Desicritics Category: Media: Journalism

Outrageous Claim in The Lancet: 1,63,000 Indians die in Fire Accidents Yearly

Sumanth — Fri, 6 Mar 2009 13:26:52 EST

It hurts to see publication of false statistics and outrageous claims by ill-educated Indians and in Western media.

The recent story on 2nd March, is related to a claim in the BBC, sensationalizing a study published in the Lancet by three feminists that they estimate 1,63,000 fire accident deaths in India every single year. (PDF) They also claim that the statistics from Indian police have grossly under reported regarding these incidents.

Soon, they jump into sweeping generalizations, interpretations and call for policy change to prevent these fire accidents. Within 24 hours, this story is carried out by BBC, Time and followed up by some bloggers doing irreparable damage even before someone has a copy of that research paper.

We have been protesting with the BBC and other Western media channels since the news reports and are contemplating legal action.

The Time magazine article says,

If the study's estimates are correct, more than twelve women die in fires every hour in India.

I, myself, am an author of papers published in IEEE, and know very well how research is carried out and how estimates can be churned out. I will dissect the research by feminists later. However, I can give a hard punch to the so called estimates on fire accidents in India right now.

The National Crime Records Bureau(NCRB) publishes that there are about 20,000 fire accident deaths in 2007. The study published in the Lancet, reported in the BBC, claims (or ESTIMATES) that there are 1,63,000 fire accident deaths in one single year.

So, the F**king ESTIMATES published are 8 times more than the Police (NCRB) records.

If police records have 8 times under reported these fire accidents, then they would have also under reported accidents like drownings, rural road accidents, falling from buildings, poisoning etc. There is no reason why police will selectively under report.

In 2007, there were in total 3,40,000 accident deaths in India (PDF).

So, if we follow this logic of under-reporting by the police and make the corrections accordingly, then there were 2.7 million (27 lacs) accident deaths in India in 2007 for a population of 1100 million (110 crores).

That's Bullshit!!

Can an Indian believe that there is one accidental death for 400 people (men, women and children) every single year?

If this is the way the Western agencies fund and sensationalize biased research for political purposes, then how is it going to improve the difficult situations in the world?

There have been many false stories published in Western media in last couple of years including false stories of 70% Indian women facing domestic violence, 25,000 dowry deaths per year and Bangalore being bride burning capital.

It is worrying that feminists in Indian media and bloggers can start spitting fire and start another round of anti-male rhetoric calling for castration of males accused of dowry harassment.

Now, I wonder why I should not join any nationalistic outfits, when there is complete betrayal of the nation by feminists and the media is hell bent in distorting people's perceptions.

I will link to one example from the feminist rumour mill and its potential impact towards clash of civilizations of a differ kind. The rumour mills will only add to the existing clashes with even moderates getting less sympathetic to the west and the western.

Those who do not wish to see India become yet another terrorist state need to focus immediately on stopping what feminists are doing in the United Nations. Indians I am in communication with see their new domestic violence law as a "cultural invasion by western feminists."

They know it is phony, and intended to destroy marriage and Indian society by empowering foreign radicals to take over the country and dictate from a pink pedestal of feminist dictatorship. Indians are both terrified and furious. They know this invasion is predominantly coming from America."

Then, I remembered the "Talibanisation of Mangalore" and now I can understand why people can support Taliban in Swat.

Commercialization of News Media in India

Ruchi — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 02:18:31 EST

Much has been said about the stumbling state response to the terror attacks in Mumbai, yet we also need to question the role news media, and its commercialization has played in the run up to the status quo. Our government has yet again proved incompetent, but the media is equally culpable because of its fitful coverage (typically post-fact) of systemic lapses, and growing shift to mercenary reporting. Our news media has become irrelevant, derelict in its obligation to the society to serve as a platform to voice citizen concerns and shape public opinion, and has lost its moral authority as a watchdog of the administration and establishment.

