But why is this happening?

Bird Box (2018)

Normally, I do not fancy post-apocalyptic disaster movies. I guess I got sucked into it with the constant bombardment of advertisements all over the place and the friendly suggestion by Netflix.

It tells of a lady who is in limbo with an unwanted pregnancy. An epidemic of sorts seems to be affecting many towns the world over. People are committing suicide en masse! During her antenatal checkup, with her sister, she realises that it hit her town too.

That cascades scenes of pandemonium, cars plunging into buildings and other car and people walking straight on into speeding trucks. After the horrid display of gore and blood, the remaining survivors try to make sense of the situation, fight remaining zombies who are hellbent on 'recruiting' 'suiciders' (for no apparent reason), staying alive, delivering babies, sacrificing most of them and finding safe space.

From the outset, the viewer can sense the storyline. Even which characters will be killed and the sequence by which they would go is there in plain sight. Predictably, the main female lead would fight the adversity with two children. Still, at the end of the day, we are left wondering what hit them and how did people realise so easily that it is in the seeing open spaces was where people became infected. And just because parrots squawk violently in the presence of impending doom, how can they be the de-facto gauge of danger? And what actually hit them. What is the supernatural force that makes people become zombies and harm themselves? We are left guessing.

I would continue to keep away from zombies.

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The missing human factor

Sully (2016)
Director: Clint Eastwood

This movie is quite relevant in this time and age. The democratisation of access to information and freedom to verbalise has reached such a height that everyone with half a brain is a warrior, at least in cyberspace. With the luxury of an obscene amount of information that their disposal assisted by the ease of artificial intelligence (which, knowledge-wise, coincidentally is as much as its inventor), turns every armchair critic into a seeker of the Truth and a self-appointed Robin Hood of the oppressed.

Heroes are born every day, but most of them remain unknown to us all. They appear out of thin air at the necessary time, do things beyond their expected capacity and disappear as quickly as the manifest. Sadly, many a time, their genuine intentions are questioned and put under the spotlight for scrutiny. Too much trust is placed on computer simulations. The human factors like empathy and compassion which had brought mankind through so many obstacles throughout their civilisation are swept under the carpet. We tend to think that artificial intelligence (AI) can replace Man. We forget that there is a reason why AI is labelled artificial in the first place.

This film is another of Eastwood's offerings to celebrate the deed of an ordinary man, based on a true story. Captain Sullenberger is an experienced pilot of American Airlines. Soon after lift-off from La Guardia airport of New York, both his aircraft engines failed after an encounter with a skein of geese. Despite orders from the control towers to redirect the plane to other airports, the good Captain made the calculated judgement to land the plane on the Hudson River instead. Even though all his 155 occupants escaped injury, the aircraft was a write-off. At the internal enquiry, he was questioned along the line of pilot error for the 'accident' for landing in the river rather than the airports as directed. Computer simulations concurred that damage to the vessel could have been averted if he had followed orders.

In this modern world where every modality of treatment, technology or device is assessed through comparative experiments and randomised double-blind studies, we forget the human element that is linked to the outcome of any endeavour. Lately, the scientific community has also realised that reproducibility is many findings in what is considered as hallmark studies strangely cannot be replicated! Experience plays a pivotal in decision making. Not all world-changing moments can be decided from cookbooks.

We lack super heroes?

The actions of King Rama, his consort Sita, his brother Laxman, his humble servant Hanuman have been used as the yardstick of how a human being should live his life. King Rama and his principle on natural justice, respect of power and upholding of promises; Queen Sita and her virtues of a chaste wife exemplified by her conduct; Laxman with the meaning of true friendship and Hanuman with undivided subservience to authority. The conducts and misconducts of the aristocrats and noblemen in Rama's court yard form the pillar of what Hindus the world over use to run and not to run their daily lives.
Man, the losers, were always awed by their captors. They would try to emulate and assimilate the cultures of their new found victors as their own. That would explain why we speak English and not don our sarongs to work.
So what I am saying is...Everyone is a role model either directly or indirectly to his subordinates. A child, no matter how much he despises his parents, will eventually pick up the subtle cues from the elders. So goes to the common man in the streets. His priorities are set according what he sees from his leaders and people in power. In the modern age of ICT and TV, pop and movie stars fill in the gap as well.

