Lockerbie Panam103 Critique of BBC's Intrigue Show

 

Corrections, Additions and Definitions

The BBC Scotland's Radio Documentary Series on Lockerbie Panam103 fails to join the dots and as a result is not a truthful account in my opinion. As a journalist who was on the ground at the time I have listened to whole six parts, which although the writing style is compelling it adds nothing new so far to the story that unfolded at the time in 1988. In fact, it seems a rehash of previous better documentaries in such a way that it is frustrating to listen to because it does not offer anything of originality in either descriptions or facts.  The better portrayals of the evidence go to two other documentaries, namely  and firstly, The Maltese Double Cross an Independent piece made in the 1990's, which details the involvement of the PPLFCG the Palestinian Popular Front in its German cell known for creating 5 Barametric bombs from the same materials as the one relating to Panam103. And secondly, the later 2011 documentary made by Al Jazeera, which documents the investigation of the Private Investigator George Thompson, who looked into the details of the Syrian timer and how it mysteriously disappeared from the investigation to be replaced by the Maltese clothes narrative of Mary's shop and Guchie. Both those documentaries point to an Iranian connection in that the PPLF were regarded as proxy gofers for the Iranians back then via a complex line of command from the Syrian Government which was revealed by the drug-running lackie elements of the double agent system that had been allegedly created by the CIA in the Middle East according to the research in Maltese Double Cross. It is therefore perhaps no accident that early rumours circulating around Lockerbie in 1989, were that there was a group of about 6 Syrians on the plane. Along side the well known suitcase full of class A drugs found near the cockpit, as described  in an article by Private Eye some time ago, it does seem plausible that there were drug running PPLF/Syrian Ops on the plane. It is born out by the presence of Khalid Jaffar on the plane who was a Member of the PPLF and he had a seat and ticket. He was also  related to one of the commanderies of that organisation. This was known at the time and described in Maltese Double Cross. This does not seem to be a conspiracy theory but based on the profiles of the people on the plane. It is even more gauling in the light of 911 that there was an Iranian on Panam 103, who was an Engineer with expertise in Aviation. What's not to understand here? Read on.

With better material available to Lockerbie officinados like me, who know its conspiracies theories from back to front and back again Intrigues Lockerbie is so far a big frustrating disappointment because I had hoped it would interview the original group of BBC Radio reporters who were on the ground at the time at the radio Station BBC Radio Solway where there was a team of 6 reporters including myself as a trainee roukie community reporter. But no, a glaring hole in the actuality and authenticity of the piece. Instead, it relies on the non-local reporter David Johnson from Radio Forth, miles away in Edinburgh, to give his first impressions of the Lockerbie Bombing in 1988. It is a shame that the other Johnson, William, the head of the local Radio Solway, only 10 miles from Lockerbie, was not asked for comment or the rest of his team.

In doing so, they missed out key facts that may be of interest to many who have followed the twists and turns of the Lockerbie story. I would have thought by now that it was accepted there was an under belly of an alternative story hidden under the swamp like a brooding crocodile about the removal of evidence that occurred after the death of the first legal investigator of Lockerbie Bombing, Michael Hughes, who compiled all the working evidence of 135 witnesses for the Fatal Accident Enquiry of 1990 and who died in a car crash on the first day of the said enquiry. What is missing are his conclusions about his unheard contentions that there were concerning inconsistencies in the passenger list that may have hidden the elements of a premeditated operation to bring the plane down in mid-air. His theories may have been revolving around the diminished passenger list of the number of Syrians and Iranian operatives on the plane along side the defensive existence of 12 US military special forces on the plane, whose presence may have been to prevent a possible high jacking either in connection with the known PPLF threat or the presence of Bernt Carlson Head of the United Nations Namibian delegation who was on the plane too and a known target. 

Furthermore and more heavily resonant is that one of the other  things Michael Hughes and associate lawyers were trying to do before his death was to subpoena the CIA for their cables and papers relating to their 4 operatives who got off the plane in London after the known Helsinki warning and who ashamedly saved themselves and let the other passengers go down. It was as if ' like a lamb to the slaughter ' as Mrs Swire mother of Victim Flora Swire so aptly said in the Maltese Double Cross Documentary. 