In India, the media careens between froth, marketing, reporting, opinion, and reacting. Seriousness is often dislodged by commercialism: editor of leading national daily turned gourmand and celebrity interviewer; front page coverage of celebrity weddings, gastric troubles; fatter "lifestyle" supplements; hour long adulatory shows on news channels about an Indian superstar who frankly claims to have no ambitions other to have fun and entertain the masses etc. Predictably, the preponderance of coverage of the attacks and its aftermath is superficial too: trending to human interest, pandering to mass emotional outrage, instead of focusing on systemic problems. "Serious" reporters are doing talk shows of sorts, calling on their guest panel former soap stars, actors, and socialites. Reports are rife with accusations of the administration's callousness, dropped balls, and self-righteous calls for more heads to roll. Journalism in the face of a real crisis is laced with passionate rhetoric, not real questions and solutions.

We are a democracy of a billion plus people with the largest youth population in the world, large sections poor and uneducated, inadequate social services, and a country in transition. It is imperative that our influential intelligentsia focus unfailingly on meaningful issues since the opportunity cost is enormous. The government is increasingly sidelined by private enterprise; unprepared peasants are migrating to straining cities; and the nouveau riche anxious to express their nascent individuality is turning to incongruous consumption. Our academia is intently focused on the graduate's financial remuneration, and naturally, commercial interests don't provide any discipline. Entertainment czars consume our attention, shape public opinion, and increasingly control our daily life by forming a nexus with private industry, and entering the administration. We have mall adjacent to mall adjacent to mall, and almost no democratic recreational space. Mostly the middle-class Indian comes in contact with one another to consume, an individualistic pursuit, thus developing no collective voice or opinion. Further, democracy in India has many pitfalls: the educated vote counts as much (or as little) as the uneducated. Nepotistic, political power is concentrated; political will is weak, and further emasculated by our coalition government structure. Any one can start a new political party, garner a few electoral votes, cobble together a patchwork government, and sporadically threaten to fell the government if their personal demands aren't met. As a country we can't afford to feed or educate our children. We use our poorest as cattle, carting heavy burden on their backs in crowded urban markets. Our farmers are committing mass suicide. Religion is a recurring flash point. There is so much going on in India that we can't afford to dilute our focus on the important issues with front page/prime time coverage of entertainment. Moreover, print media, especially national newspapers are newspapers of record, and the current news standards will leave many important events that shape our country undocumented for our future generations.

The state runs on taxes, and is liable to its citizenry, however the individual is unable to demand accountability. The Indian citizen has no serious platform to voice her concerns, of harnessing institutional power to fight systemic battles. Consequently, we now have a country where citizen activism is either all or nothing. It's an all out battle, which the common person struggling just to survive, exhausted amid the delays, chaos, chronic infrastructure shortfall/failure and pollution cannot wage. Activism cannot and should not be at the exclusionary cost of personal life, and livelihood. Media must provide serious relevant coverage, accurate information, and democratic access to voice public concerns. This is media's non-negotiable obligation to society, by virtue of preferential access, mass reach and the ability to shape public opinion. Yes, the Mumbai attacks are a wake up call to our government, but also to our media, one of the original and last bastions of democracy. India urgently needs renewed civic engagement, and it is the media's responsibility to create that platform, not as a temporary reaction to some outrage, but as a permanent social structure.

Barkha Dutt And NDTV, The Joke Is On You!

Sandeep — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 05:54:51 EST

So Chyetanya Kunte is the latest victim of media intimidation. I'm not going to rehash the same excellent points made by other bloggers. Here's a partial list:

NDTV's Assault on Free Speech (the best)

When 'free speech' bears a price tag

Shame on NDTV and Barkha Dutt

A bedtime story about blog freedom

Throw the Constitution Away

The Indian media--specifically, television ranks at the top for its King-sized conceit. It bulldozes its way into people's tragedies and increasingly, sees itself as the final arbiter of national justice. Its anchors assault the ears 24/7 with nothing but meaningless shrillery under the illusion that loudness=news. Its talk shows are crude exercises in self-aggrandizement. However, all these traits don't even measure up to even a knee-length of Barkha Dutt epitomizes. There's no better proof for this than the fact that a Facebook Group (Can u please take BARKHA off air!) is dedicated to her. It is by far one of the most popular groups there with over 4500 members and about 900 posts in just over a month!

