A Matter Of Feelings by Arnild Van de Velde

Dana Reeve (1962-2006), the loving wife of movie star Christopher Reeve (1952-2004), the "Superman", died on March 6th, of lung cancer, seven months after the public announcement of her illness. Dana, who never smoked, was also into acting. If not for one of her TV movies ("Law & Order"), or her work as a producer, she will be remembered for her dedication to husband Christopher during his nine-year fight for recovery from tetraplegic condition, after falling from a horse in 1995. With her pretty smile, she was the one supporting him and his faith in a long hoped but never experienced healing, as Reeve would die on October 2004 with a heart attack.

Like the unexpected - and also not welcome - guest, cancer reveals its presence without any previous sign. Differently from other diseases, it doesn´t show any noticeable symptoms until it challenges life with its tricky possession of tissues. No matter what kind – breast, bone or blood, to name three within a hundred – cancer is surrounded by an aura of ending times. It puts the average person in a confrontation with faith and hope, meaningless values when the heart is just breaking.

Not long ago, the disease seemed mainly to affect the elderly. Recently, the number of young people facing cancer is increasing. Dana Reeve was just 44. Breast cancer killed Linda McCartney, the wife of ex-Beetle Sir Paul McCartney, at age 56 (in 1998) and brought singers Anastasia and Kylie Minogue to
chemotherapy, on their early thirties. Despite the progresses in Medicine, or promisses of healing if discovered prematurely, cancer remains a threat, felt at every control check. "Those visits to my doctor thrill me", says K.C., a 29-year-old woman who developed an agressive type of breast cancer right after the death of her father, who also had the disease. Two years ago, one day before her 27th birthday, K.C lost her left breast; now she is dealing with its so-called "reconstruction". Trying to keep her head up, she appealed to religious faith and alternative methods to understand her fate. K.C believes she has "programmed" her own cancer, in order to show compassion for her father´s destiny. In her mind, while she keeps trying to "delete the file", she dreams of a future with a husband and some children.

It is exactly at revealing the uncertainty of a presumable future that cancer shocks the most. In fact, making plans when being ill awakes general consternation. Cancer patients sound to us - the healthy - like little children describing their expectations about Santa Claus´ visit: so innocent and so mad at the same time. Ironic for some, but wise for others, the disease seems to act as "mediator" between us and our feelings. No matter how we are - directly or indirectly - affected by it, cancer forces us to compassion, even if only for ourselves.

Noralis, a venezuelan healer I met few years ago, used to live wild and fast until cancer knocked at her door. Cancer, she told me, is like a child we carry; but instead of giving it to the world, we keep it to ourselves. It would be necessary to look deeply into our souls to find the real reason for cancer, she said. Modern treatment and frequent information though cannot be put aside, despite the increasing tendency to admit that cancer is caused by factors beyond genetics, environmental changes or bad personal habits (like smoking) as suggested by a
holistic approach to the theme.

Dana Reeve deserves all my respect, but she wasn´t really my inspiration for all this. A beloved friend, who is bravely facing the challenge of defeating cancer, withdrawed me from a world devastated by wars, bombings, kidnappings and all sorts of disgrace, including celebrities and their vain existence. Mother of four, she developed breath cancer, which metastased to lung cancer; she feels too weak for a new chemotherapy, but strong enough to come and visit me during the next european summer.

That is what really matters.

Love versus Reality by Dirk Salowsky

Forbidden love is a very productive topic of literature. Only recently it has once again startled minds after the award winning Brokeback Mountain was put on screen. It tells the story of two cowboys from the North American Midwest who secretly pursue a romantic relationship over 20 years, beginning in the 1960s. The combination of the terms “gay” and “love” are a reliable scare to conservative minds already. Stories of happily married or engaged men leading a secret second, homosexual life, undermine the upright, impeccable image of marriage and family.

Brokeback Mountain was not a first-timer as far as the aspect of sexually deviant double lives is concerned. Examples are “Making Love” (USA, 1982) or “No se lo digas a nadie” (“Don’t tell anyone”, Peru, 1998). Peru was outraged by this film that shows young Joaquín (Santiago Magill) growing up in Lima’s upper class, trying to come to terms with his homosexuality in the utterly homophobic environment of a deeply catholic country. Culturally accepted values of heterosexual machismo make it even harder – and even more dangerous – to deviate from the norm, which is why at some point he ends up with a girlfriend. But also Joaquín finds a mate, Gonzalo (Christian Meyer Zender), who is the fiancé of his girlfriend’s best friend. Unlike the two cowboys, neither of them admit their love for each other. When Joaquín raises the topic of a relationship between the two after one further occasion sharing a bed, Gonzalo rejects the idea by stating that he is not gay. While at an early point of Brokeback Mountain both lovers utter the same lie, they later consciously abide by their love for each other. This very point, however, makes an interesting difference.

In “No se lo digas a nadie” Joaquín actually tries to force Gonzalo into a relationship by revealing their secret meetings and his real love to the girlfriends. He is taken for a lunatic and is only able to return to a normal life when he abandons the taboo of living as an overt homosexual and returns to live with his former girlfriend. He even meets Gonzalo on his wedding day, and only after reassuring him that his former plan of being gay was nothing but a foolish idea, Gonzalo offers to meet him again for regular sex. A Peruvian friend told me that for gay men in her country, this way of life in self-denial is a common solution. More than that, it seems to be an indisputable social norm. Sad but true, this means that “what must not exist, does not exist”. In such a context, who will dare talk of love between two people of the same sex?

