TV programs worth watching
Sun August 8 — Sat August 14

The ABC's home of right-wing religious bigotry Compass 
(ABC 10.15pm Sunday) this week features Julia Black's 
documentary on abortion, My Foetus. As though having an 
abortion was not already an emotionally traumatic experience, 
Black follows the lead of the Right to Life lobby and tries to 
make viewers confront what she calls the "reality" of 
abortion.

In other words, just as the Right to Lifers do, she shows us 
images of an abortion procedure at four weeks of pregnancy, an 
inspection of aborted foetal remains of a seven-week pregnancy 
and images of a ten, 11 and 21 week aborted foetus.

What has given Black's film, made for Britain's Channel Four, 
such a high profile is that Black has impeccable pro-choice 
credentials: her father set up the charity Marie Stopes 
International — Britain's largest abortion provider outside the 
NHS and one of the world's largest reproductive health 
organisations. She herself had an abortion at the age of 21.

Small wonder that reactionaries are hailing the film as a 
blockbuster, a powerhouse blow against the Godless abortionists. 
And small wonder that it is being screened on Compass.

As long as there are people opposed to a woman's right to control 
her own reproduction, this kind of propaganda will no doubt be 
assured of a market on video.

Skilfully, the film affects not to be overtly anti-abortion. 
"Having looked at the facts, uncomfortable as they are, you have 
to make up your own mind as to which life takes priority.

"That decision is a moral one, that only you can make", says 
Black. But her film is intended to ensure that you make the Right 
choice.

More right-wing propaganda is on display in The Forbidden Team 
(SBS 7.30pm Monday), ostensibly a film about a football 
match.

The match in question however was an "international" between 
Greenland and Tibet. Tibet? A ha!

Tibet is not a separate country, it is part of China; how can it 
play an international match against another country? And why 
would people in Europe go to the trouble of organising such a 
non-event?

If you said they would do it in order to open yet another front 
in the Cold War against China you would be spot on. The match was 
organised by some anti-Communist Danes and equally anti-Communist 
Tibetan exiles.

The latter, as far as SBS is concerned, appear to represent the 
whole population of Tibet. SBS' notes for the program tell us 
that "Sonam, captain of the team, represents the new generation 
of Tibetans. A generation that has grown up outside of Tibet and 
is used to the western lifestyle".

There is a new generation of Tibetans, but they live in Tibet, 
have abolished slavery, do not live under the thumb of the 
priesthood anymore and are forging a new life style as part of 
China.

The attempt to set up a bogus "Tibetan national football team" 
comprised of exiles is just another illustration that when it 
comes to anti-Communist provocations, the bourgeoisie never 
misses a chance.

Got a few million lying around that you want to invest? Try the 
art market.

You don't need to know anything about art or even to like it. All 
you need is a broker to point you in the direction of some 
artists whose work will go up in value, for no discernible 
reason, within a relatively short space of time.

Its practitioners euphemistically call it "investing", but it's 
really speculation. They are gambling on the price going up so 
they can sell at a profit.

There are now so many people desperate to find something that 
will provide a profit on their "investment" without them having 
to actually work, that art auctions in Australia have more than 
doubled their annual sales in five years. New buyers are flocking 
to the market like never before.

But if you don't have the dosh to actually bid for some "art", 
then presumably the next best thing is to make a television 
program about it, or even a four-part series, like Art 
House, screening on Reality Bites (ABC 8.00pm 
Tuesdays).

Here we meet some of the "key players" as we follow the struggle 
for market supremacy between international auction house 
Christie's and "brash newcomer on the block" Deutscher-Menzies, 
in the lead-up to the August 2003 auctions.

The Australian-owned Deutscher-Menzies was set up in 1998 by 
former art dealer Chris Deutscher and "local racing identity" Rod 
Menzies.

Oh Boy! — a former art dealer and a "local racing identity" — 
impressive, I am sure.

The program tackles the big questions I know you are all asking: 
Can the market sustain three big auction houses (there's also 
Sotheby's)? When will the bubble burst?

And how will the Australian owned Deutscher-Menzies go against 
international giant Christie's? And does anyone who isn't a 
bludger actually care? (Oh, sorry, they are all genuine art 
lovers.)

Have you noticed that sightings of UFOs have dropped away to 
virtually nil? At one time, in the '60s, they were numbered in 
the hundreds annually.

I have a book by an Australian "Ufologist" who never went 
anywhere (even to mow the lawn) without a pair of binoculars 
around his neck so that he could snatch them up and observe any 
passing UFO, an occurrence that he assured us happened a lot.

The passing of the UFO phenomenon coincides with the "ending" of 
the Cold War and the "watch the skies" paranoia that was fostered 
by it. Britain's X-Files, screening on The Big Picture 
(ABC 8:30pm Wednesday), show that this paranoia also infected 
the military brass, who were afraid the UFOs might be some secret 
new type of Soviet plane.

The British Government set up an official working party that 
investigated, in great secrecy, any and every reported UFO 
"encounter". Although they could not always satisfactorily 
explain every reported sighting, they never found any evidence of 
aliens either.

Over the years, as science fiction matured and sci-fi movies 
became more sophisticated, UFO design also changed, from cigar-
shaped spaceships to "saucers". The US army spent seven years and 
who knows how much money trying to make a saucer of its own, not 
because the design had any merit — it didn't — but simply 
because it was the shape of UFOs.

The program reveals that Price Phillip was a convinced UFO 
watcher. There is a delightful recreation of an interview his 
equerry had on behalf of his boss with an alleged "alien" in a 
darkened room.

A rather scornful academic has the temerity to suggest that the 
incident was a sting operation by the Intelligence services to 
see if Phillip's staff would give an "alien" (or a Soviet agent 
posing as one) any significant information.

One social historian sums up the paranoia of the period: everyone 
was out looking for UFOs [and] if you go looking for them you are 
going to see them.