Barkha Dutt owes her heady taste of fame to her "reporting" during the Kargil war. Ignoring the controversy surrounding her actual role in the reporting, she was made out to be a bigger hero than the valiant soldiers that fought in the war. I recall reading some review that Preity Zinta's unconvincing histrionics in Lakshya was modelled after Barkha. However, for Barkha, there was no looking back after Kargil. Today she stands almost unchallenged in both fame and skill at compensating incompetence with loudmouthedness. She spins self-righteous yarns about free speech and media-professional hazards when her nonchalant reporting style is criticized. You tend to normally ignore such yarn because she has to defend her actions, etc. But then, you should sit up and give it back when she goes beyond that. In a shocking display of arrogance and strong-arm tactics, she has threatened legal action against blogger Chyetanya Kunte for voicing his opinion about her "shoddy journalism" which is what her antics on 26/11 were. Chyetanya was forced to take down his post thanks to NDTV's threat.

Neither is this the first instance. Remember Mediaah, which was shut down thanks to a similar legal threat by TOI (aside: read an excellent piece on the whole episode). Or the infamous IIPM online hooliganism that threatened to choke Rashmi Bansal's (also Gaurav Sabnis') right to freedom of speech? Despite all this, the Indian media just doesn't get it. Here's the thing beautifully articulated:

The success of [The Times'] case depends wholly on the hope that Maheshwari will not fight back against a gargantuan media conglomerate," said Rohit Gupta, a freelance writer and engineer in Mumbai. "That's where the Times of India reveals its ignorance of changing times and the nature of the blogosphere. Maheshwari does not need to fight this himself -- this concerns the freedom of all bloggers from Indian origin, so we will fight the battle for him."[...] "The Times of India has simply shown how far they've come from being a respectable newspaper to being a common school bully. If bloggers can collaborate to provide humanitarian assistance for the greatest natural disaster the living world has seen, they can certainly tackle the Times of India, a man-made ethical disaster.

Which takes us back to the same question: why do they hate us so much? From India Today to TOI to Outlook and now NDTV, the media has on numerous occasions ranted against bloggers with undisguised contempt, which stems from their appalling ignorance of what blogging is all about. Their typical terms for bloggers: brash, 20-something, angry, furious, seething, venting, cyber-Cinderellas, pretentious, and the like. Is this because they feel somehow threatened? Or is it because some bloggers write far better prose, articulate opinions way better than many so-called mainstream observers and columnists? Or is it because bloggers are unconstrained by word-limit, editorial stance, or business interests? For all their ire against bloggers, the media doesn't hesitate to steal content from bloggers. Here's a lovely post that chronicles this plagiarism (scroll down till you reach this: Indian Media Plagiarizing from Bloggers [or, bloggers highlighting cases of MSM misdeeds]). TOI leads the pack in this plagiarism, the selfsame TOI that sent the self-righteous legal notice to Mediaah didn't seem to examine the crap in its own backyard. There's yet another angle to this. In the breath that they rant against bloggers, most of these media houses have their own blogs, or have set up a blog service on their sites--TOI, IBN, Indian Express, and the now-defunct blog service from NDTV. The main reason I think, for the Indian media's angst against the blogsphere is the fact that till blogging caught popular imagination, media houses were used to their monopoly over news and opinion--they were virtually unchallenged--any "letters to the editor" that didn't toe their byline were simply not published. Now that bloggers on a colossal scale have begun to call their bluff, their fragile sensibilities have taken a severe blow. While they strut around invading people's privacy, and making grand pronouncements at random on everybody, they need to understand that freedom of speech is not their exclusive privilege. People will exercise the same right upon them. Patrix puts it beautifully:

When the reporter becomes the reported, it is usually time to take a closer look at your life and wonder what happened.

However, if bloggers can sit alone at their keyboards, type out their honest opinions, and network with each other on noble causes, they can also fight back against such strong-arm tactics. In this, they're far more courageous than the media, which infamously crawled when asked to bend. I'm sorry, but Barkha Dutt and her NDTV team cannot gag my right to free speech on the pretext of protecting her right to free speech. If I don't like a newspaper, I won't buy it and I'll say why I don't like it. The newspaper cannot sue me for that. While we're on the subject, since NDTV is listed on the Stock Exchange, how about selling its shares if you have bought any?

What's next, Barkha Dutt and NDTV, are you going to sue the entire Indian blogsphere, and Facebook?

