To stir the beehive?

Beekeeper (2023)
Director: David Ayer

Bees can teach us a thing or two about Nature. It is mind-boggling that something as small as this arthropod can have a complex, organised, self-sustaining community. Imagine all the structured living, with specialisation, hierarchical order, layered and combatant defence, and continuity with progeny happening in immaculate order, all in one colony. They do all these without a functioning brain but groping around using pheromones as their guide.

Everybody has a job to do, no matter how trivial or low down the food chain, and they have to play their roles elegantly.

In the eye of a modern man, the whole setup may reek of a Kafkaian dystopia. A communist regime, allegedly after a collective politburo discussion, what is best for the plebeians who follow blindly for the progress of the Motherland, may not be everyone's cup of tea. A Hindu-bashing leftist may remind us this is how the caste system works, that one is born into a caste and, hence, his profession. We know now that this is all bunkum. The four castes mentioned denote a person's aptitude, not profession. But hey, the leftists are too brainwashed to comprehend that.

Perhaps bees tell us that we should be sincere in performing our assigned duties as if it is the last thing in the world. Hell hath no fury a hornet nest provoked.

In the late 1960s, Americans woke up to a quiet spring. No bugs in the garden or birds flying in the sunny sky. People remembered that just a year previously, DDT was introduced as an effective way to combat malaria, typhus, and other insect-borne diseases. With time, the world has realised that every God's creation has its role in our delicate ecosystem.

Fast-forward to the 21st century. After mindlessly slashing their jungles and hunting animals to extinction, Europeans had a revelation. They realised that their population of wild wolves was dwindling critically. The corresponding effect is the burgeoning number of deer. Deer entered their highways and their households.

The new buzzword 'Rewilding' was thrown in. It involved a push to repopulate the wolf population in the wild. It is hoped that this would balance years of apathy. It is assumed that wolves would instantaneously start killing deer again, and equilibrium would be achieved again. Alas, they overlooked that now, thousands and thousands of sheep are reared on an industrial scale. If jumping on a helpless sheep is more effortless, why would the wolf struggle to hunt down a deer with antlers and all? Equilibrium takes years of work, and it cannot be forced.

By the way, this film has nothing to do with the write-up above. One of my favourite action heroes, Jason Stathon, acts in this B-grade movie, which showcases Statham as an unassuming retired commando who finds peace tending to his bees. When the only person who speaks to him commits suicide after a scam, the Beekeeper goes ballistic. Like a fighter bee, he blasts all barrels to hunt down the scammers.

[P.S. Our world is so polluted and damaged that the bee population is declining exponentially. To trigger pollination, beehives are rented out to farms and orchards. Much like Tinder or Shaadi.com, dating services hook up eligible or assumed bachelors to spur meet-ups, hopefully, meaningful copulation and continuity of progeny.]

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Nature and its reset button!

2018: Everyone is a Hero (Malayalam; 2023)
Written and Directed: Jude Anthany Joseph

This must surely be the first successful full-length disaster movie ever done by filmmakers of Indian cinema. Unlike the usual endeavours where the final outcomes appear inferior to an average B-grade Hollywood flick, this one is for real; it looks it anyway. It is India's entry to the 96th Academy Awards under the Foreign film category.

It tries to recreate the 2018 significant floods that hit Kerala. Monsoon was particularly bad that year, with unusually high rainfall that resulted in the worst floods in the century. 483 people died, and 15 went missing. In the aftermath of the floods, Keralites realised and feted not only the government-sanctioned rescue teams but also the role of the general public in helping each other out. The fishermen were particularly mentioned for rising to the occasion with their fishing boats. This movie is also to honour these people. Everyone is a hero when he acts selflessly.

Many characters' lives get entangled when a small village gets badly flooded. As strong as Nature is, it resets the order of things. A discharged Army is sometimes sniggered upon by villagers. He leads a quiet life, waiting for his visa application to Dubai to be ready. The ex-soldier turns out to be a hero later. A patriarchal fisherman family is upset that the second son is not interested in the family profession of fishing but is interested in modelling. Even his girlfriend's family rejects him mainly because he is from the lowly fishermen clan. The fishermen community became heroes later when they went around rescuing stranded villagers, including the family who looked down on them.

A long-distance grumpy interstate lorry driver from an arid-dry region of Tamil Nadu who is transporting dynamite to a group of dam protestors has a change of heart after seeing so much devastation. He becomes a hero and distributes ration food. A couple amid separation renew their bond. A couple who had built a new home is devasted their house is destroyed but is happy that they still have each other.

