BudPod with Phil Wang & Pierre Novellie - Episode 66 - Get In The Sea, Eddie!
Episode Date: June 10, 2020Donate to the NAACP: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/naacp-1Donate to the Runnymede Trust: https://www.justgiving.com/runnymede-trust Get bonus BudPod on Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv...acy for more information.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
It's bird pod 66
Like um
Order 66 from Star Wars
That is my only 66
Do you have a 66 Phil?
Is order 66 where they have to kill the younglings?
They kill all the Jedi's
I think it's the
Go get the Jedi's order
I think that's the content of the order
Okay
Go get them
66 is about as close as we're going to get To the devil's number order. I think that's the content of the order. Okay. Go get them.
66 is about as close as we're going to get to the devil's number, unless we
really commit to this podcast.
Oh,
how old would we be if we had
to do...
666 episodes.
So it's one a week, 52
years...
12 years? Yeah, over 10 years.
So we'd have to do it for another 11 years or so.
Oof.
When would that be?
That would be 2031's The Devil episode.
By which point the devil will have visited the earth by now.
By then, I mean, he will have visited the earth.
He might as well have, you know.
Yeah, he'll be
he'll be
yeah, by 2031 he'll be well established
If he
came to earth
I feel like he'd be upset
we got the party started without him
Do you think, like
I
when I was really young, I developed a kind of really weird theological idea.
Because, like, I used to, as we've discussed on this podcast many times, Phil, I, like you, used to play things like Age of Empires.
Yeah.
And I remembered what used to happen sometimes was I would have an Age of Empires game going, and I be like oh i'm gonna go to the kitchen and have a sandwich or whatever and i'd forget to
pause it oh no and i'd go and i'd have my sandwich and then i get distracted by a cartoon or a bright
light or whatever there's a lot going on in your house a lot going on in my life just like things
were happening uh a dog who knows and eventually i'd be like i could completely forget what i was
doing and i'd be i remember being sat watching tv and thinking oh no my villagers and
i like sprinted like back to my room and the game had just been running by itself for like
hours and it was chaos that there were no trees left the villagers had chopped them
all down on like auto zombie wood lumberjack mode and all my guys were dead and everything was on
fire right not so different to our world i suppose well that's it i thought god has god has forgotten
that he didn't pause the game did you just return with a sandwich in your mouth like,
God has forsaken this land!
There is no mercy here, the cold universe.
Yeah, I was like an 11-year-old.
What have we done?
Oh, my lord.
But how are you, Phil? oh my lord but
how are you Phil?
how is your
week 12 or 13 of Britain's
half-hearted
battle with the virus?
it has been
good
it has been all
right
I it has been all right.
I I've seen today
You know what? I think I'm starting to lose
faith in our government's
reaction to the
crisis.
Have you seen they've now
reversed the decision
on reopening schools?
Oh, have they just gone,
okay, no diseased children this year?
Yeah, they've gone,
yeah, maybe we won't create an army of
tiny viral bombs.
Oh my god.
And so now school won't be coming back in full,
primary school won't be coming back in full primary school won't be coming back
in full until until the next academic year so essentially what happened was they were like
we're gonna we're gonna bring schools back and everyone went what about coronavirus and the
government went oh yeah oh that's why they were closed oh yeah that's a good point actually
yeah you're right let's scrap that
but who knows if the real
you know
the science that they
have cited seems pretty confident
that children pose
a very low risk
especially to themselves which I
believe
but even if they've had to reverse this decision
simply because schools have zero faith
in the government's decision-making,
it still doesn't look good, does it?
Oh, it's still...
Yeah, it's still a sign of the same incompetence
that has led us to have...
I mean, that's why there were so many deaths in care homes,
because the government was essentially just sending coronavirus so many deaths in care homes because the government
was essentially just sending coronavirus patients who worked in care homes back to work um and not
testing and not giving cams any oxygen or i mean that's you remember how like they were saying like
oh they're worried about the care homes all being overwhelmed and the nhs being overwhelmed
i was like well the nhs can't get overwhelmed if you fucking murder everyone in their care home
before they can get to hospital.
That's essentially what they've done.
It's just a nightmare.
