Most long time readers know (see previous posts 1,2) of my soft spot for the SAAN Conference. If you are a college student and want to go to one desi conference this year, make this one in Ann Arbor, Michigan on January 25th-27th the one. Once again, the hard working University of Michigan students have assembled a great line up of speakers and some fascinating workshop topics (workshops are highly interactive):
Who’s the Man?Dialogue on gender rarely focuses on men’s issues. Why are Muslim men always seen as sexist? In film, why are most of the romantic leads Hindu? Where do Sikhs fall into the picture? By processing all of these questions, we will be able to see how identity, gender, and stereotypes collide in creating images of South Asian masculinity, as well as their tangible effects on individual lives.
Journalistic Justice
With podcasts, blogs, and email, we have an infinite amount of information at our fingertips. Fewer people are subscribing to paper publications, shifting the way we consume current events. Technology facilitates new forms of journalism, broadening who has access to innovative ideas.
Loans for Livelihood
An abundance of food and money are two commodities that most First World societies take for granted, but almost every continent includes regions that have an immense scarcity of these basic resources. Due to international development goals as well as the motivation of private firms and individuals, micro-credit, or lending small amounts of money to people with little or no capital, has become one popular and possibly successful way to approach poverty.
The Keynote speakers this year include Vijay Prashad and NPR guest commentator Sandip Roy. This is a great alternative to that other desi conference which I shall not even name. If you’ve attended a SAAN conference before, please leave a comment about your experience.
i’d be interested in how journalism is shapiing up around the new media. i was just perusing some stats on media adoption and ad spend across different age groups. points to note – over 50% of the 18-34 age group is now adopting social networking and user generated content media. for the 35 and over crowd, the premium tv content (tivo type stuff) is seeing very strong adoption. This exceeds adoption for even popular servics like rhapsody, itunes etc. subscriptions to online news channles are not near the adoption rates for the social media. my suspicion is that more people today will be getting news via their favored forums rather than directly from cnn, nyt as such. what are the implications of this – when the grand grey ladies are replaced with bare foot (but feisty) gamines of uncertain antecedents.
I’ve been to the SAAN conference for several years, and am very sad I’ll be unable to attend this year – looks like they have a great lineup, like every year!
The whole weekend is a time to discuss and learn (on topics both serious and frivolous), and just soak up the atmosphere of a whole lotta South Asians intent upon creating an increased awareness in the community. Only complaint? Way too much stuff for a mere three days. Oh, and the fact that it takes place in that damned state up north 😉
48 · nala said
Whats up with the unattractive male actors in South Indian films? Also why do South Indian love scenes always depict the men as asexual and the women as horny seductresses? Why do so many South Indian love scenes show the women practically raping the men?
Admittedly knowing next to nothing about Indian Cinema, I can’t see how with popular actors like John Abraham, Sendhil Ramamurthy, etc falling into the South Indian category, they’d be more unattractive than your standard Northie fare. Maybe Kumarimuthu is more your type?
I think I speak for all of us when I say “WTF are you watching??”
I also may speak for some of us when I say “Why doesn’t my neighborhood Bharat Bazaar” carry anything like this?”
I don’t know what you’ve been watching, but for my money, an asexual man gives an excuse for a horny woman to act more and more horny on-screen, hoping to excite more and more viewers, until ultimately she gives up on the hero, pays Jim Webb the amount she wagered, and joins the US Naval Academy.
I don’t have the same Bollywood chops as Amitabh, but it depends on how you interpret “Muslim” and “Sikh” — oftentimes if you see either of those heroes (and overwhelmingly you do not see the former), they are shown as Hindus with Sikh/Muslim names. I can’t remember, off the top of my head, a single Bollywood film with a turbaned Sikh as the hero/romantic lead int he past 15 years. That said, I also don’t watch all 300+ films or whatever that come out every year, so I could be super wrong 🙂
I think there are a lot of depictions of Punjabis (or people with Punjabi names), but not really of Punjabi culture. [total aside: I think one of the best films for showing Punjabis in their element is Monsoon Wedding, which I know is not a Bollywood film, etc., etc.] There also just seems to be a total lack of thought/writing around the experiences of different desi cultural groups. If you are not a Hindi-speaking vaguely Hindu-esque upper-caste/class north-westerner from a city, then you are probably not represented in Bollywood.
