At last year's Cleveland International Film Festival a rousing documentary was shown called "Pride" in which the narrator travels to a handful of notoriously anti-gay countries and pro-gay countries to see how they celebrate Gay Pride. Most of the film centers around Russia, Moscow specifically, and a man named Nicholai Aleksev.
In the film the narrator tries to meet Aleksev who then brings together a group of supporters at an undisclosed location. They use covert phone calls with mysterious coded messages just in case they are being recorded or the phones are tapped. They issue a statement to the media they will be organizing a protest in one location, but instead go to another location so they won't get any reporters or secret police showing up. They launch a parade that consists of only a few people with a couple signs, but the parade is over in a minute because they don't want to attract too much attention. It's very cloak and dagger. Watching the film makes one shake their head in shame at how these poor gay rights activists must live in the shadows. The film lauds Aleksev tirelessly; you simply cannot help but sing his praises. And of course we have all read stories of how Moscow wouldn't allow gay marches, etc. so the film rings very true. By the end of the film nearly everyone who was present in the earlier meeting has been arrested for "seeding civil unrest".
I made friends with Aleksev on Facebook so I could show my international support for his cause. That's when things took a strange turn. Amid the fervent supporters I started noticing some detractors, and astonishingly, some of these detractors were Russian. Before he suddenly de-friended them and erased their posts, these detractors claimed they were meeting openly in Moscow and forming distinct political movements which were gaining some traction. They claimed Aleksev was making gay rights all about Aleksev and his cloak and dagger routine was simply an act to gain international support. Aleksev brushed off the complainers as people who didn't have vision, or as simply people who didn't like Aleksev.
Last year, on his Facebook page, Aleksev claimed he was thinking about coming to America. His American fans clamored to be the first ones to welcome him. Then he dramatically claimed he would never set foot in the country because he "hates" America with every 'cell in his body'. He made a number of such statements, but his fans reassured him they would still welcome him and reminded him that American politics don't necessarily reflect the attitudes and beliefs of the people. He finally gave in and decided he would plan a trip to the United States.
Finally, Nicolai Aleksev made his voyage to the U.S., paid for in part by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and some Californian gay rights groups. They set up a number of press interviews and a couple of speaking engagements, selling reasonably priced tickets to sell-out crowds. Nicolai "joked" that he was going to enter the country and while at customs he would create a commotion. His American sponsors/handlers asked him not to play around in such a manner, as he could get himself thrown out of the country. He entered quietly and safely.
As he made his way across the country, Aleksev gave interviews, most of which had been previously arranged by his handlers. Everyone counted on Aleksev being extremely outspoken in his views. What they didn't count on was that his views would also be extreme in unexpected ways. His HRC handlers began to terminate the interviews and cut the press junket short, hurriedly rushing him to California and avoiding the rest of America. Rumors began to spread that Aleksev was not only fervent in his support of gay rights, but also a racist, an anti-semite, an anti-Muslim, an anti-American, an anti-anti. He seemed to dislike everyone who was not a white Russian gay male.
When he got to California, Aleksev had grown tired of being told "not to speak". On the day of the big presentation and speech, Aleksev balked and refused to go. He found a few "friends" who took him out on the town to a myriad of gay bars and venues. Then he was asked, perhaps not politely, to pack his bags and go back to Russia. Tickets were refunded. His final parting words were delivered in a couple of interviews where he claimed his HRC handlers had badly managed him, had coerced him into delivering only prepared speeches, and refused to let him have the "freedom of speech" that American's tout so much.
Upon returning to his homeland Aleksev issued statement after statement condemning America and their support of the "evil Israel state". He then said he'd been arrested by secret police and held in a prison in rural Russia, but then the next day he was on a plane to Switzerland. He claimed to be poor, yet he vacationed in Switzerland for three weeks and then moved there at the beginning of 2011. His Facebook page documents at least three separate vacations since that time. It's good work when you can get it. His Facebook page also documents his extremely anti-semitic views, not just political views on the state of Israel, but how Jews ruin the world. He pulls no punches when it comes to his hatred of Americans, Muslims, and Arabs.
