OBAMA SUMMIT FEVER IN TnT

 

Obama fever swept over Trinidad & Tobago yesterday as the US President arrived for the Fifth Summit of the Americas, held at the Hyatt Regency in Port-of-Spain.

Before addressing the representatives of 34 countries at the three-day Summit, Mr. Obama shook hands with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — a precise moment readily captured on film that would later grace the front cover of all three national daily newspapers in the small twin island.

“With this same hand eight years ago I greeted Bush. I want to be your friend,” Mr. Chavez said as he exchanged greetings with U.S. President Obama, quoted in the Trinidad Express. 

Their two countries have experienced much tension and strained relations over the past few years during the Bush administration.

This was demonstrated most effectively last September when, amid claims of a coup attempt against his socialist revolution, the Venezuelan president expelled the US ambassador to Venezuela and immediately recalled his own ambassador from Washington. 

Chavez, a vociferous critic of the U.S. — “the empire”, as he terms it — also told Obama of “his desire that relations between both nations change”, reported the Trinidad Express.

Cuba: a new beginning

Another significant item of contention at opening of the Summit was the issue of Cuba, which was excluded from the meeting in Port-of-Spain.

Despite efforts by Obama and Summit organisers to keep the assembly focused on topics of energy, the environment and public safety, Cuba soon rose to the forefront of the agenda.

“Every one of our nations has a right to follow its own path,” CNN quotes Obama’s speech to the assembly. “But we all have a responsibility to see that the people of the Americas have the ability to pursue their own dreams in democratic societies. Towards that end, the United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba.”

Admitting to unfulfilled promises and dedicating himself to gaining new trust over time, Obama, quoted in the Trinidad Guardian, quipped: ”I’m glad President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old.”

Obama’s first visit to his Latin American and Caribbean neighbours was accompanied by several billion-dollar assistance plans which he insisted were “by no means charity”, but a move to work together.

 Summit Friday keeps shoppers away

On the social aspect of Obama’s visit and the Summit, Friday saw a dramatic slowdown of businesses throughout the country, with the number of vendors largely exceeding the number of shoppers.

According to Gregory Aboud, President of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association, only 60% of businesses opened in Port-of-Spain, stated the Trinidad Express.

“Summit Friday”, as it has been dubbed, also caused a reported 25% drop in sales in the country’s second city San Fernando.

Daphne Bartlett, President of the San Fernando Business Association, stated to the Trinidad Express that many businesses closed earlier than usual so as to allow staff to get home in time to witness history in the making.

 

 

 

Here, kitty-kitty! – the symbol of the cat

My dad recently sent me this link from an article in the Trinidad Express (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article?id=161460750), which got me to thinking about cats as symbols, scientific and historical creatures.

There is a somewhat negative association when you say that someone is a “cat person”, not to mention the saying that someone “will die alone except for his/her cats”.

While I’m sure that more people have been seriously injured from dogs or other domesticated animals, it seems to me that more people fear or dislike cats. Where does this come from?

What is it about the crafty feline that unnerves us so, when — for all intents and purposes — cats are more similar to humans than most other creatures.  

While it is widely believed — and scientifically proven — that apes and monkeys are closer to human DNA, I’m inclined to think that cats are actually more human-like than any other living creature.

Of course, I could be biased because around 30 cats have passed through my household in the 20-odd years of my life so far.

(At present, my cats at home fight for my dad’s attention, and the one we’ve had for 9 years seems to believe she is married to him and can’t seem to understand why my mother is around all the time trespassing on her territory.)

The science of cats

It has, however, been proven that the X and Y chromosomes of cats and humans are remarkably alike, reports Genome News Network.

The two species, however, haven’t shared a common ancestor for around 90 million years when the human race was linked to goats, sheeps and cows.

This discovery may help scientists to better understand male infertility and human genetics – as well as helping to preserve endangered cat species.

Apart from science, the aura surrounding felines has a long presence in ancient history.

Worship the kitty

Though originally a wild species useful mainly for controlling vermin and snake populations in ancient Egypt, cats became domesticated over time and even became the core focus of a religion centred around the worship of animals.

The goddess Mafdet – deification of justic and execution – was a lion-headed goddess, eventually replaced by the cat goddess Bastet, whose image softened over time to become the deity that represents protection, fertility and motherhood. (You can read more about it here and here.)

