Conformists, not thinkers wanted!

Hannah Arendt (2012, English, German, Hebrew)
Yes, this is story of the chain smoking Jewish-American philosopher who at the height of her career would be sent to Israel in 1962 for observation and coverage of the Adolf Eichmann trial in Israel for atrocities against the Jews in Nazi Germany during WW2. 

She was thought to be the best candidate to cover the event as she herself, a Jewess, was a victim of Nazi imprisonment in France during WW2. 
What she was saw during her trial changed her life and her reputation forever. She could not understand why such an unimpressive servant who is just an ordinary man without any epitome of evil could do something so horrendous without an iota of guilt. He was just doing his job of transporting as if it was the most important thing in the world without thinking. He was more interested in completing his job (of transporting Jewish prisoners to Auschwitz concentration camp) than thinking on the consequences of his work.She reiterate that the worst kind of evil is the one done by nobodys with no motives and purpose. This, she described as 'the banality of evil'.
In her article later, she upset many fellow Holocaust survivors and peers for downplaying the evils of Eichmann and the Israeli courts for their wishy-washy steamrolling and witch-hunting of the trial. Unlike the Nuremberg trial, Eichmann was no leader but just a spoke in the wheel of the machinery. She also blamed the Jewish leaders partially for the Jewish predicament.
Arendt was cast as a pariah and labelled a Jewish hater and a Nazi collaborator even though she was a Jew herself.

Thinking is a silent dialogue between me and myself! 

Hey, I don't have all the answers!

From one corner of the world, people are justifying gang rapes to teach the victim a lesson and to put her in her place. In some places, the complaint of rape is thrown out of the courts as she invariably cannot produce 4 able-bodied men to vouch to have witnessed the rape (as if they would stand idle and watch the whole fiasco, or maybe in the digital world reach for smartphones to record the melee). So, in the developed nations (or at least in places which try to or claim to be one), the last thing you would expect is to blame rapes squarely on ladies and the way they dress as if they were begging to be violated. The scene below are comments of netizen of the way some young girls were dressed on the city mass transit trains in Singapore.

Now, that the girls know what the generally thinking of an average Singapore is, what are they going to do about it? Are they going to say it is all null and void as the comments were written under the cloak of anonymity? Are they going to say that it is their human right to dress (or undress) as they please, so shoot me? Dresses do not cause rape, men do!
Are they still going to continue to simulate their idols on fictitious TV 'reality' shows? Are they going to risk the possible harm by some devious maniac and to appear on local newspapers with super big dark glasses and face partially covered by her hair to air her misadventure and garner sympathy from the ever sympathetic public?      

Penance to soothe divine wrath?

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2014/01/16/did-god-ask-for-this/
Did God ask for this?

Narinder Singh

 | January 16, 2014

With prices of goods skyrocketing, will the Indians still indulge in spending lavishly to appease Lord Murugan during Thaipusam?

Thaipusam is here and preparations are at full swing at almost all temples in the nation. The Batu Caves Temple being the lead runner and a tourist attraction will once again be thronged by devotees asking for their annual forgiveness from Lord Murugan.


From Perlis to Sabah and Sarawak, Thaipusam will be celebrated, no doubt. The only difference will be the intensity and magnitude as the population of Hindus in some states are insignificant.


Nevertheless the spirit and ambiance will surely mesmerise all in terms of culture, religion and peripheral entertainment.


The limelight of Thaipusam is anchored around the kavadis. Devotees who make various vows fulfill them during this time and carrying kavadis up the temple steps from the river is symbolic in nature to show gratitude towards Lord Murugan.


While we shall not question the religious and cultural believes and practices of Hindus in expressing their ways of paying homage, it is a wonder if there is any requirement in the Hindu religion or customs to carry outrages kavadis up the hill temple.


Annually we witness some devotees who are too carried away emotionally in exhibiting their kavadis; that get a many dumbfounded.


In the name of the different Gods, we have seen devotees who carry kavadis that can be easily perceived as little armory with spears, machetes, and whips.


And if that is not enough, there are little stunts like walking on razor sharp knifes all the way to the main entrance of the temple grounds. Some arrogantly smoke cigars, apparently to appease certain demigods.


What really took me aback a couple of years ago in Penang was the sight of a devotee being practically hung from his back with giant hooks up-side down from the kavadi which he is suppose to carry in the first place. Now I wonder if he was paying penance or was the kavadi paying the penance for his sins!


Are devotees mocking their own religion in the name of prayers? Is there anywhere in Hinduism that requires one to perform such stunts which can guarantee thorough cleansing of the soul and spirit?


Some devotees have even carried durian kavadis. Well, creativity is always welcome in any society, but when it infringes into the concepts of religion and its practices, one will be bound to be questioned not only by Hindus but also by all other right thinking persons.


