Tuesday morning February 5th was devoted to writing about the experience of the Atom and about other aspects of the previous day. I very much wanted to begin the research and learning but resisted, so that after a lunch of rolls with lettuce and tomato, I concentrated on writing the seventeen pages of text to accompany the 116 photographs of my mother during her period in residential care. I defiantly left the TV, the radio and Gib radio turned off throughout the day. The work was completed just after six pm and I was ready for an early evening meal although I had made a butterscotch whip which was eaten over period of an hour at tea time, too much and too sweet. The latest DVDs had arrived belatedly but I first checked what was on TV and Bingo and at six thirty there was a Spanish language film about the life and loves of Freda Kathlo and her relationship with Diego Rivera and I switched into another state of WOW, rushing for a glass of red, a full one to finish the decanter as I had messed up and the cork had gone within the bottle, some olives and lots of dry crackers, and which failed to prevent me becoming quite heady on one full glass of wine.
Although I had and read the biography of Kathlo, looked at a books of photos of the pictures, watched the film in theatre and on DVD, and a subsequent documentary, and undertake a mini work project in which I insert my feet and an index finger upon some of her work in a way I believed she would have appreciated, it was only after watching this Spanish language documentary that I felt I had experienced the real person, partly because of contemporary footage and partly because of contributions from family and friends, and with extracts from her diary. The film's was also matter of fact about the politics and sexual interests of couple and the contradictions in which, she had relationships with more men than women with Diego Ok about the women, but not the men, and then she found it difficult to accept when he had a relationship with her sister. All her paintings reflect sadness, which may have just arisen because of the accident and the subsequent pain she experienced through the rest of her comparatively short life or it may have been something deeper in terms of what she felt about her life and the world she experienced. The film also used extracts from her diary which may provide the answers. I wish I was able to read in the Spanish. The film also reminded something I had forgotten is that she died quickly after she attended her first public exhibition of work and the contrast between her size and that of Diego. Putting to one side their politics and involvement with Trotsky the couple remain remarkable Mexicans as well as creative artists of significance and my affinity with her was reinforced. I must begin to work in oils before this months ends.
After an excellent fluffy omelette with prawns I decided to view the first of two DVDs that had arrived in the post. The Road to Guantanamo was not a film about which I had read anything before or viewed when it was shown on TV in a simultaneous release with in theatre and on DVD, I decided to view before doing any internet searching. That it partly shot in Iran underlines the propaganda intentions of the film, at the end of which I had come to two firm conclusions
The first issue is whether the portrayal of the treatment in Afghanistan after the three young men from Birmingham were captured by special forces among armed Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces and then at the initial and subsequent detention centre at Guantanamo in Cuba was an accurate and balanced picture of how they were treated? Everything I know about what happens in such situations from my own experience of prison in the early 1960's when we were unofficially regarded as political prisoners and treated with understandable suspicion and some hostility because it became known that we could leave at any time just by agreeing not to participate in further illegal activity, from what happened in Vietnam, especially to the captured USA service men and what has been revealed about the treatment of prisoners and some non combatants in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars against Terrorism confirms that although the film is biased it is also accurate. I subsequently learnt that the three who young men issued a report about their experience upon which the film is based.
However my reaction to this aspect of the film is very different from what its authors and promoters would like. When I went to prison, I chose to do so and I expected to have a difficult time from some prisoner officers and some prisoners. And I have never complained or made an issue about that. It was prison and the only way to avoid the experience is not to do anything which could result in being in prison. I was and remain concerned about situation where despite a judicial system in a democracy, innocent people of specific crimes, and sometimes of any crimes, are convicted and are sent to prison, and there is evidence that this happens more frequently in the USA than the UK. I was also concerned in the 1960's and chaired a group of ex prisoners who produced 100 suggestions for improvements to the system which some sections of the media were sympathetic, as was the Home Office, who implemented many of the individual recommendations, because our purpose was to make the system more effective. Because of the approach I took as an activist, and how I behaved in and immediately after prison, that the Home assisted me to become a qualified child care officer, and which probably also contributed to the social service Minister approving my appointment as a local authority chief officer. I have never been squeamish about the physical and mental torturing of prisoners, after all war is horrific and bloody and the dropping of a bomb which indiscriminately mutilates, or mutilating someone with a rocket or hand grenade, an explosive bullet or sticking a bayonet into their guts is horrific and bloody and more people die than survive which is not what happened to those taken to Guantanamo. My objection is two fold. Torturing removes any moral superiority and worse still it is not usually effective in terms of gaining reliable information, in achieving a conviction in courts of law, in maintain public support for the war involvement and in persuading the enemy to surrender. As with capital punishment, and conventional imprisonment it will be disastrous if it used on those who are not guilty of what they are being accused of.
