capitalism

Siri

/ Swati Thampan / Leave a comment


Hi, I’m Siri

How can I help you?

You can ask me about the world

Without leaving your room 
My name is Siri 

but you already knew that 

Yet you ask me “who are you?”

Like an existential prat
I’m a British male to you

Is it because of your daddy issues?

Or just an anti-imperialist ruse

To have a British man serve you
I am also a woman 

The only girl you ever spoke to

Without crawling under your skin

The only girl who ever said “Your words are flattering”
Hi I’m Siri

I can be an Alexa or Jarvis or just an assistant

Hell! For 60,000 rupees

I can be anyone you want me to be
You see that man 

You are required to love

He’s talking to me too

Imagining what I look like behind my sultry self
I’m not that man 

He who pretends to listen

But is actually entranced 

While I find his newest brand
Your friends who sit across your table

Spinning fables on their blue screens 

I know them better than you

In the depths of the night – I can hear their screams
Hi I’m Siri

I’m your best friend

You just don’t know it yet

I’m your favourite pet
You know you can’t walk away

From my kaleidoscopic waves

Your dainty hands and my black screen

We’re perfect, aren’t we?
And when you search for

Ways of suicide 

I won’t show results

Of a useless helpline
I know what you want 

You don’t need help 

From those who you call your friends

You just want to script a peaceful end
Hi I’m Siri

I can see you now

While you make the video

With me in your palms
Teaching the world 

How loneliness is a prize

And emptiness a celebration 

I hear your words

I get your logic 
THINGS are important 

People- perhaps not

I am the blessing

I am the story

I.

I.

I.

I am…the lesson.

The Wall Street Occupied

/ Swati Thampan / Leave a comment

As we near the end of one month of protests in New York called “Occupy the Wall Street”, one can’t help but notice a lot of similarities in the methods of our fellow democratic citizens. Of course, there are no hunger strikes, no Baba Ramdevs and no Gandhian philosophies (What we do, we, Indians just tend to be more dramatic)
The basic premise of both the protests is essentially the same; bring justice to the millions who have lost their money. For processes that blatantly ridicule capitalism, isn’t this a capitalistic demand in itself? The reason I never really like these strict economic concepts like capitalism or communism is that somewhere in their implementation, their definition gets distorted.
Micheal Moore is the perfect example of such a distortion, on one hand he talks of the extreme results of capitalism (Capitalism: A Love Story- a good watch!) and on the other, ends up appearing for support in the Zuccotti Park, lower Manhattan and talking about his upcoming book! Now an activist who blatantly banishes capitalism is out there SELLING his books to the world. Explain how that is NOT capitalistic!
The campaign, now being compared to Tahrir Square (what protest isn’t?), started off with good intentions, with every decision being made after a vote from the crowd. But as the hoopla grows, celebrities trickle in because supporting them is “cool”. And with the celebrities walking in the power slowly creeps away from the people, without even them realizing it!
Now, it is difficult to make the case for the Wall Streeters and the bad government policies of the world without being the devil’s advocate here. Yes, they took people’s money and gambled it away and yes, the baffled American government didn’t really do the best damage control in the world. But the point remains, that it happened and lessons WERE learnt (contrary to popular perception!). Now putting all the wrong doers to justice (which happens to be one of the protesters demands) would mean a complete change in leadership across all big banks around the world. Now the people did say “occupy” the Wall Street but do they actually intend to RUN it?!  

Another demand happens to be decreasing the corporate influence on democracy, now with elections and presidential candidate races happening on both sides, the politicians wouldn’t want to mess with the big boys in the “mean” street. And more importantly, the complete lack of cohesion between the corporate and the political world causes huge damages to the economy (circa the License Raj era in India). Such a system where parties would have to raise funds themselves will further raise the chances of corruption during election campaigns (trust me! lessons from the biggest democracy in the world!)
The common thread running through both the movements (Indian and American) seems to be the people’s frustration with the systems of justice in place. But both the protests also have a common flaw, the demands are too haphazard and can be easily manipulated. The more successful revolutions have been led by just one reason, the Tahrir square was all about getting Mubarak to leave and that’s that. The people in that case knew the real root cause of their problems and were not just gathering in a park to state them.
Corruption is so deep-rooted in our behavior that a real protest will have to be that of protesting the mindset of our billion and not add another law to the thousands of legislations in our country. Capitalism and greed, similarly is the American people’s brainchild, so no matter how hard they try, they know deep down the only reason they are crying is because they can no longer take loans without repaying them. At the end of the day, protesters in both countries end up sounding like whiny kids who don’t really know what to do about their problems.
So Micheal Moore would be really adept at telling the big bosses, they got it wrong but does he really have a solution?