Monday, August 20, 2012

WHISTLEBLOWERS

NOTE: An eagle-eyed passing reader might notice subtle adjustments in the blog description, and in the "about me" section in the sidebar - as well as the change of header illustration. I haven't lost interest in astrology, but feel that I've covered most of what I set out to cover, on astrology, since August 2006. Posts from my archives or linkage to something there, whenever appropriate to a new issue, will keep the background astro-flavour going, and I'll definitely continue to post on astrology when situation demands or if something alerts me to an interesting new angle I can present. Links to other astrology sites, remain in the sidebar of course, as well as access to my archives either by date or Label Cloud.

WHISTLEBLOWERS

I wonder which movie producer is already planning the Julian Assange biopic ? Who'd be in the shortlist of actors to play the guy who is currently holed up in the London embassy of Ecuador, resisting return to Sweden to face some rather mild questions on his sexual demands of a couple of Swedish women? I doubt that Assange is afraid of Swedish questioning techniques, though he could well wish to avoid the risk of Sweden, when done with him, sending him to the USA to answer charges of leaking information via his organisation, Wikileaks - whistleblowing to put it another way.

Link to my post from December 2010 touching on Julian Assange and related astrology.

I can visualise the movie: fictionalised in places - lots of poetic licence, a few sweaty sex scenes, some nice shots of Swedish landscapes, a dramatic stand-off.... It would join others of the same ilk:

Daniel Ellsberg/The Pentagon Papers. In 1971, he was the State Department officer who gave the "Pentagon Papers" (history of the United States’ political-military involvement in Vietnam 1945-1967) to the New York Times.

Karen Silkwood/Silkwood – in 1974, she was a blue-collar worker who raised concerns about plutonium plant safety. Unfortunately she died under mysterious circumstances after she started investigating claims of irregularities and wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plant. The 1983 film Silkwood is an account of Silkwood's life and the story.

Other famous whistleblowers, not necessarily subjects of movies listed HERE.

We very recently watched the DVD of a 2011 movie called simply The Whistleblower. I bought it as David Strathairn, whose films I'm collecting, plays a fairly minor but pivotal part. It's the story of Kathryn Bolkovac, a former US police investigator from Nebraska. She worked as a U.N. International Police Force monitor. Originally hired by the US company DynCorp in the framework of a U.N.-related contract, she filed a lawsuit in the UK against DynCorp for unfair dismissal due to a protected disclosure (whistleblowing), and on 2 August 2002 the tribunal unanimously found in her favor. DynCorp had a $15 million contract to hire and train police officers for duty in Bosnia at the time she reported such officers were paying for prostitutes and participating in sex-trafficking - of children as well as adults. Many of these were forced to resign under suspicion of illegal activity, but none have been prosecuted, as they also enjoy immunity from prosecution in Bosnia.

I'll wait patiently for the Assange movie then. There'll be a few more twists in the plot though, before the cameras start to roll - we can count on that!

6 comments:

Wisewebwoman said...

Big change for you, T and am looking forward to more adventures on your blog.

Don't forget Erin Brokavich another brave soul and how many are out there an unheard.

We need more.

XO
WWW

Twilight said...

Wisewebwoman ~~ Yes - well, I'll try out the slightly new direction anyway. Thanks for your longtime and continued support to LCOTE - it is, and has always been, much appreciated, WWW.

Oh! I felt I was forgetting someone - yes! Erin Brokavich and movie of the same name, about her fight against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) of California in 1993.

Thank you for the reminder!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Brockovich

James Higham said...

The Whistleblower is an endangered species ...

... or was that the Condor?

Twilight said...

James Higham ~ Both on the list I reckon, James. Vultures still going strong though. ;-)

R J Adams said...

As a "non-astrological nerd" I look forward to more 'down-to-earth' revelations from LCOTE, though I believe you may well disappoint some of your more 'star-struck' readers. Love the header images.

Twilight said...

RJ Adams ~~ Well....I'll probably still mention astrology now and again, in passing, where appropriate, it's the all-astrology posts where I've exhausted what there is to be said (from my point of view anyway).
Google sends readers to the archives, so what I've done already is still alive (for what it's wotrth).

Thanks - I played around with several headers I'd concocted using bits and pieces, but eventually settled on the crop of one of husband's photographs of a newly constructed covered bridge we found in Illinois a few years ago, on our way to Ohio.

It reminds me of Bridges of Madison County - so much so that I got the book out yesterday to re-read. And surpirse, surprise there's a small photograph before the first chapter which is a dead ringer for my header! You could've knocked me down with a feather!

Now we're considering a trip to Iowa.........to see the real thing :-)