I’ve been asked a few times now the actual Arabic source of the saying “Tie your camel” or “Trust in God but tie up your camel”. If you click on this link, you’ll get an introduction to the story behind it. If you’re interested in the actual Arabic, then it’s:
1) Hadeeth: ‘Be wise [first] and [then] trust [in God]‘ :
A3qil wa tawkkl.
2) Arabic Proverb: ‘Trust in God but tie up your camel’:
Thiq billah wa lakin irbiT jamalek
Quentin Tarentino may be dyslexic
I’ve been a fan of Tarentino since I can remember. Most of his movies are great. I didn’t really enjoy Grindhouse etc. but I did like Jackie Brown and Kill Bill (go figure). When I first read that he was making a movie about a group of Jews being assembled to kill as many Nazis as they could, I didn’t know whether it would be a massive cheese-fest or a great movie.
Turns out that it’s great – at times brilliant – movie, with some seriously disturbing parts. I don’t mean gory; this is one of Tarentino’s least gory movies. It is disturbing because of the treatment of some of the Jewish and some of the German characters.
The Plot in ‘Brief’
A group of narratives weave themselves together to the finale. The first major narrative involves Brad Pitt and his crack squad of Jewish soldiers looking to land in Germany and ‘kill us some Nazis’. The second major narrative concerns a Jewish girl called Shoshanah, whose parents are brutally murdered at the beginning of the movie by a wicked SS officer nicknamed the ‘Jew Hunter’.
The second narrative on its own (maybe with some minor tweaks) would have made a great WWII movie. Jewish girl whose family are murdered by the SS. She manages to run away and hide and then plot revenge on the regime that caused her pain. Bam, that’s a movie right there.
The first narrative is the one that contains the most disturbing elements. Eli Roth is a terrible actor and should probably stick to directing. He spends the movie as an unlikable Jewish soldier who specialises in beating Germans to death with baseball bats. There’s a scene in the movie where a German squad has been captured. They threaten to kill the leader of the group if he doesn’t reveal German positions. He refuses and Eli Roth comes out and beats him to death with a baseball bat. The German soldier comes across as exceedingly brave and polite. The “Fuck you Jews” sentiment feels almost tacked on as if to justify his brutal killing in what is clearly a war crime.
Later on in the film we have literal Jewish Suicide bombers indiscriminately gunning down people in a crowd inside a movie theatre, then setting themselves off. Disturbing much? Some of those killed are parts of the Nazi high command, but others are clearly civilian. Women, maybe children as well are killed with equal sadistic thrill.
Shoshanah on the other hand, is instantly likeable. She is strong and independent and clearly has a knack for survival. She’s beautiful, but doesn’t fall for heroic charms, instead having a relationship with a selfless black man. She spends most of the movie being ardently pursued by a German war hero named ‘Koller’. He is dashing, pleasant, fluent in French and German and an arrogant-but-likeable fellow. This makes it more the shame that Tarentino decided to blow character to the wind and have him threaten to all but rape Shoshanah. In another unebelievable twist, he holds on to his life long enough to kill our heroine who never lives to see her revenge fulfilled. The one character in the story who has the most personal need for revenge and who has apparently lost the most, never gets to see it.
The plot aside – the cinematography is excellent, although the soundtrack is at times artificial. The pacing is perfect, bouncing between action, horror and moments of sheer comedy. The narratives intertwine well and the performances are generally excellent. Brad Pitt is on form (probably his best role since Fight Club) and Christoph Waltz pulls off the best performance in the film (and probably in any of Tarentino’s films) as the evil, slimy and self-serving Hans Landa. He effortlessly flits between English, German, French and Italian and performs what should be an oscar-winning performance. Throughout the movie you’ll find yourself increasingly self-loathing for coming to like the vicious sadist. This is not your standard cookie-cutter evil SS man.
Final Verdict
Probably the best movie Tarantino has made since Pulp Fiction. I am impressed with the way he has handled the plethora of languages and culturally-diverse actors in the film and that alone should shape cinema for the next generation. At times truly disturbing and maybe over the top; what do you expect? It’s Tarentino.
