This is what is left when you think you are right?

Universiti Kedua (Kassim Ahmad; 2010)

At a time when the government propaganda machinery managed to brainwash youngsters like myself to think that right is right and left is wrong, a man stood steadfast on his socialist belief. He was detained under the notorious Internal Security Act (ISA). Despite the agony of being away from his young family, deprived of seeing his children grow, especially at a crucial age and the constant torture in a cell, he stood his ground. He refused to give a 'false' confession to his captors. Despite his reluctance to be 'reformed', he was given an unconditional release after 5 years of spending time in Kamunting. This memoir narrates his experience of being arrested in the fateful early hours of 3rd November 1976 to his release on Hari Raya Day, 30th June 1981. It is a slow-moving write-up, as life in the prison is, narrating the frustrating time in Kamunting as the clock ticks on by. His interrogations go on till unearthly hours, trying to break him psychologically.

 
He spent most of his time writing and thinking about life and religion. He read the Quran over and over again. He tried to relate the world's happenings to his scriptures and try to make sense of things. He even managed to send out manuscripts and got his book published. He was even accepted to do his Ph. D. in UKM but expectedly was denied by the Government.

He had a bout of shingles and was hospitalised later after a fellow inmate punch him in his face over some argument, fracturing his temporomandibular joint.

His fellow inmates were people include Abdullah Ahmad and Syed Husin Ali. Some of the people in Kamunting were actually ruling Government people who were the victims of internal political wrangling.

It is incredible how much a person can hold on to his beliefs and never crack under pressure. This 81-year-old man is recently entangled with the wrong of the law, questioning the validity of Hadis in Islamic religion and accusing the keepers of the faith as elitists.

On the way there?

Finally met up with a university mate after 20 years. 30 years ago we were in the same boat as our kids, trying to set sail in the ocean of knowledge and curve a name for themselves in society. Time sure flies fast and we sat there reminiscing the good old days. 

I had the pleasure and honour to bump into him when I was wandering about in the streets of Edinburgh and subsequently attended his convocation as he graduated from the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh.

As I went on rambling on the small things that happened during our stay there, he was caught unaware. I remember it like it happened yesterday but unfortunately my friend had absolutely no recollection of such things happening in his life! 

Then, I started wondering! Was that a good thing that I could remember all those things and he could not? Perhaps, it shows that I am appreciative small little things in life. Does that mean I am a sensitive being, in keeping with my horoscope symbol, The Crab? Or little things excites little minds?

If that is confusing, wait and see what I read. 

The brain is constantly wired and pruned periodically to shake off old memories so that it can function better. Old obscure insignificant thoughts are put deep in cold storage to be retrieved under special circumstances only. Our brain is made to forget to enable new thoughts. Traumatic and stressful events are suppressed. Recent studies suggest that a person can finds it difficult to forget old thoughts are at high risk of developing depression and the risks associated with it. Am I going slightly mad?

When the mind is willing but not the heart!

Pickpocket (French, 1959)
Director: Robert Bresson

To people who believe that their job is the most difficult one on the planet, this is an eye opener. A pickpocket has to plan his moves, strategise, be imaginative, be supple with his fingers and beyond anything be vigilant with the law man at all times. In this film, the thief even uses a manual (for pickpockets) to enhance his efficacy!
He also wants to be a normal individual doing things what most people do in life. However, he is either too weak or too lazy to be getting into the social routines that we are expected to  do. Like getting up early, be at post at a specified time day in and day out, handling the eventualities that come with the job and dealing with the bosses. Perhaps, he lacks the discipline.
Michel is a loafer who goes on with life through pickpocketing. The law sometimes catches with him. He has a sick mother whom he rather not see. Maybe, he is embarrassed for being a failure in his mother's eyes or maybe he cannot stand her nagging. He meets his mother's neighbour, Jeanne, whom he develops a liking. After a near escape from the clutches of the law, he leaves for England.
After a few steady jobs here and there and burning all of them on booze and women, he returns to Paris penniless.  He finds Jeanne with an illegitimate child with his friend Jacques, who had gone missing. She does not want to marry him anyway because she does not love him!
Michel promise to take of her and her kid. He tries get his life straight but again his inner demons took control. He is caught pickpocketing and is imprisoned.
This French movie is one of the early movies that glorifies acts of anti-heroism. It makes us think of the psychology of a person who finds it so hard to follow the part of righteousness. Even though the mind wants to change, the heart is weak. And they stay forever in the lowest rung of society. They are not stupid people. On the contrary, they are intelligent, highly skilled and dextrous. The only thing they sorely lack is the discipline to stick on to what is universally accepted as right.
Since we are at it, might as well discuss about it. A recalcitrant thief would get his hand amputated under what people call as a just law. Then what? Is he going to change over a new slate in remorse and never steal again? Probably a bad one at it since his dexterity is compromised. So how is he is going to fend for himself and his dependents since the only thing he was 'good' at is gone. Is the state going to take care of them seamlessly from womb to tomb? Even our present method of punishment does not seem to reduce crime, surely another method of correcting them must be looked into. One which appear humane, appear to be fair to the weaker sex who are bursting out with yell of help and fair play as we speak and to be fair to the family unit.
Some say that they are just carrying God's law on Earth. Yet at the same breath, man preach that they are weak and are incapable of fair play. And that only God is omnipotent. omnipresent and omniscience. Since human being is so flawed, it is best God's law be meted by God himself. Not mere mortals.

