Oh my God

Oh my God is a hard-hitting satirical film that slams the organised religion in a compelling way. Today I saw it on my laptop, and liked a lot.

My profuse thanks to Umesh Shukla, director and writer of the film. His was really a brilliant concept, and  he had, like a master film-maker, turned it into a serious, and at the same time an entertaining movie.

I wonder how he had the censor board pass the film. The film would sure offend a lot of people and raise their hackles with its direct and scathing attack, of course justified, on religion.  

The Bollywood, it seems, has now some thinking guys as directors and writers.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti turns down the 50,000 euro Hungarian PEN Prize

Since the Prize is partially funded by the present Hungarian government, and since the policies of this right-wing regime tend toward authoritarian rule and the consequent curtailing of freedom of expression and civil liberties, I find it impossible for me to accept the Prize in the United States. Thus I must refuse the Prize in its present terms.

Did Salman Rushdie know it?

My own unscientific theory is that he knew his satanic novel would create a controversy, maybe even the odd riot, but that it wouldn’t be bad for sales. What he did not anticipate is the scale of the outrage on what Muslims saw as an assault on their identity at a time when their faith was being demonised. That is where he fell short—and has had to pay a terrible price for the error.

Noam Chomsky on US election

Elections are run by the public relations industry. Its primary task is commercial advertising, which is designed to undermine markets by creating uninformed consumers who will make irrational choices – the exact opposite of how markets are supposed to work, but certainly familiar to anyone who has watched television.