nala, I totally agree with you here. I do think there are some shared experiences among immigrant communities, and around the identity we hold as “brown” Americans, but there is often an assumption in South Asian college organizations that everyone’s parents are affluent, type-A scientists/engineers who want their kids to be doctors, engineers, and i-bankers, and that somehow we all suffer under the burden of limited (but high) expectations. There is rarely discussion of the issues facing working class and rural ABDs/1.5 DBDs. I actually think if there were more “culturally-relevant” planning in many of these events that it would create an awesome and more diverse dialogue.
I haven’t been to SAAN, so I’m not trying to knock them in my response to nala; just pointing out a frequent challenge and frustration that comes with working with organizers who are often well-intentioned but who want to norm to a unified experience/definition of “South Asian” without taking into account the many different factors that shape participation and experience.
Border?
I could be totally wrong too, as I saw the movie over a decade ago and can count the number of Bollywood movies I’ve seen in their entirety on one hand.
I agree with this whole lack of shared experience idea. Actually, I think that the assumption of shared experience is made not only at such events(not that I’ve ever been to one – there aren’t enough of desis to host ’em here) but even on this site. This isn’t a criticism of the bloggers. But I’ve seen it happen several times to me and other posters – being attacked under the assumption of making generalizations when in fact the offence was to cite our own experiences. My parents were not insistent that I become a doctor or engineer, I wasn’t crushed under the weight of their high expectations(all expectations were my own) and I don’t feel any pressure to get married. Not all of us grew up in American suburbia, each one comes from a different background with vastly different experiences of their own. I wish there could be more open debates about that, I’d love to hear from other desis whose experience of growing up didn’t fit the typical ABD mould.
Meena, I often felt this way in college, particularly around conversations of “authenticity” among second-gen desis (i.e., that because I grew up in a different “desi” experience, and often not a very “desi” experience, it was somehow less legitimate or authentic). Sometimes even the issues folks bring up (e.g. attachment or identification with caste) don’t really resonate with me because it is so outside of my experience and how I was raised. I don’t even know if what is propagated as “typical” for an ABD really is typical; I think it is in part biased by who is allowed access to a college education and who is not.
I know I’ve disagreed with you in the past, but usually it’s not because I disagree with your lived experience. I really enjoy hearing about people’s diverse experiences and backgrounds. I think that level of nuance is really important whenever you advocate or speak on behalf of communities that are by no means monolithic.
Oh, man. I’m not going to scroll through again to find the person who asked this question, but YES, South Indian male leads are TOTALLY fugly. And before anyone jumps down my throat, I am not saying this out of a deeply-rooted and unconscious bias towards “caucasian” features and wheaty-meaty skins, the result of centuries of Western conditioning, no no no, not me. I know lots of hot South Asian men — why the hell aren’t they in the movies? Fair skin does seem to be favoured at the expense of other criteria, even if it means doughy, jowly, bag-arsed heroes.
Arvind Swamy is an abomination unto my loins. This is probably before most readers’ time, but he was in this Tamil movie called “Minsaara Kanavu” (transliterated) in the ’80s, and I literally jumped up and down in relief when the other guy got the girl (Kajol). The other guy, actually, was reasonably cute, and at least he could dance. Prabhu Deva — whatever happened to him? Does anyone here know? I haven’t been keeping up with recent Tamil cinema, alas, but god-awful Arvind, with his waist-high, tapered trousers and his beach-ball moves, seems to pop up like a bad penny every time I manage to rent a movie.
I meant, obviously, I know lots of hot South Indian men, not South Asian (I do know lots of hot South Asian men, but that fact is irrelevant at the moment and makes no sense in the context of my comment above).
