Just as I was writing the title to this post, I realised that if I had any musical talent, I would definitely get a band going under this name. But this post is not about anything musical. It is about Anna Hazare's suggestions to deal with the menace of alcoholism, and also some responses to it.
In a refreshingly novel approach, he suggests that a drunkard creating trouble should just be warned the first three times he is caught, and also given a small lecture on why drinking is bad. And now I quote "But even after warning him thrice if he again drinks then we will take him to temple and he has to swear by God that he won't drink in future. And even after all this he drinks then we will tie him up to the electric pole in front of the temple and then beat him up so that he gets scared."
Bringing glory to rural India, he says he devised this method to cure alcoholics back in his village. Truly a Gandhian, eh? Sitting on a fast with a Gandhi topi one time, and flogging alcoholics publicly another. A hypocrite, but still a Gandhian I guess. He also says that reformed alcoholics have told him that they would have lost everything in their lives were it not for those public beatings. And here I was, thinking that S&M is not really all that big in this great country of mine.
While I don't refute the use of violence per se, I certainly don't agree with this suggestion by this man whose hypocritical ways don't let me have much respect for him anyway. But to be fair to him, a lot of people have spoken against this comment of his, saying he is no one to talk about something like this since the choice to drink or smoke is a personal one. What these idiots seem to not realise is that he is talking about alcoholics and those who get drunk and stir up trouble. Not everyone who drinks falls under either of those two categories. If you are a trouble maker and alcohol is your alibi, then well, I wouldn't mind landing you a punch or two myself. Unless of course, you get drunk and kill yourself by mistake. :)
Anyway, like a shrewd businessman, is he just trying to broaden his portfolio or taking his local global? Or is he just getting bored of his fight against corruption?
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Children, Nazis and the Government
I have written earlier about how I don't understand why some people totally denounce parents hitting their children occasionally to teach them a lesson or two. I don't buy the 'it leaves the child scarred for life' argument, since the scarring can only happen for two reasons. One, the parents simply abused the violence, thwacking the kid around as and when for no reason whatsoever. Two, the public opinion (not necessarily the public's opinion, just the opinion displayed in public) that creates an environment where a child will feel scarred if its parents hit it.
Either way, where does the government come in to this? When does the government start telling people what they can or cannot do with their children's upbringing? There are laws in many countries where the state can take children away from their parents, presumably for their own safety. Foster homes can be a god-sent for some, but I am sure that they are also hell-holes for others.
But leaving aside this matter of beating your children, which I am a supporter of, I want to talk about other parenting type affairs the government meddles in.
Heath and Deborah Campbell, US citizens, over the years, have named their four children Adolf Hitler, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation, Honszlynn Hinler, and the latest, Hons. Hons was taken away by officials from child welfare services from the hospital he was born only a few hours after arriving on the planet. The others were taken away in 2009, soon after Adolf's third birthday when they had a tough time finding a cake shop that would write "Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler" on the kid's cake.
Like Moon Unit or Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen, they are not the most regular names, at least not in the US. They are probably not very popular too, ever since the Germans got their arses trampled upon in World War II. But what does any of it have to do with the couple as parents? Should those children really be in foster care instead of being at home with their own parents, just because of their names?
This pisses me off doubly because of the Nazi association that is made by default. There is a senior politician from Tamil Nadu called Stalin. Were he in the US, would he have never been allowed to contest elections because of his name? What about the thousands of Saddam Husseins in the world? And the Austria-Germany region is littered with variations of the spelling of Hitler. It is only a fucking name, not a declaration of intent to gas Jews.
Roses and shit, by any other names, would still smell the way they do.
Either way, where does the government come in to this? When does the government start telling people what they can or cannot do with their children's upbringing? There are laws in many countries where the state can take children away from their parents, presumably for their own safety. Foster homes can be a god-sent for some, but I am sure that they are also hell-holes for others.
But leaving aside this matter of beating your children, which I am a supporter of, I want to talk about other parenting type affairs the government meddles in.
Heath and Deborah Campbell, US citizens, over the years, have named their four children Adolf Hitler, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation, Honszlynn Hinler, and the latest, Hons. Hons was taken away by officials from child welfare services from the hospital he was born only a few hours after arriving on the planet. The others were taken away in 2009, soon after Adolf's third birthday when they had a tough time finding a cake shop that would write "Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler" on the kid's cake.
