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thoughts-of-ghanashyam · 3 years ago

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𝕷𝖎𝖋𝖊 𝖇𝖊𝖙𝖜𝖊𝖊𝖓 𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖊𝖗 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖔𝖘 ☯️

If one breaks down the life, no even the whole world on two fundamental forces, then only order and chaos remain at the end. These two elementary forces determine the course of the world and therefore also every life in all universes and spheres.

By the way, this aspect is not only valid for material science, but also for spiritual science. It also forms a general principle for psychology and resulting patterns of behavior. Jordan B. Peterson has written a wonderful book about this (12 Rules for Life), which I can only recommend to everyone in this context.

We humans (and probably all other living beings) love order. Order is the beauty and perfection of nature, recurring and relatively punctual seasons, the ebb after the flood and vice versa. However order is expressed, it gives us structure and security in the first instance.

What began in the communal horde at primeval times, currently finds its culmination in various forms of society. Order is the everyday rhythm of life, the beloved routine that doesn't throw us off track. Relationship and family, the circle of friends, daily meditation, going to the gym, the job, good food at the right time and everything else that determines our everyday life. But order is also laws, the state and society, which restrict us so far to secure this beloved order, but on the other hand also give us a sufficient sense of freedom. Order is the framework in which our material life takes place.

But order is also boredom and stagnation, because there are no more real challenges before loud order and structure. Order is likewise the steps of marching troops or the general "equalization" of a society. Order can thus degenerate all too quickly into an instrument of oppression - namely when it gains the upper hand and, for example, massively restricts or completely abolishes the fundamental rights and freedoms of living beings. Slaughterhouses and concentration camps (yes, I have deliberately listed these two terms together) are also parts of a radical and egomaniacal order, as we have experienced it many times in history or even experience it every day.

If order gets out of balance, it can be just as destructive as the supposed chaos.

Chaos...these are the uncontrolled forces of nature - earthquakes, floods or volcanic eruptions. Chaos is the ugly face of nature with things like plagues or pandemics. Chaos is murder, war, destruction and decay. Chaos is also the end of a relationship, the sudden death of a loved one, or the unexpected loss of a job. Things and events in which we lose control of our universal or individual order and suddenly become disoriented and helpless. This disorientation can in the worst case lead to further chaos in the form of physical as well as mental illness, drug addiction, violence, self-destruction, murder or suicide. Chaos is first and foremost something we want to avoid - at least as far as it is within our limited power.

However, similar to order, there is another aspect to chaos - the so-called second side of the same coin. Because if chaos arises from excessive order, change can also arise from this very chaos - for example in the sense of a revolution. Let us think here, for example, of the peaceful revolution of Mahatma Gandhi, which arose out of a maelstrom of oppression and misery and brought down an empire with peace and nonviolence.

Chaos can therefore, in addition to negative aspects, also provide us with motivation for proactive actions and thus spur us on to peak performance. Chaos is thus the unknown constant in our universe - the white spot on the map - the unexplored terrain. It challenges and encourages us in equal measure, it makes us progressive, creative and inventive. Without chaos, we would probably still be dwelling in caves and roaming the forest or steppe with a club.

So in the end, it's all about finding the right balance between these two forces. Almost every philosophy or religion of man has dealt with this principle. Good and evil, light and shadow, black or white, yin and yang. As diverse as the systems and representations are, they are equally universal.

But how do we create this balance? How do we manage to live in a healthy order and at the same time have one foot in chaos? Here, too, there are certainly thousands of possibilities - many of which are sold to us at an expensive price by hip life coaches with lots of pretty colorful pictures.

Personally, however, I believe the answer is both complex and simple in equal measure. Because the true link between order and chaos is probably consciousness. I therefore think that the keyword is "anchoring".

So let's keep it like a boat anchoring off a coast in a stormy sea. Storms come and go - so it is with order and chaos. In the end, nothing lasts in our world.

I found a beautiful verse in the Bhagavad Gita about this, too:

"O son of Kunti, the contact between the senses and the sense objects gives rise to fleeting perceptions of happiness and distress. These are non-permanent, and come and go like the winter and summer seasons. O descendent of Bharat, one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed. "

(BG 2.14)

So let us remain anchored - no matter how stormy the sea. We may be buffeted, we may even sink, but in the end, as I said, nothing is insistent - not even suffering.

So let's find that one place in life where we want to drop anchor - based on what or who we really are. Let's find out what our inner self really wants from life and hold on to that. Then, if we keep bringing ourselves back to that place by reminding ourselves of our true identity, values and purpose, we can learn to be in balance with chaos and order.

Thanks for reading! Hari Om Tat Sat!

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ukrfeminism · 3 years ago

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After four decades at the helm of the women’s rights group Southall Black Sisters (SBS), Pragna Patel stepped down as director at the beginning of this year.

“It was time to move on,” says Patel, whose next move will “be something in the broader parameters of activism — that’s in my blood. I can’t see myself ever not being focused on things that need to be put right.”

Patel, 61, came to the UK from Kenya in 1965. She vividly recalls being the focus of curiosity as she stepped off the aeroplane on a cold, wet December night. “As a child, I didn’t understand why people were staring at us,” she says.

Later, she realised it was the combination of her brown skin and the fact that she was wearing a yellow, sleeveless cotton summer dress and flip flops.

Her father had come to the UK as an economic migrant, hitchhiking his way from Kenya and spending his first night in London sleeping at Victoria Station. His hazardous journey, notes Patel, was still safer than the journeys made by migrants today.

He worked at three jobs to earn enough money to bring his family to London. Racism made it difficult for her parents, who got factory work, to find employment or rented accommodation, so the family moved around London’s boroughs.

“I grew up with a sense of being an outsider and not understanding why,” says Patel, who attributes this burning sense of injustice to fuelling her “gut instinct” towards activism.

The eldest of four daughters, she found that growing up in a traditional, patriarchal community added to a sense of injustice. “My immediate female relatives all accepted their lot — marriage and children,” says Patel, who also as a teenager faced pressure to marry against her will.

Inspired by reading the defiant work of her first role model, Mahatma Gandhi, Patel “began a campaign of civil disobedience in my family”. Her mantra was “I will not submit”, the motif of James Joyce’s alter ego in The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Her resistance was successful, and she went to study English literature and sociology at a higher education college in Liverpool.

Returning to Southall in west London, where the family lived, in the summer holiday, Patel met some young Asian women selling a newspaper produced by Southall Black Sisters, a group of Asian and Afro-Caribbean women that campaigned against sex, race and class discrimination.

“They were feisty, assertive, feminists — everything I had been told not to be — and proud of who they were,” she says.

The word “black” used in the name was a political and unifying term that aimed to bring together disparate minority communities with common histories of imperialism and colonialism.

Southall in the 1970s was at the centre of the UK’s anti-racism movement, when the community rose up to oppose a National Front march through the borough. A white anti-racist activist, Blair Peach, was killed by the police and 400 Asian youths were arrested, but not a single white youth was arrested.

Patel found the message of the SBS inspiring, and aged 22, when the group’s leaders moved on to other activities, she re-founded it, inspired by the law centres movement and with a grant from the Greater London Council.

The group gained national attention supporting Kiranjit Ahluwalia, whose successful 1992 appeal against her conviction for murdering her violent husband changed the law on provocation and the understanding of battered woman syndrome.

“I had no idea it was going to become a big case,” says Patel. “We were dealing with new things and learning about the issues ourselves.”

The case not only “struck a national chord”, but represented a “wonderful moment of unity when feminists of all backgrounds came together demanding justice for women — for the right to defend themselves”.

Today, she fears that identity politics has “fragmented unity” and warns of the “real danger” that as feminist, progressive antiracists emphasise their differences, they lose their sense of humanity and solidarity.

Patel recalls going to Yorkshire in the 1970s to stand on the picket lines to support striking miners. “We didn’t do it because we thought miners were non-sexist or non-racist; we did it to say that we have common struggles.”

In the face of increasing moves by the state to strip people’s citizenship, criminalise migrants, amend human rights protections and clamp down on protest, Patel is adamant that that spirit of unity must be rekindled.

“Forget about progressing rights, we have to think about how we hang on to them. Political forces are against us on this. We have to step up our game.”

Patel is particularly concerned about the rise in religious fundamentalism around the world, which she says is an attack on women’s rights, and moves to restrict protest.

“Protest is part of the feminist armoury. When you have nothing else left, you only have your voice.”

She is also troubled by the politics of the debate around transgenderism and the effect it has on reducing women’s rights. The “erasure of women is the single most regressive act”, she says.

Describing herself as a “champion of sex-based rights”, Patel stresses the harms that women and girls face because of their sex, including female foeticide and infanticide.

She says that she supports trans rights and the ability of people to live without discrimination. But, she stresses: “I’m not for a politics based on erasing others who are vulnerable.”

Away from activism, Patel enjoys cricket, though she adds that the game is “a story of empire”. Her ideal day, she says, is taking a picnic to watch England play India, admitting that supporting India, she would “never pass the Tebbit test”.

