Musings of an Idiot

Arms Trade

I was watching behind the scenes/featurettes on 'Lord of War' and was thinking - if everyone knows that small arms trade is such a problem then why doesn't the UN step in and reign in the governments of different countries to stop the US$ 1 billion illegal small arms trade and also cut down on the US$ 3 billion legal trade. I ran into a news items yesterday evening which headlined 'U.N. conference on arms ends in failure' - so much for trying to make the world a better place to live. Read the article HERE.

The US Gun lobby - the NRA {National rifles Association} slammed the conference saying that it is a threat to their constitutional rights. What a pile of bullshit argument!!! The truth is that Africa and other volatile regions of the world are tearing themselves apart because they are being given a means to do that - so that governments and illegal arms traders can make a profit from the killings. Small Arms cause 90% of civilian casualties and things will only get worse with intensifying conflicts all around the world.

If you look at the top 3 countries making the most money out of small arms trade- they are USA, Russia and France : all permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - how is that for irony? The next country on that list is U.K - another permanent member of the security council.

But U.S is by far the largest exporter of arms -selling more than the next 14 countries on the list combined together and the U.S government wants everyone to believe that they are a peace loving country with their only interest being world peace - Bullshit!!!!! All you have to do is look at the Wikipedia page on Arms Industry and you start getting a better picture of the hypocrisy that runs through the world. People think that World War III would be one cataclysmic event but the fact is that it is already going on - all the wars which are going on right now are smaller parts of the bigger picture and there will be a snapout point sometime soon which will lead to multiple nations going to war at the same time. And at that point we will wonder as to why we never saw it coming.


Anyway - I won't talk much about what happened this weekend as nothing much did. Just movie work and house cleaning. I will leave you with some photos from the weekend.


No..hold on - talking about Long Bay Beach - I have never actually seen that many dogs on a beach before. Every second person had a dog with them - it was kind of bizarre. Also not related to Long Bay Beach, watched a really really long japanese sci-fi movie called 'Casshern'. It was another of those weird experiences. The story kept going on and on. The director obviously had a solid vision but not the money to back it up, so the SFX were passable but well integrated into the story. They made an epic for US$ 5 million. The weakest point of the movie was it's overdrawn and long narrative. If only they had trimmed it down by an hour....

Talking of Japanese - Benji lent me a book which dealt with the underground manga movement in Japan and was essentially a collection of underground manga stories. I have to say that Japanese are into some really weird stuff and in a way it makes me wonder if as a society they are even stable. I have started reading a sci-fi Manga titled 'Blame!' and it has been a thrilling read because of the art work, the pacing and the concept. I have finished Vol. 1 and have just started off Vol. 2

I think I will take leave with a concept teaser poster for 'Five' - the movie that I am planning to do after 'Nowhere'.


Ciao,
Amit

Labels: Five, Graphic Novels, Introspection, Movies

posted by Amit @ 9:33 PM