DO WE REALLY CARE?In the wake of the recent attacks in Delhi where nearly 50 people lost their lives,or maybe more ,the big question is if we really care? I am seething with rage and frustration first as a citizen of this country and then as a media student.Where does the buck stop?
In the recent years ,India has been a softt target of terror,with a spate of terror attacks,it is didifficult to tell which has been more gruesome.It just does not seem to end.In 2008 when th 26/11 happened,it was not just the poor or the middle class people who were attacked which is the case more often than not when terror strikes, but also the the high echelons of the society at the Taj and the Oberoi who were targets.There was a great hullabaloo,government like they usually do made false promises but failed, and failed miserably to live up to even one of them.The government still seems to be in a state of inertia.When will they get up and take stock of this situation?Do we need a terror attack all the time to beef up the security of this country?We as common people don't deserve any sort of protection or is just a privilege of rich to get Zsecurity.
India in the last few year has become an incredibly porous country and a soft target for terrorism.But that is a different debate all together.My question is what precautions is the government taking?Has the security improved or like 26/11 anybody can come here,take the city under siege,take lives and do what they want.Has life in India become SO cheap or the population to mammoth?Every time after a bomb blast,i am stringed to my seat and told not to venture out of my house if i want to be safe.Is this the state we have reached as a nation where safety is only about being at home?(even that seems unlikely now days).Why doesn't the government realize that we are resiliently by force not by choice.If there is a terror attack and we go to work,that does not mean we do not care,Its just that as a middle class person i cant loose my job and i have to work to earn that buck.You see we are part of no scams in this country so we do not have money flowing like the Ganges.We need money to fill our stomachs,why cant the government stomach that??
Unfortunately i can only vent out my frustrations as a common person,be discontented with the way issues are being handled,but as a media student i will go a step further and question-DO WE REALLY CARE??RESILIENCE JUST SEEMS LIKE A BAD WORD NOW.

idot box

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/each-hour-of-tv-viewing-reduces-life-span-by-22mins/832626/

                                             To live longer throw the Idiot Box out!

-          Amrita Mukhopadhyay

                      Who could actually think that there would be a study on TV viewing and it would actually conclude it to be as harmful as smoking or obesity. In today’s world where we don’t know what really reduces the life expectancy of people as everything seems to be hazardous to us,  if the television is to be also blamed for killing humans early, where will the prime time people go? Professor David Dunstan of the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia and colleagues seem to have found last year that if someone watches the TV for an hour every day, he/she has an 8% higher risk of premature death especially from cardio vascular diseases. Just imagine, without watching the TV, either for news, entertainment or sports etc, how the human race will survive. I would rather comment that they would die every day in today’s scenario if people are not allowed to watch the Idiot box. It has become such an essential and important part of people’s life like a basic necessity. I mean just try telling any house wife that they would be barred to watch Tv throughout her life, forget the cardiovascular disease, she would get an immediate heart attack and die. The point about this feedback to the article is that, there would be many studies coming out, but to stop viewing TV for a longer life? Nah!

Mining in Bellary by Tehmina Sabuwala

What is the Bellary mining scandal?

-       Bellary is a district in Karnataka, one of the largest producers of iron ore in India. Yeddyurappa brothers been accused to ship tons of iron ores out of India.

They are two main issues that according to me are important, which I would like to highlight: 

1. This is core example of how Lokyukta was successful and played its role and Yeddyurappa was forced to resign. 

2. Only few media highlight these important issues, media in India our definitely not controlled by the government but are controlled by the corporates that do the agenda setting. 

From the first point, Lokyukta in Bellary had honest and un-corrupt officer, Santosh Hegde. When ‘Tehelka’ magazine first published the story it mentioned how the evidence was destroyed of the illegal mining done by the Yeddyurappa brothers. The honest people who tried to highlight this issue were threatened and beaten up. The only evidence they had was the ‘pink slips’. Pink slips where the passes the trucks drivers got when they had to pay the octroi. These trucks were filled with iron ore and were supplied to China and they used it during the Beijing Olympics. Isn’t it sad to see all the rich mineral of India going to other country? The iron ore that will never come back again. How unjust is that? Who are we to blame? Ministers, China, or the media?

