Finally, four days of bliss. Months of hectic media monitoring had left me craving for some personal time, time to introspect, time to indulge myself… you get the point.
First off, I would like to congratulate my friend Kiran K on getting married. Kiran has been with 80 Feet Road since its birth, helping us with the template coding and designing header images. On behalf of the 80 Feet Road bloggers, I wish you a happy and a prosperous married life.
Oprah giving away cars to the audience had grabbed a lot of eyeballs everywhere, making it one of the hot topics to discuss at the water-cooler gatherings. Pamela Anderson’s entry into Big Boss was the most popular.
Thanks to a very learned friend of mine, whose scholarly knowledge in almost all disciplines leaves us spellbound; I’ve been and continue to be treated to classic movies of different genres. As a result, I have now a huge collection of movies lined up to be seen this long weekend. Thank you KB!
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Moving on to my favorite topic – Corruption. Not any more! Looks like it has become the favorite topic of an entire nation, instead. At least, that’s how the newspapers and the news channels making it look like. Reams of print and airtime are being allotted to the spectrum scam while closer home, it’s the CM’s largesse in allotting land to his family members hogging the headlines.
Now, I am not against the newspapers and the news channels making a big hue and cry, after all the government should be held accountable for its wrongdoings, right? But the point here is what does it accomplish? Committees will be set up to investigate these allegations and after a decade or so they come up with their findings, by which time, the perpetrators would have moved away from the limelight (or better - dead), nobody would be interested. Someone else would have taken their place; someone who having learnt from their predecessors mistakes would be more careful to not to get caught.
What does all of this accomplish? Does it kill corruption? Will it go away?
NO!!!
Let us be smart and go after the small fish. I mean the small ones. Kill the small ones and the big ones will cease to exist. Makes sense right?
Charity begins at home. But unfortunately, it has lost out big time to Corruption. Yes, these days we are most likely to indulge in corruption rather than charity. The delivery man, who brings in the gas cylinder when the one at the home runs out, demands 20 to 40 rupees extra on the bill. It is extortion. Refuse at your own peril. The next time your cylinder runs out, you will have to run from pillar to post to get the replacement on time. The garbage man demands anything between 10-20 rupees at the end of every week. If you refuse, then don’t be surprised to see your garbage lying un-collected at your doorstep. So, you learn the hard way. When the electricity conks off in your area, better be prepared to pay the repairmen something when they are done or learn to do it the hard way. The same goes for the sewage repair, water leakage, and the list goes on.
Do you think anyone would be interested in charity after being forced to pay thorough the nose. I am not talking about taxes here!
Let us begin at our homes. Let the media highlight our problems. Let the authorities take action against these perps. Once these problems are taken care of, lets move on to something that’s a little bigger. Let us take baby steps in fighting corruption. However, we need to dig in because it will be a long, hard and a dirty fight. These greedy bastards are not going to change (give in) that easily.
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Enjoy the long weekend. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, November 25
Wednesday, October 27
Sunday, October 24
Through The Looking Glass
Scourging through news items is what we media analysts do for a living. And in the process of looking through scores of links online, a seasoned news hound would definitely smell out news of his/her interest, simultaneously making a fairly accurate measure of the region/nation's media preferences.
Being one such mortal addicted to news and information in all shapes sizes and bytes, I am guilty as charged to the above crime. My ingression doesn't end with this though, for a daily exposure to publishing giants from the three worlds we are divided into, forces my yet un-dumbed-down mind to draw parallels,and worry over the consequences.
A cursory look at the media in the U.S. and India, would lead one to conclude that either could switch nationalities and the world still be the beautiful chaotic mess it is today. But look not too far under the gloss glam and front page gimmickry,and one would find the difference. The difference of assuredness at being a superpower, and the contrasting ignorance bordering on arrogance that our Indian media specializes in.
