Sometimes, understanding comes from the strangest sources, and at the most unexpected times. You read, you think you know all the facts, you form an opinion, and then, one day, suddenly, something happens, and you understand, you really get it.
A couple of days ago, I watched 'Black Snake Moan' , a movie set in the southern United States, directed by Craig Brewer, and starring Christina Ricci, Samuel L. Jackson and Justin Timberlake. Ricci plays a young girl, who, tormented by the sexual abuse she suffered during her childhood, has turned into a nymphomaniac seeking escape in sex with strangers. Samuel L. Jackson is a divorced ex-blues singer. It's a film worth watching, though it is unlikely to have featured in most lists of the best movies of 2006.
After the movie, I watched the special features on the DVD. And Christina Ricci, talking about why she loved acting in the movie, said this:
"You know, the whole idea of you take (sic) someone's dignity away from them so early and then you expect them to behave in some kind of dignified manner is something that I talk about when I am on my soapbox."
The next morning, I came across this article by K.A.Shaji in Tehelka, arguably the best general interest magazine in India:
Masti Ki Pathashala( school full of fun)
A celebrated school for Wayanad’s Adivasi (tribal) children has now been handed to old students to run
If aboriginal peoples all over the world, the desperately poor, the victims of conflict and war, seem to exhibit common patterns of alcoholism and drug abuse, broken homes and poor parenting, is it really such a surprise?
A couple of days ago, I watched 'Black Snake Moan' , a movie set in the southern United States, directed by Craig Brewer, and starring Christina Ricci, Samuel L. Jackson and Justin Timberlake. Ricci plays a young girl, who, tormented by the sexual abuse she suffered during her childhood, has turned into a nymphomaniac seeking escape in sex with strangers. Samuel L. Jackson is a divorced ex-blues singer. It's a film worth watching, though it is unlikely to have featured in most lists of the best movies of 2006.
After the movie, I watched the special features on the DVD. And Christina Ricci, talking about why she loved acting in the movie, said this:
"You know, the whole idea of you take (sic) someone's dignity away from them so early and then you expect them to behave in some kind of dignified manner is something that I talk about when I am on my soapbox."
The next morning, I came across this article by K.A.Shaji in Tehelka, arguably the best general interest magazine in India:
Masti Ki Pathashala( school full of fun)
A celebrated school for Wayanad’s Adivasi (tribal) children has now been handed to old students to run
KANAVU MEANS dream. And a dream it was for writer-turned activist KJ Baby when he first thought of a school exclusively for Adivasi children that would not only educate them, but also cultivate a sense of pride in themselves. The dream turned into reality about 15 years back when ‘Kanavu’ was started in a cluster of thatched structures on six acres of land donated by a trust in Wayanad district of North Kerala. As many as 60 tribal children started their knowledge expedition there, a possibility that would have been unthinkable in the past, when landlords and settlers held their clan in bondage.
Read the rest of the article here.If aboriginal peoples all over the world, the desperately poor, the victims of conflict and war, seem to exhibit common patterns of alcoholism and drug abuse, broken homes and poor parenting, is it really such a surprise?
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