Showing posts with label commercialism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label commercialism. Show all posts

Saturday, 27 October 2018

Filling up the bottomless pit!

The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire (Documentary; 2017)
Director, Producer: Michael Oswald


I always wondered how Britain, after 200 years of ruling over almost half of the globe, survived after losing everything after the Second World War. It is a mystery how they continued their role in being one of the economic powerhouses of the world.

It is no secret that WW2 marked the beginning of setting of the sun over the British Empire. Slowly, one by one, its colonies demanded to be cut off their attachments to the Crown. The coup de grâce must have come after their disastrous 1956 campaign over the nationalisation of the Suez Canal by President Nasser.

The value of the pound-sterling plummeted. Foreign investors withdrew their investments. A special market was created to circumvent the control of the monetary bodies of the UK. Hence was born the London Euro-Dollar market to keep investors' interest in Britain. This was the precursor to the setting up of the spider's web of secrecy jurisdiction in the remote off-shore tax havens. 

These tax havens were mostly British territories like Cayman Island, Virgin Islands, Bermuda and Jersey in the UK. Soon Americans set up their own concerns in the Caribbean with the same midis operandi - funnelling global funds which were obtained clandestinely and laundered into London and other Western markets. The web attracted bankers, lawyers, accountants and the elite of the society. It formed like a secret society that drew in ill-gotten spoils from drugs and corruption the world over to syphon it to finance more than 90% of international loans.

Bankers are a protected species. No law so far has significantly brought down big banks. Bank of England and its affiliates carry out their tasks with impunity. The City of London, it seems, because of 1066 William the Conqueror's failure to capture this town, has its own council and elected its own Lord Mayor. (Cf. Mayor is a political post elected four years once; Lord Mayor of London is an annual apolitical appointment by the Sovereign.) The council is made up of a guild of businessmen, retired high-ranking civil servants and aristocrats who have no qualms using public funds for personal gains. They are also seen making use of public monies for dubious business ventures. They are experts in creating shell companies and concocting creative accounts to cover their trails. Just in case their endeavours go south, the general public can always be used to bail them out. They are, after all, protected by the law. 

Losers of the deal are also the citizens of Africa and other third world countries who are regularly looted by their elites with the help of these financial wizards. CIA is known to finance covert operations via this channel. 

One of the purposes of this offering is to make its viewers aware of the dealings of these big conglomerate. The general public, in turn, must demand greater transparency in their leaders' dealings. The national agreements should not be official secrets but must be assessed by concerned citizens.

Monday, 11 December 2017

Everyone's a loser?

I Hired a Contract Killer (1990)
Screenplay, Production, Direction: Aki Kaurismäki


When does a person consider himself a failure? Does it happen when he loses his job and is unable to sustain his existence? Or it happens when he realises that there is no future for him, nothing for him to live for? The path in front of him is just an abyss of nothingness with nothing to call his own. His life is hollow, and his interaction with others is just superficial acquaintances which end at the end of working hours or the break of dawn.

Is he a loser when he is unable to provide for his loved ones? Does he lose it when the curtain draws on him and the Maker prematurely call him in?

Set in the gloomy, dull days of the 70s in the United Kingdom when economic malaise was the order of the day and financial market was in the doldrums, it depicts the story of the Royal Water Works Board clerk who was retrenched. The Board is being privatised and the protagonist, Henri (Jea-Pierre Léaud, seen as a child actor in the classic French neo-realist film '400 Blows'), being a foreigner, is the first to go. A disappointed Henri, probably with other baggage that he must be carrying with him as he had run away from France, attempts suicide. He fails miserably. By chance, Henri encounters an article in the newspaper about hired killers. With his life savings, he employs them to kill him!

Along the way, he meets and falls in love with a flower girl. Suddenly, the zest for life is renewed. Life has a purpose now. Unfortunately, the agency that sends hire killers cannot be contacted, and a contract killer is on the prowl for his blood. Amidst the cat and mouse chase, we the audience, come to know that, even the hired assassin has a sob story to tell. The slayer feels he is a loser as he is dying from terminal lung cancer, his days are numbered and has a daughter that he has to depart soon.

In his own way, the storyteller paints a picture that everyone would perceive themselves to be a flop if there is nothing much to look forward to life. The next question is whose duty is it to pave a flawless path for us to follow? Is it our individual duties to plan our futures? Is it the role of our elected leaders to stimulate the economy so as its citizens can prosper? Does money solve everyone's problems?

https://www.facebook.com/cinephilia.my/

Friday, 15 May 2015

A day in the life of..

