Saint or Swindler? Wild Wild Country (2016) vs Osho The Movie (2022)

Few figures in modern spirituality are as controversial as Osho, and few documentaries are as diametrically opposed in their portrayal of him as Wild Wild Country and Osho: The Movie. One is a gripping exposé of power, deception, and unchecked ambition, the other is a carefully curated PR campaign disguised as a film. Watching them back to back feels like stepping into two entirely different realities; one where Osho is a megalomaniacal cult leader presiding over a criminal enterprise, and another where he is a peaceful sage tragically undone by his own followers. The only real question is: which one is selling you a bigger illusion?

Wild Wild Country, the Netflix documentary that took the world by storm in 2018, is an absolute rollercoaster of madness, crime, and spectacle. It doesn’t need to embellish because the real story is stranger than fiction. A charismatic guru moves his thousands of red-robed followers to a small Oregon town, builds a utopian city, and then; because utopian cities never go as planned; everything descends into wiretapping, arson, bioterror attacks, and assassination plots. It’s a documentary that unfolds like a thriller, letting a cast of ex-Rajneeshees, Oregon locals, and law enforcement officials piece together a story that keeps getting wilder by the minute. At its centre, though largely silent for much of the runtime, is Osho himself; his presence looming over every act of devotion, every shady legal manoeuvre, every whispered conspiracy. When he does finally break his silence, it’s to throw his once-loyal secretary Ma Anand Sheela under the bus in the most passive-aggressively divine way possible.

And then there’s Osho: The Movie, a film that seems to exist primarily to rehabilitate Osho’s image, or at the very least, to make sure no one blames him for anything. Here, he is the wise master, the enlightened rebel, the man too evolved to concern himself with petty things like immigration fraud or poisoning an entire town’s salad bars. If Wild Wild Country suggests Osho might have been complicit in the darker elements of his movement, Osho: The Movie insists he was just meditating while his empire crumbled around him. The film bends over backward to absolve him, casting Sheela as the power-hungry villain who took things too far while Osho, poor innocent Osho, simply wanted to spread his message of love. Never mind that he had a fleet of Rolls-Royces or that his movement collapsed in a spectacular mess of legal battles and criminal convictions; the film would rather you focus on his radiant presence and misunderstood genius.

The biggest difference between the two films is how they treat the moral complexity of the story. Wild Wild Country doesn’t hand you a simple answer. It acknowledges that many Rajneeshees were sincere seekers who got caught up in something far bigger than themselves, that Osho was undeniably charismatic and visionary, but also that the movement was riddled with corruption, cult-like behaviour, and outright criminality. It doesn’t tell you who to believe—it simply lays out the chaos and lets you decide. Osho: The Movie, on the other hand, has no such interest in ambiguity. It isn’t here to make you think; it’s here to make you admire Osho. It cherry-picks the narrative, downplays the scandals, and frames the entire collapse of Rajneeshpuram as the tragic consequence of a few bad apples, rather than the inevitable implosion of an empire built on unchecked power.

If Wild Wild Country is an unsparing dissection of a movement that spiralled out of control, Osho: The Movie is spiritual fan fiction, written for those who still want to believe. One presents the Gita rewritten as a courtroom drama; the other, as a self-help book with all the inconvenient parts removed. The truth, as always, is probably somewhere in the middle; but only one of these films is actually interested in finding it.

My enduring takeaway from watching both documentaries is to hold Osho up as a spiritually developed man who ultimately became drug-addicted (particularly to laughing gas) and by degrees lost control of his own mass movement to opportunistic egoists. While there is no official diagnosis or historical evidence suggesting Osho was autistic, some of his traits invite speculation. His intense focus on certain philosophical ideas, unconventional communication style, disregard for social norms, and periods of isolation could align with characteristics seen in autism. However, Osho was also highly charismatic, performative, and skilled at manipulating social dynamics; traits more commonly linked to personality disorders like narcissism. While it’s unlikely Osho was autistic in a clinical sense, viewing him through a neurodivergent lens opens up intriguing possibilities about how his mind worked and what fuelled his radical approach to life and spirituality. 

Tish Murtha (1956-2013)

It was a pleasant surprise to see the BFI release a new documentary of Tish Murtha (dir. Paul Sng, 2023), the northeast photographer who catalogued the devastating effect of deindustrialisation during the 1970's-80's under Thatcherism. Murtha is probably most famous for her posthumously published books Youth Unemployment (2017), Juvenile Jazz Bands (2020), and Elswick Kids (2021).  

