Tiger by the Tail!

As the sordid details of his so-called "private life" over the last couple years unfolds, Tiger has this to say:

"But no matter how intense curiosity about public figures can be, there is an important and deep principle at stake which is the right to some simple, human measure of privacy. I realize there are some who don't share my view on that. But for me, the virtue of privacy is one that must be protected in matters that are intimate and within one's own family. Personal sins should not require press releases and problems within a family shouldn't have to mean public confessions...".

This just goes to show how completely clueless he is (for that matter, any public figures here or anywhere is)--that once you go "public", your entire life, is just that! Some of us make a distinction between a politician and a sportsman, that somehow the latter's private life and foibles are less open to scrutiny than a politician's. While that distinction is not untrue, its not entirely true either. Once a sports personality such as Tiger, takes my money, be it in the form of a paid ticket to his event or a product endorsement from Nike, AT&T or American Express (all of which I use, so in effect, Tiger has bettered himself with my money), he has established an implied social contract with me which, once established, requires him to maintain his life, both public and private, above reproach. Any whiff of impropriety--and it looks like the flood-gates are opening here as far as Tiger's many escapades over the last 2 years!-- should be dealt with openly and honestly, and with candor. To his fans, Tiger's sex life is private only within the confines of socially accepted norms, i.e., marriage (of course, if he were single, his lease would be a lot looser). While deviations are not uncommon in the common man (think Barack Obama on drugs in his college days), no such leeway exists once you are a public personality (President Obama doing drugs today would not be as well accepted or tolerated as Obama doing drugs in college, to which he has freely admitted, and for which the population seems to have had no problem with).

If Tiger means what he says (as quoted above) and is serious about facing his demons and vanquishing them, he should be willing to keep but a small portion of his $800 million fortune for 13 years of work since turning pro, and donate the rest to charity. As far as his wife Elin is concerned, I can't see what she has in common with Tiger, and there is really nothing to keep her from walking away from this with half his earnings from the last 5 years (and the 2 kids). And last but not the least, this incident--and all that has led up to this-- might well mark the end of the phenom of Tiger Woods. Physical prowess and athleticism matter a whole lot less in this game, which tends to explain why golfers peak in their 40's, and it is not uncommon for the 50-something golfer to win tournaments whilst 20-somethings fail to make the cut. In the end, and in the rarefied atmosphere of professional golf, it is a game of intense focus and mental challenge. Where reading every inflexion on the green to the minutest detail makes the difference between a birdie or a bogey, even the slightest lack of concentration can dramatically alter the names on the leader board come Sunday afternoon. Golf is a demanding mistress that does not tolerate well being in second place to any other! Will Jack Nicklaus's record of winning 18 majors stand, or will it be shattered in our lifetime? Tiger is well within range to make this record, his. But first, he has a tough choice to make--and for all of us that enjoy this game, I hope he chooses wisely!

Let me know your comments/thoughts on this...

When is "rape, rape"?

A bizarre debate is playing out across the media in America today over the arrest of Roman Polanski over the rape of a 13-year old child. If you are even half-tuned to any of the media outlets, be it the newspaper, TV or the internet, I am sure you have more than a passing familiarity with the events at the time of the crime in 1977, then the "coming out" of the victim in the mid-1990s after suing Polanski in civil court and settling for an undisclosed amount in the late 1980's, and finally, at the behest of the US Justice Dept., the arrest of the fugitive by Swiss authorities, themselves not exactly the perfect paragons of virtue, when Polanski visited Zurich to receive an award. Everybody, from Debra Winger to Harrison Ford to Whoopi Goldberg, to a bunch of Hollywood elites, have been tripping over each other for the MOHO Award (for "Most Original Hypocrite Oscar"), calling it simply "a case of morals" (which they don't have nor would know if it hit them in the face). How can anyone defend this monster knowing what we know of the crime he committed, no matter how long ago it was or if the victim has moved-on with her life and decided to forgive the perpetrator, or if the Los Angeles DA's office reneged on a "deal", or what have you. The basic facts of the case remain unchanged, sharp and clear for any one with a sense of morals--and half a mind, to see and decide for himself or herself. That is why Lady Justice has blindfolds on, so that she imparts justice without being blinded by how rich or powerful or talented the criminal is.

