Showing posts with label humanity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humanity. Show all posts

Friday, 27 June 2025

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Lord of the Flies

The Book (1954)
(Based on the 1954 novel by William Golding)
(1963 movie, directed by Peter Brook)
(1990 movie, directed by Harry Hook)

This book is a popular choice among English literature students. It fosters engaging debate on the darker aspects of human nature, leadership, and the evil that resides within us. There is a fine line between remaining civilised and succumbing to savagery.

It was the period after WW2; the world must have been perplexed by the scale of the atrocities that took place during the war. The level of violence and destruction, especially after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, must have prompted questions about the evil that resides within each person. The 1950s still likely were not among the most peaceful times, as Russians had learned to produce the A-bomb and the US was moving into H-bombs.

Golding's story depicts a group of preteen boys stranded on an isolated island after their plane crashes. With limited resources, they attempt to survive until rescue arrives. The boys try to establish law and order by choosing a leader. Gradually, a rebel group forms among them, who would eventually go to great lengths to enforce their own ways.

1963 film
Even though they are just boys, it is interesting to see how they summon the animal savagery that lies dormant within their souls to harm and even kill the other party when competing. The dangers of unleashed energies driven by mob mentality cannot be overstated. At first glance, the narration portrays all people as inherently evil. We tend to see people as unthinking automatons with no agency. However, upon closer examination, some individuals do care for each other's safety. The boys initially cooperate to use what they have learned at school, like starting a fire and protecting themselves. They are willing to accept laws and follow them gladly. It is only when circumstances become tough that they retreat to their animal, primal instincts, revealing their ugly side. 

1990 film
People have to be kept contented and preoccupied with something to do. They need to be told what to do. Some amongst us are leaders material, the majority are mere followers and are easily malleable to rhetoric. An idle mind is the devil's workshop and the commentary of resentment and rebellion. When the piece of pie becomes smaller, tempers flare. There is a thin line between orderliness and mayhem.

Both the 1963 and 1990 versions feature mainly young characters, but I prefer the 1963 one. Maybe I am a fan of 'black-and-white'; it has more depth and gives the surreal feel of being trapped on an island. However, it also evoked a sense of watching a secondary school drama.

Both good and evil reside in the human soul. As individuals, we must remind ourselves to stay on the right path and not stray into darkness. Human history has shown that no single form of governance can withstand the test of time. When humans first began living in communities, they believed that autocratic rule by a monarch with demigod-like status would suffice. Resentment grew when divisive rulership became evident. Revolution was then justified. They thought that communism was the answer. However, human greed eventually overshadowed the desire for equality. It too collapsed. The free market often degenerated into vulture capitalism, and human follies permeated all systems. In a world darkened by terrible deeds, regular self-questioning and reasoning seem to be the only way social justice can prevail. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

P.S. 'Lord of the Flies' is another reference to Satan (Beelzebub).



Wednesday, 18 October 2023

Forgive for peace?

Rubaru Roshni (Where the Light Comes In)
Directed by Svati Chakravarthy Bhatkal

 The general order of things in the Universe is such. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. An eye for an eye, a tit for a tad, and 'you do the crime, you do the time'. Even the karmic rule dictates that we pay our dues. We have been taught to take responsibility for our actions with no recourse. The others will jump at the slightest chance to pounce and breathe down on the perpetrator as if he, in the wise words of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, is eligible to cast the first stone.

Rumi once wrote, 'The wound is the place where the Light enters you'. A person who is heartbroken but remorseful after a regrettable act is open to amends. Unfortunately, it is not as easy as swiping the slate clean and turning over a new leaf. As practised by Roman Catholics, confessions may offer solace to the perpetrator but not to the victim. The aggrieving party will also have to deal with their own heartaches and trauma. A face-to-face meeting is a logical choice to reach conciliation, but is it really the solution? Can it even happen in this day and age?

This whole exercise of vis-à-vis intervention is, as solicitors would term, perverse to natural justice. In a world where nobody turns the other cheek anymore but slaps back instead, resolution and forgiveness are unthinkable. In an environment where one seeks 'justice' that all the money can buy or the highest court they can go to, it is terrible for business. Unless, of course, you are a nobody. Then, God is your witness, judge and executor of the 'other' party.

Rumi
A wound is where Light goes in. Light heals. Like that, cracks can be filled up, as is done in the Japanese pottery craft of Kintsugi. Defects repaired with powdered gold or silver dust end up being more robust than before.

