RELIGION COMMUNICATORS COUNCIL HONORS THREE DALLASITES.Mike Ghouse accepts the recognition with humility.
Mike's 5 Minutes Speech at the event
As religious communicators we need to explore and communicate that God has not signed up a deal with any religion behind our back, he just cannot do that. Let’s honor every tradition and faith whether they believe in one, multiple or no God. The essence of the creator and causer of the universe does not change with our beliefs.Let’s learn to accept the otherness of other and respect the God given uniqueness of each one of the 7 billion of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.
Continued: http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2009/04/mike-ghouse-honored-by-rcc.html
Friday, April 17, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
The Hindu Rate of Wrath
The Hindu Rate of Wrath
The article by Francois Gauthier appended below prompts me to write the following comment;
Good things begin with me, you and each one of us. Let our words, actions and thoughts be directed towards finding solutions and not blaming any one. Blaming has never produced any sustainable goodness. The more you blame the deeper the problem becomes.
We need to think in terms of Indians, we are all the same breed no matter what religion we wear; that is pure diversity. When there is a problem with any one of us - our first response should be it is “our” problem, and our aptitude should be, that we need to find solutions for all of us to “co-exist”. No one will live peacefully when other isn’t. It is in our interest to seek to mitigate conflicts and nurture goodwill.
If my mind in not clean, I cannot expect others' minds to be clean either. If I express anger or ill-will towards others, why shouldn't they do the same?
The writer Francois Gautier certainly has stated some facts; like India never invaded another country; Hinduism is about diversity, but then he adds some fiction to it. Among other things, he says no Muslim was killed vs. Hindus were killed, he needs to get this facts straight. He can fool the French, not us the Indians. In any clash, be it between Tamils and Kannadigas, Marathas and other Indians, Hindus or Muslims, Jharkand or some Gadh..... Shamefully people get killed in clashes. Yes, they are all Indians no matter what they believe. He feeds on praises lavished on him for promoting hatred. We should discourage any one that divides us Indians... our goal should be to mitigate the differences and not enhance them.
The British were masters in dividing and ruling us, now, he seems to be subtly doing that. Any one who promotes ill-will towards each other is no good. I doubt it if he is getting paid to feed the ego’s of a few who are bent on dividing us. We should not give any one the power to make us hate others.
At least if you and I have clean decent minds, that is two less problem makers in India. Let's find solutions without score keeping.
Mike Ghouse
# # #
The Hindu Rate of Wrath
When the Mahatma's cowards erupt in fury, it hurts. It isn't terror.
Francois Gautier
Is there such a thing as 'Hindu terrorism', as the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur for the20recent Malegaon blasts may tend to prove? Well, I guess I was asked to write this column because I am one of that rare breed of foreign correspondents-a lover of Hindus! A born Frenchman, Catholic-educated and non-Hindu, I do hope I'll be given some credit for my opinions, which are not the product of my parents' ideas, my education or my atavism, but garnered from 25 years of reporting in South Asia (for Le Journal de Geneve andLe Figaro).
In the early 1980s, when I started freelancing in south India , doing photo features on kalaripayattu, the Ayyappa festival, or the Ayyanars, I slowly realised that the genius of this country lies in its Hindu ethos, in the true spirituality behind Hinduism. The average Hindu you meet in a million villages possesses this simple, innate spirituality and accepts your diversity, whether you are Christian or Muslim, Jain or Arab, French or Chinese. It is this Hinduness that makes the Indian Christian different from, say, a French Christian, or the Indian Muslim unlike a Saudi Muslim. I also learnt that Hindus not only believed that the divine could manifest itself at different times, under different names, using different scriptures (not to mention the wonderful avatar concept, the perfect answer to 21st century religious strife)20but that they had also given refuge to persecuted minorities from across the world-Syrian Christians, Parsis, Jews, Armenians, and today, Tibetans. In 3,500 years of existence, Hindus have never militarily invaded another country, never tried to impose their religion on others by force or induced conversions.
You cannot find anybody less fundamentalist than a Hindu in the world and it saddens me when I see the Indian and western press equating terrorist groups like SIMI, which blow up innocent civilians, with ordinary, angry Hindus who burn churches without killing anybody. We know also that most of these communal incidents often involve persons from the same groups-often Dalits and tribals-some of who have converted to Christianity and others not.
However reprehensible the destruction of Babri Masjid, no Muslim was killed in the process; compare this to the 'vengeance' bombings of 1993 in Bombay , which wiped out hundreds of innocents, mostly Hindus. Yet the Babri Masjid destruction is often described by journalists as the more horrible act of the two.. We also remember how=2 0Sharad Pawar, when he was chief minister of Maharashtra in 1993, lied about a bomb that was supposed to have gone off in a Muslim locality of Bombay .
I have never been politically correct, but have always written what I have discovered while reporting. Let me then be straightforward about this so-called Hindu terror.. Hindus, since the first Arab invasions, have been at the receiving end of terrorism, whether it was by Timur, who killed 1,00,000 Hindus in a single day in 1399, or by the Portuguese Inquisition which crucified Brahmins in Goa . Today, Hindus are still being targeted: there were one million Hindus in the Kashmir valley in 1900; only a few hundred remain, the rest having fled in terror. Blasts after blasts have killed hundreds of innocent Hindus all over India in the last four years. Hindus, the overwhelming majority community of this country, are being made fun of, are despised, are deprived of the most basic facilities for one of their most sacred pilgrimages in Amarnath while their government heavily sponsors the Haj. They see their brothers and sisters converted to Christianity through inducements and financial traps, see a harmless 84-year-old swami and a sadhvi brutally murdered.. Their gods are blasphemed.
So sometimes, enough is enough. At some point, after years or even centuries of submitting like sheep to slaughter, Hindus-whom the Mahatma once gently called cowards-erupt in uncontrolled fury. And it hurts badly. It happened in Gujarat . It happened in Jammu , then in Kandhamal, Mangalore, and Malegaon . It may happen again elsewhere. What should be understood is that this is a spontaneous revolution on the ground, by ordinary Hindus, without any planning from the political leadership. Therefore, the BJP, instead of acting embarrassed, should not disown those who choose other means to let their anguished voices be heard.
There are about a billion Hindus, one in every six persons on this planet. They form one of the most successful, law-abiding and integrated communities in the world today. Can you call them terrorists?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(The writer is the editor-in-chief of the Paris-based La Revue de l'Inde.)
The article by Francois Gauthier appended below prompts me to write the following comment;
Good things begin with me, you and each one of us. Let our words, actions and thoughts be directed towards finding solutions and not blaming any one. Blaming has never produced any sustainable goodness. The more you blame the deeper the problem becomes.
