Movie Review: Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) (English Film - Hollywood)

I thought it was time I started blogging-on non-Hindi films too. Kramer vs. Kramer was a much acclaimed movie that I’ve wanted to see for a long time. It stars 2 Hollywood greats: Dustin Hoffman as Ted Kramer and Meryl Streep as Joanna Kramer

The Kramer couple separates in the first 15 minutes of the movie (they do it fast in Hollywood). Joanna has long felt stifled in her marriage with Ted, a corporate go-getter and decides to leave him abruptly (that’s what it seems for Ted at least), on one of the 5 best days of his life. Joanna leaves the son with Ted since she is quite unsure about what she is going to do in life. Ted then has to learn to raise his son by himself and at the end of the next 18 months or so has had quite a decent shot at it. Until…. his ex-wife returns to claim custody of their son. The battle ends in court with a Kramer vs. another Kramer.

The movie won 5 Oscars (DH for Best Actor, MS for Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium). That alone could be reason-enough to watch the movie.

The poignant story in one form or the other is something that I can identify-with, even though I belong to quite a different culture. Although in our culture the wife would probably not leave the husband (at least in the previous generation), the various episodes in their life do touch a raw nerve of memory at one point or the other.

The scene at the beginning symbolizes the break-down of the Kramers’ marriage: The departing wife says to her husband who is on the phone ‘I am leaving you’. And he pauses mid-sentence to reply to her ‘I can't hear’. Too often in any relationship, this active ‘listening’ has drifted away and that’s the start of the end. Joanna Kramer is on the verge of a breakdown facing a total loss of identity as a subservient housewife to Ted. She believes she does the right thing by walking out on her husband even though to Ted, she is deserting the child. That’s the conundrum. Ted (who except for his inattentiveness to his wife, doesn’t depict any characteristics of a ‘bad’ husband) has an ego which is hurt badly and a career which suffers. But he learns to love his son more, as a result.

Having stayed in the US and in Europe I must say the isolation in life there scares the shit out of me. Especially the life faced by the kids of separated parents. Justin Henry as Billy Kramer brings the right amount of sensitivity and poignancy to his character. As a 7-8 year old kid in the movie, you feel like reaching out to him. The progression of the relationship of father and son is depicted through various scenes: such as making a meal, at the school’s Halloween Day, learning to live and adjust with each other and the vacuum in their lives. I think this is the weak link of the movie. This evolution of their relationship doesn’t seem very convincing. The angst of caring for his kid all by himself doesn’t come through very well at all.

You have snippets that would hold true for many other cultures: the kid spilling juice over his fathers business papers and the father sermonizing and sending him on a guilt trip, the father forgetting which grade his son is in, and getting late when picking him up, pushing the kid faster into becoming a more responsible youth before he has lived his life as a child. But there is a hurriedness in these scenes. Inspite of a high pressure job, I wasn’t really convinced how DH finds the time to care for his kid, nor was this well-elaborated.

DH as the father is competent but I felt that MS far outshone him in the movie. And that brings us to the strength of the movie. MS as the guilt-wracked woman leaving her husband, the mother in the court desperate to have her child back, and the understanding woman right in the final scene of the movie. MS swallows DH in those scenes. While DH seems competent, MS is brilliant. Maybe it’s only due to the lesser screen-time available to her, that she got the Best supporting actress award while DH walked-off with the Best Actor award.

And as for the end-play in the movie, it seemed more Bollywood than Hollwood. I wont reveal more at this point. But I must say neither was it unsatisfying.

And as for bloopers, there is particular scene where MS calls DH to a restaurant and reveals her intention of taking custody of their son. And DH has to fling a glass against the wall while departing. Just before he does that, he places the glass in an inconvenient position, realizes that and re-places the glass in the correct position before flinging it against the wall. Tacky direction and editing, that.

And I do have a crib about one shot in the film: This is where DH has just slept with his business colleague at home and the nude woman finds her way to the bathroom at night encountering the Kramer kid in the passage-way. I am quite uncomfortable about the ethics involved in this. Don’t they have any laws in the US to prevent such shots of children encountering nudity? Need to check-out what the laws in other countries have to say on this.