I have done a fair bit to highlight the photographic work of working class photographers on this blog, notably John Bulmer, Shirley Baker, Dave Sinclair and of course my own photography of Minsterley Parade in the early 1990's. I admit Tish Murtha slipped me by. At this point I should apologise profusely for my misogynistic oversight, but if you haven't heard of a photographer, you just haven't heard. It's ironic because she did quite a few exhibitions at the Bluecoat in Liverpool, and of course I lived there for a number of my most radical years in the 1990's. I should now rush to make amends and drag my sorry ass to the next film preview, examples of which are being screened in Liverpool, Edinburgh, Dundee, Hull and Newcastle. However, being more of an armchair anarchist nowadays, I think I will wait for a more accessible screening.

Update 9th April 2024: Tish is now available on BBC iPlayer, so available to all.  

For those that get to see it, the timing of this documentary could not be more apt. It was only a few weeks ago that Kier 'Stammer' was singing the virtues of Thatcher and how she 'did a lot of good things for the country.' Is this guy for real? Is he completely unaware there is an ingrained generation of northerners with long memories, who viscerally and antithetically reject the idolatry of Thatcherism as a cornerstone of their Labour support? The man is an idiot, and for that alone (well, actually many things besides) he can go and holler if he wants me to put my X next to his red version of the Tory party at the ballot box. Look at the photos below: of course not. Of course not Starmer, you f*cking culturally tone deaf cretin. 

Spiders on LSD

In 1948 H.M. Peters, zoologist from the University of Tubingen, began filming the web-building techniques of the orb spider as part of a research project into web building methods. As orb spiders build their webs between 2am- 5am, Peters soon got bored and encouraged his colleague and pharmacologist (according to Rainer Foelix, in his book Biology of Spiders) Peter Witt to alter the diurnal habit of the spiders so he could film during the day. Witt recommended amphetamine, which had some starling effects. The spiders still made webs in the early hours, but to a different design, which prompted experiments with several other drugs. The results of these experiments are legendary. Probably the most interesting result is caffeine given its universality as a drug. I remember reading the NASA Tech Brief on this subject with some fascination as a student teacher. If more students were aware that science progresses through the laziness of zoologists, and curiosity of drug- crazed pharmacologists, there would be more interest in the subject.

Satish Kumar: Earth Pilgrim

Satish Kumar gave a talk in Manchester in March, which I attended. I was surprised to see there were only 100 or so people in the audience.  Having read a few of his books, I was keen to see him in the flesh. Although the vast bulk of what he said did not deviate very much from the TED talk above, it lacked much of its fire and conviction, I think on account of the fact he had a cold.

Satish only spoke for an hour or so. The rest of the time was spent in rather unfulfilling workshops and undirected "focus groups" which I felt were nothing more than the opportunity to give him a breather. Much of the Q&A at the end was also a bit turgid and opportunistic. Still, I wasn't there for the fireworks, just to pay homage to a great man. It still worries me that if Satish can't pull in more than 100 people on a visit to a city the size of Manchester, what is the world coming to. I would have been more encouraged if amongst those faithful few who were present, there were activists, leaders and formidable firebrands, but I'm afraid it did not seem so. When his generation are gone, I really fear for the world.

Bio: Satish Kumar (born 9 August 1936) is an Indian activist and editor. He has been a Jainist monk, nuclear disarmament advocate, pacifist, and is the current editor of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. Now living in England, Kumar is founder and Director of Programmes of the Schumacher College international centre for ecological studies, and of The Small School where children learn to bake bread right at the beginning of their education. His most notable accomplishment is a peace walk with a companion to the capitals of four of the nuclear-armed countries – Washington, London, Paris and Moscow, a trip of over 8,000 miles. This Guardian article Soul Man, is a potted history of Satish Kumar and his philosophy.

Below was the full 50 minute 2008 documentary. Earth Pilgrim- A Year On Dartmoor, but its since been taken down. 

One pretty good outcome was during one of the (lengthy) breaks, I went to the bookstall to see if there was anything I hadn't read which was cheap enough to buy. I had intended to get a signed copy, but as it turned out, even the small audience crowded Satish out at the end looking for "selfies" so I didn't want to be yet another demanding face. I got a copy of Spiritual Compass which has turned out to be quite a good down- to- earth description of the Ayurvedic gunas in everyday life. That's pretty useful because as it happens I am co- writing a course on Ayurveda and its helped simplify much of its complexity. So despite the anticlimax of the evening, I suppose I got something out of it. Just not what I expected.

