I was going through the January 2011 issue of the Readers Digest, and came across an article 'The Taste of Cambodia' by Elaine Moore. I quote the first paragraph: "In the midday heat, a woman weaves her way between the jostling motorbikes, cyclists and cars on the streets of Cambodia. On her head is a basket filled with roasted crickets. Every few minutes she bends down, scoops up a handful and sells them to a customer." Now there is an odd image, if ever there was one ;-) Where was she? Hanging upside down in the air above her basket of roasted crickets? But then the basket would have been below her head, and not on her head as the author specifies. Perhaps she was detached from her head which was below the basket, which was below her headless body, as she bent down to scoop up a handful every now and then to sell to a customer?
On a more serious note, I am sure most of us have been watching the drama play out on Tahrir Square. (An Australian journalist on CNN mispronounced it throughout her report, but that is nothing new. We've all heard CNN and BBC journalists refer to Eirak and Eiran). It is eerily reminiscent of the uprising against Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, and the banding together of the students in China. Both had very different outcomes. I wonder what the world is going to witness here. Mubarak is desperately clutching on when letting go would be so much easier, and perhaps safer. You've got to admire the man's tenacity, whatever else his motivations might be!
Watching this made me think about democracy in India. There is Egypt, rising in protest against the man who has ruled it for thirty years and challenging the rule of hierarchical succession. And here are we, the great Indian democracy, who have, since freedom from British rule more than sixty years ago, worshipped at the altar of the Nehru-Gandhis. What will it take to shake us out of this feudalistic mindset? For sure, let them be in politics if they so desire, but make them earn their stripes. In a democracy, the vote to govern is not an inherited entitlement to rule; and the vote must be worked for. One of my pet peeves is the 'India Inc' that the media has so faddishly adopted. Well, if we are a family owned corporation, then we really have no right to complain about the sons and daughters inheriting the most coveted positions!
Speaking of media, what is going on with our newspapers? The reputation of journalists has been muddied for a fairly long time now, and newspapers have been getting more and more outrageously unethical in the way they sell advertising space. The shocker some days ago was the front page of the Times of India. I wonder if others found it as offensive to their sensibilities as I did -- anybody?? The front page that I am talking about was the one with all the news columns printed incomplete and the product being advertised claiming at the bottom of each incomplete item that anything that was not complete was annoying. Sadly for the advertiser, I do not remember the product that they must have spent a bomb advertising, but I do remember thinking that the owners of the paper obviously suffered from a total lack of dignity and gravitas!
On a more serious note, I am sure most of us have been watching the drama play out on Tahrir Square. (An Australian journalist on CNN mispronounced it throughout her report, but that is nothing new. We've all heard CNN and BBC journalists refer to Eirak and Eiran). It is eerily reminiscent of the uprising against Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, and the banding together of the students in China. Both had very different outcomes. I wonder what the world is going to witness here. Mubarak is desperately clutching on when letting go would be so much easier, and perhaps safer. You've got to admire the man's tenacity, whatever else his motivations might be!
Watching this made me think about democracy in India. There is Egypt, rising in protest against the man who has ruled it for thirty years and challenging the rule of hierarchical succession. And here are we, the great Indian democracy, who have, since freedom from British rule more than sixty years ago, worshipped at the altar of the Nehru-Gandhis. What will it take to shake us out of this feudalistic mindset? For sure, let them be in politics if they so desire, but make them earn their stripes. In a democracy, the vote to govern is not an inherited entitlement to rule; and the vote must be worked for. One of my pet peeves is the 'India Inc' that the media has so faddishly adopted. Well, if we are a family owned corporation, then we really have no right to complain about the sons and daughters inheriting the most coveted positions!
Speaking of media, what is going on with our newspapers? The reputation of journalists has been muddied for a fairly long time now, and newspapers have been getting more and more outrageously unethical in the way they sell advertising space. The shocker some days ago was the front page of the Times of India. I wonder if others found it as offensive to their sensibilities as I did -- anybody?? The front page that I am talking about was the one with all the news columns printed incomplete and the product being advertised claiming at the bottom of each incomplete item that anything that was not complete was annoying. Sadly for the advertiser, I do not remember the product that they must have spent a bomb advertising, but I do remember thinking that the owners of the paper obviously suffered from a total lack of dignity and gravitas!
You're right about the cricket-lady image. Very confusing!
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