It certainly was a known narrative that had been going around at the time that was part of common knowledge about Lockerbie back then. Suddenly after that lawyer's death a new team were flown in from New York headed by Krindlier, within 48 hours to represent the American families and to down grade the Fatal Accident Inquiry evidence which eventually morphed into the Megrahi trial. None of this is present in the part one and part two of this  Intrigue series and as such it belittles the missing evidence that has plagued the investigators from the inception of the case.

This BBC Intrigue show, then digs itself a hole in part 3 to 6 where its descriptions of characters on the periphery of the action take up the attention of the presenter in a negative way like his fixation on David Benaryeah ( a known member of Mossad) a one time friend of Jim Swire, whose importance to the investigation lacks significance in that he was neither part of the legal investigations nor a cog in the recovery of items and facts to do with Lockerbie but rather he was a dilitante for the club known as the 'UK Families Flight 103  and not much else. Such tangents are disappointing because they lead the listener away from the main points of the investigation. The most enlightening episode is Part 5 about the Senussi Files allegedly found in an office held by the Gaddafi s security boss and discovered at the end of the war in Libya in 2011 The papers they discovered show records that apparently prove Megrahi and Massouds guilt with papers written in Megrahi's handwriting of requests to do with a plane they were planning to down, though it makes no mention of Panam103. Somehow it all sounds too convenient and lacks credibility that papers would be found in a war zone exactly detailing Megrahi's activities. To me it sounded that they could have been faked but the BBC were determined that it must be right and they arranged to challenge Jim Swire about it who takes it like a gentleman and refuses to swerve from his belief that Megrahi is innocent. He makes the point that these new papers just seem to be backing up the CIA's own agenda. There, the main thrust of the piece ends with its aim seeming to be to promote the Senussi Files as the next best thing for the conviction of Massoud and the safety of Megrahi's conviction. Anyone with a wider view on the Lockerbie bombing is surely going to be very disappointed by these conclusions. Intrigue as an investigative piece is a narrow-minded approach to a huge subject that needed a broader view and thus a more holistic view on the material. Having said that, Bonnar's presentation style is cogent and alluring despite the lack of original content.

 Many like myself believe this missing evidence may have contributed to the ability of the uncaught perpetrators to go on to matermind the 911 bombings of the New York World Trade Centre. So far this BBC Radio piece Intrigue fails to convey the seriousness of all that or to give the gravitas it needs in these present day times when the emergence of a new manifestation of the Iranian Terror threat has morphed into The Caliphate, regarded as an alliance between Isis (Daesh) of Levant in Syria, Iran, and the Pakistani Khoresan of Old Alqueda, who likely instigated the Lockerbie bombings  and who still remain at large as a threat to the public and if Im right they put more than just one bomb of the plane due to the multiple targets on it.

In the light of all that we must think bigger see bigger and understand the global security issues that the Lockerbie bombings exert on the present safety of planet and its inhabitants. So far BBC's Intrigue failed to look into that pandoras box but instead took the usual route most travelled by many who had already poured over the facts and as such it had nothing of note to add.  It was also a six parter that seemed only to want to back up the present impending trial and provide pre-packed evidence from a dubious unverified source in a war zone, that seemed designed to repeat yet another miscarriage of justice.   