Credits

Editor: Jerry Greenberg

DoP: Nestor Almendros

From the novel by Avery Corman

Produced by Stanley Jaffe

Written for the screen and directed by: Robert Benton

Say It With Numbers: #4-2008

• India
• Foreign tourist arrivals in India touched the 5 million mark in 2007 (it was 4.45 million in 2006) earning USD 11.96 billion in tourism
• Indian travel and tourism industry directly and indirectly accounts for 5.5% of the country’s total employment and 5.3% of its GDP
• Manufacturing sector in India contributes just 17% to the GDP while its over 50% in China and over 40% in Thailand
• More than 50% of India is under 25, more than 33% under 15
• Over 72% of India’s population lives in rural India
• 75% of India’s poor are in the villages
• Nearly 87% of India’s 640,000 villages have population clusters of 2000 people or below
• Nearly 35% of India’s villages are yet to be connected by roads
• Tele-density in rural India is barely 1%
• Last year the US consumer spent $9.5 trillion, the Chinese consumer $1 trillion, the Indian consumer $650 billion
• Of the about 8 million population in Israel, 1 million are Muslims
• A recession is 2 consecutive quarters of negative growth
• The US economy accounts for 30% of the worlds GDP
• It took the US almost 50 years after its independence to give the vote to 3% of its population and at that time even the UK had only 3% of its population with the right to vote. In the US, it took almost 100 years to have universal suffrage. India started its democracy granting the universal right to vote.
• Indian IT industry
• Total revenue of the IT-IT enabled services (ITES) industry is expected to be $47.8 billion this year up from $37.4 billion last year
• Software and services export continues to grow at around 30 per cent and has reached $31.4 billion
• The contribution of IT-ITES industry to country’s GDP grew to 5.4 per cent from 4.7 per cent of last year, thus providing employment to more than 1.6 million of our youth.
• In the last half century alone, the world has lost 1/4^th of its topsoil and 1/3^rd of its forest cover
• In the past 3 decades, 1/3^rd of the planet’s natural wealth has been consumed

Thought-flowers

We are the miracles that God made
To taste the Bitter fruit of Time

Come, come whoever you are, whether you be fire-worshippers, idolaters or pagans. Ours is not the dwelling place of despair. All who enter will receive a welcome here – sign at Jelaluddin Rumi’s mausoleum

By Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Damn it, I thought, blushing is so disloyal

I returned home tormented by the little demon who whispers into our ear the devastating replies we didn’t give at the right time.

it was in reality a difficult conversation between cordial enemies

Now you know Delgadina, that fame is a very fat lady who doesn’t sleep with you, but when you wake she’s always at the foot of the bed, looking at us

Sex is the consolation you have when you can't have love

Don’t let yourself die without knowing the wonder of fucking with love

In the end it is impossible not to become what others believe you are – Julius Caesar (?)

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent – Eleanor Roosevelt

It may be better to simplify a process rather than train people to cope with the complexity – Edward de Bono

Movies ‘R’ Us: #3-2008

1. Hyderabad Blues 2 (1998)

A Nagesh Kukunoor film. Hyderabad Blues 2 was presumably created to encash on the success of the 1^st of the series. Not having seen the 1^st of the duology, I can't comment on it.

As regards this movie, it is blessed with an amateur script (the kind a kid fresh out of the film institute would write as a debut script), low budget and fairly bottom of the barrel actors (starting with the hero himself: Nagesh Kukunoor). Thankfully for us, in his subsequent films Nagesh handed over the acting department to more competent artistes. Thank god for small mercies.

So HB2 deals with the post-marriage blues of the protagonist which include the decision to have a kid, sexual attractions and frictions at the workplace and handling marital tensions.

So you have amateurs delivering dialogues with a dead-pan face, a patchy script which tries to gel together individually thought-out humorous situations into one whole

About the only scene I would recommend is when the divorced wife (Rajshri Nair) begs her husband (Nagesh K) at a marriage, to return to her. A great piece of acting there. In fact come to think of it, Rajshri is more than competent throughout the movie.

