The images coming out of Del Rio, Texas of US border guards on horseback charging at a group Haitian migrants, using horse reins to threaten and, seemingly, to strike them brought two thoughts to my mind. The first was that the image of white men in western hats using horses to threaten and herd dark skinned Haitians carried “echoes of the historical injustices suffered by black people in the US.” The second was something I could not quite pin down. It seemed like something I had already seen, a Déjà vu image from my own childhood experience. And then it came to me in a flash – The Planet of the Apes! I was struck by the cruelty of the chase scenes in that movie when I first saw them on our black and white TV as a child in Malaysia. I am equally struck by the cruelty signified in the recent images from the USA. I hear the horns of the film’s soundtrack blaring again!

Image: https://www.arise.tv/white-house-condemns-border-guard-use-of-whip-like-cord-against-haitian-migrants/

Image: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/613334042989628692/

https://www.tnp.sg/news/world/white-house-slams-use-horse-reins-threaten-haitian-migrants