We need to think in terms of Indians, we are all the same breed no matter what religion we wear; that is pure diversity. When there is a problem with any one of us - our first response should be it is “our” problem, and our aptitude should be, that we need to find solutions for all of us to “co-exist”. No one will live peacefully when other isn’t. It is in our interest to seek to mitigate conflicts and nurture goodwill.
If my mind in not clean, I cannot expect others' minds to be clean either. If I express anger or ill-will towards others, why shouldn't they do the same?
The writer Francois Gautier certainly has stated some facts; like India never invaded another country; Hinduism is about diversity, but then he adds some fiction to it. Among other things, he says no Muslim was killed vs. Hindus were killed, he needs to get this facts straight. He can fool the French, not us the Indians. In any clash, be it between Tamils and Kannadigas, Marathas and other Indians, Hindus or Muslims, Jharkand or some Gadh..... Shamefully people get killed in clashes. Yes, they are all Indians no matter what they believe. He feeds on praises lavished on him for promoting hatred. We should discourage any one that divides us Indians... our goal should be to mitigate the differences and not enhance them.
The British were masters in dividing and ruling us, now, he seems to be subtly doing that. Any one who promotes ill-will towards each other is no good. I doubt it if he is getting paid to feed the ego’s of a few who are bent on dividing us. We should not give any one the power to make us hate others.
At least if you and I have clean decent minds, that is two less problem makers in India. Let's find solutions without score keeping.
Mike Ghouse
# # #
The Hindu Rate of Wrath
When the Mahatma's cowards erupt in fury, it hurts. It isn't terror.
Francois Gautier
Is there such a thing as 'Hindu terrorism', as the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur for the20recent Malegaon blasts may tend to prove? Well, I guess I was asked to write this column because I am one of that rare breed of foreign correspondents-a lover of Hindus! A born Frenchman, Catholic-educated and non-Hindu, I do hope I'll be given some credit for my opinions, which are not the product of my parents' ideas, my education or my atavism, but garnered from 25 years of reporting in South Asia (for Le Journal de Geneve andLe Figaro).
In the early 1980s, when I started freelancing in south India , doing photo features on kalaripayattu, the Ayyappa festival, or the Ayyanars, I slowly realised that the genius of this country lies in its Hindu ethos, in the true spirituality behind Hinduism. The average Hindu you meet in a million villages possesses this simple, innate spirituality and accepts your diversity, whether you are Christian or Muslim, Jain or Arab, French or Chinese. It is this Hinduness that makes the Indian Christian different from, say, a French Christian, or the Indian Muslim unlike a Saudi Muslim. I also learnt that Hindus not only believed that the divine could manifest itself at different times, under different names, using different scriptures (not to mention the wonderful avatar concept, the perfect answer to 21st century religious strife)20but that they had also given refuge to persecuted minorities from across the world-Syrian Christians, Parsis, Jews, Armenians, and today, Tibetans. In 3,500 years of existence, Hindus have never militarily invaded another country, never tried to impose their religion on others by force or induced conversions.
You cannot find anybody less fundamentalist than a Hindu in the world and it saddens me when I see the Indian and western press equating terrorist groups like SIMI, which blow up innocent civilians, with ordinary, angry Hindus who burn churches without killing anybody. We know also that most of these communal incidents often involve persons from the same groups-often Dalits and tribals-some of who have converted to Christianity and others not.
However reprehensible the destruction of Babri Masjid, no Muslim was killed in the process; compare this to the 'vengeance' bombings of 1993 in Bombay , which wiped out hundreds of innocents, mostly Hindus. Yet the Babri Masjid destruction is often described by journalists as the more horrible act of the two.. We also remember how=2 0Sharad Pawar, when he was chief minister of Maharashtra in 1993, lied about a bomb that was supposed to have gone off in a Muslim locality of Bombay .
I have never been politically correct, but have always written what I have discovered while reporting. Let me then be straightforward about this so-called Hindu terror.. Hindus, since the first Arab invasions, have been at the receiving end of terrorism, whether it was by Timur, who killed 1,00,000 Hindus in a single day in 1399, or by the Portuguese Inquisition which crucified Brahmins in Goa . Today, Hindus are still being targeted: there were one million Hindus in the Kashmir valley in 1900; only a few hundred remain, the rest having fled in terror. Blasts after blasts have killed hundreds of innocent Hindus all over India in the last four years. Hindus, the overwhelming majority community of this country, are being made fun of, are despised, are deprived of the most basic facilities for one of their most sacred pilgrimages in Amarnath while their government heavily sponsors the Haj. They see their brothers and sisters converted to Christianity through inducements and financial traps, see a harmless 84-year-old swami and a sadhvi brutally murdered.. Their gods are blasphemed.
So sometimes, enough is enough. At some point, after years or even centuries of submitting like sheep to slaughter, Hindus-whom the Mahatma once gently called cowards-erupt in uncontrolled fury. And it hurts badly. It happened in Gujarat . It happened in Jammu , then in Kandhamal, Mangalore, and Malegaon . It may happen again elsewhere. What should be understood is that this is a spontaneous revolution on the ground, by ordinary Hindus, without any planning from the political leadership. Therefore, the BJP, instead of acting embarrassed, should not disown those who choose other means to let their anguished voices be heard.
There are about a billion Hindus, one in every six persons on this planet. They form one of the most successful, law-abiding and integrated communities in the world today. Can you call them terrorists?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(The writer is the editor-in-chief of the Paris-based La Revue de l'Inde.)
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Ban Burqa?
We the Indians need to speak up against the extremists amongst us. No one should impose his or her ideas onto others, violation of it must be severely punished under civil laws with no mention of religion, if we do, it feeds the extreme elements of the political parties who want to garner support from the few extremists left in India.India should go to the maximum to uphold law, if we let this gain momentum, it would be difficult to contain.
No one should be above the law. At this time, I am drowned with several issues, I wish we could take this up for the benefit of all Indians.
Mike Ghouse
India should go to the maximum to uphold law, if we let this gain momentum, it would be difficult to contain.
Mike Ghouse
ABVP imposes ban on wearing burkhas in rural college in Karnataka
Sudipto Mondal/The Hindu, Tuesday, 03 March 2009 - 03:41:49 IST
PANJA VILLAGE/SULLIA TALUK: Muslim girls of the Government Composite Pre-University College here have been banned from wearing burkhas by local Hindutva outfits and the Bharatiya Janata Party-affiliated Akhil Bharathiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
According to Lakshmisha Gobbalathadka, the self-proclaimed architect of the ban, the idea was first proposed to the college authorities at his behest by a few students affiliated to the ABVP in early January this year.