Brokeback Mountain does talk about it – it is subtitled: “Love is a force of nature”. I smiled when I watched the movie and thought to myself: “So, why would a married guy drive hundreds of miles to see that one other guy if it was just about giving in to a ‘perverse sexual urge’ that can be satisfied way more easily?” And indeed, stating that homosexuals can and do really love their partners and not only select them to satisfy their ‘by-whatever-caused sexual drive’ still seems very significant. One has to keep in mind the country of origin and its cultural mindsets. Love is normal, love is natural, love is sane. Granting the ability to love makes it very hard to define homosexuality by merely sexual aspects and thus declare it a choice, a defect or a sin. It makes it hard – but not impossible.

As for cultural mindsets: Heath Ledger, leading actor of this film, was very busy telling everybody that he was happy thanks to his wife and their baby when he met reporters on the red carpet on the night of this year’s Academy Awards. He probably anticipated another round of being asked whether he was at least a bit gay or not. It was a shame, for he easily could have answered: “And what difference would that make for the movie?” or something to the same effect. At least Ang Lee, award-winning director, repeated the message his film tried to transmit by talking about the “miracle of love itself”. In the United States that message has actually reached some, while others still have to get over that romantic kiss by two men. There are many roads still to be walked down.

Needless to say that many other countries in this world won’t see a homosexual alive for long, and lives are rather taken than love granted. Reality is never where it should be, it is where you are.

The Great Dragon Is Not Idle Anymore by Pedro F Marcelino

When, early in the month of January 2006, the Chinese Government announced the results of its trade reports for the previous year, not many people took it seriously. China’s lack of transparency now starts to upset western governments that can neither waive the country’s huge importing potential, nor live without many products – both raw and manufactured – that China supplies in huge amounts and low prices. In spite of that, many major commercial nations have begun low-profile talks with the People’s Republic, in an effort to curb an underlying anti-Chinese feeling in many of them.

China’s economic opening to the world did not occur massively until Hong Kong had been returned in 1997, and the two-year period between then and the date of Macao’s return (1999) had been used as a test. Chinese officials realised that the bet on “one country, two systems” had been the right one, at the right time. Reforms in selected parts of the mainland (mostly the Southeast) accelerated to full steam, and all the industrial sectors were propelled, aiming at international markets as a coveted goal. If China’s master plan goes ahead, Formosa Island will eventually join this effort as one of the crown jewels.

Although a big chunk of the world (namely Africa) had for long been receiving significant commercial and ideological support from China (as well as direct aid), it was not until the West felt that influence that the first reactions came. Shy, initially, but quite bolder in recent times. In mid-2004, the European Union, traditionally a protectionist economic group, stirred the waters with a blockade to the excessive textile products from China harbouring its coasts. For over a week, top level meetings took place. Eventually, Europe “saved face”, but China indeed won, stubbornly enforcing the position that ensured textiles were neither returned nor destroyed. For some reason, it seems to be one of the few nations that can almost always get away with permanently saying “no”.

Large areas of the country are now in full-fledged economic growth, and the Chinese were finally allowed to discover the positive aspects of capitalism (such as choice of produce). However, industrial efforts are nowadays more complex than in the times of the English Industrial Revolution. The dimensions of one and the other are not comparable, as Chinese industrialization implies massive consumption of fossil fuels and other raw materials that China does not own in big enough amounts. Anticipating energy crises in the middle of this century, Chinese officials invested ahead of their needs.

Discreetly, Chinese companies (both private and State-owned) started to probe resource-rich countries and regions, paying significant amounts to achieve strategic positions in energy and raw material companies throughout the world – such as gas or copper corporations. In locations where this capital is a major need, deals came cheap. But in countries with their own strategic views, the first signs of an anti-China reaction were observed. This was the case of Canada, when a major Chinese corporation tried to acquire a majoritary position in a big oil firm based in the Province of Alberta (the Canadian Texas). Many sectors of the Canadian business and political communities showed concerns that this would open a dangerous precedent, and that Canada would be selling itself cheap. Despite Chinese attempts for reassurance, looking at the enormous amounts of fuel consumption in current day China, it is quite likely that a major strategic operation is underway. An atmosphere of suspicion is set.

Simultaneously, Chinese emigrants have established and are establishing themselves evenly throughout the world, in the most unlikely places. They can today be found in the most out-of-the-way African city, as they can be found in the centre of any major European metropolis, although the type of activity differs greatly. In many parts of Africa, Chinese stores came (not always without conflict) to replace Lebanese, Indian and sometimes Ukrainian monopolies, and filled in an important gap: they provided impoverished communities with the possibility of buying cheap, short-lived goods for daily use. The same products do not enjoy an equally successful reception in Europe or North America, which already prompted a more sophisticated, market-specific response by Chinese industry leaders (e.g., 5000 € cars are soon to be made available to the European market). In any case, these emigrant communities create a privileged channel for imports straight from Chinese manufacturers, ignoring established commercial networks in host countries.

Hence, when the Government announced the 2005 results, it came as no surprise that China had a major joint surplus, even after deficits with energy-producing nations had been discounted. In fact, the mere announcement of the results drew attentions. The Chinese surplus rounds 101.9 billion US dollars… officially. Many economic observers, however, defend these numbers as unrealistic, when compared to the ensemble of reports from other nations. According to the American report, for instance, China’s surplus reaches 200 billion with the US alone. Adding the Japanese and European results, it swells up to 600. China is exporting massively, while its home market is reasonably self-sufficient, and the desire for foreign produce limited to specific items and strictly controlled. The country has been given warnings by all major players, including the IMF and the WTO, that it should put a brake on its own growth, to prevent more negative reactions from trade partners. In response, the Government slowed down investments in major infrastructures, but that does not seem to make the cut just yet.