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alittlebitoftruthcan · 3 years ago

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My attitude about politicians is that they are all ill people. It does not matter whether he is a fascist, a capitalist or a communist: a politician is a sick person. He is deeply violent. Now his violence can take many shapes: he can become an Adolf Hitler, he can become a Mao Tse Tung, but both are violent people and both believe that the society has to be changed through force. And whenever somebody believes that the society has to be forced towards some change, he is mad. You can persuade people, you can explain to people, but forcing them is just madness… even forcing for their own good. Forcing is forcing… I am not saying that Mao Tse Tung has not done any good—that I am not saying. What I am saying is that even to force people for their own good is wrong. Violence is wrong, and nobody should use, in any way, other people’s lives as means. Each person is his own end. Now it is true that in Russia—in Lenin’s and Stalin’s and today’s Russia—people are far better off materially than they were ever before the revolution, but spiritually they are far worse. They have bread and butter and a shelter but they have lost their souls, they don’t have any freedom. Now this is a very ugly situation—that you have to sell your soul to get bread and butter and shelter; this is too much of a price to pay. Sooner or later Russia will have to go through another revolution—and the same is going to happen in China. People have been forced, regimented about each and every thing. My attitude towards people who believe in violence is that they are deep down very much troubled. Because of their own inner sickness they throw the violence on other people. A really at-ease person cannot throw any kind of violence. My attitude towards violence is such that I call even a man like Mahatma Gandhi, violent. Now, he is thought to be the most non-violent man of the world, but I call him violent because he used to force his disciples… of course in a very spiritual way. For example, if a disciple was going astray—according to him… But who is he to decide who is going astray and who is not going astray? If a disciple had fallen in love with a woman—which Mahatma Gandhi thought was not good for him… And who is he to think about it—that it is not good for them? He could explain his standpoint, that’s all. But what would he do? He would go on a fast. Now this is violence. He would force that couple through his fasting: they would start feeling guilty. Because of them this old man was on a fast, and if he died, then what? Then they would be the murderers. Now this is forcing in a very very subtle way. It is the same: whether you are taking a sword or you are doing fast makes no difference. In fact, to have a sword on your head seems easier—you have more freedom. You can say ‘Okay, kill us, but we will stick to our own beliefs!’ At least your dignity is saved… you may be killed; with Hitler your dignity is saved. But Mahatma Gandhi is not killing you—he is killing himself. He says ‘I will kill myself if you don’t listen to me!’ But just look at the logic… Hitler’s logic is that of a murderer and Gandhi’s logic is that of a suicidal person—but suicide is nothing but self-murder. They look very different, but they are not basically different. In each case they are forcing the other—they are not persuading the other. They are bringing something into the argument which is ugly, they are bringing in force. If I tell you ‘Become a sannyasin otherwise I will commit suicide’, and then you become a sannyasin, I will call that violence. Then I have been an Adolf Hitler to you. What is the difference? If you don’t become a sannyasin you will feel guilty, if I commit suicide, for your whole life you will feel guilty. So whatever the way, politicians always enforce things… their ways are violent ways. My approach is that if I have a certain understanding, I have to explain it to you—and then too with the condition that you are free to do it like that or not. Even if you don’t follow it, I will not be angry, I will not condemn you; that’s your individual freedom! If you have decided to remain miserable, who am I to make you happy? If that is your decision then I will accept it—it is your life! Freedom should not be interfered with in any way, for any reason. Once you start interfering with freedom then there is no end to it. Today you interfere for this reason, tomorrow you interfere for another reason, and by and by the freedom is encroached on completely and destroyed. In the beginning Adolf Hitler was also talking about socialism. There were thousands of people—and not uneducated people, not unintelligent people: Germany was one of the most sophisticated countries. Even a man like Martin Heideigger supported Adolf Hitler thinking that he was going to do good. The whole country was with him—almost the whole country was with him! Intellectuals, poets, painters, scientists—the major part of the country was with him: they were all thinking that he was doing good. But by and by things started changing, because whenever there is violence you cannot do good; even in the name of good, bad will result. And this same happened with Joseph Stalin and with Mao Tse Tung. Things start off well, but finally if the man is violent inside, he is bound to destroy people. The more powerful he becomes, the more destruction will come. Now China has lost its soul… you are not even free to meditate! Thousands of Taoist and Buddhist monasteries have been destroyed. Three-thousand-year-old monasteries have been utterly destroyed; people have been forced to change their Taoist and Buddhist ways of life. But what happens is that whenever you have a certain dogmatic mind it looks as if you are right. Now, one dogmatic mind is that everybody should work. If a Buddhist monk is meditating and not working then he is an exploiter and according to the communist logic it looks perfectly right to force him to go to the field and work. So an old monk—a seventy-year-old monk who has been meditating for fifty years and who was creating a tremendous inner insight—is forced to work now. Otherwise he is beaten and thrown into the gaol. Meditation is a sin. What I am saying about Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and others is only one thing—that the politician himself has not arrived at his own centre. Whatsoever he is going to do is going to be wrong and harmful in the long run. The real people should first be interested in their own centering, and if you are centred then you will start overflowing and a few people will be changed—but that change will be very very silent, without any force, without any violence. I believe in the individual and not in the society. My total respect is towards the individual and not towards the society. And all programmes that put society above the individual are dangerous—call them fascism, call them socialism, call them capitalism, communism; it makes no difference. Any system that makes society more important than the individual is a dangerous philosophy. It will kill the individual. And it is the individual who is the real thing, it is the individual who is really alive. Society is just a name. It is as if in the name of humanity you kill human beings. But where is that humanity? Human beings are real—humanity is just an abstract conception. It exists not, you cannot find humanity anywhere. If you go round the world searching and asking ‘Where is humanity?’ you will never find it—you will only come across human beings. My effort is to love the human being and forget about humanity! Where is the society? Society exists not, it is just an abstraction. The individual is the truth! If the individual remains the end, then everything goes well. Once the society or humanity or Islam or Christianity… all abstractions—when they start dominating… You know how dangerous Christianity has been… and in the name of beautiful ideals! So has been Islam, so is communism! Just think: two hundred years ago the people who were torturing others in the name of Christ never thought that they were doing anything wrong. Now you know that they were doing wrong. But what was their blindness? Why couldn’t they see? They were thinking that they were doing it in the name of Christ, in the name of God, in the name of the gospel. After two hundred years you will be able to see what Mao Tse Tung has done in the name of ‘Das Kapital’, in the name of communism, in the name of equality… after two hundred years—but then it is too late! And man is very wise about the past, but that is meaningless, one has to be wise about the present. It is very easy now to condemn Adolf Hitler because he is condemned, he has failed. Once somebody fails, it is easy to condemn him—his failure is enough proof. But when Hitler was succeeding it was very difficult. At least it was almost impossible for the fascists to think—their eyes were covered with their ideology; so is the case with communism. It is very difficult for a communist to think; he is so prejudiced. And remember, I am not against equality and I am not against the basic spirit of communes, but I am really against politics. And to me, communism can never come through politics; it will only come out of individual awareness. It may take a long time but nothing can be done about it. It will come only through individual awareness. Individuals have to change in their inner being, they have to change the whole structure of their mind. Capitalism is there in the structure of the mind. Kruschev had many cars, from almost every country. He was very interested in cars—everybody knew about it—so wherever he went, people would present him with cars. And he was very very proud of his cars. Now this is capitalism! Only he had those cars in Soviet Russia—nobody else—and he was enjoying the idea that only he had these cars. But what else is capitalism? Old, rich people are no more there but a new class has arisen: the class of the bureaucrats. Now in Russia a certain class has ruled for fifty years. Into that certain class nobody has been able to enter… just a small clique of people have been ruling. Now what kind of equality is this? And that class has become very rich, very powerful. Now there is no possibility to dethrone it. Stalin died—that makes no difference: another member of the police group becomes the chief, he dies; another member of the group—but it remains the same small clique of people. They are tremendously powerful no czar was ever so powerful, no Nixon was so powerful. What I am trying to convey is that all that is beautiful has to happen through the individual, not through a social programme, through individual effort, through human consciousness, not through the state, not through the government, not through violence, not through police and military force. And all those people who use force are enemies—whatsoever their branch; that makes no difference.

Osho (This Is It)

#osho #politicians #society #communism #freedom #violence #Mahatma Gandhi #politics #china #germany #power #monk #work #individual #russia #religions #lbotca

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nan-drw · 5 years ago

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This is not the India Mahatma Gandhi dreamt of when he began his Satyagraha.

This is not the India Babasaheb Ambedkar envisioned when he drafted the constitution.

AND this is definitely NOT the India I was born in!

These people, who claim to be the leaders of this once thriving nation, have managed to systematically annihilate the very spirit of its existence and democracy.

It all started out very normal, in 2014, the year BJP came into power and Narendra Modi took centre stage as Prime Minister, with a promise of 'good days'.

I don't know if the 'good days' ever arrived, but I made several observations.

Modi (of course) dished out a few fancy schemes. Mob lynchings and minority persecution became common. About 20 billion dollars were spent on foreign visits. The economy dwindled. Random rants about Pakistan. Demonetisation. Women were (are) being brutally raped and murdered. Laws were arbitrarily amended for the worse. Filmmakers were accused of 'hurting the Hindu sentiments' when it was clearly not the case. History textbooks and names of cities were changed for no reason. Farmers commited suicide. An entire state was detained. More rants about Pakistan. Detention camps (!) were built. Peaceful protestors were beaten black and blue. Politicians who opposed the government were (are) trolled for no reason. Pushing for a One-Party system. And worst of all, the media either slept through all of it, or was busy putting the central government on a pedestal for no apparent reason or achievement. Journalists who tried questioning the government were shot.

Despite all this, they got re-elected in the centre once again in 2019 and this time all hell broke loose, for the public could now see them for who they were, anti-democratic, anti-secular, extremist, divisive, Islamophobic, fascist brats!

In December 2019, the Citizenship Amendment Bill (now law) was passed. This law provides citizenship to anyone identified as being in India illegally, if they are from a non-muslim community (Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, Buddhists) and originally from Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan. This act, clubbed with the National Register of Citizens is dangerous. Under NRC+CAA, millions of people have to present documents proving their Indian citizenship. If you're from a non muslim community and you do not have the required documents, then chill, you'll still be 'Indian'. But if you're a Muslim, you immediately lose your citizenship due to CAA and will be either deported or sent to detention camps. They carried out NRC in Assam and about 19 lakh people lost their Indian citizenship and were sent to concentration camps.

Also, it's not just about the Muslims. Think of the poor people. The illiterate people. The destitutes. The transgenders. The tribals. The people who DO NOT wish to be associated with any religion i.e. athiests. There are so many more.

Some of you might say, so what? Just show the documents and get it done, simple! NO. IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE. IT'S NOT SIMPLE WHEN YOU HAVE TO PRESENT 60-70 YEAR OLD DOCUMENTS IN ORDER TO PROVE YOUR INDIANNESS. Also, do you REALLY think that every person carries the birth certificates, insurance policies and other documents of their ancestors? Think again.

I am a Muslim and I'm scared. For the first time in my life; I'm scared to be in my own skin, of my own identity. I'm afraid of calling myself an Indian. The possible outcomes of the implementation of NRC+CAA makes me shiver. Who knows, I'll be gone from the face of the earth. Or left to rot in a detention camp? Or something else?