All these sound nice and easy, forgiving and moving up. In reality, it takes a lot of courage and patience. Courage to accept the tragedy affected both parties, the perpetrator and those close to the victim. Patience to hear out what either party has to say to each other. On top of it all, both parties must have suffered enough. The offender must have done time and must have remorse to descend the throne of grandiosity.

That brings us to the case of commuting pardon to Najib, whose innumerable cases are still ongoing. First, he must have been comprehensively grilled and laid bare of any other possible crimes, lived to have paid his dues as decided by Law and be remorseful of his actions, as he is deemed to have committed the crime by Law. Otherwise, it is putting the cart before the horse.

Forgiveness is what we see in the three real-life events that are shown here. Forgiveness only comes after deliberation when both parties realise that carrying the burden or guilt is self-defeating. Tackling it head-on with empathy and humility goes a long way
.

Avatika Maken and her father's 
assassin, forgiven.
In the first case story, following the 1984 Operation Blue Star, after the alleged desecration of the Golden Temple, there was nationwide resentment against the Indian Government. Never mind that weapons were stored there and anti-nationalist activities were in full swing. PM Indra Gandhi was assassinated later. A riot broke out between the Sikhs and Hindus, claiming 17,000 Sikh lives in three days. A neutral report on the riot blamed the Congress Party M.P.s for the mayhem. Sikh separatist groups noted that and put Delhi Congressmen on their hit list. By chance, they shot Lalit Maken. His wife, Geethanjali, was collateral damage. Their only daughter, Avantika, then 6, grew up an angry orphan. Of the assassins, two were apprehended, charged and sentenced to death, while the third, Ranjit Singh Gill, escaped to the USA. Ranjit was arrested and spent a good 13 years in the U.S. prison before being expedited to India. In India, he received a life sentence. He appeared for parole three years later only to be opposed by Avantika.

Sr Selmy and her sister's murderer, forgiven.
The rest of the tale is about how Avantika and Ranjit, both feeling drained out because of the turn of events, met each other by chance. This led to reconciliation, with both starting a rejuvenated new life. It takes someone extraordinary to forgive and guts to admit mistakes and make amends. Ranjit realised he had been used as a pawn by power brokers who just scooted when things went south.

The second case study involved the brutal stabbing of a Malayali Catholic nun, Sr Rani Maria, in Udainagar, Madhya Pradesh, in 1995. The talk around town was that the Christian missionaries were busy converting tribal and Dalit communities. Riled by this, Samandar Singh, a farmer, with many landowners, stopped the bus Sr Rani was travelling and stabbed her more than 50 times in broad daylight. Cooped in prison for more than 11 years for his crime, Samandar felt remorse after seeing his accomplices go free.

Kia Scherr
Meanwhile, Sr Rani has a sister who is also a nun. The sister, Sr Selmy, and their mother did a lot of soul-searching and concluded that it was all God's plan. God and Sr. Rani would have forgiven Rani's killer. So when a Swamiji contacted the family about Samandar's regret, Sr Selmy made a trip to the prison where Samandar was imprisoned to tie Rakhi on Raksha Bandhan. From then on, it was raw emotion all the way. After his release, he makes a trip to Kerala to the mother. The family adopts him as another sibling.

Kia Scherr's husband and daughter had come to Mumbai for a meditation retreat. Unfortunately, the Oberoi Hotel where they stayed was in the way of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack in 2008. Rather than hating India as she lost her whole family there, she has resorted to making annual trips to India as a peace entrepreneur and co-founding a global peace initiative that works to bring tools of peace to education, business and government.


P.S. I struggle to comprehend why some forgive their aggressors while others go all out to throw the heaviest weight of the Law at them to get the maximum of incarceration for them. They would insist that no form of punishment is adequate enough.

Wednesday, 12 April 2023

Treating animals better than people?

All that Breathes (Documentary; 2022)
Director: Shaunak Sen

In a man-eat-man world, two brothers find their purpose in life, rescuing injured birds. Against a background of opposing groups fighting against the abrogation of article 370, of brothers of the same nation, hurting each other, we see two brothers going all out to rescue various birds and nursing them back to health, all voluntarily on their own accord with no training whatsoever. Within the confines of a dinghy house which they have converted into a bird clinic in Wazirabad in South Delhi, they have been rehabilitating small animals since the 1990s. 

The brothers, Nadeem Shehzad and Mohammad Saud, even had referrals from other veterinarian clinics to treat these feathered animals. One of the reasons these raptors were sent away is that these clinics could not feed them non-vegetarian meals. 

The brothers' efforts, even though they received minimal local financial support, garnered international recognition and the attention of a documentary maker and his team to immortalise their efforts.