Already in the US there are talks of a China-specific law that would impose a fat 27% tax on any Chinese imports. The bill, supported by trade hardliners such as Montana Democrat Senator Max Baucus and New York’s Senator Charles Schumer, could freeze trade relations overnight. George W. Bush, however, seems unwilling to play this heavy card so early in the game. China represents not only a major threat, but also a major opportunity. And it also represents a major player in the international scene, a force to be reckoned with (and that is increasingly proactive in showing it), and for the matter, one that will not easily be bullied.

Nonetheless, warnings that China should top up the value of the yuan (artificially kept in low levels, to foster exports) have found some reaction: the Chinese Government announced an appreciation… of 0.04 cents, i.e. close to nothing. Dollars keep flowing in, and American products staying out. Simultaneously, innuendos were created that China would soon be selling dollar reserves, and swapping them for euros, yens and gold, in an attempt to diversify the reserves, and become less dependent on the US.

Traditionally, nations such as US, France, Portugal or Germany stand on gold reserves as a secure investment (for all the above, gold reserves represent over 50% of national reserves). Other developed countries (such as Canada), chose currency instead, and limit gold ownership to less than 1%. China’s reserves consist of only 1.1% of gold. The announcement that the Chinese Central Bank could be buying big amounts of the valuable metal greatly appreciated its value in the international markets, pleasing gold-rich countries – Portugal, Switzerland, Italy and a few others. The Chinese diversification comes as a defense against bolder American protectionist laws, and it is not likely that the mentioned cash-strapped countries react against it, initially, when their governments struggle to keep budgets stable. But only time will tell if the United States are (once again) over-reacting, or if Europe is distracted.

The Pecking Order Paradigm by Pedro F Marcelino

Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Walking down the wide streets of the post-war city, the choice of restaurants is appealing: from Italian to Indonesian, from Surinamese to Malayan, from Caribbean to Indian. The atmosphere is sophisticated, with Dutch as well as tourists enjoying exotic meals served in exotic-looking locations and served by exotic faces – just as they would in Latin America or in Southeast Asia.

London, England

Were it not for the architecture and the drizzle, the scene could well be anywhere in the Indian subcontinent. In Banglatown, a mix-mash of Bangladeshi, Iranian, Indian, Afghani and Pakistani restaurants and stores, but heavily influenced by a dominating Bangladeshi community, the sweet scents of spices dwell in the air, doormen invite passers-by into restaurants every second step. Further away, in Chinatown, shop windows exhibit menus in Chinese characters, others show unidentifiable animal corpses that will make it to someone’s plate. Long gone are the times of pie & mash, sausage & mash or fish & chips. Those are the rarities of the day. From the dull reputation of the 80’s, London became – almost overnight – the European capital of haute-cuisine, a place where the best of every world is assembled to created something new. It is not uncommon to find Brazilian chefs cooking Italian, or Srilankans cooking cajun.

Lille, France

A group of top-tier French chefs boards and airplane, on their way to Japan. They will be attending workshops with reputed Nipponic chefs whose techniques have gathered respect in the West of late. Proud French cuisine surrenders to changing times.

Lisbon, Portugal

Local fast food sides with high street Subways and Burger Kings. Dining out, however, might mean eating Moroccan or Spanish, Ukrainian or Brazilian, Mozambican or Capeverdean. Supermarkets’ fruit and vegetable departments are packed with produce from the five corners of the globe – vegetables with strange sounding names, fruits with odd shapes.

Hamburg, Germany

In the city center, Bratwurst or Currywurst with fries are not easy to find, and actually lie just short of anachronistic. Alongside American(ized) franchises, small Middle-Eastern bistros disseminate the intense smells of Lebanese or Turkish food – Lamacun pizza and Döner Kebab now listed as German delicacies.

Toronto, Canada

A recipe in Wagamama’s cook book requires mirin sauce and a couple other uncanny ingredients. Bruno’s Fine Foods is likely to have them all, and although the shop assistant has not heard of many of the things in the list, she risks pointing out a section. There it is, among dozens of other unidentifiable sauces from every continent. Shelf after shelf, Bruno’s supplies the most uncommon requests of the savviest, most demanding customers in North America. Toronto is considered (along New York and Sao Paulo) the gastronomic capital of the world. With over a hundred signficant minorities living in the city, fresh produce arrives daily from anywhere in the world to supply both their needs and those of restaurant-cultured Torontonians. Karnail, the Sikh check-out operator, comments: «when I arrived in Canada, the thing that surprised me the most was food. Food everywhere, all sorts of food I had never heard of. In India, there was barely enough to eat. Rich countries can pay, they can have any food they want, from anywhere in the world. It’s so different.»

Anywhere in Africa, 2006

Step into any regular African grocery store where the majority of the population gets supplies. The shelves are typically half full (or half empty, depending on the perspective), eggs are sold by the unit, as are oranges or carrots. Quite often, some of these items won’t even be easy to find. Availability oscillates greatly, and shortages are not at all uncommon. Rice, manioc, beans, yam or sweet potatoes might be easier. Imported goods are rare and expensive. Produced in Europe, in Brazil or Mexico, in China or in South Africa, they specifically target the African and Middle Eastern markets. Packaging is done accordingly, Arabic alongside English, French or Portuguese. Butter or oil are usually sold in tin cans, the Arabic wording making it hard to realise that it is produced in Holland. In some cases, local industries were overwhelmed by foreign giants. In West Africa, the guava paste industry went almost but bankrupt when Brazil started flooding the region with its super-production, cheaper despite the transport. Cans read “made in Brazil” in a discrete spot. The label shows the local flag crossed with the Brazilian green-yellow. Albeit being produced locally, sugar is valuable as a trading good, and is often more expensive than in rich countries. There are not, needless to say, international cuisine restaurants. In many cities, actually, there are no restaurants at all.