Remember the last time concentration camps were built?I don't think I need to remind you of it.

BJP is a fascist part which rose to power largely because of its favour of 'Hindutva' and follows the ideologies of the RSS. This includes the building of a Hindu state. A quick google search will tell you how impressed the RSS leaders and BJP fathers were with Hitler and supported his Nazi system.

These new laws are eerily similar to the Nuremberg laws and Reich Citizenship laws of Nazi Germany, which dictated who all were eligible to be Reich citizens. It excluded Jews, the same way the CAA excludes Muslims. All of it was done (is being done) legally following constitutional norms by those in power. The Nuremberg laws were, in many ways, the beginnings of Genocide against the Jews.

With the Citizenship Amendment Act, Modi and Co. Is trying to bring the system in India too. It's a step towards their dream of a 'Hindu state'. The act is fundamentally discriminatory in nature, undermines the constitutional right to equality and discriminates on the grounds of religion. Also, now that everyone is after NRC CAA, nobody is asking the real questions, about the state of the economy, the rising prices, the never ending crimes against women...the list goes on.

A genocide against the Muslims is well underway in India.

Ever since the bill was passed by the parliament, students of the Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi have been actively involved in peacefully protesting against it. They've been joined by students from educational institutions all over India, plus the general public, who understand what this new law really is. The BJP has been trying hard to stop and discredit these protestors. The police, acting on Modi and Co's orders is resorting to extreme violence in order to stop the students and protestors. The police have open fired on the students, molested the female ones, sprayed tear gas and beaten students mercilessly(many have ended up in hospitals with broken bones, injuries, one guy lost an eye). They are provoking the peaceful protestors to resort to violence and then putting them in jail for crimes they did not commit. BJP, and their blind supporters (bhakts) are spreading fake news through their social media and labelling the protestors terrorists. The government has shut down internet and other modes of communication in several parts of the country, the whole state of Assam has blacked out. We don't know what's happening there.

Now we understand what Kashmiris have been going through. Cut out from the rest of the world (since almost 140 days, a record for any democracy), under constant watch of the military, stripped off their basic human rights and what not!? We are sorry Kashmir, we failed you.

I salute the protestor's spirits, they haven't lost hopes or taken backfoot because of the violence instigated against them by the police; they've stuck to their cause and are responding with almost superhuman strength! I pray for them all day.

If you are reading this, please spread this! Tell about the situation of India to everyone. Raise awareness. Be respectful in disagreements but demolish opposing arguments using pure logic. Stand united! If you can, participate in the protests. If you're already doing it, kudos to you! Remember, DO NOT RESORT TO VIOLENCE. If you're outside India, please help us and tell people about this state of affairs in India. Educate people about the ill effects of this law. Please! I request you please help us! We need to show these fascists the power of the people. We cannot just silently stand by as Modi and Co make a joke of our constitution and morals! This cannot, and should not continue!!! This is not about being a Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Sikh or Jain or Parsi, it's not even about being political, it's about being an Indian! It's about being a human.

....And now, coming to the Ostriches, those who have their heads buried in the ground, those who are pretending there's nothing wrong happening in the country right now, those who think that NRC+CAB are not anti-national, those who are still supporting the BJP, those who are silent because they don't want to make political statements, I have only one thing to say to you; when we are silenced, I hope you regret being silent.

From the Quran-

And never think that Allah is unaware of what the wrongdoers do. He only delays them for a day when all the eyes will stare, in horror...

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back-and-totheleft · 5 years ago

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Interview with Roger Ebert

Oliver Stone said he was standing in a post office in Bali, talking on the pay phone. He'd gotten up early so he didn't have to stand in a long line for the phone.

What's it like there? I asked.

"It's a strange island. There are a lot of demons here--Balinese devils. You don't sleep very much. I almost drowned two days ago."

You what?

"There are very strong tides in the ocean. I was swimming with my kid and I guess we got too far out and we got swept out about three or four hundred yards. The waves were pounding and it was very, very scary. It took an hour and a half to get back in."

That's what it's like with Oliver Stone. You pick up the phone and 30 seconds later he's fighting for his life.

"We basically kept our heads above water until they could get some boards out to us," he said. "It's really wild out here."

How old is your son?

"Sean is only 9 years old. He's not the greatest swimmer in the world."

Were you facing the possibility that you might die?

"Absolutely."

I love talking with Oliver Stone because his life is such a drama, such a striving against man and nature. Maybe that's why his films are always so charged up; they partake of his personality. Another reason his films fascinate me is that they're like the weather report: Updates on the psychic climate of the nation.

The new one, "Natural Born Killers," is about a media circus surrounding a couple of gleeful mass murderers who go on a killing rampage and become celebrities. Stone was still editing it when the O. J. Simpson case broke. In his movie, crowds were cheering the killers. In real life, crowds were lining the L.A. freeways to wave at O. J. driving past in the white Bronco.

Mahatma Gandhi once joked about running fast to keep in front of his followers. Oliver Stone must feel the same way about real life. His movie "Wall Street," with its famous speech about greed, came out about the time they arrested Michael Milkin. And now, perfectly timed, here is this crazy, brilliant, chaotic movie "Natural Born Killers," a satire about the way we have turned violence into a TV spectator sport.

Not many people make movies like this because not many people get this angry and still retain their sense of humor. It is being compared to Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" in some quarters, but I think his "Dr. Strangelove" is a better match, because it's funnier.

-”Interview with Oliver Stone,” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, Aug 1 1994 [x]

#oliver stone #roger ebert #Natural Born Killers #stanley kubrick #violence in film

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wolfpawn · 6 years ago

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The Art of Survival

Summary -

It has been six months since madness descended on the High-Rise and the rest of London also, if not all of Britain. Robert Laing is one of only 8 men still alive in the High-Rise, the women reign supreme, as food become more and more scarce and the need to study his fellow residents as patients grows to almost an obsession, Robert sees that animal instinct is not as dormant in homo sapiens as he thought, we are not as removed from animals as we as a species think ourselves to be and when resources are few and far between, he learns that some are natural survivors, some are providers and some are leeches. Can he distinguish between them and see how it is best to survive, if only to complete his work?

Notes: this story will continue from the movie/book, both were similar. It will reference all the gore of them, rape, murder, etc but won't be as brutal overall, a sort of order has come over the place.

"There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed." - Mahatma Gandhi

Laing sat looking over the cityscape. It has been almost six months since bedlam had fallen over the High-Rise. In that time, he learnt it was not just their building that had suffered madness, it had spread over the city like a fog of chaos. Sirens rang constantly, almost like a theme song over the city, but no form of authority of emergency service had even attempted to come to bear the towering building in over ten weeks. Rubbish littered the ground surrounding the vast building and even the corpse of a man was strewn there, George Ambrose, he had been from the eighth floor, a notorious sex pest even before society fell into chaos, he suspected the women had lured him to his demise.

The women, in the initial period after everything went to hell, suffered horrifically, the men had held the power, using brute force and sex to deal with "lesser" men and women respectively. But while the men went into factions and fought among themselves, the women banded together, they made the Penthouse and the thirty-ninth door of the building their domain and a home for any woman in the building who wanted such a life and for all the children of the building, setting up a fully functional home and school for them, and woe betide anyone who attempted to create an issue there. Any woman who acted in a manner that was deemed uncouth and unacceptable was cast out, sometimes for a few days to teach them a lesson, and in a few instances, as it was with Charlotte's case, permanently. For men, however, death was the usual end result, though often, such an end was neither swift or clean.

He had been there a few times, be it for a child with a fever or other such things. If they needed him, the women found a way (often Toby) of calling on him. They paid in food so he was always willing, but Robert remained courteous, inoffensive and respectful, meaning the women never felt threatened by him and never made him feel as though he was at immediate risk, though the threat was ever present, women stood to the sides, weapons of different sorts in their hands, watching him, but as he ensured he could never be perceived as a threat, mutual respect was maintained. The women seemed able to structure a system of order without the presence of men. He documented it after every visit, seeing more and more of how the women ran their domain. He found it a fascinating study in psychology.

Charlotte had been welcomed into their fold at first, but she was soon cast out. All the women did their share in the penthouse community but Charlotte was never one to do her share and thought her M.O. would continue there, her being the social centre point around which others worked and get her share of the food but even Ann Royal, the wife of the now deceased architect and engineer did her share, she was a watcher of the children, so Charlotte's sloth was confront quite swiftly and she found herself wandering the hallways until she found her way back to him. Toby often found his way to the penthouse, if only for food and was welcomed warmly by the women who often attempted to convince him to stay.

That was part of the intrigue of the penthouse to Laing, food, though not abundant, was more readily available than he would have thought possible, especially after a few months of the new manner of life they found themselves in. It was just not plausible for there to still be food there, yet there was, he had seen himself, he had eaten it. The meat he was paid in was some form of bird, he suspected it was pigeon or even gull but he did not care, all he cared about was it was food.

Laing continued to look over the city as the day came to a close and dusk darkened the world. The sound of rummaging in the bags of trash below catching his attention as he did so. He ignored it at first, but as a second bout of noises and then a yowl of pain came to his attention, he rose to his feet and made his way towards the edge of the balcony, peering down. He watched curiously as someone in a hooded coat rushed back towards the building with a long stick in their hand, and on the end of it, a now deceased cat. The figure paused for a moment and seemed to realise they were being watched. They looked around before finally looking upward, their eye catching Laing's.

He knew her to see, he was certain she was from one of the lower floors, her chocolate brown eyes were mesmerising and her freckled nose, though he knew many found such features unattractive, he found intriguing when they used stand in the elevator in the mornings. He recalled her suit, highstreet, yet nice, as she held the door for him one day, smiling brightly as she did. He had been grateful for that. She had been jovial and polite, he found her intriguing, but he had yet to see her again, she was one he thought of all women would seek refuge in the colony that had formed on the upper floors, but she seemed to be fairing well alone, better than him, who had not seen a morsel in a day and found himself hoping the women required his services again, if only to get some food.

