Viral Video goes awry

“Innocence of Muslim” - the video managed to do what the Arab Spring did against corrupt regimes. It spoke out in a loud, distinct voice about how Muslims have been subjected to inhuman labelling in the Western world. The movie was the centre stage for severe criticism from around the world, from among which many protests turned violent. 

In June, the video was posted to YouTube by a man calling himself Sam Bacile, who later claimed to be an Israeli Jew. It turns out that Bacile is probably Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a Coptic Christian, a convicted fraudster, and an alleged meth cooker. The little known movie gained massive recognition due to harsh portrayal of Prophet Muhammad as a drunk, a child molester, and a homosexual. The initial cost of the movie was sourced to about $5 million, but the video’s shabby production and poor camera work rarely highlights its cost. The film was screened to an audience of about 10 people, before the social media went haywire over it. 

With Facebook, Twitter and Youtube being cornerstones of numerous revolts the past year in the Arab World, it wasn’t surprising that a similar buzz, if not less, was evoked when the content was heavily popularized through these medium. If it was conspiracy to inspire chaos, it worked well. As protests erupted amongst the Muslim community the world over, rioters target the US agenda of Muslim stereotyping. The “Innocence of Muslim” is also in question to have inspired the military-styled attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi that led to the death of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens to Libya and three other Americans. However the White House has denied the allegation and released a statement saying that the attack was pre-planned and not a responsive action.

 

Ripples of the protest were felt Indian shores too. Demonstrations were held in Srinagar, Kashmir, as local imams denounced the film and the heinous act aimed at hurting the sentiments of the Muslims. During a protest started on 14 September and continued for three days, US consulate at Chennai was pelted with stones breaking some window panes, allegedly by members from the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazagam. As a result, issuing of Visa by the consulate was cancelled for two days. 

The movie, however gruesomely stereotyped, was after all an amateur attempt to fuel hatred against a certain section of the world community. But if we remove the Arab and Islamic sentiments from the video, it represents, in metaphors, the general consensus of the average American youth. A recent survey by the PRRI showed that over 46 per cent saying they are uncomfortable with a mosque built near their home, 47 per cent saying Islam and American values are incompatible and 48 per cent saying they are uncomfortable with Muslim women wearing the burqa. Overall, 60 per cent of Americans agreed that too many Americans think that all Muslims are terrorists.

 

The video may in fact just be yet another viral video gone awry by an average American, like many of those who were surveyed. But the fire erupting from this stove might spread to the entire kitchen. The US administration has to react quickly and in a manner that doesn’t evoke further flak. Or else, they may soon run out of fire extinguishers.

Turn and bounce: The Pakistan fixing tale.

29th August, 2010: The now-defunct “News of the World” news agency published allegations that three members of the Pakistan cricket squad touring England that summer had been approached by a bookie, who paid them hefty amounts of money to bowl certain “deliveries” at certain stages of the match. Mohammad Amir, an evolving youth in Darwin’s world of cricket, was accused along with his opening partner Mohammad Asif of bowling no-balls during the exact stages of the match. The third member of the trio, the team’s newly appointed captain, Salman Butt, (riding high on his endeavours in his debut series as captain against Australia) politely refuted the claims in the press conference that followed the day’s play. “I have no knowledge of the claims", he explained, “The Pakistan team has always been a recipient of ridicule. I’m surprised it has gone so far this time”.

Pakistan lost the test match, the fourth of the series, by a mammoth innings and 225 runs. The management looked into the allegations and decided to drop the three from the remaining tour, consisting of two T20 matches and five ODIs.

Now, as revelling the controversy might be, it is, however, very necessary to recall the events of the entire match, not just for the sake of judgement but also to highlight the contrasting features of the game – the astonishing “ups” and the disgraceful “downs”.

