Actor Forest Whitaker stars in "The Last King of Scotland," the acclaimed biopic about Uganda's bloodthirsty dictator Idi Amin, who is thought to have killed over 300,000 of his countrymen during a reign that was cruel even by the standards of African dictatorships. New York Times' Africa correspondent Jeffrey Gettleman went to Kampala for the red carpet opening and made Sunday's front page with "A Film Star in Kampala, Conjuring Amin's Ghost."
"Mr. Whitaker said it was enormously helpful to walk through the actual places Amin haunted and meet actual people he victimized.
"'All these things come together in this alchemic way,' Mr. Whitaker said at a pre-screening news conference. 'The character comes to life and the spirit is brought forth.'
"Whatever he did, many Ugandans said, it worked. Mr. Whitaker nailed Amin’s complexities, they said, and unlike previous portrayals that were one-dimensionally evil, this role revealed some of Amin’s positive qualities, helping explain how he rose to power in the first place.
"'Amin made an attempt of ensuring the economy was in the hands of the indigenous people,' said Dixon Kamukama, a history professor at Makerere University in Kampala. 'It was crude. But it was the beginning of what we needed.'"
"Crude" doesn't quite cover it, but Gettleman doesn't pry. One wonders: Do the fanatical dictator's "positive qualities" (such as putting the economy in the hands of the indigenous people, as the professor claims) include his expulsion of 50,000 Asians, the backbone of the Ugandan economy, without compensation for their business and property losses?
For more New York Times bias, visit Times Watch.
—Clay Waters is the director of Times Watch, an MRC project tracking the New York Times.
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They should have said chari
February 19, 2007 - 17:23 ET by Dee BunkThey should have said charismatic qualities rather than positive maybe, but it's true. They do need to show what makes liberals fall for these people. Anyone can pretend to be nice even if they are not. The last King of Scotland had a great scene where Amin wooed the reporters just like Castro, Chavez and The Iran President (whose name I don't like to try and spell).
Dee,I read an article on Whit
February 19, 2007 - 17:31 ET by BlondeDee,
I read an article on Whittaker's Oscar nomination, which went into his reasons why he tried to portray Idi Amin the way he did. This is a movie that I want to see...sounds like you'd recommend it.
As for the Iranian...I can't spell it either, I just call him Imadinnerjacket. Everyone knows who you mean.
Blonde - I like that Imadin
February 19, 2007 - 17:50 ET by Dee BunkBlonde - I like that Imadinnerjacket - I'll have to remember it. I would highly recommend Last King of Scotland. It came from the U.K. and that is probably why it's good. If Hollywood would have done this they would have screwed it up. They would have made everything America's fault.
I'm signing off now - catch you next time!
Hey, I thought his name was
February 20, 2007 - 04:26 ET by liberal_bug_zapperHey, I thought his name was President MyMood IminaJihad!
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"These are the times that try men's souls." ~ Thomas Paine
President Ahmalamadingdong?
February 20, 2007 - 13:51 ET by Troika37President Ahmalamadingdong?
Newsflash for you folks in Ri
February 19, 2007 - 17:28 ET by Clear thinkerNewsflash for you folks in Rio Linda, Idi Amin had NO positive qualities!
Jeffrey, I suppose you think John Wayne Gacy had positive qualities too!
You can say some one has po
February 19, 2007 - 20:04 ET by zhombreYou can say some one has positive qualities in a relative, or superficial way. Ted Bundy was intelligent, articulate, quite capable of charming people. Those may be positive qualities but do not mitigate his evil and vicious nature; they disguised it. I'm not agreeing with that idiot prof who talked up Amin nationalizing the economy -- apparently that was accomplished by expropriation and purging the country of Chinese merchants. Idi Amin may have had some abilities , some strengths, as any human being does -- these of course were corrupted. Whitaker is a very good actor, BTW, but most actors aren't deep thinkers (surprise, surprise).
Idi Amin did have a positive quality - syphilis. :-) ACA
February 19, 2007 - 18:17 ET by acaiguanaIdi Amin did have a positive quality - syphilis. :-) ACA
Couldn't have happend to a nicer guy. Well, except maybe Al Capone.
...
Hillary Clinton says: "I want to take those profits."
Ida?
February 19, 2007 - 18:40 ET by tumbler_2007Ha ha ha! (No cigar for you.)
Thank's tumbler, I fixed it.
February 19, 2007 - 18:46 ET by acaiguanaThank's tumbler, I fixed it.
ACA
...
Hillary Clinton says: "I want to take those profits."
on that fleeting subject:
February 19, 2007 - 19:05 ET by tumbler_2007Yeah; excuse, but--
That's what I was saying just the other night to Debra about the man what founded her church (with it's offshoots)
That being King Henry VIII of England. He died of syphlis. Prolly having infected eight wives first.
Thanks anyway, tumbler, I fixed it.
February 19, 2007 - 19:11 ET by acaiguanaThanks anyway, tumbler, I fixed it.
ACA
...
Hillary Clinton says: "I want to take those profits."
NPR did a puff piece on thi
February 19, 2007 - 19:48 ET by RScooterNPR did a puff piece on this guy a few hours ago, and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. They pondered whether the 'official death count' caused at the hands of Amin was closer to tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands. They then went on to say that although the economy halted after nationalization by Amin, some in Uganda contest that it wasn't all for the worse. I wish I had a full transcript of it....was quite a ridiculous report.
"A society that puts equality ahead of freedom will end up with neither" ~Milton Friedman
Okay, I don't get it...how do
February 19, 2007 - 20:50 ET by msh1973Okay, I don't get it...how does a mad man have any 'postive qualities'? Hollywood is so out of touch with reality. It won't be long until there is a movie made about the 'postive qualities' of Saddam.
