Michael Moore's Where to Invade Next is Quite a Tour!

A friend and I saw Michael Moore's most recent documentary Where to Invade Next yesterday at our neighborhood theatre (CineArts at the Empire, West Portal), and we really wanted to get something close to a transcript of the whole thing--something not available.

But while it's still fresh in my mind, I do want to jot down at least the itinerary of the cultural invasions (invasions for the purpose of appropriating cultural tidbits, not imposing them).

Italy--for paid vacation time  (He made the point that there was no federal law in the USA assuring Americans of paid vacations, but he left the erroneous notion that there weren't any in the USA.)

France for the incredible school lunches, served on plates at a table that's set for the children.  (Never mind that Michael Moore--like the French--is totally clueless when it comes to the harm of their meat-heavy diet, requiring the livestock that we now know is unsustainable as well as tortured; let me not be a killjoy.)

Norway--for prisons that are rehabilitating rather than punitive  Even murderers have access to a great place to stay and sharp knives in the kitchen, where they help prepare meals.  Also acknowledged Norway's "compassionate" way of responding to the crime committed by a man who killed more than 68 people, many of them children, in 2011.  (They sing "We Are the World" for their prisoners' orientation.)

Germany for health care, asking for and respectfully using workers' ideas as well as their teaching about the crimes of the Nazi error so that all generations will guard against any such holocaust in the future

Tunisia for family planning clinics and giving women control over their own bodies by providing abortions, condoms, and other means of preventing births.  A female leader of the 2011 "occupation"/revolution is interviewed.

Iceland for the place that women have and for their prosecuting and sending to prison (not Norway's) the bankers  responsible for the crash of 2008.    Why does he say that the first democratically-elected female was Iceland's in the mid-1970's?  That's not true, is it?  I remember a comment back in the days when wars were raging in Israel, India, and the Falklands (?), and someone quipped, "Women would bring peace if they were heads of state.  Just look at Golde Meir, Indira Gandhi, and Margaret Thatcher."  But checking further, this is what I find: Vigdis Finnbogadottir was the first woman in the world to be elected President in a national election.  So I need to review what I thought I understood abot those others.  Is Prime Minister different from President?  How did other women come into office as heads of state?


Slovenia for free tuition to college and for demonstrations that rid the government of those who tried to start charging.

Portugal for de-criminalizing drug use.


There's a lot more to be said about this documentary (entertaining but often misleading and bringing up more questions than it answers), but for now I just want to remember the content of the film.