End of Critique of BBC's Intrigue Lockerbie 

Sins of Omissions -Partial Description of Michael Hughes Interview Panam103

I spoke with Michael Hughes a week before he died on a train from Glasgow and I regard the discussion I had with him as the last interview. He was very professional in not wanting to answer my questions directly because he was in charge of a legal case and should not be speaking with the press so I had to ask questions rather than get full statements. I took the approach of explaining what I had heard from the Print Journalist Frank Ryan who was the main reporter for the Dumfries and Galloway Standard and was in Lockerbie on the night of the Bombing. (Now passed away) I described my impression of the Lockerbie Bombing. I heard a simple narrative that there were 6 Syrians on the plane, that there were diamonds and uranium on the plane, to do with some deal or other, and that I also knew that 4 members of the CIA who got on the plane at Frankfurt got off the plane in London. At that point Mr Hughes said Yes they had issued a subpoena to the CIA to give over their papers and cables to do with those CIA members. He had also nodded at the idea there were six Syrians on the plane, that there were diamonds and he did not deny there was uranium on the plane either. I was later to understand that the Diamonds and the Uranium would be to do with Bernt Carlsson, the UN Secretary for Namibia who was going to New York to sign off the Independence of Namibia and in turn that would have nationalised the Diamond and the Uranium Mines which was a very dangerous thing to vested interests. Not that I knew that at the time so that meant I took a simple approach of getting Yes and No answers. I also said I knew the town hall had been stripped down to its bear boards with the plaster being taken off because the bodies that were placed in the building and that they may have been contaminated. I then went on to  say I knew there had been a mushroom cloud is that right. Yes he said. Due to all the yeses to my questions, I arranged to see him the following week at 10 am on Tuesday morning when I would have the BBC tape recorder. Sadly, he died in a car crash the night before so I never got the scoop interview that would have changed the entire course of events if it had gone out.  

The obvious next question is if it was not an accident, was - Who benefitted from Michael Hughes death? The CIA of course because they would not have had to cough up their cables and directives. However if it was not them who was it that is, if we consider the unthinkable that it was a murder? The other side The Caliphate in the form of Iran/Syria/Pakistan certainly benefited from his death in that his direction of investigation pointed fairly and squarely towards them with the Barametric Semtex bomb - the PPLF one. Could they have had the capacity to have made a bomb with radioactive elements in it? It seems the Barametric bomb was fairly simple and would not have carried uranium elements. So if it was not a complex second bomb provided with uranium for a sparky deathly revenge of Bernt Carlson who had many enemies because of his Peace Maker attempts in the Middle East, who or what had the capacity to create a Dirty Bomb with radioactivity in it?? There were only tow culprits on the list who could do that with their known nuclear scientists Iran and Pakistan through their well known Scientist DR Khan, who had worked on the nuclear industry for India and for Namibia when he was employed by the Uranium Mine owners URENCO. Thus there were people in the Trilateral Alliance of Iran, Pakistan African and Syria shaping up as The Caliphate who could have gained the technology to set off the radiation alarms all across the Solway Coast as happened on the night of the Lockerbie Bomb. So come cynics and dumbers down you DO NOT HAVE TO LOOK FAR FOR THE FACTS. 

If Michael had survived or the interview had gone ahead I believe that Abu Nidal head of the PPLF GC may have been brought to trial instead based on the Syrian Timer, and the 5 German Bombs they had found that were the same as the Panam 103 one. Perhaps, Perhaps? More questions than answers, more unknown truths unfound but something does not add up with the disappearance of a key prosecutor and Im afrain the CIA look like they had the biggest motive. 

Michael agreed there had been uranium I knew that if there was radiation present in the bomb albeit it at a low level as shown by the weird mushroom cloud then it was a dirty bomb created by a regime that had the funds to do it. I was gonna ask him all that. He nodded he knew. 

The CIA has blood on their hands; it seems for a lot of things they failed to do. Sins of Omissions.

Let's look at the sins of omission. It was clear from what Michael Hughes was pointing towards that a group connected to Khaled Jaffar known member of the PPLF who was on the plane likely had other with him if it was to be a confrontational hijacking. Subsequent profiling does show interesting connections like the Iranian Aviation Engineer and others with what appear to be made up Middle Eastern names. Were these people Michael was referring to when he raised the matter on the first day of the Fatal Accident Inquiry of the inconsistencies in the passenger list, which must have included the  4 known CIA members who got off the plane. There were also technical inconsistencies that might back that up in terms of the lax nature of the recording of the bags being attached and unattached to people who got on and off the plane or simply did not turn up. The case of the airhostess who got on the wrong fight is one of these technicalities that was solved but others remain shrouded in mystery, with people who refused to give background profiles to the FBI official list. Mmm, the plot thickens. 

