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Growing Together

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It only takes a brief look at how quickly global economic dominoes fell in unison recently to understand that national economies are more inter-related than ever before. The trading bloc in our hemisphere—NAFTA—is as good an example as any, and one worth probing deeper.

It has been more than 15 years since the United States, Canada, and Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, dramatically changing the region's trade prospects and economic reckoning. But is NAFTA leaving global trade dollars on the table by not being as competitive as it could be?

To answer that question, Inbound Logistics and sister publication Inbound Logistics México hosted a panel of North American trade and transportation experts. They recently met in Dallas to discuss the common trade interests among the three countries and to develop plans for fostering greater cooperation.

The group included the Canadian Consul General and representatives from the advocacy group North American SuperCorridor Coalition (NASCO), Mexico's Urban Land Institute think tank, the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, the Port of San Antonio, and other organizations leading the drive for development in the three countries. The participants discussed the NAFTA partners' shared challenges, strategies for strengthening individual and collective economies, and the importance of logistics in the public and private sectors.

Listen in as these thought leaders come to grips with the challenges facing the NAFTA countries.

Transportation infrastructure is crucial to the success of North American trade. Each NAFTA country faces infrastructure challenges that degrade efficiency and impact the region's collective ability to act as an effective international trading bloc.

In many areas of Mexico, roads are in very poor condition. This reality, combined with limited rail capacity and port and border congestion, forced government's hand recently when it announced a transport infrastructure investment plan of historic proportions—$45 billion to be spent over the coming decades. Canada is challenged by a long and sparsely populated western border, the Great Lakes, and crowded cross-border chokepoints. And despite developed infrastructure, the United States faces huge expenditures to repair and maintain its broad transport network and expand capabilities to address new and ever-changing trade patterns.

Hugo Gonzalez, INVITE, State of Nuevo Leon: Mexico's borders are a mess. In Tijuana, Laredo, and Nogales alone, the economy is losing $2 million daily to congestion, according to a Mexican research study. In Monterrey, 80 percent of traffic moves by road and it is very inefficient. The railroad is under-performing and air service is expensive. These conditions must be improved.

Todd Carter, Ryder: For Ryder, a lot is riding on Mexico's proposed infrastructure improvements. Ryder does business with 1,700 carriers and makes four million moves a year, with as many as 4,000 Mexico and 3,000 Canada border crossings each month.

Norris Pettis, Canadian Consul General: Seventy percent of Canada's trade travels over the road. That means a truck has to cross the U.S. northern border every two seconds, or else we will experience great difficulties.

The Great Lakes and the location of industry create natural chokepoints. There is a large geographical border west of the Lakes, but most trade takes place in the East.

Franco Eleuteri, Franco Eleuteri & Associates: Mexico's inland port is one major project. Poor infrastructure costs an additional $2 billion annually for truck shipments moving from Monterrey to Dallas—so the need is desperate. This inefficiency handicaps us when Mexico's goods compete with China-manufactured products.

Diego Semper, Intramerica: In the maquiladora area, the first industrial park was built only 20 years ago. Since then, the area has experienced growth, but it has been around the ports, not inland. The investment in these industrial parks is similar to the tourism industry:If you want global tourists to come, you must build good hotels.

In the industrial sector, we create warehouses and industrial parks to attract global trade. But these facilities can't exist on their own. Even if the heart is healthy, nothing can happen without good arteries. This emphasizes the importance of connectivity between Mexico's road, rail, and port facilities.

Jose Garza, Grupo Garza Ponce: The total cost of making a product in Mexico puts the country at a global disadvantage. For example, the logistics cost for producing a car in Mexico is 40 percent, as compared to 10 percent in the United States. How is this possible? For one, a single railroad bridge has not been built between the United States and Mexico in 100 years. Making things worse, Mexico only has two rail carriers. It's hard to compete with that kind of monopoly.

Also, consider the Rio Grande river flowing from the United States to Mexico, and the corollary flow of goods across the border. Five dams contain the river's flow; but there is only one dam—one entry point—for overland freight. No wonder there's so much congestion.

We're trying to build a dam to increase transportation flow in Monterrey, and we hope to build dams in San Antonio and Dallas, too. Having binational Customs on- site to allow U.S. consignees to pre-clear shipments also will help.

This is Mexico's second chance to be successful as an economic power, and we cannot waste it. The country had its first chance when NAFTA was created, but we squandered that opportunity and China filled the void. Despite Mexico's proximity to the world's largest market, China became the United States' large trade partner.

Ruben Navarro, NAI Mexico: In many manufacturing areas, we've managed to reduce the cost of making the product, but not transporting it. We need infrastructure improvements, and we need to rationalize the ratio of freight movements between rail and truck transportation.

In addition to transport infrastructure, facility investment needs consideration. We need industrial parks and locations for manufacturing and value-added distribution and logistics activities.

Within and around these facilities, necessary improvements to information technology architectures can similarly drive business excellence. For example, a project underway at the Port of Manzanillo aggregates and digitizes Customs information, and posts it on the Internet so everyone can access and assess this data. Unfortunately, we don't promote the importance of IT infrastructure aggressively enough.

Carter: Technology is definitely an advantage to North America, given the length of its supply chain. Information will continue to flow faster and faster, and if it doesn't, barriers to trade will only grow. In some countries you can't receive goods unless that technology is in place.

Although we're not promoting regionalism, the economic conditions are ripe for North America to become a competitive force in international trade. Not long ago, for example, the price of shipping containers from Shanghai to Oakland tripled. Costs have since come down, but they may go back up again. These shifts create more opportunities in the region, and a tremendous advantage to foster tighter trade if we endeavor to use NAFTA's benefits to compete globally.

Macroeconomic conditions are prime right now to achieve this goal, but it will take leaders who understand the importance of transportation, logistics, technology, and infrastructure, and act on improving them, to seize this opportunity.

It also will take people like us to move things along. The green initiative is an ideal starting point because efforts are already underway to reduce transportation costs and emissions and they span the region.

I wonder if our respective governments realize that conditions are ripe for change. Some have said these new infrastructure programs may take 20 years to achieve. I don't think we can wait 20 years. Other regions aren't waiting, they're moving now. We have to follow their lead.

One of the most prominent issues in North American trade is border-crossing security regulations in a post- 9-11 era. Discussion panel participants agreed that Customs clearance and security go hand-in-hand. There was near unanimity in a call for harmonizing security requirements across the NAFTA bloc.

Semper: We need Customs pre-clearance throughout all the NAFTA countries because there is no way you can have just one secure entry/exit point and expect to succeed as a competitive global trade bloc.

Pettis: A few years ago, Canada and the United States issued a Smart Border report that established areas beyond the border where shippers could pre-clear cargo. In the post-9/11 world, however, several different security regimes are in effect. These processes were well-intentioned from a security perspective, but they were established without considering the unintended collateral effect they might have. For instance, we have situations where a cargo shipment is cleared, but the truck driver isn't, creating another chokepoint.

Bureaucratic application of new rules and procedures can cause significant slowdowns. I've heard of some Canadian suppliers sending two trucks with the same critical cargo across the border to make sure that at least one gets through in the requisite time period.

Border slowdowns cost North America billions of dollars. In Canada, we are engaged with the U.S. government on regulatory issues. But it's a tough sell because of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) superseding mandate to secure the nation. The DHS operates with a law enforcement mentality; trade considerations are secondary.

Eleuteri: In the past, we were only concerned about Customs pre-clearance, but in this post-9/11 era, we have to consider both Customs and security clearance. If you don't clear both, you have the same problem when you cross the border.

The current sophistication required for Customs pre-clearance is not sufficient to get the job done. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to reliably secure truck cargo. Even if the freight is secured at the point of origin, how do you ensure no contamination occurs in transit? You have to validate that the move has not been interfered with, and we have yet to reach that level of surveillance in North America. I've seen it done elsewhere, between China and Hong Kong, for example. We may consider applying lessons from other parts of the world.

Establishing regulations intended to create more secure cargo and border crossings comes with a cost. It becomes necessary to tolerate a degree of risk in order to keep cargo traffic moving. Inbound Logistics' research shows upwards of 100 million inbound events to the United States each year. It is clear that there is no way to secure every one of those shipments. That begs the question: aren't we already tolerating a certain amount of risk?

Carter: Yes, we are. In security and risk discussions, emotions tend to run high and exercise a disproportionate influence on balancing some degree of risk with the gain of economic growth. This emotional approach sometimes results in poor legislation being enacted in the United States, hurting the economy and costing jobs. People's lives are certainly important, but legislation impacts these other areas. That means tolerating risk to stimulate trade for our economies.

Garza: U.S. security is not a reality; it is theoretical. From my perspective, the United States may be paying too high a price for security. But the political price of not appearing to support an assumption of security may be too much for some political and corporate entities to bear.

The infrastructure and security challenges facing NAFTA are complicated, but there are solutions: public-private partnerships, small successes leveraged to create others, and constant lobbying to educate public leaders—from grassroots to national levels—on the importance of transportation and trade policies and their role in creating jobs and stimulating economic growth. Making a case for securing NAFTA trade is one way to bring greater efficiency to the bloc while drawing greater interest from the public sector.

