'Main character syndrome'?

Baby Reindeer (Miniseries, E1-7; 2024)
Director: Weronika Tofilska & Josephine Bornebusch

(Based on the autobiography of Richard Ladd) 

I learned a new term today: main character syndrome. In a world where only I, me and myself, which people really care about, it is logical for people to think that they are indeed at the centre of the Universe. The sun and all the planets revolve around them. They naturally become the main characters in a story they narrate. Even though the story is their point of view, it looks like the other characters are just there to fill up space without giving any substance to the story.

This is what the other characters in this true story are saying.

This story is about a shy Scottish lad, Donny, who wants to be a comedian. It is an autobiography, actually. To sustain himself, he works as a bartender. In the course of his work, he meets a friendly lawyer whom he finds interesting.

He is not much of a comedian, really. He is not funny. Nobody laughs at his gigs. A TV scriptwriter takes Donny under his wing and promises to make him a star. The scriptwriter turns out to be a pervert who drugs him and rapes him.

Meanwhile, the lawyer he met at the bar turns out to be a stalker who goes to great lengths to make Donny's life a living hell. Donny has a transexual person for his girlfriend. The whole story is about how Donny emerges from the shadow of his past and handles his stalker to try to make something of his life. The trouble is that Donny appears drawn back to his past as if he enjoys the pain and lives to dwell in negativity.

Even though the storyteller tries to empathise with the stalker and the abuser, in biopics like these, the aggrieved party will have his own account of the whole event. So now, the stalker and the said abuser, which netizens can easily find out with all their wisdom, are thinking of taking legal action against Netflix for screening such a film. Unable to tell her version of what actually transpired during the whole fiasco, she accuses that writer of suffering from 'main character syndrome'.

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Punjab's Breaking Bad?

CAT (Punjabi, 2022)

Miniseries, Netflix.

Starting off as a martial race, the Sikhs stood up against Aurangzeb and his brutal imposition of jizya. There was a dire need to replenish the national coffers after his father, the megalomaniac Shah Jahan, had depleted them, completing the magnificent Taj Mahal. Their prowess continued during the reign of Maharajah Ranjit Singh. The emperor remains the lone leader who managed to unite Punjab and conquer the region now referred to as Afghanistan. After Ranjit Singh's demise, it had been downhill all the way.

Maharajah Ranjit's heir Dalip Singh was placed under the care of the Crown after the second Anglo-Sikh War. He soon became a lost white man who signed off the Kohinoor to Queen Victoria, whom he looked up to as his mother. 

From then on, the land of five rivers had only seen nothing but misery. First, it witnessed its land carved up to appease certain quarters. A heart-wrenching swapping of citizens illustrated by brutal slayings ensued. The nation had hardly recovered from that blow just 30 years later, and a major religious riot occurred between Hindus and Sikhs. Radical Sikh leaders had stockpiled weapons and explosives in the Golden Temple. When the authorities marched in to defuse increasing security concerns in the state, it was deemed as disrespecting the sanctity of the august place of worship. The only remedial solution, at that time, the terrorists felt, was to assassinate the Prime Minister who gave the marching orders.

The late 20th century spilling into the 21st saw Punjab fighting enemies from within and without. If the earlier stock of Punjabis had a roaring nationalistic (or the glory of the Sikh teachings) spirit, the newer generation had lost it. They had to deal with declining agricultural produce, traditionally their selling point. It is no longer the state that generates the most taxes for India. Alcoholism is a big problem; no matter how hard drugs are curtailed, they keep popping up. Young Punjabis all have one life ambition: to migrate and settle in Canada. Therein comes the trouble from outside. The radical Khalistani movement rooted in Canada is hell-bent on demanding separatism. The other external annoyance is, of course, Pakistan, whose raison d'etre is to derail India. Most, if not all, of Punjab's drugs are parachuted across the Pak-Punjab northern border. 

How does one solve a problem like Punjab? This web series seems to suggest that it is impossible. Even if one is resolved to do it, the grit is often met with a corrupt web of politicians, police personnel, civil servants and a lethargic system that is quite content with the status quo. The lure to get some quick bucks and get the hell out of the badland is so compelling that people are willing, not batting an eyelid, to cheat their loved ones blind.