The religious issue surrounding cats is so strong that there is even a debate that true Christians should not be associated with cats because they are elements of pagan beliefs.

Though, to the best of my knowledge, no one in the modern world still worships cats, I’ve been around enough cats to know that as a race, they still expect to be worshipped. And there is something indescribably mysterious — and possibly holy — about the cat.

Something about the way they move, slinking so easily… pouncing on their prey (whether another animal or a piece of fluff floating in the air)… the wide eyes glowering and swallowing you in its darkness. Something eerie. Something devilish.

The era of Scotty

I once had a cat that was just pure evil. Scotch — Scotty — lived for only two years before succumbing to the fatal decision to eat a poisoned rat, but his memory lives on.

When we first got him, he was so violent. He also urinated and defecated EVERYWHERE – each time picking a different spot because he saw how that aggravated my mother.

We tried to lock him out of the house. He squeezed in through the bricks to lay a load of a present in the middle of my parents’ bed.

If you didn’t feed him on Monday, he would lie in wait on Friday to leap out from behind a chair to attack you, all twenty claws out as he leapt and scraped down the length of your body.

If you spoke ill of him, his ears flicked and his eyes narrowed. He knew.

He laughed at us, foolish humans succumbing to his every wish.

We loved him, yes, but a part of each of us was afraid that one day we would wake up to see him on top our stomachs, one wicked lip curled as he prepared to pounce. 

Is evil hereditary?

He eventually ‘married’ and moved his ‘wife’ (a stray) into our house, soon accompanied by 6 and then 5 kittens in another litter.

We were afraid to let him get near his own children lest he eat them, for pure fun.

The day he was dying — a slow, painful death that he seemed to prolong just so that he could die on my fifteenth birthday — was the first day that the kittens could freely roam the house.

His daughter, the 9-year-old who we kept from the first litter, still thinks she owns our house — not to mention my father.

Though the sweetest, most loving and nurturing creature imaginable, sometimes we still see the glimmer of Scotty in her eye……….

Plugged in: enroll me to Second Life

 

We are still far away from Matrix-style ‘uploading’ directly into our brains, but virtual reality in the form of Second Life may soon replace the classroom.

Ofsted’s recent survey shows that Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) for schools have been slower to take off than expected, failing to “enthuse” students, reports the BBC.

VLEs were found to be a “dumping ground” for rarely-used files, rather than an interactive forum to enhance teaching in a classroom.

But what if we didn’t need classrooms? What if we rolled out of bed, unbrushed and unshowered, and logged in to class?

Far-fetched, perhaps, but that’s the modus operandi of Second Life.

From Virtual Learning Environment to Social Virtual World

Dr. Li Jin, Course Leader of MSc Computer Animation at Westminster University, thinks virtual worlds are a powerful teaching medium.

Her research examines how Social Virtual Worlds (SVWs) transform the nature of learning as social practice, and aims to design an innovative platform which combines SVWs with conventional VLEs.

She says: “With increasingly pervasive high-speed networking connections and the technological evolution of Internet technology, SVWs have emerged to facilitate social interaction, combining efficient visual communication, integration of rich media, and the share of user-generated content in a collaborative environment.

“They have expanded and challenged ideas of the next generation of virtual learning environment.”

Second Life art

SVW Second Life (SL), a downloadable client program inspired by the cyperpunk movement, enables ‘residents’ to interact with each other through motional avatars in the ‘metaverse’.

Though akin to social networks like Facebook, it is differentiated by its rich graphics platform that fosters an immersive 3D environment.

SL residents can sell avatar designs, display ‘real art’ and also create ‘virtual art’ with the 3D modeling tool, which may be impossible to create in the real world due to physical constraints or high costs.

Countries including Sweden and The Maldives have virtual ‘embassies’, ‘live’ concerts and rallies take place, and Second Life has even hosted a virtual Inaugural Ball for US President Obama.

Second Life: the new distance-learning

SL, which offers discounted rates to educators to purchase campus land, has a large education community including leading universities Harvard, Iowa State, Stanford and The Open University.

SL is also a valuable medium for organisations such as the NMC, which fosters shared learning among educators by running inworld seminars and conferences related to virtual worlds.

