Calling the Shots!

Hurray for the Pfizer vaccine — humanity’s best hope to beat Covid — and achieving it in 11 months was quite remarkable! It is a ray of hope in a devastating year, but that may be the only good news in an annus horribilis!

Since I’m a glass-half-empty kind of gal, I can’t help but dwell on America’s abysmal response thus far to the pandemic: so many avoidable deaths, so much pain and suffering, such an absence of leadership. Nine months in and they still can’t get anything right: what with testing, tracing, ventilator and PPE shortages, dithering over mask mandates, lockdowns, and stay at home orders — so why would they get vaccine distribution right?  

But, hey, let’s hope for the best even while pointing out the total lack of a comprehensive and evidence-based national strategy to track key metrics. 

Based on his own experience when he fell ill, Trump took it for granted that the world-class and life-saving experimental treatment he received from a government run program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was the exact same care other Americans could easily get. He was so wrong!

Undue Access

There’s also the issue of Trump associates gaining undue access to drugs that are in such short supply that hospitals have a lottery system! Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani bragged of special care because of his "celebrity” status and getting the same drugs as Trump! Guiliani is not a D.C. resident, so should not have had access to them at a D.C. hospital. 

Similarly, HUD Secretary Ben Carson said Trump "cleared" him for a “monoclonal antibody therapy” that most Americans would never get — the same with former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, also from Trump’s inner circle.

This is a type of corruption that only exists in societies controlled by oligarchs and autocrats where friends and family of the dictator get first dibs! It shouldn’t happen in America!

Also, what is it with these science-deniers who now believe in science when it suits them? 

Jumping the Queue!

Will that also happen with the vaccine? Will the powerful, the connected, and the rich jump to the top of the queue ahead of front line health workers and the elderly? 

Meanwhile, videos have circulated showing mask-less guests crowding together at Trump-hosted Hanukkah parties at the White House! Is it any wonder then that his staff and guests keep testing positive for Covid? But they’re the privileged few who can get access to experimental treatment and recover unlike ordinary citizens (like you and I!) who can get sick — and die! 

Grim Numbers

Meanwhile, more than 300,000 Americans have already died from Covid — that’s more than U.S. battlefield fatalities in World War II! That number is the population of Pittsburgh, says the New York Times! More than 3,000 deaths per day on several days this month translates to single-day tolls worse than 9/11 (2,900 deaths) or the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (2,400 deaths)! Digest those grim stats for a moment. 

It is difficult to assess the number of years lost and lives disrupted by the sheer complacency of this Administration and its errors of commission and omission. Clearly, many lives might have been saved if more blatant mistakes had been prevented, common sense safeguards put in place, and top shelf treatment made more universally available.

Beware of Pandemic Fatigue!

We are in a state of pandemic fatigue, fed up of endless precautions and restrictions and lack of activities to engage in, resulting in depression, mood swings, and sheer ennui! This has led some to abandon safety protocols and risk catching the disease. Beware!  

The main reason we are currently experiencing huge coronoavirus spikes throughout the country with resultant severe shortages in ER beds is because millions of Americans ignored medical advice and traveled during Thanksgiving. With Christmas coming up, expect more of the same, much more!

Season of Giving!

Changing the subject: how about a little philanthropy and what better time than the present? I can recommend these charities, see Weblinks below — KIND (Kids in Need of Desks) that donates desks to children in Malawi, CAMFED (Campaign for Female Education), an African movement promoting education for girls, and the Himalayan Cataract Project (also known as Cure Blindness) which fights blindness in Asia and Africa and can restore a person’s sight for as little as $25.

There are many other World Bank and UNICEF-supported charities where the WB matches donations dollar for dollar at this time of year through its Community Connections Campaign. 

Another worthwhile place to donate is to soup kitchens and other organizations that deliver food packages for families in need. People are stealing food because they’re hungry — that shouldn’t be happening in America either!

All the very best for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice! Let’s hope 2021 is better (could hardly be worse) — I’m kidding, of course! I’m sure it will be a “grand year” as my former boss used to say!

Christmas Star or the Great Conjunction of 2020!  

