"Global Haywire" The Movie by Bruce Petty

Basically the story of how European colonialism fucked the world and got us in the state we're in today politically, financially and sociologically.

Told using brilliantly simple animation a rye sense of absurd, surreal humour and narrated by Tom Baker. If you watch one film this week, make it "Global Haywire".

Written, directed and animated by Bruce Petty, Global Haywire goes a long way to make sense of a senseless and insane world. Rent it, buy it, steal it, download it...do whatever, but watch it.

You think you know about this place called Earth? Think again. Five stars.

Reefer Madness?

So what's it all about? Hypocrisy!! That's what it's all about brothers and sisters, and it is truly madness that Marijuana is still an illegal substance anywhere on this beautiful green planet and I will go to the grave saying the same thing, PROHIBITION OF POT DOES NOT, HAS NOT, AND NEVER WILL WORK...and that's the double truth Ruth! But you don't have to watch this great documentary to know this already, do you?

Whether you smoke or not, whether you've ever inhaled or not is not the issue here, the issue here is government control and political insanity, and of course big business and the pursuit of  the corporate dollar.

My own experiences...In 2004 I spent three weeks in a detoxification unit coming off benzodiazepines, valium...it eventually took me over a year to get clean of benzo's. I've been through two alcohol detoxifications to stop using alcohol, I've been admitted to A&E over five times due to alcohol and drug overdoses. I've been through a twelve week rehabilitation programme to help me come to terms with my alcohol and methamphetamine use, I've withdrawn myself from opiates twice after being addicted to both heroin and morphine, I could go on.

Marijuana...I've used it on and off and on and off stopped started with absolutely no problems or ill effects whatsoever. I've smoked it 1,000's of times with nothing but good effects. Even now I smoke marijuana to help me sleep in favour of using sleeping pills (more dangerous addictive prescription drugs) to help treat chronic insomnia and anxiety. Two years ago I was busted for less than five dollars worth of marijuana, and now have a criminal record...Why?  Because I broke a law that I believe is unjust, outdated, unrealistic and just plain dumb!

I think the evidence in this documentary for and against is evenly and shall I say soberly laid out in a way that even the most fervent Ronald Reagan loving, whiskey swilling, cigar smoking bigot would find it hard, nigh on impossible to argue the case for prohibition, and whether he or she ever takes up the habit or not isn't the issue, oops I've already said that haven't I? Side effects?

The Beyond Within...Documentary about the History of LSD.

A rational, non sensationalist and in depth look at the history of LSD. No matter your view on this unusual chemical, this objective documentary looks at all aspects of it's use since it's synthesis by Albert Hoffman in Switzerland during world war 2. The film takes us through it's use as a psychiatric tool both by the medical fraternity and the military, the experiment's carried out at Harvard by Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, it's introduction to the public via Ken Kessey and The Merry Pranksters and it's effect on Western music, art and popular culture. This is the first of three parts, all available for free download from Google Video.

LSD tabs in blotter form.

"The Beyond Within". Part one of three.

14 Days in May...BBC Documentary

This documentary released in 1987 is a look at the last fourteen days in the life of Edward Earl Johnson while he awaits execution on death row in a Mississippi, USA prison. We watch as the days tick by and his public defender and lawyer, English born Clive Stafford Smith desperately tries every avenue to appeal and over turn the sentence of death by gas chamber. Johnson fought and lost an eight year appeal against a conviction for murder. We hear how the confession was extracted and signed under duress.

By the end of the film no one, guards and inmates alike are left in doubt of his innocence and it gradually becomes obvious that it's a near certainty that an innocent man ends up dying as a result of this state sanctioned murder.

The film is unique in it's intimacy. We not only get a look at the Mississippi justice and penal system in all it's appalling rawness, but we watch the effect of the wait for news of Jones's appeal on his family, his jailers, his fellow inmates, his lawyer and finally the man himself.

Clive Stafford Smith is seen receiving the news that all appeals have failed and the camera follows him as he walks to tell his client that all hope is gone. It is chilling to watch as Smith puts his arm around Jones, head bowed and delivers the verdict.

Jones exhibits remarkable bravery and composure in the face of this nightmare unfolding around him. The tragedy of watching him, surrounded by his family as he eats his last meal, still believing that a reprieve is at hand is almost unbearable. It doesn't bear to think about this young man's last moments, killed for a crime he denied committing right up to the very end of his life.

A harrowing document of a gross miscarriage of justice. Witness the prison warden more or less admit that he is not sure of Jone's guilt. We witness too the effect of the cyanide gas as it is tested on a live rabbit, and can only imagine the agony Jones went through after all hope is gone and he is put to death. It takes him twelve minutes to die we are told by the warden, at a press conference on a typically steamy Mississippi May night.