An open letter to Kathryn Bigelow from Naomi Wolf

“The Hurt Locker was a beautiful, brave film; many young women in film were inspired as they watched you become the first woman ever to win an Oscar for directing. But with Zero Dark Thirty, you have attained a different kind of distinction.

Your film Zero Dark Thirty is a huge hit here. But in falsely justifying, in scene after scene, the torture of detainees in "the global war on terror", Zero Dark Thirty is a gorgeously-shot, two-hour ad for keeping intelligence agents who committed crimes against Guantánamo prisoners out of jail. It makes heroes and heroines out of people who committed violent crimes against other people based on their race – something that has historical precedent.

Your film claims, in many scenes, that CIA torture was redeemed by the "information" it "secured", information that, according to your script, led to Bin Laden's capture. This narrative is a form of manufacture of innocence to mask a great crime: what your script blithely calls "the detainee program"....

....You claim that your film is "based on real events", and in interviews, you insist that it is a mixture of fact and fiction, "part documentary". "Real", "true", and even "documentary", are big and important words. By claiming such terms, you generate media and sales traction – on a mendacious basis. There are filmmakers who work very hard to produce films that are actually "based on real events": they are called documentarians. Alex Gibney, in Taxi to the Dark Side, and Rory Kennedy, in Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, have both produced true and sourceable documentary films about what your script blithely calls "the detainee program" – that is, the regime of torture to generate false confessions at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib – which your script claims led straight to Bin Laden.

Fine, fellow reporter: produce your sources. Provide your evidence that torture produced lifesaving – or any – worthwhile intelligence.

But you can't present evidence for this claim. Because it does not exist.

Five decades of research, cited in the 2008 documentary The End of America, confirm that torture does not work. Robert Fisk provides another summary of that categorical conclusion. And this 2011 account from Human Rights First rebuts the very premise of Zero Dark Thirty.

Your actors complain about detainees' representation by lawyers – suggesting that these do-gooders in suits endanger the rest of us. I have been to see your "detainee program" firsthand. The prisoners, whom your film describes as being "lawyered up", meet with those lawyers in rooms that are wired for sound; yet, those lawyers can't tell the world what happened to their clients – because the descriptions of the very torture these men endured are classified.....

...In a time of darkness in America, you are being feted by Hollywood, and hailed by major media. But to me, the path your career has now taken reminds of no one so much as that other female film pioneer who became, eventually, an apologist for evil: Leni Riefenstahl. Riefenstahl's 1935 Triumph of the Will, which glorified Nazi military power, was a massive hit in Germany. Riefenstahl was the first female film director to be hailed worldwide.

It may seem extreme to make comparison with this other great, but profoundly compromised film-maker, but there are real echoes. When Riefenstahl began to glamorize the National Socialists, in the early 1930s, the Nazis' worst atrocities had not yet begun; yet abusive detention camps had already been opened to house political dissidents beyond the rule of law – the equivalent of today's Guantánamo, Bagram base, and other unnameable CIA "black sites". And Riefenstahl was lionised by the German elites and acclaimed for her propaganda on behalf of Hitler's regime.

But the world changed. The ugliness of what she did could not, over time, be hidden. Americans, too, will wake up and see through Zero Dark Thirty's apologia for the regime's standard lies that this brutality is somehow necessary. When that happens, the same community that now applauds you will recoil.

Like Riefenstahl, you are a great artist. But now you will be remembered forever as torture's handmaiden.” Guardian online 5/1/13

Dungcan Smith

The dark arts are essential skills for a modern politician.

Divide and rule has been the practice of the despotic through the ages. Our current shower of self-serving job-seekers are continuing the practice. To this end they set up false problems. The government’s own figures identify benefit fraud as a tiny proportion of the amount spent helping the needy, the elderly and the vulnerable

The myth

Benefit scroungers are bringing down the economy

And who says this? Well if it isn’t Iain ‘beware the quiet man’ Dungcan Smith! Just in case people with short memories are reading this, here is a synopsis of some of his ‘previous.’ 

“Dung-can Smith. The man with the invented CV.

Just because Iain Duncan Smith said in his biography on the Conservative Party website, his entry in Who's Who, and in his entry in Wikipedia that he went to the Universita di Perugia in Italy and got a degree there, and it turned out to be all bullshit doesn't mean that he is a liar and a cheat.

It was probably just a simple typo, that's all.

Mr Duncan Smith's office admitted to Newsnight that he didn't get any qualifications in Perugia or even finish his exams, and all references to this unfortunate incident have been erased completely from Wikipedia.

