Watch it!

Penblunt & Hogwash

Snakepit and the charmer

PENBLUNT

It was a Wow! Week for the electronic media: so much to show from just one incident, so much to scream at Pakistan, so much controversy at so little cost (not to human lives… for if humans do not kill humans, what will the TV live on); rather, I am referring to the fact that all the action was located either in Delhi or in nearby Panipat… less transportation cost, fewer reporters covering the entire gamut of “issues”, one OB van to suffice….

And then, of course, as the bilateral trauma seemed to be getting exhausted, with all the juice in the lime squeezed out, there came the stunning and stunningly vulgar “Israel mein saanp se maalish! Porn on mainstream.

Whoever it is, Paki or Hindu bigots, who did the Samjhauta Express thing must have been God to the media.

The channels had gone dry… not a single person committed suicide with advance notice to the media, which could hang out with the cameras hoping the man would jump… and cop it.

Sense prevailed in the turban and Dr Singh did not sing the Sonia song and Mulayam was not sacked.

There was no women’s tennis worth the greedy eyeballs (Justice Hidayatullah had used the term “prurient” in dismissing the obscenity charges against the Bengali novel “Bibar”).

What the F, man!

Then came the great news… SOS has been heard… two compartments of the train had been bombed and the train (as shown in TV graphics, repeatedly, monotonously repeatedly) was travelling like the old Bollywood hit, the “Burning Train”, with no Dharmendra to save the guys.

Just imagine… midnight adrenalin rush, and then, because no sane person would have seen it when the cameras started rolling, the next day all day it remained Breaking News on all the channels.

Then came the Pakistani Foreign minister and there broke out the issue of a joint investigation. And a famous TV channel-head did an exclusive in which one brilliant question asked to the minister was, did he think Pakistan has not done enough to stop terrorism?

Genius

Of course, the question was asked thrice; the first time (original query); then, in the guise of evasion (“But Minister, you have not answered my original question… do you think Pakistan has not done enough…) and finally, the third time after some other questions were answered… the typical sleuth’s cross-questioning, repeating the question once it had been forgotten… just a trap for the guy to make a mistake.

We expected, of course, that the honourable Pakistani minister would throw up his lucrative job and say, “Of course we have not done nothing to stop terrorism…. Dawoodd is still the house guest of Prez Musharraf, don’t you know?”

The speculations continued, whether it was a Hindu bigot or an Islamic one from across the border. And speculation is a national habit, a fundamental birth right of TV journos.

India said they had found a link in Pakistan.

Pakistani minister said bilaterals have never been so rosy, which was bad news and never played up in the media… same reason: if an Indo-Pak honeymoon takes off, TV will lose its rooftop and Bollywood its favourite damning theme: ISI, the ultimate evergreenback villain, the mantra for jingle bells in the box office.

Not a single channel took up the issue of how Maoists in Nepal were selling arms cheap to people across the border; none except one English channel and no prizes for guessing.

No channel reported another doddering old parent ousted from the son’s marital household.

No feature on farmers committing suicide in West Bengal. No report on the river Pagla veering off into Bangladesh and threatening the Calcutta Port with clear extinction

But why do you need all that when there is “Israel mein saanp se maalish”?

It was a coldish midweek day and the sun was in mourning – upset that the clouds were not letting it shine in the era of global warming.

I reached the Press Club and sat down with vodka, trying to warm up a bit. I could have spared the pocket. Hot stuff had been cooked already.

Across me at the far end of the main hall, on the giant TV screen I saw something that I could not believe… a snake slithering over the chest, alabaster breasts (in black brassier), belly button, navel of a sexy woman.

“Israel mein saanp se maalish”, read the caption and the news reader went on how this unique massage was being given in Israel.

For a split second I was jealous of the snakes. Then the camera shifted to the woman’s white legs (black undergarment), and snake slid down the legs, down on the thigh, down, down….

Eeks!

And like the graphics of the Burning Train, just those vulgar shots were repeated thrice in a news item of one minute…. And the news was being shown since morning, because a housewife I spoke to said, “Oh, I have seen it.”

Wake up, Mr Dasmunshi, this is not just a foreign entertainment channel, this is real desi stuff, Minister!

A Talk Across

Ko Siu Lan (30) is a project officer with an international charity organisation and works out of Hong Kong. The charity is involved in rural development. She is married to a Frenchman who lives in Beijing and works as a journalist.

Pinaki: Hei...ready
Ko Siu Lan: yes

PB: Ko, you spent your teens in Hong Kong under British control, now it is back with China. You are still young with young memories. Are there any changes in the lifestyles?

Ko: Hope so...I always thought I am about 900 years old

Ko: Me, very personally speaking or in general people around me?

PB: Both...

Ko: People around me: more and more people start to learn Mandarin
Hong Kong people are well-known for their horrible Mandarin..and yes, many couldn't even speak a word before but now...Mandarin is almost a must..and many start to station in big cities in China to work, Beijing, Shanghai...many expats left Hong Kong, particularly the British people, in the civil servants team, the police...
more and more news about China start to appear in the media. Of course this is true for all countries as importance of China, but in Hong Kong, we start to see 'strange' news about the President of China is visting so and so country...the hostage from China in Nigeria returing..and the reaction of the Chinese governemnt and their family..this kind of news would coure never appear on the TV screen or newspaper before in Hong Kong. 'Patriotic news' i would call them

Ko: And then of course we have increasing 'mainland Chinese' people among us in daily lives - both as tourists or as new immigrants in fact mainland tourists have become the biggest group of tourists for Hong Kong and huge income they bring together with all the changes in the shops where you can pay with the Chinese currency...many salesmen now have to speak Mandarin..and then of course complains about how mainland Chinese are stupid, rude, impolite, dirty, noisy...blah blah blah

Ko: And for the new immigrants - hmm. Only recently mainland women have been barred from entering into Hong Kong. Because the discontent of the Hong Kong people is so high because they have occupied too much resources in the public hospitals. Hong Kong immigration department started a new policy of stopping a 7-month pregnant mainland women to enter into Hong Kong so that they could not give to birth in the public hospitals..they pay or sometimes dont even pay..and then the babies are Hong Kongers from the minute they are born.

