ACOMSDave

Community Journalist

Archives for June 2019

Movie List – “Adventure” from 2018

By

What are Adventure Films?

Adventure Films are exciting stories, with new experiences or exotic locales.  Adventure films are very similar to the action film genre, in that they are designed to provide an action-filled, energetic experience for the film viewer…(amc filmsite). Whilst this list is not definitive, and indeed I have to admit that I have only seen one of these movies, the reviews I have read of them are very informative and do make me wish I had had the time (and the money) to see all of them.

Time Will Tell!

Maybe as time moves on, I will have that chance through one of the various movie sites, or when they finally get around to being played on television.

Black Panther February 13th, 2018 134 min Action Avengers: Infinity War April 25th, 2018 160 min Superhero
Maze Runner: The Death Cure January 10th, 2018 142 min Action The Incredibles 2 June 14th, 2018 126 min Animation
Tomb Raider March 5th, 2018 118 min Adventure Annihilation February 22nd, 23018 115 mins Drama/Thriller
A Wrinkle In Time March 8th, 2018 109 min Family Ready Player One March 28th, 2018 140 min Action  
Deadpool 2 May 18th, 2018 119 mins Action/Comedy Early Man January 28th, 2018 89 mins Animation/Adventure/Comedy

more New York Stories – Book Review

By

Title More New York Stories
Place New York
Publication date 2010
Pages PB 293
Price £14.99
Author various
Publisher New York University Press
Edition  
Special features (maps, etc.)  
ISBN 978-0-8147-7655-1
more New York Stories
more New York Storeis

This month’s book review is ‘more New York stores’ (The Best of the City Section of th New York Times).  For some reason I seem to be drawn to these compendia of stories in books and I found this vignette about New York to be wonderful.

The ‘more New York stores’ are unique, well crafted cameos from authors who love and feel New York as a place, but not just a place, it is a welcoming and living body!  The describe New York as it is, was, and in some cases wonder about what it may become.

There are fifty essays in ‘more New York stores’, gathered together under a series of general collections:-

  • Characters
  • Places in the City’s Heart
  • Rituals Rhythms, and Ruminations
  • Excavating the Past

It is with regret that I found out that the City section of New York Times was published its final issue in May 2009 after 1 years.  It fell foul of economic forces, and the need for a bottom line!

The names of the authors will resonate with some, if not all readers, they are able to write and entice you into their piece of real estate that is New York.

I am only going to quote from one story by Christopher Sorrento “When He Was Seventeen”:

…At 17 my friends and I didn’t partake of sanctioned, homogenized “teen culture.”  We participated in culture, period, meaning that often we made it ourselves.  We were perfectly aware that certain aspects of Western civilization, whether or not they would appear on network television or play on Top 40 radio, had their point of origin in the fertile brains of teenagers…

Amazon Link: more New York Stories

Gilbert & George

By

This Gilbert and George exhibition has now ended, and I was fortunate to be able to see all the exhibits on three different occasions. 

& George

Wikipedia says that …Gilbert Prousch,sometimes referred to as Gilbert Proesch (born 17 September 1943 in San Martin de Tor, Italy) and George Passmore (born 8 January 1942 in Plymouth, United Kingdom) are two artists who work together as the collaborative art duo Gilbert & George. They are known for their distinctive and highly formal appearance and manner in performance art, and also for their brightly coloured graphic-style photo-based artworks.

So the MAC brought three galleries of Gilbert & George’s work for display and discussion.  And indeed, if nothing else, the works do provide discussion items.  The exhibits are large, and you do need to take time to peruse each item, and the parts that make it up.  However, I must state now that it was not a body of work that excited me.  I came away from the exhibit looking for a theme, for a catch that made the series of displays of highly technical works gel together with each other, other than by colour – and for me, they don’t.

It was obvious that there were references to London streets, to various political statements, but I needed more context.  I was looking for the story and I didn’t find one.

Should the Gilbert & George exhibition be in your area, I would urge you to go.  Potentially you will see something that I missed – I hope so.

PS – having just been to the Ulster museum this weekend, there is one large piece by Gilbert & George on show on floor 4 – so if you missed the main body of work, at least you could catch up with one piece.

Location: The MAC [Metropolitan Arts Centre] – Belfast

Dates of show: 22 Jan – 22 April 2018

Civil Liberties – is the legacy living on?