Carter: If the North American nations don't all treat security the same, then we face continuing disruption in the flow of trade. Security policy must be harmonized.

Pettis: In April 2008, I spoke at the North American Leaders' Summit in New Orleans. I asked the audience of more than 100 people if they had heard of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), a trilateral effort to increase security and enhance prosperity among the three NAFTA countries through greater cooperation. Not one person raised a hand. It brings to bear the lack of public-private trust and the inability to put cooperative initiatives together.

Is it a systemic problem and an inherent distrust of processes among our governments? We need to show people that reducing obstacles to trade will not harm their sovereignty. Certainly, we have a track record with NAFTA.

It's also a compelling part of our job to talk to the general populace and let them know that fostering trade is in their best interest. It's extremely important because until you do that, how can you get the political support necessary to marshal commitment and make these transportation and logistics infrastructure investments?

There is a distinction between the northern and southern border of the United States. There is tighter integration on security issues between the United States and Canada than between the United States and Mexico. Canadian and U.S. law enforcement work together on security issues. More remains to be done, but we have a good start and a working relationship.

Francisco Conde, NASCO: NASCO is taking the initiative to use its technology and contacts to create a standard for cross-border security practices and compliance. The U.S. government looked at what NASCO was doing and adopted those practices on a federal level.

Tiffany Melvin, NASCO: Efforts to harmonize Customs and security requirements are critical, and no other initiative is underway in the three countries to achieve that. If NASCO's security efforts are successful, not only will it directly benefit those along the NASCO corridor, it will serve as an example to others on how to move forward.

Government leaders can help boost trade. But in many instances they act to prevent NAFTA's ability to compete with other areas of the world, such as the European Union and China.

North American countries are more alike than they are different. We should recognize this and work collaboratively to communicate better, integrate culture and education, and place pressure on our respective governments to make a concerted commitment and allow our economies to grow. Politicians lead to get votes, and don't necessarily act in the best interests of the people. Why do policymakers act this way? What can be done about it? How can public and private sectors work together to drive economic development and security initiatives?

Mariana Perrilliat, Industrial Global Solutions: One challenge is getting government officials to see the larger picture. They often don't understand the full import of how their actions impact trade with Canada, the United States, Mexico, and our neighbors. Mexico's global competitiveness is at stake. If government officials don't recognize these political realities, Mexico will not grow. The business community is perceived as the end consumer or beneficiary of economic development projects, but that's not true. It's the country's workforce and population who stand to gain.

Eleuteri: Government wants to promote shared economic goals; the private sector wants to make money. Leaders have to create—and promote—a mutual benefit. We're all entangled in our own interests—the private sector in earning money, the public sector in getting votes.

When I was consulting in China, I was told: 'If you're coming here to give us the same caliber of infrastructure the United States and Europe have, we don't want it. We want to leapfrog them so we can become economic leaders.'

While we're frittering away resources, China is using its transportation and logistics superiority to drive continued economic domination. It speaks to motivation. Global competitors are motivated to use transportation and logistics infrastructure to achieve economic dominance. We've been talking about it for 20 years, but haven't grasped that shared goal or practiced it yet. The Chinese and others are acting in their self-interest; they are motivated to get things done.

Pettis: It is in Canada's interest to see these infrastructure improvements come to fruition—not only in Canada and the United States, but also in Mexico, because together we're a North American economic base. It benefits us to see the smooth flow of North American trade; we need that synergy to combine the strengths and offset the weaknesses so we can become global trade competitors.

Navarro: There are benefits to working in North America, but in the past Mexico has missed the opportunity. In China, the regime is autocratic, has control, and is market-driven.

Mexico President Felipe Calderon is more democratic, but not as market-driven as leaders in Asia. Mexico is struggling with corruption and taxation issues, but we are addressing these concerns, which increases opportunity. The United States, Canada, and Mexico must act together.

Three years ago, South Korea had half the per capita GDP of Mexico. Today it has more than two-and-a-half times the GDP of Mexico. That's a lesson for us. How can we compete if we don't work together?

Eleuteri: It comes down to the shared interest of our governments and it is usually built around a deal—how many jobs will be created, what volume of tax revenue and profits will be generated?

Melvin: The goal of harmonizing security may be too big to tackle all at once, so perhaps affected groups can cooperate to address the challenge one step at a time. Business leaders in the NAFTA countries should coalesce around NASCO to move these security initiatives forward. They've taken some preliminary steps and are working with the government agencies that are already involved.

Gonzalez: Mexico's leaders are starting to take steps. At a recent Borders Governors Conference, a meeting of governors from the United States' and Mexico's border states, one transportation roundtable made recommendations on how both countries can work together to reduce traffic congestion. Ten governors on both sides of the border are considering the plan, which is a good start.

Garza: Progress requires small steps and short-term goals. For example, our Monterrey project comprises three components: First, building a dedicated and secure highway; second, completing two inbound rail carrier terminals; and third, rolling out Mexican and U.S. Customs pre-clearance. These small steps incrementally move us forward in accomplishing our larger mission.

Sometimes the public sector is criticized by business and labor interests for being too focused on its own goals, not taking the long-term view, and failing to push improvements for the greater good. The private sector is often criticized for ignoring shared public interests and focusing only on profits. What can be done to mediate these exclusive objectives?

Gonzalez: Often, the public sector doesn't understand the importance of transportation and logistics. It's tough for them to understand the value of logistics because, in the past, transportation was considered a cost of doing business. Today, it's considered a value-add, a competitive advantage. And value-adds can drive competitiveness not only for a company, but also for a region.

The combination of public will and private resources can move infrastructure projects forward. Even though the Mexican government has a greater understanding of infrastructure's importance, the individual states still need to work together. They're still focused on whether an initiative is good for the state rather than beneficial to Mexico as a whole.

Pettis: Canada needs additional rail and truck crossings. Those could fall under both public and private authorities. We have the privately-owned Ambassador Bridge, and there's talk of building another. Understandably, discussions revolve around who's going to pay for it: The public sector? Private sector? Both?

Melvin: NASCO is designing a project that will provide complete supply chain visibility for responsibly handling and moving shipments through the corridor. This program would allow us to not only know where products are in real time, but also what happens to them within the containers—events such as temperature changes and security breaches. This monitoring is electronically connected with a Web site that can send delivery time information to the shipper's Blackberry or personal computer.

Conde: Here's an additional benefit to public/private partnerships moving forward with security initiatives: they can provide real-time information to every state and federal law enforcement entity in the event of a natural disaster such as a hurricane or any other supply chain disruption.

For example, when I-35 traffic was disrupted in May 2008, NASCO talked to seven district Department of Transportation departments in Texas, and we learned they had never talked to one another before. One department would shut the roadway for maintenance without talking to the other districts, and not realize its impact on trading relationships at the district office level.

That kind of thinking still exists. The only way to counteract this siloed communication is to raise the collective consciousness of everyone in the shipping community, from local levels on up to the top. We strongly urge shippers to vigorously support integrated public/private partnerships such as NASCO and others that are seeking to change this insular thinking, which is disruptive to the economies of the three NAFTA countries.

Eleuteri: Although each operates in its own interest, when the private and public sectors work together, progress really happens.

I was recently involved in a public-private partnership to build an industrial city in North Korea. The most-closeted communist government in the world worked together with my client, a leading multinational manufacturer. If that can happen in North Korea, the public and private sectors in North America can work in partnership, too. If you can create special economic zones in China, with its corruption, culture and language differences—the same things we face in this hemisphere but larger by a factor of 10—then why can't we do it here?

Navarro: Our three countries must understand that there are different levels of development, and because of that, Mexico is a land of opportunity. Mexico offers building and manufacturing growth; metals, electronics, retail growth—even aerospace production—with very low barriers to entry.

Mexico has proven that it has capacity, but does it have the attitude to continue to change? I think so. It will take time, but our three economies will grow together.

Perrilliat: We should try to push initiatives to make change real, then truly act as a trading bloc. If we consider these broad-based efforts as small, incremental changes, it will be more doable.

Past inaction has been blamed on cultural differences among the three NAFTA countries. There are differences among us in this hemisphere, that is true, but that is no excuse. Look at Europe's example. Many individual countries set aside their cultural differences to work toward a common goal and act as a trading bloc. They say, 'We are not going to speak the same language or be one country,' and yet they act closely and with a shared interest. If it is possible there, it is possible here with Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

Canada, Mexico, and the United States need to get together and carefully address how cementing the collective whole—in terms of infrastructure, security, trade policy, technology, and public-private collaboration—can benefit each country by expanding their respective trade interests. If the NAFTA region is to compete as a global trading bloc, its advantages need to be shared and leveraged, and its challenges and risks must be met en force, rather than apart. NASCO's example offers a path to follow. But as a global trading power, NAFTA will not be able to compete with China, the European Union, and other emerging markets if it remains mired in parochial interests that diminish shared efficiency.

