Said American poet Langston Hughes, who was a poet,playwright and social activist of the 20th century. He was also one of the standing figures of the Harlem Renaissance, which took birth in Harlem a black cultural mecca in a part of Manhattan, Langston took literature to rant out his woes of being a black-american in the 1900s. Though Langston lived and left us through the 20th century he has left us a legacy on paper, a potent reminder to the nonsensical hatred and underrated recognition black lives are getting even today.
A strong advocate of black rights, Langston wrote extensively on his travel and his interactions with people of the world. Langston being an american citizen takes digs at the persisting segregation in his country and outside, through his works, some of his more pointed works are God, Remember, you and your whole race etc. what should sadden us is the fact that His accusation in the above poem stands correct till date if not covered up for. We have a lot of players in the scene demanding and offering equal rights for the ill gotten.
Langston being a humorist has been quoted taking satirical gibes at the situation of black lives. In one of his more prominent essays ”The negro artist and the racial movement” he so elegantly points out how young negros are indoctrinated into feeling debased for being of color. This form of cultural overpowering hits the ladder from the middle downwards, “the whisper ‘i want to be white’ runs silently through their minds” (the negro artist..), all this because they are harassed for their color and racial inclination
#BLACKLIVESMATTER
Langston Hughes wanted to be a writer but not one who wrote for the pulps and competes with commercial short stories. He wanted to write seriously, gain ground and make a living from it. This he badly wanted but didn’t know how to go about it..that was before he met with the most distinguished madam Mary Mcleod Bethune of the cookman college,Florida. She seeded him with the idea to travel the southside with his poetry, thus beginning the illustrated life of langston hughes. Langston has written in his autobiography that when he feels down, he writes to stop himself from feeling worse. Take a closer look at his works and you’ll find that his works are pointed reminders to the time he lived. Take for example remember. The poem is plain, an experienced gypsy leaving his wisdom to an ill informed world.
Langstons travels along the southside later extended to the whole world. He visited various ethnicities, cultures and colors. But he understood and expressed that wherever be, discrimination lasts in snippets even in the holiest of place, even in the future, he prognosticated he explains;
“Go to the highest hill
And look down upon the town
Where you are yet a slave”
Langston cautions, sitting atop the highest echelons of society look down where you are still a slave of color.Metaphorically indicates time,wealth and status. Food for thought!. People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.
The talk of the day is once again Racism and its victims. What is racial discrimination ? racism rooted from the historical ideology that human beings can be branched into different biological entities called ‘races’, that we can be classified linking physical appearances, intellect and other cultural and behavioral facets. But by the 20th century racism has been observed as a cultural innovation with no connection whatsoever to science. Racism illegitimately stamped some races/colors innately superior to others. Which brought to us prejudice-era south africa and the like.
Demonstrators march down Constitution Avenue during the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963.
Fast-forward to last week, when a Minneapolis officer choked George Floyd, a black man to his death. What are the limits to which we can call this racism? This act of hatred was executed in 2020, years after humanity innovated itself, to a great extent, from its radical and barbaric ways. But only the victims on the receiving end of the battle know that justice has been served in a little to No ratio. Today a lot of people in the states have taken to the streets demanding that justice be served to George Floyd but this has happened before, why is it not enough??.
”I swear to the Lord I still can’t see Why Democracy means Everybody but me.”
“Negroes – Sweet and docile, Meek, humble, and kind: Beware the day – They change their mind “
-Langston Hughes
(Ali Hayyan is BA English student in Calicut University, Kerala)
Kashmiri photojournalist Masrat Zahra has been named by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) for the Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award on Thursday.
The award is named after German photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus to honor her inspiring life. Anja which was killed in 2014 in Afghanistan. The $20,000 (€17,500) prize is awarded annually by the IWMF, which since 1990 has been fighting for press freedom and supporting courageous female journalists.
Masrat Zahra
IWMF Executive Director Elisa Lees Munoz said: “Countless communities around the world are facing enormous threat, harm and censorship due to governmental threats and the declining state of press freedom worldwide.” She added: “During these times, Anja’s legacy reminds us that it’s the communities beneath the headlines who are the true targets of civil and social brutality.”
The freelance photojournalist’s images depicting conflict in Kashmir and its toll on local communities were praised by the jury for their “humanity” and her particular focus on the stories of women.
Zahra, who was born in the city of Srinagar, provides an emotional glimpse into daily life inside the Kashmir with her photographs, which the jury described as filled with a sense of “dread and community.” Zahra said receiving the award “shows that the work of journalists like me coming from small places is being acknowledged.”
“I hope this honor will encourage me to perfect my skills and do my work more confidently. I also expect it to inspire other women photographers who are working in difficult environments,” she added.
New Zealand lifted all domestic coronavirus restrictions on Monday after its final COVID-19 patient was given the all clear, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealing she danced around her living room when told about the milestone.
While strict border controls will remain in place, Ardern said restrictions such as social distancing and limits on public gatherings were no longer needed.
“We are confident we have eliminated transmission of the virus in New Zealand for now,” she said in a televised address, saying Kiwis had “united in unprecedented ways to crush the virus”.
The South Pacific nation, with a population of five million, has had 1,154 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 22 deaths.
There have been no new infections for 17 days and, until Monday, just one active case for more than a week.
Details of the final patient were not released for privacy reasons but it is believed to be a woman aged in her 50s who was linked to a cluster at an Auckland nursing home.
