I was at Chennai during the first weekend of May to attend a Friend’s wedding. When I attend a wedding, I make sure I carry a newspaper with me as the occasion is inevitably - ritualistic. OK, I’m biased, so please take it lightly. Two reports caught my attention. One was, P. Sainath’s address at the convocation ceremony at Asian College of Journalism, Chennai and the other one by G W Bush, President of the United States (news).
Excerpts from Sainath’s speech:
“A dangerous shift in the moral universe of the Indian media towards corporate agendas has led to the failure of the media in adequately reporting events like the current crises in food, agriculture and labour…Good journalism has to be judged by how relevant it is to the great processes of our time… I don’t include Shilpa Shetty, the IPL and Lakme India Fashion Week as part of these processes…Some newspapers have even begun to have what they call private client treaties with a company…They acquire a stake into a company… and the marketing of [their] products is sold as news. These treaties privilege the right of giant corporations’ surrogate selling above the rights of readers to be informed.”
Citing a report by the Centre for Media Studies, Mr. Sainath said the share of entertainment in news channels was nine times that of agriculture, education, health and environment combined. This growing corporate drive had led to a structural shut-out where it is common for newspapers to have dozens of reporters covering business beats and entertainment, and completely neglecting problems of labour or the agricultural sector. “Agricultural correspondents are like yetis,” he joked. “You have rare, occasional sightings — but unconfirmed…In the last 10 years, where we should have told stories, we sold products…We celebrated as successes and triumphs those that were problems. Our duty as journalists is to signal the weaknesses of society. Did we? In that duty, we failed.”
Excerpts from GW Bush’s speech:
(my comments are inline)
Prosperity in countries like India is “good” but it triggers increased demand for “better nutrition” which in turn leads to higher food prices, Bush said.
One need not require a reminder how big an idiot Bush is. I am wondering what kind of advisory committee that he has around him. Can the American Texan be any dumb?
At an interactive session on economy in Missouri, Bush argued that there are many factors for the present crisis, only one of which was investment on biofuels like ethanol.
OK. At least he accepted that it is a factor.
“Worldwide there is increasing demand. There turns out to be prosperity in developing world, which is good. It’s going to be good for you because you’ll be selling products in the countries, you know, big countries perhaps, and it’s hard to sell products into countries that aren’t prosperous. In other words, the more prosperous the world is, the more opportunity there is,” the US President said.
“It also, however, increases demand. So, for example, just as an interesting thought for you, there are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That’s bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population. “And when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food, and so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up,” he said.
When you start getting wealth, do you demand better nutrition? Hello, Mr. President, show me how many “aware” Indian middle class checks their nutrition table on a daily basis? I mean, all that I have noticed in wealthy societies is the consumption of fast food and resulting obesity. Is that what you are terming as better nutrition?
The comments come close on the heels of Rice cooking up the theory that “apparent improvement” in the diets of people in India and China and consequent food export caps is among the causes of the current global food crisis.
Is this lady the ex-Provost of Stanford? Where have all the intellectuals gone? Or is Stanford in serious illusion about intellectuals? Or can idiots get an MBA degree from Harvard? Something has to be true.
He said there are two aspects of rising food prices — its effect on US citizens and the fact that there is a food scarcity in the world. “We don’t have a scarcity issue in America…We got a price issue. Our shelves aren’t going empty, it’s just costing more money,” Bush said. “There is scarcity in the world, and I happen to believe when we find people who can’t find food we ought to help them find it,” he said adding, “America is by far the most generous nation when it comes to helping the hungry.”
That’s right. That is why your Dad and successive Governments decided to continue the embargo on Iraq killing more than a million children due to malnutrition and lack of access to medicines.
“We’re an unbelievably compassionate nation,” he said.
Oh! Is that so, Mr. President?Your wings of compassion has extended to Afghanisthan and now to Iraq. Later it might even spread to Syria, Eye-ran and god knows…North Korea?
“I think we ought to change our food policy in Africa and other developing countries…buying food directly from farmers as opposed to giving people food. I think we ought to be saying, ‘Why don’t we help you be able to deal with scarcity by encouraging your farmers to grow and be efficient growers? Otherwise, we’re going to be in this cycle forever.”
Mr. President should “fuck himself”! Tell me which WTO and Corporate savvy globalization initiative helps in allowing farmers from low income country to compete with the most powerful ones? Technically, they don’t like competition…do they?
Paul Krugman’s thought about the exploitation of natural resources.