Within only a few decades, people in resourceful countries have grown used to variety and experimentation. Their vocabularies have increased with tropical nouns. In the Third World, large proportions of the best arable soils are used to grow low-rentability / hig-value produce, that can be sold in Europe, Japan or the US. Most of the world’s population, however, survives on roughly 100 different plants (rice and corn top the list), whose genetic codes have been losing quality. Cross-breed crops threaten the sustainability of the species that feed billions of people, yet genetically modified food is presented by interested corporations as the solutions for hunger.

According to different studies, the world could produce enough food for all of its inhabitants, if only the crop and supplies were evenly distributed. Some companies, such as Néstlé, take these markets seriously. The company has been accused of everything, from tampering with food quality that is destined to African markets, to abusing UN programmes with self-promotion rather than humanitarian objectives.

In a recent award-winning documentary, Darwin’s Nightmare, Europeans, Japanese and American are faced with the ugliest face of food globalization: every single day, empty airplanes flay to Lake Victoria and are pack full with fish sold expensive at home. Local communities are literally left to dwell in rottening piles of skin and fishbones.

Never as today has the world economy afflicted diets to such an extent. In the North for the better, with increased variety. But this variety is not accompanied by a due understanding of what that means in the South.

While a relaxed Saturday cook off in Philadelphia could consist of Danish herring and curry salad, Japanese tuna and beef carpaccio with Chilean wine and Costarican coffee, in other latitudes a family of ten will most likely share a small pot or rice and beans (if there are any beans).

It is after all, the law of nature, the law of the strongest. Bigger birds are higher on the pecking order, hence eating first and getting the nicer chunks. Smaller birds get the crumbs. But perhaps nature got it all wrong, perhaps it needs some fine tunning. Being aware isn’t but the first step.

Something Snuffy in the World by Pedro F Marcelino and Ana Maria Marcelino

It was a normal night for me: one of insomnia. Sitting in front of my desk at 3 am, I finally deemed it necessary to close my laptop and force myself into bed. One hour later, still awake, I got up, sheepishly walked to the couch, turned the TV on and zapped away. Karla Homolka had been released from jail only a few weeks before, and that is perhaps why, in a show of sheer bad taste, one of the cable channels was showing this movie. I should have turned the television set off, or else zapped away, but I did not. In an act of typically human morbid curiosity, I watched scene after scene and could not believe my eyes, or my own thoughts for the matter. In front of me, supposedly, was a snuff film .

Let us make clear though, at this stage, that it was not a snuff film, and that I do not recall the title (thankfully). In innocent naïveté, snuff was totally unbeknown to me. So there I was, staring at the screen, scared that it might actually be true, that human minds could actually come up with something so horrible, so sordid, so cruel.

A snuff film, as defined in Wikipedia.com (which is only as reliable as you deem it), “is a film, sometimes pornographic, that allegedly depicts actual murder, produced for entertainment purposes.” Put this way, if you are one reader who ignored this social phenomenon as I did back then, you are now probably shocked.

Despite the late hour, after the movie was over I felt the need to sit down and search the web for explanations. There were thousands of them, and it is not easy to make sense of so much contradictory information. It appears to be that snuff is one of those above-the-average urban legends, that clanged to the western social tissue. Every time someone writes about it, the snowball grows bigger, wider, denser. So, should I even be writing this article? In fact, I have had it on file ever since, in the depths of all my most obscure web searches. Perhaps to redeem myself of some guilt, I invited my sister to contribute to this review with pathological approach. Perhaps it will finally result in something that makes sense of it all. The existence of snuff films is dubious. Skeptics relegate them to the realms of urban legend or moral panic. On the web, thousands of people will claim they exist. Yet, no one has seen one. Well, actually, a few weirdos claim to have seen actual footage of murder – but you will equally find others claiming the same footage is fake. Truth is, with legend so tightly interwoven with reality, and a certain conspiracy theory out there, it is difficult for any rational human being to swear that snuff movies do not exist. It is not unconceivable that something like the snuff film ring does not exist. Yes, snuff, some claim, must include profit, i.e., raping/murdering someone on tape, with the clear purpose of selling it to a few selected sickos. Well, what with the number of international pedophilia networks cracked on, with children kidnapped and raped on camera, it cannot be hard to believe some human beings would go the extra mile (it is ghastly that I use the term human). Other people claim that, if they exist at all, the mere act of a serial killer putting such a thing on tape, regardless of his reasons, would be snuff. As Mitch Walrath once wrote: If snuff films aren’t real, we might never know the limits of the human mind. Even if they are real, we might never know.

Which brings us back to Karla Homolka. Together with her partner, Paul Bernardo, she kidnapped and used as sex slaves two teenage girls, only to do the same to her own younger sister later on. All were murdered. Homolka videotaped Bernardo raping the girls at knife point, while strapped and blindfolded, and urinating and defecating in one of them (which sends us back to Pier Paolo Pasolini, although not even him could have come up with snuff bizarries). The actual murders were not videotaped, despite the claims of some sensationalist press. In court, however, this disturbing footage was not shown (only audio). Bernardo was convicted to life in prison, whereas Homolka got 12 years in 1993. Amidst a movement of protest in Ontario, she is now living somewhere secret in Quebec, away from the media circus, but close to someone else’s children.