Technorati Tags: Barkha Dutt's Strong arm Tactics,NDTV's Strong arm Tactics,Bad PR for NDTV,NDTV Threatens Blogger,Chyetanya Kunte is Threatened,NDTV tries to Gag Freedom of Speech,Media Watch,Indian Media,Media Tomfoolery

poetry: different suns

temporal — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 07:02:52 EST

The 2009 massacre in Gaza will be for
international solidarity with Palestine what
the Sharpeville massacre was for the
international solidarity against apartheid
in South Africa. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)

here is a familiar routine
after an honest day's efforts
you head home in your car/train/bus
once home you follow the rituals
wash-change-drink-tv-dinner
retrieve messages-surf-help children
                                if any - with homework
prepare for the next day
will it rain or snow?
brush, change again, go to bed
turn off the light, read or
                               make love
                               or toss and turn
tomorrow is another sunrise away
                              for you

not for the families of gaza
their sun has not set for 60 years

Sri Lanka: Lasantha Wickrematunge, Journalist, Predicted Own Murder

Kalugu — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:40:45 EST

Journalism, by far is not a dangerous profession. But in Sri Lanka it is a career choice that should be pursued only by the bravest of the brave.

Lasantha Wickramatunga - an outspoken critic of the government's war on ethnic Tamil rebels, knew he was marked for death — and thought he knew why.

The Associated Press reported that three days after he was gunned down execution-style, Wickrematunge's newspaper published a haunting, self-written obituary Sunday in which he says he was targeted for his writings and adds: "When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me."

In a 2,500 word editorial, Wickrematunge foresees his own death, hints at the identity of the killers from within the ranks of Sri Lanka's government, and lays out a gripping and detailed account of what he sees as his country's descent into persecution of citizens and flouting of democracy.

Addressing Sri Lanka's president, Mahinda Rajapakse - he says: "In the wake of my death I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry. But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one, too. For truth be told, we both know who will be behind my death."

Wickramatunga editor of Sunday Leader newspaper had the reputation of being one of the country's most fearless journalist. Wickramatunga was shot at close range by unidentified gunmen as he drove to work during the morning hours on January 8th in Dehiwela, just outside Colombo.

Just two days prior to the murder on Jan 6th, a private Sri Lankan TV channel was attacked with hand grenades and set on fire allegedly due to its "unpatriotic" coverage of the war against Tamil rebels.

Around 20 armed men in a white van with covered number plates attacked the studio and control room of the Maharaja TV network, just outside Colombo, early Tuesday morning. The attackers threw hand grenades, sprayed gunfire and set alight the building causing heavy damage, Director of MTV/MBC, the TV and radio unit of the channel, Asoka Dias said.

Ameen Izzadeen of Sunday Times writes:

"It was left to us, the journalists and the people who believe that media freedom is essential for a vibrant democracy, to close our eyes and visualize the face of terror that took Lasantha's life. Sadly, among those faces of terror was the government, however much we try to erase that image."

International rights groups, diplomats and local activists expressed outrage at the attacks, while opposition politicians accused the government of at best condoning the violence and possibly ordering the strikes itself.

How far would you believe the news coming out of a country that Human rights groups call as one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists to operate.

What if the New York Times Did Not Exist?

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 08:31:18 EST

I was reading somewhere (and now I have forgotten and am too old to rack the 2.3 neurons I have to worry about where) that the New York Times is one of the most hyperlinked and commented upon source for news for bloggers. It is indeed the most visited newspaper site in the USA. Yes, I would tend to agree. It has great quality, great coverage and is what I would call as a great newspaper. Here's a graphic showing the NYT's coverage of the world from here.

Pretty amazing coverage across the world, wouldn't you say? If you compare that with other newspapers (and I dont have any pretty graphics to show unfortunately), i would have said that this bubble graph is pretty good when you compare other newspapers ranging from the LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, The Times, Guardian, Le Monde, etc. etc. You can forget the sub continental papers anyway. The only exception would be the English language papers in the gulf but they appeal to the expat population so I am not sure if that is applicable as a comparison.

