It?s been six years since Donald Trump flew to northeastern Scotland to announce plans to build a $1 billion golf course. Permission was initially denied by the local Aberdeenshire Council but was then granted by the Scottish government on the ground that it was in the nation?s best interests.
On July 15, Trump International Golf Links finally opened. But not everyone was delighted to see one of Britain?s last stretches of coastal wilderness transformed into a putting green.
?You?ve Been Trumped,? a documentary film by the British director Anthony Baxter that opens on Friday in at the Angelika Film Center in New York after festival screenings elsewhere, tells the story of the dunes that Mr. Trump thought should become ?the greatest golf course in the world? and the local people who tried to fend off the project. This week we chatted with Mr. Baxter about the golf course and his experience making the film. Following are excerpts, edited for brevity:
Q.
How did you get interested in the dunes and Mr. Trump?s plans for the course?
A.
I live in a town called Montrose, on the east coast of Scotland, which is just down the road from where Donald Trump announced he would be building the golf course. I had recently made a documentary for the BBC on man-made erosion on the beach in Montrose, and that got me interested in the environment of the coast and dune systems. So when I heard of Mr. Trump?s plans, I was interested in the very unique dune ecosystem of the Menie estate, where he intended to build.
It struck me as extraordinary that both of the two newspapers in Aberdeen completely ignored the environmental impacts this would have. Instead, they were raving about how this is going to be great for Scotland and bring lots of jobs ? welcoming Donald Trump with open arms, as were the local politicians, to a large extent.
I would watch the evening news and see the local people being caricatured as country yokels getting in the way of economic progress and not being given a voice by the people who were supposed to represent them. I just felt very strongly that there was a job to be done here.
My first move was to go up and speak with the local residents. I found them to be an extraordinary group of people who were very aware of just how important the landscape they lived in was. They were people who knew those dunes incredibly well. They had raised their families there and cared passionately about the environment. They just couldn?t bear the thought of its being destroyed.
I tried to go the traditional route and get funding for the film from broadcasting cooperations and art agencies. No one would touch it. I ended up remortgaging my house and raised the rest of the money online.
Q.
Mr. Trump is on the record as saying that his development would be ?environmentally perfectof ? and that the area would in fact be better off environmentally after the golf course was built. Were there any major environmental groups that supported the project?
A.
There was not one credible environmental group that supported this development ? Friends of the Earth Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Ramblers Association of Scotland ? all of these groups were dead set against this development.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds actually issued a press release when Mr. Trump was given the go-ahead saying that Scotland?s green policy had been sold down the river by this decision. Not a single expert was standing up and saying that it made sense to tamper with this very unique sand dunes system.
I hadn?t realized when I set out just how important these dunes are/were. They tell scientists a great deal about the interaction between the ocean and the coast and they are a site of particular scientific interest for studying climate change. That shouldn?t be expected to trouble Mr. Trump, though, as he has told the BBC that he doesn?t believe in man-made climate change.
As the scientist said in the film, this is the Amazon rainforest of Scotland ? the dunes are the crown jewels of our national heritage. We just cannot afford to lose these kinds of important sensitive sites and our planet cannot afford it, whether it is in Scotland or elsewhere in the world.
Q.
Do you have a favorite moment in the film?
A.
What stays with me is the day when hundreds of people marched across the dunes in support of local residents who were objecting to the development, who were being threatened with eminent domain, afraid they were about to be forced out of their homes to make way for Mr. Trump?s golf course. That was a magnificent display of people rallying behind them.
Then again, any time I spent with the locals was incredibly memorable. They are an extraordinary and inspirational group. They have been branded a national embarrassment to Scotland by the Trump organization but they have stood up against a great deal of bullying and have stood up for the environment.
They are incredibly dignified people who stood firm even when their water and electricity was cut off without explanation or when enormous banks of earth were piled up around their homes because Mr. Trump didn?t want to have to see them from his putting green.
Q.
What?s happened to them since you stopped filming?
A.
I was up there just a couple of weeks ago when the golf course officially opened. Mr. Trump made it clear I wasn?t welcome at the event, so I instead spent the day with the local residents. They was a great deal of sadness but also a weird kind of humor at just how ridiculous things have gotten.
All the houses of the people who held out are still surrounded with either huge banks of earth or strategically planted trees to try to block their homes from the view of golfers. They all say they are staying where they are ? they have no intention of moving.
But it has had a huge effect on them. They didn?t ask for any of this. They didn?t ask to be thrown into the media spotlight. They just wanted to get on with their lives and live peacefully on these dunes. And now they?re being stopped all the time by Mr. Trump?s security, essentially forced to live in a guarded compound.
The days when you can just stroll out of your house and go down to the beach are long gone.
Q.
How did the golf course turn out in the end?
A.
Well the big news now is that Mr. Trump is objecting to a proposed wind farm slated to be built off the coast from his golf course, saying it will spoil the view. He is threatening not to build his hotel if it goes through, but it?s clearly an excuse because he realizes that the economics of his venture aren?t adding up.
In the end, only one golf course and a temporary club house have been finished. The 450-room hotel, the second course, the hostel for workers, the 1,500 houses ? none of that has been built and it almost certainly won?t be.
So what?s happened? We?ve destroyed the unique dune system, we?ve practically made people prisoners in their own homes, and there aren?t even any significant economic benefits to show for it. Six thousand jobs was the promise made by Mr. Trump to the Scottish government.
There are just a smattering of part-time jobs, mowing the grass, caddying and serving up the odd cocktail. I went to a job fair held recently and there were only 50 jobs being offered, and they were just part-time, low-paying jobs ? not the sorts of things people can afford to take. The economic claims just don?t stand up under scrutiny.
Q.
Was there any part of this story that you wish you?d been able to tell, but couldn?t?
A.
I was consistently refused interviews with the police, government officials and, of course, Mr. Trump. I think the Scottish government and the local police still have a lot of questions to answer. You can say that Mr. Trump does what Mr. Trump does, but the Scottish government is supposed to stand for more.
Q.
Have you had any official response from Mr. Trump regarding your film?
A.
Recently, speaking to the Scottish Parliament, Mr. Trump branded the film a failure, although he admits he hasn?t actually seen it. We haven?t had any other response from him, besides the statement from the Trump organization calling the local people a ?national embarrassment.?
Q.
What will you be working on next?
A.
A number of communities around the world have asked us to screen the film in their town or city. They say the same thing is happening in their area ? this story keeps on repeating itself. In Dubrovnik, Croatia, we?re seeing a strikingly parallel story unfold. A tycoon is coming in, the local newspaper and media are backing it, and the government is throwing out the red carpet to welcome this wealthy business person who promises all these jobs in return for developing one of the last open spaces in the area.
Every one is blinded by the ludicrous claims of how much money will be brought into the community. I?m not sure if I will embark on another similar big documentary right now, but there is a job for journalists to make sure that people know what the real impact of these developments will be.
Source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/03/golf-course-vs-dunes-a-rebellion-that-failed/
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