In 1989, the FBI arrested two men in Virginia, after they advertised on a message board their desire to kidnap a young boy (any boy), molest him and murder him, thus creating an actual pornographic snuff film (for sale). Although they have not actually committed a crime, and claimed they would not, both were convicted to over 30 years in jail. So, although the authorities reject that snuff exists, there are things out there, suggesting it otherwise. Maybe it is not the big wicked organization of the legends (as portrayed most recently in 8 mm with Nicholas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix and James Gandolfini), but I would not overrule it altogether.

In Italy, twice were paedophilia networks found, the last of which with international connections – in particular to Russia - where the ghost of snuff loomed over the investigation. With no evidence. In Germany, very recently, a man announced on a sexual web forum that he was searching someone who would eat him – literally. His perversion not much stranger than anyone else’s, it was shocking, however, that he found the man to do it (no video available). It is a global phenomenon, albeit not proved, with clear roots in developed countries and the socio-cultural vacuum that appeared in some of them.

Proved snuff does exist, however, with animals. As recently as 1998, Scottish police officers arrested a man who was distributing movies with women killing small animals such as frogs or mice. Wearing close to nothing, they would crush the animals under their high heels. British authorities admit such movies are available. As far as I am concerned, this is bad enough, and it is quite scary to think that someone actually pays to watch such a miserable show. Having said that, a famous “snuff” film, Cannibal Holocaust, was proved fake, with the exception of the animals, in fact killed on screen in a bloody manner. The movie is forbidden in many countries.

In fact, the legend lives mostly on implication, inference and innuendo . Hear-say, now made easier by the Internet, seems to be how the legend spreads. Regardless of any announcements that snuff does not exist and that not a single movie was found in over 30 years, collective panic is set, and suburban ecstasy seekers refuse simply to believe that version. The authorities, however, are vague. In L.A., actor and director Charlie Sheen once denounced one movie that got to his hands, and that he truly believed to be actual snuff. Flower of Flesh and Blood, of the Guinea Pig series, later proved to be another fake. Al Goldstein, owner of Screw Magazine, has offered $1 million to the person who comes up with a snuff film made for profit. No one has claimed the prize – in fact, should anyone find such film, would it actually be legal, let alone moral, to claim it? Or should the finder alert the police immediately?

Transformed in group hysteria, the snuff hoax keeps bringing money (and certainly inspired the philosophy of Blair Witch Project and other make-believe movies), amidst the media hype that grows in cycles. Truth be said, the whole cult probably started with the movie Snuff, released in 1975. Most likely, it all started then… in fiction. Although fiction based on true facts. Then it gets confuse, and the profusion of crossed references works like a Chinese box. It is hard, if not impossible, to know what started what.

On the web, discussion forums run wild. A selection:

“Who cares if it’s real or not? Snuff films are meant to be disturbing if they’re real or not! Most of the time they’re fake, but occasionally some are real, these are really rare cases though.” (here is someone who knows them, but has not called the police).

“Right, will someone help me out here? I’m 16 years old and I want to know what goes on the world. I just don't get it. WHY would you want to own a video of an innocent person being tortured and then killed? That HAS to be a stage worse than paedophilia, it must be. People must be criminally INSANE!? Why are these sites not publicized at shut down? It’s sick and wrong. Can someone tell me what is going on please?” (the confused teen).

“Lots of people visit this page. Hopefully some of them are capable of forming sane judgments.” (the sceptical).

I do not know what to believe. I know for a fact that there is a lot of evil out there, and some types normal people can’t even conceive. And that it is sick that such movies are searched on the web, and that close enough images are available on the web, starting with official decapitations, such as David Pearl’s and Kim-Il Sung’s (that do not qualify as snuff). Recently, rumours of a snuff circle in South East Asia, with connections to affluent countries such as Japan, US and Europe started to swarm the cyberspace. Likely, more smoke, no fire. It is hard to accept snuff is real. Yet, it is not unconceivable: the human kind as a group, and the worse individuals among it, have created far worse things in centuries of real history.

Summed up, one site I read said: “Fear of a thriving snuff film industry is what drives this popular myth. As a society, we're not all that concerned with the concept of serial killers walking among us, killing here and there. Clearly, they won't come after us. (…) However, we do fear the notion of a "murder as a business" set-up because that takes the slavering maniac right out of the picture and in his place substitutes the Reasonable Man Out To Make a Buck. Victims of such a scheme could be undeserving (innocent) -- this could happen to us! And it is on the back of this fear belief in the myth rides in on. We fear not the killers among us, but the businessmen.”

An analysis of this phenomenon should however still take into account two perspectives, respectively related to those who produce and take part in the films, and to those who watch and purchase them:

When thinking about snuff films, the first question that comes to mind is whether it is possible they are real. But perhaps we are not posing the right question: is the mind involved on the making of these films a “normal” mind? The answer may not be definitive, as there aren’t concrete enough studies to support any thesis. It would be possible to point out a few characteristics that suggest psychopathy, such as the quest for total control by subduing the other, or by inflicting pain to the limit. Or we could rave about sadistic sexual perversions that associate the enjoyment of sexual pleasure to suffering, cruelty and humiliation. One way or another, there seems to be a deviating behaviour that allows the enjoyment of pleasure or the seizing of benefits through extreme violence. The largest of these benefits could be the recognition, within restricted circles, and a reasonable fame that creates a slice of world for someone who was always unable to live up to the standards demanded by society. If the film is recognized, and because “fame” is addcitive, the logical next step would be to create new snuffs, more extreme, more intense, ever more violent, disturbing and ambiguous, hence furthering the perpetuation of this urban legend. The legend does not live from reality, but from the constructions that individuals make of it. Likewise, the “stage directors” of these plays feed on their own beliefs, and those of others, on this film style and on the social consequences that it could permit. What’s more, they are moved by the pleasure of violence proper, of staging or of perpetration of the crime by this character that they will never be in real life. If something absolutely condemnable is done, they may actually obtain some of the attention and visibility missing in their lives.