26th August, 2010: Having already lost the series, Salman Butt rightly elected to bowl on a pitch that had a bit of moisture as well as a tinge of green. His bowling attack consisted of a potent mixture of fresh blood and wily, experienced seam. Mohammad Asif was fresh out of his drugs ban, and two new faces in the Pakistani bowling line up were creating headlines, specially Mohammad Amir. Just 17 then, The Guardian touted him as the next best thing since Akram. However a soggy outfield, lashed with overnight rain, meant a delayed start for the players and early lunch. Play started post-lunch, and Amir bowled as Ian Botham pointed out, a fairly “indiscipline” no-ball. Asif, too, gave away an useless run when he stepped over “massively”, on the sixth delivery in the tenth over. Pretty usual it seemed. Strauss was cleaned up by an in-swinging peach from Asif, but the light was offered to the batsmen after just 12.3 overs, prematurely ending the day’s play.

27th & 28th August : England resumed play and Mohammad Amir carried on his good form that summer, zooming through a meek English defence, with Cook, Pietersen, Collingwood and England’s new star migrant, Morgan, all becoming scape goats to the swinging southpaw, the last three falling for nought. England 5 for 47 runs and in a heap of trouble. Prior stuck out nearly 2 and a half hours, facing over a 100 deliveries for his hard earned 22, and a critical 50 run stand with another RSA batsman, Trott, before he edged out to Amir. Swann came in, saw the weather, had a chat with the umpire and was sent for an early tea by Amir. He fell to a first ball duck. England were now staring at the barrel at 7 for 102 and for once, Butt was controlling proceedings in the series. In walked Stuart Broad, with all of his father’s height (and a bit more perhaps) and was only a novice with the bat then, having just scored one test match fifty. What followed was a partnership that redefined tail-end batting, as well as the record books, dwarfing (ironically) a sixteen-year old Pakistan feat, in which Wasim Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq put on 313 for the 8th wicket against a listless Zimbabwean attack, where Akram made a record 257 n.o. hitting 12 sixes in the process, a feat that hasn’t been eclipsed as yet.

Trott and Broad put on a gigantic 332 run partnership, batting for nearly 95 overs and deep into day three, to sway the game away from Pakistan. Both scored hundreds as England finished with 446 on the board. Amir did, however, claim a six-wicket haul. They then, skittled out Pakistan for a meagre and embarrassing 74 runs, and 41/4 at the close of the third day’s play.

29th August: England rounded off an emphatic innings victory by clearing out the Pakistan batting stronghold for just over a hundred runs. Stuart Broad claimed the Man of the Match medal for his heroics with the bat while, Mohammad Amir claimed the Man of the Series (Pakistan) title for his 19 wickets. 

What followed was no less than perhaps a nightmare for the teenager who hadn’t even received his driving license. The tabloid broke the news of the scam and the trio was banned effectively, after being judged on later findings. Wisden magazine had named Mohammad Amir in its issue of the top five cricketers for the summer. They changed their cover as soon as the story leaked, and for the first time published a “four-man” cover-story. Natwest nearly stripped Amir of his medal, but allowed it later on.

It was a test match that had it all; brilliant bowling, pathetic batting, heroes were born, villains emerged and a talismanic bowler was stained at the hands of the very man he trusted, his captain. Pakistan has always been touted as the controversial child of international cricket. Now that its corrupt scope has reached out to further avenues, we are left with a question: How do we see it as a cricket fanatic? For every time a Pakistani cricketer puts his hand into his pockets, you wonder whether he might actually be tampering the ball. On one hand the decision reached by the British court will serve as a reminder that the game will never tolerate corruption, but it also shows us that every player is not an Indian or an English cricketer, who enjoys superstar-dome and is well paid. ICC should be patted for its action as well as pin-pointed for for not allowing a fair and reasonable cap on the salary of players for the matches they represent their country in.

Moreover, it is our duty as spectators to choose the right conclusion. For me, Pakistan still remains the epitome of fast bowlers. The land of the Sultans of swing, the Handsome Pathan or the feisty Miandad, will never stop producing proud sporting moments for itself as well as for cricket. It is the current crop of players who are responsible for setting perfect examples for the brooding youngsters back home. It is rightly said that if India produces a Tendulkar-esque to smash it all over the park, Pakistan will definitely produce an Akram, trying to clean him up!  