Ko: And Hong Kong people are saying that they are paying taxes for the mainland Chinese people to enjoy as parasites all these benefits
This is only a tip of the ice-berg..in fact this Hong Kong vs mainland Chinese identity discourse have been going on in Hong Kong for several decades ever since Hong Kong became more of a city

Ko: I think Hong Kong people really need this mainland Chinese reference. They ridicule it to assure their own 'Hong Konger' identity
but do not forget that in fact all/99% Hong Kong people are mainlanders or their parents came from the mainland...one of my British friends joked with me a few weeks ago saying that he doesn't understand why all these Hong Kong people are so hostile towards the mainland immigrants now..he said 'dont forget you guys fucking arrived only 10 minutes ago, and now you were lauging/complaining unsympathetic about 'your' people who arrived just a bit later'

PB: Ah, the poor cousins, only they are not very poor anymore. Is Hong Kong still an entrepot to China...or is it getting more integrated with the mainland...in terms of the people's thinking processes...

Ko: What do you man in terms of pople's thinking processes?

PB: What i mean is: China is undergoing enormous changes and modernising at a fast pace...Do the people of Hong Kong look at this phenomenon with interest?

Ko: Of course..they participate...many Hong Kong people are part of the development..you know the biggest foreign investment in China comes from Hong Kong/Taiwan businessmen?Many Hong Kong people in all sectors now work at managerial levels in China..helping to set up the management/human resource/company structure to get the train going
before hong kong is much of a entrepot...they help to transfer things in/out of china, so Hong Kong is not on the train but now..Hong Kong people are working on the train of the dvelopment, they directly participate even in the NGO field..like myself or many other Hong Kong people I know..we worked in China as well..and helping to train and nurture many devlopment workers to continue the battle/rescue; not to mention the pesonal investment of Hong Kong people. Many are buying flats in China and investing in Chinese shares everytime there are new Chinese company shares..Hong Kong always have 30-40 times biddings for it

PB: Ok Siu Lan...you are embarking on what is considered an extremely auspicious year...the YEAR OF THE GOLDEN PIG. How important are such occasions for Chinese...even after almost 60 years of rule by the communist party?

Ko: You mean the Chinese New Year...

PB: Yes.

Ko: It is an important time of the year- for families to gather, for everybody to take a break- workers, businessmen, bosses..and to just party and have fun

PB: I am referring to the religious connotations.

Ko: What do you mean?

PB: What I mean is that in new China, religion has again come out of the closet despite the rule of the Chinese Communist Party? How do you see the phenomenon?
Ko: When you say New China- you mean China after the Cultural Revolution? or ...?

PB: Yes...current China

Ko: Religion came out of the closet- perhaps I am too young to answer this question...because as far as my impression reaches...religion has never realy been in the closet in my days, I was born at the end of the Cultural Revolution, and even then, we celebrate all kinds of festivals with Budddist ceremonies

Ko: In the south of China, many religious practices actually remained and continued ...like in my hometown, like here in Hong Kong..and I cannot really comment on other parts of China because i did not experience that.

Ko: But I always have the impression that for Chinese, religion is more about practicality and bringing fortune rather than about spirituality

PB: Do you feel proud for being a citizen of a country with most dynamic economy of the world?

Ko: Proud is not a good word to descibe my feeling
Ko: In fact i do not know how to descibe my feelings-in fact, i cannot yet make sense of what is going on and what is going to happen and I cannot really say I feel ....

Ko: But I can tell you I feel happy, sad, worried, angry, ridiculous, at the same time. China is too big and too fast. As I told you before. It is a big train going at ever increasing speed, no one knows really where it is going, no one can really stop it. the leaders just want to make sure that it is going, and they try more or less to steer its direction and pave the railway for it, but even they dont know where its going to go and even they cannot stop this train. Many things are happening on the train. and only very little is done to minimize the harm it is doing...because no one yet have the time and patience and vision to see that it is going to slow down or even burst the train if they dont try to pay attention to the harm it is causing now...how so very sad this is ..how so very short sighted and so short memory of human beings' are.

PB: Siu Lan, you are raising certain doubts about the development process that I do not witness in the statements of the Chinese leaders? Is there scope for doubts about China's path in China anymore? The reason I am asking you this question is because, in India like in many other developing nations, talking about the Chinese experiment has become a byword for a certain process which imitates the Chinese path of development.

Ko: Certainly..time and again, NGOs and scholars are raising dobuts and alarms about these. I am sure the leaders are aware of it, in fact, more than anyone, but as I told you..I think their main priority is still now to keep the train going first..but I also believe they are slowly trying to see..if there is any spare resources to minmise the harm or even try tosee further so to control better then train..but all this takes time..and politics..and the big train is controlled and guarded by so many officials..that many of them would just want to eat and rob from the train without caring for the peple and what harm it is doing..that is one of the main issue in my opinion

PB: Ko I remember that when we had met last, our conversation had veered towards 1989 and Tienanmen Square...Your eyes had misted over when we had discussed Zhao Ziyang's role...Now he is dead...do your eyes still mist over at his memory?

