My first movie premiere: “Man Of Steel”
June 13th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Anyone who knows me or who visits this blog regularly will appreciate that I am a massive movie fan, but this week was the first time that I have ever managed to attend a film premiere. The movie was the new Superman offering “Man Of Steel” and the venue was the Empire cinema in London’s Leiecester Square.
I was accompanied by my movie buddy Spence Routledge and we were guests of the distributors Warners Brothers. Here we are on the red carpet:
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Where to now for the Kurds?
June 11th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
A friend of mine is currently in the Kurdish north of Iraq on one of his regular visits. The area is peaceful and I would love to visit it myself one day.
Meanwhile the situation of the Kurds in various Middle Eastern countries is being impacted considerably by developments in the region, as summarised in this piece in today’s “Guardian” newspaper:
Iraq’s 5 million Kurds have experienced relative stability since the end of the 1991 Gulf war, when they were liberated from Saddam Hussein and lived under a no-fly zone protected by US and British air power.
A persecuted people who famously had “no friends but the mountains”, they were allied with the post-cold war world’s only superpower. Iraq’s 2005 federal constitution gave the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) an unprecedented degree of self-government.
But the last few months have also held out the prospect of change for the 14-17 million Kurds in Turkey, where the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is in negotiations with the jailed Abdallah Öcalan, leader of the PKK and its 30-year insurrection.
Syria’s 1.6 million Kurds have made big gains since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad and now control the north-east of the country – though their status has bedevilled relations with the Arab opposition.
Kurds in Iran (7 million) enjoy minority rights but experience persecution. The Tehran government is concerned that PKK fighters leaving Turkey may now launch attacks inside Iran. Öcalan has talked of creating a “stateless union” between Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran, which would increase integration while maintaining national borders.
Kurdish leaders everywhere are painfully conscious of a history of oppression and betrayal by supposed friends. Hopes for statehood after the first world war came to nothing and the British put down a Kurdish revolt in Iraq in the 1920s. In 1946 the short-lived Mahabad republic in Iran >was abandoned by the Soviet Union. In 1975 the US withdrew its support for an Iraqi Kurdish rebellion mounted from Iran and secretly aided by Israel, as part of a rapprochement between Baghdad and the Shah of Iran. “Covert action,” Henry Kissinger told Mullah Mustafa Barzani, father of the current KRG president, “is not missionary work.”
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America and peace: Kennedy’s 1963 speech
June 10th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
I am still in the process of watching on Sky Atlantic the series “Oliver Stone’s Untold History Of The United States”. It’s a fascinating, if controversial, project and I have now viewed eight of the 10 episodes.
Stone seeks to highlights opportunities when the aggressive nature of US foreign policy could have been tempered. One of those occasions was a speech made by President John F Kennedy exactly 50 years ago today in which he addressed the need for world peace. He said:
“What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace – – the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living — the kind that enables man and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children – – not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women – – not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.”
Five months later, JFK was assassinated and his vision went with him. You can read the text of this remarkable speech here.
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America and war: the long, long list
June 10th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
I am still in the process of watching on Sky Atlantic the series “Oliver Stone’s Untold History Of The United States”. It’s a fascinating, if controversial, project and I have now viewed eight of the 10 episodes.
One can certainly challenge some of the judgements Stone makes of individuals and events in his review of the last 70 years of US history, but one cannot question his fundamental assertion that American foreign policy has been overly aggressive and involved countless wars and military interventions, many of which were ill-judged and counter-productive.
Last year, I visited the National Museum of American History in Washington DC and my account of this American holiday records:
“Roger spent most of his time in this museum looking around a large section titled “The Price Of Freedom: Americans At War”. In fact, Americans have spent a long time at war including the French and Indian War, the War of Independence, the 1812 war with the British, the Civil War, the First World War, the Second World War, Korea, Vietnam, the first Iraq war, the invasion of Afghanistan, and the second Iraq war. So there was a lot to see and a lot to learn. Clearly the recent invasion of Iraq is a sensitive issue since the display explained the cause simply as “because of concerns over Saddam Hussein’s regime”. No mention of weapons of mass destruction here.”
So, just how often has the USA gone to war or used its military might? You can check out the full list here.
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Who was the Turkish leader Kemal Ataturk?
June 9th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
“It began as a small environmental protest against plans to redevelop Gezi Park, and Istanbul’s adjoining Taksim Square. But over the past two weeks it has morphed into a countrywide revolt. Three people have been killed, 4,000 injured and 900 arrested. The demonstrations have spread to more than 70 Turkish cities, including the capital, Ankara, and the restive western city of Izmir.”
So explains an article in today’s “Observer” newspaper. The piece begins with an interesting reference to a Turkish leader who has been dead for 75 years:
“Among the tents, snoozing youth and pleasant shady trees of Istanbul’s Gezi Park there are portraits of one man in a European suit. Wherever you look Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – founder of the Turkish Republic – gazes sternly at you. Photos of the first president hang from branches, have been affixed to tea stalls, and even encircle a giant banner showing Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, dressed as Hitler.”
So who was Ataturk? A few years ago, I read a biography of him which I have reviewed here.
Posted in History, World current affairs | Comments (0)
10 contenders for the most irritating online abbreviations
June 8th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Which of these do you recognise/use/hate?
- LOL
- YOLO
- TBH
- IMHO
- JFGI
- tl;dr
- IYKWIM
- TMI
- AFAIR
- NSFW
See discussion of the 10 abbreviations here.
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A review of the new sc-fi movie “After Earth”
June 8th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
This is one that you can safely miss, as I’ve explained in my review here.
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Where is the greenest public building in Britain?
June 4th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
It’s actually in my local London borough of Brent and it’s the new council headquarters. It cost £90M but it is said to be the most sustainable public building in the country.
You can learn more here.
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What’s the longest word in the English language?
June 4th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
It is:
neumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis = A lung disease caused by inhalation of silica dust.
Other long words around the world include:
Floccinaucinihilipilification = Act or habit of estimating as worthless. Longest word in Hansard, as used by by Jacob Rees-Mogg
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaunga-
horonukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu Longest-named place in the world, given to a New Zealand hill by the Maoris
Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz = the law concerning the delegation of duties for the supervision of cattle marking and the labelling of beef. Until recently. the longest world in the German language
And finally:
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia = the fear of long words
All this information comes from this article.
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Reviews of two utterly different films: “The Great Gatsby” and “Mud”
June 4th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
I am a real film enthusiast, so I go to the cinema regularly and view an eclectic range of movies. Last weekend, I went to the cinema twice and the films I saw could hardly be more different.
“The Great Gatsby” is a big budget movie with shooting on elaborate sets in Australia. There are lots of special effects and frenetic pacing. You can read my review here.
“Mud” is a low-budget, independent film shot on location in Arkansas. There are no special effects and the pacing is really slow.You can read my review here.
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