Mid-Autumn Festival morning – Watching District 9

I’m trying to find a way to categorize my posts better… or to even chop down my day’s entry into several short posts so it’s easier to categorize. Even thought most of the time I’m the one reading my own blog (ha), I like things neat, tidy and very organized.

 

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Today’s Mid-Autumn Festival. Friends too busy, brothers not around, parents couldn’t care less about festivals and stuff, and I only work five days a week anyways, so I expected it to be just another typical Saturday.

 

Even though I’ve gone to see a movie just the day before yesterday, I let myself go watch District 9, despite my empty bank account. It was after all a festival today and for some reason I was feeling the exact opposite of upbeat, so I thought I needed the distractions. (Haha after I told Nicole that she should definitely go watch District 9, she recommended The Time Traveler’s Wife cos it made her cry like a baby throughout the whole movie. I’ve read and loved the book but never thought of watching it on film… so maybe I will go see it next Saturday?!)

 

I caught the morning show (again) and was late for 10 minutes, missing the intro. I don’t usually watch Sci-Fi movies, or any movies that involve a lot of slimy flesh or bodies exploding into tiny pieces, and I guess that’s why ever so often I found myself pushing my back against the chair; not because I’m scared of blood or anything but I just don’t enjoy watching scenes involving violence. There were also scenes were painful to watch, in a different sort of way. There were so many examples…

 

One would be Wikus pulling the plugs from the alien fetuses while explaining excitedly what was going on in the shack… and when he finally gave orders to have the nest burned down, the babies’ shrieks and screams were thought to be “interesting” and “noisy”… (I was finding examples in my head of men doing the same to animals, or even to fellow men…)… or the way he was no longer treated as a human in the lab; the officers were shocking him with high volts of electricity even though he was more than willing to comply with their commands to operate the alien weaponry… or when Wikus begged them not to force him to test the gun on an alien.

 

There was one scene was where Christopher explained to Wikus that his kid liked him because he thought they were the same. The alien kid was stretching out his arm to compare with Wikus’, only to be met with Wikus’ apparent disgust by the mere idea that they were remotely similar (Why did I not think that this alien kid was a girl? What if its species didn’t have a gender?). Sometimes grown ups over complicate things; sometimes it takes a child’s innocent association and observation to really get the gist of things…

 

One particular scene that got me into tears (note: this isn’t one of those tear-jerking movies) was where Christopher was stunned at the sight of his fellow beings being tortured under the name of scientific discovery/education/analysis/defense, and he literally froze when he stood in front of one of the study subjects; that was burnt/skinned/gone through whatever inhumane treatment.

 

Usually I cry in movies when I sympathize with certain characters at a particular moment (which happens more often than I would have liked… I’m such a cry baby when it comes to watching movies), but what was different this time was that a big part of me wasn’t crying for what Christopher was feeling, but rather not emotionally understanding why; why on earth people (the supposedly sane ones) can treat a living creature like that. I pained for the alien, I pained for Christopher, but I also pained for the human race for their lack of empathy for those that are different and their capability to disregard life, especially when it comes to monetary gain.

 

Despite sympathizing with the aliens, I also understood where the government and the people were coming from. Although quite a number of them were obviously out for the money, most of the things mankind did was done out of fear and skepticism. There we were presented with a bunch of big scary creatures, whose technology was more advanced, and were seemingly equal if not more capable than human beings in terms of intelligence. It threatened mankind’s position as the superior living being… they felt their lives were threatened because of the existence of a stronger species.

 

At the back of our heads, it’s always the survival of the fittest; and history has shown that without intervention (law, economics… etc), the fittest has always devoured the weak. So before the aliens have a chance to hurt us, we hurt them first, know everything there was to know about them, isolate and prevent them from getting help. When it comes to “survival”, should we ignore our supposedly compassionate nature as humans? Where do you keep the balance between “self-defense” and “humanity” (I’ve come to see the word “humanity” is pretty ironic)? I remember reading something about the more intelligent a being, the more inclined it is to keep peace. Turns out the humans in the movie weren’t that intelligent after all.

 

It may seem that the movie didn’t have a good ending, but there was. Wikus, like most of mankind, was weak and scared. In spite of all that human weaknesses, he showed compassion in the end when he turned back to help Christopher and urged him to get back to the spaceship and fly home.