Ardern said the sacrifices made by New Zealanders, including a drastic seven-week lockdown that helped curb infection rates, had been rewarded now that there were no active cases in the country.
Asked about her reaction upon hearing the news, she replied: “I did a little dance” with baby daughter Neve.
“She was caught a little by surprise but she joined in, having absolutely no idea why I was dancing around the lounge.”
New Zealand’s move down to Level 1, the lowest rating on its four-tier virus response system, means nightclubs can operate without dance floor restrictions and theatres will reopen.
It also means sporting events can proceed with crowds in the stands, a change New Zealand Rugby (NZR) said offered its Super Rugby Aotearoa competition the opportunity to achieve a world first when it kicks off this weekend.
“We’re incredibly proud, and grateful, to be the first professional sports competition in the world to be in a position to have our teams play in front of their fans again,” NZR chief executive Mark Robinson said.
While many other sporting competitions around the globe have announced plans to restart, the vast majority will be played either with no crowds or with numbers severely restricted.
On a broader level, Ardern said easing restrictions would help New Zealand’s economy.
“We now have a head start on economic recovery because at level one we become one of the most open, if not the most open, economies in the world,” she said.
The prime minister said modelling showed the economy would operate at just 3.8 percent below normal at Level 1, compared with a 37 percent impairment at Level 4 lockdown.
The wake of the Global pandemic and its continuous growth by seconds around has now forced us to transform the centuries-old chalk talk teaching model to the one driven by technology. And now this is pressurizing our governments and policy makers to design a well-effective e-Learning platform in order to create a resilient education system.
Positive changes in technology to make life easier is acceptable as it creates opportunities out of the hurdles the pandemic has offered..but what happens when these developments are focused only on a privileged section of people alone?
Even though India is the second largest internet user base in the world and home to 630 million internet users, the reality of increasing digital divide will hit us in the face. Digital divide refers to the unequal access of Information and Communication Technology or unequal acquisition of related skills. Digital divide in India can be classified on the basis of many factors like gender, income, locations etc..which even shows the depth and dimensions of the prevailing social inequalities.
As India is a country where 66 percent of its people live in villages, this further enlarges its digital divide. The states like Bihar, UP and Orissa which shows poor Human Development indicators are way back in its internet use density. Remote mountainous regions of Himachal Pradesh, deserts of Rajasthan and forests of Madhya Pradesh also fall under the shackles of digital exclusion. The chains of patriarchal setup, lower literacy, financial dependence and no digital awareness of women too makes them stay back in gaining digital access. 70 percent of Indian internet users are male while only 30 percent are female users. Certain prejudices like digital empowerment will be a threat to social order and also adds fuel to this fire.
India, the country which lives under the illusions of; developing, fastest growing economy and the largest democracy of the world.., has exposed its rash inequalities and poor face during the phase of this pandemic already. And now the paths are leading to showcase the very pathetic situation of digital India.
It is a total blunder to introduce digital education overnight in a country where internet shutdowns are common, where even the government does not hold the records of internet shutdowns, where a complete state of Kashmir is held under lockdown for 300 days without internet and telecommunications, where there are no proper infrastructure to aid internet usage for the majority of people and where a huge percentage of people are daily workers and whom cannot afford the data charges as they are left jobless because of the lockdown. Such a situation will push us into the depths of ignorance as we fail to ensure the basic education. The result will be more suicides, more deprivation of rights and more uneducated citizens.
What we need at any cost is an inclusive model of digital education, a redefined and innovative aspect of e-learning where every student from every corner of this country gets access to education. Creating digital awareness and introducing kickstart programs to set up basic Infrastructures and provisions is the need of the hour. For justice delayed is justice denied.
Sonu Sood, the most popular villain of the Bollywood industry who gained recognition from the Dabangg franchise is in the headlines again and for all the politically right reasons- he facilitated hundreds of migrants to go back to their hometown by arranging buses from them. As per the reports, the migrants whom he helped belonged to states such as Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand.
He got an overwhelming response from the migrants who were stuck in various parts of the country due to the nation-wide lockdown. In order to extend his support, he rolled out a toll-free helpline number dedicated to migrants and also airlifted 169 girls from Kerala to Orissa by arranging a special flight for them.
The actor is receiving a lot of praise from the film fraternity for being a good samaritan including Ajay Devgn who Tweeted in his support, “The sensitive nature of the work that you are doing with sending migrant workers back to their homes safely is exemplary. More strength to you, Sonu.”
What is coming across in front of the public is bracketed under ‘humane act’ or ‘genuine act of service’, but the media is intentionally not revisiting the year 2019 when just before the Lok Sabha election, actor Sonu Sood was caught off guard in Cobrapost sting operation demanding a sum of 20 crore rupees to polarize the elections through his social media tweets and posts for a period of eight months in the favour of Bhartiya Janta Party.
The Cobrapost journalist who masqueraded as a member of a PR agency working for the BJP offered him INR 2 crore a month, which may get hiked in the future in case he gets a positive response from his fan-base. To this the actor replied, “Nahi aapko response kee koi tension hee nahi hai mujhe pata hai na mera sikka bahut … main bahut alag hoon bhai (No, you don’t have to take any tension with regard to response. I know how big a currency I am … I am made of a different stuff brother). He was unabashedly bargaining to fetch more money out of the deal. He was confident about his ‘neutral’ image in the public which will help him toss the opinion of his loyal followers.
