British Filmmakers

Leon Rodriguez · July 8, 2005

Just a general note to all the British brethren who suffered in the recent attacks of the terrorists, cowardly, soulless bastards that they are. Our hearts and prayers are with you all, especially to the Londoners who felt it the most. I just want to say that we are with you in mind, body and spirit. We stand beside you in our resolve to bring these animals to justice. I?m sure the rest of the civilized world; Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and all other faiths join us in condemning these brutal attacks on the most cosmopolitan of all cities. God bless you all in your moment of grief.

I know this isn't cinematography. It is however human.

Robert Hughes · July 8, 2005

An interesting difference to 9/11 is appearing in my part of the Midwest USA. The day the 9/11 attacks occurred, everybody was talking about it. Besides the torrent of media spewing forth, each person wanted to talk, to get their personal views and internal fears out into the public discourse.

Yesterday and today, it's all over the news, but nobody here is talking about London. I was driving in with a co-worker this morning, and she replied that I was the first person she's talked to that even mentioned it, and she'd been at work all day and at a big opening last night.

Is it impolite to talk of these things? Is everyone too frightened? Or have we become so tired of the endless killings that even this spectacular event barely registers in our awareness?

Sounds like good documentary material.

July 8, 2005

First, I add my sympathy and outrage with regard to what happened in London. I'm a dual UK and Canadian citizen (born in the UK) so this was an attack on my home land. Not a distant home land, my father and grandmother still live there and I visit th UK on a regular basis.

I was shooting in London just two weeks ago, I was on and off the tube many times a day. What a shock to go from the joy of winning the Olympics one day, to a terrorist strike the next. Those SOBs are still in the country they can be tracked down and left to rot in a UK prison.

Britain has a very long history of standing up to far worse punishment than this, the terrorists don't know English history very well. Any one of those cowardly terrorists bastards would have caved the first night of the WWII bombing in London.

Second, with regard to few people in the USA talking much about this, outside of the media. Imagine if the 9/11 attacks had happened to Sao Paulo, it would have been mentioned for a few days in the US media and then forgotten by the world at large. Look at the Tsunami disaster six months ago, it was in and out of the news in a week and a half, and far more people died in that than 9/11.

Fact is that unless "it" happens right on your door step people don't care for long, in fact they want it to go away. Face it, most of us know that tonight on the news the first story will be about a bombing in Iraq. It happens every day, people get numb and bored, so they switch off.

R,

July 8, 2005

Well... to anyone angered by the attack, I'm not mentioning any names or anything, but apparently in *a* prison where *a relative of mine* works some guy was really happy about the attack and then got done in by all the other prisoners. He was also the one my *relative* restrained a few weeks ago and didn't realise he had a splint in his leg or something and broke the guys leg. I was happy to hear that...

I was also shocked to know that a relative of mine got off the bus 2 stops before it blew up. That was a bit of luck. Also shocking to know that if I had left Swanley half an hour earlier I would definatelly of been on the underground when it happened.

Edited July 8, 2005 by Daniel J. Ashley-Smith

Keith Mottram · July 8, 2005

Well... to anyone angered by the attack, I'm not mentioning any names or anything, but apparently in *a* prison where *a relative of mine* works some guy was really happy about the attack and then got done in by all the other prisoners. He was also the one my *relative* restrained a few weeks ago and didn't realise he had a splint in his leg or something and broke the guys leg. I was happy to hear that...

I was also shocked to know that a relative of mine got off the bus 2 stops before it blew up. That was a bit of luck. Also shocking to know that if I had left Swanley half an hour earlier I would definatelly of been on the underground when it happened.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Daniel, with all due respect a misguided idiot gloating about a terrorist attack does not give a prison warden or other prisoners the right to mistreat him. Its actions like these that create fanatics and I'm afraid that makes your *relative* a part of the problem not the solution. Revenge is rarely, if ever, the answer. Who at the end of the day watches the watchmen?

This is in no way meant to show any empathy towards these criminals. I think it is important for everyone to keep a very cool head on their shoulders right now, as thankfully virtually all Londoners have (myself included). I think its also worth remembering that a large proportion of Londoners have lived with terrorism for most of their lives, the IRA never stopped me moving round London and nor will some faceless fanatics.

As far as whether this should be an international news story, probably initially yes. But remember the world of media is a two edged sword- how much air time should we give the criminals?

Keith

July 8, 2005

Daniel, with all due respect a misguided idiot gloating about a terrorist attack does not give a prison warden or other prisoners the right to mistreat him. Its actions like these that create fanatics and I'm afraid that makes your *relative* a part of the problem not the solution.