His claims that he was educated at prestigious-sounding Dunchurch College of Management is only a little bit untrue. Dunchurch was the GEC Marconi staff training college and I am sure Iain probably attended a training course there when he worked for them.

This too has been erased from his now sanitised Wikipedia entry.

He is a very nice man. The Guardian's editor thinks so, anyway.

A Guardian editorial said in April (last) year The welfare secretary has emerged as the last man in cabinet standing up for the poor.

I expect the people about to be thrown into poverty by him will be very pleased to hear that, Mr Rusbridger”  

‘Gowvah’  writing in the Guardian Comment is Free section 3/1/13

The reality

“Those at the sharp end are being hit hardest: from cuts to disability and housing benefits, tax credits and the educational maintenance allowance and now increases in council tax while NHS waiting lists are lengthening, food banks are mushrooming across the country and charities report sharp increases in the number of children going hungry. All this to pay for the collapse in corporate investment and tax revenues triggered by the greatest crash since the 30s.

At the other end of the spectrum though, things are going swimmingly. The richest 1,000 people in Britain have seen their wealth increase by £155bn since the crisis began – more than enough to pay off the whole government deficit of £119bn at a stroke. Anyone earning over £1m a year can look forward to a £42,000 tax cut in the spring, while firms have been rewarded with a 2% cut in corporation tax to 24%.

Not that many of them pay anything like that, even now. The scale of tax avoidance by high-street brand multinationals has now become clear, in no small part thanks to campaigning groups such as UK Uncut. Asda, Google, Apple, eBay, Ikea, Starbucks, Vodafone: all pay minimal tax on massive UK revenues, mostly by diverting profits earned in Britain to their parent companies, or lower tax jurisdictions via royalty and service payments or transfer pricing.

Four US companies – Amazon, Facebook, Google and Starbucks – have paid just £30m tax on sales of £3.1bn over the last four years, according to a Guardian analysis. Apple is estimated to have avoided over £550m in tax on more than £2bn worth of underlying profits in Britain by channelling business through Ireland, according to a Sunday Times analysis, while Starbucks has paid no corporation tax in Britain for the last three years.

The Tory MP and tax lawyer Charlie Elphicke estimates 19 US-owned multinationals are paying an effective tax rate of 3% on British profits, instead of the standard rate of 26%. It's all entirely legal, of course. But taken together with the multiple individual tax scams of the elite, this roll call of corporate infamy has become an intolerable scandal, when taxes are rising and jobs, benefits and pay being cut for the majority.

Not only that, but collecting the taxes that these companies have wriggled out of would go a long way to shrinking the deficit for which working- and middle-class Britain's living standards are being sacrificed. The total tax gap between what's owed and collected has been estimated by Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK at £120bn a year: £25bn in legal tax avoidance, £70bn in fraudulent tax evasion and £25bn in late payments. (my emphasis)

Seumas Milne Guardian October 2012

Every time Dungcan speaks, remember his ‘creativity’ and that he is a Tory with many friends in the city. Judge them by their deeds not their words. The Tories, with the supine assistance of their sad accomplices, the Illiberal Democlots, have actually reduced the number of tax inspectors.

“..ministers are absurdly slashing the tax inspection workforce, and even introducing a new incentive for British multinationals to move their operations in business to overseas tax havens. The scheme would, accountants KPMG have been advising clients, offer an "effective UK tax rate of 5.5%" from 2014 (and cut British tax revenues into the bargain)” ibid

Return to Islay

After another predominantly wet journey and a very full ferry, we landed back on a windswept Islay. The immediately preceding weather had been stormy and the forecast for later that evening was further gales and storms hence the packed boat. The crossing was bumpy in the middle but not as bad as it can be. Many of the passengers were visitors travelling to experience Hogmanay on a Scottish island. It is to be hoped they brought warm windproof hats with them.

The dominant feature on Islay in the winter is the wind. To date there have not been the same amount of damaging storms as last winter, nonetheless the wind is remorseless. It has been predominantly westerly, swithering between gale force and just below. Plants are buffeted, rattled and shaken around the clock. There have not been the knock-out blows suffered in major storms but the effect is cumulative and nearly as damaging. Most native species have adapted to this treatment by retreating below ground, swiftly dying back to a corm or rootstock. Any plant sticking up above a windbreak is gradually shredded. Grass becomes combed by the wind and can appear extremely well-groomed.