#The Art of Survival #chapter 1 #High-Rise #Robert Laing

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antilagardelle · 3 years ago

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On Gods And Tyrants

(Name Redacted)

Prof. P____

Conversatio 1

9-15-21

Fewer themes engage the annals of human history with such importunate vigor as the contest of the individual, the collective, and the divine. Each man construes his own ideal configuration of the three, and each lives out this very contest in every action he pursues, whether consciously or not. The timeless interplay between these forces is beautifully exemplified in an equally timeless play: Sophocles’ Antigone; wherein not only may a remarkable depiction be found of the ceaseless clash between God, man, and state, but wherein also is a fourth party to be found mixed with this tripartite dialectic; and that would be the intrapersonal. Upon reading this powerful work from the fifth century BC tragedian, one is met with the ancient and tested observation that whatsoever tumults pervade the individual, shall likewise pervade the state. What manifests individually, manifests collectively in due proportion; and thus, man has yet to know an external war not derived from internal battles; a societal polarization not resultant of intrapersonal divides; a corruption at large not originating in a corruption at home: that is, within the self.

Examining Antigone under a jungian light, it may be observed that the City of Thebes, in which it takes place, is a symbol of the self, and each character an element of one’s psyche. Cities, towns, and houses often symbolize the self in literature, drawing from their consisting in an ordered system of cogs. Upon stepping into this play of Sophocles, the reader finds Thebes in the aftermath of a civil war between Antigone’s two brothers, Polyneices and Eteocles, culminating in each killing the other simultaneously. To demonstrate the manner in which this rapine of Thebes simulates the rapine of the human psyche, requires first the exposition of a deeper symbol beneath it all, which serves to nourish Antigone’s greater theme. Antigone, Polyneices, Eteocles, and their sister Ismene are children of Oedipus and Jocasta. What makes this disturbing is that Jocasta and Eodipus are mother and son. This would not be the only incestuous taint upon the characters of the story, nor the first in the theban lineage. Not only is Creon, the King of Thebes, Antigone’s uncle, making her affiance to his son Haemon quite close-knit, but Jocasta, Oedipus’ mother and wife, was only a distant cousin from Oedipus’ father Laius to begin with. What is the symbolism behind this? The prevalence of incest in the story, is a symbol of misaligned or improperly differentiated relations between the psychophisiological elements of the self. The warring brothers, whose father is their brother as well, signify the disorders actuated by such a backward psychological alignment. The moral to be extracted--appertaining especially to the relation of the individual, the community, and the divine--is that the political maladies of the community find their direct source in the intrapersonal maladies of the individual; or perhaps more specifically, from his neglect to advance any effort at their amelioration.

Probing textually for traces of this theme, one is brought to an instance where Creon is expounding on his edict that since Eteocles died fighting to defend Thebes, and Polyneices traitorously against it, only the former shall secure a proper burial whereas the latter will be left for the birds and dogs. Creon describes the latter as having, “sought the taste of kindred blood.”(Hadas 127) It would appear that this selection of words on Creon’s behalf, symbolically relates this clash of brothers to Oedipus’ having conceived four children with his mother, designating the latter as a prefigurement of the former. This theme also crops up in an exchange between Ismene and Antigone in the beginning of the play, while the two dispute Antigone’s resolve to defy Creon’s orders to refuse Polyneices any burial. Ismene says, “How our father perished, amid hate and scorn, when sins bared by his own search had moved him to strike both eyes with self-blinding hand; then the mother and wife, two names in one, with twisted noose destroyed her own life; and last, our two brothers in one day--each shedding, luckless man, a kinsman’s blood--wrought out with mutual hands their common doom.”(Hadas 124) The “Self-blinding hand,” the “twisted noose,” the two brothers shedding “A kinsman’s blood,” and begetting “with mutual hands their common doom,” all symbolize incest in the play, and its representation of a maladjusted psyche. Lastly, one finds this concept broached in one of the synchronized chants of the chorus of theban elders, who periodically add a sort of poetic narration to the play, and who seem to signify a kind of collective voice. After Creon decrees that he will have Antigone thrown in a rocky vault, where she will starve to death, the chorus breaks out into a kind of soliloquy, wherein they lament that, “Love, unconquered in the fight [...] ‘tis thou that has stirred up this present strife of kinsmen.”(Hadas 142) It is as if the family's inbred roots alone are culpable for all the story’s entropy.

The dynamic of the individual and community having now been dissected, the question remains as to the proper station of the divine within this hierarchy. Where is God to be interpolated amidst this convoluted triad? To answer this question may require a rather roundabout course, in order that provision be made for those both of theistic and atheistic (or agnostic) sentiments. Perhaps no scene in the play conveys Antigone’s unshaken purpose so consummately as when she is brought before Creon for questioning. He inquires, in this scene, if she knew his edict forbade Polyneices any burial, to which she replies affirmatively. Creon then asks, “Did you then dare transgress that law?” to which Antigone answers with the same unapologetic certitude that had Caiaphas rend his raiment, stating “Yes, for it was not Zues that had published that edict; not such are the laws set among men by the Justice who dwells with the gods below. Nor did I deem that your decrees were of such force that a mortal could override the unwritten and unfailing statutes of heaven.”(Hadas 134) Regardless whether the reader believes in god or not, a sound argument could be made in favor of Antigone’s resolve. Antigone’s choice to bury her brother--or rather, to sprinkle sediment upon his corpse--derives an adequate justification from a reverence for the innate profundity of the human body.

To date, all developed nations have laws against defiling the body. A man guilty of murder, who also decimates or skins the corpse of their victim, can and usually will be hit with additional charges for the act, not merely due to the obfuscation of evidence, but also to the act’s inherent profanity against the human body. This is because one’s body is a significant part of precisely who they are. It constitutes no small part of their overall humanity. Now Creon’s pretext for refusing to bury Polyneices is that he is a traitor against Thebes. This, however, begs a dire question: at what point ought the humanity of an offender not be recognized? And to answer this question with anything less than an unequivocal, “never,” is to deny not only the humanity of the offender, but that of the whole race. Reiterating those famous words spoken on that happy day in 1945, “That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.”(Robert H. Jackson, 1945) This invocation of The Nuremberg Trials is eminently pertinent, as is drawn from the fact that the very value of the assertion of man being the peak of all vices and virtues, individually and thus collectively, is in the very extent to which it is true. Not only is it the case that every individual contains within them the daunting capacity to orchestrate such heinous and vile crimes against humanity as did the Nazis; but even, as a deeper and more frightening psychoanalysis would reveal, the sadistic desire to do so. Within each and every human person dwells both the guards at Auschwitz, and Mahatma Gandhi; Emperor Nero, and Christ himself; The Green River Killer and the Dalai Lama. That is to say, that what makes the antagonists of human history so terrifying is just how human they were; and to bring this back to Creon’s decree, it necessarily follows that to disrespect the human body--as it constitutes a profound and ineffable part of who the man was as a child of God, from a religious perspective, and as a member of humanity, from an atheistic view--is necessarily to miss this important lesson of human nature. The lesson that we all contain the same capacity for evil, and for good. A lesson from which one garners a deeper faculty of self-reflection; and it can be anticipated that a populace who shuns self-reflection, can only precipitate malady after malady, resulting in scenarios as unconscionably wicked as those wrought by the men whose humanity they elected to disregard imprimis. Thus, any failure to recognize the humanity of the worst offender, is itself an offense of no less severity. This failure is averted by handling the bodies of such transgressors with a basic human decency.

Now the foregoing is not to be misconstrued as an echo of Manicheism. Nor is the aim to imply, by contending all humans to contain the same capacity and desire for evil, that man is incapable of delivering any justice to the wicked. It is true that some men choose to act objectively better than others. But it is only this: a choice. It is a practice; and as such, it denotes that there is some baser nature they must necessarily labor against. The worst crime is in denouncing the existence of this baser nature in oneself, as to do so is to deify oneself; to deify oneself is to empower oneself absolutely; and, to allude to Lord Acton’s famous adage, is to thereby corrupt oneself absolutely.

There is, however, another argument here being made. It is of the nature of reverence, to connote a sense of mystery in the thing for which the reverence is had. Why have humans entertained such customs as removing hats in church? Why dress nicely for funerals, or weddings? Or to give more dire scenarios: from whence does man derive the notions of not killing unarmed persons, or those who surrender in war? Why is it diabolical to disregard white flags, or enact cruel and unusual punishments on prisoners? There are two primary reasons. The first, is because things are inherently ineffable. The second, because there must be a line that one simply does not cross. That line, whatever it may be, and on account of the limited nature of human understanding, will necessarily have some mystery about it, and therefore, demand reverence. Thus, a world without reverence would be an upside-down and hellish waste, which could only be imagined as The Holocaust tenfold. Depravity alone can ensue from the complete absence of reverence. There must be a space reserved for what is sacrosanct; for what is inviolable; for what is universally unbreakable; and to finally answer the question as to the divine’s place in relation to the individual and the community, this ineffable window of things so superior to man that he dare not violate them, is what we call, God. It is beside the point if one believes in God or not. Perhaps one holds that this space for the inviolable is defined by natural law, or by human altruism. The point is that whatever one designates to fill this position must necessarily have two principal traits. It must be above him, in that he is invariably answerable to it, and not vice versa; and of those things which it demands of him, they cannot always be said to be easy or in line with his personal wishes. These are the things which define God, and outline his relation to the self and the collective, as far as our investigation is concerned. That man whose rendition of God fails this criteria, effectively echoes Creon in thundering, “Am I to rule this land by other judgement than my own?”(Hadas 141)

In conclusion, Sophocles’ Antigone will ever hold a place among the literary classics. The compelling clash of Creon’s indignant rigidity with Antigone’s adamantine resolve, will always proffer a breadth of moral, political, and intrapersonal lessons, as well as entertain its audience. It is a story of love, a story of conviction, and a story of our natures, both the nobler and the baser. Under the lens of the relation between God, man, and state, the play will never cease to yield boundless insights, nor to be fruitful to those who read it.

