Dear Child is only one minute and 19 seconds long but it’s essential viewing.  Written by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Chris Hedges, he takes us on an unflinching trip to a day in the life of a child in Gaza who lives under Israel’s killing machine.  It is done in drawings in black and white. Amazing and it’s here.  

Eric, new series on Netflix

It has

• serious strife between wealthy elderly parents and (grown) son, Vincent, who is a puppeteer

• a missing 9 year old white boy—who actually leaves a map as to where he’s gone

• racism writ large among the New York City police

• at least one murder by New York City police

• the New York police using a mob-related sanitation crew to get rid of a dead body

• a married middle class couple, Vincent and Cassie, who fight constantly (about what I’m not sure)

• Vincent, a hero (Benedict Cumberbatch) who is an alcoholic, and mentally ill

• Cassie as the long suffering wife

• neglectful parents

• the theme of child sexual abuse

• the family’s apartment bldg. janitor (a Black ex-con) suspected of abduction and child abuse

• a clever “Girl Friday” at the cop shop who is looking for love

• a super little kids’ puppet show, modelled on the Sesame Street

• a brand new puppet, Eric, that manages to save the day

• an angry Black detective who has to hide his being gay

• the spectre of Aids which, in the 1980s, haunts whites’ relationships with Blacks

• corrupt city officials, including the deputy mayor

• New York seething in crime, hostility, racism and shows garbage everywhere

• the requisite several minutes in every episode of unnecessary violence

• massive lines for free food for the homeless and unemployed

• a volunteer social worker dedicated to feeding the poor

• death of a lover

• overacting – especially by Vincent who chews up the scenery

• a disco club from the 1980s, with lots of drugs and sex and underage kids

• a grungy basketball court where drug deals go down

• hoodlums from Eastern Europe

• a missing 14-year-old Black boy, whose mother sits in the cop shop, and accuses the police of doing nothing to find her son who has been missing for a year.

• a Black woman lawyer with oversized ‘80s glasses who berates the police for ignoring Black people

• poor people in New York, enraged by the lack of affordable housing and furious at land speculators and developers who build high-priced condos

• a desperate-looking tent-city where many homeless live underground in the subway tunnels

• a large spirited demonstration for affordable housing, that morphs into a call for peace and love

As one online pundit wrote:  “How many social issues does one want to jam into one show?”

I suggest you sit through the first 2 episodes of Eric, and then move on.  The last four episodes are terrible, unbelievable, improbable, and faux-magical –if that’s a word.  The series simply does not hold water let alone hold together a plot.  Spoiler alert:  all’s well that ends well, as in typical US movie style. If you like British actor Cumberbatch overacting, this is for you. The American actors are all monochrome figures who are almost laughable – from thugs and  and murderers, to a pure biracial volunteer doling out free food. On the upside, I read that Cumberbatch has a CBE, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, which I guess is a little like the Order of Canada.  I’m sure he won it before this film disaster.  Eric is on Netflix.  Here’s the trailer.

Origin, a film by Ava DuVernay

On Prime, I watched Ava DuVernay’s feature film Origin.

It’s a film loosely fashioned on Isabel Wilkerson’s bombshell book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents a bestselling book published in 2020.  This is a sensible and sensitive film.  Visually, it is wonderful, the dialogue is good. Actor Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor plays Isabel Wilkerson with empathy and vulnerability.  Your eyes will barely leave the screen. The difficulty is that the film tries to discuss very big issues about race, class, caste and nationalism through the writing, interviews and travels of author Wilkerson.  Tragically, at age 50, Wilkenson loses both her husband and her much-loved mother within a year. Rather than sit home and grieve, she pushes on with research for a book that explores race and caste in countries as divergent as India, the US, and Nazi Germany.  It has prompted me to read her book Caste.  Here is the trailer for Origin

Below: Photo of Stephen Lawrence, physiotherapist couple in American Nightmare; Eric the puppet and Cumberbatch; still from Origin; Doreen Lawrence, painting by Thomas Ganter in the National Portrait Gallery London.