I'd quite like to see Satish Kumar again. This time firing on all cylinders; with a large appreciative crowd, offering incisive and stirring commentary. I hope that day comes, and comes soon. His powerful message is very much needed at the moment.

The Coming War on China (John Pilger, 2016)

I watched this documentary when it aired on ITV on 6th December. I had been really looking forward to it as I am a fan of John Pilger, but I must admit to being a little underwhelmed, dare I say it, on the grounds of his journalistic quality. The documentary started very well, with a broadside against the appalling US record in the Marshall Islands, but after a potted  postwar history, I felt there wasn't much evidence for what Pilger was saying, beyond the expansion of 400 military bases in the area. I know that's a crazy sounding thing to say, but as Pilger pointed out in the film, the US have been expanding their bases in every country and corner of the planet that they can, so the China situation is not unique.

Please don't get me wrong; any idiot can see America's imperialist intentions in the area, but I was looking for an expose or some incontrovertible evidence, like a CIA or administration insider ready to spill the beans, but hawkish apologist Andrew Krepinevich just farted a lot neocon hot methane, like neocons do. I was waiting and waiting to see the economic, or political case for the coming war on China, evidence of wounding cyber attacks, or some kind of paper trail like the bank statements funding a coup attempt or political uprising, diplomatic gerrymandering, trade war, or even a leadership assassination as with Cuba, but nada. Even the discussion of China's human rights record was shallow considering how much there is to go on. The thing I was most surprised about was the failure to engage the Russia question in any substantial way. It was the elephant in the room throughout the whole documentary. Having intimate trade connections and treatise, China and Russia are a combined military force to be reckoned with but this remained unaddressed. Oddly, I left the documentary feeling mildly reassured that if John Pilger armed with a ginormous wooden spoon and some formidable journalistic abilities couldn't unearth anything material, we're probably going to make it to the other side of 2017 in one piece. It comes to something when that's your grounds for optimism I know.

Anyway, Happy New Year!
North Utsire

One Straw Revolution: The Movie

Following on from my previous post The Natural Way of Farming featuring a quote from Masanobu Fukuoka's One Straw Revolution, I found this short film originally titled "The Close To Nature Garden" which neatly summarises Fukuoka's permaculture system. It was filmed in 1982 and produced by Rodale Press (I'm assuming attached to the Rodale Institute in some way), which gives it a pleasantly earthy retro feel.

North Utsire

Stacia

It was a great shame to hear of the passing of Lemmy last month. In truth, it’s a wonder to me how he lasted as long as he did. Such is the stuff of legend. Of all the tributes that mentioned the brilliance of his alma mater & first true love Hawkwind, I didn’t hear anyone mention probably the most interesting character of the band: Stacia!

Stacia was an interpretive dance artist, over 6 feet tall (some say 6’2”), on stage often covered in the obscure grease paint of exotic symbols, moving like a gyrating psychedelic skin canvas on a space mission. That is, when she was dressed at all. Her bacchanalia was legendary enough to match that of the band members, who held her in high regard by all accounts.

The exact circumstances of her arrival in Hawkwind are unclear, but it is agreed that after she started dancing for the band in 1971 she became a central part of their live performances, and their artwork. Stacia was pictured in the iconic ‘Space Ritual’ fold out sleeve designed by Barney Bubble. Starting in 1971, she carried on through to 1975, so this included the Space Ritual years I mentioned in my blog of Aug 2015. Liner notes to the album In Search of Space (1971) indicate that poet and lyricist Robert Calvert recruited her for live shows, but Stacia herself stated in Melody Maker that she attended a show and, inspired by the music, got on stage and performed an impromptu dance to the band's music. Interestingly, she received no formal dance training after being kicked out of ballet class for being too tall. It was all just natural stoned groove.

Barney Bubble's Rendition of Stacia

Nik Turner (saxophonist and flautist for the band) fills in a bit more detail in Mojo Magazine in a 2012 interview; "I met Stacia for the first time at the Isle of Wight... She said, "Can I dance with you?" and I said, "Yeah, but you must take off all your clothes and paint your body." She took all her clothes off but unfortunately I didn't have any body paint. That was like her audition." In the 2007 BBC Four documentary (clip above), Lemmy said that she was working as a bookbinder before she joined the band, and others that she was a petrol pump attendant in Cornwall.

