Just watched No End in Sight which was nominated for the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary. It has gotten fantastic ratings and is available to watch instantly on Netflix. If there is no end in sight, what does this say about “seeing”? In a way, here is Saramago’s Seeing played out in real life. (In that review I mentioned yesterday, Ursual LeGuin wrote:

José Saramago will be 84 this year. He has written a novel that says more about the days we are living in than any book I have read. He writes with wit, with heartbreaking dignity, and with the simplicity of a great artist in full control of his art. Let us listen to a true elder of our people, a man of tears, a man of wisdom…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MdU09oD-OU&hl=en&fs=1]

Another film that was also nominated from the 2007 Academy Awards about the U.S. war in Iraq is Operation Homecoming from the PBS America at a Crossroads series. Here is the official blurb:

OPERATION HOMECOMING is a unique documentary that explores the firsthand accounts of American servicemen and women through their own words. The film is built upon a project created by the National Endowment for the Arts to gather the writing of servicemen and women and their families who have participated in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Through interviews and dramatic readings, the film transforms selections from this collection of writing into a deep examination of the experiences of the men and women who are serving in America’s armed forces. At the same time it provides depth and context to these experiences through a broader look at the universal themes of war literature.

This is the 9th film in the America at a Crossroads series I have watched and so far all have been excellent.

I was against the Iraq war from the very beginning. That was before my blogging days but had you been on my e-mail list, you would have received at least a few very detailed e-mails from me explaining why I thought it was imperative we avoid the war. Almost everyone on my list voted for Bush in both 2000 and 2004 so my emails weren’t exactly popular. In fact, they were downright ostracizing which sincerely surprised me. We’re a democracy, right? If we vote for the opposition, that doesn’t make us an enemy!! It simply provides the counterbalance. But this wasn’t the way liberals were being presented after 9/11. Liberals were the enemy of a patriotic America. The only way to be patriotic was to support your president and your troops.

But if you blindly support your president without question because he claims to have God on his side, are we talking about a democracy or theocracy? In the Texas county in which I live (which is comprised of over 70% fundamentalist Christians), I think it is fair to say it is a theocracy, not a democracy. I was repeatedly told I was unpatriotic based on my views that we should not be going to war. While walking around the block one day, I realized one of my neighbors was moving and I asked her where she was going. She claimed she was one of the last surviving democrats and they were getting out before they were killed. She was joking but there was a certain seriousness about it, too. I’d only lived there a few months when I met her so hadn’t yet realized that being a Democrat was a crime but it didn’t take long to catch on. I met a vibrant conservative African-American woman who told me she believed a dark cloud resided over our neighborhood. I resisted her notions at the time, too. But all these years later I think both she and the Democratic exodus may have been right about their assessment. There is something very off about a democratic society that flatly denies one side of that democracy.

I was told that because I denied the war, I didn’t support the men and women that were laying their lives out on the line for us. That’s just crazy! I admire anyone who is willing to put their lives on the line for their country. I think it takes tremendous courage to be willing to employ yourself in that way. What I don’t necessarily admire is the government initiative that claims it is necessary for these people to do so.

When I was in my adolescence, I firmly believed I’d be able to go to war if my nation said it was my duty to do so. I still believe that is true. I could potentially also see myself dying for a pacifist cause. I think it takes a tremendous amount of courage to tow this line - every bit as much as it does to be willing to fight for your country (in a sense it is fighting for your country!) But it’s not like one realm is better than the other. These realms exist within a balance. When we fail to respect that balance, we fail to respect the reality of our humanity. We fail to respect our unity as a whole.

For the Bible Tells Me So is another film that I wish I remembered specifically why it got added to my Netflix. How difficult would it be for Netflix to add a notes section to what it is we add to our queues??? It was an excellent documentary!!

My daughter recently had a friend “come out” to her. She said she had tried to tell her mother but that her mother freaked out so she immediately said she was joking.

