A brief extract from my memoir The Catholic Orangemen of Togo
On the other side of the equation, Roger Moore came out as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. Fiona and I hosted a small dinner party for him. He was charming and suave, just as you would expect, with a fund of brilliant stories beginning with lines like “One day Frank, Dean, Tony and I decided to play a trick on Marilyn…” But while he played the role of Roger Moore to perfection, there was much more to him than that. He was genuinely very well briefed about children’s issues in Ghana, and was prepared not just to do the PR stuff, but to get his hands dirty helping out in refugee camps without a camera in sight. I was impressed by Roger Moore.
When I said get his hands dirty, I meant dig latrines. He really was a much better man than people realised. A celebrity who did not seek personal publicity for his good works, quite the opposite. Remember this re foxhunting:
When a student I jumped on a 24 bus sitting in front of two young women who did secretarial work for some big Showbiz concern. Their conversation resentfully dished the dirt on some famous names. Fascinated, I went past my stop to soak it in: I could no longer pretend I had a soul above gossip.
Exempt from their general curse was Roger Moore,who they said was “genuine” and friendly when he came into the office. I assumed they were silly girls who had been suckered by charm. Maybe not.
Rip Roger
Amazing Career indeed..
Though there was one Instant when the polished suave aura completely Evaporated.. When Sacheen Little Feather refused Marlon Brando’s Oscar at the Academy Awards in 1973,
Well done Sacheen Little Feather, And more importantly Marlon Brando –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QUacU0I4yU&t=64s
Good point Brian. Sacheen Little Feather spoke very well, almost as well as Marlon Brando himself (RIP). He was more than just a great actor. He could see a bigger picture even than Panavision.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3YpTBDrgiY
This doesn’t have enough views. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6XowCzE6wg
Is the work of the security services that the Bond movies glamorized morally any better than fox hunting?
“Licence to kill” ?
But then again wasnt it meant to be fantasy ? I think maybe it was.
The agents of the Soviet NKVD, GPU and KGB certainly had a licence to kill, not only on the territory of the Soviet Union but also further afield. In many cases, to kill defectors from their own ranks. On the other hand I cannot think of any examples, off hand, where the CIA and the British secret services killed defectors from their ranks.
“On the other hand I cannot think of any examples”
Would you tell us if you did I wonder. And if you say you know why should we trust you. ?
My feeling is (from a very young age) working for the state in most any capacity is a mistake for people who want to keep any degree of moral upstandingness.
Forget ideology, They are violent barbaric institutions and I hate to even think about the trickle down effect they have on peoples lives. And for what? Nothing is given by power and they have always been the enemy of people.
Highly deluded cliques. The mental gymnastics one must do to pretend to be of service on fat wage packets as people die on the stress. Makes a mockery of normal decant morality.
Christopher Marlowe,Stephen Ward,Dr David Kelly by persons unknown.
@ Lysias
In answer to your question : yes, the work of the UK security services is morally better than fox hunting.
In what way? You’ve just justified avoiding the taxes which are necessary for paying for them. I presume that you think they have no value. Why bother with security services, when paying for them should be avoided?
I fear someones mind is so bent and twisted out of shape you CANT get an answer.
Everyone has a moral center but some have little hope of confronting the consequences of their actions and ideology underpinning it, so they construct disjointed and nonsensical “realities” of the imagination. I Don’t expect any kind of consistent argument, thats not what its about, it’s about coming up with moment to moment defence (even to themselves) for avoidance or trying to bolster themselves for some twisted selfish egocentic agenda.
The mind is a sad place to get lost in. And I fear there is no coming back for some.
Sigh, I do hate Craig, he’s involved in so much heavy stuff.
At the same time thanks for the opportunity to help out in whatever small way. And feel free do delete any comments (sure you will anyway) that are unhelpful (maybe this one) desperate of ill thought out rants. I won’t take it personally and trust judgement of mods etc (actual I’m just to tired to care nowadays lol)
I do feel a bit stupid for some stuff I said when I was here before tbh. But onward and upwards.