Aleksev may have helped the gay rights movement in Russia, or perhaps, as other gay groups in Russia claim, he has hindered them by focusing on getting arrested and making grand speeches which only help to buoy the anti-gay rhetoric of politicians. The New York Times recently called him the "face of gay rights in Russia". This is certainly so since his is the only gay face from Russia we've seen.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
on Karma
Hindus believe that people are born into particular castes: the Brahmins or Priests, the Kshatriyas or Rulers, the Vaisyas or Skilled Tradespersons, Merchants and Minor Officials, the Sudras or Unskilled Laborers and the Pariahs "Harijans" or Outcastes. You must do the best that you can with your lot in life. If you are born a Vaisya, you can be a merchant, but be the best merchant possible, and even be a rich and successful merchant. However, you are not supposed to cross over to another caste. For instance, if you are a merchant, you are not supposed to desire to be a priest, that would generate Karma. If you accept your lot in life, be happy and don't strive to be something else, you will eliminate Karma and make your future lives better. If you live your life without generating Karma, then your next life may be in a higher caste.
This goes against the American grain. In the U.S. we are told as children that we can be anything we want to be as long as we have the will and determination. We can even become President of the United States! For many people this concept develops itself into a constant dissatisfaction with their lot in life. Let's face it, only one person, up to now always white male, gets to be the President every four to eight years. That leaves an awful lot of people who will simply not be President.
I'm not advocating giving up and rolling over when conditions are truly bad. Just think about where you are in life and ask yourself if you'll ever be satisfied. Have you always told yourself, "I'm just working at this job as a stepping stone to something higher"? Of course you have. Very few people are at the "top of their game". Once we have a supervisor position we are taught, even by our own bosses, that if we aren't shooting for upper management then we just aren't "motivated". We must always desire to "better ourselves" and "move up the ladder".
I was at a dinner a while back when a dear relative announced after all the years of trying, she was finally pregnant. Both her mother and her mother-in-law openly wept at the "miracle". It had finally happened. God had finally blessed them with a grandchild. However, not more than a couple of minutes had passed when the mother-in-law announced that twins run on her side of the family. Both of the mothers instantly burst into exclamations of how truly wonderful it would be if only they were blessed with twin grandchildren instead of just one. I was appalled. Their brief moment of happiness was immediately quashed with the instant desire for something better.
My father, as a senior retiree, was invited to take part in a project put on by the police of Eugene, Oregon. He and a group of fellow seniors would walk around the downtown malls and write "tickets" on any vehicle parked in a handicap space without a visible permit. The tickets were not-so-friendly reminders and carried no actual weight, but it scared the bejeebus out of people. My father got huge satisfaction out of it. However, once the ticketed person realized it wasn't an actual ticket, they usually threw the paper away. My father decided to start wearing a jacket which looked similar to a police uniform. He kept asking for a shirt that read "police", but of course they kept refusing him. Eventually he quit the group. Just issuing a reminder wasn't enough for him; he yearned for real power.
I think we have all, from time to time, felt inferior to others. I don't make very much money, so I feel slightly inferior to rich people. I don't have an expensive education, so I can get a bit inferior-feeling when surrounded by Harvard and Yale alumni. Of course this is ingrained into us. The colleges themselves drum the concept of superiority into their students, who are paying for the education and therefor want something in return for their money. If the student is going to spend a great deal of money, more than someone going to a "lesser" college, they want to feel they are getting the superior education. I've been in a room where people are discussing a not-present colleague and I've been absolutely flabbergasted when they say, "yes, but she went to Cleveland State", so obviously her education doesn't count for much.
All this striving, inferiority, superiority, power, yearning, is creating so much karma in the world.
My mother used to work for Key Bank. She worked and worked, put up with office politics, suffered through strategic realignments as her branch was bought and sold several times, and always she had a goal in mind: one day she would retire and take it easy, or maybe travel, or maybe take up some kind of hobby. She was never satisfied, always working for that elusive future. When my father retired early, it forced her to put off retirement for a few more years than she had planned. Then she developed breast cancer and passed away. There never was a retirement, an easy time, a travel plan, or a new found hobby. She spent her life striving for something better that never came. So much karma.