The twist and turn of this team is surely turbulent, but I’m sure it will be well defended. After all, it has to be proven, specifically, within the 22 yards.

The Japanese Puzzle

 

This morning I woke up to a splitting headache which got worse when I found out that instead of the usual newspaper, I would have to make content with a competitors’ viz. ‘The Hindu’. Yes people, I agree it is a more informative newspaper than the others around, but I like my news in coloured fonts. 

So, I flipped open to the one page a story grasping the world right now (actually one of two stories, the other being that of Libya), and thankfully found that the Japanese authorities confirming that the radiation isn’t a severe as estimated. As usual, my craving for information didn’t stop there. I went online and googled for Japan and the Sendai earthquake. True to the report, the radiation was a speck under control. I scrolled down to the Wikipedia link to ‘Japan’ and clicked it open. Flowing before me was the country’s past, present and future. 

As a child, we recalled Japan as the country of the rising sun and the land of kung-fu and ‘Samurais’. With age, we learnt about its involvement in the Second World War and subsequent bombings by the Allied forces on it. Surprisingly, that is the horizon of our knowledge of Japan. The question arises: ‘What do we know about the country with the currency Yen?’ Some of my friends looked upon me curiously. ‘What’s Yen?’ they asked. Ignoring their surprisingly low currency knowledge, I asked them that other than the ties involving Japan and India regarding automobiles and food crops, if they had any prior knowledge of the country. Some laughed inquisitively; others shrugged and shook their heads.

A few hours back, even I would have been stumped. World War II, Sendai and cars, that’s all I knew about the Japanese. I guess it can be called as an eye opener in my case, upon leaning the Japanese War Crimes. What followed was like someone had punched me in the gut. Things described there was too horrible to jot down in my blog. The atrocities committed against the Koreans and the Chinese was nothing less than what Nazi Germany did to the Jews; some at par and others even above. It seemed Germany and Japan were hosting as massacre competition within them. Koreas, from 1910 to 1945, was a living hell on earth. Exploited, uneducated and severely exposed, the Koreans couldn’t even keep their clan names. It was compulsory to change your name or be looked as filth in the community. The Japan-Korea annexation treaty was forced under threat of murder and other officials were handsomely bribed. Hundreds of thousands of Korean males were forced into labour in Japan and its colonies all over the Pacific and South-East Asia. Children were forced to apply in the Imperial Japanese Army and fight against the allied forces. About 200,000 women were used as ‘comfort women’ in Japanese Army camps and forced in prostitution; some not even old enough to menstruate were raped repeatedly. A typical comfort woman had to ‘entertain’ 25-35 men daily, and forced to live in inhumane conditions. The chances of survival in such camps were less that 25% for the women. 

It was not just the Koreans. Japan has been reported to have killed about 10 million Chinese during the same period and similarly force Chinese women to become comfort women. It implied to Indonesia, the Philippines and the Malay states as well. Over 500,000 Chinese labourers lost their lives in Japan’s effort to build the Siam Railway line. Oppression was crushed and thousands were openly executed on the streets of Seoul and Busan, none more famous the March 1 Movement where 7000 Korean souls were lost.

Japan’s war policy was severely brutal. The Japanese Emperor considered he to be God’s chosen disciple and his word was supreme. They believed that the other neighbouring countries was full of impurity and much like Hitler’s policy with the Jews, they had to be purified. The Chinese were not considered human and the Americans were considered mongrelized apes. The Japan Navy was ordered to execute all Prisoners-of-War (POWs) caught at sea. The army was brutally brainwashed and any discontentment was satisfied with more women. A POW caught by the Americas, Britain, Australia or New Zealand had less than 4% chance of not surviving as compared to the 30% death rates of the POWs caught by the Japanese. The POWs, along with hundreds of other civilians from Korea, China and other colonial states were subject to massive cannibalism as a result of the Allied forces cutting out provision lines for the Japanese Army. They cut off body parts from prisoners, while they were still alive and leave them to die. Stories recalled from Indian and Pakistani survivors of the war from Andaman Islands provide testimony to the statements. 

