A Look Into The Dark Heart Sheds A Fair Bit Of Light
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday November 14, 2006
GELDOF IN AFRICA 8pm, ABC: This series gets better every step of the way as the dishevelled pop music identity Bob Geldof wanders the cities and backwaters of Africa to examine its troubled soul. The legacy of colonialism is everywhere - massive scars and lost opportunities - tragic glimpses of which emerged in last week's visit to the Congo. Documentaries screened on SBS have more clearly illuminated the despicable activities of Belgium's King Leopold and Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness hints at the dark depths of The Horror. Yet Geldof's script is eloquent - as are his silences - on an excursion to the legendary city of Timbuktu. People with nothing have nothing to lose. What about people who don't even have the hope of something? This isn't Two Men In A Tinnie but it is informed by the same sort of personal concerns for nature and for people. What can we do about it? Nothing, if we don't care. And the responsibility of making it worse if we don't know.
HOT DOCS 10.30pm, SBS: Sacha Baron Cohen's latest contribution to the edgy humour of insult and discrimination is Borat, a carefully contrived and culturally inept innocent abroad whose lack of savoir faire and elementary sensitivity push the his alter ego close to the margin of racism. Borat's piss-take on Kazakhstan makes as many pipple engry as he makes luff. Meanwhile, not far from Kazakhstan, in the Pamir Mountains of Central Asia, a sad story of oppression is being played out. Once home to the Pamir Kirghiz tribe, the region is deemed too important to be left to wandering herders. 37 Uses For A Dead Sheep, tonight's Hot Doc, reflects on the tribe's formerly nomadic lifestyle and the politics that have redefined it.CUTTING EDGE 8.30pm, SBS: L.Paul Bremer arrived in Iraq in the aftermath of the American-led incursion that swept the Saddam regime from power, brimming with confidence. Tremendous rhetoric and flagwaving - gung-ho statements and the intoxicating allure of democracy - as quick and easy as an image from an instant-photo developing shop. Export-quality, pret a porter egalitarianism. Bammo! Three years later Rummy has toppled over with the ignominy of Saddam's statue and the mission to establish whatever it is they say they're aiming for, is in very poor shape. What happened to cause Bremer to up stumps and quietly leave after a year on the job? How did robust idealism succumb to lawlessness, economic collapse, insurgency and sectarian insanity? This PBS Frontline doco attempts to make sense of the shambles.CROSSING JORDAN 10pm, Seven: When a living saint becomes a more conventional one, Jordan is summoned to investigate. Who would murder a woman, believed by many to be - or to have been - a miracle worker?REMEMBERING ALEX BUZO 10.05pm, ABC: Playwright and commentator Alex Buzo touched a great many lives and offered a wry take on society. Some regard his plays as comedies of manners - something of an oddity in Australia where manners aren't exactly high on the agenda and a laissez faire attitude overrides notions of political rectitude and the delicate conceits of intellectual sensibility. A cricket tragic and a man who did much of his best work behind the scenes, Buzo's life and work are reviewed in this tribute from Virginia Trioli.
© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald