The People vs Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski is arguably the greatest film director alive. He has cult status in the global cultural domain, of which the US and Switzerland are only a peripheral part of.

Mr Polanski, 76 years old, has committed a rather despicable and repulsive crime: incapacitating a 13-year old girl for the purpose of sexual intercourse. Despite pleading to be left alone, the child was subjected to a persistent sexual attack, including anal sex. It's well documented what happened next. In 1978 Polanski pleaded guilty but absconded before sentencing.

For 30 years the Los Angeles prosecutors, known for their open sympathy for fascist and neo-nazi groups and literature according to an insider there, relentlessy persued the Jewish fugitive from justice. With a refined ruse they finally succeeded to enforce an arrest warrant in Switzerland, where Mr Polanski travelled to receive a lifetime achievement award.

It's a shame that in the 30 years that have elapsed the Los Angeles authorities have been incapable to resolve the matter. Mr Polanski has offered to settle things, and his victim, now a 44 year old married woman with 3 children, has been handsomely paid off by the movie director. Even she says today that she finds the incessant obsession of L.A. prosecutors outrageous and wants the case terminated.

Mr Polanski has proved that he is not the typical sex offender and can look back on a stellar career. Being Jewish, and the blame he levelled against the Los Angeles police for intentionally not preventing the slaughtering of his pregnant wife in Hollywood in 1969, appear to be behind the relentless persecution by the hands of the L.A. nazi thugs. For there is no intention to serve justice visible in this vendetta against Mr Polanski.

On the other hand I would also caution the French government, which so quickly speaks of scandal and farce by enforcing the arrest warrant. The crime that Polanski committed was horrendous, and to let him too easily off the hook would send a rather perverted message to future child abusers: write books and direct movies after your crime, and you get the "Stay Out of Jail" card. Fans of Mr Polanski, and I am one of them, should feel let down, and not allow fanship obscure and diminish the perception of true justice protecting the most vulnerable: children.

Killing Fields: South Africa

A year before foreigners will swarm the country for a football extravaganza without a South African equipe participating after the first round (they rank #83 in the world), the nation remains a deadly zest pool of freely roaming hords of black hoodlums, ambushing people at will on the road, on beaches and at home with virtual impunity. Only Congo and Pakistan have been described as less safe than SA.

The latest figures released today show a dramatic picture of a country bloodied by ever increasing numbers of murder, rape, robbery and house invasion. Nobody is safe anywhere, and even the former president and ANC thug Mandela lives in a villa surrounded by 14ft tall walls. The preferred modus operandi of black killers is the knife, used in 54% of all murders (28% by handguns and 14% by bludgeoning someone to death).

Adding to the number of murders are cases of attempted murder: 18,298 in the 2008/09 period.

Especially hard hit are the ANC fiefdoms of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal: 8,631 reported murders (+3.6% from 2007), with a suspected further 2,000 cases unreported. These two lawless provinces alone account for 48% of the 18,147 reported cases nation-wide last year.

Driven by lust and perversion, 71,500 cases of sexual assault including rape have been reported, with the highest number naturally in the two provinces mentioned above: 32,345 - an increase of 8%!

Of the 14,200 carjackings in SA, 11,688 alone took place in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal again.

Home invasion and robbery at gunpoint increased to 18,438 (+22%), with 12,721 in the 2 provinces.

Johannesburg is the deadliest urban area in the world, beating easily Ciudad Juarez in Mexico to 2nd in this infamous statistics.

94.6% of all murders have been committed by blacks, but whites make up for 14% of victims. Underlining the 3rd World status of South Africa is also this stat: 0.6% of all murders have been attributed to the column "Witchcraft related."

Oh Paris, eyes wide shut

Paris was a blast; no other city in the world can match the excitement and vibrancy of the place. Three dinners, and two nights in town later, I suffer from severe sleep deprivation. A fact that remained not unnoticed by colleagues today as I dropped in straight from the train. It was a toothpicks day, to keep these blue eyes open.

There were a few things I realised over the weekend, and not all are comforting. The excitement of Le Sens, a glamorous nightspot and staying at Emily's could not gloss over the fact that I am aching for someone else from the recent past. I wish she knew. This love just won't go away quickly, and rather than seeking a quick remedy I refrained from any action one could interpret as cheating. In other, and simpler words: I am far from ready for a new relationship.

What helps, or complicates things, is that Emily understands and doesn't push. Sharing an apartment, especially one that is 290sqm big, did not amount to share the bed... It guaranteed that we had a weekend full of bliss and undiluted fun. Amongst her celebrity friends we went to see and partied with were Jarvis Cocker (yes, that God!!) Jane Birkin (ok, a true goddess!!).

