I watched this amazing show on ABC2 last night.
Alex James, the former Blur bass player, boasted once that he'd consumed $1million worth of cocaine. Subsequently, the president of Colombia wrote to him and asked him to visit his country so he could see first-hand the damage cocaine had done.
It was really full-on and really eye-opening at the same time. I would say a stand-out moment was the footage of the farmer turning the coca leaves into powder form to sell on to the distributors. He added cement and petrol to the leaves, along with a range of other chemicals, then dried out the sludge left over until it was all powdery. Gross.
Anyway I think BBC has posted pretty much the entire one-hour show on Youtube so you might be able to catch it on there.
Here's a short clip.
I would like to take this opportunity to remind Kate that I have her Alex James bio A Bit of a Blur sitting on my dresser at home, as it has done for a good year or two now. The fee for me returning it is a catch up drink sometime. Coincidentally, I also have Lindsay's Flight of the Conchordes CD. I'm not sure how long that's been in my possession...
2 months ago
4 comments:
Son of a bitch. Ok, you're on.
That is something I would watch.
I read somewhere (Naomi Klein?) that a lot of those south American countries' economic problems were started by the collapse of the drug export market after the US got tough on customs. It sorta makes sense when you think about it - imagine if a country's main export (iron ore?) was declared illegal and had no legitimate market. Would seriously fuck up the trade deficit. Then you're practically praying for a murderous junta to step in.
Yeah that's what some of the people in this doco were saying too. On the one hand, cocaine is a plague on the country and causes lots of corruption and crime, but on the other hand, it props the economy and keeps it ticking over.
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