Ko: My eyes still mist over when i think about June Fourth but not over a particular person. (Btw, did we really talk about that?)

PB: Yes we did. I am trying to understand this in the perspective of current China in terms of the involvment of youth in the China's development...the people of Tienanmen agitatiiuon of 1989 are in their forties now...are they involved more or less in the economic development process?

Ko: Thats an interesting question- to tell you the truth, I don't really know. Because..it is almost a taboo question- I often go to Beijing and know many chinese people, but it is simplya taboo question to ask 'what did you do on June Foruth or Where were you?' We just simply dont ask this question.

PB: Ko, my question is whether the people who protested against the regime then are involved now fully in the development process in the most productive times of their life? You must have had experiences of that.

Ko: Yes or No..I don't know how to define 'involved fully' in the development process- I know some NGO workers have ben very active before..and some businessmen as well..but whether they are 'fully' involved, its hard to define. And who has and who hasn't protested against the regime..no one knows..I don't ask them, and only if they tell me I know. and believe me, people seldom talk about this. Some young kids in China have no clue at all what is June Fourth.

PB: Well, you are the bridge generation...aren't you?

Ko: What is that?

PB: You are the generation with the memory of Cultural Revolution, Tienanmen in 1989 and the prosperity of the 1990s...They should pick up their cues from you.

PB: You have visited India. How does India compare with China?

Ko: As I told you before- India is like a grandma and China is like the son for me. Grandma is full of ancient momories, colors, incidents, fairy tales and may be all sorts of funny exotic things in the house, always excited but sometimes afraid to go there, but always wish to spend a bit longer time yet do not. China - I want to do things for it..its growing, very very fast, and so many things still needs fixing, and finger pointing..and pampering..

PB: Ko I remember you telling me the flutter you caused when appearing in a bikini in a play you people were staging in a village in Orissa. Would you have the same reaction now in a Chinese village? Though you need to inform me in advance where you are going to put up such a show so that I am in the audience partaking the pleasure.

Ko: Did anyone every tell you that you are a complete different person in writing? You seemed so timid and shy and uptight when we met last time..or is it just because we met the first time?

PB: I am sure you are aware of the eastern layered personalities...its the onion approach...works all the time...but you did not answer my question.

Ko: I would say you need to break your computer and live more truly in the real thing

Ko: Answering your question, I dont think so. My husband was just showing me a report or some video about a funeral in a Chinese village where they actually stage striptease show to attract more people to come to a funeral (for the prestige!) and that middle aged women were dancing to their last peice of clothes off in front of compete strangers: adults kids men, women...this is truly eye opening for me! And the business for this was so good (there is a boss running this funeral striptease show, of course!) that they cannot even go to all their orders....i would not even have any eyebrows raised for my performance ,i bet.

PB: Thanks Siu Lan. We had a lovely conversation. Please remember grandmother.

Ko: How can i forget? Its one of my favorite places in the world and still so many yet to be explored. Only next time, you have to take me to a better bar! :)

PB: Sure thing.

In My View

A trilateral multilateralism

This is a new, activist China in the realm of international affairs. This is a China slowly abandoning its Confucian suspicion of the outside world. It is showing an inclination to travel on a path, yet uncharted and claim its rightful place as a big power with deep pockets.

Chinese president, Hu Jintao’s recent African safari pointed towards this realisation. A trilateral meeting held in New Delhi last week between Russia, China and India – represented by respective foreign ministers - is a crucial addition to major power politics. The loquacity of the Chinese Foreign Minister, Li Zhaoxing at the post-meet press conference signalled a broadening of Chinese engagement with the world.

Many experts believe, the new Chinese diplomacy is marked by increased degree of ‘flexibility’ and ‘sophistication.’ Indeed some say that China, though, still guided by the Deng Xiao Ping dicta – the two injunctions – (searching for) peace and development and to ‘keep one’s head down and never take the lead,’ Beijing is increasingly becoming less reactive and more proactive in its pursuit of foreign policy interests.

The latest round of Chinese intervention in curbing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions have firmly placed these policies in the perspective of global conformism. It can clearly address the question in the minds of many whether China is ready to play by the current rules of international engagement, be it in the United Nations (UN) or the World Trade Organisation (WTO). For many, an answer in the affirmative provides a satisfactory reply to the query, is China a status quo power. Beijing wants the world to remain the same for next 20 years to provide the Chinese a prosperous life.

Russia on the other hand is a power in search of a grand strategy, guided by abiding interests. In the post-Soviet era, Russia is yet to discover moorings that could allow it regain some of its past glory. Sans the economic resources required to pursue activist policies in an increasingly unipolar world, and the ideological muscle to pull into its orbit other nations who would believe in a shared destiny, Russia finds itself adrift. In the early post-Cold War years, Russia had turned vehemently Eurocentric.

It had sought engagements with other European powers with the hope that it would gain coveted membership in many of the clubs like the NATO. Though it gained entry in the exclusive G-7 as the eighth member, it remained there more in the sufferance of the other members. On the other hand, it witnessed a growing encirclement as a large number of the former Warsaw Pact countries became members of the NATO. And by then Asia was rising, at last free of the encumbrances of the Cold War.

The idea of the Russia-China-India trilateral alliance was mooted by the former Russian foreign minister, Yevgeny Primakov in the mid-1990s. Even before it was to take shape, it had found enormously influential detractors. In India these critics used to call it a relic of the Cold War. For India had joined the economic liberalisers; and economic globalisation had become a mantra to be chanted with the same devotion as Vedic hymns require. Many in the country had believed that the nation’s future lay in aligning as closely as possible with the US and the West. An alliance of the kind Primakov suggested could only pit the country against its main potential benefactor, the USA.