We went to Le Sens which started out as a chic restaurant, before the music exploded when it turned into a club from midnight on. Emily knows the owner, so we were 'lucky' enough to be allowed in by the masked lady at the door. The music at Le Sens is simply superb! The resident DJ obviously thinks out his sets beforehand (or is a fantastic on the spot music-poet). The sound quality is amazing. A mixture of Rock, electro and dance which sent the crowd wild. With the lyrics from one song to another connecting nicely, shaping the mood of the dance floor. Exhilarating!

As I wasn't sure about the plans for the weekend, Emily took me shopping for what to wear for the two nights and to forget about the clothes I brought along. When it came to the time to check-out and pay, Emily took me quickly under her arm and whisked me out of the store. "It's all been taken care of, mon cher..." I only had to promise not to try to find out how much it had cost. I promised.

Music: ZAZIE - Je Suis Un Homme  Powered by: Last.fm

Voyage à Paris

Leaving Friday by Eurostar, returning Monday morning:

18/09: Departure from London, 11:32 ~ 
           Arrival in Paris, Gare du Nord 14:47

20/09: Departure from Paris, 07:13 ~
           Arrival London, St Pancras at 08:23

The Arab State of Evolution

The events of 9-11, and the subsequent anniversaries of the Islamist atrocity, serve for me as a gauging tool on where Arabs are on the ladder of evolution of man.

The images of dancing Arabs, rejoicing over the mass-murder taking place on live broadcasts, immediately triggered a rush of hate and rage against these rodents. Except for Egypt and Jordan, Arab peoples and their governments couldn't mutter one word of regret, sorrow or sympathy with America and the many victims of 72 nationalities. The monstrosity of forcing people to either be crushed, burnt or suffocated in an agonisingly delayed death, or to hasten inevitable doom by taking a 14-second plunge from 1,000ft above caused Arabs to celebrate and jubilate. 230 people are known to have fallen to their death, much to the bemusement of the Arab world.

The mangled, crushed, splattered and torn bodies of the victims of 9-11 have more dignity than these Arabs. Eight years on, the anniversary is ignored in the media in all Arab states. It puts collective guilt on all Arabs who remain silent to this day.

I don't hate Arabs, but I cannot look into the eyes of Arabs, cannot shake hands or converse with them. They have yet to achieve the civility I expect in a human being.

Germs - Will they ever learn?

A German Aids awareness group has come under fire for posting an online video that starts off with a young couple having sex in an apartment before revealing the male to be a grinning Adolf Hitler. Its closing message: "Aids is a mass murderer."

On Tuesday, a prominent German Jewish group and Aids prevention advocates demanded the ad be withdrawn. "It is disgusting and we're asking the producers of the campaign to pull it," said Joerg Litwinschuh of German Aids Assistance, an awareness group.

He said the ad, commissioned by Regenbogen, German for rainbow, seemed designed for little more than shock value and was offensive to people who have HIV. "We denounce this ad. I can say that absolutely," said Volker Mertens, a spokesperson for another group, the German Aids Foundation.

Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, issued a statement calling the ad "a defamation and mockery" of Holocaust victims. "Apparently the initiators and producers of this campaign are only concerned, without consideration for other's emotions, with provocation based on this slogan: Hitler sells," Kramer said.

On Monday, Regenbogen deputy head Heiko Schoessling told The Associated Press that the ad would run on German TV and in movie theatres. He said the "mass murder" campaign would also include radio spots, music videos, print ads and posters featuring former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and former Soviet leader Josef Stalin. The next day, as criticism mounted, Regenbogen spokesperson Jan Schwertner said plans for the video and the broader campaign were not final. Talks with TV stations and theatres are continuing, he said, but would not disclose when and where the ads would appear.

German broadcaster RTL said it was contacted by Regenbogen about the ad but decided against airing it. "After having talked to child welfare authorities, RTL decided to not screen the campaign," said Cordelia Wagner. She said RTL made the decision last week after considering "the entire context" of the ad, meaning both the use of Hitler's image as well as the explicit nudity and sexual content. Schwertner defended Regenbogen's decision to use Hitler's likeness, saying the aim was to "give a face" to HIV!!

Until recently, Germans resisted taking creative liberties with Hitler as they reckoned with the horrors of the Nazi past. But as the World War II generation dwindles, that resistance is fading.