They finally settled for INR 2.5 crore with an agreement of writing on 5 topics every month that should be summed up in at least 15 posts that will be published across his Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. He was also adamant about accepting 80% of the money in cash, which ironically, was not in sync with the ethos of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which devaluated the then currency of 500 rupees and 1000 rupees notes, to put an end to the menace of black money.
This cobra post sting operation was reported by a few media houses at that time but it didn’t garner much attention from the twitter brigade, who otherwise wastes no time in trending a topic on twitter, which ultimately slides as a breaking news headline in many prime-time television debates.
Many rational minds might raise an objection here with their argument that celebrities endorse endless number of brands through advertisements for a fat pay cheque, but nobody bats an eye. The only answer to it is that democracy is not a commodity that should be advertised in return for money. You may experience indigestion by consuming biscuits of a brand endorsed by your celebrity, but the damage which these manipulating and fabricated social media posts will cause will tarnish the system of ‘free and fair’ elections in which an individual decides to vote for the representative of his/her choice. Moreover, the secrecy involved in such backdoor political deals will only mislead the public which is not the case in endorsement deals. Everybody knows that the actor is getting paid to promote the brand.
On the last count, the actor had 1.5 million followers on Twitter, 2.9 million on Instagram, and 2.6 million on Facebook. There is no way one can downplay the mighty impact of such a vast following.His bastion of fandom increased multifold when a tweet went viral on social media which showed his local train ticket from Borivali to Churchgate which costed him 470 rupees in the year 1997. To decipher that it’s a mere coincidence that this emerged out of nowhere after 23 years does not seem reasonable as the man who posted it on his account is an Islamophobic and a BJP sympathiser if we look at his previous tweets.
There is an old saying it takes years for a man to gain respect in society. But the old proverb is being redefined by our modern-day public relations agencies which charge an exorbitant amount of money to ‘whitewash’ tainted public image of celebrities. The person concerned about his public image just needs to shell out some money, and he can become a social media hero in seconds, even if the shadow of his dark past is lurking around. The actors today operate in a much more controlled environment which is scripted by their publicists and this is how I see the ‘messianic’ version of Sonu Sood coming into existence for the migrants- kneaded by some PR agency he hired in order to whitewash the sins of his past.
The classic case of such tactic was used by Salman Khan in the recent past when he laid the stepping stone of ‘Being Human’ organization to become a scapegoat from the harsh judgment which could have been imposed on him owing to his hit and run case of 2002 and killing of two blackbucks in Jodhpur in the year 1998. His philanthropic initiative was a mechanism devised to cut short his sentence in the court because of his charitable work.
It’s not that actors should refrain from being vocal about their political stances. They have the right to exercise their freedom of speech, but not at the cost of polarizing the public just because a political party is backing them with a suitcase filled with cash. The post- truth world is certainly a tantalizing space in which what appears before the eye might have hidden agendas. We just need to be careful while deciding whom we should idolize.
Former South African cricketer and CSK legend, Albie Morkel shared stories of playing under MSD, and what it meant to represent South Africa on the chat show “Championz Online with Suhaas Vedham” on Sportz O’ Clock.
In conversation with sports commentator & presenter Suhaas Vedham, Albie revealed that he had ‘fan boy moments’ during the initial days with the senior team.
“You are actually more nervous being around those guys than actually playing the game. As a young cricketer it’s your first biggest challenge. The second thing that you worry about is actually playing” “That’s how I experienced it”
At 22 as he debuted for a touring South Africa against New Zealand in Wellington, Albie soon learnt that international cricket was a very tough place to compete in. “I remember I had a very good domestic season back home as a young player, but to play international cricket, it’s a different beast”
Currently the coach of the Namibian cricket side, Albie Morkel went on to discuss the names of a few Namibian players to watch out for in the upcoming T20 World cup if and when it happens. Albie Morkel, who retired from all forms of cricket in January 2019, reminisced the time he saw AB De Villiers bat for the first time in the nets. Furthermore, Albie termed ABD , an “X factor player” and said that playing international cricket for South Africa was always going to be ABD’s path.
Albie Morkel his brother Morne Morkel
On Albie’s Family :
Albie Morkel expressed that he hails from a ‘cricket mad house’, with his father having played first class cricket, and his elder brother Malan also having been involved in the game.
Talking about his younger brother Morne-an international bowler of repute, Albie revealed a funny incident between Morne and the coach when the former started out with a small contract.
Calling Morne, a ‘Gentle Giant’ , Albie went on a lighter note, revealed that Morne was the most pampered in the family. “He was the youngest child, my mother’s favourite”
On Playing for CSK and Relationship with MSD:
Out of all franchises he played for , Albie Morkel spent the most time at CSK, winning the IPL twice and the Champions league once.
“So that’s obviously going to be the team that I still support and I enjoyed playing the most out of all” “so definitely playing for CSK was special” he mentions.
During his six yearswith CSK, Morkel remained a regular feature in the playing eleven. Herein bloomed a special bond- the one with captain MS Dhoni.
Albie Morkel Says “He (Dhoni) knows how to get the best out of his players. He doesn’t treat every player the same. He has got this ability to interact with every player in a unique way according to his personality. So I think it’s a big strength”
Albie revealed what MSD usually said in the huddle during crunch moments and how Dhoni’s plan worked to get rid of Pollard in the final of IPL 2010.
Albie went on to praise Dhoni to be a captain who leads by example. On being asked to describe captain cool in one word , Albie Morkel replied ‘magician’.