For all you stargazers, get ready to train those amateur telescopes to the sky on December 21st! Look out for the “rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter” on the northern hemisphere’s longest and darkest night of the year, the Winter Solstice! (Check out article and pics below and tips on how to see it!)

This is a major cosmic event: a double planet view of two giants, Jupiter and Saturn, drawing closer together than they have in centuries! Known as the Great Conjunction of 2020 (the last time they were this close to each other was 800 years ago), they will light up the night sky as if “locked in an embrace and creating a double planet effect!” (Who knew astronomers could be lyrical?)

Also known as the “Christmas Star,” note that the Biblical story of the Star of Bethlehem could well have been a planetary conjunction — but not Jupiter and Saturn. More than two thousand years ago, that bright star in the heavens was actually Venus and Jupiter, the same star that the Three Wise Men and humble shepherds followed to the manger in Bethlehem! 

See how science explains everything even if you prefer it to fudge a bit and preserve childhood fantasies! I just caught myself humming the Christmas Star carol! Bummer!  

Ludi Joseph

Washington, D.C.

December 14, 2020

https://www.msnbc.com/kindfund

https://camfed.org/

https://www.cureblindness.org/

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/2020/12/14/jupiter-saturn-conjunction-good-wont-happen-again-until-2080/6544068002/

How to see the Conjunction!

Face southwest on Dec. 21st, 6:15-6:45 p.m. Jupiter will be one of the brightest stars you see with a fainter Saturn to Jupiter’s right. They will be low in the sky, so find a clear unobstructed view to the southwestern horizon. Jupiter and Saturn will appear nearest on Dec. 21st but they will also be close Dec. 18-24. 

Will A Suitable Boy Meet Expectations? 
... and more reviews!

I was struck by BBC TV’s adaptation of A Suitable Boy which began streaming Stateside on Acorn TV earlier this month and have seen three of the six episodes aired so far. My first thought was that the series deserved more than six episodes. Didn’t Downton Abbey get six seasons and a movie? 

It is a take on Vikram Seth’s celebrated 1993 epic novel set in 1951 — in a newly independent India — against a backdrop of political and religious upheaval. The central character is the young and rebellious Lata Mehra whose mother is trying to find her a husband (“a suitable boy” of the title). As a fan of the 1,500 page book, I was afraid of being disappointed — but loving it so far!

Directed by Mira Nair (of Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding and The Namesake fame) it is lush and colorful. Through the relationships of four families, the Mehras, Chatterjis, Kapoors, and Khans, Nair presents a country that keeps failing (killing of peaceful protesters, sectarian riots, Hindu nationalism) but remains aspirational (general elections, land reforms, inter-faith love). 

As one of the most expensive BBC series ever made, Nair has splurged on gorgeous costumes, fine jewelry, and lavish parties, including an elaborate wedding, celebration of Holi (a spring festival), and scenic boat rides on the Ganges.

Nawabi (Princely) Culture

Nair, who (like Seth) grew up in a similar public school educated, secular Indian tradition as many of her generation, has a way of recreating time, place, and historical context — as in Lucknow’s famed Nawabi or Princely culture — that is deeply nostalgic and strongly evocative of an India that once was! 

The book’s fictional Brahmpur is filmed on location along the Ganges between Benares and Patna. Besides Lucknow, the series also features Calcutta, Delhi, Kanpur, and Maheshwar (Madhya Pradesh in central India), and feels compellingly authentic. 

There is a large ensemble cast. Lata (played by Tanya Maniktala) and Kabir (Danesh Razvi) fall in love after meeting at university but Lata is a Hindu and Kabir a Muslim in a country riven by unrest and painful religious differences. Lata realizes that Kabir is not the “suitable boy” her mother would like her to marry!

Lata’s brother-in-law Maan, played by Ishaan Khatter, embarrasses his dad (high-ranking politician Mahesh) by pursuing Saeeda Bai, an older courtesan and ghazal singer, played by Tabu. Mahesh’s land reforms are opposed by greedy landowners who want to maintain the status quo. 

I enjoyed the hilarious scenes of tango dancing at a party in Calcutta, which used to have (still has) a distinct rather Westernized club culture rarely found elsewhere in India.