Holy wastages


Is there extra bonus from the God to those devotees that carry heavier, bigger, more fanciful and expensive kavadis to His footsteps as compared to the smaller versions like the milk kavadis or other mini kavadis?


And if carrying kavadis is not sufficient to please the heavens, we have got devotees and their families offering hundreds to thousands of coconuts and litres of milk in the name of prayers.


The reason why this is being questioned is that will a poor devotee be blessed too if he or she cannot afford such offerings during the festivities? Has the current practices turned into material might over the lesser being in the worldly practices of Hinduism?


Is Lord Murugan corrupted too, that He demands such material poured in his name instead of being channelled to those underprivileged?


Are these ‘wastages’ considered holy and religiously right when we have fellow humans in many parts of the world that cannot even afford a single decent meal a day?


Is Lord Murugan sanctioning such sacrifices during Thaipusam and rewarding the grandeur kavadi bearers and the rich who break more coconuts in front of the chariot? If that is so, it can be assumed safely that one gets premier ‘cleansing’ as compared to those with lesser means to offer.


It is incomprehensible at times to see the Indian community lamenting about rising cost of living but willing to take on exorbitant expenses during festivities like Thaipusam.


When the thosai price goes up by 50 sen, they are willing to hail their dissatisfaction via protests right up to Putrajaya and take on the streets. But they keep their peace and silence when the prices of coconut, flowers, milk and other prayer paraphernalia go up; all in the name of not offending the Gods. Astonishing indeed.


Anyways, again, it is not to denounce and run down any community or religion but as creation of God, should we not think a little more critically and with reasonable questioning for the betterment of mankind.


Eventually it is the good deeds in this worldly existence that will determine our afterlife. Or does it not just because one did not carry a thousand ringgit worth kavadi or break a thousand coconuts or pour 100 litres of milk on Lord Murugan as a Hindu?


I contemplate at times on these issues!


Narinder Singh is a FMT team member.

AK-47 designer Kalashnikov wrote penitent letter

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/ak-47-designer-kalashnikov-wrote-penitent-letter/2014/01/13/5f8463b2-7c72-11e3-97d3-b9925ce2c57b_story.html

Vladimir Vyatkin, File/Associated Press - FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 29, 1997 file photo Mikhail Kalashnikov shows a model of his world-famous AK-47 assault rifle at home in the Ural Mountain city of Izhevsk, 1000 km (625 miles) east of Moscow. The designer of the world’s most prolific firearm, the AK-47 assault rifle, has written a sorrowful letter to the Russian Orthodox Church’s head, asking if he’s to blame for the deaths of those killed by his creation. According to a Monday, Jan. 13, 2014 report in the daily Izvestia, several months before his death last month at age 94, Kalashnikov wrote to Patriarch Kirill that he keeps asking himself if he’s responsible for those deaths.

By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, January 14, 3:42 AM

MOSCOW — In a regretful letter penned a few months before his death, Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the AK-47 assault rifle, asked the head of the Russian Orthodox Church if he was to blame for the deaths of those killed by his weapon.

The Russian daily Izvestia on Monday published the letter, in which Kalashnikov, who died last month at 94, told Patriarch Kirill that he kept asking himself if he was responsible. The AK-47 is the world’s most popular firearm, with an estimated 100 million spread around the world.

“The pain in my soul is unbearable. I keep asking myself the same unsolvable question: If my assault rifle took people’s lives, it means that I, Mikhail Kalashnikov, ... son of a farmer and Orthodox Christian am responsible for people’s deaths,” he said in the letter.

Kalashnikov also shared his bitter thoughts about humankind.

“The longer I live, the more often that question gets into my brain, the deeper I go in my thoughts and guesses about why the Almighty allowed humans to have devilish desires of envy, greed and aggression,” Kalashnikov continued. “Everything changes, only a man and his thinking remain unchanged: he’s just as greedy, evil, heartless and restless as before!”

Kalashnikov’s daughter, Elena, was quoted by Izvestia as saying that a local priest could have helped her father write the two-page letter, which was typed and carried his signature.

The rifle’s simplicity and reliability made it a weapon of choice for the Third World insurgents backed by the Soviet Union. Moscow not only distributed the AK-47 widely but also licensed its production in some 30 other countries. The gun’s cult status among revolutionaries and national-liberation fighters is enshrined on the flag of Mozambique.

The letter, which was sent in April, contrasted sharply with past statements by Kalashnikov, who had repeatedly said in interviews and public speeches that he created the weapon to protect his country and couldn’t be blamed for other people’s action.

“I sleep well. It’s the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence,” the designer told The Associated Press in 2007.

