2030 A Vietnam war Film, Treme and Boardwalk Empire, the League Cup Final and World Cricket game

This morning it was a black sky and I counted cars. Unusually I saw a car on the hill just after setting off; an event I cannot recall in the six months of early rising. There is sometimes a vehicle in Ocean Road at the bottom of the Hill, one turns into the Housing at Flag Court perhaps on the way to the Health Centres, or centre for Disability. I suspect the first arrivals at the Family centre are later. When I set off later there has sometimes been a an Asian work party assembling with at a small people carrier at the junction with Roman Road and there is also often a car across the way at the Newsagents. This is the only internal light in the street although sometimes there is a light or two in one of the hotels in that part of the road before I turn up the hill along the South Marine Park.

Sometimes I also see a milk, eggs etc, delivery vehicle at the junction between Ocean Road and the park although this is a recent development. This morning returning earlier than usual the same vehicle was delivering on the hill. I am reminded of when I worked for the Middlesex County Council Finance Department and 200 strong Motor Vehicle Licences division where I once made a major mistake of writing the wrong level of information in over 50, maybe 100, PCV’s Pedestrian Controlled Vehicles, for a major dairy delivery business in the county council!

There are usually more vehicles about early on Monday mornings and this time there were nine in total before the road junction roundabout at Marsden. There were also more lights in housing perhaps in a dozen homes compared to the usual half. There were few vehicles in the second part of the journey to Whitburn Village and then along the beachside at Seaburn Sunderland to the hotel. There were three buses in Whitburn village, two travelling towards Sunderland and one away. The were also fewer house lights, one van and two cars.

After yesterdays brilliant dawn, to-day was grey, but there was excitement of a sort at the Hotel because of a large display board within the entrance to the facility and then a further display table and canopy with white balloons announcing the launch fo a new web site with information or targets, weights and special offers, the latter attracting my attention. The fifty lengths remains a challenge, especially when tackled in one stretch as has become my custom. I break down the task in 10 length batches and from the midway point my enthusiasm improves although the last ten where I try to increase my pace usually leaves me shattered for a while. As I wanted to return to watch the recording of the overnight Oscar ceremony, I did not go for a swim and briefly looked at the Daily Newspaper.

There was some excellent sport on television this weekend and for the first time since the commencement of Winter I hankered to attend something live.

I have already mentioned that on Friday evening I enjoyed Warrington‘s win at St Helens, where I was appointed its first Cheshire County Council Area Director of Social Services, but never commenced the appointment having taken the opportunity of a Director’s position at South Tyneside. Warrington won 25 to 18 4 tries to 3 after leading 18.0 after 20 minutes. Warrington had won only 2 of the previous 41 minutes the occasion in 1944. The crowd was 10000. Warrington are now 4th and St Helens 6th.

On Sunday evening Newcastle minus its former stars and Premiership winning management was able to have a convincing win against Leeds Carnegie in the Aviva Rugby Union Championship. The win keeps Newcastle second from bottom with 16 points from games played 229 to 345 points overall and widens the gap with Leeds who only have 9 points and 161 to 345. This was Newcastle’s third only win but with a game in hand on Sale above them with 21 points and 270-357 there is the prospect of overtaking them before the end of the season. Newcastle scored four tries in this match against one late effort from Leeds who looked doomed. The crowd was 5000.

Sandwiched in between these two games was England’s Rugby Union game against France at Twickenham, England had a penalty at 3 mins which they scored. France then achieved a give away penalty by England 3-3. England then appeared to take command with two further penalties at 12 and 17 but sloppy play enabled France to take the initiative themselves with penalties at 19 and 21 minutes so the score became 9-9. French voices quietened the large English crowd as England were guilty of unforced errors and mistakes which could not be explained away by the greasy ball conditions.

Shortly after the half time kick off and a close call on a forward pass provides the opportunity for Foden to achieve the first try of the game to England which Flood did not convert. Within moments another English try looked on but a pass was called forward and with Flood limping it was Johnny Wilkinson hero of that final second world test final drop goal and former Newcastle man who comes on from the bench and makes a 50m spot kick to take the score to 17-9, so that France needs to score twice with 20 minutes to go. The rest was a struggle but the score remained until the final whistle with the consequence that England now has 6 points from three games and the opportunity for the grand slam but with Wales France and Ireland all only 2 points, and one win behind, it is early doors leaving Scotland and Italy with the zeros.

Newcastle United could only manage a draw at Home on Saturday against much improved Everton but this was sufficient for them to come within a point of Sunderland now in 8th while remaining 3 points clear of three clubs and four points clear of three others. Their battle and that of Sunderland who were poor against Bolton who overtook both clubs to reach 7th but also on 37, keeps them clear of immediate relegation worries. Fortunately Liverpool lost badly at West Ham to stay 6th on 39 points, with a gap of six points between them and the Euro spot Chelsea in 5th. It is all getting very tight in the middle of table. Man United and Arsenal now look as the only clubs contesting the Premiership Title and Arsenal had their first opportunity for silverware in six years when they played 16th placed Birmingham City on Sunday at Wembley.

I only watched part of the final as my attention was focussed on an epic contest between England and India in the cricket World Cup. By all accounts Birmingham started the game with tremendous resolve while Arsenal looking at the class difference on paper between the two sides and with the bookmakers odds confirming their anticipated dominance. Arsenal took to the field apparently assuming that all they had to do was turn up and they would win. Birmingham then shocked the red scarf waving supporters by taking the lead through Zigic and could and should have increased the margin before a well worked move enabled Van Persie to strike a spectacular volley into the net just before half time.

This as expected resulted in Arsenal starting the second half determined to demonstrate their on paper superiority but Birmingham had some experienced hands facing their last and in some instances only likely opportunity of a winner’s medal. The team includes three former Newcastle players with full back and captain Stephen Carr, the temperamental and controversial Lee Bowyer and the recently acquired in January centre forward Obafemi Martins whose double back flip when scoring remains amazing if somewhat fool hardy. Fearing England were about to lose the cricket I had switched over for the final 15 minutes of the football and was rewarded.

Martens could not just believed his luck when just before the end of the full time and with only four minutes of extra time to go, the young goal keeper and a full back collided as they went for the ball and Obafemi found the ball at his feet and open goal where he had just to tap the ball in which he did. Birmingham withstood the final onslaught and Obafemi had another opportunity this time created by his skill before the final whistle brought Birmingham to fevered ecstasy and a distraught and stunned Arsenal following. David had slain Goliath yet again. For relatively newly appointed Manager Alex McLeash at Birmingham this might be considered just another notch on his long list of winners medals first as a player and then as manager of both Celtic and Rangers. However he argued that taking one of the great sides in the world was the best of all feelings. The celebrations are going on and on and now Birmingham can concentrate on Premiership survival with confidence while the new Asian owners could be prepared to dig into their pockets for players in the summer to cope with their team playing in Europe. Wow.

In Bangalore in a stadium packed to the rafters with loud excited home supporters England faced India in what was the first truly competitive game of the World Cup 2011. When India won the toss and elected to bat on a friendly wicket and commenced to score freely it looked as if the die had been cast with the flip of a coin. Although India lost a wicket at 46 the great Tendulkar scored yet another one day century and with Singh and Dhoni also getting half centuries the total of 338 in the final over of their innings looked a daunting task for to win England would have to achieve the fourth highest number of runs in the second innings of this 50 over competition.

Although Kevin Petersen was out scoring well for 31 when the total was 68 and Trott for only 16 at 111, captain Straus was in brilliantly form silencing his critics that he is not a one day man and was finally out for 165 with the score at 281. Until that moment, or in farness the moment before England were winning at a cantor as Bell who had survived a review where he should have been given out according to the England experts in the TV studio was on 69 and looked as if he would also get a century as there were 8 wickets left to get the required 59 runs. But with Bell and Strauss out in successive balls and out of form Collingwood and so Prior at the crease Botham and co tried to put on a brave face. When these two were also out at 285 and 289 and all four going to the curse of Batting power play all the Indian supporters who had left early will have been stunned. Their team look favourites to win. However this was not to be as Yardy, Bresnan and Swann began to do what seemed impossible and score at the required rate of 15 runs(29) an over for the last two overs and 14 from the last with only 2 wickets in hand. England needed just 2 from the final ball and scored only 1 thus the match was tied as the less number of wickets did not apply. The crowd had one of the most exciting days of their life with over 650 runs scored in the day. Alas I missed the excitement as well have switched over to the football and then missed the replay in the evening and again this morning. However it will be on the Sky Player later in the week.

I am enjoying the Boardwalk Empire although there is nothing new about the this tale of criminals killing and making money in prohibition USA in Atlantic City, Chicago and New York. As anticipated with the ending of episode three Margaret Schroeder gets her wish and Nucky offers her to become his woman setting her up in a large apartment with her two children and a baby sitter. Before accepting the offer she consults Mrs McGarry of the Temperance association who is a realist and hands her a copy of a booklet on Family Limitation. Nucky advises her of a night out but several hours later she sit by the phone. He has had to arrange dinner with a contact about the new road project to the capital. Afterwards he wants entertainment and Nucky takes him to one of his brothels where there are lots of attractive naked and semi naked women to entertain them both. Margaret has also learnt that she is not his only kept woman and from earlier scenes there are at least three others who he expects to stay with him at his apartment overnight. One of these behaves catlike and scratches his chest drawing blood.

