Friday, August 30, 2013

Good News Comes in Threes

That's how the saying goes. Today I feel it definitely comes in twos.


The US was making noises that sounded distinctly like war drums to me. Obama seemed to be doing a Bush. I had nightmarish, heart sinking feelings of déjà vu. I was worried, felt helpless, scared and angry. I felt sure the Brits were all set to do the US's bidding.

But, "British MPs have voted AGAINST military intervention in Syria", screamed the headlines. Thank goodness. I can't help feeling relieved.

Good on you Brits. I'm so glad you've decided to await the UN report on who used those chemical weapons before deciding on further action. I feel your moral authority, which had suffered tremendously during the past few years has managed to gain back some lost ground.

As for the second piece of good news, it is personal. With over a hundred people asking to review ten copies of "Never Mind Yaar" at Goodreads, I've made more available at Blogadda. So HURRY! Claim your copy now.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

What Lesson Does Morsi's Egypt Have for India?

A very dear friend of ours gets posted all over the world through his American company. He was posted in Moscow where he and his wife had to learn to speak Russian to get by comfortably. To my untrained ears they sounded pretty fluent. I remember their three year old daughter singing western classical for us. To watch her get lost in it, with her long eyelashes blinking in tune, to watch the parents swell with love and pride at our obvious delight - the stuff of great memories! I remember the kids sliding on their bums down a slide and on reaching the ground, seeing who went furthest because the ground was covered in frictionless ice. I remember the Russian folk dancing show - the men, for once, out performing the women. One day us wives took a break from the kids (leaving them in the capable hands of our husbands) and went off to visit Tetracov gallery to gaze at the wonderful paintings on display. After feasting on the wonderful art we reached home in a slightly exalted state of being.

Similarly, when we were posted in Bangkok they came visiting and the kids had a ball. We next visited them in Scotland. They made a quick trip to visit us in Kuala Lumpur. It was the done thing between us to visit wherever our respective postings were. We enjoyed seeing places we visited through the eyes of someone who was almost local - the best way to immerse ourselves in a new culture.

We were all set to visit them in Cairo and they, to visit us in New Zealand. Unfortunately they've been asked to pack up and return home to the US. As for their visiting NZ, what with the earthquake and hundreds of major after shocks I don't think they are keen right now!

It is sad about Cairo. Not too long ago Egypt was the admiration of the world. They ousted someone they believed was a corrupt dictator through the sheer determination and unity of the people. They were out in huge numbers. They camped out in Tahrir square at great discomfort to themselves for several weeks. They demanded and got free and fair elections. The Muslim Brotherhood won the elections fair and square.

Why did the Egyptians rise up against their newly elected leaders? Why was their sense of injustice rattled once more?

According to this site "the application of Islamic ideology in government policy and the victimization of Coptic Christians and secularists by the Islamic fervor following the Brotherhood's rise to power" was responsible. Another article said there were open and increasing sexual attacks on women on the streets. Apparently the Morsi administration had made a promise to Egyptians - that they would appoint "a female vice president, and a Coptic Christian deputy." They didn't keep that promise. Khaled Fahmy, the chairman of the history department at the American University in Cairo had this to say:

'We did not risk our lives simply to change the players'


So now, Egypt is once more going through a difficult phase. On the one hand, Morsi supporters are right - he is Egypt's legitimately elected leader, and on the other, the opposition is right - they didn't fight so hard for the Islamisation of their mainly bi-cultural nation nor the replacement of one kind of dictator with another.

Intolerance between communities, as we know in multi-cultural India, is a curse. No one wins. For a country to prosper we need every citizen, irrespective of community, to feel they have the opportunity to be free to prosper. Can't help admiring China for they seem to have woken to the fact (to a degree) that the community of politicians and their goons cannot be the only ones who prosper.

Monday, August 12, 2013

One of the Greatest Strengths of Social Media



 We're social animals. We enjoy communicating. The allure of blogging, face-booking, twittering, posting videos or images is our ability to communicate virtually. Is it a complete waste of time?

