Electing to keep an open mind

Published on: Sunday, October 04, 2020

By: Sylvia Howe

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Elections elections. What do I know? I certainly didn’t know who had won for some time after Sabah’s and I’m not sure I can pronounce the new Chief Minister’s name Not that it matters - I don’t count, just as long as he is good for Sabah.

The world is changing isn’t it? It has already.

Very thoughtless of Ruth Bader Ginsburg to die so inconveniently.

The army will have to scoop Trump out of the White House if he loses, which doesn’t look certain.

Boris Johnson may have succumbed to the remains of his Covid infection, his exhaustion, his familial incontinence and his somewhat fluid relationship with veracity – but there’s no certainty about that either. He drew the short straw when he got into Number 10 – decisions; deaths; Brexit arguments; a recalcitrant Lords and a Commons becoming disillusioned, even with his majority; the cloying fog that is D Cummings enveloping him and reminding him of their Master Plan, no doubt. There are some good Tories – our MP in Kent for one – and I bet they are gnawing their desklegs at the moment.

I watch everything with interest, feeling far away and ill informed. I wonder how England will feel in November - maybe I will never know if it becomes impossible to leave the airport here. I don’t think that will be the case in the end but it does make me worry. Whatever happens, here or there, I shall mask up and keep washing my hands and remember social distancing. Not something it is easy to do in an election, as candidates and voters meet, but this too will pass as we all become better at living with Covid. Living with it, not beating it. That doesn’t look possible, does it? So acceptance is the thing, not panic or resistance. And if wearing a mask might help the giver or the receiver of those pesky little droplets, then let’s all do it. If it doesn’t, so what. If it stops one person getting it, then it’s worth it. That doesn’t sound like alarmist thinking or a conspiracy theory or loss of personal freedom to me.

Conspiracy theories fascinate me. I consider myself intelligent and well educated. I read a lot, I try to keep myself informed as best I can, I discuss with anyone I can persuade to sit still long enough to engage in conversation. But I am not convinced by many people who hold these strong convictions.

Mr Icke said a while ago that the Royal Family of the UK were descended from lizards. They may be of course, but show me the evidence, love.

And the child abuse in the pizzahouse stories? Where do these come from? Apparently one man turned up with a machine gun demanding to be taken to the children in the basement. It took a while to calm him down and prove that that restaurant had no basement…

Anti-vaxxing? Well, the Measles Mumps and Rubella controversy caused a lot of people NOT to avoid these diseases. Why would you put your children in harm’s way unless there was a very good reason for it. Mistrust of science is not one of them, nor is rumour or gossip, I would argue. Results of large studies by knowledgeable trained professionals, reported by trustworthy organisations might be a good basis, perhaps? Not Novak Djokovic’s personal opinion.

Something that worries me is the reemergence of diseases such as measles - which was eradicated in the United States in 2002. In 2014, there were over 600 reported cases. Polio and smallpox are a couple of others to remember. There are probably more, but I am not a medical professional and don’t have the authority to pronounce on this.

The fundamental principle must surely be to make sure you have done your homework, and consulted both sides of the argument. It applies to everything – Brexit comes immediately to mind. I read something the other day – not really anything very surprising – that people believe the statistics that back up their beliefs and ignore those that don’t. We must keep our wits about us.

Cinema: The Specials

Yesterday I saw a film at Suria Sabah called The Specials in English, Hors Normes in French. Outside the normal. Not an easy subject – two people (a Jew and a Muslim) who met at a summer camp and as a result decided to set up homes for very disturbed young people, the ones the system preferred (prefers?) to avoid. A true story, based on Stéphane Benhamou and Daoud Tatou who did exactly that.

It is showing at the moment and I urge you all to go and see it. It doesn’t sound promising, I admit, but it makes you laugh and cry and I loved it. The directors are Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache and they get stunning performances out of their actors, some of whom have special needs and some who don’t.

Joseph is an autistic young man who cannot stop himself pulling the emergency cord on the Paris Metro – it is Bruno (Vincent Cassel)’s battle to stop him doing this and to placate the police. He develops passions for people, asking if he can put his head on their shoulder. Nothing more, but it makes some people very uncomfortable. The actor is Benjamin Lesieur, autistic himself.

Another very seriously affected child in the film is Valentin, cared for by Dylan, a difficult man from the poor part of Paris, perfect gang fodder, but who turns out to mind about his charge and work with him to help him leave his prison, physical and mental. Valentin is played by Marco Locatelli, who is not a professional actor but has a severely autistic brother himself. It’s a feel-good film, with a sobering message. Who wants these children? And where can they get help?

Do watch it. It’s worth it, and I promise you will come out smiling, though your eyes might be a little damp.