The Federal agent in charge of prohibition investigations in Atlantic City tries to visit Margaret at her old home but is told she has gone away in the Rolls. He has been visited by his bosses and told he must have more evidence to go for Nucky. He obtains a copy of the file on Margaret and learns that she had an abortion soon after arrival in the country when only 16 years of age. For some reason this leads him to ritual flagellation.

In Chicago Al Capone tries to make peace with Jimmy who is upset after the loss of the girl from the brothel. He is not in the mood to take on another girl when she offers and sends a wad of notes to his wife. In New York Rothstein advises Lucky Luciano who he has sent to find the whereabouts of Jimmy that instead of sleeping with the wife he is with her mother. Lucky has admitted to the mother that he has become impotent as she lies fully naked in his bed.

So what with flesh and blood galore it is not surprising that there has to be more violence. Jimmy expresses concern to Chicago boss Torrio that if they do not take on the north side gang over Greek City it will signal weakness. They arrange a meeting at which Torrio, Al Capone and Jimmy meet their competitors at their patch, handing in their weapons and negotiating a percentage of profitable action. As they leave they are handed their coats from a replacement receptionist and which include a new set of weapons. They kill their rival and three of his men including the man who was responsible for cutting the face of Jimmy’s girl friend. Jimmy and Al Capone appear to have made up now after a situation which developed over their respective war records and Capone’s son who is deaf. Back in Atlantic City Nucky suspects Rothstein and his local man Luciano is behind an attack in broad daylight on one of his “tax” collectors. The episode is called Family Limitation.

I also enjoyed the second episode of Treme which again featured some great jazz. There were four main issues in Meet De Boys on the Battle front.

Goodman’s wife continues her efforts to locate the brother of her bar owner friend and believes she has found him on remand in an out city prison but when she foes with the sister and her mother on a visit to get him bail they find that although he has the same name he is a stranger.

Janette who runs the restaurant is struggling to survive having already used up her emergency fund She invites her parents to a meal to die for which they thoroughly enjoy but also know she has an agenda. When she says she needs $25000 to keep going until the insurance money arrives her father says the most he can raise is $6000.

Her casual boyfriend Davis has lost his job as a DJ because of his comments and criticisms and goes to his father for help. The father insists that he takes a job at a hotel on Bourbon street which is full of tourist attracting joints. When a three college kids ask for advice he directs them to a jazz bar in the black seventh district advising them to take a taxi and insist on being taken to the address. At the bar they have a night long great time including meeting with some of the musicians, including Antoine who has come from gig on Bourbon Street which he tries to keep from his authentic jazz playing friends. Because the female college visitors do not return to the hotel their parents are flying out and Davis is fired for leading them astray. He meets them on their way back to hotel full of praise for his reference. Albert meanwhile has got a job while he tries to reassemble his group. However he then finds that his tools have been taken and from his contacts finds out that a local youngster took them and was making money looting. When Albert finds him and that tools have already been sold on, Albert knocks the boy senseless in revenge. Only one of the band then turn up for practice. He is working things out with his son who comes down to play a modern jazz gig but insist that it is traditional jazz that has fashioned his playing and is where his heart is.

On Monday lunchtime while tired after a good meal of turkey breast with Chinese stir fry and a pear, I watch an unexpectedly infertile about the Vietnam war called the Siege of Firebase Gloria. The film has the appearance of a made for TV venture or what in the old days would be described as B movie, despite a large cast and lots of fire power. The interest is the way the film shows up the incompetence of the USA high command at the time of the Tet New Year Holiday.

A USA military patrol, helicopter into an area from base camp finds all the inhabitants of a sympathetic village murdered, the men with their head cut off and staked, the women raped to death and the children massacred in a pit although one boy survives.

They investigate further and come across a small group of young fisherman and their women folk. Noting their ages the patrol is suspicious and arranges cover so that when one of the group opens fire they are able to strike back and kill the enemy finding out that they are regulars and which confirms that there is major movement. They make their way to an outpost on a small hill where the commanding officer is high on drugs and the rest of the men relaxing not expecting trouble. When there is an attack the commanding officer is wounded so the patrol leader takes command. The command base does not believe their report of increasing activity and refuses to send more ammunition, medical supplies or get them out of the area. The patrol find that at the camp there is a small medical unit with several female nurses. The head nurse, a captain, technically outranking the patrol leader, is horrified when a prisoner is tortured to establish what is going on. The torturer explains that there are 2000 of enemy all around them and no one is coming to for them from HQ and they all face the prospect of death with the females being raped to death. She accepts the offer of a an automatic riffle from one of the other troops.

Back at HQ a hippy helicopter pilot goes out to see the position for himself on hearing about the request from the outpost and prevents the camp being overrun with his firepower. He return and refuels and rearms and persuades two other pilots to join him, pretending to outrank someone unwilling to release the helicopters without written orders. They arrive in time to prevent a massacre and are able to drop provide ammunition and medical supplies.

On the third assault the camp is overrun and someone gets into the infirmary killing wounded in retaliation for the patrol and camp killing the wounded closest to the fort. Two of the nurses are killed by he captain used the riffle to kill those who invaded the field hospital. The battle become more fierce and just when it looks as if they will all be killed the maverick helicopter pilot returns again and the remnants of the Viet Com make their retreat, The commander of this group realises that the North Vietnamese army never expected him to succeed but he was part of the New Offensive in which all USA bases were attacked including those in Saigon as a way of signalling that they USA could not win, at a time when back home Congress and the media were told that the war was being won. The survivors are able to return to HQ in a war they cannot win.

2029 Death Rattles in Libya. Those the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad

50 years ago I sat up late into the night reciting “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterically naked.” from Howl(1958) published in Protest edited by Gene Feldman and Max Gartenberg 1960. This week a film on the life and work of Allen Ginsberg goes on release. I wonder what happened to the person who listened? Then the great fear was a nuclear Armageddon.

Now I see the best minds of this generation take the first steps of freedom. I did not stay up for the result of the voting at the Security Council of the United Nations as I wanted to swim, but I heard the result on the radio when I woke during the night and then watched on TV when I got out of bed just before 5 am After a good swim I needed to fill the car with petrol which cost over £40, double from ten years ago. But I cared less because of the news.

On Saturday 26th February 2011 the United Nations Security Council voted for the first time to declare that the leaders of a regime (Colonel Gaddafi, 5 members of his family and his ten closest associates) should the subject of an international criminal investigation for crimes against their people. I joined the United Nations association 50 years ago and yesterday it became of age when China made the voting unanimous. The decision has implications for the future of International relations across the whole earth world and for the behaviour of national leaders and their regimes. It will have immediate impact on the other countries of North Africa and the Gulf, on the Israel and Palestine and on the behaviour of all people who feel disenfranchised.

The ability to travel of the Libyan leader, his family and governing associates has been removed and their assets frozen all over the world. They must now yield to the demands of their people and international pressure or face the consequence. There have been insights into the reality of the Gaddafi and his family with Kate Addy who was in Libyia shortly after the USA Bombed following Lockerbie and who has maintained her links over the years. She indicated that there was fear and panic on the part of those with whom she had spoken earlier which perhaps indicates why the Father and Sons appeared so aggressive and defiant when they spoke to their people. They were said to have appeared more relaxed over the past 48 hours which is probably because they have killed, arrested or frightened off the opposition in the capital and became sufficiently confident to show invited journalists around the quietened city with organised groups of supporters for the regime. They are also trying to downplay the number of people that have been killed and talked of negotiating cease fires There was also reference in the programme that Tony Blair has spoken in private, advising the government of the contact that has been made

Meanwhile the UK has entered Libyan Airspace with armed craft and supporting services in order to enable British Citizens and those of other nationalities to leave. It has been suggested that the USA provided security covered with the UK using gun shop helicopters to support the transport craft as they landed sand then took off. The USA has indicated that it will give the new regime whatever help it needs and this suggest military assistance to protect and to remove threats. The media has also quickly moved to an interim council to take control after the Gaddafi regime ends prior to the holding of elections. For obvious reasons the continuing to protect and bring out nationals who wish to leave is kept confidential.

The BBC and other services has sent journalists into the East Freed Libya areas where the story of the battles and sacrifices begins to unfold with a combination of the sites mobile phone photos and films and graves.

Saturday 26th February became an enjoyable day once I switched off from the news of the situation in Libya and New Zealand where the number of death rises and there are stories of miracle escapes and the losses..

I slept in until 7.30 which at first was disappointing. I experienced a great long dream which I seemed to be in control of until. There was still rain and the atmosphere miserable but it brightened up with sunshine and some warmth until the evening. The forecast is dreadful with wintry conditions from Monday.

I have worked hard on the project completing the previous writings and printings and two three set albums which have been registered and the titles listed. The main other work has been on Development where the latest recorded set is number 2478, on Google and My Space Albums of writing and on current affairs. My work room is amazingly organised and tidy but the bathroom, day room and kitchen requires fresh efforts.

