We built this city!

Once upon a time in Calcutta (2021)
Director: Aditya Vikram Sengupta

Like Mother Nature @ Bhoomadevi, who has seen it all, like the dinosaurs' passing, and various primates and species morphing into Homosapiens, great cities have seen it all too.

Admittedly all cities expanded and developed to their present glorious states, not via virtuous paths but through acts of sin. Show me one still-standing city that did not benefit from actions considered unholy transactions. They all benefitted from shady nightlife activities, brothels, alcohol, smuggling, racketeering, and robbing, you name it. 

Still, life goes on. Umpteen people migrate to cities daily with a chest full of hope. Many manage to improve their lives, breaking their backs, sleepless but with a restless dream with the sole intention of climbing the ladder of success. Some falter, crushed by their enormous goals, obviously too big for the shoulders to carry. The city has seen the successes, the decadence, the swindling and the ploys. Its duty is not to punish. It merely records to play for anyone willing to hear the lessons of what lurks behind the bright city lights.

As far as nostalgia is concerned, Calcutta must surely be a city that has many tales to tell. After functioning as the capital of the British Empire and later as the site of many bloody turmoils following Partition, its past must be painted in blood, sweat and tears. Now, in 21st-century independent India, it morphs yet again. Buildings and statues that were grand then have become eyesores and need to be deconstructed.

Against this background is where this movie is set.

Ela is an ageing actress who has many things on her plate. Her young daughter's death has drawn her to the bottle and destroyed her relationship with her husband. They live under the same roof but lead separate lives. Ela is trying to get a loan to buy a house to move out, but she has no money. She had spent all her savings on her daughter's illness.

Ela may jointly own her late father's old and run-down family house. The problem is that Ela's late mother was a cabaret dancer and her father's mistress. Ela's half-brother, Bubu, blames the mistress for his own mother's suicide and refuses to give Ela any access to the property.

Bubu gets increasingly paranoid about his servants. The almost single Ela has suitors of her own. She reconnects with her old flame, and a proprietor of a Ponzi scheme showers her with gifts. The ugly side of the whole city network soon comes to the surface. The Ponzi scheme collapses, and Ela's old flame's new highway collapses. 

It appears that city is a scavenger and is hungry for more and more, but remember that people make cities.

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Money changes everything!

FIFA Uncovered (2022)
Miniseries (Netflix; 4 episodes)
Direction: Daniel Gordon.

It is the same story all the time. Something starts small with noble intentions but ends up filled with filth so much that it hits the ceiling so high that its stench fills up to high heaven.

We are aware of the Indian Congress Party, which the British Raj established to give the natives a false sense of control of their administration, who steered the nation towards self-rule and have, over the decades, become a self-destructive political party. In the 21st century, its place in society is suspect. 

In the same vein, UMNO (United Malay National Organisation), which had a pivotal role in claiming independence from the British, is now a power-hungry, corruption-ridden tyrant out to mill the country. 

Of course, naysayers would insist that these parties were connivingly handed the rein of the country purposefully. The British still wanted to hold the purse strings of their former colonies and exert a stronghold on how their economies should be steered whilst ensuring their own interest.

In the same way, FIFA started as a genuinely non-profit entity with the noble intention of wanting to improve football standards around Europe. Over the years, when money got intertwined in the equation, it grew too big for its boots. Soon everything had a price, from advertising to sponsorship to hosting to even a vote for a seat in the executive committee.

The path to hell is paved with good intentions. In 1974, a Brazilian industrialist, João Havelange, decided to incorporate business into this body. Their bank accounts became fatter and fatter. Other governing bodies (CONCACAF, AFC, OFC, CONMEBOL) from different parts of the world soon joined suit. With an obedient general, Sepp Platter, promoting the game to the remotest part of the world, their coffers grew. Contribution from the sponsors did not reach their intended targets but allegedly lined the FIFA officials. 

In their zest to stay in power in FIFA, officials were bribed to buy votes. Over the years, investigative journalists exposed their shenanigans in the open. The coup de grace came to light with the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 hosting of the World Cup by Russia and Qatar, respectively. One by one, the ugly crimes of the heads of various soccer bodies were uncovered. FBI came into the picture. James Warner of the Carribeans, Charles Blazer of the USA and 14 executive committee members of FIFA were implicated in vote buying and widespread corruption within organised games. 