Happy Days here to stay?
They say it is the latest happening place in town. With the U.S. 1950s rock and roll theme, flashy photos of automobiles of yesteryear and matinee idols of that era plastered on the wall and equally striking paint work, it gave the impression of a bugle call for the hipsters, the young, the nouve riche and the like. Welcome to the love child of capitalism, unabated vulgar consumerism. Sure, they like the calories filled cholesterol laden jumbo sized servings, they also like the personalised wishes that we cheerily call out as they enter or leave the premises. Some say that our frequent breaking into songs and dance routines is annoyance but I do not see anyone complaining! They even seem to swing about, sing along and even dance a step or two with us in tandem.

Given a choice, I would like to have that mandatory dance performance struck off my numerous lists of duties. The old injury that I inherited enroute to the maternity shed back home in Cebu is acting funny again. Yes, I am an immigrant Pinoy worker who left my 2 toddler kids and a drunkard husband behind to try my fortune in this plush land of plenty. Fortune aplenty I did lose trying to pay off the scavenging middlemen and corrupt officials before even before landing here. Just like many new graduates here, I became a pauper and in debt even I started earn anything at all. I am here because nobody here wants to do the job I am doing here. They cannot take the pressure of listening to the whims and fancies of the little Emperors whom I have to entertain on a daily basis. I guess I can and have to take their whining and eat humble pie as they are the haves and I, have not!

Life goes on as they say, in sorrow or in joy. I do look forward to those Sunday mornings when I pay my dues to the Divine for all the little naughty unsanctioned things I do over the weekday. A little dishonesty here and a little there, I am hoping to start a new slate come Monday. New leaf? Maybe later! Morality does not bring the bacon to table!

Wednesday, 29 October 2014

Sugar, the new cigarette?

Fed up (Documentary; 2014)

I swear that you would not look at a soda drink can the same way after watching this documentary. In the seventies and eighties, having an unusually oversized student in a class was a rare occurrence. Conversely, in the 21st century, it is rare to see a non obese child in class. This subsequently have led to an epidemic of diseases which were only heard in the older adults and for the first time in human history the offspring may die before their parents!
Even though inactivity has been made the bogeyman for this worrying trend, the consensus now that it is our diet, specifically sugar is the main culprit.
There was a time before the Western world discovered the natives of the Caribbean Islands using extracts from a plant to sweet their beverages, food were grown and were healthy. Sugar was a luxury item that only the bourgeoise could savour.
In the seventies, there was a frenzy to reduce our dietary fat intake. That started the chase to reduce fat content of our food. Reduction of fat made our food unpalatable. In order to make it edible, sugar was added. What's more when corn syrup was discovered and the US government began subsidising the corn farmers to increase production.
The school lunch program also was run by big corporations which promoted fast food.
The skimmed milk production produced lots of fat which were cleverly used to make cheese. Suddenly cheese was the latest additive to all food, fast food included. School lunches were laden with cheese. Soda drinks started flooding schools.
Sugar has been to have shown to have the same effect on our brain as cocaine. PET scans has shown our brain to light up like a Christmas tree after an ingestion of sugar laden beverage very much like a shot of cocaine! And its equally addictive.
TV advertisements directed at the younger generation had ignited the desire to consume and indulge incessantly.
When the government cuts in to put things in order, the big corporations steam rolled in to put their brakes, essentially holding the country at ransom. They started accusing them of being a nanny state. The public is asked to demand for their rights to eat and do what they want. They called it a human rights.
In other words, sugar in the 21st century is want the tobacco companies were doing in the 70s. The cigarette companies then categorically denied that cigarettes caused cancer and were promoting smoking as a hyped and cultured thing to do. What sugar is actually doing is leaving a nation full of fatties with diabetes, stroke and needing bariatric surgery at a tender age.
Even when the brain knows the theory, the mind is just too numbed by the lure of the media and its power of persuasion. 