As the years have gone by I have been able to join the dots between the PPLF and what I believe was a second bomb for the known active target Bernt Carlson, who was as I said, taking the treaty for the Independence of Namibia to be sighed. It's implcations were huge in that the possible subsequent nationalisation of the Diamond and Uranium Mines would wrest the mines out of the control of DeBeers who had a vested interest in the treaty not being signed. Bernt Carlson was surrounded by a large detail of bodyguards  and American military who I believe were put on the plane to try to prevent the high probability that there could be a hijacking by nepharious forces preventing the Treaty from reaching its destination. A second bomb looks very likely when you consider the other factors of a technical nature. Namely, the characteristics of the explosion which Michael had personally investigated right down to the nature of the bombs size in impact which  combined to have over 500,000 inpact of TNT and he had compiled 9 people who saw the  - mushroom cloud. He would have also known presence of the Uranium alongside the identifying marker of where the Cockpit was catapulted up in the air to land 10 miles away at Tundergarth Church area. A second bomb seems also likely because even in the CIA report available on line the amount of Semtex in the supposed Megrahi suitcase was not enough to cause a large enough to cause a huge hole in the fuzelage. The PPLF/ Megrahi bomb explosion, according to their account, rattled around the interior skin of the plane to cause a 16-inch hole in the fuselage, but it was not big enough to sever the cockpit in the way that it was cut.

It may therefore have been more like this? The Uranium and the De Beers Diamonds that were on the plane were perhpas to be exchanged MID FLIGHT for the known suitcase of drugs that may have been part of the negotiation booty of the CIA Middle Eastern Duty Double agents, when they may have been trying to convince the PPFL to stand down the timer device on the bomb. This is conjecture, but a number of other  people have stated like Major McKie's wife that he with the other 11 Special forces on the plane were part of a suicide mission if it went wrong. Well wrong it did, Fantasy you think. It does sound like an espionage spy story for the Bond movies but I can assure you the Diamonds were found, the uranium was found, the drugs were found alongside a suitcase full of cash. So err who is kidding who here. Something was going down and it was Panam103 and it looks like it was a premeditated Sting of a dasterdly nature.

10 people saw the mushroom cloud, including one as far away as Minigaff, which had high hills that looked down on Lockerbie. The Richter station at Lockerbie Eskdalemuir, read 1.7 on the scale, indicating it was more than the semtex in the suitcase. Such FACTs bite hard when you are on the ground and heard the 7 loud explosions and felt the warm back draft.

 I hope you enjoyed the Truth, which is a far cry for the concoction that the BBC is creating ahead of the new trial of Massoud Abu. Due to what sounds ridiculous in it proportions I never felt safe to reveal the full measure of the truth about Lockerbie and I have only told half of it because the rest you would not believe me about the black ops people I spoke to about how things are done. 

Hindsight is a great thing and it reveals a huge network that should now be more correctly called The Caliphate, who make up an unholy alliance between the Iranian-backed PPFL, beside Iran's financing of terrorism, alongside Pakistan who may have provided the technology for a second bomb via its connection to the Uranium provision from Namibia via their scientist Khan. Thus the new Caliphate a strange concoction of Old Guard Iran fused with the usual suspects of the PPFL in the Middle East, alongside a smart technical wing from Pakistan, who can run rings around the present weakling, dullard CIA because they have had years of practise doing that - 37 years in fact and 911 New York on their hands. How Libya fits into to all that is a mystery and only credible if they were a satellite operating around an even bigger operational commandery who all worked with each other. 

Enter the New Caliphate ready to do war with the West by whatever means necessary as an Imam based at the Islamic Foundation in George Cross, Glasgow, said in 1993, whose job it was to radicalize young Muslims. Since then it was declared a terrorist organisation and banned.

On a personal note, holding all this in has taken its toll and in the interests of everyone and their safety as well as my own I am speaking out to correct the lies, and half-truths about the largest terrorist atrocity in the UK history. its time the Dirty Bomb was addressed and not hidden with the cowardly Members of Parliament who covered it up.  

As a good friend said to me who I have known for over 40 years and whose observation was insightful. Takes on Reality may be subjective, but truth is objective, and its truth is NOT determined by human opinion.

Oh Ye hypocytes you whited sepulchres - a cry that should go up to the present and past members of the Central Intelligence Agency, who have failed to understand the basics about the Lockerbie bombing nor do they have the integrity to own up to their failings. Instead, we all of us on the ground in Lockerbie sigh and weep at their shortcomings and that of the BBC, who are the mouthpiece of the cover-up.