FIFA is run like a Mafia-like establishment. Sepp Platter is portrayed as the godfather of what is supposed to be a charitable body to genuinely promote the game of soccer. At one point, Platter is even accused of having narcissistic tendencies, harbouring the intention of wanting to receive the Nobel Peace Prize!

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Another piece of Malayan history

Carey Island - Historical Island (Tamil; 2022)
வரலாற்று சிறப்பு மிக்க கெரித்தீவு

Author: M Govindasamy

In 1988, when I was a doe-eyed newbie starting work in Klang, I was assigned to many in-patients who hailed from a peculiar place called Carey Island. I swear I knew the small islands around Malaysia, but I had never encountered any Carey Island. In Penang, where I grew up, my contemporaries and I tried to excite ourselves by quizzing each other and trying to locate islands on the atlas. Our interests were piqued by the people manning the now-defunct ferry services between Penang Island and Butterworth. The ferries were named after islands around Malaysia - Langkawi, Tioman, Pangkor, Redang, etcetera. The name that excited us most was Pulau Babi Besar. Sadly, Pulau Babi Besar is now renamed Pulau Indah, as the previous name hurt the sentiments of small hogs and those who perceived the animal as unclean.

Carey Island is no island at all. It is part of the state of Selangor, which is dissected by a river on one side and maybe an irrigation canal on the other side to make it an island of sorts. 

I remember many patients who were brought in from Carey Island were plantation workers with a multitude of social problems, including domestic issues and suicide attempts. 

The history of Carey Island is strongly interlinked with the history of British rule in Malaya. Even before the British exploited the group of land over the western part of Selangor, the island was already occupied by indigenous people and a smattering of Malays, Chinese and Indians even before the land was 'developed' by the colonial masters. 

Carey Island is technically not an island.

The Carey family was related to one of King Henry XIII's wives. Edward Valentine Carey's family acquired a massive piece of land in Ceylon to develop a thriving coffee plantation named Amherst. Through appeasement deals with the British, Edward Carey was gifted with a parcel of land in Gombak and, later, in 1899, a piece of land on the western coast of Selangor. The Gombak plantation land was christened New Amherst Estate Gombak.

Carey Island, a piece of land that came to be called later, was exploited to cultivate coffee, coconut and rubber. Together with the development of this land came labourers from South India and other immigrants to complement the bustling economy.

This book is a trip down memory lane of some of the landmarks on the island via photographs to remind the readers of how this island contributed to the national economy and became part of the narrative of the three generations of settlers who call this place home.

 

A few exciting snippets here. Unlike the common perceptions that crows, who are currently the unceremonious natives of Klang, came as stowaways on a merchant ship, they were actually actively sourced from Ceylon. Crows were brought in to gobble up worms that were a menace to their plantation.

Malaria was a severe problem for the occupants of Carey Island. Many died due to the disease. Only after Ronald Ross discovered the cause and ways to keep this menace under control did the State Health director institute measures to rein the ailment under control. The director went on to be knighted later on.

There used to be an active ferry service until a modern bridge was built to make the service redundant by the 1980s.

https://careyisland.info/

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Laundromats, Laundering and World Cup!

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 whitewash their political witch hunts and extra judicial killings by organising the 1978 FIFA World Cup. For a moment, the world thought the world of Argentina had risen from ashes. 

Is Qatar following in the footsteps of the above?

From the word get-go, Qatar has been hogging the headlines for all the wrong reasons. True, the media giant was established with free-flowing Arab petrodollars to paint a more accurate picture of the Arabic and Islamic world; no paint brushing can hide the ugly truth. How it won the bid to host the pinnacle of the world's favourite sport is suspect. How the hell did the FIFA Executive representatives feel that Qatar, with its desert heat and a summer temperature of 50 degrees C was a better choice than Australia and the United States? 

Even before the coin toss or kick-off, the death toll and abuse of its migrant workers had hit the ceiling. The narration of non-payment of wages and non-compensation for injuries sustained during its many infrastructure constructions is common knowledge.

Now that the game has commenced, more and more of their shenanigans have come to light. The Wahhabi-infused Qatari royalty has decided to showcase how a halal football tournament should be carried out. Revellers who flew in to join the merriment of their winning teams in style had to contend with non-alcoholic beverages. They are also strictly told not to display their sexual preferences on their sleeves.

Migrant worker death toll at 1,400

So when someone told me that he was excited that the first two preliminary matches revealed unexpected results. Saudi Arabia, which had a 251 to 1 odds of beating Argentina, did precisely that. And who is the right kind would have thought the minion Japanese who have ousted the four-time world Cup winners Germany? The bookies would have thought so, too, since they would ensure the best returns. Nothing is surprising anymore in this money-raged world of moolah and how businesses control every aspect of our lives. 