Yes, I say the say media. This is where I come to by second point. What role has media really played to change or develop this nation? We are just puppets of the corporates. If we had researched and given importance to this issue, we would have not lost are thousand and thousand of iron ores. ‘Tehelka’ was the only magazine to cover the Bellary mining scandal following was CNN IBN. Later we had a beautiful documentary by Pranjoy Guha Thackeray. The documentary covered more on the political aspects rather the effects; it gave less of human angle. For example, the water in Bellary is red water, ‘lal paani’ people cannot obviously cannot drink the water and to add to that, the main occupation is agriculture because of the water the plants/crops are destroyed.

So, we are not only losing our land but facing adverse effects from it. No agriculture means no productivity, which means no money and that’s means more of suicide by framers. So, inequality always remain between the haves and the haves-not. Lokyukta did play its role because it had honest officers. I hope it does the same in the future.

'Week of carnage in the financial markets'

From the time the US congress passed the much maligned budget deficit agreement and the rating agency Standard and Poor's in effect de-rated the US government, world financial markets have been in turmoil.

France seems to be the next country facing a risk of de-rating. The de-rating in effect makes funds more expensive. The Federal Reserve of the US made a commitment to maintain low interest rates for the next 24 months to stimulate a stagnant economy. The problem faced by the US and the other developed countries is of a slowing economy and resultant unemployment.

In developing countries like India and China, the situation is the opposite. China announced higher than feared inflation for the month of July. India has been through several rounds of interest rate hikes to counter high inflation. Both these emerging economies are sacrificing growth to counter inflation. The global economy is dealing with two issues – need for growth in the west and need to curb inflation in the east. And the stock markets of both worlds are taking a beating due to this.

'Wall street/Dalal street carnage provides a window into politics'

Unemployment is expected to be the critical factor in the next US presidential elections. The ugly fight to extend the budget deficit has had broad ramifications. Though the US avoided default, the credit rating S&P de-rate their economy and Wall Street has lurched through a terrible August. The Federal Reserve and Ben Bernanke have responded by committing to a low-interest regime for the next 24 months, leading right up to the elections. The hope in the US is that the economy will pick up through cheap access to funding and an increase in confidence. The US Presidential Election results may well depend on this.

Dalal Street and BSE may have caught a cold when the US sneezed, but India has fundamental economic issues on the demand side unlike the US. Demand has pushed inflation to politically unmanageable levels in India and the government is compromising the growth story to tame this election fulcrum.The Central Bank has increased interest rates several times now and more increases can be expected. Higher funding cost will slow the Indian growth story but may save an election is the thought process of the government.

***************

Triparna Rout

DNA-Different News-report Accumulated

DNA...as we all know, it’s a newspaper called "Daily News Analysis". And yes i am talking about the same newspaper. I have given the name "different News-report accumulated" and there is reason to it.Just a few days back, my uncle asked me to start reading DNA as this is the paper which shows young and honest journalism according to him. And i abide by his wish. Truly the reading experience was amazing and what i found was that how the news covered by DNA is very different and stimulating. The main news may be the same but the choice of news in DNA really entraps you. For example their headline said "What men want: A woman with a flat of their own"...they had done their research and survey required for this article well enough and wrote the article in a very remarkable way that i dint stop reading till the article ended. There also have 'letters to the editor' and it’s very appealing to read it and know what people think about a situation. Their photos are amazing...it evokes a lot of emotion and says exactly what the journalist wants us to interpret. There was a fascinating photo of a sand sculpture done by 'SudarshanPatnaik' of Anna Hazare in Puri...AND THE PHOTO ABOVE IS OF THIS SAND SCULPTURE. Isn't it so fascinating to get such information? And lastly there was an article on "Britain reads writing on the wall" it showed a giant message board in Clapham Junction in south-west London, following the recent riots and looting the area. The picture of that message wall is very thought provoking. Thus for me DNA is 'Different News-report accumulated"
So for all you people just go and grab a DNA from tomorrow and feel the exciting innovative news....at least try it once and then decide!