But
good news, Phil, that you
and I both enjoyed seeing footage of
is that the
slave trade statue is gone.
Yes. The UK
is now officially down
one statue of a slave trader.
Many to go.
Yes.
Yeah, I mean, it's going to be a real boon for the rope industry.
Yes.
How many will need to be made now to pull down the various statues around the UK.
now to pull down the various statues around the UK.
Yeah, astonishing scenes
from Bristol
as the statue
of Edward Colston was
brought down to his
knees and his face and his chest all at
the same time, because it's a pretty rigid statue.
Yes.
And thrown into... I mean,
it's
rare that I watch the news on my own and like involuntary
gasp but seeing that statue come down saddam hussein like yeah in england that was quite
you're startling it was astonishing it's a it was amazing and watching like it was very inspiring
as well because i was watching the footage of them like rolling him towards the sea um and it was
like the like you it was like a good like the people rolling him were like multi like multiple
different racial racial groups a university prospectus rolling that statue along the ground exactly perfectly balanced statue rolling classes
oh and yeah like you say in england am i there's even representation of bronze people
and racist slave traders were there i amazing like the the idea like i i like many people in
the uk had never heard of Edward
Colston well I'd heard of Colston Hall
because that is the
venue in Bristol to get to it's like their
Royal Albert Hall right Colston Hall
they renamed it didn't they
oh did they
people still refer to it as Colston Hall I think
yeah that's
I don't know but I just
saw the lovely Lovely man theatre
The lovely
Nice people
Theatre
Who paid for this theatre
Yeah
Well they should just do
Look South Africa
South Africa is where the whole roads must fall thing
Started
But what will you drive on?
What do you think?
Pretty good.
Pretty good opener for my live in Johannesburg special.
You see in this enormous stadium, people just losing their minds.
He knows, he understands.
If I ever did a special in Johannesburg,
I'd call it Live For Now.
What do you think?
Live and Armed is what you could call it.
Live Rounds.
Yeah, Live Rounds would be good.
Live Rounds.
That would be a good drag name for me.
Live Rounds.
I forgot about our drag names yeah yeah um but yes south africa is where the whole statue thing kind of started and it got taken to oxford by you know poetically or ironically a road scholar
um from i think university of cape town and now it's a now it's a real thing with the concept from, I think, University of Cape Town.
And now it's a real thing.
With the concept of tearing down statues?
Well, the campaign, Roads Must Fall,
started in this African university campus.
And then the whole thing of like,
hey, have you noticed how racist these statues are?
Basically.
Yeah.
Because South Africa had some humdingers and still has a couple, I think.
I think they're mostly gone.
They've certainly renamed
everything so africa basically renamed everything in the 90s um with a few exceptions it's it's well
it's like for for me so so the edward colston statue is a quite a good example of like the
perfect statue to throw into a into a a dock yeah because it's like it's a it's uh literally just a slave trader who was so
rich that his money overflowed um basically and uh so it's like not only is it a statue of a slave
trader the only reason you put it up is because he was he was like really good at being a horrifying
slave trader that's right and the statue was put up like 150
years after he died by just guys who are like remember that guy no me neither let's put a statue
up of him um like there's no reason for it to be up it's just uh it just must come across as an
enormous fuck you yes yes
well I guess would the reason be
that a lot of money went into Bristol itself
oh
of course
on the plaque of the statue he just read
great son
of Bristol and philanthropist
yeah
which is burying the lead a little bit
because like you wouldn't Yeah, which is burying the lead a little bit.
Because, like, you wouldn't put up a statue of, like, a German industrialist from the 40s, you know?
Who used, like, Jewish slave labor.
Right.
And donated all the money to the local kindergarten.
Yes.
You wouldn't put up and go, ah,
Hermann Schnitzel, a great very cunning
the way he made all the money, very
smart man.
Yeah.
Yeah, so the
Britain's in that
awkward position of having
a complicit involvement in various atrocities around the world, but they've always been so far abroad that you can kind of cover your ears and eyes over here.
The problem that I've certainly had with whenever I talk to British people about the empire is that the empire was so big. I mean, it's the biggest empire in history, a quarter of the world's landmass and a fifth of the world's people, that there were so many atrocities that it seems like too much of a job for them to learn about it.