The isle of Tiree, a not-too-distant neighbour, is acknowledged to be one of the windiest places in the UK. Here on the Rhinns of Islay - a long finger-like projection sticking out into the Atlantic - conditions are very similar. It is the windiest part of Islay. There are benefits of this location. The Gulf Stream keeps temperatures above average. Snow and frost are rare but the downside is it is windy and frequently wet. Very wet. It is windy on average 6 out of 7 days throughout the year. There is even more wind in winter and it is much stronger too. Trees on the Rhinns are scarce and frequently stunted. Shorebirds and waders congregate in sheltered bays. Members of the Crow family and some Gulls seem to relish the chance to display their aerial prowess. Smaller birds however struggle to survive and use whatever objects they can to protect themselves. It is not uncommon to startle a sparrow or a chaffinch tucked behind a tussock of grass.

Coastlines are scoured by foaming seas. Everything feels cleaner. The times when the sun  does appear can be magical with low strong sunlight picking out huge rollers and spray. Moorland appears burnished and can have a beautiful golden glow. Then there are the rainbows, which although ephemeral are plentiful.

The village hall welcomed in the New Year with traditional music and dancing for a mixed group of locals and visitors. The festivities only really got going at 1 a.m. and continued in full swing until just after 4 a.m. when 'Auld Lang Syne' concluded proceedings. A wide age range enjoyed themselves.  A visitor of Danish origin felt that this was the best way to celebrate the turn of the year. 

Finally a stagger back home - it was windy again - honest - nothing whatsoever to do with copious amounts of strong drink  being taken......

And so 2013 was greeted.

Happy New Year.

Motorway spray

Motorway spray

Having driven three long journeys in a matter of days, often in very heavy rain, it became apparent that motorway spray was not all it seems.

There are few worse hazards with visibility being significantly reduced. It is particularly bad as large vehicles are overtaken. There is a critical amount of rainfall for spray to be a serious problem. Drizzle and light rain are a nuisance but tolerable.  Steady heavy rain over a couple of hours builds up large flat puddles. Aquaplaning becomes more likely. Experiencing torrential downpours earlier in the year was unpleasant too. At least the ominous black clouds ahead gave advance warning. Even so the impression of driving into a waterfall was disconcerting with rapid braking by most, but not all, on the road.

 The nature of the road surface makes a huge difference too. On the M25 (thankfully not very busy) there were patches where spray was everywhere and then a hundred yards further on there was little, despite the rainfall being constant. A more mottled surface seemed to absorb moisture and had less surface-water. One of the worst stretches was on a new motorway - the M74 extension in Glasgow. This is barely 18 months old and the surface is slick and even - and extremely wet. Speeds were relatively low yet the amount of spray was significantly more than a few miles back. It is clearly possible to design roads - and motorways in particular - to deal with copious amounts of water. So what is going wrong? Is there some sort of compromise with traction and wear? Is it good old cost-cutting?

Finally there are a minority who share the Indian faith in karma. They do not adjust their speed to the conditions. And/or they do not turn their lights on. Hard to believe but true. 

Would such numpties show up on the proposed ‘black box’ scheme to reward safer driving by cheaper insurance bills?

Water supply Kalimpong, Northern India

Water Supply Kalimpong...

All those fools who say the free market solves all problems should consider the calamity that is the Kalimpong water supply. Kalimpong is a hill town in the foothills of the Himalaya. It has a monsoon climate so it rains extremely hard from late June until September. Being on top of a hill there are problems of water storage. Water tanks have been built but there are too few and they are not sufficient. Those who can afford it (hotels and businesses) import water in large plastic tanks on the back of trucks. 

The residents and many small businesses rely on their own initiatives which produces a water supply system which is quite astonishing. This involves running a personal pipeline from a source further up the hill. All of these pipes then run alongside the road down the hill as can be seen here.

At times the pipes divert to run downhill into several properties.Unfortunately, because the pipes are exposed to the open air - and trucks, people, cars, bikes etc - they tend to leak - a lot. So even though water is scarce and precious the residents lose a lot. The supply is limited to a few minutes a day in the run up to the next monsoon.

Here pipes are lifted to go over a driveway - again putting pressure on joints and links. 

It is seen as normal and wherever a steady leak is running people gather with buckets and containers to collect whatever they can. 

At some point someone will come along and argue for a collective solution involving installing a water main and pipes running off to properties. But that will involve a co-operative approach and that is clearly anathema. So the madness continues. 

This is me signing off for a couple of days - have a good Christmas and should you be unfortunate enough to suffer from the downpours - consider Kalimpong.

Mumbai Test Match 23rd - 26th November 2012

Not bad for my first test match in India

Somewhat apprehensive approaching this match. England had been soundly beaten in the first test at Ahmedabad. This followed on from losing all three tests against Pakistan in Dubai earlier in the year. The omens were not good. Dhoni the Indian captain had asked for a test pitch which was a ‘rank turner’ with a view to making it more suitable for his team. 

