No ideal system

The Hungarian Parliament House by the Danube at sunset

They did not know where they came from. They intelligently guessed they must have come from the Ural mountains around 800CE. No, say the archaeological finds. Excavations showed carvings and even scripts that go back 5,000 years!

Modern history tells them of Prince Stephen, the first devout Catholic King canonised posthumously.

People were happy going about their daily lives, leaving the administration to the monarch, whom they were programmed to believe God Himself ordained. They were glad to part with a portion of their hard-earned produce in return. After all, He decides whether the people should live, suffer, or die.

Soon, times turned for the worse. Other nations tried to dominate. People’s trust in the Divine soon dissipated. Then, Godless men steamrolled their ideology upon them. The communists preached equality and Utopia on Earth. It was, of course, another tale to outwink the unassuming.

They knew they had to rise. An uprising in 1956 was easily squashed by the mighty Soviet tanks. It was the status quo till the mighty dream of equality, as in other parts of the world, came tumbling down in by its own pompous weight.

Fed up with the single brand of soap and the Hobson choice of ugly-looking cars, they were enticed by the variety offered by capitalism's charm. They opened their borders for others to come in and learn about their heritage and how they made it as a race throughout their history.

Hungarian Sunset

Remembering the gruesome end of captured Jewish

prisoners at the end of WW2. All were paraded by

the Danube, including children,  to receive a bullet to

end their misery. Stone shoes to remember the incident.

A pensive moment by the Danube

The site where Stalin's statue used to be. Was brought
down during the 1956 uprising. Stalin was replaced by God.

Terror Museum @ Budapest. To remember the terror the Hungarians endured over the
generations. Nothing black or white about terror. One man's terror is another man's law and order.

A repenting Dracula reading the Bible!
One of the many mini statuettes around Budapest.

Hero's Square commemorates the many fallen heroes,
for the Crown, God and a piece of cloth @ a flag or
a piece of paper, maybe as an ID or passport!

Stood still through it all! At King Saint Stephen's Basilica.

The Marvel of Man and Engineering.

Ordained by the Divine!

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Dictators don't die, neither do vampires!

El Conde (The Count, Chilean; 2023)

Director: Pablo Larraín

The first thing the viewers notice at the movie's start is the ‘fraktur’ fonts used in the opening credits. As we know, this font is linked to the Neo-Nazi movement, Germanness and possibly Hitler himself. 

This movie can be classified as a cruel comedy depicting past Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, not only in a bad light but one with no redeemable features. He is portrayed as a true-blooded 250-year-old vampire from the 18th century. He is said to have been born French as a foot soldier to King Louis XIV. Escaping from the hullaballoo surrounding the French Revolution, he scoots off with Marie Antionette's guillotined head. He ends up in Chile in the 1930s after much gallivanting. 

Now, in the present time, after all the looting, killing and his trial, Pinochet wants to die, but he cannot as he is a vampire. He summons his wife and five children to a secluded island to plan his death. He, however, has an elaborate plan to fake his own death and start life anew elsewhere. 

One of the children wants to know the total sum of his estate, so she brings in an accountant. The accountant's daytime job is being a nun, and she is hellbent on exorcising Pinochet. If this is complicated, wait until the nun falls for Pinochet and is bitten to be turned into a vampire. Pinochet goes bonkers for the nun.

During Pinochet's terror reign over Chile, he stayed that long because of his Anglophile friends. He defeated the socialist-minded Arrende, even though he was legitimately elected because the Americans did not want Soviet influence on Latin America. We know of Pinochet's help for Britain during the Falkland Wars.

Guess who comes to save the day? Margaret Thatcher. She is Pinochet's mother. Thatcher was a prostitute in King Louis XIV's Paris when she was raped and left her child at an orphanage after being bitten by a strigoi (spirit). It seems she cannot afford to lose her son's love. She comes to the rescue. They kill everybody and consume lots of young blood. Thatcher leaves with a very young Pinochet.