Or even the ones who do try and learn about the atrocities the kind of uh liberal metropolitan elites that
we hang out with phil um even they don't know the ones that i know or they don't know about
the boer war and the concentration camps or they don't know about this or that or
like the amount of atrocities is so high um that it's like it would it would be it would be a gcse
and then an a level on its own own. Maybe more, a degree.
I have a book called, I'm looking at it now,
it's called Britain's Empire by a man called Richard Gott.
And it's about all the various rebellions and atrocities of the British Empire.
And it's so big, I've not started reading it. i can't start reading it it's just so big i've had one glimpse of the first page and it's like that really small font
and small margins and it's a huge book it's like i don't have three years to read this book
well that's it you feel like you have to have three years to read it book. Well, that's it. You feel like you have to have three years to read it,
and you know it will be a horrifying journey.
It's not like,
oh, it'll make me so cheerful and motivated.
Yeah.
The reward is sorrow and knowledge of sorrow,
which is a pretty wrinkly old carrot compared to the stick
of of of doing it yeah instead i'll just watch michael portillo's empire on channel five have
although in all earnestness it is it is i watched i watched a couple episodes and you know what it's
pretty good well it's surprisingly good I'm sure it's high quality.
No, no, no.
He's a really balanced
guide.
He asks all the important questions.
They look at every
side of the Empire's
involvement in India and Jamaica and stuff.
It's good. It's surprisingly good.
The main
thing for me with the statue thing is that like,
so they pulled down the statue
and then I saw loads of people saying on the media,
loads of people saying like,
oh, they should, you know,
they should go through like the channels,
the proper channels to remove it, you know?
And I thought, oh, that's true.
And then I looked it up and it's like,
there just aren't any.
Also, they've been trying to,
people have been trying to for decades.
Yeah, like 20 years
and there's no official, like,
there's no fucking statue hotline.
You could just ring up and go,
Hi, I've just noticed at the end of my street there's a statue
of a mass murderer.
Is there anything we could do about this?
Very quiet. It's very quiet on the other end of that
hotline, the statue hotline.
Hello? Hello? Very quiet. It's very quiet on the other end of that hotline, the statue hotline. Yeah.
Hello.
Hello.
Just a statue of a guy holding a phone.
Our hot statues are waiting for your call.
Are you stiff?
We are. But, yeah, so, i thought initially i thought okay maybe there's a reasonable channel
but it's literally just all they've been able to do for 20 years is write a letter to the council
saying could you get rid of the racist statue now and they've gone oh it's very late when i'm
reading this letter sorry bye yeah after 20 years of that fair enough terror
pull a full-on saddam hussein and throw the fucking thing in the in the sea absolutely
good on you i mean the the alternative is is like you say like okay maybe you can edit the statue
or and they tried to edit the plaque that was the thing they tried to do is put put up a plaque that
said a wonderful son of bristol of great philanthropists by the way he murdered 30 000 people but then they blocked that as well um
but the for me like you were saying about the like who gets removed next or whatever and lots
of important figures have got very controversial pasts and have said terrible things for me it's
not so much about tearing it down it's about what it gets replaced with
right yeah i don't i really i was thinking about this a lot yesterday and i think i don't mind the
removal so much as if it's going to be replaced by something else that helps the nation become
cohesive the national myth is important you know right wait so you can't you you can't if you if you're going to say
the statue is too divisive you can't replace it with a statue that's too divisive the other way
you can't just put a you know a giant karl marx head on a stick um which some people we know
would like to be fair which i think some prominent online communists have actually
like suggested which is fucking mad oh yeah they but basically that's like anytime you ask them Which I think some prominent online communists have actually suggested,
which is fucking mad.
Oh, yeah.
But basically, anytime you ask them any question,
their answer is just Statue of Lenin.
But the slippery slope is an oft-disregarded argument in things like this. And I understand that impulse to disregard the slippery slope argument.
But there is a question here.
If you tear down the statue of, say,
Winston Churchill,
who did some terrible things,
but also some pretty vital things.