Bibliography

Hadas, Moses. “Antigone.” The Complete Plays Of Sophocles, Bantam Books 1967, p.127

Hadas, Moses. “Antigone.” The Complete Plays Of Sophocles, Bantam Books 1967, 124

Hadas, Moses. “Antigone.” The Complete Plays Of Sophocles, Bantam Books 1967, p. 142

Hadas, Moses. “Antigone.” The Complete Plays Of Sophocles, Bantam Books 1967, p. 134

Jackson, Robert H., “Opening Statement Before The International Military Tribunal.” Robert H. Jackson Center, November 21, 1945

Hadas, Moses. “Antigone.” The Complete Plays Of Sophocles, Bantam Books 1967, p. 141

#philosophy #politics #religion #literature #history #mythology #psychology #capitalism #marxism #christianity #atheism #catholicism #agnosticism #science

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mypencildotcom · 3 years ago

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Verified Rebirth Story of Shanti Devi supported by Mahatma Gandhi & mentioned in Wikipedia.

The Shanti Devi Rebirth Story

India is a land of mysteries, filled with stories of reincarnation. In the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madya Pradesh and Delhi, there are stories of rebirth that intrigue and generate the curiosity of people. Even a shocking story of a boy who started spewing stories of his murder in a previous life. But his claim was found to be untrue by the courts.

Some rebirth stories come too close to the truth which is shocking and mind-blogging, to say the least.

One such instance is the story of

Shanti Devi (Born: 11 December 1926 ), known as Lugdi Devi (Born on 18 January 1902 – Died on 4 October 1925) in her past life. She was an Indian woman who claimed to remember her previous life and interestingly became the subject of reincarnation research.

Lugdi Devi Story

The story starts with a daughter born at the home of Chandbud in Mathura.

Lugdi Devi was born and set to marry a clothing vendor in 1912 when she was merely 10 years old.

Her husband was a widowed man named Kedar Nath Chubai. Lugdi became pregnant in 1924 but unfortunately gave birth to a still-born.

Being pregnant for the second time on September 25th, 1925 giving birth in an Agra Government Hospital to a healthy baby boy.

Sadly, Lugdi became sick after the birth of her baby and passed after 9 days only being able to see her child once.

Lugdi Devi died on 4th October 1925 at the young age of 27.

Her baby boy was named Vaneet Lal who was left to raise by Kedar Nath Chobai.

Shanti Devi Story

After exactly one year, ten months and seven days, on 10th December 1926, a baby girl was born in Delhi. In the home of Babu Rana Bahadur, 145 kms from Mathura, Shanti Devi was born. Being silent for almost four years, when she finally started speaking, Shanti Devi began to claim to remember details of a past life.

Reincarnation Claim

According to these accounts, when she was about four years old, she told her parents that her real home was in Mathura where her husband lived, about 145 km from her home in Delhi.

This baffled her family, which led to visits to multiple psychiatrists, doctors and physicians.

A baffling instance with a psychiatrist was when Shanti Devi recollected intricate details of her deliveries at the age of four.

She also recollected minute details of her previous home in this past life from the name of the temple near her house in Mathura to the well outside her house to the 125 rupees she had hid under the flower pot in her bedroom.

She also recalled the exact distinguishing details of her husband’s face. A fair man with a wart on his left cheek with reading glasses.

Rebirth Story : Two lives coming together

Shanti Devi’s father approached his distant relative named Babu Bisht Chand who belonged to Dharganj, Delhi. Bahu Bisht was a teacher at the Ramjas School.

Shanti ran away from home which worried her family. Babu Bisht bribed Shanti to tell him the name of her husband so he could take her to Mathura.

Babu Bisht tested what he knew by send a letter to the address of Chobai with the address he was told about from Shanti Devi.

The letter reaches its destination, Chobai has moved on by marrying for the third time. Being shocked by the letter, he sends his cousin(Pandit Kathi Lal) to Shanti’s house to confirm this bizarre theory.

Rebirth Story :Rechecking Facts

Shanti is met with an impersonating husband who she correctly identifies as her husband’s (Chobai’s brother).

Shanti tells all to Pandit Lal which confirms his suspicions that Shanti Devi is Lugdi.

Chobai along with his son who is now ten years old and his mother visits Shanti home in Delhi. They are shocked to discover that Shanti’s collects all their food favourites when it’s time for dinner. Even Chobai is forced to believe Shanti is her wife reincarnated as she even recalls intimate details of their relations only known to her husband.

She found out that Kedar Nath had neglected to keep several promises he had made to Lugdi Devi on her deathbed. Like remarrying after her death, Chobai also makes his now-wife meet Shanti Devi which makes Shanti cry and wanting to return to her home in Mathura.

Rebirth Story: Mahatma Gandhi Commission

The story of Shanti Devi spreading like wildfire by publishing in the local Mathura Newspaper ad later in National Publications catches the attention of Mahatma Gandhi. He invites Shanti Devi to his Ashram to know her truth. He sets up

a commission to inquire the truth.

Rebirth Story : Hunt for the Truth

The commission travelled on a train with Shanti Devi to Mathura, arriving on 15 November 1935. There she recognized several family members, including the grandfather of Lugdi Devi. She also correctly knew the path to reach her home in Mathura from the train station. As well in her veranda and the hidden money in her bedroom.

She then travelled home with her parents. The commission’s report, published in 1936, concluded that Shanti Devi was indeed the reincarnation of Lugdi Devi.

Even a second trip to Mathura to Lugdi’s home confirmed their suspicions as she correctly identified her whole family instantly.

Research

Her claim is found to be true, while another report by researcher Bal Chand Nahata disputed it.

Subsequently, several other researchers interviewed her and published articles and books about her.

Two further reports were written at the time.

The report by Bal Chand Nahata was published as a Hindi booklet by the name Punarjanma Ki Paryalochana.

In this, he stated that “Whatever material that has come before us, does not warrant us to conclude that Shanti Devi has former life recollections or that this case proves reincarnation”.

This argument was disputed by Indra Sen, a devotee of Sri Aurobindo, in an article later. A further report, based on interviews conducted in 1936, was published in 1952.

K.S. Rawat continued his investigations in 1987, and the last interview took place only four days before her death on 27 December 1987.

A Swedish author who had visited her twice published a book about the case in 1994; the English translation appeared in 1998

She told her story again at the end of the 1950s, and once more in 1986 when she was interviewed by Canadian Researcher Ian Stevenson and K.S. Rawat.

Shanti Devi Death

Shanti Devi did not marry as she kept her promise, unlike Kedar Nath.

Died 27 December 1987 at the age of 61.

For more interviews like this, subscribe to MyPencilDotCom magazine and follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn

Story Source: www. wikipedia.org, Crime Tak Youtube Channel.

#Verified Rebirth Story of Shanti Devi

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johnvazhathara · 3 years ago

Text

Malabar rebellionThe many shades of the Mappila insurrectionTo some, 1921 represents a fight for freedom; to others, it is a case study of class oppression; and to yet another set, it is about a ‘Hindu genocide’

29/08/2021

In Focus

Starting in the 1500s, Portuguese terror at sea damaged the existing trading networks. Mappilas resisted, but in the long run, they lost out

‘Poverty became the general pattern’ among Mappila Muslims by the 18th century and in crisis, some turned towards a more distinct sense of self and religious identity

If the 19th century saw a series of “outrages”, the 1921 revolt was a largescale insurrection in which over 2,000 rebels were killed, and nearly 40,000 surrendered

Manu S. Pillai

Among the witnesses whose names are inscribed in Arabic on the Kollam Syrian copper plates of 849 CE are men called Muhammad, Ibrahim, Mansur and Ismail. Oral tradition claims that Islam’s arrival in Kerala dates to the Prophet’s own lifetime. Whether one accepts the idea or not, by the ninth century, Muslims were a definite presence on the coast.

In the times that followed, as Arab traders married locally, not only did they father a community of Malayali Muslims — Mappilas — their offspring were also woven into the region’s narrative fabric. In the story of the sage Vararuchi’s children by a Parayar wife, for example, one is a Brahmin, another a Muslim. If the legendary King Bana Perumal chose Buddhism, Cheraman Perumal sailed to Mecca. The veracity of these tales is not really the point as much as what they seek to communicate. They were, in other words, a device by which a new group was legitimised, as the Mappilas became a familiar and respected element in Kerala’s cultural landscape.

The Mappila identity, now much discussed in the context of the 1921 rebellion, was first rooted in trade. The rise of Kozhikode, for long a seat of power and prosperity in Kerala, relied a good deal on Arab networks of commerce. Mappilas, local in their social practices like matriliny, and yet joined by a common faith with foreign Muslims, were an important link in the political economy. Indeed, a Muslim stood beside the Zamorin rajah at the great Mamankam festival at Tirunavaya. Hints of religious tension appear now and then, but the economic alliance between Hindu elites and Muslim traders meant that these were contained. Brahmin texts like the Keralolpathi offered Islam a place in their worldview, likening the Quran to a Veda, and works such as Zayn al-Din’s sixteenth century Tuhfat al-Mujahideen framed Hindu rulers as good, ideal monarchs. That is, however, till new (European) flies appeared in the ointment through the sixteenth century, and upset prevailing socio-economic balances.

Different facets

Although the 1921 rebellion is often discussed in isolation, this prehistory is integral to making sense of its economic, social, and religious facets. For by the 20th century, the Mappilas had been marginalised in the very land where they were once esteemed.

Starting in the 1500s, Portuguese terror at sea damaged the trading networks on which so much had been built. And while Mappilas resisted — including militarily and by subverting European efforts to police maritime traffic — in the long run, they lost out. Local Hindu Kings were forced to come to terms with successive European trading companies to protect their turf, with the result that their erstwhile Muslim associates were cornered. As the scholar Roland Miller wrote, “poverty became the general pattern” by the 18th century, and in crisis, some in the community turned towards a more distinct sense of self and religious identity. At first, Mappila spokesmen such as Zayn al-Din had called for jihad against Europeans; in time that language would be turned against those who represented regional economic injustices also. In other words, as the Mappila stake in society was painfully diluted, religious ideology offered a method by which to valorise resistance. In 1742, for example, British East India Company officials recorded how there were Mappilas who “selected themselves to Murder any Christian” and who, if they died in the process, saw it as “meritorious”. Into the 19th century, which saw colonial laws disproportionately favour landlords against tenants-at-will, the former too became targets.

Scholars have noted how as much as 77% of the produce could be demanded by the landlord. The fact that a large section of the peasantry in South Malabar — the nucleus of the 1921 rebellion also — was Mappila while landowners were typically Hindus caused an overlap between economic grievances and religious divisions.