Political Turmoil 

The series reflects the socio-economic and political turmoil of the times with the pull between tradition and progress, bitter class and caste conflict, wealthy landowners exploiting the poor, and the taboo of inter-faith marriage. 

Nair has said in interviews that she was drawn to the political backdrop of a post-independence India as it prepared for its first national election as a democracy, and the modernity and optimism embodied in Lata’s character. 

Also interesting is that the themes covered — of religious intolerance, the complexities of family life, the position of women, the pressure of society on the individual, and the danger of democracy slipping into autocracy — are being played out just as intensely in today’s India.  

Media Flak!

The series, a first by the Beeb with an entirely South Asian cast, was met with praise in Britain but not so much in India where there was flak about it being almost entirely in English. But the world of Seth’s book is also very anglicized, influenced by two centuries of Colonial rule. Many Indian families of Nair’s and Seth’s milieu grew up speaking only (or mainly) English. 

Critics found fault with the actors’ accents and accused them of “trying to sound browner,” “taking a Peter Sellers approach,” and the drollest one, “the BBC’s revenge on Indians for writing better English!” In my view, what you hear is a clearly enunciated, slower, 1950s English, the kind not in use today but, I think, appropriate!  

I agree, though, that it is odd to hear Indian village characters speak to each other in English. When they converse in Hindi, as Saeeda with her maid, the flow sounds more natural.

Indian critics were also peeved that award-winning British screenwriter Andrew Davies, who adapted Pride and Prejudice, was chosen by Seth to do the screenplay — shouldn’t that be the decision of the author?

Intolerance for Dissent

Meanwhile, a controversy has erupted over kissing scenes! Indian ruling party politicians of the Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have claimed that “religious sentiments” were “hurt” because the series showed a Hindu girl kissing a Muslim boy against the backdrop of a temple! They called for a nationwide boycott of Netflix whose officials were booked by police, told to remove offensive content, and apologize for “encouraging love jihad.”  

The absurd love jihad conspiracy theory claims that Muslim men are part of a plot to lure Hindu women into marriage and force their conversion to Islam! A few years ago, it was a fringe notion of the lunatic right feeding a culture of suspicion around inter-faith couples — it has now gone mainstream!

I find it odd that the series was even shown in India! It is a time of total intolerance for dissent with secularism and free speech under threat and Muslims reviled and persecuted in ways previously unseen — all of it happening with police complicity, little recourse to justice, and much of the elite and media seeming to acquiesce with such blatant bigotry. Sad times, indeed!

Lucknow

The Urdu poetry of Mirza Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir, and Daagh Dehlvi in the scenes with Saeeda are a celebration of Lucknow’s rich and historic Indo-Muslim culture that clearly belong to an earlier more liberal era, unsullied by today’s dark cloud of Hindu fundamentalism! 

Lucknow is famed for its “Tehzeeb” (mannerisms and culture) that derived from the Muslim Nawabs (Princes) of the erstwhile Kingdom of Awadh (also called Oudh). The city’s Nawabi culture speaks to its refinement, courtesy, etiquette, sophistication, and fine taste in dance (Kathak), Urdu poetry (ghazals, qawwali), music, literature, drama, and cuisine.

It reminded me of two of my favorite Lucknow-based Indian films. One is Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj ke Khiladi (Chess Players), the story of the 1856 British annexation of Awadh on the eve of the Indian Rebellion (Sepoy Mutiny). The two main characters are so immersed in playing chess, they ignore the invasion taking place! For classic performances, look no further than Amjad Khan in a heartrending role as the Nawab, Sanjeev Kumar and Saeed Jaffrey as the chess players, Shabana Azmi as Sanjeev’s philandering wife, Farooq Shaikh as her lover, with Richard Attenborough, Victor Bannerji, Tom Alter, and Barry John. 

Another is Umrao Jaan, the 1981, visually stunning, Muzaffar Ali-helmed film starring Rekha (not the bad 2006 remake!) which outshone its Bollywood “nawab and nautch girl” genre. Also set during the 1857 Mutiny, the film beautifully recreated the Lucknow of the period with its pigeon flight contests (kabootar baazi) and Indian hop scotch (ikkal dukkal)! It was also a feast for Urdu and Kathak (Indian classical dance) fans! 