But what has changed now? Supposedly the rhetoric of the latest trilateral meeting between the countries seeks of a multi-polar world. The three sides “expressed…” in their joint communiqué, “…their conviction that democratisation of international relations is the key to building an increasingly multi-polar world order that would be based on principles of equality of nations – big or small, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries, international law and mutual respect." Many believed that this signalled their desire to challenge the US hegemony in world affairs. Is it really?

As the same meeting has clarified this trilateral is not designed to confront any existing major power, mainly the USA. Influential Chinese analysts believe that the country, either alone or in tandem with others, will not be in a position to take on the USA’s global presence in any significant measure in the recent times. With that scenario in mind, they aim at extending the country’s influence as much as they can. For Russia, though more strident lately against US policies worldwide, increased oil revenues have not yet provided the wherewithal to take on the West frontally on any issue. And India is happy to obviate the need to hedge for the future at a time when the going is good in Indo-US relations.

In that light, this recently held meet can be seen as an exemplar of two key phenomena. One, it is a process of accommodation of newer powers emerging in the world stage, and striking common ground amongst them. Two, this may be the germination of a conceptual framework for Asian powers (two thirds of Russia lie in the continent) to engage in a security dialogue for this part of the globe. Whether this leads up to a pan-Asian umbrella security organisation, time can only tell. Meanwhile, the troika has to survive in same measure the departure of George W. Bush and his neo-conservative globe girdlers from the policy portals of Washington. For an antagonism towards them appears to be the guiding motivation for many current international alliances, including the one germane to this piece.

Pinaki Bhattacharya, currently located in Kolkata, is a Special Correspondent with the Mathrubhumi (Kerala). He also writes on Strategic Security issues. He can be contacted at pinaki63@dataone.in

TOYS IN THE GULF

Penblunt & Hogwash

Neo and not so new

PENBLUNT

Had I not had anything specific to write on, I’d have love to dwell this week on the Kashmir Food and Culture Festival being held at the Press Club of Indian premises here in the lingering winter of Delhi. The chef (since I am an avid cook – so what if foodies go livid with my experiments) brought in from Srinagar knows everything about delicacy of aroma and favour.

But then, there is more hard meat to chew on this week.

Mr P (for Pontiff) Bhattacharya, whose blog gives shelter to my vagabond column, protested last week that not just Hindi channels are crude, but even Indian English TV channels are out of touch with reality. But to that, I shall come later.

My ire this week is focussed primarily on the great Mr Thawani and his Neo Sports (Nimbus) channel, for two counts. Neo… rich… new player, arrogant, unseasoned and a person who treads where angels fear to tread.

Well, it is not enough to call him clumsy, which in my opinion he is. The guy just thought he could dare the government. I am not at all supportive of coercive action by the government, for I have seen the days of Emergency and rejoiced the fall of the late Indira Gandhi.

Yet, when the government issues an Ordinance, which fool would go ahead and ignore it? Neo did. Despite the Ordinance and despite the officially declared punishment of Rs 1 crore per match not shared live with Doordarshan. They refused to do so. Now they are genuflecting in compromise.

Let pass even that indiscretion, impolitic impulsiveness. Did someone advise that the matter was in the court and hence Neo could take the plea of a sub judice proviso? Yet, the Delhi High Court, in the best interest of justice, agreed to hear the matter in full, but never stayed the operation of the Ordinance. So why this stupidity of the neo riche?

It is for them to bear the consequence of that, you say? Well, agreed. But then, what about the advertisements that have enraged sane sections of the media and spectators and got some NGOs up in arms?

“It is hard to be a West Indian in India!” Or for that matter, anyone… including Sri Lankans….

India is in a do-or-die competitive tourney and must win at all costs and there can be no compromise on the field. But we still happen to be the hosts, and these ads are sheer intimidation.

Remember, the ad does not say it is hard for the Lankans or Windies to play a tough India, but the food that hits the Windies’ bowels, the blubbering Sri Lankans who get off at a jungle to take pictures of the Indian tiger….

First of all, the ads themselves are as puerile as the channel. There is no causal link between the visuals and the statements.

Secondly, they do not talk of on-field troubles for the rivals.

Third, as the broadcaster hosting the games on their channel, it is simply not cricket to show the guests as blubbering fools, and certainly not show the reviving Indian team as prospective winners because the guests could not digest our food or get chewed up by tigers!

This is inane and gruesomely ill mannered. Plain nasty.

Say Harish, if the Brits floated such ads during an Indian tour there, would Mr Dasmunsi keep quiet, as he has not in the case of Ms Shetty?

I am amazed that so far the playing countries have not officially protested with the BCCI, but it puts all of us to shame.

I cannot get over this with ease, so let me take recourse to friend Pinaki’s miff with me for being anti-Hindi.

The divide is real, and it is greatly saddening, and I shall share with you my pains at a later date.

But how could NDTV, the much praised English news channel do this?

During the day of the Punjab polls, it kept predicting the outcome throughout? It is so sad really. The tall talks about objectivity and what not, and now this? Did everyone there forget that this could amount to influencing the voter?

Why, I thought, even interviewing the two rivals, Prakash Singh Badal and Amrinder Singh after they cast their votes, and asking for forecasts amounted to giving them time for last-minute campaigning.

How can this be seen? The Election Commission has asked the police to file cases against the channel, and the Commission knows its writ best.

We are only talking about the Code of Conduct bill that the government is likely to bring in for the broadcast industry. But when TRP dominates everything in a market where the revenue is getting more and more fragmented, what we need first is a consensual ethical code to surface from within the media itself.