Gary, a teenager in the mid-1980s, became an orphan after his parents were killed by Sikh terrorists. He worked as an informant to the police to nab terrorists. He goes into a witness protection program, caring for his younger pre-teen siblings and working incognito as a car mechanic. He got his sister married, settled in Canada, and hoped his brother would do the same after passing his entrance exams.

His brother, however, has other plans. Hooked on the good life and recreational drugs, he gets into the wrong company. He is arrested. The devasted Gary, now Gurnam Singh is devastated. He meets the policeman who got him into the witness program by chance. That snowballs into Gary doing what he did before, as a police mole, to infiltrate a web of drugs nicely controlled by the police, local hoodlum and politicians. Gary realises that things are complicated now.

If one were to understand the psyche of the generation of Punjab, just listen to their latest trend in music videos. The videos of the 80s typically show greenery, tractors and village bungalows. Now, the theme is masculinity, booze, drugs, guns and about girls falling flat for gangster-like characters with flashy cars. Women are often portrayed as brainless sex toys waiting to be picked up.

There used to be a time when the general public felt secure in the presence of someone in a turban. A girl cat-whistled by a gang of boys will seek solace in the company of a Sadarji. The Standard Chartered Bank, a few years ago, used the image of a Sikh guard as an example of their impenetrable security. I wonder if people will still feel the same after watching this series.

Sidhu Moose Wala (1993-2022)

Controversial Punjabi Rapper infamous for promoting

gun culture and challenging religious establishment.

He was shot dead by Canadian gangsters in a gang-related rivalry.

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A nation addicted?

Dopesick (Miniseries; 2021)

Disney plus.

The medical fraternity has an uphill task. Too often than not, they have not lived up to their promise. The public cannot be blamed if they get the impression that this noblest profession has been infiltrated with financial gains, deviating far from what Hippocrates and ancient healers had in their minds. Medical professionals are looked upon as conniving smooth talkers who are just out there to cheat their clients blind through incomprehensible jargon and careful wordplay.

In the 1950s, thalidomide was hailed as the next best thing for pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting. Advertisers were out on a limb trying to sell it as a safe drug until the American courts banned its production after being linked to causing babies to be born with defective limbs (phocomelia). Then joining in the fervour in wanting to vaccinate the nation against poliomyelitis, the medical-industrial giants went on a crusade to produce a polio vaccine. Cutter Laboratories in California inadvertently had live active viruses in its vaccine instead of the live attenuated ones. Consequently, 120,000 children were injected with the Cutter vaccine, resulting in 40,000 recipients getting iatrogenic 'polio-like illness', 55 having permanent paralysis and 5 deaths.

From the Framingham studies to WHI studies, people have been painted with the same narrative by the medical business industries. Backed with scientific statistics, media presence, legal backing, bottomless financial wells and the medical professionals at their beck and call, Big Pharma can sell ice to the Eskimos. A Tamil proverb says, 'at the mention of money, even a corpse would open its mouth in awe'. In modern life, everyone and everything has a price. There is nothing like a bit of palm greasing would do.

Ad for thalidomide

Doctors often try to keep up with the latest advances in medical sciences via peer-reviewed articles and carefully conducted research. When research is tainted with grant money obtained by the drugmakers and vested interest is involved, one cannot get unbiased findings. The doctors are caught in the centre. They are in the unenviable position of bridging between the patients, who trust their good doctors and the vulture businessmen. The patients like to think that their doctors would put the patients' interest foremost, not the manufacturers', whose main appeal is showing profitability to their shareholders.

Doctors often try to keep up with the latest advances in medical sciences via peer-reviewed articles and carefully conducted research. When research is tainted with grant money obtained by the drugmakers and vested interest is involved, one cannot get unbiased findings. The doctors are caught in the centre. They are in the unenviable position of bridging between the patients, who trust their good doctors and the vulture businessmen. The patients like to think that their doctors would put the patients' interest foremost, not the manufacturers', whose main appeal is showing profitability to their shareholders.