In the organisers' zeal to showcase how an Islamic country has a 'secular' event, they decided to use the occasion to proselyte fans. Who can be the best evangelist with an incredible track record to prove this than the fugitive Dr Zakir Naik? He had been specially flown in for the occasion from Malaysia.

Interestingly, Qatar insists that Dr Naik is not on the invitees' list.

Is the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar's way of sport washing its world image as the premier sponsor of terror? Do they expect the world to forget all about the state-sponsored madrasahs and ulamas after organising a memorable display of world-class football? Villains become valiant defenders of truth?

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War, an opportunity!

All Quiet on the Western Front (German, 2022)

Director: Edward Berger

Ancient Chinese philosophers, Lao Tze in particular, used to say, 'In War, everybody loses'. But on the other hand, Sun Tzu, the author of Art of War, the military treatise of the 5th century BCE, noted that amid chaos, there is also 'opportunity'.

In 1913, Henri La Fontaine obtained the Nobel Peace Prize for his outstanding work in peaceful internationalism. He asserted that the world, in the 20th century, had done away with wars and destruction. Believe it or not, the following year, Europe went into an essentially civil war which snowballed into a World War when the European colonisers sent their subjects to die in the greatest battle to end all wars.

Clive's plunder from 
Battle of Plassey (Palashi)
Auctioned at £3m

World War 1 never put an end to anything. Its effects are still felt today. In essence, Ukrainian War can be said to be an effort to end loose ends that were never resolved. As we can see, Russia and the USA, through NATO, are using the war as leverage to push forward their personal agendas and cement their hegemonic control of the world. The people on the ground suffer and lose their life and life-earnings, while others view it as an opportunity to enrich themselves and improve their own citizens' living standards. The war casualties are just mere collateral damage. Statistics.

All these talks about killing being a sin are easily justified. As in the Crusade Wars, killing for a just cause is just the caveat for leaders to gear their hot-blooded to sign up to serve the same flag they will be wrapped to be buried when they return home in a body bag.

This film is the adaptation of a 1929 novel by Erich Maria Remarque based on his experience with the Imperial German Army in WW1. Graphically, this anti-war drama shows how the low-ranking officers sacrifice their life and soul to serve their superiors. A simple comparison offered here is in the way these different officers dine. The soldiers on the battleground have to thrive on their rations and steal for the next meal when it runs out, while the generals are served top-class chef-prepared cuisines.

In war, not everyone loses. Some gain fame and glory, while many die. During Imperialism rule, many amassed fortunes that would last many lifetimes. One point to note is how a low-ranking soldier Robert Clive became Europe's richest man after the Battle of Plassey.

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Justice delayed is justice denied!

Indian Predator: Murder in a Courtroom (2022)

Documentary; Netflix

Humans thought living in big numbers protected them from the elements, predators and even enemies. Security concerns were taken care of by the individual community itself. It was jungle justice with no higher justice to recourse. Might decided what was right!

As communities coalesced into country-states, the job of security and protection was outsourced to the State. Suddenly there was no reason for the average citizen to hold powerful weapons. The duty to apprehend and punish wrongdoers was outsourced to State-owned agencies. These agencies were supposed to protect all levels of society, the powerful and powerless alike. It looks all nice on paper, but in reality, the mission statements of these agents are mere rhetorics to pacify the vote bank. The minorities and the weak can only cry foul, fill up the newspapers and breaking news segments and spit on the system.

People will bear with the imperfections of the system. Despite its follies, they believe that God and leaders will soon realise their shortcomings to rectify their errors. At a particular point of no return, the bow will break, and there will be no turning back. Justice must be seen to be done. Justice delayed is justice denied.

This must be what happened to Kasturba Nagar's dwellers in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Since 1999, a group of rowdies had been terrorising the inhabitants. They were brazenly beating up people and molesting girls there. Reports to local police did not achieve much. They became bolder. Akku Yadav is the de-facto leader of the pack. After a brawl, he killed one of his friends. Akku was imprisoned but was released after 10 months, bolder and blunter in his attacks on his victims. He terrorised the women, molesting, harassing and even raping them in the open. The people of Nagar were just too frightened to retaliate.

