Friday Diary: Cover-ups and close-outs
Doctoring the past
Back in high school history class, probably on some sweltering afternoon where wool socks and buttoned collars were still insisted upon in a rather wicked way, we were provided a textbook on the Russian Revolution.
Its pages creased and scrawled upon (some notes were helpful, others weren’t), it glanced over the nuances of Marxism and Bolshevism in a horribly Whig kind of way. Body counts were too frequently omitted.
But in the corner of one page, two pictures were displayed. On the left, Leon Trotsky appeared spectacled and grizzled at a speech given by Lenin. On the right, in the very same picture, poor Leon was removed – cut from the page and from history.
That speech, given at Sverdlov Square, became part of Stalin’s revision of Russian history to remove those most important to it. It is a method of control and propaganda, nothing more.
News came to light this week that North Korean fascist, dictator, and Jabba the Hutt stand-in Kim Jung-Un was systematically culling all images of his allegedly plotting uncle from state media, throttling the throats of his cohorts.
On Friday morning, Jang Song-thaek was executed.
So, perhaps it’s prescient to remember that archaic and ridiculous hack-job doctoring is still occurring in failed states. And perhaps we should consider it more than a courtesy to remember those not standing on the podium (both in Russia’s past and North Korea’s present), but those on the streets and villages where no AP or Reuters photographers can reach, digging in the dirt with their fingernails, nibbling at the pages of a propaganda leaflet as their Dear Leader plays chess with uranium pieces.
These solemn people never graced the pages of a textbook. They never existed in history, and never will.
Colonies and gay cures
Just respect them, let them cling to their sovereignty, they say.
Well, no. I won’t have it. And I’m near-sick of repeating it. Human beings should not be condemned to criminal purgatory for their nature! And how many times do I need to lay the blame at the feet of religious leaders abusing their positions of influence with no evidence by their side?
I’m referring to India’s Supreme Court overturning the legalization of homosexual sex. The 2009 repeal of an ancient, belligerent, colonial law gave hope to so many marginalised citizens in India. But the decision has been made to reclassify those citizens as second-class, as disgusting, immoral creatures.
The ruling is only one of the disappointments. It’s an egregious nod back to a colonial past that an independent nation like India should fight against.
The jovial manner by which the faithful lined up to celebrate brought bile into my throat. These liars and demagogues have no basis for their claims that any sex act between consenting adults is “against nature”, as spiritual leader Tanuja Thakur told the Guardian.
To what form of nature are they referring? The nature that led a gay person to prefer one sex over another?
Well, that can be cured, according to phony witch-doctor Baba Ramdev. Just spend a few days locked in a room with a bunch of heterosexuals – problem solved.
(One wonder if the corollary is true: spend a few days locked in a room with some homosexuals and hey presto, instant queer.)
To maintain a permanent brand of segregation is disgraceful. But to grant a basic human right, only to remove it once again is immoral in the extreme.
But the vast numbers of young protesters who crowded into Jantar Mantar in Delhi gave heart to an otherwise bleak situation. They understand, just as those who fought for an India no longer under British rule, that true freedom demands recognition from on high, and nothing less.