2. Aks (Reflection) (2001)

To digress slightly, I need to note down a beautiful sher (verse) on ‘Aks’ before talking about the movie itself

Meri Zindagi Kisi Aur Ki (My life belongs to someone else)

Mere Naam Ka Koi Aur Kai (Someone else lives bearing my name)

Mera Aks Hai Sare Aaina (You see my reflection in front of the mirror)

Pase Aaina Koi Aur Hai (Behind it is someone else)

Rakesh Mehra is the acclaimed director of ‘Rang De Basanti’, a big Aamir Khan starrer hit in the recent past. Aks was his experimental debut which though technically acclaimed, probably never recovered its money.

Synopsis: A police inspector (Amitabh Bachchan) arrests a super-criminal (Manoj Bajpai) (with a predilection for masks and murdering high-profile personalities) and murders him later in an escape attempt. The criminal (who is fond of quoting the Bhagavad Gita) returns in spirit form to occupy the body of AB and goes about on his evil business. Oh, and by the way, Raveena Tandon plays the role of club dancer (stripper) girlfriend to Manoj Bajpai.

The movie itself fails to be gripping. Lengthy monologues abound to give the impression of something substantial, but alas, it does nothing to raise the wreckage of the film above water. And you have to wade through scenes depicting an aging Amitabh with a school-going kid to boot, a villain with a raspy voice going down to bass spouting verisimilitudes from the Hindu holy book, the Bhagavad Gita. It’s a movie quite puerile in its plot, execution, script, vision. Lofty moral lectures and inept dialogues eat away at the movie’s integrity. The songs unfortunately do not add to the film, instead they are unwelcome instrusions.

Amitabh disappoints and sorely at that. He remains Amitabh through and through instead of stepping in the shoes of the character: grand gestures and baritone voice modulation abounds.

The love scene between the possessed Amitabh (possessed by the villain Manoj Bajpai) and Nandita Das is pathetic to say the least. If ND feels that silly giggling = foreplay then watch this scene if you have the guts to digest it.

What is slightly unusual in this mainstream hindi movie is the villainy of the villain and the lengths he will go with his depravity. Perhaps one reason why it did not do well is because it’s a thriller, it aims to be scary and that is always going to restrict your viewership in India.

So all-in-all it’s a film that tries to be smart……..and ends up with its face flat in the dirt. If you must insist on some takeaways from the film, watch the song ‘Ye Kali Kaudiyali Raat’ starring Raveena Tandon. I couldn’t find it on Youtube though.

3. Pukar (The Call) (1983)

Pukar does have a rather unusual setting and era for the movie. It’s Goa when it was under Portugese rule. Its a Big B movie that hardly has anything else to recommend to it other than the man himself.

The movie lacks refinement, whether in script or story or flow. Perhaps the only saving grace is the songs. So without lingering on anything else let me turn to them.

Amitabh Bachchan seems to have been at the peak of his X factor powers around this time. Watching him is a delight, especially in the songs. The music is by R.D.Burman (2^nd husband of playback singer Asha Bhosale) who is supposed to be a genius.

I really don’t know what to make of the songs of this ‘genius’. His voice (he has sung a few of these songs) seems so raw at times if not off-key and some of the tunes seem to have been under the influence of alcohol. But some tunes are delightful and wonderfully different too. Check it out and decide for yourself.

Samundar Mein Nahake

Tu Maike Mat Jaiyo

Are Jaane jigar Duniya main

Tera To Mai Hu Diwana

Bach Ke Raina Re Baba

So to summarize; if you must see the movie then you must be a die-hard Amitabh or RD Burman fan.

Credits

Produced and Directed by Ramesh Behl

4. Yaarana (Friendship) (1981)

Another one of the Big B’s stupid movies lacking in execution, vision, style, effort….

And another movie where the only reason you might choose to watch the movie is the Big B himself or for the songs.

AB has obviously not yet lost his funny bone the time this movie was made (he seems to have lost it these days). The movie is silly, downright silly. Yet what makes it watcheable is the Big B. He plays the village buffoon, displays unerring instincts to appeal to both the urban and rural class. You can see a fierce determination in his eyes and an X factor that would make him much loved amongst all sections of society.

And as for Kishore Kumar who has sung many of the songs in this movie: You hear him sing and you know he is something special

Watch this movie as a tribute to both of them.

