There is a bit of all of us in Modi

It was meant to be a personal opinion as most columns are, but the response has been pretty public and vocal. A columnist for a daily newspaper in the city wrote that there is a Narendra Modi in every one of us (he was referring to the Gujarat CM, allegedly the mastermind behind the massacre of Muslims during the 2002 Gujarat riots). Is he wrong? Or do we all have a latent genocidal maniac lurking in the abyss of our mind? I think we do.

So what is it then that prevents us from making like Pol Pot having a temper tantrum and obliterating everyone in our vicinity? The answer lies in our fear of repercussion.

Humans, unfortunately or not, live in an environment of fear. And it is made with the blood and sweat of our own beings.

Fear — whose greatest patrons are organised society and religion — keeps us hemmed in; prevents us for realising our potential and above all exercising our need to express our free will.

Anarchy would be Politik 101 if it wasn’t for our fear of being labeled social pariahs. The execution of those we despised would be far more agreeable if it wasn’t for our fear of being incarcerated — or worse, executed ourselves.

Society claims that these are the very reasons why dogma and rigid diktat must be enforced: not so much to protect us from antisocial elements, as to keep us from harming ourselves. Society is nothing but religion’s general, and we mere foot-soldiers in a battle for (pardon the cliché) global hearts and minds.

There is a Modi in every one of us, says the columnist. I would go one step further: there is a bit of us in Modi...and Manson...and Papa Doc...and Hitler.

We live by a moral code that is not ours, and has been thrust upon us by consecutive generations of feeble-minds. Veer from the road well-traveled and feel the brunt of religion’s apocalyptic horsemen: Justice, Family, Society and the Word.

Modi gave his henchmen carte blanche. He took away their fear of repercussion and promised them freedom to express their will. He turned them into humans, he took away their social consciousness and returned them to their primordial state. In many ways he set them free. The fact that Modi used religion to spur on the killers is moot, what isn’t, however, is that he turned society’s weapons upon itself.

Modi, however, made one grave mistake. He sought refuge within the belly of the very beast, whose commands he had shredded, and whose codes he had destroyed. This is his comeuppance. In his case, his lack of fear, was his undoing.

Society is an unforgiving nemesis: at times, it may lapse, but it never forgets. We fear repercussion, because it is inevitable, not because it is righteous.

Those who rail at the columnist’s views are merely reading from society’s hymn sheet. It is time we begin to rail against the system. Anarchy — violent or non-violent — works. Just ask the likes of Gandhi, Robespierre, and Samuel Adams.

Modi may be wrong, but in the homicidal carnage he inspired, there is a hint of the rebelliousness, inherent in all of us. We must now begin to tap it.

Two Emiratis jailed 15 years for rape of European boy

DUBAI, UAE: A Dubai court on Wednesday sentenced two men from the United Arab Emirates to 15 years in jail for raping a French-Swiss teenager.

The prosecution said it would appeal against the sentence, which the victim's mother considered too lenient. The trial of the two UAE nationals, aged 18 and 36, opened on October 24. The older of the two defendants is HIV positive, according to legal sources.

"Fifteen years is nothing for someone who knew he had AIDS," the mother, Veronique Robert, told AFP after the verdict.

"I respect their justice system and I have no other comment to make before speaking to my lawyer."

Defence lawyers had claimed the 15-year-old European had consented to sex and that he had lied to the authorities. The sex act was "in consent and not forced" on the teenager, they said. On November 18, the Dubai public prosecutor's office demanded the maximum penalty for the two adults, one of whom said he was drunk at the time. Under UAE penal code, the maximum penalty for rape could have meant a death sentence.

Diary of a Lady - 16

The captain of the sinking crystal ship was recently congratulated on expressing his feminine side through the writings of this diary. Now that’s a laugh. The captain of this hole-ridden blog is a misogynist who in his own words would happily fuck a narwhal. I, on the other hand, have standards when it comes to deciding who I want to sleep with. No man or woman has refused me yet, though after 29 years of fucking around, I’m beginning to think that sex is overrated.

I prefer to sleep with men and women I know or even like. Otherwise, as I stare into the face of the stranger pounding me, I think of the lines from TS Eliot’s Wasteland. I summarise: She is bored and tired, he endeavours to engage her in caresses, which though unreproved are undesired. His vanity requires no response.

And at the end of banal interlude, you get up and say, “Well, thank god that’s over.” That’s what it boils down to.

19 killed in apartment fire in central China, hundreds trapped

BEIJING, China: A fire tore through an apartment building in central China early Wednesday, killing 19 people and leaving hundreds of other residents trapped, the official Xinhua News Agency said. (Watch Crystal Ship for story updates)

Nine charged with woman's death during Maori exorcism

WELLINGTON, New Zealand: Nine family members appeared in a New Zealand court Wednesday charged with manslaughter over the death of a 22 year old woman during an apparent Maori exorcism ceremony in October, police said, according to the Associated Press.

The six women and three men entered no pleas when they appeared in Lower Hutt District Court, and were released on police bail by Judge Denis Barry.

One of the women was charged jointly with a fourth man with cruelty to a child, a 14-year-old girl who also nearly died during the ceremony.

The judge granted all 10 defendants interim name suppression until they reappear in February.

The 10, aged between 42 and 57, were released on bail on condition that they not participate in or advise anyone over any ceremony involving Maori exorcism or cleansing procedures.

Police said the deceased drowned in a family bath during the ceremony at her grandparents' home on October 12 while about 40 members of her family looked on.

Her 14-year-old cousin was taken to hospital after nearly dying during a subsequent exorcism — one of six other people subject to exorcism after the woman drowned, police said.

Earlier, police said the teenager nearly lost her sight after her eyes were gouged to drive out an evil spirit during the exorcism.

These girls are too Spicy for Las Vegas

London: The Spice Girls (aka Skinny, Eddie’s beeach, Fatso, Butch and Slapper), who are spreently on their reunion tour, sang to a half empty stadium in Las Vegas.

Of course to some in the audience it was half-full. But optimists seem to be fleeing away from the Painful Pentet, acording to website ananova.com.

Becks was there weeping into his lace handkerchief, alongside pugilist Ricky ‘Mayweather’s my daddy’ Hatton, but paying fans decided not to show up.

According to the Associated Press, things have been getting worse for the group after their comeback single Headlines, which was sung for the NGO Children in Need, flopped so badly that it became the charity's worst selling song of all time.

On a better note Spandau Ballet’s reunion seems to be on track for 2008. The band will go on World Tour with the newly-reformed Culture Club. Oh the humanity!