Well, he was in prison and was a complete scum bag anyway (Most of the people in that prison are a waste of space, they're just oxygene thieves). My relative wasn't mistreating him on purpose, he just wasn't told about the splint in his leg, and when he restrained him the prisoners leg got broken. That was an accident, but at the end of the day, I think he deserved it. And the idiot started going on about it infront of loads of other English prisoners... I mean.. asking for it or what. Legally speaking no they haven't got the right, but since when is this country a bouqet of roses and all fair? Nothings fair anymore, but we can get our own back occasionally. I mean, someone punches you, are you going to sit back and accept it? You'll want to hit back.

Forgive me if I'm being a bit immature here, but I really do hate these people, as do they hate us. I'm keeping cool about the whole situation, but it's always nice to get our own back.

Edited July 8, 2005 by Daniel J. Ashley-Smith

Filip Plesha · July 8, 2005

exactly: "as do they hate" you..

So both of you give yourself to the same hate. So aren't you similar in the way?

Of course you don't go around blowing stuff up just because you hate them, but

if you could, would the hate make you do that?

In time, the line between "defensive" anger and agressive anger, dissapears compleatly, and both are same.

A good example are these terrorists. Their defensive anger was transformed into agressive anger, and now look at the mess.

Human feelings are to dangerous to be owned by humans

(quote me on that :D )

Robert Hughes · July 9, 2005

"...complete scum bag anyway ... oxygene thieves .... I think he deserved it ... asking for it or what ..."

Exhibit #1: How we never learn from history.

Keeping cool about the situation? You've got the markings of a seriously troubled zenophobe, Daniel. And we've got the job for you. Here are the keys to the gas chamber. Frustrated artists make the best tyrants.

Edited July 9, 2005 by Robert Hughes

Brad Grimmett · July 9, 2005

Look at the Tsunami disaster six months ago, it was in and out of the news in a week and a half, and far more people died in that than 9/11.

R,

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, I've still been hearing plenty about the tsunami. The scope of that disaster means that it will be in the public consciousness for a while. The same goes for 9/11. These London attacks are horrible, but the truth is that in relation to some other disasters it's just not as big. My intent is not to diminish the loss than many people are dealing with right now, as it is a huge disaster.

I do agree however that American's pay much more attention to what is going on in the U.S. than they do in other countries. The media here just doesn't seem to cover the rest of the world the way that the rest of the world covers the U.S. Sadly, many people here probably barely know about the attacks in London.

Hopefully Tony Blair won't react to the war in the same way President Bush did....by attacking a country that had nothing to do with the attacks on us. Of course, he sent troops into Iraq right along with us, so there's no telling.

Jonathan Spear · July 9, 2005

"Human feelings are too dangerous to be owned by humans"

Extreme feelings are too dangerous to be owned by undeveloped, uneducated primitive humans. Extremism is primitive in its core, almost animalistic. It's what we've spent centuries on trying to balance out with love, art, music, education, democracy and health but it's still all around us - in each and every one of us. Most of the Western world has learned to moderate this inner voice, keep it controlled and are able to vent through various activities (music, writing, excersize, etc.).

If you're poor, uneducated, and brainwashed by a group of religious zealots that honestly believe that the West is evil, satanic and sent out to destroy humanity than you'll resort to such nonsense as "holy war", beheading "infidels", etc. because you've already dehumanized them before using common sense and reason to realize that a human life = human life. These terrorists have obviously missed the point about the value of life itself in the process and have shown the rest of the world (thanks to the media and the internet) they they are truly inferior.

The way I see it, they aren't winning this war but they've sure managed to scare the hell out of most of us.

But at the end of the day, we still have the edge. We're developed, educated and we've got the nukes.

One of these days they're going to execute the wrong hostage or blow up the wrong bus and then...

Sol Train Saihati · July 9, 2005

When Bill Clinton met Nelson Mandela for the first time, there was an incredible conversation. Bill Clinton asked Nelson Mandela, "When they released you from prison, I got Chelsea up at three in the morning because I wanted have her see this. I knew it was a historic moment and I got her out of bed to see you released from prison.

"As you walked across the courtyard, from the cellblock to the gate of the prison, the television cameras focused in on your face. I have never seen such anger, such animosity, and such hatred. I mean, you usually can't see that so clearly revealed. It was all over you. It was intense hatred, intense resentment. President Mandela, that is not the Nelson Mandela that I know today. Could you explain what was going on?"

Nelson Mandela says, "You're the first one that brought that to my attention. I didn't know that anybody noticed that. But as they released me from the prison block and as I walked across the courtyard to the gate, I thought to myself, 'They've taken everything away from me, my family is destroyed, my cause has been crushed, my friends are dead, anything, anybody, that meant anything to me, they've destroyed it all,' and I hated them with a fiery hatred. And then God spoke to me, and said, 'Nelson, for 27 years, you were their prisoner, but you were always a free man. Don't let them make you into a free man, only to turn you into their prisoner.'"

Phil Rhodes · July 9, 2005

Hi,

> We're developed, educated and we've got the nukes.

Not once the oil runs out.