What started as their late mother's teaching to be kind to fellow beings and all that breathe had snowballed to this. In an environment that is quite hostile, with all the Delhi pollution, their job is endless.

This documentary is a moving presentation with many artistically captured moments when and where fellow beings breathe the same airspace. Many reels show the many 'wild' animals that share our spaces in modern cities. A good documentary, India's nomination to the Oscars.


A cynic wonders whether the filmmakers are trying to portray India as a place so vile that even animals find it smothering to live. Not to forget the toxic environment that minorities have to put up with. And are we talking about pollution or societal pressures? And, of course, another group would lament that people's priorities are twisted - animals taking precedence over humans.  

Tuesday, 22 March 2022

So much about being civilised!

Donbass (Russian/Ukrainian; 2018)
Written/Direction: Sergei Loznitsa

The other day, a day after Putin's army invaded Ukraine, posts on many Malaysians' social media posts read, 'Pray for Ukraine'. One should not have sleepless nights thinking of 'writings on the walls' like this, as it has become almost like a knee-jerk reaction to any world event. Nobody wants to ask why should we pray to an omnipotent God who was in a position not to let it happen at all in the first place. But yet, they convince themselves by alleging that great things are willed by Him, but the follies are only ours. His Grace will save us.

Hey, don't the Malaysians have a bone to pick with the Ukrainians? After all, it is above their airspace that our national carrier MH17 went down in 2014? Ukrainian pro-Russian freedom fighters allegedly shot the MAS plane with Russian firepower as determined by the multinational Joint Investigative Tribunal. So Ukrainians are not all at fault but Putin and the Russians? To date, nothing has happened. Putin denies everything. Family members have sued the airline for taking that war-torn route, but nobody can touch Russia.

MH17: What was left of it!
The recent Ukraine invasion has taught us that everybody in Russia is convinced that their reason for war is just. They bring in the pride of patriotism defending one's nationalistic spirit, ideology, free spirit or religion. They forget that, like what Lao Tsu had said, 'Nobody wins in a war!' This message is specially targetted to the layman in the street.s The leaders who stir the false sentiment can quickly flee from the country for political asylum. The public dies as martyrs to be immortalised as national treasures in monuments for crows to lay their excrements.

The current situation is more complicated than meets the eye. The world media paints a very one-dimensional narrative of the whole conflict - the badass communist infiltrating a young country newly escaped from the evil clutches of communism trying to be spread love in the free world! It is more complicated than that. 

The history of Ukraine goes way back before that of Russia. Whilst the Russian wasteland was roamed by nomadic tribes and barbaric horsemen, Ukraine already had a semblance of civilisational living which the Christian invader later labelled as pagan. Empires over empires split up this region over the centuries till it was usurped by the winning Red Soviet. The Reds wanting to maintain their hegemony started russifying the area. The Eastern part of Ukraine ended up with a large population who associated themselves with Mother Russia.
Wars bring out the best and worst of humanity!

After losing its communist mettle, Putin and his henchmen try to influence Ukrainian leaders with carrots. The citizens, still reeling from the tail-end days of communism, are reasonably contented with capitalism and the free spirit it had to offer. 

Now, the region is left with a zombie-like Neonazi faction of Ukrainian and Wagner's group of mercenary soldiers who do Putin's dirty work. 

Ukraine is now in the same position as a child caught between two divorcing parents. On one side, the West enticed them with business and bio-weapon laboratories. The Russian oligarchs brought in the mollah, but they centred it around Dondass and the eastern part of the country. The Western part ended up as rent-seekers depending on the Eastern industrialists. Now the helpers from both sides have washed their hands. To add salt on the wound, Ukraine, in the name of saving humanity from annihilation from a nuclear mushroom, have given up their nuclear facilities. Now they have to depend on the world's goodwill to stay afloat. 

This documentary was made in 2014 amid a civil war when Russians supported rebel groups that wanted to take the country. It is a kind of cruel caricature of war does, not to powers that be in the ivory tower, but to average Joe Public. Disruption of daily routine, loss of basic amenities, basic decency and lack of basic needs of life are not felt by the generals but by the man on the street. In the name of patriotism and wanting to defend a piece of cloth, they thump their chest to protect their land and send their offspring to the slaughter.

Love and marriage go on still!
It was a time when Russia annexed Crimea that a separatist group from the Donbas region tried to redeem autonomy from Ukraine with the help of the Russian army.