While I must give credit to a whole bunch of other Hollywood-types that have so far refrained from participating in the run-up to the MOHO Award, there are a couple of things that I sense: one is that, the people defending this deed may have something similar hidden away in their closets, just as Angelica Huston, being in the very next (thats what she said, it could well be that she was in the same) room that day in 1977 when Polanski was plying the 13-year old child with drugs and alcohol prior to committing vile acts on her in Jack Nicholson's house (of course, Jack was conveniently "out of town", or so the court documents show). The other is that Polanski's childhood in the Warshaw ghettos and the murder of his parents at the hands of the Nazis, and then the murder of his wife and unborn child by Manson followers, being used to defend his vile acts. For all we know, Polanski is a serial child molestor who was unfortunate enough to get caught in the US. Pedophilia, it has been well documented, is not a passing fad or a one-time act. Usually, the predator repeats the crime, time and time again, until caught or castrated. That's why we have in the US such laws as "Amber Alerts" and "Megan's Law" and "chemical castration" has been debated but unfortunately does not have the political muscle to become law. Makes you wonder how many children Polanski may have raped and sodomized in his many chateaus in Europe?

The thing about the Swiss authorities role in all this that bothers me is the fact that Polanski has owed a chateau in Switzerland for many decades now, coming and going as he pleased. It would have been a relatively easy bit of sleuthing to stake out the chateau for a few months, and nab the monster when he visited, anytime years ago. So, why now? The Swiss simply say that they "didn't know", an excuse that they have used in a myriad other places and times to cover their own complicity and duplicity in heinous crimes against humanity, from "oh, we didn't know Hitler was herding the Jews in Zurich to kill them" or "we didn't know what those trains rumbling through Zurich in the middle of the night from Italy to Dachau during the War were carrying and to where they were going", or "we didn't know all this money belonging to abandoned accounts belonged to Jews exterminated during the holocaust and should rightfully go to their descendants", or "we didn't know that the 40,000+ US citizens with numbered Swiss Bank accounts totalling tens of billions of dollars may have been ill-gotten gains or from money laundering operations or for evading US taxes". All throughout history, the Swiss have mastered the Machiavellian art of playing the ends against the middle, remaining so-called "neutral" and making a pretty penny for themselves, and to thereby enjoy the highest standards of living anywhere. Now that the Swiss are facing the growing wrath of the US Government, maybe, just maybe, Polanski was a pawn they were willing to offer in sacrifice? Oh edleweiss, small and bright, your innocence hides a sullied land, full of blight!

If Polanski crime reveals the seamier side of human nature, his recent arrest and subsequent events, have laid bare the double-standards of the West. How easily do we in the West denigrate the muslims for the treatment they mete out to their women, yet at the most fundamental level, with the veneer of respectabilty removed, is the Western Society's view of women really any different or any better?

Ah...Amsterdam!

Amsterdam never ceases to amaze me, and every time I go there and wander its maze of cobbled streets and shallow canals, I leave exhausted, physically and mentally--and my visit this Father's Day weekend was no different! But, as I get to know more about her history, the character of it's people--those that conceived, mid-wived and help her to bloom from the 1300's and on--becomes laid bare, and while certainly one facet that I see, is that of taking risks and reaping rewards, there are multiple others that reveal the seamier side of human nature. Starting with the 1500's for a period of some 300 years, the Dutch seem have gone on a worldwide mission of loot, pillage and plunder, with gold and slaves their prized commodities. So much so, that by the 1700's, some 40% of the worlds wealth was concentrated in the hands of the Dutch (that statistic was provided by a tour guide, and may be off a little, but still, the number is staggering, to say the least). Immense wealth in the form of precious metals & diamonds, herbs & spices, silk & slaves, flowed in to the land-- abundantly and virtually free! The Dutch, a practical people with a distinctly distorted sense of business ethics, traded in humans from the African Continent, and ipso facto, may have introduced the Western World to the concept of slavery.

Ah...Amsterdam, behind your beautiful facade, lies such an ugly past--your majestic canals awash with the blood, sweat and toil of innumerable less fortunate souls. It is said "Behind every great fortune, is an even greater crime"...well, Amsterdam, you certainly give that cliche a whole new meaning!

