Day 50: Anarchy
…and they babbled. All sorts of strange sounds wafted from them. Chants? Incantations? Or madness? The legend of the tower dimly arose in my mind.
‘Bloody hell,’ Sasha said. ‘Didn’t expect to hear that.’
‘Woah!’ Chang said. ‘My grandmother should’ve been here.’
Olumese stared at the babblers sweating slightly. And then I heard it. How could this be? These were a bunch of drunks. But as I listened the deeper innocent memories stirred. My mother’s prayers of peace in her rounded Southern Indian tongue.
The legend of the tower was reversed. Anarchy restored.
Uncle
I saw the face of evil
A man who ravaged his brother
and robbed his nieces
so should justice be fought for?
or let evil destroy itself?
Multicultural mud
Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time caused my heart to sink. No not because of Griffin. I saw only the 6 min highlights and I felt sorry for him. Everyone picked on him and he tried to be coherent and ended up even more befuddled. But he is right in one thing. It was a lynch mob. It started off with Dimbleby instigating the whole fight. That is bullying and bullying is exactly what the BNP is accused off. Different bullies, different victims.
Didn’t the media czars for one moment think that an underdog is always sympathized with no matter how horrible the underdog is? The audience were there mostly to boo him and on TV if someone is booed he becomes popular as evidenced by the various gameshows we’ve seen over the years. In the end the whole episode has shown that the whole area of multiculturalism needs new life and a fairly substantial reboot.
One of the most popular phrases now in self-justification is ‘I’m not a racist but….’. There are actually not that many racists now. Which I think is the fruit of various moves of multiculturalism. However racial prejudice stays on and on. We talk of integration but it is necessarily a difficult and long process. Yet honestly as a family I would rather stay in England than in India where in my personal experience the prejudices are stronger.
So if everyone takes as a starting point that we all have our prejudices we will have started at a point of truth. Another worrying point is that this is quite often a prejudice of colour. The majority of immigrants into this country are actually from Europe who are mostly white. Yet they are not the targets of this talk. It’s simply that the more alien the immigrant looks and behaves the more insecure we all are in relating to each other. From my wife’s experience the Portuguese community are fairly insular but since they look kind of similar and also behave in a similar fashion they are more accepted.
Thankfully Kiarna is fairly international looking so I’m not worried too much about her other than her passion for dosa and idli. My guess is that I should expect some sort racial comments at some point. It happened back in Northwood where I was shouted at to go back to my country. Well at the time I was. Haha. But now my nationality has changed. Oh and I was asked which tribe I was from. By a great standing member of All Souls Langham Place. So I shall accept that it will happen. Even from within the church.
My response will have to be that I am as prejudiced as those and swallow my fear and shyness and get to know them. Only Christ can open our eyes and continue to break the walls that divide us.
See the sky
Searching, seeking, hoping, finding
Doubts whisper questions in the breeze
Answers hide in the night with ease
fate so unmoving
yet we yearn and we strive
to understand
fear and love and joy
Searching, seeking, finding, hoping
Chasing the wind through mindless dust
No one to hold the poor and weak
Death is our future
Yet we breed even more
to suffer our hates and mistakes
Searching, seeking, hoping, finding
What do we see?
See the sky
A shining light so clear
spreading out and showing
heaven’s hand
See the sky
A sign of hope so real
A tiny baby is the face of God
Searching, seeking, finding, hoping
Powers of wealth and kings and priests
hate the good news that sets them free
Child of eternity
in the dust earth’s authority
He crawls and bleeds the truth and love of God
Searching, seeking, finding, hoping
what do we see?
See the sky
A shining light so clear
spreading out and showing
heaven’s hand
See the sky
A sign of hope so real
A tiny baby is the face of God
Tiny baby (helpless) power of God (helpless)
Baby cries, mother wakes
hungry God
nursed and fed
Wisdom of God
foolishness to all
This is true power
A Lamb who’s slain for all
Searching, seeking, hoping, finding
What do we see?