To Have and have not

I was watching and listening to President Obama last night, addressing the joint assembly of Congress on his drive to introduce health care reform. The speech, containing a passionate and detailed plea to act with great expediency towards a health scheme that benefits the greatest possible number of Americans, deserves support. The Industrialized World has only one member that cannot provide the bare minimum of care for millions of its citizens: America.

When the home-grown financial fiasco blew up in our face a year ago, it took government and Congress less than six weeks to pass $1.1 Trillion to bail out the banking and insurance sector with funds borrowed on behalf of the yet to be born generation. Yet, the fact that tens of millions of Americans could have engraved on their tombstones "Failed by the Health Care", and that millions of people are one mishap away from bankruptcy as uninsured or under-insured citizens, has failed to alert lawmakers to act; for generations. When it comes to healthcare, America is a land out of a gloomy Charles Dickens novel.

This has to change, and, in the words of President Obama, "to change now." The debate, mostly seized by right-wing opponents to date who enjoy full health coverage anyway, has to shift now to the millions of victims of the current system. We do not owe it to the late senator Edward M Kennedy, as Obama has told Congress, but to the estimated 28 million Americans who are suffering abysmal fears of losing access to even minimalist health coverage, decent treatment and the devastating prospect of hopeless and irreversible destitute.

The debate must be wrestled out of the hands of Fat Cats who enjoy the full benefits already, and whose irrational paranoia of "anticipating a worsening of the current - dysfunctional - system" could give them a dose of (withheld) medicine in the future, has in the past paralysed any progress. Similar to the debate on abortion, where either religious freaks or people beyond the mental and physical condition to conceive or bring up children are the loudest voices, the debate on health care reform has been dominated by those who do not know what it's like not to be included in the coverage.

To maintain a two-tier system for so long, for those who have it and those who don't, is disgraceful, shameful and appalling. For his effort to change America's last Big Shame, two thumbs-up for President Barack Obama.

Paris s'enflamme - euro ante portas!

As soon as Emily got home yesterday she started pulling strings for me. She booked me for a surprise trip to Paris Oct 16-20, and got us 2 tickets for the most stunning opera production of late: Mozart l'opéra rock at the Palais des Sports de Paris. I marvelled about it all Sunday, and my sweet sirene had taken it all on board.

Vivre à en crever:

Roll over Andrew Lloyd Webber, êtes-vous si l'histoire!

Premiere 22 September
http://www.mozartloperarock.fr/prehome.html

Gender Bender

Castor Semen Ya is just weeks away from being stripped of its 800m gold medal after found inadequately feminine to compete in Womens athletic competition.

Can hardly argue with the findings, judging from the picture.

Boeing 1, Airbus 0

First round to Boeing

In its WTO complaint the US Trade Representative’s office said Airbus had received $205 billion in launch aid to develop the product range that now shares half the world market with Boeing. The WTO agreed, Airbus will take six months to digest the ruling and lodge a counter-suit.

Hit by a supernova

Being closely associated with London's Serpentine has many perks and advantages. The connections reach beyond the fine art of sculptures and paintings, but thankfully also extend to the vibrant music scene of London. Last night I was thrilled to meet a great singer, author and composer, Emily Loizeau. She's a 34-year old French/English artist (mother is English, father is French; her grandmother was the Award-winning actress Peggy Ashcroft) who provided an intimate setting of friends glimpses of her brilliant repertoire.

I was totally taken by her intense yet alluring presence on the little stage, and having her at our table for over an hour was just mesmerizing. I went home like in trance, absorbing an evening of sheer excitement and intrigue. I got home at around 11:30, poured a brandy and took a shower, when the phone rang. EL had gone to a club nearby, and called to summon me to join a group of 5 friends. And so I went, after midnight, and the night lasted until 6AM ... I am besotted. This is the subject of my infatuation at her best:

Racist (black) South Africa

Canada's judiciary system has been praised around the globe as probably the most formidable, impartial and authoritative one. Routinely the UN request that Canadian diplomats and judges serve on international forums (fori) when it comes to investigating and processing atrocities committed around the world. Regardless of who the accused party is, ranging from villains like Libya, Congo, Liberia, former Yugoslavia to the most civil nations, like the US or Canada herself: Canadians are on the forefront to bring perpetrators to justice and to meter out recourse for victims of injustices.

As is the case of Brandon Huntley, a 31-year old white South African, who gave compelling evidence of sustained racist attacks he had endured by blacks in his hometown. The four judges agreed that Mr Huntley deserves refugee status in Canada, and expressed concern that the man would face almost certain death if he returned to South Africa.

The South African government and its extended arm, the xenophobic black ANC which organised the witch hunt against foreigners last year leaving 73 people murdered, did not raise the issue of the court's judgment (well aware that Canada enjoys a higher reputation than itself), but lashed out at "the white boy, who cannot tell us how we rule the country." As if that was the issue...

