Cave men of Nuba Mountains
By Padma EDIRISINGHE
Never seen them! I mean never seen the cave men of Nuba Mountains.
But I title them for they just hinge on my envisaged original topic that
I discarded due to its sheer frightening length.
It is "The wee little we understand relative to the infinity we do
not understand".
Just because I am a female writer you would be surmising that I am
referring to what is going on inside the neighbouring house. No. My
thinking is foolishly wide enough to encompass the global perspective.
I can give umpteen examples of this ignorance but since space is
limited I will only give one or two. One is the way women, here I mean
those at the top like the counterparts of monarchs, presidents and prime
ministers do not learn their lessons from those gone to the great
beyond.
Cases
To cite a few well-known cases there is the Czarina of Russia of
pre-revolutionary days who had been romancing in the court with Rasputin
while whole of Russia was hotting up against the despotic rule of the
Czars.
Rasputin, bogus medical man-cum-typical charmer of women had wormed
his way into the queen's affection via attention to an abnormal physical
condition of her son. Poor Czar family! They were all shot while
apparently posing for a photograph.
Then of course the famous or infamous Marie Antoinette of France with
her more infamous request to the hungry masses thronging the palace
gates, "If you do not have bread to eat, eat cake."
A few days later her beautiful neck was severed by the cruel blades
of the guillotine.
Discontent
But just read this. I need not remind you that for the whole of last
year that Syria has been burning like the very inferno with popular
discontent. But the correspondence of Asma Al-Assad, the British born
Syrian President's wife, read in a newspaper included parts like this.
(Writing to a friend on November 20, 2011, a friend about to visit
Syria) "Are you coming around the 2nd or before? If so can you bring the
Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 2 released last December?" An item she
had ordered online from Amazon on January 20 as the uprising against her
husband just rages, is a Fondue set from the cookware kitchen home Dept.
And this to a Paris jeweller writing through a friend, "Wants three
necklaces with yellow gold diamonds and one equipped with white gold
diamonds. Do you think you can finish them by end of August?
"The message" ignores, the bloodshed sweeping Syria and any reference
to the country's turmoil as oblique and fleeting. And he, President
Bashar Al-Assad after receiving a note from his wife informing where she
is while he is at a political meeting, 'This the best reform in any
country that you just told me where you will be.
This instead of the rubbish laws of elections and media".
Neither the Czarina nor Marie Antoinette used e-mail for the obvious
reason that it was never heard of but Mrs. Al Assad uses it enough to
convey the insensitivity felt for the suffering masses.
In fact as the nation surges around with fury she exchanges witty
remarks and games on the Internet including silly questions and answers
such as "In which battle did Napolean die?" And then this declaration by
this daughter of a cardiologist in UK who made a brilliant marriage
after emigration, "I am the real Dictator. He has no choice".
The whole situation in Syria seems hilarious game for her.
I may have got it all wrong but I remember reading somewhere that
Barack Obama was not in favour of the big wigs of England at the outset
and even wanted a portrait of Winston Churchill returned to England. But
now for weeks readers are getting irritated by the endless accounts of
the Great and Good Times the Obama couple and the Cameron couple of
Britain are having on US soil. Despite recession, acute shortage of jobs
and what not, here is an account of the Gala functions accompanying the
Cameron stay.
Since the White House was obviously not spacious enough to
accommodate one party felicitating the union of the heads of the USA and
Britain a tent on the White Lawn had been put up out of public money.
Here is what the news report said, "Actor, Idris Elba (an invited guest)
said it was like visiting Disneyland where you don't know what to expect
next.
The giant structure featured a 150 foot wide glass wall overlooking
the White House.
British Olympic gold medallist Denis Lewis says that she felt as
giddy as a school girl there. Regarding the earlier attitude of Obama
towards British high-ups it makes me too dizzy. I just don't understand
the "Contrariness" of it all. The scribes there too are dizzy and say it
is because it is Election Year in the USA.
That makes it even more "unundersatandable" for British citizens as
far as this naïve writer knows, do not have voting rights in the US.
But there are a few things I do understand about the global situation
as about the humanitarian crisis in the volatile border area between
Sudan and South Sudan.
Sufferings
Its citizens on account of the sufferings are forced to take refuge
in caves because of daily aerial bombardments.
After going on about all the horrendous happenings in the area
replete with rocket attacks that have brought to a standstill all
farming leading to acute starvation and the retreat of the populace to
caves. Clooney, an actor and war commentator in an interview says,
"These are not the cave people of the Nuba Mountains.
They are hiding in these caves because they are attacked on a daily
basis.
The Geneva Convention calls that war crimes".
Understandable and even familiar.
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