Ulla’s Amazing Wee Blog

Nothing particularly exciting happened the last days. I watched some films, e.g. Conspiracy, Delicatessen , Battle of Algiers, which was even shown at the Pentagon film festival to educate senior officials about the Insurgent war in Iraq, and some other DVDs. Got the Indymedia G8 Newsreel, but the DVD was faulty, could only watch the reports about Friday, Saturday and Sunday, rest did not work.
I also tried out the sewing machine, at first everything went fine till I decided to try out the button hole function, which resulted in major knots of thread inside the sewing machine, with me spending the rest of the day to take it apart, try to remove the knot and then put it all together again.
Am thinking about going maybe to the Sheffield Doc Film Festival – it is way better than the Leipzig one, usually, though Leipzig even has a special section and focus on political documentary films.
There will also be an Indymedia Network meeting in Sheffield soon.
We have got a little Indymedia Centre now in the basement of the Forest Cafe, but still needs to be worked on. Though we finally have the ADSL connected to a computer, we really would need to build up a network of computers to access the internet.

Heard today that the premiere of the G8 documentary video will most likely be on the first weekend in October.
As far as i know it will be the only film apart from the Indymedia European News Real special G8 edition, as most of the activists and campaigns refused to work and discuss in front of or with any mainstream journalists or filmmakers because of the unfair, crazy and excillerating media hype before the G8.

I am sure it will be a good film, though probably more talk than would be in an indymedia production, and the people who make it are all really fanastically nice and deserve a huge success and praise even if it would not fulfill expectations.
But I am sure it will be great and can hardly wait for it to be released.

On a different note: the new programme for the September/October screenings at the Edinburgh Filmhouse looks decent at last, there are more political screenings on than before, and I look forward to the Sergej Eisenstein and Peter Watkins season, as well as there are some Luis Bunuel and Jean-Luc Godard on offer.
Also politically interesting sounds “Guerilla: The taking of Patty Hearst” and one of a good German film “The State I Am in” . I do think German films are best if they are about lefty political issues with a slight documentary inspired touch-down garnished with a reflection and search in the depth of thoughts leading to a slight sadness of tragedy and worries.
(Aeh I dunno expect you to understand this brabbling bubbling nonsense as got a bit carried away!)
What happended actually to “We Demand Media”?
It was ages since I saw the last blog entry, their website and the archive seems to be down, and I always quite enjoyed their collection of short political videos.

We went yesterday to watch the international premiere of “Our Brand is Crisis”.
It is a good film, and hopefully will be on telly soon in Britain, as it apparantly got funding by BBC Storyville. It will also be on in Edinburgh next Wednesday late, worth going to.
Although it is a good film it does not yet have the anxiety shaking narrative of “The revolution will not be televised” hunting shudders of excitement up and down the spine whilst grasping the seat’s arms. It could have been, if there would have been more focus on the Bolivian people and their struggle instead of talking heads and focusing on Goni and his election campaign and the point of view was not from the public and the people’s point of view, but the perspective was from the privileged, middle to upper class, white, north-american, men, basically trying to persuade Gringo Goni how to lie and spin in the election campaign most successfully to get reelected.
The video does show some rare footage of the Bolivian insurrection [Indymedia UK feature: Bolivia smells of insurrection] during the election campaign and afterwards, featuring road blockades, people being shot by the army with live ammunition and some small interviews of Evo Morales and some sentences of ordinary people – but does never go deep enough into the background of the Bolivian crisis to understand fully the state of the game – missing out the IMF, Structural Adjustment Programmes, the WTO and World Bank completely, as it does miss out the general strikes (or any strikes) and the water war. The effects of privatisation of the mining industry on the ordinary people is also not examined deeply enough. In short: the film is simplified too much on the topic of the people’s struggle.
The background information on Bolivia is also scarce.
However, what the film does brilliantly is to show the voters for what a publicity ride they are taken during the election campaign, what the spin doctors do and how.
Democracy becomes a farce, especially when politicians play it dirty against their oppponents.
Also a slight failure is that it is not mentioned who else the political PR consultancy supported, although the countries’ names are listed it actually doesn’t say exactly which person.
With about a cost of at least 2 million pounds a campaign, we know it can not be ANY politician, and we are pretty sure when mentioning Venezuela, it did NOT support Chavez.
It is suggested that in the UK it was actually Blair who made use of that same consultant agency, but that would also have been good to know.
Well in short: sometimes the film drifts into the American way of superficiality, but at other times, it is eye-opening to see the focus groups react to the different TV advertisement, to the spread rumours and gossips, and also the reactions of the consult to nearly each word they say.
And the ignorance of Goni, once elected, disregarding his voters views also is eye-opening when he, despite warning arrogantly and proceeds with his politics towards the insurrection.