Human experimentation was common in Nazi Germany was well as Imperial Japan. Unit 731 of the Japanese Experimental Unit is known to have committed possibly the most horrible of these crimes. Open vivisection was common, mostly on the POWs. Thousands were sacrificed for the practice of science leaving them to suffer from the effects of cholera, malaria and anthrax as a part of the biological weapons programmes. In order to test the effects of frost bite, civilians were forced bare naked in the cold and water splashed over them repeatedly to speed up the process, until their arms and legs froze. Their arms were amputated and next, the legs followed until only the head and torso of the person remained, which was then experimented chemically; all these being done with the person still alive. Anaesthesia was not recommended as it was said to have reduced the effects of chemicals previously.

Looting was common and thousands of Koreans artefacts worth millions of dollars still lie in Japanese museums, unreturned. Japan was subject to trials for all the above crimes by the Allied forces but only a few higher ranked officers were convicted. Lower ranking soldiers were never brought to justice. Officers and scientists of Unit 731 were tried but most of them were acquitted under the condition that they cooperate to provide the results of their experimentation to the U.S.A. Furthermore, those punished were not considered convicts under Japanese law as they were following orders in serving their country. Japan has yet not apologized to Korea, China, Indonesia or the Philippines for all the comfort women used during the war. 

The  United States, Russia, Britain and the Netherlands along with the United Nations have repeatedly asked Japan to apologise, but Japan till date deny the use of women for such purposes or for further availability to comment on the issue. In 1993, the then Japanese Foreign Secretary issued an informal apology which was later denied by Japanese authorities. Japan refused to oblige to the United States pressing of an apology stating that it could hamper ties between the nations.

The March 11 Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami diverted all our attention once again to Japan after a seemingly long time. Indeed the country has prospered to become one of the leading forces in Asia and a leading economy of the world. But is the present worth the past? Japan is facing a crisis perhaps never witnessed before. Humanity is their chief concern today, an ironical statement as compared to their dark past. The decision to understand and logic rests in our hands. Both the Koreas as well as China have offered massive help campaigns to the country. In fact, it is the people of the country who are subject to help. We can turn our backs and be angry at what they did, or choose to forget, at least for those who are suffering there. 

The question, again, is: ‘What do we know?’

 

Barack "Show-bama"?

When the roof of your house starts collapsing, you try to hold it up, or even run out for cover, and since its not only the Senate's or the Congress's roof that is under consideration, but potentially the White House too, Obama might just be trying to do both and well, in comparison to others who have tried, he might be doing a pretty good job. This weekend we were glued to our T.V.s not because of another terrorist attack or a Tendulkar hundred, but because of the first African-American US President arriving in India. Now, the question is what does he want from us. Well, he did promise to visit the largest power in the world not elected to the United Nations security council when he was elected, but now it seems that the spark he grabbed almost two years ago is long lost like Shangri-la. After the recent loss of trust in the American voters, Mr. Obama has come to tread on international waters trying to swim with a blood wound, with sharks all around. No, I am not disrespecting any of us here in India, but it seemingly doesn't feel appropriate for Obama to drop in like this with his popularity rating suffering an all time low. Sure, it would bring some very fascinatingly wanted changes and propositions, but wouldn't these things been even more fruitful when they would have arrived from the man who actually made us believe that "We Can". Where is the "Change we need" now? Strong slogans, equally weak shouts. Not since Bush Sr. has USA witnessed another president not get re-elected. Heck, I seriously doubt that a majority of us even bother about the two members of the first family. We were predicting Sachin's next 50th century for fate's sake! As Jay Sean puts it, 2012 might not be the end of the world, but a certain Hawaii-born half Kenyan is staring down the drain, and unless he decides to issue a major cover for that song in the form of a strong economy, he has no option but to. Frankly, that is the only thing remaining that Barack Hussein Obama can bring change to which he needs, and that even after all this commotion, Yes he can? The answer as they say is blowing in the wind, and in this case it might just be an off-season hurricane.