Murder of Anna Politkovskaya

This year's Edinburgh International Book Festival featured a series of afternoon readings put on by Amnesty International, showcasing the work of authors who have been, in one way or another, censored. Some of the featured authors had had their works banned; some had been imprisoned. Others were so irrepressible that the only effective form of censorship was murder.

Yesterday, Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian investigative journalist, was found shot dead. Initial reports suggest a contract killing. It was in Edinburgh last year that I found her book, Putin's Russia, a chronicle of absolutely horrific abuses of power and rights that, because to endenic corruption in the military, government, business and judiciary, go unreported and unpunished in modern Russia. The one source of optimism in the book was that, in Politkovskaya, the victims of the abuses had such a brave, articulate and honest advocate.

Reports on her death can be found here, here and here. The Guardian have posted one of her articles on Chechnya here and an interview with her here.

Make the time to read them.

National Poetry Day

Today is National Poetry Day, and this year's theme is Identity. Given its focus on finding one's 'proper ground', I think the following choice is justified. The first stanza is also quite pertinent to me at the moment as I'm currently longing to escape the family home and am looking for a new place to live with nowhere really standing out, every place having its faults.

Places, Loved Ones
By Philip Larkin

No, I have never found
The place where I could say
This is my proper ground,
Here I shall stay;
Nor met that special one
Who has an instant claim on everything I own
Down to my name;

To find such seems to prove
You want no choice in where
To build, or whom to love;
You ask them to bear
You off irrevocably,
So that its not your fault
Should the town turn dreary,
The girl a dolt.

Yet, having missed them, you're
Bound, none the less, to act
As if what you settled for
Mashed you, in fact;
And wise to keep away
From thinking you still might trace
Uncalled-for to this day
Your person, your place.

Three months after “Places, Loved Ones” was published, Larkin arrived in Hull, where he was to remain until the end of his life.

Branding Guff

From the latest issue of Private Eye:



Dave C does seem a thoroughly nice chap, though. He even left the stage following his big speech to the Conservative Party conference to the Killers! Even I'm not hip enough for them.

Stewart Lee on Little Atoms

Stewart Lee, one of my favorite comedians , was on the excellent Little Atoms radio show a couple of weeks ago and the MP3 of the (hour long) interview has now been uploaded. It can be downloaded here.

Lee was the co-writer and director of Jerry Springer The Opera and so the interview touches on the topics of free-speech, offense, blasphemy and the idiocies of the religious right. As with most Lee interviews, it's both extremely entertaining and thought provoking. An excellent way to spend an hour.

Cracker

Turning over to ITV for Cracker last night was rather like going to a UGC to see a foreign language film. Just as the lack of Hollywood explosions sits uncomfortably with the popcorn and 2-litre tubs of Coke, so monologues about 9/11 jar with commercial breaks featuring Martin Kemp advertising the latest sale at DFS.

If you've not seen it or heard of it before, Cracker revolves around the drinking, smoking, gambling, flabby all 'round maverick Dr. Edward 'Fitz' Fitzgerald (played by Robbie Coltrane), a criminal psychologist - the best in his field - who aides Manchester police in murder enquiries. Yes, this set up all sounds very gittish and silly, but - as Christopher Eccleston, a former cast member - has put it, the series is like a Trojan Horse: it is a powerful issue-based drama series masquerading as a police-drama. The crime-drama is merely a hook in which to deal with rape, homophobia, racism, and - in last night's case - American foreign policy and Iraq.

The issues dominated last night's episode more than ever before (I think it's only slightly fatuous to say that Iraq and Tony Blair, culled from news footage, had as much screen time as Coltrane.) The plot (a flimsy, convoluted story about an ex-servicemen killing Americans) seemed an afterthought to the actual debates going on within the story. It was powerful and thought provoking, a type of programming recently anathema to ITV (This is the channel who recently spent £12m on "Love Island." More than was spent on the new series of Doctor Who).

In addition to being critically acclaimed, the episode was a ratings success. I do hope it will prove to ITV that they can make such programming and prosper, the result can only be good for everyone.