St. George the martyr in the aftermath of the Osama killing

All forms of media the world over have had it easy for the past week as they have managed to fill up valuable spaces of print offline and substantial volume of pages online in the days following the killing of Osama bin Laden. As scores of people have hailed the assassination as a closure for 9/11, voices spread over the world have asked for sanity to be followed, over and against celebration and victory parades. But one thing is for sure. Small and big media enterprises, blogs and social networking sites have given Osama the space otherwise reserved for other things, and that too free of cost! What does one have to be to get coverage in the media? Good, bad or ugly?

A small review of various forms of media these days suggest that one needs to be bad or ugly, in reality or in perception, to be given space. The good no longer matters. No one is interested in that. Churches the world over are going about celebrating the festival of St. George. The officer in full gear is seen slaying the dragon and hundreds of thousands of people sport St. George as their personal slayer in chief.

The account of St. George is that of a soldier who slays the dragon and saves the princess in distress and the people of the community from the deadly enemy. The dragon is seen as a symbol of all that is evil and bad. St. George comes across as a natural saver for people in distress, suffering from evil forces.

But what goes into the background usually is the martyrdom of St. George who chooses death over life, refusing to let go of his beliefs. His strength is not his spear but rather the lack of his spear. Coming after the passion week observation of the crucifixion of Christ, this is a similar account of the master disarming himself for the sake of others. But instead of grasping the sacrifice we are fixated on the destruction of the dragon, which anyway is much more than what we think of.

The media is also fixated on the bad and the ugly. It first goes on to make Osama the number one enemy of the world and then celebrates his death at the hands of Obama and his soldiers. But is Obama (the U.S.) willing to disarm itself like St. George did? Is he (it) willing to die for the sake of humanity? The answer is no. Of course, no offence to Obama I guess. He just happens to be at the head of the self ascertained supreme power, the U.S. at the moment.

One has to struggle to understand why the U.S. first supported someone like Osama, armed him and then hunted him down. It’s just like fattening the cow before killing it. Power and the capability to kill are being celebrated here. It is not the death of Osama. The media goes along. Construct and build someone, kill him/her and then report it. This formula is the single most important driving point of many media houses these days. I wonder whether Osama will be elevated to the position of a saint because of the way he died. One also has to see whether there were internal plots within the Al-Qaeda to do away with Osama because he is better dead than alive to them.

Churches these days go through the same struggle. How much it has to arm itself and who has to be shot down. The picture of a spear less St. George would be unthinkable I guess. The need to construct various Osamas will be pushed through and we will buy it. The spear of St. George rather than the cross he bore will be given more importance. We are as guilty of slaying Osama as the U.S.! Let the sinless one among us throw the first stone!

The WikiLeaks and the Jesus truth

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. Jesus attests to his own authenticity in the wake of him being questioned by those in authority. He blows his cover and comes into the lime light with these series of revelations which embarrass many and challenge the authority and power of some. The official version is challenged by an unofficial claim to truth. The unofficial man who makes this high claim comes from an ordinary family which has no claims to any immediate royal authenticity. Those in power are usually unsettled by claims of ordinary people, that they too have the power of the truth with them. This claim by Jesus was indeed unsettling. So unsettling that the leaders got together and plotted his death!

The WikiLeaks are being talked of as irresponsible, anti-national, misleading, and intended for character assassination of those in power. The embarrassment it has caused the U.S. is understandable. The freedom curtain has been exposed even as the U.S. has maintained all along that there is no curtain apart from the erstwhile iron curtain! The leaks also read like gossip stories on various countries. Truth is always bitter and even in this case this is what has come out. The bitter truth is too hot to handle. We are faced with the reality that the U.S. is everything opposite of what we have imagined and been tutored to accept.

Julian Assange is going to be hunted down. He is too hot to be walking free. Especially for those who are into the business of constructing truth and selling it! As usual he is being charged with crimes he hasn’t committed and faults which have nothing to do with the WikiLeaks. Whether he is a world hero in opposition to a national hero remains to be seen! What is fascinating is the role he is now living. The role of someone who has exposed the truth as it is. I don’t know whether the leaks are selective and only against a few, whereas others are taken out of the radar. And I don’t know whether he has an ulterior motive in all this.

What is rather interesting is that the WikiLeaks have destabilised the lies that we have considered the truth. We have got so used to the lies, that they were the truth for us. We have been woken from that slumber and are faced with the truth in all its broadness. The WikiLeaks have indeed brought out several issues. Does diplomacy mean that we lie to each other, will people of different countries come together in the culture of lies or the culture of truth, do we have to lie to be stable countries or will truth eventually stabilise any instability?

The church, like many governments would also not encourage any WikiLeaks like situation. Where does that leave Jesus in a Christmas season commemorating his birth? Should we side line him for the stability of our constructed lives or should we take him seriously and live in the beauty of instability, but peace of mind that we are offered? Can we be religious and sincere at the same time or is religion all about being politically correct and doctrinally sound? Should truth be guarded in a multi security prison or should it be free for us to see and decide?

Help, I'm old !!!

Kerala finds itself staring at more than 3 million people who are above the age of 60. Many have been thrown out (either physically or by being a nobody in their own house) of their homes and some live at the mercy of relatives or old age homes. Even that is a luxury and some end up on the streets with nothing.

But life wasn't always like this for them. There was a life of happiness and content. A life with a loving wife or husband and the fullfillment of bringing up one's children and caring for them. But what was the epicentre of their lives then shatters all expectations. Mother's and father's are taken care of and then conveniently disposed when the time comes. Some are put up in huge mansions constructed by the children who work in the middle east, the U.S. or Europe, and the parents also become a part of the furniture, to be showcased to the public. Without any community support the old are left to fend for themselves or live a life after surrendering every bit of their integrity.

Society itself makes the aged feel unwanted. Everything happens so fast and changes faster that the mother's and father's can't even cross a road or shop in peace. The railway's and banks give special incentives to those above 60 but how will these people reach a railway station or a bank? How is it possible to do anything when one feels they could be mauled down any minute by the traffic.

This is not the case in every house hold. There are children who go the extra mile to take care of their parents, sometimes even overdoing it a touch. There are those who age gracefully and die gracefully. But they are the exceptions. What about those who are pushed into solitude? What about those who feel the carpet has been pulled from under them? When will we assure and give dignity to the aged? These then are the questions before us.