“Four of my boys spoke to the college principal and demanded that Muslim girls be banned from wearing burkhas in classrooms,” said Mr. Gobbalathadka, who is also the district convener of a fringe outfit called Hindu Jagarana Vedike.
“We agreed immediately. We did not want any trouble,” said a college official. But soon the demands began to grow. Emboldened by the support the boys received from a section of students, they went on to extend the ban to the entire 28-acre campus.
Once the ban was formalised by the college authorities, a groups of boys took it upon themselves to impose it. “Every day, the boys sit at the tea stall near the college gate. If we take even one step into the college gate with the burkha on, they start scolding us,” said a 16-year-old class 10 student.
Violence on campus
Meanwhile, another controversy broke out on the campus after the ABVP alleged that a Muslim boy had made a proposal of marriage to a Hindu girl. “Our boys beat up the Muslim boy on February 28,” claimed Mr. Gobbalathadka. At the college's development committee meeting on January 29, a large group of students, led by Mr. Gobbalathadka, barged in demanding that Muslim girls stop wearing the burkha even on their way to and from the college. The demand created a furore dividing committee members, according to college principal, Balasubramaniam. Soon, hundreds of activists entered the venue and physically attacked Muslim committee members and Hindus who opposed their demands. Following the incident, Mr. Gobbalathadka and his followers were arrested and remanded in judicial custody.
Growing support
“Many others have been inspired by the success we have had here. Soon, this campaign will spread to all government colleges in the region,” Mr. Gobbalathadka told The Hindu, and added that the garment would soon be banned from public spaces in the entire village of Panja.
Panja gram panchayat president Rafique, who sustained injuries during the January 29 violence, said: “Some may feel that the burkha is a symbol of oppression of women. Even if that is true, a resistance to the garment should come from within the community. How can we tolerate somebody using force to ban the burkha?”
Reacting to the issue, Deputy Director of Public Instruction C. Chame Gowda told The Hindu, “The college authorities might have agreed to the ban under pressure. But there is no law that prevents the burkha. Everybody has the right to practice their religious beliefs as long as it does not inconvenience others.”
Deputy Commissioner V. Ponnuraj expressed concern over the developments and said he was still inquiring into the issue. “The rule of law and the Constitution will prevail,” he said.
No one should be above the law. At this time, I am drowned with several issues, I wish we could take this up for the benefit of all Indians.
Mike Ghouse
India should go to the maximum to uphold law, if we let this gain momentum, it would be difficult to contain.
Mike Ghouse
ABVP imposes ban on wearing burkhas in rural college in Karnataka
Sudipto Mondal/The Hindu, Tuesday, 03 March 2009 - 03:41:49 IST
PANJA VILLAGE/SULLIA TALUK: Muslim girls of the Government Composite Pre-University College here have been banned from wearing burkhas by local Hindutva outfits and the Bharatiya Janata Party-affiliated Akhil Bharathiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
According to Lakshmisha Gobbalathadka, the self-proclaimed architect of the ban, the idea was first proposed to the college authorities at his behest by a few students affiliated to the ABVP in early January this year.
“Four of my boys spoke to the college principal and demanded that Muslim girls be banned from wearing burkhas in classrooms,” said Mr. Gobbalathadka, who is also the district convener of a fringe outfit called Hindu Jagarana Vedike.
“We agreed immediately. We did not want any trouble,” said a college official. But soon the demands began to grow. Emboldened by the support the boys received from a section of students, they went on to extend the ban to the entire 28-acre campus.
Once the ban was formalised by the college authorities, a groups of boys took it upon themselves to impose it. “Every day, the boys sit at the tea stall near the college gate. If we take even one step into the college gate with the burkha on, they start scolding us,” said a 16-year-old class 10 student.
Violence on campus
Meanwhile, another controversy broke out on the campus after the ABVP alleged that a Muslim boy had made a proposal of marriage to a Hindu girl. “Our boys beat up the Muslim boy on February 28,” claimed Mr. Gobbalathadka. At the college's development committee meeting on January 29, a large group of students, led by Mr. Gobbalathadka, barged in demanding that Muslim girls stop wearing the burkha even on their way to and from the college. The demand created a furore dividing committee members, according to college principal, Balasubramaniam. Soon, hundreds of activists entered the venue and physically attacked Muslim committee members and Hindus who opposed their demands. Following the incident, Mr. Gobbalathadka and his followers were arrested and remanded in judicial custody.
Growing support
“Many others have been inspired by the success we have had here. Soon, this campaign will spread to all government colleges in the region,” Mr. Gobbalathadka told The Hindu, and added that the garment would soon be banned from public spaces in the entire village of Panja.
Panja gram panchayat president Rafique, who sustained injuries during the January 29 violence, said: “Some may feel that the burkha is a symbol of oppression of women. Even if that is true, a resistance to the garment should come from within the community. How can we tolerate somebody using force to ban the burkha?”
Reacting to the issue, Deputy Director of Public Instruction C. Chame Gowda told The Hindu, “The college authorities might have agreed to the ban under pressure. But there is no law that prevents the burkha. Everybody has the right to practice their religious beliefs as long as it does not inconvenience others.”
Deputy Commissioner V. Ponnuraj expressed concern over the developments and said he was still inquiring into the issue. “The rule of law and the Constitution will prevail,” he said.
Nun's Memoirs rock the church
I hope the Church takes a quick action against the individuals involved in it, and take the appropriate action. It should be kept out of the purview of the religion, it is the action of the individual, whether he is religious or not, that needs to be reviewed. Individuals make mistakes, not the religion. We must hold individuals accountable no matter who it is, but not his or her religion. Labeling religion is an escape, justice must be met if we want societies where law is respected for the safety and security of each member of the society.
A man possessed with sex, needs religion to calm him down, he is a bad guy, because he did not get the religion. Had he learned his religion, no matter what it is, he is less likely to make that mistake. Our mistake as a society is we take the God men for granted... we should look to them as individuals.
Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1882176,00.html
Sunday, Mar. 01, 2009
A Former Nun's Memoirs Rock India's Catholic Church
By Madhur Singh
After 26 years as a nun, Jesme Raphael gave up her robes and walked out of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel, the Catholic order in Kerala, India, that had been her home for three decades. Two years later, Raphael, now 53, has come out with her memoirs, Amen: An Autobiography of a Nun, cataloging lurid details of bullying, sexual abuse and homosexuality in the oldest Catholic women's order in the idyllic coastal state in southern India. Shocking as it is, the book is only the latest in a long series of accusations and scandals afflicting the Catholic Church in the state with the largest population of Christians in India.
