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Monday, May 11, 2009
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Sunday, May 10, 2009
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Honor, Glory, Love, Loyalty and even Greed are phenomena which compel men to do deeds they normally would never think of. Homer's 'Iliad' is one of those epic poems which deals with all these elements in great depth and the movie 'Troy' is a captivating translation of this poem into the big screen.
Released in May 2004 the movie grossed US$ 497 million worldwide while the production costs were about US$ 180 million. It was produced by Warner Bros pictures and directed by Wolfgang Petersen. The screenplay was written by David Benioff and the music was given by James Horner.The glitzy cast of the movie includes Brad Pitt as Achilles, Eric Bana as Hector, and Orlando Bloom as Paris.
Tough the movie is loosely based on the Iliad, it is an epic in its own right. I highly appreciated the perfection with which the stark realism of ancient battles portrayed in the movie. The visual effects were great and the costumes were perfect. Scenes were shot with great finesse with an eye for aesthetics.
In terms of production the movie is a classic but the plot does leave us with a little bit of confusion. Achilles for example is supposed to be a hero and heroes have moral justifications for their actions. I don't know about the Iliad but in the movie Achilles doesn't really have a morally justifiable reason to take part in the battle. Nonetheless I really enjoyed watching the movie and would recommend it to anyone who still has not seen it.
Somalia has been ravaged by war, in one way or the other for the past 18 years. The country is divided into small autonomous regions which are governed by regional authorities. These local governments are highly independent and have little to do with the central and internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government. The squandering of the country's resources by the colonials and the mismanagement of successive governments since independence has left the nations people impoverished. The country's 1880 mile coastline which can, and did provide the people with a source of income in the form of fishing, is used by international companies for illegal fishing and dumping.
In such a scenario, piracy is just one of the inevitable results. Somali fishermen with their basic fishing skills were robbed of their livelihood by foreign trawlers with much advanced technology. The cities and the towns that these people live in were in dire need of cash to stimulate the economy. Piracy therefore brought about a welcome solution.
Now though, the once welcome pirates are facing a backlash from the people as their quick cash has brought along with it all its evil in a devoutly Muslim society. There's alcohol, drugs, AIDS and hotels with obscene names! Once heroes of sorts the pirates are now trying to engage with shaikhs and community elders to find a way to put an end to the negative attitude the community has developed towards them.
I believe this article thoroughly analyzes the reasons which have forced people to resort to piracy and opens a window of solutions which the international community can undertake. The Somali people are in dire need of international help in a number of ways. Cash needs to be poured into the country, though very carefully, to stimulate the local economy. The Somalis should also be able to utilize their coastline without foreigners sabotaging it and the disillusioned youth should be able to get jobs. All this cannot happen without the help of the international community and I believe that developed countries should specially and in earnest move forward and try to improve the economic conditions of the Somali people. If such actions are not taken the youth will keep resorting to piracy as everybody has a stomach to feed and desperate circumstances lead to desperate measures.
For Somali Pirates, Worst Enemy May Be on Shore
GAROOWE, Somalia — Abshir Boyah, a towering, notorious Somali pirate boss who admits to hijacking more than 25 ships and to being a member of a secretive pirate council called “The Corporation,” says he’s ready to cut a deal.
Facing intensifying naval pressure on the seas and now a rising backlash on land, Mr. Boyah has been shuttling between elders and religious sheiks fed up with pirates and their vices, promising to quit the buccaneering business if certain demands are met.
“Man, these Islamic guys want to cut my hands off,” he grumbled over a plate of camel meat and spaghetti. The sheiks seemed to have rattled him more than the armada of foreign warships patrolling offshore. “Maybe it’s time for a change.”
For the first time in this pirate-infested region of northern Somalia, some of the very communities that had been flourishing with pirate dollars — supplying these well-known criminals with sanctuary, support, brides, respect and even government help — are now trying to push them out.
Grass-roots, antipirate militias are forming. Sheiks and government leaders are embarking on a campaign to excommunicate the pirates, telling them to get out of town and preaching at mosques for women not to marry these un-Islamic, thieving “burcad badeed,” which in Somali translates as sea bandit. There is even a new sign at a parking lot in Garoowe, the sun-blasted capital of the semiautonomous region of Puntland, that may be the only one of its kind in the world. The thick red letters say: No pirates allowed.
Much like the violence, hunger and warlordism that has engulfed Somalia, piracy is a direct — and some Somalis say inevitable — outgrowth of a society that has languished for 18 years without a functioning central government and whose economy has been smashed by war.