Friday, 12 September 2014

A swipe at McCarthyism

A King in New York (1957)
Many Americans look back at the early years of the 50s with much disdain. They had let the idea of a senator and politics of the time to go on a witch hunt on individuals based on frivolous hearsay. All in the name of nationalism and national security, many valuable man-hours were wasted. After all these, one would think that the general public cannot be taken for a ride anymore or can they? Based on turn of events of late, the hoodwinking continues.
Coming closer to our shores, people are being unpatriotic with same flimsy reasons with a hidden agenda behind them. It seem that we will never learn from history. We will have to endure the whole thrust of its mayhem before we look back at yourselves, in years to come, and hopefully laugh at ourselves!
The post WW2 years in America was tumultuous one. The Cold War had started and US of A had slowly taken the rein as the leader of the free world. Free they may be with their capitalistic market forces stance on liberty, the Government was hot under the collar with individuals sympathetic to the course of the left. Charlie Chaplin was one of the many performers blacklisted for being a member of the communist party. During a holiday trip back to his native England, his return visa was cancelled and lived exiled in UK. Anyway, he had not surrendered his British passport.
This last of Charlie Chaplin's film was a sarcastic look at the times that America was in. It poked fun as its anti-communist stance, the pop culture, the over glamorisation of youth, the invasion of privacy, the media frenzied population and the monetisation of everything. In a subtle way, the story shows how the old European values lose out to the demands of the American way of doing things. Chaplin also in a way, tries to re-live his youthful days in some scenes by trying to re-enact some acts from his 1927 'The Tramp'.
A deposed King Shadov of Estrovia, abdicates his throne and finds refuge in New York. Thinking that he could live in high life with his ill-gotten fortunes from his national coffers till the revolution in his country is over, he checks in to The Ritz with his ambassador. He is lured to attend a party where he is tricked to appear in a commercial. He was such a hit that the advertising industry wants more of him.
When he discovers that his fortune had been squandered by his trusted Prime Minister, he is forced to appear in commercials to pay his bills.
It is here that he takes a swipe at the public obsession with youthfulness and plastic surgery. He undergoes plastic surgery with disastrous outcome and reverts back to usual appearance!
He makes an official visit to a school. He befriends a child prodigy, Rupert, whose parents are being tried for involvement in the Communist Party. This child actor is Chaplin's son, Michael. Even though he showed so much calibre as an actor, he apparently went wayward later, living on dole.
Rupert later is on the run from the police for his parents' crimes. He seeks refuge with the King.
The rest of the story shows how the King is wrongly drawn in to the fiasco but is found innocent. He returns to Paris to be with his Queen.

Memorable quote:
"One of the minor annoyances in modern life is a revolution"

Saturday, 3 August 2013

Where other ideologies are allowed!

Amma Ariyan (അമ്മ അറിയാന്‍,Report to Mother, Malayalam; 1986)
Screenplay and Direction: John Abraham

It is a pure coincidence that at a time when I was watching this movie, certain leaders in the Malaysia are up in arms against the screening of a romantic historical drama set during the time of the Communist insurgence in Malaya. Watching a 2-minute trailer of 'The New Village', they were convinced that the movie was glorifying the communist terrorists and belittling the role of the armed forces!
The journey of a thousand miles starts with a singls step...
Amma Ariyan has the reputation of being the only South Indian film to make it to the British Film Institute's Top 10 Indian film list. Well, I suppose you have to film maker to understand why such a stature was given to a seemingly low budget low lighting scruffy looking non professional looking quasi-documentary film commie linked people funded simple movie.
The story starts with Purushan, a village lad, leaving his house after a dip in a muddy river for Delhi after bidding farewell to his mother. He promises to write to her despite the fact that it was not his nature to write letters.
He starts his journey of a thousand miles through the remote jungle path from his humble abode. The jeep that he is travelling as a passenger is stopped and taken by the police to transport a dead body. Purushan has a strong feeling, more to the brink of obsession, that he had seen the dead man. The image of the dead man  keeps on playing on his mind.
Rashid sure likes his drinks!
John Abraham
He inquires about the dead man who is told to have hung himself from the villagers. He gets patchy information about his name, Hari, and that he is a tabla player. Nobody actually knew about his whereabouts and background. He decides that he must find out more about this man and inform his mother about his death.
Purushan sets to inform his female companion about his change of plans, his earlier plans to leave for Delhi. (We are not told why he was going to Delhi!).

And off he sets on a crusade to find the background of the dead man and inform his mother.
Starts an entourage..
Along the way, in the background, in a narrative, as if he is writing a letter to his own mother, Purushan, tells about the happenings around him. He goes on a almost a wild goose chase trying to identify this Hari chap. He is sent from here to there to inquire about him. In the movie, you will find that most men are jobless and loafing around doing nothing. One by one the his party of one snowballs as more people join in the fracas. Potpourri of people of various religions join in.

