Hindi Cinema

It feels weird to realize that for past few decades adult male lyricists/producers have been expressing/selecting female and child feelings in Hindi cinema and in the process shaping them too! No wonder "Munni badnaam hui"!

Obituary

RIP Oticon Tego. You were a good friend, constant companion and above all a great listener. I will never forget the day you first whispered into my ears. You died on a Tuesday morning when you started emitting sound worse than the SA Vuvuzela. You were unable to survive the heat and humidity of my land where you went to accompany me. You were 4 years old.

Growing food

The need to shout!

One his recent trip to Iowa, President Obama was “heckled”
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sc-dc-obama-healthcare-20100325,0,641546.story

The president was heckled at one point by a man in the crowd who said the bill should have gone farther and included a "public option'' – a government-run program that would compete with private insurance plans.
"That's not in it,'' Obama said.
"Why not?'' came the reply.
"Because we couldn't get it through Congress, that's why,'' Obama said, adding: "There's no need to shout, young man.''

Well there is a need to shout, Sir. You have the mike, he doesn’t.

Mass Detention of Over 5500 FARMERS in Ahmedabad - Feb 25th 2010

Farmers Protesting Nirma Factory and Limestone Quarry in Mahuva Detained

Chunibhai Vaidya, Veteran Gandhian, Kanubhai Kalsaria, MLA and SanatBhai Mehta, ex Finance Minister Among Those Detained

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Michael Mazgaonkar - 09427188044

Swati Desai - 09429556163

Anand Mazgaonkar - 09426858117

Kanubhai Kalsaria, MLA of Mahuva, Ph: 98252-31012

Chunibhai Vaidya, Gujarat Loksamiti, Ph: 079-2755 7199/ 2755 7878

Sagar Rabari, Gujarat Loksamiti, Ph: 094288-25927

Photos: http://mozda.net/photos/mahuva/25feb2010/

Over five thousand farmers from the Mahuva area in the Bhavnagar district of Gujarat have been detained and prohibited from taking out a peaceful rally protesting the government's sanction for a Nirma factory and limestone quarry in their area. Chunibhai Vaidya, a veteran Gandhian who founded Gujarat Loksamiti, Kanubhai Kalsaria, MLA of Mahuva, and Sanatbhai Mehta, ex Finance Minister of Gujarat, Ilaben Pathak of AWAG and a senior editor Prakash N Shah are among those detained by the police in this illegal suppression of collective democratic rights.

The farmers were enroute to the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, from where they intended to start a peaceful march to Gandhinagar to submit their petition, signed by 11,111 affected individuals in their own blood, when the buses and other vehicles they were using were stopped by the police. The farmers have been taken to Shahibagh in Ahmedabad and have been detained in police grounds. Several hundred protestors who reached the Sabarmati Ashram directly were also whisked away in police vans and blocked from taking out the march.

These farmers from Mahuva area in Bhavnagar district are protesting the decision by the Government of Gujarat to sanction a cement plant by Nirma Ltd, which includes 288 ha. of land for the factory and another 3000 ha. for a limestone quarry. Mahuva area has among the most fertile lands in Gujarat, where farmers grow three crops, and export dehydrated onions and numerous other fruits. Moreover, the numerous onion dehydrating plants (turnover Rs. 300 crore) & cotton gins (turnover Rs. 3,500 crore) provide employment to an additional 10,000 people in the factories. The cement plant which the government proposes to build in the area will employ only 418 people for an investment of 2500 crore (Rs. 2.5 billion), but will end up devastating around 50,000 land owners, farmers & farm labourers, besides polluting the air and destroying the pristine coastal & inland ecology. It was only in the last few years that the Government had invested tens of millions of public money to construct structures for water conservation & prevention of salinity ingress in this very area.

The farmers of the area have been protesting the government policies for over a year, and have been facing the combined wrath of the government and company goons for doing so. The government appointed a committee under SK Shelat (ex-Chief Secretary) to look into people's grievances last year, and the company was required to stop work pending the presentation of the report of the Shelat Committee. This Committee, without either visiting the area or listening to the affected people, has now given the 'go-ahead' to the company for this project, which is likely to destroy the lives of around 50 000 people.

The attack on the protestors today follows a pattern of police repression of non-violent and peaceful expression of dissent by the affected villagers. On 13th December 2009, Dr Kanubhai Kalsaria, MLA, 92 year old Gandhian Chunibhai Vaidya, Sagar Rabari, Anirudh Jadeja, Lakhan Musafir and Anand Mazgaonkar were prevented from holding a public meeting in Vangar village. Two local leaders Shri Wamanbhai and Pravinbhai Kathiria were beaten up apparently by hired goons, and other villagers were manhandled by the police. A few days ago, on 20th February, the police lathi-charged a peaceful rally of villagers, and ten activists continue to be imprisoned on false charges. Dr. Kanubhai Kalsaria, the MLA from Mahuva area, his wife and companions were again attacked o way to Doliya village on 21st February, and their 4 motorcycles were badly damaged. Undeterred by these clearly State sponsored backlash, the people from the area pressed on with their original plans of a massive march from Sabarmati Ashram to Gandhinagar (State capital) today to present their petition to the Chie f Minister. This latest round of police suppression of this villagers' rally today is a sad testament to the declining space available for voicing dissent in Gujarat today.

Howard Zinn- R.I.P

"Revolutionary change does not come as one cataclysmic moment (beware of such moments!) but as an endless succession of surprises, moving zigzag toward a more decent society. We don't have to engage... in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. Even when we don't "win," there is fun and fulfillment in the fact that we have been involved, with other good people, in something worthwhile. We need hope.”- Howard Zinn in “The Optimism of Uncertainty”

More Readings

 

Howard Zinn, Historian who Challenged Status Quo, Dies at 87

 

Pnews

Yet another word

Pnews [pronounced: News]: Paid news, advertisement shown as news.

The Hindu : Columns / Sainath : ‘It is shameful to misguide people’

In newspapers across the state, sometimes the same puff item appeared as ‘news’ in one newspaper and as an advertisement in another

Mnews

Mnews [pronounced: News]: "News" reported with backround Music. (wink wink "Times Now", "Star News" etc).

So someone hurled an egg at her.

Almost gloating, TOI informs us about how a few “tribals” hurled eggs and tomatoes at activists including Medha Patkar and Sandeep Pandey. They even had a video of some people supposedly shouting anti Medha slogans claiming that she supports the “Maoists”. Like Bush the Lesser’s declaration, it seems now you are either with the state or with “Maoists”. A label that can arbitrarily be applied to anyone who begs to differ with the state. I have been asked about what I think now that the “tribals” are opposed to the presence of these activists in their area.

The short answer is “Not much”.

The long answer is a bit complicated to explain. The most I learn from that news is that “Some people in that area don’t like these activists”. The other things that come to my mind are as followed.

1. It might be better utilization of resources if TOI covered the issues raised by the activists. But that is hard work and then you cannot “character assassinate” issues as you can do that to an activist. How could you say “the tribals hurled eggs at a protest against state sponsored killing of tribals”.
2. If TOI does indeed cover news from that area, it might better serve their readers if they also covered demonstrations against the State repressions and how Tatas and Essar have been pushing the tribals off their lands for their mining operations.
3. Why was the actual event (Jan Sunwai) not covered? What was disclosed at the event? What about the Sodi Sambo case? What about the press release from the event?
4. When the mainstream channels are done with the Ruchika’s case will they investigate the case of the tribal Ruchikas?
5. Oh, and the mandatory skepticism, was this all staged like the one to stop Himanshu Kumar's padyatra?

PS: Apologies for TOI character(?) assassination :)