In a world that constantly values material things over altruistic causes, it is easy for one to fall into the trap of materialism and have his soul sold to the devil. After all, they start their professional careers as debtors and spend their whole professional life trying to pay them off. Do they not deserve a little comfort in life after slogging their whole life through? 

If the recent pandemic taught us anything, it at least re-emphasised the fact that there are two sides to the story. What is accepted as the gold standard does not stay such for long. It gets 'oxidised' and loses its sparkle for new metal to emerge. First, the scientists posited that lockdown was necessary to curb transmission to avoid strain on the medical services. They promised that vaccination would help to hasten herd immunity. Then the scientific community suggested that a second dose was necessary to maintain immunity. The basic consensus about herd immunity suddenly took a re-definition. The classical dictum dictated that it is not the individual immune status that mattered but the whole community. If formerly 80% immunity was considered sufficient to ward off illness from the community, the 21st century warranted each individual to be mandated to have the vaccine, carry a vaccine passport and denied individual liberty if he decided that the whole exercise was bunkum.

Cutter polio vaccine

If all that was not enough, somebody decreed a third booster dose and maybe a fourth dose for the most vulnerable in society. The literature search for this topic becomes more perplexing. For every point substantiating a particular subject matter, there would be many opposing points depending on the type of media the issue is discussed or who is sponsoring the journal.

Almost like an afterthought, everything is off - no lockdown, no mask, no travel restrictions, no vaccine passport. I guess the financial gains from a lab-made virus have run thin.

Pain has always been thought a form of body self-defence. Injury to a specific area of the body triggers chemical substances within the vicinity to restrict the part's movements to curb further damage. Pain has always been accepted as a normal body response to trauma or inflammation. Ancient societies had even linked a virtue to this body response. Penance has been carried out to appease the divine forces. Life miseries have been assumed to be a test of faith, and the Lord's suffering on the Cross has its special meanings in Christianity.

However, to modern society, pain is a meaningless annoyance that they can do without. Perhaps, the comforts of life have turned mankind into fragile mimosa pudicas. In the 1990s, alleviating pain was the pharmaceutical industry's primary concern. The problem with oral pain medication is that the most effective of the pain reliefs are the habit-forming addictive narcotic analgesics. Purdue Pharma somehow convinced everybody, including the FDA, that their slow-release narcotic formulation, Oxycontin, is unique in minimising addiction. Addiction was determined to be less than 1% through dubious inpatient studies!

FDA and soon the medical fraternity bought the Purdue Pharma story wholesome. Doctors followed the sciences, and the scientists' recommendations were good enough. Pretty soon, doctors become more and more liberal with their prescription of Oxycontin for their patients' even the mildest of pain.

In an effort to treat pain adequately, the American Pain Society, in 1996, classified pain as a vital sign to monitor (after pulse rate, blood pressure, respiration, temperature). They even have a visual assessment chart to quantify pain to administer adequate analgesics. Interestingly, pain is very subjective, and patients tend to overscore the pain they feel, making doctors overprescribe. Purdue was not complaining. The demand more Oxycontin increased. The previously unmentioned subject of tolerance to Oxycontin came to light. Pretty soon, America saw a spate of drug-related violence. Many states with mining industries, including the Appalachian region, saw a phenomenal increase in break-ins into pharmacies. Drug addicts even started snorting Oxycontin. It piqued the interest of a particular DEA officer and a few lawyers in the AG office of the State of Virginia.

This miniseries is a dramatisation of one of the events that started the fall of the domino in the trust of the medical institution. It tells its narration with the journey of a dedicated small-town doctor who is duped by the drug company to widely prescribe and use the drug for himself. He spirals down the bottomless pit of drug addiction. He almost kills a patient and loses his medical licence. 

Part of the story involves a young Appalachian girl in the same town who was prescribed Oxycontin for a mining injury. Another part tells the moral dilemma of a drug sales representative for selling drugs with questionable benefits. Then there is the question of family dynamics within the board of Purdue Pharma.

This type of misinformation is not exclusive to the medical profession. What would a client think when his case gets dragged till it reaches the Court of Appeal and wins? Is there a hidden agenda for the lawyers to prolong his representation for more lucrative remunerations? Despite all the contributions from philanthropic members of the congregation, why is it that houses of worship are perennially short of cash and demand contributions?