The thing that struck me about the movie is the part where the managers of a dam and their decision to control the release of water to balance between preventing the breakage of the dam and flooding of human habitation. Not that it had not happened before. One of the reasons cited for the recent massive floods in Pakistan was precisely this. Unable to pay for the maintenance of their dams, torrential rains caused dams to overflow and cause devastation.

Quite recently, the tragedy that befell Libya comes to mind. In an arid country like Libya, the dams that were built were like heaven-sent. Unfortunately, after years of neglect culminating from internal infighting and corruption, this oil-rich nation with the most enormous reserves in Africa never saw Nature giving them a curveball. An unprecedented storm and rainfall resulted in the dam being filled to the brim. A lackadaisical, contented attitude led to a chaotic warning system. Poor maintenance showed when the dam burst. Floods killed over 4,000 people.

Some say building a dam can be a curse. Perhaps it is just fighting back. The world over, many ambitious dam projects have proved disastrous. On top of all the news of dams overflowing with heavy monsoon and glacial waters, the ill-thought King Zahir's ambitious plan to build a massive dam to change Afghanistan to a little America only turned the country into a poppy-planting lawless one. Meanwhile, Russia has been embarking on projects where rivers flowing towards the Arctic regions are diverted artificially to irrigate lands where it is needed.

Worth the watch.

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of wants and needs...

We Are Nature (2021)

Pictures by: Wim Michiels

I met Wim and Ellen during their tour of duty to Malaysia. When they were here, we met every now and then. They kept me updated on their yet another adventure. Besides being keen hikers and long-distance runners, they soon debelled into cycling.

One of the most adventurous expeditions that they embarked upon must surely be their journey to Japan. They did it in style, however. Investing in a tandem bicycle, they started their journey in Kuala Lumpur and cycled their way all the way to Sapporo in Japan. Of course, I assume there must have been a ferry trip somewhere between South Korea to Japan and to Hokkaido.

Taking an extended leave from their daytime jobs and sorting out familial commitments, armed with basic necessities, pedal and leg power and the traditional paper maps, they embarked on their journey. 

Their excited family members and friends managed to follow their progress as they periodically updated their positions on their blog http://7billionand2.blogspot.com/ whenever digital signals showed up.

An interesting thing happened when they reached China. The Border Control officers, bored stamping document after document in a seemingly monotonous chore, must have been jolted off their slumber when they saw Wim and Ellen’s immigration card. They must have dropped off their chairs when they saw the mode of transportation as a bicycle. They came out of their cubicles to see what kind of vehicle had brought them all the way from the land at the tip of the South China Sea to mainland China!

They contacted their superiors to give a good inspection and scanning to ensure no wonder fuels were smuggled into China!

Incidentally, our paths almost crossed when they were passing through Cambodia. I had gone for a family visit (by air, of course), but due to logistics, I did not catch them there.

One life lesson they imparted from this travel is worth mentioning. After travelling for months, they finally reached Korea. Even though the travelling light as they had to carry their baggage on their tandem bicycle, they packed the bare minimum. Even then, they realised that half of their things remained untouched. 

By chance, an old friend caught up with Wim and Ellen while in South Korea. They sent back their unused things in tY their luggage as he returned to Kuala Lumpur. Wim’s famous pearl of wisdom, he mentioned later on, was this - half of the things that we think we need in this life are worthless. We do not require half of the things we think are essential for life. Sadly, we overestimate. Epicurean teachings are worth collecting. Give me wheat, give me water, and I will be a happy man.

Asian elephant close-up - Udawalawe National Park, Sri Lanka

Get off my back! No close-ups, no long shots. Just leave me alone. Too much on my elephantine mind right now. First, you used me in your wars. Then you took my tusk; you said it was priceless. You forced me to pull your logs and carry spoilt brats on my back. With a shortage of water catchment areas and a lack of habitat, I have nowhere to go. Now, don’t ask me to dance for you. Go get a monkey! FG

They have since returned to Belgium, but they continue in their search of natural beauty in the four corners of the world.

I was pleasantly surprised one day when I received a signed copy of his collection of photographs he had taken during his escapades. Apparently, his other passions include composing impressive pictures and capturing the picturesque side of nature. He had earlier requested some of his friends, yours truly included, to write little snippets based on the pictures Wim and Ellen had taken in their travels..

With permission, I had taken the liberty to reproduce some from his coffee table book.

Beach flower after a downpour, surviving in harsh conditions - Koh Lipe, Thailand.

