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Taking on Uncle Sam
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Popular sentiment against the U.S.-led war in Iraq is finding expression in all sorts of ways in the State capital.
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Anti-war paintings in front of the Secretariat.
The first `direct hit' by a wayward missile from the theatre of war in Iraq on the State capital came in the form of the closure of the British Library due to a perceived security threat under a `day-to-day review' arrangement two weeks ago.
Not that popular sentiment against the war in Iraq has been lacking in the city. In February and early March, during the run-up to the U.S.-led coalition's attack on a defiant Iraq, political parties of all hues have risen to the need of the hour.
Anti-war seminars, rallies and marches were organised almost every other day. The college campuses in the city, notably the University College and Mar Ivanios College, also came alive with anti-U.S. feeling. At the University College, the students added a new dimension to the protest by throwing in a presentation of anti-war songs.
Employees' organisations, which make it a point to be in the vanguard of public protests of this sort in this city of Government employees, also chipped in by holding seminars to enlighten the public on the issues involved.
The public knew that there was more to the U.S. aggression on Iraq than was being put out, but they would still need some elaboration. The cultural wing of the Kerala Gazetted Officers' association, Gazal, organised a seminar in which the noted academic, Ninan Koshy, addressed just this need.
The economic motive, pointed out the pro-left intellectual, was to privatise the Government-owned oil wells in Iraq and bring these under American and British control. Then there was the strategic reason.
``The U.S. is not spending a mind-boggling $ 2 billions a day on the war for nothing. Their aim is to obtain strategic control of the Gulf region and `tame' Saudi Arabia and Iran, which are keen on converting the global oil trade into the euro,'' Prof. Koshy explained.
The anti-war concert organised by the pro-left cultural outfit, Swaralaya, this week at the Tagore Theatre, was the highlight of the response of cultural leaders to the ongoing war.
Veteran singers and fledgling talents led by none other than K.J. Jesudas raised their sonorous voices against the brutality of war. Jesudas rendered the song `Aruthe kollaruthe...', which was penned by ONV and set to music by the veteran singer himself.
The programme turned out to be a trans-cultural mix of vintage Malayalam, Hindi and Tamil songs and folk ballads, with a Celene Dione chart-buster from `Titanic' thrown in for good measure. The general theme was global peace and universal harmony.
The pavement before the Secretariat, which doubles as the `poor man's gallery', too reflected the anti-war sentiment in its own way. The posters decrying the police brutalities against the Adivasis in Muthanga, have now been replaced by those which invite public response to the U.S. aggression.
On a quieter front, Web-crawlers have been active in mustering moral support for Iraq. One of the messages that is doing the rounds on the Net now exhorts, "Spread truth about the U.S war against Iraq - Know your facts!''.
The messages wise up Netizens on some plain facts about Uncle Sam's policy in West Asia and Central Asia and how that country has been eyeing the oil-rich resources in the region.
As one citizen puts it, "If the war drags on, the Yankees are going to find the global anti-war protest harder to handle than the Iraqi resistance.''
By Harish Govind M.
Photo: S. Mahinsha.
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
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