So ask yourself, "when will I be satisfied?" Is it in the future somewhere?
This goes against the American grain. In the U.S. we are told as children that we can be anything we want to be as long as we have the will and determination. We can even become President of the United States! For many people this concept develops itself into a constant dissatisfaction with their lot in life. Let's face it, only one person, up to now always white male, gets to be the President every four to eight years. That leaves an awful lot of people who will simply not be President.
I'm not advocating giving up and rolling over when conditions are truly bad. Just think about where you are in life and ask yourself if you'll ever be satisfied. Have you always told yourself, "I'm just working at this job as a stepping stone to something higher"? Of course you have. Very few people are at the "top of their game". Once we have a supervisor position we are taught, even by our own bosses, that if we aren't shooting for upper management then we just aren't "motivated". We must always desire to "better ourselves" and "move up the ladder".
I was at a dinner a while back when a dear relative announced after all the years of trying, she was finally pregnant. Both her mother and her mother-in-law openly wept at the "miracle". It had finally happened. God had finally blessed them with a grandchild. However, not more than a couple of minutes had passed when the mother-in-law announced that twins run on her side of the family. Both of the mothers instantly burst into exclamations of how truly wonderful it would be if only they were blessed with twin grandchildren instead of just one. I was appalled. Their brief moment of happiness was immediately quashed with the instant desire for something better.
My father, as a senior retiree, was invited to take part in a project put on by the police of Eugene, Oregon. He and a group of fellow seniors would walk around the downtown malls and write "tickets" on any vehicle parked in a handicap space without a visible permit. The tickets were not-so-friendly reminders and carried no actual weight, but it scared the bejeebus out of people. My father got huge satisfaction out of it. However, once the ticketed person realized it wasn't an actual ticket, they usually threw the paper away. My father decided to start wearing a jacket which looked similar to a police uniform. He kept asking for a shirt that read "police", but of course they kept refusing him. Eventually he quit the group. Just issuing a reminder wasn't enough for him; he yearned for real power.
I think we have all, from time to time, felt inferior to others. I don't make very much money, so I feel slightly inferior to rich people. I don't have an expensive education, so I can get a bit inferior-feeling when surrounded by Harvard and Yale alumni. Of course this is ingrained into us. The colleges themselves drum the concept of superiority into their students, who are paying for the education and therefor want something in return for their money. If the student is going to spend a great deal of money, more than someone going to a "lesser" college, they want to feel they are getting the superior education. I've been in a room where people are discussing a not-present colleague and I've been absolutely flabbergasted when they say, "yes, but she went to Cleveland State", so obviously her education doesn't count for much.
All this striving, inferiority, superiority, power, yearning, is creating so much karma in the world.
My mother used to work for Key Bank. She worked and worked, put up with office politics, suffered through strategic realignments as her branch was bought and sold several times, and always she had a goal in mind: one day she would retire and take it easy, or maybe travel, or maybe take up some kind of hobby. She was never satisfied, always working for that elusive future. When my father retired early, it forced her to put off retirement for a few more years than she had planned. Then she developed breast cancer and passed away. There never was a retirement, an easy time, a travel plan, or a new found hobby. She spent her life striving for something better that never came. So much karma.
So ask yourself, "when will I be satisfied?" Is it in the future somewhere?
Sunday, June 5, 2011
on Movies
Movie Review time: (warning, do give away some pertinent details of these movies which could spoil the film for you. I won't explicitly tell you the ending, but many of the details lead directly to the endings)
Over the last few days I have seen The Adjustment Bureau, Limitless, and Source Code.
The Adjustment Bureau: 3 out of 5 stars.