There is this blogger I know who says he knows how long each visitor spends on his blog. There are some, says this SEO-savvy cynic, who spend less than 60 seconds on his post. These guests spend the majority of those seconds leaving a generic comment in the hope that the compliment will be returned with a comment on their own latest post. What a lot of frantic to-ing and fro-ing for nothing. Surely running around from blog to blog leaving such comments is a waste of their time. Oh, and we mustn't forget comments that try and waste our time-  from our good friend, Anonymous. This aggressive advertiser says "what a nice post" and having dispensed with the niceties goes on to add, "If you want to lose weight / know how to blog better / increase your libido, visit mine." I'm not sure about Wordpress but Blogspot sends comments from Anonymous to the spam folder for which I'm grateful.

I feel most ordinary bloggers do enjoy genuine interaction with people who they would never otherwise have known. For such people, as long as the virtual world doesn't completely take over their lives, blogging is very rewarding.

Which brings me to what I think one of the main benefits of social media is. It plays a very important role in keeping our news media on their toes.

News media today often doctor news depending on the owner's (or their sponsors') affiliations. Here's an example. In some countries checks and balances for such practices exist only on paper, The doctoring is blatant. Even reputed international news media often use covert tactics to influence public opinion in ingenious ways. How often have we seen them try and prevent someone they believe is against everything they stand for (their values, their tribe, their sponsors) talking perfect sense. That's not how they wish to portray that person to the world so the simple solution, if it is a TV channel, for example, is to voice over what that person is saying. The person is seen to speak but it is the commentator's voice that the listener hears giving us the angle the news channel wishes to portray. So many political leaders from the Middle East, for example, have recently had this unfortunate tactic used on them by TV channels of international repute.

How often have we seen a piece of news that they want forgotten played only once, and something they want us to remember, repeated every hour, on the hour and very often in between? How often did we see Saddam Hussein loading and firing a gun, albeit in the air, as compared to his saying that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction?

Ordinary people telling us what's happening in their nook of the world, even if their views might be completely prejudiced, hold our attention and interest. If they are able to convey things reasonably well, their insider knowledge lends them a certain authenticity. This is what makes newspapers and TV hesitate to doctor news too quickly or too completely to align it with their own beliefs. What's to prevent them from bribing or threatening such individuals to toe their line? The sheer numbers. How many of those thousands of individuals can they bribe?

In India we've seen newsmakers try and instil fear by marching young things who dare exercise their freedom of speech, to jail. Then there are those cartoon blogs poking fun at people in politics - the especially creative, popular and succinct ones managed in India were removed from cyber world. Such heavy handed tactics have been partially successful. Some bloggers have backed off completely and others have toned down their criticism. Luckily, many bloggers, facebookers and tweeters continue speaking out. With so many speaking out it is difficult for politicians or the platforms they use, like the news media, to clamp down on the public voice. [Obviously, newspapers and TV channels who claim they don't take sides have nothing to worry about.]

This doctoring of news won't stop. In India our checks and balances for anything lacks determined effort. Instead a determined effort to find ways to subvert rules, regulations, laws or even human decency never lets up. When a hundred bloggers with their own beliefs and affiliations don't hesitate to tell us their own points of view, we come to know, more or less, where the truth lies. In the above example of news doctoring it was a blogger who pointed out that the photo was doctored.

Of course we draw our own conclusions depending on our own beliefs. Who says we live in a perfect world? What I do say is, with so many of us blogging the greatest disadvantage is that we'll have to look through a mind boggling mountain of dross before we find the occasional gold. On the whole though, with so many of us blogging and opining - whether daily, weekly or monthly, the greatest advantage has to be that our news media will feel the need to be (relatively:) accountable.

Image from wiki - "Letthejourneysbegin" 
Sadly, the link I'd put up "http://2013/04/16/i-hate-to-make-an-accusation-here-but/" to give an example of news doctoring doesn't work anymore. Either, it has been removed by the author because the accusation was made and the mud stuck - job done, OR, it was removed by Google for being false which sounds unlikely.