Though distance learning has existed for decades, Second Life – with over 2 million users worldwide – opens a wealth of new possibilities.

Reincarnating themselves in an avatar, teleporting to different worlds, flying, hopping on a unicorn to gallop up to a tall building hovering over a glimmering city to get to class…

In a fantasy world where the laws of physics don’t necessarily apply, Second Life is certainly more interesting than the regular educational droll. But this does not mean that it is all fun and games.

Vassar College constructed a virtual Sistine Chapel to explore how SL could be used for art classes, University of California-Davis created a place to train emergency aid workers, and students at Texas University’s Genome Island in SL can perform virtual experiments.

Second Life setbacks

Second Life is not conducive to traditional lecturing, as streaming real-time audio is difficult. But as its supporters point out, this is not necessarily a disadvantage – classes are less professor-centred.

Also, the non-linear fashion of discussion that emerges from many people being able to type in real-time simultaneously (as opposed to the din that would emerge if they all spoke at the same time) can be productive for the development of ideas.

As Science Daily quotes Bill Ditto, chairman of Florida University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering: “Second Life will make you think about the real world rules and possibilities a little differently.”

Child abuse: stopped at delivery room

 

He was stabbed in the stomach, smashed against a mirror, forced to eat his own vomit, and had his face smeared in his brother’s dirty diaper.

These were only some of the ordeals Dave Pelzer faced under the domineering thumb of his alcoholic mother, in one of the worst cases of child abuse that California has ever seen.

With the release (24/03/09) of the research findings in Child Abuse and Neglect, and the recent controversy over newborn ‘Baby D’, child abuse is once more at the forefront of news media, just as it was over a decade ago with Pelzer’s autobiographical book “A Child Called It“.

‘Baby D’ has been seized from the arms of his parents within seconds of his birth, in an unprecedented high court ruling that dictated that the parents should not be informed about this decision beforehand.

This was believed to be in the best interest of the child’s safety, though under the Human Rights Act, prospective parents have a right to private and family life and should therefore have been informed.

Role of child protection services

The mother, who is in prison for threatening her young daughter with a knife, had previously told a social worker that her children would be “better off dead than in the council’s care”, reports the Guardian.

This case has demonstrated the “root and branch shake up” of child protection services that Children’s Secretary Ed Balls has admitted is necessary to protect children in the wake of the Baby P scandal.

The devastating end to Baby P’s life, and the media controversy surrounding it, has raised awareness of the issue of child abuse.

Dave Pelzer’s story, “A Child Called It: one child’s struggle to survive”, had a similar impact in the US in the mid-90’s.

‘A Child Called It’

“A Child Called It” chronicles one of the most severe child abuse cases in California’s history.

The first part of his autobiographical trilogy tells the story of Dave’s childhood. The abuse escalated at the tender age of seven, and continued until his ‘rescue’ at the age of 12.

Pelzer was burnt on a stove, had ammonia forced down his throat, put to lie in a bathtub full of freezing water for hours, and made to sit in the ‘prisoner of war’ position.

He was also excluded from family vacations, forced to live in the basement, denied human contact, and starved as punishment.

Child as object

The most powerful part of Pelzer’s story is the point that translates through every story, whether real or fictional, of child abuse: the objectification of the child.

No longer a son, and treated even worse than a slave, Dave’s mother referred to him as “The Boy”, and eventually simply “It”.

Another similar point between Dave’s story and Baby P’s is the involvement of social services: in Dave’s case it took years of suspicion and investigation to result in his ‘rescue’.

Baby P, unfortunately, was never rescued.

Had he survived, at the rate of abuse he had been subjected to, his file would have grown to exceed Pelzer’s in the number of incidents in which his life was threatened by parental abuse.

Abused as abuser or activist

Pelzer has turned his abuse into something positive – unlike in many cases where the abused becomes the abuser, as depicted in the film The Cell, and in the role of T-Bag in the drama series Prison Break.

Dave has won awards for his writing and has accumulated presidential commendations for his work as a motivational speaker.

The world will never know what Baby P could have become.

Has the case of ‘Baby D’ shown a new direction in the role of child services that will change the future of child abuse cases?

Was their decision too drastic a measure… or can this ‘pre-emptive strike’ save a child’s life?

Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum

Brangelina sans baby-brood for a change, Morgan Freeman hobnobbing with an unspectacled and almost unrecognisable Harry Potter, a smirking John Wayne flanking a scowling gun-toting James Dean, a menacing Vlad the Impaler, and the mangled bloodied corpse of Guy Fawkes.

Where else can one find this queer concoction, but in the wax museum of Madame Tussaud’s?

Situated just a few metres from the Baker Street tube station and The Great Detective immortalized in stone, Madame Tussaud’s is one of the most popular attractions in London, bringing in tourists from all over the world as well as locals eager to catch a glimpse of their favourite celebrities immortalized in wax.

It also had branches in Amsterdam, Berlin, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Shanghai, New York and Washington D.C. – and its Hollywood branch is imminent later this year.

Kitsch disco

In the original Madame Tussaud’s in London, monochrome wallpaper paparazzi and nondescript pop music welcome its newest visitors upon the automatic opening of the elevator doors.

The pink-lit floor tiles and surrounding glass panels evoke the sentiment of a disco ball. First on the agenda is the A-list celebrity room, chocked full of stars too famous to need a nameplate.

Herded by the human throng from themed room to themed room – Premiere Night, Sports Arena, A Royal Appointment, Music Megastars, Behind the Scenes, Warhol’s Women, and the horror house Scream – the tour winds up at a ride in simulated black cabs through a tepid mini-rollercoaster of The Spirit of London, a historical tour of the city through the ages. 

The sickly-sweet aroma of fudge wafts amidst the Royals and historical British heroes of the Arts.

Scream, Scene, Souvenir

In the Scream room, the eerieness is dampened by the almost-pitch-darkness that cloaks blood only properly visible on the LCD camera screen.

The Behind the Scenes room contains the oldest figure on display – ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Madame Du Barry, her wax chest rising and falling in tandem to her deep breaths of slumber.

The voice of R&B megastar Beyonce explains the stages of the process of wax sculpting on the PA system, while the physical stages are laid out for the eye to admire.

Personalised souvenirs are a la mode – from “make your own award” to “get your own wax hand mould done”.

The pungent paraffin wax does no harm to the dapper James Bond (a la Daniel Craig) standing across the room from his Devil-Without-A-Cause motorbike – which is one of the few non-wax ‘real’ sights to see, complete to a tee with rust and spackled mud.

Maintenance and updating

The figures require constant maintenance – with thousands of daily visitors touching them, they are likely to get worn or broken.

They also require frequent updating.

“Every two months or so we change the clothes on some of the big female stars like Beyonce, Britney and Madonna,” says Shackera, who originally comes from Jamaica and has been working as a full-time Tussaud’s attraction host for over a year.

“Also if the star gets a new tattoo, we will put it on their wax figure.”

Though Shackera – and the information available in the ‘Behind the Scenes’ room – state that celebrities do sittings that last longer than three hours to provide up to two hundred measurements and dozens of photographs to ensure 100% accuracy; Bradley, who has been working at Tussaud’s for six years, says that many figures have been done without sittings.

Lewd shenanigans

It is, without a doubt, more touristy than your average museum – and certainly more well-attended on the average day.

It is virtually impossible to escape being captured in someone’s camera frame, and perhaps even harder to get your own photo with the figure without pushing aside other people to get close to it.

With the most popular exhibitons, only the Tussaud’s photographers are allowed to take photos, and the Obama Oval Office tops that list, followed by the newest figure, racing legend Lewis Hamilton.

Despite admiration and excitement, bodily weariness abounds, and the lewd shenanigans of visitors – feeling Will Smith’s biceps, stroking David Beckham’s crotch, grinding on Shakira’s legs, posing for a photo with a head under Marilyn Munroe’s skirt – eventually lose their humour.

But the escape is near… just around that corner, just up that stairs, down that stairs, through this hallway… through that other throng of wax-star-worshippers.

Don’t forget to leave suggestions for new wax figures at the eventual end of the maze – and the obligatory souvenir shop, of course.

Tobago’s Great Fete Weekend – a decade of debauchery

 

 

With ample alcohol, booming sound systems and top Caribbean musicians, Tobago’s Great Fete Weekend is ‘relllll hottup’ — as locals say — and so are partygoers, outfitted in bikini-tops, short-shorts and the wildest waistlines gyrating on that side of the Atlantic.