There was another amazing dawn on Sunday although the band of light out at sea was of less intensity and for the second time in a matter of weeks the lights of the local fishing boats fleets from North Tyneside and Sunderland could be seen in a line close to the shore. On the return journey there were three large cargo vessels in a line waiting to enter the river Tyne. There was also a large crescent moon visible on my journey south and a bright bright sunshine with the dawn. The heavy showery rain clouds for the north have commenced to reach the coast by midday.

I watched one film yesterday which struck me as appropriate for the circumstances. “Clash of the Titans” This was the 2010 remake of the 1981 film which I remembered well.

The films are loosely based on the story of Perseus, the Greek Hero who killed the Gorgon Medusa and claimed Andromeda who he rescued from the sea Monster, the Kraken, sent by Poseidon after her mother Queen Cassiopeia set herself above the sea nymphs

The official legend is that King Argos disappointed that his only child was a daughter, consulted the Oracle at Delphi and was warned that one day he would be killed by he son of his daughter. The King therefore imprisoned his daughter to keep her childless but when she was found to be pregnant ( by the God Zeus and played by Laurence Olivier in the 1981 film) he casts her and the child on the sea in a coffin. In the legend and in the two films this is found by a fisherman who brings up the boy. In the 1981 film and official legend the mother makes it safely to shore with her son but in the 2010 from he is found dead.

In the legend the brother of the fisherman is in fact the King of their Island and he falls in love with the boy’s mother and initiates a plot to disgrace and send away the son so her can take the mother. The King holds a banquet at which guests are told to bring horses to give as gift and because Perseus has no horses he is told to bring back the head of the Gorgon knowing that to look at her face is to be turned to stone. The reason why Medusa has a head of snakes is that she lay with Poseidon in the temple of Athena and Athena upset by the desecration turned the hair of the girl.

There are different versions in the two films from original story in which Perseus is advised by Athena how to obtain the weapons to defeat Medusa including shield to see her reflection and a sword from Zeus to cut off her head as well as a container to bring back the head. Hades provides the helmet of invisibility. After getting the head of the Gorgon, Perseus is able to escape on the horse Pegasus which springs from the neck of the Medusa.

In the 1981 Calibos son of the sea goddess Thetis (Maggie Smith) is to marry Andromeda the daughter of Queen Cassiopeia(Sean Phillips). He is a cruel being who has destroyed all the flying horses of Zeus except for Pegasus. Zeus turns Calibos into a satyr creature outcast and in revenge his mother transports Perseus to the land of Andromeda and her mother where he has to answer a riddle to marry her or be burnt at the stake (Puccini’s Turardot theme) Perseus wins a battle with Calibos and answers the riddle correctly and wins Andromeda. At the wedding her mother compares her daughter’s beauty to that of Thetis which results in the girl having to be given to the Kraken as a virgin within 30 days or the Kraken will destroy the community.

In order to get to the Kraken Perseus has to defeat Gorgon Medusa and encounters the three blind witches who share an eye between them led by (Flora Robson). In this film it is Aphrodite (Ursula Andress) and not Athena who has punished Medusa. Perseus battles with a two headed dog and after getting the head of Medusa he has to battle with Calibos and giant scorpions but manages to find Pegasus and returns just as his bride is to be sacrificed to the Kraken.

The 2010 film is just as complicated and begins with the defeat of the Titans by their sons Zeus (Liam Neeson) Poseidon and Hades (Ralph Fiennes) after Zeus got Hades to create the Kraken from his flesh. After the defeat the reign and power of Zeus is enhanced by the worship of human kind while Poseidon rules the seas and Hades is left to control the Underworld, a fate he resents. The story then jumps to Pete Possethwaite as the fisherman who finds Perseus but with his unidentified mother dead and brings him up as his son with his wife and younger daughter. They lead a happy life although his substitute father knows that one day his son will go off to find out who he really is. Unfortunately they encounter the soldiers of Argos destroying a giant statue of Zeus which falls into the sea. For some reason not explained in the film this incenses Hades (who I would have thought would have applauded the action and is therefore a monumental film flaw) who unleashes his wrath on the form of Harpies to set about the soldiers. For some inexplicable reason Hades then also lets his wrath destroy the fishing vessel thus killing the surrogate parents and their daughter with only Perseus escaping.

For some unexplained reason the King and Queen of Argos have also launched a war on the Gods and their soldiers finding Perseus bring him to their monarch. The king talks of victory and to the horror of her daughter the Queen says the girl is more beautiful than Aphrodite.

Zeus is angered by the rebellion against his power at which Hades joins in and gains permission to destroy Argos appearing at the court and turning the wife into an old woman approaching death. He insists that Andromeda is to be sacrificed to the Kraken. He recognises Perseus as a Demi god and arranges for Zeus to know who in turn fails to acknowledge or help his son. These Gods are therefore despicable bastards and therefore my sympathy is with the rebellious Argos although his wife was foolish not to appease the female Gods, bitches as some were known to be.

Understandably Perseus was hesitant about joining Argos in his rebellion and is imprisoned by the King. He encounters Lo who is an ageless woman cursed because she refused Poseidon and who sets about educating Perseus on his lineage and that he can take his revenge against Hades by destroying the Kraken. So he does a deal with the King to save his daughter while Hades enlists Calibos to stop Perseus and gives him superhuman powers. Unfortunately Perseus has an identity crisis and resists help from the Gods in case this makes him into one and this results in his not being able to protect his helpers. Fortunately he is helped by Demons of Arabian mythology and they join forces to help overthrow the Gods.

Perseus also goes to see the Stygian witches and their one eye who advises that if he gets the head of Medusa it can be used to turn the Kraken into stone. However they warn that death will befall his helpers so the majority depart and he must fight the good fight almost alone. Perseus succeeds and gets the head but on leaving the underworld he sees Calibos attempt to kill Lo. Perseus manages to kill Calibos who pleads with him not to become like a God while Lo becomes gold dust and goes to Mount Olympus. Perseus rides Pegasus in an attempt to complete his mission.

In the original legend it is only after he has the head of Medusa that he visits the Kingdom ruled by Cepheus and Cassiopeia who boasts she is as beautiful as the sea nymphs which angers Poseidon who sends his created sea monster to kill and destroy. The King must offer his daughter to the monster who is tied to a rock. Perseus uses winged flying sandals to kill the monster and free Andromeda and claiming her in marriage. Her previous betrothed battles with Perseus and it is he who is turned to stone by having sight of the Gorgon’s head. Andromeda has a son by Perseus. On returning home and finding his mother has been pursued by his father brother, Perseus kills him also using the Medusa head and makes his father King. However because it is all legend there are variations of the mythology which explains the variations and changes in characters, chronology and emphasis.

On his way back to Argos after taking the head of Medusa in the 1981 film Perseus is knocked off Pegasus and falls into the sea as he is about to rescue Andromeda. He is rescued by Bubo a large owl given Perseus by Athena to replace his lost helmet of invisibility. It is also Bubo who locates Perseus when he is lost wounded in the swamp and to tries to stall the Kraken from getting at Andromeda. Perseus turns the Kraken into to stone with the head, which he then throws into the sea and emerges with Andromeda to the applause of he people of Argos. The couple marry and have children protected by Zeus who orders that the other Gods do not pursue them. As with the legend the two becomes constellations of stars to remind humanity of the values of heroism and bravery.

In the 2010 film Hades believing that Perseus has not survived the Medusa tells Zeus that the destruction of Argos will give himself the power to overthrow the Gods and end the reign of Zeus. Zeus counters with the news that Perseus lives and Hades sends his harpies to Kill Perseus as he returns but they fail and the Kraken is killed. Hades taunts Perseus that he cannot destroy him but Perseus sends him back into the Underworld using a bolt of lightning conducted by the sword of Olympus.

In the theatre version of the 2010 film with one eye on a sequel, Andromeda offers Perseus the Kingship of Argos following the death of her father in battle with the Kraken. He declines. His father offers him a place on Olympus as a God but this he also declines. Zeus warns that Hades will return and threaten humanity but this only reinforces his son’s determination to continue adventuring! There is an alternative ending on the DVD that Andromeda falls into the sea from the support which had been built high over the water from the city so that the Kraken could claim her without destroying and killing anyone or anything else. They come out of the sea together and the embrace with a passionate kiss. He confronts Zeus saying he does not want to be a god before flying off on Pegasus to live happy ever after but presumably only after a sequel or two!

There is a tenuous moral link between the film and the events in Libya, viz that the Gods will only remain worshipped and retain their power if they are good. If only.

2028 The real Kings Speech, The Sopranos and Mad Dogs

On Wednesday evening 23rd February 2011 I watched an excellent programme on the real Kings Speech in which three former patients spoke of their experience with two having nothing put praised for the man who had helped them. The Third individual was the son of British Fascist leader Oswald Moseley. He was interesting because his comments suggested that he had resisted opening up and that his cure had come in the second world war when as a Platoon Commander it was essential to give clear and immediate directions to his men.