It is the second time within 2 weeks that a high profile case throws the incessant racism against whites - at home and abroad - into the international limelight: the case of the runner Semenya. As the 'outrage' grew in South Africa last month around the treatment of the black athlete Caster Semenya by the International Association of Athletics Federations, the name of another young black South African woman was repeatedly mentioned: Sarah Baartman.

Ms. Semenya is the masculine-looking 18-year-old runner who won in the 800-meter at the recent World Athletics Championships in Berlin but had her medal withheld subject to sex-verification testing. The fact that Semenya shaved off 6.8 seconds from her previous best just six months ago compounds the urgency to test the runner now. Humiliated, she returned home a hero, with thousands greeting her at the Johannesburg airport, and with leaders ranging from Winnie Mandela to President Jacob Zuma clamouring to defend her.

Baartman was the “Hottentot Venus” of the early 19th century, a singer and dancer of the Khoi people who was born into slavery and brought over to Europe by impressarios who put her on public display because of her unusually large buttocks and genitals. After she died at the age of 25 her body was dissected displayed at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris; her remains were repatriated to South Africa in 2002. Today, she has become an icon in South Africa of the way colonialism dehumanized black people and pathologized black sexuality.

The way Ms Semenya’s humiliation evoked Baartman’s offers fascinating insight into South Africa’s defensive self-image, and how the country projects itself in the world. It tells us much about how, in the shadow of a turbulent past, South Africans aspire toward the diversity, tolerance and dignity laid out in their Constitution — and how distant the lives of many of them are from such aspirations.

Given South Africa’s history, it is perhaps not surprising that much of the political support for Ms. Semenya has been expressed in racial terms: The ANC youth leader Julius Malema labelled the sex testing a “racist attack on a beautiful woman,” and the South African athletics head, Leonard Chuene, asked: “Who are white people to question the makeup of an African girl?” When a newspaper noted that South Africa’s head coach was Ekkard Arbeit, a former coach in East Germany — where women were frequently administered anabolic steroids — Mr. Chuene raged that South Africans would never “allow Europeans to define how our children should look ...”

But if the adulation of Ms. Semenya is partly rooted in jingoism or wounded pride, perhaps it also celebrates something more salutary — a wish by many South Africans to live up to the values of the Constitution’s core statement that “all persons have the same inherent worth and dignity.” Mr. Zuma gave voice to this ideal when he declared that not only had Ms. Semenya “showcased women’s achievement, power and strength,” she had “reminded the world of the importance of the rights to human dignity and privacy.”

These rights have been expressed most forcefully in South Africa’s legalization of same-sex marriage, putting the country streets ahead of its African neighbors and even the United States. In terms of transgender rights, South Africa leads even the Netherlands in its recent passing of a statute allowing people undergoing sex-changes to alter their gender officially without having to show proof of surgery.

But one of the difficulties of South Africa is how far ahead of social attitudes its jurisprudence often is. If same-sex marriage (or the right to abortion) were ever put to a plebiscite, they would be voted down by a landslide.

Mr. Zuma himself alienated many people during his rape trial, and permitted the most misogynistic things to be said about his accuser. How, in a macho culture that accepts such behaviour as normative, does one entrench the values of dignity and privacy that Mr. Zuma himself lauded when he welcomed Ms. Semenya home? And is there more than a little expediency to South Africa’s adulation of the athlete? Even the most repressive societies are happy to adulate people of any orientation so long as they bring home the medal; it is when they actually attempt to live their lives differently that they are subject to abuse.

There was a brutal reminder of this the very week that Ms. Semenya came home: the trial of three men accused of raping and killing Eudy Simelane, once a star of the official national women’s soccer team. Although the prosecution failed to establish any direct link between Ms. Simelane’s homosexuality and the murder, many in South Africa are  convinced that she had become the victim of violence against lesbians. According to Phumi Mtetwa, a lesbian interest group’s director, at least 20 women have been killed, in ways similar to Ms. Simelane, over the past five years.

It may yet turn out that Ms. Semenya has been the victim of cruel experimentation, and that her trainers are no better than the impressarios who hocked Baartman around Europe 150 years ago. What the I.A.A.F. did to Caster Semenya last week puts her on a new frontier — and compels us all to ask tough questions about how we understand the old binary oppositions of masculinity and femininity.

Members of my extended family

Je mets ma famille élargie sur la glace

They fill half of my freezer now, and I got them cheaper by the dozen (£11.00/btl)