Illness, Africa, Cinema

I have a yearly sickness thing going on. Last year at this time I went through a two-week period of general ill-health and discomfort. Since childhood, I've had sinus cavity issues. When I get congested and the snot begins to flow, it flows like the Amazon.

I'm having my yearly attack, but at least the feverish light-headedness has dissipated somewhat, which is not to claim I'm now all of a sudden clear-headed. That has never been the case, even in my young and vigorous times.

I'm taking a history course at Portland State, wrapping up a final class to earn a history degree at that fine university. Being sick and debilitated myself lately hasn't made reading about the long suffering of Africans any easier. The class is an overview of health issues in numerous African nations from colonial times through the HIV/AIDS crisis of today.

Twenty-percent of the citizens of Gaborone in Botswana are HIV/AIDS infected. Imagine that.

One thing that brings me succor even in these brutal times--I watch many movies. I've been on a kick lately, eyeing the monitor between sneezing and coughing bouts. I've revisited a few of my favorites and been catching up on a generation or two of films that I somehow avoided or missed in my slavish devotion to reading and watching sports from the 70s to the present.

A partial list of a few I've caught lately, in no particular order:

The Last Detail

Au Revoir Les Enfants

Endgame

Nowhere in Africa

The Interpreter

Insomnia

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

The Big Lebowski

Battle for Warsaw

A Prophet

Athens, GA: Inside Out

Once Upon a Time in America

Army of Crime

Carlos: Miniseries

Letters from Iwo Jima

The Battle of Algiers

The Man Who Wasn't There

Platoon

Trumbo

Fargo

Restrepo

Defiance

See how sick I've been? Unless you're spending a lot of time in bed, too discomforted to sleep, bored with your own sad state of affairs, it would be impossible to watch all these films without feeling guilty.

TS