RIFLE RANGE BOY

I used to be fascinated with the term 'money laundering'. At face value, it looked simple enough - to cleanse money obtained via unsavoury means and to put them in circulation whilst giving them a legitimate source of origin. Was it a coincidence that Al Capone used a laundromat to store and 'cleanse' his ill-gotten gains during Prohibition?   As the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup is in progress, another word frequently mentioned is 'sports washing'. Traditionally sports have been utilised to cement friendships between nations. It has also been used to spur nationalism among its own citizens. For years despotic regimes whitewash their sins with the glamour of sports. During the 1936 Olympics, Hitler tried to paint a new image of a rejuvenated Germany after the humiliating defeat in the trench War and to prove his supremacist Aryan race theory. Sadly, Jesse Owen's achievement simply threw dirt on Hitler's face. Then it was the Argentinan junta who tried to whi...

Infidel (2020) Written, Directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh .   They say this film reinforces the stereotype of people who profess the Islamic faith. It paints all people from Iran and the Middle East with the same brush that they are all terrorists. It compartmentalises all of them as closet sympathisers of sleeping cells. It assumes that they are all wolves in sheep's clothing. It is accused of propagating Islamophobia and accentuates the divide that the world plunging further into.   Even though their new hosts have offered a hand of friendship and accepted them to share their prosperity, the newcomers still hold their allegiance to the former countries, the countries that they destroyed and the nation that become too toxic for them to inhabit. The problem is that the newcomers all have a common bond that unites them to ruin their newfound land, religion's brotherhood.  The problem is that there is an image problem. A peaceful religion must be seen to be as one. More publ...

Feathered Cocaine: The Story of Money, Terrorism and Falconry (2010) Is not interesting that fifteen years after the apprehension and killing of Osama bin Laden, this documentary is making its round. Perhaps, it is the flavour of the month as the US Elections are just around the corner. Probably because Joe Biden is associated with the old administration, it is a subtle reminder of the evil deeds of the past Government. Watching this Tribeca Film Festival screened a documentary about falconry, it gave a kind of a deja vu feeling. It reminded me of the many so-called altruistic non-governmental organisation working on humanitarian cause getting a free pass into third world countries and starting to dictate how the host country should be run. Think Red Cross and the Bolshevik Revolution, think IMF and the 1997 economic crisis, think missionaries and the Nicaragua Contra rebels. Here, in 2010 documentary, Alan Howell Parrot tells the story of his life. Becoming obsessed with falc...

Sanju (Hindi; 2018) That is the problem with modern living. With the plethora of information at their disposal, people think they have everything they need to know at their fingertips. With this knowledge, they believe they are in the best place to make a balanced decision. True, in most situations, the various angles of looking at an issue are laid bare for scrutiny. In other cases, however, the news is generated to keep the writer relevant, so that the publications stay forever in the limelight. A case in hand is the use of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin in the management of patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 infections. Keyboard warriors who before this did not know the difference between a bacteria and virus can now rattle out the pros and cons of each modality of treatment. Equipped with the little knowledge gained from anecdotal studies, they are quick to bring down institutions that have been handing down management guidelines for decades. They immerse in meani...

Sensitive topic - Readers' discretion advised A Mosque in Munich (2010) Author: Ian Johnson When 9-11 attacks came about, investigations traced the perpetrators of sleeper cells spending a time of their lifetimes in Germany. These terrorist group did not spring up just before attacks on the American soil. They, in fact, have a very long past, going as far back as the Bolshevik revolution. When Communist Soviet took over the predominantly Muslim lands in the Caucasus, collectively known as Western Turkestan, the area was filled with adrenaline-filled Muslim fighters who wanted to liberate their lands from their godless rulers. They were collectively known as the Prometheans, the mythical Greek hero who defied Zeus to save humanity. This golden opportunity was grasped by Wehrmacht, the unified WW2 German Army to aid in their attack of Russia. As is common knowledge, many Muslim scholars, including the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, soar at the thought of the collapse of the O...

The Looming Tower (2018) Sun Tzu's 'Art of War' suggests the best way to win a war against your enemy is when they (the enemy) do not realise that they are not at war. "Know your enemy know your environment" he added. Despite this knowledge, the mighty Ming Dynasty fell to the lowly Manchus. Twenty years ago, two then Colonels in the Chinese People's Liberation Army, Qiao Lang and Wang Xiansui published a book named 'Unrestricted Warfare'. Here these two officers outlined ways to overcome a mighty force like the USA. It seems that the CIA also got hold of this book and was reading material for their trainees. In a gist, it proposes trapping the country into indebtedness, economically and militarily. Cost of waging a traditional war may prove too costly, money-wise, and annihilation of the planet as we know it.  Probably the other enemies of the USA have also got hold this knowledge. With the widespread of information on the net, nothing is sacr...

Body Of Lies (2008) The talk about this film came about after the recent catastrophes in Christchurch and Colombo. What started of possibly the work of a lone wolf disillusioned wacko or deviant religious groups may actually be hiding the deep-rooted tentacles of international psyops. In the case of Christchurch shooting in a mosque, it may not just the work of a lone wolf going on a shooting spree because he cannot stand what he sees around him, but cannot do it in his home because of tight gun laws but in New Zealand instead. He may be just a pawn in a greater chess game involving players at very high levels via remote control. And the bombing of the churches in Sri Lanka is not just due to vengeance to the Christchurch mishap. A disgruntled Sri Lankan Muslim did not suddenly decide to be a human bomb to settle a score. Investigations slowly reveal that the perpetrators originate outside the country and gleam in joy seeing the devastation, creating anarchy and benefitting f...

Phantom (2015) Of late, if one were to notice, Bollywood seems to be churning out movies which are patriotic in nature. At a time when nationalism spirit in all countries is at a record high, and when India-Pakistan border tensions are equally high, this genre of movies appear to be topping the box office. The conventional wisdom is to love one other, embrace your brother, love thy name and do unto others as you would do unto them. And that 'an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind'. Unfortunately, the world is not a kind place. Experiences in 1962, lethargic after fighting two world wars, Nehru, in his great wisdom, must have thought hard about his country's relationship with China. With his 'Chini Chini Bhai Bhai' slogan, he probably told China, "let's all be together and feel alright!" Unfortunately, China construed this holding hands and singing kumbayah gesture as a weakness. They cooly walked in and occupied Tibet. India, with that h...