Mushroom cloud in peacetime?

Like clockwork, not even dust had settled after the Earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale hit Myanmar; numerous announcements have emerged over the new social media outlets of well-meaning organisations offering services to collect donations for its victims. 

We have had all these so many times before. The earliest of these must surely be the Great Tsunami of Boxing Day 2004, which measured 9.1. The world saw a plethora of bodies going hyperdrive, bending backwards, trying to extract money from the well-meaning but unassumingly naive public. The collection, it seemed, was quite overwhelming. Ten years down the line, a documentary was made about the towns hit by the tsunami. It revealed that only one pledged housing project saw living daylight amongst all the broken promises; that too by the personal effort by an individual, the world-famous singer Ricky Martin.

The same thing happened in Haiti following its devastating 2010 hurricane. The Clinton Foundation jumped in to help its victims and help the island nation get back on its feet. Ten years after the storm, an assessment revealed no sustained improvement to its infrastructure. The only viable projects that seem to have been successfully developed were those that benefited the Foundation and the local cronies.

The latest donation drive to hit the nation is to help the victims of the recent Putra Heights gas pipe explosion. Even though footage coming out of the disaster area is scary, so far, no deaths have been reported; only property damage and bodily injuries have been reported. 

A third-person account provides scant information about the event. Firstly, very few Malaysians knew that we had a methane gas pipe gridline running under or near our houses. We had thought this only happened in Western countries. The line was apparently for industrial purposes. 

As in the case of MH370, the head does not know what the tail is doing. At least, that is the impression I get listening to the official press release of the committee appointed to investigate the disaster. The appointees of the sc-called panel expert to investigate the mishap remain opaque. Their representative does not exude brilliance or confidence that every rock will be turned to reveal the truth. I wonder if the services of academics were called for to get to the root of the explosion. Maybe everyone in power wants the whole fiasco to remain an unsolvable enigma so that none of their shenanigans in cutting corners does not come into the open.   The pressmen at the press meet were no better. Forget investigative journalism; they did not even ask the right questions. Instead of hurling difficult questions at the officious, they squawk random and meaningless questions that a primary student would squeal just to please his teacher.

One netizen pointed out that a leading political party started a donation drive to help the victims. Unfortunately, he also noticed that the given account was that of the political party, not a dedicated account set up for relief.

There are many examples of charity foundation abuse. A charity in the UK started during COVID-19 by the relatives of a 90-something war veteran who wanted to record his progress in recovering from a hip fracture. People were smitten by this nonagenarian, and they donated to his Captain Tom Foundation in droves. Soon, its assets became enormous, so enormous that unnecessary maintenance started showing up in its accounts. The veteran also wrote an autobiography, the proceeds of which went into charity but were taken out for personal use. Long story short, the old man died, The Captain Tom Foundation was investigated, and his daughter Hannah and her husband, who initially helped to establish the charity, were found to have benefitted from its mismanagement and blurring of private and charitable interests. The foundation is now defunct.

A mushroom cloud in peacetime

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A rescue mission that almost never happened!

Manjummel Boys (Malayalam/ Tamil; 2024)

Director: Chidambaram

I was intrigued by this movie after reading two articles. The first detailed a legal dispute between Ilaiyaraaja's side and the producer. The dispute arose when the producer used Ilaiyaraaja's song composition as a background without obtaining permission. This incident added an exciting layer to the movie's production. The second article discussed the Tamil Nadu Home Secretary's directive to the Kodaikanal Police to investigate police brutality against complainants, which also played a role in the movie's plot.

This is a gripping tale of a rescue mission that took place in 2006. A group of young men from Majummel, Kochi, embarked on a trip to Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu, a popular tourist destination. While exploring, the men made a fateful decision to venture into a restricted area. Tragically, one of them fell into a seemingly bottomless pit. The story unfolds as the remaining men, faced with a group of apathetic officials who had essentially given up on their friend, embark on a daring mission to rescue him. 

This survival thriller is based on actual events. The cave the young men entered has a long and checked history. It was first described in 1821 by a British officer who christened it 'Devil Kitchen'. It caught people's attention when it was featured in 1991 Kamalhaasan's hit movie, 'Guna'. Since Guna, a mental patient in the film, used this cave as his hideout, it came to be referred to as 'Guna's Cave'. A catchy song from the movie, 'Kanmani Anbodan,' is used liberally in this movie and has become a bone of contention with Illayaraaja's camp.

