Freedom: The Elephant Crushing Ritual

Activists Denounce Thailand's Elephant Crushing Ritual: "It's a sound not easily forgotten. Just before dawn in the remote highlands of northern Thailand, west of the village Mae Jaem, a four-year-old elephant bellows as seven village men stab nails into her ears and feet. She is tied up and immobilized in a small, wooden cage. Her cries are the only sounds to interrupt the otherwise quiet countryside."

"It's a ritual that exists, in varying forms and degrees of cruelty, in virtually every country in Asia that has domesticated elephants," explained Richard Lair, an American expatriate and international relations officer for Thailand's Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang. Lair has studied domesticated elephants for more than 20 years and is author of the UN report Gone Astray: The Care and Management of the Asian Elephant in Domesticity.

"What is freedom?"
That's the way I start the meeting of the group today, all of a sudden. No warm-up. I want to hear complaints about it being six-o-five in the morning, and that it isn't time for philosophy.
"Do you really mean it? No anaesthesia? No breakfast?", inquired Panotti.
"Then, all right, let's buy coffee, milk and bread and have breakfast before talking."
I and Panotti went to the bakery. A certain movement of the elderly that go out very early in the morning to get that day's daily bread. The streets around, which have just sprung to life and daylight. He walks fast, with decided steps. He's decided at buying things too.
"What is all this for?"
"For the week", he laughed.
"Plain for all to see."
Well, we stayed in the kitchen of the Association, talking about things in general. I had promised to resume the issue, at least today, only after breakfast.
All of them eat. And they do eat, believe me. The growing season. No one was saying a word. Only soft chewing noises. Zangrandi turned on the radio and turned up the volume. Figueira laughed and said to me very softly Zangrandi would do it for hating the chewing noises. He said he didn't like them either, but on the other hand had no patience to chew without just any noise. By Morales's smiling expression I could tell it was not only Figueira who knew about it, though he and Zangrandi were closer friends.
"What is freedom?", I said, resuming the conversation we had left undiscussed. The kids seemed to be bothered by the theme, so silent they were. But today, as if it were a miracle, Morales started the discussion.
"Coming and going. To be able to go where you want."
And he looked at me, "is it right?". I told him I was not expecting answers one could correct, just because it was feelings, visions from an intimate point of view.
"There's no right or wrong in it. What really matters is the way you see it. No one has the right to tell you how you should feel freedom. How can one feel freedom from a point of view imposed by others?"
Morales seemed to agree. Panotti said freedom was something difficult to get, "people have a right time to do everything, go to school, work, all you can imagine. How can one have freedom. Sometimes I think I don't have freedom even on vacation..."
"But I think the great seasoning of life is that we can only see these paradises we usually spend vacation at on vacation. If we could stay there all the time, it wouldn't be the same fun", I said.
"Well, I really don't mind doing only what I like, at the time I want", said Morales, trying hard to help.
"You say it now. Later on, without discipline you'll get bored of the game, believe me."
Panotti didn't say a word, but deep inside him, seemed to keep the same opinion. It was too early in the morning for him to be building arguments against anything, I think. Zangrandi said freedom was the birds in flight. I said, as a joke, that apart from the law of gravity they had their other laws to comply with. He said it was symbolism what he had just said and I agreed, smiling at him. Zangrandi then added freedom was doing what one loved. That whenever it happens, it feels like vacation forever, because you do it for the sheer love of it. The others liked what he said and agreed. Galhardo said nothing when asked. Figueira answered for himself and for Galhardo, "I and my coach defined submission yesterday. Now it's you who have defined freedom."
"Don't you and Galhardo have any opinion about it?", I was surprised.
"Do you believe one can have freedom doing what we're doing, Miss Grisam? Pinning the others, getting pinned? I don't know why, but I think so", said Galhardo suddenly.
"Yes I think so, I see it much like Zangrandi does, I think if you do what you really love to, see a purpose in it and see it's good, yes, I think so. I remember a man who received a visit of an enemy in prison. The man didn't even enter the cell, of course. Said this man deserved the punishment he got, losing his freedom. Said he only could see him that way, behind bars. This man in prison agreed, but reminded his enemy that from his point of view he was able to see him behind bars too."
"Yes, but this is silly, his enemy could walk free and he couldn't", said Panotti and Morales almost at the same time. Figueira, Galhardo and Zangrandi only heard, paying attention.
"I agree, but many times what good is to be able to go where you want and find no friendly voice there, nothing but coldness, nobody to talk to and share emotions and thoughts with? What good is to walk physically free and mentally carrying a bag of concerns, problems and paranoias? The key I'm talking about is inside. It's the one which opens the doors. Don't forget the fact that to be able to pin the adversary you have to give up your freedom of movement too, or else the adversary will slide free from your arms. That is, you pin yourself to him to pin the opponent. Yet all the same the two wrestlers will experience the sensation of freedom it is to live in a community in which everyone lives intensely everything the activity that they master means and the freedom Zangrandi referred to, to do it as a labor of love, do it because it is your world, it is the way you manifest yourself as a human being that can create a whole universe. This is why we have a hard time trying to define freedom. There are so many things entwined and it is simple by nature at the same time."

Inwards | Wall

Radio Universal: The Making Of A Thousand Gods.