Conviction: the Case of Stephen Lawrence is on GEM (free) and Prime.  In 1993, Stephen Lawrence a 17-year-old Black high school student in southeast London (UK) was murdered at a bus stop by a group of white youths who were part of a known racist gang.  The tragedy would hardly have seen the light of day if it weren’t for Stephen’s parents, who were Jamaican immigrants. His mother, Doreen, especially dug deep and accused London’s Metropolitan Police of racism and corruption in their efforts to find her son’s killers.  This short series is worth watching, but leaves out many salient facts that point to the Met’s incredible perversion of justice and ongoing hostility toward Blacks.  In this newsletter, I wrote a review about an excellent book on the Lawrence murder and the “trials” (if you can call them that) of the murderers.  The book by Brian Cathcart details key events in the almost 20-year prosecution of the killers.  Doreen Lawrence, in the late 1990s, managed to get the ear of Tony Blair, then Britain’s prime minister.  He saw this as a cause célèbre–racism in the London (and by extension) all police forces in the UK.  Doreen Lawrence became a hero and a crusader against the police and against the enduring (and systemic) racism in the UK. Though her marriage and her dreams for her family were shattered, she became an activist and an anti-racist community organizer.  In 1993 she was named a life peer to the House of Lords; she sits on the Labour benches.  Here’s the trailer.

Thrillers and Spies

Page Eight is a British thriller on Netflix.  It’s the first in a series of three films, but I can only find this one.  Bill Nighy plays Worricker a spy working for MI5 in London.  He is about 60 years old but his neighbour in his apartment building, a lovely young woman shows an interest in him.  He a repressed sort and long divorced becomes suspicious.  When his best friend, mentor and boss at MI5 dies suddenly and suspiciously, certain files land on Worricker’s  desk.  These show that the British government had known about the US “black sites” (torture sites) used after 9-11.  The production values are high, the plot is complex but it’s a great feature film to watch.  Trailer’s here.

American Nightmare is also on Netflix.  It’s a documentary, in three parts and definitely worth watching.  The 2024 series covers the March 2015 kidnapping in a small California town of physiotherapist Denise Huskins from the home she shared with her boyfriend, fellow physiotherapist, Aaron Quinn.  He is bound and drugged, then wakes to find Denise is gone.  He alerts the police.  Due to lack of direct evidence, the fact the couple lives in a nice neighbourhood, nothing has been stolen and they both have good jobs and reliable families, the police see this as a prank crime, — one that never took place.  They accuse Quinn of be murdering Denise, and getting rid of her body.  Both Huskins and Quinn are interviewed at length in the series and you will be torn between believing them – and thinking they are indeed hoaxers.  Riveting. Well worth watching especially if you like to see cops with tunnel vision.

Sherwood is also excellent.  It is a 2022 series based on a double homicide that took place in a small village in Nottinghamshire, UK in 2005.  It was a mining area for decades before the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike.  This strike you can read about it here and an eyewitness account here.  Margaret Thatcher, then Britain’s Tory PM vowed to destroy what was the most militant union in the country, the Miners Union.  Most have heard of its leader Arthur Scargill.  But the town of “Sherwood” was split – while some stuck with the union and the strike, others crossed the lines and went back to the mines to work.  In the 2000s it was revealed that the police used agents provocateurs among the police to provoke violence which caused mass arrests and injuries during the strike. Some of these police agents continued to live in the towns, undetected This series examines that as well as the two murders which – decades later – defined the era.  Highly recommended.  It’s on Britbox, here’s the trailer.

Never stop talking about Gaza

The Night Won’t End: Biden’s War on Gaza is a very chilling new documentary on Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines here.   Many readers will recall the story of Hind Rajab, the six-year-old girl in Gaza City, who in late January 2024, was deliberately killed by Israeli tank fire as she hid in her uncle’s car.  Her uncle, aunt, 15-year-old cousin and two younger children had already been murdered by the IOF.  She was alone and in the car.  Then after hours on the phone with the Red Crescent, desperately afraid—the Israelis murdered her.   