The meaning of life?

Shakha Prosakha (Branches of the Tree, Bengali; 1990)
Story, Screenplay, Direction: Satyajit Ray

This is one of Ray's swan song. It is a layered tale questioning the meaning of life, intergenerational priorities and the pressure of growing up to live up to peoples' expectations.

Ananda Majumdar is a 70-year-old retired industrialist who raised the rank and files from a worker to the position of partner in a big company, honoured by the town for his philanthropy work. He is highly respected by the community, and his biography had just been written.

He is a widower with 4 sons. He lives with his senile father of 90 years old and his second son with had a head injury during his university days and had to discontinue his studies. The second son, Proshanto (Soumitra Chatterjee in his subdued supportive role, in most of Ray's movies he is the leading actor), is living in his own world oblivious of the surroundings, talking only occasionally, somewhat coherently, sometimes abusively and spending most of his time in solitude and listening music.

Ananda is afflicted with myocardial infarction during a ceremony honouring his 70th birthday. Reluctantly, the three working sons, come home to roost to fulfil filial piety. 

The eldest, Probodh, is doing well in life. The third, Probir, is also doing well but is a chronic smoker and a gambler. The fourth son, Protap, is single was employed in a high post for 10 years till recently, as the family later found out.

The main crux of the story is how the three siblings, 2 wives and Probodh's young son mingle with each other. The two topics of conversation include the 90-year-old grandfather wasted present meaningless life which is childlike and is clueless about his surroundings. He needs constant supervision, feeding and dressing. They also lament the misfortune that had struck Proshanto, who was the brightest of them all.

Senior had always believed in 2 principles in life - Work is life, and earning money should be honest. Probodh and Probir had an argument on their respective lives where their earned money is nothing but healthy; Probodh who under-declared his earnings to evade tax to enjoy a comfortable life and Probir who gambled excessively at the races. The brothers discover that Protap had given up his well paying as he could not stomach the corruption that was that his superiors were indulged in.

He had now joined a theatre group and thinks he would do just well. He had found a girl and matrimony was in the pipeline. At least some of them agree that life in the present day was different than that of their father's time. Corruption and unhealthy money were inevitable.

After a week of fellowship and with the father improving, health-wise, the three brothers and the entourage leaves back home.

The grandson wishes the grandfather farewell and inadvertently mentioned to him that his father and uncle were acquiring unhealthy money, leaving Ananda quite devastated. The entourage leaves, leaving the three people whose lives are no longer in the rat race as the others to rough it out in the old house in their own world! 

Remember the time?

Make yourself at home

Remember the time in history when the first merchant ship landed in Surat and the year 1509 when Lopez de Sequeira landed on our shores with gifts and praises. The locals bent over backwards, as the local culture dictates, to please the guests and make them comfortable and feel welcome. The guests, fondly referred to as 'Benggali Putih', did not fulfil their part of the bargain of being a gracious visitor but instead became their masters. Life, as the locals knew it, was never the same.

Here comes trouble!

Fast forward 5 centuries later, the whole country is excited that the most powerful man on the world with the official authority to annihilate the whole world with a press of a button decided to grace his presence in this land. Media has gone bonkers hailing the visit as the next best thing since 1966 when his predecessor came here to signal to the Eastern Block that we were proxies of the Uncle Sam. So, keep out!

And it applies to others too!