I mean, Gandhi's in the same square.
Do you take him down for
considering Kenyans lowlier humans?
Or black South Africans, yeah. him down for considering kenyans lowlier humans or black black black south africans yeah yeah or
or beating his wife or sleeping with his little niece you know i mean where where where where
does moral purity how far does it extend does it extend to and you know i i think there are
cases where the answer is clear but there are cases where the answer is not, but there are cases where the answer is not.
Well, that's what Sadiq Khan has said.
I missed this. What did he say?
Sadiq Khan said today, basically, they're going to...
Basically, Sadiq Khan's argument's pretty good.
He said exactly the same thing.
He said, yeah, Winston Churchill, but also, like you say, Gandhi and Malcolm X.
Did he say Gandhi?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, Gandhi's anti-black thoughts are pretty well documented,
plus the whole thing about his relationships with various women
and letting his wife die of an illness without letting her have medicine
and then getting the same illness and then having medicine.
Oh, really? Gosh, I didn't know that.
I here used to have a whole bit
about how like absolutely horrible kandhi was in his private life certainly um anyway
sadiq khan was saying like yeah yeah the that that's the kind of like complex person kind of
thing but when it comes to slave traders it's pretty pretty clear-cut we don't need to sure
have statues of them like if you're going to have
anything have statues of slaves or have statues commemorating the slave trade in a way that is
horrible but not like a nice guy in his wig with his little coat on no absolutely you could do some
good like um there's lots of very moving yeah moving statues about horrible things without it being the perpetrator.
Yeah.
I wonder.
That is true, because you have...
Yeah, instead of having a statue of the perpetrator, you should have a memorial to the people that
affected.
Yeah.
Yeah, you have memorials to the Holocaust.
You don't have statues of Hitler around to remind us of the Holocaust.
Yeah, you don't have a big statue of Hitlerler and then the plaque has to be changed to say oh he he's the he's bad by the way he did the bad thing yeah yeah you can't you can't have sort of
aspiring artists and pioneering vegetarian also uh but but just keep anti-smoking campaigner oh what's he a big against smoking huge he banned
smoking in public places i think in germany well well well he was he was obsessed with like yeah
smoking and health and not eating meat and he had this whole yeah he was very obsessed with that
kind of thing good health so when in the early 2000s people accused the
smoking ban campaigners of being nazis they would have been correct technically uh they
historically yeah in the same way like uh anyone who loves uh german shepherds
what what german chap are the german shepherds nazis well no no, the Nazis love German Shepherds.
Hitler had a pet German Shepherd who he loved very much.
Oh, I just thought they were an inherently racist dog.
Well, they do look it.
They do look it!
They're an angry-looking dog.
They're scary.
And I had one as a kid.
And even I think that.
Wow.
It's because they're always the most scary police dog.
That's true.
That's true.
Yeah, they're the dog of the oppressor, aren't they?
The German Shepherd.
By no fault of their own, really.
Yeah.
Well, they're the dog of the oppressor.
And also, like, they're the dog of, like, the scary dog in...
Aren't they in Goldeneye?
There's a video game where German Shepherds come and try and get you.
Oh, I think they're in Red Alert They're terrifying in Red Alert
Yes Red Alert
That's what I'm thinking of
Oh my word
But yes I enjoyed seeing the statue
Rolled into the docks
That was funny
Dramatic and
Overdue even without the 20-year
battle with the fucking council or whatever it is it's some kind of guild that owns the land
they were like it's like medieval times they were trying to battle a guild an evil guild oh really
like a statue guild there's some kind of guild based like based on the it's like a merchant guild
and they they have like property rights or final say over what happens to loads
of the land around there apparently so they're the ones
who blocked the changing of the plaque
so it's not even
democratic
interesting
shadowy
it's those weird like British things where it's like
and the third merchants of the
golden hand have the rights to feed pigeons
on this skyscraper
yeah
just like 1700s leftovers
I wonder what the city will do now
with the statue, will it take it out of
the bay
or will it have to leave it there
it would be quite good in a
museum posed upside down
so you can see where it was torn from right that'd be quite good in a museum posed upside down so you can see where it was torn from.
Right.
