I watched this very cool movie last night (finished after work tonight). No great drama, but a fabulous character study of a widower and his two late-teen sons, each dealing with their own inner conflicts. Not a lot of action, but well worth watching. Great acting by Antony LaPaglia.
The NZ Herald that is. I took them to task over the basketball article the other day, and although I didn’t mention it here, I also pinged them about a Reuters article they published that had a very misleading title. Originally the headline was: “Condemnation of Israeli action mounts”, but the article just didn’t support that claim.
I had a very nice letter from the editor today to let me know that they have changed the title to “Israeli attack on Lebanon ‘disproportionate’ says Chirac”. Which is much better given how much we love and respect the French.
I spent most of the weekend doing some reading on the history of the Middle East conflict and I’ve started writing a brief summary of what I’ve been learning. So far I’m up to the end of WWI. I will post the whole thing when I’m done.
Also on the back-burner at the moment, waiting for a little more free time, is some thoughts on the subject of “Network Neutrality”. Coming to a feedreader near you.
When I said that “I watched Syriana last night with George Clooney and Matt Damon” I’m not sure that they would appreciate me tipping off the paparazzi. Sorry guys.
I watched Syriana last night with George Clooney and Matt Damon (and there were a few others involved as well!). Actually I watched it twice, and not because I wanted to.
The movie has had some good reviews and Clooney won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, an award I think was extremely well deserved. However the movie as a whole, despite having an admirable goal of illuminating the politics of the oil industry, was tremendously hard to follow. The story line was very non-linear, weaving together multiple threads, people and facts that were just about impossible to digest in real time. Which is why I watched it twice. After seeing the movie oince, I simply didn’t understand how it all fitted together. And as I watched it again, I realized how many important details I had missed, just because they passed by so quickly.
I just fired a note off to the NZ Herald about the following article -
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=4&ObjectID=10391395
I’m really no basketball fan, but any contest between NZ and Australia is a plainly matter of critical geopolitical importance (especially when NZ wins!), and so I think it deserves to be reported with a little bit of journalistic competence. Which I think in this case would involve telling us what the score was!
A little idle googling tonight led me to a pretty interesting audio stream (.mp3) on the subject of Christianity and Politics – a message by Gary DeLashmutt from Xenos Christian Fellowship in Columbus, Ohio. I’ve never heard of him or the church before, but initial impression (about half way into the message) is that it’s pretty insightful.
Further to the earlier reference to the alleged killing of Falun Gong members in China, the issue seemed serious enough for me to send off a letter to NZ Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters. Here is is -
Mr Peters,
I am a New Zealander currently living in the US.
I am writing about a Reuters report that appeared this week concerning a Canadian investigation into alleged killing of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese Government in order to harvest human organs for transplant. Press articles carrying this story can be found here (Sydney Morning Herald) and here (yahoo.com). The full report of the investigation by lawyer David Matas and former Canadian cabinet minister David Kilgour can be found here (pdf file).
The Chinese Government has issued an official denial of the allegations in the report, while a subsequent response by Matas and Kilgour has been published on a Falun Gong website.
Could you please tell me whether our Government will take any action to determine if these allegations are accurate and what Government response would be forthcoming in the event that the allegations are found to be true.
I am not connected in any way with Falun Gong or with the authors of the report mentioned above.
Regards,
We’ll see what he has to say.
Mike Moore has this to say about the Doha nonsense in an article today in the NZ Herald.
A deal in agriculture would give Africa four to five times more help than all the aid given by all nations. The rich countries spend $1 billion a day on subsidies that make food dearer and reduce choice.
Sadly, no sources were cited.
Good on you Mike.
Interesting article this week in the Sydney Morning Herald about an investigation by a Canadian humanrights lawyer and a former Canadian cabinet minister into alleged state killings of Falun Gong members in order to harvest human organs for transplant.
The full report is here. According to a press release (.doc file) issued by the invesitgators, the report concludes:
“…the government of China and its agencies in numerous parts of the country, in particular hospitals but also detention centres and ‘people’s courts’, since 1999, have put to death a large but unknown number of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. Their vital organs, including hearts, kidneys, livers and corneas, were virtually simultaneously seized for sale at high prices, sometimes to foreigners, who normally face long waits for voluntary donations of such organs in their home countries.”
It also notes that:
Witnesses were consulted in Canada, Australia, France and the United States, sometimes in personal interviews and sometimes by email. Among the most significant incriminating evidence, however, were certified translations of recorded conversations in Mandarin with doctors and other officials at hospitals and detention centres located in various parts of China.
Which western government will be the first to condemn China for this?