Tickets had been obtained two days earlier from what seemed to be a reinforced garden shed by the side of the Mumbai Hockey Association stand. This was adjacent to the Wankhede stadium. Communicated by mime and gesture to get tickets which were hopefully high up and in the shade. Obtained two for the Sachin Tendulkar stand. Not really sure whether the tickets were correct. 

Arrived at the ground 45 minutes before the start. A queue of about 50 metres fed into a complex riprap-shaped concoction for security checks. It was almost the 4th anniversary of the attack on Mumbai by Al Qaida terrorists trained in Pakistan. Just to ratchet up the tension even further, the surviving captive had been hung earlier in the week. There were a lot of armed police and armoured cars about. Even so, the entry process was ponderous in the extreme. Among items that were verboten were newspapers and magazines, cigarettes and lighters/matches, cameras, radios, food, drink and anything that could remotely be used as a weapon. English fans were mainly allowed to take small bags in whilst Indian fans were far more rigorously challenged. A small heap of bags and banned materials grew by the entrance. 

As the queue ground snail-like into the stadium there were roars from those inside which only served to add to the sense of frustration at the delay. Eventually after being frisked at least five times the hike to the top of the stadium began. Officious officials met spectators at the head of the top of the stairs. The ground was barely one-sixth full although there were still large queues outside. India were 15-1. Jimmy Anderson had struck with his second ball. This was only revealed much later when the days highlights were played on the tv back at the hotel. Information within the stadium was paltry. No scorecard, no programme and very little information on the scoreboard or on the advertising hoarding which masqueraded as a ‘big screen’. There was no information about the England team - only the batting side were listed. It took some time to identify unfamiliar players in the distance and determine who had been included and who left out. The seats we had been allocated were in the sun, so alternatives higher and shadier were chosen. No-one objected. 

One man quickly made his presence very evident. Monty Panesar had been left out of the first test team. A selection howler. Here he made it clear just how much of a howler by bowling Sehwag early in his spell and then shortly afterwards sending back God (aka Sachin Tendulkar) with a cracking delivery which pitched on leg and middle and flattened his off stump. Cue much distress amongst the Indian faithful. Monty continued to bowl really well and with support from Graham Swann the Indian batsmen struggled to post sizeable partnerships losing wickets steadily. Pujara was an exception to his batting colleagues. Calm, methodical and assured, he gave a batting masterclass in how to cope with a difficult wicket. Watching him through good binoculars was a delight. His technique could have been filmed for a coaching lesson in playing the turning ball. 

Dhoni had his wish for a rank turner. Because Pujara, and latterly Ashwin, batted so well, it was not easy to assess what a good score was going to be. The odd ball turned and bounced and stock deliveries turned. How would England cope? The large dark brown Pariah Kites wheeling around above the ground ominously resembled vultures....

Pujara had strong support from Ashwin so India closed on 266-6. 

Thanks to further security idiocy and appalling crowd management, the gate used yesterday had a queue of almost 7000 people waiting to get in. At least they had the sight of an elephant walking sedately down the main road past the queue. Fortunately there was another gate available round behind the stadium. A five minute walk lead to a queue of barely 50 people. No attempt was made by ‘the authorities’ to address this imbalance. 

The morning belonged to England as they bowled India out for 327. Panesar 5-129 and Swann 4- 70. Pujara out for 135 for the first time in the series, stumped Pryor, bowled Swann. England made a cautious and slow response with Cook and Compton both using their full reach to smother  potentially spinning balls on the half-volley. Runs were gathered at barely 2 per over and this stately progression continued into the sixties. It was very tense with odd balls spitting, turning and bouncing. Compton was unlucky to get an edge to one of these ‘devil’ balls. He was followed swiftly by Trott who failed to read a non-spinning ball and was plumb LBW. More tension, especially as ‘KP’ was on his way to the crease. In the last test - the first since his re-integration - he had played poorly, and admitted that his head had been scrambled with all the commotion. The Indian fans were willing him to show his particular talents - but they also wanted him out. 

From the moment he took guard this was a different Pietersen. Solid, assured and commanding, he struck his first ball for 4 through the covers and then proceeded to score at almost a run a ball. He played shots all around the wicket and it quickly became clear that he was in the mood. With Cook lifting his pace a touch in response - they both benefitted from the left hand/right hand combination - the score rattled along. At the close of day two, England were 178-2.