But here in Garoowe, the pirates are increasingly viewed as stains on the devoutly Muslim, nomadic culture, blamed for introducing big-city evils like drugs, alcohol, street brawling and AIDS. A few weeks ago, Puntland police officers broke up a bootlegging ring and poured out 327 bottles of Ethiopian-made gin. In Somalia, alcohol is shunned. Such a voluminous stash of booze is virtually unheard of.
“The pirates are spoiling our society,” said Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud, Puntland’s new president. “We will crush them.”
In the past 18 months, Somali pirates have netted as much as $100 million hijacking dozens of ships and holding them ransom, according to international maritime groups. It will be exceedingly difficult for these men — or the local businesses that they support — to make that kind of money doing anything else in this beleaguered nation.
Still, the Puntland pirate bosses insist they are ready to call it quits, if the sheiks find jobs for their young underlings and help the pirates form a coast guard to protect Somalia’s 1,880-mile coastline from illegal fishing and dumping. These are longstanding complaints made by many Somalis, including those who don’t scamper up the sides of cargo ships, AK-47 in hand.
It is a stretch, to say the least, that the world would accept being policed by rehabilitated hijackers. But on Monday, Mr. Boyah and two dozen other infamous Puntland pirates, many driving Toyota Surfs, a light, fast sport utility vehicle that has become the pirate ride of choice, arrived at an elder’s house in Garoowe to make their case nonetheless.
“Negotiation is our religion,” said one pirate, Abdirizak Elmi Abdullahi.
Puntland officials acknowledge, grudgingly, that the pirates have helped them in a way: bringing desperately needed attention and aid.
“Sad but true,” said Farah Dala, Puntland’s minister of planning and international cooperation. “After all the suffering and war, the world is finally paying attention to our pain because they’re getting a tiny taste of it.”
Last month, after an American sea captain was kidnapped by Somali pirates, donor nations pledged more than $200 million for Somalia, in part to fight piracy.
Since then, foreign navies have increased their patrols and arrested dozens of pirates. Mr. Boyah conceded that business was getting riskier. But, he said, there are still plenty of merchant ships — and plenty of ocean.
“It’s like hunting out there,” Mr. Boyah said through an interpreter. “Sometimes you get a deer, sometimes you get a dik-dik,” a runty antelope common in Somalia.
Mr. Boyah, 43, was born in Eyl, a pirate den on the coast. He said he dropped out of school in third grade, became a fisherman and took up hijacking after illegal fishing by foreign trawlers destroyed his livelihood in the mid-1990s.
“He’s respected as a pioneer,” said Yusuf Hassan, the managing editor of Garoowe Online, a Somali news Web site.
When Mr. Boyah walked into a restaurant recently, he had to shake half a dozen hands before sitting at a plastic, fly-covered table with two foreign journalists.
“Ha!” he said, through a mouthful of spaghetti. “Me eating with white men. This is like the cat eating with the mice!”The restaurant sat across from the presidential palace. Mr. Boyah cut right through a crowd of Puntland soldiers to enter. He is hard to miss, about 6 foot 4 and dangerously thin. Earlier, he had been sitting on a couch, thigh to thigh, next to a high-ranking police chief. The two joked — or maybe it was not a joke — that they were cousins.
Puntland’s last president, Mohamud Muse Hirsi, was a former warlord widely suspected of collaborating with pirates and voted out of office in January. The new president, Mr. Abdirahman, is a technocrat who had been living in Australia and came back with many Western-educated advisers — and an ambition to be Somalia’s first leader to do something substantive about piracy. He formed an antipiracy commission and even issued a “First 100 Days” report.
Yet, Puntland officials are doing precious little about the pirate kings under their noses — reluctant, perhaps, to provoke a war with crime lords backed by hundreds of gunmen. When asked why they weren’t arresting the big fish, Mr. Abdirahman said, “Rumors are one thing, but we need evidence.”Indeed, it is hard to see exactly where all those millions went, at least here in Garoowe. There are some nice new houses and a few new hotels where pirates hang out, including one encased in barbed wire called “The Ladies’ Breasts.” Dozens of dusty Surfs prowl the streets. But not much else.
Mr. Boyah, who lives in a simple little house, explains: “Don’t be surprised when I tell you all the money has disappeared. When someone who never had money suddenly gets money, it just goes.”
He claims that his estimated take of several hundred thousand dollars disappeared down a vortex of parties, weddings, jewelry, cars and qat, the stimulating leaf that Somalis chew like bubble gum.
Also, because of the extended network of relatives and clansmen, “it’s not like three people split a million bucks,” he said. “It’s more like 300.”
Oh, Mr. Boyah added, he also gives 15 percent to charity, especially to the elderly and infirm.
“I’d love to give them more,” he said.
Over all, he seemed like a man on a genuine quest for redemption — or a very good liar.