"All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss [1 Corinthians 16:20]," Raphael quotes a priest as telling her, after she confronted him with allegations that "he kissed almost everyone who went for one-on-one meetings." In other episodes, she tells of a coerced lesbian encounter, being forced to strip in front of a naked priest who then masturbated and being accused of mental instability after she complained to her superiors.
Since the book's release on Jan. 30, publishers DC Books have already sold all 3,000 copies, and a reprint has been ordered. The Catholic Church is miffed. "There is no dearth of antireligion people in Kerala society," said Stephen Alathara, deputy secretary of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council. "They are using this for their antisocial, antichurch activities." In 1957 Kerala voted in the world's first democratically elected communist government, and it has been under communist rule since the last state elections in 2006.
A spokesman for the Syro-Malabar order of the Catholic Church, Father Paul Thelakkat, said Raphael's allegations stem from "some wounded feelings," which Raphael should have raised with the church instead of "maligning the life of religious nuns." He added that Raphael's allegations are "not especially serious." "The church never claims there's no sin within the church," he said. "We're not angels — we're human beings of flesh and blood — so some omissions and failures can happen. But the church is perennially on a path of renewal and reformation. We're trying to deal with these problems and such allegations."
There has been no shortage of them in recent months. On Feb. 11, Sister Josephine, a nun in the Daughters of Mary congregation in Trivandrum, Kerala's state capital, was found dead in her room in an apparent suicide. Members of the congregation said the 38-year-old nun had been under treatment for depression. After news of the incident spread, a crowd gathered around the house and shouted slogans alleging that harassment had led Sister Josephine to kill herself. The police had to intervene, and an inquiry into the case was later ordered. Six months earlier, on Aug. 11 of last year, 23-year-old Sister Anoopa Mary had been found hanging in her room in St. Mary's Convent in Kollam, north of the capital. In what was purportedly her suicide note, she had said she could no longer withstand the senior nuns' harassment. Her father, a cook in the local bishop's house, charged that sexual exploitation had led his daughter to take her life. The convent has denied the allegations, though a court investigation is still ongoing.
Recently, there have been expulsions and other disciplinary action in response to other cases of misconduct within the church in Kerala. In June last year, a nun in a Christian hospital was expelled after a video of her having sex with a driver was circulated over mobile phones and the Internet. In October, Pope Benedict XVI suspended a bishop in the coastal city of Cochin after his adoption of a 26-year-old woman as his daughter raised questions. The bishop has denied any wrongdoing and said he adopted the woman out of fatherly love. But the church took him off all duties and instituted an inquiry..
"Such problems have been there in almost all convents [in Kerala]," says Joseph Pulikunnel, a veteran Syrian Catholic social reformer who editsOsanna, a magazine aimed at Kerala's Catholic community. "The convents are closed to the public. We don't know what is happening inside." He says India's Catholic Church, which accounts for 70% of all denominations among India's 25 million Christians, owns vast properties across the country, including over 30,000 educational institutions and 6,000 hospitals. In Kerala, the Church runs 60% of the private educational institutes. The state's near 100% literacy — a singular case in a country where the average adult literacy rate is just about 60% — is thanks largely to the church's zealous missionary activity. Yet critics claim this gives the church a high degree of political and economic power. Church-reform activists also say the affairs of the Catholic Church — to which 60% of Kerala's Christians belong — should be brought more directly under the control of Indian authorities to make its workings more transparent. As of now, church affairs are under the stewardship of the Pope.
In recent months, the church has been more forthcoming about the problems it faces. Sathyadeepam, Kerala's Catholic weekly, released a report in January that said almost 20% of the region's nuns — the church says there are about 45,000 — feel "insecure or unaccepted" in their convents. Cases of nuns speaking up like Raphael are still rare, but there may be an avalanche building up due to the changing social scene. Earlier, girls from disadvantaged families embraced the vows, finding that life in a convent, while hard, saved them from the worst of deprivation. But once in an order, they found it difficult to complain or leave. "They simply had nowhere to go," says Pulikunnel. "If they quit the convent, they'd be thrown out penniless, and their families wouldn't take them back."
But times have changed. Churches around the world have been coming to grips with legacies of quiet abuse, and Indian society, too, has evolved. There is no longer a stigma attached to giving up the robes and returning to the laity.. There are plenty of well-paying jobs — nursing has proven particularly attractive for Kerala women, as it is seen as a passport to a foreign post and big bucks — and many youngsters are not up for a lifetime of celibacy and a religious vocation. And though figures have not been collated, activists claim a steady decline in the number of young people taking the vows or, like Raphael, renouncing them altogether.
But to stem the rot that has set in, the church will first have to admit the real nature and extent of the problem. If Alathara's reaction is anything to go by, that candor is a long way off. When asked about the numerous allegations of sexual abuse in the church, he said, "[Alleging sexual abuse] is an old tool of hitting at the ecclesiastical society. It's nothing new. It happened 2,000 years ago too." Father Thelakkat's reaction is somewhat similar. Though he doesn't deny Raphael's allegations, he refuses to acknowledge their seriousness either: "The incidents may be true, but they are isolated cases." Clearly, it's time to connect the dots and see the bigger picture.
A man possessed with sex, needs religion to calm him down, he is a bad guy, because he did not get the religion. Had he learned his religion, no matter what it is, he is less likely to make that mistake. Our mistake as a society is we take the God men for granted... we should look to them as individuals.
Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1882176,00.html
Sunday, Mar. 01, 2009
A Former Nun's Memoirs Rock India's Catholic Church
By Madhur Singh
After 26 years as a nun, Jesme Raphael gave up her robes and walked out of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel, the Catholic order in Kerala, India, that had been her home for three decades. Two years later, Raphael, now 53, has come out with her memoirs, Amen: An Autobiography of a Nun, cataloging lurid details of bullying, sexual abuse and homosexuality in the oldest Catholic women's order in the idyllic coastal state in southern India. Shocking as it is, the book is only the latest in a long series of accusations and scandals afflicting the Catholic Church in the state with the largest population of Christians in India.
"All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss [1 Corinthians 16:20]," Raphael quotes a priest as telling her, after she confronted him with allegations that "he kissed almost everyone who went for one-on-one meetings." In other episodes, she tells of a coerced lesbian encounter, being forced to strip in front of a naked priest who then masturbated and being accused of mental instability after she complained to her superiors.
Since the book's release on Jan. 30, publishers DC Books have already sold all 3,000 copies, and a reprint has been ordered. The Catholic Church is miffed. "There is no dearth of antireligion people in Kerala society," said Stephen Alathara, deputy secretary of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council. "They are using this for their antisocial, antichurch activities." In 1957 Kerala voted in the world's first democratically elected communist government, and it has been under communist rule since the last state elections in 2006.