See the sky
A shining light so clear
spreading out and showing
heaven’s hand
See the sky
A sign of hope so real
A tiny baby is the face of God
See the face of God, Jesus.
Gone
Have a listen to ‘Gone’ with the brilliant Phoeba Daniel singing on it. It’s the top most track on orang-ish player on the right. Thanks Anurag for all that you did for it.
Scandinavian Saga
Indiana Jones had worked it out. The evil Schwartzkopf was the one who stole the sacred viking ikea bookcase which held the writings, namely the recipes of Olaf the Great. And there he was (Schwartzkopf that is, not Olaf) standing there mocking him. Out in the icy stretches a narrow inlet of water separated them.
Indiana gave chase. Magically and bizarrely the waters started to mock him.
‘Loser!…Get a new hat!’ It gurgled.
‘What’s with the whip dude? Got a hot date?’
Indiana was resolute. He would catch Schwartzkopf. The waters didn’t give in. They mercilessly called him names and rose and splashed him with the coldest 1 degree centigrade water. With a jump and a grimace he was upon Schwartzkopf. Indiana had done it! The waters kept up their prank till he was out of earshot.
Ellie his part time assistant on minimum wage wondered how he’d done it especially at his age. Indiana modest as ever replied, “oh it was nothing. Except for that damn Harassing Fjord.”
kisskisskisskiss
District 9
I shouldn’t have read the reviews before hand. That was probably the only thing that detracted from my enjoyment of the movie. I was mistakenly led to believe that it was about apartheid or rather that apartheid was the primary metaphor that the movie was alluding to. It seems to be more about immigration and at a deeper level how we view… um… aliens; the movie sorts and the other more close to home beggars in the street, software engineers in our companies, labourers etc. etc.
I’m not too much into alien movies and I did find their appearance a quite yuk in a sufficiently hollywood kind of way but the genius of the movie for me was how I really warmed to the aliens Christopher Johnson and his son. From being faintly repulsed to sympathy and pity, I moved towards identifying with them. Now if only prejudice at all levels could be moved so easily.
But it is true that only by in some sense giving yourself up (in Van der Merve the main character’s case, not very willingly) and seeing the world from the other side that’s when the world stretches and changes into something you haven’t been in before.
The film leaves me wondering whether it’s only a drastic accident like what Van der Merve goes through that’s going to push us towards giving ourselves up for the sake of knowing/loving the other. The frustration for me as a Christian is that despite Jesus’ death which has broken the dividing walls and freed us from our tribalism we still have a lot of prejudicial divisions in church . I don’t know. Maybe Christopher Johnson will come back in District 10 with a clearer answer.
Perverts we love you
Roman Polanski’s arrest has been protested by various celebrities and in the media. It was very interesting that it took a few days before the reality started dawning and people really started reflecting on what happened. But it is a typical case of the rich and the famous protecting one of their own. Yes there were issues in the way the justice system was acting but still there has to be a public acknowledgment that he did something heinous. These articles give some perspective on the issue.
The fact is an adult manipulated a young 13 year girl used her body in every way possible. In an age of sexual consumption and increasing sexualising of younger and younger girls it almost seems ok. This is the smokescreen that’s clouding all of Roman Polanski’s would be saviours. One can’t help but romanticize a fugitive and that too a talented one.
But this ‘fight’ is really about whether everyone should be under the same law or whether the genius should be given his own universe to play with. This again is the dangerous taste of unreality that each of us longs for but there is actually a more brilliant world out there. My prayers for that 13 year old girl forced to be what she was never meant to be
Alive
Alive
my other breathes
lying next to me
Alive
the little one breathes
after her lullaby
Alive
the people breathe
before they sing
Alive
Jesus breathes on us
so we may truly be
Alive
Formula 1
Ever since I read about the rivalry of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in the Reader’s Digest in pre-TV India I was fascinated by formula 1. I was a fan of Schumacher from 1993 when he came second in the German grand prix and I’ve managed to keep track of the world championships since.
The recent events have made the whole soap opera a bit sour but being the cynical person that I am I wasn’t entirely surprised. Read the rest of this entry »