The two G8prisoners who were on remand are both out of jail now. Both pleaded guilty and got released after the intermediate diet.

The dog is back to its owners and I miss it. At the end we really got on well, though the dog was too intelligent for its own good – like it does not obey any commands if it thinks there is no reason for it, and runs over the big roads, hunting cats into the old people’s home’s garden and always tries to find holes in fences to suddenly appear at the other side pretending not to know how to get back.
If it would have stayed longer here I might have tried to go to some Agility dog training with it, as it likes running, jumping, climbing up and down and through things, but it might have had problems with the slalom.
Or to try to train it to sniff thingies, as it seemed to have a German shepherd dog’s nose glued to a border collies body (it is a mix) it could have been probably very good at sniffing people or following tracks (like the cats’) or things or similar.

[ from the dept. ]

I have got a dog at the moment as long as a friend of mine is on holidays. it is a lovely dog, and very intelligent and a very exciting dog. It seemed to be a bit unhappy about its owners leaving him, and promptly made its diarrhoa on the carpet… guess shit happens.

Otherwise I have been cycling – with the dog running beside me – to town and back to help staff the stall – which is more entertainment than real work – for the Chiapas Group at the Art and Crafts Fair.

Otherwise not much seems to happen. We will have more defendants on the G8 court cases coming up to Scotland in the next months, but the few individuals who had their cases originally dated for this week and the next seem to have mostly their cases adjourned – for various reasons, but I presume because of difficulties in establishing (video) evidence and thereby charges by the prosecution.

I like Ana’s compliments in one of her latest blog entries and would like to thank you/her and return the compliment by saying I am particular interested in her studies and the radio show and also incredibly impressed that she is able to have every blog entry in Spanish AND in English.
I think so far I have only ever done one in german, so for me it is very impressive by doing all the work twice.

O well, just to mention that there would have been a Dissent! network gathering in South Wales this weekend on a farm to evaluate and analyse the protests against the G8 in Scotland.
A pity I could not go, but it has been a lot of fun with the dog so far, I get worken up every day at 7 am and can not go to bed before 2 pm otherwise I think my carpet might be loaded with another pile of shit… I put some newspaper down and tried some carpet cleaner stain remover soapy thingy and its an old carpet, but anyways. Maybe the dog has got worms?
If it has still got diarrhoea tomorrow I will go to the vet and get some worming tablets and flea treatment, as there is a conjunction between the both, it should be done nearly simultaneously.

Politically there is not much happening at the moment. We are back to the usual 10 anarchists in town and most of them might even be in holidays -remember in Scotland it apparantly rains 312 days in a year.
(At least that is what the whisky advertising campaign says.)
But it certainly rains a lot.
Guess we have been quite lucky then with the weather during the protests.

People from the Edinburgh Chiapas Group pointed me to a debate between NarcoNews and COHA, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, which published an odd text with academic appearance but full of distorted facts and opinionated against the Zapatistas. In return COHA received bags full of complaints and the writer had to then leave the organisation.
There has also been a gathering in Barcelona of European Zapatista support groups. Report by B.A.S.T.A. and translated into english here on Indymedia Scotland.
Indymedia Chiapas seems to be unreachable at the moment.

