24
Oct
The British National Party – Scarier than Swine Flu
by Carrie
0 Comments | Posted by thatgirl in 21st Century Bellist
For those of you who haven’t noticed, it’s 2009. Many of us consider ourselves to live in societies of relative freedom, tolerance and acceptance — where people of all colors and creeds can live and work side by side in harmony.
On June 8th this year, the far-right political group, the British National Party (BNP) won two seats in the European Parliament. No big whoop, yeah? What are two seats in an organization of that size? When the Party’s immigration policies include offering financial incentives and political pressure to persuade legal immigrants to leave Britain and return to their countries of origin — no matter how long they have been settled in Britain — and their membership excludes people that are not of direct white, British descent, then I think there is some serious cause for concern.
Nick Griffin, the leader of the BNP, is an incredibly outspoken individual with some seriously scary points of view. In a recent television interview about immigration from South Saharan Africa, Griffin said a way of tackling the problem would be to sink the ships bringing the immigrants. Another comment that jumped out was Griffin’s musings about Third World Aid, when he stated he did not believe Britain should be “obliged to subsidise the incompetence and corruption of Third World states by supplying them with financial aid.” This kind of open hatred is seriously troublesome in the early 21st century.
Most controversially, members of the BNP have publicly expressed incredibly controversial views regarding the Holocaust. While most members may not openly engage in Holocaust denial, they have made insane claims regarding the numbers of Jews killed in the atrocities. Griffin has previously made comments such as;
“I am well aware that orthodox opinion is that six million Jews were gassed and cremated or turned into soup and lampshades. I have reached the conclusion that the ‘extermination’ tale is a mixture of Allied wartime propaganda, extremely profitable lie, and latter witch-hysteria.”
“There is no doubt that hundreds, probably thousands of Jews were shot to death in Eastern Europe, because they were rightly or wrongly seen as communists or potential partisan supporters. That was awful. But this nonsense about gas chambers is exposed as a total lie”
However, the population of the UK are not just sitting back and doing nothing to protest against the unacceptable views of this far-right party. The Hope Not Hate campaign, fronted by Nick Lowles is at the forefront of the crusade against the BNP, and social networking sites such as Facebook have provided the campaign with a platform to encourage the public to show their support. The Hope Not Hate group has over 18,500 members, and the 1,000,000 United Against the BNP group has just under 600,000 members on Facebook alone.
Watch the now infamous “sink the ships” interview. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8141069.stm
16
Jan
Defiance: Inspirational Story, Uninspired Film
by Ashley Pierce
0 Comments | Posted by thatgirl in Amuse Me, Sit Back
After two weeks in limited release, the World War II drama Defiance goes wide in theaters this MLK weekend. Set in the year 1941 and based on actual events, the film tells the extraordinary tale of three 
Jewish brothers and their battle against the Nazis. As Jews are being massacred across Eastern Europe, the Bieleski brothers, played by Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell, take refuge in the dense Belarus Forest, which was once their childhood playground. As others slowly learn of this family surviving in the woods, hundreds flock to the forest in an effort to escape the Nazis and live freely among those who share their faith. As the community grows under the brothers’ leadership, something extraordinary happens – amidst a harsh winter full of death and loss, humanity thrives and hope is re-born.
It’s always difficult to evaluate films set in this era because there is such sensitivity about the historical period. The Holocaust is the greatest tragedy the world has ever experienced; however, it is often hard to separate the harsh reality of the actual events from how they are depicted onscreen. Just because a film deals with the Holocaust as subject matter, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a “good” movie that audiences should run out to see.
Defiance seems to walk this line – I want to love it because the source material is so remarkable, but the film itself has its flaws. In terms of performance, Liev Screiber is truly phenomenal, but Daniel Craig is lackluster in the starring role. He is supposed to be an idealistic leader, but he plays the part so stoically that I question his ability to inspire the masses as the character did in real life. More importantly, his lack of emotion made it challenging for me to connect to what could have and should have been a very touching film. That said, I don’t think all of the blame rests on Craig as Zwick’s direction probably played a significant role as well. Overall, it seemed as if all of the elements were present to make Defiance an outstanding film, but somehow the sum ended up being less than the parts. Even James Newton Howard’s Golden Globe-nominated score couldn’t aid in translating the urgency of this real-life struggle for survival to the silver screen.
That Girl says: Like It! Defiance is a celebration of family, redemption and humanity that should be seen for its historical value even though it plays like a conventional war movie. It’s an inspirational story that is certainly worthy of the big screen, but a combination of elements, including Daniel Craig’s static performance, make the film feel somewhat uninspired.
Release Date: January 16th, 2009 (Limited Release)
Running Time: 137 minutes
Rated: R
Company: Paramount Vantage
Cast: Daniel Craig – Tuvia Bielski
Liev Schreiber – Zus Bielski
Jamie Bell - Asael Bielski
Alexa Davalos – Lilka Ticktin
Allan Corduner – Shamon Haretz
Mark Feuerstein – Isaac Malbin
Director: Edward Zwick
Official Site: www.defiancemovie.com