Private military
gets personal

[Re: “These guns for hire,” March 6] EA Montreal’s Reid Schneider proudly presented his new video game, Army of Two, in the March 6th edition. The game, portraying private contractors, is said to be “simply entertainment” and that “the team had no ambitions to make a strong political statement.”

Well, my cousin Jonathon Cote, a 25-year-old American army veteran, has been held captive in Iraq since Nov. 16, 2006. He took on a security contract to earn some money to pay for his university studies. While assuring security for a food convoy travelling between Kuwait and Iraq, he and four colleagues were taken hostage.

The article published in the Mirror quotes the game creators as being interested in “the more personal aspects of the private military.”

So here it is. We have had no news of him since a Dec. 2007 video, and then last week, we learned that a finger belonging to him had been received by American authorities.

How entertaining is that?

I am disgusted by the “tens of millions” that were spent to make this game and by the fact that a company is making a profit off a game that’s only purpose is to promote violence while completely disregarding the harsh reality that the private contractors are working in.

I do not know if I will ever see my cousin alive. He has been tortured while in custody. It has been 490 days. Although we have been putting pressure on the American government to get him released, there has been no positive development.

This is not a game. The contractors aren’t video game characters. They are human beings.

www.freecote.com

>> Maude Côté

Un-funny games

[Re: “Dead again,” March 13] I appreciated Matthew Hays’s piece on Michael Haneke’s Funny Games as it made it completely clear to me that I will not be going to see the movie.

Unlike Haneke, I don’t believe that the onus is on viewers of films with extreme brutality to make sure they don’t “misunderstand” the subtle work of a filmmaker. I think the onus is on makers of such films to have a damn good reason why they subject viewers to a couple hours of emotional trauma.

In the case of Funny Games, the sophisticated philosophical point of the movie, as far as Hays seems to be able to tell, is that it shows us how sick our mass consumption and vicarious enjoyment of filmic violence is. Well, here’s a newsflash: some of us know that already and don’t need to be totalled emotionally to have the point driven home.

It’s hard enough to live in a constant state of powerlessness against the real torture and human rights abuses that we know are happening around the world. To have the “knife twisted” by some director is not helpful, and I’m sick of hearing that a movie is “the perfect movie for our times” when it is cruel, dark etc.

I will shell out at the movie theatre to be entertained or enlightened, but not to be abused.

>> Logan Kennedy

Ron Paul is irrelevant

[Re: “Why Ron Paul should rule,” Letters, March 13] What the hell? Are there not enough creepy politicos in Canada? Do folks really need to publicly argue about the relative merits of the various crackpots and fascists who are running for the U.S. presidency?

It reminds me of those annoying people who do the bizarre Larouche stands all over downtown in the summertime. Go home, weirdos!

Paul is a candidate IN THE STATES, people! What is this bullshit about standing up for “our” rights? Besides, he’s been out of the competition for weeks now. This is utterly irrelevant.

Now, burning down police cars, that’s a worthy discussion.

>> Vincent Price

Jenny Ross still boss

[Re: “Rear-view Mirror,” March 13] It is nice to see the occasional quote by Jenny Ross in the Rear-view Mirror section.

Way back in the days before the Internet and MySpace, the anglo-Montreal music scene was held together by a handful of individuals. There were maybe four or five clubs that allowed original music and only a couple of places offering anglo-media support.

Jenny was very in touch with the scene and always plugged local bands’ releases and shows in her “Notes From Underground.” She was the real thing and in her cryptic style, played no small part in exposing Montreal talent. Shine on you crazy diamond. RIP.

>> Iain B

English are geeks

[Re: “Bilingualism is bull,” Letters, March 13] Your letters section questions why the French seem to take so poorly to the English, and then, a few pages deeper into your newspaper, your columnist declares he’s quitting coffee at the ripe old age of, what, 25??? He’s a young writer quitting coffee.

The French don’t like the English simply because the English are complete fucking geeks!!!!

>> Norm Simpson

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