Begin stream-of-consciousness musings:

It seems these things go in phases. When Europe was in its dark ages, the Arab world was giving us a lot of progress in things like chemistry and mathematics - their scholars introduced "Arabic" place-value notation in numbers, actually a Hindu idea from India but brough here by Arabs, which allows us to write 949 instead of CMXLIX. Ironically, Baghdad was a centre of mathematical study, making what was then Persia a centre of scholastic excellence equalled only by places like Oxford and Cambridge, and the New England university cluster.

Seems to me that religion, particularly fundamentalist religion, has been bad news through the ages, taking situations like the one described above and corrupting them into real problems. Another example of this is the Christian fundamentalist drive that's slowly turning the US into something it shouldn't be. Catholicism has given us the world population problem and the African HIV epidemic, polarised the situation in Northern Ireland into violence; Judaism (in concert with no small degree of Islamic fundamentalism) has given us the Israel/Palestine problem, and just recently in the UK people were jailed for assaulting a child as part of the rituals of an African religion. Religion is a questionable idea because it seeks to make you do things without rational consideration of why. I think this model also works for other forms of faith - patriotic faith, the easy example here being the national socialist takeover in 1930s Germany. It occurs to me that simply being an American is close enough to a religion for some people to defend the actions of the country on blind faith. Interviewees (BBC News 24, early January 2005) have stated that they respect the decisions of Bush "because he's the president" - how's that for blind faith?

Now, I don't particularly blame victims of religion, beacuse most of them were indoctrinated into it by their parents at an age when parental faith comes easily. Equally, those people who use religion as a stable framework for everyday morality don't bother me, although I think perhaps it shouldn't be necessary for a well-adjusted individual. However, once you become a Catholic and start blowing chunks out of Protestants, or a Jew and start genitally mutilating boys too young to object, or an American who thinks it's OK to invade Iraq in the name of some abstract concept of freedom, or an Islamic fundamentalist - and claim that any of these things is OK because God/Bush/whoever told you so - then it's your duty as a human being to realise that your faith is overpowering your intellect.

I'd very much like to live in a secular state, which is what the US was supposed to be. Instead, it became a faith unto itself, and now we have Islam and America butting heads just like Christians and Jews in the Roman middle-east. God knows why we got involved.

Phil

July 9, 2005

"...complete scum bag anyway ... oxygene thieves .... I think he deserved it ... asking for it or what ..."

Exhibit #1: How we never learn from history.

Keeping cool about the situation? You've got the markings of a seriously troubled zenophobe, Daniel. And we've got the job for you. Here are the keys to the gas chamber. Frustrated artists make the best tyrants.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You mean xenophobe? Someone who doesn't like foreigners? Well I'm certainly not one of those, but sorry, I DON'T like people who think it's ok to go bombing innocent people. Ok it happened during the iraq war, but that was accidental, atleast we try our hardest not to hit civilians, those bastards do it purposely.

I know killing civilians isn't correct or what we wan't to do, but... it's a little something we call "WAR". In "war" you get casualties, militant and civilian, it's innevitable. I mean, they go complaining about that?! Look at us during the second world war! We've had it worse than any of them!

Edited July 9, 2005 by Daniel J. Ashley-Smith

July 9, 2005

What made me laugh was when I saw on the news that an iraqi soldier was trying to sue a British officer because the British officer was beating him up.. IT'S WAR. He's lucky the British officer didn't shoot him! I probably would have, I'm not one for taking prisoners and then spending our own governments money looking after them. I'm not a xenophobe I'm a patriot. And I've also always gone by the rule where if you get hit, you hit back.

Edited July 9, 2005 by Daniel J. Ashley-Smith

Keith Mottram · July 9, 2005

What made me laugh was when I saw on the news that an iraqi soldier was trying to sue a British officer because the British officer was beating him up.. IT'S WAR. He's lucky the British officer didn't shoot him! I probably would have, I'm not one for taking prisoners and then spending our own governments money looking after them. I'm not a xenophobe I'm a patriot. And I've also always gone by the rule where if you get hit, you hit back.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

SHUT UP!

July 9, 2005

SHUT UP!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The world is a hell hole because of people like this kid Daniel J. Ashley-Smith.

Really.. you believe that they should kill British civilians purposely because Iraqi civilians got killed accidently in the iraq war?

It's not good that anybody gets killed, but that's war for you. And the fact that some iraqi soldier actually tries to SUE a british officer for attacking him is just un-believable.

Ok.. so explain WHY you disagree with my views.

Edited July 9, 2005 by Daniel J. Ashley-Smith

Keith Mottram · July 9, 2005

Ok.. so explain WHY you disagree with my views.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i hate people, they hate me back. i'm misformed, they're misformed back. i kill, they kill back. etc, etc.

I don't disagree with you views. For me to disagree with your views would imply that you have an opinion. You unfortunately are just following others. Think or SHUT UP.