Gillian Gibbons, the British teacher jailed in Sudan for naming a teddy bear Muhammed, was released yesterday, after Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir pardoned her following talks with two British Muslim peers.
In a statement, Gibbons had this to say: "I have great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone and I am sorry if I caused any distress. I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends but I am very sorry that I will be unable to return to Sudan and work in Unity High School as the teacher of 2X."
Throughout this insane episode, I've been disturbed by the opinion, held by many, that Gibbons somehow brought the whole thing on herself. That as a Westerner in an Islamic country she should have known better. Or that we're all at fault for not being more understanding of Islam.
It's precisely that kind of thinking that allowed September 11th and 7/7 to happen: turning a blind eye to Islamic extremists and letting them get on with it; allowing some warped sense of Western guilt to eclipse the fact that backward, medieval societies like Sudan oppress women and gays, and are the antithesis of a liberal, tolerant society.
The war on terror supposedly targets those who harbour terrorists. But Britain, the US and others play a big role in fostering the threat of Islam. We have to stop pandering to its extremes, apologising for the hate it nurtures and the oppression it gives rise to.
It's cold comfort that Gillian Gibbons has been released - she's just one woman. Who's going to help the thousands of black African Darfuris, the murders of whom the bearded Arabs of Sudan have orchestrated...?
If She Should Have Known Better, Then So Should We
She Didn't Mind The Gap
Imagine you have a microphone and a captive audience of cattle on auto-pilot, but the only thing you ever get to say is "Mind the gap" and "This station is..."
Wouldn't it be great if you could say whatever you wanted? Well, that's just what voiceover artist Emma Clarke, the voice of London Underground, has done. Bursting free of her corporate straight-jacket, she has recorded some spoof announcements. In one message, she says: “Would the passenger in the pinstripe suit and £1000 glasses who obviously works in the media please take one step forward on to the track as the train arrives. Thank you.” Pretty good advice if you ask me. In another, she says, “Residents of London are reminded that there are other places in Britain outside your stinking shithole of a city and, if you removed your heads from your arses for just a couple of minutes, you may realise that the M25 is not the edge of the Earth.” Factually accurate, surely?
You can hear them all on her site.
Unfortunately the joyless suits at Transport for London, the local authority which controls London Underground, don't see the funny side. A spokesman said, "Some of the spoof announcements are very funny. But Emma is a bit silly to go around slagging off her client's services. London Underground is sorry to have to announce that further contracts for Miss Clarke are experiencing severe delays." In other words, 'you're sacked, love'.
See more on the story at the London Underground Tube Blog and on video at the BBC.
Black & White In Colour
Is the white working class second class citizens in their own country? Is 'Victim Of Racism' a trendy label looked upon as a designer exclusive by some ethnic minorities? Perhaps, perhaps not...
BBC Two will screen a series of programmes in the New Year on the subject of race - but there's a twist. The season, dubbed White Season, is all about the feeling of some white working class people of being "under siege and as if their very sense of self is being brought into question."
Roly Keating, controller of BBC Two, said: "It's BBC Two's role to reflect contemporary society and this is a timely moment for us to examine the roots of this debate. The White season is a complex look at how life has changed for the white working class in Britain. It will enable the audience to consider the views and circumstances of people who have a strong point of view and join in the debate, both online with the BBC and in their own homes and communities."
Drama White Girl is about an eleven year old white girl's sense of isolation in a largely Muslim community. All White in Barking looks at prejudice in volatile East London. The Poles Are Coming is a "subversive look at the reality of immigration in Middle England". Rivers Of Blood examines the impact, forty years on, of Enoch Powell's infamous "rivers of blood" speech (about the dangers of uncontrolled immigration).
Is the white working class second class citizens in their own country? Is 'Victim Of Racism' a trendy label looked upon as a designer exclusive by some ethnic minorities? Perhaps, perhaps not...
It should be interesting to hear a different point of view in the never-ending race debate, and one that, perhaps, is often silenced in fear of political correctness...
Mapping
Here's a picture of the new Tube map, due to be introduced later this month, and seen here thanks to it being leaked by someone at TfL who Mayor Ken has probably now had shackled in the Tower of London for a week as punishment.If you ask me, it's all got a bit complicated, what with the addition of the London Overground line, the imminently closing East London line and the new Heathrow T5 station sticking out of the lefthand corner, making the Heathrow loop look like a flacid penis. Or is that just me?
Meanwhile, the Hammersmith & City line gains a new station, Wood Lane, which isn't the Wood Lane station which closed in 1947 but a brand new one for the Big Shopping Centre which Shepherd's Bush needs like a hole in the head (at least it'll give the Australians something to do other than drink beer and roll around in their own vomit in the gutter).