Talking the talk is a small step toward walking the walk. How can industry and the public sector take these talking points and make them actionable? What effort is your company making to enlighten government of the inherent challenges and opportunities that await North American trade? We'd like to know. Email:

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Timon Of Athens, Shakespeare's Globe, London

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The Independent Culture

Birds and turds are the order of the day in Lucy Bailey's graphically imaginative production of Timon of Athens at the Globe. Oh, and not forgetting dogs. In a sense that Bailey does not lean on too heavily, this play – written by Shakespeare and Middleton – chimes with the times. It would be an exaggeration to call it a sub-prime satire or a credit crunch comedy, but you can't deny there's topical relevance to a play in which the hero buys friendship through profligate generosity, overextends himself to a ludicrous degree and then confronts catastrophe when his creditors call in his debts and his fair-weather chums prove to be about as helpful as a contemporary "listening" bank.

Happily, Bailey leaves these parallels to be inferred. Her production is brave enough to assert the strangeness of this rhetorically vivid drama. Bailey's highly compelling revival recognises that the play is an intriguing trade-off between the realistic and the starkly emblematic and she directs accordingly with a superbly reckless bravura. Her production, brilliantly designed, extends a net over the groundlings above which the cast, doubling as aerialists, swing and chatter and crouch and bounce, like birds of prey waiting for the first sniff of Timon's exposed meat.

Veering from a mad aviary to a mordant anus, the production shows the hero explicitly defecating and rubbing the runny result in the faces of the flattering Poet and Painter in a contemptuous Marxist gesture about the exchange value of money.

There's a scathing wit about all of Bailey's directorial choices: the circular marble stage that half-looks like a banquette in a modern pampering restaurant; the dinners thrown by Timon that invert themselves from one to another kind of desecration of the Last Supper; and the parties that slide into frowsty orgies. But none of it would work without the wonderful performance of Simon Paisley Day as the hero who somersaults from the excess of philanthropy to the other pole of inordinate misanthropy. Particularly in the second half, where he has to vent his bile on a succession of visitors, he gives the speeches a variation of bilious colour that makes this a thrilling occasion and another hit in the Globe's spectacularly successful season.

In rep to 3 October (020-7401 9919)

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text:
Growing pains ... Union John ... Tate smudge

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Indy Lifestyle Online
Ahoy there! Today I want to talk to you about gardening. Did you know that 435,000 people needed treatment for injuries sustained while gardening last year? Garden forks through the foot; rakes on the nose; and a comparatively new danger, the nasty bang on the head from the hanging basket: all contributed to the toll. So, as a public service, I should like to pass on a few tips picked up in a lifetime of horticultural exertion. 1) Remember: it's a jungle out there. Relax for a moment and you'll find that clematis has got your name on it. 2) I never garden without my tin helmet. It protects you against the perennial hanging-basket danger, falling boughs, and in the winter you can keep your bulbs in it. 3) Stout boots, yes, definitely; but don't forget that one false move of the foot and the end of the spade or fork can catch you right amidships. I always wear a cricket box. 4) Make sure you have an under gardener placed like a cricket slip behind you when you pull the cord to start the mower. I've seen would- be mowers fly fully 30 feet in a kind of corkscrew motion when the cord has snapped. 5) Keep something heavy in your pockets when using that hose. A sudden change of pressure and you can find yourself up in the air. Now: enjoy!

Paddy Ashdown. Former Royal Marine. On Horseguards last week, making way to Reform. Beating the Retreat, couple of those security-fence thingies in his way. Vaults one, then the next, and on his way. Very impressive, Paddy. I consulted my parliamentary correspondent, Ms Una Tributable, as to how the other two party leaders would fare in a similar situation. "Simple," she said. "Major would walk straight into the fence, and Blair would sit on it." Formidable woman, Ms Tributable.

So. Feverish activity throughout British industry last week as bids were assembled for the right to appear on my hat and give things away. Commercial confidence precludes my getting too specific, but I think I can safely say that a maker of strong drink and a manufacturer of geographical reference works are firmly in the frame. I have also lost count of the calls and letters that have followed the appearance last week of that old ad for Horlicks; the general tenor of which (I paraphrase) is that Horlicks would make the most splendidly apt sponsor for this column. Thank you, all. As a result, I have now contacted Horlicks, who are sleeping on it. Which brings me to my photograph (below). It is one of the highlights of the June edition of Anaesthesia News, featuring as it does one of the specially chartered luxury coaches used to take anaesthetists to a meeting. Dr Brown, of Marple, Cheshire, who sent me the AN, also draws attention to the item concerning the advertisement from the Norfolk and Norwich Healthcare NHS Trust seeking an anaesthetist "with a special interest in anaesthesia"; and to a walk today by anaesthetists and their families to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first use of ether. Next!

Smash A Stereotype With Captain Moonlight. Civil Servants. Stuffy, humourless, dull. Think again, think again, think again! Leafing through Cabinet Office Staff News, I came across some of the rib-ticklers that have set Whitehall a-chuckle of late, viz, "There is a possible red herring on the horizon"; (in a BSE meeting:) "I think the minister will just want the bull points"; and, my favourite: "Whistle-blowing is just not acceptable before you have exhausted all attempts at internal ventilation." Oi!

Limelight with Moonlight. News, views and celebrity sightings from the world of laughter and tears we call showbiz. Daytime television watcher? Thought not. Anne Diamond? She had this show with a man called, I think, Nick, which the BBC has just axed. All right, all right, maybe you're not interested, but I have a minority remit to fulfil. So: number of complaints logged by BBC on the first day said show failed to appear? Three. Thank you. Next! And straight on to Moonlight's Supermarket Sightings, in which we report on celebrities spotted buying their groceries. This one is from Ben, who works on our sports desk. Ben saw Eddie Izzard in Sainsbury's, Kensal Green, trying to buy crusty barbecue baps. Very good, Ben, but Sainsbury's sightings are two for a penny, five for two pennies. I'm after Kwiksave, Asda, places like that. And before you ask about the family grocery firm, Nevins, the Best in the North-west, I'll have you know that Harry Corbett once popped into our Rainford shop while he was staying in his caravan behind The Wheatsheaf on the Rainford Bypass. No, I don't think he had Sooty with him. Or Sweep. More sightings, please!

By the way, while we're on grocery matters, I must say I take the greatest exception to the Hon Tim Sainsbury (ibid) referring to Sir James Goldsmith as a "damned grocer" in the division lobby during the referendum vote. No wonder they've lost top place to Tesco. And Mr Tony Banks, in the same debate, described Sir James as a "Mexican greengrocer", a term of abuse coming oddly from a vegetarian. Grocers have feelings, too, you know.

Royalists! Do not forget that you have your only friend on this newspaper in the Captain. And first, news of a treason trial for that interminable arch-republican, Professor Stephen Haseler. It's on telly today. Haseler's chief witness, lucky man, is The Editor of this newspaper. I know you will want to join me in pressing for the maximum penalty, if only to allow someone else to get a word in. Elsewhere, a happy 75th birthday to the Duke of Edinburgh and a happy second birthday of the year to HM the Queen. I should also mention that last week I met Alexander Pruzynski, a Belorussian Count who wants to be President of Belorussia. Nothing wrong with that, I hear you say; must be a friend of Neal Ascherson. Indeed, but there is more: the Count is trying to arrange a visit by the Princess of Wales to Poland and Belorussia. Garden parties in Warsaw and Minsk, and, to remind her of Thorpe Park, shooting the rapids in the Tatra foothills. The Count thinks the Poles (some of whom have designs on the Duke of Kent) would make the Princess their Queen in a twinkling - jolly good idea. The problem is that the Count keeps getting fobbed off by the Princess's staff. Pygmies. You can contact the Count through me, your royal highness.

EURO 96 Latest. Yes, well. But here's a thing: did you notice that Mr Neville, father of Gary and Phil, the brothers playing for England, is called Neville Neville? Listen, anyone with a name like mine has to be careful about these things, but, in a spirit of genuine inquiry, I telephoned Neville Neville at Bury FC, where he is the commercial manager. Neville Neville seemed puzzled by my inquiry: he was born, he said, and they called him Neville, and that was that. So there you are. Did you know, by the way, that the address of the Bishop of Durham is, "Durham, Durham, Durham". Actually, I also have dramatic, exclusive news for the future of English football. Mr McManus, of Melbourne, Derbys, writes. By chance, Mr McManus came across Mr Tony Blair in the car park at Wembley after the Swiss match. This is the full text of the historic conversation: Mr McManus: "What did you think, Tony?" Mr Tony Blair: "The same as you by the look of it." Mr McM: "Would England have won under a Labour government?" Mr TB: "Yes. I can say they would." Thank you for extracting that pledge, Mr McManus!

BBRRNNGG! The telephone, and on the line, my art crime correspondent W Easel. " 'Ere, Captain," says Wally, "did you get the smudge?" Wally is referring to the photograph which I reproduce below. "Pretty hot stuff, eh, Captain? All those claims of dirty work in the Tate archives, and now this: only the director flogging off all the frames in deepest Somerset! I ask you. You'd have thought they would have noticed, wouldn't you?" I tell Wally that I have indeed received the "smudge", but that there is a tiny problem: the unimpeachably respectable director of the Tate Gallery spells his name "Serota", not "Sirota". There is a sharp intake of breath , a muttered oath which sounds like "Velzquez!", a click, and then silence.

