[78-L] Olde-timers

[Michael Biel]

From: Julian Vein <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk>
> Because Robeson believed that racism didn't exist in Russia,
> he overlooked (or wasn't aware of) other awful things that
> were happening there, and probably persuaded others to follow him.
> Julian Vein

He didn't notice that Russia was a very racist society because he was a
novelty there -- he was the only Black they had ever seen -- and the
Russian racism was against races other than his.  The Chechnia war was
purely racism.  Examples were pointed out to me on the streets of Moscow
and in the Russian media when I was there in 95.  Now that there ARE
Blacks in Moscow -- stranded students from then-Communist Rwanda who
can't return -- there is Russian racism against Paul Robeson's race.

But actors and musicians tend to travel around the country and around
the world more than regular folks, and they get to see a lot of things
and meet a lot of people from these different places, sometimes much
more than our politicians.  Many of those who bluster that our country
is the greatest country in the world have never been to other countries
to compare -- and sometimes when they had traveled they were the "ugly
american" who always complained that the frogs don't speak English and
that they can't find a decent hamburger.  Remember, our recent president
had only been out of the U.S. four times in his entire life, and most of
those trips were drunken binges.  He told British reporters on his first
trip there that he thought that he had been to London once before, but
it would have been on a pub crawl so he wasn't sure.  

Actors tend to be good observers of people, and they use what they see
to create characters.  If any of you watched the Haiti telethon last
night, George Clooney is a good example.  His father Nick was a
journalist, and has had a great influence on George.  A close colleague
of mine worked in news with Nick, and a couple of years ago he
accompanied Nick and George on one of their trips to Africa to see and
document the devastation of the drought and the civil and tribal wars. 
George has the time and the money to be able to do these things far more
than our politicians do.  He also is more intelligent than most of our
politicians.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com 


eugene hayhoe wrote:
>> Vague though they may be, I'll take the politics of someone
>> like Paul Robeson, Bob Marley or Kurt Weill over those of a
>> Richard Nixon or a Bill Clinton, etc.  Gene
==================
From: Julian Vein <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk>
Some political views may on the surface appear more worthy than others 
but if they are based on false premises they are just as dangerous as 
the outright self-aggrandisement ones.