The programme accurately described the stages of development from the initial contact prior to the visit to Australia. The programme did confirm that the Duchess of York had visited Logue’s consulting room in Harley Street. What impressed and enlightened was the various clips of the Duke and then as King speaking and while he developed his own pace with pauses the struggle and the pain was also evident. The was also the radio broadcast by the Archbishop in which in commented to the speech disability and mention that by the Christmas of 1944 the King had felt confident enough to undertake the Speech himself, allowing Logue to spend Christmas with his family while Logue’s wife was back in Australia. The reputation of both men was significantly enhanced by this programme. I missed the last 20 minutes having dozed through accumulated tiredness but was able to have a second and full viewing on Thursday on the Channel Four player.

The third of four episodes of Mad Dogs became more farce than thriller in the sun. In the opening sequence the quartet take the body out of the freezer and cut off the hands as well as legs to suggest this has been an Albanian Mafia killing. The police woman had arrived early morning and shown a photo of the boat owner explaining his method of death by the Albanians. She had also attempt sow seeds of dissent between the men offering one special help and providing her contact information card.

The second part of the programme concerned the arrival of height challenged man previously appearing with the Tony Blair mask. He took three of the four prisoner, the fourth had gone off in a huff and fortunately returned later. The little man wanted to know the whereabouts of the yacht and tied the hands of the three with a special device he had brought with him and then the legs of two of them together while he placed a noose on the third and threatened to throw him over the balcony. Fortunately the fourth returned and armed with a garden spade was able to disable the man and prevent the hanging. The attacker was then tied to a chair and placed in the well.

Later they find that he has been removed from the well and has been killed and placed in the Freezer with a note ! “We said do not go to the police.” The level of panic between the four increases although there is also the question of the money with three admitting they have kept back between one and three of the 500 Euro notes. When one is used to pay for drinks at a hotel bar, where they go to bribe the girl who was at the villa to keep her mouth shut about the visit, it is refused because of insufficient change with the comment that only drug traffickers use notes of this size.

The Sopranos is now well underway in the Atlantic Channel re run from the commencement. In the episodes two and three there are three series development features. The overriding is Tony’s panic attacks and his ambivalent reaction to the psychiatrist when she attempt to probe causes and make connections. In one of the visits he reacts to a picture in his waiting room and begins to project some of the life death and loss issues which has prompted him to make the first visit in the first episode. He walks out of the office in anger when she asks him to start expressing his real feelings to her and in particular his possession of negative feelings. The precipitating cause of the latest outburst is the cancerous illness and hospitalization of another Mafia gang (Di Meo) acting boss member Jackie Aprile. Tony arranges for one of the stripper whores to visit the dying man to cheer him up as a scantily dressed pretend nurse later one night.

The seniors of Tony’s gang also visit in hospital including the enforcer of Tony’s brother’s separate operations who presses “Junior” Soprano to take action against Christopher and his drug addict trigger happy associate for their second taking of a loaded transport truck. In the second series episode “46 Long” Christopher and his partner arrange with the driver to take a truck with entertainment electronics from a transport company that is paying Junior protection money Tony negotiates peace with his brother by getting Christoper to pay the requested tribute fine of £15000 of which Tony keeps a third without telling anyone.

The two then plan the taking of a truck loaded with fine suits. This is hijacked by partner Brendan high on drugs with two others and the driver is accentually killed. Tony insists that the truck is returned to the company which they do but only after Tony‘s associates help themselves to the pick of the items. Junior consults his mother after being pressed to take action by his enforcer and at the end of the epsiode 3, Denial, Anger, Acceptance, Brendan is shot dead in his bath while Christopher is badly beaten.

In the previous episode Tony wrestles over the future of his mother after the problems of living on her own mount up. Eventually she is persuaded to go to a retirement community. She plays on the rivalry between the young brother and Tony to get support for her position.

In the 3rd episode Tony is approached by a colleague to help out an Hasidic Jew whose daughter wants a divorce but the husband who is claiming 50% of the Motel Hotel business he helped to build up during the years of marriage. Tony goes against advice not to get involved and agrees to take on the case for 25% of the enterprise. However the husband says he would rather die than given in, knowing that the father in law will not agree to his being killed because of the belief that he will suffer life long religious harm if he does. As a consequence Tony agrees to a settlement which reduces the demand from 50% to 15% but insists on his 25% so his involvement has only reduced the original 50% requests to 40%. The father in law belatedly agrees with his son that it was a mistake to involve Tony and that once he has his foot in the door he will become difficult to get rid off and thereafter their future existence will be governed by the gangster boss. (It is).

Tony’s wife Camila has organised a social event to raise money of a peadiatric hospital. She works with the wife of Artie Bucco Tony’s friend and restaurant owner who provides the food for the party. Tony has arranged for the restaurant to be burnt down because he knows that brother Junior plans to assassinate a rival at the restaurant which would result in his friend losing his position. Tony offers to stake the rebuild when the insurance payment is held up. His wife feels patronised by Carmela and discloses that before they married their respective partners, she and Tony hand a fling but she is is well satisfied with the decision not to continue with Tony and go with her present husband. She remains satisfied with her decision as she believes Carmela is. The look on Carmela suggests she is not as confident about her situation.

Tony and Carmel’s daughter and her sleep over best friend are having great difficulties coping with preparing for choir concert and for pre graduation exams and their social life. They approach Christopher for drugs to enable them to study without sleep. He refuses knowing what her father will do if her finds out. When she says she will go to a certain area to buy drugs he warns her that she as likely to be robbed and raped as get the drugs. He decides to bring the stuff over to the house. Carmela, suspicious, follows Tony into the girl’s room where he says he has come on behalf of his partner to ask his cousin if she is interested in going out with him. The parents are proud of their daughter when she sings in the choir and then when she graduates. They do not know her real life and ambitions.

At the end of second episode Tony beats a bar man senseless with a telephone displacing the anger he feels but which he cannot express directly. He no longer feels in control.

In Libya the world experiences what happens when such a man is allowed unlimted power.

2027 Governments beware: The genie of peaceful people power is out of the bottle.

Today Friday 25 February 2011 could become an important day in the lives of the people of Libya for good or very bad reasons. Such is the uncertainty. Yesterday evening I watched an excellent review and discussion on the future of the Middle East arranged by the Newsnight team. One of those brought to the programme on line was a young female organiser of the Egyptian revolution who was able to articulate the strength and the unity of purpose and stressed its secular nature.

The historian Simon Schama expressed his surprise and enthusiasm over what had happened but with others expressed caution about the longer term if new governments were unable to advance economies, increase employment opportunities and address the needs of those in poverty and ill health. It was at this point that further unrest could lead to exploitation by new despots, especially those using religious fervour. The role of the USA and Europe had to be one of applauding, encouraging and supporting but not interfering in how any country develops, for altruistic or commercial reasons.

This aspect was also dealt with in Question Time where a visit to Wales was hijacked by those wanting to ask and answer questions on the events in Libya and the Middle East, with one question focussed Tony Blair’s apparent courting of Gaddafi and another on Cameron pleading for peaceful outcomes while including 8 arms dealers among the 30 business representatives accompanying him on the visit to Egypt, Kuwait and Qatar and Oman with Foreign Minister Hague having earlier visited Tunisia and Jordan.

My Blair’s actions were supported by speakers from the three main parties on the basis that he successfully negotiated an end of Gaddafi’s nuclear weapon programme and then persuaded the Colonel to agree to paying compensation to the victims of the blowing up of the aircraft at Lockerbie. Government involvement in facilitating the Scottish Executive of the devolved Parliament to decide to release the only person convicted because of a false diagnosis that he only has a short while to live was criticised by the Tory and Liberal Party representatives.

All the parties then defended successive government permitting the sale of arms for defensive purposes, saying that the UK had the tightest regulations anywhere. However even the right wing editor of the Spectator admitted that it had been a mistake for arms dealers to be included in the Cameron visit. The use for defense defence was the subject of audience ridicule especially for such items a tear gas and rubber bullets which would only have internal use. On a separate programme the Spectator editor said that the time had come for the UK to decide if it was right to trade with ruthless dictatorship

I have held back from commenting again on the situation in Libya because of the fast moving nature of events there over the past week

At the time of writing, mid afternoon it appears that the East part of the country including the desert oilfields is now under the Free Libya movement with International journalists now based in the second city of Benghazi and from where yesterday a British warship was used to collect British and other nationality individuals seeking to depart.

The main public effort of the British authorities has been the evacuation of its citizens. This has led to major criticism as other European countries were reported to have acted with greater speed. There is evidence of the media and some politicians interpreting events to have a go at the Coalition although communications problems and logistical problems have exacerbated the position. Three flights had expected to be made on Wednesday morning, two commercial and one charter. The two commercial planes refused to take off although neither has issued a statement and the chartered plane remained waiting to take off for ten hours because of technical fault. There was a further delay before the plane took off. On Thursday one plane took off with less than 50 people but another had more as it was understood that individuals from other nationalities were included. While the Prime Minister apologised for the delay there are also indications that the UK has had special problems in that one reports suggested that the government had to pay the Libyan authorities a ransom to allow British citizens on to planes at the airport in the state Capital of Tripoli. This was later clarified in that the airport had increases the departure fees several time and was not fixed at £9000 over four times the previous charge. There has also been the problem of getting British Citizens to the airport because of armed road barriers by Government and Opposition interests. Many of the those involved were based in camps in the desert and some were reporting that individuals with guns had arrived, removed vehicles and with food and water supplies running low as some of the camps were being used as refuges.