Oi! That movie was released in 1997. I’m old, but not that old. I don’t know anything about Arving Swamy’s pants, but the guy did act well in Thalapathi and Roja.
Haha, yes yes pingpong I meant the ’90s. Sorry.
But I cannot agree with you about Thalapathi and Roja. Arvind is terrible, terrible! Maybe I’m shallow and just can’t get past his face. I’m biased against fugliness. That must be it.
Yes, Sunny Deol has a virtual monopoly on that cottage industry. This might have something to do with it:
Also, Maachis, but the heroes were terrorists who did not wear turbans for obvious reasons. Maybe that movie should be brought to the attention of various American security agencies and used to exacerbate Liz Lemon’s paranoia.
On Sikh and Muslim leading characters in Bollywood movies, the following movies/characters come to mind in the recent past: Gadar with Sunny Deol, The hero’s character is Sikh and the heroine’s character was Muslim Jab we met – The heroine’s character was from a Sikh family Chak De – The hero’s character is Muslim Pinjar – The hero’s character is Muslim
😀 We may resemble your remarks – but brownelf is funneeee :-D.
I would love for the south Indian film industry to raise standards of attractiveness for its male leads.
Maybe to South Indians these men epitomize attractiveness. I sometimes find it hard to believe, but once when one of my uncle’s was gaining weight, i said to him, “your going to soon turn into Mammootty” And his response was, “I’d love to be as handsome as that”….so it seems in those south indian states, this look is in and the height of attractiveness for the men —
http://cinefun.50webs.com/actors.html
Now that it is 2008, can I get away with saying that that is “not a movie released in the last 10 years”? 🙂
But were they reflections of Sikh/Muslim characters, or were they incidental? Aside from historical/historical fiction and regional folk stories (e.g., Lagaan, Pinjar, Border, Parineeta) I don’t really see Sikh/Muslim characters who are Sikh/Muslim beyond their name. It’s like a GAP Ad for diversity.
brownelf said
we may be more baggy than turgid, but we more than make up for it in tapirstyle prehensility . ladies, we will slip an olive in your martinis whil giving you a back rub and spooning coconut chutney on your masaladosai. so there!
down boy.
p.s. the above link is drop-dead hilarious (to me) but may not be suitable for a work environment. 🙂
I think it’s actually the other way around… the male characters goading and harassing the female characters until the latter realize that they’re in ‘love.’
Camille, you are infinitely more patient than me. I have friends who are part of SAA organizations, and I enjoy their events, but I don’t care to be a part of such organizations myself.
I think he’s been directing…
My father admires thick hair and a thick moustache, and viewers also seem to like it when male leads have ‘nice eyes,’ but I find it hard to believe that women really appreciate this aspect of south Indian films. But then, the vast majority of viewers are male (just go to any movie theater…), so that may have something to do with it. I think things are changing with the younger generation (once these 50-ish guys stop acting with girls a third of their age) though.
It just looks like it was made in the ’80s! I’ve recently seen my fair share of Tamil films. I can’t get over the fashion choices. I’m shallow I know.
Apparently, it seems that people commenting here, and including SAAN have very little knowledge of Bollywood.
Movies with male muslim lead (depicted as muslim) a) Mughal-e-Azam b) Anarkali c) Pakeezaah d) Waqt e) Amar Akbar Anthony f) Garam Hawa g) Laila Majnu h) Chak De India………………the list never ends. There is genre of Bollywood movies that set are set in mughal period and uses mughal culture as a back drop.
Movies with turbanned sikh as a lead a) Vijeta (where very Shashi Kapoor’s son Kunal Kapoor played as a Sikh airforce pilot. He was made sikh so that he looked Indian as he is very European looking).