From Twitter (and O/T)
“Leaked audio of a Sky News journalist stating how the Manchester bombings play in Theresa May’s favour.”
https://twitter.com/CupcakkeHub/status/867378274804146176
It was Faisal Islam, I gather. And it went out on Sky News, before being rather quickly deleted. Idiots on Twitter claiming that because it was reported by RT, it was only “propaganda”.
Still, it was ostensibly a private conversation and largely reflected two people sharing their cynicism about what was likely to happen rather than what they wanted to happen, as far as I read their conversation. Which doesn’t merit the same reaction (entirely justified) toward The Sun or Katie Hopkins with her calls for a ‘final solution’ in the Mail where both entities were clearly were trying to profit and benefit from recent events.
Does the bombing play into her hands?
Seems to be a lot of blame being thrown her way.
This election sure is turning out weird.
May seems to stumbling and tumbling all over the place, whilst Jeremy just calmly saunters on.
Like he’s a Host of Angels looking after him.
Beautifully put. I normally take mine out at night along with my false teeth, in separate flasks of course, I wouldn’t want them playing games with eachother while they are out of my head. They do enough damage when they are in place.
Tony, thanks.
lol, We have a partial view. Sure there are big issues atm, particularly in big centres of “power’ And the usa (as noted by David graeber) is like this massive generator of hopelessness and fear, it keeps people down..But only if you are in the myst of it, and in a way the net can focus very negative things.
Though many of these people in so called power (those who contoll violence) are cowards. Fearful. And they are loosing it a bit atm. So they will try and project as much “authority” (fear) as they can.
While some awful things are happening there is also a coming together, some feeling of a shared interest we all know we have underneath. Seeing “the big picture” is an imaginary thing, it’s neither real or good for you (why i think modern politics is bad) , I think many try to feel this in order to help, but humans are imo ineffective with to much thinking.
We can only be a drop and deal with things effectively in a very restricted and partial way, the scary thing I guess is watching others who feel they are supermen. like they can have some kind of final solution. But that is a delusion of some drunk on stupid ideas.
My “solution” is to put the blinkers on. Trust and don’t think to much. It serves me and those around me better. And now that i think of it its something i need to do more because I’m still very stressed. We’ve seen and been trough a lot recently.
Eyes see, hands do, then let go.
And it is a lovely planet, and it’s still here to refresh us.
Denounced five times to our most derring know-it-all agencies?; his father claiming (in arabic) on BBCR4 5.30am news/shipping that “there were powerful agencies behind this” (His father even fought on ‘our’ side in Libya, at least in an anti-Ghadaffi militia, funded by …)
An angry tyke poses a Betteridge headline –
http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/was-manchester-atrocity-false-flag.html,
No!, agreed, not a false one. Would the know-it-all agencies consider an batshit-crazy nation’s well-funded islamic flag-event; consider evidence from a previous era, or will all investigation be dropped as they usually are when heading in this direction [Blair/Goldsmith/BAE/2007]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/10266957/Saudis-offer-Russia-secret-oil-deal-if-it-drops-Syria.html
I think I met Roger Moore once in Otley.
Do we agree that the US newspapers should stop leaking accurate facts!
I thoroughly enjoyed reading John Lanchester on Ian Fleming and the Bond books. I was sitting in the shade on a glorious day, even though the atmosphere was somewhat humid.
Bond in Torment
John Lanchester
From Russia with Love, Dr No and Goldfinger by Ian Fleming
Penguin, 640 pp, £10.99, April 2002, ISBN 0 14 118680 1
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v24/n17/john-lanchester/bond-in-torment
Roger Morre was of course one of my heros as a boy, James Bond etc. But there is one part in a film that has always stayed with me since I was a boy. It’s funny, but the reason I’ve never forgotten it, is that it showed Roger Moore for the person he was. He did a scene in the following clip from a film I can no longer remember the name of, but have always remembered the scene and his willingness to take the mickey out of himself for a laugh. A truly selfless man he was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJcPsEkJaEk