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Archive for February, 2006

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Brokeback Mountain

Brokeback Mountain

ID in Amazon.com: B000EF5T6G

Rating: 2 out of 5

Having read some reviews I was expecting alot more from this. It’s the classic story of forbidden love with the twist that this time it’s gay cowboys. It’s an interesting enough premise but the movie doesn’t take it anywhere. The characters are barely sketched and rarely rise above stereotypes. The actors do a good job despite being limited by the material. I was hoping for more of an exploration of the relationships that the two lovers had with their wives and families, and the broader society, but like everything else in the film these areas were barely touched on and quickly drawn with a few clichés. A lost opportunity.

And the pacing is terrible. As soon as any momentum starts to build we’re whisked forward five years and have to readjust ourselves to where the characters are now, trying to fill in the blanks of what happened in the meantime. Playing a Steve Earle song from 1988 in a bar in 1978 doesn’t do much for the timetravel sickness either.

I was expecting something with the power of Desert Hearts but I just left the cinema saying ’so what’. Sure, unfulfilled dreams and love lost are guaranteed to pull the heart strings but you have to do something more to make an original and interesting story. This just didn’t do it for me. It’ll probably sweep the Oscars.

Mark Waters marked time at 3:52 pm on February 25th, 2006 | Add a comment .

links for 2006-02-22

Mark Waters marked time at 7:18 pm on February 22nd, 2006 | Add a comment .

Hierarchies of Denial

British historian David Irving has been found guilty in Vienna of denying the Holocaust of European Jewry and sentenced to three years in prison.

He had pleaded guilty to the charge, based on a speech and interview he gave in Austria in 1989.

“I made a mistake when I said there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz,” he told the court in the Austrian capital.

Irving appeared stunned by the sentence, and told reporters: “I’m very shocked and I’m going to appeal.”

BBC News 20 February, 2006

Given the extensive participation of numerous Austrians, including at the highest levels, in the implementation of the Final Solution and other Nazi crimes, Austria should have been a leader in the prosecution of Holocaust perpetrators over the course of the past four decades, as has been the case in Germany. Unfortunately, relatively little has been achieved by the Austrian authorities in the regard. During the period under review ten new investigations were conducted but no convictions were obtained nor were any new cases filed. Austria continues to be the country with the most potential suspects but the least likelihood of their prosecution.

Weisenthal Center Report, April 2002

Mark Waters marked time at 11:10 am on February 21st, 2006 | Add a comment .

links for 2006-02-15

  • “It feels as though I won the chance to shout about my issues but, as part of the same deal, those with the power don’t have to listen. Not only that, we seem to do a lot of shouting without knowing or caring whether anyone is listening.”

Mark Waters marked time at 7:18 pm on February 15th, 2006 | Add a comment .

If We Only Have Love


If we only have love
Then tomorrow will dawn
And the days of our years
Will rise on that morn

If we only have love
To embrace without fears
We will kiss with our eyes
We will sleep without tears

If we only have love
With our arms open wide
Then the young and the old
Will stand at our side

If we only have love
Love that’s falling like rain
Then the parched desert earth
Will grow green again

If we only have love
For the hymn that we shout
For the song that we sing
Then we’ll have a way out

If we only have love
We can reach those in pain
We can heal all our wounds
We can use our own names

If we only have love
We can melt all the guns
And then give the new world
To our daughters and sons

If we only have love
Then Jerusalem stands
And then death has no shadow
There are no foreign lands

If we only have love
We will never bow down
We’ll be tall as the pines
Neither heroes nor clowns

If we only have love
Then we’ll only be men
And we’ll drink from the Grail
To be born once again

Then with nothing at all
But the little we are
We’ll have conquered all time
All space, the sun, and the stars.

Eric Blau (from Jaques Brel)

Mark Waters marked time at 8:52 am on February 14th, 2006 | Add a comment .

links for 2006-02-13

Mark Waters marked time at 7:18 pm on February 13th, 2006 | Add a comment .

links for 2006-02-10

Mark Waters marked time at 7:17 pm on February 10th, 2006 | Add a comment .

Wealthy Ireland

A new survey by the National Economic and Social Forum found that while the country is wealthier than ever, it is also a more unequal society.

The think-tank reported that the richest 20% of the working-age population were earning 12 times as much as the poorest 20 % – one of the highest levels of income inequality among any of the 30 OECD countries.

  • Ireland is ranked 51 out of 56 countries in terms of equality of economic opportunity for women, with mothers being paid less than men.
  • Some 13% of young people leave school early and their unemployment rate is 18%. Some 63% of traveller children leave school early.
  • Nearly a quarter of our working age population lack functional literacy skills – the second highest illiteracy rate among 18 industrial economies.
  • Over 40% of our male working-age population (15-64) is low-skilled, compared with 20% in Germany.

BreakingNews.ie, 06 February 2006

Ireland is not a wealthy country. Ireland is a country with some wealthy individuals living in it. There is a difference.

Mark Waters marked time at 9:37 am on February 6th, 2006 | Add a comment .

The further limits to freedom of expression

We are told that the right to free speech does not extend to shouting ‘Fire!’ in a crowded cinema.

To that we can add that if someone does shout ‘Fire!’ that does not give you the right to start one.

Mark Waters marked time at 6:06 pm on February 5th, 2006 | 1 comment .

Annals of The Famine In Ireland

Annals of the Famine in Ireland

Rating: 3 out of 5

Author: Asenath Nicholson

Year: 1998

Publisher: Lilliput Press

ISBN: 1874675945

In Annals of the Famine in Ireland Asenath Nicholson describes her travels and work in Ireland during the Famine times. It’s an insightful and mostly objective eyewitness account of what was going on at the time. She was determined to record the truth of the situation as she saw it without the spin of officialdom and she went out of her way to witness the worst of the suffering. She covered most of the country even managing to talk her way into the prison at Spike Island to observe conditions there.

I was struck by many things while reading this book. The subservience and resignation of those who were dying of starvation was shocking. Rather than complaining, protesting, or rebelling most just slunk away to their mud cabins to die in a dark corner, out of sight. They wouldn’t even steal a piece of bread to keep themselves alive.

The other thing that struck me was the complicity of many of the native Irish in creating and maintaining the conditions that led to and prolonged the disaster. Irish people today think of the famine as a national tragedy which was inflicted on all the Irish people and largely the fault of British malfeasance and indifference. We believe that we all have a share in the legacy of the pain and suffering. But this is not entirely true. While it is true that the British were largely responsible for the situation and can in no way be absolved of their atrocious handling of the affair it must also be acknowledged that a significant number of Irish people played their part in it and took advantage of the situation for their own gain. It was in the main the lower classes that were affected by the famine. In effect the whole bottom tier of Irish society was wiped out. They left no legacy and no descendants to bear witness. Those of us who are of more fortunate lineage should remember that when we invoke the grievance of the famine as a shared national tragedy.

The book is available on-line here.

Mark Waters marked time at 2:22 pm on February 4th, 2006 | Add a comment .

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