The story is this—if you can’t face watching the hour plus documentary:  Hind Rajab, her 4-year-old brother, and her mother Wisam were hiding in Gaza City with an uncle’s family.  But Gaza City became too dangerous for survival, so the uncle took his family plus Hind in the car toward the outskirts of the city.  The tanks were meters from the uncle’s apartment, so the family had to find a safer place.  He told Wisam he’d drop off the six he had with him in the car, then return soon for her and her small son,

Soon after they left, she saw the car fired upon– so Wisam fled with her son on foot.

The car was struck by Israeli tank fire (tank was 13-20 metres away) at a gas station nearby.  The aunt and uncle died, along with three children but the cousin Layan survived. The girls phoned the Red Crescent and cried “come and get us”. But to do that the Red Crescent had to beg to coordinate safe access with the Israelis.  “When are you coming?”  the girls said.  Suddenly shots were fired from a nearby tank and killed Layan. Hind was alone in the car.  The Red Crescent patched Hind’s mother through. Wisam urged Hind to be brave and to stay on the phone and wait. Hours passed, the Israelis agreed to allow the ambulance in and sent a route map as to where the car was located. Three hours later, two paramedics arrived at the scene.  By now it was 7 pm and dark. There was a huge noise, Hind screamed on the phone; an Israeli tank targeted the ambulance killing both paramedics instantly.  The car, a Kia Picanto, had 335 bullet holes.

Hind said on the phone she was shot in the back, the arm and the foot and her voice was weak. Suddenly her voice disappeared.  Virtually nothing was left of the ambulance.  Nothing was found of the paramedics.  A few bones were discovered in the wreck of the car.  The Israeli  military never responded to inquiries.  Two forensic architects found there had been 64 gunshots in 6 seconds.  So the tank nearby had fired 750 to 900 shots in a minute. That is consistent with the Merkava tanks that Israel uses. The artillery was made in the US. 

The 6-yr-old pleaded for her life– but the US never investigated.

It took 12 days until it was safe to go to the scene as the Israel held Gaza City.  

What to Read

The most enjoyable and clever read this month has been Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham. The lawyer lives on the 25^th floor so no one can easily find him. His living room barely fits his regulation size … table.  His clientele is strictly criminals.  He has to have a minder, who drives him around and keeps others off his back. He deals in cash.  His ex-wife keeps their 7 year-old-son away from him because the dad’s a bad influence.  If he’s not shooting pool in his apartment alone, he goes to cage matches and bets thousands of dollars on fighters and drinks beer.  Grisham weaves a wonderful tale and you won’t want to miss a page.  It’s also more than a bit sarcastic and funny.

I also read Grisham’s The Racketeer – which has all the hallmarks of a gold heist.  But the thieves are already inmates in two US jails, and a Jamaican jail. Throw in a crooked judge in Virginia – who gets killed alongside his much younger girlfriend.  Of course gold bars, the size of dominoes stored in cigar boxes, are the fascinating part.  The story is this: a 43-year-old Black lawyer in Virginia, Malcolm Bannister, goes to jail for a comparatively minor real estate deal done wrong; he is stripped of his legal license and status, and sentenced to 10 years behind bars.  His wife leaves him and takes their young son.  His only visitor is his hard-ass father, an ex-state trooper who believes in law and order. Five years into Bannister’s sentence, he tells the FBI that he knows who killed Judge Fawcett and his girlfriend –and why.  Bannister and the FBI strike a deal that if Bannister reveals the name of the shooter, and the FBI apprehends and tries him, not only will Bannister be freed but he’ll also get the $150,000 reward money.  The results are wild and unpredictable.  I preferred Rogue Lawyer but The Racketeer is pretty good, the pace is fast, the plot complicated, but it all hangs together nicely.