But one question remains: where is the limit? If human aggressivity can be increased by visual violence, would it be the one detail that conducts to the extreme point of wanting to do or see “the real thing”? When does the desire for entertainment ceasses to make place for the yearning for pure, realistic violence?

In fact, individuals that feel impotent in face of events on their lives, or marginalized by society are more easily seduced by this genre that offers a wider perception of control. Also violent individuals tend to appreciate violent films that further or justify their acts. The obsession with violence can reach the point of wanting to see someone actually being murdered in a barbaric manner. This morbid curiosity on its own cannot justify the acquisition and continuous visualization of this type of material – people accommodate to this style and no longer want to get loose, needing increasing doses of violence to obtain the shock and the emotion of pleasure...one sreen away…

I am not certain that snuff films can be associated with a deviation on morality or in the social behaviour patterns. What is a deviation in one context is normality in another. One thing I am certain of: we want more and we show more that that we least have – power, control, security, tranquility … And the means we use are at times distorted and even destructive, evidencing our strategies of adaptation as human beings.

In an article of 1999, Anne P. Dupre wrote: We may be enticed by violence on film because we are so afraid of it in life. We can sit in a theater, enjoy the violent scene on the screen from a distance, and then go home – we hope – to safety.

And the Oscar goes to… by Daiana Vasquez

[Warning: this film review contains spoilers]

Tomorrow night the cinema world and the movie fans will be anxiously holding their breaths to finally know which of the films nominated for the best motion picture of the year will receive the desired statue. The competing films are: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck, and Munich. What do they all have in common? The quality of their story – at least in the opinion of the jury.

On the other hand, it is a pity that there is no Oscar for the worst motion picture of the year, because some films just deserve it as well as the fans definitely deserve knowing which films they should better not waste their time and money on. Maybe the Oscar organizers should have allowed the very Oscar living on Sesame Street to hand over this special award at the end of the ceremony.

The worst motion picture of my choice would be a production of Imagine Entertainment, directed by Dean Parisot and released on the 21^st of December last year. It is a remake of a 1977 film with George Segal and Jane Fonda and at that time directed by Ted Kotcheff. I am still asking myself why such a story could ever be considered to be remade…

Fun with Dick and Jane is definitely misnamed. I would rather vote for Embarrassment with Dick and Jane. The film is arguable with a flaw story, bad acting and even worst message, to say the least: Dick (Jim Carrey) and Jane Harper (Tia Leoni) are a “lovely” couple living the American dream of “success” when their life suddenly and without warning turns into a nightmare: unemployment. The film presents this issue as if millions of people in this world had never experienced that. And even more astonishing is the solution they “propose”.

Dick works at Globodyne, a leading group in the consolidation of media properties. Jane is a travel agent, who is definitely tired of being yelled at on the phone by unsatisfied clients. After being promoted to vice president of communications of his company, Dick encourages his wife to resign. This is what she does, certainly to spend more time with their child, a boy fluent in Spanish rather than English, because of his Latin-American nanny, Blanca (Gloria Garayua), who is practically assuming the post of his mother. But their idea of an “even more successful life” goes offroad when Globodyne becomes involved in a scandal and goes bankrupt, because of illegal activities of his big boss, Jack McCallister (Alec Baldwin): he lets the ship sink and bags 400 million dollars on profits. And Dick, who could not enjoy even a single day of being vice president, is now unemployed. So is his wife.

They try “hard” to find a job, taking rather bizarre approaches towards the problem that are neither realistic nor funny. Dick begins working as a greeter at a warehouse, but he simply “does not fit”, probably because such a job is not suitable for an ex-vice president, and neither does Jane who starts as an aerobics instructor, a job which the film tries to sell as pathetic.

After these and some other frustrated attempts to obtain a job, they cannot pay their bills and are reduced to penury. This unsuccessful job search is setting the stage for Dick ingenious master plan, coming out of pure desperation, and certainly because there was nothing else he could have done instead: robbery in order to pay the mortgage for their house and to regain the upper-class lifestyle of his family. But hey, they are decent people, it is not their fault if the system does not give them a chance! And Dick specifically provides us and his wife with this justification for pursuing a criminal “career”.

What comes next is far from hilarious. The couple has no scruples. For instance, in one scene, Dick makes fun of one of their victims, dancing and grimacing (the only thing Jim Carrey seems to be able to do – and this is called acting) in front of the tied up man, and even torturing him by making him wear a dog-collar that discharges an electric shock when he yells (inspired by Abu Ghraib?). This certainly happens when the poor man tries to call for help. Is this the moment when we are supposed to laugh?

The most important thing however, is that they finally regain their lives, their goals are achieved. They obtain with the robbery actually much more than what they had before and are again surrounded by “old friends”. Even their sexual life is back –this parallel of criminal and luxurious life with a good sex life is even more disgusting.

And the story is not over yet. They go for revenge helped by one of the men involved in the frauds in the company, a man who is now poor, unemployed and alcoholic. Using their newly-discovered talent, Dick and Jane, the new advocates of moral, cheat on Dick’s former boss at Globodyne: in what is for the innocent victims sitting in their cinema chairs supposed to look like a Robin Hood act they distribute his money among the ex-employees of the company. The whole thing is carried out to look like a donation from Jack. The good guys (Dick, Jane and the alcoholic) do their good deed of the day and do not even want to take the credit for that!