More Reviews: Jane Austen, Daphne du Maurier

The new film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma which mixes social satire, romantic intrigue, and match-making was excellent with live musical performances giving it a decided edge! Emma (Anna Taylor-Joy) plays the piano and sings “‘Tis the Last Rose of Summer” and Mr Knightley (Johnny Flynn) plays the violin and gives a commanding performance of “Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes” from Ben Johnson’s To Celia. (English Majors will be familiar with those classic poems/chansons/lieder!)

A Suitable Boy has its own German lied, Schubert’s Die Nebensonnen (The Sun Dogs), beautifully sung in the third episode by a character described as a music teacher. Seth himself sings Schubert — I heard him in Delhi many years ago at the home of Austrian diplomat Peter Launsky who later married Seth’s sister, Aradhana, a designer. 

I’m intrigued that many new British adaptations of period literature and historical plays seem to sneak in a live musical performance now and again, such as, in the film version of My Cousin Rachel, with Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin, based on the Daphne du Maurier novel.

Victoria and Albert

Victoria, a PBS Masterpiece Theatre drama by ITV, also included a live performance with a young Queen Victoria, played by Jenna Coleman, singing a Bach hymn “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden,” (O sacred Head, now wounded) in German. But wasn’t it Prince Albert of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who soulfully sang “Drink to Me Only...” to Victoria which made her pick him over Ernest, his more charming older brother? I waited in vain! He didn’t sing it in the PBS drama!

I wonder how the disastrous six-part ITV historical drama, Beecham House (on PBS Masterpiece Theatre, directed by Gurinder Chadha) played in India. Not everyone can do period films! Chadha, who also directed the films Bend it Like Beckham and Bhaji on the Beach, co-wrote Beecham House. One of the kindest things said about it by The Guardian was “risible!”

Sorry to report that the new film version of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca with Armie Hammer, Lily James, and Kristin Scott-Thomas was drab, poorly directed, and oh-so disappointing! Du Maurier deserved better!

Let’s hope 2021 will be an improvement — for films, streaming shows, and life in general! Meanwhile, waiting impatiently for the next three episodes of A Suitable Boy!  

Note that Seth is writing a sequel novel called A Suitable Girl where an aging Lata, now a grandmother, has come full circle and is looking for a wife for her grandson!

Ludi Joseph

Washington, D.C.

December 16, 2020

Check out NPR Interview with Mira Nair: https://www.npr.org/2020/12/12/945788759/mira-nairs-a-suitable-boy-makes-us-streaming-premiere

 

 

 America to the GOP — Clean Up Your Act!

The Republican Party has a position of outsize influence in American political life. Representing as it does the white population, it has used all the tricks in the book to perpetuate its power by winning (often by crook!) governorships, state houses, state judiciaries, and consolidating its power in all branches of the federal government. 

More than anything else, its control of the U.S. Senate has helped it to shape the ideological balance on the federal courts. We have them to thank for the Supreme Court’s lopsided 6-3 conservative majority! Don’t blame Trump alone— he was a willing tool they used to get us there!

The party is often satirized for its devotion to guns, extreme partisanship, a lazy dependence on lobbyists, and a penchant for falsehoods and demagoguery! 

It’s actually a lot worse!

Downright Chicanery!

The entire raison d'être of the GOP is to remain in power by any and all means. The only way they can do that is, first, stop minorities from voting! Why? Because (for the most part) those darn minorities, they up and vote for the other guy!  Second, stop all the votes being counted!  

With America becoming a minority white country, the GOP does not have the numbers to win in the regular way. Hence, they resort to downright chicanery and crude efforts like purging voter rolls, shutting polling stations in Black and Latino areas, and changing ID laws. 

In Georgia, the legislature cut the number of polling stations by 10 percent, dropped thousands of voters from the rolls because they hadn’t voted in a while, and suspended registrations of another 50,000 Blacks for minor inconsistencies (e.g., omitting a hyphen in a name.)

Alabama began enforcing a strict ID bill and then closed nearly all ID offices in majority Black counties. North Carolina’s legislature required the exact form of ID that Blacks were least likely to have. Texas required a certain kind of ID they knew 600,000 registered Latino voters lacked. 