As many as 16 victims have plunged into the pit in Guna's Cave, but none have been rescued. Even a Central Minister's relative had fallen into this hole. All the available resources could not rescue or not so much excavate his remains.

Roots of Guna Caves ©Shutterstock 

So, when the Majummel Boys ran to the Kodaikanal Police for help, the police were not too enthusiastic in carrying out rescue missions, looking at the cave's track record. In fact, they were beaten up, accusing them of trying to cover up a murder. The fire and forest departments were not helpful either. No officials dared to go in hoisted on ropes with so many urban legends floating around. Long story short, the boys and the local people hawked on the police and rescue teams. One of the Manjummel Boys, Kuttan (Suji David), volunteered to go in. After many tense moments, the victim (Subhash) was found alive and rescued. Kuttan went on to receive a State award for bravery. Subhash remains the only person rescued after plunging into the hole in Guna Caves.

This movie is a visual treat, with stunning cinematography that captures the beauty and danger of the cave. The camera work effectively conveys the tension and fear experienced by the characters, adding to the overall suspense of the film.

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Biggest man-made disaster?

The Railway Men: The Untold Story of Bhopal 1984 (miniseries; 2023)
Director: Shiv Rawail

I have come to know of a few people who were working on the Malaysian Railway Lines (Keretapi Tanah Melayu, KTM). They were working at a time when owning a car was a luxury, and interstate travel meant travelling on the train. So much responsibility fell on the shoulders of the Station Master of a railway station. Much like the captain of a ship, the Station Master would take care of his station like a baby. The post carried such pride in the community that people would have forgotten his name. They would just address him as Station Master, much like how one would address a Doctor or Pastor, not by name.

Amongst our family circle lived a distant relative who was the Station Master of the Bukit Mertajam Railway Station. The job was a prestigious one, and it carried much prestige. Bukit Mertajam was an essential and busy station. Even though his name was Jaganathan, everyone referred to his family as the 'Station Master's' family. My sisters and I call him 'Train Tata' (Train Grandfather). Train Tata was married to his job, besides having ten children. He would personally be present at the station every time a train stopped there. His pride and joy were his sparkling and shiny railway shifters.  

I never had the opportunity to have an up-and-personal conversation with Train Tata about his job. The main character in this miniseries, Iftekaar Siddiqui, reminded me a lot of him.

The tragic industrial accident in Bhopal hit our shores back in 1983. From the occasional glimpses we got from the foreign news section of the national TV, we understood the devastation it caused. Later in my working life, I did encounter people who were right smack in the heat of things, doing medicine in Bhopal, albeit a few years after the biggest man-made disaster in history. As its death toll exceeded 15,000, after taking the long-term damages that it caused, it is said to have been a greater disaster than Chornobyl or Twin Towers. 

Watching the fiasco unfold on Netflix, we get a better understanding of the background of it all. The blast in the Union Carbide chemical factory was a volcano waiting to explode, as described by an independent journalist after his friend died in a minor industrial accident three years previously. The whole thing was hushed. 

Working with suboptimal pieces of machinery and ill-trained staff, even the owners of the pesticide-making company, who is credited for making the atomic bomb, knew they were sitting on a disaster. An independent assessor even remarked that the methyl isocyanate (MIC) the factory stores were storing was at risk of leakage. The faulty cooling system, substandard safety measures, and defective pressure gauges could potentially release poisonous cyanide into the environment. Antidote was known by a few, but this information was deliberately kept away from the public and even the administrative agencies. Very few workers were cognisant of the standard operative procedure in case of a catastrophic gas leak. 

Minor blemishes did happen but were kept under wraps. The disaster occurred on December 2, 1984, when the system overheated and poisonous gas leaked into the atmosphere. 

The miniseries tells of how the railway men of Bhopal station and the GM of railways tirelessly went out of their way to render their services to help people affected by the gas leak. Even though the account of events that happened that night is told in a dramatic fashion, the essential characters in the series did exist, but with different names. Unfortunately, the film failed to mention the names of these unsung heroes at the credit in a way to show appreciation.

Iftekaar Siddiqui, the Station master character, could be Ghulam Destagir, who protected passengers and arranged a safe passage out of Bhopal Junction. The selfless investigative journalist named Jagmohan Kulwant here is Rajkumar Deswani in real life. He went on to win many journalistic awards. There was indeed a railway inspector who was on a surprise visit to Jhansi when the incident happened. He was Gauri Shanker, the General Manager of the Northern Railways. In the series, he was known as Rati Pandey.