His mama loved him when he wa
February 19, 2007 - 21:26 ET by MikeBHis mama loved him when he was little...probably.
"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." Ronald Reagan
Okay, I don't get it...how do
February 19, 2007 - 22:43 ET by Scout FinchOkay, I don't get it...how does a mad man have any 'postive qualities'?
Pretty easy, msh. He probably wouldn't've voted for Bush. Same reason Diane Sawyer swooned with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Dan Rather gave serious face time with Saddam Hussein. Also, these guys all run dictatorial regimes that are NOT American allies. So simple. Any other questions?
IMO this term was used to m
February 20, 2007 - 05:12 ET by sarcasmoIMO this term was used to mask Amin's rampant anti-Asian racism, which, like the later rampant anti-white racism in the former Rhodesia, ultimately hurts black Africans, too. In fact, since they usually can't flee, one might say it hurts native Africans overall the most. Anyway, this blinkered PC attitude that "only whites can be racist" is what produces this kind of distortion, "crudely" killing all of one group and giving another group their property is a recipe for continual big-government boots on future throats, not "economic justice." Want "economic justice"? Emulate prosperous people -- in Africa or anywhere else.
JMR
sarc -- three of my friends
February 20, 2007 - 05:22 ET by Jack Bauersarc -- three of my friends fled Uganda in the 1970s as kids. They were young brothers of Hindu/Indian descent.
I'm wondering, does the movie show any of Idi's more eccentric traits. Such as cannibalism.
Once again, lib***ls never seem to find a sociopathic socialistic/communistic dictator they didn't regard as fascinating and complex.
That's right, by terrorizing a group of citizens who had migrated to Uganda from India a century earlier. Stealing their businesses and property that they had built with their own capital and labor.
The 3 were greatly and imme
February 20, 2007 - 05:37 ET by sarcasmoThe 3 were greatly and immediately hurt at the time, but if you're still in touch ask them about their parents' business. It almost-certainly no-longer exists now, but try to imagine a Uganda with multiracial tolerance and personal self-defense rights (yep, the news media don't like to mention it, but "gun control" was at the root of Idi's racist tyranny, too) instead and that business having grown to today! Imagine 3 rich friends (only you probably would not even know them) and at the same time richer Ugandans than now. Ignored racism & gun control (and the PC news media obviously don't even want to call it racism, much less talk honestly about the aftereffects of gun-control) has been destroying Africa during my lifetime, and holding it back. This is one of those cases where honesty in journalism decades-ago would have saved lives.
JMR
Unfortunately what has help
February 20, 2007 - 05:52 ET by Jack BauerUnfortunately what has helped impoverish Africa was a set of first generation post-colonial leaders educated from the 1930's onwards by dull-brained socialists in Britain.
Garbage in, garbage out. Ah, you can't make an amlet by murdering a few million.
Yes, I agree. But my point
February 20, 2007 - 06:26 ET by sarcasmoYes, I agree. But my point is that the media tend to underestimate the deadly -- indeed, genocidal -- effects of gun control combined with humanity's inevitable bigotry. JPFO does a good-albeit-politically-incorrect (even for the NRA!) job of exposing the history Idi Amin was repeating. Needless to say, it's likely hardly anyone but Aaron Zellman & me tends to see the problem in this way, in part due to the media hiding our views IMO.
JMR
sarc -- I hear you.The UK h
February 20, 2007 - 06:46 ET by Jack Bauersarc -- I hear you.
The UK has established the most draconian gun control laws in the world over the past ten years, since some nut walked into a Scottish school in Dunblane, and shot a dozen five year kids in the head.
At the same time, the more laws that are passed, gun related crime has gone through the roof. While citizens who have merely defended themselves against burglars and other criminals have been imprisoned for using "excessive force when confronted by gun-toting crims.
The only people who aren't allowed to be armed are the law-abiding citizens and most of the beat cops.
Meanwhile, the criminals are armed to the teeth.
Wisdom from Korea
February 20, 2007 - 07:05 ET by Unsane"The law is far, the fist is near." - Korean proverb
Sarc-Of course you're right o
February 20, 2007 - 08:52 ET by ghotifunSarc-
Of course you're right on the PC scope that "only whites can be racist". Just take a look at Darfur, Rwanda, Malawi, earlier in Somalia (etc. in Africa), the slaughter of the Ainu in Japan, ethnic cleansing in China.
One gets the point. Certainly this list could go on and on.
But as you pointed out, it just ain't politically expedient right now...
Thanks. It would be nice if
February 20, 2007 - 09:08 ET by sarcasmoThanks. It would be nice if Stossel covered the issue, I don't trust many others to paint it correctly, but I wish more folks would look at the JPFO site & do some reading about the sad history of "gun control" & bigotry worldwide.
JMR
Clay this isn't surprising
February 20, 2007 - 17:32 ET by Carl KolchakClay, this isn't surprising. You have to remember the brilliant left wing Rhodes Scholars who teach at colleges think leaders like Enver Hoxha, Nicolae Ceausescu, Erich Honecker, Walter Ulbricht, Trotsky, Lenin, etc. were really a bunch of swell guys, and even if they did kill people, it was the type of people who really didn't matter. Left wing journalists then go to these left wing colleges and get taught by these brilliant Rhode Scholars and then apply that same type of thought.
"The Chancellor-the late chancellor-was only part correct. He was obsolete. But so was the State, the entity he worshiped. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man, that state is obsolete. A case to be filed under "M" for Mankind in 'The Twilight Zone'" Rod Serling