By

I wrote this article some time ago, to be exact in Sep 2013, for another organisation, but it is time we think again as we are going through the sham elections for a new Prime Minister, and with the candidates who are standing:

Martin Luther King jnr - Civil Liberties

Civil Liberties

Over the last few weeks papers, television and radio have been referring to Martin Luther King jnr’s speech ‘I have a dream’ which was delivered in Washington on August 28, 1963.

The speech was the high point of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; which in itself became the focal point of a campaign against discrimination, voting restrictions, unfair treatment by the police and statutory barriers against social mobility and economic opportunity.

The impact of this speech was felt across America, and then across the world, and whilst MLK was not initially billed as the main speaker, his speech has now become synonymous with Civil Rights, and led within two years to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act being passed in the USA.

Rustin Bayard and Martin Luther King jnr - Civil Liberties
March on Washington Aug 28 - Civil Liberties

Non-Violent Action

MLK developed his commitment to a principle of non-violent action through the tutelage of Bayard Rustin, a man who was black, gay, and a Quaker.  Bayard’s own life had been through many phases. Bayard was brought up by his grandparents acting as his parents, who were Methodists ( he later found out that his ‘sister’ was his mother).  He was a member of the Young Communist League until 1941 after the Nazi invasion of Russia led the U.S. party to switch gears into building American opposition to fascism, and racial justice issues fell by the wayside.

Rustin was a deeply committed pacifist, owing largely to his Quaker background, and got thrown in jail for conscientiously objecting to service in World War II. It was his introduction of Gandhi’s tactics of nonviolent resistance (which he learned when visiting independence activists in India) to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr which served as a platform for MLK’s enduring success in civil liberties along with his oratory.

Bayard being gay, and also that he had been arrested for 1953 and sentenced under the lesser charge of ‘sex perversion’, was often used by his enemies both in the establishment and in the civil liberties camp as an indication of his unsuitability.  However, it is interesting to read the FBI synopsis on him:

Federal Bureau of Investigation

A Federal Bureau of Investigation internal memorandum (25th January, 1966)
Rustin is a very competent individual who is widely known in the civil rights field. He is personally familiar with numerous individuals with communist backgrounds. As one of Martin Luther King’s closest advisers, he is in a position to wield considerable influence on King’s activities. Technical coverage of Rustin is an important part of the overall coverage of King, who is the most prominent civil rights in the country today. Because of the influence being exerted on King by persons with subversive backgrounds, it is necessary for us to maintain coverage of individuals such as Rustin. In order to fulfill the Bureau’s responsibilities to uncover communist influence in racial matters, it is recommended that technical coverage of Rustin be continued.

Bayard Sings - Civil LIverties

Written out of History

Bayard Rustin, has been a man written out of history due to his abilities and to him being black and gay; fortunately society has moved on today, and more importantly the USA has a black president who this year has recognised the importance of Bayard by awarding him Presidential Medal of Freedom earlier this month.

Unfortunately some 50 years after MLK’s speech, and it’s impact worldwide, I must report that civil liberties in the United Kingdom are under threat.  Our freedoms, whether those of the LGBT community, black, white, religious or non-religious are important to us.  History has shown that we must fight and succour our civil liberties; that we must not allow governments to sequester them in the pursuit of security.  So having said this how do we in one of the first democracies of the world now have one and a half times as many surveillance cameras as communist China (Tom Kelly, Mail Online,  Aug 2009).  According to the Association of Chief Police Officers,  as of Aug 2011, there are in actuality 1.85 million CCTV cameras in the united kingdom.

To this we can also see the implementation of ‘Stop and Search’.  In June of this year, it was stated that there were a million stops each year, with only 9% leading to court cases (BBC, July 2, 2013).  However an article in the Sunday Post dated August 25, 2013, said that in the last year the Scottish Police have actioned six hundred and twelve thousand (612,000) stop and searches in the last year – approximately a 50% increase, with only thirteen percent (13%) possibly finding anything!

I do not believe that England and Wales only did 400,000 stop and searches over this period, and looking back a few years ago I wrote about the police tactics of stopping people and confiscating cameras and videos during various times of unrest ‘in the interest of the public’. A tactic which has since been clarified as being unjustified.

