past week, i watched a couple of things: the movie "disturbia" and a documentary on jonestown.
before, when i saw previews on disturbia, i thought it was just another lame and predictable suspense movie. but after watching it, it turned out ok. the movie talks about a boy in home arrest with nothing else to do, spies on the hot girl that lives next door with his binoculars and accidentally witnesses a murder across the street. after saying all that, you probably already know whats gonna happen. thats why i thought it was a predictable movie. but, with a hot girl in the movie and the fact that it did make me jump a couple times, it was ok. [6/10]
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there are many different religions all over the world and yet there are many cults too. a cult is some sort of a religion gone whacko; completely twisted in beliefs and it fascinates me on how a single person can control a whole population to do extraordinary practices. i mean for my religion, we sometimes have to fast, but cults lead you to do inhumane things. sometime ago when i was having lunch with my sis, she was telling me how she watched a documentary about the jonestown cult on the history channel. she said i should watch it if i ever had the chance. then couple weeks ago, when i was flipping through the channels on tv, i came upon this documentary and also with live footage, it was one of the most disturbing things i have seen.
during the 1960's when civil rights action dominated american cities, one being san francisco, people especially blacks trusted few white men. in their greatest and most desperate time of need, they turned to God as a last resource hoping a miracle would dawn upon them and make things right. a man named jim jones saw this as an opportunity to gain fame and status. he started a church called "the people's temple" destined to provide miracles and love to every person of color. in order to gain the trust of his members, jim jones used fraudulent methods healing people acting in pain, or mending a broken bone with a touch of his finger. slowly, jim jones veered away from preaching the bible and began to implant a deceitful image of the government, and the United States as a whole in their minds. he wanted to show everyone how the US government was the cause of pain, the cause of discrimination, and every other dreadful thought you can think of. surely enough, the people believed every single thing that came out of his mouth and thought highly of him as their new leader. they were so manipulated to the point that all their most prized possessions were given to jim jones and even land and property were forfeited to his name. once jim collected all of this equitable wealth, his ultimate goal was to relocate "the peoples temple" to a small country on the north eastern tip of south america called guyana.
jim jones found a secluded place 150 miles away from the nearest city in a forest area. about 1000 members had followed him to build this new city of his own. jim jones decided to call this city "jonestown". everyone was happy to be at jonestown and of the 1000 members, 300 were children and they were happy too. no one was hurt or assaulted, but it was made clear that if anyone tried to leave, dire consequences would follow. the only people who werent content with jonestown, were the relatives of loved ones who have moved away to follow this new lifestyle. there were no methods of communicating with them, so the only way was to fly to guyana and find out for themselves. one day, a congressmen, a couple of NBC news reporters, and some family members of victims planned a day to visit jonestown. they wanted to see for themselves if their loved ones were being well treated. with so much hate of americans, jim jones reluctantly agreed to this invitation because if he did not, it would have a negative reputation on jonestown and human-rights laws would come into play and he will find himself in a deeper shit-hole.
the day has come and the crew flew into guyana. a couple of trucks were sent by jim jones to pick the people up. the crew recalled how the trek in and out of the woods was virtually impossible to manage by foot if it werent for the truck ride. this was one strategic reason why jim jones chose this location. when they arrived at jonestown, the crew was welcomed warmly by the sounds of laughter, children playing, and live music. everyone had a smile and this made the congressmen a believer that jonestown was nothing to be worried about. there was a member who wanted to leave jonestown, but knowing if he tried to escape, he would be killed. secretly, he wrote a note on helping him to escape and stuck it down one of the crew's pockets. one of the guards took notice of this and alarmed jim jones. surprisingly, there were about 15 other people who also secretly notified the congressman that they wanted out and this angered jim jones to the point of insanity. the congressman declared that these people should be freed, and if not, jonestown would be given a bad name to the entire world. by this time jim jones was a lunatic because he was in a losing position with all these conditions. he was forced to let these people free, but with a hefty price. when the people boarded the truck to leave, jim jones ordered the drivers to kill everyone when they reached the airport. he did not want any survivors to spread the news of jonestown being prison-like, but sooner later it would, when the news of the congressman's disappearance surfaced. struck with anguish, jim jones had no choice but to resort to mass suicide to cover up his footsteps. everyone agreed to this because they were told that jonestown would be started as a whole and ended as a whole and that his church should not fall victim to outside forces. jim jones ordered cyanide poison by the gallons to be prepared. later that same evening, all the members including children were forced to drink the cyanide and jim jones was the only one to inflict a gunshot wound to himself.
the crew was found murdered with the exception of the reporter, 1 member, and some other relatives. to this day, the son of jim jones is still alive and recalls his father as a crazed man.
what was good about the documentary was that it was re-enacted with pieces of live footage and one of the survivors filled in with more details about the cult. just to hear jim jones' haunting voice put chills down my spine and imagining myself being down at jonestown made my heart beat faster. the aftermath of the mass suicide was really disturbing to see 1000 people laying lifeless on the ground.