The moviemakers decided to spice up the story by including bits about the Sikh witchhunt, as Indira Gandhi had been assassinated a month prior. The part about governmental cover-up is probably not stretching the truth. There were reports of hushing about the severity of the mishap, malaise on the part of rescue efforts and protection of its foreign owners.  

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All I can do is dream?

Exit (엑시트, Korean; 2019)
Director: Lee Sang-geun

Every time I see Koreans in action, be it in sports, movies or showcasing yet another new car, I get depressed. Koreans used to be our whipping boys in the Merdeka Tournament but look at them now, playing the same level of football with the big boys now. Kia started making automobiles in baby steps about the same time as us, but now, Korean cars are making Japanese cars sweat. Ours, on the other hand, is a national embarrassment.

With the innovation of P Ramlee and his friends at Jalan Ampas studio, they churned out hits after hits and even won cinematic awards at the Asian level. But now, all we can do is reminisce, brood about lost opportunities and imagine a country that we could have been.

Twenty years' master plan to learn, copy and innovate storytelling and moviemaking now sees Korean cinema and miniseries sweeping the world by storm. Korean culture is no longer alien to the people the world over. 

This movie is living proof of what the Koreans have achieved while we were napping, dreaming about Vision 2020 and Malay Supremacy. 'Exit' is a disaster film infused with traditional Asian family dynamics, light comedy, love interests and excellent computer graphic imaging. Just when I thought that disaster in movies would just mean run and run, here they have become imaginative. The storytellers have introduced rock climbing as a way to escape rising toxic fumes.

Yong-nam gets no respect. As far as his family is concerned, he is a loser. Even his nephew, an early teenager, does not think much of him. He is labelled a failure with no permanent job, not on his path to success any time soon, and no girlfriend to show around. He only has his rock-climbing skills to show.

The turning point comes during his mother's 70th birthday party. The girl he fancies works as a captain at the restaurant the party is held. A disillusioned scientist releases a toxic gas near the vicinity, and mayhem ensues. Everybody has to make it to the top of the buildings to be rescued by rescue helicopters. As the exit to the top is locked from the outside, our hero has to get his rock-climbing skills to good use. Of course, things get complicated, and our hero and the love of his life go through a whirlwind of adventures to win the day.

The way how emergency services are seen to be devised to combat disaster gave me another low. It reminded me how dismally our emergency disasters relief plans were executed during the recent Shah Alam and Hulu Langat floods. People were left to fend for themselves whilst leaders made cursory publicity visits. It was as if there were no contingency plans for emergencies. Surprisingly, when citizens wanted to vent their dissatisfaction over the case of the fox guarding the chicken coop, i.e. the Anti-Corruption Commission's alleged corruption, the whole civil service was at German precision to squash demonstrations with anti-riot gear and even court orders to make it illegal.

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What is the cost of lies?

Chernobyl (2019)
Netflix miniseries

I could not help it but compare the disaster at Chernobyl to the fall of the Malaysian ruling party of 61 years in the last general elections. 

Everything was going wrong in 1986, Russia. In 1917, when the peasants were starving, and the Romanov family was perched in their castles oblivious to the people's sufferings, it seemed like the best thing to do. Singlehandedly, the people defended their Motherland from external aggressors. The propaganda news suggested that they had the best leader in the world. In the field of science and technology, they were beyond compare. Proof of their achievements was evident in the area of space travels. Communism took care of everybody, they were told.

But happy hours do not last forever.

Communism never lived to its promise. Somehow, from the word go, the lure of human desires always superseded the need to do the just thing. Under the cloak of grandiosity, lay beneath a corrupt system which was hellbent on suppressing citizen dissatisfactions and punishing them. Improving the system was last on the agenda. Every economic transformation system has a shelf-life, I guess. 

Back at home, a similar scenario was occurring. Immersed in 60 years of unabated power, they thought they were invincible. Accountability and people-centred programs were forgotten. Fattening one's own and cronies'  wallets became the order of the day. Racial and religious issues were fanned to keep citizens self-absorbed in self-defeating exercises. 