The film attempts to show that the four young men went to Pakistan for a wedding of one of them, went into Afghanistan as voluntary helpers, not realising that the war was imminent and then found themselves among armed Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters. Before reading the film reviews and finding out what else was known about the three from the internet who were captured, nothing is known about the fourth after it is alleged the bus left him behind when he went to the toilet at a stop in the journey, I found their explanation preposterous. They claim in the film that they decided to visit Taliban controlled Afghanistan where it was known Al Qaeda and Bin Laden were operating to give help to the people because no one with whom who they had spoken in Pakistan expected the allies to bomb or invade. At least one was petty criminal with a police record and there is no evidence that they had been involved in voluntary work before and the purpose of the their trip was for one to get married. They were at one of end of the country when the bombing started so instead of making their way immediately out they went to the other and their claim that when they accept a lift, it was to get out of the country rather than be taken into the Taliban and Al Qaeda fighting heartland was ludicrous and I am astonished that so many of the USA internet reviewers were taken in. For once I was pleased to see that my suspicions and reactions were subsequently confirmed as one fo the three has admitted, following his release and the making of the film that the information given by the USA government at their release is accurate. He admits that while in Afghanistan he was taken to a terrorist training camp and he learnt how to handle weapons and to use an AK47. What is probably true that in the absence of any admission or supporting evidence the investigating and interrogating authorities attempting to find that evidence the mistake was to accuse them of being in a photograph of young men addressed by Bin laden at a time where there was evidence they were in England. It is also likely that they were previously trained or part of an activist network in the UK and that they got carried away when visiting Pakistan and went off to see what the situation was for themselves without the intention of becoming fighters or terrorists. This is all speculation by the standards which I set before taking firm positions and that the common sense approach should have been for the British subjects whp were captured in Afghanistan to have been handed over to the British forces and held as prisoners of war until their position could be established under British law in wartime conditions, taking account of what happened when we interned in Northern Island. The complicated nature of the situation and that the law of unintended consequences always applies is demonstrated by the fact that one of the three has a common first and second name, the same name as Pakistani international cricketer, It is also the same name held by a USA citizen and business and used to travelling by air within the USA and who then found that he was on the list o named individuals banned from air travel. Time and time again he was not allowed to board his first choice flight and held for questioning until his identity could be confirmed. It could be argued that there ought to have some system to enable him to be immediately checked and cleared, but then when thought is given I cannot work out how this could not be done without time being taken to check out the appearance and particulars of the individual on each occasion.
Although I had and read the biography of Kathlo, looked at a books of photos of the pictures, watched the film in theatre and on DVD, and a subsequent documentary, and undertake a mini work project in which I insert my feet and an index finger upon some of her work in a way I believed she would have appreciated, it was only after watching this Spanish language documentary that I felt I had experienced the real person, partly because of contemporary footage and partly because of contributions from family and friends, and with extracts from her diary. The film's was also matter of fact about the politics and sexual interests of couple and the contradictions in which, she had relationships with more men than women with Diego Ok about the women, but not the men, and then she found it difficult to accept when he had a relationship with her sister. All her paintings reflect sadness, which may have just arisen because of the accident and the subsequent pain she experienced through the rest of her comparatively short life or it may have been something deeper in terms of what she felt about her life and the world she experienced. The film also used extracts from her diary which may provide the answers. I wish I was able to read in the Spanish. The film also reminded something I had forgotten is that she died quickly after she attended her first public exhibition of work and the contrast between her size and that of Diego. Putting to one side their politics and involvement with Trotsky the couple remain remarkable Mexicans as well as creative artists of significance and my affinity with her was reinforced. I must begin to work in oils before this months ends.
After an excellent fluffy omelette with prawns I decided to view the first of two DVDs that had arrived in the post. The Road to Guantanamo was not a film about which I had read anything before or viewed when it was shown on TV in a simultaneous release with in theatre and on DVD, I decided to view before doing any internet searching. That it partly shot in Iran underlines the propaganda intentions of the film, at the end of which I had come to two firm conclusions
The first issue is whether the portrayal of the treatment in Afghanistan after the three young men from Birmingham were captured by special forces among armed Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces and then at the initial and subsequent detention centre at Guantanamo in Cuba was an accurate and balanced picture of how they were treated? Everything I know about what happens in such situations from my own experience of prison in the early 1960's when we were unofficially regarded as political prisoners and treated with understandable suspicion and some hostility because it became known that we could leave at any time just by agreeing not to participate in further illegal activity, from what happened in Vietnam, especially to the captured USA service men and what has been revealed about the treatment of prisoners and some non combatants in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars against Terrorism confirms that although the film is biased it is also accurate. I subsequently learnt that the three who young men issued a report about their experience upon which the film is based.
