The Film Empire of Light, With Its Two Main Themes of Mental Health And Racism, Courts Inevitable Comparisons To The Time Back Then In Which It Is Set And The Prevailing Times of Today. It’s Clear There’s Been Alot of Progress, And Yet Paradoxically, Not Much Has Changed, As So Much Remains The Same. Especially Human Nature!
(See Seperate Empire of Light Film Review In TheOrator.Press (TO.P) February Issue)
Life’s Challenges Don’t Come Conveniently Individually Wrapped With Each One Politely Waiting To Take Their Turn. Different Realities Intertwine And Co-Exist At The Same Time. This Film Challenges Viewers To Open Their Eyes And Deal With That Fact! Some Are Capable of It More Than Others. The Really Interesting Question Is Why Is That?
To Say There Is Too Much Going On In Empire of Light Because It Deals With Politics, Mental Ill- Health, Medical Indifference And Ignorance, Racism, Family Issues, Music Collaborations, Sex Between Different Age Groups – Particularly When A Woman Is The Older Lover – The Uplifting Power of Sex And The Deflation of Rejection – And It Should Instead Have Just Dealt With One Thing or Another Other, Is of Course – A Madness! Life Simply Does Not Work Like That.
The Point Is, No Matter The Era or The Emergency, Retaining One’s Own Ray of Light Is Essential To Survival.
The Anti-Facist League, William & Harry And The Premature Death of Lady Diana, And The New Diwali-Devoted, Prada-Wearing, Tory Prime Minister
Ed Sheeran Was Very Close Friends With The Late Music Entrepreneur And Founder of Self-Belief TV @sbtvonline @JamalEdwards OBE
Photo: Theresa Coffey MP. What A Turnip! Not Much Has Changed When It Comes To Human Nature And Those In Power Seeking To Abuse It & Undermine Others With Their “Do As I Say Not As I Do” Attitude. Last Month The Environment Secretary Suggested The Public Eat Turnips As A Solution To The Country’s Shortage of Vegetables (Which The Tories Deny Have Anything To Do With Suppy Issues Following Brex-It). Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey Compared It To Marie-Antoinette Saying “Let Them Eat Cake” And The Onset of The French Revolution.
Queen Bey @beyonce Is Married To Music Mogul JayZ @JayZ Founder of @RocNation @rocnationsports And Roc Nation Sports International @RocNationSI
Then: Set In Thatcherite Britain In The Early 80s This Is The Era of Miners Strikes, Poll Tax Demonstrations, The Murdoch Docklands Press Revolution, Police Brutality Towards Press Workers, The New Cross Fire Demonstrators, The Brixton Riots, And The Anti-Fascist League Who Were The Main Opposition Group To Far Right Skinhead Group The National Front. The Anti-Facist League Still Exists Today. However It Has Been Deliberately Re-Monikered By Authorities To The Less Impactfully Named, Shortened Version – ‘Antifa’.
However Unlike The Far Right Racist Hate Group The Klu Klux Klan (KKK), Antifa It Is Not A Terrorist Group, Despite Several Failed Attempts By Trump To Get It Officially Labelled As Such.
In 1999 The Charleston City Declared Council Declared The KKK A Terrorist Group. Nationally However the KKK is classed as an extremist domestic White Supremacist group. Nationally Defined Terrorist Groups As Far As America Is Concerned Are International, Such As ISIS And Boko Haram. Extremist Domestic groups (Especially White Supremacist Hate Groups) Are Dealt With By America’s Hate Crime Laws.
In The UK The Popular Music of The 80s Era Included Black And White Two Tone SKA Bands Such The Beat @theenglishbeat, The Specials @thespecials, And The Selector @theselecterofficial Who Existed Alongside Reggae Bands Such As Musical Youth Who Got To No.1 In The Charts In 1982 WithTheir Track “Pass The Dutchie ‘Pon The Left Hand Side” @kelvingrantmusicalyouth And therealmusicalyouth.