This July 29th to August 3rd marks a decade since the first Great Fete Weekend, a five-night party on Pigeon Point Beach in Tobago, Trinidad’s smaller sister-isle with a population of only 54,000.

Dubbed ‘the Caribbean’s Spring Break’ because of its reputation as a no-holds-barred extended weekend of work-free debauchery — similar to Spring Break in the US, Great-Fete is dwarfed by Trinidad’s world-famous Carnival celebrations in February-March.

The Fete showcases the best of Caribbean music, with artistes over the years ranging from soca stars Bunji Garlin, KMC and Superblue; to rapso group 3 Canal, chutney singer Hunter and dancehall artiste Mr. Vegas.

This year’s tenth anniversary will feature reggae-dancehall entertainers Beenie Man and Busy Signal — and that is as much as its founder, Kevan Gibbs, is willing to reveal.

Gibbs: ‘the wickest party’

“We never say who’s performing… so at anytime, anyone can run on stage,” he explains.

This element of surprise has worked well, amplifying the mysterious magnetic pull to the Caribbean melting pot of music and people shaking and grinding to whichever beat comes on.

Great-Fete is the brainchild and baby of Gibbs, a graphic artist, seasoned partygoer and Founder of Sandbox Entertainment.

He established the Fete as one of the various parties that complemented the annual 84-mile powerboat Great Race from the Yacht Club in Trinidad’s Gulf of Paria to Store Bay in Tobago. Great Fete soon grew in size and splendour — so much that when Great Race moved to late August, the Fete retained its foothold on the first weekend of the month. It now draws in crowds four times larger than the Race.

The kernel of an idea for the Fete began with the beach.

Pigeon Point Beach was well-known as the location of the best post-Race party, until in 1998 its management stopped renting it out, forcing parties to move to Canoe Bay — a disjunction if ever there was one, in Gibbs’ opinion.

He convinced them to change their mind, promising to throw the ‘wickest Great Race Party ever’ at Pigeon Point Beach the following year.

Great Fete Weekend: the birth

When August 1999 rolled around, Great Fete Weekend was born. Then, it only lasted from Friday to Sunday.

In its second year, Thursday was added to the lineup, with skepticism from Gibbs’ sponsor, who insisted that no one would party for more than three days in a row.

“We made a deal… if it worked, she would double the sponsorship. On the night of the party, she sheepishly said, ‘So… I guess I have money for you’,” laughs Gibbs.

“Great Fete is ideally placed,” says Jamie, a 25-year-old student at the University of the West Indies. “Carnival is long gone, Christmas is too far off, and we’re smack-dab in the middle of holidays when the excitement of no-school nothingness has worn off and boredom sets in. We’re willing to party for five days straight — ten, if need be.”

‘The longest weekend in the world’

The ‘longest weekend in the world’, as it is advertised, now begins with ‘Welcome Wednesday’: free drinks all night, followed by ‘RetroActive Thursday’ when DJs ‘take you back to school’ with songs that are five to ten years old — barely ‘retro’ but seemingly ancient to the young crowd.

Next in the lineup is ‘Fantastik Cooler Fete Friday’ when everyone brings a cooler with their own drinks, followed by ‘Wet Fete Saturday’.

“I named it ‘Wet Fete’ just because of the beach,” recalls Gibbs. “Then on the day, my friends said ‘Hey let’s get a water truck’ and I replied ‘Yuh mad?!’… Later that night a big water truck pulled up, and they tried to slip it inside behind my back. But then the water hit and people went crazy. We were onto something.”

Wet Fete is by far the most popular of the five nights, with last year’s estimates at 8000 patrons compared to Wednesday’s and Thursday’s 1500 each, Friday’s 5000 and Sunday’s 1000 patrons.

“Wet Fete is the best,” says Christian, a 32-year-old loyal Fete-goer for the past seven years. “I don’t think we ever truly grow out of the five-year-old desire to jump around the yard dancing in the rain, sprinklers or a hose… Wet Fete is that, but for adults.”

The Weekend culminates in Insomniac Soca Sunday, which finishes around noon on Monday, when a cash prize of $10,000TT(£1,100) is awarded to the ‘last crew standing’ who attended all the events and still finds energy to jump through whatever hoops the DJ proposes, such as aerobics or running back and forth into the ocean.