Battlefront Update ... Battlefront Update. What we have here is, I promise you, a serious suggestion for a Tory advertising campaign capitalising on the Prime Minister's tough stance over Europe. It could have been emblazoned over hoardings the length and breadth of the country. Central Office was very, very excited. The idea was presented to Mr Major. Sadly for all of us, he demurred. But all is not lost. Cut out my version and stick it in your front window. The message will get through. For bonus points, take a photograph of it in your front window and send it in to me. I will feature the most striking and prominent. Actually, I'm told, John blushed at the idea, which is rather sweet. And now, I am yet again reliably informed, Norma is worried about his weight. Getting a bit podgy, needs to lose a bit. Put a picture of Baroness Thatcher on the fridge door, John.

The Captain's Catch-up Service

Hello and welcome to the news review of small but significant events ... Lady Kennet kneed a burglar who broke into her Bayswater home in the groin. "He was definitely surprised and presumably quite uncomfortable," she said ... Firemen used a restaurant's giant inflatable burger to break the fall of a man trying to leap to his death from a roof in Colorado ... Two robbers in Washington DC rubbed their faces with lemon juice after being told it blurred video images. They were sentenced to 24 years ... Martin Luesch, a Bavarian hang-glider pilot, suffered a frostbitten penis after his trousers fell down at a high altitude ... More than 30,000 Americans suffer an irrational fear of playing bingo, according to a psychiatry journal ... Two 15th-century Chinese famille verte porcelain cachepots lent to the Grosvenor House Art and Antiques Fair by the Queen Mother, its sponsor, turned out, on inspection, to be 19th-century fakes ... Firefighters were called out to the fire-prevention office in Aston, Birmingham, after a cigarette end was dropped into a wastepaper basket.


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Iraq: US retreats into a war of words

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The Independent Online
The United States directed a torrent of fierce rhetoric towards Iraq yesterday following Baghdad's refusal to allow the new UN inspection team to visit suspected weapons facilities. But much of the fight seemed to have gone out of Washington's position, with the White House and the Pentagon saying that diplomacy was the preferred solution.

This message was also conveyed by the US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, who said in a scheduled foreign policy address that "unconditional access" for UN inspection teams "has to be the [Security Council's] bottom line". While insisting that the US would continue to be "vigilant and determined" and would "not rule out any options", she also blamed the US Congress for effectively undermining the US position by its continued refusal to pay back dues owed to the United Nations.

"The failure to pay UN debts undermined our leverage just as Saddam Hussein was challenging the authority of the Security Council," she said. Her remarks amounted to an acknowledgement by Washington that there was little chance of obtaining security council agreement to military action against Iraq so long as the US had not settled with the UN.

The UN Security Council was due to meet yesterday to consider Iraq's objections to the predominantly US and British composition of the new weapons team and its decision to bar access to selected sites. On Monday, President Clinton said he expected the UN Security Council to take "strong and appropriate action" if Iraq prevented the team from doing its job. But Defense Secretary William Cohen said yesterday: "I think the US will continue to pursue diplomatic initiatives to the point where ... we exhaust all reasonable initiatives. We have not reached that point yet."


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Obituary: Keith Watson

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The Independent Online
John Keith Watson, artist: born Ormesby, Middlesbrough 1 February 1935; married 1961 Beverley Greig (one son, one daughter); died Cheam, Surrey 9 April 1994.

KEITH WATSON was the artist who kept alive the true spirit of the original 'Dan Dare' strip cartoon.

Born in Ormesby, Middlesbrough, in 1935, Watson, along with thousands of other young boys, read the first adventures of Britain's very own 'Pilot of the Future' in 1950 in the pages of the new national strip- cartoon weekly the Eagle. From that day, Watson's life was entangled with strip cartoons and his admiration for the artist Frank Hampson, the creator of 'Dan Dare', led to his applying for a job with the Dare team by sending Hampson his own version of the strip using the balloon wording to put over his message. He was taken on as an assistant in 1958.

Watson never attended art school and learnt the tricks of the trade from Hampson and his colleagues Don Harley and Eric Eden, who were based in Epsom, Surrey, and gave Watson a good grounding in airbrushing techniques. After only a year Hampson's team broke up and Watson and Harley moved to a studio in Fleet Street where they worked under the direction of Frank Bellamy. In 1960 Watson went freelance and drew 'Captain Condor' for the Lion comic before he returned to Eagle in 1962 and took over 'Dan Dare' singlehanded. Having started off on the inside pages in line and wash, Dare was later moved to the cover of Eagle and Watson produced some of the most outstanding pages of artwork since the Hampson years. He was very popular with the purist fans because he reintroduced all the original characters and hardware.

As Eagle declined, 'Dan Dare' was moved off the cover, and Watson ended his involvement with the feature in early 1967. More strip work followed with 'Captain Scarlet' and 'Joe 90' for TV Century 21, based on the television series made with Gerry Anderson puppets. Watson also drew 'Battle of the Planets' for TV Comic and 'Crossbow' for the Hotspur.

For a lengthy spell in the Seventies and Eighties Watson drew a football strip, 'Roel Dijkstra', for a Dutch comic, Eppo. It was scripted for a time by David Hunt, editor of a 'new' Eagle comic launched by IPC in early 1982. Many different artists were used to illustrate 'Dan Dare' (the only strip to survive from the original Eagle) but it was not until 1989 that, due to popular demand, Watson was once more asked to draw the legendary space hero. He did two stories, one in 1989 and one in 1990. He went back to drawing Gerry Anderson's creations in 1992, a Thunderbirds adventure for the comic of the same name.

Although he will be remembered for his strip cartoon work, Watson also produced some very fine advertising commissions in the Eighties and early Nineties. Three 'Dan Dare' inspired posters for Mobil, posters for Raleigh and some impressive press advertisements for Volvo and Vauxhall. Often he would be asked to do an illustration of this kind in a 'Dan Dare way' but would also be told: 'Don't make it too much like Dan Dare.' A striking line-and-wash advertisement for the British Heart Foundation showed just what a skilled artist he was.

Watson was the most modest of artists and yet he lived through a unique time for British comics and had worked with two of the giants of the 1950s, Hampson and Bellamy. Watson never stopped championing the former, a man he admired and believed in. Younger fans, who missed the Hampson years, looked on Watson in the same way. Watson, however, insisted he always fell short of that 'perfection' many artists strive for.

(Photograph omitted)


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Obituary: Margaret Gibson

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The Independent Online
Margaret Templeton Gibson, historian: born Glasgow 25 January 1938; Lecturer in Medieval History, Liverpool University 1966-81, Reader 1981- 91, Honorary Senior Fellow 1991-94; died London 2 August 1994.

MARGARET GIBSON was one of the most single-minded and energetic practitioners in Medieval Studies, an inspiration in, and shaper of, her chosen field.

The cherished only child of David and Betty Gibson, he a Chemistry don in Glasgow, Margaret reached Oxford in 1959 to read for a second undergraduate degree in History, after an MA in English at St Andrews. We who were introduced to a shy newcomer, as one needing friends, looked back amazed years later, when she seemed to know everyone and specialised in helpful introductions. A DPhil on Lanfranc (later a book, Lanfranc of Bec, 1978) under Sir Richard Southern launched her into a life's work: investigation of the roots of medieval scholarship.

Oxford was followed in 1966 by Liverpool, where she stayed until retirement, as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and finally Reader. Characteristically, when she knew the disease was incurable she chose early retirement to her Oxford flat and found welcome as Senior Research Fellow at St Peter's College. There she set herself several scholarly tasks, in collaboration with others and now almost complete.

Collaboration and work to the end were entirely typical; friends found her in the hospital bed, concordance at hand. She faced death with courage and optimism underpinned by Christian faith. As an Oxford undergraduate the Presbyterianism of her upbringing became Anglicanism; it was reticent but deep, a private matter not readily discussed. History was different; it needed discourse. She believed passionately in a scholarly community based on generous sharing of ideas and resources. A world-wide network of friends and acquaintances was visited, met at conferences, corresponded with (Gibson postcards were famous) and helped. She was a sterling friend. She explained that it was unimportant that one could not reciprocate her kindness; one would at some future time (of course) repay someone else. She loved meeting new people; my Irish aunt, who entranced her by keeping Lourdes water in a whisky bottle, became a valued contact.

The essence of her contribution to medieval studies came from her consuming desire to reach the heart of problems, to find out and decide for herself. Early on she shamed us by preparing new lectures not by reading secondary literature but beginning with the sources. Every task was thoroughly mastered. Lecturing on art history lured her into learning photography. Art history led her to ivories. The work she initiated will vastly illuminate Boethius - her Boethius: his life, thought and influence was published in 1981; biblical glosses are now better understood - her Biblia Latina cum Glossa Ordinaria, co-edited with K. Froehlich, appeared in 1992. Wherever she focused her microscope she found new ideas, resulting in meticulous, beautifully written books and articles. At the same time she was an excellent organiser, a colleague of total reliability and a teacher whom undergraduates might find daunting but usually liked and younger scholars found kind and encouraging.

Her enthusiasm was infectious. My mother (no historian) never forgot entertaining her while she worked on Durham manuscripts. At the end of a long day Margaret would appear, accept a glass and then answer the query 'How was your day?' with 40 minutes of exhilaration. The energy, determination, sense of duty and self-discipline were deeply impressive; so was the intense concentration on the matter in hand. I shall miss most the zest of the answer to 'How is Boethius?'.

