L'ennemi intime (Intimate Enemies) review

An excellent and unflinching look into one of the most brutal conflicts of the 20th century - the Algerian War (although the French refused to formally call it a war), Intimate Enemies might be categorized as the Frenchversion of Platoon or Full Metal Jacket. Unlike most war movies it also maintains a surprisingly successful level of suspense more associated with film noir (the amazing music score might have something to do with that). It deals with many of the similar themes to aforementioned movies: the unwinnable war, the horrible brutality and dehumanization of the enemy, questionable 'ends justify the means' mentality of one's own side, resignation and bitterness of the common soldiers. Algeria was not merely a war of Algerian revolutionaries against French oppressions, more than two million so-called "blackfeet" - ethnic Algerians who supported the French - fought in the war as well. Both sides butchered and tortured civilians and prisoners alike - truly there were no "good guys". Intimate Enemies has all the military cliche characters that we might expect but still manages to make them seem like real people, and endow them with real emotions and real dilemmas. The French experience has much to teach us about other conflicts going on today: Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia. Intimate Enemies is now one of my favourite war movies, and the best movie about the conflict in Algeria since the excellent black-and-white "Battle of Algiers". It is now on Netflix in the foreign film category and I strongly recommend it.

French onion soup

I made a new recipe, something I always wanted to try - French onion soup! Now this version is an amalgamation of half-remembered tales, food network shows, and last-minute inspiration, but it turned out very well! Here we go:

Ingredients
- 2 large onions, chopped into thick slices
- two sticks of butter
- one or two cloves of garlic
- a splash of red wine or brandy
- beef broth, approximately 600ml
- Worcestershire sauce
- four thick slices of bread (ciabatta or crusty French bread are best)
- olive oil
- about 300 grams of Emmental cheese, grated
- salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
1. Chop the onions and the garlic, melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the onions, sautee them until tender and the rings break up, but don't cook through yet. Add the garlic. Preheat the oven to 300C.
2. Add the broth, Worcestershire sauce, and the wine or brandy. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes or so, then let simmer for 10 minutes, add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Meanwhile slice the bread, drizzle olive oil on both sides, place on an oven tray and toast in the oven lightly until bread is just turning golden brown (on both sides). Remove from the oven.
4. Divide the grated cheese into 8 equal parts. Spread 1 part of the cheese into the bottom of an oven-friendly bowl (flat bottom is best). You should have four bowls total (so you'll use up half of your cheese on the bottom of the bowls).
5. Divide the soup mix equally among the four bowls, place the toast on top of the soup, then sprinkle with remaining cheese.
6. Switch the oven to broil, place four bowls in the oven until the cheese is bubbling and becoming crusty. Remove carefully (the bowls will be very hot), garnish with fresh parsley to taste and serve immediately with a spoon and a fork.

Enjoy!

P.S. Will post pics soon!

Let's blame those guys!

Admit it. You've already pictured the person holding the flag and he isn't white.

So the Boston bombing happened. And it's terrible, and I even personally know two people who were participating in the marathon that day (they are both unhurt and safely back home in Canada, thank whatever higher power that was watching out for them that day). Passions are riding high of course, and that's all proper and well, but the media circus is anything but. Let's put aside the movie-like tragic music that, first, CNN and then other networks, have been playing in the background of the scenes from the bombing. That's just wasted effort on their part. Instead, watch how the blame game hits the field running. The blast happened at around 2:50, at around 4 o'clock many news outlets were still reporting potential deaths at 10-12 and the number of wounded as unknown. By 5 o'clock (this is all EST by the way) I was reading how the authorities had a young man in custody and much was made how he was from Saudi Arabia and traveled through Saudi Arabia recently. Around 6 o'clock there was even still confusion whether a library in Boston was bombed as well, or if it was a fire, or if it was related, or if they found something in the library, or what, but CNN, MSNBC and Fox were already gleefully speculating as to the identity of the suspect and the fact (or was it really a fact at all?) that he was Muslim.

By 9 o'clock the comments on news sites (and not so coincidentally my Facebook and Google+ feeds) were alternating between "Oh, my prayers are totally with them/Remembering the victims in Boston" (Really? Like a dozen people in my contact list all personally knew the victims in Boston? What a coincidence!) and "Let's bomb them whoever they are". The big implication being of course that the whoever-s were from somewhere other than America, most likely in more southern latitudes and more easterly longitudes, and decidedly not Christians. "Is this going to be one of those 'let's not be racist' posts?" you ask. Not at all. Watch closely.

The Saudi embassy quickly swung into action. Full denial mode bitches! We're cooperating closely! The suspect is really a witness! And he most likely is, and I even believe them. Speculation by the media gives way to very public media mourning, celebrating heroes, and more water treading. And of course we should all feel bad about what happened, and the people who helped the victims are heroes (or at the very least good human beings), but all of this must happen without pointing fingers at U.S.A.'s closest ally in the Middle East. Ha! And you thought it was Israel! 3 billion and change to Israel in 2012 ($30 billion spread out over a decade in total, and some of that is being clawed back). Meanwhile 11.4 billion USD sale of 84 F-15s to Saudi Arabia and a bunch of Blackhawk and Apache helicopers for another $5 billion USD to Saudi Arabia in 2012, and probably another $20 billion in more military sales in the neat future. Care to guess how Saudi Arabia is going to pay for that? Oh, that's right, deep discounts for Saudi Arabia through U.S. International Military Education and Training program. How deep the discounts are? No one knows, although pointed questions have been asked in Congress. And, well, the Saudis exports to the U.S. in 2012 were $47.5 billion USD, so they can easily afford the F-15s, and the Blackhawks and Apaches themselves if they need to.

What does this have to do with Boston? Nothing and everything. Nothing, because probably none, or very few, of the victims of the blast were involved in shaping U.S. foreign policy, overseas involvements, and international trade. Everything, because the images of the victims will become part of the political and media circus, massaged and manipulated to suit the national interests. Yesterday, the knee-jerk reaction was to make much of the nationality and religion of the only suspect, because it's the default mode of post 9/11 world. Today, the knee jerk reaction is to do everything possible to either forget about the so-called suspect, or to make much of how much he and Saudis are cooperating, and to focus on the 8 year old boy's sweet school assignment, or the victims. Don't worry, it's business as usual.

P.S. At least authorities aren't ruling out the possibility of domestic terrorism. I hope no one has forgotten about Timothy McVeigh yet? Or that the Westboro Baptist Church is already saying that more violence will consume the nation if homosexuality doesn't become a capital crime? Hmm, sounds like a threat to me. It's not like Muslim fundamentalists have a monopoly on violence you know.