http://www.EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
Chithra KarunaKaran
South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA)
http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/11/mumbai-attacks-critique-the-media-coverage/comments/page/2/#comments
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1862650,00.html
a Time magazine article partly contributed by two journalists of South Asian origin.
Malcolm X had an excellently apt phrase which describes the standing of these two journalists vis a vis the dominant mainstream US media. Those who do not know X's accurate but often censored phrase, should look it up in his autobiography, as narrated to Alex Haley.
My comment:
South Asian colonial history is more critically appraised by subaltern writers -- Time magazine and its writers do not qualify.
Britain's role in West Asia (I never refer to it as the Middle East) and South Asia continues, particularly through its "special" relationship with the U.S.
It is interesting to note that in this article rightwing Time completely fails to narrate the U.S. neo-imperial distortion of West Asian and South Asian sub-continental geopolitics,
beginning all the way back from the imposed establishment of the state of Israel in West Asia and the creation of SEATO in South and South East Asia in the Dulles era of the U.S. Sate Department.
That constitutes the more recent and therefore relevant 60+years' U.S. dominant-power context update of the present terrorist activity, that Time cleverly (intentionally?) fails to provide in the above-mentioned article partially written by two Global South Journalists
The US took over from the Brits and expanded its own supremacist control over these regions, deploying a combination of the old divide-and-rule strategy & new capital gained from exploiting Global South natural resources.
Of course the subcontinental elites colluded, no doubt about that. They continue to collude to advance their own narrow profit-centered interests, at the expense of the Greater Collective Good -- food, shelter, health for The People.
The US 'model' of 'democracy' founded on and enriched by the profits from slavery and genocide and advanced through 'free' market exploitation of emerging post-colonial sovereign liberatory nation-states, needs to be emphatically and critically rejected in policy and practice by Global South regional economies and nation-states.
South-South cooperation is essential, real and already underway.
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The Times of India feeds and the BBC reports are far superior to anything coming out of the NYT or any section of the US media. However I have been writing comments on NYT, especially on the Lede blog.
I also listened to a terrific audio on The Times of South Africa website describing a dramatic rescue of 150 guests from the Taj by a South African "close protection" security specialist. Check it out.
Even though Bush is despicable, he had apt words in response to the horrific Mumbai events. Obama went one better and both focused on India's diverse democracy.
My suggestion is Let us all keep our Eyes on the Prize -- Indian Democracy. Indian Democracy is the prize the terrorists are really after.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in contrast spoke as if he had been recently mummified. No sense of emotional connection to his suffering fellow citizens. Modi was his usual brash condemnable self and Patil was smirking about the Indian security response. Why does this fool still have a job?
I also picked up a story in Time magazine which I posted on my blog along with my comment which is pasted below:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1862650,00.html
by aryn baker, With reporting by Jyoti Thottam / Mumbai and Ershad Mahmud / Islamabad
Jyoti Thottam and her Pakistani colleague both work for rightwing Time. Malcolm X had a choice phrase which describes their standing. Time and saja censorship would prevent me from using his phrase here, but it is an excellently apt one for these two sellout so-called journalists.
South Asian colonial history is more critically appraised by subaltern writers -- Time magazine and its writers do not qualify.
Britain's role in West Asia and South Asia which continues particularly through its "special" relationship with the U.S.
It is interesting to note that rightwing Time completely fails to narrate the U.S. neo-imperial distortion of West Asian and South Asian sub-continental geopolitics,
beginning all the way back from the imposed establishment of the state of Israel in West Asia and the creation of SEATO in the Dulles era of the U.S. Sate Department.
That constitutes the more recent 60+years' dominant-power context update of the present terrorist activity, that Time cleverly fails to provide.
The US took over from the Brits and expanded its own supremacist control over these regions,
with a combination of the old divide-and-rule strategy & new capital gained from exploiting Global South resources.
The US 'model' of 'democracy' founded on slavery and genocide and advanced through 'free' market exploitation of emerging post-colonial sovereign liberatory nation-states, needs to be emphatically and critically rejected in policy and practice by Global South regional economies and nation-states.
South-South cooperation is essential, real and already underway.
It's time Global South journalists located in the US stopped selling out/embedding with US mainstream media.
Oops, wrong place to make this observation, SAJA is part of the problem because it is located within the entrenched dominant U.S. media perspective that cravenly goes along with US foreign policy.
http://www.EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
Chithra KarunaKaran
Posted by: Chithra KarunaKaran | November 29, 2008 at 09:03 PM
Chithra KarunaKaran
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://www.EthicalDemocracy.Blogspot.com
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http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1862650,00.html