However my reaction to this aspect of the film is very different from what its authors and promoters would like. When I went to prison, I chose to do so and I expected to have a difficult time from some prisoner officers and some prisoners. And I have never complained or made an issue about that. It was prison and the only way to avoid the experience is not to do anything which could result in being in prison. I was and remain concerned about situation where despite a judicial system in a democracy, innocent people of specific crimes, and sometimes of any crimes, are convicted and are sent to prison, and there is evidence that this happens more frequently in the USA than the UK. I was also concerned in the 1960's and chaired a group of ex prisoners who produced 100 suggestions for improvements to the system which some sections of the media were sympathetic, as was the Home Office, who implemented many of the individual recommendations, because our purpose was to make the system more effective. Because of the approach I took as an activist, and how I behaved in and immediately after prison, that the Home assisted me to become a qualified child care officer, and which probably also contributed to the social service Minister approving my appointment as a local authority chief officer. I have never been squeamish about the physical and mental torturing of prisoners, after all war is horrific and bloody and the dropping of a bomb which indiscriminately mutilates, or mutilating someone with a rocket or hand grenade, an explosive bullet or sticking a bayonet into their guts is horrific and bloody and more people die than survive which is not what happened to those taken to Guantanamo. My objection is two fold. Torturing removes any moral superiority and worse still it is not usually effective in terms of gaining reliable information, in achieving a conviction in courts of law, in maintain public support for the war involvement and in persuading the enemy to surrender. As with capital punishment, and conventional imprisonment it will be disastrous if it used on those who are not guilty of what they are being accused of.
The film attempts to show that the four young men went to Pakistan for a wedding of one of them, went into Afghanistan as voluntary helpers, not realising that the war was imminent and then found themselves among armed Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters. Before reading the film reviews and finding out what else was known about the three from the internet who were captured, nothing is known about the fourth after it is alleged the bus left him behind when he went to the toilet at a stop in the journey, I found their explanation preposterous. They claim in the film that they decided to visit Taliban controlled Afghanistan where it was known Al Qaeda and Bin Laden were operating to give help to the people because no one with whom who they had spoken in Pakistan expected the allies to bomb or invade. At least one was petty criminal with a police record and there is no evidence that they had been involved in voluntary work before and the purpose of the their trip was for one to get married. They were at one of end of the country when the bombing started so instead of making their way immediately out they went to the other and their claim that when they accept a lift, it was to get out of the country rather than be taken into the Taliban and Al Qaeda fighting heartland was ludicrous and I am astonished that so many of the USA internet reviewers were taken in. For once I was pleased to see that my suspicions and reactions were subsequently confirmed as one fo the three has admitted, following his release and the making of the film that the information given by the USA government at their release is accurate. He admits that while in Afghanistan he was taken to a terrorist training camp and he learnt how to handle weapons and to use an AK47. What is probably true that in the absence of any admission or supporting evidence the investigating and interrogating authorities attempting to find that evidence the mistake was to accuse them of being in a photograph of young men addressed by Bin laden at a time where there was evidence they were in England. It is also likely that they were previously trained or part of an activist network in the UK and that they got carried away when visiting Pakistan and went off to see what the situation was for themselves without the intention of becoming fighters or terrorists. This is all speculation by the standards which I set before taking firm positions and that the common sense approach should have been for the British subjects whp were captured in Afghanistan to have been handed over to the British forces and held as prisoners of war until their position could be established under British law in wartime conditions, taking account of what happened when we interned in Northern Island. The complicated nature of the situation and that the law of unintended consequences always applies is demonstrated by the fact that one of the three has a common first and second name, the same name as Pakistani international cricketer, It is also the same name held by a USA citizen and business and used to travelling by air within the USA and who then found that he was on the list o named individuals banned from air travel. Time and time again he was not allowed to board his first choice flight and held for questioning until his identity could be confirmed. It could be argued that there ought to have some system to enable him to be immediately checked and cleared, but then when thought is given I cannot work out how this could not be done without time being taken to check out the appearance and particulars of the individual on each occasion.
No comments:
Post a Comment