The church sought to comfort him with exactly same argument. Izvestia quoted Kirill’s spokesman Alexander Volkov as saying the Patriarch responded to Kalashnikov and praised him as a true patriot.

“If the weapon is used to defend the Motherland, the Church supports both its creators and the servicemen using it,” the newspaper quoted Volkov as saying.

In 2007, President Vladimir Putin praised Kalashnikov’s weapon as a “symbol of the creative genius of our people.” Putin attended Kalashnikov’s burial at a memorial military cemetery just outside Moscow.

While it’s not especially accurate, Kalashnikov’s rifle can perform in sandy or wet conditions that jam more sophisticated weapons such as the U.S. M-16.

“During the Vietnam war, American soldiers would throw away their M-16s to grab AK-47s and bullets for it from dead Vietnamese soldiers,” Kalashnikov said at a 2007 ceremony marking the rifle’s 60th anniversary.

Kalashnikov, born into a peasant family in Siberia, first showed his designer skills when he invented some modifications for Soviet tanks while serving as a Red Army conscript. He was badly wounded in a 1941 battle with the Nazis and first started designing of a new automatic rifle while he was recovering in the hospital.

Kalashnikov received numerous honors, including the Hero of Socialist Labor and Order of Lenin and Stalin Prize, but never got rich because his invention was never patented.

Kalashnikov continued working into his late 80s as chief designer of the Izmash company that first built the AK-47. He started travelling the world in the waning days of the Soviet Union, serving as a living symbol of Russian prowess in making weapons and helping negotiate new arms deals.

In his letter to the Patriarch, Kalashnikov said that at 91 he began visiting a church in the city of Izhevsk where he worked and died, adding words of praise for the Russian Orthodox Church.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 

We all grow old!

https://www.facebook.com/kia.m.boon/posts/10152117151771416

A letter by Akira Kurosawa in 1988 that deserves to be read in full, as we grow older in 2014 ~

Dear Mr. Ingmar Bergman,

Please let me congratulate you upon your seventieth birthday. Your work deeply touches my heart every time I see it and I have learned a lot from your works and have been encouraged by them. I would like you to stay in good health to create more wonderful movies for us.

 
In Japan, there was a great artist called Tessai Tomioka who lived in the Meiji Era (the late 19th century). This artist painted many excellent pictures while he was still young, and when he reached the age of eighty, he suddenly started painting pictures which were much superior to the previous ones, as if he were in magnificent bloom. Every time I see his paintings, I fully realize that a human is not really capable of creating really good works until he reaches eighty.

A human is born a baby, becomes a boy, goes through youth, the prime of life and finally returns to being a baby before he closes his life. This is, in my opinion, the most ideal way of life.

I believe you would agree that a human becomes capable of producing pure works, without any restrictions, in the days of his second babyhood.

 
I am now seventy-seven (77) years old and am convinced that my real work is just beginning.

Let us hold out together for the sake of movies.

With the warmest regards,

Akira Kurosawa

 

Eulogy

Why all this filth?

Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

I could not help it but to compare this offering to Martin Scorsese's 1980 classic 'Raging Bull'. The same director with the same record number of 'f-words' in the script. One could,  in fact, learn all through the various functions of the flowery f-word (as a noun, pronoun, descriptive term, verb, adjective etcetera) in this movie.
The viewers appreciate the decadent life-style that the 'The Wolf' - Jordan Belfort led but to be graphic and to show bevies of ladies in various states of undress and compromising positions in all frames all through is not really necessary belying the greatness of the director. The director's name itself is enough to create a storm at the box-office. Hence, there is not no need to turn this biography to a pornographic presentation. Perhaps, the view of sugar candy must have taken away the acting talents of some of the characters.

The film, a 2 hour feature, tells of a stock broker, Jordan Belfort, who made it filthy rich through sheer gift of the gab and salesmanship. The hard selling salesman also partied hard with booze, crack and chicks. The decadent wild life eventually drew unpleasant attention from the FBI and finally landed in jail for money laundering.
Perhaps if the film had concentrated less on showing less flesh than they should, the audience would have come back appreciating the excellent star presence and performance of Leonardo de Caprio.
I was drawn to this movie after it drew controversy of using ill-gotten gains obtained from certain Malaysian individuals! All the
Verdict: Nah!! Maybe I'll watch 'Raging Bull' again.

Obviously most of the movie critiques do not share my sentiments. They are praising this entry to high heaven like it is Da Vinci's Monalisa and has been lined up to receive many accolades. With all bad publicity about 1% of the world population controlling 99% of the world economy, this film is just going create more hatred to capitalistic ventures that has landed us in messy mess!

Danny Porush and Jordan Belfort
(can sell ice to Eskimo)