Hindsight.....
Is it just me or does everyone wonder if we’ll ever learn?
Heath Ledger is dead. He was rich, famous, handsome, hounded and now he’s dead.
It will be days before we know exactly what killed Heath but whatever it was, it found him all alone in a Soho loft.
There was always something fragile about Heath Ledger. I’ve loved every movie he’s done (except Four Feathers, that was a little bit crap) and been mesmerised by the megawatt smile.
But I also bought the bull. I worried that he didn’t like us much in Australia and it made me wary of him.
I certainly haven’t wasted sleep over Heath, I just never raved about him. I’ve never been as proud of him as I should have been.
Now he’s dead and there’s new press. Audio grabs of Heath having a laugh and saying beautiful things about the people he worked with and the women he loved. Stories of how he saved every “per diem” from acting jobs and sent them home to a mate in Australia still waiting for his big break.
His school principal wants us all to know that Heath Ledger never forgot where he came from. He stayed in touch with his school mates and every last one was welcome to a spare bed in Soho.
Apparently, when their neighbourhood in Brooklyn had an environmental competition, Heath and his (then) fiancé Michelle Williams painted their house green – just to give everyone a laugh.
I don’t know where these stories were a week ago but I wonder if they might have changed the way Heath Ledger felt about himself and if that might have made a difference in the end.
It also makes me wonder where the good press is on Britney or Paris. It’s ridiculously easy to believe there is none, but then again, maybe we’re just waiting until they die too, then slightly shame-faced, we’ll celebrate their good side.
In almost related news, I saw a great movie this week.
Charlie Wilson is a real live Texan. In the 1980s he was a hard-drinking, hard-snorting congressman, famous for womanising and honesty. A very unlikely crusader.
Through a friend he learned of carnage in Afghanistan. The hundreds of thousands of dead and homeless sacrificed by the Russians as they advanced across the border.
Charlie Wilson visited the refugee camps and met the victims of “toy bombs”, a shiny piece of evil rained down daily on Afghan villages. Toy bombs would glint in the sun enticingly and when kids ran to pick them up, they’d explode in their hands.
The soviets figured every wounded child needed an adult to care for it and that was one less grown-up available for the war effort.
I’m not sure how historically correct the movie is, but I support the sentiment, so bear with me.
In short, with Charlie Wilson’s support, nearly a billion dollars was allocated to help the Afghan Mujahideen expel the Soviets.
Charlie Wilson convinced congress that America was wrong to let innocent women and children take the bullets that were indirectly intended for the US.
America allowed Charlie Wilson his war, providing it stayed under the radar. Providing nobody ever found out where the money was coming from.
The Soviet army eventually called it quits in Afghanistan in 1989, within one year the Berlin Wall was down and the Cold War was all but over.
Immediately the US withdrew all support and money for Afghanistan and the rest is history. Civil war broke out, the Taliban came to power and America had effectively armed a nation of people who hated its guts.
Not for one second do I blame the War on Terror on a small piece of US foreign policy but it’s still an important lesson.
We reap what we sow.
When we turn our back on people who need us, even when they’re the rich and famous, there will be consequences.
Heath Ledger is dead. He was rich, famous, handsome, hounded and now he’s dead.
It will be days before we know exactly what killed Heath but whatever it was, it found him all alone in a Soho loft.
There was always something fragile about Heath Ledger. I’ve loved every movie he’s done (except Four Feathers, that was a little bit crap) and been mesmerised by the megawatt smile.
But I also bought the bull. I worried that he didn’t like us much in Australia and it made me wary of him.
I certainly haven’t wasted sleep over Heath, I just never raved about him. I’ve never been as proud of him as I should have been.
Now he’s dead and there’s new press. Audio grabs of Heath having a laugh and saying beautiful things about the people he worked with and the women he loved. Stories of how he saved every “per diem” from acting jobs and sent them home to a mate in Australia still waiting for his big break.
His school principal wants us all to know that Heath Ledger never forgot where he came from. He stayed in touch with his school mates and every last one was welcome to a spare bed in Soho.
Apparently, when their neighbourhood in Brooklyn had an environmental competition, Heath and his (then) fiancé Michelle Williams painted their house green – just to give everyone a laugh.
I don’t know where these stories were a week ago but I wonder if they might have changed the way Heath Ledger felt about himself and if that might have made a difference in the end.
It also makes me wonder where the good press is on Britney or Paris. It’s ridiculously easy to believe there is none, but then again, maybe we’re just waiting until they die too, then slightly shame-faced, we’ll celebrate their good side.
In almost related news, I saw a great movie this week.
Charlie Wilson is a real live Texan. In the 1980s he was a hard-drinking, hard-snorting congressman, famous for womanising and honesty. A very unlikely crusader.
Through a friend he learned of carnage in Afghanistan. The hundreds of thousands of dead and homeless sacrificed by the Russians as they advanced across the border.
Charlie Wilson visited the refugee camps and met the victims of “toy bombs”, a shiny piece of evil rained down daily on Afghan villages. Toy bombs would glint in the sun enticingly and when kids ran to pick them up, they’d explode in their hands.
The soviets figured every wounded child needed an adult to care for it and that was one less grown-up available for the war effort.
I’m not sure how historically correct the movie is, but I support the sentiment, so bear with me.
In short, with Charlie Wilson’s support, nearly a billion dollars was allocated to help the Afghan Mujahideen expel the Soviets.
Charlie Wilson convinced congress that America was wrong to let innocent women and children take the bullets that were indirectly intended for the US.
America allowed Charlie Wilson his war, providing it stayed under the radar. Providing nobody ever found out where the money was coming from.
The Soviet army eventually called it quits in Afghanistan in 1989, within one year the Berlin Wall was down and the Cold War was all but over.
Immediately the US withdrew all support and money for Afghanistan and the rest is history. Civil war broke out, the Taliban came to power and America had effectively armed a nation of people who hated its guts.
Not for one second do I blame the War on Terror on a small piece of US foreign policy but it’s still an important lesson.
We reap what we sow.
When we turn our back on people who need us, even when they’re the rich and famous, there will be consequences.
posted by Caroline Hutchinson at 7:45 AM
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