Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Talk
Ari Folman, in an older interview for the New York Times, was asked:
"Do you find that talk is...effective in war and diplomacy?". His answer: "Talk don't shoot. Talk".
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Persona Non Grata, by Oliver Stone
What I like from the movies of Oliver Stone? (Just had a look over a quite long list and discovered I've seen only, to be indulgent, 10%.) Natural Born Killers, and People vs. Larry Flint and Wall Street. As for documentaries, covering hot political subjects, I always think twice before seeing them, simply because I'm looking for more than common places and ignorant glamorous stars trying to fight for causes they are supporting because they could get an opportunity to be on the first page of the magazines. It's a serious reason I consider Michael Moore's propagandist works, even rising serious subject, a superficial and dangerously simplified way to see the world and he's not too far away of those he pretends to expose.
Oliver Stone is not a political literate and expert. He seized the opportunity, put a bit of curiosity and used his experience as a film director and went in 2003, in the Middle East. Where, as usual, another conflict was on the way, between - you guessed - Israel and the Palestinians. He have a high ranking distribution - Ehud Barak, Benjamin Netanyahu, Shimon Peres, Hamas leaders.. Including Hasan Yousef whose son become recently a Christian and revealed many of the inside-the-house secrets regarding the nature of this movement, many are purposive or not avoiding these days. Yasser Arafat could be seen only through old video recordings. And we see Ariel Sharon only on TV.
Even with a naive curiosity, Oliver Stone wants to know, to get more from his characters - more or less wise or sincere. But the lack of knowledge is not an excuse and almost childish, when Yousef is asking him :"What you gonna do if you house would be attacked?", he's answering: "Exactly like you".
Since then, the circumstances changed - Arafat died, Hamas seems to hold the lion's share among the Palestinians, but the war is still going on and on. Shimon Peres, together with the late Yitzhak Rabin and Arafat, is the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2002-2003 one of the dilema of the moment was what to do with Arafat - to let him living in his Muqata headquartes or to expell so far so good. Hilarious or not, they have been voices among the Nobel Committee complaining that maybe the prize should be recalled, with an exclusive reference to Shimon Peres.
Peres, is having the last word in the "movie" warning that "teaching history is dangerous". "We have to teach our children to develop imagination not memory; to educate the children to learn the history of the future, not the history of the past".
And a doubtful taste, pathetic speculation: "Who's Persona Non Grata" in the movie? The Reason.
Even with a naive curiosity, Oliver Stone wants to know, to get more from his characters - more or less wise or sincere. But the lack of knowledge is not an excuse and almost childish, when Yousef is asking him :"What you gonna do if you house would be attacked?", he's answering: "Exactly like you".
Since then, the circumstances changed - Arafat died, Hamas seems to hold the lion's share among the Palestinians, but the war is still going on and on. Shimon Peres, together with the late Yitzhak Rabin and Arafat, is the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2002-2003 one of the dilema of the moment was what to do with Arafat - to let him living in his Muqata headquartes or to expell so far so good. Hilarious or not, they have been voices among the Nobel Committee complaining that maybe the prize should be recalled, with an exclusive reference to Shimon Peres.
Peres, is having the last word in the "movie" warning that "teaching history is dangerous". "We have to teach our children to develop imagination not memory; to educate the children to learn the history of the future, not the history of the past".
And a doubtful taste, pathetic speculation: "Who's Persona Non Grata" in the movie? The Reason.
Thursday, 8 January 2009
About (this) war
Once, on a Tel Aviv beach I've met a young woman, full of life, always smiling. She come almost every day to see the see. She never swim. Once she did, since...while on her way to a shop, a bomb exploded nearby and she lost the two legs. Nobody protested for her and for any other "daily" victims. Never. She told me her story very shortly, simply on an equal voice. This is life in war zones, in any part of the world.
We are so much used to see on tv or to read it in the newspapers, after an advertising and together with the financial information that we don't acknowledge it, in fact. We go back to our lives. In 90% of the situations, if we are healthy enough, we'll be back home soon alive. And, meanwhile, we could get some news about 9/11, Madrid, Mumbai, Sarajevo, Kosovo.
How many individuals, on their own, decided these days to leave their peaceful and secure lives for helping on the ground? This is called support, real human empathy.
And we discover also it's Anti-Semitism in an Europe we, again, discover it's so diverse but unable to tackle its diversity. It was always here and elsewhere this Anti-Semitism, no excuse to deny it. We are unprepared to fight it. Again! Winter vacations are over.
We are so much used to see on tv or to read it in the newspapers, after an advertising and together with the financial information that we don't acknowledge it, in fact. We go back to our lives. In 90% of the situations, if we are healthy enough, we'll be back home soon alive. And, meanwhile, we could get some news about 9/11, Madrid, Mumbai, Sarajevo, Kosovo.
How many individuals, on their own, decided these days to leave their peaceful and secure lives for helping on the ground? This is called support, real human empathy.
And we discover also it's Anti-Semitism in an Europe we, again, discover it's so diverse but unable to tackle its diversity. It was always here and elsewhere this Anti-Semitism, no excuse to deny it. We are unprepared to fight it. Again! Winter vacations are over.
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