“We know what we’re doing is wrong,” he said gravely. “I’m asking forgiveness from God, the whole world, anybody.”
And then his silver Nokia phone chirped yet again. He would not say what he needed to do, but it was time to go.Saturday, May 9, 2009
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Jamal Malik is one question away
from winning 20 million rupees.
How did he do it?
A: He Cheated
B: He's Lucky
C: He's a Genius
D: It is Written
India has her own version of the great Dickens classic Oliver Twist. The difference is that it is on the silver screen and is set in modern day Mumbai. The role of Oliver is played by Jamal Malik a boy from the slums of the city. Artful Dodger and Bill Sikes are condensed into the single character of his brother Salim. While Fagin's role has been divided between Maman and Javed who are rival gangsters. Oh and by the way the movie's title is 'Slumdog Millionaire'.
An adaptation of a novel by an Indian diplomat, Vikas Swarup, the movie was jointly produced by Celador Films and Film 4. It was directed by Danny Boyle and and Loveleen Tandan and the screen play was written by Simon Beaufoy. Music, the quintessential ingredient of Indian culture was given by A.R. Rahman. The cast of the movie include Dev Patel (Jamal Malik), Freida Pinto (Latika), Madhur Mittal (Salim), Anil Kapoor (Prem Kumar), Ankur Vikal (Maman), Mahesh Manjrekar (Javed) and Irfan Khan (the inspector).The movie was released in January 2009.
Tough the plot of the movie is quite different from that of the great Dickens classic, the themes and various characters in the movie have numerous similiarities. The story is about a boy who is left at the mercy of the world at an early age. The events in his life make him witness the diverse and sometimes even bizarre forms of human existense. The double standards of the rich; the plea of the poor; mild mannered gangsters who have an appreciation for art; hope when all is lost and ofcourse love.
Jamal Malik, a poor boy from the slums of Mumbai is left at the whims of the big bad world when he loses his mother in the religio-political riots of the city. After the sorrowful event Jamal his brother, the artful dodger, Salim and Latika try to make a living by picking oakum, which in the movie's case is garbage, before they are lured by Fagin aka Maman to his lair-an apparent orphanage where he trains children to be beggars. All goes well initially and Salim the artful dodger learns the tricks of the trade quickly enough to become on of Maman's right hand disciples. Then one night Maman orders Salim to bring his brother so that his eyes can be mutiliated as blind beggars earn more.
Brotherly love takes the better of Salim's shrewder faculties and he, Jamal and Latika try to escape. This though is where the 'twist' in the story takes place. A twist which eventually will result in Jamal being only one question away from winning 20 million rupees. What happens? Does the trio succeed in their escapade? Do they leave a trail behind or is someone left behind? How can a impoverished little boy end up as a contestant in the Indian version of the program who wants to be a millionaire?
E: I ain't gonna tell ya the whole story, watch the movie yourself.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
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This is the picture of Captain Syed Jan Sadiq who was a pilot in Pakistan's flag carrier the PIA. I find this picture to be interesting because when I see it, it reminds me of interesting anecdotes from Captain Sadiq's autobiography. The Captain joined the airline when it was still in its fledgling years and was a part of it during its heyday in the sixties and seventies.
The picture was taken in the city of Peshawar, when Captain Johnny, as he is commonly known, was a co-pilot on DC-3s flying tough routes in the northern areas of Pakistan. The city of Peshawar is home to burly pathan men and young boys flying aircraft was a peculiarity for these people. Once when a friend of the Captain who was also a pilot was standing near his aircraft seeing people boarding it, a man approached him. He inquired who the pilots of the aircraft were. On this the pilot replied that he was one of the pilots. The man was surprised and asked how can such a young boy be a pilot? On this the pilot told him that he should wait and see the Captain as he was even younger. The man didn't wait to see the Captain, he just went and had his ticket cancelled. He was not flying with under-age pilots.
On another such occasion Captain Johnny was at Gwadar airport trying to turn on one of the engines of the aircraft. As Gwadar was a village back then and as security was not a big issue in those days, the passengers used to wait near the plane as the pilot readied it.
Actually the self starter system of the aircraft had failed. The Captain therefore decided to use a back-up system which was similiar to starting primitive motor cars. Someone had to go below the engine and pull a chain while the Captain pushed the ignition button. Captain Johnny and the first engineer were ,in clear view of the passengers, going through this cumbersome ritual of coaxing the engine to life when one of the passenger built his courage up and turned up in the cockpit. He told Captain Johnny that he and the other passengers had a discussion and had come up with a solution. As there were around 28 men, they would be able to muster enough strength to push the aircraft to sufficient speed. The Captain could then put the aircraft in second gear and release the clutch resulting in the engine turning up! So simple!