A spokesman for the Syro-Malabar order of the Catholic Church, Father Paul Thelakkat, said Raphael's allegations stem from "some wounded feelings," which Raphael should have raised with the church instead of "maligning the life of religious nuns." He added that Raphael's allegations are "not especially serious." "The church never claims there's no sin within the church," he said. "We're not angels — we're human beings of flesh and blood — so some omissions and failures can happen. But the church is perennially on a path of renewal and reformation. We're trying to deal with these problems and such allegations."
There has been no shortage of them in recent months. On Feb. 11, Sister Josephine, a nun in the Daughters of Mary congregation in Trivandrum, Kerala's state capital, was found dead in her room in an apparent suicide. Members of the congregation said the 38-year-old nun had been under treatment for depression. After news of the incident spread, a crowd gathered around the house and shouted slogans alleging that harassment had led Sister Josephine to kill herself. The police had to intervene, and an inquiry into the case was later ordered. Six months earlier, on Aug. 11 of last year, 23-year-old Sister Anoopa Mary had been found hanging in her room in St. Mary's Convent in Kollam, north of the capital. In what was purportedly her suicide note, she had said she could no longer withstand the senior nuns' harassment. Her father, a cook in the local bishop's house, charged that sexual exploitation had led his daughter to take her life. The convent has denied the allegations, though a court investigation is still ongoing.
Recently, there have been expulsions and other disciplinary action in response to other cases of misconduct within the church in Kerala. In June last year, a nun in a Christian hospital was expelled after a video of her having sex with a driver was circulated over mobile phones and the Internet. In October, Pope Benedict XVI suspended a bishop in the coastal city of Cochin after his adoption of a 26-year-old woman as his daughter raised questions. The bishop has denied any wrongdoing and said he adopted the woman out of fatherly love. But the church took him off all duties and instituted an inquiry..
"Such problems have been there in almost all convents [in Kerala]," says Joseph Pulikunnel, a veteran Syrian Catholic social reformer who editsOsanna, a magazine aimed at Kerala's Catholic community. "The convents are closed to the public. We don't know what is happening inside." He says India's Catholic Church, which accounts for 70% of all denominations among India's 25 million Christians, owns vast properties across the country, including over 30,000 educational institutions and 6,000 hospitals. In Kerala, the Church runs 60% of the private educational institutes. The state's near 100% literacy — a singular case in a country where the average adult literacy rate is just about 60% — is thanks largely to the church's zealous missionary activity. Yet critics claim this gives the church a high degree of political and economic power. Church-reform activists also say the affairs of the Catholic Church — to which 60% of Kerala's Christians belong — should be brought more directly under the control of Indian authorities to make its workings more transparent. As of now, church affairs are under the stewardship of the Pope.
In recent months, the church has been more forthcoming about the problems it faces. Sathyadeepam, Kerala's Catholic weekly, released a report in January that said almost 20% of the region's nuns — the church says there are about 45,000 — feel "insecure or unaccepted" in their convents. Cases of nuns speaking up like Raphael are still rare, but there may be an avalanche building up due to the changing social scene. Earlier, girls from disadvantaged families embraced the vows, finding that life in a convent, while hard, saved them from the worst of deprivation. But once in an order, they found it difficult to complain or leave. "They simply had nowhere to go," says Pulikunnel. "If they quit the convent, they'd be thrown out penniless, and their families wouldn't take them back."
But times have changed. Churches around the world have been coming to grips with legacies of quiet abuse, and Indian society, too, has evolved. There is no longer a stigma attached to giving up the robes and returning to the laity.. There are plenty of well-paying jobs — nursing has proven particularly attractive for Kerala women, as it is seen as a passport to a foreign post and big bucks — and many youngsters are not up for a lifetime of celibacy and a religious vocation. And though figures have not been collated, activists claim a steady decline in the number of young people taking the vows or, like Raphael, renouncing them altogether.
But to stem the rot that has set in, the church will first have to admit the real nature and extent of the problem. If Alathara's reaction is anything to go by, that candor is a long way off. When asked about the numerous allegations of sexual abuse in the church, he said, "[Alleging sexual abuse] is an old tool of hitting at the ecclesiastical society. It's nothing new. It happened 2,000 years ago too." Father Thelakkat's reaction is somewhat similar. Though he doesn't deny Raphael's allegations, he refuses to acknowledge their seriousness either: "The incidents may be true, but they are isolated cases." Clearly, it's time to connect the dots and see the bigger picture.
Friday, February 27, 2009
India Human Rights Record
State Department's Human Rights Report for 2008 was issued this
week. The introduction is given below. Go to the link for the full
text.
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/sca/119134.htm
2008 Human Rights Reports: India
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
February 25, 2009
India is a multiparty, federal, parliamentary democracy with a
bicameral parliament and a population of approximately 1.1 billion
with an active civil society. Manmohan Singh became prime minister
following his Congress Party-led coalition's victory in the 2004
general elections, which were considered free and fair, despite
scattered instances of violence. Serious internal conflicts affected
the states of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as several states in the
north and east. While civilian authorities generally maintained
effective control of the security forces, security forces occasionally
acted independently of government authority during incidents of
communal tensions in states such as Karnataka.
The government generally respected the rights of its citizens;
however, serious problems remained. Major problems included
extrajudicial killings of persons in custody, disappearances, and
torture and rape by police and other security forces. Investigations
into individual abuses and legal punishment for perpetrators occurred,
but for the majority of abuses, the lack of accountability created an
atmosphere of impunity. Poor prison conditions and lengthy detentions
during both pretrial and trial proceedings remained significant
problems. Officials used special antiterrorism legislation to justify
the excessive use of force. Corruption existed at all levels of
government and police. The government applied restrictions to the
travel and activities of visiting experts and scholars. Significant
restrictions remained on the funding and activities of NGOs.
Increasing attacks against religious minorities and the promulgation
of antireligious conversion laws were concerns. Violence associated
with caste-based discrimination occurred. Domestic violence, child
marriage, dowry-related deaths, honor crimes, female infanticide and
feticide remain serious problems. Trafficking in persons and
exploitation of indentured, bonded, and child labor were continuing
problems.
Separatist guerrillas and terrorists in Kashmir, the Northeast,
and the Naxalite belt committed numerous serious abuses, including
killing armed forces personnel, police, government officials, judges,
and civilians. Insurgents engaged in widespread torture, rape,
beheadings, kidnapping, and extortion; however, the number of
incidents declined compared to the previous year.
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/eap/119037.htm
week. The introduction is given below. Go to the link for the full
text.