Bhole O Bhole

Chookar mere man ko kiya tune kya ishara

Tere Jaisa Yaar Kaha

Saara Zamana

Movies ‘R’ Us: #2-2008

Movie Review: Bawandar (The Sand Storm) (2000)

Bawandar is a story that needs to be told, ‘n’ number of times and more. Its about Sawari, a lower-caste woman in the feudal society of Rajasthan, the desert-state of India. Sawari is raped by some upper caste chauvinistic males from the village in retaliation for her showing signs of independence. Its about the rape and her subsequent fight for justice……….which was still continuing at the time of the release of the movie.

Based on a true story, Bawandar is a largely watcheable film, mainly for its authentic location shoots, scenes and situations that many of us Indians would identify-with in real life (especially the encounters with government officials), competent (but not excellent !!) acting by all concerned and strong empathy for the real-life Sawari and her struggles that the movie manages to project.

The film does have a script that sometimes sells it body for a few (extra) moments (saved) of reel-time, a bit simplistic at times. What also irks is a city-bred approach to acting, and that’s mainly to do with Nandita Das. She is not extremely convincing as a village woman. Especially in scenes where she cant shed her cosmopolitanism and enter the character of a village woman. At such moments, her acting actually lowers a scene’s impact and makes it insensitive in its handling, caricaturish even. Though she has her moments she aint no Shabana or Smita. How one longs for the ability and depth of a Shabana Azmi or Smita Patil at such times.

The supporting cast is very good at times (especially the villains in the story), plain amateurish (Rahul and Laila) or about average (Raghubir Yadav surprisingly).

What is laudable about the movie is that fact that it highlights the tremendous insensitivity (as per many accounts) shown to rape cases in India. Adding to the litany of woes of the affected woman, the inspector arrogantly asking her for a certificate attesting rape, the leery male doctor who tries to roughly examine her, the doctor who asks for a court order to examine her, the magistrate who is too busy attending a local film premiere to issue a court order to her, the female police who jeer at her (and her caste), the aggressive NGO kitty-party group who want to draw mileage out of the incident and so on.

P.S.: In making movies and acting out parts, small things matter

The fact that when Rahul and Laila get down from the camel cart after a long journey to ND’s village, they don’t stretch their legs. They just start walking away

When RK and LR first meet ND, she is at the potters wheel, handling it with the delicateness of a city-bred woman

Starring: Nandita Das, Raghuvir Yadav, Deepti Naval, Rahul Khanna, Laila Rouass, Lilette Dubey, Gulshan Grover

Screenplay: Ashok Mishra, Sudha Arora

Dialogues: Hariram Acharya, Deepak Purohit

Music Composer: Vishwamohan Bhatt (of the Grammy Awards fame)

Director of Photography: Ashok Kumar I.S.C

Produced: Jag Mundhra, Gaurang Doshi

Written, Directed and Edited by Jagmohan

Baazi (a ‘Gamble’?) (1995)

The only reason I wanted to see this flop movie was because this was Ashutosh Gowarikar’s first movie: AG of course is the one who went-on to direct Lagaan (one of my favorite movies). I knew that Aamir Khan consented to act in this movie for his friend AG. And for AG it was a case of nerves. Rather than following his instincts in this first movie, he followed the dictates of the financiers.

Baazi is an utterly forgettable movie. Masala that just doesn’t work: whether it be the story, the dialogues, the songs, lyrics, music, picturisation, choreography……just about everything about this movie is insipid.

AK looks his dashing-best in this movie though, no wonder girls swooned over him. But you still have to bear the sight of him wearing surprisingly oversized jeans that pop up throughout the movie and you get to see Aamir as the drag queen.

Where you see the influence of the producers is when you come across those sly camera shots to show Mamta Kulkarni’s cleavage, peer under her miniskirts, swift enough to perhaps escape the censors scissors but to satisfy the migrant labour audience. Done tastefully, skin show and the female body with or without clothes is something to admire and gaze adoringly-at. But you go the ‘Baazi’-way and you go on a voyeurs guilt-trip.

To be avoided……even if someone pays you to watch it

Krantiveer (The Brave Revolutionary) (1994)

Get this clear. You have to watch the movie only for Nana Patekar. Once this fact is understood, you will find it more tolerable to just fast forward the fill-in’s and get to the meat of the movie. This is a movie made for Nana’s histrionics. So if you choose to watch just those scenes with those pithy dialogues; divorced from the rest of the movie, then you wouldn’t have missed much.

