the existential blues

Exactly how could it be that the genocidal violence in East Timor could happen so quickly after the horrific genocide in Kosovo? Didn't mankind learn that such violence is unacceptable? Or, at least, didn't the Indonesian leaders learn that the "world powers" and world public opinion would not allow it to go unpunished?

We humans do have an incredibly short memory. Perhaps the Internet and other instantaneous communications have shortened our memory even more. After all, for the first time in history, the HERE AND NOW is HERE AND NOW!

Who was it that said, "Those who don't learn from History are destined to repeat it."

Well we all remember (or at least know all the details about) the Holocaust. With the death of 6 million innocents fresh on our minds in 1945, mankind surely learned a lesson. Perhaps we have forgotten by now..... but we knew it then. But you know what? That knowledge didn't help mankind in 1947, just two years later.

A new and stunning movie premiered September 10th in New York and Los Angeles. It is also featured in the Toronto Film Festival. Titled Earth, the movie deals with the partition of India into what is today India and Pakistan after the end of British colonial rule. Ghandi's nonviolent revolution ended up costing the lives of one million people. The story of "Earth" is true. Its effects are still reverberating throughout India and Pakistan today.

Directed by acclaimed Canadian film maker Deepa Mehta, the movie stars major Indian actors and is largely spoken in native Indian dialects. It will not likely find a major American audience.

On Earth - The Movie - Official Web Site, Deepa writes about the movie, "India, after years of struggle, finally gained its Independence from the British Empire in August of 1947. However, for most Indians, that 'Independence' is synonymous with its 'Division' or 'Partition', as it is known in the subcontinent. The announcement made by Viceroy Mountbatten, declaring the boundaries which would divide India into two, began a sectarian strife that would wreak havoc for the next fifty years."

The movie is based on the book Cracking India : A Novel by Bapsi Sidhwa. This novel graphically tells the story on both personal and historical levels, of the uprooting of seven million Muslims and five million Hindus and Sikhs in "the largest and most terrible exchange of population known to history."

Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, who had lived together as one entity for centuries, became the bitterest of enemies.

Why? What component of the human brain causes us to define ourselves by "tribe" or "religion" or "clan" or "gang?" Why must Serbs kill Croatians? Why must Muslims and Hindus fight? Why, fifty years later, would Pakistan not allow Metha to film in the city where the story takes place? Why are they forbidding the showing of the film when the novel on which it is based, has won Pakistan's highest honor?

Why did pro Indonesian forces, defeated soundly in a fair and free referendum, decide to kill and drive out the Independence minded populace of East Timor?

Can the human mind be "improved" genetically? Can intelligence and memory be enhanced? What about other traits and characteristics? It looks like, at least form mice the answer is "yes." Scientists from Princeton University have genetically engineered a "smart mouse." You can refer to this CNN Report for more details.

Princeton neurobiologist Joe Tsien and colleagues are suggesting similar processes may one day be used to boost human intelligence and memory, though such applications are still far from reality.

"This points to the possibility that enhancement of learning and memory or even IQ is feasible through genetic means, through genetic engineering," said Tsien.

In tests, the genetically "souped-up" mice significantly out performed genetically unmodified mice in such tasks as running mazes, recognizing objects in their environment, and solving such problems as how to get themselves out of a pool of water and up onto a pedestal.

Researchers say their findings suggest that, one day, gene therapy could be used to enhance human intelligence or memory. A corresponding gene has been identified in humans, but exactly how it functions in the human brain is not well understood. Designing a drug or genetic therapy for humans based on the Princeton research would take many years of development and testing and even then it would be ethically questionable.

Is our drive to form "tribes" genetic. Is it a genetic trait that causes humans to war with those who we decide are different? Or is it a curse from God? Our penalty for building the Tower of Babel? Is is hatred learned, as some psychologists believe.

If it is genetic, would we dare fix it? A genetic frontal lobotomy. Or should we just "keep the bottle in front of me..?"