My take on Slum Dog...

As you may know, being a Bernese Mountain Dog, I don’t get to watch too many movies. The last one I did, “Beverley Hills Chihuahua” was such a chick-flick, a complete letdown for someone of my stature, know what I mean? So, when “Slum Dog Millionaire” won all those Oscars, I said wow (well, actually I said “bow-wow” but my owner edited it so it wouldn’t sound so cheesy—talking of which I do love cheese-cake, but that’s for another day, another blog!) maybe I should check it out.

To say I was impressed would be an understatement (and I don’t impress easy, so). It was truly a love story at par with another movie from another time: “Titanic” –except that while that one’s setting was the grand opulence of the majestic ship that could never sink (and so it did!), and a love that never was consummated (or was it? hmmm…), this one was set in the squalor, but nevertheless great vibrancy, of the Mumbai slums. To take a dozen or so, more or less disjointed stories, from a book that at first glance really does not lend itself to a movie, and with an abundant use of artistic license, to dexterously change and concatenate them all into a powerful and, more importantly, fluid and meaningful screenplay, was really the superb foundation upon which the director has then built this tome of love, akin to the sheer breathtaking majesty of the Taj Mahal rising simmering out of the marshy swamps on the banks of the Yamuna. The screenwriter’s sharp eye has seen this diamond in the rough (the novel by Swarup), and has, with amazing grace, extracted and expanded its essence and created the screenplay for this poignant moving picture far more effectively than any literal translation of that novel could ever have achieved! The kid’s moral compass –and his brother’s lack thereof, but abundance of street smarts and survival skills!--brought him thus far…he wasn’t doing it for revenge or money…it was for love. So mundane, yet so profound!

Which leads me to ask: why did it have to take a couple of non-Indians to make this so quintessentially Indian movie? Don’t we as Indians see the beauty that is all around us, or do we only see and smell the feces—but fail to perceive what’s within? Is beauty really skin-deep to us? In my opinion, it is but a paradox of life, that to truly observe it and “paint it” (be it with a brush, a pen or the lens of a camera), one must be able to “step out” from everything that define us. In other words, to take a dispassionate view, one must be able to completely detach oneself from ones surroundings and beliefs and yet be able to use the innate talents we posses to tell the story we wish to tell. And I don’t mean detachment in just a superficial physical sense, but also to some extent, mentally and spiritually as well. Did the duo of Beaufoy and Boyle have this?—well, not necessarily. It’s just that their psyche did not come burdened with the excess baggage of “Indianess” that Indians seem to carry around with them (which would make them comment-- with disdain, might I say-- on a slum kid jumping into a shit-pool, without ever walking in his shoes). There are some great Indian screenwriters and directors, but from the work they keep churning out year after year, it would seem they are not able to overcome this final hurdle to true cinematographic greatness!

2009...the Year of the Yen...

Hello y'all,

I thought it's probably appropriate to introduce myself on this first blog of my site: my name is Yen--actually, Yen Ying-Yang Patnaik, but that gets a little too much of a tongue-twister, so it's just Yen, short, simple n sweet! I am a going-to-be-3-on-3-26-09 BMD. You may be thinking now "what the heck is a BMD?". Well, it ain't a German luxury car for sure, but close, 'cause my origins are from the Alps, specifically, the mountains of Berne--and hence BMD, or Bernese Mountain Dog! I'm kinda a non-drool version of my close (and, sad to say, more famous!) cousin --the St. Bernard. But, I think i am more handsome--and even a cursory view of the pix here will, I'm sure, convince you of that as well. So, dear reader, you may be thinking at this stage "Hmmm, a large, St. Bernard-like dog named Yen--how interesting!". Well, my sentiments, exactly!!!

So, what am I doing here? I am my owner's alter-ego, a conduit for his thoughts, ideas, opinions, views, totally-baseless-comments, yadi-yadi-yada...anything for that matter...to the rest of the world. It's kind of his new year resolution to be a blogger, and I said, hey, why not, i am not exactly doing anything. So here I am--just a Yen for Your Thoughts...remember to visit me often--and post your repartes, responses, or just throw eggs at me (oooh, I love eggs!) for my ramblings...till then, asta lavista, auf wiedersehn, or the one closes to my heart...sayonara!!!