Lk, I totally agree with you that hindus rarely look to scripture for guidelines, at least not the gita. the gita doesn’t endorse the caste system as its used today to arrange marriages, etc. But it does define love and show us what an ideal friendship is via the relationship between krishna and arjuna. If couples were actually both striving for the same goal as set out in the gita (realization, moral purity, liberation, whatever you want to call it) they could not be unjust to each other or basing most of the relationship, as is usually done in this day and age, on lust or greed. For me, this site defined love best:
There are definitely Hindus who followed the gita, or other hindu scripture, as a guidline for their marriage, or perhaps their individual morality and thus their marriage, that have been successful: Mahatma Gandhi, Ramakrishna, etc…..And the all made it work. Problem is, too few hindus really seem to want to strive for what the gita says is their ultimate good….apologies if this comes across as fanatiky to any of you, perhaps a notion of my frustration as a single person also still looking for someone who looks to the gita . . .
Kush Tandon – and Jodha-Akbar is coming out soon 🙂
Yeah, I don’t really fit in with all the other South Asians at my college. I guess I’m just not “Indian enough.” And some students/faculty just assume that I’m a science student because I am brown, but I’m in the humanities 🙂 I do not fit the typical ABD mold…
BW@#75:
You might like this cartoon.
oops, #73 was to PK not LK…typos=)
Louiecypher said;
As Camille would say, ‘ Amen to that.’
One of the workshop topics is;
Religion Reinstated Many states have used religion as a cornerstone for their governments. This workshop will explore how states use and occasionally misuse religion in South Asian countries such as India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan.
I am guessing since the order in which the names of these countries are listed is neither alphabetical nor according to the countrys’ respective sizes, it perhaps tells us which country the organizers’ believe uses/misuses religion most egregiously;) Of course the crisis in India, a secular country that guarantees ( but occasionally fails ) equal rights to religious minorities has to be addressed before the lapses in Pakistan, an avowedly Islamic state that does talk about ( but rarely allows ) equal rights to religious minorities. It’s also understandable that the organizers’ included Sri Lanka in this list even though it’s internal problem is much more a function of ethnic than religious differences – they had to be fair and balanced. People have to be reminded that its not just Hindus and Muslims who are fallible, Buddhists can be bad too. Too bad Israel is not in South Asia. And since we already have one Islamic representative in the list we can exclude the Islamic republic of Bangladesh from this list of violators because you see at least in Bangladesh the religious minorities don’t face an existential threat as they do in, say, India. Also the organizers must not wish to be redundant by talking about the well documented Islamification in Bangladesh and Bangladesh’s lack of resistance to it, since they already do so when they talk about Pakistan. Besides, discussing state sponsored/enabled Islamic fundamentalism more than once at a conference where one of the goals is checking Islamophobia, is counterproductive.
Sarcasm aside, let’s discuss briefly what the top listed speaker, Angana Chatterjee, brings to the conference. You can follow the link but long story short is that Ms Chatterjee will never miss a party to which Arundhati Roy and Pankaj Mishra are going. It is at this point that I am obligated to declare my personal opinion on Hindu fundamentalism lest I be called a ‘ Hindu Fundie ‘ – it needs to be defeated. Those chaddiwallas forcing Hussein into exile, disrupting art shows and canoodling couples alike, and insisting that Muslims in India are foreigners, need to be severely punsihed by the state ( the latter will slip, alas, as freedom of speech )
Back to Ms Chatterjee. In one of her articles she is bemoaning the de-secularization of India by Hindu nationalists while at the same time being sympathetic to Kashmiris’ quest for secession from India based on nothing else but, err, Islam. Inconsistency is what riles me. Roy, Mishra and the like suffer from the same fault too. Is it even debatable that in these times Hindu fundamentalism is the pygmy to Islamic extremism’s giant? Yet again and again we hear about the monster of Hindu fundamentalism. And nothing about Islamic extremism, which actually if one were to study even briefly is what led to Hindu fundamentalism in the first place. So what drives these South Asian progressives? No it’s not an anti-Hindu/anti-India agenda as the ignorant chaddiwallas insist.