Lockerbie Pan Am 103 Never Forget, Never Forgive

Allan Francovich Documentary Maltese Double Cross Link Here

Lockerbie The Pan Am Bomber Documentary  Link Here

A Quest for Peace and a Red Rose Revival

Peace Quest Documentary and a Red Rose.

World Peace has never been harder lost than right now with a war in the Middle East and another in Europe in Ukraine. Back in 2023 at the New Year, I made a resolution to visit one community per month that promoted World peace either politically or spiritually speaking. It seemed an innocent naive thing to ask now given the ferocity of the fighting on both fronts. Ten months later it's been hard to go around to visit and film these communities because of two things my own priority list that got in the way and that of the interviewees who seemed to be doing more important things to sustain their communities and groups during the world crisis. How could this be? So far I managed to interview the head of the Peace Sanctuary in Allanton, responsible for the well-known Peace Poles of May Peace dwell on Earth motto and earlier in the year Leader of the Samye Ling Buddhist Monastery. I then went to speak with some of the SGI Sokka Gaki Buddhists about their Peace initiatives plus members of the Bahai Faith. However, there are gaps in the monthly forrays to Peace Communities due to an illness of mine, like a nasty tooth abscess in July coupled with a six-month train strike that limited journeys and sometimes made travel impossible due to cancellations. So now I must catch up in November and December to speak  Christian and Muslim Groups along with other political organisations. Will I make it? I soon found I needed money to get around so I launched a Crowdfunder and I'm appealing to you to help because I have left the Crowdfunder open after the window for donations and it is still available for support. You can help by donating at this link here Peace Quest

To make this more attractive anyone donating over £10 will receive a free Peace Symbol Necklace with their contribution. They are also available on Etsy to buy for Peace Quest at this link Peace Necklace 

In the lead up to Christmas I hope people will consider helping Peace-Quest documentary reach its goal. It will be edited from January 2025 to April given that 12 communities were the goal and that filming them would not be completed by December 2024. It's a challenge, but I do hope it will get people in general inspired to consider peace as the only option for humanity.

Red Rose Film in 2024 20th Anniversary Revival 

Red Rose the film I wrote and produced in 2004 is having a revival with screening in Scotland. In July it screened at the Theatre Royal Dumfries on the anniversary of Robert Burn's death. It was a historical event because Robert Burns was associated with the theatre due to the riot that ensued over his failure to stand for the National Anthem.  A documentary was made about the Red Rose screenings this summer and you can see it on you tube or again at this link below.

Red Rose Revival Screenings

Here is the new trailer at the link here Red Rose Trailer

If you would like a screening of the film accompanied by a Q and A from me please do get in touch.

Art Centres in Scotland have also requested the film for Burns Suppers in 2025 for which it is available.

More up dates on my other projects soon here because the Blog seems to be the most efficient way to get the word out in these times.

More soon.

Nessie Film in Cinemas throughout Scotland

 

The film Nessie is available in cinemas this month throughout Scotland and only this week the Odeon extended its run on Edinburgh Lothian Rd Cinema thoughout this coming weekend August 11th plus more shows at its Glasgow Braehead venue. However it does not stop there with a full weeks release at the Grovenor Cinema in Glasgow West End and then it goes on to Oban Cinema also from this Friday and then back into Edinburgh at the Scotsman Picturehouse through August at the Kids Club. In order not to miss this charming comedy about Scotland's National Hero, the Loch Ness Monster I have listed the ticket links below.

TICKET LINKS BELOW

NESSIE starring John Michie (Taggart) Patrick Kilpatrick (Minority Report) Tanya Fear (Dr Who) Stephanie Beacham (Dynasty)Nessie is, a comedy about the Loch Ness Monster in Cinemas in Scotland for its summer release of the week beginning the 5th August with a premiere at Grovenor Cinema Glasgow I enclose the trailer here Nessie Movie Trailer

The Odeon Braehead Glasgow runs the film from the 6th August, along side the Grovenor West End in Glasgow with the Edinburgh Scotsman Cinema screening it daily for ten days, plus in North Argyll the Oban Phoenix Cinema screens it for a week, Aberfeldy Cinema too, while Highland Fort William Cinema extend the release to September.  Here is how the other cinemas are presenting the film in the Central Belt. More to follow on the Highland screenings. 