(Photograph omitted)


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Birts admits BBC has London bias

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The Independent Online
The BBC is too London- based and 'must make a huge leap forward in reflecting life, activity, culture and events in the whole of the UK,' John Birt, the corporation's director-general said yesterday.

In a speech in Glasgow, Mr Birt conceded that the BBC had 'developed far too much' in London, where more than 80 per cent of network television and radio programmes were made.

He rejected quotas for national network programmes from the regions, but said controllers, 'must commission the best possible programmes . . . from the most creative sources right across the UK . . . The intention is to bring about a major expansion of programmes away from London.'

Mr Birt was speaking after a conference which was told that regional audiences were increasingly questioning the need to pay the BBC licence fee because less than one third of the national network programme budget was being spent outside the South-east.

Campaigners for more regional programmes released a report by Pieda, the independent economic consultants, into programme- making in Scotland, which showed that while the country accounted for 9 per cent of the UK population and 8 per cent of licence payers, it received 3 per cent of the BBC's network television budget.

Increasing the share of the budget to about 8 per cent, injecting pounds 28m into the Scottish economy, would generate about pounds 50m, the report says.

Nigel Smith, chairman of the Broadcasting for Scotland lobby group, welcomed Mr Birt's remarks: 'All of us outside the South-east will be watching closely to see whether Mr Birt's fine words translate into fine deeds.'


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The Sketch: Pinky and Perky: if the relationship isn't hurting, it isn't working

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The Independent Online

Pinky first and then we'll get to Perky. Nick Clegg gave us his anniversary speech from the lavatorial grandeur of the Liberal Club. He could have done with a prop to get his message across. A toilet brush, perhaps: "We're going to clean up the mess!" A pig: "Liberals bring home the bacon!" A stripper with a surgically enhanced front end: "No, she's not my definition of plurality either!"

He's an admirable young man and why people pretend to dislike him I don't know. In interviews, he says frank and unguarded things that then get twisted by the interviewers (how could they?). But he does face a real difficulty "getting his message across" because people don't like concentrating when he says things.

For those who were paid to listen – he wants people to know he's changed. He really did need to dramatise that. A cocktail frock is worth 1,000 words.

We are not supposed to think he is a willing companion of the Tories any more. It's business not pleasure (the cocktail frock needs fishnet stockings with it).

He's going for the position Labour has abandoned: "Conscience with a competence." Or was it the other way round? You'd remember it as Tony Blair's position (which won three elections) and the European Union's proposition (which built a coalition of 400 million people). Why Ed Miliband has chucked it is hard to understand; if Pinky can occupy the ground he'll do well. But because people won't really be listening, he's going to have to do things, not say things, if he really wants to end up there. Show, not tell. He'll have to wreck something, somehow. His reputation, perhaps.

His better half stood up to answer Prime Minister's Questions. Perky is Pinky with a dash of governing cynicism, a sense of humour, more gravitas and a splash of Tory austerity. But their similarities are more important than their differences. Looks, build, manner and popular, Whiggish beliefs.

The amateur spirit is alive in both of them, too, and gets them into trouble. Perky still hasn't regained his composure over Calm Down Deargate. It was only a bit of fun, he thought, but now he can hardly face the Opposition front bench waving their satirical arms and mooing "calm down".

Perky also asserted his own independence from his Pinky partners. "There's only one party you can trust on the NHS – and that's the party I lead," he said. That might have stung a little. Still, if it isn't hurting it isn't working (old Tory principle).

PS: Clegg said Labour's great crime was to expect our children to pay the bills we ran up. If Miliband can get my children to do that he's a better man than I am. I've spent a fortune on them and haven't seen a penny back.


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The Diary: Who's afraid of the stage door stalkers? I am

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The Independent Online
I could always see one particular moment in my future: me, sitting on the Old Actors' Home Porch (known here in GB as Ye Olde Actors' Home) with my teeth in a jar across the room, and croaking to Nurse Wiggly, "I played the West End, dearie, did you know?" And she would smile and give me some extra food. It was a reminiscence of something that hadn't happened yet, if that isn't too confusing. Some actors yearn for Riches, some for Fame, some for groupies who look like Elizabeth Hurley. Me too, I'm not an idiot, but I also yearn for the West End, London Theatre, Gielgud, Olivier. Legitimacy. Tradition. It's an ancient desire - it made coming here to "tread the boards" this year an easy decision to make.

BEFORE WE opened, Marsha Mason and I were warned that we shouldn't be too uneasy, that the Brits (I love that word) were more reserved than American audiences, they didn't laugh as much, but that at the end of the evening they would "show their appreciation". I nodded, calm, and reached for a copy of the contract to see if I could get a fast attack of measles or something, anything that would get me back to the States before I had to face the "'Orrible Reserve". But to my enormous relief, we had been misled, and the audiences that came to Prisoner of Second Avenue in Guildford, in Coventry, in Malvern, Richmond and Oxford, were either Scottish soccer fans who had wandered into our theatre or the Brits (I love that word) who had relaxed and decided to show their famous Stiff Upper Raucous Side.

In any case, it has been very, very, very gratifying to hear the whoops and guffaws and giggles of all those nice people who have come to see our play thus far. We sold out everywhere, and people who came were so, so ... I don't know how to describe it, they sound as if they were all related to us by blood. (They aren't.)

Then we came in to London. It's nice that London has a lot of newspapers. It's nice. Now, I don't want to sound defensive about the reviews. Do I sound defensive? Well, defensiveness isn't the most inappropriate position when you're being attacked by contemptible shallow, talentless, neurotic ...

What was I talking about? Anyway, with or without them, we're a hit, a palpable hit, and even though some nights we've played to half a house, most of the time we fill up right to the rafters. Anyway, half a house at the Haymarket is still oodles of people, and most of the shows on in London right now, most of the shows most actors work in most of their lives, are on the half-house model, to be generous. There is something more than thrilling for an actor when he hears that the house is filled. It takes away those nagging thoughts that you might be leading the wrong life, that you should perhaps have stayed in the army, or finished the course on chemical weapons storage.

Filled houses remove all doubts.

I LOVE coming to the theatre every day, dodging the professional autograph seekers who fervently deny they are professionals, with their already prepared books of your entire life (and Brad Pitt's, and Hugh Grant's, and Claus Von Bulow's, for that matter). I don't know why these guys irritate me; it probably has something to do with the fact they I've always suspected that, scratch someone who collects autographs for profit, and you'll find someone corresponding with John Hinckley in the Stalkers Anonymous Programme. Maybe it's all in my head; that's more than possible. I've been wrong about lots of things since I've been here - I still have trouble crossing the street without reading the "Look Left" signs. Normal people who see the show and ask for an signature, I'm very flattered; the others scare the autograph out of me.

I love the rhythm of Theatre Life; it's perfect for the lazy, of which I proudly count myself. You work awfully hard for a month of rehearsals, then you basically settle in to giving out a lot of energy for two hours a night, plus matinees, and the rest of your life is good for sleeping and watching all that brilliant British television. I have no guilt when I do nothing, as long as I know I've got those two strenuous hours in the evening. On a film you work from dawn till dusk, you eat quickly, and you never finish a conversation. In the theatre, you can take classes, stroll through museums, and stay pretty much the civilised person you think of yourself as being.

The guy I play is wound pretty tight. He has what can only be called a nervous breakdown brought on by the usual transgressions of urban life. City living requires a kind of forgiveness, a daily act that allows the screamers, the ranters, the dirt and grime to share your life. Mel stops forgiving all this, and it overwhelms him. Sounds like a lotta laughs, right? Well, it is, so there, and you'll just have to come down and see us do it if you want to know how.

ON THIS last 29 May we closed the show for a couple of days so I could go fly back to Los Angeles and get married. Left London on Saturday morning, got married on Sunday afternoon, flew back Sunday night. It'll be a great anecdote in a few years, but right now it's just a fog of jetlag. Her name is Janelle. She's with me here now, for the last few weeks of the run. I'm far, far better with her around.


WARC-Truncated: length

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Friday 9 December 2016

McDermott foursome foils Farney

Donegal 6-12 Monaghan 2-13

Published 18/05/2015 | 02:30

Ronan McDermott struck four goals for Donegal
Ronan McDermott struck four goals for Donegal

Three stoppage-time goals catapulted Donegal through to the semi-final as Monaghan exited the competition in this high scoring, entertaining contest in Clones on Saturday.

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The late goals flattered Donegal. Monaghan started well, with a Niall Garland goal putting them 1-2 to no score ahead after six minutes.

Then Ronan McDermott struck the first of his four goals on 17 minutes and Donegal were level at 1-3.

Monaghan finished the half strongly to lead 1-10 to 1-5 at the break, but Donegal made a rip-roaring start to the second half, hitting 1-6 without reply in 15 minutes. The goal, a second for McDermott, put them in front for the first time.

A point from Kevin Campbell put four between the teams before Monaghan hit their first score of the half 16 minutes from time when Garland raised the green flag again.

With eight minutes left it was deadlocked but a Ciaran Mathewson goal put Donegal ahead on 65 minutes.