Here’s my theory: Most of these artists, writers, filmmakers are Hindus. If you can point out bad, you get points. If you can point out the bad in your own home, well you get double points. But more importantly consciously or unconsciously ( I think it’s more unconsciously ) these progressives are cognizant ( unconsciously cognizant!!!) that the worst the Hindu fundamentalist will do to them is rough them up or blacken their face or trash their furniture or send them empty death threats by email or mouth off here on Sepia mutiny. The Islamist will simply hand them their head, literally. So if you are a Hindu and you inveigh against Hindu fundamentalism you become a martyr. Albeit a martyr who always lives to tell the tale of his courage! Isn’t there a South Asian professor of English who turned a similar incident into a book? The Husband of a Fanatic? There are progressives in Pakistan too. There are writers, activists in Pakistan too. They are dead against Islamic fundamentalism as are most Pakistanis, yet in all these years I haven’t read a single article coming out of Pakistan that says ‘ Osama is bad ‘ or some such. They’ll say it and mean it but only privately. We all know what skewering Modi, for example has got in India publicly. The net effect of such a biased narrative, particularly in the South Asian diaspora is that the next generation will grow up thinking that only minorities in India are discriminated against. This will lead to more resentment and possible extremist backlash. But it’s not just Islamic extremists that are feared by progressives. Recently there was a very well publicized Sikh parade in Canada where among other extremists this Parmar guy was feted. This is the guy who would boastfully assign each Sikh a quota of how many Hindus he had to finish off, a la Bhindranwale who had mathematically figured the quota out to be 36! But you don’t read or hear any Sikh progressives airing their own dirty laundry ( not on this issue ) because it is extremely dangerous to do so. People have been bumped off before, right here in North America.
Louiecypher, I strongly recommend you consider blogging on your own just as Bloomberg is considering running for president. There’a a whole constituency out there that’s tired of both the right and the left and which finds itself unrepresented in the middle.
Camille,
Agreed. While some of the issues do resonate with me, e.g. being not considered ‘Indian enough’ by Indian peers, there is a lot that I can’t identify with. I know for instance that caste and colour issues exist, but I’ve never been confronted with them. I wasn’t really treated any differently because I was a girl child, and although I rebelled against my parents, some of the parents described on SM seem so draconian that I’m grateful for my fairly liberal parents. Since I come from a secular country I wasn’t attacked for not being Christian. Personally I think it would be cool if we heard more from desis raised outside of North America or the UK.
It would be interesting to know what drives the “South Asian progressives”. Looking at their inconsistencies, I don’t think it is based on the principles of “human rights”, it is something else, you’ve attributed one reason. And the surprising fact is that most of these so called “progressives” are themselves from well off / rich / upper caste families. there you go. you get four times the points. 🙂
Post #78 Badal,
Bravo!!!!!
You hit the mark! If someone were to get all their information from some of these “progressives” they would think the world was on cusp of being devoured by Hindu fundamentalism (akin to the rise of Nazism in the 30s) while there is a tiny nuisance called Islamism.
Critics of Hinduism face nothing close to the danger critics of Islam – hence the incentive to criticize Hinduism more and Islam less.
But there is also another reason for the velvet glove treatment progressives give Islam. Many progressives are dissatisfied with the current American social order – free markets, limited government, ordered freedom based on property rights, globalization, etc. The 20th century challenge to this system, communism and socialism, are dead. Islamism is the most active force in the world combating this system. While most progressives do not subscribe to the religiously extremist potions of the Islamist agenda they have sympathy for Islamist grievances and have trouble devoting themselves to the anti-Islamist movement because doing so would mean siding with right-wingers against poor radicals in third world countries.
Hindutva and Hindu fundamentalists for various reasons have embraced globalization, free markets and property rights. Hence giving progressives extra reasons to criticize Hindu fundamentalism. Vociferous denunciations of Hindutva along with muteness on Islamism creates a very skewed view of the world.
78 Badal and #81 JGandhi, you guys make some good points, at least where the views of Indian progressives concerning Islamic militancy are concerned.
My father admires thick hair and a thick moustache, and viewers also seem to like it when male leads have ‘nice eyes,’ but I find it hard to believe that women really appreciate this aspect of south Indian films.