GROVENOR CINEMA GLASOW 

You can see the Grovenor shows here Ticket Link Ashton Lane 

 

ODEON

Edinburgh Lothian Rd Odeon Ticket Link Lothian Rd 

Glasgow Braehead Odeon Braehead Odeon

If you join the Odeon website you get tickets for £5 

 

OBAN

Oban Tickets from Friday 11th Nessie Oban Pheonix Cinema

 

ABERFELDY

Aberfeldy Cinema Ticket Link The Birks Cinema

 

EDINBURGH SCOTSMAN PICTURE HOUSE 

From August 19th for ten days to August 29th at the Kids Club

Scotsman Cinema  Kids Club Scotsman Picturehouse

The Film is distributed by my company Sunset Entertainment a Boutique Theatrical Cinema Distribution and Film Sales Company. The film was made by Palm Tree Universal and produced by Rachael Sutherland and Robbie Moffat who also directed the film.

I would like to thank my daughter Rachael Sutherland who organised the Premiere of the Picture at the Grovenor Cinema last weekend and also added the additional cinemas of Grovenor and Edinburgh Scotsman Picturehouse to the List of Cinemas taking Nessie for this summers release. I would also like to thank the other cinemas Oban Phoenix, Aberfeldy Birks, Fort Willian Highland and not forgetting the Odeon who have put the film in again this weekend and next week. 

This release has built on the other cinema release that Sunset Entertainment made of Dracula on Holiday in 2021 when it saw a gap in the market in Scotland for local independent film producers to break into cinema distribution.

The difference between a B12 deficiency and Pernicious Anaemia diagnosis

Cannes Film Festival 2023 - Stuck by the Male Perogative -No change then!

Last months blog updated with a photo and a comment on the Kind Cannes Film Association

For me Cannes 2023 was a wake up call to stand up against the prevailing mentality that delights to the point of a sadists satisfaction, in demeaning women on every level, both mentally and physically. This was enshrined in the pervading atmosphere this year which was remicisent of the first Festivals I went to in the mid and late 1990's when the prostituion networks were at their height and visibly triumphant in their operations, where the march of the girls would occur on La Croisette, every evening as if like a promenade of flesh. Groups of girls all wearing short mini dresses and 4 inch heels would  gather outside the Casino and then simply strut down the coastal promenade catching looks from the men who invarably got drawn in to an expensive evening where they paid for everything quite literally and would be found the next day burnt out shanghied with no money in their pockets because it had all gone on one night where no business was done but one thing!!!

Today post MeToo such days of the 1990's seem like a bygone era, that one would think and hope would have no reappearance of the prostitute rings. Not so in 2023 they were bold as brass, heavy dewed with expensive perfume, and unrelentant that it was to be- business as usual. Noone was going to stop them if they made the the pimps visable and as threatening as possible. Indeed they had been stopped in 2013 when the prostitution ring or at least one brand of it had been broken by the police or rather Interpol who raided the parties that had gone on for almost a decade or more in the penthouses of one of the most famous hotels in Cannes. 

Post MeToo one would have hoped that the atmosphere of Cannes would have been cleaned up in a way that the prositution had been eliminated never to return as if it could be cleaned clear through and deoderised too just like a laundered dish cloth might be from the cleansing revulsion and anger that had prevaded the whole MeToo process of speaking out. Well well not so.....

