24th June: Daily Express front page headline: You can’t ban the burkha, say Eurocrats
14th July: Daily Express front page headline: France votes to ban the burkha
There’s nothing like spreading some Europhobia which is in fact entirely false, and then having no shame in completely contradicting yourself a mere three weeks later. Well done, Daily Express!
(Hat-tip to Tabloid Watch)
The Guardian has spent four months covertly filming demonstrations by the English Defence League, a relatively new far-right Islamophobic organisation that takes to the streets to protest against Muslims in England. This report is worth watching because it’s disturbing that there are so many people in this country who are still resolutely racist. The BNP didn’t perform as well as expected in this year’s election, thankfully, but it seems that many are now moving even further to the right and preferring street protests and violence to the ballot box. They’re deliberately provocative, and horribly, horribly racist. With an ever-increasing fanbase and membership, and with more protests planned this summer (including in towns with larger than average Muslim populations, in attempts to spark retaliation, you have to feel), this won’t be the last we hear of the EDL.
This is probably my favourite phrase of the election campaign so far.
Such unbridled, ridiculous homophobia. I’m amazed that it still exists in today’s society, I really am.
It was said by a BNP parliamentary candidate, as quoted in The Daily Telegraph’s story today: One dark day with the BNP in Dagenham, which is perhaps surprisingly (but correctly) unsympathetic towards the BNP.
So it seems that the BNP aren’t just racist; they’re distinctly homophobic to boot as well. I’ve no idea how they managed to get 6.2% of the vote in last year’s European elections.
In summary, fuck the BNP.
text, tldr, films, review, hero worship, zimbabwe, africa, racism, human condition,
It may only be the 14th of January in 2010, but I think I’ve just seen the best film of the decade. If I see another film that is better than this in the near future, I will be amazed.
‘Mugabe And The White African’ is a documentary following one white farming family as they try to take the Mugabe government to an international court to dispute the legality of the Zimbabwean land-grab programme of the last 10-15 years.
Whilst Mugabe and the farmer never meet face to face, Mugabe’s influence is felt heavily in their everyday life, from intimidation tactics by his war veterans to delaying tactics in court by his lawyers. The documentary uses voiceover excerpts from Mugabe’s speeches over the years to illustrate the sheer power that the man wields in the country.
Shot covertly and under major threat of being discovered, this truly is a harrowing tale of how a country can be absolutely destroyed by the megalomaniac tendencies of just one man.
I’m usually not one for hyperbole when it comes to reviewing and describing films, books, TV shows and the like, but this film is genuinely the best thing I’ve seen in many, many years. I’ve not felt an emotional connection to a film like this before, and I spent at least the whole final third with tears in my eyes and running down my cheeks.
It’s a film about bravery, about stoicism in the face of absolutely soul-crushing hatred, and about being prepared to sacrifice everything in order to fight the good fight. It’s also a film about family, about love and about love for one’s homeland.
Whilst I’ve learnt a lot about Zimbabwe over the last few years from the girlfriend and from getting interested in the subject, this film really did open my eyes to the levels of racism and strife that are being fermented in the country. The racism is something else, and for someone who has grown up in a multi-cultural society and doesn’t have a racist bone in his body, it is horrifying.
It genuinely blows my mind that people can base any kind of decision purely on someone’s skin colour, but Mugabe and his supporters have done just that for over 30 years. The white farmer(s) in the title aren’t old-school colonialists; they’re all born and bred Zimbabweans, trying to work a farm in the country.
They employ and support a community of over 500 people, and it’s the effect on these kinds of people that the land-grab scheme just does not think about. The land is given to some friend of the government, and then left to ruin. Not only are the white family forcibly evicted and basically kicked out of the country, but their employees and their families are left to ruin.
The whole (tiny) cinema was sniffing and crying throughout, with some scenes truly disturbing and heartbreaking, but necessary. It doesn’t pull any punches, but at the same time it doesn’t dwell on the negatives more than it has to.
If it is on anywhere near you, track it down and go see it. Get the DVD, download it, watch it on TV. This is an important film, one which truly displays the lowest lows and highest highs of human nature.
I could go on about this film for many more paragraphs, such an impact has it had on me. I’m still seeing the faces in front of me, hearing their voices and living their story.
This film needs to be seen. It needs a bigger audience and it deserves one.
South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut - Operation Human Shield
(via Coolsam on Metacafe)
One of my absolute favourite films, and this scene has just popped into my head as a result of reading this news story, detailing how the UK is to spend £150m on training Afghans how to detect and disable improvised explosive devices.
Sounds awfully similar, no?
Man, I could sit here for hours and write about the BNP and its appearance on Question Time tonight, but it’s already 1am, and I’ve probably churned out over 2,000 words on the topic. When I get angry, the words flow
Much appreciated if you bothered to read my ramblings, especially if you disagreed. I’ve tried to put across a coherent train of thought, and I think there aren’t too many internal inconsistencies.
Oh, and for the Yanks, just remember what the dashboard looked like for non-Americans this time last year…
As a result of Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time, the girlfriend and I had a pretty heated debate about whether or not he should have even been allowed on the programme and given a platform on which to express his racist views to a national, prime-time audience.
She was firmly of the belief that he should never have been given the opportunity to even be on the programme, because he is racist, and because his political party is racist. She said that to be racist is a crime in the United Kingdom, which it isn’t*, but I can see where she is coming from.
