Slightly Jaded?
A quick update. is confirmed as one of my guests on Sunday's programme. He'll be joined by the German-born historian and Shoshanna Appleton, a well-known member of our local Jewish community.
We'll also be trying to get to the bottom of the racism row on Big Brother. Unfortunately I won't be able to watch Jade's departure live on TV tonight -- she's bound to be evicted, right? Channel Four obviously think Jade's the most likely evictee, since they've just decided to broadcast tonight's eviction without the usual live audience. When was the last time a British TV programme provoked this kind of moral debate across two continents?
I'll be missing the eviction tonighty because I'm off to see tonight -- a real Scottish director's cinematic examinaton of Idi Amin, a dictator who was in turns brutal and bizarre. In some ways, all you need to know about Idi Amin is contained in his official title:
His Excellency President for Life Field Marshal Al Hadji Dr. Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, King of Scotland, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular
This should be good. My companions tonight are Paul and Anne Bailie, who are very good friends of mine -- I was best man at their wedding -- who worked in educational development for a few years in Kikuyu, Kenya, and have an encyclopedic knowledge of east African life and culture. It'll be interesting to hear their perspective on Amin and the film's depiction of east Africa.
It's been a long week, and like many I've been recovering from a bout of the flu (I know, that's male language for a minor cold), so I need a good night out. Yes, that was a plea for sympathy!
Comments
William- Hope Paul and Anne are well. (My dad had him over for 2 consecutive Sundays last month and said it went very well.)
We are very well, thanks John, and enjoyed our film evening with William.
It was actually our second time to see the film, and we picked up a lot more detail second time around. It isn't the most sophisticated film in every respect (the symbollism is a bit obvious and some might say cliched) and owes a good deal to Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". But that said, the central performances are very strong - especially Forest Whittaker, whose East African accent is spot on. Amin is shown as the charismatic man that he was, able to provoke affection and loyalty in people, yet similtaneously be paranoid, sadistic and unspeakably violent.
Giles Foden has produced a thought provoking film about the seductiveness of power. But I will let others more qualified in film criticism to comment further...
Next week - Blood Diamond, set in Sierra Leone...
Will
Hope you're over your flu/cold by now...
May I ask, why is it you seem to have such a downer on being male, or males in general?
Whenever the topic raises its head its like it is always in a negative context with you?
eg the "sinister" connection between men and domestic violence and the prison population?
is there something inherently, weak, sinister and violent about being male?
or is this to some extent your perception of what being male is?
The whole gender and sexuality theme seems to be never far from the surface of many of your blogs...
A rhetorical question... but I can think of many good men and good qualities of maleness though obviously we all work within our experiences and subsequent worldviews.
sincerely
PB
William said:
We'll also be trying to get to the bottom of the racism row on Big Brother.
Ah William, spare us more analysis of Big Brother. Sunday Sequence is one of the places I turn for refuge from the manufactured controversies of reality TV and the tabloid media.
Paul Bailie- seeing as you seem to know John perhaps you could persuade him to enlighten us with the name of his radio show ? ;-)
Dont worry Will - some of us got your joke about flu/minor cold even if pb has lost the plot.
VOL SIMP:
I mostly agree on tabloid stuff but this BB debate is important. I think it's at least forced us to ask what racism is. Nothing tabloid about that discussion.
Gelam/Vol Simp
I'm torn on this one too chaps. I'm on the record on the BB thread as thinking that BB is the most execrable dross for the intellectually stunted.
However it has raised this important issue - and no matter how C4/endemol/jade goody/other contestants wriggle - what was said if it was reported correctly is cast iron, copper bottomend racism.
What's more racism is alive and kicking in the UK - across the socioeconomic spectrum not just in asbo-land.
It's a vile, creeping, insidious evil and it's the enemy of all of us.
No doubt those associated with the show are delighted the programme can now be said to contributing to useful debate about our scoiety, but I have a sneaking suspicion they are more interested in the viewers fiscal health than their moral well being.
What a quandary..
I want to see the Idi Amin film [which is better than Jade and Big Brother]. I remember reading about Idi Amin when I was an adolescent in the 1970's. I remember reading about how he killed and tortured people in Uganda. As for Jade, I think she deserves a pie in the face for her treatment of Shilpa. I propose that Jade receives a Pie in the Face and then waterhosed in the style of Tiswas.
Paul- I'd be interested in what you think of Blood Diamond. It was a Golden Globe nominee, but didn't come away with any nominations.
***CORRECTION*** - it didn't come away with any awards.
John,
who is talking about awards, have I missed something?
Could any one that has seen the film tell me if Operation Entebbe is mentioned in the Last King of Scotland?
I suppose that all those that deny the holocaust deny that the Entebbe incident ever happened.
Gee
"it"
Billy,
yes, the Israeli operation at Entebbe is alluded to in the closing section of the film, but is not depicted. The film is really about the Scottish doctor, not Amin or Uganda; so once Dr Gerrigan flies off, the film ends.
The operation was actually called Operation Thunderball and then re-named Operation Yonatan in honour of the Israeli officer killed in the gunbattle.
No specific mention is made of the murder of Dora Bloch in The Last king of Scotland(she was left behind because she had been taken to Mulago Hospital for treatment).
The film is not particularly concerned with the an accurate portrayal of the hostage situation; in the film, the action takes place in a modern, bright and clean area of the airport, but in reality the hostages were taken to a disused and semi derelict part of the airport.
I would doubt that holocaust deniers would deny the reality of Operation Thunderball. Amin and the various anti-Israeli states reacted to the operation with rage and fury and did their best to have the UN denounce the operation as an infringement of Ugandan soveriegnty.
Amin was not a holocaust denier; indeed, he wrote and spoke of his admiration for Hitler and approval of the holocaust.
For those unfamiliar with Operation Thunderball (aka Thunberbolt) have a look at this ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ news page:
Paul- A closet Will & Testament reader, I see! ;-)
John Wright
Yes. But I don't inhale.
"Thank you Paul"
As regards the BB section on today's show. I think it was a missed opportunity if the topic is going to be discussed.
I think the whole BB thing has taught us nothing we didn't already know. Rascism exists in the UK - there is no need to debate that, it's obvious.
The bigger question is why this only gets discussed when it's on television. How come people do not react against it as strongly when they see it in the street every day.
I also believe Endemol were well aware something like this would have happened. Another question is why rascism can become a sort of entertainment (as Ken Livingstone has pointed out).
Any debate that arises because of this manufactured controversy will do nothing to prevent rascism in the UK.
Vol Simp .... um. You don't think the bb thing has taught us anything but you think the discussion today was a missed opportunity ... to talk about what? Say something about this that wasn't said on the radio already??
I think I made it clear the questions I would have liked to seen addressed:
Why rascism becomes a talking point when it's on tv yet when it happens all around us no-one seems to get so upset about it?
How we allow ourselves to be manipulated by a media company which manufactors situations that are meant to give rise to conflict?
Maye these points have been raised - God knows there has been enough coverage that everything that could possibly said about this freak show must have been said already.
Yes I think those points got a good doing over on lots of programmes.