After Dark, February 11, 2014

Proud...

(Short...not so sweet)

by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

@gcharlebois

It's been a sordid couple of weeks. And, forgive me in advance, this will be about me blowing off steam and I will try not to go on too long (mostly because that's annoying, and there is little more to be said...) Sordid for the hideous death of one of the world's greatest actors, Philip Seymour Hoffman who, within hours, we were told had died with a needle sticking out of his arm. Sordid for the parade of fucked-up Farrow/Allen children trotted out by "journalists" to bemoan their fucked-up parents.

And, finally (and this is where I snapped and why I am writing this), sordid because of those fucking games in Sochi and especially sordid because we were asked to be proud of a Canadian arts organization which was going to play jester to Russia's Emperor Putin. 

What the fuck was in Les 7 Doigts de la Main's pea-brains when they accepted to perform at the winter Olympics and when this news was trumpeted by, notably, La Presse without mentioning one important fact: that a world-famous Canadian company was accepting blood money to do their monkeyshines at the most controversial Olympics since Hitler?

7 Doigts is now an accomplice of a government which is so utterly corrupt and inept that they could not stage an event - even after throwing $50 billion at it - that is anything but third-rate and Third-World. 7 Doigts is propping up the dirtiest Olympics  - legally and environmentally - since Montreal. 7 Doigts is saying - quite, quite publicly - "Hey! Kill the Queers! We don't give a fuck! We have our money!" (Christ, I would laugh my mother-fucking ass off if the Russians screwed them out of a pay-check.) 

I am not proud of this company and its international work anymore. 

I am profoundly ashamed.

And one more thing: Fuck them.

PS: After this rant was written Kate Taylor, of the Globe and Mail, was one of the few journalists who noted there were some nay-sayers on 7 Doigts. She wrote: "The news that Sept Doigts would be at Sochi, announced to the francophone press on Wednesday, was generally met with delight in Quebec although theatre writer Gaëtan Charlebois did take to Twitter to denounce the company for taking 'Sochi 2014 bloodmoney.' [❡][Nassib] El-Husseini [7 Doigts CEO] defended the decision, saying, 'Being in Sochi will not change anything but it does give us the opportunity to say, we support those [human] rights.'" When I see proof that 7 Doigts received no payment beyond expenses, I will bow down on my street in profound apology (and post the picture).