With China and Russia vetoing a UN Security Council resolution for the resignation of President of Bashar Al-Assad, the Syrian government has been allowed to continue rolling its forces through Homs. Meanwhile, Iran keeps playing its cat-and-mouse game with the International Atomic Energy Association around the militarization of its nuclear program.
As these countries hold strong on their chosen paths, two other countries have made a radical departure recently. Myanmar, ruled by a military Junta for the past few decades, has changed its domestic election policies enough that the US has re-established a diplomatic mission; and North Korea’s new leader Kim Jong-un has agreed to conduct talks in March with the US on its nuclear arsenal.
It is interesting to consider how we are in a global situation, where Burma and potentially North Korea are closer allies than Syria and Iran. When does it make sense for a country or person to move away from their momentum path towards an alternative direction? Let’s see what the Arts have to say.
Iran’s submission to the Oscars for Best Foreign Language film, A Separation, should be the lock-in winner. A husband and wife in Tehran are unwillingly moving apart. She wishes to take her daughter abroad to study. He wishes to stay in Iran to take care of his aging father. This family dispute unravels and spills into other lives and circumstances leading to unpredictable situations. Like a snowball gaining momentum down a mountain side to eventually become an avalanche, the movie demonstrates how people viewing only their own perspectives, quickly lose their ability to halt the sequence of events they unleash.
As with many Iranian films, the story is an analogy to inter-country disputes, especially the one between the US and Iran, and how simple misunderstandings lead to a conflicted state of affairs despite the best intentions of individuals. The movie is a must-see glimpse into the lives of middle-class and upper middle-class citizens of Tehran. Filled with an educated populace, a functioning transportation system and an objective judicial system, Americans will be surprised at the similarities with our own lives. This is country far removed from the mayhem of an Iraq or the restrictions of Saudi Arabia.
The recent New York revival of Merrilly We Roll Along was a chance to see one of Stephen Sondheim’s rare shows. The original debuted in 1981, was on Broadway for sixteen performances and is filled with memorable numbers firmly in the Sondheim canon. The narrative begins with a celebration for the main character, a film producer and composer, whose new production has made a lot of money. It is quickly revealed though how the commercial success glosses over his personal failures. The musical’s sequence of events is told in reverse-time, demonstrating how the person originally destitute but filled with personal wealth came to be in this situation.
The production poses the question: Can we identify the point in our lives when a certain decision leads to the present situation? By the end of the show, we realize there is no single point. The protagonist always plans to make a meaningful musical and spend time with his family, but ends up chasing commercial success instead because it’s easier. Frequently, we end up where we are because we continue to follow the current path.
Iran and Syria are rolling along their momentum path unwilling to consider options outside of what they have done in the past – hiding their nuclear program and tyrannizing their people respectively. Similar to A Separation, this myopic perspective of holding tight to their current plans may lead to consequences which they are unable to fix. The question facing the US and the rest of the world is whether we can provide options to them that are sufficiently attractive to prevent them from doing the easy thing – letting the snowball merrily roll along to destruction.
February 20, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
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