Shashi Tharoor

"Babel "-trailer

I look out for films by Alejandro González. The almost meditative film grapples with communication in an ever shrinking world. Alejandro's complex mélange of narratives, characters, languages and locales creates a cinematic form which is unique to him in many ways.
His earlier work Amos Peros a.k.a Love's a bitch inspired Mani Ratnam. However, Mani Ratnam failed miserably in resurrecting the narrative structure of Amos Peros in “Yuva”.

The film has also been nominated for
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role(Rinko Kikuchi)
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role(Adriana Barraza)
Achievement in Directing(Alejandro González Iñárritu)
Achievement in Film Editing
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)
Best Motion Picture of the Year
Original Screenplay
at the Oscars.

Norah Jones - Rosie's Lullaby (Live)

A song from her new album "Not too late". CBS insisted that the rest of her interview including the bit about her relationship with her father may only be seen through the CBS website.

Eye to Eye: Norah Jones On Her Musical Style

Penblunt & Hogwash

Breaking News: Indian TV news is rotting

Sujit Chakraborty

This is a column being written under the totalitarian regime and command of Pinaki Bhattacharya, and had we not been friends for so long, I’d have approached Amnesty, for he is forcing me to write on a subject to which I am a novice: media journalism.

But then, as a TV watcher, I have been a veteran just as anyone of you out there.
There is one question that has been plaguing me ever since choice became available vide cable TV, when the moronic government channel could be switched off and something as exciting as BBC could be watched (I am an unabashed BBC fanatic).

So, you watch BBC, then you watch History Channel, and NatGeo, and sports, serials, sex, fashion, films… and you are having an unending infotainment orgasm when it suddenly all goes limp!

There comes Hindi news channels… the Indians are here… move over firangis… no more cultural imperialism.
God said, let there be Hindi news channels, and there was Aajtak… initially brilliant but slowly meandered to repetitiveness. But it made a killing in advertisement revenue, and got many rivals green with envy
So, there came other Hindi channels as well and the TRP war exploded.
And with competition came not quality but trash, reversal of global trends.
“Sansaneeeeee”, one news-feature programme went, and the presenter with a balding forehead and a pony tail, growled, grimaced and declared that he would reveal all and he growled and made nasty faces over stories that were so insignificant, one wondered what he was getting at, after all.
Sansanee, Hindi for sensationalism, gripped the Hindi news channels, the need to shock, the need to take away the context.

Imagine this:
The head, the owner so to say, of a Hindi news channel kept showing a severed leg lying in a street in Bombay, and uttering in moronic monotone: “This is a severed leg lying in Bombay, which our viewer so-and-so had sent a video clipping of. If any one can identify whose leg this is and whether the man is alive or dead….”
The channel called this… yes, you are right, Breaking News.

This was followed by another news item where the camera just hung on from below a building where a jobless young man was sitting on the terrace threatening to kill himself. The cameras hung on, waiting for the man to jump, and showed everything, all the way till the jobless, hapless man hit the ground and spilt his life out….
Breaking News, of course, though it was being shown on all the other channels as well and till the last time they showed the coverage, it was Breaking News!

Sorry, I am wrong, because towards the end of that night, ‘expert commentators’ for the channel reasoned that the suicidal man would not have died, after all, and at worst broken his leg – had he jumped in the right manner ‑ from a three-storied building…. But then, the idiot landed on his head, not legs, so he died!
I wonder why this is breaking news. I wonder why this cameraman was sitting idle. He is a journalist, so he had to cover, not protect and guide a life to safety, because then there would be no story.

But this is veering away from what I had wanted to write, which is that don’t our TV editors watch the foreign news channels? The entire concept of news coverage is different. For instance, Nisha Pillai is a news reader, as we understand this. But here we just have news readers. Salma Sultan of yore never got down to reporting. Nisha does. So do many others, and sometimes the more famous of BBC’s reporters actually read news.
And if there is a personality to be interviewed on TV on, say environmental issue, it will be Nisha, because she has covered the green beat, but if it is on fashion, it will not be Nisha, but someone who knows the fabrics and designs.

In Indian channels, interviewing somehow gives the interviewer a star status, so only some are allowed to do that, whether they know the subject or not… the haloed editors.
Tim Sebastian did interviews BBC, practically one a day. But his demeanour is different in each case, his attitude changes, and even the settings in the place where the shoot takes place changes.
Why can’t we do things like that?

We do not think, may be, or may be the answer is in something else? May be we have fossilised, or decided not to grow up… may be we have decided that we are so good that we need not change.
And do remember, it is not that we do not have technicians or investigators or designers here who are up to the mark; in fact, we export them, we are so full of them.
Look at the Indian advertisements. I do not know how much of this is copy from Western ideas. I doubt. We create some of the most superb ads…
So why are we so stupid on news, so crude and so unwanting to excel and reluctant? Why do we chase only sensationalism?
All of you have some answers, so do fill us in
I have some of the answers, but I am not breaking that news just now.
Here’s wishing you all the boredom!

Norah Jones on her music, success and Ravishankar

A press note from SAJA,

MUSIC: Norah Jones on "60 Minutes"

As part of the rollout of her third album Norah Jones is going to be getting a lot of press. SAJAforum posted an item about a major NYT Sunday piece on Jan. 21, 2007, with lots of useful links, and she was the subject of a 12-minute segment on the top newsmagazine show, "60 Minutes," on CBS yesterday. The piece, called "The Humility of Norah Jones" featured sit-down interviews with correspondent Katie Couric (yes, she of "Evening News" fame), small snippets from concerts and lots of talking. And unlike most pieces by non-South Asians, they didn't shy away from the Ravi Shankar question.

