MYSTERY FLIGHTS : RENDITIONS BBC

Anyway here is part one of the 2007 BBC documentary Mystery Flights about US Renditions program .



So more of this film next time.

Will those in the Bush administration and their cronies and their death squads ever have to face justice . Will Hillary or Obama make sure that justice is done or are they too beholden to the statue quo.

At Bush's state of the Union address Hillary Clinton showed her true colors stood up with the other sheep and applauded President Bush while Barack Obama stayed defiantly seated . Hillary Clinton like Bill Clinton is just one of the elite and has little interest in truly changing America's delusions of grandeur . Oh yes she might tinker with the system but otherwise she like Bush wants to make sure her and her rich friends continue to increase their wealth and power.What can one expect of a former CEO of Wallmart .

And so it goes,
GORD.

La Vie En Rose Film of Edith Piaf's Life

Here's some clips from the beautiful and sad film about the tragic and triumphant Life of the French Singer Edith Piaf: La Vie En Rose:

for more see:Official Move Site , La Vie En Rose


La Vie En Rose- Trailer
From the streets of the cutthroat Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling
limelight of New York's glamorous concert halls, Edith Piaf's life was a constant
battle to sing and survive, to live and love. Raised in abject poverty, surrounded by hookers and pimps, Edith's magical voice made her a star on both sides of the Atlantic. Her passionate romances and friendships with the greatest names of the period -- Yves Montand, Jean Cocteau, Charles Aznavour, Marlene Deitrich, boxing world champion Marcel Cerdan -- made her a household name as much as her memorable live performances and beautiful renditions of songs she made famous internationally, "La Vie en Rose", "Milord", "Hymn to Love", "Non, je ne regrette rien" and many more. But in her audacious attempt to tame her tragic destiny, the "Little Sparrow" -- as she was nicknamed -- flew so high that she could not fail to burn her wings



La Marseillaise from the film of the life of Edith Piaf : La Vie en Rose



La môme - Je ne regrette rien
I Regret Nothing



and here's the first known film recording of the wonderfully stirring French song La Marseillais :

La Marseillaise - 1905
good picture and sound given it's age- must have taken some effort to clean it up .



see you later,
gord

Langston Hughes (1902-1967)- " A Dream Deferred "

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

Poetry by Langston Hughes- The Weary Blues



see you later,
gord

Martin Luther King Day - Lynchings in America

Strange Fruit - Lynchings In America



For more on Historical oppression of Black People in America see:
America's Black Holocaust Museum

Here are some excerpts from Martin Luther King's " Letter From A Birmingham Jail "

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture...

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. But I am sure that if I had lived in Germany during that time I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal. If I lived in a Communist country today where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate disobeying these anti-religious laws.


...A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of Saint Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority, and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. To use the words of Martin Buber, the Jewish philosopher, segregation substitutes and "I-it" relationship for an "I-thou" relationship, and ends up relegating persons to the status of things...

An unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts on a minority that is not binding on itself. This is difference made legal. On the other hand a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.

An unjust law is a code inflicted upon a minority which that minority had no part in enacting or creating because they did not have the unhampered right to vote.

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy, and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.

The Failure of the White Churches :

I felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be some of our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of the stained-glass windows.

I have heard numerous religious leaders of the South call upon their worshippers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers say, "follow this decree because integration is morally right and the Negro is your brother." In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churches stand on the sideline and merely mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard so many ministers say, "Those are social issues with which the gospel has no real concern." And I have watched so many churches commit themselves to a completely other-worldly religion which made a strange distinction between body and soul, the sacred and the secular.


In deep disappointment, I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love.

The contemporary church is often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are.

But the judgement of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.

Martin Luther King Jr. "Letter From a Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963"

Martin Luther King Jr. : " I Have A Dream "

Now here is some inspiring poetry by Martin Luther King Jr.
" I Have A Dream "



and another splendid and inspiring song :
Eyes On The Prize- Mavis Staples

M.C. BELLY : CANADIAN PERFORMER

So here's a couple of videos from Canadian performer M. C. Belly

History of Violence- M.C.Belly The Truth




Belly Folloe Me from The Albm THE REVOLUTION
Added: October 21, 2007




see you later,
gord

A BLACK WOMAN'S SMILE BY TY GRAY EL : SPOKEN WORD

Anyway here's a wonderful bit of poetry by TY GRAY EL. It is both beautiful and sad.
Spoken Word : A BLACK WOMAN'S SMILE



all the best,
gord