Have watched “One Day in September” and it is a brilliant film. Still leaves a lot of questions open, such as how three of the hostage takers survived. It also does not explain the political climate and the lack of experience at the time, so that nowadays many of the decisions taken seem absurd.
I am wondering if Steven Spielbergs “Munich” closes the gaps left open by the documentary, but probably more by assumtion rather than research. Hopefully the topic is kept authentic enough.
George Galloway is in Big Brother, a “fly-on-the-wall” entertainment real life 24hrs a day TV show, modelled on George Orwell’s 1984, and which seems also to be related to hostage taking, as the people kept in the house are totally under the controll and mercy of the commercial company Endemol.
Germaine Greer described her experience in the Big Brother house last year in this Times article, basically outing the producing company as cheap bullies, who furthermore don’t even clean the oven in the Big Brother house between series, and the furniture in the house and every other thing “supplied for the housemates must be as trashy as possible”.
The Independent on Sunday is worth getting today, if just for the free DVD with the movie “The official story”, a film about the disappeared in Argentina during the military dictatorhip.
If newspapers give away free DVDs, then they should follow at least the Indpendent’s example and supply such incredibly good films about social awareness,history and fight against injustice and for human rights, such as today’s Independent. Well done!
Also, the Independent features today a long article in the business section about Coca Cola, Columbia and trade union rights. It’s not online.
That’s what I miss in the business sections of today: actually holding companies to account and reminding them of their social responsibilities.
Anyways the Guardian seemed to get worse and worse. Grassroot struggles seem to be now most likely covered by the Independent and not anymore the Guardian/Observer, which seems to have grown a fondness for conservatives and new labour.
I have decided to only buy it on Monday when the Media Section is in the Guardian. Their internet presence however is the best of any newspaper on the web.
Only competitior is the BBC in regards to all media outlets on the web ( and Indymedia of course).
Nevertheless, the Guardian’s coverage of social issues and grassroot struggles seemed to have tremendously decreased over the last years, particularly my prefered coverage of grassroots struggle and campaigning in other foreign countries and continents such as Africa.
Well, what I actually also wanted to blog about is George Galloway in the Big Brother house. It is actually totally irrelevant. The only reason why all the media makes such a hype of it, is because they are dreading what the public already know:
That if voting would change anything, it would be forbidden.
In clear text: George Galloway would not be able to influence any matter in the House of Commons, anyway, would he be in there instead of the Big Brother house, because he is only one person and his vote and voice would always be ignored there as he is not part of any strong party fraction.
In fact, he probably has a stronger voice even in Big Brother than outside.
And he also clears up the misunderstanding, that elected representatives would be something better than the ordinary folks running around in the streets: in Big Brother, the glamour is gone and only the human being with his or her very own personality is left. I do think George is doing actually pretty well in the Big Borther house – like Germaine Greer says, the only method of beating hostile editing of the producers to drive up the quotes is total self-control, and he clearly demonstrated that.
I don’t think many other MPs would be able to retain that much self-control, fairness and character would they be under such constant pressure as George Galloway is in this multi-camera household.
However, the only thing which could be critisised a bit is that it really seemed that he might have problems connecting with the younger housemates (nearly I would have described them as inmates!) and that he comes over sometimes a bit dogmatic.
I am really not a George Galloway or Germaine Greer person, but admire them both when they are in that house.
As Germaine Greer says in her article in the Times:
“As long as there was a possibility that the housemates could be got to revolt against Big Brother, I had a reason to stay. “
Nice quote, hein?