That'd be quite cool.
With the graffiti on it and stuff.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like a good monument to social history.
But will even the act of retrieving, be an affront.
Maybe it would.
You'd have to publicise the retrieval well in advance.
Did you see that those guys tried to get it back out?
Which guys?
A bunch of, like, white dudes with dodgy tattoos and shaved heads.
Oh, really?
Yeah, yeah.
God.
Play to typo, don't you?
Yeah.
A bunch of dodgy
looking white dudes came and tried to rescue the statue
and they couldn't
how?
ropes or something they're like diving in there
I'm sure it's heavy I mean it took like
11 people to roll
it never mind lift it up with a rope
I mean that thing must weigh an absolute ton
yeah yeah to roll it, never mind lift it up with a rope. I mean, that thing must weigh an absolute ton.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Statues are, like,
is there anyone,
who is there even a statue of who's, like,
more modern than even, like, so when was the last time
people got made statues?
They're usually, like,
no, it's, like,
Eric Morecambe, isn't it?
Oh, yeah.
But they had to crowdfund that for years
to get the bloody clown statue.
The only people they've made
statues of since the
war have been
footballers and comedians.
Yeah.
And then that short-lived one of Michael
Jackson. Oh, yeah. Gosh, oh yeah gosh where was that terrifying looking one
where was that um that was outside fulham football club wasn't it because he was like
on the board of it michael jackson was on the board of fulham what really yeah that's a very
lucrative thing for rich Americans to invest in.
Gosh, I had no idea. Let me check this.
Michael Jackson.
I mean, it's not the most surprising thing Michael Jackson's done in his career, Phil, I'll be honest.
That's true.
That's true.
I mean, of all the things, I shouldn't be most shocked at that.
But it is weirdly, by this point in his legend
the most surprising element
oh no that's what it was
you know
Mohamed Al-Fayed
yes
I remember
the name I don't remember quite what he did
Mohamed Al-Fayed
is the father of Dodi Fayed
who Princess Diana died with
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yeah
And he used to own and run Harrods
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I did know this
So Mohammed Al-Fayed was the one on the board of Fulham Football Club
Yes, he was the chairman, that's right, that's the word
I don't know about ball games
And Michael Jackson was his mate
Oh
And following Jackson's death in 2009 Al-Fayed commissioned a statue word i don't know about ball games um and michael jackson was was his mate oh um and following
jackson's death in 2009 alfired commissioned a statue with a plan of sighting it inside harrods
um after harrods sale the new qatari owners didn't want the michael jackson statue surprise surprise
and he arranged for it to be placed outside craven Cottage. Oh my word. And it was removed in 2014, 2013.
Imagine if the
main concourse of Harrods just had
a huge Michael Jackson statue.
Harrods?
Harrowed, more like.
Well, yeah. Oh, that was
what I was meant to remember, because in terms
of getting rid of old, horrible
slave trade names and things like that,
obviously Bristol pulled down
the statue and then there has been
statue pulling and destruction
and removal in the US.
Various former
confederate cities.
And that's all
good and proper. But I only
realized this the other day because
yesterday when the US Army
released a
statement, two of the biggest
US Army bases
in the United States are named after
Confederate generals.
Really?
Fort Lee and Fort Bragg.
Like, that's their enemy.
Oh, Lee as in General Lee? Robert E lee robert e lee yeah robert e lee yes
but like the u.s army was it like an olive branch to the defeated south
well it's probably like just a bunch of people from the south who have to be reabsorbed who are
like i've got an idea for a name and everyone else they were
from the south so they went oh yeah good idea i mean like that's insane because it's just like
that that is the enemy that is who the u.s army had to fight against there's not fort bin laden
it's it's not like you're going to be going for basic training in fort hussein fort saddam hussein
which we've named after our former enemy because for some reason that's the thing we do
it's not no it's just two confederate generals i couldn't believe it i never made the connection
but it's peculiar and they've only just released a statement saying yeah we're going to take a
look at it because for years they've been like no no, no, we're not going to change it. We think it's brilliant.
Imagine being like a black American soldier
and being stationed in Fort Lee.
That's true.
Where is it? Where is Fort Lee?