Playing the rapid fire with the host Suhaas Vedham, Albie Morkel stated that his most satisfying innings wold be the one playing for CSK where he scored 28 runs in 6 balls against Virat Kohli in 2012. The innings made him a legend indeed, in IPL folklore.
A splendid all rounder for South Africa, an emotion among CSK fans, Albie Morkel signs off by thanking Sportz O’clock for the opportunity to be on the show and wished luck the warriors fighting the virus . Albie Morkel says with a smile that he hopes he can still ‘get out there and entertain’ his fans.
“The commodity-form, and the value-relation of the products of labour within which it appears, have absolutely no connection with the physical nature of the commodity and the material relations arising out of this. It is nothing but the definite social relation between men themselves which assumes here, for them, the fantastic form of a relation between things. In order, therefore, to find an analogy we must take flight into the misty realm of religion. There the products of the human brain appear as autonomous figures endowed with a life of their own, which enter into relations both with each other and with the human race. So it is in the world of commodities with the products of men’s hands. I call this the fetishism which attaches itself to the products of labour as soon as they are produced as commodities, and is therefore inseparable from the production of commodities.”
“Small penis? Have I got a car for you” undoubtedly a very sexist sentence you might have read today right? This was an advertisement by Porche in 1970 for one of their promising models, the ‘Porche 911 Carrera’. I’m not going in detail about the sexist connotations of this advertisement as it is pretty evident from the sentence itself. Owning a Porche or a BMW or any other premium/luxury car defines one’s identity in a market driven society, in which we all exist. From a Marxist perspective, every commodity has its own identity and it will have a shared identity with human race; what you own defines you or what you own, owns you. A car in this sense, becomes a medium of social communication and a special object of reverence in the North American culture. It possesses a sacred or magical power to shape everyday life. From the ‘toys of boys’ to the ‘hearse limousine’ it is there in the life of almost every average American as a necessity as well as a pride symbol.
Hollywood from its inception and especially after the great recession of 1930’s acted as the face of capitalism and more so, as a sales person for the great American dream. Arguably, the evolution of automobiles, especially cars share a common history with Hollywood including the James Bond series to American Graffiti the Fast and Furious series and almost every genre and period that features and promotes cars as part of lifestyle. Luxury cars like the Plymouths, Aston Martins and the old Buicks have their own identity and arc in the evolution of Hollywood films and its different genres.
1969 Model Dodge Charger – Dukes Hazard (CBS)
The American TV too has a similar history to share. CBS’s famous American comedy series, “The Dukes Hazard” featured a bright orange 1969 Dodge Charger with a “01” on the side and a confederate flag on the hood, in each and every episode. This landmark model was shown racing backroads and running over pretty much anything you can think of. Similarly, there are instances of other great television shows which portrayed cars not just as a commodity but as a character or part of a character, even if they aren’t necessarily “car shows.”
On a closer look, AMC’s Vince Gilligan Shows, ‘Breaking Bad’ and its spinoff prequel ‘Better Call Saul’ deserves to be on that list as well. As we all know Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul are the battleground for the question of what is good and what is bad. Each Series has five seasons with more than 100 episodes of arguably great character writing and finest execution of all time in American TV. The casting and the entire mise en scene from the location to each and every prop, colour schemes and obviously the frames adds to the narrative. Apart from this, the ‘Casting of Cars’ also plays a very important role in defining the of both the series.
Coming back to the concept of ‘commodity fetishism’ which I began writing this piece with, we are all familiar with the way in which a commodity shapes human relations in a market driven society. The famous car advertisements of America (a perfect neoliberal economy) makes us believe how a car is an extension of one’s character and at the same time also convinces us its importance by portraying how every American requires one. There is a popular saying in America which is, “an average American requires a car if he/she needs to travel more than five feet”. Casting of car thus becomes a prerequisite for making a series on the life of people who are primarily the victims of capitalism and its morality.
Walter White’s Pontiac Aztek , BB (AMC)
Walter White, the main protagonist from the series, “Breaking Bad” is shown as a pathetic, ineffectual man who struggles to get respect from others. Furthermore, his life never turned out the way he wanted to and thus he is amidst a big midlife crisis who is also a victim of cancer. Observing his character build up, one cannot visualise him driving a fancy car. So Walter White drives a Green/Grey shade Pontiac Aztek, which is taken to be a boring, dull and normal one.. The Aztek – one of the most boring cars ever made was one of the first vehicles established right in the pilot episode of Breaking Bad. It was chosen to depict the ‘baby boomer’, lame and pathetic side of Walter White. The Pontiac Aztek stood up as a beacon of failed dreams, and that’s why the use of Aztek seemed fitting to denote the protagonist’s image. The car was lambasted as a perfect example of groupthink and managerial bad decisions at General Motors. In many ways, it could be seen as a symbol of their downward spiral into near-death during the Carpocalypse. Deep down inside, it represents something ugly, not unlike the path Walt follows as the show progresses. But in the process of turning ‘Mr. Chips to Scarface’, the journey of Pontiac Aztek ends when the alter ego of Walter White, the great ‘Heisenberg’ emerges in its full form and thus starts driving a shiny black Chrysler 300 SRT8. We can read it in a reverse way too here as, when Walter White purchases a Chrysler 300 SRT8, it marks the turning point of Walt’s character as he puts on the big and bad persona of Heisenberg. Sick and tired of always being the nice guy, Walt ditches his old life and the Aztek for a Chrysler 300, which signifies the death of plain old Walter Wight and the birth of the new drug kingpin – Heisenberg. This transformation is the backbone of Breaking Bad and one of the most convincing and compelling character shifts in television history. Walter White’s character is a typical middle class American who is the direct victim of the capitalistic economy and its morality, He knows he was a failure, all his possessions including the Pontiac Aztek is a proof of that. Thus, the only way to make him feel worthy in this society was to earn more money and of course the change from Aztek to Chrysler 300 SRT8.
