Television, Drug of the Nation

Last week, almost two years after its completion, the ABC finally played Peter Vaughan’s doco The Last Valley, on the struggle to save the last remnants of old growth forests in East Gippsland (the kind my paternal grandfather logged further west). And in response, while Jim Schembri further confirms his reputation as an execrable reviewer in The Age (Vaughan “allows himself to get so entangled in the proceedings he ends up in the back of a police van”), a much more useful account of how the Victorian Government tried to sabotage the making of the film is available at Barista.

On Tuesday night, Foreign Correspondent has a feature by Emma Griffiths on fascism in St. Petersburg: ‘Russia – Hate Crimes’:

St. Petersburg is known as one of the most beautiful cities in the world — but there’s also a dark side. In recent years the significant community of international students from Africa, Asia and former Soviet Republics [and anarchists], has become the target of vicious attacks by neo-Nazis and extremist groups. More than 120 people have been murdered over the past three years and hundreds more injured, in racially [and politically] motivated violence. However, despite the increasing brutality, Moscow-based correspondent Emma Griffiths reveals an apparent reluctance [sic] of some authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.

For more information on East Gippsland’s old growth, see Goongerah Environment Centre (GECO): “GECO is an independent grassroots environment organisation based in East Gippsland. We are dedicated to protecting the remaining old growth forests of the region.” For more information on Government-approved racist and fascist terrorism in St. Petersburg and other parts of Russia, see FSU Monitor: “The site for daily news, opinion, and advocacy on Jews and human rights in the former Soviet Union — a project of UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union.”