The reason for the mass evacuation with China having 30000 workers and a large number of Egyptian and Tunisians as well as from other sub Sahara countries is the increasing instability and the continuing threats of the Colonel and his sons to wreck havoc on all who stand against them.

In his latest attempt to prevent what now appears inevitable Colonel Gaddafi was said to have made a TV broadcast telephone call which I heard interpreted live on Al Jazeera in which he accused Al Qaeda for causing the uprising and not the Muslim Brotherhood as he had previously alleged. He pleaded the parents to take their children off the streets and to remove the weapons they were holding. He argued that responsible adults were not involved in the rioting and disorders which made it unsafe for people to go on the streets.

In this respect in the second city of Benghazi a twenty group strong of lawyers is presently working on a proposed new constitutions The atmosphere has become calm with supermarkets open and banks and normal life returning. There has been film of military and police HQ substantially damaged before those involved transferred surrendered or changed their allegiance. In the military barracks there were underground cells in which political prisoners were held, some for four years, some dead some taken to hospital in serious conditions. Destroyed buildings have been shown said to have been bombed by Gaddafi ordered planes, although as previously mentioned two jets defected to Malta and one plane was said to have crashed rather than carry out orders. With International media now inside Libya verification of information from both sides becomes possible

In the broadcast Colonel Gaddafi then attempted to argue that he had no responsibility for what had happened in his country saying that he was in a similar position to the Queen in UK and the King of Thailand, both rulers who were symbolic head of states and who had held position for longer than himself. He reminded of the good wages, adequate food and of cheap loans. There would be improvements but he was concerned about the impact of the unrest, mentioning the loss of oil revenues.

Earlier state TV had said that he would make a TV broadcast for a town which was reported to have become under rebel control. One eyewitness report said that Gaddafi military arrived in the town, some twenty vehicles each with men and heavy weapon and opened fire on the population killing over 100 and wounding several hundred more. He had a video which he would try to the media. There were about 4000 people in the town square burying the dead and protesting prepared to stay their ground whatever the consequences. This report has not been substantiated although there have been official statements to the effects that thousands may have died in the country.

Later there was an alleged film of him addressing a crowd in the main square in Tripoli defiant but also telling his supporters to sing and dance as well as demonstrate their support for the regime. My impression was that the crowd was filmed in a previous gathering while there was shots of Gaddafi in his maniac raging either from a previous recording or from a special record close to his bunker.

There were a number of meetings on Friday of momentous significance. The first meeting of importance was a special meeting of the Human Right Council of the United Nations who to proposed to exclude Libya in view of action taken against its own people in peaceful protests. The United Nations Security Council also met in emergency session in private and while Russia and China have usually opposed intervention they did agree to the previous statement deploring action taken and calling for restraint. By late evening there were three developments. The first is that on camera the Libyan representative repeated what he had said to the meting, explain why he had change position and on the urgent need for action to prevent the continuing slaughtering of his people. There were also shots of him being warmly embraced by all the members of the Security Council when his speech to them ended. The Secretary General had also released a media statement in which he called for the United Nations to act to stop the violations of human rights in the country.

There were then report of the USA closing its Embassy to business but not withdrawing and this was followed by the announcement that the USA administration was immediately commencing sanctions. It is also understood that the Council is considering a draft resolution framed by Britain and France calling for an embargo on Arms. The stopping of travel by members of the regime and the freezing of their assets to prevent use to stay in power and the referral for investigation of human rights violations by international bodies. The British Prime Minister in calling for sanctions and other action on British TV reminded the regime and those supporting it that the world was not watching closely and that the arm of international justice would apply over time and comprehensively to all who were shown to have been guilty.


There is also a meeting of NATO taking place and of European Foreign Ministers. For a time it looked as if because of the Iraq and also Afghanistan Britain and the USA were taking a public back seat with the French Foreign Minister in calling for sanctions said she was speaking on behalf of the UK. While I believe this has been a factor I also suspect the positions were out of concern that their respective citizen could be kidnapped and used as Shields. There have been repeated appeals for those in the capital to take the last flight being arranged or to make their way to the free Eastern ports.


The British COBRA Council under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister met to day with the Deputy Prime Minister, the Defence and Foreign affairs Ministers including the Minister for Overseas Development met this morning. There is need for further action to safeguard British people (and interests) and then their is the need to plan to provide help for refugees in Tunisia and Egypt, Special forces have been on standby and there is a report of other warships assembling off Malta.

Some twenty journalists including British journalist arrived having been invited by the regime to be shown how normal things were in the city and to attend a media conference at which the eldest son repeated the defiance of his father, called the opposition terrorists but said he was willing to negotiate peace with them. He came across as much as maniac as his father. There was quite in the centre of the city, presumable as the thugs were stood down and the forces having been placed on the outskirts of the city to prevent opposition forces from entering. There were defections of senior people and diplomatic people. In contrast in the East and the second city preparations were being made for the future of one Libya. There is no talk there or among Libyans abroad of a divided country or of giving up until the regime is brought now. It is up to the International community to help stop the carnage or their leaders will be judge by the people and removed at the first opportunity at the ballot box, or by popular and peaceful will. The genie of peaceful people power is now out of the bottle.

2026 A child possessed and a sixties film, also Silk, Blue Blood and Taggart

It is 2.45 pm on 23rd February 2011 and after a difficult night when sleep eluded and struggling down just before 9 am I have succeeded in two missions set for the week. I have managed to become wireless connected again on the desk top and one lap top, with the latter able to transfer to the television. That took the greater part of the morning but I will spare myself going over the difficulties. More recently I renewed my cricket subscription obtaining the substantial discount on the full price for elders before February 28th. I also checked out the position for the occupational and state pensions for 2011-2012 and there is to be a modest increase of 3.1% which will not compensate for the increases in household and motor vehicle energy costs. Local government colleagues find their salaries frozen for the second year in succession and the loss of jobs in front line services is dramatic in the area that I know most about

I move on from such depressing information. It is catch up time and I begin with Case 39 a film which interests because if features a child care protection social worker and team (in the USA). The film stars much admired Renée Zellweger as the idealistic and missionary doing best for the child care work and Ian McShane as a Police Detective, with the third member of the closely working trio is a psychiatrist played by Bradley Cooper.

Case 39 is a referred child who appears withdrawn, and not eating and when the worker investigates the behaviour of the child indicates abuse and that of her parents meriting close examination. With difficulty the worker establishes a connection with the ten year old child who phones her later one evening saying she is fearing for her life. Before then, the worker’s seniors and the police advise that they cannot intervene without some evidence of abuse. After receiving the call the worker and the detective gain entry by breaking into the house where they find the parents trying to kill the child in the oven after having dug a grave in the basement. The parents are locked up in psychiatric institutions unfit to plead and the child placed in a short term residential unit prior to finding foster parents. She persuades Renée to provide her a home until foster parents can be found and for a short while the arrangement works to the satisfaction of both.

Things then begin to develop in strange and unexpected ways and shortly after the child starts to attend a counselling group, one of the boys in the group murders his parents after receiving call which appears to come from the home of the worker. Because the child is suspected of being involved she has a psychiatric evaluation with Bradley Cooper during which the child elicits that his fear is that of bees. When he is back home he receives a call which is the sound of bees and then the horror begins as bees start to come out of his ear and other parts of his body in ever increasing numbers although he appears to get rid of individual ones down the toilet bowl. Eventually he manages to snap his own neck and dies.

This incident arouses even more concern especially after Renée finds that the girl has been examining her private possessions and records. She visits the former home of the girl and her parents and finds that they have strengthened their bedroom door and have also place several substantial bolts to lock themselves in. She visits the psychiatric institution where the parents are being held with both self abusing from fears which the staff do not experience. The husband reveals that everyone connected with them, parents, their two other children and friends all died in what they regarded as suspicious circumstances. The father explains that they did not regard the girl as their daughter but some evil creature. Having moved in on Renée they are fearful that the girl will now get rid of them. They had to wait several months before making the attempt to kill the girl as she was able to read their minds and they had to wait until they were able to drug her to sleep. Both parents then die in mysterious circumstances.

Renée attempts to speed up the search for foster parents and she then goes for help to her Detective friend who at first dismisses her concern but then discovers that there was a phone to the Psychiatrist from Renée’s cell phone after she has removed the landline phone. The Detective is then besieged by killer hounds when he leaves his office and after finding one of the creatures sitting behind him in his car he attempts to shoot but manages to blow part of his head off.

The girl becomes more open towards Renée ordering her to do as she is told. Renee concludes that the only way is to kill the herself and manages to drug her to sleep and then sets fire on the house. But the girl reappears and the two are escorted by the police to a temporary place to spend the rest of the night. Renée goes off at speed in a different direct trying to frighten the girl and the girl retaliates with a psychic horror memory of the past. At this point the worker has become so desperate that she locks the car and drives off the levee into the water. The child has now emerged in its true demon form and there is a fight in which Renée is able to escape. During the making of the film the set and studio were destroyed by fire and although the cast were present no one was seriously injured. The release of the films was also beset with difficulties in the various countries where it was shown. The film has been much criticised and failed to attract audiences and just about broken even from its original $27 million. I found it a convincing portrayal of how minds can appear to influence other minds to self harm or commit untypical acts of behaviour.