Jason Schafer, in his Dangerous Minds article entitled Stacia, Hawkwind’s Buxom cosmic Dancer Discusses Her Wild Sex Life in Vintage Interviews says:

I was checking out a Hawkwind fan site the other day when I came across a couple of interviews with the busty performer, both from 1974. The first one to catch my eye was from Penthouse and was entitled “Long, tall Stacia – the six foot lady with the two-way sex life.” The other, simply titled “Stacia, the girl in the band” came from the August 3rd edition of Record Mirror. Stacia comes off as a total badass in both, as I would imagine that you’d have to be to hang with the likes of Lemmy Kilmister all day long.

Actually very little is known publicly about Stacia beyond those two 1974 interviews and a smidgen derived from a 2010 Sunday Times retrospective entitled Time and place: Stacia Blake. Most of them go on about her bisexual propensities, onstage nudity, and prolific drinking habits as though they were the utmost in wanton debauchery. Things that nowadays, unless you live under Puritan Rock, are actually quite tame. Funny it’s always the ones who have the strict religious upbringing that go on to break all the taboos. Stacia was from a religious Catholic background. "My sisters didn't mind the nude bit, but my parents weren't too keen until I gave it up. Then my mother really got into the band - my aunts have even turned up at gigs. We're a Catholic family y'know, although I'm not religious."

From the interviews, we do find out about her relationship with then boyfriend Arthur Kane from New York Dolls, her girlfriend Ingrid, some thoughts about fans and her take on Women’s Lib: Stacia was 21 at the time (“I’m still a kid”), and lived in Earls Court with two men, two other girls, and two budgerigars. Well, had to mention the budgerigars. It is the Bohemian Budgie after all.

I lived in a basement flat at No14A Steeles Road, in Hampstead, northwest London, between about 1971 and 1975. I had lived at various addresses in London after moving from Ireland, including a squat in Camden, but Steeles Road was the place I was in for longest. I lived there with Roy Dyke, who became my husband and was the drummer in the rock band Ashton, Gardner and Dyke. I had my daughter, Aysha, while we lived there. I can’t remember how much the rent was, or even if we paid any. It was two rooms, a bedroom at the back and a tiny little kitchen off the hall. You couldn’t swing a cat in it. Being a basement flat, it was very damp.

Time and place: Stacia Blake

Sunday Times, 2010

Someone likened her to Dracula's aunt. 

Hawkwind, being a "weird" band, pull some "weird" crowds, especially in America where Stacia is constantly hounded by both male and female groupies. One lunatic even tried to murder her during a gig and she wasn't dancing naked at the time!

"I was doing a mime of a robot who was given a pill and becomes human for a spell. I was freakin' out at the time, and I felt this choking sensation round my neck. People thought it was a guy hugging me at first which was cool, but a roadie saw that he was strangling me and he threw the bloke off the stage.

"He even had a go at me a second time," recalls Stacia, "and the hall bouncers beat him up and threw him out. I was really shaken, and I wasn't much good for the rest of the tour."

"When we made Silver Machine we attracted a Top 20 audience of filthy little boys who came along to stare at me." There is a hint of bitterness in her voice.

That was a couple of years ago. Since then the band have developed, and Stacia dances naked no more. She has nine different costumes to choose from, and the dirty little boys have disappeared from the audiences. Ironically the reaction was pretty "cool" when she first appeared in her birthday suit: "Most people weren't surprised, because I don't think Hawkwind could surprise anybody. They get into so many weird things."

From Stacia, the girl in the band

Record Mirror, 1974

I love the way Stacia turns a murderous double assault into an opportunity to design a clutch of psychedelic outfits to dance in. Irrepressible genius. It speaks volumes.

Stacia’s 1975 departure must've come as a bit of a hammer blow to Hawkwind and fans, coinciding as it did with the simultaneous loss of Lemmy (to Motorhead) and Robert Calvert. Whatever happened on the preceding Warrior on the Edge of Time tour to precipitate this is anyone’s guess, but I’m expecting grueling tours, groupies, drugs, ennui, and complete mental and physical burnout would come high on the list.

