Chopping the hands that feed?

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez (2024)
Netflix miniseries

I learned a new word today: parricide. It is the act of killing one's parents, sometimes as a universal term to include murdering relatives.

It is not peculiar to our modern times by no stretch of the imagination. All through human civilisation, children have been killing the hands that fed them, directly or indirectly. Ancient Indian scriptures have numerous accounts of patricide. The Greeks, Babylonians and the Norse were not far behind. Even though the Mughal emperors had to kill to grasp the throne, the most they did was kill their siblings, like how Aurangzeb, the militarily savvy son of Shah Jahan, is said to have masterminded the brutal killing of his brother, Dara Shukoh, the tolerant one liked by the subjects. Aurangzeb did not kill Shah Jahan. He merely dethroned him and kept him in prison till he died.

King Asoka, who advocated the Middle Path of Buddhism, did not follow the path of passivity. He had to kill his 99 siblings to be the Supreme King. Recent studies suggest that Asoka was already a Buddhist before his victory in Kalinga and a change of heart towards nonviolence and banning animal slaughter.

In modern times, however, parents are killed off due to psychological or neurological reasons. Besides the occasional cases when an explanation can be elucidated, most despicable crimes escape reasoning. In 1968 Japan, in Tochigi, a daughter one day decided to put an end to her father's 15 years of rape which resulted in 11 pregnancies and three children. The Japanese law at that time advocated the death penalty as a blanket rule for parricide. After this case, the courts determined that each case needed to be handled individually.

In 1966, in Texas, an ex-marine went on a shooting rampage, killing his mother and many others. An autopsy revealed that he had an amygdala tumour that would explain his violent behaviour.

US figures show that at least six parricide events happen on their soil weekly. A large proportion of them involve youths and early adults. The often quoted reason for this is usually psychological reasons: parental abuse and control, or occasionally over money.

This miniseries narrates the case of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who both killed their parents in 1989 due to fear their parents were plotting to kill them. They also cited self-defence after enduring years of emotional, physical and sexual abuse. They show that everything was not as it seemed, as there was premeditation in their actions.

The duo currently serve life sentences.

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Fear makes the world go around?

The answers on Earth are not easy to come by, especially when it comes to questions about the purpose of Life and ways to steer it. Why some people are born with all the options in life, with a silver spoon, in a rose garden, but are too blind to use them for their benefit while others have all the zest to do all the things in life to better themselves without any opportunities.

Assoc Prof Munjed Al Muderi

This topic of discussion came up the other day when the story of an Iraqi doctor, now Assoc. Prof. Munjed Al Muderis, who was given a new lease on life in Australia after running away from his birth country flashed in a newsfeed somewhere. Dr Muderis was an ambitious young doctor in an Iraqi University when the Republican Guard showed up and ordered him to mutilate his patients who happened to be Iraqi soldiers. Refusing to conform, as it was against the Hippocratic Oath, he finally had to make a dash out of the country and eventually ended up in Christmas Islands as just another refugee with another number on his arm amongst the many Mohameds and Alis. Long story short, after enduring the denigration of being just another face in the list of exiles, the host country finally gave the good Professor a break to showcase what he had to offer to mankind.

Iraq's loss is Australia's gain. Or is it? His story is overshadowed by many who have been abusing the system as well. The Australian pioneers or any immigrant of the yesteryears to any country which is now successful had toiled blood, sweat and tears to make hay for their future generation to have what they did not. And sacrifices must have been aplenty - natural calamities, man-made disasters, diseases, freak accident, etcetera. All these were endured in the game of progress and stability.

Amongst the many of so-called refugees are shit-stirrers, who were the masterminds or were instrumental in the collapse of the country that they originated. The visitors had all the chances to make something out of the area that was marked out as a nation for them to prosper and mind their own businesses. But instead, they chose the path of annihilation. What assurances are there that they would not do the same for to their new host? These are difficult questions.

Jay Lakhani - Theoretical physicist and
Speaker on Spiritual Humanism.
Advocates rational thinking into religion,
not blind faith.

On the other end, should we just turn a blind eye to the human sufferings and walk away with our noses stuck up in the air? Can we blame the victims as just undergoing effects of the bad karma as if the fact as we, in the midst of all these are not being 'tested' on our karma chart ratings? Should we be altruistic and embrace everyone in a good spirit, pray Kumbayah and be convinced that love will save the day? Many a time we have seen mouths biting the hands that fed them, slaves slaying their owners and visitors overstaying their welcome but rule over the well-intended hosts to impose their failed ideology.

Should we build fences to keep them away or mend the broken fences that have plagued mankind since antiquity? Is that even possible? It seems that fear is the one that is making the world go around with all its drama, not love. Suspicion, greed, destruction and violence seem to delve Man deep into their thinking faculties to come up with innovations, not brotherly love.

https://www.amnesty.org.au/from-refugee-to-pioneering-surgeon-munjed-al-muderis/

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

An evening of friendly fires at Wagah-Attari border!

The Indian side of the border.
A spanking new complex in the pipeline.

It is a daily affair, of public display of brotherly rivalry. The old wound of a state that was curved at will at a stroke of a pen.

As the sun sets, both nations remind themselves they are of one DNA but two divided by politics and religion.

It has become a ritual to irritate and provoke either side with their high flying kicking drills, the heaving of chests at each other and theatrical display of mocked emotions.

Even though similar ceremonies are carried at two other border towns, the one at the trunk road between two sister cities, Amritsar and Lahore take the cake. They share a strong bond. Maharajah Ranjit Singh who united the states in Land of Five Rivers (Punjab) and held the honour of being the only force in the history of mankind to tame the hill tribes of Afghanistan, made Lahore his capital and honoured his guardian religion by building a golden outlook to the Hari Mandhir to see it as the Golden Temple today.

Maharajah Ranjit Singh

The heat builds up under the evening sun on both sides of the fence. The heat on the Indian side, however, is more pronounced as youngsters and even visitors to Bharat Desh frolic in the revelry of forced nationalism and perceived animosity of kins. The blaring sounds of Bollywood music scream for the call of patriotism. On the Pakistani side, the tone is sombre as the nation built on the foundations of moderations of religion struggle to prove their purpose of existence. The Pakistanis commence the ceremony with doa. The scene is set for something akin to a shouting match; with multihued psychedelic, colour donning members of the Indian side of spectators who had thronged from near and far, amongst which many are foreigners anyway versus the green-white monotonous shade on the contralateral side.

Having an enemy serves a purpose.

Indians provoke their bhais with two figures that they do not like to be at the forefront of things. Two majestic looking female Indian Border Security Force (BSF) officers with full regalia march to the other end followed by another two with patrolling dogs. The Pakistani Rangers reply with male marchers. 

The fiesta-like atmosphere goes on with prodding on either side with cries of freedom - Bharat Mata Jai, Hindustan Zindabad and Vande Mataram until it ends with the ceremonial opening of border gates, lowering of flags and re-closure of gates. Understandably the yelling on the Pakistani side is muffled.

Moments before the lowering of flags.

For all you know, the two sides of the team (BSF and Pakistani Rangers) probably discuss their next day’s itinerary over masala chai as both their moves are well coordinated to the tilt.


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