Ronan Meegan reduced the deficit to two but as Monaghan pushed forward Donegal hit three late killer goals on the counter through Sean McVeigh and two from McDermott.

Scorers - Donegal: R McDermott 4-0, C Mathewson 1-4 (0-3fs), S McVeigh 1-2, K Campbell 0-4, J Boyle, B Lafferty 0-1 each. Monaghan: R Meegan 0-6 (5fs), N Garland 2-0, S Lambe 0-3, E MacSuibhne, D Crowe, C McKenna, F Rafter 0-1 each.

Donegal- P Burns; J Downey, J Donnelly, M Callaghan; C McDermott, J Boyle, N Cleary; D Cullen, S McVeigh; J O'Loughlin, K Campbell, E McDermott; C Mathewson, R McDermott, B Lafferty. Subs: C Kilgannon for J Downey, S Gillespie for J O'Loughlin.

Monaghan - K Hanniffy; B Flanagan, K Crawley, C McKenna; D Crowe, A Kenny, P Treanor; M Murphy, E MacSuibhne; N Garland, M Treanor, R Meegan; F Rafter, S Lambe, J Guinan. Subs: C Meegan for M Treanor, P Dowdall for E MacSuibhne, T Forde for F Rafter, H Byrne for R Meegan.

Ref - A Nash

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Geet - Hui Sabse Parayee

Geet - Hui Sabse Parayee
Geet - Hui Sabse Parayee

1 Massive slice of Chocolate cake = Rocket Fuel! (Page 3)

nikipuki Senior Member

Joined: 29 September 2010
Posts: 608

Posted: 05 March 2011 at 2:37pm | IP Logged
Awesome OS as usual Sookie.

From your comments on Devi's FF I gather you a Vic Chou fan. Black and White has some really good soundtrack, the drama itself is interesting only in bits and pieces. What a pity 'cos the director and Vic also made Mars which is probably one of the best drama's I've seen. Anyway have you seen Wish to see you again?

-Sookie- IF-Dazzler

Joined: 09 January 2009
Posts: 2515

Posted: 05 March 2011 at 6:55pm | IP Logged
^^ Thanks Niki.

Yeah, I have seen Wish to see you again. I thought the beginning was brilliant and Vic's character was not something one generally gets to see in dramas. But as usual drama devil invaded the sets and made it draggy and boring. I really liked the initial episodes monologues when Vic drives around the city in a taxi.

The following 1 member(s) liked the above post:

-pixie- IF-Rockerz

Joined: 21 September 2009
Posts: 6571

Posted: 07 March 2011 at 12:09pm | IP Logged
Whatay delicious interaction LOL

Edited by -pixie- - 07 March 2011 at 12:09pm
nikki.171 IF-Dazzler

Joined: 29 June 2009
Posts: 2685

Posted: 24 March 2011 at 8:55am | IP Logged
Another OH-So -Awwwwesuuuum-One!!!  Thumbs UpGo gurl!! U right so well! Clap You can produce entertainment n even romance out of practically evrywhere!! From small things in everyday life, u create grrreat stories!!!
U r a proooo! Heart
ScatteredCastle IF-Dazzler

Joined: 04 February 2010
Posts: 2560

Murlal Senior Member

Joined: 03 September 2010
Posts: 594

Posted: 08 April 2011 at 6:25am | IP Logged
Hi! ages since you've  written any stuff, would love to read anything new you've written. Just re-read both your last postings and loved them. They are seriously good!
Hope we have a new story from you soon, I'm sure there are others who're waiting for your stuff.

Sur_10 Goldie

Joined: 23 August 2009
Posts: 1827

Posted: 18 April 2011 at 1:49pm | IP Logged come i wasnt informed of this one?
anyways pretty funny...i like it, bargaining cake all the way.
u r right, work before eating time is disaster...
btw i like MSK's way of getting food without having to attend 1 month anniversaries...
Nanthini9 Goldie

Joined: 06 February 2008
Posts: 1505

Posted: 26 April 2011 at 12:33pm | IP Logged
I like these random scenarios you think up for Maan and Geet :)

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Listen Now! S&A Podcast (“Dark Girls” Review + Interview w/”From The Rough” Director Pierre Bagley)

Listen Now! S&A Podcast ("Dark Girls" Review + Interview w/"From The Rough" Director Pierre Bagley)

Did you miss our fantastic podcast yesterday? Shame on you! Well you get to check it out below. New S&A contributor Emmanuel joined us for the show and here’s what you missed:

– We were joined by budding filmmaker Siobhan Leonard and reporter Natalia Salaza and they gave us the 411 on the Dark Girls documentary and the Chicago screening experience. Their assessment was surprising.
– Monique interviewed Pierre Bagley, director of From The Rough, which stars Taraji P. Henson.
-Based on a recent post by Emmanuel, we addressed the “invisibility” issue faced by black actors/actresses
– Are you really interested in seeing a The Best Man sequel? And will black women support this project like they did the first one?
-We also touched on Nat Turner and if ANY producer/director would tackle his profound slave story

Don’t forget to tune in next Thursday for another great show! By the way, if you have any topics you’d like us to discuss please let us know in the comments section.

Listen to internet radio with Shadow And Act on Blog Talk Radio

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Oh. The baby voice matches the maturity.

this should be as interesting as GOOD HAIR….. which I didnt like…

@ Sara,

“I’m a Dark Girl!”

Get rid of Monique please. Let Emmanuelle and Cynthia take over. If she says, “I’m a dark girl” one more time, I’m gonna scream. We heard you the first time.

Dark Girls – I understand the discourse; I can see the nexus of it all (thank you honkies and slavery) and I am able to step back, step outside of myself and really ‘see’ the whole colorism, -ism, as it is. But to have gotten to that point to step back, to pull the wool from the old eyeball and really see, well, that took a while to get there. I’ll refrain from saying more and will await until you post your piece.

Pierre Bagley/From the Rough – He talks about making a film that is uniquely Black and how it will fare the world over. I like what he said about diversifying casts but making sure Black characters were and are top tier. However, flip the script. Films from Brazil that are uniquely Brazil play well in other markets, don’t they? Films from Nollywood and Bollywood, within their respective box office realms, play well in foreign markets. Is he saying Uniquely Black films won’t play well? Though he mentioned Precious? Need some clarification (too lazy to listen again). Love also how he says you must know your craft. Food for thought; words for action.

The Best Man – not really that interested and it’s got nothing to do with most of the male leads’ real-life significant others. Just not interested. DayBreak was good marathon Sunday afternoon viewing, but yeah, his ‘other’ there as well, not Black.

Hiding in Plain Sight/Emmanuel post – great discussion here. The old guard needs a battle-ram to its stronghold.

More of Emmanuel? YES PLEASE. :-)

Did I miss it or did you all forget to talk about the Nat Turner flick-to-be??? A-ha! You mentioned it. I have no answer to your question…other than to let’s coordinate our Swatches and prepare to knock off about a couple hundred thousand likka stores for the $dough$. Shimmy-shimmy-shake. Rim-shot! *wink*

Great show everyone. Now I can go to bed.

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Forest Whitaker To Play Desmond Tutu In “The Archbishop And The Antichrist”

Forest Whitaker To Play Desmond Tutu In "The Archbishop And The Antichrist"

I'm looking forward to reading the reactions to this piece of news, given recent debates/discussions…

Forest Whitaker has signed on to play another prominent African figure – this time it's Archbishop Desmond Tutu in a project by Roland Joffe, titled The Archbishop And The Antichrist.

Ahem :)

The film will be based on the play by Michael Ashton, and center on the Truth and Reconciliation Hearings – a post-apartheid commissioning in which victims took an active role in the judicial process (called on to give accounts of the gross human rights violations they were subjected to), while offenders were encouraged to take responsibility for their actions, "to repair the harm they caused."

Joffe's film will reportedly imagine a meeting fictional between the real Tutu (and the people in his personal and political affairs while he works on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission), and a boorish white South African mass murderer called Piet Blomfeld.

Joffe is adapting Michael Ashton's play himself – a play I'm not familiar with. Although I did a little digging and found this write-up of it from early last year, which should give us an idea of what to expect:

Writer, ex-prisoner and former barrister Michael Ashton provokes some interesting thoughts on the relationship between truth and justice and whether the former necessarily results in the latter. Does confession really result in an easier healing process and, for South Africa in particular, how can a nation begin to come to terms with the crimes committed in its name? Equally impressive is his ability to boil the issues down and present them in one man’s struggle to come to terms with his actions during apartheid. The Archbishop and The Antichrist is multilayered and incredibly rich. If you approach it already familiar with the events, there’s an enormous amount of historical and political questioning to feast on. And without such familiarity, there are the confused and absorbing thoughts of one death-row prisoner, Piet Blomfield, as he wrestles with redemption. Blomfield, the self-title ‘antichrist’ manages to get the archbishop to visit him in prison where he questions the purpose and effectiveness of the TRC. His cynicism and his confused regard for religion is embodied fantastically by Oscar Pearce. Pearce’s constant foot-tapping and chain-jangling draw the audience into his world and the whirl of thoughts in his head. With Blomfield, the archbishop faces direct questions that require direct answers. There’s no beating about the bush with Blomfield, who does his best to swerve the grey areas. It’s a striking contrast to Tutu’s meetings with FW de Klerk and the TRC who endlessly talk in circles, unable to get to concrete conclusions. de Klerk is played by the brilliant Peter Cartwright, one member of a flawless cast including Jeffrey Kisson as Desmond Tutu, Pamela Nomvete as his wife and Dona Croll as his secretary. The only criticism I have of the play is a minor staging issue. At times the physical distance between de Klerk and the archbishop make it difficult to focus. Their tennis match of words doesn’t need to be highlighted any further by making them sit so far apart as they deliver their lines. Especially as there is such a great space in the centre thanks to the effective in-the-round seating. There are rarely more than two characters on stage at a time and the clever lighting makes each scene feel like a confrontation in a restrained boxing ring. The characters can seem intensely close, like Desmond and his wife, or tragically far apart, like when Winnie Mandela shows up. It’s an epic fictionalised take on events…

I'm sure our friends at Africa Is A Country have some thoughts on this and I'm looking forward to reading them.

