Nobody likes a smart Alec!

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: 2020
Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Yes, that is the final name to Borat's 2006 follow-up mockumentary. The title went through many name changes; the previous ones were equally ridiculous and ridiculously long. It also has the dubious reputation of incurring the wrath of many Americans (and Kazhaks) and attracting many legal suits. The Kazaks were just as pissed for depicting them as a bunch of village fools ruled by a despotic regime.

If one is looking for a Wodehousian type of humour in this offering, look elsewhere. It is a lowbrow comedy through and through with toilet humour, genitals, menstruation and all.

It was strategically released before the US Presidential elections and contains some not so savoury depiction of Trump's lawyer and former Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, in a hotel room kerfuffle with a young journalist. It is all a prank, and the film is full of it. Borat holds a mirror to the Americans right on their face to showcase their latest embarrassing side. He prods the gullible public in the manner of a naive East European native who is struggling with his English to ask current questions like whether one should vote for the Democrats. Their hypocrisy is laid bare for us to scrutinise.

In a scene, Borat's 16-year-old daughter had swallowed a toy baby figurine on a cupcake. This is obviously referring to the Pizzagate scandal where allegedly prominent figures are involved in Satanic practices like eating babies. She is then brought to a Woman's Clinic for treatment run by a pastor. Borat with his bumbling English telling the pastor, "My daughter got baby in stomach, I want to take out. I give her baby. (referring to the cupcake he had fed her or is it incest he is indicating?)" is just too funny.

The film has another court case against the estate of a recently deceased Holocaust survivor who was apparently tricked into an interview which was subsequently included in the film. Many of the 'participants' in the movie are mere passers-by.
On one side, the viewers will go off thinking that it is a Democrat bashing movie. Then we realise that Trump, his party members and the Republican supporters are also not spared of his caustic sarcasm.

https://fb.watch/1l4jxH57Uw/

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He who has the gold, makes the rules!

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 falcons, at the age of 18 years, he bought himself a one-way ticket to Teheran. He left his serene life in the lush of Maine, New England to train professionally in falconry in the naked deserts of Iran. Here, he got a revelation of sorts. He realised the high status that falcons commanded in this region. A visit to the Golden Sikh Temple and the last Sikh Guru's, Guru Govind Singh's fascination with falcon made him assume a Sikh identity in appearance and way of living. Historically falcons played essential roles in international diplomacies. Even in Europe, falcons were gifted between kingdom to sweeten business transactions and shipping passage.

He returned to Cornell to study and returned halfway through his studies to the Middle East to legally catch, breed and sell wild Icelandic Falcons (Jer Falcons) to the filthy wealthy Arabs at up to $1 million per bird. Parrot (ironic) found himself mixing with the who's who of the upper echelon of the ruling class of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran as well as the infamous fugitive, Osama Bin Laden. The falcons were such priceless commodities, even more, valuable than cocaine. There was a massive demand in the black-market, but surprisingly most Governments are relaxed about curbing this illegal trade. In fact, many countries turn a blind eye to it as it is done in high places. 

Alan Parrot @ Hari Har Singh Khalsa

Many makeshift camps are built in the middle of nowhere in the desert terrains of Afghanistan and Pakistan called Falcon Hunting Camps. Here, Islamic radicals like Al-Qaida meet Arab royalties, and many deals are made. Obscene amounts of cash are given by the opulent royalties to the terrorist group as zakat as an atonement. Osama is known to have presented exquisite purebred falcons as gifts to the members of the Arab royalties. The 9-11 attack was allegedly agreed upon in one of these camps.

At the heights of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, he was a guest of the Iran government. Parrot and US intelligence were aware of his whereabouts. Despite repeated contact with the US authorities, the message somehow got lost in a bureaucratic maze. Or did it?

Parrot and his agents believe that there is a general malaise to stop this type of clandestine dealings. The black market of falcons has led to corruption against military leaders, political murder, and international terrorism. What is stopping them is money.  There is an apparent shady connection between this falcon trade and royal dynasties, the CIA and KGB, the oil industry, American government, and Al-Qaeda. Even the enforcement officials have to line their pockets during the short tenure of their earning life. 

