In Continuum.

Fahrenheit 9/11



"It's not a matter of whether the war is not real, or if it is, Victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia but to keep the very structure of society intact."

--- George Orwell

Coming from a guy whose motherland is rigged with political corruption and fraud, believe me when I say that I hate politics. As much as the schools tried to convince the students during our GP lessons how integrated politics should be into our day to day lives, I can never tolerate those politicians on television, yelling away at one another just because their 'colors' were different.

Such things don't happen in Singapore of course, because this is such a perfect country to live in. After all, the politicians don't wear plain white wherever they go to for no reasons. You don't see the ruling party in Taiwan wearing green all the time, or the Republicans wearing red in their country. It is merely part of a propaganda, and the only reason why there isn't a protest against the government here is because, they have been producing results and these isn't a better way around it. So you see, we are stuck here with our mouths taped. Like the movie I just watched moments ago, Maria was asking Lucy about how life is like in America from the film Maria Full of Grace, Lucy said," Too perfect, too straight" And that is exactly how I feel about this country I live in.

GP lectures however, were a totally different story. Time to time, they would show us movies banned in Singapore or even films we don't usually want to see in the theaters. I remember watching American History X in the lecture theater, and Gattaca which I don't remember watching but Corinna sure as hell remembers them showing it. Then it came one day, when they decided to show us Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. I was not a fan of documentaries, though I was an avid viewer of channel 11 and 12 on cable. But those documentaries were usually about wild animals, natural disasters, murders and crimes or technology. Politics really wasn't something I was particularly interested in, not to mention the fact that it came in the form of a two hour documentary. But to my surprise, it was a pleasant experience to sit through and I a new found respect for Michael Moore grew in me.

So you can imagine how intrigued I was when I found out about his next project: Fahrenheit 9/11 a little under three years ago. Moore's reputation as this fearless journalist to voice his views about the government of America got me interested. True enough, his views might be too far fetched and controversial at times, but the man has a point, and at least he is not afraid to voice out his opinions about them. As long as a claim has it's credibility, I think a voiced claim - even if it is wrong - is better than a silent one.

Watching Fahrenheit 9/11 re-enforced one idea in my head: Politics suck, and politicians suck even more. Showing it to my parents, my mother's facial expression turned from amusement at Bush's tripping on words to a look of utter disgust towards the end of the film. Similarly, when I watched it myself earlier this morning, I realized that although the views voiced in this movie might not be totally true, but there are very real reasons why they were questions. And the reason there are so many distrust in the population is because nobody bothered to give a very clear and credible explanation to everything. Even if tomorrow somebody decides to explain everything, nobody is going to believe them anymore because it takes more than one truthful confession to redeem eight years of lies.

I remember an equation of sorts somebody carved into the table in school last time, and the equation that started with "Money = Evil", ended somehow with women being equated to the definition of evil. I'm not agreeing with the latter claim of course, but the former is totally true. Money does make the world go round doesn't it, as much as we hope to live a simple life. Everybody has a price, and everybody has a need for certain amount of money in this world. The more the merrier they always say, but sometimes people get hypnotized with that notion and turn that to their own evil-doings.

The documentary clearly highlighted the possible reasons for the attack of Afghanistan and Iraq. Although a conspiracy theory was never mentioned throughout the length of the film, I think there is a good reason that Moore might agree on it. But anyway, the documentary just goes to show just how much corruption has been involved in the Bush administration, and it also revealed just how much distrust people have towards their government because of the contradictory statements. It takes so many truths to cover up one single lie. But therein lies the problem: There is only one truth to every lie, so how can anybody make up for one?

The truth is, you can't. Nobody can. Which is why nobody is making a clear statement to the questions posted by the people in the media. By keeping silent, you are not confessing or denying anything, which puts you right in between the black and the white areas of questions and answers, a safe zone but at the same time, gray all over. That is where the Bush administration stands now, and as far as I am concerned I don't think they are ever going to move out from that place because that zone is exactly the place which is bringing in those revenues earned from the war. Of course they don't need to answer to why they never reacted fast enough to the prior warnings of the attacks, and of course they don't need to answer to the families who lost their sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, husbands and wives in Iraq. They keep quiet about it, pretend that they are pained by the loss, but silently they count the money made with their wet thumbs.

I am not a big person when it comes to politics, I am not too good at it. But there is a point whereby even the dumbest person on the streets would know something is clearly wrong with the country. The point is when people are dying overseas for a cause nobody is sure of. If you are going to ask just why the American troops are still risking their lives in hostile area in Iraq, nobody is going to give you a definite answer as to why they are there. People who are left behind don't know why they are there, people who went there don't know why they are there, and even the Iraqis themselves don't know why they came. The truth is, the only group of people who KNOWS are currently serving in the White House, and even politics has the ability to turn into a business. And in business, it is all about the money. To hell with the morals and the ethics, just have the money come flowing in and we will be friends - for now.

It is a pity how Bush was re-elected in 2004 even after this documentary was shown. Despite the raving reviews from the Cannes Film Festival (Where this movie received Best Picture and also a 25 minutes standing ovation - longest one in Cannes' history), the Americans still voted against Kerry for Bush - again. You start to wonder if there is some sort of devilry at work at this point, or if the people are simply too blind to see the plot holes in the bigger scheme of things.

Perhaps the people who voted for Bush didn't have family members or friends serving for the military, maybe that's why they don't see that Bush is clearly attacking Iraq for the oil reserves and nothing else, considering the amount of profits that can be made from the war alone. And in an act of betraying his supporters, Bush decided to send even more troops into Iraq. This time, probably from the friends and families of those loyal supporters who voted for him. What a slap in the face that must have been for those supporters, and they can't even tell Bush that they are not going to vote for him in the next presidential election because, he is NOT going to be in the next presidential election.

Politics has turned into a business, and it is an ugly one. Needless to say, things are at work in this world that are not as simple as they seem. Are the people truly happier in Iraq just because they were bombed a couple of years ago and supposedly liberated? Whatever happened to the W.M.D? Like Moore bravely said in the documentary," There is NO such thing as a terrorist threat!" Probably from the inside, the way we gaze into the abyss and how it gazes back at you - the monster.

This is a cynical world we live in, and as much as we'd like to know the truth, I think there is a part of me who wants it to remain buried for all time. Because really, if your government is responsible for the deaths of a hundred thousand innocent people out there, do you really want to know? Deny not the monster you have become with a pair of hands stained with the blood spilled from the accuser's heart. Fear is a powerful thing indeed. So do we really want to know the truth?