Idiom the Third
Plugging One’s Ears While Stealing a Bell (Lit. ‘Cover ears steal bell’)
Story behind the idiom: During the Spring and Autumn Period, a man in the Kingdom of Jin took a liking to a bell and decided to steal it. The bell was very large and heavy, so he decided to smash it to pieces with a hammer and take it with him in bits. Fearing that he might be heard when the hammer struck the bell, he covered his ears and started to smash up the bell.
Meaning of idiom: used to describe those who think they are smart but deceive themselves.
A statue of famed criminal Ronald Reagan is to go up in London soon. The statue will cost £50,000 for Westminster to maintain and will be 10 feet high and bronze.
Reagan’s crimes include:
I don’t want to see him honoured in our great city.
Hannan has issues a response (or a ‘final word’) on, surprise surprise, the Daily Telegraph’s website. You can read the whole article here.
It’s clear Hannan’s an intelligent fellow. I think it’s easy to assume that when he goes on US TV, he’s not being ambushed, but he knows exactly what sort of environment he is getting into and exactly what sort of effect his comments may have. I am sure he is well aware of the current political circumstances in America. He seems to be a politican 2.0 sort, so no doubt he’s crawled through youtube looking at the same sort of videos anyone who’s interested in American politics will have seen.
So he does the rounds on Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity and is praised by the likes of cretinous Cavuto. His words are being used right now in the US to support the idea that the NHS is evil and Orwellian. They are being used to directly influence American domestic opinion and policy.
Meanwhile, the examples he provides are terrible. For example, from the Glenn Beck clip I posted in a previous blog post:
And he said, “Look, I’m in real pain, can I have some painkillers while I’m waiting.” And they said, “No, get to the back of the line.” He said, “Look, I’d buy them.” And they said, I think they became very aggressive, “What do you mean you’re going to buy them. This is the National Health Service, so we don’t have any provision for independent purchase of medicine.”
So, that’s the — that’s the mentality.
Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt over the phrasing. There is a very good reason as to why receptionists don’t have the power to immediately hand out painkillers or any medicine. Firstly, they are not doctors and may not know what is appropraite. Secondly, they do not know if this person is some kind of drug addict. Thirdly, they don’t know if this guy is going to have an allergic reaction to painkillers or if he’s already taken the accepted dose. It isn’t their job to do it. If the pain was pretty bad, he should already have bought and taken over-the-counter drugs. If the pain was extremely bad, he should have emphasised its urgency (the example doesn’t sound too urgent). I’m sure that when you go to A&E in the US, you get instant treatment and the receptionists hand out painkillers like candy (or maybe not).
We have 1.4 million people employed by the National Health Service. It is the third biggest employer in the world after the Red Army in China and the Indian National Railways. Most of those 1.4 million people are administrators, that the managers outnumber the doctors and nurses. And that is the electoral bloc that makes it almost impossible to get rid of.
This is a mix of a massive fallacy and an outright lie. Firstly, about 3% of the NHS workforce is managerial and about 40% are doctors and nurses, while a further 40%-odd are directly involved in patient care. Secondly, Wal-Mart employs about 1.8 million. Thirdly, the fact that it is ‘one of the biggest employers in the world’ really isn’t relevant. It is here considered a single, massive organisation, that is not broken down into chunks. If private healthcare in this country had the capabilities of the NHS, it would need similar staff levels. Places like Germany do not have a single health employment umbrella and so several organisations involved in patient care. So, for example, in the US, about 12 million people are involved in healthcare. Yes that’s right. To cater for a population about 5 times the size of the UK’s, the US has 10 times the number of people involved. This does not indicate that the NHS is bloated. In comparison to the US it is positively anaemic. Even if you accept that this workforce shouldn’t be employed by the state, the workforce involved would probably need to be at least at the level it is at the moment. Oh-oh.
So what’s the problem with Hannan again? His erroneous consideration of the NHS is being used as an example to manipulate American domestic opinion and block what might be one of the biggest and best changes to hit America in the last few decades. It is horrific and I hope his political career suffers as a result.