After leaving Hawkwind, Stacia returned to private life and married Roy Dyke. As former Hawkwind manager Doug Smith said in the October 2000 issue of Classic Rock magazine, "The last anybody heard, Stacia was married with children and living in Hamburg with her husband Roy Dyke, formerly of Ashton, Gardner and Dyke." The couple has a daughter, Aysha Dyke, who lives in Hamburg and is currently in the band Generations of Music.

Stacia is now living in Ireland and working as an accomplished artist. She has said about her work: "It is greatly influenced by my love of nature, in all its aspects. Landscapes, people, animals, sound and movement. All these things permeate my being. I allow them to become part of me. After a time of reflection, all these impressions culminate in the creation of inner landscapes which are then released to create the images you see in my work." I have included a montage of Stacia’s artwork below, and may yet blog some more of it.

Links
Stacia. Wikipedia.
Stacia: Artist Website
Stacia Blake, Sunday Times, 2010

Stacia, the Girl in the Band. Record Mirror, 1974
Long, Tall Stacia – the Six Foot Lady with the Two-Way Sex Life. Penthouse, 1974
Hawkwind’s Buxom Cosmic Dancer Discusses Her Wild Sex Life in Vintage Interviews. Dangerous Minds.

North Utsire

Poison Fire

It’s a disgrace. The Niger Delta is an environmental disaster zone. And the social problems have only got worse. This ground breaking film leaves you under no illusion that corporations like Shell have nothing short of the complete subjugation of humanity in their sights, such is their belligerence and lack of regard for human rights and environmental sustainability. As you watch it, your blood will gradually boil, itself with a poison fire of outrage at the injustice. So here we find ourselves, 20 years after the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a cut & dried black & white tragedy of unforgivable proportions. And still no-one gives a dam.  After fifty years of oil exploitation, one and a half million tons of crude oil has been spilled into the creeks, farms and forests, the equivalent to 50 Exxon Valdez disasters, one per year.

NASA Satellite image: Niger Delta

It is a well acknowledged permaculture principle that at the margins, life proliferates. Deltas are natural interfaces between the water world and the land; an upwelling of nutrients and habitat which should be the fertile mother of life and agriculture. The effects of oil in the fragile Niger Delta communities and environment have been enormous. Local indigenous people have seen little if any improvement in their standard of living while suffering serious damage to their natural environment. According to Nigerian federal government figures, there were more than 7,000 oil spills between 1970 and 2000.

Nigeria, after nearly four decades of oil production, had by the early 1980s become almost completely dependent on petroleum extraction economically, generating 25% of its GDPC (this has since risen to 60% as of 2008). Vast wealth created by petroleum has fed only the corrupt plutocracy. The majority of the population since the 1960s have increasingly been forced to abandon their traditional agricultural practices. Annual production of both cash and food crops dropped significantly in the latter decades of 20th century. Cocoa production dropped by 43% (Nigeria was the world's largest cocoa exporter in 1960), rubber dropped by 29%, cotton by 65%, and groundnuts by 64%. In spite of the large number of skilled, well-paid Nigerians who have been employed by the oil corporations, the majority of Nigerians and most especially the people of the Niger Delta states and the far north have become poorer since the 1960s.

Click the image to see the documentary

Poison Fire follows a team of local activists as they gather video testimonies from communities on the impact of oils spills and gas flaring. We see creeks full of crude oil, devastated mangrove forests, wellheads that has been leaking gas and oil for months. We meet people whose survival is acutely threatened by the loss of farmland, fishing and drinking water and the health hazards of gas flaring.

Gas flaring is the burning of natural gas that is associated with crude oil when it is pumped up from the ground. In petroleum-producing areas where insufficient investment was made in infrastructure to utilize natural gas, flaring is employed to dispose of this toxic gas. Nigeria flares 17.2 billion m3 of natural gas per year in conjunction with the exploration of crude oil in the Niger Delta. This high level of gas flaring is equal to approximately one quarter of the current power consumption of the African continent.

But why is natural gas (called “associated gas”, or AG) is being flared in the first place? Because oil and natural gas are mixed in every oil deposit, the natural gas must be removed from oil before refining as the gaseous fraction is unnecessary and combustible during fractionation. Gas flaring is simply the burning of unwanted AG. Because oil is 30 times more valuable than natural gas. So rather than capture it and take it to market, it is destroyed; hardly an efficient way to treat precious natural resources. Gas flaring is currently illegal in most countries of the world, where gas flaring may only occur in certain circumstances such as emergency shutdowns, non-planned maintenance, or disruption to the processing system.

