Can I Get a Witness ?
Well. Thank God 200+ marines managed to out gun 3 men (1 in a wheelchair) and 1 teenage boy in yesterday's heroic assasination of Saddam's sons. That is if they are Saddam's sons. My recent experience of the Blair and Bush administrations has prepared me for - almost - everything, so I wouldn't be too surprised if.........
Still, it all goes to help keep the Kelly case off the front pages doesn't it ? Because the government think they've done enough to sidestep that one. A timely visit by Mr Hoon to the good Doctor's widow today could almost be viewed as *closure*, for this round at least. A few weeks before the enquiry reports and joe public's no longer interested. It looks like they were beginning to think that we had all swallowed the idea that it was the BBC who "made up" David Kelly's belief that the 45 minute claim was "sexed up". Ain't it just like a woman though, to actually tape the conversation ? Horse's mouths are buggers aren't they ?
Living in the Past (part 376)
I watched the first 2 hours of Alistair Cooke's "Personal History of America" on BBC4 this evening. Originally broadcast in 1973, the series tells us as much about the early 70's and Mr Cooke, as it does about America's past. Being a *personal* history (aren't all histories "personal" ?), the first episode was an amalgam of episodes from the lives of famous - and not so famous - new worlders. It was an entertaining, if a little too personal, ramble through some of Cooke's, admittedly unsurprising, heroes.
The history proper started with episode two. The *historian* spent all of 10 minutes or so glossing over the complete pre-history of the continent until he got to......you've guessed it: Christopher Columbus ! Yes, he did utter a sentence or three on the revisionist theories of Vikings, Phoenicians and Brendan of Ireland all being the *first* to see this New Found Land, but hey ! - this is 1973, and this is how it was. When the white man called Christopher Columbus came, the history began.
To be fair to the urbane, ex-Mancunian Mr Cooke, I will concede that, in a sense, history - certainly from a student of the political and diplomatic strands - can only begin when there is written evidence. Consequently the nuances of court life are a little hard to fathom with no pre-historic press to record the burning issues of the day. But he could have, at least, discussed the millions of years prior to the ambitious Italian's *discovery* in a little more depth.
If Alistair had been making the series today, I have no doubt that it would be different in many ways. Certainly the pre-white man history may have been dwelled upon a lot more, and he may have adopted a more relaxed dress sense. But, to me, that's what fascinates. Histories, novels, music, TV, theatre: all of it is of its time. The prejudices and mores of contemporary cultures cannot help but imbue the works in question.
This was shown when Alistair discussed the beginnings of Louisiana by voicing over film of two modern-day French-Canadians hunting a Moose. A contemporary documentary would show the huntsmen tracking their prey. Would maybe show one of them raising his gun and taking aim.....and then fade to grey, or the next scene, or whatever. It wouldn't show the beast being hit and falling. And it definately wouldn't show the decapitation with a huntsman's knife. Followed by the two of them carrying their *trophy* back to the canoe with the blood dripping from the freshly severed head.
It's the same with the various wars we see filmed on our TVs.
Back in the 60s and 70s, we weren't sheltered from the horrific images of war. There was none of the prevarication regarding shocking images like there is today. Over in Iraq, the Coalition PR people are wringing their hands about proving that Saddam's sons are dead. The easiest way is to photograph, film or even exhibit the bodies. But they daren't. They've made that much fuss about the likes of Al Jazeera being disrespectful by showing dead British and American troops, that they've been caught on the back foot - as it were. Back in the 60s, you could be eating your evening meal and watching the cursory execution of a *gook* on the 6-o-clock news. A young, naked girl burnt horribly by nepalm, running, screaming towards the cameras. All there. All *in your face*. I could go on....the Pakistan/Bangladeshi skirmishes of the early 70s produced horrific images of the bloodlust I suspect we are all capable of. The IRA Birmingham bombings of 1974 gave us the lifeless forms of young men and women protruding from the shambolic interiors of demolished pubs. All of it shown in its horrific actuality, because that was the culture of the time. Don't cover any of it up with empty eulogies to the fallen. Tell it, and show it like it is. The PR shambles that was Vietnam, and the obsession with image manipulation that took hold in the 80s has seen a shift from the gore to the glory.
"For God's sake don't show them the reality. Nobody will join up again if you do !" "For God's sake don't show them the reality. Nobody will vote for us again if they do !"
1984 anyone ?
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