Yeah, I know what you mean…but I’ve also asked my female aunts and counsins in Kerala whether they think Mahmooty is hot, and they really, really do. But they also find Shah Rukh Khan hot too… the issue of who actually pays to see the movies or to rent them, I didn’t think of that aspect and there maybe something to men being the main consumer of the movies in south india.
I wonder how Keralites would find Sendhil from Heros (who is just really hot to me) to act as a hero in malayalee movies?
The SAAN conference sounds like a great gathering. Wish my little sis could attend, but this is the first time I’m hearing of it. I remember awhile ago there was something called SASSY, that I attended, and brought together 25 and under progressive desis. I’m glad that people pointed out the mistake that SAAN did, in equalizing South Asian film with Indian hindi film….but that should detract from what seems to be a great convening.
51 · khoofia said
Khoofia, you raise an intriguing issue. (at least to me it’s intriguing). Without sounding like a luddite, the newer technologies have brought about at least one major hindrance to effective journalism. The overabundance of choice. I’m old enough to remember when it was just the big 3 news networks and there was no such thing as the internet. Everyone was on the same page with respect to the news, we were all getting the same thing, for better or worse. While it was understood the daily newspapers had their own slant, one did feel that the papers were trying to be “fair and balanced”. With the new medium, I feel that there is so much competition for readers, that the news networks and internet sites all spin their version of the news to maintain a core audience. Now, if one seeks to find their version of the truth in the news, they can go out and find it. As Colbert would say, it’s all about “truthiness”. Which raises the issue, is there any source that we can all believe is providing reasoned journalism? Don’t people have to agree on a certain set of facts or events, so that decisions can be made?
Additionally, the news outlets nowadays, all seem to gravitate to the “human drama” stories, i.e. Britney or the legal dramas, i.e. Roger Clemens. I’d like to see the news outlets have an equal balance of the “human interest” story and other types of stories. What’s the point of having global access to world events, if there is nothing more than superficial coverage. As an aside, I think this interest in legal dramas amounts to being tried in the court of public opinion rather than in a court of law. The press in my opinion is reckless when it comes to guilt or innocence and is more interested in selling that ad space rather than ascertaining truth.
I appreciate that the internet and newer technologies have allowed more access to news from across the world and has opened up the collective conscience to events outside the US. However, I don’t believe that the news outlets are maintaining a level of objectivity or accuracy in the rush to compete with the multitude of voices out there. The discourse seems, at least to me, more hyperbolic. The news outlets and the new medium, have tremendous power to shape opinion based on the stories they choose and how they choose to cover them. I wonder if in the rush to compete, they lose sight of their responsibility to be objective. If everyone chooses the spin on the news that they want to hear, doesn’t society become more fragmented as most people will choose to believe that the other outlet is “spinning” the news rather than objectively reporting it.
I don’t really want to get into an argument over the invective over “progressives” (a term being used on this thread without context, clarity, or definition), but this logic, in my opinion, does not resonate. Your first assumption — that the “current American social order” actually has a functioning system with free markets, limited government, etc., is undermined by the reality of American policies, funding, and intervention. I also think the assumption that critics of Hindutva do not receive death threats is incorrect. I think the critique has much less to do with sympathy for an extreme interpretation of Islam and more to do with the false dichotomy created within current Western narratives around the nature of Islam, the nature of the West, and the interactions between the two.
“Camille””,” “you” “are” “just” “an” “apologist” “for” “america” “hating” “cowards””.”
My friend does not find it a surprise. His theory is that in today’s work ethic, people born in well-off families have to feel some embarassment that life was easy for them due to an accident of birth. Such people adopt a liberal point of view. People who have worked their way up do not have this embarassment, so they are willing to adopt a conservative view.
Post 85: I don’t make any of the assumptions you seem to think I made in my post.
Whether America perfectly embodies these ideals is irrelevant to the point at hand. But generally America hews most closely to these ideals and is the most influential promoter of these ideals. If we read the Islamist critiques of America and progressive critiques of America, the criticism is about America hewing too closely to these ideals – not for America imperfectly living up to these ideals.