Oil exploration causes a range of environmental problems. Gas flaring contributes significantly to climate change; acid rain; local ruination of agriculture; economic loss and pollution. This includes contamination of both surface and ground water by benzene, xylene, toluene, and ethylbenzene; contamination of soil by oil spill and leaks; increased deforestation; as well as the economic loss and environmental degradation stemming from gas flaring. Flaring releases methane, a greenhouse gas that, when released directly into the air, traps heat in the atmosphere. The process of flaring contributes directly to global warming.

But it is the health effects of this Poison Fire which are most disturbing. Flaring has a substantial impact on the health and environment of landowners who live near a flared well. The methane release is smelly, noisy, and, according to the US Natural Institute of Health, exposure causes “headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, and loss of coordination” in people and animals. It creates a 24×7 bright light, blocking out the night sky. Residents living near gas flares complain of respiratory problems, skin rashes and eye irritations. Since flaring involves carbon dioxide and sulphur outputs, in the longer term the heart and lungs can be affected leading to bronchitis, silicosis, sulphur poisoning of the blood, and cardiac complications. Port Harcourt doctor, Nabbs Imegwu asserts “Extreme long-term exposure can predispose one to, or cause, skin cancer.”

Pollutants from gas flaring are associated with a variety of adverse health impacts, including cancer, neurological, reproductive and developmental effects. Deformities in children, lung damage and skin problems have also been reported. Hydrocarbon compounds are known to cause some adverse changes in hematological parameters. These changes affect blood and blood-forming cells negatively. And could give rise to anemia (aplastic), pancytopenia and leukemia.

November 10 last year marked 20 years to the day since the hanging of the writer and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders of the Ogoni people’s rights movement, known as MOSOP. Convicted on faked charges by a military tribunal of “inciting the murder of four Ogoni elders”, the Ogoni Nine as they became known, were hanged in the face of international outrage. According to one report Saro-Wiwa’s own execution was bungled and only succeeded at the fifth attempt. “Why are you people treating me like this? Which type of country is this?” he is reported to have asked his executioners.

The executions, described by Nelson Mandela as “a heinous act”, led to Nigeria’s three-year suspension from the Commonwealth days later, and to economic sanctions from the EU and the USA.

In 2011 the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released a report that confirmed scientifically what people in Ogoniland already knew: that the environment was unproductive and unsafe for human habitation. UNEP concluded that restoring the Ogoni environment could take 30 years in the most challenging environmental remediation exercise ever attempted. The UNEP report recommended that $1 billion should be allocated to set up an environmental restoration fund and begin the clean up. But in the five years since the report was published Shell and the Nigerian government have failed to implement its recommendations. 

Nice one, Shell

While a report by Shell also says overall from 2002 to 2010 “flaring from SPDC facilities has fallen by over 50 percent,” it says this was partially due to a decrease in oil extraction owing to what they call “militant activities.” In the same manner, it recognized that the 2010 increase in flaring from 2009 was because oil extraction rose following a drop in violence in the region. 

The Nigerian government has not enforced environmental regulations effectively because they have deliberately created a bureaucratic quagmire to match that of the oil fields themselves. They are in fact crudely opaque. Neither the Nigerian Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA) nor the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has implemented anti-flaring policies for natural gas waste from oil production, nor have they monitored the emissions to ensure compliance. FEPA has had the authority to issue standards for water, air and land pollution and has had the authority to make regulations for oil industry. However, in some cases their regulations conflict with DPR regulations started in 1991 for oil exploration. So their hands are tied by an innocent accident of bureaucracy. Tied tightly, as the noose around a protester’s neck.

As the documentary demonstrates, the oil-producing communities have experienced severe marginalization and neglect. The environment and human health have frequently been a secondary consideration for oil companies and the Nigerian government. The government’s main interest in the oil industry is to maximize monetary profits from oil production. Oil companies find it more economically expedient to flare the natural gas and pay the insignificant fine than to re-inject the gas back into the oil wells. Additionally, because there is an insufficient energy market especially in rural areas, oil companies do not see an economic incentive to collect the gas.

Below is the first of many One Man Photoshop Protests which I will blog in future months. It is based on an Alan Hardman cartoon along similar lines, so I can’t take all the credit for the idea. I think I originally saw the Hardman cartoon in a book by Martin Cock and Bill Hopwood called Global Warning: Socialism And The Environment, in which I get a nod in the acknowledgements for providing some early material. Not for my skills as a cartoonist. 