Lesson to learn: An autocrat is being groomed somewhere. The last dictator is not the last one, and neither is the next. Interestingly allegorical. The corrupt, violent dictators are like vampires; they do not die so easily and may be immortal, too.

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Another old profession - gossiping!

Civil War (2024)

Director: Alex Garland

The world thought the USA's second Civil War was about to start when Donald Trump lost his second term in office. The Capital Building ambush by Trump's far-right supporters on 6th January 2021 was forever enshrined as the biggest desecration of the American democracy.

In this movie version, it is sometime in the future when America is in a civil war. America is divided into areas controlled by regional militias and other extreme factions. The President is re-elected for a third term, and people are unhappy. There is mayhem in the country. Local vigilantes have taken control of most areas. In essence, it is like a war zone.

Amidst this chaos, two photojournalists have to travel by road across the country to Washington, DC, to interview the President. The film is about their experience of seeing America in a civil war.

I was intrigued by the special privileges and status that journalists hold when they carry out their jobs in high-risk areas. The Geneva Convention has determined that they should be protected. Journalists have the right to report things as they see, as they are supposedly giving firsthand accounts of events. They are given special privileges to attend events deemed of public interest. Journalists are also protected from having to reveal the source of their information.

As the world awakens from its long slumber, the question is whether the journalists' accounts of events are indeed the undeniable 'truth'? If schooling taught us anything, it told us that History lessons taught to us are testimonies written by victors. We are often fed with contradictory news in the immediate past and the present. It is expected to get many versions of what is happening in Ukraine, such as who is winning and who has more casualties. In the Israel-Hamas conflict, every journalist from either side paints a different picture of the situation on the ground.

Previously, the CCP insisted that Urghur Camps in Xin Jiang were reeducation centres, whilst many opposers of China insisted they were nothing like internment camps of dissidents.

Another thing that keeps cropping up is fake photos of victims in war-torn zones. It is often mentioned that many of the so-called 'victims' were paid actors who kept on appearing again and again at various disaster sites. An Afghani girl with amber-hued irises who emerged during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan was seen resurfacing during the Syrian civil war. Then, the tale of the walking corpse. I guess journalism had lost its professionalism and integrity.

          

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Another piece of Jewish history

Old Charm of Prague @ Praha

Unlike common assumption, Jews have been everyone’s bogeyman since time immemorial. They did not only endure torture under the hands of the Nazis alone. Throughout their existence, they have been subjected to much humiliation and suppression.

Even as early as the 10th century, the Jewish community was prominent in Czech lands. At one time, 20 per cent of the population of the land were Jewish and a good thing going. They were laborious, wealthy and could fend for themselves.

Unfortunately the stigmata of practicing Moses’ teachings made them an outcast. They were confined to a fenced quarter, picked from the most treacherous part of Prague. This was the most frequently flooded area that people kept away. They had to be identified with a yellow star badge of shame stashed on their tunics or to wear a yellow conical dunce hat for identification.

Even though some had become rich and one, at one instant, had become a federal minister and a philanthropist, he had to stay put in the ghetto-like living conditions in the Jewish quarters. They continued dogmatic religious rituals and a proscribed way of living.

Jewish Ceremonial Hall
Prague

King Josef II of the Habsburg Empire decreed equality for all in the mid-19th century. He released the Jews from the quarters, but they continued living there because of convenience. Their happiness was short-lived. World War II marked another black dot in their lives.

Hitler’s Army, which marched effortlessly into Sudetenland, had one mission in hand, to free the world of Jews. Luckily for programmes like Kindertransport, many Jewish children were rescued and brought to the UK. Many Czech Jews were transferred to Theresienstadt Ghetto before being transferred to concentration camps for termination.

After WW2, the population of Jews in the Czech Republic dropped from 20% from the peak of times to the present less than 1%. Despite the dwindling numbers, their presence is immortalised by the constant mention in the visitor's brochures and occupies the go-to place for all tourists to the Republic. It currently occupies the most expensive piece of real estate in the whole of the Czech Republic.

List of Israeli hostages by Hamas on 7.10.23

David Černy's Babies.
In place of faces, he had barcodes. We are mere commodities.

