Unusual Headache

So my mate Damien says that we are going to see the movie, "The End to Poverty?" as part of the make poverty history day. He was a few minutes late so I found myself in a pub with a much awaited Guinness in front of me watching the cricket. The split second did pass where I realised I could just stay there, sun coming in the window, a beer I had waited weeks for, and no doubt a proper smashing of the Indians by the Aussies.

Not so.

Pulled from the pub I found myself out front of the theatre, cigarette in hand, contemplating if I was in the wrong for attending a movie like this wearing a man bag that I clearly remember purchasing in a hidden room of a dodgy mall in Malaysia... undoubtedly produced from child labor. Of course halfway through that thought Mr. Mandla appeared with some crack about beer and fags and I found myself being whisked in.

Somewhere in the beginning of this whole process I was standing up with the whole theatre reciting a poverty pledge which was to be recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. This was not only a first for me, being in the book that is, but also a stern reminder of my favoured beers old slogan, "Guinness for Health!"

That's where the fun ended. By no means am I going to belittle the poverty movement, it is a serious issue and does need everyone's attention... but holy begeezus brainwarp. Your mind just shrivels up by the end of the movie. With so many raw, real, and generally depressing facts laid on you there is no choice but shrinkage. My head hurt from facts that no one person can change. To put this in context, I don't get headaches. Maybe after that 10th coffee of the day at 3 o'clock when I know its my own damn fault and I just need to drink water but that's about it. For those of you that might have caught Massive Attacks 100th Window tour where they used the giant, stage sized screen to pummel world military facts into your head so that you just left a mental mush, that's what it was like. In essence they were just laying it down for us, telling it like it is but, well... IT is bad, and it hurts... and you should see for yourself. If that doesn't pry you out of your seats, which most likely doesn't, it was also an official selection at Cannes this year.

Inform yourselves. Make your own decisions... I hope you don't get a headache too.

www.makepovertyhistory.org