One Man Photoshop Protest

Bit dated now, but well worth a read.

UPDATE: I managed to find Hardman’s cartoon online. It’s better than mine by far. First of all; it was his idea! Secondly, the image has nine victims, which is more accurate. Thirdly, it didn't take Alan Hardman 20 years to comment on the horrors of the Niger Delta. 

Ken Saro-Wiwa, left. Alan Hardman cartoon, right. 

Links

Guardian: Ken Saro-Wiwa 20 year anniversary  article

Ken Saro-Wiwa continues to inspire

Ken Saro-Wiwa 20 year death legacy

CNN: Niger Delta Oil Pollution

Ken Saro-Wiwa Blog- Article

Red Pepper: Ken Saro-Wiwa and the power of resistance

Nigeria Gas Flares: Still A Burning Issue

Living Earth: Impacts of Gas Flaring and Venting

Scientific Article on Gas Flaring and Venting

North Utsire

Human Be- In (1967)

“Well,” said Alpert, “it’s a hell of a gathering. It’s just being. Humans being. Being together.”

“Yeah,” said Allen “It’s a Human Be-In.”

"From the outset the costumed people in the Haight-Ashbury did not seem to form simply a new Bohemia. Almost immediately I referred to them in my field notes as "costumed people," partly because I had not yet heard the term "hippie," but also because I recognized that they could not be easily classified, that they did indeed hear a different drummer, that the meaning of their drama was hidden from me. Nor did my immediate colleagues use the term "hippie" at that time. referring instead to "the young tourists" or "the acid-heads." A young social worker who worked at the Institute and lived in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood immediately adjacent to the Medical Center initiated me into the use of the term "hippie," and I remember asking her to spell it for me when I finally realized that she was not using the older term "hipster." At about the same time as I began work, a long story appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on a commune of "acid-heads," who lived in a large old house in a poor neighborhood, not too far from the Haight-Ashbury; the word "hippie" was not used in the story at all, although in another month- so swiftly did the term catch on- the local newspapers were generally using the term imprecisely for various costumed young people anywhere in the Bay area."

Elegantly uncostumed costume- people

"Thus the neighborhood was in many ways ripe for the events that took place in such intensity during the period of which I write. It included a population geared in many ways to  the young and to new ideas, in particular to the idea of one world. Its flexibility can be demonstrated by the very fact that throughout the winter and spring, in spite of the influx  of young people whose numbers increased at an almost unprecedented rate in the life of any city, the neighborhood became increasingly accepting. By June, various estimates were  made that about 15,000 young flower children were living in the neighborhood, and most of this growth had taken place within the space of a few months."

Ginsburg holding court

"Thus within the space of a very few weeks, the nature of my feeling about these young people changed drastically. Mistakes they made, but they recognized them; they were critical of themselves; and they were flexible. To my amazement, they read many of the books that I had read as an undergraduate over thirty years before- D. H. Lawrence, Freud, James Joyce, Aldous Huxley, for example; and well-worn copies of books by these authors were pored over in the Psychedelic Shop, which periodically seemed to operate mainly as a  library. Moreover, they were concerned about the problems of child-rearing practices in middle-class American society and were exploring alternative solutions, such as the kibbutz in Israel; such books as Melford E. Spiro's Children of the Kibbutz were regularly borrowed back and forth by members of the young community whether they were parents or not. Under their influence, I read some of the books that they liked but that I had never gotten  around to reading, although most of them were at least familiar titles to me; the Tolkien books are notable examples. I discovered the importance of these books for the young people. Although Tolkien has denied that he was writing an allegory about Western civilization and the fear of nuclear destruction, the hippies read his books as an allegory for  their time and position. The consistently good people in the Tolkien books are Hobbits and  they have the lowliest status of all the groups of characters in the books. The hippies  thought of themselves as being or becoming Hobbits; from time to time as the winter wore  on, a sign would appear in the window of one of their gathering places to this effect: Do not add to the street confusion this weekend. There may be busts. Be good little Hobbits and stay home. I came to understand that the hierarchy of status in the establishment was one  of the serious concerns of this coalescent group of young people. As a member of the  second sex and as a marginal person in my own professional world- whatever that is- I found this concern congenial to me. What I am suggesting here is that with the passage of a relatively short time and some openness to this young community, the stranger began to feel at home."