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It's a hard life...

Oslo, August 31st (Norwegian; 2001)
Directed by Joachim Trier

Day to day living is complicated enough as we straddle through it aimlessly, wondering, "What is my mission ?". A certain semblance of certainty is pushed on upon us when we are told to follow the dotted lines left by those who traversed the road before us. There is a particular time to do this and that. Do what is expected of you at a specific time but do not jump the gun, they say.

Like a fleet of migrating birds, the current of the path is paved by the synchronicity of the flutter of the leader of the flock. Get into the stream and go with the flow. A recalcitrant starling who misses the spring schedule cannot possibly dream of finding greener pastures all by himself.

This must surely be a cruel way of Nature to punish those not in line. One small falter, and the individual gets decimated. There must surely be an alternative for outliers on either extreme of the Gaussian curve. But, Nature has been known to be extremely cruel. It does not give a damn.

Growing up into adulthood and fitting into adult roles are incredibly enduring endeavours. Everyone is assessed with a single yardstick and fitted into pre-designed cages. Latecomers will soon realise that they had missed the bus. If missing the bus was not bad enough, they were left with no transportation. Sometimes the latecomers feel so helpless that they wish that they would rather be under the bus. Life seems so hopeless.

This critically acclaimed movie is loosely based on a 1931 French novel by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, 'Will O' the Wisp'. It tells the tale of a recently institutionalised 

drug addict, Anders, trying to fit back into society. After losing five years of his formative years in rehab, he sees that the world has passed him by. His friends have found their footing in life. His former girlfriends have no time for him. His guy friends are talking about family life and children. Nevertheless, they do not seem too happy about it either. Even when Anders tries to get a job, his drug-filled past haunts him.

Anders tries very hard to fit in and start it all over again, but it is just so tricky. He yearns to end it all or maybe spiral back into the rabbit hole of cocaine ... It is tough.

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He who has the gold, makes the rules!

Feathered Cocaine: The Story of Money, Terrorism and Falconry (2010)

Is not interesting that fifteen years after the apprehension and killing of Osama bin Laden, this documentary is making its round. Perhaps, it is the flavour of the month as the US Elections are just around the corner. Probably because Joe Biden is associated with the old administration, it is a subtle reminder of the evil deeds of the past Government.

Watching this Tribeca Film Festival screened a documentary about falconry, it gave a kind of a deja vu feeling. It reminded me of the many so-called altruistic non-governmental organisation working on humanitarian cause getting a free pass into third world countries and starting to dictate how the host country should be run. Think Red Cross and the Bolshevik Revolution, think IMF and the 1997 economic crisis, think missionaries and the Nicaragua Contra rebels.

Here, in 2010 documentary, Alan Howell Parrot tells the story of his life. Becoming obsessed with falcons, at the age of 18 years, he bought himself a one-way ticket to Teheran. He left his serene life in the lush of Maine, New England to train professionally in falconry in the naked deserts of Iran. Here, he got a revelation of sorts. He realised the high status that falcons commanded in this region. A visit to the Golden Sikh Temple and the last Sikh Guru's, Guru Govind Singh's fascination with falcon made him assume a Sikh identity in appearance and way of living. Historically falcons played essential roles in international diplomacies. Even in Europe, falcons were gifted between kingdom to sweeten business transactions and shipping passage.

He returned to Cornell to study and returned halfway through his studies to the Middle East to legally catch, breed and sell wild Icelandic Falcons (Jer Falcons) to the filthy wealthy Arabs at up to $1 million per bird. Parrot (ironic) found himself mixing with the who's who of the upper echelon of the ruling class of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran as well as the infamous fugitive, Osama Bin Laden. The falcons were such priceless commodities, even more, valuable than cocaine. There was a massive demand in the black-market, but surprisingly most Governments are relaxed about curbing this illegal trade. In fact, many countries turn a blind eye to it as it is done in high places. 

