Pete Seeger to play

The people who organize the annual
Vancouver Folk Music Festival tend to
avoid granting star status to any of their
dozens of performers. Yet it’s hard not to
lead this off with an acknowledgement
that the legendary Pete Seeger will play
at this summer’s festival, held once again
in Vancouver’s Jericho Beach Park.

Seeger, who must be considered one of
the grandparents of, North America’s
folk scene, has never played the festival
that celebrates its 12th year this July 14-
16: (He'll also be performing for End the
Arms Race on July 13 at the Orpheum
Theatre, 8 p.m.). Festival director Gary
Cristall — who reports that Seeger
asked to play the festival — writes that
the former member of the Weavers and
friend of Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly

“could claim to have started the whole _

ball rolling, if he weren’t so darned mod-
est.”

This year’s event boasts more than 200
artists from 18 countries. Theme pro-
grams include the music of China, Cen-
tral America, Australia and ‘“‘a survey of
Canadian Celtic music.”

Featured this year are familiar Cana-
dian names like Heather Bishop and
Lucie Blue Tremblay, along with rela-
tively unknown (B.C.) artists such as
Mae Moore and Terilyn Ryan. Judy
Small of Australia is back, along with
Eric Bogle. Mozambique sends Eyu-
phuru, Mustafa al Kurd of Palestine per-
forms and from Latvia ‘comes the
progressive folk.group (who played at
Expo 86), Ornaments. And we’re looking
forward to hearing a poet who’s played
East Berlin and Edinburgh and goes by
the handle, Attila the Stockbroker.

The festival begins as usual on Friday
night (July 14) at 6 p.m. with the first of
three evening concerts. Saturday and

Vancouver

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VANCOUVER FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL. . . July 14-16 at Jericho Beach Park.

Sunday the entertainment begins on the

area stages at 10 a.m,, concluding with |

the evening sessions at the main stage.

Tickets for Friday are $20, and $27
each for Saturday and Sunday. A week-
end pass costs $60 after June 18, but
those who take advantage of the Early
Bird special get the whole festival for $50.
Prices for youths (13-18) and children are
less. Seniors and children under two
years are admitted free.

Tickets can be ordered from the Van-
couver Folk Music Festival, 3271 Main
St., Vancouver V6V 3M6.

* * *

The Vancouver East Cinema continues
its festival of Britain’s Channel Four films
this week. The country’s fourth largest
network, noted for financing successful

experiments such as the ‘socially”con-"

scious My Beautiful Laundrette, offers
these entries: Vroom, Monday 7:30 p.m.
and Tuesday 9:40 p.m.; Playing Away,
Monday 9:30 and Tuesday 7:30; The
Road Home, Wednesday 7:30 and
Thursday 9:30; Coming Up Roses, Wed-
nesday 9:45 and Thursday 7:30.

* * *

Tube talk: Red Dwarf, a farcical
science fiction tale in six 30-minute parts,
airs weekdays beginning May 29, 7:30
p.m. on KCTS. The public television sta-
tion also presents Wish Me Luck, a seven
part British drama about three women
who work as secret agents in Nazi-
occupied France, beginning June 1, 8
p.m.

In a similar vein, Knowledge Network
airs Nancy Wake: Part I, concerning the
true story of an Australian woman who
worked in the French Resistance. It runs
May 27, 9 p.m.

Nicaragua praised
for rights record ©

RIGHT TO SURVIVE: Human Rights in
Nicaragua. Catholic Institute for Interna-
tional Relations. $13.50 paperback. Avail-
able at the People’s Co-op Bookstore,
Vancouver.

I picked up this little book, so thin that
one would hardly notice it, from the Latin
American shelf, took it home and read it
straight through.

Right to Survive: Human Rights in Nica-
ragua, is a report on the valiant attempt of
the young Sandinistas to establish consen-
sus and a democratic, pluralistic govern-
ment in the midst of a war waged against
them by the most powerful nation in the
world.

This study, by the Catholic Institute for
International Relations and financed by a
grant from the Swedish International
Development Authority, examines the
human rights record of Nicaragua in light of
those of other Central American countries
and the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights established by the United Nations in
1948.

The authors point out thaf the declara-
tion contains hard won achievements from
the struggle of people demanding respect
and recognition of their rights. This includes
civic, political, economic and social rights.

The authors write: “Malnutrition, infant
mortality, prevalence of easily prevented
diseases, hunger and ignorance do consti-
tute gross violations of human rights, par-
ticularly in those countries where the
availability of resources is such that these
social ills could be cured by a change in
economic priorities.

“Tt is against the background of Central
America, particularly Honduras, E! Salva-
dor and Guatemala, that the Nicaraguan
record must be set,” they write, “‘as all these
countries have common roots in extreme
poverty, with the ruling classes unwilling to
concede even the slightest economic or
social reforms. All of these countries have
been, and still are, subjected to death squad
killings, torture and starvation.