Reading Sarah Bernstein’s Study for Obedience was a pleasure. In it nothing happens but everything happens.  Canadian author Bernstein won last year’s Giller prize for this book. The unnamed protagonist is a young woman –maybe in her late 30s.  She’s worked in telephone sales, as typist and transcriber in back offices. She likes to live quietly, behind the scenes where her emotions remain buried. She goes to live as a caretaker in her brother’s house in a remote town in what may be Poland or somewhere in Eastern Europe.  It’s a gothic kind of house – big, wonderful, beautiful gardens and patios, tasteful, and a three-legged dog for company.  We discover her brother no longer lives there.  At the start of the book, she portrays him (at least a decade older than she) as a man very involved in international business and finance who rarely returns to his home.  He fluently speaks the language of the mystery country, so he has been able to live there without too many problems. She, on the other hand, has no knowledge of the language or customs of this country and its people. The villagers are suspicious and hateful toward her.  She is not easily put off, and tries to get involved in some community farming activities.  Whether she is seen as a witch, a Jew (the villagers go to church and cross themselves when they see her) or merely an unwelcome outsider, the villagers turn  against her. As I read, I kept thinking I’d see the villagers line the driveway to her brother’s house with tiki-torches before the last chapter.  But the end of the book is not at all what I had expected. At times the reader’s fear of the villagers’ rage is almost  heart-stopping.  Yet often her life in the big house is pure boredom and repetitive chores.  This book is fascinating and wonderful. I recommend it.

Don’t stop talking about Gaza

It is worthwhile to read the short report “Counting the Dead in Gaza: Difficult but Essential” in the July 5 edition of The Lancet.  Few in the medical, health care or even in other professions doubt the high quality and superior analysis for which articles in The Lancet are known. Numbers and statistics are rarely, if ever, exaggerated.  So it came as a shock to read about the real number of Palestinian casualties in Gaza.

“Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37 396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2 375 259, this would translate to 7·9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip.”

The Lancet goes so far as to explain why accurate figures are essential to a ceasefire, and ending the war on Gaza.

… “Documenting the true scale is crucial for ensuring historical accountability and acknowledging the full cost of the war. It is also a legal requirement. The interim measures set out by the International Court of Justice in January, 2024, require Israel to “take effective measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence related to allegations of acts within the scope of … the Genocide Convention”.”

Corrupt Canadian police in our sights

The Toronto Star has an insightful report on how Canadian police officers are violating people’s rights “with alarming frequency”.  It’s here—frightening to read but the graphics are well – graphic!! Here’s a teaser:

“In the last seven years, judges have criticized nine police forces across Canada for displaying a pattern of Charter violating conduct. These serious breaches, repeated by officers in successive cases, include:  performing unwarranted strip searches (Toronto, RCMP); storming into houses without good enough reasons (Prince Albert, SK); and filming partially naked female prisoners while they used the toilet (Edmonton).”

What Podcasts to listen to…

The History Extra podcast by the BBC has a three part series all about the Suffragettes.  The woman who slashed the Rokeby Venus was none other than a Canadian Suffragette, Mary Richardson from Belleville, Ont.  Well worth hearing here.  

Again, at the top of my list is Al Jazeera’s The Take. Seven days a week for less than 20 minutes, The Take presents reporters on the scene of major events – from Gaza to Georgia, from Ukraine to the UK.  From  Israel’s Backdoor Annexation Of The Occupied West Bank to Project 2025: a Blueprint for Conservative Takeover.  Go to the series here.

The BBC’s Witness History is a 9 minute account on a very wide range of subjects from air fryers, to the 1993 Conservative wipeout in Canada! The First CIA-backed Coup in Latin America.  It was in Guatemala 1954. Here it is and worth hearing.

Noticed:

Two new sculptures were beheaded by right-wing men recently.  As reported by Hyperallergic, the excellent online arts magazine, Witness by Shahzia Sikander was beheaded at the University of Houston on July 8.  Said sculptor Sikander her works “demand a reimagining of the feminine not simply as Lady Justice with her scale, but of the female as an active agency, a thinker, a participant as well as a witness to the patriarchal history of art and law.” On July 1, Esther Strauss’s sculpture Crowning  “drew intense ire from some conservative Christians who viewed the work as “blasphemous” and “scandalous”. It too was beheaded at St Mary’s Cathedral in Linz, Austria. 

Painting at the top of this post: The Toilet of Venus (also known as the Rokeby Venus), by Diego Velazquez (Spanish: 1647-1651). Painting hangs to this day in the National Gallery, London.