Somnopolis

Last week I was asked by a friend to give my opinion on a rough cut of a documentary on the Burmese military dictatorship. I hasten to add this was just to make a note of my emotional response, not due to the value of any views I may hold. As such I only watched the very beginning of the rough cut. I would like to discuss what my impressions of that experience were.

It begins with hidden footage of the day-to-day horrors of life in Burma. We as the intended audience are only seeing this due to activists and native Burmese smuggling the shots out of the country at great personal risk. Immediately the footage establishes just how everyday, in the most awful sense of the word in this context, death and misery are to these people. The police and military target their own citizenry, forcing them to live in terror, exhausting their will to resist and depriving them of even the most basic dignity. A woman is shown standing beside an open graveside dug in the dirt, sobbing as a body wrapped in black cloth is lowered into the hole. We see citizens forced to their knees in the street and beaten with truncheons by uniformed thugs. The visual shorthand that typically signifies a secretive, brutal regime – the police man reaching out to cover the camera lens that bears witness – is also employed.

What strikes me most forcibly about these scenes is that they are unsurprising. I am aware of the extent of the regime’s brutality to its people. I doubt there are many who aren’t. The smuggled footage itself only serves to confirm that knowledge, perhaps confront us as viewers with our own indolence and apathy, but nothing more than that.

The documentary then introduces us to its subject, a man who lived through the Burmese regime and has escaped. When we meet him he is watching a dvd of the Sylvester Stallone film John Rambo. Following the title screen, our hero’s name in thick red font on a black background, the film locates the action in Burma with a scene of soldiers massacring innocent Burmese. There is a quick cut to a child being shot in the chest. We see several people running from the soldiers, only for them to be executed in slow motion.

The man is shown breaking down in tears after watching the scene. He says it is just like his memory of life in Burma.

I am troubled by this scene in the documentary. It acts as a contrast to the reality of the footage at the beginning of the film. Here is horror courtesy of camera techniques, blood squibs and paid actors, packaged for our entertainment. This is a fiction that apes the brutality of the real. It also presents a solution to the crimes committed against the Burmese in the form of Stallone’s monosyllabic Vietnam veteran. Rescuing Western peace activists from captivity, his violent dispatching of the villainous soldiers is cathartic for cinema audiences. Here at least is a form of intervention we can all agree on.

There is a scene featured in the trailer for John Rambo when Darla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is rescued from being raped at the last possible second. The  soldier unbuckles his belt, grinning at his victim. The moment is stretched out, with Julie Benz’s pitiful cries for help. Then our hero appears and garrottes the soldier.

This was how the film-maker’s advertised their picture. There are bad people in Burma doing bad things. In this movie, Rambo kills them dead, in a variety of interesting ways, and rescues a white chick from being raped (but not soon enough that you won’t be denied some small vicarious thrill).

Why set  John Rambo in Burma? The franchise needs a villain, just as its fans need their Two Minutes Hate. Commies are gone and the majahideen are something of an embarrassment for Stallone, given that his character previously aided and abetted them against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. For the next outing of the series, it is rumoured Rambo will be fighting werewolves.

And so the suffering of the Burmese people becomes a cartoon for our amusement. Watching that man cry as he watched the beginning of Stallone’s film made me angry and sad all at once. He recognized in the slow-motion captured fakery the real. Cinema-goers though were afforded a fictional catharsis that allowed them to ignore it.

Addendum – since writing this blog, I have been told the finished film will not include the scene discussed above. All the same I felt I should publish this piece, as it affected me quite strongly.

God bless the Rubberbandits.

Oh Gordon…

Willie O’Dea ladies and gents.

Context

Guardian LTD

….feckin’ Avatards….

Original photos here.

So yesterday George Lee, the great white hope of the Fine Gael party, TD for Dublin South and self-confessed economics expert, quit the Opposition as he was feeling unfulfilled in his role.

Basically he did a Palin.

Much like that other media whore, Lee feels hurt that the world was not handed to him on a platter. This is almost understandable. After all, here is a man who converted a career in doomsaying on RTE into a seat in the Dail. I’m sure he was convinced the only possible trajectory was upwards.

However, perhaps he should have borne in mind that he had in effect jumped the queue of arse-kissing, door-stepping and compromise that generally constitutes a political career in its infancy. Yes Enda Kenny is a gormless fool. Richard Bruton has failed to present anything that resembles a coherent economic policy. However, in no universe would it make sense to hand the control of the party to a newly arrived junior TD.

Its like the Lotto. You have to be in it, to win it. Fine Gael was the best ticket in town to oust the corrupt mandarins that have run Ireland into the ground. Change was possible from within. Having walked away, George is now just like the rest of us – another malcontent carping impotently from the wings. Having struck a possibly fatal blow to Kenny’s stewardship of the party, all he has in reality achieved is to weaken the country’s best bet of a rival to Fianna Fail. They have the numbers, but they need strong leadership and policies that eschew opportunism. It might have been possible to effect this change from within the party and once the election was secured, plot a leadership handover to a more suitable figure.

Once again, Irish politics leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

It’s always good to know where people’s priorities lie.

For example. The widespread destruction caused by last week’s earthquake in Haiti. Reading the reportage on this tragedy, I was surprised to discover that this is not a story about the suffering of thousands of Haitians and their incredible loss.

No this is in fact a story about how much of a dick Pat Robertson is. You may remember Pat, he also claimed that Hurricane Katrina was the result of gays hosting awards shows.

There’s a further comparative with Katrina here actually. Today’s Telegraph leads off with a headline about murder and looting on the island. The picture is of a Haitian man threatening another with a carving knife. Remember the stories of New Orleans becoming a hotbed of looting, rape and murder?