Nana brings to mind all those actors (mainly from an era gone-by) who drew an audience simply on their own. And after that the story, the songs, the other actors were just that: secondary!

Nana is of course the new angry young man of the Hindi screen.

Nowadays you miss those actors of yore, each of whom had their own unique style: whether it be Dileep Kumar, RajKumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra etc. Nowadays all you get are actors who are clones of each other. Nana, fortunately retains his own unique style of staccato dialogue delivery with fiery eyes and anger. Like Dharmendra, his dancing (or non-dancing) too is uniquely Nana. He brings to mind all those bad / uncomfortable dancers in Hindi films: Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, even Amitabh Bacchan (in his very early days)

Oh and by the way, also acting in this movie are Mamta Kulkarni (the sex-bomb: where the hell did she disappear to?), Dimple Kapadia (you get to watch this poor lady in a stiffly ironed chalk-white churidar walk upto the public tap to fill water; a bit too much to digest)

Instead, watch these Nana scenes…….its vintage Nana

Ghulam-E-Mustafa (Mustafa, The Slave) (1997)

Another Nana Patekar movie. The story? It doesn’t matter. The songs? Pretty pathetic. But we know what we are here for. Its Nana. His every move is arresting, his eyes burning coals, his intensity: moving, his staccato dialogue delivery, his unique style which stands out in the days of Roshan Taneja clones. His acting seems to come from the heart (and not from Chapter 13: ‘How to show Anger’ from your acting school days) and appeals to the heart. That’s why each of his scenes from his movies taken in isolation is watchable again and again.

Movie Review: Chitchor (Heart Stealer) (1976)

Chit Chor is an old fashioned love story; the kind carried out under the kindly and benign eyes of the elders. The non-aggressive kind that frequently reflects real life. Amol Palekar in his time got to act in some excellent niche Hindi films, mainly comedies and quite of few of those were directed by Basu Chatterji. For any Hindi film afficianado, it is a must to wade through some films that BC directed: Choti Si Baat, Khatta Meetha, Baton Baton Mein and Chitchor. These do deviate from the standard Hindi film formulaic films in that the sex (or pseudo-sex and sexual innuendos) and violence are minimal or absent and the realism quotient higher. But of course, the songs cant be done away with, can it?

So to come back to this movie. Its a charmingly told love story (well, of the Indian kind). Built on a very simple premise really. Set in a village, a family (the headmaster (AK Hangal), his wife (Dina Pathak) and of-age daughter (Zarina Wahab)) awaits the arrival of a stranger who is a prospect for their marriageable daughter. In a case of mistaken identity, the arrival of the stranger (Vijayendra) is delayed. His assistant (Amol Palekar) arrives instead and is mistaken for Vijayendra. There follow a few weeks of bliss when the family wooes AP and he in turn wooes the initially recalcitrant ZW. But alas, the headmaster and his wife soon learn of the reality on the arrival of the correct gentleman and they then try to rectify the wrong. But is it too late by then? That’s what the movie is about.

The actors who play the main characters are chosen well and provide a strong backbone to the movie. Amol Palekar as the orphaned young man earnestly in search of love, Zarina as the young girl not even understanding enough to curb her tomboyish acts, Master Raju as Zarina’s ally and neighbourhood kid, AK Hangal and Dina Pathak as the typical Indian parents wishing well for their daughter and Vijayendra as the upwardly mobile and eligible bachelor. All these actors do their job well and are aided in no small measure by the speed at which the script unfolds and the excellent songs (in terms of music as well as lyrics) interspersed in the movie. The romance unfolds at just the right speed. Among Hindi films such a kind of film is a rarity and one must thank Basu Chatterji for his genre of movies.

Watch it for the gentle chemistry between Amol Palekar and Zarina Wahab (one of the few Muslim actresses in Hindi films). AP incidently is an actor who professed that he turned to acting out of necessity and that direction was always his first love. Sure enough he turned to direction later on, directly many films in the Marathi language and also the Shahrukh Khan-Rani Mukherji starrer ‘Paheli’. His approach to acting might seem a bit studious and structured (just like his dialogue delivery) but then it might be because hindi is his second language. Zarina Wahab portrays very effectively the transformation of the frivolous girl to a maturing woman. Watch it also for them and for the bygone era in Hindi films

So to come to the songs: all of them excellent in terms of music, melody, voice and simplicity of lyrics and also they way they gel-in with the flow of the movie. Especially recommended for some great vocals by Yesudas. A special word of appreciation to the blind (visually handicapped) Ravindra Jain who takes credit for the lyrics and music of this film. All the songs would rate high on any list of top Hindi film songs and are remembered by Hindi film afficianados to this day. And that says a lot especially when you can hardly remember a song of note in the Hindi films of the past 15-20 years.