Different people  give different views on Hari, on his outlook of life, good ones and bad. Pretty soon, it comes to light that all these people are Naxalites. As they travel all the way down to Cochin City, Purushan talks about the rich heritage and fortune the State of Kerala had and how travelers from near and far had come to trade. Some brought religion and culture whilst some squandered its wealth. He also talks about how commercialization had set in every aspect of life - education, medical and pharmaceutical practice. Police brutality, bullying of the workers clan, hoarding of essential goods, of how workers become blind with cheap booze and how the people power uncovered these atrocities are highlighted. I sense a little mocking of religion and the Goddess who is supposed to protect the land.
The entourage finally reaches Cochin City. The bad news is finally broken to the mother who replies that she can never understand his son and shed a tear. The End.
This offering is not meant to allay the day to day anxiety of the workers (read poor) community but rather highlight their sorrows and tease them to do something about it. We know that both Bengal and Kerala are the two states in India with 100% literacy rate and that the Communist Party has a strong hold here. It is surprising that in spite of its good indicators in life expectancy, health, education and per capita expenditure, its inequality between the urban and rural haves and have not is dangerously apparent.
Kerala, despite being one the poorest states in India, has exceptional rates of adult literacy, life expectancy and health.
 Image by Shareen Brysac. India, 2009.

Thursday, 1 August 2013

Back to basics

In 1988, during my housemanship, LKH, a dedicated doctor who was excellent with his ears and eyes, related to me his experience in a medical rounds taken by his professor during his medical school days. The professor was describing the methodical but laborious ways to examine the chest and to appreciate the various sounds that were audible via a sthesthoscope. An American medical student doing his elective posting, who was amongst them, raised his hand to suggest, "Professor, wouldn't it be easier if we just ask for a Chest X-Ray to be done?"I am afraid we have come to this. Gone are the days where a proper medical examination starts with a good history taking. After developing a rapport and trust, the ancillary tests aid diagnosis, not the way to diagnose a condition!
Now, it appears that patients or symptoms are triaged to undergo complicated tests and imaging before a proper examination is done. Furthermore, simple Roentgenogram (Xrays) are deemed worthless now. Why do Xray when you can do an MRI?
A friend was all excited when his wife delivered a healthy son after a late marriage. So naturally, when his parents, who acted as their babysitter, told them that his 4month old boy had jerky movements of the one the hands, sometimes, he flipped.
A rush to the biggest private hospital with the state of the art equipment and workforce brought him to the office of a healer. Within a jiffy, before you can say, 'POOF", the infant was MRIed and an EEG was down together with a battery of blood tests with crimson hued sanguine filling test tubes with various colour coded more than the rainbow. After a few days' stay and a few thousand ringgit poorer, he was told that everything was A-OK. Diagnosis? "I think we will keep an eye again and do some more tests if it recurs"! In other words - Idiopathic, G.O.K (God only knows)!
The next few days were unsettling. Every grunt and every hiccough from the infant raised everybody's eyebrows and everybody's pulse rate. Ventilating with friends and relatives brought them again to an experienced paediatrician in a humble clinic without the flashy glare of new medical equipment. An old dog in this field, he resorted to the oldest trick in the book. He took a detailed history and a complete examination to come to a conclusion that the jerky movements were probably related to the improper way of carrying the baby and nothing more.
4 months after the visit, there are no more abnormal movement and everybody sleeps well in the house - father, mother, son and grandparents.
My friend, an accountant by training, realizes that medicine is not a science that has to have black and white proof like the receipts that he needs to balance his accounts but is an art by itself.

Wednesday, 8 May 2013

Brands, the essence of life?

We have all been told that we are all irrational beings and we do things on impulses, much to regret later on. This is crux upon which the advertising business is based on. Their modus operandi is simple, create an illusion of attaining happiness with their product when the truth of the matter is that nothing like that exists - a painter gets an inspiration after smoking a particular brand of cigarette, an entrepreneur is successful because he drinks a particular liquor and life is so easy when they use a particular brand of mobile device!
What a pity, man is still not happy.
In the running circle, there is forever literature put forward on new studies which revealed such a new product is better than the one before, how everyone had got it wrong all the while and so on...
In the 70s sports footwear underwent major transformation with much science and technology input. After that, everybody pretty agreed on the need for footwear to run. Fast forward 3 decades later, suddenly all these footwear and cushioning have allegedly made our intrinsic muscles of our foot atrophied and redundant. Now we are told to go back to basics, back to the cavemen days when our ancestors were roaming barefoot hunting for their meals.
Then everybody went barefoot or minimalist. Now, this people are saying minimalist is not for them after having aches here and there.
All these while, the lone wolf runner in his mid 50s whom I occasionally meet on the Sundays' long run is and has been quite happy with simple unbranded unfancy shoes and on top of that, he just zooms past us effortlessly putting all of us, younger caps to eat humble pie with our branded spanking new shoes.
At the end of the day, it is only the bad carpenter who complains about his tools! It is the skill, not the tool.

Remember how India was banned from the 1950 World Cup finals because they wanted to play soccer bare-footed! (Don't know whether it is true?)

“Be afraid. Be very afraid.”*