But I digress. But blogging and web 2.0 bits (such as facebook, my space, twitter, etc. are changing the world) check out these two graphics which illustrate this issue. View from the blogosphere and from NYT. Quite an interesting difference, no? But life is changing rapidly and the financials of the newspaper world are changing rapidly. The future is not as good, have written about this issue before (see here, here, here, etc.).

But now its the economics of the situation which is seriously blighting the situation. Circulation in the USA is dropping rapidly. and there is simply not enough money. Newspapers after newspapers are simply folding or changing their business model or laying off people what have you. And I am not talking tiddlers, the LA Times and Chicago Tribune have gone bankrupt, but what about the NYT? The NYT has pawned its headquarters and the numbers are not looking good. Here's a bit of an analysis which will send shivers down any US newspaper proprietor's backside.

Take the New York Times Company. It generated $74.4m in online advertising in the third quarter, 10.2 per cent more than in the same quarter in 2007. But the $6.9m increase in online ad sales was dwarfed by the $73.7m decline in print advertising revenues, which plunged by 18.6 per cent. Even if it managed to halve its $677m quarterly operating expenses by dropping the hard copy, online ad revenues would cover just 22 per cent of its running costs.
Strip out the NYT’s other sites, such as About.com, and assume those third quarter online ad sales were generated only by NYTimes.com. That makes the 20.3m unique readers who used the site worth about $1.22 each per month, a fraction of the value of a print subscriber. To break even as an ad-funded digital-only business, with a quarterly cost base of, say, $338m, NYTimes.com – already the number one newspaper site in the US – would either need four times as many unique users or ad rates four times as high as today’s, or a bit of both.

The recession is biting and biting hard, which means that the pressure on the advertising segment is fierce. The revenue/costs scissors are simply yawning wider and wider. A Deloitte report in December 08 predicts that one out of every 10 print publications predicted to half frequency, go online-only or close down in 2009. Plus in such an IP driven business, you cannot change the costs that easily. The solutions as given by the FT are obviously not possible, they cannot quadruple their readership nor can the current (or even the 2 year future at least) think about increasing ad rates. Forget about increasing, currently even the online advertising rates are diving like a dingo down its hole. See the Ad Price Index report from October here. I quote

Throughout the year, display advertising pricing has generally trended downwards across website sizes and verticals
All categories moved down from last quarter, with the exception of Technology which stayed flat
Entertainment had the most significant drop of all verticals, dropping 42% from 57 cents in Q1 08 to 33 cents in Q3 08

And its not just in USA, the impact of the drop in advertising is felt across the pond as well with certain titles reporting drops of more than 50% per year. See the impact on Journalist numbers here with thousands of redundancies in the UK itself so USA will be impacted correspondingly more. You can merge newsrooms, you can adjust staffing levels, use better technology to reduce telecom costs, travel costs, etc. outsource news production to India, reduce training costs, and so on and so forth, but its not going to help much.

But to go back to the title of the post, the chances are high that the NYT is going to go under. And that will indeed be a shame. One of the crucial aspects and guarantors of a free, just, fair and democratic society is the presence of a free and transparent press. If the media suffers as it is doing now, it will cause issues for our society. Would a BBC model help? A model of publicly funded media generation and broadcasting? Hmmm, can the BBC model be enhanced? Such as splitting the production, commissioning, broadcasting and distribution arms? Something of that nature will be required because the loss of NYT will indeed leave our society a poorer place.

Technorati Tags: journalism,internet

The Trap Terrorists Have Laid For India and Pakistan

Manoj Khatri — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 14:59:45 EST

After the Mumbai terror attacks, both Indian and Pakistani media have been busy. The TV news channels anchors, radio jockeys, newspapers and magazine columnists and even the common folk are expressing their views, mostly biased. Everyone has an opinion on how the crisis should be handled. Have a look at the views expressed through mobile text messages and flashed TV on news channel tickers. Opinions and advice such as "India should strike Pakistan", or "Let's show them our might" are not uncommon.

I wonder if individuals who talk about attacking Pakistan understand what it really means to go to war. Besides, if India strikes Pakistan, it would've played straight into the hands of the terrorists.

