So much for humanity!

 

It is heartbreaking to see a helpless grown man being beaten up and hosed down with water against his will. Things are different during Holi when people wilfully want to get wet and be sprinkled with coloured powder in the name of merriment.

This incident reminded me of a scene in the first instalment of Sylvester Stallone's 'First Blood', where John Rambo gets hosed with a powerful jet of water for being a nuisance.  

Here, as seen in the movie, a few days ago, a homeless man was shooed, chased and kicked about for sleeping in the footpath outside a commercial bank. A lady security guard was hosing him away while a cobbler who had his corner nearby started kicking him as he lay on the ground, pathetic. A passerby, who thought that rather than confronting the perpetrators and incurring their wrath, he recorded the incident and viralled it. Without missing a beat, within minutes, the internet was buzzing in a mad pitch. 

The bank acknowledged that the incident occurred outside its premises. It, however, refuted any involvement in the violence. Security was outsourced to a third party, and the bank washed its hands of it. 

Within the hour, a kind soul who made it his life's goal to help the homeless arrived at the scene and took the homeless man to a sanctuary he ran. Everyone was happy that the problem was solved. The homeless man has a place to rest his weary body and a roof over his head. Is the problem really solved?

The reason for the man's homelessness remains unknown. Where is his family? He did not look too unkempt, so his problem could be new. Does he have a medical condition? So far, we know his name. Safiudeen Pakkeer Mohamed from Tamil Nadu. 

We can give a tap on our shoulders for sorting out his problem, at least for the time being. But the way the two individuals handled the situation was quite appalling. They later, maybe as an afterthought, were heard telling reporters that they were merely cleaning him as the area reeked of excrement. 

Here, we are living in a country which cries for people wronged thousands of miles away who do not look anything like us. And we spent supplies on them as they lay stranded in a war zone. If that is not enough, we even send our planes to fetch their wounded to provide medical aid. 

Are we all guilty of exhibiting our prejudices to people beneath us? For those poorer than us, of darker complexion than us and of different appearances than us. We Malaysians are good at hosting foreigners and making them feel at home. When it comes to our own citizens who helped to build our country, we become suspicious. Suspicious that they would take a piece of the pie meant for us. Suspicious that the role would reverse. 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=410521716239827

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See you at the end of the road!

Nomadland (2020)
Director, Screenplay, Co-producer: Chloè Zhao

Maybe we never forgot our roots. Even though we decided to become farmers, stay put in one place and hope to gain strength through numbers (i.e. living in communities), we simply could not shake off our desires to wander and be close to Nature. As cavemen and hunter-gatherers, we were doing the same thing. We were awed by the things around us. We wanted to experience them and to know all about the fantastic things that we saw and felt. Who built them? When were these made?  Like an excited child, we yearned for answers. And we are still doing them today. 

At one time, we were told it is what it is. Do not ask too many questions of which answers you will not understand. It is beyond your comprehension, they would say. Nah, read these scriptures; everything is there. With science, it appears that this mindset is changing. People started asking questions and more question. Apparently, there were more questions than answers the more people asked. Curiosity piqued. Obviously, the books did not have all the answer. It seems that people need to feel to experience. They needed to spread their wings. The desire to travel is rekindled.

Much like a physical journey, our life journey gives us pockets of experiences. Every visual gratification, every smell, every touch, every feeling is an experience of its own. In life, we would encounter many sweet-bitter events. All these pockets of experiences form a composite picture of what we can say 'our life'.

'Nomadland' can be viewed as a cerebral movie that tries to look at two things that seem essential to the American public - homelessness and the zest to find the meaning of life. In a way, this film combines both topics. 

Chloè Zhao

Many townships that had experienced boomtown for decades are now in real danger of being wiped off the USA map. The industries and factories which formed the rock bed of their existence have suddenly lost their competitiveness. Many of the work had been outsourced to third world countries. Town dwellers had to find employment elsewhere. One such town in this story is Empire in Nevada. Fern, the protagonist, is one of the last people to leave this town after its Gypsum plant shuts down, and her husband dies. She sells her belongings to invest in a van to travel, see the world, and seek employment. 

In the course of her journey, she meets many fellow travellers who consider themselves 'nomads', making trying to escape the restrictive lives that they were leading or to cut loose of the melancholy that suffocate them. 

Perhaps by being out in the open amongst the gargantuan structures and mighty forces of nature, all our troubles seem insignificant. To the vast expanse of the Universe, we, as individuals, are irrelevant in the greater scheme of things. We are nothing, so are what we perceive as our unsolvable miseries.

Chloè Zhao has the enviable reputation of being the first woman of colour and the second woman to win the coveted 'Best Director' award at the Oscars. But, unfortunately, her native country, China, had censored all of her, the 2021 Oscar, as well as her acceptance. This is in response to her caustic remark about China in a 2013 interview. She had described China as a 'place where there are lies everywhere'.

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