I fully disagreed, saying that you have to give a political party a voice, no matter how much you disagree with it. In a modern, liberal, democratic society, the only way to defeat views is to prove them wrong through debate and reason; censorship is not the answer.
To provide a bit of context, the girlfriend grew up in 80s and 90s Zimbabwe, as a white person, and so has experienced racism against herself personally. This doesn’t mean that she is automatically prejudiced against non-whites (far from it, I couldn’t imagine a more inclusive person than her), but she knows how it is to see racism up close and personal.
I think this was her driving force behind stating that racists of the BNP ilk should be neither seen nor heard in mainstream political coverage, no matter how many actual votes they garner. To be racist, in her view, is to forgo such political niceties as equal coverage with normal parties, and in fact it is to forgo coverage altogether.
My view is that you cannot deny a voice to these people, no matter how foul we find their opinions, especially when nearly a million people have voted for them in the last round of elections. It doesn’t matter that they are racist, communist, fascist, liberal or illiberal, they must be allowed to be heard.
I said that we can defeat these opinions by proving their falsehood, whereas the girlfriend believes that by giving them a platform their message is going to be heard further and wider. I can understand that, but at the same time it is also clear that the BNP is able to defeat itself by its appearances on this kind of programme.
We don’t need to censor the BNP when it does a perfectly good job of hoisting itself by its own petard.
Both of us became pretty heated in voicing the opinions and reasons behind our viewpoints, and I think we both came out of it appreciating why the other felt the way they did. I really enjoy having political debates, but it takes some kind of extremity/extremist to get me thoroughly worked up and giving my opinions room to breathe.
The girlfriend and I got back home just after the start of Question Time tonight, but sat on the sofa absolutely enraptured by the political theatre taking place. Nick Griffin of the BNP was digging himself ever deeper holes whenever he was actually allowed to speak, and I was impressed by the sheer venom of the audience whenever they were given an opportunity to directly address him.
It makes my heart sing to realise that the vast, vast majority of the British public is vehemently opposed to the racist, scaremongering and patently false policies which the BNP promotes, and can see through the paper-thin veneer over the inherent racism beneath.
Griffin managed to diminish whatever credibility he had prior to the programme by his sheer lack of ability to provide any backing whatsoever for his theories and policies. He failed completely in his attempt to convince the voting public that the BNP is a viable political party.
Of course the BNP has its supporters, just as the Communist and Monster Raving Loony parties do. This doesn’t make them right. I just hope that a few people who previously voted for the BNP will realise next May that they have been wrong and vote for someone whose policies are more in tune with the general public.
A couple of other opinions on the BNP’s performance on Question Time tonight:
Good on the BBC for taking this on, I reckon. Griffin is, unfortunately, a “politician” (read: racist), and if we are to stick by our freedom of speech and expression that democracy holds so dear, then an opportunity to appear on Question Time is what Griffin should have. jessie-estella
He is a class A prick but let the fucker speak. If we didn’t have to freedom to speak, we’d all be fucked. pensivebaboo
When Nick Griffin comments on Jan Moir, Twitter might turn inside out. @jonswaine
I really wish he’d learn a bit about early human migration before saying ‘indigenous’ Brits. @brilliantology
I want to hurt Nick Griffin. @kapi
Definition of mixed feelings: The Mail is attacked for telling lies. By Nick Griffin. @badjournalism
Watching Caddyshack. @kapi
You know what, I’m going to quote myself. I wrote this whilst watching Question Time with Nick Griffin of the BNP as one of the panellists.
The BNP are the most right-wing, racist political party in the UK nowadays, and there has been a huge amount of fuss about the fact that a representative is being allowed to voice his views on one of the most important political programmes of the week.
I genuinely, genuinely believe that the BNP should be given a platform to voice their policies. Believe it or not, but the BNP has two democratically elected Members of the European Parliament, which means that part of the British population voted for them. Hell, 6% of the turnout voted for them.
That is a significant number, whether we like it or not. 6% is not a statistical anomaly. 943,598 actually made a conscious decision to cast their vote for the BNP.
Nearly a million people.
Try to imagine a million people, physically. That is how many people believe the racist, uninformed and grossly false views that the BNP put across. You simply cannot deny those people the voice, nor the vote.
It is one very small step from denying a political party the ability to stand for election to outlawing their existence outright. I simply cannot fathom why people wish to deny any political party the opportunity to exist, or to have their voice heard, particularly when 6% of the voting turnout support them.
If we were to deny the Greens a platform, or the Scottish Nationalist Party the chance to appear on Question Time, there would be ridiculous amounts of outcry and hand-wringing. But it’s not hugely fanciful to imagine a right-leaning government to ban left-wing parties like the Communists. This the same, but with left-right reversed.
The BNP is just another political party, like any other. To most of the politically informed public, they are wrong, and this is shown at the ballot. But to many, they are correct, and have policies worth voting for.
If we were to ban the BNP, there would be a huge movement saying that they are being censored, which could lead to a lot worse than what the BNP actively promotes. To censor is to encourage the movement, to give volume to the voice that says they are being downtrodden by the establishment.
To defeat the BNP, we need to listen to them, and show them to be wrong. Censorship does not do that.
Yes, it is abhorrent to hear their policies being voiced on a BBC programme, but that same programme makes it very clear just how out of step with society those policies really are.