This is not the first films which has used telephone or the television to send subliminal messages getting people to act against themselves or other members of society.

A new BBC TV series is Silk which covers familiar territory of life in Chambers and the central Criminal Court where Rumpole, Kavanagh QC Judge John Deed have set the standard. The interest in Silk is the determination of a long standing female barrister in the her later 30’s to become a QC. She reconciles successfully defending criminals on the basis that teh British law is founded on the principal of non guilty unless proven.

In this first episode she takes on a 20 minutes guilty plea case where a male rival from her Chambers for the next round of QC’s appointments represents a co defendant. He attempts to get a lower sentence for his client on the grounds that the pregnant girl was high up in the chain having been pregnant on five previous occasions to make the drug run, swallowing condoms filled with drugs. serving short prison sentences and having her children removed. Unfortunately because the barrister has concentrated on the case and the brief solicitor is not available does not study this background information and makes a passionate plea for mitigation which fails to impress the judge and the client gets 14 years with the other individual 8. Later the girl reveals that she wants a long sentence to keep her away from the gang who rape her until she pregnant to then makes runs until she is caught. The children have been removed from her and she has not contact with them. Later she the barrister finds her colleague snorting cocaine at a Chamber’s drink’s party for instructing solicitors and there is a scuffle in which her new male pupil pushes the man downstairs to return the mobile phone which his teacher had intended to use to call the police.

The main case involves a pensioner who has been beaten on the head severely and among the item taken is his distinguished service medal for rescuing a comrade. The barrister appears to be making a mess of the defence to the horror of the instructing solicitor by eliciting that when the criminal left he had yawned the door before leaving, putting his gloved hand to his mouth before using the door handle yet the investigating officer had not taken the DNA. This she successfully alleges is because the criminal has been treated lightly by the courts on three previous convictions. The police were determined to fit the accused for the crime She is also able to show that the slides of those in the line up was fixed by highlighting in two ways which led the victim to identify the accused on the basis of the only showing features, his eyes. Later she receives an envelope in which is the medal in its case.

There were also two other TV shows on the same theme of bending the rules to achieve a just result. It was the 109th episode of the latest 6th episode series of Taggart, first shown in Scotland last year and in the rest of the UK this year. I am a Taggart fan since its inception and will try and catch up on missing episodes if they are available or await until they appear of satellite TV in 2013.

In this episode John Mitchie as DI Robbie Ross whose drinking and gambling has seen him in previous scrapes beats up a drug pusher who has been providing his girl friend when she has been trying to get off, under his care and staying at his flat he comes under investigation by Complaints.

The main concern is a street murder where two college students have been taking photographs of the same spot over a 24 hour period as an assignment. The male student is placed in protective custody when he admits he was aware that members of a notorious Glasgow criminal gang and were involved with killed busker shortly before the death. Also seen on CCTC was a senior Council officer responsible for contracts. He denies any knowledge of the crime or involvement with the criminal gang. While Robbie is suspended Blythe Duff as Jackie Reid as been made up to Detective Inspector and takes charge of the case and with help of a new female Detective Constable, and Robbie, is able discover the truth. The busker was not killed by the criminal gang but the female friend of the student photographer who had been raped him a couple of years before and recognised him from the photographs taken. However two other deaths occur. Robbie reveals the whereabouts of the other photographer when the Glasgow gang kidnap the girl friend from his home. The photographer is shot dead at his place of safety. The kidnapped girl friend is also found by Robbie, dead. The reason for these deaths is that the gang has been paying off the Council Contract’s manager for business he has given to them. The photographic film of the payment was not destroy but could not be handed in to the police as it also revealed the revenge murder. Jackie and the Chief Inspector go out of their way to protect Robbie from arrest and further investigation but he is then warned by them that he has had his last chance and needs to change his lifestyle and behaviour.

Bending rules and covering up for wrong and bad reasons was the subject of the latest production of Blue Bloods “Officer Down” ion which a dedicated policewoman intervenes when she encounters and armed robbery at a bank and is killed although she manes to fire and wound one of the three men. The programme focuses on the efforts of the entire police force of the city who are ordered to stay on shift until the murders are apprehended. All the members of the family are involved in someway with the rule bending Detective son taking the lead. Even the retired Commissioner grandfather gets involved when he finds that the one of the wanted men is the son of a former villain with whom he grew up and who organised the killing of a police killer in days gone by. Eventually the son of this man is caught and the Detective gives him the choice of revealing the location of the leader of the gang or being executed. The third robber is also the son of another gangster and he is the wounded man and is found dead in the trunk of an abandoned hire car. The third man and organiser is located and gunned down as he tries to fight his way out. In the build up to the finale there is a moving burial service attended by the family and representatives of the force in which the daughter the preteen daughter of the killed officer has been dressed in a police uniform and oversize hat. When the Commissioner finishes his eulogy she gives him a salute. There is more of the reality and the youngest son with his law degree enquires about the badge of the alleged secret society within the force that some believe was responsible for the death of the eldest brother. He is attempt is brushed off.

The opportunity was taken to revisit the 1960’s Clive Donner film Here we Go round the Mulberry Bush and which brought Barry Evans to the screen for the first time. He plays a sixth former who earns pocket money delivering goods for a supermarket using a bicycle. He spends his entire life fantasising about girls and women and has four relationships which includes Adrienne Posta. One can be described as simple and common and another as upper class and carefree when all that Barry is seeking is an ongoing sexual relationship. He and his friend constantly boast of each other’s exploits and at the end of the film have both become bus conductors continuing on their Merry go round. The film was shot in Stevenage New Town has contemporary Music and would appeal to the weekend film goers of the day but would probably be ridiculed by contemporary 12 to 15 years olds although it was released on DVD for the first time last year, presumably because there are brief flashes of flesh. July Gleeson, Angela Sinclair, Sheila White, Diane Keen and Vanessa Howard play the other birds!

2025 Darkness descends in Libya

It is Tuesday 22 of February 2011 at just before 3 pm having enjoyed a Lloyd Grossmann Balti curry with a large slice of turkey and a large carton of Palau rice. I am almost up-to-date in my writing and have completed some work projects as well a shaving a potentially important computer text communication. After staying up until 1.30 am I slept in until 8 am with the intention of watching unfolding events in Libya as well as keeping an eye on England’s first game in the World 50 over cricket competition with is taking place in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. However it was not either event which caught my attention when I switched on the radio in my bedroom

There had been a second large earthquake in New Zealand which although was said to have less power than that six months ago, took place at lunch time in the city centre when people were all at work. The first report is that there are at least sixty people dead and as many as two hundred trapped. Other deaths are feared.

3.20 In the cricket the Netherlands has become one of the stronger “second division” teams and who already play as a team in British one day competitions. The Netherlands won the toss and decided to bad on what commentators thought was a good wicket. This was proven by the getting of 292 runs for 6 wickets in their 50 overs. England were reported to have been poor in field and the bowling was not effective. England also tried again an opening partnership between captain Straus and Kevin Petersen, They put on 105 runs for the first wicket when Petersen was out for 39. Strauss was then out for 88 at 166 and at the time of writing the total has risen to 183 leaving 109 for the victory with 15 overs left, more than adequate, especially as the Dutch team does not have wicket taking bowlers for this level of the game.

3.30 The level of destruction in Christchurch New Zealand the city centre is such that a state of emergency has been declared with an evacuation. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth has issued a statement expressing her shock and sorrow and the British Prime Minister has stated that the UK will give whatever support is needed and an emergency rescue team has already set off. The Government of New Zealand immediately accepted the offer of help from Australia and the USA is also sending a rescue team.

This appears to be the worst disaster in a country prone to earthquakes. It is an after shock of the earthquake six months before but the was more severe in its impact because it was relatively high in the surface so buildings shook more and the epicentre was located in a built up area. The nature of the earthquake was such that earth liquefied and bubbled to the surface. The river changed colour and roads buckled. People had to be rescued from within buildings as staircases disappeared. Two buses were crushed by the fall of building walls.

3.40 The Four kidnapped round the world USA yachting couples have been killed as the USA Navy moved in. Kidnappers have been killed and taken prisoner.

3.50 The inquiry into the terrorist attack on London 7/7 has being hearing from a representative of the Security Service on the circumstances which meant that although the leader of the attack came to the attention of the police and service in relation to other investigations he was not picked up as meriting ongoing surveillance. In one instance although a colour photograph of him was available for identification purpose only a partial face grainy black and white was distributed.

3.55 The 2012 British Olympic Velodrome in London, seating 6000 people was officially opened today and the British cycling team all gave it a spin and appeared excited and impressed by the venue.

4.15 I consider washing my hair but delay until tomorrow, shave and attend to other ablutions. Meanwhile England have lost two more wickets with Trott 66 and Bell 33. This leaves the unconfident and until recently out of form Paul Collingwood with the inexperienced Bopara at the wicket To get 43 runs off 24 balls. Still within range as the best Dutch bowler Doeschate has competed his ten overs for an excellent 47 runs and two wickets. He also made the potentially match winning 119 runs for his country.