 

Even me as a newbie in sci-fi movies, knows this movie could be boring to people who were expecting loads of technological stuff (I loved those blue glowing projection buttons, which you can move around three dimensionally), lots of machinery action or a hyper exciting plot. So maybe they should stop show trailers with only flesh-exploding shots and humans fighting aliens in HK? District 9 was more about getting viewers to think about issues on racism and xenophobia, but instead of featuring an ethnic race which we are prone to have formed certain perceptions in our minds, we get to be free from stereotyping and see discrimination in its purest form.

 

I got out of the theater wondering how I and so many others, are so absorbed in our lives, finding joy over tiny things and fretting over petty stuff when there are so many bigger problems around us. How or should we make a balance between caring for the small things in our personal lives and the big ones that are so beyond our reach?

“Released on compassionate grounds”

Not one to follow world events often (or any events for that matter), I came across a controversial piece of news. Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, convicted in 2001 for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in Dec 1988 which led to 270 deaths, was released by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds; he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer and had less than three months to live. He has served eight years of his supposedly life sentence and people, including the US government, victims’ family… etc were devastated and appalled by Scotland’s decision. I, on the other hand, thought otherwise.

 

Purpose of Prison

A lot of people see prison as a form of punishment, i.e. you did something bad, so serve your time in prison. However, the concept of prison, or even the whole legal system isn’t really about getting justice. It isn’t about denying a person’s right (of freedom, privacy… etc) because he has stripped the right of another person as that would literally make it as “an eye for an eye” kind of deal. It should be understood that when a person violates the right of another (e.g. the right to live) doesn’t mean he is immediately forfeiting his human rights (despite a lot of people would like to believe), nor does it automatically gives the society the right to violate his (because that would make the society as bad as him).

 

The intention of jail is more of a Protection to Society rather than a form of Punishment for the guilty. Therefore keeping a person in confinement isn’t a way to seek justice for victim(s), nor would that ever be enough. So whether or not keeping a person in prison, who is supposedly no longer able to harm the society, shouldn’t primarily depend on the amount of grieve it brought to the world. 

 

Fighting Terrorism

It is interesting that today we fight terrorism with creating terror in some way or another. The difference is that terrorist cause fear and death, whilst taking people by surprise; we caused fear and death by declaring war openly. It is a never ending cycle of violence. We started off by using force when different sides don’t meet eye to eye; we use force because it’s a way to see immediate results. It should be understood that Communication is something people don’t normally do well in normal context, and when we add differences in culture and language to the mix, it takes open-mindedness, extreme patience and empathy in order to get ideas across. To ultimately eliminate terrorism or any form of evilness in the world, is through education and kindness, not by implying someone is stupid/barbaric/don’t know nothing.

 

People involved in an attack that killed so many lives (most of them Americans), have to have enough hatred towards a certain body in order to be able to bring themselves down to such a level to turn to mass murder (or in some cases terrorist couldn’t recognize what they’ve done was murder…). However, to be shown compassion from his “enemies” would be the greatest punishment they can get, because there would be this doubt creeping into their minds, thinking what they have done to an entity that is able to show such tremendous sympathy to someone who has hurt them so bad. The doubt and guilt grows, and would haunt a person forever. Showing compassion doesn’t make one weak, but rather how much bigger and stronger a person, and in this case, a nation is. This is also an example to people everywhere around the globe that we might be able to fight terrorist simply by showing love to humanity without discrimination.

 

Innocence

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi has been pleading his innocence over the years and even today when he has returned safely to his home country, he vowed to find evidence to prove his claim. If he was really innocent, releasing him to his family and home towards the end of his life is only the right thing to do. Although in criminal cases, the accused has the benefit of the doubt (innocent until proven guilty) and the jury has to be unanimous on their decision that the accused is in fact guilty, there have been examples that the jury has made wrong decisions. It is extremely cruel to say this, but those who died in the crash no longer has a chance to enjoy another moment on earth, so let one who is near the end of his life journey have a chance to do that, simply because there is a possibility that he maybe innocent and may deserve it.

 

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In truth, I know too little about this incident in order to form a well-rounded opinion, and it may seem that I’m not showing compassion to the victims. However, in a way Abdel Baset al-Megrahi is also a victim of circumstances, whether or not is he guilty.

 

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A few quotes from Daily News’s article:

Freed Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi gets hero’s welcome in Libya; U.S. slams release

By Christina Boyle and Helen Kennedy

 

- President Obama called the release “a mistake” and warned Libya to “make sure he is not welcomed back in some way” and to keep him under house arrest.

