RIFLE RANGE BOY

For Sama (Arabic :  من أجل سما ‎  ‘min ajl sama‘ ) (Syrian Documentary; 2019) Recently I read of a young mother with her 4-month old infant participating in a civil objection against CAA and NRC at Shaheen Bhag in Southern Delhi. Soon after being in Delhi for a couple of days, the child fell ill and succumbed to pneumonia at the protest grounds. The mother said in a TV interview that she was not saddened by the demise. In fact, she felt proud that her son gave his life for the future of the country. Deep inside, she must be feeling like 'Mother India'. Given another chance, she would do it all over again. Now, would you call that bad parenting or patriotism? This is the same question the maker of the documentary 'For Sama' seems to be asking. Waad Al-Kateab, who started filming her life experiences as a university student in Aleppo, realised that her country, Syria, was slowly plunging into civil war. She started getting involved with students' resistance f...

The answers on Earth are not easy to come by, especially when it comes to questions about the purpose of Life and ways to steer it. Why some people are born with all the options in life, with a silver spoon, in a rose garden, but are too blind to use them for their benefit while others have all the zest to do all the things in life to better themselves without any opportunities. Assoc Prof Munjed Al Muderi This topic of discussion came up the other day when the story of an Iraqi doctor, now Assoc. Prof. Munjed Al Muderis, who was given a new lease on life in Australia after running away from his birth country flashed in a newsfeed somewhere. Dr Muderis was an ambitious young doctor in an Iraqi University when the Republican Guard showed up and ordered him to mutilate his patients who happened to be Iraqi soldiers. Refusing to conform, as it was against the Hippocratic Oath, he finally had to make a dash out of the country and eventually ended up in Christmas Islands as just a...

Selfie with the Prime Minister (2017) Directors: Nor Arlene Tan, Grace Cho At first I thought it was just a film to showcase the plight of the migrants and the hardship that they had to endure on a daily basis after being swindled by human traffickers and shunned by the Malaysian society at large. Well it is that and much more, but it tries putting it in a light hearted manner. It tells the tale of a selfie crazy migrant worker who goes around taking pictures of himself against the backdrop of the landscape around the country. As he introduced himself, he made a blooper (or was it is on intention, I wondered!). He introduced himself as Ziaur Rahman from Bangla... er, Myanmar. What kind of person would forget his country of origin. Then it clicked. Ziaur is a Rohinya from Arakhine State whose people are is in great turmoil as we speak. A bit of history on the origins of the Rohinyas. They occupy the Western part of Burma neighbouring Bengal and they were recruited by the Britis...

A Malaysian documentary on the issue of statelessness among Filipino migrants in Sabah. Living Stateless (Di Ambang) (2014) Created by Matthew Fillmore Like stray animals, they are shooed. They bring the value of their property down. There are poor. There are stateless. Nobody wants them. They are the stateless people of Sabah. While the rest of the country would like to think they are heading to be a developed country by 2020, this fringe part of the state has been battling to get rid of this group of people originally from the Philippines who are neither Filipinos nor are they Malaysians. Without proper documentations, the elders cannot secure jobs, the children cannot get a decent education, no one gets immunisation and medical attention. They show the resilience of the human spirit and are the emblem of the never-say-die attitude of the human race. They live scrapping on discards, monetise trash and perform clandestine menial tasks. Some build up enough courage to ...

It looks a clip from 'Gremlins'. First they appear with their pathetic image. Their droopy eyes of melancholia, tattered clothes proof of their poverty, their unkemptness, their skin wanting of a tough scrub, the hole in their soles nut not is their souls evident of their many miles of rubber burning journey, their dehydration and their helplessness were sure to melt even the steadfast of a cold steely heart. If all fails, there is always, the kids! No one would be stone-hearted enough to hurt a child. With their curly locks, demure captivating blue eyes and tears rolling their cheeks, something has to give. Hosts receive them with open arms in the name of humanity. Despite their own cash-strapped coffers, they decided to share their bread. Live and let die, they said to their brethren, come and join our humble meal. Join their meal they did. Squat in their home, they did. So did, the competition for space, opportunities and place in the sun. As the sunny days were cast by a...

Aylan Kurdi at Bodrum Beach It was just a picture to don the morning papers to say what reporters do best. Some of their photographs become international icons of a bygone era. Every living soul would be instantly aware of the American atrocity in Vietnam at one look of the picture of napalm struck confused girl running aimlessly with burnt clothes. This picture the dead toddler by the Turkish beach may one day be the reminder of the danger of stirring of a hornet in the highly volatile region of Middle East. For the perpetrators, the US, it is a European problem, not theirs. No rubber dinghies would traverse the Atlantic to reach their shores. You think a picture is just a picture, but you would be amazed at the dynamics and rhetoric that goes through before and after it goes to print. A dead body polluting the beach of a bourgeois beach resort. The child has no life. Death has engulfed him, but the picture is subtle enough not to appear gory. The violence and unc...

Forlorn faces of hunger, yearning for recognition and a place to call home. A few days ago, yours truly was involved in a chat about the recent apprehension of illegal immigrants off the waters of Langkawi Island. The banter started in a typical Malaysian manner when one sniggered that the only reason the undocumented aliens were caught was because of abandonment by the middlemen. Their capture belies the dozens, scores or God knows hundreds of successful landings at the 'promised land'. And this phenomenon is not isolated here. All over the world, the have nots have scaled the impossible to have a figment of hope of living.  One party voiced that saving them is only the human thing to do.The forlorn sunken cheeks were testimony of the hopelessness of their condition. The exodus from their motherland because of political reasons and the denial of the safe landing in shores of neighbouring countries will only make them float around to the sway of the ocean and die a sl...