I saw two documentaries today. One was Channel 4's "Unreported World : The Killing of Kashmir" and the other one was "Inside Hamas". Now both the documentaries are available on google video as well.
"The Killing of Kashmir" was a documentary made in 2004 but it seems to be as relevant today as it was then or before. As someone who is in the capital city, I only get to know of whatever the situation is through the newspapers or television news. The gravity of any situations in general is understood by the documentaries one gets to see about the place and situation. This film depicts the complex situation of the local people living in Kashmir. The local people simply do not know what to do and how to carry on with their normal lives. The reasons of poverty, lack of opportunities, political conflict situations has made their lives nothing but hell. For all practical purposes, the local people don't want the Mujahideens or any other militant factions and they don't want the Indian Army as well, considering the amount of human rights violations as are constantly reported against them. The militants want the locals to support their cause, hide them from the army and provide them with "whatever" they demand. The army on the other hand, wants to capture the culprits and in that effort, they need information from the locals and want the locals to support them. And they have a tough time distinguishing amongst civilians who support militants and/or are under pressure from militants or are neither of them. So "no militants, no army and leave us alone", being the natural expression for the troubled people.
Similarly the other documentary, "Inside Hamas" focusses on the operations and the current situation of Hamas. It talks about the reducing popularity of Hamas amongst their own people. As regards the situation of the civilians, the similarity between the two documentaries can be noticed clearly. In the documentary, one civilian shouted loud "No one from Hamas, No one from Fatah, No one from Islamic-Jihad...No one can come to my house and tell me what to do". Now, that clearly reflects the sentiments of the tired and troubled civilian.
As they say, when elephants fight, its the grass that suffers.
Now, Isaac Deutscher, who was a British Journalist, historian and political activist had given a famous statement regarding Israel in "The Non-Jewish Jew and Other Essays".
And that was : "A man once jumped from the top floor of a burning house in which many members of his family had already perished. He managed to save his life; but as he was falling he hit a person standing down below and broke that person’s legs and arms. The jumping man had no choice; yet to the man with the broken limbs he was the cause of his misfortune. If both behaved rationally, they would not become enemies. The man who escaped from the blazing house, having recovered, would have tried to help and consol the other sufferer; and the latter might have realized that he was the victim of circumstances over which neither of them had control. But look what happens when these people behave irrationally. The injured man blames the other for his misery and swears to make him pay for it. The other, afraid of the crippled man’s revenge, insults him, kicks him, and beats him up whenever they meet. The kicked man again swears revenge and is again punched and punished. The bitter enmity, so fortuitous at first, hardens and comes to overshadow the whole existence of both men and to poison their minds."
I guess, this can be seen as a generic example for many other situations as well.
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