4.25 A battle of wills has commenced between the ruthless dictator Gaddafi, who remains in the capital and has been in full flow on Libyan TV ordering his forces and the police to crush the rebellion and the rest of the humanitarian world has commenced. The Security Council has been meeting at the request of the Libyan representatives, including their ambassadors to the UN and to the USA. Before their request was made the attitude of China and Russia, understandable, given their respective records on civil rights was that this was not a matter for the Council as other countries are not directly affected and there was yet no substantive evidence of crimes against humanity. Council is now hearing representative for and against their ability to comment and make resolution on the matter. There are two requests on the table. The first is for a no fly military zone and the second for a land/sea corridor for medical supplies and to secure the welfare of those from other nationalities. The Arab League Council is also scheduled to meet today.

4.45 England now need 16 from 14 balls. 14 from 13. Now 13 from two overs. A six and two fours ends it in the penultimate over. Collingwood and Bopara each made 30 not out. The professional view expressed on Sky TV is that England did not bowl or field well with the Dutch score the fourth highest in the world Cup to be chased down.

9.30 The Security Council has arranged to meet in closed session next Tuesday. I guess that there are two considerations. The first is the security of the national citizens remaining in the country. The numbers are substantial in some instances. Secondly the extent to which the Egyptian army rebels and steps in to stop their leader. Otherwise I fear there is going to be genocide. Because of Iraq and continuing involvement in Afghanistan, the UK and the USA cannot advocate military action or intervention. If threat become necessary it must come from others.

The appearance of Gaddafi on TV was extraordinary. A Maniac sounding reminiscent of Hitler and with the same willingness to spill blood. It is understood that he is executing anyone to disobeys commands, including his officers. He has brought in mercenaries from other parts of Africa. Individuals who have been trained and he has financed in various civil wars and insurrections in at least ten other countries in the past. The situation is appalling.

2024 A Mafia connection in New Orleans and Atlantic City

As events unfold in Libya it is difficult to concentrate on the everyday, or matters of enjoyment and pleasure. I watched the Sky Atlantic first showing of the 80 minute pilot episode of Treme which deals with the impact of Cyclone Katrina on the City of New Orleans.

Of all the cities in the USA New Orleans has always been the one which interested me since becoming a devotee of New Orleans Jazz and I became familiar with many of the streets from numbers such as Basin Street Blues, Canal Street Blues, North Rampart Street, St Louis and Bourbon Street .

Then I quickly learned of the prostitution, drug taking and criminality perhaps no different from other cities, but made more colourful by the participating Jazz musicians who came to international attention and openly referred to their experiences of playing in the “cat” houses and getting “high” to do so. It was later that I also learned that the America system of crime bosses originated in the town, leading to the participation in the assassination of President John F Kennedy. Amazingly inquiries said there was no evidence that the crime boss at the time was a mafia lord or with having the Mayor, politicians and police in his pocket as was the custom for decades.

The reputation of the city from crime and vice may have been one factor in the failures of the city to deal effectively with Cyclone despite having been given adequate and appropriate warning. Their legitimate defence was that they were to know that the badly rebuilt flood defence system would fail in the way it did.

The show Treme concentrates on one of the working class neighbourhood immediately off the French Quarter, called Treme bordering Canal, St Louis and Rampart Streets and containing the Armstrong Park centre, although he had no direct connections with the area, His music, especially the Blues can be said to have been borne out of the slavery of the deep South and where musicians such as Alphonese Picou from the early days of the music through to Louis Prima and Alex Chilton once lived through until last year. The area produced a succession of street marching and playing brass bands around which the pilot film is based.

The production also brings out that the cyclone was not the primary caused of the destruction but the failure of the levees. This is brought out vividly by John Goodman who plays a university English professor together with his Civil Rights Lawyer wife. His character is based on a real life Blogger. His wife takes up the investigation of what happened to the younger brother of a woman who owns and runs a tavern in the community. Another young woman runs a restaurant which is struggling to keep going especially as her casual boyfriend tries to drink and eat any profits. He appears a self centred part time disc jockey and musician but who also campaigns against injustices, mainly directed at himself or so was my impression from the first episode. He comes across as more of angry young man that John Osborne’s character although a Rebel with a cause!

Significantly more appealing is Albert, a Mardi Graz chief who returns to find his home uninhabitable but insists or staying in the bar of an absent friend, a decision opposed by his daughter who brings him down and then his son who has made a home for himself in the New York Jazz scene. Albert wants to reassemble his group one of whom is earning a fortunate trucking out debris for the Federal Emergency Agency. Another musician is the estranged Trombonist husband of the Tavern owner who returns destitute, having lost his car, borrows money for taxis and pleads for paid jobs. Many contemporary musicians and bands feature in the first episode and series. What interested me and made the programme an essential future viewing was the issues being raised.

1800 people lost their lives in the Hurricane with just under 1500 of these in New Orleans. Responsibility for the failure of the flood protection system has been laid squarely at the door of the Army Corps of Engineers as the designers and builders of the system but despite the commencement of a law suit the problems was that the Federal Agency could not be held financially liable because of immunity granted under a 90 year old piece of national legislation.

The way the catastrophe was handled has also been the subject of formal criticism including of the Federal Agency Management Committee, State and Local government officials and the New Orleans Police Department leading to the effective sacking of principals. There are vivid pictures of the police preventing some trapped citizens from moving to safe areas from the Gretna and Crescent City and of the over crowding and lack of measures to pass on ten of thousands of refugees who congregated at the Superdome and which required an expenditure of $140 million to bring back into use. There were similar problems about provide sleeping, food and water and adequate sanitation at the Convention centre. A major problem was to find locations for the refugees to be rehoused. The overriding impression was the lack of appropriate action was due to those involved being predominantly black and poor. It will be interesting to see how the first season of ten shows handles these issues. A second season is already in hand.

Talking of the role of the Mafia in American city society, The Boardwalk Empire continues to confirm my impression of a long term linking of crime, politics and the trade unions, the police and judicial system, and the inability of the Federal government to bring about fundamental and long term change. The programme while centred on Atlantic City also connects with the rise of Al Capone and the fictional character of Jimmy.

In Atlantic City Nucky is busy planning his surprise birthday party. He is becoming more and more aware that his concubine is ignorant and self centred. Margaret the woman whose husband he has murdered by his brother as the patsy for the murder of the New York Mobsters and who he has got a job in the classy dress shop, is asked to deliver a dress to the party for the concubine to wear after her surprise, jumping out of a large fake birthday cake. Margaret appears not put out to find much drinking and celebrating going on but is evidently jealous of the position and lifestyle of the concubine. She has a dance with Nucky while she waits for the surprise to take place and is introduced to some of his friends and he is impressed by her ability to converse compared to that of the concubine. She steals clothes from her employer.

In the next episode she wakes to find barrels of beer being delivered to a nearby property. She reports the development to the Temperance League and goes with the leader of the group to see Nucky to report the development. He promises to sort it out. When nothing happens and a further quantity is delivered she confronts those involved and finds the organiser is James Neary, City Alderman and local party executive who she was introduced to at the Party. She dresses up in the clothing stolen from the dress shop and goes to Nucky. She is ignored and then sees the Alderman go into Nucky’s suite. Feeling jilted she destroy stolen underwear when she returns home and then turns to the government Prohibition enforcer who initially shows no interest overwhelmed by the extent to which prohibition is being ignore in the city and which has also become a distribution centre for imported and local manufacturing. However she gets his attention when she is able to identify the location and the involvement of the Alderman.

The focus of the episode in Atlantic city is preparations for St Patrick’s day. and in particular the evening celebration of civic worthies, Masonic style in which local midgets are employed to perform as leprechauns dancing and bringing baskets of goodies, bottle of whisky but no beer because of an earlier raid. Nucky’s police chef brother insists on making a speech in which he attacks the British and appeals to the nationalism of those in the room. This however leads to a rowdy argument between those who were born in Ireland and came to the USA after the revolution and Independence, and creation of the six counties of Northern Ireland, and those who were born in the USA of Irish parents/grandparents who came over previously. The speech has to be cut short by Nucky who makes jokes to calm things down. Previously Nucky has pressed for Federal funds to improve the road structure north and is told by a senator that he cannot expect to have everything. The Federal Enforcer then arrives to arrest Alderman Neary. Nucky then goes to see Margaret to find out what she is up to and wants. We know that she wants him and the life style he can provide her and her children.

In contrast Jimmy’s former partner appears to be remaining loyal to him and refuses the offer her mother to give up her son to her and lead a new life as a single woman. In the previous episode Nucky has pressed his brother for action in relation to the hanging of a black employee of his partner running the local distillery. A Ku Klux Klan meeting is raided and the leader taken into custody and tortured. As a consequence the police are satisfied that the Klan was not responsible for the lynching.

In Chicago Al Capone plays a prank on Jimmy while in bed with a whore at the brothel which Capone’s boss has a financial interest. Jimmy is damaged in one ear after Capone shoots a blank cartridge. Capone and Jimmy visit a bar in the territory of the rival Mafia group and beat up the owner after he refuses to switch to them. There is a meeting between Capone Jimmy and the rivals in which they appear to agree on a 50 50 split of interests in the contested area. However the rivals were only playing for time and one of the gang visits the brothel and sleeps with Jimmy’s favourite and slashes her face from the forehead destroys an eye and cut her mouth to chin. Jimmy remains loyal to her but is under pressure to make up the loss of earning power at $100 a day. Pressure is also exerted on her by the other girl’s for putting off the customers. The girl then takes her own life.