Norah’s father is the famous musician, Ravi Shankar, the virtuoso Indian sitar player. "I knew who my dad was," she says. "I saw him sporadically until I was nine and then I didn't see him again or talk to him until I was 18."

Shankar never married her mother – their relationship, Norah says, was complicated and it ended when she was young. Her mother, she says, didn’t want her talking about him.

Jones acknowledges it was kind of a secret. "You know, when you have a father who's pretty well known but you don't see him, the last thing you want to do is start talking about him all the time to people," she says.

When Norah turned 18, she sought out her father, who was living in California with his daughter and second wife.

Asked if she was angry or sought an apology from her father when they reconnected, Jones says, "Yeah. I might have. I might have wanted that."

Today she says they are close.

"Do you consider yourself part Indian?" Couric asks.

"I grew up in Texas with a white mother," Jones says. "I feel very Texan, actually and New York. New Yorker."

You can find the video clip of the interview on CBS-60minutes.
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2458909n

In My View

Iranian jigsaw and Indian confusion

Minister for External Affairs, Pranab Mukherjee’s ongoing visit to Teheran would as much be for extending bilateral relations, as for gauging the mood of the town. Though he would not be privy to the famous bazaar talk of the city, his aim would be to try and figure out what the Iranian leaders are planning for West Asia.

Because, indeed it is no longer a question of Iran’s supposed dereliction in the nuclear realm. Increasingly, the question being asked: is Iran ready to replace the USA as a predominant power in West Asia? Official Washington believes that the gainer of the Iraq bloodbath is neither the USA nor naturally, the Iraqis, but ironically, Iran. Not surprisingly, the USA has taken a twin track approach to deal with the problem. One, it has begun military operations against those they claim to be Iranian provocateurs operating in Iraq. And two, it has trumped up an intra-Shi’i feud in Iraq, that was conspicuously absent for the past three years in the lexicon of security punditry in the USA.

All this while one had been aware of a sectarian battle – many call it a civil war, including a recent National Intelligence Estimate of the American intelligence community – between the Shi’is and Sunnis. It had been triggered by the Al Qaeda, then led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to sabotage the nascent Iraqi nationalist movement. But now the apparent seed he had sown has been further embellished by the equally resourceful American strategic community and taken the form of intra-Shi’I bloodletting.

Clearly the attempt is to create an environment by which a Shi’i-run Iraq is not beholden to Iran for its sustenance, spiritually and materially. Yet, the USA is failing. In Lebanon the emboldened Hezbollah has moved front and centre after staving off an Israeli incursion. In Iraq, Moqtada al-Sadr maintains 60 Parliamentarians in the country’s showpiece legislature, and a few ministers in the Nuri al-Maliki cabinet. In Palestine, Hamas has links to the same Iran, who had reportedly been bankrolling it for a long time.

Increasingly, it is appearing that West Asia is becoming a dangerous place for the Americans. In that light, Pranab Mukherjee’s visit is significant. For it gives India a peek into the Iranian leadership’s mind and keeps the conversation channels open. The message Mukherjee delivers in Teheran would be less relevant at this stage, than the manner in which it is delivered. For, in the mind of many, India is now a strategic ally of the USA even though the final pact for nuclear cooperation is still in the works. Which side does India choose? Or can India choose both?

Meanwhile, Iran’s pilot plant at Natanz, for industrial scale enrichment of Uranium, is set to go critical in the next few days. The US establishment seems unable to make up its mind whether that would push Teheran across the threshold the USA has demarcated, calling for it to act. According to a recent New York Times report, “After weeks of limited access inside Iran, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have reported that Tehran has succeeded in manufacturing parts for about 3,000 centrifuges, the devices that can spin uranium into reactor fuel — or bomb fuel. In recent days, the Iranians have begun installing the machines and supporting gear in a cavernous plant at Natanz, which would be a potential target if the United States or one of its allies decided that diplomacy would never keep Iran from getting the bomb.”

Already last week, Robert Gates, the new US Defense Secretary, who has a bit of experience in handling nuclearised stand-offs, has ruled out an attack on Iran. The NYT’s report has signs of a rather touching oversimplification on nuclear technology. For the technological capability required for Uranium enrichment meant for power plants is a fraction of that is required for weapons. Weapons grade Uranium needs to be enriched to the extent of 98 per cent of purity, while nuclear power Uranium needs to be enriched to the extent of two per cent.

The same report also mentions how the Iranians have been woefully short of their self-imposed deadlines in terms of installing centrifuges that would enrich the Uranium, by separating its impurities. Apparently, it says the Iranians are still stuck with P-1 design variety, the ones Pakistan produced and then Abdul Qader Khan sold in the black market.

Mukherjee would do well to keep in mind these perspectives, if he hears the rhetoric that Iran is normally delivering to anyone who is listening. Though it remains to be seen whether New Delhi still retains its influences in Teheran; the same impact it had when it had helped the country break out of its isolation in the 1990s. If it does, at this stage, India could temper the Iranian intransigence about the concerns of the international community vis-à-vis its nuclear programme and its rising dominance in West Asia. Or, India could be another cog in the back channel wheel being spun by Washington. A public indication about which way the wind is blowing would be found in the way the two countries, India and Iran, play the tango on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline issue. The world will be watching.

Pinaki Bhattacharya, currently located in Kolkata, is a Special Correspondent with the Mathrubhumi, Kerala. He writes on Strategic Security issues. He can be contacted at pinaki63@dataone.in.