Our civil liberties belong to us:

As for civil liberties, any one who is not vigilant may one day find himself living, if not in a police state, at least in a police city. Gore Vidal
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/gore_vidal_704644?src=t_civil_liberties

Civil liberties in the United Kingdom have a long and formative history. This is usually considered to have begun with the English legal charter the Magna Carta of 1215, following its predecessor the English Charter of Liberties, a landmark document in English legal history.  However it could be argued that the Declaration of Arbroath of 1320 in Scotland was the first attempted implementation of civil liberties in part of the United Kingdom.  Today the United Kingdom’s relationship to civil liberties has been mediated through its membership of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In other words, civil liberties are the “rights” or “freedoms” which underpin democracy. This usually means the right to vote, the right to life, the prohibition on torture, security of the person, the right to personal liberty and due process of law, freedom of expression and freedom of association.[3]

(Wikipedia, 2013)

Stop the Police State

I call upon everyone to monitor their police and security forces, their local and national government – don’t allow the United Kingdom to become a ‘police’ state.

banksy-search
S&S KNow Your Rights

Further Reading:

Wikipedia –Civil Liberties in the United Kingdom
Wikipedia – Bayard Rustin
The Atlantic – Article by Kerry Eleveld ‘Obama, Bayard Rustin, and the New LGBT Civil Rights Movement‘
Spartacus Educational – Bayard Rustin
Washington Post – Wonkblog – Meet Bayard Rustin, the gay socialist pacifist who planned the 1963 march on Washington

Civil Liberties

By

first published in 2008

”A strong commitment to civil liberties, once considered a defining British characteristic, has weakened dramatically over the past 20 years, the survey found ”

(Telegraph.co.uk 1:44AM GMT 24/01/2007)

National security is the first duty of government but we are also committed to reversing the substantial erosion of civil liberties.

Theresa May

As someone who was born into a service family, and who then went onto to serve in the Forces, with time spent in various areas of the world, I feel that the current debate and result is an insult to the British population.

The Government and its agents managed, albeit over a twenty year period, to contain and finally achieve a workable result for all of the people of Northern Ireland without resulting in a 42-day detainment. Indeed, all parties did agree that detainment without due process is counterproductive to the well being of the British people.

Why then have we now resorted to a further dilution of our civil liberties’ with the amendment to Habeas Corpus?

”The Habeas Corpus Act passed by Parliament in 1679 guaranteed that a person detained by the authorities would have to be brought before a court of law so that the legality of the detention may be examined. In times of social unrest, Parliament had the power to suspend Habeas Corpus. William Pitt did this in May 1793 during the war with France. Parliamentary reformers such as Thomas Hardy and John Thelwall were imprisoned as a result of this action ”

(http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRgagging.htm)

Habeas Corpus Act - Civil Liberties

Loss of liberty and rights since 1997; a full list of these losses are contained on the Open Democracy Network and further information is also on the Liberty website.

This change in the law cannot be seen in isolation. Various governments have been eroding our rights and because it has been slow, and in a lot of cases, the changes have been slid through on the back of other innocuous legislation most people have not noticed what has been happening.

A lot of people will say that if you are doing nothing wrong then it won’t matter’, however a clear identification of the misuse of legislation was highlighted in May this year when it came to light that local councils through middle managers are able to authorise surveillance of people suspected of petty offences using powers designed to prevent crime and terrorism.

Down The Rabbit Hole - Civil Liberties

This to my mind is a clear misuse of the legislation involved, and signals that the government (both central and local) have no moral compass and will use any means to achieve their ends.

I regret the fact we as a people have lost sight of our rights and allowed ourselves to be blinded by very poor rhetoric and people who prey on fears, which may be slightly justified but not to the extent that we are being told, as indicated by the Head of MI5, Jonathan Evans.

Women in Politics

By

Today I was in the ‘Self Help Africa’ bookshop in Botanic Avenue, when I came across two postcards which reflected the development of women in politics.

Miss Kelly

The first postcard Shows ‘Miss Kelly’ a champion Votes for Women seller’, on what was her pitch in Charing Cross.

This refers to the period when women were fighting for the right to have a vote during elections; suffragettes were members of a militant women’s organisation who in the early 20th century, under the banner “Votes for Women”.

The term referred in particular to members of the British Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), a women-only movement founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst, which engaged in direct action and civil disobedience.