Did you know that every five hours an LGBT teen takes their own life? And for every teen that actually does take their own life, there are 20 more that try? The suicide hotline says that one of the top five reasons people claim they want to commit suicide is for religious reasons. These people claim there is no place for them and God.

Historically, it has been extremely easy to get people to internalize judgment and condemnation. Also, when people are afraid, they have to find scape goats. If you can scape goat people who have internalized judgment and condemnation, you’ve got it made and it becomes very easy to use the Bible as an effective weapon. It becomes an excuse to hate.

It does make me wonder - maybe the Romans were right to say that only the few should interpret the Bible - that the Bible, in the hands of the wrong people, would become dangerous.

I’ve watched several more films and documentaries about Africa. There are so many good ones out there.

Blood Diamond, a recent movie about the Sierra Leone conflict that had 5 Academy Award nominations last year and stars Leonardo DiCaprio was quite well done and worked well with the documentary Blood Diamonds from the History Channel and The Empire in Africa (if you can stomach it.)

A very upbeat film having to do with the Sierra Leone conflict was Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars (which is another wonderful POV film.) Here is the trailer….

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSgY6n_ek_g&hl=en&fs=1]

There is actually a whole Channel of videos for Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars on Youtube. Check it out here.

Darfur Diaries, Messages from Home is available on the “watch now” feature on Netflix. The violence came through loud and clear, but it didn’t contain “in your face” violence. The story is told through the voice (and drawings) of the people. It’s very upsetting but remains hopeful. This is a situation where it is clear the Sudanese government has pitted the Arabs and Africans against one another.

Another film on the “watch now” feature on Netflix, is Rwanda: Living Forgiveness (just 27 minutes). It’s kind of blah and reminiscent of the awful things we used to have to watch in school in the 60’s and 70’s. The voiceovers are terrible. But I kind of liked it. People get confused about what forgiveness is - they think it is the same as forgetting. But it’s not. It’s about differentiating the behavior from the individual. Rather than blame the individual, put the blame where it belongs - on the specific behavior. If we don’t do that, then we tend to further inflame ugly behavior rather than put out it’s flames. Forgiveness puts out the flames - both within us and within the other person. It may be easier to hate, but hatred takes so much more out of us than does forgiveness. Forgiveness is life-giving. Hatred is violent and life-denying. If you hate because violence was inflicted upon you, then your hatred serves to perpetuate the violence that was inflicted upon you no matter how understandable that hatred is. However much Christianity has been abused and abuses, when it is used for the sake of reconciliation, it is very difficult to fault. Not a great film. But interesting and also hopeful.

I also recently re-watched Hotel Rwanda with my daughter which is quite good (and an appropriate film to show to junior high aged kids.) It’s the true story of Paul Rusesabagina (played by Don Cheadle), a hotel manager, who saved over 1200 Tutsi when the Hutu military went on it’s killing spree in 1994. Sometimes in April is also a very good film about the 1994 Rwanda situation, but it’s much more violent.

I guess I’m sort of skipping around. Last post was on Darfur, now I’m back to Sierra Leone and the diamond mine problem.

I watched the History Channel documentary entitled Blood Diamonds which won an Emmy for “Outstanding Non-fiction Special”.

Did you ever stop to think about what makes diamonds so valuable? They actually exist in the world in abundance. Diamonds aren’t rare. So what makes them so precious to us? Why is it that “a diamond is forever”?

The value is thanks to good marketing. Diamond’s are considered extremely valuable in the U.S. thanks to this “diamond is forever” marketing. Since the 1950’s, a diamond engagement ring has been “the thing to do”. But it is very likely that the diamond you are wearing helps aid in the cycle of violence and bloodshed.

Watch a good portion of Blood Diamonds here. It’s extremely informative.

My husband and I haven’t been to church much recently. The last time we went, the minister gave a sermon on Paul Simon’s song, “Diamonds on the Souls of her Shoes”. I took notes on the bulletin. His sermon was entitled: “Few are Guilty, All Are Responsible”.