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/sca/119134.htm
2008 Human Rights Reports: India
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
February 25, 2009
India is a multiparty, federal, parliamentary democracy with a
bicameral parliament and a population of approximately 1.1 billion
with an active civil society. Manmohan Singh became prime minister
following his Congress Party-led coalition's victory in the 2004
general elections, which were considered free and fair, despite
scattered instances of violence. Serious internal conflicts affected
the states of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as several states in the
north and east. While civilian authorities generally maintained
effective control of the security forces, security forces occasionally
acted independently of government authority during incidents of
communal tensions in states such as Karnataka.
The government generally respected the rights of its citizens;
however, serious problems remained. Major problems included
extrajudicial killings of persons in custody, disappearances, and
torture and rape by police and other security forces. Investigations
into individual abuses and legal punishment for perpetrators occurred,
but for the majority of abuses, the lack of accountability created an
atmosphere of impunity. Poor prison conditions and lengthy detentions
during both pretrial and trial proceedings remained significant
problems. Officials used special antiterrorism legislation to justify
the excessive use of force. Corruption existed at all levels of
government and police. The government applied restrictions to the
travel and activities of visiting experts and scholars. Significant
restrictions remained on the funding and activities of NGOs.
Increasing attacks against religious minorities and the promulgation
of antireligious conversion laws were concerns. Violence associated
with caste-based discrimination occurred. Domestic violence, child
marriage, dowry-related deaths, honor crimes, female infanticide and
feticide remain serious problems. Trafficking in persons and
exploitation of indentured, bonded, and child labor were continuing
problems.
Separatist guerrillas and terrorists in Kashmir, the Northeast,
and the Naxalite belt committed numerous serious abuses, including
killing armed forces personnel, police, government officials, judges,
and civilians. Insurgents engaged in widespread torture, rape,
beheadings, kidnapping, and extortion; however, the number of
incidents declined compared to the previous year.
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/eap/119037.htm
Friday, February 6, 2009
Bollywood Busts Out
http://www.forbes.com/global/2009/0216/078.html
ForbesLife
Bollywood Busts Out
Richard C. Morais, 01.29.09, 05:00 PM EST
Forbes Magazine dated February 16, 2009
Indian films have long been dismissed by the West as formulaic Hindi fare. Signs are that might be changing.
Runaway hit: Dev Patel and Anil Kapoor in 'Slumdog Millionaire'.
The year's hot film, Slumdog Millionaire, tells a classic Bollywood tale of love and revenge through the postmodern storytelling frame of a TV game show. The film is fresh because it fuses Eastern and Western filmmaking techniques. But this crossover of Eastern and Western celluloid skills had been taking place in Bollywood and Hollywood boardrooms well before it ever showed up in an editing room.
Last September, for example, Steven Spielberg officially dropped his longstanding ties with Paramount for a $1.5 billion deal with Indian billionaire Anil Ambani. Disney (nyse: DIS - news - people ), meanwhile, has for the last year been systematically buying into India's UTV. Disney's recent Hindi feature film, Roadside Romeo, was about a pampered pooch released into the mean streets of Mumbai and reportedly cost $7 million to make. Low production costs are certainly one reason Hollywood is attracted to India, but tapping the nation's growing middle classes, and their voracious movie appetite, is equally part of the heady mix.
Warner Bros. wants a piece, too. It just released Chandni Chowk to China, a Hindi feature film about a roadside chef from Delhi mistakenly believed to be the reincarnation of an ancient Chinese warrior. Reviews are dire, but box office sales are curry hot. The film was the fourth-highest-grossing film ever to open in India. Warner quickly followed up with a three-film deal with an Indian production company, People Tree Films.
Budgets for Bollywood extravaganzas usually peak, according to one report, around $5 million; most cost around $150,000 to make. In contrast, it costs $107 million on average for a major Hollywood studio to make and market a film, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.
Back-alley Bollywood is further believed to make around 1,000 films a year, sell 3 billion low-cost tickets and generate an estimated $2 billion in revenue. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that India's film industry will grow at a 15% rate a year until 2012, when it will be a $4 billion industry.
Hollywood makes only a few hundred films a year but sells, in the U.S. domestic market alone, close to $10 billion worth of tickets. So Bollywood is still far from Hollywood, even though the latter has been struggling recently with overproduction and fallout from the credit crisis. But in this fertile environment India's famously parochial film industry, with scripts chock-full of weeping, singing and dancing, is slowly opening up to outside influences.
UTV World Cinema, NDTV and Palador Pictures recently began, for example, showing the best films of the West to India's middle-class audiences. One of the surprise hits of last year, according to India's Financial Express: Palador's Ingmar Bergman festival, which drew crowds in six cities across the country and, by popular demand, repeat shows in Mumbai.
Comment On This Story
Do Knot Disturb is a Bollywood film not yet released but filmed last October at the Filmistan Studios in Mumbai. During shooting, paparazzi clamored by the studio gate, hoping to get a shot of starlet Lara Dutta. The studios, some of the oldest in India, are crumbling warehouse edifices on a rutted lane. Young men and women with earpieces, elderly men carrying trays of tea and carpenters constructing sets for the next shot all scurry through the narrow passageways in a dusty haze of feverish activity.
Inside, director David Dhawan was shooting a dance scene with 110 Bollywood hunks and starlets. At the assistant director's order the set suddenly erupted in a blur of azure, crimson, gold, pink, yellow, mauve and mustard costumes as the 110 hotties burst into their frenetic dance moves. "Now boys and girls, listen. No circle. Just follow the actors," barked Dhawan's deputy.
If India's industry continues to absorb some of the best ideas of Western cinema traditions--song-and-dance routines that move the plot forward, for example, a technique established by American musicals in the early 20th century--it's hard to predict what will happen to this lively local industry.
In the late 1950s a small group of French directors and actors drew inspiration from Hollywood B films. Adapting film techniques established by Hollywood directors, they unleashed a flowering in French films eventually known as La Nouvelle Vague (New Wave). Perhaps a similar movement is in the making in India: films that are both innovative and popular with global audiences.
La Naya Vague, perhaps?
ForbesLife
Bollywood Busts Out
Richard C. Morais, 01.29.09, 05:00 PM EST
Forbes Magazine dated February 16, 2009
Indian films have long been dismissed by the West as formulaic Hindi fare. Signs are that might be changing.
Runaway hit: Dev Patel and Anil Kapoor in 'Slumdog Millionaire'.
The year's hot film, Slumdog Millionaire, tells a classic Bollywood tale of love and revenge through the postmodern storytelling frame of a TV game show. The film is fresh because it fuses Eastern and Western filmmaking techniques. But this crossover of Eastern and Western celluloid skills had been taking place in Bollywood and Hollywood boardrooms well before it ever showed up in an editing room.