Where is Fort Lee?
Fort Lee is...
Fort Lee... Oh no, that's the city Fort Lee
Fort Lee military base
yeah it's in Virginia
Virginia
mountain mama
and Fort Bragg is North Carolina
dear me
the largest military installation in the world
Fort Bragg
that's quite the brag The largest military installation in the world, Fort Bragg.
That's quite the brag.
It's a true to his name there.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, I mean, I hope Sadiq Khan does rename the London slave trade streets, but with good new names.
Yeah. Yeah.
Like, names of interesting... Like, don't just rename everything fucking Smith Street.
Yeah, or like...
Daniel Bedingfield Lane.
Pick someone good, yeah.
lane or you know pick someone good
yeah
oh my god
imagine the
that's like the perfect way to make everyone angry
just Greg Wallace Avenue
it's like what's the logic behind
these names
it's just people I think are good
I just kinda like them I don't know
I just like him that would be the deal to make sure that everyone in the country wasn't
was angry to differing degrees you were going to rename all the streets and take down all the
controversial statues but we're going to replace them with D-list television personality statues.
Yeah.
It's like, this is what the country deserves.
This is who Britain is now.
Britain is an enormous bronze statue of Greg Wallace doing a thumbs up.
That's who we are as a nation.
Have you seen the photos of him trying his hand at a fitness video?
Is that those weird photos of him in little shorts in his own garden?
Yeah, just doing a crouch and grinning horribly at the camera.
Because he got in the news for losing weight.
Right, yeah.
Which is more rare for a dude.
To get in the news for losing weight than for a woman in the news for losing weight.
Yeah, it's rarer.
It does happen.
It's happening more and more.
Soon we will all be shamed.
Equally.
Equally shamed.
For equal shame for equal people.
Yeah.
That's my theory about where, like, there's a version of gender equality where we get the worst of both worlds, and I hope we don't go there.
But it's like, right, now enough men have anorexia, and women don't talk about their feelings, so there we go.
Right.
Everyone's learned from each other now everyone's ashamed and no one's talking about it
yeah
whereas what would be nice
is if no one had eating disorders
and everyone talked about their feelings
no well
I can agree with the first half of that
sentence Pierre but
I honestly don't want to live in a world
where everyone talks about their feelings.
I feel like we're close enough to that point already,
and it's intolerable.
Well, that's the trouble is that we're in the arts,
and so we're surrounded by feelings talk pretty much 24-7.
I think there are plenty of industries where you know
the fewer feelings shared the better
but I mean this is
maybe this is my Asian-ness coming through
my Chinese-ness coming through
well you're entitled to your cultural
I sound a lot like my dad right now
at least I sound a lot like
how I presume my dad would sound
if he shared his feelings.
Yeah, you've already failed your dad's test.
Yeah.
I'm so angry about all these feelings.
Oh, man.
Yeah, well, I mean, that's the thing is that we're in the arts field,
so we're on the cutting edge of the old feelings train.
That's true.
Feelings are our bread and butter, I suppose.
Have you ever tried to talk about social issues at the level that we do in the arts with people who don't work in the arts?
It's like you're talking to them from a different planet.
Yes.
We're so deep into it.
Most people are busy.
It's true.
People with jobs don't have time to troll Twitter for the hottest takes. We're so deep into it. Most people are busy. It's true.
People with jobs don't have time to troll Twitter for the hottest takes
and come up with positions of their own
that are so detached from the original argument
that they're basically about a different subject entirely now.
Here's an interesting question.