Gori tera gaon bada pyara (young lady, your village is very charming)

…….is when AP first starts wooing ZW by singing to her

Aaj Se Pehle, Aaj Se Jyada Khushi aaj tak nahi mili (I never experienced such happiness and in such measure prior to this)

…….is when the 2 bachelors and ZW go on a picnic and AP is forming plans in his mind for the forthcoming marriage

Tu Jo mere Sur Mein Sur Milale (When you merge your tune into mine)

Is a post dinner sing-a-song when the master (AP) and the student (ZW) demonstrate their talent to the elders

Jab Deep jale Aana (Come when the lights are lit at twilight)

The hindi lyrics of the songs are available at http://www.hindilyrix.com/songs/get_movie_song_CHITCHOR.html

Movies with a throwback to the good old times always makes me nostalgic. When……

when mothers used to knot the long hair of their daughters,

when characters wore everyday clothes and not Manish Malhotra creations,

when low budget constraints were more then compensated by the sheer talent and passion of the actors and the strength of the script and dialogues,

when characters still retained their earthiness and didn’t look like the mass manufactured clones out of Roshan Taneja acting schools,

where cosmopolitanism had not yet stomped over regional bearing,

when characters believed in the gods and goddesses and you believed that they believed,

when film-makers took pride in telling simple stories too

when child characters were still middle-class in looks and behaviour and the metrosexual brand-conscious kid was not yet born

when only 3 brands and models of cars roamed the indian streets

when you felt a warmth envelop you when watching Amol Palekar movies

when picnics were relaxed affairs in the company of one’s own people

Credits

Rajshri Productions present

Starring

Amol Plekar

Zarina Wahab

Vijayendra

A.K.Hangal

Dina Pathak

Story: Subodh Ghosh

Cinematography: K.K.Mahajan

Editing: Mukhtar Ahmed

Playback: Yesudas and Hemlata

Lyrics and Music: Ravindra Jain

Produced: Tarachand Barjatya

Screenplay, Dialogue and Direction: Basu Chatterji

Say It With Numbers: #3-2008

From ‘The Ends of the Earth’: A journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy (From Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia) by Richard Kaplan

Sub-Saharan Africa

Only 14 of 46 sub-Saharan African states rate higher in human development than India and Pakistan. And of these 14 states, 5 are islands office the African coast, in 4 cases with small populations. According to the UN, of the 15 countries with the worlds lowest literacy rates, 12 are in sub-Saharan Africa. Of the 12 countries with the lowest per capita GDP all 12 are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest urban growth rate of any region on the planet: 5.9% from 1980-1990

According to the UN Human Development Report of 1994 which rated 173 countries on the basis of literacy, schooling, population growth, per capita GDP and life expectancy, 22 of the bottom 24 countries are in sub-Saharan Africa

Of the 15 million people worldwide whose blood is HIV-positive, 10 million are in Africa

Liberia

About 1% of Liberia’s population of 2.5 million has been brutally murdered – not by armies, but mainly by illiterate thugs with uniforms, guns and machetes

Liberia is one of the last West African countries with significant rain forests………they cover an estimated 44% of the total land area

In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, as the Dutch, the British and others became involved in the slave trade, it mushroomed. According to scholarly sources some 10 to 12 million African slaves arrived in the Americas

Nile: the worlds longest river, 4266 miles long

95% of Egypt’s people live on less than 5% of its land along a river corridor over 600 miles long but never more than 10 miles wide

Turkey

In 1980, 43.9% of Turks lived in cities. In 1990n it was 59%. By the turn of the century the figure would be 67% and climbing. Istanbul, the largest city in Europe, with a population of 10 million in 1993 was growing at the astonishing rate of 4.5% a year