Hotel Babylon
Phwoaar!! A hotel for the gays - those hot-blooded Latins have the right idea, what. Yes indeed, Guardian Unlimited has reported the opening, on 31st October, of the Axel Hotel in Buenos Aires (for the benefit of American readers, that's not a suburb in LA, it's Argentina's capital)."The receptionists are slender young men in sleek suits, the brochure features chiselled male torsos, the rooms are soundproofed and stocked with condoms and every now and then Judy Garland croons in the bar..." says Rory Carroll in his article. Sounds good to me.
The hotel, which has only cost them £3.5m, is for men only - and it isn't just gay-friendly (a term I loathe more than my bitch graduate boss), but is gay. Gay gay gay, I say. Not a child or fish-wife in sight. In fact, the website describes the hotel as being heterofriendly "...or, in other words, a space conceived, developed and designed for and by the gay public, but open to everyone." Well, I suppose it doesn't hurt to have one or two breeders loitering about.
Darryl Stephens
Here's a gratuitous snap of favourite eye candy Darryl Stephens for you lot. He's only after being photographed by François Rousseau for Out, so he is. Strapping lad, isn't he?
Stephens, of the sadly-departed Noah's Arc, is one of Out's 100 Men And Women Who Made 2007 A Year To Remember. They say: "(He is) consistently funnier, hotter and tougher than any of (his) straight counterparts. Coincidence? We think not."
The article goes on to say: "...in a year of revolving closet doors for TV actors, we can also offer one long-anticipated quiet confirmation: Darryl Stephens, who has declined to discuss his sexuality while playing a series of nuanced gay roles. He doesn't exactly talk about it, but he proudly joins the other queer honorees in our pages."
Declined to discuss his sexuality, huh? The cheek of it! Who does he think he is, this actor person? Anyone would think his sexuality was his own personal business!
Review: Broken Sky
There's barely any dialogue - proof indeed that actions speak louder than words - with most of the action played out in body language: stolen glances and intense sex are the language of this piece. The BFI says it's a "masterful exercise in visual storytelling" and it isn't wrong. The two leads, Jonás (Miguel Angel Hoppe Canto) and Gerardo (Fernando Arroyo) as two students, are thoroughly engaging, and just so happen to be very, very easy on the eye - even if, distractingly, Jonás bares an uncanny resemblance to Jason out of Coronation Street.
If there's one flaw it's the duration, an ailment modern cinema suffers acutely from - at more than two hours and eighteen minutes this one tests the patience, and my reaction might well have been considerably less favourable had I been trapped in a cinema for that long. But here we have quantity and quality, and that's rare. Broken Sky is nothing less than stunning - if, by the final act, you don't feel the full, stomach-churning impact of the flashback revealing what really happened on the dancefloor, then you haven't really loved and lost...
Keeping Australia White
The Australian government has accused Africans of failing to integrate into Australian society. It also complains of groups of young African men drinking alcohol in parks at night.This follows on from the revelation that the Australian government has cut the number of Africans in its refugee intake from 70 per cent four years ago, to 30 per cent.
Now, who said the White Australia policy was dead and buried?
The government blames Africans for not integrating, but having had the misfortune to live in Australia, I'd put money on the real problem being Australians (most of whom are white) not accepting the immigrants. After all, they've successfully persecuted the native Aborginals for the last two hundred years or so. G'day mate, who's up for a bit of genocide?
It's almost impossible to imagine what African refugees have endured in a country that must be one of the most hostile towards non-caucasians, second only to its spiritual sibling, white South Africa. And the complaint of young African men drinking in parks is a sick joke - ever seen how Australians behave when let loose around the globe, let alone at home? Parts of London are awash with Aussie vomit most nights of the week - and that's just the women.
Learn about the ugly face of modern Australia here.
A Map Of Humanity
Back in August we saw the jolly clever Web Trend Map, which showed us how to get from IMDB.com to Myspace via Rapidshare. Well now something even more cleverer-er-er has come along, A Map Of Humanity, if you please.
The different continents (not the real ones) are shown with names like Utopia, Pride, Ignorance, Abandonment, Lies, and Hell. Eros is looking pretty good to me. Where do you see yourself?
The Gays Can't Be Racist? Can they?
Last month we heard how former Savage Garden front man, the Australian who married a woman then decided to come clean and tell everybody he's actually gay, was arrested following an alleged racist attack on a waiter in a restaurant in London. The Australian was subsequently given a caution by police, which I'm sure his victim feels is sufficient punishment.
What's really funny about the whole episode, apart from the strenuous denials from the Hayes camp of any wrongdoing, are the cries of, "He's gay, how could he be racist?" You see, heterosexuals can't quite grasp the fact that gays, white and black, can be just as racist and xenophobic as they are. In fact, mainstream gay culture is founded upon the notion that white is right, and anyone who doesn't look like a manicured Viking is inferior, which dovetails perfectly with Australian racism and xenophobia - so call me cynical for not being surprised to hear of a gay Australian launching a tirade of racist abuse.
So let's all take a positive from this little episode - straight people now realise that gay people can be racist too. Aww, ain't the world a lovely place?
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