Although, quite frankly, I'm having a difficult time imagining Whitaker as Tutu. But let's see what they come up with here…

This Article is related to: News and tagged

Hi Tambay: Basia will hopefully have a post up soon.

Serious. The light skinned dark skin nonsense again…

No one will raise hell about this because: 1) Forest is a man portraying another man 2) He's not light skinned.

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Ida Hammer (Trans Women's Anti-Violence) | Indy Week

Ida Hammer (Trans Women's Anti-Violence)
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Re: “Transgenderism and transsexualism are expressions of life-loving invention

It's an unfortunately common misconception to say that trans women are killed "because their lover 'discovered' they were a different kind of woman." This is the "trans panic" myth that is more about blaming the victim than the actual reality of what contributes to violence against trans women. In the majority of cases those men who kill trans women they're intimate partners with already knew the women were trans before hand. This is actually a common reason why they became intimately involved with trans women in the first place.

There are multiple social factors that need to be accounted for when analyzing these murders. Race, gender, class and means of survival are no less important than the victim's trans status. Discovery and disclosure of a woman's trans status after or during intimate relations is almost never the key, central factor. Trans women who have intimate relationships with men are made vulnerable to intimate partner violence in a society that denies these women options because of the combination their race, gender and economic circumstances, no less than their trans experience.

What the "trans panic" myth does is distract us from seeing the violence as part of a larger system of gender-based intimate partner violence. By focusing on the supposed "discovery" of a woman's trans history we fail to ask questions about how anti-violence interventions that exist for cis women systematically fail trans women, especially poor trans women of color who engage in survival work. We fail to interrogate the institutional factors that play the dominant role in determining just which trans women are most likely to be murdered, instead making it about some aberrant individual.

In the majority of cases when trans women of color call the police, the police will abuse them rather than help them. Trans women systematically are unable to access domestic violence support and crisis services because these services either explicitly exclude them or do not offer trans competent services. When trans women, particularly poor trans women of color, are systematically denied access to stable jobs, housing, health care and subject to intense surveillance by police and community, they are put in situations where they may be dependent of an abusive partner in order to survive. So, please, lets drop the false "discovery" myth and start taking a good hard look at how our society is set up in ways that actually perpetuate and encourage violence against certain groups of trans women.

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Married With Children : The Rise And Fall

By Edited Jun 28, 2016 1 2

In April of 1987 the first episode of Married With Children aired on the Fox Network and The Bundys were introduced to America. While the sitcom provided tons of laughs and seemed to be going full steamed, it was abruptly cancelled in 1997.

If You Didn't Know

The show was created by Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt, the two drew inspiration from the 1970's sitcom All In The Family. Before the Bundys, The Cosby Show on The NBC Network presented success, love and family valves to viewers in modern times. Married With Children was the complete opposite, The Bundys were not successful, they stole when needed, and bluntly spoke about sex. While Clair and Heathcliff Huxtable worked as a Lawyer and a Doctor, Al was a poor shoe salesman and Peggy was a lazy house wife. Married With Children became a success due to its difference from The Cosby Show, the life of the Bundys reflected the life of most viewers. The producers at Sony were so focused on being different that during development, the working title was "Not The Cosbys".

Here's The Family

The Bundys

Al Bundy who was played by Ed O Neil, is a middle-aged man who works in a lady's shoe store. The greatest moment of his life came in high school when he scored four touch downs in one game of football. He married his high school sweetheart which turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes of his life. Al hates to be touched by his wife but has countless fantasies about younger women with big breast, in reality however, Al has never cheated on his wife.

Peggy Bundy, played by Katey Sagal, is a house wife that refuses to cook or clean for her family and is known as the laziest woman in Chicago. Peggy has very expensive taste and steals Al's money to buy leather coats and other things for herself. Unlike Al she enjoys spending intimate time with her husband. She also have fantasies about muscular men pampering her but she has never actually cheated on her husband.

Kelly Bundy played by Christina Applegate is the first child of Al and Peggy. Kelly is known as the dumb one of the family, she spells cat with the letter K and sometimes forgets her own address. With her lack of book smarts she uses her body to get by in life, she made it through high school by dating most of her teachers.

Bud Bundy who was played by David Faustino can be considered the only intelligent member of the family. Unlike his sister he graduated both high school and college by studying hard. He has never been popular with women and everyone assume he has yet to feel the touch of the opposite sex. Although Bud attempts to make something of himself and tries to be different from his family, he displays the immoral Bundy traits many times.

Love Thy Neighbor

The Rhoades

The Bundys were constantly visited by their neighbors Steve (David Garrison) and Marcy Rhoades (Amanda Bearse). The Rhoades were the successful middle class family, they were both bankers and drove Mercedes. They were the perfect married couple, Steve never drank and Marcy took care of her husband, however after meeting the Bundys they picked up some of their dirty ways.

Jefferson and Marcy

In the middle of the fourth season David Garrison (Steve) wanted to leave the show and return to his stage acting roots, the producers had no choice but to release him from his contract. The show dealt with Garrison's departure by saying Steve left Marcy in the middle of the night to follow his dream of becoming a Park Ranger in Yellowstone National Park. After divorcing Steve, Marcy drunkenly married a bartender she met at a bankers' event named Jefferson D'arcy (Ted McGinley). Jefferson is the complete opposite of Steve, he is a house husband that lives off Marcy's money and was once referred to as an aging pretty boy. Marcy encourages him constantly to get a job but Jefferson prefers to spend his time caring for his looks or hanging with Al. The show hinted many times that Jefferson has a mysterious past and might have even been a C.I.A agent.

The Rise Of It All

Married With Children was the first prime time show on Fox. The popularity of the show  grew stronger during season three after the episode titled "Her Cups Runneth Over" aired. In this episode Al goes to a sexy lingerie shop in attempts to find Peggy's favorite bra that was discontinued. Terry Rakolta, who is an activist for family values, found the episode so offensive that she began writing letters to Fox and the sponsors to cancel the show. A few sponsors did remove their advertisements and the story of Terry Rakolta attempting to kill the show exploded through the media outlets. However instead of the show being cancelled, the rating rocketed to the top, made the sitcom a hit, and turned Fox into a mainstream network.

Watch any episode from the second season on and listen to the reaction of the audience, they are the rowdiest crowd you will ever hear for a sitcom. Whenever a main character enters a scene, the audience would being cheering and yelling for about 30 seconds. The actors would have to wait until the crowd settled before delivering their lines.The demand for audience tickets were so high that many people had to go on a waiting list.

 Bring The Curtain Down

The show was cancelled in season eleven although Fox wanted to bring it back for a twelfth season. When Fox heard that Sony demanded one million dollars for each episode, they figured that the network would not be able to get enough advertising revenue from the show at that price and decided to cancel it. The cancellation was so abrupt that the actors themselves were not aware of it. Ed O' Neil claims that while on vacation he heard about it from a couple reading a newspaper next to him, Christina Applegate also states that she was told from friends. After hearing about the cancellation, Ed spoked to a Fox executive about shooting a final episode in which the Bundy's won the lottery and would be killed by a tornado while celebrating. Fox decided against the idea and Married With Children never received a farewell show.

The saying goes that all good things must come to an end and although the Bundys are gone they are not forgotten. Many networks now air reruns either early in the morning, late at night, or during the weekend. Fans of the sitcom can also find dvd box sets with all the episodes online or in stores. Married With Children was a show that pushed the boundaries and paved the way for raunchy relatable television.

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May 4, 2016 9:26pm
I loved the Bundy's. Very few American sitcoms have real bite, but this one definitely did.
May 5, 2016 11:05am
They always made me laugh, it's sad that they didn't receive a final episode. Thank you for reading and your comment.
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The Legend of Saint Philip Neri: The Happy Saint

By 2 3

March is the month Philip of Neri was canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church (March 12 1622). Over the centuries saints sometimes become attributed with and a certain grim and austere manner, and an ascetic and even forbidding personality. What a merry time Philip would have had mocking that stereotype. Even the German freemason Goethe loved Philip of Neri, who has been nicknamed the Happy  Saint.

Along with his sense of humor and likeability, Philip also had his share of legends and miracles. The most enduring legend was that his heart became so big physically that it pushed a couple of his ribs out of the way and almost burst through his skin, so great was his love for mankind. More on that later.