If the idols display traits that seem to glorify wealth, prosperity and the good life without hard work, that it would be. Money becomes the aim in life. If stars can be okay with shameless lifestyles and call it living the life, so be it too. Like in the case of the broken window theory, when the lethargy of enforcing law and order is the rule of the law, noble attributes that differentiate man and animal takes a back seat.
That my friend is the real reason why the young 12 year-olds need to re-sit their public examination papers. The people entrusted with the duty to maintain the cold chain of secrets had failed repeatedly because they fail to appreciate the need to maintain integrity in their line of work. Guess they have all their priorities twisted....

Chin Peng deserves his place of rest

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2013/09/22/chin-peng-deserves-his-place-of-rest/

September 22, 2013

Chin Peng’s ashes should be allowed the courtesy of entry into the country and internment in the place of his wish.

By M Kula Segaran
I have heard about the Communist Party of Malaya secretary general Chin Peng from a young age. For as long as I can remember, Chin Peng has been associated with the town of Sitiawan. More than interest in his career as a guerrilla fighter drew me to him.

I, too, hail from Sitiawan where I was born a good many years after Chin Peng emerged on the west coast of Perak in 1924. Marxists might disagree, but a sense of geographical solidarity may be just as strong as class solidarity.

I had wanted to meet up with Chin Peng since the time I first heard about him. Being from a rubber tapping family, I was drawn to read quite a lot about him and his struggles.

Rubber was the mainstay of the Malayan economy but rubber tappers were poor and communist ideology was sympathetic to those at the bottom of the economic ladder. Hence I had an interest in the fighter who was from my hometown of Sitiawan and in how his career worked out in history.

My curiosity was gratified with the publication of Chin Peng’s memoir of his struggle, ‘My Side of History’, which was published in 2003. I devoured the book and remembered striking aspects of the story.

An Ipoh lawyer of my acquaintance, Chan Kok Keong, took up Chin Peng’s application to the Malaysian government to be allowed to return to Malaysia to visit his parents’ graves. Kok Keong arranged for a meet-up in Bangkok in 2009.

Through Kok Keong’s connections, the meeting took place in a famous hotel in the Thai capital in 2009. With episodes in Chin Peng’s memoirs fresh in my memory, the first thing I did when I encountered the man in the flesh as different to the vivid character in the pages of ‘My Side of History’ was to ask about intriguing episodes in the book.

I asked how he evaded capture by the British and the Japanese while he traveled in Perak in the period between 1939 and during the Second World War (1942-45). He told me his base was in the high hills of Bidor, near Cameron Highlands.

Chin Peng told me that he cycled from his base in the hills of Bidor via rubber plantations to places where he could meet up with fellow guerillas and contacts. He told me almost all the time he was able to avoid detention. Till today, this narrative evokes wonder and awe in him.

I asked about how he had met up with the British military unit ferried by submarine to link up with officers of the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army on the coast of Perak in 1943. He said the submarine landed in Lumut Kiri.

Even present days Perakians would be hard put to know where Lumut Kiri is. It is a very remote area which is only accessible on foot. Chin Peng said he had cycled to Pantai Remis via rubber plantations and then walked the last few miles to Lumut Kiri to meet up with his British military contacts. This wasn’t an easy feat, even if attempted in these days — what more then!

Honouring agreements
In the Bangkok meeting with him, I sensed Chin Peng’s desire to o come back to Malaysia, if only to pay his respects at his parents’ graves which are at the Chinese grave site in the village of Pundut, in Lumut. Alas, that wish remains unfulfilled.

I have raised in Parliament the 1989 Peace Agreement between the Malaysian government and the MCP.

I have argued that the government must be ashamed for not honouring their part of the agreement to allow Chin Peng to return as required by the terms of the peace accord.

Now the government’s decision to disallow the internment of his ashes in Pundut compounds the insensibility of the earlier decision to bar his return to the country of his birth.

How can we expect others to abide by the terms of agreement they may make with us if our government violates and refuses to adhere to agreements we have made with others, such as the one we made with the MCP in 1989?

I disagree with communist ideology and abhor the huge loss of life and destruction of property their militant struggle caused in Malaya between 1948 and 1960, and on a lesser scale from 1960 to the conclusion of a peace agreement in 1989.

But I contend that the MCP’s struggle against the Japanese during the latter’s occupation of Malaya was valiant and their resistance to the British colonials after the defeat of the Japanese hastened the grant of independence to Malaya in 1957.

For that reason and also in deference to the terms of the 1989 peace accords, Chin Peng’s ashes should be allowed the courtesy of entry into the country and internment in the place of his wish.

M Kula Segaran the MP for Ipoh Barat and the DAP national vice chairman.

A touching story

A Stray Hero from Hisyam on Vimeo.