You get the picture? Without court challenges mounted by Democrats, many of those sidelined voters may never have cast their ballots. 

By November 4, it was clear the presidency would be decided by votes being counted in big cities with large Blacks populations: Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Phoenix. Trump cast doubts on the votes by dint of location: “Detroit and Philadelphia are known as two of the most corrupt political places,” he said. “They cannot be responsible for engineering the outcome of a presidential race.”

The pattern was obvious. Trump was attempting to invalidate ballots cast for Biden in swing state cities where minorities predominate and can swing elections. He was saying that Blacks have no right to vote him out of office! Writing in The Washington Post, Eugene Robinson labelled it an “undisguised, unapologetic reassertion of the white-is-right doctrine.”

Author Gary Younge calls it a “new twist in the racial logic of the American right, which has gone from blocking Black people from voting to allowing them to vote as long as their votes don’t all get counted.” Younge has written about identity politics in Who Are We? How Identity Politics Took Over the World (Penguin). 

Demographics Are Against Them!

Although GOP clout is unlikely to diminish in the near future, demographics are against them! The country grows less white every year and, by 2045, is expected to be majority non-white with 29 percent Hispanic, 13 percent Black, 9 percent Asian, and 47 percent white. 

At present, less than half of all American children under the age of 15, are white. In five states (California, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas), white people are already a minority. 2045 is still a few years down the road, so, patience, mes amis! But, before you start counting your chickens, remember this, “there is nothing inevitable about demographics,” Younge adds! 

Whites have long been a minority in Texas and yet, despite the Dems giving Texas their best shot, the GOP has held that state for nearly 50 years! Florida is also very diverse, yet (for the most part) votes GOP, whereas two white states, Vermont and Maine, are reliably Democrat. Go figure!

Christian Right

Over the past several decades, the Republican Party has been captured by two powerful forces: the Christian right with its theocratic vision for America, and the Tea Party movement. Both are overwhelmingly white.

The Christian right (comprising Evangelicals and conservative Catholics and Protestants) unites around anti-abortion activism, opposition to LGBTQ rights, sex education, and euthanasia, and the promotion of abstinence, school prayer, religious freedom, and the teaching of creationism (as opposed to evolution). (Read NYT article on religion and right-wing politics below.)

The Tea Party (an acronym for Taxed Enough Already) was a reaction to Obama’s 2009 mortgage relief plan. A populist social and political movement, it favored an unfettered free market while opposing excessive taxation, government intervention in the private sector, and economic redistribution. (See Pew Research article on the Tea Party below.)

The two came together on economic issues (e.g.  railing against welfare checks to “lazy minorities!”) but mostly on immigration — they wanted it halted or curbed! A more diverse America (with new immigrants voting for the wrong party) was most unwelcome!

Culture Wars

These movements within the GOP converged with a realization that demographic trends were hostile to the party’s older whiter heavily Christian base. It also generated a virulent white identity politics that found its natural expression in Trump’s intensely divisive rhetoric.

Consider “Make America Great Again.” It is a promise of a return to better days, a past that never was, a halcyon time when white men ruled America, Christianity was the “official” religion, minorities were rarely seen, and women had no power. This is precisely the kind of faux 1950s world that most Republicans yearn for: a doomed exercise in nostalgia! 

Trump’s appointment of conservative judges gave the Christian right what they craved: a chance to defeat legalized abortion, same sex marriage, multiculturalism, environmentalism, secularism — they were back to fighting the “culture wars.”

Trump’s draconian immigration policies (the Muslim Ban, the Border Wall, separating children from their parents) were what the Christian Right wanted, never mind the horrific sight of toddlers in cages. It also meant a sudden lurch of the party in the opposite direction after George W. Bush had championed a more diverse future. 

Is the GOP’s embrace of voter suppression a by-product of opportunism? The party is existentially committed to restoring (or preserving) white, Christian supremacy in the face of increasing diversity. Electoral mischief, like voter suppression, is the most direct means of reaching that goal, a means to an end, not cheating, no sir! 

