...Blood Diamond...

"Scatter your good deeds all around,
Not caring whether they fall on those near or far away,
Just as the rain never cares where the clouds pour it out,
Whether on fertile ground or rocks."

~ Ibn Siraj- Cordoba Spain. Died 1114 AD.~



This is the fairly deep poem that was part of a trinity of poems my students discussed today in Social Studies. We're studying early Islam and its spread and looked at the culture of Muslim Spain this morning. I think that this poem is both beautiful and relevant; I suppose it takes the bumper sticker "Practice random acts of kindness, sensless acts of beauty" to a whole new level. Seems like they really did make things better back in the old days.

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A friend of mine made a comment to me in an email recently, and I quote "I've noticed your Blog posting has become a little intermittent, so I'm guessing either there's nothing going on, or there's something going on." Good options. But which is it? Well, I suppose it's a little of both. I have been busy lately, but not with anything particularly news-worthy. The novelty of the beaches have worn off slightly and soon I'll just have to start recycling photographs. I'm worried you are all going to get tired of pictures of Sierra Leonean children and dirt roads, and I never seem to have my camera around for those "I wish I had a camera" moments (although, the lack of camera at that moment does define it). I'd like to start a couple of snapshot series including "I didn't know you could write that on a T-Shirt...or an automobile." and "Only in Salone." This will be a work in progress...

Second term ends this week and so I will be working on report cards on Saturday.


All day.


I could take photos of that...but...well...exactly.

I guess we could say I'm settling into life in Freetown and when that happened my perspective changed slightly and the previously spectacular became mundane.

Talking about changing persective....

BLOOD DIAMOND

So I watched a pirated version of this movie last night at Mamba Point, a popular after-work and weekend hang-out for ex-pats. Tuesdaynight is movie night. I think the constant thought I had while watching the film was "what would I be thinking about this if I were back in Canada?" I'm certain that my reaction to the movie would have been different if I had been watching it in an air-conditioned theatre in Toronto or Hailfax, rather than in a restaurant that masquerades as a theatre once a week, where ex-pats are waited on by Sierra Leoneans, and where I sit in the knowledge that the real Sierra Leone is just outside the panes of glass and metal bars lining the large windows. I think if I were in Canada I would have fallen for the emotional theatrics of the film and I would probably be teary-eyed at the end, if not all out bawling. But I was neither here. It's not that I didn't experience emotion while watching the film, but it was hard to believe some of the movie - the terrible Afrikans accent, the deplorable Krio (which sounds more like a native Chinese speaker trying to speak English than it does Krio), and the fact that I didn't recognize any scenery as being in Sierra Leone (a fact because the film was mainly shot it Mozambique and South Africa). Not that they didn't try, it just wasn't that convincing. Also, fishing boats don't have sails. And the beaches here are more beautiful than the ones in the film and the mountains are more impressive.

Another strange feeling I had was based on a line from the film where Leonardo DiCaprio's character is talking to Jennifer Connelly's character in a beach bar in Freetown. She is accusing DiCaprio of abusing the continent and its inhabitants and DiCaprio retorts with something like imperfect quotation) "You come here with your malaria medication, notebooks, and little bottles of handsanitizers and think you're making a difference!"

I took my Larium on Sunday morning.
I keep my mini-bottles of handsanitizer in my bedroom closet.
I have another in my desk drawer.
Notebooks are everywhere I am.

I was sitting in a room packed with about 50 other people who could say close to the same
thing.

Right.

Overall, the film isn't a bad portrayal of events from the civil war. The portrayal of child soldiers seems convincing and fairly accuarate. While I watched it I wondered what my friend who was a child soldier would think of it. I suppose his reaction to the movie could be compared to the experience of war veterans watching Saving Private Ryan.

Anyway, to summarise, my feelings were mixed but I'd still add it to my 'films that mean something' collection.

And that, is that.