At least 1 out of 6 people in the Turkish Republic is a Kurd

Christians, including Armenians number 2/10ths of 1% of the Turkish population……….The Turks with assistance from Kurdish merceneries annihilated almost all the Armenians during World War I before Ataturk’s takeover, leaving only small communities in a few cities

The Kurds have inhabited the Zagros and Taurus ranges since the 2^nd millennium BCE, 2000 years before the Arabs entered northern Mesopotamia and 3000 years before the Turks entered Anatolia

They are essentially a mountain people, deriving their collective personality from life on the 10000 foot massifs of Kurdistan

Kurdish is an Indo-European tongue rather than a Turkic one

Iran

At the time of the Islamic revolution, 45% of all Iranians lived in cities, by 1994, 57% of the population was urban. When the Shah was toppled, 5 million people lived in Tehran. A decade and half later there were 10 million. Since the revolution, Iran’s population increased from 35 million to 60 million

Whereas in 1977 on the eve of the revolution, the Iranian upper class accounted for 57% of total wealth in the country, in 1992 it still accounted for 45%

Uzbekistan

Has almost 45% of the entire population of former Soviet-Central Asia.

Its population is 23 million compared with under 4 million in Turkmenistan, under 6 million in Tajikstan, under 5 million in Kyrgyzstan and about 16.5 million in Kazakhstan

There are 6 million ethnic Uzbeks who live outside the borders of Uzbekistan. Uzbeks form 24% of the population in Tajikstan, 13% in Turkmenistan and 12.9% of Kyrgyzstan

Uzbeks account for 70% of the population of Uzbekistan itself

The Aral Sea

Is probably the worlds greatest single environmental disaster

once the earths 4^th largest inland lake in the last 30 years has shrunk to half its original size and a third of its former volume, in order to provide water for the Soviet Unions cotton monoculture.

In 1989 the sea was 3 times more saline than in 1961: few fish survive anymore in its waters

In the Aral Sea region…1 out of 10 children born does not live to its 1^st birthday

37% of Kazakhstan’s population is composed of ethnic Russians who live mainly in the North adjacent to Russia

Though Turkic and other minorities account for roughly 6% of China’s population they occupy over half of China’s land area

Only 13% of all Indians have access to public sewage systems and garbage collection

Thailand

Has been an identifiable nation since the 13^th century after the Siamese completed their migration from southern China into Northern Thailand where they established a kingdom. They henceforth referred to themselves as ‘Thais’ or free people

Has never been colonized unlike the rest of IndoChina or sub-Saharan Africa. Nor do Thais have a minority problem to the degree that the Turks have with the Kurds

Thais write in a script that is 700 years old

Over 90% of Thais practice Theravada (also called Hinayana or ‘Lesser’) Buddhism

Literacy now stands at 93%

In 1900, 6% of Thailand’s population lived in Bangkok, now 17% do

Since the economic boom began in the 1960s, Thailand has lost 45% of its old growth forests to illegal logging and slash-and-burn agriculture. The Thai economic miracle has been largely achieved by devouring Thailand’s environmental base

About 1% of Thai women in their teens and twenties – about 200,000 are prostitutes

Cambodia

Under the communist regime of ‘Democratic Kampuchea’, between 1 and 1.5 million Cambodians out of a population of 8 million were shot, bludgeoned, starved or worked to death or died of disease in the most intense and awful attempt at social transformation history has ever recorded.

Cambodia has lost a third of its forest cover since1969. Forests still cover 49% of the country. 3 to 4% of Cambodia’s old growth forests were being lost to illegal hardwood logging

Angkor Wat is the single largest religious building in the world, built by the Khmer King Suriyavarman II between 1113 and 1150 ACE. The compound comprising Angkor Wat is 960 metres – or over 10 football fields – long and 800 metres wide…….it was completed in only 37 years

30% of the earths inhabitants have no access to any health care whatsoever; 50% have no toilet to use

The industrialized countries which accounted for 40% of the worlds population after World War II now account for only 20% though they earn 85% of the worlds income. In the coming decades the industrialized world is expected to make up only 12 to 15% of the planetary population as 90 to 95% of all births take place in the poorest countries

The rich nations of the industrialized world consume 70% of the planets energy, 75 of its metals and 85% of its wood