Letting rip.

So yesterday we were assigned a new video media project. After a morning of short movies, most of which were music videos by Michel Gondry, each of us was assigned to a different group of Indian students in the afternoon. Topics were chosen at random by each group, of which mine ended up with 'documentary' as a genre, 'musical' as a theme and 'article 25' of the human rights act as the subject matter. The Goal is to create a one minute short film combining those three elements! Sounds simple enough right?......



We began with a brainstorming session, one A4 sheet for each section. Quickly working out that tackling the genre and theme first was foolhardy we started with a brainstorm on our subject matter. To give you a rough idea on article 25 of the human rights act: It's the need for basic human rights, food, proper education, health care, clothing, and so on. It's a very broad subject and in a city like Delhi it's rife..... At least from my perspective!



As I joined in with the discussion with my fellow Indian students a few of them threw around ideas that seemed quite shallow. In short, they fail too see the bigger picture! Discussions with Nagoo and Raghav proved otherwise though, and the students in my group were willing to accept and take on these ideas. I found the whole thing very interesting and it proved a fantastic opportunity for me to reflect on the contrast of our respective countries!



I am a patriotic man, I love Scotland, but now I am forced too access the reasons why. I love the scenery, the people, our national football team that always 'almost' gets there, our sole world class athlete Andy Murray, the list goes on. But what are these things? These things do not apply to any of our human rights. These things are the cherry on the cake, the tip of the iceberg if you will! Why do I really love my country? Let's start with the basics: food, clothing and housing. Our system allows even bottom feeding Junkies to have these things, Christ we even feed their habit with prescription drugs. They are offered help, a way out! They are always given the chance to turn their life around. Our system isn't perfect! Some sceptical people among us would argue that it isn't right for us to pay taxes so things like this can happen. You don't know the half of it mate! As far these issues go Scotland is fucking heaven in comparison to India. Dole money? forget it! proper food? Forget it! A house for your family? Here's some tarpaulin and a few branches my man! I could go on........ I've been here for well over a week now and the sight of a filthy sixty year old woman cradling a 3 month old baby, asking me for ten rupees doesn't shock me anymore! Article 25 of the human rights act? Does that refer to how many times it's violated every time I blink?

I'm getting a bit off track here, my purpose was to talk about my experience in class yesterday. I'll recap: we were in the process of discussing article 25 as a group. After which we were told that one person from each group, all five, were to select one spokesperson to bring their ideas forward. After some delegation in a language I couldn't understand I gathered that Nagoo was proposing that I be the spokesperson. It would give me the opportunity to voice these opinions on the divide between our countries regarding this issue. I gladly accepted.

When I stood up in front of the class I was not sure what to say at first. I had our brainstorm in front of me and we had all spoke about which particular topic we were going to base our film on. Whether it be on food, education, and so on. We figured that each presents a broad host of ideas on its own and that tackling multiple, or all of them, would never fit into the proposed one minute. So I began with the intent of explaining this, first going into the reasons why we hadn't really looked at our genre or theme at all. Then it all just came out, I wasn't sure whether I was offending anyone by what I was saying. I tried to explain that I wasn't in any way trying to belittle their country but I don't think anyone really understood. Explaining how our dole system works, the fact I get my higher education paid for. How our system deals with single mothers, the overall general standard of society in Scotland. The fact that there is such a gulf in social hierarchy when compared to Scotland that it doesn't bear thinking about. I'm not sure how the students responded to my opinions but I did get a few laughs amongst the depressing stuff. They seem to be speaking to me today so hopefully I never offended anyone!

The thing that bothers me most is that, for the most part, every human being should get the same treatment. India has the right to have a system like ours in place, the people have that right! There are so many fantastic things about this country and so many good people, that's foundation enough to turn that poverty on it's head. Giving a disabled man a pushbike with a fucking wind up handle just doesn't cut it! Huge changes need to be made here.

Despite everything I have said though, the majority of people you see in the street seem happy enough. Maybe if they knew what they should have their expressions would change? Who knows. I can't see anything changing in my lifetime that's for sure. So any Scottish, European, American, who ever else is reading this: Perk the fuck up, your life really isn't that bad.