{"id":724,"date":"2011-10-16T16:30:17","date_gmt":"2011-10-16T23:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/?p=724"},"modified":"2011-10-17T17:24:30","modified_gmt":"2011-10-18T00:24:30","slug":"harry-brown-meets-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/uncategorized\/harry-brown-meets-network\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Brown Meets Network"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some writers seem clairvoyant.\u00a0 Gary Young\u00a0<\/a> \"\"<\/a>the screenwriter of the film, Harry Brown<\/a>, certainly seems to be one of them. He showed inequities in one country’s social system before they exploded.\u00a0 In the film, youth in low-cost housing projects beat up the locals and tackled the police without concern for repercussions. In the special features section of the film, the actor Michael Caine<\/a> warned that London had its fair share of disenfranchised youth, capable of acting out criminally and it was only a matter of time. He was right, as we saw in this summer’s London riots. All they needed was the excuse of a black man killed by the police. The man had a record, and it\u2019s unclear whether the police overstepped their boundaries, but those who rioted chose to break the law.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>2011 has become the Year of Demonstrations–Harry Brown meets\u00a0 Network<\/a>. So far, we\u2019ve had\u2014the Vancouver riots after the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup, the riots in London, the Arab Spring<\/a> in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya among others, and now the Occupation on Wall Street<\/a>.What do they have in common\u2014all these people taking to the streets?<\/p>\n

The ones in Vancouver were fueled by alcohol. Poor losers when the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup? Or hooligans looking for a fight? The city decided it was the latter.<\/a> Shops were destroyed, cop cars burned, people\u2019s livelihood threatened.<\/p>\n

Then, we had Arab Spring. Arabs in autocratic states said loudly through their peaceful demonstrations that they\u2019d had enough. Peaceful turned ugly. Many were injured, many died, all in their valiant attempt to throw out a corrupt and vicious dictator.<\/p>\n

And now, there\u2019s the occupation on Wall Street. Peaceful still. Men and women, all ages, fed up with the system that has left so many unemployed, so many tossed out in the street, and so many with dashed hopes for themselves and their families.\u00a0 They\u2019re saying, what the newscaster in Paddy Chayefsky\\’s<\/a> film Network said, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore”\u00a0 They want that 1 %, whose combined wealth is equal to the other 99% of Americans to pay their fair share of taxes. They want the men who brought America to its knees to be held accountable. To stop lining their pockets at the expense of the ones who can least afford it.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

As Canadians, we can\u2019t afford to be complacent either. There\u2019s a huge discrepancy between rich and poor here as well.<\/p>\n

As a former social worker, when I look at the riots in Vancouver and London, I have to think that there\u2019s something wrong when people choose crime rather than a legitimate way to express their anger. What are their values? Where have their parents gone wrong? Where has society gone wrong?<\/p>\n

As for Arab Spring and the Wall Street Occupation, I see youth with a conscience. They know that what\u2019s happening in their countries is wrong. They\u2019re speaking up and writing what they care about on their signs. But of those listening or reading, how many have the power to sway the pendulum, to make the necessary changes?\u00a0 Let\u2019s hope that those who care are also those who can do something about it.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some writers seem clairvoyant.\u00a0 Gary Young\u00a0 the screenwriter of the film, Harry Brown, certainly seems to be one of them. He showed inequities in one country’s social system before they… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[88,1,4],"tags":[192,190,194,191,189,193,195,103,55,5],"class_list":["post-724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-uncategorized","category-writing","tag-arab-spring","tag-harry-brown","tag-london-riot","tag-micahel-caine","tag-network","tag-occupation-on-wall-street","tag-occupy-wall-street","tag-screenplay","tag-vancouver-riot","tag-writing-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LuVB-bG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4782,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2020\/writing\/black-white-and-brown\/","url_meta":{"origin":724,"position":0},"title":"Black, White, and Brown","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"9 \u0427\u0435\u0440\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Black, White, and Brown - what difference does it make? It shouldn't, but it does, evidenced by all the injustice in our society and world history. Books on Racism are selling out right now. We need to understand more than ever, to make changes, to bring about justice for all.\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/racism.jpg?fit=509%2C339&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1383,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2013\/writing\/the-great-gatsby-3d-why-mess-with-a-classic\/","url_meta":{"origin":724,"position":1},"title":"The Great Gatsby 3D: Why Mess With A Classic?","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"21 \u0422\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve been a fan of author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and his classic novel, The Great Gatsby, for at least half my life. 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The players on both sides played well, but the aftermath was tragic. When I saw photos and video clips of men going mad, destroying public\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/photo2-255x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4474,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2023\/writing\/the-mad-among-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":724,"position":3},"title":"The Mad Among Us","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"12 \u0421\u0456\u0447\u043d\u044f, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"For my first blog post of 2023, I thought I'd write about the mad among us. 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The Cast Stepping Out, adapted from a play by Richard Harris, was supposed to be Liza\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/film-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Stepping Out with Liza Minelli","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Stepping-Out-162x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}