Then there were the legitamising forces of the sponsors of the Festival and their behavior, which seemed oddly out of tune with the awakened parts of the film industry and their audiences. Many of the sponsors seemed intent in keeping the habits and mores of a begone era where women were seen but not heard as if we had to bow down and say All Hail to the Brand no matter how dehumanising the processes of its marketing campaigns. This was summed up by an event that was to spoil the evening for many who attended one such brand's party, namely Campari who had hired a security wrangler from another time and place akin to an Italian racket and not the tennis kind either. His behviour of pulling and pushing the ticketed guests in the entryline caused a dangerous crush situation for many so much so that large numbers of those in the crush and subsequent fall out filmed the actions of this head wrangler pushing and shoving the people in the ticket line. Once he understood his actions had been caught on camera by, err, wait for it film makers whose job it is to catch people in the act, he curtailed his thuggery and on cue when the camera turned he realised he must make like a good man and let the poor people gain entry without his slapping hand in front and behind them. Many women complained that he had felt their breasts while he beat them away to fit in with his strange method of crowd control which back fired because in disgust many gave up on wanting to attend the event despite having tickets. I observed the scrum which was akin to a rugby match,  and I complained to the head of marketing there who was hiding out in a side room with the skinny models and the vision mixers who were trying to make an art of getting the dancers who were on stage clicking their bums up in a pert sexy way presumably to try to corner the market of eroticism that might only impress the sunburnt penniless men who had lost their money to the prostitute promenade. The marketing department thought they were so cool when in actual fact they were so last year in fashion terms, in that they had not taken MeToo into account or its transformative power. Campari lost out because its party was less than capacity with guests entering and then promptly leaving when they saw the style faux pas of the dancing girls.

Oh well? But something did change, the Palm D'or went to a woman director this year so at least the organisers had made an effort to impress the MeToo female lobby if only for the Awards catagories. Out with that, Cannes was the same old, same old, recipe of gender abuse where women were quite literally the bottom of the heap, under the cosh of the four inch high heeled shoed women who ralled against the normal footware of white tennis shoes that had come into fashion there in 2012 after Julia Roberts made her defiant walk up the Red Carpet in bare feet in way of rebelling against the dress code that said flat shoes could not be woren . Now in 2023 the dress code has fallen into line and been changed to allow women to wear flat dress shoes and high heeled shoes on the Red Carpet though the Tennis shoes remain the provence of the film market (Marche Du Film) where the women producers and directors (at least the film crews) would not be seen dead in four inch high heeled shoes because they symbolize oppression and submission to the mis directed authority of men. In that sense there has been one victory but in terms of the overall social standing of women kind, Cannes Film Festival has a very long way to go.

In order to change the atmosphere in Cannes Film Festival to create postive images of women, I have set up the Kind Cannes Film Association. It will try to create spaces where people can go to chill out, that are alcohol free and may provide for meditation and mindfulness practise. It will also campaign to have better non alcoholic sponsors for the festival that will promote lifestyle options that move away from treating woman badly as only sex objects with no intrinsic creative abilities. Cannes is supposed to be an arts and cultural event not a commercial conduit for business interests of drink,fashion and hospitality brands, who often promote women as purely objects to sell their products. When woman are treated as commodities rather than human beings this is only a short step towards the spectre of prostitution which has regained a footing in the world now to such a degree that sex trafficking is common place. For this to happen the film industry have choosen to ignore their own events as if they are not part of the problem instead of readjusting behaviour to be favourable to allow women to thrive rather than to be pressured into modes that only encourage prositution at a marco - level. Ending exploitation at the heart film industry can only be acheived if it seeks to change itself from within.

 

Oh dear a blog without a tale.

 I was going great guns up to the point my mother died last February 2022 I was putting the films Dracula on Holiday and The Right Bus into cinemas plus I was trying to launch a Screenplay course on Mastermind.All got shelved during the arrangements for the funeral and the resulting fall out from inevitable small print in Mums will. It was always known my brother would inherit the house despite the Scottish tradition that a house should go to all of the children my mother disagreed with my father on this and insisted the first born would get the property.Strange old fashioned views that ignored the concept that the world was enlightened towards equality these days.Oh well I move on sadder and wiser but it does not make up for the loss of my Mum who worked hard to make sure everyone was provided for at least. I managed to get my National Insurance debts paid thanks to her - something that was difficult to pay because of being self employed. I at least moved forward out of the trauma of her sudden death.Now to pick up the pieces of all the things that did not get done last year.The greatest thing that suffered was the film script writing when writers block descended like a big bad fog. 