Ignoring the first very busy entrance and nipping round the back meant there was little trouble queuing. Cook and Pietersen continued to build a terrific partnership of 204. Calm steady accumulation was accompanied by brilliance and audacity in a thrilling and riveting watch. When Cook was finally out for a splendid 122, Pietersen chased after him and caught him up as he was halfway off the ground to give him a very big hug. It spoke volumes.

The game then took an odd turn as KP continued to score steadily at one end and his partners struggled at the other. Bairstow fell to a close catch (off the fielder’s helmet so technically not out, but who needs DRS anyway?) and Patel followed soon after to another lifting turning ball. Once KP was out for a wonderful 186, only Pryor managed to reach double figures as the tail disappointingly (and predictably) collapsed for 413 giving a lead of 86. With England having to bat last on what was expected to be a deteriorating surface, had they thrown away a golden chance? 

No. 

The afternoon/evening session continued to provide the English in the crowd with more thrills and excitement. Yet again England’s spinners showed that not only were they better than their Indian counterparts, the Indian batsman were struggling to cope with them. Pujara was given out caught at short leg off his forearm - another dead cert for a DRS review. God failed again and the crowd became more and more subdued as wickets fell at regular intervals. India were 117 for 7 at the close - in effect 31 for 7!

A word about the crowd. It is quite astonishing that so many turn up to watch test cricket although the ground was only ever half full at its maximum. The BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) have their eyes and their bank balances resting on the IPL. They do little to enhance the watching experience. The police in the stadium are particularly hostile towards Indian fans, very officious and unpleasant. Whenever Tendulkar approaches a stand; which is quite regular as he is not a fast mover these days, so he is put out to graze in the outfield. There is an immediate and almost hysterical response from the fans. They roar their appreciation, chant his name and swarm down the terraces to the metal netting surrounding the ground. The police then usher them back - sometimes using their Lhati’s (sticks). Despite all this, the young fans in particular chant and sing with occasional bursts of rhythmic drumming. (How do they get drums in when so much is not allowed...?)

It all makes for a terrific atmosphere - particularly when English wickets are falling. It must be very daunting walking out to the middle with that roar building to a crescendo as the bowler runs in. There is one highly annoying feature of the tv coverage which jarred. A cameraman is designated to wander through the stands taking reaction shots of the crowd. Cue one bunch of (mainly) young men going bananas irrespective of how their team are doing. On a par with the Mexican Wave numpties.

The following morning saw England roll the tail over and bowl India out for 142. Monty 6-81, Swann 4-43. The target of 56 was reached in 9 overs as both Cook and Compton went after the bowling from the start and scored at 6 an over. 

Result: a 10 wicket win for England and one of their finest in their roller-coaster history.

Anguished deconstruction on Indian tv channels was delectably relishable as the failings of the Indian team were pored over. Dhoni’s request for ‘rank turner’s’ was seen as an own goal of monumental proportions and simply ‘not cricket’. 

Oh yes it was. It was a stunning about face from the first test. It was also cricket played brilliantly by England, especially man-of-the-match Pietersen and Cook, Panesar and Swann. 

Crazy

The right to bear arms is enshrined in the US Constitution. At the time of its creation the nation had been born of revolt from an overseas power. The role of a militia had been crucial in the move to independence. Given a degree of prescience, would a rational, intelligent, founding father, knowing what we know now,  still include the fatal clause - the right to bear arms - in the final draft? How would they react to some accurate crystal-ball gazing?

Would they approve of over-the-counter sales of assault rifles and automatic guns? Would they feel that the situation existing today is unsupportable and actually constitutes a threat to the health and well-being of the society? How would they react to the knowledge that half of the world’s guns are in the US with a population barely 5% of the total in the world? What would they think about the inertia at the heart of government as shooting massacre after sniper massacre after school massacre follow each other. Would they not look at each other in disbelief that a movement created in struggle should end up with a licence for crazy people to do maximum harm?

Would those sane scions of the enlightenment welcome the way that so many sleazy politicians have been bought off by a powerful gun lobby thereby enabling even more massacres to take place? 

Would those supporters of secular governance approve of fundamentalist baptists holding a ‘thank you God’ ceremony at the site of the latest massacre? And would they approve of the way the mainstream church denounces the evil but does not condemn

 rampant gun ownership? 

Knowing what we know now - wouldn’t these intelligent rational and sane citizens go back to the drawing board and rip up sections of the Constitution?

In particular, the madness that is the right to bear arms. 

Barmy beyond belief.

And these irrational, inadequate, sleazy, so-called democrats, dare to lecture the rest of the world about values. 

Time to take a long hard look in the mirror.