A Letter From A Brother To A Journalist

By the time you guys read this news, the body of Major Manish Pitambare, who was shot dead at Anantnag, would have been cremated with full military honors.On Tuesday, this news swept across all the news channels, ‘Sanjay Dutt relieved by court;’ ‘Sirf Munna, not a bhai;’ ‘13 saal ka vanvaas khatam’(!3 year exile over); ‘Although found guilty for possession of an armory, Sanjay can breath sigh of relief as all the TADA charges against him are withdrawn,' the marquees screamed.Then many personalities like Salman Khan said 'He is a good person. We knewhe will come out clean'. Mr Big B said "Dutt's family and our family have relations for years he's a good kid. He is like elder brother to Abhishek." His (Sanjay Dutt’s) sister Priya Dutt said "We can sleep well tonight. It’s a great relief."

In other news, Parliament was mad at Indian team for performing bad; Greg Chappell said something; Shah Rukh Khan replaces Amitabh in KBC and other such stuff. But most of the emphasis was given on Sanjay Dutt's "phoenixlike" comeback from the ashes of terrorist charges. Surfing through the channels, a news-item on BBC startled me. It read "Hizbul Mujahidin's most wanted terrorist 'Sohel Faisal' killed in Anantnag, India. Indian Majorleading the operation lost his life in the process. Four others are injured.”

It was past midnight, I started visiting the stupid Indian channels, but Sanjay Dutt was still ruling. They were telling how Sanjay pleaded to thecourt saying ‘I'm the sole bread earner for my family,’ ‘I have a daughter who is studying in US’ and so on. Then they showed how Sanjay was not wearing his lucky blue shirt while he was hearing the verdict and also howhe went to every temple and prayed for the last few months. A suspect in Mumbai bomb blasts, convicted under armory act...was being transformed into a hero.Sure Sanjay Dutt has a daughter; Sure he did not do any terrorist activity.Possessing an AK47 is considered too elementary in terrorist community and also one who possesses an AK47 has a right to possess a pistol so that again is not such a big crime; Sure Sanjay Dutt went to all the temples;Sure he did a lot of Gandhigiri but then...........

Major Manish H Pitambare got the information from his sources about the terrorists' whereabouts. Wasting no time he attacked the camp, killedHizbul Mujahidin's supremo and in the process lost his life to the bullets fired from an AK47. He is survived by a wife and daughter (just like Sanjay Dutt) who's only 18 months old.Major Manish never said 'I have a daughter' before he took the decision to attack the terrorists in the darkest of nights. He never thought abouthaving a family and he being the bread earner. No news channel covered thissince they were too busy hyping a former drug addict, a suspect who's linked to bomb blasts which killed hundreds. Their aim was to show how he defied the TADA charges and they were so successful that his conviction inpossession of armory had no meaning. They also concluded that his parents in heaven must be happy and proud of him.

Parents of Major Manish are still living and they have to live rest oftheir lives without their beloved son. His daughter won't ever see herdaddy again. Finally Major Manish, to my generation is a greater hero, someone who laid his life in the name of this great nation.So guys, please forward this message around so that the media knows which news to give importance, as it is a shame for us since this Army Major's death news was given by a foreign TV channel!!!

Times Achanging!

The Journalist Responds

Dear Tukai,

I will not forward this to anyone, least of all, to a newsperson.

There are two types of us in India these days: those who say, either “Chalta hai, salary se matlab rakkho,” or worse still, who say, ‘come one old fucker, get modren;” the second group is like me who most often suffer tummy cramps, very often feel pukish, despite a perfect digestive system, and when drunk shriek and shout obscenities against the fellow scribes who are raping our country's moral (!) fabric. I do not see the point, when everything is TRP driven.

Why talk about the TV. Today's Hindustan Times had a bottom anchor piece, which shrieked how KBC 3 is infinitely lesser in TRP, according to TAM ratings over the past four days, the four days after its birth! Who the hell is bothered about some bloody sldier who killed the Hizb commander and died for that (or for his Country)?

Why talk about Kashmir and militancy? When the son of the India head of Adobe was kidnapped, the media sprang up and ran such a stink, but for the past two years, poor people, a lot of them Biswases and Haldars, lower caste, poor Bengalis, living in a hell now known as Nithari, had been complaining about children missing, and then the butchery is unveiled and the police chief of Noida says there has only been a marginal rise in heinous crimes year-on-year!

Are we taking about murders here? Or is this a marauding of the Indian conscience? Is there anything in IPC and CrPC that can deal with this? We are ruled by the lowest common denominator in cultural tastes. The slum-dwellers - or those from the middle and upper middle classes who have the same taste are turning the TRPs of Kyun Ki Saas Bhi Kabhie Bahu Thi. These are the serials where the advertisers are putting their money in.

It is also not a shame that the BBC gave the news on their channel. They too are driven by competition. They have devised a policy of going Indian and covering such an incident. I am not being cynical about BBC, for which I have a huge respect. But a year ago, they would not cover India if 20 people died in a train accident... it is another matter if a skier in the Swiss Alps got trapped and survived, that merited almost live coverage.

The BBC's country head, sales, gave me an interview in which she said they are giving more attention to India, because no fool can ignore India today (she did not mention, it though, but the fact is our leaders are best at the smart talk, our PMs and ministers mouth how great we are as a knowledge superpower, when all we do is menial work (BPOs) for US companies at 1 / 10the prices an American guy would take)

The credit for BBC is it does its work methodically, thoroughly and without any sensationalism, but the rest of it is all business and hardly altruism.

