The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| In US coming out party, Bollywood finds curious fans Posted: 23 Apr 2014 10:48 PM PDT Several years later, Alonso was wearing a T-shirt with the likeness of the 2010 drama's lead actor, superstar Shah Rukh Khan, and eagerly sitting on a lawn chair as Bollywood's premier awards ceremony put on a public show in Tampa. "I can't understand the language, but I just love the colours, the culture and the stories," said Alonso, who has since also seen other Indian films lighter than the politically charged "My Name is Khan". The International Indian Film Academy has come to the city on Florida's west coast for its first-ever US edition, hoping to win over more fans like Alonso as the world's most prolific film industry looks to make inroads in the most lucrative box office. Ahead of a star-studded awards ceremony on Saturday, Bollywood put on a free performance yesterday with more than 1,000 spectators showing up to watch choreographed Indian dancers and DJs as the sun set over the central city's riverside Curtis Hixon Park. While around half of the crowd appeared to be South Asian, the rest of the audience included both curious onlookers and budding Bollywood connoisseurs. Stands sold Indian dishes such as crispy masala dosas and red-hot plates of chole batura, while others sold American staples including tacos and Bud Light beer. Alonso's brother Felipe, like his sister of Cuban descent, said that Indian films' narratives offered a refreshing change from US cinema and were generally "more clean" in their content. "I don't really like to admit it, but the Indian films often make me cry," he said. Drummer and DJ Ravi Jakhotia, who was raised in the city and performed a new song "Do Da Tampa" for yesterday's party, said that Latinos offered a natural constituency for Indian culture. "Lots of things Indian and Latin aren't too far off. They also like spicy food and big extravagant events. After Indian weddings, nothing's more raging than a Latin wedding," said Jakhotia, who performs under the name DJ Ravi Drums. Jakhotia saw a turning point with the popularity of the film "Slumdog Millionaire". He performed at the 2009 Oscars as the British movie's track "Jai Ho", composed by Indian music legend A.R. Rahman, won Best Original Song. "I think when 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Jai Ho' caught fire the way they did, it revolutionised everybody's perspective globally on India," Jakhotia said. Still, while the United States has topped Britain in recent years as the top overseas market for Bollywood, the growth has been due largely to the three million-strong Indian American community. While the Tampa extravaganza charmed the non-South Asian audience that showed up, some suggested that Bollywood's appeal was mostly kitsch and unlikely to give Hollywood a run for its money in the world's largest box office. "Bollywood is a great spectacle and great for its cheekiness. I enjoy it, but for many people it may take awhile," said Connie Franks, a theater performer in Tampa. Ashley Martin, 22, said that younger Americans may be more interested in Bollywood but that it may be too foreign for much of the audience in the United States, where domestic films overwhelmingly dominate the market. "These aren't action films or even independent films or French movies. Bollywood is totally different from what many people are used to," she said. – AFP, April 24, 2014. |
| Catching more than fish – Ugandan town crippled by AIDS Posted: 23 Apr 2014 09:37 PM PDT Exhausted from a night of hard fishing on the vast inland sea of Uganda's Lake Victoria, fishermen come off the boats as the first rays of light glimmer at dawn. Once the fish is sold and the nets untangled, some go home to their families, but most head straight for the bars of the town and the sex workers who hang out there, despite HIV rates soaring to at least six times the national average. Here, 43% of the population live with HIV compared to 7% nationally: for a man seeking a sex worker, the rates and risks are likely to be far higher. "The fishing communities along the lakeshore are the places with the highest HIV prevalence rates in the country," said Raymond Byaruhanga, chief doctor at the AIDS Information Centre in the Ugandan capital Kampala. "The mindset of the fishermen is to say, 'one day my boat will overturn and I will die. Therefore there's no need to be scared of HIV, it will take several years to kill me'." Kasensero, a sleepy fishing port of some 10,000 people close to the Tanzanian border, has the dubious distinction of being the place where the first case of AIDS in Uganda was reported in the 1980s. "Most of the fishermen are interested only in drinking and in women," explained Josua Mununuzi, the owner of four boats. In the 10 years he has worked, "nothing has changed", he says, except the faces of the prostitutes hanging around in the narrow streets, where the smell of urine mingles with that of rotting rubbish. The good wages earned by fisherman attract a steady stream of sex workers from surrounding communities. "Since it's a fishing port, we get a lot of sex workers coming here," said Kato Francis, a doctor at Kasensero's run-down hospital. Two factors explain the trend: the relatively high earning power of the fishermen and their live for today mentality. Sex workers typically come to the town for a few months, often during the peak fishing season. They go back home with some savings – and very often HIV. The going rate here for sex is as little as two dollars, or up to three dollars for an especially valued lady. Sheyla came from the Ugandan capital Kampala two months ago, adding that her clients regularly ask for sex without a condom. She says she refuses systematically, but adds that the same cannot be said for all her colleagues. "A friend of mine had sex with a man and when she took the condom off the man was bleeding," she said. "I'm scared of that." Like most of the sex workers in town, Sheyla lives in a tiny room close to the bars. Her knickers are hung up to dry in a corner and condoms are scattered on a bench, while a small bed with mosquito netting takes up half the room. With an average of five clients a day, she has saved up enough money to buy a small plot where she hopes to build a house. "It's so risky going out on the lake, that when they come back they want to spend their money exactly as they wish, they know they could die the next day, so they don't make plans for the future," said boat owner Mununuzi. Storms are frequent on Lake Victoria and a wave can easily overturn the light boats that the fishermen use. Few can swim and none wear life jackets. Apolinari Yousters, 57, has lived as a fisherman in Kasensero for the past 20 years. Three years ago he went to get tested for the first time and was found to be HIV positive. He has no idea when he became infected. Asked who might have infected him he shrugs simply and says, "prostitutes or bar girls". Sex workers transmit the virus to the fishermen, who pass it on to other sex workers and to their wives. Sometimes the wives pass it on to other men while their husbands are away on the lake, often to traders who come to buy fish. The flow of sex workers, traders and fishermen makes it very difficult to follow up on and treat patients, Byaruhanga said. A number of aid agencies have come to Kasensero in recent years to work on issues related to AIDS, Francis said, but adding sadly that "changes have been few and far between". – AFP, April 24, 2014. |
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