Walter Whites Chrysler 300 SRT8 , BB (AMC)Chevy Monte Carlo – Jesse Pinkman BB (AMC)
Another fine character from this Albuquerque world of Vince Gilligan, is Jesse Pinkman (played by Aaron Paul) who later featured in the movie ‘El Camino’ a sequel of the Breaking Bad series, Jesse’s character arc is actually the antithesis to Walt’s moral decay, As Walter White slowly fades into the shadows, his partner Jesse just as steadily crawls into the light. He was the only person in this whole universe of Breaking Bad with such a different character arc. When we meet Jesse, he is a criminal, School dropout and a drug dealer. When we leave him, he has become a changed man and a heart forged in abject suffering and moral epiphanies. This gradual change in the arc of Jesse shares parallels with his cars as well. Jesse starts out by driving a red Monte Carlo equipped with hydraulics, the perfect car for his early wannabe thug persona. But after it gets shot up in the desert, he buys a much more sensible, practical and far less ostentatious 1986 Tercel wagon with four-wheel-drive. This change suits the changing Jesse far better than the Monte Carlo. It’s a plucky, can-do little car, something you kind of root for, just like Jesse. Jesse is the only character in the Breaking Bad universe who doesn’t want to be in this race and thus chooses to drive a normal Tercel wagon.
Jesse Pinkman’s Toyota Tercel 4WD Wagon , BB (AMC)Jimmy’s Suzuki Esteem , BCS , (AMC and Netflix)
James Morgan McGill (also known as Saul Goodman, Slipping Jimmy, and Gene Takavic) played by Bob Odenkirk, maybe the most complex yet one of the most simple character from the Breaking Bad as well as its spin off prequel series, Better Call Saul. When we first see him in Breaking Bad, in all of his colourful shirts and ties, where every other character are defined in the shades of grey, he stands out. How Breaking Bad is the sole story of Walter White’s journey from ‘Mr. Chips to Scarface’, Better Call Saul has similar take with Jimmy’s character. As we have already seen a market driven society and its moral codes defines a person’s value with the possessions he acquired and the idea of success is merely on how much you are going to earn. The main difference between Walter White and Jimmy McGill is that with Jimmy we know what is going to happen, we know Jimmy’s journey is to become the crooked lawyer in the ‘Albuquerque Noir Universe’ and we already know his 1998 model yellow Suzuki Esteem will be taken over by a white Cadillac DeVille in the future. In Better Call Saul, We’re introduced to Jimmy McGill’s sad yellow garbage-can-on-wheels after a genius Easter egg; it’s parked next to the same white Cadillac DeVille that later established Saul Goodman drove in Breaking Bad. But here Jimmy is still running small cons and trying to establish himself, therefore he is stuck with the Suzuki Esteem with mismatched doors, peeling rubber mouldings. The scene in the pilot episode of ‘Better Call Saul’, when skateboarders, pulling a scam, slams into it and crack the windshield and when they ask him for $500 as compensation Jimmy says, “Does this steaming pile of crap scream ‘payday’ to you? The only way that thing is worth $500 is if there’s a $300 hooker sitting in it” This one dialogue defines his car and his character. But Saul Goodman can’t drive a car with multiple colours in it he may dress in different colours no his cars but he also needs attention and he wants to show off but must be wary of doing so, which is why the nutty lawyer drives this white Cadillac DeVille. It’s big enough to get your attention but not flashy enough for you to ask any questions. And this is the car one would imagine to be driven by a sleazy, greedy lawyer like Saul Goodman. In between when Jimmy accepts Davis & Mains hiring proposal, he was very satisfied to get rid of his bi colour Esteem and accept the classy 2003 model Mercedes Benz C Class. To celebrate his hiring Kim offers him a travel mug that’s she has craftily adjusted to read “world’s 2nd best lawyer”, Jimmy is very fond of this mug which fitted perfectly on his esteem’s cup holder but not on his brand new Benz C Class. And his struggles to make it fit on that car goes on until he loses his job in Davis and Main. The cup symbolically represents Jimmy who would not fit into that German made automobile which the society doesn’t want him to drive.