The song is about diamond mining in South Africa…

(a-wa) O kodwa u zo-nge li-sa namhlange
(a-wa a-wa) Si-bona kwenze ka kanjani
(a-wa a-wa) Amanto mbazane ayeza
She’s a rich girl
She don’t try to hide it
Diamonds on the soles of her shoes

He’s a poor boy
Empty as a pocket
Empty as a pocket with nothing to lose
Sing Ta na na
Ta na na na
She got diamonds on the soles of her shoes
She got diamonds on the soles of her shoes
Diamonds on the soles of her shoes
Diamonds on the soles of her shoes

People say she’s crazy
She got diamonds on the soles of her shoes
Well that’s one way to lose these
Walking blues
Diamonds on the soles of her shoes

She was physically forgotten
Then she slipped into my pocket
With my car keys
She said you’ve taken me for granted
Because I please you
Wearing these diamonds

And I could say Oo oo oo
As if everybody knows
What I’m talking about
As if everybody would know
Exactly what I was talking about
Talking about diamonds on the soles of her shoes

She makes the sign of a teaspoon
He makes the sign of a wave
The poor boy changes clothes
And puts on after-shave
To compensate for his ordinary shoes

And she said honey take me dancing
But they ended up by sleeping
In a doorway
By the bodegas and the lights on
Upper Broadway
Wearing diamonds on the soles of their shoes

And I could say Oo oo oo
As if everybody here would know
What I was talking about
I mean everybody here would know exactly
What I was talking about
Talking about diamonds

People say I’m crazy
I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes
Well that’s one way to lose
These walking blues
Diamonds on the soles of your shoes

The minister, Sid Hall, said that when he was an SMU seminarian, he and several seminarians were upset with some of the investments that SMU was making that benefited corruption. They decided that they were going to change the face of SMU. But a seminarian who was a native of South Africa said that while he felt it was important to recognize the importance of divestment, he had trouble with American liberal self-righteousness that seemed to think there were easy answers. Had the Native Americans been able to resist European diseases in the same way the Africans had been able to resist the diseases, Americans would be dealing with the same thing the South Africans are dealing with today. It’s complicated. There is no easy solution. [Listen to Sid's sermon: here.]

Everything that happens in one place is connected to everything that happens everywhere else. We are all connected and that connection is not based solely upon the positive occurrences new agers emphasize but likewise upon the negative occurrences no one wants to look at. What I am doing and what I am buying has a ripple effect elsewhere. Even “not buying” has a ripple effect.

In the song, both the man and the woman are empty inside: the rich woman and the poor man. The men and women who work in the mines literally walk with diamonds on the souls of their shoes, but this does not make them rich in the materialistic sense because their labor and the dust that results from the labor is forced. Those who are wealthy and are blind to the forces that drive their need for wealth likewise have diamonds on the souls of their shoes. But they are spiritually impoverished.

Sid says the song is about the play between the west and the more impoverished nations. It’s a reminder that we are all connected to each other. Notice in the lyrics how everyone ends up with diamonds on the souls of their shoes…

• Diamonds on the souls of her shoes…
• Diamonds on the souls of their shoes…
• Diamonds on the souls of my shoes…
• Diamonds on the souls or your shoes…

It’s all interconnected. It’s not about an idealization of poverty because the idealization of poverty is reliant upon an idealization of the wealthy. And it’s not about an idealization of wealth because wealth is reliant upon the slave labor of the impoverished.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OafqYNCzq5U&hl=en&fs=1]

[Just noticed that this film is available to watch instantly on Netflix! ]

The Devil Came on Horseback was excellent. So excellent, in fact, that I made my husband watch it. I am incredibly selective about what I ask my husband to watch because we aren’t exactly on the same wavelength these days, but I think everyone in the U.S. should watch this film.

The Devil Came on Horseback is a documentary film about the crisis in Darfur based on the book by former U.S. Marine Captain Brian Steidle. The book bares the same title and is a reference to the Janjaweed who were hired by the Sudanese government to take care of the rebel uprisings. The Janjaweed are known by the local people as “the devil on horseback” because of the atrocities they commit which Steidle witnessed and photographed.

