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News today seems to be sponsored, by someone who gets to benefit by the news...

It is just something that gets more polarized by the day.

Any fact seems to have two view points, depending on who the target audience is and one starts to scratch ones head to find out what the truth is. That says something about the quality of news.

Some fundamental themes today are:

1. Focus on the exception, not the rule

for example

a. "54 year old Indian man has not brushed his teeth since he was born!" could make the headline here.. they would even go to break that sentence to suggest that Indian men do not brush their teeth..

b. "Billions of people across India have been brushing their teeth since 3000 B.C. till today, starting with neem twigs to the latest Ultrasonic brushes!".

Let's see...

a. makes better headlines.

2. Take sides irrespective of the truth

a. Lashkar-E-Toiba is definitely a terrorist organization and granted there may have been some collusion with Pakistan in the early stages of the organizations creation where ISI had a hand in it, but the organization has been banned by the Pakistani govenrnment since 1998 for almost a decade! Also LET was started in the disputed territory in India, Kashmir which is being claimed by separatists, but is administered by India! So it is not fair to say that Pakistan is responsible for the Mumbai attacks...

b. Al-Qaeda is definitely a terrorist organization and granted there may have been some collusion with Afganistan in the early stages of the organizations creation where the Taliban had a hand in it, but the organization has been banned by the Afganistan government since 19xy.. So it is not fair to say that Afganistan is responsible for 9/11

again a. makes better headlines..

Except for the fact that a. was actually the headline in the NPR news today. Just couldn't believe what we were hearing! The logic was unbelievable.

To top things off, apparently the USA is going to give India all the support it can and also give Pakistan all the support it needs.

Did not quite get the part where Pakistan needs support right now. What am I missing here?

Ps. There are a lot of Peace loving Pakistanis out there and no doubt, they feel bad when all Pakistani's are portrayed as terror junkies. If LET and Pakistan are divorced, then the Pakistani government and the people should have no problem in helping India launch an offensive against LET, no?

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Caution

There are some reports which are now suggesting that the latest terror attacks in Mumbai is "India's 9/11" and there are some extrapolated suggestions to use this justification for war with Pakistan.

We all know what the Iraq war did, not just to Iraq and the USA, but to the rest of the world.

If these attacks in Mumbai are the outcome of "home grown terrorism", then a lot will be lost if such extrapolations are made.

The American media (and some of the prominent Indian media - apparently the video clips are all from sites like NDTV, CNN-IBN etc) need some fact checking. When you market horseshit in the name of reportive journalism with total abandon for facts, consequences, in a time when tensions are high, it should be considered a criminal offense and these folks should be tried for inciting instabilty.

The press seems to want to one up saadhus and mullahs on brining out the worst in people!

My mother almost had a heart attack on 9/11 because the local headline in the newspaper was "Americave paththi erigiradhu" (whole of America is in flames). I was on a plane that day (not anywhere in harms way), but from where she was, the picture that was painted was very different. Some person who had a 3rd cousin in the USA would have offered his expert opinion on 9/11 that day to local TV channels.

We get so used to seeing neighbours of homicide victims talk about people they hardly know in the local news channels. Same thing, different circumstance, different people, different countries.

The outcome of this always is bad!

Read Kavi's post and was very comforted by it.

For those of you here in the USA who read this blog, happy thanksgiving.

Think happy thoughts. Be thankful for what we have and take for granted!

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Life goes on

First, to all who sent me emails enquiring about family in Mumbai after the attacks, appreciate the thought. All of our relatives are okay.

These days we just go "so what if our relatives are okay and alive? They are still shut in their homes in absolute fear, knowing that they could be victims on the next round of terrorism."

We spoke to San's dad and he was very emotional. Bombay is an acquired taste for me. Had only been to the city for a couple of days in my first 25 years of life. Then got married to San and now visit Mumbai on every India trip.

Over the last ten years have come to love the city. More than that, finally understand why San's family loves the city the way they do.

My FIL loves the city like he loves his kids or parents. This time when he said "well, it is a full scale war out there! Things are slowly returning to normal in the rest of the city." , somehow this time he was not sure if this one would be forgotten and "life would just go on".

On a side note, the press coverage of the events when seen from the US Media is horrible! Absolute garbage!

People who have no clue about India, Bombay, Kashmir, Terrorism give expert opinions and commentary on what is going on to the broad American audience.

A crying shame!

Our thoughts are with Mumbai right now.

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