One brave lady, Asha Bhagat, went against Akku only to be stabbed to death. Another young student was almost killed by Akku but was saved by her quick thinking and when all her neighbours came to her rescue. This act empowered them. When Akku was produced in court, all the ladies of the colony planned an ambush on him. On August 13th 2004, over 200 people from Kasturba Nagar made their way to the Nagpur courts. They locked him up in the courthouse, sprinkled chilli powder into his eyes and mutilated every part of his body, including his ears and genitalia.

This took a big dent in the integrity and competence of the policing and justice systems of the country. When people take the law into their own hands, and the State has no control over protecting its own officers, how can it protect the country? The authorities arrested five random ladies for the murder of Akku. This prompted 200 over ladies from the colony to turn up at the local police station, all confessing to murdering Akku. 50 ladies were later arrested, but the justice system's slow wheel took ten long years to acquit them of all crimes.

The action of the members to ambush the court show and kill an accused in broad daylight exposed the impotence of the police and the courts. They could help but charge the authorities of caring less for them because of their depressed class status and perhaps their generally lower castes too. The purists insist that their actions could not be condoned and the State machinery must be respected. Detractors question the relevance of government servants who are only there to serve the upper echelon of society. Somewhere along the way, the Naxalites are accused of instigating the public to create anar
chy.

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A tit-for-tat does not toe the line!

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)

Director: Park Chan-wook

Koreans seem to have a tradition of feeding on white tofu, which is symbolic of starting all over again. It is symbolic of wanting to turn over a new leaf, leaving the lousy past behind and starting anew. This is much the same as when one confesses in a Roman Catholic booth. All his sins are purged, and he begins life on a new slate.

Is it really that simple? To put your past behind you and move on as if nothing happened. I suppose that is why cultural practices and religion offer an olive branch to wrongdoers, assuring them they deserve a second chance in life. Devoid of these, if Man were to carry all the burden of guilt all his life without atonement. If Man were held responsible for all his actions without reprieve, he would probably end up dragging his past mistakes as a grinding mill around his neck to end up being a raving lunatic. Suicide would be their only outlet to relieve them from this misery.

As mentioned in the movie, the protagonist, a prison inmate after a murder charge that she regrets, feels a certain glow on her face after a prayer. She feels rejuvenated, like she has shed a layer of dirty skin off her body. It is atonement for her sins.

Conversely, instead of pursuing a passive route to make amends, one can follow the path of vengeance. One eye for an eye, as they say. At the end of the day, does avenging really give satisfaction to the soul? The ghost of their previous mistakes will still haunt them till the end of life. Do two wrongs make a right?

This film is the last of Park Wong-nook's Revenge trilogy.

A naive 19-year-old girl, Geum-ja, is a national sensation for kidnapping and killing a 6-year-old boy. In a typical Park's storytelling, the narration is non-linear. The composite of the whole story comes at the end. The primary school teacher, Mr Baek, kidnaps his students for ransom to splurge on himself.

Geum-ja, a single mother of a young child, was blackmailed by the teacher to kidnap a child. In the end, Mr Baek collects the ransom and kills the children, but Geum-ja goes to prison when she naively takes the blame for the crime she did not commit.

Notice the figurines in the background.

Judith with the Head of Holofernes. Created by Donatello

The epitome of sex and violence. Holofernes, an Assyrian general,
wrongs a beautiful young widow. She retaliates by decapitating
her aggressor when he is inebriated. Note: Display of nude
figures in public is acceptable in Europe but is frowned upon by
the same people when it comes to ancient Hindu temple carvings.

Her inner realisation opens in prison. She garners support by helping out bullied inmates to build a network of grateful inmates. After her incarceration, Geum-ja returns to find her daughter already adopted in Australia. She goes on a crusade to get back her estranged daughter and avenge Mr Baek. With the help of the investigating officer who put her behind bars, she tracks down the parents of the kids that Mr Baek killed and arranges to face-to-face meet with a gagged Mr Baek. Geum-ja puts forward all the pieces of evidence that incriminates Mr Baek as their kid's killer. As expected, the outburst of emotions of aggrieved parents was anything but civil.

The funny thing is that even after getting even with Mr Baek and getting back her daughter, Geum-Ja is not happy. The ghost of all her actions, inactions and the consequences of her doing still haunts her day and night.

An eye for an eye not only leaves the whole world blind, but it also leaves a hollow so deep in the soul that it manifests in recurrent nightmares and loss of peace of mind. Perhaps Nature has a better way of getting wrongdoers.

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