Perspiring trying to keep the beauty amidst a world so harsh;

being a flower among the thorns. FG

Intriguing rock formations - Takachiho canyon, Kyushu, Japan.
You ain’t heavy, I am your rock. FG

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Just not in my backyard please!

Otters go sightseeing
in Singapore

You say they were here before you. Before you cleared the greens to build your homes and offices, they had theirs. That is how the world goes, is it not? One dominant species or even within species trying to dominate the other is part and parcel of life on Earth.

You sing your victory tunes when India's legal system proclaims River Yamuna as a living entity with rights. And the Native American Courts are looking at possibilities of defending rivers and lakes against errant developers who have no qualms contaminating Nature and destroying natural habitats in the name of development.

And you were happy when your backyard was featured in numeral documentaries and nature magazines for bringing back the fauna and flora that were lost in the name of wanting to catch up with the wave of industrial development. You proudly displayed greenery-filled pictures you snapped of your once backwater country on your wall.

Now it seems that Nature is back with a vengeance.

The cuddly and seemingly animals have outgrown their cuteness. Their living spaces seem insufficient, and they have ambitious plans to displace you or perhaps just build a symbiotic relationship with you. But you cannot stomach the idea of sharing your neighbourhood with them. I interpret your message as wanting them to live happily anywhere but not in your backyard. 

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Is it because of Nature or nurture?

Badhaai Do (Congratulations Due, Hindi; 2022)
Netflix

Learnt a new word today, a lavender marriage. 

Sure, the law has accepted the third gender and various sexual orientations. But, mind you, it is not universal and definitely not freely tolerated by many conservative communities. 

To conform to societal expectations and pressures, many members of the LGBTQIA+ community get themselves involved in 'sham marriages'. Couples undergo lavender marriages to appease the family and conceal their socially stigmatised sexual orientations. This is not something new. Rock Hudson, Barbara Stanwyck, Tyrone Power and many more in Hollywood had made arrangements to save their careers. Lately, in Communist China, it has been revealed that gay men hook up with lesbian women through social media to show their 'wife' during the new year visits to prevent nagging from the family members. Same-sex unions are illegal in China. 

Slowly, we can see that OTT (Over-the-top) platforms are trying to override the prevailing societal norms as determined by the local cultures. Some may argue that these OTTs, being international in their outlook, may only have one goal - to push their boundary, provoke, start a conversation, and perhaps create a single narrative, a New World Order for everyone. They do all these while laughing all the way to the bank. These OTTs, media services that transmit directly to viewers, bypass traditional gatekeepers who keep a tab on what the public can consume. Rightly or wrongly, via this film, I get the vibe that they are trying to make LGBTQIA+ mainstream. 

The next burning question that needs to be answered is whether this LGBT tendency is ingrained in Nature or artificially created? Do we all have an inborn sexual attraction that gets suppressed due to social mores - as the woke generation implies, gender is fluid? Or is it because of society's openness and expressive nature that we can tell our wants and dislikes? 

Is the contamination of drinking water from our river polluted with hormones from contraceptives pills, making men more effeminate? Are plastic wastes and toxic hydrocarbon effluent screwing up our internals? Or is it just Nature's way to curb population explosion before the re-set button is ignited.

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The post-apocalyptic pillbox?

 

T junction - Semenyih, Hulu Langat Batu 18, Genting Peres.

This junction had seen better days. Weekends and holidays used to be marked with a hive of activities, loud banters and laughs. Streams of cyclists enjoyed the mild temperatures, the greenery and the challenge of steep hills leading to Genting Peres. This is the once busy T-junction of Batu 18 Hulu Langat leading to Peres and beyond. Now it stands a sorry sight of the testimony of all the putrifying underhand dealings that had been happening right under our noses.

Used to be a family heirloom, now a staircase
to nowhere.

To me, this reminds me of my own imaginary vision of how the world would be after the apocalyptical World War 3 - a pillbox amidst the man-made ruin, standing proud as the last man standing, a symbol of victory after a zero-sum game.

To the outside world, it was a front for prosperity. Unbeknownst, behind the row of lush greenery that paved the web of highways lay hidden hectares over hectares of government-sanctioned logging to line the pockets of political ballcarriers. As if a signed document can cement the ecosystem that Nature took generations to reach a steady state. 

As a near sexagenarian, looking back at the repeated faux pas that put our nation in the international media for all the wrong reasons, I realise my generation and the generation before me have blood in their hands.