I am in the media business now, in the sense that my job with www.indiantelevision.com is about broadcasting and marketing etc. As jobs go, I find this very exciting, but I do get to see the innards of the damned media. It is an ulcerated intestine where gangrene is just about to set in.

Please brother, do me a favour. I am sick of being in the media, my wife wants to study abroad. Can you take me in for three months out there and see if I can set up a biryani selling shop or something. I truly love cooking and I want to do two things, make sufficient money to take holidays and write my books.

Of course, if you think that you want to start an internet campaign against what reviles you, I am all game, but then, we need to change tactic. I can find the respone email IDs of these crappy news channels in India and then we could garner all our strength to gather just 1,000 friends, who would spend a dedicated 45 minutes at watching the channels and then shaming them with letters on the net.

This is a Gandhian politics on the net. Some years ago, there was dispute between green NGOs and Lufthansa, and the NGO got people to bombard the airline’s email boxes. It hit the compnay so badly since those who were trying E-ticketing, could not because the mail boxes were jammed. The airlines lost a tonne of gold.

If you want to do it this way, and there is a dire need to do so, then I am seriously with you. Let me know.

Lots of love
Mithudada (Sujit Chakraborty)

Sujit will be contributing a media column from this Saturday.

In My View

India should make bold in SAARC

Come April, India would need to emerge out of its mien of injured innocence it had been adopting with some of its neighbours like Pakistan and Bangladesh. For the SAARC summit needs to be meaningfully hosted by New Delhi in the Association’s 23rd year. This has become more important with the USA and the world feting the country as an emerging great power, much to the relish of the Indian elite.

Not for long can the country even maintain its stoic silence and imperious neglect in dealings with other countries of the region like Sri Lanka or Bhutan. Nepal and the newest entrant to South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) could claim to have evinced some interest of the policymakers here lately.

But at this juncture it is imperative that Indian leadership should be able to emerge out of the neat little diplomatic box they have long spent their lives in, created by the issues of terrorism and militancy. Indeed, a great power needs to show its greatness first at home, then the near abroad and finally further afield. Chanakya might have had a thing or two tosay on such an issue. He did write in his Arthashastra, Book IV, that, “A king who is equal to his enemy in the matter of his sovereign elements shall, in virtue of his own righteous conduct or with the help of those who are hostile or conspiring against his enemy, endeavor to throw his enemy’s power into the shade; or if he thinks:-
‘That my enemy, possessed as he is of immense power, will yet in the near future, hurt the elements of his own sovereignty, by using contumelious language, by inflicting severe punishments, and by squandering his wealth; that though attaining success for a time yet he will blindly take himself to hunting, gambling, drinking and women; that as his subjects are disaffected, himself powerless and haughty, I can overthrow him; that when attacked, he will take shelter with all his paraphernalia into a fort or elsewhere; that possessed as he is of a strong army, he will yet fall into my hands, as he has neither a friend nor a fort to help him; that a distant king is desirous to put down his own enemy, and also inclined to help me to put down my own assailable enemy when my resources are poor; or that I may be invited as a Madhyama king,’
- for these reasons the conqueror may allow his enemy to grow in strength and to attain success for the time being.”

The Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh had been urging all to think out-of-the-box solutions to problems. That will require courage in the South Asian context. And a truly brave decision would be for India to take an initiative in terms of economic migration to India from the proximate neighbours. This move would have to be based upon a domestic debate on the necessity for an immigration policy that recognises the realities on the ground. These realities are that India, being the largest economy of the region acts like a beacon to which the poor of the region flock in search of succour. These people work mostly in the unorganised sector of the economy; contribute to the growth of the gross domestic product of the country; but cannot enjoy the rights that a usual citizen can, nor respite to their itinerant status.

Considering that the nation has a population bulge in general terms and of young people, more specifically, New Delhi could begin by taking multi-sectoral look at the issue and devise a plan that acknowledges the reality of immigration with attendant issues of equitable treatment of guest workers; while balancing the employment needs of the country’s own. Of course, the trade unions of the country would have to sign up to any such proposal.

This proposal could well be meshed with a push for fuller implementation of South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) that India hopes to achieve, but is facing various obstacles in the process from recalcitrant quarters. An acceptance by New Delhi of the region’s labour issues could create a fund of goodwill at the popular level that would ameliorate any reservations that the contending elites of the other countries might have about barrier free trade in the region.

A bold move of that kind could remove lingering doubts in some people’s minds that the great power being conferred upon India is more a case of default, than earned. It would also help to reclaim its largely lost relevance in the region, eroded over decades of neglect as New Delhi felt obligated to look at the segregated picture of the region, without noticing the wide vista.

Indeed, the choice for the country is clear. It has to decide whether it wants to live an existence of China in East Asia; at odds with most countries of the region that look at it with consternation. They fear its burgeoning economic power and feel increasingly insecure at the military muscle it affords Beijing as a result. This allows other powers to increase their influence in the region, at the cost of the Chinese strategic interests.
It is only fair that since this piece had begun by quoting Chanakya, it should end with the words of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. In his preface to Satyagraha in South Africa, Gandhi wrote“A dharma yudhha (just war), in which there are no secrets to be guarded, no scope for cunning and no place for untruth, comes unsought; and a man of religion is ever ready for it. A struggle which has to be planned is not a righteous struggle.”

Purity that Gandhi advocated was the badge of honour for the satyagrahi for whom religion could mean their way of life. Can the Indian strategists strive to reach that goal this SAARC summit?

Pinaki Bhattacharya, currently located in Kolkata, is a Special Correspondent with the Mathrubhumi, Kerala. He writes on Strategic Security issues. He can be contacted at pinaki63@dataone.in .