The terror organizations want India to strike against Pakistan so that even the moderate Pakistanis turn against India. When a country goes go war, the people of that country just come together to back the country. The mere talk of an Indian strike has triggered a huge reaction from the Pakistani media. I dread to think that the master terrorists must be rejoicing at their victory. By carrying out the Mumbai carnage, they have ensured enough free advertising for their cause. They have also managed to get Pakistan to divert all its attention to the Indian border so that there is free flow at the Afghanistan border, which serves them very well.

The human race cannot afford a war between two nuclear states. Nothing good can come out of it. The master terrorists, who planned the Mumbai attacks, laid a master trap. Both India and Pakistan seem to have fallen into the trap so easily. Seems like the terrorists have succeeded in their agenda...

Flying Shoe-cers

Kavita Chhibber — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:49:33 EST

And the look on the face of George Bush as America hit (!)a new low in more ways than one-was priceless

What’s been even more interesting is the comments of most people of a diverse mix, who’ve seen the video and have spoken to me.. Its mostly “ Too bad the reporter guy missed!’

While my bleary eyes(working on interviews related to the Mumbai attacks) took in the video and my lips had their moment of mirth, many more comments and phrases and posts flew across the internet and hit their mark.

I hope I don’t tread on too many toes-after all it’s the President of the United States. But here goes

“It gives fresh meaning to the phrase shooed away.

"Bush's Ducker T-shirt" puts his head on a tee ducking a barrage of shoes

It would have been even more funny, had President GWB asked that man for his socks!!!

The jokes and the shoes were flying on the late night talk shows Monday night. The comedians couldn't get enough of that shoe-throwing incident in Iraq.
President Bush was shown over-and-over ducking the shoes thrown by an Iraqi reporter during a Baghdad news conference.

Jay Leno wants to know where was the Secret Service. He asks shouldn't they have "at least jumped in front of the second shoe?"

David Letterman was impressed by the president's quick reactions. Letterman says Bush "hasn't dodged anything like that since, well, the Vietnam War."
Conan O'Brien says the shoe-thrower is being hailed as a hero by some in Iraq. O'Brien adds when the man dies, "he'll be greeted in heaven by 72 podiatrists."

Newspapers across the U.S. had headlines saying shoe-icide attack, shoe-nabomber and even

Meanwhile Americans are having their say on what should be done with the shoes.

Some tell CNN they should be put in the Smithsonian, be impeached along with Bush, or should be auctioned off with the proceeds going to the auto industry.
Seriously. Say what you will about Dubya, he’s in his 60s and has the reflexes of a cat.

Who woulda thunk that ducking a shoe would actually help the public’s perception of W?!

Bush Iraqi shoe attack: Why didn't the Secret Service take a loafer for the president?

George Bush does a shoe dance.

And this from Chris Bucholz-

So Someone threw their shoes at the President this weekend. Shoes. The President. I know. We wouldn’t really be a comedy site if we didn’t discuss this at least a little bit, would we?

Anyways, here’s the facts: During a press conference, an Iraqi reporter carefully removed both his shoes, stood up and proceeded to throw them, one after the other, at President Bush. The President responded, sensibly, by ducking twice. His attacker, now out of ammunition, then responded by being tackled to the floor by a team of Secret Service Agents. And aside from some glib shoe puns, that was the end of it.

Right off the bat, my first reaction was to be marginally impressed at the President’s reflexes. Bush has taken a lot of stick for being a terrible president, which is probably fair, given his generally high levels of terribleness. But did you see the speed of that duck? That was Mortal Kombat fast. I half expected to see a harpoon come flying out of his coat sleeve after the first shoe sailed past
.
Second reaction: Where was the Secret Service? I gather they’ve taken some flak already about this, although mainly from pencil-necked pundits and bloggers like myself, nattering away safe in our beds. Just milling around the Internet, I’ve seen lots of sweaty outrage about “the second shoe” today. It does seem a little surprising that a guy could fire two whole shoes at the President of the United States before someone stopped him. What if they were one of those knife boots the kids are into these days? That could have done some damage.

But upon further reflection, the Secret Service agents probably handled this as effectively as possible. The guy was throwing shoes - although they probably could have shot him before he got that second shoe off, what do you have then? A dead guy with no shoes on, that’s what, and then you’re asked to leave the country and never come back. Considering how widely loved Bush is in Iraq (check back this time next year for the Iraqi’s first National “Fuck Bush Day”) it’s probably a minor miracle that he’s able to go there at all and come home alive, much less with a tread mark on his skull.