Jimmy’s Mercedes Bens C Class – BCS (AMC and NetflixSaul Goodman’s Cadillac DeVille – BB (AMC)
Mike Ehrmentraut and Gustavo Fring, both of them can be taken as a synonym for the word ‘cold’. They share a mysterious traumatic past which has definitely made them. Mike was a policeman and Gus Fring is one among the millions of refuges who came to the North American soil with his brother from South America. We are introduced to the two sides of Gus Fring’s character in Breaking Bad itself. On one hand, we know him as a drug lord who is feared by Walter White himself and we are also familiarised with his past and his vengeance with the Cartel. On the other hand, he is also introduced as a businessman dealing with a chain of fried chicken restaurants and is friends with the DEA officers. So portraying these two personalities of his, needs lot of effort in the props he uses as well as the costumes he wear. That’s where his sensible black Volvo V70 plays its role, as his monetary capacity would be able to afford any super car available in the market but the moral side of this money wouldn’t. And the image he puts to the society of the nice restaurant owner won’t fit in to any super car as it would draw unwanted attention to the heartless killer side of Gustavo Fring. Mike Ehrmentraut in the Breaking Bad appeared more as the henchman of Gus Fring, his right hand. But when we get in to the Better Call Saul world we get to see more from Mike, a loving father and the loving grandpa of Kaylee and how he gets in to Fring’s and Salamanca’s world of organised crime and cartel business. Mike is calm, a wise Oldman and a very loyal person. He doesn’t want to get attention from the public as he clearly knows what he is doing and thus the repercussions for it. His car also shows the same characteristics, so Mike Ehrmantraut drives an old black Chrysler Fifth Avenue, Named after the New York street, it was a gas-guzzling lumpen unit built for comfort rather than speed or performance, but not anymore. Now it is simply Mike’s runabout – and although he claims it has “sentimental value, it almost certainly doesn’t. Mike isn’t that kind of guy. Whatever this Black Chrysler Fifth Avenue is certainly giving that mike’s “don’t mess with me” vibe.
Gus Fring’s Volvo V70 – BB and BCS (AMC and Netflix)
In every show or movies police and their apparatuses are more powerful and they will have an edge over everything related to power, in the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul Universe, Hank is the direct person of authority or state but in this universe state or its machineries are not powerful enough comparing to the cartel or its people. This reflects in the choice of Hank’s Vehicle too, he drives a Jeep Commander. The DEA official fancies himself as a bit of a tough guy, but really he’s a big softy. Similar to his 4×4 which looks big and strong but it’s a Commander after all isn’t it? If one were to compile a list of the greatest Jeeps of all time, the Commander would probably not be on it. It’s not memorable mechanically or aesthetically, and probably only sold because it kind of resembles older, better Jeeps. Hank likes to act tough, but as we see when he gets transferred to El Paso, he doesn’t really have the stomach or the street smarts to deal with the extreme violence he’s supposed to be combating. Same with his car — he drives this Jeep because it looks enough like a Jeep, but it’s not at all hard core.
Hank Schrader’s Jeep Commander BB and BCS (AMC and Netflix)Skyler White’s Jeep Grand Wagoneer BB (AMC)Mike Ehrmantraut’s Chrysler Fifth Avenue BB and BCS (AMC and Netflix)
Unlike her brother-in-law Hank, Skyler, wife of Walter White, drives a Jeep that doesn’t suck. It’s a good example of an older Jeep, though. It’s a super-normal choice for a woman like Skyler, a normal woman thrust into bizarre and later horrific situations. Also, it has wood panels that hints to Skyler’s character as well. Skyler drives a red 1991 model Jeep Grand Wagoneer, It was the first 4×4 luxury car and a proper SUV even before the term SUV coined. Skyler, an independent women who looks after the family and literally stand for her family even when Walt is no more the Walt she knows. She drives an old SUV really goes with her strong character.
Nachos ’70s steel-bodied muscle car BCS (AMC and Netflix)
One of the unsung anti-heroes in the Better Call Saul series, Ignacio “Nacho” Varga is an intelligent and ambitious mid-ranking drug boss with doomed aspirations. He works for Tuco Salamanca and although he enjoys the trappings of his narcotic sales, he is under no doubt about how precarious his position is. Still, that doesn’t mean he hasn’t got hot girls on speed dial, a cool apartment and a sweet ride. Nacho’s drives a ’70s steel-bodied muscle car and was American Motors’ response to the popular “pony car” trend that included the Ford Mustang, the Chevy Camaro and the Plymouth Barracuda. Nacho’s cherry-red version is a beauty, but like the man himself it is too obvious, attracts too much attention and eventually ends him up in troubles. Another car which is too much on the screen was a yellow Hummer driven by Warmolt who sells tablets to Nacho. From the beginning, Mike advises him to get rid of this car because this creates a lot of unwanted attention, and later due to this car Warmolt gets into problems. These two examples of Nacho and Warmolt shed lights on the car fetishism and its class and societal implications. But Howard Hamlin, the co-owner of HHM can drive a grand British luxury car which is The Jaguar XJ8 and he may never get into any troubles just because he drives a Jaguar.
Warmolt’s 2002 yellow Hummer BCS (AMC and Netflix)
Another example for this is Hank’s wife Mary, who has always been shown with different shades of blue especially associated with purple/violet colour. Almost all of her costumes and props are in this shade. So obviously she drives a purple Volkswagen Beetle, it’s cute, small and very feminine and it very much fitting to Mary because she is petty, jealous, insecure, petulant, and never emotionally moved past age of adolescents. A small purple New Beetle fits well enough. And this car casting is a very good example of how a market driven society specialise its products and how it imposes it to certain people/ characters.