I never assumed that Hindutvas don’t recieve my threats. My post says nothing about progressive critiques of Western narratives of Islam. My post primarily deals with why there are “Vociferous denunciations of Hindutva along with muteness on Islamism” by the progressive community.
This is a correct analysis.
Hindutva-vadis are more capitalistic then, would be the assumption.
JGandhi, I am truly curious — what critiques are you reading? It sounds like you’re referring to very specific arguments, etc. I’ve certainly read critiques (progressive ones?) that line up with your claim, but I don’t know many people who self-identify as progressive who read them as anything other than polemical. I’m asking for specifics because “progressive” is a term used so arbitrarily (by everyone) that we may have different reference points or ideas in mind. I’m just trying to get a sense of clarity re: our perspectives.
Rahul, “thanks” 🙂
12 • Amitabh said
Wrong. [And part two.]
45 · Amitabh said
Here is a pretty thorough academic paper on this topic written by Srijana Mitra Das, an Oxford Social Anthropology PhD student.
For those who want to see a new direction in cinema: rather than shaking your fists and wishing for something different, why not support those films which depict your ideals by watching them and promoting them by writing reviews and telling your friends to go see them? Or make them yourself.
Harbeer, look at you all counter culture with your independent film-making and progressive public radio 🙂
Harbeer, that was an awesome paper by Das that you linked to (#91). It kind of validates many things I had concluded myself. In fact it barely scratches the surface of what is a very complex, interesting, and very important social phenomenon…because there are reasons that things are the way they are in Bollywood, and (due to Bollywood’s influence) that impacts millions of people’s lives. Thanks for linking to it.
69 · khoofia said
Hai ram. That was like walking in on my parents, but with less hair.
Glad you liked it, Amitabh. Yeah, I saw you making the same arguments so I thought you’d dig it.
92 · Camille said
Don’t you mean “progressive?” And this might come back to haunt me, but I think what I described there could be characterized as “letting the market take its course”–such a hypocrite I am. I appreciate the sentiment, but I am starting to be convinced that the “counter culture” is part of the problem. I’m going to start wearing pleated khakis and tucking in my polo shirts because rebellion is the new selling out (therefore selling out is the new rebellion?)
94 • DJ Drrrty Poonjabi said
chee chee chee chee, less hair…
Back on topic…this sounds like an interesting talk. Indeed, there’s tons of new options for “consumers” who can afford a computer and internet service and have time to sift through the huge amounts of material, but at the same time, newspapers are consolidating and cutting their staff. Abhi, you and I joked on the radio about how so much blogging is merely cutting and pasting somebody else’s writing/research–what happens when those primary sources disappear? We get less perspectives from the ground and more toeing the official line, more “infotainment.”
Investigative journalism is expensive, takes a lot of time, and is not sexy. (Nothing cool or romantic about sitting through boring city hall meetings day after day.) Big media conglomorates that only care about the bottom line cut those positions first, and our democracy suffers as a result. One trend that some of my journalist friends (Shout out to Pratap Chatterjee!) have pointed out, though, is that investigative journalism is moving to the non-profit world.
Harbeer, I was reading that paper again, more carefully this time…it’s actually sort of chilling, don’t you think? At least, the fractured psychology that’s described is chilling. But it all makes sense when you think about it; I think he nailed it.
Dude DJ you have the funniest lines and you have an eenteresting family.
Did I tell you I am a big fan of your commentary going all the way back to this
90 · Camille said
Sorry for not answering back more quickly.
If you’re still paying attention to this thread:
Progressive critiques: thenation.com, salon.com, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer
Thanks, I appreciate the follow up 🙂 I think your view may be a little slanted by the nature of the authors you’re reading. If I read Anne Coulter, for example, and then attributed her logic to “all conservatives” I would probably feel the same way you do about “progressive critiques” (I’m not saying all those authors/sources are Coulter-esque, but many are screed)