Steidle accepted a position as a military observer in the Darfur region of the Sudan. He took photographs of what was going on and came back to the U.S. to speak out about what he saw. But no one listened.

It’s absolutely heart-wrenching!! Read his article: In Darfur, My Camera Was Not Nearly Enough:

The attention paid to Darfur in Congress and at the United Nations hasn’t been enough. For the first time, we might be able to stop genocide in the making. We must not fail the men, women and children of Darfur.

During my time in Darfur, as I listened to the victims, I was astounded at their composure. Their unwavering faith provides some rationale to what seems to me an inexplicable horror. By handing over their lives to God, somehow each day is a gift, despite the massacres. “We’re going to die,” they acknowledge with fear, “but we hope to survive . . . Inshallah [God willing].” Unfortunately, they just don’t have a choice.

We do.

I watched another fantastic documentary on the Lost Boys of Sudan from the Point of View documentary series (P.O.V.). It’s titled: Lost Boys of Sudan. (Everything I have seen from P.O.V. is fantastic!)

This film provided a little less positive perspective than did God Grew Tired of Us although I think it was very helpful to have seen both films. One of the questions Lost Boys of Sudan raises is this: Was it the right thing for Americans to have relocated the Lost Boys to America? The boys think going to America will be Heaven on Earth but discover it is not at all what they had hoped. Coming to America can be a very difficult, lonely struggle when you have had the solid support of your fellow displaced villagers. One of the creators said that what most surprised him while following the two boys was that he thought they would have major psychological damage because they have suffered such horrific, traumatic events. But while it is true that some do have a lot of problems because of the trauma they have experienced, by and large they are emotionally well-adapted. What he hadn’t thought about was the fact that these boys had each other. They had been working their problems out all along. They get to America and they barely have any time to spend together anymore because life is busy, busy, busy. (That was a common complaint among the boys whose lives were followed in God Grew Tired of Us, too.) They didn’t receive a lot of community help.

Life before war in their village was seen as overwhelmingly preferable to life in the U.S. However, once they have lived here in the U.S., they can’t go back to their homeland - at least not fully. Even if they did physically go back, what they have learned here has altered them forever. (Puts a whole new spin on the “you can never go home again” idea.)

It’s appropriate for older elementary school and junior high children (and interested younger elementary school children.) It was a nice complement to God Grew Tired of Us although I think Lost Boys of Sudan may have been a tad bit more thought provoking. But they may have been because I had already seen God Grew Tired of Us so had more to think about. (God Grew Tired of Us is also appropriate for older elementary and junior high kids although more violence was discussed in God Grew Tired of Us so may not be as appropriate for younger kids.)

I’ve watched several programs on some of the troubles in Africa recently. The Empire in Africa was available on the “watch now” feature on Netflix. I could barely watch parts of it and I’m not overly squeamish. I’ve never seen anything more brutal in my entire life and am not exactly sure I needed to see it. To portray that sort of violence seems somehow wrong to me - like you are doing further degradation to the person who had to suffer it by watching it. If I had been raped, I’d be horrified to know that strangers were watching it on a documentary. They didn’t show any actual rapes, but somehow the “in your face” violence seemed a tad on the voyeuristic side although perhaps we need to know how brutal man can be to man? I didn’t feel right watching it - not just because it was difficult to watch, but because it somehow felt like I was performing an indignity by doing so.

The documentary is about the troubles in Sierra Leone, a tiny country bordered by Guinea on the north and Liberia on the south. It’s a very small country but could easily be self-sustained because it used to be a major importer of rice and there are diamond minds. It was ranked the poorest country in the world in 1998. The civil war was about control of the diamond mines. The Rebels had intended to take it back for the people, but even when they had control, the people were still extremely poor. Today, foreign interests have control of the diamond mines and the country is still very impoverished.