Mary’s purple Beetle –BB (AMC)
Everyone every single characters with very different character arc and very different characteristics has unique cars choices in this cinematic universe. Maybe the only person who doesn’t drive a car from this entire Albuquerque Noir Universe is Chuck (the elder brother of Jimmy McGill), but he is shown as a mentally unfit person. And cars are not just another property in these two TV series its part of every characters arc and their characteristics. And it is a correct reading of American free market society and its commodity fetishism, capitalism has products for everyone but it differs by its quality to different strata’s. And it wants to keep this strata for its own existence. In a place like America which is the perfect example for a free market society fetishism towards commodities is part of everyone’s life and it makes you believe every product is a necessity. And when it comes to automobile, maybe monetarily it has been one of the biggest industry in the past history of any free market economy and it offers varied products. In America automobile industry is one of the biggest contributor to its GDP as well. In free market society like America, people worship cars and need them in a sense beyond their use as transport. They have become second nature, a crucial tool for modern living and increasingly weaved in to the texture of everyday life. The notion of fetishism theorises that in the worship of inanimate objects, and by the virtue of giving them with magical powers, these objects take on a life their own. As we shape cars they shapes us. For Marx, commodity fetishism is the tendency of people to see the product of their labour in terms of relationships between things, rather than social relationships between people. In other words, people view the commodity only in terms of the characteristics of the final product while the process through which it was created remains obscured and, therefore, unconsidered. This has crucial implications for our collective ability to see and address the ongoing processes of social and environmental destruction under capitalism.
There are no wasted details in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. The cars of these shows provide deeper insight into the characters’ motivations and inner workings. And there’s plenty of symbolism in this Albuquerque Noir universe that only the most perceptive fans will notice. But besides these Easter eggs, there are more obvious details that lend meanings and its social criticism or understanding to these two shows: Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. What I examined here with the idea of commodity fetishism of cars in this cinematic universe may or may not be intended by the writers but by writing detailed about a free market society will definitely sheds lights to each part of it. And this cinematic universe is one of the wonderfully well written series in the history of TV. And I believe casting of cars and its connotative meanings in this universe deserves a special mention and each details these screenplays provides will discuss for a long time in cinema and cultural studies.
2020 The year India chose to flood the Twitter and Instagram accounts with the global trending hashtag “#BlackLivesMatter”. The year India chose to remain silent on the police brutality against the Anti CAA protesters and students of Jamia and JNU. The year India chose to remain helpless for the migrant labourers dying on road. However many of us seem to be interested only to respond to the call for Black Lives Matter.
What is Black Lives Matter?
Black Lives Matter is an International Human Rights movement which campaigns against the atrocities against the black community across the globe that had begun in 2013 when George Zimmerman shot dead an African American teen named Trayvon Martin. This has recently gained momentum as a 46-year-old George Floyd was choked to death by the White Forces.
The Incident deserves our support and a call for justice to be served. But for many Indians and to be specific, right wing supporters, teenagers seeking social media attention and celebrities; it’s just another opportunity to showcase their fake solidarity and concern for the people thousands of kilometres away, when they fail to address the regional issues of minority conflict, Islamophobia, police brutality, casteism and the never ending list in their home country. “An important movement in US was thus reduced to a desi farce – Rachel John (The Print)”.
The question of ‘why?’ hypocritical.
Let’s go with the timeline in the title; Police brutality and extrajudicial killings in India are no new news especially for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and only to add to its feathers we have the latest attacks on students of Jamia Milia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University and the Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Citizenship Amendment Act protesters in Delhi. This raises the question of missing solidarity hashtags or concerns from the same people who have now woken from their deep sleep. Where were the solidarity hashtags or concerns for the migrant labourers who were abandoned by the Government or fashionably called the 56-inch government? No wonder why, because they tend to go with what is more trending and eye-catching and remain silent when leaders like Kapil Mishra and others askes public to engage in violence.
Racism and Indian Society
A BBC news dated May 20,2019 talks about how a Dalit man got killed for having eaten in front of the upper caste communities in a remote village of Tehri in Uttarakhand. Yes, you read it right as Uttarakhand and not Minneapolis. This received no attention and got confined to a single column news in some local daily in the country, going unnoticed. No voice raised as they won’t give you any brownie points for these local issues.And now who is more eligible than the celebrities to condemn the racism in US, when they themselves asks the society to have a glowing white skin through various fairness cream advertisements. And for that matter you also have white skinned person as a hero and a black person as the villain in the film, and for that case any film industry. Indians always have the notion of fairness linked to white skin, which is evident in the way most of them treat the blacks or be it the case of North East Indians who are treated as foreigners by some. To be honest we also have an unspoken truth of the North-South divide within the country, where the hot discussions of Hindi imposition, and national language comes into picture with a step-motherly treatment to few states. All these makes clear that racism is a global phenomenon and one has to fix the near and dear, rather than taking the easier route of social media campaigning.
Summing up
“A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.” — Dr Martin Luther King Jr. This has a deep meaning for all of us to imbibe. Standing in solidarity with the “BlackLivesMatter” is appreciable but it seems to be hypocratic when one doesn’t raises his or her voices against the atrocities happening right under his nose in the home country.
(Aravind is a B.Com Final year student at Christ University, Bangalore)
BJP MP and animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi on Wednesday (June 3) flayed the CPM-led Kerala government for the tragic death of a pregnant elephant in Kerala. The shocking incident came to light on Tuesday after a forest officer shared the details of the horrific incident on his Facebook page.
Maneka Gandhi told ANI, “It’s murder, Malappuram is famous for such incidents, it’s India’s most violent district, for instance, they throw poison on roads so that 300-400 birds and dogs die at one time.”
“Rahul Gandhi is from that area, why has he not taken action?,” Maneka Gandhi also questioned his silence on the elephant’s death in Kerala.
