Babble
Saw Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s ‘Babel’ last weekend and went home depressed.
I suppose that the fact that it makers chose topics like the ones exposed in
the film already makes the film worthy of the awards and citations it has
received; but for the most part it was
like a series of scenes from real life. While it is true that I didn’t see much
that I realize or learn anything new , it affirmed my belief that often, the
problems of humanity spring from the fact that people frequently and tragically misunderstand each other even over the most simple things.
Misunderstand and deliberately, with the full doing of
chauvinist and militarist governments and power systems, twist each
person’s understanding of others.
I guess the strongest message of the movie for me at least
is this: we have to listen to what each one of is saying. Listen, be
compassionate, and always strive to keep our humanity when we deal with each
other even during the most trying situations.
That’s pretty trite and corny, I guess; but sheesh,it’s
really the simplest lessons that are most forgotten or ignored (Listen closely,
pay attention, be open-minded even as you take a stand). And this is where the tragedy lies. Human
nature?
It is to the benefit and increasing power of governments
like that of George W. Bush that paranoia, mistrust and racism are maintained
between peoples of different color and culture. That people blame the country’s
or the world’s he way others are different in how they speak, how they dress,
how they worship or work; instead of going to the root causes of
conflict: unresolved poverty , injustice, ignorance.
All over the world there is hunger, disease and death due to
war. How can it be that, say, in Hollywood, the likes of Paris Hilton can buy
hundreds of pairs of diamond-studded shoes if she wanted to, but in countries
in Africa, children literally fall down death because of starvation? How is it
possible that the children of the business elite in the Philippines can get nose and breast jobs out of
vanity, but thousands of children in Bicol and war-stricken Mindanao have never seen a doctor in their entire life?
How can that not be wrong? And how can such a state of
things in the world be allowed to happen and continue? How can anyone who knows
that such…twistedness in the world happens on a day-to-day basis not want to
do anything about it?
So we sat there in the dark theatre, biting our lips and
then muttering how we should have, gad, should have watched ‘Night at the
Museum’ instead.
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To my friends and acquaintances who have ‘normal’ jobs and
‘normal lives’, please, sometimes please spare a thought for the less fortunate
and the victims of social injustice:
1. Join cause-oriented groups
2. Volunteer to the Red Cross
3. Go out and do something good for other people,
anything!!!!
If you’re a nurse or a doctor, volunteer for a medical
mission; if you earn a lot, please donate to activist causes and for the relief
measures in calamity-stricken regions.
Gad, I sound so desperate; but it’s so…immoral to not do
anything at a time when millions of people are dying!Do something worthwhile.
Help other people who are in trouble — starving, homeless, sick or dying. Be
less selfish and live a little for others.That’s a start.
(As an aside, I read the latest PETA newsletter on how the
company PetSmart neglects to take of the animals it sells in its stores.
Hundreds of hamsters and gerbils dying because of malnutrition or stressful
living conditions. Then, last night Kim and I went to the Bio Research branch in SM Megamall and the hamsters were literally chewing on each other. Cannibalism. Cute Teddybear hamsters gnawing on their dead kin like creatures straight out of a George Romero film.The stress living in too cramped cages. We wanted to buy and rescue all the hamsters.Aaaagh! ).
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