Now: 40 Years On (Thanks In Part To The Previously United Princes Harry And William Talking Openly About How The Loss of Their Mother, Lady Diana Spencer At The Young At of Just 36) Britain Is Now Talking More Openly And Empathetically About Mental Health. (Mind.Org)
And Simultaneously (Thanks In Part To Worldwide Protests To The Lockdown Police Brutality Murder of George Floyd) People) Are Talking More Openly And Empathetically About The Impact of Racism And The Subsequent Need For Social Justice Reform. Including Greater Inclusion, Diversity, Equity And Accountability.
Amongst The Dominant Music of The Day Is RnB As Exemplified By Music From The Phenomenonally Successful Global African-American Superstar Music Artist Beyonce @Beyonce, Rap Music As Exemplied By Music From British-Nigerian Music Artist Stormzy @Stormzy, Pop Rock As Exemplified By British Rock Band Cold Play @ColdPlay ‘Blue Eyed Soul’ Singer/Songwriter Adele @Adele And ‘Blue Eyed Soul’ Pop Musician Ed Sheeran @TeddysPhotos. Sheeran Has Collaborated With Both Beyonce And Stormzy. And Cold Play Have Also Collaborated With Beyonce. Adele Has Not Collaborated With Beyonce But Admits To Being Inspired By Her Nononetheless. Today, As Back In The 1980s And Way Before, Especially During The Height of The Jazz Era, Music Remains A Great Changemaker And Unifier.
In This New Post Pandemic Paradigm, The World Is Trying To Move On, Yet Many People Are Suffering From Long Term Covid. Many Others Have Lost Relatives With Whom They Can Never Move On Again. And The Country Is Struggling To Survive The Unprecedented Lizz Truss Induced Cost of Living Crisis, The Energy Crisis, Climate Crisis Anxiety And The Pandemic Destruction Aftermath. It’s Rough Out There.
Economically, Forty Years On It Should Be A Whole Lot Better. But It’s Not. Why Not? That Is The Question. What On Earth Have The Politicians And The Police Been Doing, Apart From Declaring Themselves The Upholders of Law & Order, Whilst Indulging In All Kinds of Eventually Exposed Self-Serving Corruption, Cover Ups, Charades, Mismanagement And Misconduct?
The NHS Staff, Who, A PR Hungry Government Clapped During Lockdown As Outstanding Essential Workers, Are Now In The Midst of Strike Negotiations, Because They Can Barely Survive The Economic Reality That Their Work Is In Remuneration Terms Utterly Thankless. The Happy Clappy Lockdown Government, Led By NHS-Treated Covid-Survivor, And Proven Liar Boris Johnson, Were Ultimately Just Opportunistically Pulling A Publicity Stunt.
Meanwhile The Very New, Very Rich, Diwali-Devoted, Prada-Wearing Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, Who Would Not Have Had A Cat In Hell’s Chance of Becoming Top Political Dog In The Overtly Racist Britain of The 1980s, Is Arguably More Right Wing Than Maggie Thatcher Ever Was.
He Tolerates Ministers Today Openly Declaring Outrage Statements Such As ‘The Poor Simply Don’t Budget Well Enough To Avoid Food Banks’, ‘The Poor Don’t Cook Well Enough To Avoid Hunger’, ‘The Poor Should Get Better Jobs’ In Order To Survive Years of Austerity Cuts And Avoid Having To Chose Between Eating or Heating In 21st Century Britain And ‘Those Struggline To Get Fresh Fruit And Veg Should Eat Low Cost “Turnips’.
He Seems To Have Been Equally Ineffective At Tacking Islamophobia Within His Party, As Well As Racism With The Police And May Even Be Said To Have No Interest In Tacking Such Issues, So Keen Is He To Be Seen As A Good Tory Boy Not Making Too Many Waves For Himself or His Party (Ironically).
What Utter Turnips This Government Is!
United People Power Behind Popular Presenter No Match For Limp BBC Who Tried & Failed To Oust Him
Meantime The Former Far Right President of America And The Former Right Wing British Prime Minister Are Facing Their Long Dodged Political Come Uppence As They Finally Face The Authority of Courts And Committees In the Wake of Their Own Particular Brand of Storytelling (Which Some Others Would Call Lying). Now After Their Respective Abuses of Power Within The World’s Two Greatest Democracies, The Not So United States of America And The (Post Brexit) Not So United Kingdom Have Spiralled Out of Control And Diminished Moral Standing Over The Rest of The World.