Alan Parrot @ Hari Har Singh Khalsa

Many makeshift camps are built in the middle of nowhere in the desert terrains of Afghanistan and Pakistan called Falcon Hunting Camps. Here, Islamic radicals like Al-Qaida meet Arab royalties, and many deals are made. Obscene amounts of cash are given by the opulent royalties to the terrorist group as zakat as an atonement. Osama is known to have presented exquisite purebred falcons as gifts to the members of the Arab royalties. The 9-11 attack was allegedly agreed upon in one of these camps.

At the heights of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, he was a guest of the Iran government. Parrot and US intelligence were aware of his whereabouts. Despite repeated contact with the US authorities, the message somehow got lost in a bureaucratic maze. Or did it?

Parrot and his agents believe that there is a general malaise to stop this type of clandestine dealings. The black market of falcons has led to corruption against military leaders, political murder, and international terrorism. What is stopping them is money.  There is an apparent shady connection between this falcon trade and royal dynasties, the CIA and KGB, the oil industry, American government, and Al-Qaeda. Even the enforcement officials have to line their pockets during the short tenure of their earning life. 

" Ultimately, the message that Feathered Cocaine wants to deliver to its audience is not strictly about falcon smuggling or the uncovering of evil plots conceived for ideological reasons. It is by far more pessimistic than that. Feathered Cocaine is one of many untimely records of corruption and greed. Untimely, but at the same time well-rooted in our turbulent globalized age. Power is one and the same anywhere, and terrorism is not but an excuse and a disguise to put the public opinion under pressure. All mechanisms are in favor of the profit of few. Escalation of terror is not going to stop, because involved interests are increasing their magnitude every day. Evidence of this trend is what happened in recent times, with tragedies whose connotations are still unknown to common people; facts like 9/11 are bound to happen again and again, because nobody among those holding power — not only the governments, but the lobbies and the organizations connecting them all — is at this point different in pursuing his main interests. And of course, this interest can be summed up with one name only: Money."

https://icelandchronicles.com/2011/01/feathered-cocaine-review/

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Robin Hood complex?

Hustlers (2019)


Look around you. It is no brainer that the divisions between the haves and the have nots are increasing as we speak. The price of essential goods only goes one way - up. There will be many justifications to raise the price of a commodity. It could be the weather, artificial shortage, the hike in petrol price, the value of our currency, you name it. Interestingly, when the offending factor is relieved, the price stays the same. Minimum wage barely changes but the lure to buy, purchase and spend never ends. 

The members at the lower end of the economic spectrum always seem the target of these baits via subliminal advertisements in the media or movies. In this cruel world of punishing the poor for being poor, it appears like the wealthy have it all too easy. We get to keep their cake and eat it.

A case in point is the 2008 and the many similar economic meltdowns that the world frequently experiences. The poor need to tighten their belts and pull themselves up by their bootstraps. The big conglomerates, investment bankers and the Wall Street hotshots instead get fat bonuses and a chance to run away with their obscene stash even though they singlehandedly were the cause of the mishap.

The law seems impotent to be dealing with all these shenanigans. It takes a lifetime to get the legal system to mete acceptable justice. The only beneficiary of this exercise is the legal fraternity itself. It pats itself as it assumes a demigod status displaying pristine honesty, laughing all the way to the bank.

Hence, the alternative strategy would be an ala 'Robin Hood' method, to rob from the rich to feed one's own lifelong desires. Unfortunately, society does not receive this kindly. Perhaps, they want a piece of the action. They want a share of the loot in the form of taxes. Robin Hood becomes the bad guy while the greedy wealthy bankers become the victim.

In a nutshell, this film tells how a group of exotic dancers (in everyday language, striptease) during the 2008 economic downturn, use their entrepreneurial skills to outwit the members of the financial market. The effort is nothing more than to live the high life that they always dreamt and to improve the lives of those around them. It is based on a real-life story where high-flying executives were cajoled into partying with them. They were drugged with a concoction of ketamine and MDMA (date drug) to max out their credit card and not having any recollection of it the day after.

The story is not new, but the moviemakers sex it up with the continuous flow of naked ladies in different stages of undress engaged in various unlady-like postures. Understandably, it proved too raunchy for screening in many Asian countries. Meanwhile, the media, parroting the voice of liberalism and freedom of expression, screams praises of the story and the acting. They even suggest it as one of the best offerings of the year to be churned out from Hollywood.  

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