Irish Women Workers’ Union

My second find was a postcard showing a group of ladies who were part of the Irish Women Workers’ Union (1911-1984).  The Irish Women Workers’ Union was founded at a public meeting held on September 5th 1911 in the old Antient Concert Hall on Great Brunswick (later the Academy cinema on what is now called Pearse Street ).

The IWWU at it’s peak represented 70,000 women including, bookbinders, contract cleaners, laundry, print and electronic workers.  They were instrumental in obtaining the right for two weeks annual paid leave for all Irish workers in 1945, something which no organised male worker had previously demanded.

olitics

What peaked my interest was the situation of two completely different countries, having spawned women’s movements because women had little or no rights, and were considered to be inferior:

‘Masculine prejudice is the major target: man’s opinion of the fair sex is due to nothing more than mere custom, and the male chauvinist viewpoint (to use a modern term) has neither a logical nor a scientific leg to stand on ‘

Today we still have problems accepting women in positions of power and also in politics; in the last few years we have seen the rise of ‘Times UP’, in 2017 a group of women published a letter which said in part:-

“The struggle for women to break in, to rise up the ranks and to simply be heard and acknowledged in male-dominated workplaces must end; time’s up on this impenetrable monopoly”…

Just as we have seen and continue to see the fight for LGBTQ rights throughout the world; something which the British Government has in past created the problem through it’s empire days, and even today it continues to on one hand says it is supportive, but on the other pays lip service to it when economics comes into pay (e.g. Middle Est, African Continent etc).

We have a long way to go in this world until we have equality for all, not matter what the gender, or where they live!

Further reading:

Horace – Book Review

By

Horace by Chris d'Lacey
Title Horace
Place England
Publication date 1 July 2004
Pages PB 224 pages
Price £6.99
Author Chris d’Lacey
Publisher Yearling
Edition  
Special features (maps, etc.)  
ISBN 978-0440864455

Writing a review is a personal insight into you as a person, because your review whilst written by you is on display with the idea that others will be interested in your thoughts and ideas about something  IN this case I am writing about ‘Horace’ by Chris d’Lacey  This is a Corgi Yearling book, obviously aimed at the teenage audience, but those younger will enjoy the story as well.  Used as the central character is Joel with his friend Kenny as his sidekick (romantically in love with Joel’s sister); to these two are Joel’s family and I have to say it is nice to have a story which is warm, family orientated, and for once without violence.

‘Horace’ does bring together many themes, e.g.

  • family in trouble
  • theft
  • altruism
  • good deeds
  • love
  • infatuation
  • teenage angst
  • greed
  • cross cultural love

‘Horace’ was published in 2004 by Corgi, and the 15 years difference between then and now in terms of society is at once obvious, but you do wish things as described were still sustainable.

Chris d’Lacey is a well-known author of children’s books and Horace’s publication coincided with Chris’ 10th anniversary of writing children’s fiction; and in that time he has published twenty-one (21) books

Like Chris (and Joel) I  am also drawn to looking in charity shops, and I as they have done,  have seen and purchased forlorn teddy bear looking for a new home  In the past before hospitals had to make changes due to the superbug, I used to clean and tidy up my purchases and donate them for children in hospital, a little light for someone in what would have been a bleak time.

In the story of Horace, his role becomes pivotal in saving the family from potentially not having a home and having to make substantial changes in the family life  He is found to be a very well-known bear of pedigree, stolen and discarded by the thieves, almost a dustbin bear; and then like a phoenix is raised to new heights of love and being treasured.  Joel is at once his protector, saviour, hopeful owner, and also the person who has to decide what is right and wrong

I would urge anyone who enjoys a well written story, with a love of character, and especially teddy bears to read Horace, and dream!

The Collini Case – Book Review

By

Title The Collini Case
Place West Germany
Publication date 4th July 2013
Pages PB 208
Price PB £7.18
Author Ferdinand von Sabruch
Publisher Penquin
Edition  
Special features (maps, etc.)  
ISBN  978-0718159207

Firstly I must note my self-interest in legal stories, and ‘The Collini Case’ delivers for me in every way. whether it be in book form, TV, radio or movie. 

I remember watching Perry Mason, The Defenders, and lately (ITV Series taken from USA).  But also The Client by ….. Grisham which I read as a book and then watched as a movie and TV series.

I am also an ardent fan of police/detective procedural, having read the Moonstone when I was 8 years old, all of Sherlock Holmes, and most of John Buchan’s books; never mind the various police TV series over the years.