" Ultimately, the message that Feathered Cocaine wants to deliver to its audience is not strictly about falcon smuggling or the uncovering of evil plots conceived for ideological reasons. It is by far more pessimistic than that. Feathered Cocaine is one of many untimely records of corruption and greed. Untimely, but at the same time well-rooted in our turbulent globalized age. Power is one and the same anywhere, and terrorism is not but an excuse and a disguise to put the public opinion under pressure. All mechanisms are in favor of the profit of few. Escalation of terror is not going to stop, because involved interests are increasing their magnitude every day. Evidence of this trend is what happened in recent times, with tragedies whose connotations are still unknown to common people; facts like 9/11 are bound to happen again and again, because nobody among those holding power — not only the governments, but the lobbies and the organizations connecting them all — is at this point different in pursuing his main interests. And of course, this interest can be summed up with one name only: Money."

https://icelandchronicles.com/2011/01/feathered-cocaine-review/

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The higher you fly, the harder the fall!

Bad Boy Billionaires: India (Documentary, 2020; Netflix)

This is another one of Netflix's productions that hit a snag in India, this time it spurned court cases demanding against its release. Three out of the four episodes in the series were released recently. The fourth episode, a documentary narrating the rise and fall of Ramalinga Raju of Satyam Computers, was successfully stopped at the courts for its damaging portrayal of the man.  

The remaining episodes tell about the escapades of the three Indian icons.

Vijay Mallya, a fugitive currently residing in the UK, is also known as the King of Good Times. Born to a beer brewer father, despite the Prohibition of liquor in many states of India, managed to glamourise beer drinking during the dot com bubble heydays of the '90s. From there he went on to the world centre stage through his involvement in the 'no frills' airline business and the F1 races. He made a few shady loans, and soon he was hot on the heels of the authority. He fleed to London and is fighting extradition efforts to India.  

Diamondtaire, Nirav Modi, was born into a family that delved in the jewellery business for generations. He was the one who singlehanded showcased the master craftsmanship of the Indian jewellers to the world stage via his international brand that carried his name. He allegedly inflated the value of his own merchandise through sales of his jewellery to different shell companies. His shady loans with Punjab National Bank, however, alerted the lawmen to investigate his dealings. Modi is now seeking asylum in the UK.

We are familiar with the brand Sahara which use to be displayed proudly on the Indian cricket and hockey team jerseys. Sahara (Saviour) is the name of a financier group created by a rags-to-riches individual named Subrata Roy. At one time, the Sahara group of companies was the biggest employer in India after the Indian Railways. Its primary business was chit fund, a type of savings for the poor. It later ventured into real estate, hospitality, airline industry, healthcare, education and many more. His problems started when he decided to public list two of his companies. This spurred the Market Regulators to look into his company accounts. Despite the repeated accusations and huge fines imposed on the conglomerate, the company's fundamentals are still intact.

The story of fame and fortune always excites the deprived or those dreaming for the unattainable. Perhaps, the safest way to gather wealth is to do in the sly without kicking much pomp and splendour. Splashing obscene amount of cash for private events always open the eyes of the regulators who had been entrusted with upholding the law, has the Hobson's choice of needing to investigate. No system is leak-proof; it is easy to find a discrepancy. One thing leading to another, years of labour will come tumbling down. The middle ground seems prudent but then how do create something earth-shattering without a thud?

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The new norm?

That a look at these two Presidential debates, the first one was in 1960 between JFK and Nixon, whilst the second one happened recently in the year 2020. See the vibes surrounding the two debates. Without a shadow of a doubt, there is much professionalism and decency in the former whereas in the latter we only see crass behaviour and lack of common decency.

