One side of the story!

Rhapsody in August (Japanese, 1991)
Writer & Director: Akira Kurosawa
This film depicts how three generations handle the WW2 bombing of Nagasaki.
Grandma is babysitting her 4 grandchildren while their parents go over to Hawaii to visit Grandma's long lost brother who had migrated to US in the 1920s. He is now in his death bed but had established himself as a successful pineapple planter. The grandchildren and their parents are coaxing old lady to visit her brother but she is reluctant. She cannot remember her brother as she had 11 of them and everyone went their own way.
Grandma is a hibakusha (survivor of atomic bombing). She lives in memory of her husband, a teacher, who perished in the 1945 Nagasaki bombing while he was at work.
The grandchildren, bored with the slow paced life in the village, explore around to slowly appreciate the times of the war. They also understand how the bomb had devastated the lives of innocent dwellers of the city.
The 45th anniversary of her husband is around the corner and she wishes to celebrate it.
She eventually agrees to visit Hawaii.
Grandma's nephew (the brother had married an American white), Clark (Richard Gere), comes to visit Grandma after correspondence with the children about Grandpa's demise and the anniversary.

With a handshake, the past is forgotten?

The visit is awkward to Grandma's children and grandchildren- An American visiting a land whom his people bombed and attending a function where people are still sore about. Anyway, it all goes well. Clark apologises and Grandma comes to term about the bombing.
During its screening in Cannes, the film was criticised for portraying the Japanese as the poor victims of the American atrocities whilst ignoring all its aggression in China, South East Asia and the Pacific. To its critiques, Kurosawa replied that the war was between Governments but the victims were the people. It is mind boggling that common people become enemies trying to defend a piece of cloth and a common camaraderie because their leaders told them so. Various indoctrination manoeuvres stir up that intangible feeling called nationalism which proves thicker than blood and common sense too!

The exact moment 'Fat Man' hit Nagasaki from B52 bomber 'Bockscar'

Fat Man

N.B. Viewers are referred to movies 'Letters from Iwo Jima' and 'Flags of Our Fathers' to have two perspectives of the same war; one from the American viewpoint and the other Japanese, on the same war!

The evil that lurks...

Deep inside, we are all the same. Despite our seemingly outward differences and self inflicted desire to be different, deep entrenched in the crypts of our sulci and gyri and between the creases of our DNA, we are all one. Our desires, our inner, our likes, no matter how much we deny or suppress, it is pretty much the same.
We may impose restrictions on what we should eat and should not. It would only last that long. The inner drive would prevent it or suppress our desires to taste the forbidden fruit but at the same time we change the goal post to suit both the regulations. A vegetarian yearning for fish came with fish textured soya minus the odour, prawn like crusted soya to be sizzling in a wok and  so on. Kebab and teriyaki lovers replaced meat with cheese on skewers. They keep their faith and their taste buds happy.
With the aim of keeping social problems of uncared children, society imposed strict rules and penalties for its subjects pertaining mixing of the carnal kind. Again and again the virtues of monogamy and responsible parenthood had been impressed upon their offspring. Society imposed draconian rules and even inhumane punishments to cow the society to fall in line. In spite of apparently outward manifestation of conformity and piety, the primal need to sow the seed and immerse in the joy of union of the sexes thrives in all. In spite of the strictest law cast in stone, the animalistic desire prevails again and again. Of course, all laws are made to be broken, they are also amended and manipulated to please their fancy.
Traditionally, the female gender have been left with the unenviable task of running the household as the men left the caves for long spells in effort to hunt to provide for the society. The nomadic tribe had the same arrangement. As the organised religion came to fore, the gender roles reversed. The society took a patriarchal stance. The female partner became subjugates to do and don'ts. With evolving times and demand for equality via bra burning, something had to give. However, hocus pocus pseudo-scientific cockamamie excuse for protecting the weaker sex still manage to con them to submission. The fear of God, as usual, works all the time to win the male's place in society.
We make dress to appear modest and civil. We may claim conservativeness in our drapes so as not excite the faint-hearted. But deep inside, there is an eternal desire to be noticed, to stand out, to be praised of our looks, our beauty albeit skin deep. Even if the mandatory sensitive areas that need to be covered are so, the hide and seek game continues. Even the covered areas are highlighted and enhanced with accessories to enchanter the eyes of the beholder.
We can hide, we can deny but deep inside our primitive primal desires lurks like a caged animal waiting to be unleashed. When conditions are ripe when he perceives himself to be off the radar, this demonic desire surfaces. But then... he can say, "I was weak, I was tempted, in my lowest ebb, the Devil with his devilish ways won. I repent. After all I am human, I err!"

