Philippe Petit, the French daredevil who, among other achievements, crossed the chasm between the Twin Towers at New York City’s World Trade Center. While the act was illegal and planned like a crime, the protagonist ended up being seen and appreciated like an exceptional hero by everyone. So the moral of that story is that Frenchmen that are filled with noble intentions may turn like horrible bandits while those who appear to have some criminal purposes end up being good guys. Go figure…