The result was a series of “outrages” in which individual Mappilas or small bands launched ritualised suicide missions, killing Hindu grandees and officials. The triggers may have been economic but instances such as in 1852, when a temple was “festooned” with the entrails of a cow, show that these violent outbreaks had religious overtones too. The tendency among some to victimise present-day Muslims for the “sins” committed by “their ancestors” has generally resulted in a hesitation to acknowledge this religious element, with the focus limited to economic aspects. But the fact of the matter is that economics, radical religious ideology, and a historical sense of lost greatness all played a role. The 1921 revolt, thus, began as a part of the pan-Indian Khilafat Movement, to which even Mahatma Gandhi pledged support. It became a means by which to mobilise as part of a larger struggle. But all at once, it also offered an occasion for Mappilas in British-ruled Malabar to attempt to overthrow not only the colonial government but also the Hindu feudal classes that, in ostensible alliance with the Raj, pressed down on them. The scale of the event cannot be understated: over 2,000 rebels were killed, and nearly 40,000 surrendered. And if the 19th-century “outrages” were isolated flare-ups, this was a large-scale insurrection, validated in a religious vocabulary.

‘Gangs’ of Malabar

Sober students of history — if not politicians prone to rhetorical excesses — must be cautious, however, when it comes to labelling the event. Revolts of this nature tend to be messy in terms of even basic organisation. In 1921, there was no clear chain of command among the Mappilas, no single leader but “gangs” holding different areas, and no standard policy. During the months in which much territory was under rebel control, some factions espoused forced conversions of Hindus, for example, while others spoke pointedly against such tendencies.

To some, 1921 represents a fight for freedom and a chapter in India’s anti-colonial struggle; to others, it is a case study in the consequences of class oppression; and to yet another set, it is about a “Hindu genocide” at the hands of “terrible” Muslims. The facts suggest, however, that to varying degrees all three elements manifested here. A century on, acknowledging this is perhaps critical to making better sense of the Mappila Rebellion — a bloody but complicated event with many roots and a long back story.

(Manu S. Pillai is an author and historian)

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biogenericpublishers · 4 years ago

Text

Estimation of Stature from the Length of Forearm in a Population in Nedungolam Town in Kerala by Manoj Balachandran* in Open Access Journal of Biogeneric Science and Research

Abstract

Today, one of the most important issues is that to understand how the severity of heavy precipitation and floods can change in future time in comparison with the current period. The aim of this research is to realize the effect of future climate change on storm water and probability of maximum flood for future time period. Zayandeh rud river basin in Iran is selected as a case study. Prediction of future climatic parameters based on temperature and precipitation of the upcoming period (2006-2040) is done with using the HadCM3 model and based on RCP 2.6, 4.5, and 8.5 emission patterns. Also, climate change model is downscaled statistically with using LARS-WG. In the next step, the probable of maximum precipitation is assessed through synoptic method and then, in order to model maximum storm water under the climate change effects, the HEC-HMS for simulating rainfall-runoff model is used. Also, the Snowmelt Runoff Model (SRM) is used to simulate snow melting. The results of this research show the maximum of probable precipitation in the basin for the period of 2006-2040 under the scenario RCP 2.6, can increase by 5% and by the scenarios of RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 can decrease by 5% and 10%, respectively in comparison with the current period 1970-2005.

Keywords: Climate change, effects, maximum rainfall, storm water, climate scenarios.

Introduction

Identification of the individual is one of the most important aspects of forensic investigation. Stature is an important data in identification. When only some part of the body is available, stature estimation becomes difficult. The factors which play an important role in human development and growth are racial, ethnic and nutritional factors. Nedungolam is the Northern border town of Paravur municipality in the Kollam district of Kerala state, India. Estimation of stature from the length of forearm has not been done in the present area of study so far and hence this study is quite useful.

Previous accessible records can be used for comparison for the identification of human beings. Prediction of stature from long bones holds a central position in Forensic Anthropology. There are two methods used for stature reconstruction i.e., anatomical and mathematical methods. Anatomical method requires the complete skeleton whereas mathematical method can be done even with a single bone. In the present study, an attempt has been made to formulate multiplication factors and regression equations for stature estimation among subjects belonging to Nedungolam town of Kollam district in Kerala.1 Osteological or dental examination can be used for identification. To identify a person assessment of age and sex are used in forensic examinations.

Stature, age, sex, and ancestry will help to identify a person among victims in forensic investigations. The different body parts have a relationship which can help a forensic scientist to calculate stature from mutilated and dismembered body parts in forensic examinations. This helps in events of murders, accidents or natural disasters. Stature can even be estimated from feet or foot prints, imprints of the hand or from a shoe left at the scene of a crime.

In putrefied, mutilated and extensively charred bodies, conventional indicators and routine methods of identification may not yield the desired results. Mutilated and fragmentary remains are only available due to mass disasters in some cases. The relationship of every body part with stature is more or less constant. Many studies have found a positive correlation between stature and hand dimensions. The relationship between a particular body part and stature will be different for the same race belonging to different areas. The formula for stature estimation has to be population specific.

Review of Literature

Stature is one of the important parameters which contributes to the identification of a person even after death.1 The study titled “Estimation of stature from forearm ength in North Indians- An Anthropometric study” by Bikramjeet Singh et al. (2013) has made an attempt to formulate multiplication factors and regression equations for stature estimation among subjects belonging to different areas of North India. The study was carried out on 400 subjects (200 males and 200 females). It was found that males exhibit greater dimensions than females for forearm length and stature. Males exhibit greater mean multiplication factor for forearm length than females from North India. There is a positive correlation between stature and upper arm length. The regression equations and multiplication factors derived in the study are quite handy for use by lay public like police [1].

The study done by Song-in et al., stresses the importance of estimation of stature from incomplete human remains for the purpose of identification. The estimated stature may be used to narrow down the search among missing person’s list. The present study gives appropriate regression equations to estimate stature from percutaneous forearm length for Thai children aged between 5 and 19 years. The subjects did not have any physical deformities. Stature was measured using a stadiometer and forearm length using a digital caliper. The results in the present study showed high correlation between stature and forearm length in both sexes. The results obtained in this study can be used for the estimation of stature from forearm length in Thai children [2].

The background of the study “Estimation of stature from the study of ulna in Maharashtrian population” by Bamne et al. (2015) emphasises that stature has an important place in the field of Forensic Medicine and Anthropometry. The study made an attempt to estimate linear regression equation from the length of ulna. There were 200 study subjects (100 men and 100 women) of Maharashtrian population with age ranging from 20 to 25 years who were in the Department of Anatomy, Krishna Institutes of Medical Sciences University, Karad, Maharashtra, India. The study revealed a positive correlation between total height of individuals and length of ulna which was 0.73 for men and 0.70 for women. The study proved quite reliable in the estimation of stature from the length of ulna in forensic examinations [3].

The study by Poorhassan M et al. (2017) evaluates the relation between forearm length and height. The study population included 100 male and 100 female Iranian medical students. Relation between forearm length and stature were estimated using linear regression analysis. The mean age of subjects was 22 +/- 2.21 years. The study found a correlation between height and forearm length of all subjects. Linear regression also showed a relation between height and upper arm length of subjects. Thus it proved that forearm length was a moderate predictor of stature of medical students in Iranian population [4].

This study “Estimation of stature from anthropometry of hand: an interesting autopsy-based study in Madhya Pradesh, India” by Goswami et al. (2016). Height is the central aspect of anthropo-forensic examination. The human hand is mainly used for these investigations. Hand length can also be used to calculate ideal body weight and body surface area in either sex. This study was conducted in the mortuary of Department of Forensic Medicine, Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College and M.Y. Hospital, Indore (M.P.), India from September 2014 to September 2015. The study was conducted on 250 male and 250 female deceased individuals. The average age of males was 38 and that of females taken for the study was 34 years. Mean hand length in males was greater on the right side and in females on the left side. Hand breadth was more on right side in males and on the left side in females. Mean height in males was 163 cm and 155 cm in females [5].

The study “Estimation of stature from the hand and foot measurements in a rare tribe of Kerala State in India” by Geetha et al. (2015) was undertaken on the Vettuvar group of tribes of Kasargode district of Kerala State, India and explores the usability of the dimensions of hands and feet as predictors of stature. This study is the first ever documented study on the tribes of Kasargode district, Kerala. The study subjects were 100 males and 100 females in the age group 20-30 years. A sliding caliper was used for the measurements of hand and feet dimensions. Stature was measured using Stadiometer [6].

An attempt to calculate the stature length from ulna length among Kurdish racial subgroup living in Iran was done in the study “Stature estimation and formulation of based on ulna length in Kurdish racial subgroup” by Ghanbari et al. (2016). 50 females in the age group 19-24 years were selected for the study. A digital sliding caliper was used for taking ulna length. Vertex to floor length was taken as height. Height was also calculated using linear regression formula. The derived formula was population specific to the Kurdish racial subgroup. This study also threw light on the range of ulna length in girls of Kurdish ethnic subgroup. It can be used for further investigations on ethnic subgroups living in Iran [7].

The study “Estimation of the height of an individual to the forearm length” by Sandhya et al. (2016) compared the height of the individual to the forearm length. The estimation of stature from the skeleton bears immense importance in forensic sciences. After analysis of the parameters a positive correlation between height of individuals and forearm length was found. The regression formula used in this study is of immense help to forensic sciences, anatomist and clinicians. Future studies can focus on estimating the stature from different body parameters based on this study [8].

Estimation of Stature from the Measurement of Forearm, Hand, Leg, and Foot Dimensions in Uttar Pradesh Region done by Yadav et al. (2018). Measurement of human body and its different parts are used in the detection and correction of body defects, preparation for cosmetic surgeries and estimation of general health. It can also be used to identify criminals. This study was done to find out a correlation between the length of forearm, hand, leg and foot with stature. The study was conducted on students aged between 17 & 21 years of both genders. Sample size was 200, 100 males and 100 females. Standard height measuring machine and tape were used. Of the parameters used leg length showed the highest correlation and foot length showed the least correlation with stature. This study data is helpful in medicolegal cases, among people of different regions when only some parts of the body are available [9].

