23. There must be some sort of way out of here
Said the joker to the thief.
Dear Friends,
Bob Dylan is always talked about with reverence, he had a way with words. He wrote All Along The Watchtower, he was featured in the last newsletter.
Jimi Hendrix covered it and smashed it.
I won’t try and deconstruct it, but songs and music are stories. A breakdown is found here.
Anyway in my last newsletter I wrote of the story of Mauritius in terms of film. I was wrong it is ongoing series and the third season has just been renewed. It seems we have moved from an a gripping against time action film in season 1 to a civil rights political drama, to season 3, a comedy, a dark one.
Remember the distraction I mentioned at the end of No 22, it is amplifying. Now whatsapp chats around arming Hindus are circulating. Maybe we should learn from Batman Begins.
We are at a divide and distract. I cover this in my reality piece.
Take care and watch for the signs of a strong PR strategy.
Nish
Tandem bikes
So during my run I saw a couple on a Tandem bike, I wanted to write about the mechanics and co operation involved in operation, then during research I found this video, and found it utterly charming, sometimes we should just look at the outcome and put a pause on the mechanics of things, as the moment might get lost.
My Reality vs Your reality vs the shared reality
Our realities separate us as people, each one is real. Those realities help shape our world view and our understanding of the world which we live.
My reality is that I am an affluent, educated, healthy, ambitious, possibly arrogant, privileged atheist.
In Mauritius at the moment is that there are Mauritians who identify strongly with India and Hinduism. They will put Hindu before actually being Mauritian. I asked the question, what does it mean to be Hindu, but to no reply. Some people view a criticism on Modi being an attack on India, which is illogical. The church still uses a caucasian depiction of Christ and the Virgin Mary.
A joke around Air India and Captain Dookee has been making the rounds, and people are up in arms. The gentleman telling the joke is a Franco Mauritian in a private setting. My reality is that I have told jokes which looking back have been in bad taste, offensive, sexist and racist. The gentleman has been suspended from his job, and the keyboard warriors have risen. The angry Hindu Mauritians are claiming racism, even the angry Hindu Atheist Mauritian is kicking off against Bruneau Laurette for having used the term “coolie” in one post.
The important reality is the shared reality, not the manipulated reality of social media. Cambridge Analytica (which has used facebook profiling to manipulate users) has operated here and facebook is hugely popular for Mauritians. Our shared reality is that there is something wrong in this country, at this moment in time, where we still have Covid, and the effects of Wakashio, parliament is not in session until November. Our The political reality is that we are stuck with the children and grandchildren of political dynasties, who do not appear to be relinquishing their claims to the throne. We are being played, some see through it, some don’t.
No amount of attacking each other will solve this, and whilst we attack each other, no one is holding the powerful to account.
Well done to the powers that be for distracting us.
The thing about realities is their validity.
I think this can only be done through face to face discussion and understanding of the other person’s reality. My choices are made around my reality, I can afford to take risks, I am not limited by a physical condition, I see and think critically, I am not aligned to anyone, if I lose everything I can start again, and more importantly I am not aligned to a community here, which enables me to peak from the outside in. Now imagine I am Hindu, under educated, and know what my trusted friends are sharing on facebook, what is their reality?
Project updates
I mentioned helping a football team, this is back on track with a new model being planned. If agreed this will be a first for a football team in Mauritius and match values I hold dear.
I still compost and recycle, but further work on the apartments is on hold pending COVID
I still have a beard