3 scripts sat in the shadows unfinished and the pick up on them is a hard ask.However fast forward to last week and the decision to attend the Matthew McConaughey Road trip to More jolted me out of my complacency and put me into the mode of making my accountability list. So now all being well I hope to launch 3 courses on Mastermind this year then also complete my screenplays and begin the process of raising finance for these film productions. Each one has a specific character and  special needs.They are  almost like a young children, so that you have to nurture a screenplay into existence and even more so it's next step into production. For this purpose I set up my new company Sans Peur Productions and only a few months old it has got a long way to go before it will figure out the funding elements of each project. Already one of them has a co- Producer so that is a start. What I can say is McConaugheys course challenges you to look at the lies that tell yourself. The lies you tell yourself that your dreams are too hard to achieve. If you let them. The course moves you to the next level of admission that of  action. It shows you how to take the steps to make your personal goals and dreams happen. Now I'm on that road having submitted my resignation from Palm Tree Universal to take clear action that I'm going it alone with my new company Sans Peur which means  Without Fear in French and I'm going to need a lot of it -without fear- that is because if the procrastination on this was anything to go by then I'm scared stiff. My dreams are awaiting round the corner with a big to do list but one thing is for sure. The Roadtrip to More Transformation by Matthew McConaughey course definitely works. 

My Father's Garden

 Oft times a subject comes up that you feel would make a nice blog. One that doesn't ruffle feathers or take a poke at the current milieu or maelstrom depending on your point of view. My Father's Garden comes to mind and I don't mean that in a religiously symbolic way I just mean it, as it was, my Dad's Garden where he nurtured it for many years creating vast crops of strawberries, potatoes, carrots, onions, gooseberries, blackberries to name but a few.

His garden was a wonderful creation that he tended with some professionalism, because his degree in agriculture made available to him in the post-war education of returning soldiers from the battlefields of world war two, allowed him to know about the correct seeding of plants, the turning of the soil at the right time and all the other secrets that others might not know. 

But his tilling of the soil came from another tradition that was embedded in him from his days as a child watching his forebearers, Highland crofting exiles manage what little land they had left. This crofting tradition saw the use of trees to create fruit while the land below was prepared for potatoes and other vegetables in a rotated way that would mean the food was on our table until the ravages of winter came along.

How I enjoyed as a child the fruits of my father's labors because we eat all of the food he produced with great relish. He of course was ahead of his time in that most suburban homes only had a patch of grass and lines of domesticated flowers to show off, while he had a finely honed system that could only have been got from a long line of land managers in the Sutherland deer estates of the North and further afield in places like Montana where his Uncle had reared sheep, to the vast wilderness of Patagonia where his Father had run cattle for the Estancia companies there. The land was my father's forte and in his work as an Inspector for the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries he had stopped many an epidemic in farms of foot and mouth disease. His one accolade that remains as a testament to his ability to understand ecology was his attention to the preservation of the red squirrel and the area of some 500 miles straight across for which he was in charge for some 40 years remains the only active domain of Red Squirrels in Scotland.

He was very much before his time and if he had been around today he would have been lauded for his simple crofting techniques that are now regarded as the future of a vast present system of intensive farming that is failing to deliver safely manageable food chains for large populations.

As the experts begin to understand the cost of overproduction and its effect on the climate and the ecology of animals, the 'grow your own movement' is becoming a cry for change. How is it then that those who pushed for a balanced ecosystem of small-scale crofting, were marginalized in their time and their work was gone unseen? Just like the now deserted island of Tanera on the West coast of Scotland near Ullapool, where the famous ecologist conservationist Fraser Darling wrote his books and planted the seeds for the future of land management. Little wonder it was there that my grandmother was brought up and also handed down in Gaelic the special heritage of Walking songs about the making of the wool from the occupying army of sheep, whose presence was not accepted fully and today remains a blight on the sustainable management of the land in the Highlands.

My Father's Garden remains a testament to him and his ability to cast forward and know that it was to become one of the most important lessons for present humanity as it deals with the erosion of the topsoil of the entire planet alongside vast wildfires, and the destruction of entire animal species.

My Dad was smart, innovative, and forward thinking, during the 1970s when such ideas were neither understood nor appreciated for what they were or how they should be practiced. It is a great shame that the society he founded The Highland Resettlement Society fell by the wayside after he become ill with diabetes in 1972.   

To Dad missed but not forgotten pictured there with a cigar in the late 1960s visit to Essex. (Mushroom Farm)

                                   Donald Fraser Sutherland 12th June 1920 to 27th Jan 1997