Third reaction: Oh, good work Bundy. The Iraq war has kind of fallen out of the American public’s consciousness the last year or so, mainly because it just leaves everyone feeling kind of bummed I guess. So this little stunt has, on the surface, brought it back to the forefront. But in a completely trivial way. Like every other type of protest, the only thing people talk about is the protest itself, not the message being raised. There are a lot of things about the Iraq war that deserve to be treated with a certain level of seriousness (all the dead people for one.) But instead of talking about that we’ve now got newsrooms across the country racking their brains looking for shoe puns.”

And shoe - eh so it goes.

Obituary: Sabina Sehgal Saikia

Kim — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:27:34 EST

Sabina Sehgal Saikia was a food writer who had been with the Times of India group for over 17 years who at the time of her untimely demise had risen to Consulting Editor at the publication. She died in the Terror attacks in Mumbai where she was staying on the 6th floor. She was in Mumbai for the wedding of Bachi Karkaria's son next week.

Sabina could make or break a Delhi restaurant based on her reviews. She initially wrote an extremely popular column called "Main Course" for the Saturday Times, which later moved to the Delhi Times.

I was first introduced to her, when I picked up the Times of India Restaurant Guide for Delhi, 8 years ago. My next 2 years in Delhi were made tolerable by this handy book. I tried out restaurants based on her recommendations and agreed with her judgment over 80% of the time. She was honest and direct.

The Times of India Restaurant Guides to Hyderabad and Bombay could never match up to the standard that Sabina had set. She had spoiled me against other guides with her perfection and accuracy.

I subscribed to the Times of India in Delhi, just to read her column, although the Hindustan Times gave much better news coverage in Delhi.

An excellent cook herself, she soon visited me in my living room on NDTV cooks demonstrating an especially fiery looking Green Chilli Pickle.

I never met her face-to-face, but I felt like I knew a part of her. The part of her that loved good food and in Saif Ali Khan's words "acha khaana khane ke liye, hum kahin pe bhi chalenge" (to eat good food, we will travel anywhere) and in a wierd way, I identified with this part of her.

Sabina will be sorely missed in the food writers world. Our sympathies go out to her husband Shantanu and her two young children who will feel her absence much more than her millions of devoted readers.

Sabina you brought joy into the lives of food lovers: May your Soul, Rest in Peace.

Disjointed Questions on the Bombay Blasts and Its Aftermath

Kim — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:11:12 EST

Being in a distant country while Bombay is under siege, is nerve wracking at best.

My first long stay in Bombay was for my first job, with MBA degree in hand. The first weekend trip we took together as Management trainees was a local train ride from Andheri to South Bombay. We caught up with other batchmates in town for a movie at Metro Cinema and headed over to Cafe Mondegar for a drink and later carried onto Cafe Leopold because we had heard so much about these Bombay favourites. We then walked over to the Gateway of India and gazed at the iconic Taj Palace and towers. Gathering courage we felt we could project enough confidence to walk in and use their washrooms, which we managed.

Since this was the late 90's, B-School salaries weren't as astronomical as they were at the turn of the millennium and we obviously couldn't afford to eat in there, so we headed over to Bademiyan's for more affordable fare.

All these locations were under the media spotlight for the last 48 hours, for reasons one would never have dreamed about.

Personally, this attack was very hard hitting because of the sheer numbers of family and friends who live in the area, who were working late in the area, or were eating in the area after work. As is usual after every such attack in India, we started calling and smsing, then emailing and scrapping (when the phone lines were jammed and over loaded) and everyone we knew in the location to check on their status. This time it was a much, much longer list of people we were checking on.

Some were barricaded inside their houses and offices in the area while their lifts were shut down and they were advised not to leave the premises. Many spent that first night in the office while the rest of us helplessly spent the night hoping and praying for their safety and that the violence wouldn't spread to the surrounding buildings.

We stayed glued to the television and kept refreshing news sites on our computer screen and anxiously followed the sequence of events. Coherent thought was not easy and plenty of questions and inconsistencies kept popping up in my mind.

First of all: kudos to our NSG, army, hotel staff and police for their heroic efforts.