Imprisoned by the barrel?

Nothing astronomical about this astronomical clock.
Sun revolves around the Earth? Old Town Square in Prague.

Jan Hus, part of the Bohemian Reformation, stood against the Catholic Church 
a century before Martin Luther pinned his thesis on the Bishop’s door for all to read. 
He was put at the stake for his (mis) deeds.

Beaver on an American diet!

Prague National Museum

Kafka was here! Born here!

Spanish Jews built synagogue, Andalusian style.

Dancing Hall @ Prague
With no single right-angle wall!
The building seems to be dancing, not for dancing!

Lennon Wall @ Prague

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The Survival Story

Society of the Snow (La sociedad de la nieve, Spanish; 2023)

Director: J.A. Bayona

We have discussed this movie before. Check here.

This is yet another version depicting one of the greatest human stories about survival. On October 13, 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 flew over the Andes from Uruguay to Chile. It was carrying 45 passengers on board, mostly Uruguayan rugby players. It crashed into the most inaccessible part of the mountain. Presumed to be dead by the authorities after failing to find them in their search-and-rescue, the 29 initial survivors were left to fend for themselves.

A few died due to their injury, and some in an avalanche that ensued. Exposed to the element and having no food to eat, they had to use the last of their survival skills, teamwork, and spiritual faith to hang on to their dear lives. When food became non-existent, somebody suggested that they eat the remains of the dead.

Initially, the passengers thought a rescue mission would ensue. After seeing planes just fly off and hearing on the radio sourced from the crashed plane that search-and-rescue missions had been called off, they became desperate. Caring for the injured, keeping themselves warm, getting food, and getting help were their immediate priorities.

The philosophical question of survival cannibalism played again and again amongst the survivors. On one hand, the thought of eating human flesh was repulsive. On the other hand, they were not killing another to eat them. They were merely consuming the cadaver, which will be consumed by creepy crawlies and bugs anyway. To put it to good use, like preserving the biggest asset to mankind, i.e. life, is worth it. Farm owners or cattle breeders are generally not too close with their flock, as they know their final destiny. Hence, on the flight, many of the deceased were known to each other. To eat the flesh of someone they knew must be in bad taste (pun unintended).

One of the survivors who refused to consume human flesh at all accounts succumbed, but he also had other physical injuries. Finally, the tenacious human spirit added with intelligence and a stroke of good luck or divine intervention*, two of them scaled mountains and ravines to finally get help. 

The movie's final moments end with some sombre thoughts. The emotional trauma that the survivors must have endured must have been enormous. 

When it all started, cheery smiles!

Out in the cold!

The actual footage during the final rescue in 1972.

* Does 'luck' or 'divine intervention' still play a role after all the passengers have gone through? It is natural to wonder whether it came too late.

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Any way the wind blows?

I have always wondered whether one should take sides in an argument when he is not the actually affected party. Being quite aware of Rashomon's effect of different perspectives on what actually transpired during an event, should anyone go all four barrels against the other just because one side is related to us?

We know we sometimes make our decisions rather prejudicially, guided by personal appearance, gender, common ethnicity or overt display of emotions by one aggrieved party, and the affected party is related to us. Still, when the push comes to the shove when our own kind is under the spotlight, where do you stand?

Is blood thicker than water, and do we support our flesh and blood no matter what? Do we drone down in support of loved ones, or do we go against the grain and take the side of where we think the truth lies?

What if the scandal happened within the family fold? Do we hush everything and sweep it under the rug? Still, there will come a time when a definite decision needs to be made. What do we do? Do we play two sides? Do we go with the flow to maintain peace or swim against the current to prove a point? What is the matter? Is something serious, something that could damage another's future or even criminal? Does protecting family honour supersede everything else?

*The Rashomon effect is a storytelling method in which the individuals involved give contradictory descriptions of the same event, thereby providing different perspectives and points of view of the same incident.

P.S. Tomorrow may rain, so I’ll follow the sun!🎶🎵©️

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