‘A rite of passage’

Blossoming from a little beach party into the spectacular event it is today, Great Fete continues to grow in size. However its significance is not universal.

While many go every year, 23-year-old Kyle states: “It was a one-time experience for me. A group of guys packed into a tiny apartment meant for two. We were so broke, but we all wanted to do this. Sleeping three hours a day, lying to your boss to sneak away from work… it was one of the best times of my life — but I wouldn’t spoil it by doing it again.”

Whether a one-time hurrah or a hearty mainstay, Great Fete is an experience to remember. As Gibbs states: “It is really more of a rite of passage than a party.”

Book now!

Currently priced at $400TT(£45) for a season pass to all five nights, the price escalates to $600TT(£70) closer to the event — so it is wise to book tickets long in advance. The same goes for accommodation; with an average of 17,000 partygoers flooding the tiny island, hotels and villas book up rapidly.

Also, traffic jams are often the reason for missing the party altogether, so it is best to find a hotel or guesthouse within walking distance of Pigeon Point Beach, and ensure that there is an air-conditoning unit in the room — the sweltering Caribbean heat is sometimes too much for even the locals to handle.

There are a range of hotel prices to suit every budget. A few helpful sites are:

http://www.wheretostay.com/caribbean/trinidad_and_tobago/lodging-s254-Tobago.html

http://www.mytobago.info/accommodation1/2/1/tobago_hotels.htm

http://www.tobagohotels.co.uk/ 

http://www.exploretobago.com/

Many places offer discount packages for stays of over seven nights, and most villas are only available to rent by the week. So before or after the five-day nonstop partying, squeeze in a day or two to experience the Tobago attractions that draw people in all year round:

Main Ridge Forest, voted as the World’s Leading Ecotourism Destination in 2006 by World Travel Awards; scuba-diving at Speyside, where there are over 300 species of coral, turtles, nurse sharks, manta rays and the largest known brain-coral in the world; bird-watching some of Tobago’s 210 species at Arnos Vale; and glass-bottomed boat tours to view the coral at Buccoo Reef – not to mention the dozens of beaches dotting the coastline.

Visit www.simplytobago.co.uk and www.trintours.com for further details of tours and prices.

99 problems with racism in Hollywood

 

“Son do you know why I’m stoppin’ you for?”

Cause I’m young and I’m black and my hat’s real low?

“Licence and registration and step out of the car”

“Are you carryin’ a weapon on you? I know a lot of you are”

“We’ll see how smart you are when the K9 come”

Jay-Z, “99 Problems”, The Black Album

 

 

The pending outcome of the Race and Faith inquiry has rekindled the matter of racism in the Metropolitan Police in the national news agenda.

Duwayne Brooks, who witnessed the violent death of friend Stephen Lawrence, insists that racism still dominates the Met’s actions.

If we analyse the issue through film, we find several telltale documentaries, such as The Secret Policeman (BBC, 2003) which resulted in the disciplining and the resignation of several officers.

However one of the “99 problems”, to evoke Jay-Z’s terminology, is that institutional racism is not limited to documentary. Fiction also upholds white supremacy.

Mindless escapism or racist text on ‘passing’?

Historically, Hollywood participated in the theatrical practice of ‘blackface‘. Instead of employing ‘coloured’ actors, they hired white actors who darkened their skin to avoid visual ambiguity onscreen, such as in Birth Of A Nation (1915).

‘Passing’ still takes place today, but of a different kind – many ‘non-white’ actors shift between portraying characters of different races.

“As a TV extra in L.A., I have played Armenian, Hispanic, and white characters,” says Rachel, 23, who is of Bolivian and Jewish ancestry. “Once you look ‘ethnic’, they’ll make it work.”

Tokenism: minority of ‘minority’ writers

‘Tokenism’ is also a concern within the entertainment industry. As APF reporter Watkins points out, writers use material from their own experiences, which obscures persons of colour because they are imagining “experiences they can’t conceivably know about.”

Ten years ago, The Hollywood Reporter found that, of the writers employed on primetime dramas and sitcoms on the major television networks the US, only 6.6% were black, 1.3% were Latino, 0.3% were Asian, and there were no native Americans.