From time immemorial, people from this region have been fighting. From the time of the Kievan Rus to the Cossack to the reign of Catherine the Great to the Habsburg Empire, then to the World Wars and Soviet era, it has been just wars over wars. And the Caucasians have the audacity to consider themselves as higher beings ordained by God to civilise the coloured natives of their dark and demonic civilisations. 

Thursday, 14 January 2021

A believable myth

Tumbbad (Hindi; 2018)

Interestingly, myths, folklores and scriptures of lands far away carry a similar line of storytelling. As a baby, we find Moses let loose on a waterproofed basket in River Nile to escape the Pharoah's clutches and how he was brought up in another family. Is it a mere coincidence that the cases of Karna whose mother, Kunti, left him in a basket in a river to escape shame and Krishna, whose mother, Devaki, did the same to escape the tyranny of an evil king strike a similar chord? Like that many similar stories are found in the Zoroastrian scriptures and even the Greek myths.

One plausible explanation was given to Moses's comparable tales, Karna and Krishna is the time Jews spend in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar decimated Jerusalem and its first Holy Temple and took Jews as slaves to Babylon. Cyrus freed them and helped them to build the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Apparently, in the 60 years, the Jews spent time in Babylon they had assimilated some of the Hindu mythology into their own scriptures!

 The exciting thing about this film is the storyline. Given a fictitious tale of a greedy child and his doting mother. The Goddess of Prosperity is said to have mothered 160 million gods. Her first child, in her womb, was a greedy one. He was eyeing for his mother's gold and food. He got the gold, but the other gods managed to stop him before acquiring the mother's food. The goddess made a deal with the other gods that the child, Hastar, would not be worshipped and lost by history. 

Fast forward to 1918, Hastar in the form of an old lady is kept in a dungeon under shackles. She is fed regularly and kept asleep by a mother and her two young sons. One day the routine goes haywire when the younger boy injures himself and has to be taken to another town for medical attention. All goes wrong when the elder son, Vinayak, is tasked to feed the old lady. She becomes violent and almost gobbled him up. The returning mother immediately sends the elder away to another town. The younger boy had died.

 
Knowing that there are secrets hidden in the mansion that he lived in Tumbbad, Vinayak returns as an adult full of debts. He finds out about the gold that he has to fight out with the imp, Hastar himself. Vinayak steals a few gold coins from Hastar's loin-cloth as he is busy gobbling food. The story becomes twisted as Vinayak becomes prosperous and that stirs the curiosity of his creditor. As Vinayak gets older and too weak to fight the imp, he coaches his son to take over. 1947 had come, and Tumbbad is appropriated by the government.

An interesting piece of storytelling and has a string of accolades under its belt to prove it. It a symbolic representation of man's greed for material wealth. They fail to realise that what they need in life are simple. They need a stomach to fill and to live life to appreciate the positive things that life has to offer - the joy of seeing a happy family, seeing the children grow and nurturing them for the next generation. People take their family members for granted.

Tuesday, 29 December 2020

Doggone Man!

Chief, Doggy extraordinaire
Credit: IMDB
I watched an episode of the documentary 'Forensic Files' where a dog, when it failed to protects its masters, still managed to bring justice to the masters via its DNA to expose the identity of their murderers. 

A group of gangsters had entered a couple's home mistakenly thinking that the stash cocaine that they were looking for was there. Chief, a pit bull-Labrador mix pet of the household, pounced at the intruders only to be subdued by a gunshot on its shoulder. The gangsters continued their harassment by shooting the wife dead and giving non-fatal shots at the husband. Despite his near-fatal wound, Chief pounced back on the shooter as he was aiming at his master's chest. The shooter turned and shot Chief right between the eyes. The couple and their pet succumbed to the injuries eventually. Despite all the extensive police investigations, the perpetrators could not be pinpointed. Finally, Chief's DNA and furs were instrumental in bringing a guilty verdict to the gangsters. Poetically, even after its death, a dog did his duty to bring justice to his Masters by bringing to light their killers. I am pretty sure that is what his owner would have wanted. 

That episode left a sour aftertaste after learning what a domestic animal could do for his master; serve even after his death. I could help but compare to the news that had been hitting the headlines recently. 

The Human Resources Minister recently made a spot check into some foreign workers' living conditions in a particular small glove-making factory and was shocked to discover that their hostels were comparable to cowsheds.

It is besides the point whether his officers were ignorant to all these and that the minister was living under a rock, this is how human beings treat their kind. The bosses depend on their workers' loyalty and toiling under extreme conditions to fatten the company coffers, and this is what they get in return - living conditions fit for cattle. 