Whereas today’s Guardian headline leads with ‘No room in Haiti’s cemeteries but cruise ships still find a berth’, and carries a photo of a tourist vessel docked at a private pleasure beach.

It’s always nice to have a paper’s ideology nailed to the mast so prominently.

Euronews had an interesting moment when a Haitian/American woman described the earthquake as worse than 9/11, which she had also lived through as an aid-worker. So where’s the sympathy? A colleague angrily remarked that if Haitians are so poor (this was in relation to the Irish government providing aid) how could they afford that lavish presidential palace?

Oh you mean the proxy White House? That would be American money there. So little is known about Haiti in the West. So much is ignored.

He being the 42-year-old alleged attacker of Silvio Berlusconi, whom it is said struck the Prime Minister in the face with a metal souvenir and reportedly broke two of Il Attaccatura’s teeth.

Signore Tartaglia is described in the press as having been struggling with mental health issues, so I can only assume his doctors have succeeded in helping him recover his sanity recently.

I mean look at this guy:

Wouldn’t you?

Maybe you didn’t hear, but there was a football game the other night. France versus Ireland for a place on the ticket at the South Africa World Cup in 2010. France won.

Oh did you hear different? Well there was the little matter of Captain Thierry Henry handling the ball before passing to fellow player Gallas, who scored the deciding goal in extra time.

I wasn’t able to watch the game on the night and so was following the updates on Twitter.  Tweets such as “#Ireland #Ireland #Ireland #Ireland”, ensured that the game trended above the usual topics of pale vampires and abstinence. It all seemed to be going well, but then after refreshing the search topic close to the end the tone took a dramatic dip. “Fuck”; “Thierry you cheat! #France #Ireland”; “Hand of Frog!”

That last one appeared as a tabloid headline. Gosh Rupert Murdoch is a man of principle when it comes to sourcing online content, isn’t he?

So much anger, which still hasn’t abated. To play devil’s advocate though, many of the complaints regarding the linesmen and referee passing the illegal cross to Gallas ignore the fact that an Irish player also handled the ball in the game against Georgia (although it is widely judged that the Irish were the better team on the night).

Following the calls for a rematch, the Irish Football Association released the following statement to FIFA:

“There is precedent for the invalidation of such results. In 2005 the bureau of the FIFA World Cup organising committee reached a decision to invalidate the result of a World Cup qualification match between Uzbekistan and Bahrain on the basis of a ‘technical error by the referee’…The Football Association of Ireland is hoping FIFA and its disciplinary committee will, on behalf of football fans worldwide, act in a similar fashion so the standards of fair play and integrity can be protected.”

This is highly unlikely though, as FIFA and the Irish manager Trapattoni have commented that the decision was made to allow the goal by match officials on the night and that’s that.

Or is it!

Here comes the Irish government to the rescue:

“Thierry Henry has admitted handling the ball, claims he told the ref he handled it…..Millions of people worldwide saw it was a blatant double handball – not to mention a double offside – and we should put the powers that be in the cosy world of FIFA on the spot and demand a replay”.

Yes ‘passionate soccer fan’, Justice Minister Dermot Ahern taking time out from his busy schedule enforcing blasphemy laws to comment on the football. What about Taoiseach Brian Cowen? Well he took time out from an EU summit in Brussels to discuss the matter with President Sarkozy.

Ladies and gents we should be grateful, really, that our leaders are so concerned over the football results. As Minister Ahern has said It’s the least we owe the thousands of devastated young fans around the country. Otherwise, if that result remains, it reinforces the view that if you cheat, you will win.

Yes Minister, but where do your principles come into play as regards the banking class which have ‘cheated’, and robbed the Irish people, rendered private pension funds a joke? Where is your anger over the debt handed to the Irish people as a whole with NAMA? Or the fate of the young people who have no future in this country and are being forced to emigrate abroad to find work? Why does your government victimise the public service and levy their pensions, dock their pay and freeze out graduates from entry?

Oh fine, continue with the Frog bashing. Nice to have something safe to get angry about isn’t it?

The Slate is carrying an excellent article on the latest brouhaha over Rupert Murdoch’s accusations that Google steals News Corp content. His solution? Charge users for access to The Sun and New York Post etc. websites.

Jack Shafer’s article is here.

Much of the commentary re: Murdoch’s pronouncements has been quick to presume the old bird is losing it. The Aussie ex-pat’s gone barmy, squaking about Google stealing from him. He’s an old man scared by the modern world.

That’s a big assumption. Murdoch is an adept player, always has been. He’s survived this long and acquired a powerful media empire through expert brinkmanship.

What’s more I don’t feel like I should be cheering on one corporate monolith against another. Google’s reach grows with every year. As a company they continue to reap profits, where others have drowned due to the global recession. There is an internal policy that discourages workers from using ‘google’, as a verb. That underscores just how essential a part of modern life Google has become. They have nothing to worry about.

So I don’t believe that Murdoch is actually taking them on. He is positioning his corporate holdings to take advantage of the growing debate re: commercial use of the internet though. There is no doubt that his real target is, as always, the BBC, funded by licence fees and developing a strong online presence with thanks to the iPlayer and their international service. Murdoch’s manouverings generally tend to provoke confusion and fear in his rivals. Intimidation is his key tactic, from Fox’s baiting of Obama, to the Sun giving Brown’s Labour government its marching orders (all the while glossing over the fact that the Murdoch press was a key supporter of Labour’s policies up until and including the illegal invasion of Iraq).

Rupert plays the long game. It would be wise not to forget this.