Tomorrow I meet the 14th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. Well, not actually meet, see. I've managed to finagle a media pass when he comes to Aldershot football club to speak to the town's Nepalese population.
At the media briefing yesterday (a very grand sounding event that consisted of me, an ITV cameraman, a smartly dressed woman from the local radio and a couple of people from the Nepalese community) we were informed what we could and could not, do.
The tea and biscuits were nice, but the organising commitee on the top bench outnumbered us. We were told where we would be placed in order to cover the event, a media box just in front of the front seats in the stadium and about a mile from the rickety stage constructed for His Holiness and entourage in the middle of the pitch. I started up a discussion whereby I threw something of an artistic strop and said that was no use to me at all. The ITV man coughed and backed me up. So, between us, we eventually were told we might be allocated a pass that might give access to all areas, but we won't know until tomorrow morning. Even so, we would not be allowed upon the stage or walk on the pitch or into the meeting rooms where HH will be visiting and eating. The stage being in the middle of the pitch seems to rule out getting close at all it seems.
I really shouldn't get aggressive with people over these things, but I can't help it. I'm used to being able to move freely in order to capture an event in my own way, but these days photographers are not trusted. They must be managed. I might as well just buy a ticket and sit in the stand and the pictures I take will be no different from any taken by the thousands alongside of me. So what's the bloody point? This was my argument to the powers that be. But they wring their hands and say the security issues, blah, blah, etc, etc.
So I'm not hopeful of getting anything worthwhile at all. I'll just have to try and 'blag' my way into something and probably get arrested into the bargain for trying to get just a better picture.
And it's going to be raining. I must meditate more I guess.
Don’t engage in unwholesome action,
Engage in virtue,
And tame the mind,
This is the teaching of the Buddha.
The Buddhas do not wash away the karma of other beings,
Nor do they remove the consequences with their hands;
They do not transfer their own realizations to others,
But they reveal the truth that liberates beings.
All things and events come into being due to causes and conditions
And these causes and conditions are taught by the Buddhas
The cessation of causes and conditions are also taught by the Buddhas
That is what the Buddha taught.
As a wannabe Buddhist, I have the highest regard for buddhist beliefs, as well as see the need these days for security. Sad that we need such security, and in some cases exceed the necessary precautions. But that's only in hindsight. John Lennon might have turned 70 this year along with McCartney if he'd had tighter security.
ReplyDeleteI can also understand your frustration, but these just aren't the 'good ole days'. I wonder if such days even existed…
Yes, the 'good ole days', did exist, I lived through them. Virtually non-excistent security, and a willingness to being welcomed without suspicion into 'inner circles' and allowed the freedom to go just about anywhere when being a photographer wasn't regarded as a dirty word. Different times.
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