“This dismal record of repression pro-
vides some justification for the (Sandinis-
tas’) contention that it is only through

revolution that significant change can be-—

accomplished. Today, Nicaragua is the only
country in Central America that can make
the basic needs of the majority its highest
priority.”

The final collapse of the regime of U.S:
backed dictator Anastasio Somoza left the
country in chaos, and the leaders of the
guerrilla units became the de facto civic and
military authorities overnight. One of the
first acts of the new government was to
abolish the death penalty.

There were some retaliatory killings at

first, but the new government acted swift
and decisively to prevent violent abusey”
against former collaborators of the regi e,.
the book states.

However, Nicaragua has been governeq
under states of emergency of varying:
degrees of severity ever since the insurrecy
tion of 1979. But, this study contends,
“Although: the state of emergency regulay
tions give the government sweeping powers,
they have been used with discretion and thy
severity of their application has varied tq,
perceived contra (counter-revolutionary),
threat and political moment.” alg

Some rights which have been suspendeq
in moments of crisis — normally guarany
teed under the Statute of the Rights and,
Guarantées of Nicaragua — "include thy,
Rights of Habeas Corpus, the right not tq
be arbitrarily detained in cases of national,
security, freedom of expression, assembly
and movement, and the right to strike.”

Guaranteed unconditionally by the stay

_tute are the right to life and to physical,

psychological and moral integrity; the righy
to not be subjected to cruel, inhuman Or
degrading punishment or punished by ret,
rospective laws; the right to freedom of
thought, conscience and religion. Bad
The process by which this constitution
was adopted has already added a new chap.
ter to the political history of Latin America,
State the authors. al
There were months of debate with al)
factions of political life in the country. Th
constitution’s writers sought professionay
help and advice from constitutionali
from all over the world, and held popula,
and public forums, sometimes attended bi
more than 100,000 people, to get the fi
consensus: of opinion. This process tool.
two full years — from the assumption of
office by the president and the Nation
Assembly in January, 1985 to January
1987. ae
I was very affected by this little book’
When you consider the counter-revolution,
ary war and the horrendous problems ij
created — shortages caused by the block,

ical problems with opposition parties, kik
lings and disappeared people, the tremen:

concede that Nicaragua’s adherence
establishing democracy has been t
commendable. :

Despite the terrible problems Nicara\
guans face daily, thousands of people hav
participated in developing a constitution tq
establish, by law, all basic human needs _
human rights, democracy, social. securi
and dignity for all.

: — Jonnie Ra

Laughs
are with,
not af,
mentally
ill ‘Team’

THE DREAM TEAM. Directed by
Howard Zieff. Starring Michael Keaton,
Peter Boyle, Christopher Lloyd, Stephen

Furst. At local theatres.

The Dream Team, which follows the
adventures of four mental patients
stranded in the Big Apple, walks a fine
line between comedy and mockery, but
remains sensitive enough towards the
characters so that it never crosses over
that line. Rather than ridiculing the men-
tally stressed, the movie sticks to psy-
choanalyzing how society demeans
them.

The Dream Team introduces a funny
foursome who are long-term residents of
a Trenton, N.J. psychiatric hospital that
looks a lot more like a country club.
They include Michael Keaton as a writer

prone to unchecked flights of fantasy
and violence, Peter Boyle as an advertis-
ing executive who imagines he’s Jesus
Christ, Stephen Furst as a catatonic who
thinks he’s a TV set, and postal worker
Christopher Lloyd who thinks he’s one
of the shrinks.

The fantasy world of The Dream
Team switches suddenly into a night-
mare collision with reality. On the way to
a baseball game, their doctor/chaperon
is beaten unconscious when he comes
upon corrupt cops trying to cover up
their murder of a colleague who was
going to turn them in. Suddenly con-
fronted by a cruel, crazy and uncaring
city, the four make trial-and-error use of
their combined strengths and disabilities,
with uneven success, to save both their
doctor and themselves.

In the course of following their unor-
thodox, zany plan for rescuing the doc-

’ film reveals much about the bum deal the —

tor from a quite pathological city, the —

mentally stressed get from the medical
and judicial establishments.

No doubt there are elements in this
movie that are themselves a bit out of

touch with reality. For instance, rather —
than the hospital pursuing these patients —
on the loose, the administrators would
more likely be breathing a private sigh of —
relief at the hastening of the “‘economiz-
ing” process, where patients are dumped _
on the city streets. : :
But you know that a script that has |
Peter Boyle turning into a religious —
obsessive after discovering that Satan —
controls the advertising world has some |
pretty specific devilish satire on its mind.
Diagnose this movie delightfully
insane.
— Prairie Miller
People’s Daily World —

10 e Pacific Tribune, May 22, 1989