Freetown was founded in 1787 for former Africans who had been American slaves and who had fought in the American Revolutionary war for Britain. It became a British colony and the interior of Sierra Leone become a British Protectorate. Both the Colony and the Protectorate gained their independence in 1961 and there was much instability from 1991-2002 which was blamed on the rebels. The film pointed out that the agencies hired by the government may have been to blame for much of the horrors that were committed in the country and that the rebel forces were used as scapegoats. This seems to be a theme in many of the conflicts in Africa.

The film’s main point is that even though the colony has won it’s independence, it continues to be controlled by foreign interests with the colonial power maintaining rights to the country’s most valuable resources. Some people have said the documentary is rebel propoganda, and perhaps it is. But then it isn’t unusual for rebels to be scapegoated for the interest of the powers that be.

The politics behind these conflicts is so complicated. Perhaps it is extremely easy to be misled when you don’t have all the facts, which I don’t. All I know is that there should never be any reason for innocent people, especially children, to suffer what these people have had to suffer. It is beyond my understanding of how people can feel so self-righteous about their stance that they could not only allow this sort of suffering to occur, but to commit it. The rebels (Revolutionary United Front) systematically physically mutilated civilians they believed sided with the government - chopping off hands, legs, etc. It is estimated that 20,000 civilians suffered these sorts of amputations. They didn’t discriminate - they amputated the hands of children, too. They likewise recruited children for the rebel cause. The intellectual members of the RUF disagreed with these tactics, but within the first year of rebellion, they were killed.

There was also quite a bit of footage of government soldiers brutalizing civilians. The most disturbing was the atrocities they were committing on a young boy (maybe 8 or 9 years old, possibly younger) who had likely been recruited by the rebels. He was crying in fear and there was no mercy whatsoever. Very, very difficult to watch. That scene has haunted me more than any other. Clearly it wasn’t just the rebels who inflicted horrors on civilians. (Can you legitimately call an 8 year old boy a rebel?) Soldiers hired by the government were extremely brutal.

The British took control of the government in May 2000 as a result of “mission creep”. Within a year, the UN was in full control of the country and gradually handed control over to a retrained Sierra Leone army. In January, 2002, President Kabbah declared the civil war to be officially over.

The revenues from the diamond industry have increased, but more than 50% of diamond mining still remains unlicensed and considerable diamond smuggling continues. (I’ve added two more films to my Netflix queue - Blood Diamond (a movie) and Blood Diamonds (a documentary) to hopefully learn more about this.)

Tourism is becoming a major industry in Sierra Leone. After having watched Life and Debt about the tourism industry in Jamaica, you have to wonder if that is a good thing? Tourism is very often just another way for the powers that be to enjoy the resources of a country at the expense of the native residents.

My husband and I celebrated our 17th anniversary today. We had a lovely dinner at the Oasis on Lake Travis and my husband managed to fanagle a table with a wonderful view even though the place was incredibly crowded. It was an absolutely gorgeous day so half of Austin must have decided to go to the Oasis to watch the sunset. The moment the sun sets, chimes are rung and decks and decks of crowds at the restaurant (I think there are something like 6 levels built into the hillside now) applaud and toast the setting sun. It’s a nightly Austin tradition. (The picture on the right is part of the view from the Oasis.)

It seems strange to have been married so long but so normal, too. I can’t remember life before marriage anymore. My daughter says we are a cute couple and I suppose we are.
I watched a film with my daughter today that is definitely worth mentioning. It’s a National Geographic film called God Grew Tired of Us. It’s rated PG and is definitely OK to watch with kids. No gruesome violence although there are a few pictures of starving children (but not many). It’s the story of three of the Lost Boys of Sudan who were chosen to be relocated in the U.S. (I think there were 3800 relocated to the U.S. in 2001 and there have been many more since.) It’s very moving film - both heart-wrenching and encouraging. It’s amazing what the human spirit can overcome. Of course, one of the boys the film followed ended up in a mental institution which was mentioned but was not featured in the film. Apparently this is not uncommon. Examiners have said that the Lost Boys of Sudan are some of the most traumatized war victims they have ever come across.