2023 Libian Horror and the Bielski Partisans film

As the British Prime Minister visits Egypt and the Libyan crisis come to a head I took the opportunity to experience one of the important films of recent years (2008) Defiance, which is about how the human spirit can overcome impossible and dangerous circumstances to survive and maintain fundamental standards. The film is based on the book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans by Nechama Tec and is the story of four Jewish Brothers who managed to escape the rounding up and imprisonment in Ghettos and or transportation to the extermination camps in what was Poland and which became Belarus. There is also a book, the Bielski Brothers by Peter Duffy. I am placing the books on my to buy list but for future consideration.

Without the books it is not possible to evaluate the accuracy of the story although it is known that there has been uncorroborated allegations against the Partisans and continuing controversy and Nechama is reported to have expressed concern about aspects of the film which departed from her knowledge of what happened.

The films opens as Jewish citizens in a rural community close to the dense forest surrounding the towns of Novogruddek and Lida are being divided with the women and children placed on vehicles and driven off and the men being led into the forest. Two brothers emerge from the forest and return to their farm where the bodies of their parents are discovered. They enter the property and find their youngest brother hidden in a secret area. They decide to move into the Bialowieza local forest which they know well. At one point the youngest Bielski goes off when he sees another young person and finds a mass grave of naked bodies and does not speak or eat for a few days. The eldest another arrives who has been away working for his father in law. There appears to have always been rivalry between the two brothers.

As they come across others in forest the eldest Tuvia, played by Daniel Craig, wants to look after everyone they encounter, while brother Zus, played by Liev Schreiber wants them to move quickly deeper into the forest, and believes the increasing group will slow them down and create problems with feeding. When they approach a sympathetic farmer for food they find that he has been hanged as a “Jew Lover” and although they get substantial food they also have to bring with them several more Jews he has been hiding. They begin to create a longer term camp with shelter for the winter and places they can hide if they are discovered from the air. On one expedition for food they encounter someone who supplies milk and eggs to the Germans and he begs them not to take any as he will be punished. They take some and this results in the encampment coming under attack.

The two brothers quarrel over leadership and tactics with Zus blaming the other for being kind hearted and not killing the supplier of the milk and eggs. This leads to an important passage in which the older brother argues they should try not to adopt the behaviour of their conquerors. One of those who has joined them is an intellectual writer of a monthly pamphlet and he successfully argues they need to organise themselves properly as they would if they were able live freely in society. Following the encounter with the local police forces and collaborators they decide to immediately move on and have to leave the camp and their Winter sheltering and start all over again.

As soon as Zus gets hold of a gun with four bullets he goes off to kill the local policeman and his two sons who he has learned was responsible for the death fo their parents. The wife pleads to be killed along with her family but he keeps the fourth bullet.

When they are joined by refugees from a village where the wife and daughter Zus lived he learns that both are killed and his anger and frustration becomes intense. The community has established what are called forest wives with all the women choosing men to be with and one of the new arrivals chooses him. They group has a rule that they must avoid pregnancy because of the conditions and their circumstances.

One young girl who joins the camp takes a shine to the third brother, a teenager. When she learns that that her parents have been taken into the ghetto of a town in the area and Jews are then being killed or take to extermination camps, she pleads for a rescue attempt and Tuvia and his younger brother Asael enter the ghetto and bring a large number of those incarcerated to join the camp. The young girl through her older friend tells Asael to declare his interest and there is the celebration of a wedding presided over by a Rabbi. The new refugees as with the originals have to surrender all their valuables so they can buy food and weapons. It is my understanding that one criticism of the group is that they obtained food by force and that the taking of food also created difficulties for the non Jewish Community because of the requirements of the German conquerors and the police who acted on their behalf.

On one outing the two older brothers encounter a Soviet Partisan group and they agree to cooperate by sharing food and getting volunteers to fight with them. After further confrontation between the two brothers Zus and a number of other men join the Russian Partisans. The elder brother goes back to the Partisan camp to seek drugs to prevent the developing illnesses in their encampment because of he long hard winter. The Soviet Partisan leader refuses but agrees that Zus can help his brother to raid a local police station to destroy a communications transmitter and where drugs medical drugs are also kept. The raid is successful but only an injured Zus and Tuvia survive.

There is also leadership struggle within the community when Tuvia becomes ill and there is a shortage of food. A group of men who do the fighting and go for food demand privileges and Tuvia is forced to kill the lead rebel to restore order and his authority. He has learned that his wife has also perished and he establishes a relationship with a refugee. One of the refugees is carrying a child from being raped and she gives birth in secret and Tuvia allows the woman to remain.

Just when it appears they have survived Winter and Spring arrives they discover that a German soldier messenger was carrying papers which reveal the Forest is to be surrounded by a German force. The messenger who pleads that he has a wife and child is brutally killed by the group, and several women participate out of revenge for what happened to their families. At the same time the German Partisans are ordered to retreat from the area and this is challenging for Zus and the other Jewish refugee fighters. They are told they will be shot if they do not obey their orders.

Just before the refugees led by Tuvia are about to try and escape they are spotted by a German plane and soon after bombed. They make their attempted escape when the planes leave and finding the edge of the forest they find a large area of swamp land and decide that they have no alternative but to try and cross using belts and rope to form a chain.

Having negotiated this hazard and tired and hungry they reach a bank on new forest lands but before they can enter these they are confronted by German infantry and a tank and machine guns. They have no alternative but to fight and manage to get one of the machine guns, and one refugees gives up his life to blow up the tank. At this point the battle is joined by Zus and the other Jewish partisans and together they overcome the Germans and are able to move into new forests where they are able to set up a further long term camp. Nechama Tec has stated that this battle scene never took place but it was agreed to because of film requirements and the need for financial backing. In reality they did everything possible not to draw attention to themselves. According to the film Director Hitler sent two German divisions into the Forest but did not their location.

The film covers the first year and records that they stayed in the forest for a further two years before the German retreat. The number increased to 1200 and a school and other facilities was established. Asael Bielski was drafted into the Russian Army and died in in action in 1944. Following Soviet oppression in Belarus Tuvia and his other brothers travelled to Palestine and then to the United Estates where they operated a successful Trucking business. They made no attempt to publicise their story.

One of the most extraordinary aspects of the books and the film is that it has led to criticism of the way of life of the partisans as if somehow they were expected to either submit to extermination aided by a significant number of Polish Belarus citizens, or to have starved.

I found this a very moving and interesting film and will ebesurprised if I find a better one during the rest of this year.

I had intended to write about two other films Case 39 and the sixties film Here we go round the Mulberry Bush. I have decided to leave the new BBC1 flagship drama remake of the Winifred Holtby’s South Riding. There have been several episodes of the Boardwalk Empire and an excellent new series on the aftermath in New Orleans after Katrina called Treme. However these are postponed because if the continuing momentum of events in Libyia where the Government delegation to the United Nations held a press conference and asked for intervention because of genocide on the part of the regime they serve.

They have now requested an emergency meeting of the Security Council. The secretary General has declared himself outraged by reports of what is happening.

There are reports of the use of planes to bomb and helicopter gunships. There is a report of the Parliament building in flames. There are confirmed reports of two jet planes landing in Malta seeking asylum after refusing orders to bomb their own people and of two civilian helicopters, with refugees. The Foreign Secret confirmed he had reports of Colonel Gaddafi on his way to Venezuela but this was denied by the Venezuelan Government and after saying that Gaddafi would address the nation on TV there are just reports that he says the rumours about what is happening is lies. However the reports continue with the total number of those dead said to have reached over 400.

There was an important interview by phone of Lord David Owen. He calls for an emergency meeting of the United Nations tonight and the adoption of a no military fly Zone imposed by Nato with use of British, Italian and Egyptian air forces to implement the resolution, This should act as a deterrent with the threat of prosecution for crimes against humanity.

One complication is the need to get various nationals out of the country. There are 20000-30000 Turkish workers for example. They are send large catamarans which will take 3000 people at a time. There is a problem getting civilian aircraft and out of the country which will have compromised the ability of politicians to express their anger and opposition until their national are safe.

Coincidentally the British Prime Minister, David Cameron decided to stop in Egypt today as part of a trade delegation visit including arms dealers to the Middle East planned for the school half term. He has met the Military Council and Prime Minister, walked through Liberation Square and had a private meeting with some of the organisers of the protests. Afterwards as he left for the next unspecified destination he was more outspoken about his meetings with those who organised the protests in Egypt and called them inspiring and expressed their concern and distrust about the speed and integrity of the temporary military regime to bring about reforms.

In Bahrain those on the Pearl roundabout reinforced their occupation and were joined by striking teachers. There are growing calls for reform action with some saying that he Crown Prince is a liar. The Opening Grand Prix race has been postponed/cancelled. The regime were required to pay 37 million (pounds or dollars?) to hold a Grand prix and be the first).

There have been further protests and a small number of deaths in the Yemen. There have been protests in Morocco as well as Algeria.