In America, Since Trump Joined The Political Stage There Has Been A Resurgence of White Supremacist Hate And Violence Typical of The KKK. This Includes:
(I) The 2015 Charleston Church Shooting,
(II) The 2017 Unite The Right Rally In Charlottesville Virginia
(III) The 2018 Pittsburgh Synagogue Shootings
(IV) The 2019 Walmart Shooting In El Paso, Texas
(V) The 2022 Buffalo Supermarket Shooting
And Elsewhere In The World, In Europe Anti-Semitism Is On The Increase Again.
It’s Now A World In Which So-Called World Leaders Ponder How Much To Help, As A Diminutive Man In Russia Displays The Classic Symptoms of Small Man Syndrome And Attacks Ukraine By Militarily Crossing Its Borders Entering The Country Illegally. (Incidentally The Second World War Was Started This Way When Nazi Germany Invaded Poland In 1939). Once Attacked Ukraine Itself Became A Place Where Evidently Black People Studying In The Country Were Forced off Trains, As Indigenous Ukrainians Believed They Had Racial Priority As People Endeavoured To Escape, And Fled To Britain Where They Were Welcomed With Open Arms. All Whilst The Prada Prime Minister Declared One of The Government’s Five Priorities Is ‘To Stop The Small Boats of Illegal Immigrants’ Coming To Britain.
In Tell-Tale Reality Many of The Ukrainian ‘Guests’ (Notably Not Immigrants According To The Suddenly More Friendly Government) Have Since Fallen Out With Their Hosts (Who Housed Them In Their Our of Need As Part of A Government Scheme Offering Hosts Payment For Providing Refugee). Now They Endeavour Yet Again To Seek New Homes Having Been Displaced From Ukrainian Lands. They Are Now In Brexit Britain Where There’s Even More Black People Than There Were Studying In Ukraine. And Those Black Britians Remember News Reports of Some Ukrainians Forcing Their Fellowmen off Trains As They All Tried To Escape. Those Ukrainians Are Here Now. But There Is Little Mainstream Talk of That Black/Ukrainian History But Black People Will Never Forget It!
In The Midst of All This, We See A Heartwarming Show of Unity After A BBC Football Pundit Is Asked To “Step Away” From Presenting One of The Most Popular And Long Standing Sports Programmes In The Country’s History, Namely Match of The Day. He Called Out The Governmental Propagandist Fascist Style Rhetoric On An Inhuman, Insensitive, Rwanda Deportation Policy Concocted To Deal With The Aforementioned ‘Small Boats of Illegal Immigrants.’ (Rwanda Incidentally Is A Country Barely Over The Horrors of Its Own War And Genocide of 1994 And So The UK Government’s UK Rwanda Deportment Plan Shows Contempt, Disrespect And Insensitivity To Africa On A Whole Other Level).
But He Was Swiftly Allowed Back Into The Punditry Playground After A Show of Solidarity From Fellow Black And White Presenters, Made Clear There Is Power In Brave People Standing Together Irrespective of Race, Creed or Colour! That Man Was Former England Player @Gary Lineker And Amongst His Brave Bold And Beautiful Friends Were Sports Broadcaster Alex Scott @AlexScott2, Football Commentator Ian Wright @wrightyofficial, Fellow Football Commentator Alan Shearer @alanshearer, Radio Broadcaster & Comedian Eddie Nestor @eddienestor And Many Many Many More. The Usual Divide And Conquer Approach of The Establishement Failed Spectacularly Here. And That’s Largely Because In This Incidence The BBC Made The Mistake of Thinking That Everyone Else Would Be As Gutless As They Were In Light of Lineker’s (True) Comments Objected To By The Government And The Rwandan Immigration Policy Supporters.
The Strength And Courage of Black And White, People of Different Religions And People of Different Creeds To Unite Against Racist Oppostion Is A Strength And Courage That Has Fought Racism Over Many Decades And Different Centuries And Stood Up To Hateful And Bullying Cowards.
Poitier, Politics, Police, People And Paradox. T’was Ever Thus!
Britain Does Not Exist In The World In Isolation. Often What Happens In American Travels Across The Atlantic Ocean And Somehow Influences The United Kingdom.
