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India-Indonesia: Live and let live or let die?
Aug. 15, 1947, and Aug. 17, 1945, are, respectively, the independence days of India and Indonesia.
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High flyers: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi fly kites at the National Monument in Jakarta on Wednesday. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
D
o you remember the 1973 James Bond spy movie Live and Let Die, starring Roger Moore whose upwardly mobile eyebrows were more famous than many of his fellow actors?
The film’s eponymous theme song, written by Paul McCartney,is about a young person who initially feels everyone has the right to do their own thing, but after being exposed to the ways of the world, he becomes more cynical and egoistic, and changes his tune from “live and let live” to “live and let die”, meaning, he’ll do whatever he wants, to hell with everyone else.
Admittedly, a lot of people die in James Bond movies — almost 1,300 in total!
When he wrote the song, probably the last thing that McCartney had on his mind was secularism, but that is what I associate the song with.
