The Island President

In 1973 George Kukla and my then-hero Carl Sagan predicted catastrophe from global.........COOLING. A scant 8 years later the same Science guys flipped into global.....WARMING. Okay, I get it, personal "funding needs" change global climate "facts". A lot of people wonder how "cooling" morphed to "warming" morphed to "man made climate change" (and now, weirdly, just "climate change", a sort of secret hand shake short hand..). There was a period of time when journalists, and even main stream scientists, were asking inconvenient questions. For the most part, that has ceased, since they got THE MEMO.

Now, I have two horses in this game: 1. Algore's predictions that Manhattan would be under water by 10 years ago filled me with a kind of Biblical scrubbing bubbles hope. Obviously there have been dozens of similar predictions, but his were arguably the best publicized, and, heck, he is likable. So, yeah, I was rooting for rising sea levels. Sue me. 2. Oceanic and air pollution, deforestation, poisoning of fresh water sources, and a host of other lamentable, provable man made effects are very real, and, curiously, get almost no play. The international community could halt the destruction of the Amazon Basin in an afternoon. When was the last time you heard ANYTHING about the Amazon? So...linking dicey climate models and falsified data (remember climate-gate?) with other REAL stuff has resulted, inevitably, in global paralysis on ALL the issues. A person could argue that films like this are part of the problem, and not part of the solution.

I actually just watched a 'fiction' movie, 'Ocean's Rising' (2017). Apart from the bad acting, the scientific information accurately reflected what 'The Island President' is trying to get the rest of the planet to pay attention. He's got mine. I already am concerned and do what I've been capable of doing to diminish the effects of climate change. It is time to up my game!!

The Documentary was very well directed and presented. It portrays the important events that took place in Mohamed Nasheed's life as a child and as a politician, and his 'sudden' movement towards environment. It would made us think the how vulnerable the Maldivian life actually is!

The Island President is hardly a PowerPoint presentation on the subject of environmental responsibility. That's already been done well enough. Instead, This Documentary tackles the message from a compelling human- interest angle -- by focusing on the messenger.

It was far more entertaining and less didactic than An Inconvenient Truth, with beautiful scenery of Indian Ocean captured with bird-view camera angles both in stills and amazing time-lapses.

A must watch for all environment lovers.

I seriously don't get why this documentary scores this low on IMDb. But then again, I've seen weirder ratings on here. Good, to get to the point:

Some call this docu a propaganda film for environmentalists, or for the "island president" himself. Fair enough. But is that necessarily a 'bad' thing? In my opinion, this docu gives a great insight in the complexities (and, perhaps, to an extent the impossibilities) of global governance of environmental issues. I do not think this docu actually leaves you with a positive feeling on how to tackle environmental problems, if ever. Nevertheless, it does provide you a very compelling story of a man who tries to make a difference, though be it a tiny, tiny difference. The island president's role is comparable to that of little David trying to fight gigantic, grotesque Goliath.

A very compelling docu that, I think, you should have seen if you're interested in high-level politics.

Okay. Let me just tell you something about Mohamed Nasheed's presidency as voiced by an actual Maldivian.

I don't know who this user Princess Lamha Fathina is, or where she got her information about how the people of Maldives ousted him out of his post.

But just to set the record straight, from someone who was actually there when the whole thing took place; President Nasheed was forced to step down from his post because of a bloody coup!

The police force of Maldives turned against him at the behest of another political figure who was rumored to be bribing them and they were the ones who brutalized civilians in order to make this happen. There are several videos of it on you-tube for god's sake!

And I saw it happen with my own eyes!

He was the first democratic president of Maldives and the youth and anyone who wasn't brainwashed by the former dictator of Maldives (who corrupted the country for a good forty years) loved him.

Be it, he made a few blunders during his run, but he was the first one to opt for a revolution. And one of his first priorities was the fragile environment of Maldives.

This movie highlights the good he has done and it is definitely not in any way a misrepresentation of what he was doing.

Oh, and thank you Princess Lamha Fathina for differentiating us little Asian people from you "westerners". But please, the next time you take a stand for something; at least get your facts right.

I don't make any comments about George W. Bush or President Obama even though I hear thousands of rumors; you know why? Because I wasn't actually there or know anything PERSONALLY.

To anyone who's thinking of watching this movie; please do!

It is not only inspiring to Maldivians themselves but also tells people of how delicate this beautiful place actually is.

And all this has been captured wonderfully in this documentary. :)