By Lubna Abdel-Aziz A shroud of sorrow descended on every corner of this dear land. The leaping flames in our metropolis, have thrown us into a black abyss of irremediable grief. How much more can we bear of doubt, destruction and despair! These are times that try men's souls. While our hearts bleed for the loss of the innocent, our minds seek an answer to this anarchical chaos. Reason alone is the prime and urgent necessity of the hour. It will provide the blaze of light that will illuminate the path for the future and our safe crossing to the shores of democracy. Perhaps entertainment was invented as a means of survival, for those heavy of heart, to silence the sound of eternal sadness. For movie lovers, relief is spelled: O-S-C-A-R. Now that the Oscar nominations have been announced, the betting game starts in the film world. Who will be the recipient of Cinema's most treasured trophy? In the Best Film Category, the Academy of Motion Pictures saw fit to nominate 9 films instead of the usual 5. It is hard to believe that all 9 films are so worthy, but one of the films certainly is. You may never see or hear of it, as it is a very small Disney production, with a virtually unknown cast, that has created pandemonium in tinsel town. The film is titled "The Help", based on the 2002 Katherine Stockell novel: "Peace, like a River". The mostly young black and white cast performs wonders under the guidance of director Tate Taylor. Together, they have catapulted this small picture to the highest heights. "The Help" explores racial discrimination in the South of the US during the 60s. Two actors, who play black maids in white homes, have already been honored with numerous awards, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. Spencer received a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, and the Hollywood buzz is that soon, Oscar too will be hers. Credit goes to Hollywood for tackling the issue of racial discrimination repeatedly, sometimes with veracity and force, other times with subtlety and sophistication. Early accounts of the Civil War and the first attempts to abolish slavery, is "Gone With the Wind",(1939), a consummate work of epic magnitude. The film is registered as a national treasure at the Library of Congress. At the height of the civil rights movement, we saw the refined "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and the harsh "In the Heat of the Night", (1967). The riveting "Mississippi Burning" was made in the 80s and the tender "Driving Miss Daisy" in the 90s. The trend continues with the heart-warming story of "The Help", set in Mississippi during the 60s. A young southern society girl comes home from college, determined to become a writer. She decides to write about the views of the black 'help' serving the southern families. She tries to interview Abileen, the housekeeper of her best friend. Thought reticent at first, Abileen decides to open up, to the dismay of the black community, which has always remained tight-lipped. More 'help' come forward to tell their sad tales to Skeeter, who unknowingly turns her friends' lives upside- down. Soon the whole town gets caught up in the changing times and the new civil laws that threaten their insulated way of life. The Civil Rights Movement reached its peak in the U.S., under the leadership of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, in the 60s. Civil Rights are the freedoms citizens enjoy, such as freedom of speech, of worship, of the press, of owning property and of full protection under the law. Many minorities enjoy US citizenship; Blacks, Jews, Orientals, Latinos, Middle-Easterners, South Americans, Europeans, Native Indians, etc. They are all promised equal rights, but this Constitutional guarantee, is a bumpy road, with ups and downs, with twists and turns, leaving many stranded on the wayside. More than any other group, black Americans have been denied their full civil rights, despite the promise of equality. Since the Civil War abolished slavery in 1865, blacks have struggled to regain their dignity, despite Americans constant denial of their equal status. Until 1964, restaurants, hotels, clubs, schools, buses, were free to refrain from serving blacks. In l968, the Supreme Court ruled that a federal law passed in 1866, prohibits racial discrimination, but it persisted for a century, and discrimination remains rampant to this day, even though a black man sits on the throne of the U.S., otherwise known as the Presidency. Discrimination is not unique to the U.S. It exists in neighbouring Canada, against Eskimos, Indians and even French Canadians known as the Quebecois. In fact discrimination exists everywhere. Northerners discriminate against Southerners; the strong scorn the weak, the rich despise the poor, the powerful mock the powerless, and lest we forget, men still ridicule women. Could this discrimination be a natural instinct? Is it part of our genetic make-up, a means of self- protection, to reject what is alien to us. We do fear those who do not share our thoughts and beliefs, our behavior, our colour, our size. Does discrimination stand as a blockade between human beings and the free and honest application of equal rights for all? Are we really born equal? It is food for thought, otherwise, why is it that at every turn we are confronted with inequality? With some introspection, will we discover that we are all guilty? A foreigner scarcely counts as a human being, for someone of another race. -- Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD)
