As an interesting study in contrast, navigate to the UK Guardian's front page today, one day after the Varanasi explosions. Or the Times Online. They are just such a bundle of agony right now about twenty vaporized Indians, it will touch your heart.
I know that you are simply looking after your own, Europe. I understand self-interest, and I wish most Indians did. But notwithstanding, here it is one more time. Europe, I may never see the day. But I hope my great-grandchildren see you raising your behinds skywards five times a day and blubbering before Allah, the most merciful. Actually, it occurs to me that my great-grandchildren will probably be doing the same. So THAT'S a wash.
And a gentle note to the average Indian journalist: Here's a quarter, go buy yourself a fucking clue.
I mean...It. Has. Been. Five. Thousand. Years, people.
You and yours have been colonized, brutalized, sodomized, pulverized, and partitioned. Often by the very same people whom you reserve your angst for.
Still no clue.
Even a completely vapid moron gets it after a few tries. But not you.
Collective racial memory: Zero.
Here's one idea for you: Self-respect. There are machines today that will eat for you, breathe for you, and defecate for you. But no machine has yet been built that will instill a sense of self. Gotta do this on your own time.
Creature of a strange stripe indeed is the Indian journalist. A creature ruled by a few simple equations.
Graham Staines = News.
Sixty dead Europeans = News.
A few unfortunate Indians = News, but not if there's a bloody cricket match on!
What can I say? I'm running low here, people. Someone help me out.
On the positive side: The Daily Pioneer is covering the story well. People tell me that it is a right wing paper. If this is right wing hatemongering, India needs more of it. May their tribe increase. Also, again, just for the contrast, check out the front page of Outlook Magazine Online, a left wing paper. It is difficult to believe that both newspapers share the same inertial frame of reference.
Surprisingly, The Times of India (link not provided for your own safety) has not lost interest yet and is covering the story better than usual. The age of miracles is not over.
4 comments:
The Indian media can, of course, ignore developments of minor to medium importance elsewhere in the world. Down-side - they might end up like Fox TV. WE might end up as incredibly insular as the average American.
On the whole, I agree with you. Events in Europe and America get disproportionate coverage. Nobody seems to care what happens in Latin America (hey, beauty queens!) or in Africa.
The availability and accessibility of stories from these regions must also be a factor in coverage. I don't think too many English-language stories are filed from Upper Volta or Suriname.
The world is not perfect. Our view of the world is not perfect.
I completely agree with you Sougata. I have been a regular reader of your blog and love it. Its point blank frank atleast. Its really sad the way indian media potrays regional voilence events. Like, the whole focus of Gujrat voilence was on people who pray with their ass skyward. What about the women and children who were burnt alive in the train?. As you had pointed out, they really might have been "hindu activists", you know, real deadly people. God I cant belive, how dumb media people are becoming. Not that the riots needed less coverage, but some focus on the people who got roasted alive would have helped too.
I really wish indian media becomes frank and unbaised.
And also, the plight of the Kashmiri pandits. Dont they need some footage. Being thrown out of your own home, in your own country.
I feel like we are becoming like the people in the Terry Gillam's movie "Brazil", where we seem unaffected a by blast next to you and just assume them as a daily reality.
India is really becoming like the world in "Brazil", only in your dreams can you hope for a good future.
I know you dont like "Anons", my name is Kshitij and I dont have a blogger account.
Do keep writing. I love it.
Kshitij. That's a truly wonderful name. I also discovered that it means "horizon" in Sanskrit. It sounds great even in the translation.
My roomie in college was a Kashmiri Pandit. A gentleman and a wonderful human being. He was one of the lucky ones because his father migrated to Delhi before the cleansing really began. They only lost property.
He was very bitter about what happened to the Pandits. It occurs to me that the ahem ... migration of the Pandits is probably the greatest human tragedy in recent memory that you've never heard about.
Well, at least nobody outside of India knows nor cares. And even many in India probably don't care.
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