Yes I love the law, but I am not a lawyer/solicitor/or policeman!

So when I picked up this book, ‘The Collini Case’ second hand in a charity shop for £0.50, it was firstly because it was about the law, more specifically the law in Germany; and that it was about the second World War, the Nazi and economic regime over that period, and the fall out after the war, and it was about people.

The people are easily defined:

  • the lawyer
  • the murderer
  • the murdered person
  • the love interest
  • The mentor (?)

The law in this case is that of the law in Germany following reunification of West and East Germany.  The German legal system is that of civil law which is founded on the principles laid out by the ‘Basic Law for the Federal Map of Germany, … but many of the most important laws were developed prior to the 1949 constitution.  It is comprised of ‘public law’ which regulates the relationship between a citizen/person and the state…  This area of law has also been subject to a wide array of influence from Roman Law to Napoleonic law.

I have already mentioned the main characters in general terms, the story is relatively simple; ‘a man walks into a hotel and kills another man.  The murderer is a well-respected Mercedes-Benz worker, Fabrizio Collini – a man of unblemished record, and with no apparent reason for committing the murder. He doesn’t run away but refuses to defend himself to the police.  His lawyer, assigned by the court, gets nowhere with him, and even though he is almost concerned with ‘just’ doing his job, he follows his legal nose, discovers his client’s past and therefore his reason for the murder and then he has to put together a mechanism for the prosecution to introduce the evidence so that he has the right of rebuttal.

Apart from the initial murder, there is no further ‘American’ style action.  It is a story about thinking, about research and also about the good, old-fashioned dogged investigation.

The sting in the tale is the impact that this story had on the German legal system and the German government after its publication.  The outcry over ‘war criminals’ escaping justice led to the German government reviewing its legal system.

Links:

  1. Amazon: The Collini Case
  2. Cineuropa trailer:

The Waiting Time – Book Review

By

The Waiting Time - Gerald Seymour
The past brings a Cold Front –
The Waiting Time
Title The Waiting Time
Place Europe including the United Kingdom
Publication date 1998
Pages Large format 389
Price £9.99
Author Gerald Seymour
Publisher Bantam Press
Edition
Special features (maps, etc.)
ISBN 0593042492

The Waiting Time, by Gerald Seymour, is about the past, yet it is set in today. It is about a murder during the time of the ‘cold war’, when East and West were jockeying for position and power. It happens before the ‘wall’ comes down and reunification of West and West Germany, but we follow the four main characters of Dieter Krause, Tracy Burns, Albert Perkins, and Josh Mantle through their trials and tribulations as one is chasing to prevent the truth coming out, and one is searching for evidence of the truth, and one is looking for redemption, and one is being puppet master.

This is not a whodunit as we already know who got killed, and where, and when, and by whom! It is an exploration of stamina and willpower to continue with all the odds appearing to be against you, and that includes governmental agencies.

As with most stories, yu develop a sympathy for some of the characters, what is unusual in this story, is that you have sympathy for both the hunter and the prey. The hunter is trying to protect his past and his future, whilst the prey is trying to let go of the past and to pay homage. The two ancillary characters have their own motives and it is interesting to see how they play out against each other.

I would recommend reading ‘The Waiting Time, by Gerald Seymour. It is not an easy read, but it is one which engages and which is definitely worth persevering with.

Links:

  1. Amazon – The Waiting Time
  2. Gerald Seymour at Amazon

Banking – The digital Age is Upon Us

By

On Saturday May 25th, 2019 the Daily Mail’s Matt Oliver wrote on how Facebook maybe moving into the banking scene by offering digital currency. It would appear that the Bank of England’s governor Mark Carney had a meeting to discuss the possibility of Facebook launching a new digital coin ‘Globalcoin’, a digital payments system that would allow people to send money to each other without a bank account.

Banking - The digital Age is Upon Us
Currency Virtual Coins Digital Cryptocurrency

Banking – The digital Age is Upon Us, whilst we might benefit from more players in this market, it is also obviously worrying that Facebook has seen another large market to exploit and with its 2bn daily users it would appear to have the clout to do so – however, we must also be aware of Facebook’s history in not securing peoples data, and I for one will be looking to see what assurances are put in place to not only protect our data but to protect our money!

Banking - The digital Age is Upon Us - protection is the priority