Moksha World

I recently viewed Secret of the Nile on Netflix. This is Egypt’s adaptation of the Grand Hotel format originally produced in Spain. I saw a few episodes of Grand Hotel and didn’t get caught up in the story. Egypt’s version appears to follows the same formula of owners vs. workers complete with illegitimate heirs, unwanted pregnancies and forbidden romance. It reminds me of Downton Abbey in its exploration of the theme of the “upstairs” and “downstairs” characters. 

In the beginning of the series both sets of characters fit their roles: well-dressed hotel management with their incorporation of key French words and hotel staff cowering at the orders of their supervisors in their black and white uniforms.

Initially the program seemed like a very typical soap opera but about one third of the way into the series I became interested in the characters as they contemplated their actions based on doing the right thing or simply following their own interests. I was particularly surprised at the ease with which a new father returns the baby stolen by his mother-in-law from the chambermaid who had a secret affair with his brother-in-law as soon as he discovered the conspiracy. If you don’t follow this, don’t worry it is quite an elaborate storyline!

After I finished the series, I started to wonder why I was surprised at this behavior. Aren’t we all supposed to believe that “decent” people will have moral standards and will do the right thing? Yet there are very few characters from that group who displayed a sense of moral duty. Underneath the soap opera plot lines runs the oldest theme in history: right vs. wrong. There are some universal ideas of what is wrong such as murder, lying, stealing, etc. However many human beings display an enormous capacity to rationalize their actions in order to secure their own interests and bypass the fundamental question of whether it is “right”. Is it really “right” to tell lies, even “white lies”, to rationalize your actions or to manipulate someone into acting in your interests instead of their own? One husband lied about his murderous machinations because he loved his wife and wanted to stay married to her. The matriarch of the family lied about her husband’s will to ensure that his illegitimate son did not take ownership of the hotel. These are dramatic representations of human behavior but don’t we all know how these things end? How many times has this theme presented itself in television programming and yet, without naming names, we are seeing a multitude of real life examples that demonstrates there are many people who have not learned this lesson. Or that they believe it doesn’t apply to me. 

I then began considering the question of whether “doing the right thing” should be focused on the individual or on the greater good. The main heroine of the story wants to expose the truth about the true inheritance of the hotel even though it presents numerous conflicts with her family and her marriage – she appears to want the greater good. The sister who follows her mother’s example and manipulates her husband feels the repercussions of her actions and ultimately tells the truth to her husband – moving from doing the right thing for herself to ultimately doing the right thing for them both. Are we encouraging the people around us to do the right thing and how are we defining this?

I have not watched much programming from Egypt and I am now very curious to see more of its programming. Moral standards vary across the world but there are always people who rationalize their actions to act in their own interests and those who choose to be honest. Is this the difference between these heroes and heroines that their moral code is stronger than ours? Shouldn’t we all strive to be the heroes and heroines of our own real life stories?