So, why the honour? Is it because Big Brother wants to ensure his little one is doing alright? Is it like how we have to visit our loved one every so often to show that we do care about them?
Is his visit going to straight our dismal human rights' record, our achievement in topping human trafficking list, poor media freedom and the mushrooming of state sanctioned ultraist groups? Dream on.
In the immortalised words of his predecessor known for his clandestine activities in the cloak room than the oval office per se, "It's all about the economy, stupid"!
The poster boy has arrived to exude his charm or twist arm the leaders to sign at the dotted lines of the TPPA (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement). We have reached a crossroads where the leaders would have to decide whether to enrich corporate America, to safeguard its citizens or benefit (enrich) themselves via spillover effect of the deal.

These Haunting Photos Capture The Daily Reality Of A Dark Episode In U.S. History

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/16/ansel-adams-manzanar_n_5155579.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000010

The Huffington Post | by Braden Goyette

In 1942, still reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government ordered thousands of Japanese Americans to leave their homes behind and take up residence in remote detainment camps. About two thirds of them were U.S. citizens.

The most famous of the camps, located in California's Owens Valley, was called the Manzanar War Relocation Center.

Starting in the fall of 1943, photographer Ansel Adams chronicled the day-to-day existence of the people held at Manzanar. He was distressed that the lives of American citizens had been uprooted in such a way, and strove to capture on film the humanity of the detainees as they faced dehumanizing circumstances. "Nothing is more permanent about Manzanar than the dust which has lodged in its tar-papered barracks, except the indelible impression incised on the lives of thousands of its inhabitants," Adams wrote.

Adams is mostly remembered for his art photography -- but what's less often remembered are his works of documentary photography during the war.

The photographs were exhibited in 1944 at the Museum Of Modern Art, and published in book form under the title "Born Free And Equal: The Story Of Loyal Japanese-Americans." In the preface to the book, Adams wrote:

This book in no way attempts a sociological analysis of the people and their problem. It is addressed to the average American citizen, and is conceived on a human, emotional basis, accenting the realities of the individual and his environment rather than considering the loyal Japanese-Americans as an abstract, amorphous, minority group... Throughout this book I want the reader to feel he has been with me in Manzanar, has met some of the people, and has known the mood of the Center and its environment -- thereby drawing his own conclusions -- rather than impose upon him any doctrine or advocate any sociological action.

The U.S. eventually apologized for the internment of Japanese Americans in 1988, and admitted it was "motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership." Now, more than 70 years after Adams visited Manzanar, we can still take a tour of the camp through his lens.

Mrs. Naguchi And Two Children

Calisthenics

Entrance To Manzanar

Louise Tami Nakamura

Mess Line, Noon

Michael Yonemetsu, [i.e., Yonemitsu] X-Ray Technician

Nurse Aiko Hamaguchi, Patient Tom Kano

Pictures And Mementoes On Phonograph Top, Yonemitsu Home

Mrs. Kay Kageyama

Monument In Cemetery

Farm Workers, Mt. Williamson In Background

Baton Practice, Florence Kuwata

In Biology Class, High School, Kiyo Yoshida, Lillian Wakatsuki, Yoshiko Yamasaki

Tom Kobayashi

What are you good for?

The Jains are kind of obsessed with not hurting animals that they just shoo a mosquito rather than squash it. Of late, quite a number of people are caring for the welfare of animals, physical as well psychological wise.
Unheard careers like dog whispers, veterinary acupuncturist have secured their stronghold in some societies.
Now, you may say all that is fine but how is a mosquito (also an animal) contributing to society and should be given due respect? All that do is spread disease. In the last census, half of world population from Stone Age have died from mosquito borne diseases especially malaria.
True, only female mosquitoes bite humans as they need nutritious proteins for their potential off springs. And that mosquitoes are also found in the Arctic Circle but they only help to germinate wild orchids.

Maybe the mosquitoes are doing us a favour by competitively protecting us from more severe diseases. Or that they are protecting the green lung tropical forests from intruders to supply oxygen to the atmosphere.

Now that we still continue our deforestation, they must have come back with a vengeance. They too have migrated to our backyard to become city dwellers and give us dengue.
The solution? Mosquitoes are not the culprits here. They just happened to be at the wrong time at the wrong place with wrong genetical make-up to make themselves vectors of diseases. Just that their bodies form a great reservoir for certain protozoas and arboviruses. The real culprits here are the organisms (protozoans or arboviruses), not the vectors, the messengers. Don't kill messenger! The diseases spread if a mosquito bites an infected person only.
We should strive to get to the bottom of the problem, eliminate the real causative agents.

Addentum: Does it answer my children's justification of having chicken in all their meals? Their excuse is there could not be another reason for God to have create chickens other than to garnish the dinner plate! They could not find another reason for their existence in the ecosystem!