Was visting AK Press and to look for books for G8 prisoners, and also found some for myself, in particular “This is Serbia calling” and “Political Film: The Dialectic of Third Cinema”, a book which defines “Third Cinema” as opposed to First Cinema alias Hollywood or Second Cinema= arty films.
In the words of the author:

Third Cinema is a term used to describe cinema that is committed to social and cultural emancipation.
It was first coined in the 1960s by Latin American film theorists, in contrast to First cinema (the mainstream) and Second cinema (arthouse films).
This innovative book explores the theory and practice of Third Cinema in relation to films from all over the world that are made specifically for political, transformative purposes.
Mike Wayne argues that Third Cinema is central to key debates concerning contemporary film practices and cultures. He offers an original, dialectical approach that repositions the traditional debate, exploring the affinities and crucial political differences between First and Third Cinema.

The Edinburgh Film Festival is also about to start. It is an elitist, exclusive institution, and people who haven’t studied film either in an art school or at University will not be able to volunteer or able to afford the extremely expensive entry prices of about £10 per ticket per screening. I tried and did not succeed to volunteer last year, and, believe me, there can not be any other person in Edinburgh doing more film and video screenings than I do without studying film as a subject, so therefore I declare the Filmhouse, but in particular the Edinburgh Film Festival, to be discriminative against everybody who hasn’t studied film.
Looking through the Film Festival catalogue, the only film which sounds interesting as in “Third Cinema” seems to be the one about Bolivia in Crisis, titled “Our Brand is Crisis” about US spindoctors failing in Bolivias gas war.
That is probably the only film ticket I can afford this year for the film festival.
There are 2 films about Bolivia, and both documentaries.
The other one is “The Devils Miner”.
Some other documentaries include films about Iraq, but seem to be either too arty farty and not political enough or with tear-dropping narrative made artificially too dramatic.

Beside the Film Festival the Edinburgh Festival also includes the Book Festival and the Fringe.
All events are usually quite pricey, so the socialists in particular have founded and keep on going with the “Edinburgh’s People Festival”, a festival not primarily for tourists and visitors, but for the people, who live here in this city.
Hopefully I have time to go to some of these events.

My parents are visiting me next week, and I try to tidy and clean up. Yes, I admit it, I fell victim to advertising. i just could not resist Cillit Bang to get rid of all the fat, grease, grime and dirt like in the adverts within minutes having everything shiny and the householder smiling away happily. Unfortunately it did not work like that.
I am still scrubbing since yesterday evening with limited results. The spray was good on the cooker, the microwave and the rubbish bin, but not much more. And I really had to scrub not just dip it in the solution like in the advert.
Result of this evaluation:
It is not worth the money, better to try homemade solutions with less agressive chemicals – better for the skin, too!

[ from the dept. ]

The broken car has been broken into. It has been outside for nearly half a year now, but with the G8 protests and everything, there just wasn’t enough time to deal with it.
As well there are always spare time mechanics promising to do stuff- and then don’t.
Lack of money also contributed to the delay, as did lack of drivers.
It broke down after a dog chewed the seatbelts of and jumped in front during driving on the drivers seat, the motor overheated as driver got distracted, and apparantly boiled over a bit (both the driver and the engine). The dog wasn’t particularly well educated and the owner did not care – or better said does believe so much in antiauthoritarian principles that the dog actually has no training.

What a pity. Dogs have a different socialisation than humans, they have a tight structure. So, if you are not the alpha dog (in their eyes) giving the commands, you are the beta or even worse and lower down in the hierarchy. This is particularly dangerous if you have a Staffordshire Terrier or any other breed prone to fighting.

In Edinburgh, there is a bus strike. We had to walk all the way back home from the city centre on the weekend because there were no buses at all. We were returning from visitng relatives and did not know. It took us over an hour to walk home.
The bus strike also prevented me from making it in time to a jobinterview. As a contributing and not the only factor.

There are two G8 prisoners left, and one will be out today or tomorrow at the latest. The court cases start this week, too, distributed all over Scotland. Hopefully there won’t be any more people locked up for G8 stuff.