Vinelle Vaz

   

Independence Day

 The 'Times of India' on the occasion of the 64th Independence Day circulated a copy of its first issue in” India”.

     The euphoria of the people is unmistakable in this edition. It is a reminder to all who were born several years after the freedom struggle that perhaps our limited understanding of freedom and independence is falling short and hence we cannot see it for the gift it is or comprehend its value. Democracy and self governance is too precious to be squandered away by inactivity.

Twice a year, almost every year, people of all ages celebrate their Indian-ness. The rest of the year is somehow not connected to these at all. The suffering, affliction and apathy of the people not benefitting from the Status Quo makes all the patriotic sentiment that we claim to feel seem like a fib.

Sir John Colville, last Governor of Bombay called it the ‘Gateway to Free India’, a sentiment that many a migrant labourer has when he leaves home and hearth to come to the big bad city. They perceive Mumbai to be the city of promise and dreams where the people are supreme.

 Which people? I hear myself ask and what dreams?

Our city of dreams is a house of glass and everyday a new blow is dealt to its delicate façade as it continues to crumble into a million pieces.

We are a democracy governed by the wishes of the people, by a government of the people for the greater good of its people.

People people everywhere is what I see as I browse through independent India’s first paper. Once again I’m forced to ask myself which people?

Am I a part of those lucky people whose opinion matters, perhaps not. Maybe more because of my callousness and indifference that my inability to participate in the functioning of my country’s democracy.

A look at that edition stirred something deep within and for me it’s now time to change not dramatically , not a whole new me but I think I will start by filling up the cracks of discrimination and bias with love and acceptance.

Maybe next year I’ll further this effort with a court of a new outlook on the very day that filled thousands with joy and exuberance. Independence day then will begin to mean to me something more than a long awaited public holiday or an occasion to reminiscence and ruminate over the sufferings of those who sacrificed their lives  for my freedom , indifference and irreverence .

Veteran actor Shammi Kapoor passes away

Link: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/media/entertainment-/entertainment/shammi-kapoor-prince-of-the-hill-station-romance/articleshow/9609963.cms

    Aptly titled 'Prince of the hill station romance'; this article was published in the Times of India, dated August 15, 2011 and has been written as a tribute to the yesteryear's hero; Shammi Kapoor. Although the entire page had articles published in his memory, I liked this article the best because it has in a way, briefly tried to encapsulate the life of the phenomenonal star who gave hit films like 'Brahmachari, Kashmir ki Kali' and many others to the Hindi film industry, moreso by photographs from his films, some of him on the sets of his film and some from the family album. I especially liked one which had the three brothers; Shashi, Raj and Shammi in the same frame.

The mention of songs like 'Aajkal tere mere pyar ke charche', 'Badan pe sitare', brings a sense of nostalgia to my mind and a sense of grief that the man who made these songs memorable is no more today, bringing to an end an era of the industry altogether.

The article brings to light anecdotes from his life which offer an interesting insight into his life. It states how he never worked with a choreographer and the fact that he never learnt dancing, he was mainly inspired by Elvis Presley and usually danced extempore. Regarding his voice in his films, it is said that the singer Mohammed Rafi had developed a singing style to suit him. 

I had expected the Times of India to report exactly like this, i.e. dedicate a section specially to the actor in an effort to encapsulate his life onto one page and I must agree, they have done a good job.

 I am happy that I will still get to catch a last glimpse of the actor in the upcoming film 'Rockstar', directed by Imtiaz Ali, which is to be released later this year.