In spite of significant advances being made since then, particularly after the merge of The WB with UPN, white writers still remain the majority in Hollywood.

Crash: racism in the police force

Though Hollywood typically suppresses racial discord, Oscar award-winning Crash (2004) looks at the complexities of racial conflict.

Officer Hanson does not intervene when his partner Officer Ryan molests a black woman Christine in an unwarranted ’stop-and-search’; instead he requests to switch partners.

His Lieutenant, who is black, says, “You don’t mind that there is a racist prick on the force, you just don’t want him to ride in your car.”

This Hollywood line precisely reflects what Duwayne Brooks refers to by his words: “The problems are with senior management. Nobody really wants to change how the Met does things.

“If they really wanted to change, we wouldn’t have the MacPherson report… there would be a natural change because the public would be unhappy about the way they’re being treated.”

A fine line between news and entertainment

The entertainment industry mirrors the real world through news media representations.

In response to allegations that the police did not give a ‘proportional response to all murders, Metropolitan Police Sir Ian Blair replied: “The media is guilty of institutional racism.

“The death of the young lawyer was terrible, but an Asian man was dragged to his death, a woman was chopped up in Lewisham, a chap shot in the head in a Trident murder – they got a paragraph on page 97,” he told the BBC.

Though this comment was made three years ago, we may wonder whether or not anything has changed. Can we say with surety that either the entertainment industry or media gatekeepers have been innocent and neutral when it comes to representing race and racism?

 

 

Travel Writing: “mirroring” Edith Wharton

For Travel Journalism class, which is run by experienced travel journalist Susan Grossman, we were given a passage by travel writer Edith Wharton and told to take a few introductory words from one of her sentences and “mirror” her style of writing.

You can find some of her travel writings here.

This is what I eventually produced… 

 

Travel Writing a la Edith Wharton

And nowhere in the world in this century could one still see something so awkwardly sophisticated. In this darkened light of muted glamour, amidst mismatched chairs and chandeliers hung too low, men sit tapping cigarettes into grimy ashtrays, leering at the ladies sitting cross-legged on the sofas across from them, their lipstick pressed onto napkins beside them, the abandoned remnants of food smeared onto plates perched precariously on tablecloths between their elbows.

Moonlight filters across their faces from the small cracked windowpanes embedded high into walls, and as the tired clock chimes an hour far behind its schedule, someone exerts a hearty guffaw, attracting nearby eyes to watch her head thrown back in triumphant glee. The laughing woman lowers her head and stamps her heeled knee-high boot on the wooden flooring, causing the men in the basement below her to startle and jerk their heads nervously to the ceiling, almost spilling their cards onto the oblong holed table of green felt. A relieved sigh murmurs through the room, dissipating ever so slightly the pervading haze of cigar smoke, liquor and tension.

Ye old ’speakeasy’

….. Does it remind you of anywhere, or of anything?

If you’re a fan of old films, this may come to mind: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speakeasy

 

Do you know of anywhere that still has something similar to them?  

 

 

The script on teenage pregnancy

 

For the first time in five years, the number of teenage pregnancies in England and Wales has risen, prompting the UK government to pump an extra £20m into schemes to help teenagers get better access to contraception and information.

But it’s already too late for Alfie Patten, the 13-year-old daddy who has become a branded symbol of the nation’s shame – of Broken Britain.

His story, coupled with the recently-released statistics, has reignited the political debate about sex education in schools, parental responsibility, and the media’s influence.

In Hollywood, teen pregnancy is sometimes given the ‘feel-good’ comedy treatment, as in Oscar award-winning Juno (2007).

But has laughter overshadowed reality?

Granted, Juno never pretends to be an accurate depiction of teenage life.

But it is a pregnant teen’s fantasy… supportive parents, a successful adoption, and a happy ending with her boyfriend.

Abstinence-only Hollywood

To be fair, some movies have presented harsher realities of young parenthood, like the autobiographical Riding In Cars With Boys(2001), Where The Heart Is (2000), and the made-for-television film Fifteen And Pregnant (1998).

Where Hollywood falls short, however, is in making movies children can view: the duality of the situation makes it hard to produce “family-friendly” teen-pregnancy films.

This is particularly problematic because of the predominantly abstinence-only education in the US and other countries.

