Hacker Cinema
Mr. Jones
2019 · Film · 119 min
Directed by Agnieszka Holland
In 1933, Welsh journalist Gareth Jones travels to Ukraine, where he experiences the horrors of a famine. Everywhere he goes he meets henchmen of the Soviet secret service who are determined to prevent news about the catastrophe from getting out. Stalin’s forced collectivisation of agriculture has resulted in misery and ruin—the policy is tantamount to mass murder.
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9 comments on Hacker News
Off topic but did you find anything interesting? I spent a few days researching Holodomor and was surprised how poorly understood it still is even today, and badly reported at the time. Good propaganda case study. There’s a dramatic film about the reporting too, Mr. Jones (2019).
Yes. Read Timothy Snyder's _Bloodlands_ for a deeper understanding of just how the peasants were starved. Or watch the movie "Mr. Jones".
The other day, I was watching the movie, Mr. Jones. It occurred to me then that Vanessa Kirby would be the best person (by appearance, at least) to play Elizabeth Holmes. But I see that ship has sailed.
The NYT got rich telling fibs about Ukraine and you can see it on the big screen in the movie "Mr. Jones." Do I have to be polite to them? Anthony Appiah got rich at universities that dumped many millions of dollars of student loans on the backs of his students. Do I have to be polite to him?
The whole reason society created politeness is from experience. We learn that life is not filled with absolutes. We learn that people and circumstances change. We learn that doing the right thing is often impossible because of imperfect information. Social censure like he endorses makes the world a very unpleasant place to live.
It's a bit of a political quagmire to wade into, especially given the current events in the area, but I watched the film Mr Jones, which deals with the famine being reported to the West, and then read this article by one of his descendants:
> https://www.garethjones.org/mr_jones/true_story.htm
I think it's relatively evenhanded in it's take.
> The new film Mr Jones aims to tell the story of my great uncle, the Welsh journalist Gareth Jones. It is based on his 1933 world exclusive exposing the great famine then raging across much of the USSR, particularly in Kazakhstan and Ukraine; a famine which Moscow was desperate to conceal. His scoop upset two governments and instead of being feted for his honest reporting he found himself denigrated by the pool of Moscow foreign correspondents, blacklisted by the Soviet Union and blackballed by the British establishment.
...
> The film leads the viewer to believe only Ukraine was affected, but, as my uncle reported, millions were dying across the Soviet Union. In his famous Berlin press conference, on 29 March 1933 on leaving Russia, he reports: ‘Everywhere was the cry, ‘'There is no bread. We are dying.'' This cry came from every part of Russia, from the Volga, Siberia, the North Caucasus, Central Asia.' Gareth was not just a ‘Hero of the Ukraine', he was also a hero for people suffering across the Soviet Union;
> February 20 Zelensky in Munich started to talk back the 1994 no-nukes agreement. https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/14001201000618/Ukraine-Threa... https://treaties.un.org/Pages/showDetails.aspx?objid=0800000...
Russia failed their obligations under the agreement that they willing gave up their nukes under, so Ukraine is within their right to seek to acquire nuclear weapons to protect themselves from Russia.
> Yes, eastern Ukraine aligns with R. Western Ukraine hates R. The movie 'Mr. Jones' may enlighten you about the starvation, and the NYT propaganda at the time.
Eastern Ukraine aligned with Russia before the invasion I’m not sure how much eastern Ukraine aligns with Russia now expect for maybe bullets into their soldiers
February 20 Zelensky in Munich started to talk back the 1994 no-nukes agreement. https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/14001201000618/Ukraine-Threaens-Rennce-Is-Nn-Nclear-Sas
https://treaties.un.org/Pages/showDetails.aspx?objid=0800000280401fbb
Donbas vote on self-autonomy has curiously not been allowed. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49903996
"Proposed in 2016 by Germany's then-foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the plan details free and fair elections in the east under Ukrainian law, verification by the OSCE international security organisation, and then self-governing status in return."
'Ukraine has every right join NATO ...'
Maybe. Just as Cuba had every right to host USSR nuclear missiles in 1962?
'Why the hell would Ukraine join NATO? I thought Russia was their brother?'
Yes, eastern Ukraine aligns with R. Western Ukraine hates R. The movie 'Mr. Jones' may enlighten you about the starvation, and the NYT propaganda at the time.
They recently did a movie on this: Mr. Jones. It was really good. You can probably catch it on Netflix or something similar.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6828390/
Highly recommend to watch "Mr. Jones" (2019), shows well how USSR produced tons of lies to cover holodomor. Hall of the fake news fame, definitely.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6828390/