Like Moon Unit or Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen, they are not the most regular names, at least not in the US. They are probably not very popular too, ever since the Germans got their arses trampled upon in World War II. But what does any of it have to do with the couple as parents? Should those children really be in foster care instead of being at home with their own parents, just because of their names?
This pisses me off doubly because of the Nazi association that is made by default. There is a senior politician from Tamil Nadu called Stalin. Were he in the US, would he have never been allowed to contest elections because of his name? What about the thousands of Saddam Husseins in the world? And the Austria-Germany region is littered with variations of the spelling of Hitler. It is only a fucking name, not a declaration of intent to gas Jews.
Roses and shit, by any other names, would still smell the way they do.
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
For the Love of the Dead
Whoever came up with the concept of burials in consecrated grounds had obviously never expected the human population to swell to its current numbers. I mean, I know of ossuaries, have been among the thousands of rows of skulls and bones in the Paris catacombs and missed the Bone Church by a few minutes. And I have always thought there was something morbid about the Christian obsession with human remains. Not that I mind, but it seems like it has started causing practical issues.
Zaragoza in Spain is putting up stickers on graves asking living descendents of the dead to renew leases for the space six feet under that is occupied by their ancestors' bones and maggots. The dead seem to be having serious problems of space, what with being cramped inside coffins all the damned time. Failure of payment will lead to those remains being moved to the common burial ground. Nice to see class differentiation even long after death. Bravo.
However, the more interesting bit of news comes from Russia, about a historian who loved to rummage through cemeteries and study gravestones to uncover stories behind them. Quite eccentric for some, adorable to others perhaps, but surely necromanic, undoubtedly. And so the police discovered one day. How they found out, they do not say, but they did.
He had, while rummaging, also dug a little. Not much, just a little, enough to get back home 29 bodies. And yes, the study of gravestones was very rewarding too, since he always chose remains of young women. So did he have sex with them once home? Don't know, but he did make for himself 29 life-size life-like dolls, dressing them up in dresses and headscarves and wrapping their heads and hands in cloth. Well, a cross between a doll and a mummy will be a more accurate description.
Again, did he have sex with them? Don't know. Neither do his parents, with who he shares the apartment he made in to his own macabre museum of sorts. They didn't even know that the bodies were all there! But what we do know is what set him down this path. He claims his interest in necrology began when he was 12 and came across the funeral procession of an 11-year old girl. In his own words, 'An adult pushed my face down to the waxy forehead of the girl in an embroidered cap, and there was nothing I could do but kiss her as ordered.' In other words, mmmm... tasty!
Zaragoza in Spain is putting up stickers on graves asking living descendents of the dead to renew leases for the space six feet under that is occupied by their ancestors' bones and maggots. The dead seem to be having serious problems of space, what with being cramped inside coffins all the damned time. Failure of payment will lead to those remains being moved to the common burial ground. Nice to see class differentiation even long after death. Bravo.
However, the more interesting bit of news comes from Russia, about a historian who loved to rummage through cemeteries and study gravestones to uncover stories behind them. Quite eccentric for some, adorable to others perhaps, but surely necromanic, undoubtedly. And so the police discovered one day. How they found out, they do not say, but they did.
He had, while rummaging, also dug a little. Not much, just a little, enough to get back home 29 bodies. And yes, the study of gravestones was very rewarding too, since he always chose remains of young women. So did he have sex with them once home? Don't know, but he did make for himself 29 life-size life-like dolls, dressing them up in dresses and headscarves and wrapping their heads and hands in cloth. Well, a cross between a doll and a mummy will be a more accurate description.
Again, did he have sex with them? Don't know. Neither do his parents, with who he shares the apartment he made in to his own macabre museum of sorts. They didn't even know that the bodies were all there! But what we do know is what set him down this path. He claims his interest in necrology began when he was 12 and came across the funeral procession of an 11-year old girl. In his own words, 'An adult pushed my face down to the waxy forehead of the girl in an embroidered cap, and there was nothing I could do but kiss her as ordered.' In other words, mmmm... tasty!
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