Matt Damon stars as a rising politician who has a chance encounter with a lovely woman that changes his mind about a speech, thereby altering his own fate. A mysterious group of men control fate, and have set up this "chance encounter". However, due to an error, he runs into the woman again and this sets off a chain of reactions in time. The Adjustment Bureau must correct the time line by keeping Damon and the woman apart. As the old saying goes, 'you cannot un-ring a bell', so Damon is rightfully aggravated and decides to fight the "powers that be".
The movie plods along through the encounters between Damon and the woman and the pace doesn't really pick up until Damon discovers what the Bureau does. Even then we must watch as Damon gets more and more frustrated. Finally the movie and the characters take off when Damon decides to fight fate. The message of self-determination versus prewritten fate is heavy handed but necessary to the plot. The Christian demagoguery is a bit overdone and by the end of the movie everyone should know what will happen or they just haven't been paying attention.
Limitless: 4 out of 5 stars.
The Hangover's Bradley Cooper stars as a deadbeat writer who's laziness and procrastination drives everything away from him. His "dealer" former brother-in-law slips him a dose of a new experimental drug which stimulates the "unused" portion of the brain, turning a deadbeat into an intellectual and financial genius. The memory call-ups seem a bit like the television show "Chuck", while the concept of the drug's side effects and waring-off symptoms is reminiscent of the novel "Flowers for Algernon".
Cooper does a pretty good job being the quasi-hipster turned into the Wall Street douchebag. The story is fairly well thought out and has a bit of a surprise ending.
Source Code: 4 out of 5 stars.
Cow-eyed Jake Gyllenhaal plays a man who must use 8 minutes of the past to stop a train from blowing up. Each time he returns to the train he gathers just a little bit more information. Of course his mission is derailed (pun intended) when he begins to care about one of the passengers and about his own mysterious past. The script is well crafted and the mysteries are layered over themselves. The big boss Ruttledge is the only down-side to the film as his acting seems stilted and amateurish. The end of the film probably creates a few more questions than it should, but time travel/alternate realities tend to do that.
Over the last few days I have seen The Adjustment Bureau, Limitless, and Source Code.
The Adjustment Bureau: 3 out of 5 stars.
Matt Damon stars as a rising politician who has a chance encounter with a lovely woman that changes his mind about a speech, thereby altering his own fate. A mysterious group of men control fate, and have set up this "chance encounter". However, due to an error, he runs into the woman again and this sets off a chain of reactions in time. The Adjustment Bureau must correct the time line by keeping Damon and the woman apart. As the old saying goes, 'you cannot un-ring a bell', so Damon is rightfully aggravated and decides to fight the "powers that be".
The movie plods along through the encounters between Damon and the woman and the pace doesn't really pick up until Damon discovers what the Bureau does. Even then we must watch as Damon gets more and more frustrated. Finally the movie and the characters take off when Damon decides to fight fate. The message of self-determination versus prewritten fate is heavy handed but necessary to the plot. The Christian demagoguery is a bit overdone and by the end of the movie everyone should know what will happen or they just haven't been paying attention.
Limitless: 4 out of 5 stars.
The Hangover's Bradley Cooper stars as a deadbeat writer who's laziness and procrastination drives everything away from him. His "dealer" former brother-in-law slips him a dose of a new experimental drug which stimulates the "unused" portion of the brain, turning a deadbeat into an intellectual and financial genius. The memory call-ups seem a bit like the television show "Chuck", while the concept of the drug's side effects and waring-off symptoms is reminiscent of the novel "Flowers for Algernon".
Cooper does a pretty good job being the quasi-hipster turned into the Wall Street douchebag. The story is fairly well thought out and has a bit of a surprise ending.
Source Code: 4 out of 5 stars.
Cow-eyed Jake Gyllenhaal plays a man who must use 8 minutes of the past to stop a train from blowing up. Each time he returns to the train he gathers just a little bit more information. Of course his mission is derailed (pun intended) when he begins to care about one of the passengers and about his own mysterious past. The script is well crafted and the mysteries are layered over themselves. The big boss Ruttledge is the only down-side to the film as his acting seems stilted and amateurish. The end of the film probably creates a few more questions than it should, but time travel/alternate realities tend to do that.
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