If the whole film was supposed to do a spoof of life during economic apathy, it has unfortunately miscarried. It cannot be a satire if in the end the criminals are rewarded as heroes, saving thousands of lives. The only irony we might smile at is in the end when thankful cheers go to Enron and likewise companies for the inspiration.

And the trash bin Oscar goes to: Fun with Dick and Jane!

Wired Favela by Andrea Medrado

Friday, May 7th, 2004. TV ROC’s team receives the daily agenda. The highlight is the inauguration of a small school, whose name is Brisa Rio. We’re talking about a garage that has been recently transformed into a school. It is located in front of a little soccer turf that is surrounded by trash, in Dionéia, one of Favela da Rocinha’s neediest areas. Around 20 kids of various ages and the teacher, Vivian, who looks much younger than her 21 years, are anxious to become protagonists of a TV story.

In the meantime, in Estrada da Gávea, an area known by its residents as the “asphalt border”, the reporter Paula Gomes folds a little piece of paper with a handwritten story and slides it into her pocket. To go to Dionéia, Paula hops on a “mototaxi”, a very popular transportation in Rocinha, consisting of a motorcycle used as cab. Another “mototaxi” takes Josivaldo, the editor, who doubles as camera operator. Going up the steep hills and narrow alleys of the favela on a “mototaxi” challenges the laws of gravity but what’s really scary is the bus drivers’ “get-out-of-my-way-cause-I’m-bigger-than-you” driving style.

Cable TV for everyone

In the telecommunications industry, just like buses do with motorcycles, the big and powerful push the small aside. TV ROC decided to challenge these laws. It was the beginning of 1996 when Dante Quinterno, an Argentinean businessman decided to carry out an innovative idea: to wire Favela da Rocinha with cable television. Favela means slum and Rocinha claims to be Latin America’s largest, with no less than 120,000 people jammed on two hillsides.

The idea sounded quite strange to most people because it did not agree with widespread thought that favelas are places for the poor, and the poor cannot afford luxuries such as having cable television.

The fact is Quinterno saw a gold mine in Rocinha. “I’ve always thought that cable TV could be directed to all targets: the classes A, B, but also the classes C, D and E. Our challenge was to demonstrate that there were potential consumers within the Brazilian (lower) economic classes. These consumers are, above all things, craving to be connected to the world. They want to see the diversity of languages and channels that exist in the world. The world does not end in the corners of Rocinha. Only the mind is the limit.”

According to Quinterno, this was an attempt to link marketing to social actions such as providing the community with information they could not otherwise obtain through the mainstream media, often much more focused on the violence and the drug trafficking.

This sum of marketing and social actions has turned into an irresistible equation for both national and international media. Stories about TV ROC can be found in the most important Brazilian newspapers and magazines, such as O Globo and IstoÉ, Brazilian TV stations, such as TV Cultura, and even in the BBC.

The marketing side of the TV ROC project is (well) represented by its cable branch, which deals with the transmission of national channels such as Futura, SBT and TV Senado as well as international channels such as Cartoon Network, Discovery and Fox. In order to have access to this programming, residents of Rocinha have to pay a monthly subscription of 25 Reais (roughly US$12), much less than what a middle-class family would have to pay for the same channels. The social side is represented by Channel 30, a community channel among many other.

Interesting to note that, as most companies that deal with customers in Brazil, TV ROC is affiliated with the Credit Protection Service (SPC). The system is a national database that keeps track of customers who do not pay their debts on time. Ultimately, not honoring the debts will result in the suspension of the service.

As for the number of subscribing households, the manager Rosangela Quarelli is unable to give a number. The subscriptions represent the company’s main source of income. Therefore this might be an attempt to avoid disclosure of TV ROC’s profitability. “It’s not possible to precise. Every month, we have a bunch of new subscriptions and every month there are people who do not pay and we have to cut the service. We have a very big oscillation. In the summer, Rocinha is crowded because everyone comes from the Northeast to work here, because there are many jobs. Then, after Carnival is over, everybody leaves. We have these ups and downs.”

TV ROC is not Globo

The subscription fees paid by the residents of Rocinha support TV ROC’s cable operations. Part of this revenue is invested on Channel 30, which is, in theory, a space that is truly dedicated to the needs and interests of the community.

According to the reporter Paula Gomes, TV ROC always highlights the positive aspects about the community and that’s why it has gained respect from Rocinha’s residents. “People in Rocinha care about TV ROC. They know it’s not Globo (Brazil’s major television network). Globo comes here whenever there’s shooting and somebody dies. TV ROC is here everyday to cover all the community events. These events would never attract attention from the mainstream media.”

It seems like there are good intentions in having a TV station that airs content made by its residents and for it residents. However, after 10 years in Rocinha, how does TV ROC benefit its residents? To what extent does the station keep itself loyal to the idea of “democratic information”, opening up a forum that meets the community’s needs?

A bridge between the favela and the asphalt

Community TV has created a lot of curiosity among the upper social classes. Most interns who are part of TV ROC Channel 30’s team comes from Rio de Janeiro’s private universities. According to director Dante Quinterno, this is an attempt to create a “bridge between the favela and the asphalt” (slang for the areas outside of the favelas), exposing middle-class students to the reality of a favela and therefore reducing their prejudices against it. Rosangela Quarelli, manager of TV ROC, explains why they have decided to employ college students as interns on Channel 30: “These interns come from private universities with the concept that the favelas are complicated to enter, that only criminals live there. We wanted to change this idea, bring these people inside. In the future, when they become great journalists and when they have to tell the news about a favela, a community, they will act in a more socially conscious way.”