In our formative years, we were taught that to listen and to let another to speak are common decencies. Only the immature and ill-mannered interferes one's conversation we were told. We also trained to fight facts with facts, to argue it out like gentlemen in decorum, without being personal or hitting below the belt.

Somewhere along the way, while we were napping, a lot of things changed.

The '90s brought in the internet culture and work ethics of the likes of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Workers were expected to dress down to work. Work time needs to be flexible, they said. Jobs is famously known to walk around bare feet and is said to stretch out his naked feet on the office tables whilst discussing work matters with his contemporaries. Seniority went out of the window when open office concept came to being.

Smartphones did not make people smarter. It only built them a personalised echo chamber for them to wallow around in the sweetness of their pixelated self. The 'self-generation' that did not give two hoots about the feelings of the about the other morphed. Under the cloak of anonymity, they would swashbuckler their thoughts with the sorcery of keyboards which are not their views actually but mere parroting of the hidden hands of the cabal.

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Policing the police?

Disgruntled expression by citizens after the second wave of 

COVID linked to free movement of politicians during the 

recent Sabah state election. This banner prompted the cops

to spring to investigate the maker of this banner.

The law (specifically the police) is supposed to serve and protect the public. They are there to maintain law and order so that the general public can perform their society-sanctioned duties - earning an honest living and caring as well as providing for the loved ones. 

Of late, these duties (by the police) have been questioned. Are they there to protect the laypeople? Is their presence purely to serve? But to serve whom? Who are their masters?

We all know that the BLM movement that stemmed from policemen's mishandling of black suspect is nothing more than a brain-child of self-serving parties trying to court anarchy to push forward their agendas. One thing led to another. Compilations of previous police brutalities over the years soon instigated people to question whether we need a police force at all. Then, the scream for defunding the police started becoming louder. Imagine a society without the men in blue to police law, order and justice. But do they mete justice? Apparently not.

Closer to home, we repeatedly see enthusiastic men-in-uniform with the excitement of a kid with a candy working around the clock, chasing all avenues to nail culprits who defamed people of stature and in pursuing microscopic shreds of evidence as the situation warrants. Apparently, their excitement gets doused when it comes to nailing down selected kidnappers.

But then...

The world is not a rose garden. There are many wicked people around. They use the evil that lurks within the crypt of their hidden mind to fulfil their hedonistic desire or shortcuts to commit the society-abhorred deadly sins. The laypeople cannot take be empowered to take power to protect themselves in times of adversity. 

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The slippery slope of success

Serious Men (Hindi; 2020)

Article 26 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights promises free education to all, at least in the elementary stages. It should be equally accessible to all, and parents have the right to choose the kind of education given to their children. Sounds nice on paper, but in reality, this is far from the truth.

It is not a level playing field. How often have we heard of bright students missing opportunities because of their social class, race or simply not knowing the 'right people'? Conversely, so many are elevated way beyond their capabilities because of affirmative actions. Some scaled greater heights as their parents are capable of using their influence or wealth to beat the system or use backdoor means to achieve what they cannot possibly do in a fair game.

The world is not fair. The democratisation of education is only a smokescreen. In reality, it is controlled by the elitist. Schools in the developed part of the countries have better facilities and full-strength teaching force. Students in poor areas have to make do with suboptimal learning conditions. Private schools are paid for by the affluent, and government boarding schools get the undivided attention of rulers as it houses the kids of the elites and students to fit a specific agenda.

Everyone has wised up to appreciate the importance of education. And they all want a piece of the action. The under-privileged use academic excellence as their ticket to extrude themselves from the shackles of poverty. And do not be surprised if they fight for the passport with tooth and nail.

The movie, Serious Men, is a satirical look at the hypocrisy of the society that talks about equality and social justice. In reality, however, everyone is just happy with the status quo. Each uses each other to suppress the one below them, keep them ignorant but instead use the other to springboard themselves to greater heights. The ignorance of the under-class is ridiculed, but the follies by the elites are swept under the carpet.
Like the colonial masters who thought that civilising the natives was the white man's burden, the elitists class believe that they are indeed torchbearers for marginalised. The politicians, on the other hand, make a fool of everyone for their own vested interest.