The Human Be-In

Helen Perry, 1970

Human Be-In Flyer

The above flyer is a rare piece of cultural ephemera and evocative of a certain era. Designed by Michael Bowen and Stanley Mouse it announces “A Gathering of the Tribes for a Human Be-In”. This watershed event catapulted the hippie scene to national prominence. Participants were asked to “Bring food to share, bring flowers, beads, costumes, feathers, bells, cymbals and flags.” That they did. These ideas transfixed mainstream culture, and the phenomenon of the “hippie” burst full force into the public consciousness, transforming a generation.

Human Be- In Poster (one of several)

As a prelude to the first Summer Of Love which made the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco a symbol of the American counterculture and introduced a suburban generation to the word “psychedelic”, the first Human Be-In in 1967 focused key ideas of liberation against the prevailing social norms of conventional middle-class commonality. Organiser Allen Cohen invited speakers on the day including Timothy Leary who set the tone with his famous phrase – “Turn on, tune in, drop out” and Allen Ginsburg who chanted his poetry. Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead provided the soundtrack to gathered masses who participated in the consumption of “White Lightning LSD” provided by underground chemist Owsley Stanley. Incidentally Stanley designed some of the first high-fidelity sound systems, culminating in the massive and infamous amplification rig used by the Grateful Dead in their live shows.

Ginsburg chanting mantras

It’s estimated that between 20,000 and 30,000 people showed up. The event was seen by many as a meld between philosophically opposed factions of the San Francisco counterculture. One on side were the Berkeley radicals, who were tending towards increased militancy in response the the U.S. government’s Vietnam War. On the other side were the non-partisan hippies who urged peaceful protest. Although their means were drastically different, they held many of the same goals- personal empowerment, cultural and political decentralisation, communal living, ecological awareness, higher states of consciousness and liberal political consciousness. The happening was more than a war-protest. Authority was questioned on civil rights, women’s rights and spawned it’s own alternative media in the form of newspapers and radio stations as well as new directions in music, art and technology. The dynamic milieu of San Fransisco in the 1970s gave birth to the ultimate gesture of modern personal power – the personal computer, countering the prevailing main frame computer paradigm which implied centralised authority.

Humans being-in

“The predominant feeling among the Hippies from about 1965 through the summer of ’67 was that they were agents and witnesses of a dawning of a new age. An age in which the warrior spirit, that had vaulted western man to the domination and potential destruction of creation, would be dissolved in the spiritual transcendence of the saint. Ghandi and Martin Luther King were our heroes and we had turned to the rich heritage of Asian mysticism and metaphysics for our inspiration and our practice. We leaped across oceans and through time to pre-Christian mythologies like the American Indian, the Egyptian and the occult and pagan philosophies of Europe. We studied with Buddhists and Indian gurus, native shamans, witches and yogis. We turned from Aristotelian and Christian dualism to the four pronged logic of Vedanta philosophy. We studied the Upanishads, the Tao Te Ching, Alan Watt’s books on Zen Buddhism, and Hermann Hesse’s novels, especially Siddhartha. We wouldn’t leave the house without consulting the I Ching, or our Tarot cards or our astrological charts.”

“Were we being naive or superstitious? No, I think this was the most important and long lasting aspect of the 60s despite the backlash of the 80s. It was the beginning of a renaissance in thought and culture similar to the Renaissance that brought Greek and Roman images and ideas back to Europe in the middle ages. Ideas that eventually led to the end of the domination of the Catholic Church, the rise of the nation state, the rebirth of democracy and the development of science.”

"The Gathering of the Tribes" in a "union of love and activism" was an overwhelming success, Over twenty thousand people came to the Polo Fields in Golden Gate Park. The psychedelic bands played -Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service. Poets Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Michael McClure, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Lew Welch, and Lenore Kandel, read, chanted and sang. Tim(othy) Leary told everyone to "Turn on, Tune in and Drop out", the Diggers gave out free food. The Hells Angels guarded the generator cables that someone had cut, Owsley Stanley gave out free acid; a parachutist dropped like an angel from the sky and the whole world watched on the evening news. Soon there would be Be-Ins and Love-Ins from Texas to Paris and the psychedelic and political aspects of the youth culture would continue to grow hand in hand everywhere." – Allen Cohen

"Turn In, Tune Out, and Drop One"

When will the next of the big free love- festivals be? 

North Utsire