Sixty Years Ago When African-American Sidney Poitier Became The First Black Man To Win An Oscar In 1963 (For The Excellent Lillies of The Valley) It Was The Height of American Racist Jim Crow Laws. And Yet The Civil Rights Movement Galvanised To Fight Them And Its Members Included, Black, White, Jewish And Muslim People, Led By Dr Martin Luther King, Who Is Still Supremely Respected And Much Quoted Today, Even Though He Was Assassinated Less Than A Year After Poitier’s Oscar, In April 1964.
Meanwhile At The Oscars This Year Asian Film Makers And Actors Were Celebrated And Thrilled Beyond Belief As They Had Movie Success Hitherto Unseen. But American-Asians Have Simultanteously Suffered Race Hate In America Like Never Before Because of Trumps “Chinese Virus” Rhetoric And Subsequent Attacks In The Street.
And Lynchings Are Happening Again – As Exemplified By The MAGA Rioters Shouting “Hang Mike Pence” As Witnessed By The World On January 6th 2021. Plus Several Young Black Men Have Been Found Hanging In America Since Then.
Also Due To The Re-Trumplican White Supremacy Lies Which Saw The Storming of The US Capitol On January 6th Two Years Ago, By Those Now Languishing In Jail Whilst Trump Still Has His Golden Tower – (That’s Golden Tower – Not Shower – Despite The Rumours!) – The Fox News Group Are Now Exposed As Knowing All Along That The Big Election Lie Was A Big Election Lie – As Litigated In The Midst of A Defamation Case By Voting Machine Company Dominion.
And Yet, Also Simultaneously, The Star Spangled Presidential Black Democrats And Former First Family ‘The Obamas’ Are Living Legends And The Most Popular President And First Lady Ever To Maintain Such Momentum After Leaving Office. This Is Compared To Margaret Thatcher Being The Least Popular British Prime Ministers In Living Memory, Despite Being The First Female One.
The Same Paradox Applies To The First Female Leader of The Metropolitan Police, A Dame Called Dick, Cressida Dick, Who Happens To Be The First Openly Lesbian Commissioner of This Male Dominated Institution. And Who Is Also The Woman Under Who’s Watch The MET Earnt The Tag of Being Deeply Misogynist Following The Rape And Murder of Sarah Everad By A Serving MET Police Officer.
Dick Also Shut Down The Investigation Into Stephen Lawrence’s Murder, Which Led To Calls For Her To Go From Stephen’s Mother, Who Is Now Honoured As Baroness Lawrence (Following All The Work She And Her Husband Did In The Wake of The Poor To Non Existent Police Investigation Into Stephen’s Racist Murder).
Before Being Elevated To Baroness Status Stephen’s Mother Eventually Became Good Friends With The Detective Chief Inspector Who Eventually Re-Investigated The Case And Helped Bring Two Of His Five Murderers To Justice. He Is Now A Board Member of The Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation: stephenlawrenceday.org @clivedriscoll
The Beleaguered Metropolitan Police Were Declared “Institutionally” Racist Some 24 Years Ago In A Report By Judge Lord MacPherson (In 1999) Following The 1993 Racist Murder And The Cops’ Failure To Investigate It Properly. Decades On The MET Appear To Have Gotten Worse Not Better As A Recent Report Has Declared It STILL Institutionally Racist And Now Also Institutionally Misogynistic, Homophobic, And Corrupt Too.
The Report Published This Month By Senior Lawyer Baroness Louise Casey (March 2023) Declared The Beleaguered Police Institution “Institutionally” Misogynistic, Homophobic And STILL Institutionally Racist, 24 Years After The First Similar Report By Judge Lord MacPherson (1999).
This Was Baroness Louise Casey’s Second Police Report. Her First Was In 2016, Seven Years Earlier.
Clearly The Government Commissions Reports As A Delaying Tactic But Then Ignores The Recommendations Presented In Them When Finally. Hence They Just Keep Coming But Nothing Changes. We Can Clearly, Starkly And Sadly See That Not Much Has Changed Between Now And Then.
But Positive People, Advocates For Positive Change, Justice And Equality, Continue To Shine A Light On The Issues.
And That Retention of Light Remains So Important.
In So Many Walks of Life!
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