Then there was a woman whom I met in the course of my daytime work who just enough to sneak herself into the country to work clandestinely in a small factory but not intelligent enough to care for her biological organs. When the employer, the biological seed contributor, after discovering her parturient state, hurried off and claimed ignorance. That is how much loyalty is reserved for a fellow human being. 

For a piece of discarded bone, a pat on its head and a walk with his leash, I guess a dog would serve its master with its life. That is much more what a thinking Homosapien would do for another.


P.S. The word 'Doggone' is a euphemism for 'Goddamn it."

Tuesday, 21 July 2020

Can't buy happiness, just feel happy!

Two (1965)
Director: Satyajit Ray




In 1964, renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray was asked to create a short film for ‘ESSO World Theater’, a cultural showcase presented on television and funded by the American oil company Esso. Asked to write and direct the film in English, Ray opted instead to make a film without words. The result is a poignant fable of friendship and rivalry. As he did for many of his movies, Ray composed the music for the film, including the haunting tune played on a flute. After Satyajit Ray was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1992, the Academy embarked on an ambitious endeavour to preserve the works of the Bengali filmmaker. “Two,” also known as “Parable of Two,” is part of the Academy’s Satyajit Ray Collection (http://www.oscars.org/film-archive/co...), which includes 18 feature films directed by Ray and preserved by the Archive. (Youtube)

It is ironic that film without words can make one speechless. One can say so much by not speaking at all. It is partly the storyline and also the ingenuity of the director that helps to bring out the unspoken message which is left to everyone's imagination to decipher.

It is ironic that Ray made this short film for a multinational company which is involved in the global promotion of consumerism, materialism and decadence of the environment. I look at it as a slap on the face. From the get-go, one can see a well-fed home-alone well dressed young boy complete with a hat with big ear-like contraptions which will only remind one of Mickey Mouse. And he is seen gulping a beverage from a bottle which has the shape of Coca Cola - what else can it be? He is obviously feeling bored despite all the expensive toys that are lying around him. 

Out down from his window, he sees a poor peasant boy having a whale of a time playing a melodious tune on his flute. Jealous that the poor boy can have such a good time, he sabotages his every plaything; banging his drums, shooting with his toy gun and even shooting down his kite.

Despite all the destructive attempts at spoiling the poor boy's play, the latter returns with more ideas to entertain himself. The rich boy remains unhappy despite his access to luxury and the toys at his disposal.

The people in power are hellbent on crushing the hopes and attempts of the less fortunate to progress. The well-heeled feel that only they deserve to be happy. After all, money can buy happiness, they think. The poor, they believe, merit what they have for all their Dionysian outlook of life.  

The clip may be voiceless, but the message is loud and clear. Happiness is also a metaphor for the human spirit. The poor are representative of the human race collectively. Despite the repeated insults hurled upon them by the powers that be, the rich multinationals which rapaciously destroy the planet or even Mother Nature who regularly test them with calamities, the human race will never give up. Hitting brick walls has become second nature to them. Overcome they shall.



Wednesday, 5 February 2020

Fight till the last man standing!

1917 (2019)
Director: Sam Mendes

The story is written by Sam Mendes based on what his grandfather told him. Mendes' grandfather was a soldier in the Trench War, and this offering is in his honour for his heroic act of treading through the dangers of the enemy-line and the perils of Nature to pass over a piece of vital information to the advancing army. His deed indeed saved the day and many fellow comrades.

I am a little perplexed. On the one hand, I am taught that violence is the primitive way of settling an issue. Violence can never solve any problems but instead, create new ones. An eye for an eye leaves the whole blind, they say. Yet in the same breath, the same people proclaim that turning the other cheek is stupidity.

All through our civilisation, war has been part and parcel of our evolution. With each significant catastrophe that we go through, the human race seems to go up one notch in terms of scientific achievement. War propels the world forward. War stimulates the economy, and the desire to dominate is one thing that gives pride. We form tribes and fall in line under a piece of cloth to provide us with a sense of pride to uphold. 

In a war, we say, everyone loses but yet, we are ever ready to justify the mother of all battles to end wars. We know where it led us.

The promise of wealth and power is good enough reason for us to get up in the morning and plunge ourselves into the conveyer belt that would send us all to the hole of destruction. We repeatedly justify our resort to extinction as a means to settle scores by putting the blame on Nature. Even our Universe is rough in its actions. Scorching expulsions of magma, destructive clash of meteorites, earth-shattering movements of tectonic plates and extremes of temperatures proves that the world is no pleasure cruise.



“Be afraid. Be very afraid.”*