Kali Yuga

Five minutes into reading my twitter stream I learned of the rape of a five year old in Delhi, the rape of a young mother in Gurgaon, and of a girl in Morocco who committed suicide after being forced to marry her rapist.

Meanwhile in Sri Lanka, which I’ve been thinking of visiting, I read about the spate of “white van abductions”, in the tradition of Michael Ondaatji’s “Anil’s Ghost”.

A new survey in India reveals that more that while more than half the population lack toilets, a higher percentage owns a mobile phone. A frightening percentage lack access to untreated drinking water (as was mentioned also in a WHO survey). They said in that WHO survey that while enormous progress had been made in Africa and other areas of the world, with regard to access to cleaner drinking water and public sanitation, India was holding back the global success rates.

I survived for a longer time on Twitter than on the the Channel 2 TV news tonight, which was upbeat over Israel’s successes in Gaza. The killing of 25 “terrorists” (they actually said that) gave The Chief of Staff the opportunity to tell us that whenever the enemy strike at us, we’ll hit them back even harder. It has already been forgotten that Israel started the current round.

While the 25 terrorists remained nameless, the reportage moved on to cover the residents of the south as they begin to emerge from their shelters and get back to a normal life, but by that time we had switched off the news to eat our dinner in peace. In the same spirit, I’m going to try to get back to sleep. It’s a mistake to read Twitter in the night.

Living in towers

The TV carried a travel feature on Georgia (the country). In ancient mountain villages every house has its own high stone tower. No one remembers exactly why these were built. One theory is that the towers would protect the villagers from the danger of avalanches. But it seems unlikely that every village was equally subject to that danger. A more likely theory is that the towers were built due to the popular (and surviving) custom of vendetta.

After dark, each family would place a wooden ladder against the wall of their tower, climb the three meters to its single portal, then haul the ladder in after them. That way they could be assured of a sound night’s sleep, confident that their neighbors wouldn’t murder them while they slumbered.

What a distance we’ve traveled since those dark days! We no longer need stone towers to protect us from our fellow men. The technology has significantly improved.

Scowling and Japanese Culture

Saw “Departures” last night, a film about a man who accidentally gets a job as a mortician. It’s a great film (I see it won the Oscar for the best foreign language film in 2008). Anyway, thinking about it today I was reflecting on how scowls and frowns seem to be so highly developed in Japanese culture. The heroine of the Murakami I’m currently reading, “1Q84” has a very expansive scowl; many of those Ukiyo-e style drawings show characters with theatrical scowls; as do Japanese masks; and some of the Japanese people I have known have had wonderful comic frowns too. I’m sure there is some deeper significance that people more familiar with Japanese culture can point to.
frowning Ukiyo-e character