Why/How did this happen:

Intelligence failure is something the foreign media has been harping about in relation to these attacks, but as someone else mentioned: weren't 9/11 and the London Subway attacks, intelligence failures too.

Could we have done anything more to secure the locations?

How many locations will you secure? We have a country of a billion+ citizens, so I don't think it is about securing locations. Terrorists target any and every location. The only way every place can be secured is if citizens take responsibility of being aware of their surroundings and people around them.

We need to stop cribbing about and finding innovative ways to avoid security measures at malls, cinema halls etc. They are there for our security.

Our government should focus on stemming the problem at its roots: training camps, poverty, education, unemployment.

The terrorists were armed with AK47's while a lot of the police and railway police were equipped with nothing more than a lathi. Do they even stand a chance?

Why were 3 top cops traveling in the same vehicle?

Rescue efforts:

The staff at the hotels responded admirably and heroically. Some even lost their own lives while saving the guests. I am not sure if they receive training drills for terrorist situations, but they did their best.

Politicians have no business being anywhere in the area when such situations are ongoing. Having them around, means that security and armed forces are forced to divert their attention to the "security of the politician"

What business did Gopinath Munde have to be at the Nariman House today?
Same problem when they visit hospitals were the wounded are taken. Doctors and nurses are forced to stop tending to their patients and clear the area so the politician and their entourage of news crews and security personnel royally stroll through the area and promise tax payer funds (other peoples money) as remuneration.

Media:

While NDTV was the most restrained of the lot, our media still behaved as irresponsibly as always.

People whose family members were stuck inside, is it fair to thrust microphones at their faces and ask them how they are feeling?

Rescued people being brought out of the hotel after a horrifying ordeal, is it fair to thrust microphones at their faces and ask them how they are feeling?

While Right to Information is a wonderful act, some lines should be drawn when it comes to National Security. Broadcasting the immediate moves of the security forces, dissecting their rescue maneuvers, having ex army personnel describe helicopter rescue operations in detail - this only gives more intelligence to the terrorists holed up inside who could be in contact with anyone with a cable connection outside the location, even if cable connection at the hotels had been cut off.

Broadcasting false reports of the operation being over when it isn't because they see a thumbs-up being exchanged between two NSG personnel.

We need an appointed official spokesperson who is the only authority allowed to speak to the media when an operation is ongoing. This person needs to receive reports from all relevant sources and be advised on what news can be released and what cannot. Press should only be allowed at this location and not crawling around the affected area causing more security hazards or getting caught in the cross fire. This should give controlled information and hopefully control the rumour-mongering too.

If the press are controlled in one location, it will also prevent the crowds who were at the locations today not to show solidarity or out of concern but were there for the sole reason of getting their face on camera. (This is a reality in India)

Role of Politicians:

They haven't done anything to prevent the situation, they should stay away from the situation as mentioned above.

Where has the champion of Bombay, Mr Raj Thackeray disappeared to? Which safe location is he hiding in?

Our Home Minister was ineffectual as always. Surprisingly, our Prime Ministers speech didn't induce confidence either.

Politicians need to rise above their petty politics of deciding whether to hold a bundh on December 1st or not.

They should instead be visiting the homes of the brave security personnel who lost their lives and appreciating the efforts of their husbands, sons and fathers (not to be sexist, but no female personnel casualty has been reported yet in this case) who lost their lives in the service of the country. This is one of the few useful things that they can do at this point of time.

I also pray that they do not use this attack to further communalize our country for their own vote bank politics.

Future Action:

It may seem insensitive to say this at this point, but as a country we should take advantage of the terrorists targeting Americans, British and Israeli citizens.
The US previously tried to restrain India when they spoke about retaliation after the parliament attacks.

This is the right opportunity to use this joint sentiment against these terrorists to take a stand and launch a forceful offensive against terrorist camps targeting India.
Use the Israeli intelligence and their expertise to stem the flow of terrorists into India and destroy their their training camps.

We need a single security network that is pan-country, not disjointed co-ordination between multiple agencies.

We need to make our country safe again. Where people do not flinch at a loud sound, where people do not have to think twice before leaving their houses to catch a train, shop for groceries or watch a movie. We need to feel safe. It is our right as citizens.