October 06, 2005
Hemingway Film to Be Made in Cuba
New Zealand director Roger Donaldson is to make a movie about renowned U.S. writer Ernest Hemingway, who will be played by British actor Sir Anthony Hopkins, according to the Associated Press.
In the capital, Wellington, to promote another movie - 'The World's Fastest Indian' - starring Hopkins which premieres next week, Donaldson said Hopkins will play Hemingway in the film, titled 'Papa'.
"It's a pretty ambitious movie for what it is... Hemingway is a great writer and a great character. If anybody can play Hemingway Tony Hopkins can," Donaldson told the Dominion Post newspaper in Tuesday editions.
He said the movie will be based on Hemingway's encounter with Denne Bart Petitclerc, America's youngest war correspondent in the Korean War, who was inspired by how Hemingway reported on the Spanish Civil War.
Hemingway, then living in Havana, Cuba, received " a fan letter" from Bart Petitclerc and surprised the reporter by asking to meet him.
"Hemingway invited him to Havana for some weekends and the movie is really about what happens when he goes there," Donaldson told the newspaper. "it' a thriller, it's a love story, it's Hemingway as he falls apart and is suicidal. This guy was a witness to it all."
In researching the film, Donaldson visited Heminway's Havana home and met Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Like 'The World's Fastest Indian', the movie 'Papa' will be an independent film, Donaldson said. He is still working on secure finance.
Hemingway first visited Bimini in 1935 and won his first fishing competition on Bahamian soil that year.
October 04, 2005
Bahamian Politics: Lesser of Two Evils
Politics is all about choices. We, the people of the Bahamas, have a choice to make in the next election that can determine the next Prime Minister of The Bahamas. Someone, we hope, who will drag us out of the ditch the current PM has left us in. Unfortunately, we, the people, have a lousy choice. We can choose between the current class of blatant criminals or the other party, a group of mild-mannered thieves. But, no matter what party you vote for, there's only one thing that is for sure...
We are voting for the same people.
That's right. Whether you are FNM or PLP, your only choice is between the lesser of two evils. We can either re-elect the same old crooks, or elect the other crooks who scammed us for the previous decade. Let's face it, both parties are rife with selfish lawyers who are more interested in their own financial fortunes than the betterment of our country.
The Bahamas is full of stale politicians who have been "contributing" to government for decades. But what have they accomplished? The Bahamas hasn't gone anywhere but downhill for the entire three decades we've been independent. We are still a banana-republic with a corrupt broke government. Except now, we are one tourist murder away from being blacklisted by the US State Department.
So, for this upcoming election, why not bring in some new blood? Why not elect people who are willing to make the dramatic changes necessary to move us forward, upward, onward, together, rather than electing the cowards we've grown accustomed to. The current crop of Bahamian politicians are nothing but "players", who sport the same mischievous poker faces, claiming to have a Royal Flush when they aren't even holding a pair of deuces.
The election is all about choices. Let's make the right one this time.