Ayyan Mani, the protagonist, is a personal assistant to a renowned space scientist. Extricating himself from extreme poverty via education, Ayyan tries to provide the best that education can offer to enjoy the fruit of scholarship. To his disappointment, he meets resistance at all ends. To top it up, his son is a slow learner with hearing impairment. Ayyan concocts a scheme to make his son appear a genius.

This offering ends up as a thought-provoking one. It sneers at our social web and the game that we play to achieve our private intentions. It is well crafted and does not paint the melancholia of poverty, but instead, people in the film have accepted their karmic cycle and carry on with their lives.

A memorable line in the film reminds us that for a generation to just sit down and enjoy doing nothing, he has to be the 4th generation (4G) enlightened one. The 1st generation (1G) are those who are uneducated but realise the importance of good education. They would break their back to provide basic education for their offspring (2G). The 2Gs will not be among the upper echelon of society but would want their kids (3G) to excel. Life is a race for them to move the family one notch higher. They have no free time. The 3Gs can ponder on mundane stuff like, as quoted, why condoms have dots on them! The 3Gs would have rendered all the luxury in life that 4G can just laze their time away, without having to work.

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The cycle is a MacGuffin

Cycle (Marathi, 2017)

A Malay proverb goes, 'gajah mati meninggalkan tulang, harimau mati meninggalkan belang, manusia mati meninggalkan nama'. Literally translated it meant elephants die leaving bones, tigers leave their stripes and men leave their good name. Essentially it denotes that a legacy of a person is his deeds, not his materialistic assets.

It may all be make-believe and fabled narration - that the world is so good where it provides for everybody. Your deeds are the only that matter. That is the only thing that is remembered of you are your virtues. The material representations of you are not you but the mere reminders of your existence.

The movie set in 1958 rural India. Perhaps the innocence of Man that existed in the yesteryears is just a forgotten relic of the past. Modern Man is more self-centred and suspicious of the person beside him. Money has pervaded into everyone's life that it supersedes doing good or the right thing.

Maybe somewhere in the corner of our hearts, we still hope that humanity and all the traits that protected mankind through hardship over the years are still alive. People would yet be assessed by their virtues and not their bank balance. Material possessions are essential but not be-all and end-all of our being. 

The story tells about a decent much-loved astrologer, Keshav, who is placed in high regards by people near and far. He is gentle when speaking bad omen and sometimes tells his client the good things that they want to hear and sugarcoats the unpleasant one. His one much-prized possession is his yellow bicycle. It was bequeathed to him by his grandfather who received it from a British officer for his services. Keshav loves his vehicle too much, to the level of obsession. No one is allowed to ride his bike, strictly nobody. He even keeps it indoors.

During his absence, on a faithful day, Keshav's bicycle gets stolen by two bumbling thieves who had just robbed a house but were chased by dogs. A devastated Keshav goes in search of his machine.

Meanwhile, the robbers on their getaway, get the royal treatment from the adjacent villagers. They believe them when told, though they were initially unconvinced, that Keshav had loaned them his contraption. Long story short, the thieves realised they had stolen from a decent chap. Keshav also gets back his cycle, but by then, he realises his folly. He had emphasised too much on his bicycle but failed to see all the love around him.

In this unsettled world full of uncertainties, this movie could be a wake-up call for us to reassess our priorities. We should not be all rapacious in our zest for wealth acquisition but consider having a re-visit upon things we had wanted to do all our lives but never the opportunity to do so.

P.S. Learnt a new word - MacGuffin. It is an object or device in a film which serves merely as a trigger for the plot. It has nothing to do with the story. It was coined by Alfred Hitchcock. Asked in an interview, "what is a MacGuffin?", he replied, " It's an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish highlands."

The interviewer went on to enquire, "But there are no lions in the Scottish highlands."
He cheekily said, "Then that's no MacGuffin."

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