A storm in the teacup?

Now that the dust has finally settled on the vilification of Kiki over her outburst and overreaction over the fender bender that is hardly worth discussing, sometimes I wonder how I would have reacted in such a situation - on either side of snafu.

I would not be surprised if I had flipped if I were Kiki with the brand new spanking French beau after years of being contented with the only automobile affordable that is forced down my throat with my meagre pay. After paying all the unnecessary additional payments to secure my lucky number and with the smell of new car still lingering on my tunic and skin, it is pure heartache to see it being defaced, albeit its triviality. Putting all that aside, I would have acted inappropriately if a stressful event had occurred prior to that fateful encounter - a unfair statement from someone close, an abusive client, committed a big mistake at work, getting up on the wrong side of the bed, a bad hair day or whatever that would anyone flip.
I do not, however, condone any of her actions by any means.
Regarding her seemingly racist's rant, come on admit it! We, Malaysians are racist by birth, by default and by force by the powers that be. How many times have we try hard to compartmentalise a new colleague or acquaintance into the common ethnic group in the country? It has become almost second nature to us to instinctively utter a totally inappropriate statement, racial wise, by stereotyping one by race. In the heat of the moment, Kiki did the same.
Perhaps her mistake was that her anger took a mighty long time to subdue. And to be caught on tape. If there were no evidence of the whole event in cyberspace, it would just be another unglamorous event occurring on a daily basis in the streets of Malaysia, another storm in the teacup.
What happened afterwards was even more laughable! The trial by social media, the vilification, exposure of personal details, the show of lack of privacy and how our life can be bear open for others to see, the crucification, the unwelcome stardom and the mania that followed does not augur well for us in our endeavour to portray to the world as a developed and mature society.
The biggest lesson learnt from kerfuffle is that 'Somebody is always watching you'... I am afraid to wash to wash my hair, when I look up, I see somebody standing there, somebody's watching me now! Who? The IRS!!!...

Puppet-master or dice thrower?

A dejected Sandhu Sr in Penang.

As we straddle along the boat of life as it manoeuvres itself or we manoeuvre it along the river of life, we sometimes wonder why some things happen at all. Are they random occurrences or are they planned move made by the king chess-master?  Are they just chaotic activities which somehow coalesce to give meaning and pattern? Is it all a game by the dice thrower for the fun of it? Does the puppet master enjoy seeing His inventions cringe and wail to their heart's content?
In 1983, when tensions were high across the Iron Curtain after USSR downed KAL007, a Korean civilian plane, Stanislav Petrov of the Soviet Union made the unconventional decision of not alerting his superiors when the warning alerts screamed  of a launch of US inter-continental ballistic missiles into Soviet Union. The SOP then was to launch missiles in retaliation. And time was of essence as every ticking second meant annihilation. At that crucial time, Lt. Col. Petrov decided to become a human rather that a lean mean killing machine. Something told him that the warning system was flawed and US were not sending 5 missiles to Russia! His inaction, even though militarily unacceptable, did however avert a nuclear war and possibly World War 3!
Fate reared its ugly head in the life of Sanjid Singh Sandhu. Sadly, he perished in the ill-fated flight of MH17. He was not even supposed to be there. He just filled in for a friend. Aviation disaster had earlier escaped his wife when she swapped her roster not to work on the fatal MH370 flight on 8.3.2014 at the last minute.
Many who escaped the mishap miraculously by twist of fate - missing the flight, changing their schedule at the minute and so on. They praise the Maker who saved them but what about those who perished? Preferential treatment or there is a higher order which is beyond human comprehension?
Life is full of dichotomies and alternatives. So are its outcomes. Life becomes too complicated if we keep on thinking what if, what if. Nobody would be brave enough to face the world and do what they need to do for continuity of life if they are fearful if the outcome is not in their favour. A man got to do what a man got to do.

Just that you know!

Thanks SK for input!

Me wanna go to Norway for continuing education ...

Them Moscovite dogs surely are smarter than me !

eeeerie ! remember the movie "Final Destination" ??

... nope, not applicable in Malaysia nor China

: ... can prisoners be deported to Netherlands then ?

... naaah ! I won't be joining the queue to try poop-meat anytime soon ...

: ... Wow ! I would certainly be the DEARly departed ..