Last September, for example, Steven Spielberg officially dropped his longstanding ties with Paramount for a $1.5 billion deal with Indian billionaire Anil Ambani. Disney (nyse: DIS - news - people ), meanwhile, has for the last year been systematically buying into India's UTV. Disney's recent Hindi feature film, Roadside Romeo, was about a pampered pooch released into the mean streets of Mumbai and reportedly cost $7 million to make. Low production costs are certainly one reason Hollywood is attracted to India, but tapping the nation's growing middle classes, and their voracious movie appetite, is equally part of the heady mix.
Warner Bros. wants a piece, too. It just released Chandni Chowk to China, a Hindi feature film about a roadside chef from Delhi mistakenly believed to be the reincarnation of an ancient Chinese warrior. Reviews are dire, but box office sales are curry hot. The film was the fourth-highest-grossing film ever to open in India. Warner quickly followed up with a three-film deal with an Indian production company, People Tree Films.
Budgets for Bollywood extravaganzas usually peak, according to one report, around $5 million; most cost around $150,000 to make. In contrast, it costs $107 million on average for a major Hollywood studio to make and market a film, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.
Back-alley Bollywood is further believed to make around 1,000 films a year, sell 3 billion low-cost tickets and generate an estimated $2 billion in revenue. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that India's film industry will grow at a 15% rate a year until 2012, when it will be a $4 billion industry.
Hollywood makes only a few hundred films a year but sells, in the U.S. domestic market alone, close to $10 billion worth of tickets. So Bollywood is still far from Hollywood, even though the latter has been struggling recently with overproduction and fallout from the credit crisis. But in this fertile environment India's famously parochial film industry, with scripts chock-full of weeping, singing and dancing, is slowly opening up to outside influences.
UTV World Cinema, NDTV and Palador Pictures recently began, for example, showing the best films of the West to India's middle-class audiences. One of the surprise hits of last year, according to India's Financial Express: Palador's Ingmar Bergman festival, which drew crowds in six cities across the country and, by popular demand, repeat shows in Mumbai.
Comment On This Story
Do Knot Disturb is a Bollywood film not yet released but filmed last October at the Filmistan Studios in Mumbai. During shooting, paparazzi clamored by the studio gate, hoping to get a shot of starlet Lara Dutta. The studios, some of the oldest in India, are crumbling warehouse edifices on a rutted lane. Young men and women with earpieces, elderly men carrying trays of tea and carpenters constructing sets for the next shot all scurry through the narrow passageways in a dusty haze of feverish activity.
Inside, director David Dhawan was shooting a dance scene with 110 Bollywood hunks and starlets. At the assistant director's order the set suddenly erupted in a blur of azure, crimson, gold, pink, yellow, mauve and mustard costumes as the 110 hotties burst into their frenetic dance moves. "Now boys and girls, listen. No circle. Just follow the actors," barked Dhawan's deputy.
If India's industry continues to absorb some of the best ideas of Western cinema traditions--song-and-dance routines that move the plot forward, for example, a technique established by American musicals in the early 20th century--it's hard to predict what will happen to this lively local industry.
In the late 1950s a small group of French directors and actors drew inspiration from Hollywood B films. Adapting film techniques established by Hollywood directors, they unleashed a flowering in French films eventually known as La Nouvelle Vague (New Wave). Perhaps a similar movement is in the making in India: films that are both innovative and popular with global audiences.
La Naya Vague, perhaps?
Slumdogs and Millionaires
http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2009/02/05/slumdogs-and-millionaires/
Slumdogs and Millionaires
By Partha Banerjee
http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2009/02/05/slumdogs-and-millionaires/
Slumdogs will always be slumdogs, and millionaires will always be millionaires. An Indian slumdog will never be a millionaire. At least not the fantastic way the movie flaunted it.
Oscar-coaxing producer Christian Colson, director Danny Boyle, and the now-famed storytellers Simon Beaufoy and Vikas Swarup together create a violent, obnoxious, and even not-so-artistically-sound celluloid big-frame that’s likely to be showered with more profits and trophies. Talking about art, of course, in this day and age of in-your-face, obese entertainment, who’s afraid of Satyajit Ray, or even Ronny Howard or Spike Lee?
Slumdog Millionaire is completely in line with the new-trend, part-documentary, part-fiction, part-narrative, part-activist, West-glorified exploitation of Third World’s poor and vulnerable: Born Into Brothels, City of Joy, or Lagaan would come to mind as immediate examples. There’s no sense of history, peoples’ grassroots struggle, and in case of Slumdog, dignity; the big, loud screen shuffles fast in a vacuum. At least, Lagaan was fun.
I feel sorry for the young performers who poured their hearts out on and off camera (even though Westernized Dev Patel or Freida Pinto is too cool and sophisticated to be slum bastards; Freida’s Latika would quickly contract HIV from her years of Pila Street prostitution); I feel even sorrier for the young-generation Bollywood patriots who crave to see some Indian honor on a real international scene (as opposed to the 10-nation-only cricket gold rush). If I were their age, I’d be charged up too and pump my fist. After all, it’s all make-believe; after all, it’s all for the big green bucks. The axiomatic, end-of-the-day message is: “Don’t think too much into it.” Or plainly, don’t think.
But I’m older and wiser, and can still think. I’ve seen quite a bit of slum, poverty and destitution in my life; I’ve even seen how an open-air, wood-platform, makeshift toilet seat actually works. I have a feeling none of the millionaire moviemakers experienced the thick of it. Their deliberate attempt to desensitize the younger audience thus doesn’t work, not because it’s grotesque, but it’s violent with its horror, lies and distortions.
And would Amitabh Bachchan off his helicopter really sign an autograph for a feces-smeared rat who somehow rubbed past throngs of star-crazed crowd? No way -- it’s a lie. And that’s why it’s really horrible. Show poverty, show disparity – it’s fine, it’s even more than fine: show it the Ritwik Ghatak, Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal way. But don’t raise false optimism, don’t create false hope.
That “yellow” situation sets up the grimy, slimy, slithery and smelly theme early on; we quickly get to sense how the rest of the melodrama will unfold. In a disjunct, average-made way, Slumdog entertains us, with all the prescribed elements right off the Hollywood-Bollywood book, including the Devdas-type sacrifice of Salim and his Godfather-style death. In its fervent zeal to show a “real” India, the movie steals poverty, kiddy sex, hunger, shooting guns, and even attempted comedy from Salam Bombay, Born Into, and that fresh line of products.