Have you done any explaining in the last
week or two of of of uh protests and black lives matter and so on to who to confuse white people
has anyone got in touch with you and said phil you're not white no no i've not really been going
out um because of the pandemic and no I've not offered
no one sent you a little DM
no not really
I mean the Chinese the East Asian
experience is quite
unique really
I don't think I'm
seen that way this is the problem
with the terminology of people of colour
because technically it includes
East Asian people but our lives are very very different with the terminology of people of color because that technically it includes um east asian people
but our lives are very very very different okay that's interesting because i've done some explaining
have you yeah oh yeah phil to whom uh some confused white people i know uh-huh they've
messaged me about about uh stuff to do with south africa that they've seen in the news or
um in one case it was just uh someone i know who was like what do you think about such and
such an issue here and then like just and so i've i've had a i've had an interesting uh week or two
of of taking someone who works an actual job and so can't afford to sit and do all this reading
through the issues as best i can which feels weird okay but that's it felt it felt good you
know yeah that's a that's a real vote of confidence from those people yeah that was a real compliment
but it also felt good to be able to um in in one case they were they were they they showed me in
this there was a there was a different
person but then another person sent me a thing which happens from time to time because um the
right wing in the west are a bit obsessed with south africa and they use it as a lot of as an
example for various things and evidence for various things and someone sent me a screenshot of some
you know mad claim about south africa And they were like, is this true?
And that happens quite a lot.
Right.
Like, is this, does this happen?
Is this true?
And it's like, well, no, basically no.
I guess maybe in that, in your case, people are not so much asking for your lived experience,
but you are like an in-depth reporter.
You're an investigative reporter for the south african experience well i'm just the only south african they know is probably more likely
yeah the least scary one
um but yeah my lord what a week another week of another week of demos and and and reading and
donating for us all yeah i got the demonstrations got pretty pretty uh intense in london did you
see the the footage of uh the riderless horse the riderless police horse galloping through
a smoking city like when the fucking
Dark Knight returns. Yeah,
it was very cinematic, the whole thing.
Yeah. Very cinematic.
I have to question
the idea that, like, a load of screaming
horses will calm down a crowd.
Yes, I've never quite
understood the logic behind
police horses. It's not like a petting
zoo where it's like, oh, well, if we let the protesters
feed the horse a sugar cube, you know,
it will calm them down. It's nice.
Is it just about getting...
Is it just about gaining height
for the police?
I think it's just that, like...
It's just quite intimidating?
Yeah, people just fear animals. It's like a tall, really strong
animal that you don't know if it's gonna
smash you in the face with a hoof? I don know it's really i mean i i i i'm i fear them
already i don't like horses um anyway yeah i'm not a fan because my my name is greek for lover
of horses and it couldn't be further from the truth you've been you were named ironically
it was like little john from robin hood yes you came out and your parents were like god
this baby already we can tell hates fucking horses let's troll him
yeah exactly um yes that they they got uh there was the horse thing what was the other thing do
you see the the australian news reporters that were running away as well no they got they got
like uh surrounded by a mob in london and had to like flee oh i thought in australia yeah no no no
they're in london no a lot a lot of the reports
from the london protest you know you hear the the reporter going oh sorry let me just get let me just
get out of the way here sorry um let me just get to safety a very british like version of a riot
which is like gives everyone enough time to go oh excuse me no just can i have a bit of a
bit of a barney here oh no no problem we'll just move over here what
if I
I reckon right here's my position
you're allowed to charge a lot of horses
through a crowd like that
as long as two weeks ago
you charged all those horses through
everyone on the beach ignoring the rules
that's interesting
I don't
think hooves do well in sand I think you'd have to horses running along the beach that's interesting I don't think hooves do well in sand
I think you'd have to
come on, horses running along the beach
that's a motivational poster
of course it is, it's also like
Lloyd's bank
the TSB advert isn't it
no you're right
that weird advert where they're like we're a horse and a bank
the sea's nice, have a loan
in my mind a horse standing on a sandy beach would just
sink into it and you'd have to pull it out like a croquet hoop no i i think you're allowed to charge
groups of rule breakers with horses as long as you do it equally i mean they charged all the like
lovely young diverse people but like all the ved like the ve day celebrations were the most shallow excuse for
breaking lockdown i've ever fucking seen whereas a bunch of bored fucking village white people who
never even heard of ve day yeah suddenly like let's let's let's touch each other's faces it's
what the troops would want and then on all the lovely sunny bank holidays the beaches were like
more busy than they would even have been normally
charge a horse through there
yeah
no you're right that'll be fun
to watch just watch a
a village conga line get
plowed into by a phalanx
a phalanx of stallions
just just seeing a
cavalry charge break up
a brawl of burnt bald english guys on a beach
just a black mare hind kicking a barbecue
yes yeah yeah yeah did you see that i mean there even was a brawl on the beach
yeah i saw that fucking hell i mean like they said we're supposed to be able to go
back to pubs in a couple of weeks it's gonna be like it's gonna be like fucking game of thrones
but it is hot it is it is heartening to see that even when they aren't allowed to travel abroad
the british tourist can start meaningless brawls here at home
can start meaningless brawls here at home.