Even before his cardiac issues Philip was a happy camper. He was one of four children born to a Florentine couple in the 1500’s. Although his mother died very early on, Philip was invariably a happy and kind boy. He attracted other children to him, and charmed adults. He earned the nickname “Pepo Buono”, or good Philip.

When he came of age Philip was sent to nearby San Germano to learn to be a businessman. It was a likely enough plan back in the day, but here was a budding saint who did not have a head for business.  Good Philip persevered with the trade chosen for him, with mixed results. Legend has it that one night Philip was laying in bed counting abacus beads in his head when the host of heaven descended upon his humble self. Evidently Pepo Buono was given his marching orders, for the next day he left San Germano and headed for Rome - penniless and on foot. When he finally arrived - hungry, thirsty, sore, and dusty - a fellow Florentine gave Philip a hard floored attic and his daily bread. In return Philip tutored the man’s children.

After two years as an attic recusant, Philip began studying, then abruptly stopped and began his public life ministering to the people of Rome. At the time, Rome had not yet recovered from the destruction of invading armies. Churches were destroyed, half ruined, or half repaired; the same could be said for the clergy. Hardship and apathy reigned. What could be done?

The most unlikely answer to that question was Pepo buono himself: a skinny, bearded vagabond who slept in churches and carried his food in the hood of his cloak. He liked to pray in the catacombs, and emerge to accost people in the streets, usually with a huge grin. His happy personality, sincere interest in everyone he talked to, and lively faith were obvious even to people who shunned him. Philip just kept talking, often walking up to people with the question: “Brothers, when shall we  begin to do good?”

There were many answers to this question. Philip listened to them all, sympathized with their plights, encouraged their good impulses, and most of all, led by example. When people expressed a wish to do good, Philip took them straightway to hospitals to care for the sick, and to church to pray. After everyone left Philip dwelt in solitude, pondering tomorrow’s missions. It was during one such evening (legends say it was the eve of Pentecost) that Philip was again visited by heaven in the form of a descending globe of fire (much like the tongues of fire said to have descended upon the apostles in the Upper Room on Pentecost). The globe entered Philip through his mouth. He immediately felt an overwhelming dilation of his heart, and all the joys and ecstasies such a larger heart would certainly be able to hold. Philip fell, groaning "Enough, enough, Lord, I can bear no more!"

After ecstasy he lay like a broken man. Gradually coming to himself he saw a protrusion in his chest in the shape of a heart. Philip had always been a gentle and loving soul. Now it seems that he had divine assistance to be even more gentle and loving. Divine assistance was also pushing him towards the priesthood. Philip was reluctant to become a priest. He felt the cassock might be a barrier between he and the poor people he wanted to serve. At the time the clergy were mistrusted by many of the simple folk, sometimes for good reasons.

It became evident to Philip, however, that heaven wanted another priest so, on May 23 1551, he became Father Philip of Neri.  The priesthood did not change Philip’s nature, unless it was to make him even more likable and fair minded than before. Lines outside his confessional were long. No longer did Philip have to track people down on the street for conversation. Now they came to him. Hearing confession was a very natural situation for Father Philip, for he was always seeking to bond with people, to be their friends, to lead them to happier lives.

Outside the confessional Philip began informal talks that drew more and more people. He had a way of meeting people exactly where they were at in their lives - spiritually, financially, emotionally - and then giving them a gentle nudge in the right direction. Always his sense of humor was his guiding light, and not just in the confessional or informal study groups.

Out in the streets Philip’s personality shined the brightest:

“Come you dunce, you great fathead, you brute-beast!’ he would roar at someone whom he had caught in the act of sinning, at the same time pulling the man’s ear, his beard or his jacket. But all was done with such simplicity that no one except a fool would dream of showing resentment. His ‘continual hilarity of mind’ was infectious, and his humour, which he scarcely ever put aside, lay on the borderline of tenderness and irony… just at that point where Christian liberty finds vent in joy. At the same time however, this curious and in many ways alarming individual possessed a soul of spotless purity.”

st philip neri

Philip, in other words, was full of heart. So full was his heart that his Church wisely accommodated him. A large room was built over the nave of San Girolamo, and Father Philip was given a priest assistant to ring a small bell so Philip’s friends knew when to come upstairs to pray. Over time Father Philip’s friends called the assistants "Oratorians," and the space upstairs their “oratory.” Young priests found Philip irresistible too, and eventually the Oratorians became a religious order (in part so the Church could keep an eye on Philip and his unorthodox ways). It was all the same to Philip, although the idea that Pepo Bueno’s anarchical exertions would make him the head of a religious order must have evoked paroxysms of laughter from him.

In the words of one of his biographers,

"He was all things to all men.... When he was called upon to be merry, he was so; if there was a demand upon his sympathy, he was equally ready.... In consequence of his being so accessible and willing to receive all comers, many went to him every day, and some continued for the space of thirty, nay, forty years, to visit him very often both morning and evening, so that his room went by the agreeable nickname of the "Home of Christian mirth."

Philip used laughter to ingratiate himself with other people, and to preserve his humility. His protruding heart was as difficult to hide as his holiness. He felt things deeply, and sometimes joked around to conceal his deep love for people and equally deep care for their welfare. Men said Father Philip’s face would glow with a light not of this world. He also had a knack for predicting things that later came to pass.

As for his Order, Philip admitted clergy and laymen, princes and paupers. He forbade members from taking vows (very unorthodox), and each house of the growing Congregation was completely independent of the others. Asked what Rule governed the Oratory, Philip smiled and replied, very seriously, “Nothing but charity.” By the end of his life the Oratory still had no formal rule, but had developed into a community of secular priests who spent their days in prayer, preaching, and administering the Sacraments to all comers.

Meanwhile Philip, who in his private Masses was “so absorbed in God that he seemed to be at the point of death,” found his health failing. The “greater part of the Sacred College” visited the founder of the Oratory in his homely room. No doubt their prayers on his behalf were heard, but Philip’s profound recovery is said to be directly related to another visitor. One afternoon, during the worst part of his illness, Philip

“…suddenly raised himself in his bed in spite of his weakness, and was seen to stretch out his arms before him with extraordinary fervour, while he sobbed and cried: ‘O my Madonna! my beautiful Madonna!’, words and actions which convinced the astonished bystanders that Our Lady had appeared to him. After this celestial visitation he found himself completely cured.”

last breaths

Once out of bed Philip continued to roam the streets of Rome looking for converts. His ardor was of such considerable voltage that at times he seemed on the verge of spontaneous combustion. Nevertheless he lived until 1595, when his soul soared to judgment while his body was in the act of blessing his Oratorians from his deathbed. Doctors who examined his corpse found the protrusion in his breast significant enough in size to have broken two ribs, which curved in an arch to accommodate the heart of Pepo Buono.

going home

Philip was canonized a saint less than thirty years after his death. Although best known for his mirth, Philip also had many expressions he would use to admonish and aid people in their search for happiness. Here are some of them.

  1. Cheerfulness strengthens the heart and makes us persevere in a good life; wherefore the servant of God ought always to be in good spirits.

  2. When a man is freed from a temptation or any other distress, let him take great care to show fitting gratitude to God for the benefit he has received.

  3. We must accept the adversities which God sends us without reasoning too much upon them, and we must take for granted that it is the best thing which could happen to us.

  4. We must always remember that God does everything well, although we may not see the reason of what He does.

  5. There is nothing more to the purpose for exciting a spirit of prayer, than the reading of spiritual books.

  6. Let a man always think that he has God before his eyes.

  7. There is nothing good in this world: Vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas.

  8. We must die at last.

  9. He who does not go down into hell while he is alive, runs a great risk of going there after he is dead.

  10. A man without prayer is an animal without the use of reason.

  11. philip neri

Notes and Sources

Mark Fellows, The Counter-Reformation in the Sixteenth Century, (unpublished manuscript).

Baccis’s description of the enlargement of Philip’s heart is from The (“Old”) Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XII, St. Philip Romolo Neri.

The account of Philip and the Madonna is from Louis Ponnelle and Louis Bordet, St. Philip Neri and the Roman Society of His Times, Translated by Ralph Francis Kerr of the London Oratory, Sheed & Ward, 1932, p. 550.

Centuries after his death, some now argue that Philip’s enlarged heart resulted from an aneurysm. His contemporaries were unanimous in attributing his physical abnormality to a supernatural cause. There are numerous testimonies to violent heart palpitations accompanied by an “intolerable heat” that would force Philip to keep his windows open, even in the winter. He had a habit of pressing his penitents to his breast when he absolved them, and one penitent, the Abbate Crescenzi, “felt Philip’s heart beating with so great force that it seemed to him to be on the point of leaping from his breast.” The doctors treated him with bleedings and hot irons, and it is little surprise that Philip dismissed them as “dullards”, a term he may have applied to the medical minds of our time as well...

Feb 15, 2016 8:56am
I had never heard of St. Philip of Neri. What a fascinating and inspiring character!
Feb 16, 2016 6:14am
Nice presentation!
Feb 17, 2016 1:51am
Great read. I was not familiar with Saint Philip Neri
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