09-02-2005, 10:19 PM
Via email
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Katrina : Mischievous reporting by Indian media --IANS
Such a tragedy shouldn't happen anywhere on the globe. Our heart goes out for those aggrieved and the near and dear ones who have lost their beloved family members. It is an extraordinary human tragedy. Our sympathies are with all those who are affected by this natural disaster.
But, let us now come to the issue of mischievous reporting bringing out all the biases of the journalist community which is showing itself to be more and more irresponsible in reporting news. The media tends to report sensationalism and editorialises even human tragedies by bringing in extraneous metaphors.
Just take a look at the IANS report appended. Ok, we can concede that the statement that 'this shouldn't happen in America' is relatable to the expectations of orderly response to a tragedy from a superpower. Why didn't it occur to the reporter to state that such a tragedy should not have occurred anywhere on the globe?
In the next sequence of moralising, the report draws a comparison with the responses to such disasters in developing countries. This is unwarranted, irresponsible.
The reporter has clearly not understood the nature of societies in developing countries. The people may be poor but they are governed by dharma and spontaneously respond to cries for help from fellow human beings. Recently, Mumbai was devastated by torrential life, bringing normal life to a standstill. No rapes were reported. No lootings were reported. Poor people helped everyone including those belonging to the 'middle class'.
The reporter should have, if he had to moralise, drawn a lesson from the behavior of the people in developing countries, on the social cohesion and the treatment of society as an extended family to be nurtured and supported in times of need.
What has happened in the wake of Katrina is not merely a total collapse of the infrastructure but a collapse of social security system. The time is now to start educating the policy-makers in USA that there is a spontaneous cultural system in India called dharma which enriches family values and makes the family and the extended community or the neighborhood, the inexorable unit of social security. Surely, there is something for USA to learn from Sanaatana Dharma which is eternal dharma and which governs the Indian socio-cultural fabric.
It is a shame indeed that such reporting is allowed to be circulated in the media, making disgusting and unwarranted comparisons of societies in this hour of tragedy caused by Katrina. There should also be some introspection on why there has been a breakdown of social values in some neighborhoods in America, before preaching to the rest of the world about human rights and democratic values through annual reports issued by USCIRF under the International Religious Freedom Act of USA.
Yes, Emperor has no clothes.
Dhanyavaadah.
K.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Katrina : Mischievous reporting by Indian media --IANS
Such a tragedy shouldn't happen anywhere on the globe. Our heart goes out for those aggrieved and the near and dear ones who have lost their beloved family members. It is an extraordinary human tragedy. Our sympathies are with all those who are affected by this natural disaster.
But, let us now come to the issue of mischievous reporting bringing out all the biases of the journalist community which is showing itself to be more and more irresponsible in reporting news. The media tends to report sensationalism and editorialises even human tragedies by bringing in extraneous metaphors.
Just take a look at the IANS report appended. Ok, we can concede that the statement that 'this shouldn't happen in America' is relatable to the expectations of orderly response to a tragedy from a superpower. Why didn't it occur to the reporter to state that such a tragedy should not have occurred anywhere on the globe?
In the next sequence of moralising, the report draws a comparison with the responses to such disasters in developing countries. This is unwarranted, irresponsible.
The reporter has clearly not understood the nature of societies in developing countries. The people may be poor but they are governed by dharma and spontaneously respond to cries for help from fellow human beings. Recently, Mumbai was devastated by torrential life, bringing normal life to a standstill. No rapes were reported. No lootings were reported. Poor people helped everyone including those belonging to the 'middle class'.
The reporter should have, if he had to moralise, drawn a lesson from the behavior of the people in developing countries, on the social cohesion and the treatment of society as an extended family to be nurtured and supported in times of need.
What has happened in the wake of Katrina is not merely a total collapse of the infrastructure but a collapse of social security system. The time is now to start educating the policy-makers in USA that there is a spontaneous cultural system in India called dharma which enriches family values and makes the family and the extended community or the neighborhood, the inexorable unit of social security. Surely, there is something for USA to learn from Sanaatana Dharma which is eternal dharma and which governs the Indian socio-cultural fabric.
It is a shame indeed that such reporting is allowed to be circulated in the media, making disgusting and unwarranted comparisons of societies in this hour of tragedy caused by Katrina. There should also be some introspection on why there has been a breakdown of social values in some neighborhoods in America, before preaching to the rest of the world about human rights and democratic values through annual reports issued by USCIRF under the International Religious Freedom Act of USA.
Yes, Emperor has no clothes.
Dhanyavaadah.
K.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->