Why, i always wondered, that a nation like Ghana, be bothered with body scanners in New Jersey, or why Nepal's national daily splash Obama's Af-Pak policy on its front pages, with a thorough analysis inside. Of what interest would tumult in Latin American states be, for PlusNews of an already ailing Pakistan? And, more importantly, why Indian dailies have increasingly relegated international coverage to a single page flooded by classifieds adds, unless of course its our troublesome neighbours or their dragon friend? Africa, Middle East, Latin America, East Asia, the ASEAN,SAARC, regions that have traditionally been and will always be of India's strategic interest, scarcely find a mention in our public discourse. Compare this to how Britain and Washington hog the limelight, and it is clear something is wrong with our media's worldview.
Day in and day out, we are fed a concocted mixture of planted news, views and "analysis" with the preordained conclusion of us having "arrived" globally. In this maddening avalanche of self-glorification, we have lost a sense of purpose, a sense of direction as a society. In a never ending drumming of jingoistic cacophony, the media seems to have forgotten that a superpower can only stand tall on the support of an informed citizenry. In this blinding haze of proclaiming our importance, we seem to have falsified the truth that to grow in stature, we need a constant dialogue with the rest of the world.
We need a media that can bring the world to our door steps daily, that can break up world issues shedding light on how these would affect us, for we can not dream of a greater role in the legion of nations, unless we know how their world revolves.
News has always meant to be a looking glass for us to peep into the world. What we chose to look at reflects upon our standing as a people. It defines our intent, and our worldview. If being on the top is what we intend to do, shrinking our worldview is definitely not gonna help our intent!
Being one such mortal addicted to news and information in all shapes sizes and bytes, I am guilty as charged to the above crime. My ingression doesn't end with this though, for a daily exposure to publishing giants from the three worlds we are divided into, forces my yet un-dumbed-down mind to draw parallels,and worry over the consequences.
A cursory look at the media in the U.S. and India, would lead one to conclude that either could switch nationalities and the world still be the beautiful chaotic mess it is today. But look not too far under the gloss glam and front page gimmickry,and one would find the difference. The difference of assuredness at being a superpower, and the contrasting ignorance bordering on arrogance that our Indian media specializes in.
Why, i always wondered, that a nation like Ghana, be bothered with body scanners in New Jersey, or why Nepal's national daily splash Obama's Af-Pak policy on its front pages, with a thorough analysis inside. Of what interest would tumult in Latin American states be, for PlusNews of an already ailing Pakistan? And, more importantly, why Indian dailies have increasingly relegated international coverage to a single page flooded by classifieds adds, unless of course its our troublesome neighbours or their dragon friend? Africa, Middle East, Latin America, East Asia, the ASEAN,SAARC, regions that have traditionally been and will always be of India's strategic interest, scarcely find a mention in our public discourse. Compare this to how Britain and Washington hog the limelight, and it is clear something is wrong with our media's worldview.
Day in and day out, we are fed a concocted mixture of planted news, views and "analysis" with the preordained conclusion of us having "arrived" globally. In this maddening avalanche of self-glorification, we have lost a sense of purpose, a sense of direction as a society. In a never ending drumming of jingoistic cacophony, the media seems to have forgotten that a superpower can only stand tall on the support of an informed citizenry. In this blinding haze of proclaiming our importance, we seem to have falsified the truth that to grow in stature, we need a constant dialogue with the rest of the world.
We need a media that can bring the world to our door steps daily, that can break up world issues shedding light on how these would affect us, for we can not dream of a greater role in the legion of nations, unless we know how their world revolves.
News has always meant to be a looking glass for us to peep into the world. What we chose to look at reflects upon our standing as a people. It defines our intent, and our worldview. If being on the top is what we intend to do, shrinking our worldview is definitely not gonna help our intent!
Friday, October 15
Friday, October 8
From the SMS Collection
An SMS joke worth putting up:
It is good that Ram gets some part of the land to settle down, because now, Sita is running a travel agency, Maruti is making cars, Laxman might retire after the series against Australia, Shatrughan has joined BJP, Raavan is already a commercial flop and there is peace in Lanka!!!!
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