I guess people read my blog

I've had two interesting reactions to my comment of Dan Halton's Montreal Protest coverage. I never thought anybody read my blog. Interesting. I guess it is a public display... another form of media. That makes me think of Yoani Sanchez in Cuba, and her Generation Y blog... a window to the world, a way to "hang your dirty cloths out in the public sphere".

I am glad debate is being generated somehow. That we as viewers, and public in general, have a say on what is being presented to us on the news... it is a principle of democracy.

I just hope my comments don't become problematic. I don't have the power to face corporate interests.

Share

Beauties and Beasts: there is always more than one side...

"The monster of Amstetten", the Austrian Josef Fritzl, was condemend to life in prison today. I could almost hear the clapping of the media followers... "Yes, burn the monster!" 

Interestingly enough, this world needs monsters for the rest of us to "feel better about ourselves". Monsters are cruel, wicked and inhuman creatures. They display psycho-pathologies that sit at the extremes of the spectrum. They are "what we are not" or "what we fear to become". They need to be pointed at, taken out of the bunch, segregated, sentenced to death because they are poison, bad weed, malice, perversion. 

Josef Fritzl did committ "serious crimes", those perfect capital sins, sweet desserts for a sensational media feast. Hungry photographers harrased him around the courthouse to capture his evil nature and reporters drooled over their computer keybords while narrating the list of human rights violated by the monster, the beast, the raper, slaver and murderer. 

Why are we obssessed with such "creatures"? is it their uniqueness or their similutude to ourselves? Is it our fear of them or our fear of being like them? Our hunger of such details is almost pornographic... it generates excitment and sells quite well in the shock value, attention-grabbing market. 

I have an idea. Monsters are clear examples of what "we shouldn't be". They are easy targets that remind our society what happens when we misbehave. They are warnings of how justice can implacably reach  the violators, grab them and punish them. Monsters cause chaos, and we don't want chaos, we want order, we want good people, obedient people that behave, follow rules and orders, respect others... wackos and outsiders should be taken out of comission, caged... so we can exhibit them as samples of what has gone raw.

We often centre our attention on the weak and vulnerable, meaning the ones who have suffered the impact of "monsters". The monsters don't matter, they are monsters, and they have to be treated as such... their remorse is non-existent... remeber, they are monsters... And what about their mental health?... hmmm.. that's an excuse to let them go free... and be careful... they are dangerous!!! What about our social responsability in their acts? Well... there is no such thing, it is all about individual actions, we cannot take charges for what other people do... 

When "mosnteres" arise we hardly ever take a look at ourselves... we don't look inwards, we search outwards... Hardly ever societies  take resposability for the "success and the failure" of individuals, or try to understand differences, or consider the beast as much as the beauty... isn't that the paradox of such tale? That there may be the "haunted soul" of a human being behind those beast-like features? Beauties and Beasts form part of the Black and White world we love to believe we live in... but our societies also produce many grey offspring like the ones conceived from the incestous relationship between Fritzl and his daughter Elizabeth. 

Austrians (and with them us all) may prefer to identify ourselves with the "victim" than with the agressor, because it sounds and feels better to be the tortured beauty than the raping monster. 

Society: all the bridges that you burn may come back one day to haunt you! 

Share

Dan Halton: Show me the other side of the story!

I just watched the first segment of the CBC's Sunday show and I am disgusted. There was an anti police brutality protest in Montreal today, and as expected, police showed its brutality against the protestors. What are we viewers being shown? Only how "brutal" the protestors were? The police...hmmm... they were just protecting innocent bystanders and vulnerable businesses? Fine, the protestors threw bananas at the police (and some stones), they set fire to garbage cans and broke some VIP corporate windows... let's say they "should be penalized"... but come on mr. journalist... show me the other side of the story... have at least one protestor express his/her viewpoint... don't only ask police their view, they will always find a way to justify violence... I expect a right wing agenda from our government not from our national broadcaster. I am skeptical enough about news and the distorted power of media, but don't give me such easy reasons to justify my claim... trick me a bit more so I can generate debate, try to confuse me, make me believe you stand on every side, that everybody has a voice... don't be so obvious...

Shame on Dan Halton for such a poor report. His background in Political Science and Masters in International Relations should give him deeper insight into the core of news stories... 

Share

per secula seculorum?