The laundry list of essential elements was complete even with a communal riot scene; of course, Hindu fascists in Mumbai have slaughtered Muslim slum dwellers in the 1992 post-Babri-Mosque demolition era. But even the dumbest Shiv Sena or BJP goon knows that mob lynching is never a smart thing to do without provocation; and Jamal-Salim’s mom and washerwoman neighbors were suddenly rounded up and butchered without a provocation. Heck, even Aparna Sen in Mr. and Mrs. Iyer had set a believable stage for Hindu-Muslim violence.
The overarching, majorly ludicrous thread is the game itself. It appeared as if Who Wants to Be a Millionaire the Indian variety was tailored into Jamal’s opportune and handy slum experiences: an American tourist couple to display their American generosity put a 100-dollar bill (!) in suffering Jamal’s hand, and the blinded singer boy – whom Jamal rediscovers years later – touches it, knows it’s a dollar bill, and helps him to learn the name of Ben Franklin printed on the money. Talk about preposterous!
Oh yes, blinding of the poor is not unheard-of in India: we remember the Bhagalpur atrocities during Indira Gandhi’s regime, and similar grotesque human rights abuse in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat.
But in the movie, it was too imposed, too far-fetched, and tear-jerking. Such was the array of meaningless police torture situations; I’m yet to figure out what it was really all about, and what Irrfan Khan – the good-bad-good cop was trying to do in the first place! Then again, today’s it’s not the time to reason; it’s only time to accept whatever is thrown at your face, especially if it comes from the millionaire movie powerhouses, and especially if it’s blessed by corporate media, Hollywood, and AMPAS-Oscar.
A slumdog will always be a slumdog; a millionaire will always be a millionaire, especially if you can deprive the poor shanty actors and their parents of their dues, and profit more. The Indian slumdog will never be a millionaire, however hard Hollywood-Bollywood wants us to believe it.
###
Slumdogs and Millionaires
By Partha Banerjee
http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2009/02/05/slumdogs-and-millionaires/
Slumdogs will always be slumdogs, and millionaires will always be millionaires. An Indian slumdog will never be a millionaire. At least not the fantastic way the movie flaunted it.
Oscar-coaxing producer Christian Colson, director Danny Boyle, and the now-famed storytellers Simon Beaufoy and Vikas Swarup together create a violent, obnoxious, and even not-so-artistically-sound celluloid big-frame that’s likely to be showered with more profits and trophies. Talking about art, of course, in this day and age of in-your-face, obese entertainment, who’s afraid of Satyajit Ray, or even Ronny Howard or Spike Lee?
Slumdog Millionaire is completely in line with the new-trend, part-documentary, part-fiction, part-narrative, part-activist, West-glorified exploitation of Third World’s poor and vulnerable: Born Into Brothels, City of Joy, or Lagaan would come to mind as immediate examples. There’s no sense of history, peoples’ grassroots struggle, and in case of Slumdog, dignity; the big, loud screen shuffles fast in a vacuum. At least, Lagaan was fun.
I feel sorry for the young performers who poured their hearts out on and off camera (even though Westernized Dev Patel or Freida Pinto is too cool and sophisticated to be slum bastards; Freida’s Latika would quickly contract HIV from her years of Pila Street prostitution); I feel even sorrier for the young-generation Bollywood patriots who crave to see some Indian honor on a real international scene (as opposed to the 10-nation-only cricket gold rush). If I were their age, I’d be charged up too and pump my fist. After all, it’s all make-believe; after all, it’s all for the big green bucks. The axiomatic, end-of-the-day message is: “Don’t think too much into it.” Or plainly, don’t think.
But I’m older and wiser, and can still think. I’ve seen quite a bit of slum, poverty and destitution in my life; I’ve even seen how an open-air, wood-platform, makeshift toilet seat actually works. I have a feeling none of the millionaire moviemakers experienced the thick of it. Their deliberate attempt to desensitize the younger audience thus doesn’t work, not because it’s grotesque, but it’s violent with its horror, lies and distortions.
And would Amitabh Bachchan off his helicopter really sign an autograph for a feces-smeared rat who somehow rubbed past throngs of star-crazed crowd? No way -- it’s a lie. And that’s why it’s really horrible. Show poverty, show disparity – it’s fine, it’s even more than fine: show it the Ritwik Ghatak, Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal way. But don’t raise false optimism, don’t create false hope.
That “yellow” situation sets up the grimy, slimy, slithery and smelly theme early on; we quickly get to sense how the rest of the melodrama will unfold. In a disjunct, average-made way, Slumdog entertains us, with all the prescribed elements right off the Hollywood-Bollywood book, including the Devdas-type sacrifice of Salim and his Godfather-style death. In its fervent zeal to show a “real” India, the movie steals poverty, kiddy sex, hunger, shooting guns, and even attempted comedy from Salam Bombay, Born Into, and that fresh line of products.
The laundry list of essential elements was complete even with a communal riot scene; of course, Hindu fascists in Mumbai have slaughtered Muslim slum dwellers in the 1992 post-Babri-Mosque demolition era. But even the dumbest Shiv Sena or BJP goon knows that mob lynching is never a smart thing to do without provocation; and Jamal-Salim’s mom and washerwoman neighbors were suddenly rounded up and butchered without a provocation. Heck, even Aparna Sen in Mr. and Mrs. Iyer had set a believable stage for Hindu-Muslim violence.
The overarching, majorly ludicrous thread is the game itself. It appeared as if Who Wants to Be a Millionaire the Indian variety was tailored into Jamal’s opportune and handy slum experiences: an American tourist couple to display their American generosity put a 100-dollar bill (!) in suffering Jamal’s hand, and the blinded singer boy – whom Jamal rediscovers years later – touches it, knows it’s a dollar bill, and helps him to learn the name of Ben Franklin printed on the money. Talk about preposterous!
Oh yes, blinding of the poor is not unheard-of in India: we remember the Bhagalpur atrocities during Indira Gandhi’s regime, and similar grotesque human rights abuse in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat.
But in the movie, it was too imposed, too far-fetched, and tear-jerking. Such was the array of meaningless police torture situations; I’m yet to figure out what it was really all about, and what Irrfan Khan – the good-bad-good cop was trying to do in the first place! Then again, today’s it’s not the time to reason; it’s only time to accept whatever is thrown at your face, especially if it comes from the millionaire movie powerhouses, and especially if it’s blessed by corporate media, Hollywood, and AMPAS-Oscar.
A slumdog will always be a slumdog; a millionaire will always be a millionaire, especially if you can deprive the poor shanty actors and their parents of their dues, and profit more. The Indian slumdog will never be a millionaire, however hard Hollywood-Bollywood wants us to believe it.
###
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