The study titled “A model for individual height estimation from forearm length in natives of Kerman, Iran” done by Vaghefi et al. (2014) was done to find out the correlation between forearm length and height in natives of Kerman. It was a cross sectional study of 150 cases with 75 males and 75 females (aged 18 to 22 years) of Kermanian population. Height and left forearm length were measured in standard positions. Linear regression analysis was used in this study. There was a significant difference in the height of cases between two sex groups. There was significant difference in the forearm length of sex groups. A correlation between height and forearm length of male and female cases were also noticed. Forearm length was found to be a suitable factor for height estimation. It was a moderate predictor of height in native males and females of Kerman [10].

Research Question

Is there a correlation between the length of forearm and the height of an individual?

Objectives

The objectives of this study are

To determine sexual dimorphism in estimating stature from the length of forearm.

To derive a formula for the estimation of stature from the length of forearm.

Study Design & Methodology

The study subjects were 200 healthy adult males and females of Nedungolam town in Kollam district, Kerala. The present study was aimed at measuring the stature from the length of forearm.

Method of Collection of Data: Informed written consent was obtained from the subjects.

Measurement of Stature Using Stadiometer: It was measured as vertical distance from the vertex to the foot. Measurement was taken by making the subject to stand erect on a horizontal resting plane, on the stadiometer bare footed. Palms of hand turned inwards and fingers horizontally pointing downwards and head oriented in eye-ear-eye plane (Frankfurt Plane). The movable rod of the stadiometer was brought in contact with vertex in the mid sagittal plane (Figure 1).

Measurement of Forearm Length with Measuring Tape: The forearm length will be measured using a standard plastic measuring tape and will e taken as the distance between the midline of the crease of the elbow and the midline of the most distal crease of the wrist, just below the hand (Figure 2).

Sample Size: Considering the correlation between the height of the individual and length of forearm minimum sample size required was

Statistical Analysis: For the first objective of sexual dimorphism in estimating stature from the length of right index finger logistic regression can be used. For the second objective of estimating stature from the length of right index finger simple linear regression can be used for males and females.

Source of Data: Patients who visited various OPD departments of Taluk Hospital, Nedungolam, Kollam district, Kerala.

Inclusion Criteria: Subjects aged between 18-60 years of Indian origin.

Exclusion Criteria: Subjects having significant diseases, congenitally malformed limbs, metabolic disorders and developmental defects. Observation and Results: (Tables 1-10)

Discussion

The present study was done on patients who visited the OPD of Taluk Hospital, Nedungolam, who were aged between 18-60 years and were of Indian origin. The forearm length was measured using a Measuring tape and the stature of the individual by a stadiometer. The exact age of the person and the area of residence were identified from his/her government issued identity card. The study showed a significant correlation between the length of forearm and the stature of the individual. The table given below shows a comparison between different studies that were used as reference and the present study (Table 11).

In the study titled “Estimation of stature from forearm length in North Indians- An Anthropometric study” it was found that male North Indians exhibit greater dimensions than the females for the forearm length and the stature. Stature was measured using an anthropometric board and forearm length using a measuring tape. Also greater mean Multiplication factor for forearm length were found in males than in females. Stature and upper arm length also showed positive and significant correlation.1 This study is different from our study where forearm length is used to find out stature of an individual.

In the study by Song-in K et al., stature and forearm lengths were measured from a total of 90 (45 males and 45 females) children in the central region of Thailand. The results show that the mean stature and all forearm lengths of males are higher than those of females; similar findings were observed in previous studies. Stature and forearm length were measured using a stadiometer and a digital caliper. The results obtained proved that forearm length can be efficiently used for stature estimation.2 This study is similar to our present study in that forearm length is used to calculate the stature of an individual.

Bamne A et al. studied the relationship between ulnar length and the stature of an individual. This study showed higher mean values in each anthropometric measurement than among women. Standard Vernier Caliper was used for measuring ulnar length. Standard flexible steel tape was used for measuring total height of an individual. It was found that the stature of a person can be estimated with great accuracy using the length of the ulna. The regression equations can be used in artificial limb centres for construction of prosthesis required in cases of amputations. It can be helpful in biometrics and can also be used for anthropological studies.3 This study has employed only the measurement of one of the bones of the forearm i.e., the ulna whereas in our present study the entire length of forearm is used to estimate stature.

Poorhassan M et al. in their study found that there was a relation between height and upper arm length of subjects in all cases. There was also a relation between stature and forearm length in male subjects. Stadiometer was used for stature measurement and standard tape for forearm length measurement. But this was not found in case of female subjects. Mean stature was higher for males than females. Forearm length was found to be a moderate predictor for stature estimation in medical students in Iranian population.4 This study is quite similar to our present study in that forearm length is used to calculate stature.

Goswami et al.’s study can be used as baseline information for other population-based studies in the study area. Standard Vernier caliper, standard measuring tape and standard measuring scale were used for the study. This information can be used by anthropologists, forensic and other medicolegal experts to estimate the stature by the use of length and width of hand within the standard error of estimate. The differences in different populations should be used to apply such formula to other populations.5 This study is different from our present study in that hand length and hand breadth were used for stature estimation.

The findings in the study by Geetha G et al. may be used to predict stature in cases where whole length of hand and foot were not available for investigation. The data obtained can be used for getting certain population specific anthropometric indices amongst the tribal population. Sliding caliper was used for hand and feet measurements and Stadiometer was used to measure vertical height for stature estimation. This is the first ever documented anthropological work among the tribal population of Kasargode.6 In this study stature was estimated using multiple parameters while our present study used only a single parameter for stature estimation.

Ghanbari K et al. showed the range of ulna length in girls of Kurdish ethnic subgroup and the data obtained in this study was used to estimate stature in Kurdish ethnic subgroup on the basis of ulna length. Digital sliding caliper was used to measure ulna length and height was taken when person was standing in anatomical position and head in the Frankfurt plane. It can also be used for further investigations on ethnic subgroups living in Iran.7 In this study also a single forearm bone length was used for stature estimation like the study done by Bamne et al. in 2015.

Sandhya A proved in her study that from the length of forearm the height of an individual can be estimated. Height was measured against a wall using a ruler, pencil and measuring tape. Forearm length was measured using a standard measuring tape. This study also paved way for future studies to focus on estimating height using other different body parameters.8 This study also uses forearm length to determine stature like our present study.

The study by Yadav S et al. showed that second highest degree of correlation was found for forearm length with regression coefficient. A standard height measuring instrument was used for estimating stature and various other parameters of right and left sides were measured using measuring tape. The regression coefficient in this study showed stature and dimension of hand was the third most correlated value.9 This study uses multiple parameters like forearm length, hand length, leg length and foot length for stature estimation while our present study uses only a single parameter.

Eftikar Vaghefi S et al. in their study showed that forearm length was a valuable predictor for height estimation. Stadiometer and standard measuring tape were used for stature measurement and forearm length measurement respectively. This factor was also a moderate predictor of height in native males and females of Kerman.10 This study is quite similar to our present study with respect to the parameters used and the methodology employed. The findings in the present study done on subjects in Nedungolam town in Kerala showed that there is a moderate correlation between the length of forearm and stature of an individual.

Conclusion and Summary

A moderate correlation was found between right forearm length and Height and this correlation is highly statistically significant. There is also a moderate correlation between Left forearm length and Height and this correlation is also highly statistically significant. The following formulae were derived for the estimation of stature in the study.

HEIGHT (MALE) = 90.24+2.19*Right forearm length

HEIGHT (MALE) = 88.65+2.98 × Left forearm length

HEIGHT (FEMALE) = 77.32+3.19*Right forearm length

HEIGHT (FEMALE) = 79.18+3.12 × Left forearm length

HEIGHT = 58.54+4.06*Right forearm length

HEIGHT = 59.63+ 4.03× Left forearm length

The first four formulae exhibit the sexual dimorphism in estimating stature from the length of forearm in both the sexes. The last two formulae were common for both genders.

Recommendations

Various other parameters can be used for stature estimation like the arm length, hand length, foot length and head circumference. The study can be extended to people belonging to different races and the values compared.

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https://biogenericpublishers.com/pdf/JBGSR.MS.ID.00176.pdf https://biogenericpublishers.com/jbgsr-ms-id-00176-text/

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infactforgetthepark · 7 years ago

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[Free eBook] The History of Assassination: From Becket to JFK by Brian McConnell [Politics & True Crime]

The History of Assassination: From Becket to JFK by the late Brian McConnell, a journalist who helped foil a plot to kidnap Princess Anne during the 1970s, is a true crime political history, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press.

This was originally published in 1969 by Leslie Frewin.

This covers assassination as performed in modern (circa the 1960s) and ancient times (actually going back farther than Thomas à Becket to the Roman era) around the world, providing an overview and some analysis of national historical trends as well as selected case studies of famous assassinations past and present, alongside a bit of speculation on the then-recent deaths of the Polish prime minister and the UN Secretary-General, who both died in potentially suspicious plane crashes.

Offered worldwide, available at Amazon.

Free for a limited time @ Amazon (should be available worldwide).

Description ‘Assassination...is the sudden, surprising, treacherous killing of a public figure, who has responsibilities to the public, by someone who kills in the belief that he is acting in his own private or the public interest.’

The subject was especially pertinent in 1969, when Daily Mirror journalist Brian McConnell published his first book, in which he gave this definition.

Assassination affects countries and peoples, even if some countries like England may rank it no higher than murder. Yet the difference between mere murder and assassination is the fame, or notoriety, of the victim. When a President is killed, the whole world grieves; when someone who has voted for that President is shot down trying to prevent a robbery, his name is a brief news story one day and chip paper the next.

In a brilliant study which finishes with the shootings of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, Brian O’Connell uses his expertise as a crime reporter to bring to life the infamous shootings to give support to his definition.

The word ‘assassin’ is of Arabic origin, relating to ‘hashish eaters’ in Persia, a people led by Hassan-i-Sabbah who spread terror in the region for decades in the Middle Ages with golden daggers. Before them, of course, came the death of Julius Caesar, which is placed in the context of his great rule in a manner seen throughout the book. The reader can enjoy short biographies of the great figures, lying within which is evidence of why they were targeted by assassins.