The thing that befuddles me is why, of all the elected and non-elected leaders of the executive, legislature and judiciary arms of the country, none had the gumption to stand up against the shenanigans that were happening under their supervisions. Did the system stupefy them or were they like mere obedient servants like Adolf Eichmann?  Mind-boggling indeed.

This five-episode miniseries narrated the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April 1985. It re-creates the events, as told by the local population. It describes, with the liberty of poetic licence, through the eyes of a fictitious nosy (or conscientious) scientist the real shortcomings that led the accident in the first place and at their lousy handling of the aftermath of the mishap.

The Russians were not cordial to this show. They have decided to make their own show with their version of the truth. Even the mortality figures are disputed. The official Soviet figures put death at 32, whilst Western journalists estimate 4,000 to 93,000 fatalities.

 Memorable quotes: 

“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid. That is how an RBMK reactor core explodes. Lies.” 

 “the gift of Chernobyl: where I once would fear the cost of truth, I only ask”—“what is the cost of lies?”

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I see black dogs everywhere...

Like a line of falling domino tiles, one by one, they all fall. Yet another one fell prey to the black dog. Even the outwardly strong minded ones with barrage of ammunition to shoot you down if you were to cross their paths, go into fetal position like a helpless infant when the final straw of hay broke their back. Like an epitome of patience, like a turtle she went on her duty on earth with diligence without complaining. Then came the challenges, one, another and another and poof she went all jello.

Young and old alike, they seem to be swept by this epidermic.
Coming mostly from humble backgrounds, one would have think that after enduring the uncertainties of life for a square meal and other comforts in life, enduring uncertainties by now would literally be a walk in the park. The general consensus is that one could not buy himself out of all troubles. Crying in a BMW, however, certainly looks less pathetic then crouching over a pavement but then the hopelessness are the same. It just goes on to say that there are somethings that money can buy like crying in comfort albeit the melancholy.

Just like stupidity, everybody around the victim realises the affliction except the affected party. The sooner the party realises her predicament, the sooner remedy can be sought. Failing this, she would continue barking up the wrong tree to find another name for her bad times. Blame it on the rain, stars, sun, planets and everything in between but the space between the ears.

Winston Churchill had a black dog
his name was written on it
It followed him around from town to town
It’d bring him downtook him for a good long ride 
took him for a good look around
Reg Mombassa: Black dog

Say a little prayer...

You cannot fault me for thinking that when I am air bound, I am just a particle in the sky away the scrutiny of eyes of people who were supposed to be on a lookout for my welfare. From a person whose knowledge of projectile does not go beyond the problems I have solved in Mechanical Mathematics and understanding projectile vomiting, I cannot be faulted to think that if anything were to go wrong in stratosphere, I would be literally on a free fall. Nobody would know where I am and where to look for me.
It is not paranoia or some kind of phobia of flying that drove me to think so.
10  months ago, our plane went missing and till date no one has a clue where it went, where to look for it and what came out the billions spent looking for it.
And more recently, another one went missing. They had all the communication records and flight path at their disposal and yet 2 weeks into its disappearance, they are unable to put a closure to the mishap.
So, when you are up there, you are really on your own. Nobody has a clue where you are and what to do in case something goes wrong. Time spent listening to flight safety instructions can be better spent praying. That is, if anyone out there is even listening... What else can you do but hope?

He thought he ruled the skies!

Above us only sky?

"Why is it that people get all emotional when a plane goes down in its line of duty?" complained a friend after viewing umpteen posts of the downing of a plane involving 166 and  hardly anything on the massive floods that submerged almost the whole of the east coast of the peninsular, affecting close to 200,000 people of all strata and tears that would fall after the aftermath.
Is it because traditionally flying involved people who are important performing jobs which would literally alter the course of mankind? Perhaps, it does not hold water anymore, since, now everyone can fly! The glitz of flying as being the domain of the rich and famous was relevant in mid 20th century.
Is that the reason so much of resources is spent on its search and rescue missions?
I tend to think that perhaps, man's ability to fly is one giant step in their civilisation. Being a biped, walking on land, ability to fly off the ground with no physical contact with Mother Gaia is a feather in his cap (pun unintended) and giant step in advancement. He, through generations, was fascinated with  the wing spanning feathered animals. He had tried disastrously to mimic them in many laughable and ridiculously failed manoeuvres.
Not being the one to succumb to the pressures of the forces of Nature, he constantly assesses and revises the shortfalls in his inventions to attain perfection.
So, when his dear invention meets failure, he naturally feels defeated and wants to get to the bottom of the matter!
P/S: Looking at the turn events of aviation mishaps of late, it appear that the passengers are actually travelling at the mercy of element of chance. Nobody actually seem to know exactly what is happening on air and where actually is the air craft. When all hell break, these deficiencies surface. 