While Juno managed to get nods from both pro-life and pro-choice groups, most films and television shows never quite make it clear whether a condom was involved.

As Newsweek quotes Jane Brown, professor at the University of North Carolina, “What’s missing in the media’s sexual script is what happens before and after.”

Small-screen teen pregnancy

However, notably, in the teen drama One Tree Hill, Nathan is adamant about using birth control, but still gets Hayley pregnant.

And when Peyton and Lucas are finally about to have sex, she murmurs: “You have protection, right?”

Lucas, whose dad fathered both him and Nathan at 17 with two 17-year-old girls, replies: “Have you met my father?”

So Hollywood may be getting somewhere. Maybe.

Statistically speaking

With an estimated 750,000 teenage pregnancies a year (44 per 1000 women), in the US, according to the Guttmacher Institute, it is about time that Hollywood begins to tackle the issue.

Though far behind the US, the UK leads Western Europe in the rate of teenage pregnancy, with twice as many teen births as both Germany and France, the BBC reports.

The media’s approach in UK has been mainly in soaps and documentaries such as Kizzy: Mum at 14 (2007, BBC3).

Bollywood, famous for producing films with virtually no physical contact between lovers, is now tackling the subject in films like Tere Sang (With You).

In Tere Sang, the pregnant 15-year-old girlfriend pregnant refuses to abort the baby – echoing a real-life situation when a 13-year-old girl in Italy was forced to have an abortion in February 2007.

The lovemaking scenes in Tere Sang follow the same trend as in Hong Kong, where the film 2 Young (2005) merely implied the sexual act responsible for the teenage pregnancy.

Art imitating life or vice versa?

Many blame Hollywood for high rates of teenage pregnancies.

But regarding the fact that Alfie’s and Chantelle’s families are cashing in on their story, we can say that reality also encourages such behaviour.

So where does responsibility begin and end? How much blame do we put on the teenagers, their parents… or that omnipotent media monster we all love to hate?

13-YEAR-OLD DADDY

His voice hasn’t broken yet and he just became the father of a child.

Alfie looks 8 or younger, and his 15-year-old girlfriend Chantelle who just gave birth looks to be in her mid-twenties. 

I’m trying to imagine what a girl who looks so much older, is doing with this boy who looks so much younger.

The odd couple apparently had one night of unprotected sex and nine months later, out popped little Maisie.

The poor child.

The Times quotes Chantelle, “We didn’t think we would need help from our parents. You don’t really think about that when you find out you are pregnant. You just think your parents will kill you.”

“I don’t really get pocket money. My dad sometimes gives me £10,” The Sun quotes Alfie, who is just 4 feet tall.

And now, while his friends are home playing video games, he is holding his daughter and pledges to be a good dad and take care of it.

Good loving parents?

When his dad spoke to him, Alfie started crying and said it was the first time he’d had sex and didn’t know what he was doing or the possible complications of sex, says The Times.

Apparently, Alfie hasn’t yet gotten the birds and bees talk — and it’s a little bit too late!

According to The Sun, Alfie and Chantelle found out about the pregnancy when she was at 12 weeks, and kept it secret for 6 more weeks until her mum became suspicious about her weight.

“We know we made a mistake but I wouldn’t change it now. We will be good loving parents.” Chantelle said, quoted in The Sun.

Chantelle’s mother already has five other children, and Alfie’s dad has nine besides him.

Not to say that Maisie is the result of a generational curse, but statistics don’t lie.

Parental supervision?

I’m not saying these things don’t happen in Trinidad because of course they do. I’m sure they must.

Still…

I’m remembering my life at 13. Or 12, rather, since that is when the child was conceived. 

I came straight home from school (in fact one of my parents often picked me up), any social activity was supervised somehow by an older sibling or a parent.

I’m trying to imagine where the sex happened — they are too young and don’t have the cash to be able to rent a hotel… it must have happened at school, at one of their houses, somewhere around the neighbourhood… somewhere where no parents were, and where they should have been.

According to The Times, Chantelle regularly has Alfie to stay the night. He spends most of his time at their house and keeps a spare school uniform there, the article continues.

Where were the parents??? Did no one have a clue???

I’m trying to imagine how this poor child is going to grow up with these two parents who are kids themselves.

Poor Maisie.