... no wonder ... betcha I would made trillions if I could bottle it & sell it ... :)

so sad ... why did the mama elephant reject / kick the baby ?

: ... there you go - never judge a banana by its skin ...

- fatal attraction of the vehicular kind

- that's why pandas are called China's national treasures ...

- so what is the message - don't stop generating rubbish ?

T, this was the size of our Pekingese, Mimi's puppies when Mom delivered them .. & Mimi was a miniature Peke ...

- 

... and I thot that was to keep the coins for the parking meter .. :(

duhhh ... sorry, run that by me again please ...

Loss of touch with Mother Nature

Dersu Uzala (Russian, 1975)
Director: Akira Kurusawa

First there was darkness, then there was light. This alternating of night and day was instrumental in developing many of man's inner and outer equilibrium. Internally, the diurnal circadian rhythm was achieved. Pineal gland owed its maturity upon it. Man learnt to live in symbiosis with the elements of nature by learning simple things about them. The wind, moisture, heat, stars, moon and sun were their guides. Then came the ability to produce light at their will. Suddenly, man found that they did not have depend on nature to move around. Slowly their closeness to nature grew far apart.
This Oscar winner is a poignant Japo-Russian venture that highlights a unique friendship between a Russian military surveyor and a Goldi nomadic hunter. The Goldis, or Nanai people as they are known now, have their ancestors in Manchuria.

Nanai family, Amur region of Russia

Captain Arseniev and his men meet up an amusing looking man as they survey the Far East region of Russia. The man introduces himself as Dersu Uzula, a hunter who roams the jungle for kills. They decide to take him in to help in their expedition and surveying. Not taking him too seriously on his proclaim knowledge of the forest, they were awed and pleasantly surprised with his uncanny ability to deduce things from simple observations. Looking at a track on the ground, he could tell the age, the ethnicity and many things about the owner of the footprints. His predictions eventually turned out to be embarrassingly true to the dot.
His survival skills  too proved valuable. Caught in a snowstorm, he once saved the Captain's life by building an igloo-like structure from tall grass in a jiffy. Together, Dersu and the battalion explored many areas and experienced many adventures. Dersu turned out to be someone who has utmost respect to the forest. He does not damage it for the sake of it or kill animals for fun. At one juncture, he becomes emotionally disturbed as he had to shoot down a tiger. A tiger in his belief is an animal not to be killed as it would anger the spirits.
From that time on, he was never his old self. He became withdrawn and had nightmares. He even had hysterical blindness to animals. As the expedition came to an end, Captain invited him to stay with him in his home in town.

Dersu could not really fit into the domesticated life. He eventually went back to the forest. With his failing eyesight and emotional instability, he did not survive long.
Again, Kurosawa managed to show to us that you do not have to understand the language to appreciate a good movie. The friendship between two men of different background and stature comes alive with mutual respect and acceptance of each other's conviction without malice. True friendship transcends all borders!

But, that is not real way...

Now how often have we heard people sitting high up and looking down saying, "yeah but they is the real way of doing it! They are not doing it right. There are specific ways of doing it. The Truth is all there in the scriptures!"
Yes and yet no religion is not guilty of it.
The animals are supposed to be respected and are said to be also creations of the Almighty but the way they are abused, culled and hunted, it appears like their sole purpose of existence is to be eaten, hunted and be bullied. They say that their religious way of justice is God sent and is cast on stone. If you look around, their justice is made to look so disconnected from the train of thought of contemporary man. If you do not have a living example to follow, how can you proclaim that your system is the best. We need a sign. We need a living proof of superiority of the merchandise that you are trying to sell us!
Your religious leaders allow atrocities to be carried out on fellow citizens. Yet they advise middle path as the best way to reach Enlightenment. Even your saffron robed holy men partake in these atrocities in the name of justice. Others of the same faith, however, admonish their actions by saying that their brand of seeking the truth is deviant.
You say God works in mysterious ways but yet you take it upon yourself that you must do His work on Earth. And you self appointed yourself as the chosen one.
You say everyone is sent to Earth for a specific reason but how do you know that what you doing IS the reason you are sent for? Perhaps, you still have not found you are looking for.
You think you know everything and you know are right but what if, just what if, you were wrong all the time? You cannot undo what you did to them, can you?
Are you trying to show your might as might just might be right and buries the rest?
Since we are all groping around trying to understand the things that surround us, why you give peace a chance? Maybe when the storm had cleared, you can see clearly then...
You do not want yesterday once more.