The intern Priscila de Matos confirms that she has changed the ways she thinks about the favelas. “Before working here, I was really prejudiced. When I came, I came with fear. The first time I went up there (to the hillsides of Rocinha) I was suspicious. But then, after some time, I started to let myself go and to see that Rocinha is just like any other area or neighborhood.”

The reporter Paula Gomes talks about the fear the felt when working in Rocinha right after the drug trafficking war that happened in April of 2004. “I thought: I don’t wanna go there anymore, I’m scared. But everyone is scared. I don’t want to be scared and lock myself at home. I want to be scared and do something about my fears and the fears of others. I want to do something about other people’s lives as well. We have to show that their lives (Rocinha’s residents’) are not only about fear. They produce good things: art, culture, sports. They have a normal life within their patterns.”

However, some residents of Rocinha are more skeptical about this “bridge between the favela and the asphalt”. Selma is 23 and works as a hairdresser’s assistant in a beauty parlor in the upper-class neighborhood of Botafogo. She thinks that “TV ROC is a business. I believe it’s like 70 percent business, right? They are there to sell subscriptions and make money. I believe that’s how it is.”

Eliezer, another community member makes a suggestion: “Maybe they could lower the price a little bit, even if it that meant offering less variety of channels. Then, they could make Channel 30 more visible, airing it outside the favela, showing all the good things that happen in Rocinha to people who live outside of Rocinha. Maybe they could even start a soap opera with actors from the community. Channel 30 would become the channel people watch the most and everybody inside the community would be better informed.”

Community TV and Social Change

To what extent does community TV contribute to reducing the prejudices against the favelas, the social gaps between the favela and the asphalt and even the social gaps that exist within Rocinha itself?

The manager, Rosangela Quarelli, believes that TV ROC’s most visible benefit is generating jobs for the residents. The company employs 28 people, in which 10 are residents of Rocinha. Beside the jobs, working for the community channel (Channel 30) can open up doors for a career in journalism. Araújo, who works as a volunteer cameraman for Channel 30, explains how this experience can help him in the future: “Working here is like the first step. I can gain some experience without that much pressure. Later, I intend to move on and find a job in a bigger station.”

According to Quarelli, Channel 30 is open for any community member who wants to produce his/her own programs. She explains this process. “In the beginning, they come here and say: I’d like to have my own program, I could do it, I have my camera… In the beginning, we have always helped them, we do the editing. Then, after a month, for example, they start to look for sponsorships. If they get a sponsorship, TV ROC no longer does the editing. Then, we create a circle, generating more work at Rocinha. There are many people who film Christenings, birthdays, those things… there are people with editing bays. So, we give them work. They can get a hold of these tapes and do the editing. They start to walk with their own legs.”

These “sponsors” are local merchants such as restaurant and bars owners, among many other establishments. Community members who have their own shows go to them to ask for money, equipment or other contributions. In exchange, program producers do what they call in Rocinha informal advertisements for these local merchants. It means that people in charge of the community-generated programs will say “hello” or “send a hug” to their sponsors on air or they will recommend the viewers to check out the sponsor’s establishments.

Public Utility

TV ROC creates jobs and gives a few residents the opportunity to produce their own shows for Channel 30, however the station’s role as a social change agent is limited. Some community members indicate that TV ROC might be increasing the social disparities within Rocinha by not paying enough attention to the residents who live in its most needy areas.

On the other hand, some residents say they have benefited from the information TV ROC provided them with. Eliezer, for example, describes the reasons why he likes Channel 30: “Having Channel 30 is like having a key to the community. If there is a neighborhood meeting, they go there. If some politician, someone like the secretary of safety comes here to talk to community representatives, they cover the entire meeting, so that the community can be aware of the important issues being discussed. If there’s a vaccination going on, or milk distribution for children… the channel lets us know about it.”

While it’s not so possible to see how community TV can contribute to social change, it’s worth remembering what it can do best. Tião Santos, who is a member of the Viva Rio NGO, puts it very simply: “There was a research about community media and one of the questions was: why watch community television or listen to community radio? The answer with the largest percentage was: because it tells me things that are of my interest, because it tells me things about my community. This indicates that the more the medium gets close to people’s daily lives, the better.”

TV ROC’s Channel 30 takes this idea of being close to people’s daily lives very seriously. It covers neighborhood meetings, forró (a rhythm from northeastern Brazil), concerts, school inaugurations, birthday parties, among other not so glamorous events. It also airs ads about lost documents, lost dogs and even messages from husbands who are asking their wives to forgive them.

Community TV as a mirror

Besides being useful in daily issues, the community channel has the ability to raising its audience’s self-esteem. Instead of pretending that the favela is invisible, like the mainstream channels do, its cameras focus closely on the houses, tents and wooden shacks with their clotheslines. The community channel also treats people who are used to being seen as criminals as celebrities (even if for only 5 minutes).

The resident of Rocinha Rodrigo Carvalho illustrates this concept well. “Channel 30 is cool because instead of watching soap opera, people start paying closer attention to their own neighbors. This helps us see the good in our community. We see our neighbors on screen, not some Globo artist.”

And so, we go back to the beginning of this article and to the protagonists of the story about the inauguration of the school Brisa Rio. The kids are not blond and blue-eyed like the kids of the prime-time soap opera. They also do not have those ready-to-go, smart and annoying answers. In front of the cameras, some act goofy while some hide their faces. And how about Vívian, the young teacher portrayed in the story?

Some people have changed the world with a great scientific discovery and became news. Others became news by turning their lives into a gossip circus. Why not give space to this young woman who has changed the lives of children who live on the hillsides of Rocinha by turning her garage into a school?