O’Connell describes the lives and painful deaths of Thomas à Becket (‘assassination par excellence’) and Marat. He refers to Russia as ‘assassination’s adopted home’, with Rasputin, Trotsky and (he surmises) Stalin as high-profile victims of Russian people’s desire for rapid change and revolution.

While he has no room for Mafiosi, he does illustrate the history of Italian assassinations, and those of Latin America, including that of Pancho Villa, himself an assassin bent on revolution, in Mexico.

O’Connell also writes about Ireland and France, and of the politically-motivated killers who shot powerful men, and details the six attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria, the twelve on Hitler (including the plot led by von Stauffenberg) and the scores on Abraham Lincoln.

The assassination of British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval in the House of Commons in 1812 was a shocking event; his assassin, John Bellingham, was hanged within a week of the crime.

Recent history when O’Connell was writing, he raises suspicions over the deaths of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjoeld and Sikorski, Prime Minister of Poland, who both died in plane crashes.

He studies the fateful assassinations which led to the First World War, including that of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, as well as the wretched deaths of Mahatma Gandhi and Count Bernadotte. America, with four of its Presidents assassinated in a century, has a chapter for itself, while at the time the book was published there was still much angst in countries which had declared independence from European nations, which fomented many attempts on the lives of the powerful.

#free ebook #brian mcconnell #history #politics #true crime #assassination

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revolutionaryeye · 7 years ago

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The New India

"Hatred of the other has now been carried to ridiculous extremes, cutting centuries of India’s medieval history out of textbooks in BJP-ruled states..."

Image courtesy The Indian Express

The twenty-fifth anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid has reminded us once again that India is a bruised, battered and bleeding democracy. In the past three years, the country’s multi-cultural inheritance has been torn to shreds. Indians have been partitioned into Hindus and Others, and Hinduism has been replaced by a martial creed called Hindutva, invented by Savarkar and now put into practice by the RSS, whose government is waging war on Indians outside the Hindu fold and on those within it who oppose its ideology. The destruction of a sixteenth century mosque that was a famous landmark in Delhi gave notice that Hindu fundamentalism was on the warpath. By rewarding some of its ringleaders with high posts, the BJP gave its blessing to this act. An ideology that had been rejected by Indians since its inception in the 1920’s – when Indians chose to follow Mahatma Gandhi instead in the epic non-violent fight for freedom from British rule, and afterwards to stay staunchly secular — now governs us. We are told this is a new India and so it is.

It is now a country in which being different – in belief or lifestyle – is punishable, and one in which Muslim means enemy. The word is out that Muslim numbers must be reduced and the ominous impact of this statement is visible on the streets. We have seen defenceless Indians of the Muslim faith beaten, butchered and lynched in public view. But blood sport is not confined to Muslims. Well-known Hindu writers have been killed by gun-toting vigilantes and their murderers have been left free to kill again. We have heard important figures and supporters of the ruling party publicly sanction the murder or mutilation of anyone who disagrees with its mindset or criticizes its leader. The past three years have stamped this new outlook on a civilization that has since ancient times been defined by its historic openness to differences of religion and opinion.

Hatred of the other has now been carried to ridiculous extremes, cutting centuries of India’s medieval history out of textbooks in BJP-ruled states because Muslim rule is an intolerable insult to Hindutva pride. Jawaharlal Nehru’s name and contribution has similarly been obliterated from our modern history, in this case because the secular democratic foundation he and his distinguished colleagues laid for independent India has been a resounding success – acclaimed as a great achievement across the world – and remains the main obstacle to Hindutva’s project of establishing a Hindu rashtra. Mahatma Gandhi, disposed of by a Hindutva fanatic’s bullets in 1948, has now been resurrected on roadside hoardings and newspaper advertisements alongside Narendra Modi as though they subscribed to the same political, social and human values. The men who admire Nathuram Godse did not realize that killing Gandhi would not be the end of him and that the dead Gandhi would live on in the hearts and minds of the Indian people. They have therefore come to terms with the political necessity — indeed the vote-getting necessity — of keeping Gandhi in the public eye alongside themselves until they think they can do without him.

In the war on dissent, ferocious attacks continue to be launched on the creative imagination. The makers of films, books and works of art that displease the powers that be have met with a fury that is quite remarkable for its ignorance of the subjects it is attacking and the priceless value of art in all its forms to society. And now even the judiciary is no longer safe from assault......

Continued:- http://indianculturalforum.in/2017/12/13/the-new-india-nayantara-sahgal/

Revolutionary Eye:The fascism of the BJP has gone much further than I realised in embedding itself within Indian society.

#India #political scapegoating.#islamophobia #Modi #BJP #fascism #RSS

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omgsquee2001 · 4 years ago

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The Golden Touch - A Criminal Minds Fanfiction

Warning: Mentions of Death, Mentions of Kidnapping Basically just normal Criminal Minds stuff

_________________________________

“The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.” - Mahatma Gandhi

___________________________________

The Kansas City Police Department was more on edge than normal. Why? Well, the suspect in the murder of a father and the kidnapping of a mother and her two daughters was currently being questioned by SSA Derek Morgan

and Dr. Spencer Reid.

While Derek was standing in the back of the interrogation room, arms folded across his chest, Spencer was sitting in front of Kyle, hands folded together.

“I’m tellin’ ya man, I don’t have nothing to do with this!” Kyle shouted for what seemed like the fifth time. Spencer narrowed his eyes and tilted his head to the side, looking at Kyle. Kyle rung his callused and dried hands together in nervousness.

“I’m not sure I believe you, Mr. Blakeman.” Spencer said. He stood up. Derek opened the metal door and they both walked out and regrouped with SSA Aaron Hotchner,

SSA Emily Prentiss,

and SSA David Rossi

David looked at Spencer.

“Do you think he’s telling the truth?” David asked the young Doctor. Spencer glanced at the agent/book writer.

“I’m not sure. You know, the average person hears between 10 and 200 lies per day. We tend to think that liars are the ones who can't keep their stories straight, but we'll list this so-called tell first, and thus least reliable, because there are other explanations for changing stories. It's simply too easy, and deceptive, to rely on inconsistency as a proxy for deceit.” Spencer said, giving off random facts about liars. David looked at Reid like he had grown two heads.

“How is it that you know literally everything?” David asked. Spencer shrugged.

“I have an IQ of 187, I can read 20,000 words per minute and I have..” he was cut off by David.

“Yeah, yeah. You have an eidetic memory, we know.” David said. Spencer nodded, smiling. Emily turned her head to her colleagues.

“Do you think we should bring her in? I mean, Kyle has to be our guy, right?” She asked. Aaron stared at the man behind the glass.

“There’s only one way to find out,” he looked at Emily. “Prentiss, you call JJ and let her know that we need her,” he looked at Spencer. “Reid. You, Rossi and Morgan will act as her guards. While she is searching for the truth, if Kyle tries anything, your jobs are to make sure you get her out of there as quickly as possible and restrain him.” Aaron said. The three agents nodded, splitting off to do their assigned duties.

____________________________________

16 year old Serine Kiatani

was staring out the window of the Kansas City Police Department Conference Room. She watched as all the people in the building rushed by, trying to solve the case that she and her team were sent to solve. Jennifer Jareau, aka JJ,

walked into the conference room, talking to someone on the phone.

“Alright. Yeah, I’ll let her know. Thanks Prentiss,” JJ looked at the 16 year old and smiled slightly. “Hotch needs you. You ready, Serine?” JJ asked. Serine gave a shuddering breath and nodded.

“Yeah. I’m ready.” She said. JJ smiled and sat next to her, taking the young girl’s hand in her own.

“Hey, you know we’re not going to let anything happen to you, right? You’re safe as long as you’re with us.” She said. Serine smiled and nodded.

“Yeah, I know that. Thanks, JJ.” She said. JJ smiled and pulled the younger girl into a hug.

“Now,” JJ said, pulling away from the hug and placing her hands on Serine’s shoulders. “Let’s go find that family.” She said.

————————————————————

Kyle was still sitting in the interrogation room when the door opened. A young girl, followed by three men, two of which were Morgan and Reid. Serine pulled out the chair and sat in front of Kyle, folding her hands and laying them on the table, leaning forward.

“You do know why you’re here, right, Mr. Blakeman?” Serine asked. Kyle scoffed.

“Why don’t you tell me, missy.” Kyle said. Serine looked Kyle in the eyes.

“You’re here because you are suspected of the murder of Alester Smith and the kidnapping of his wife Tasha and his twin daughters Natalie and Nareen,” She said. Kyle sighed. Clearly there was no lying to these people. “Now, Mr. Blakeman,” Serine said. “I’m going to try something. I’m going to ask you to close your eyes. I will place my fingers gently over your eyes. You might see a series of images flash before your eyes. Please, don’t be alarmed,” Serine said. Kyle shrugged and closed his eyes. “Good, now take a deep breath and relax,” she said. Kyle did just that. Serine leaned forward and gently placed her two index fingers on his closed eyes, the rest of her fingers were in contact with the skin around his eyes. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Golden dust gently floated from her fingertips to circle around Kyle’s head. Serine’s eyes moved about underneath her eyelids. Fragments of golden images flashed before her mind’s eye. She heard the screaming of the wife and the two girls as Kyle shot Alester and pointed the gun at Tasha and her daughters, telling them to move. The golden picture dissipated and showed Serine a picture of a house on the north side of town. Serine gasped and pulled her hands back, breathing heavily. Spencer rushed up, placing his hands on Serine’s shoulders and kneeling down to her height.

“Serine?” Spencer asked in concern. Serine looked to the man who was like an older brother to her. She smiled.

“I’m fine,” her smile fell and she stared at Kyle, whose eyes were now open. “Kyle Blakeman killed Alester Smith and is keeping Tasha Smith and her two daughters, Natalie and Nareen in a house on the north side of town. 220 North Adams Street.” She said. Kyle’s eyes widened. He shot up, trying to get to Serine. Rossi pulled both Spencer and Serine back.

“Get the kid out of here, Reid. Tell Hotch. We’ll meet you there as soon as we handle him.” Rossi said. Spencer nodded and took Serine’s hand, walking out of the interrogation room.

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