Awake the fighting spirit in us!

 Alive! (1993)

I remember watching the trailer of this dubbed (Mexican) film named 'Survive!'. My sister and I were fascinated by the cinematography and the desperation of the passengers to survive in the freezing temperatures of the Andes. We never watched it till now. After the MH370 mystery, I thought of giving it a go.

This survival film shows the fighting spirit of humans to live in the treacherous, freezing, barren mountainous terrain of the Andes over two months. A group of young boys and relatives were travelling from Uruguay to Chile. As they descended, misjudgement caused the plane to lose a wing, part of her fuselage and the other wing and finally crash in the middle of nowhere, making it impossible for anyone to search and rescue. With no telecommunications and a limited food supply, staying alive in the cold was a Herculean task. If that was not enough, an avalanche hit the unfortunate victims, killing more passengers who were not killed earlier.

The dilemma that the survivors had to endure to stay alive in a freezing mountain with no vegetation is the conundrum of resorting to cannibalism, feeding on the flesh of the dead. The question of God and retribution was constantly argued. Most of them relented to severe hunger pangs. One succumbed to starvation.

I quite enjoyed the movie, as the events were real, and the screenplay kept to the origin story. All five crew members perished, and 29 of the 45 passengers met their maker.

Above us only sky, amongst us bigots!

You tell me the world is a smaller place, that there are no borders but only in our minds, that Lennon prophecy of there is no country will soon be reality. You say that globalisation is bringing us that way. I beg to differ.
People are flocking together. People with small minds are flocking together with fellow feeble minded individuals of the same calibre. They are trying to see the difference amongst us rather than rejoice the various journeys that we take to reach our destination. Don't they know that all roads lead to Rome (or Jerusalem!)? Even amongst themselves they aspire to further subdivide and claim superiority over the other. It is always 'they' and 'us'. Even though all DNAs are all 99.99% all the same and they have not found the sequence for stupidity, they still claim that they are 'the chosen one'.
They live in a cocoon contented with they have and swear that there is nothing more that need to explored as they been enlightened millennia ago.
In social medias, as if these man-made divisions are not enough, they have made groups by alma mater, by ethnicity, by sub-ethinicity, etceteras ... And they have hostility against each other, forever trying to find the difference rather than similarities.
Are these all effects of being in the comfort zone for far too long? Are they begging to put in place with a wave of calamity to strike them? History has proven again and again that man will only unite when they have a unconquerable common enemy. It could be a mammoth natural calamity, common abhorrence against an incorrigible tyrant, pathetic living conditions or absolute hopelessness when all of common human dignity is at stake!

Mollywood disaster movie

Dam 999 (2011)
In spite of having a band of renowned award winning film makers in the crew and many accolades to boast, the producers actually lost money making this movie. Before even hitting the silver screen, the movie industry fraternity gave threat their choice of actors and even a court injunction was out to ban its screening. Even though the movie is supposed to highlight the danger of dams and was dedicated to the 1/4 million people who perished in China dam mishap in 1975, the governments of Tamil Nadu and Kerala thought that it would ignite the age old water squabble between the two states. The 999 in the title refers to the 9th September 2009 and it was supposed to depict nine types of human emotions.

Vimala Raman - a sight for sore eye

Unfortunately, I failed to appreciate these 9 emotions in this film. Perhaps it was the language in which I was watching, Tamil. This film actually comes in four languages, the original Malayalam, the dubbed Tamil, dubbed Hindi and dubbed English. To a certain extent, all the films are dubbed as the cast is a international type - Americans, Pakistani, Bollywood and Mollywood.

Special EFX

The props in the set look very impressive and the cinematography shows leaps of improvement from the usual fare that is churned out from the sub-continent.
Unfortunately, the movie tries to cover too many things here. They try to highlight advanced nature of Ayurvedic treatment, the advanced nature of Indian astronomic calculations, the corrupt politicians and of course the dangers of a mammoth man made dam all in 1 hour and a half.
Except for Rajit Kapoor, Vimala Raman and Ashish Vidyarthi, the rest of the actors did not really impress on the acting faculty.