Lost Boys of Sudan is the name given for the 27,000 boys who were displaced or orphaned during the second Sudanese civil war. Government troops systematically attacked villages in southern Sudan. The younger boys (some as young as 3 or 4) managed to escape the persecution because they had been out in the fields herding cattle and were able to escape to the jungle. They walked and walked and walked for years and thousands of miles crossing the border into into Ethiopia and Kenya. They often had to survive by eating mud and drinking urine. Many were eaten by crocodiles and lions. Most starved or died of disease. And many remember watching their family members being killed.

The reason there are so few Lost Girls of Sudan is because when the villages were attacked, the girls, besides being raped, were either killed or taken as slaves or servants for Sudanese in the north.

The title of the documentary is from a quote John Bul Dau, one of the relocated Lost Boys, had said. He was discussing the despair he and other Sudanese felt during the civil war and said it was as though God grew tired of us. He wrote a book after the documentary was made with Michael Sweeney, called God Grew Tired of Us: A Memoir. He has also provided relentless humanitarian efforts for those who remain in the Sudanese refugee camps. (See more of his story here and check out his website.)

I was trying to find out more information on the Lost Boys and came across this video where several of the Lost Boys have been working to end the genocide in Darfur.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn8ewJt0-js&hl=en&fs=1]

My husband and I saw El Orfanato last weekend at the theater. It was fantastic and totally unexpected - one of the better movies I’ve seen in quite some time. I’ll have to see it again to make full sense of it. It’s one of those that can be understood in any number of ways, and it also might help to have a little better understanding of Jung’s Doppelganger.

I’ve also watched a few movies from my Netflix queue worth mentioning. The first is Little Children which was sort of a suburban Crash, maybe? Except I’m not so sure that any sort of connection was actually ever established although perhaps the Little Children (suburban adults) finally had an inkling of what it means to “grow up”. The suburban at-home-mom’s live according to regimented feeding schedules and discuss the need to schedule sex with their husbands. A sex-offender moves back into the neighborhood who had been arrested for exposing himself to children at the playground. The suburban neighbors are horrified, of course. Yet, in a sense, they are just the same as he is because they have not yet grown up.

There are no sex offenders in our neighborhood as far as I know. But people are often so heavily regimented that it is obvious they’ve lost their creative ability (it’s all about conformity). Or they haven’t fully lost their creative ability but are so repressed that they seek out affairs to feel alive. I hope suburbia isn’t as ugly and disconnected as this film made it out to be, but I have to wonder why it is I found the film so incredibly disturbing. Is it the films fault or does it hit too close to home?

The other Netflix films are both about Gustav Klimt, the artist (Post Impressionism). One was a movie by Raul Ruiz, the other a documentary from The Post Impressionists series. I first watched the movie and was left totally confused. I’m certain it was meant to be artistic - maybe trying to evoke the same experience his art evokes. And perhaps in that sense, it was quite good, although very difficult to follow. I felt that if I knew more about Klimt, I’d probably have a better feel for Ruiz’s movie. So I watched the documentary on him which was helpful, but not a particularly good documentary as far as documentaries go. What I learned is that the movie’s film score is of composers that Klimt admired. Very little is known about Klimt because he lived a sort of hermit existence. What is known about him is gnereally through his art - which makes sense why the movie is so vague in terms of a biography. I’m happy to have learned about Klimt. Although the movie made me want to seek out more information, the documentary did not. (This site on the internet is quite fascinating.)

Another interesting documentary: Sartre talking about Sartre with friends. It’s an old film and messed up in parts, but gives a good feel of Sartre’s personality and past influences. I think this is only Part I. It ends abruptly. I’ll see if I can find Part II. It takes about 40 minutes to complete and there are English subtitles.

1 -
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85vEXo7Wntk&hl=en&fs=1]

2-

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6F7xjKNY5U&hl=en&fs=1]

3-

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y0b6Cdv-SY&hl=en&fs=1]

4 -
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeesUQ-kUSk&hl=en&fs=1]

5 -

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b41nIdmYME&hl=en&fs=1]

6 -
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McmO-K1cQl4&hl=en&fs=1]