I just read a story on Eluana, an Italian woman who has been in coma for 17 years. She died today while in the Italian congress her life was in debate. Mr. Berlusconi (cheered by the Catholic church) was trying to pass The “Eluana law” that prevents hospitals and families to take "a person's life away". What is life, I ask? What makes Eluana’s life… a life? There is no universal definition of life. Scientists define it in broad terms to avoid unequivocal assumptions.  If life is defined in relation to a natural course that exhibits certain biological processes and chemical reactions, Eluana’s life would be considered “artificial”. If she has been attached to a machine that feeds her and breathes for her, and her brain is completely or partially damaged, and she’s been asleep for almost two decades in what science calls a "coma" (a state of “deep unarousable unconsciousness")… how is this type of life not artificial? Should the state decide on these matters? How long is too long to wait for an awakening? How short is too little? “We” (the people) should have the right to decide on our own bodies and lives. What happens to our bodies after we "die" should not be regulated by the State (or by others). If these machines did not exist she would’ve died a good number of years back. How can the Church, and their believe in an Almighty God, apply “scientific” technology to their convenience and deny it when it suits them? The life of Eluana becomes a “diversion”, but not as a past time or amusement but as something that distracts the attention of the public from bigger issues. Eluana’s body is not tight to an artificial machine anymore, it will disintegrate as the rest of her once did.   

Share

The Reader

Kate Winslet's eyes spoke their language. She has the ability to mutate from an unconventional housewife living on a Revolutionary Road into an illiterate lover linked to the dark passages of Auschwitz. And she has the ability to get excited, and excite us, with the verses and lines from universal masterpieces that enter her ears and trigger her mind with pain, lust, sensitibity. Scarce moments of delight and a life journey filled with puzzle pieces that would hardly paint a clear image in the end. Reading and writing as a route to connect to the outer world when one is imprisonned (literally and metaphorically). 

A question arised, what is it that reading offers that audio-visual cannot? my answer, when reading, a voluntary action that requires an intimate effort, we get to paint our images and recreate characters in our minds... audiovisual gives us painted pictures as we watch passively... 

Share

De tú a tú

Dice la niña, hoy una amiguita cumple años y mañana otra amiguita cumple años pero a la otra amiguita no le tenemos sorpresa, ¿tú sabes qué le podemos dar? Ella es vanidosa, tres cosas que a ella le gustaría, tu elijes, la número uno es una lámpara brillante, la dos una bufanda peluda con espejo y con gafas de plástico, y la número tres, déjame pensar, un bebé.

- Yo le digo, si yo fuera la niña vanidosa pediría la lámpara brillante (para verme mejor).

- Bueno ya me tengo que ir, dice la niña, mi pregunta es, ¿cómo se inventó la nieve? 

- La nieve es lluvia que se congeló en un día muy frío.

- ¿Cuál fue el primer hombre que descubrió el fuego?

- El fuego es un rayo que cayó sobre un árbol en un día de tempestad, el árbol se encendió y los habitantes de la región, donde vivía aquel árbol en llamas, se llevaron cada uno un pedacito de fuego a su casa... lo pasaron de unos a otros por años... hasta que alguien se inventó los fósforos...

- ¿Quién es la primera persona que descubrió a Rusia? 

- Rusia... hmmm... ahí sí que me corchaste... vamos a tener que investigarlo juntos. 

- Bueno chao, dice la niña.

- Chao, que tengas una semana llena de sorpresas lindas. Share

Revolutionary Road

All roads should be revolutionary. I find that some of us loose hope as time goes by. Schemes and paradigms become the barriers we want to build instead of break. We become accommodating. We fear that drive that once enticed us to do meaningful things... that passion that wanted to change the world. I once packed up my few garments, sold off my scarce goods and embarked on a 10-year journey. Today, when I am about to reach a harbour the temptation is there to take off again. Why not? I'd love to yet again jump in the water and swim away. Along these years I have found companion. My significant other is not an anchor, he's a wing, a fin... we should not stop here, we have a longer journey ahead of us.

We've been watching some of the 2009 Oscar nominated feature films. Everybody talks about Benjamin Button, another recycled Forrest Gump (1994) with a more interesting premise and Slumdog Millionaire, A Bollywood soap opera with great camera shots and 2004 born-into-brothels-like characters aimed at breaking some Academy members' hearts.  My choice is Revolutionary Road... scheme-breaking... well done! (in recipe and flavour)... so far my favourite above Doubt (Seymour and Strip are great but so what?) and Freeze/Nixon (Too predictable, too "beginning, climax and happy end")... we'll see what happens with The Reader.

I like the name!

Share