Nowhere in the world would Forces of Nature
systematically slice timber! Yet the authorities
denied issuing any logging licences. Of course,
the issuances were legitimised at whim.

First, they told us the majority of the country held only 5% of its wealth. Let us all prosper together, they said. What was kept away from us was an accurate breakdown of the distribution of wealth. Somehow, statistics from Government-linked companies did not make it to the public pool. Then they said affirmative action would only last 20 years. But then, a cat fed milk daily would shy away from catching mice! Then race supremacy, and religious hegemony ensued. Rubber barons ruled the roost under the cloak of official secret and siege mentality. A halo of grandiosity was painted on its citizens. Like an Emperor with his new clothes, only we were proud of our perceived achievements even when meritocracy took a backseat and the floodgates to brain-drain laid bare open.

The leaders who we thought would take care of various interests either slept on the job or were bought over. Yet they keep painting a rosy picture despite the parched desert terrain that we see. We sensed a feeling of unease when two strange bedfellows, politicians and businessmen, were screaming 'win-win'. Little did we know that 'win-win' never referred to the nation and its citizens but upon themselves!

Meanwhile, as the economic pie got smaller, accentuated by a worldwide pandemic by years of sweeping under the carpet, the stench from years of decay is finally seeped out. It took a global jolt to expose the shortcomings. Do we need another cataclysmic catastrophe to change this crony capitalism, nepotism and unashamed corruption?

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We turn right as we mature!

Dev Bhumi - Land of the Gods (2016)
Director: Goran Paskaljević

As we grew up and our eyes slowly peeled open to the changes around us, we felt ashamed. Maybe because of the western type of education taught to us, we were embarrassed by our heritage. We perceived our own culture as archaic and that our parents were living under a rock. The world, it appeared then, was changing, and we did not want to be left behind. We could wait to grow wings and pave our own paths.

We ran through the gruelling mill of life, and soon enough, we realised that there was wisdom in what our ancestors did what they did. The raging hormones of youth and the lure of material gains clouded our judgement. We tell ourselves, perhaps, they were right. We yearn to get back and make amends. But, no. The others think you are a fool and are best left alone.

This 2016 movie made by a Serbian director with co-writing input by the famous Victor Banerjee, is a slow-moving film with the breathtaking view of the Himalayas as its backdrop. Banerjee acts in the central role. It was shot entirely at the icy hills of the State of Uttarakhand in India. The story unfolds in instalments as Rahul Negi (Victor Banerjee), after a 40-year self-exile in England returns to his village. We gather that he will soon be blind after contracting an incurable disease and had returned to see his village before becoming completely blind. He plans to spend the remaining of his life in Kedarnath, Uttarkhand.

©FG

He had fallen head over heels over the village dancer, Maya, in his youth. This was vehemently opposed by his father. A tiff had ensued, and Rahul had struck him with a sickle. He then ran away from the village and out of the country. The father had opposed the union because of the dancer's lower caste status.

Rahul is not received well, even after all these years. His brother thinks Rahul is there just to claim his due inheritance. His father had earlier died due to old age.

©FG

As Rahul wanders around the village, he tries to understand the village. Things have not changed much. Small scale farming is still going on with primitive tools. The village school is just a ramshackle building with the bare minimum. Girls are still married off young. It looks like time stood still on them. Women are second class citizens, just seen but not heard. Child marriage is the norm. Rahul's girlfriend, Maya, for whom he had attacked his father, is still in the village. She is, however, mentally severely deranged.

The kind of living arrangement that the primitive communities had devised worked well then. Relatively exposed to the elements of Nature and extracting food from it, the brute muscular force was invaluable. Biologically, men were bestowed such physical attributes. The female gender was then assigned to home management and nursing duties. As society became more settled and commerce developed, the streetsmart skills and education were reserved for the males. With modernisation and cities becoming domesticated with no wild animals roaming around, females could no longer be contented with second-class duties. Furthermore, the 19th and 20th-century economic order slowly gave both genders the need to be educated.

©FG

Guarding the household no longer became the domain of the community's male members. The question of security is handled off to the auspices of the Government. Nobody has to depend on the muscle strength of man anymore. There is nothing a machine or a weapon cannot do.

At the community level, the distribution of duties is decided by a system by a division that accesses the aptitude of the member of the community to put them in a specific vocation to ensure continuity of services within the community. Along the way, this aptitude system became hijacked to mean a person is born into a caste and is destined to do only the job his ancestors had been doing. Points to ponder. Of course, movies will picturise traditional Indian communities as patriarchal and caste-centric.

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