 

- “In Scotland, we are a people who pride ourselves on our humanity,” said Scotland’s justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill.

 

“I am conscious that he committed the worst atrocity that our people have ever faced,” he said, “Our beliefs dictate that justice be served, but mercy be shown.”

Physical and Psychological Torment that men might not be able to handle.

For some reason a book that I read almost three years ago came up to my mind today. It made me sick to my stomach; knowing that it was based on a true story I couldn’t bring myself to read it a second time for a while. It’s Lorenzo Carcaterra – Sleepers. All I can say is, if anyone deserves to die for their sins, those men who were shot certainly did.

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There was this book I read, Catherine Atkins – When Jeff comes home, a couple of years ago. Immediately after finishing it I had Vincent and Steven read it. When I told my mom the theme of the book and I had my brothers to read it, she was ready to strangle me but after I told her my thoughts she wasn’t so displeased. Basically it was about a young boy who was kidnapped when he was 13, was held captive and sexually abused for almost three years.

If you ask a girl what could be the worst thing that could ever happen to her, it would include either being killed (climbing up into the girl’s room that was at least ten stories high in the middle of the night, stab and decapitate her… ah the power of love.) or getting raped. Even for the most clueless girl, the term rape must have at some point crossed her mind. Not to de-dramatize the whole ordeal, but at the very least the worst was somehow “expected” and most of the time they have a vague idea of how much they can lose. Not to mention women have grown up surrounded by horrible tales of such physical and mental torture and learn to somewhat avoid situations when there is such a threat.

Ask guys the same questions, the worst they could think of would probably be either getting killed or castrated. Very rarely would they consider rape. However, because most guys have so little education on this subject where they might be the victim, or that it seems to them that they have little possibility of facing it in normal life, the damage can be so much deeper; because in no way can they imagine the degree the shame and helplessness… it’s humiliation down to the core, down to the most basic animalistic characters of the body and soul… and it’s forever. Rape is more likely to break a guy because of their inborn pride and ego as a male being. Girls, even with strong female pride, somehow are mentally more adapted (because of the “training” through out history maybe?) of recovering from psychological torment (this is Definitely NOT a reason why you rape a girl…). All this makes guys more vulnerable to such attacks.

The most terrible thing about rape is that it’s almost unpreventable. I’ve heard of a father attempting to rape his baby girl three days after the baby was carried home; mothers sexually assaulting their sons; the case of the father in Austria imprisoned and raped his daughters for over twenty years… my parents never really specifically taught me to protect myself against issues as such, rather they told me to be constantly vigilant of my surroundings, don’t trust no one because anyone could hurt you… etc @@. So I wonder, how is it possible for me to teach my children (if I decide to have any) of such horrors? How can I hint to them that anyone, even their own parents, their aunties and uncles… can hurt you and in such a tremendously haunting way, and I probably have to remind them from time to time? I have to teach them that somehow they can trust no one. How can you teach your child to differentiate a simple hug or a kiss from something more? A child’s mind shouldn’t be polluted the world’s hideousness, but by keeping them ignorant would probably be the worst thing to do…

So when I read a blogger expressing how that unemployed guy, who killed his three sisters and beheaded his sister who just had her five-year-old birthday, deserves to die, I was thinking, that guy was under stress, he was sick, he was mentally weak… his actions were almost understandable. I believe that even though a person killed other people, it doesn’t give us, other human beings the right to do the same thing and kill (i.e. decide whether a person deserves to live). But rape… it’s not simply about the physiological need to have sex; people have targets, obsessions… something that can only be done by the intelligent human beings. I wonder with disgust of how humanity could manage to produce monsters as such.

How can some form of “humanity” be so Sick…

I am seriously cursed, cold-hearted and blind.

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You know when police confiscate suspects’ computer and do a check, they always find like zillions files of pornography, sites associated with weapons, cults, sadistic topics… right? Well, if they check My Computer, I’m going to be arrested for sure, cos all the news I read is on mass murders, children abduction, rape and murder; books on physically, mentally and sexually abused children. I read all I can on cults (especially those related to Satan…).

(and I’m pretty sure I have at lots of files on pornography in my computer, owning to the fact the whole family uses my computer for internet access…)

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Well I’m interested in these topics not because I’m planning my next murder (or rape) on screaming kids; it’s just that I could never, Never understand why Humans, supposedly Civilized, are Capable of such acts.