Political conservatism was once a principled philosophy. The current GOP has transformed it into a grievance agenda fueled by xenophobia. Propping up a declining white Christian base amid changing demographics was always bound to fail — the numbers just don’t add up! 

Beware of GOP Fear Mongering!

America needs immigrants to help maintain the country’s economic growth and provide a solid tax base to fund entitlement programs. Without younger people of color coming in, entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare would dry up. Hence, to protect and preserve the country’s social safety net, whites should be welcoming immigrants, regardless of race.

By growing the economy, immigration is likely to increase the size of the proverbial “pie” of economic resources. The claim made by some in the GOP that immigrants are a threat because they depress wages and take away jobs from American workers is blatant fear mongering.

White Identity Politics

Waves of immigration in the late 1990s and early 2000s transformed America’s demographics. This was brought into sharp relief by the election of Obama which ignited a high degree of racial unease and fear that activated identity politics. 

About 40 percent of white Americans now identify with their whiteness. Once secure in the belief that they held a disproportionate share of economic, political, and social resources, they have begun to see their privilege and status being increasingly questioned. 

They are afraid of losing, not just their majority, but also their cultural and political power. Many also feel they are being discriminated against and that the economic, political and social gains of minorities are coming at white expense.

“Dominionist” Strategy

Getting back to the Christian right, their long term agenda can be summed up essentially as promoting the idea of Christian nationalism.  They believe the U.S. once was, and should again be, “a glorious Christian nation.” They endorse a theocratic vision that Biblical law (the Ten Commandments) should be the foundation of the U.S. legal system.

To achieve their goals, the more extreme among them believe that America must adopt a “dominionist” strategy where Christians exercise power and dominate every sphere of life: religion, education, economics, politics, culture (arts, entertainment, media), and family.

Armed Struggle

The GOP’s determination to resist any hint of gun regulation, despite public opinion, is not just a matter of campaign contributions from the gun lobby. It comes from a genuine belief among grassroots conservatives that armed struggle — against “radical Democrat elites” — must remain an option if conventional politics fails! 

You may balk but that is the core belief of much of the Christian right — and now an intrinsic GOP belief, whether articulated or not! They are convinced that a civil war may be necessary to impose Red America’s will on Blue America! To this end, they will call on militias, the Boogaloo Boys, anyone, who will rally to their cause!  

Sounds insane? Maybe, but if it’s how a section (perhaps, not the mainstream, yet) of a major political party thinks, we should pay attention!

Trump, with his authoritarian contempt for democratic norms, was the perfect vessel to achieve their agenda! He was never the evil genius! Far smarter and loonier right wingers were deciding on how to reach their objectives! 

The Once Proud Party of Lincoln... 

The party that ended slavery and fought to maintain the Union — the once proud party of Abraham Lincoln — is dead and quite gone! It now houses the ideological heirs to the very Confederacy that it defeated! 

By being a willing accomplice to Trump and pandering to his every whim, the GOP has set back racial progress and damaged democracy. It can continue to use bigotry and race baiting for now but, sooner or later, must face reality. 

Check out some of its worst transgressions of just the past four years:

The party has transferred wealth from working Americans to billionaires: by giving tax breaks to the wealthy while shifting taxes onto the middle class and working poor, weakening unions, removing workplace protections, and trying repeatedly to strip citizens of health insurance. 

It has permitted Big Business to poison our air, water, soil, and food — all in the name of profit!  

It is not just ignoring the climate change catastrophe; it is accelerating it by expanding fossil fuel extraction. 

It has gravely mishandled the global pandemic resulting in nearly 300,000 Americans dead and counting.

Many principled Republicans, such as the creators of the Lincoln Project, have left the party. They canvassed and voted for Biden. Will they return or is the party too damaged and toxic? Will there be a split with the ethically-challenged truth-deniers on one side and the group that acknowledges reality on the other?  

The GOP might yet be salvaged by Republicans who believe in democracy. But first, to become a governing party again, soul searching is on the menu: it must clean up its act!

Ludi Joseph

Washington, D.C.

December 10, 2020

Religion and Right-Wing Politics: How Evangelicals Reshaped Elections (Published 2018)

Trump’s Staunch GOP Supporters Have Roots in the Tea Party