Mallorca's loss is our gain this year.
It's true.
It's something about...
Do you think it's like a uniquely British symptom of heat stroke?
It's like, I've been in the sun for so long, come here,
and they just immediately start fighting.
Because the British body is so not used to getting hot that it presumes it must be
angry.
Yes, I'm red, I'm uncomfortable,
my skin hurts like
someone's hitting me.
Hulk
smash!
It's like when little kids get too much
sugar, if you get too much vitamin D, it just triggers the rage zombie virus.
Vitamin destruction.
That's right.
That's what it's...
Yeah.
But yeah, I thought that the horses thing was dumb.
I don't know why that was deemed to be a helpful activity.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've never been in a situation where I thought, you know what would really calm me down?
Being clattered to pieces by
a cavalry.
It was dramatic, though.
Well, it's like when they
charged the student
fees protests with a lot
of horses as well.
In like 2011
or whenever it was, years ago i don't
even remember when it is yeah it's just loads of people with like hats they knitted themselves
being hit with cavalry what's because the british police don't have guns they need something
otherwise they're just people otherwise there's other people telling you to stop doing that
otherwise there's other people telling you to stop doing that yeah our police do look like office workers wearing stab vests maybe to american police maybe the
compromise is just to keep the height but lose the horses and just give all the mat stilts maybe
just stilts like uh they're all street performers now. That's right.
And if you think a policeman is particularly good at their stilt work,
you can put a little money in his hat.
Oh, yes.
We meant to say that when we talked about the FBI guy being falsely arrested,
that's not what it is.
What was it again, Phil?
Yeah, last week's episode, we told the story of this viral clip of a of a black american man being apprehended by some police who mistook him for a suspect they were looking for
and it turned out he was an fbi agent that's not strictly true um after some digging and fact
finding he wasn't an fbi agent his id simply showed, he wasn't an FBI agent.
His ID simply showed that he wasn't the person they were looking for.
And also, I think it was filmed last year.
But not to say that it wasn't still embarrassing for the police, but we didn't want to be spreading misinformation on our podcast.
Yes, it was still profiling,
but it was not this year and of an FBI agent.
It was last year and of a guy.
Because the truth matters.
The truth matters.
Yes, indeed.
Yes, indeedy-do.
I'll say keep an eye out for...
I just checked, Phil, to see if there was some kind of like...
Because the police are going after the statue guys.
I just checked to see if there was some kind of like because the police are going after the statue guys i just checked to see if
there was some kind of like legal thing i saw a lawyer on twitter say oh i'll happily represent
these guys for free uh which is good and but no charges have been laid yet but keep your eyes out
guys as i will for any kind of like funding go fund me or whatever for if the police actually bother to fucking arrest anyone for that yeah it would be
well it would be
the optics
wouldn't be great
they ignore enough other crimes
why can't they just ignore this one
that's true
so keep your eyes out for that
and stay
safe
yep stay safe.
Yep.
Stay safe.
Try and be happy.
And do things that make you feel whole.
I don't know if you want to keep that in. Yeah, that's good.
It's nice to...
That's like the most wholesome thing you've ever said, Phil.
Do you think?
Okay.
Maybe that's why it made me squirm a little.
I've been meditating.
I just meditated and I've gotten into scented candles.
So this might be the new...
The new emotionally vulnerable Phil.
Oh, I've always been emotionally vulnerable just never
emotionally expressive
that's the real vulnerability
if you're going to do one you have to do the other one
that's the new rule for new Phil
yeah yeah yeah
well thanks for listening
well I wonder where we'll be next week
when we talk to you again. Hopefully somewhere less horrifying.
That would
be a boon.
Until then, have a lovely week. Have a good week, guys.
And bye!
Bye!