“Kerala government has not taken any action in Malappuram, it seems they are scared,” Maneka Gandhi said, adding “An elephant is killed every 3 days in Kerala. We have less than 20,000 elephants left in India, they are declining rapidly.”
But the disappointing incident happened in Palakkad which is a neighbor district of Malappuram. After her hate comments, there is a wide criticism against Maneka and other BJP leaders who found this news as a chance to malign Malappuram, the only Muslim majority district in Kerala.
The Former Union Minister further said that Forest Secretary should be removed, and also sought the resignation of the state’s minister for wildlife protection. According to reports, the Mannarkkad forest range officer today said that an FIR was lodged against unidentified people under relevant sections of the Wild Life Protection Act.
Maneka also criticised temples in Kerala for abusing elephants. She writes, “about 600 elephants are killed by the temples by breaking their legs beating and starving them.” She also pointed one famous temple, Koodalmanikyam temple, in Thrissur district for allegedly torturing elephants.
As with all new things, however, we must treat Paatal Lok with suspicion – contrary to the acclaim it receives for being critical of contemporary society, they withhold deep ambiguities. To be sure, it is part of a shake up in the popular arts, which regularly occurs every decade or so – we have had Sacred Games, Leila, Ghoul, Mirzapur, Jamtara and others already. Yet, this new wave does not just offer a critical look at society, but reflects an ambiguous and often self-contradicting morality. This does not rise simply due to the mostly tragic and dark endings. Rather, it is present throughout the stories, in the details of every episode. They create moments of genuine confusion, where the camera itself oscillates between a critical distance towards the morally ambiguous characters and identification with the violent structures it attempts to criticize.
The most obvious of these moments come up in the depiction of sexuality. In a strange way, most of these series seem to share a fascination with rape and rough sex – nearly all onscreen sex is non-consensual or semi-consensual. But the problem here is not a moralist one related to whether rapes ought to be shown on screen or not. Rather, it is about how rape and sexual domination seem inscribed into the texture of the stories themselves. Why do they repeat so much? We can see in Paatal Lok, that the consensual sex between the high-brow media figure Mehra and his subordinate Sara is respectably hidden from view, while the rape of a woman and, in another scene, a child are shown to us
The irony of sexual fantasies is that they’re always about something other than sex. So it is with the sex in Paatal Lok too. We can draw the connections in many directions, beginning from the humiliation of the transgender. It is as if transgender bodies are meant to be humiliated in these universes, where their story is not about the overcoming of humiliation. They exist, and they are humiliated, sometimes mutilated. For Mehra, sex becomes the affirmation of his identity as he goes through a rough patch, and he gets his life back on track as he carries on his affair. The affair between Mukherji and Shukla turns out to be one of mutual help – Shukla helps Mukherji to sort out her life and offers a promising career, while Mukherji offers her body. Their sex is supported by Mukherji reciting Shukla’s poetry, and Shukla’s sacred thread – Mukherji had previously had an affair with a Dalit man, whom she later ditches because of his caste. But it is Mehra who gives us the key to these sequences in Paatal Lok. The two defining moments for Mehra are the one in which he scoffs at “liberals” and claims to see through the CBI’s terrorist plot story. The second defining moment comes at the end when, in spite of having his illusions of being someone important enough to be assassinated shattered, he returns to his role as a self-righteous journalist.
Against Mehra are placed Subinspector Hathiram Chaudhary and journalist Sara Mathews. Hathiram in the end submits to the system, while Sara rebels by handing in her resignation. They both take small revenges against the system they despise.
But what connection do these three characters have with the depiction of sexuality? Precisely that the helplessness that Mehra displays in the early episodes gets him into bed with the much younger and attractive Sara, and this is the fantasy that is all pervading. Mehra’s helplessness turns into a ruthless opportunism, as he plays on sympathies to get his ends. The helplessness in the face of a “system”, which seems insurmountable to the upper castes even in their fiction, turns out to be a fictional helplessness, supposed to get them into bed and to help them partake in different pleasures.
This guilty pleasure is what structures the sex scenes, and to be sure, the whole series. When Sara is introduced to a new intern, Rahul Thakur, her first reaction is to call out his privilege; but later on, she nevertheless goes on to develop a friendship with him. Hathiram similarly figures out the nefarious plots abound in politics, and tells the villain Bajpayi that he has it figured out, but nevertheless agrees to submit to the will of Bajpayi. Both retain their contact with power, but only after going through a cleansing of conscience – by denouncing power in speech, they consider themselves absolved of their sins.
The series occurs within the neo-feudal constellation of institutions – politics, police, media, the people, and the underworld. This constellation is in fact a slightly reordered form of the feudal estate system, with competition within each group and a broad alliance among the different groups. In this constellation, we are told, there is no choice but to be complicit to the violence carried out by it. Politics offers little hope in Paatal Lok, with the only promising political leader – a Dalit – beheaded within a few scenes of his appearance.
The alliance cannot change, and so the protagonists in the series become complicit in it. Or they carry out token protests, to satisfy their own conscience. Most of all, they are convinced that the agent of change can only be from among themselves, but they cannot seem to imagine how they will do it. In their complicity, an ironic enjoyment sets in, officially the police is condemned as corrupt, but it is nevertheless affirmed, the media is condemned as dishonest, but one nevertheless has to stay in it, violence is condemned but one nevertheless remains complicit in it. The added twist is that rapes become a source of visual pleasure, with the camera gazing at it attentively, just as the scenes of violence and humiliation have been sources of masochistic pleasure for long.
