Don't forget - we're screening Broken Promises - The U.N. at 60 at the National Library this evening. 7.30pm - 9.30pm
Possibility Room, 5th level
National Library,
100 Victoria Street
Stay for our post-screening discussion with Mr. Kishore Mahbubani, top diplomat and Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
SFS entry: http://www.sfs.org.sg/event.php?id=31
Broken Promises - The U.N. at 60 website: http://www.brokenpromisesmovie.com/
3 comments:
Some comments on the title from the artscommunity Yahoo Group (thanks to Elaine for the heads up):
On 21 Jul 2006, at 7:39 AM, ben slater wrote:
> I noticed this film has been getting a high profile in Singapore recently. Just thought people might like to know its funded by the Citizens United Foundation, a group of right-wing Bush supporters who advocate complete US withdrawal from the UN, among other less specific goals like 'American sovereignty'...
http://www.citizensunited.org/about
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Hell, yeah.
about the film
Whatever you might have to say about the political angle of the film and the means by which it was made, I thought it offered an interesting view into what many believe is the UN's lack of a clear mandate to lead the world into the 21st century. Large, international organisations should and must be kept on their toes when it comes to things like (1) conflict resolution, and (2) financial accountability. I believe that the film probably DID fudge (or wilfully misinterpret) certain facts, such as the reasons why the UN was founded and it's purpose in the world (rather major things to misinterpret), but their points about the impotence of the UN still stand in light of the civil wars in Rwanda, the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, the genocide in Cambodia, and of course, the never-ending conflict in Israel and Jerusalem. I am pro-UN myself, but believe that checks and balances must be put in place for it to be efficiently run. Their US$1.5 billion building refurbishment plan raised my eyebrows, and if Donald Trump's advice on how to NOT spend that much money was REALLY turned down, I'll be really disappointed.
about the event
Although the National Library was a good choice of venue in terms of location, their management of this event sucked. Badly. They requested that we register, but did not hold our seats for us - they opened the doors to the public way before 7.30, and when the seminar room was too full, they barred about 20 REGISTERED participants from entry - at 7.35pm. The film had not started yet, and though we were technically late, what's the point of registering if the doors are going to be thrown wide open at the drop of a hat? We finally got to watch the film after they opened the ajoining seminar room and performed a simulcast of the movie.
about the Q&A
Mr Mahbubani was as eloquent as ever, handling the Q&A session with his usual finesse and aplomb. After first giving a defence of the UN (where he pointed out some major flaws in the movie's arguments), he went on to answer questions from the floor, patiently talking to these old men who wanted to know ridiculous things like How Is The UN Going To Solve The Jerusalem Problem, or like Why Don't We Shift The Base Of The UN To Somewhere Else More Neutral And Not In New York, etc etc. Humourously too, as he told us to look for information: "you can find from the Internet, just type it in google," he told us all.
out of point
Apart from being extremely hostile to the REGISTERED participants who were slightly late (really, only 5 mins!), the library staff were terribly rude to one old man in particular. This library staff refused to let this man ramble (not even slightly), and kept cutting him off in the middle of a sentence, while allowing other caucasians to speak freely without interruption. Disgusting.
We appreciate your comments, all of which were painfully true.
The only thing I can do, on behalf of the Singapore Film Society, is to offer you my sincere apologies for the registration hiccups. The National Library staff had never dealt with an over-subscription problem before and could not make a decision until receiving authorisation. There were also some worries about the floor holding capacity being exceeded. Rest assured, with the experience gained from this event, I'm sure they will be better prepared in future. And if it is a Singapore Film Society co-organised event, we will make damn sure.
As to the rude treatment of that senior gentleman, again we apologise and wish we had the opportunity to apologise to him in person. It was clear he had a prepared speech but his agenda was unclear. We were perhaps overzealous in ensuring that he did not embarrass Mr Mahbubani. It was neither his demeanour nor candour that caused us to take such harsh pre-emptive measures but rather, the content of his speech. The audience had also been advised to just ask questions and be on point. It was also rather unfortunate that he took his turn after that previous European, by which time, our tolerance for rambling questions had already been frayed.
We hope this event had not caused the SFS to diminish in your esteem and we hope you will join us for more of such events (such as the previous NLB-held screening and talk on Deadline), which more often than not tend to be cordial and relaxed.
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