Supplementary materials to - SOAS University of London

ENTERTAINMENT
TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2004
THE TIMES OF INDIA
POWERED BY
INDIATIMES
Hi Guest, Sign Up.| Clipping(s) | My TOI | Sign In
Search
The Times of India
Indiatimes
Web
Indiatimes > The Times of India > Entertainment > Article
Home
CLASSIFIEDS
Matrimonial | Jobs
Real Estate | Auto
Post Print Ads
All Classifieds
HOT LINKS
Carnival time at global social meet
[ SUNDAY, JANUARY 18, 2004 01:13:17 PM ]
ePaper
Bollywood
NRI News
Indo-Pak Ties
The BPO Wave
Elections 2004
US presidency
NEWS
Cities
City Supplements
India
Sports
Weather
World
Entertainment
Movie Reviews
India Buzz
World Buzz
India Business
Intl Business
Obituary
Infotech
Health/Science
Photo Gallery
TOI Headlines
Top Media Headlines
Most Read Articles
Best of the Week
Archives
OPINION
Columnists
Editorial
Interview
Letters to Editor
SUNDAY SPECIALS
All That Matters
Men & Women
Mind Over Matter
Open Space
Special Report
NRI SERVICES
India on Mobile
Remit2India
SUPPLEMENTS
Education Times
PRINT EDITION
An Indian activist reads a book in front of an antiglobalisation banner at the World Social Forum in Mumbai
on Sunday. Thousands of dancing, singing and debating
activists from across the world declared war on big
business at an anti-globalisation meet in Mumbai.
(Reuters photo)
More stories
- Rape shocks
global outrage meet
Delhi Edition
DAILY DOSE
News Puzzle
Crosswords
Horoscope
Jokes
Newsletters
Send to friend
Don't wait for evolution. Get
with
HEADLINES
RATE THIS ARTICLE
1 2 3 4 5
1=Poor,2=Mediocre,3=Average, 4=Good,5=Outstanding
COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE
Is this Global meet sponsored by one of EU countr... - din_pata
Professional Social workers are nothing but a bun... - drkp_d
Professional Social workers are nothing but a bun... - drkp_d
Read all comments
SEND GIFTS TO
INDIA
Flowers &
Gifts
Delivered
the same
day
Jewellery in
Gold,
Diamond,
Pearl & more
more>>
BUY
Sensational
Sachin at
World Cup
2003 VCD
@ Rs. 145,
DVD @ Rs. 499
TOP
About the Publisher | For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
Copyright © 2004 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. | Advertise with Us | mailto:[email protected] | Terms of Use | Feedback | Sitemap
TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2004
THE TIMES OF INDIA
ALL THAT MATTERS
POWERED BY
INDIATIMES
Hi Guest, Sign Up.| Clipping(s) | My TOI | Sign In
Search
The Times of India
Indiatimes
Web
Indiatimes > The Times of India > All That Matters > Article
Home
CLASSIFIEDS
Matrimonial | Jobs
Real Estate | Auto
Post Print Ads
All Classifieds
HOT LINKS
ePaper
Bollywood
NRI News
Indo-Pak Ties
The BPO Wave
Elections 2004
US presidency
NEWS
Cities
City Supplements
India
Sports
Weather
World
Entertainment
India Business
Intl Business
Obituary
Infotech
Health/Science
Photo Gallery
TOI Headlines
Top Media Headlines
Most Read Articles
Best of the Week
Archives
OPINION
Columnists
Editorial
Interview
Letters to Editor
SUNDAY SPECIALS
All That Matters
Men & Women
Mind Over Matter
Open Space
Special Report
NRI SERVICES
India on Mobile
Remit2India
SUPPLEMENTS
Education Times
PRINT EDITION
Delhi Edition
DAILY DOSE
News Puzzle
Crosswords
Horoscope
Jokes
Newsletters
Send to friend
Save the planet, start a Bush-fire
ERRATICA/BACHI KARKARIA
[ SUNDAY, JANUARY 18, 2004 12:00:32 AM ]
Always in Mumbai, ‘It’s the time to
disco’. The recent rave party of ‘Bhujbal
A-Go-Go’ has just been upstaged by
the newest hip and happening place,
‘NGO A-Go-Go’, alternatively known as
the World Social Forum.
This latest disco is bound to be a
success because it has rounded up the
usual suspects: media hype, music,
dancing, frenetic firangs, and our own
designer do-gooders. Since Friday, the
Forum has been rocking to Patkar Beats
and Tandava Shiva, the doughty divas
of Indian activism.
ALL THAT
MATTERS
HEADLINES
A BJPCongress
grand
alliance: The
Last
Temptation?
They can be
seemlessly merged
A BJPCongress
grand
alliance: The
Last
Temptation?
It is absurd
The permanently aggrieved have repositioned themselves as a Loot and scoot
continuous carnival. Adivasis have been re-incorporated as indigenous
The polls as media
peoples.
Viagra
Sporting branded commitment-chic, members of the Bleeding-Heart Momo mia!
Board stride from greenroom negotiations to greenhouse think-tanks. The sword that
A new multinational culture is born.
Mallya bought
A nonThe crowd of registered do-gooders and unregistering do-gawkers has Wanted:
forgiving fund
rivalled the Shiv Sena rally, the Phalguni Pathak dandiya, and the 8.14
Churchgate Fast.
So, naturally, ordinary folks are asking, ‘‘What this WSF is? Who are
all these goras in Goregaon? And why some people are shouting
slogans against American Imperialism over Iraq in Japanese, which
neither Bush nor the Baghdadis can understand? They are mad or
what?’’
I try to explain the noble motivation of these anti-globalisation gurus
who have braved Alan Greenbacks, Pascal Lamy’s banana-dietboosted WTO stamina, and their own sloganitis to save the world from
neo-imperialists hell-bent on genetically modifying the world economy.
These are the Supermen of the Small Voice (and the Resident
Goddess of Small Things), who have slain the WEF Goliath at Davos.
SEND GIFTS TO
INDIA
But the Bai from Borivali and the Bhai from Bhayander look as blank
as a book on Shivaji after all his followers have finished wiping out all
the variously objectionable passages.
Flowers &
Gifts
Delivered
the same
day
They still ask, ‘‘WWF comes to Mumbai every year, but what is this
WSF? Are they also wrestlers? Are Deadly Darryl D’Mountain and
Bash ‘Em Bidwai as entertaining as Hurricane Helms and Stone Cold
Steve?’’
Jewellery in
Gold,
Diamond,
Pearl & more
I let it go. And go back to marvelling over how easily Mumbai can
commute between a socialist forum and a socialising forum. Indeed,
delegates to the WSF can scale up their expertise from this upscale
city.
The jamboree is awash in posters against China ’s seizure of Tibet ,
but the original master of the land-grab is the Mumbaikar. Whether in
more>>
BUY
Sensational
Sachin at
World Cup
2003 VCD
@ Rs. 145,
DVD @ Rs. 499
jhopri, 1BHK, or penthouse, no one can beat him at the art of the
illegal extension.
In the activist lexicon it’s called ‘capacity-building’.
Similarly, a Bombabe has her own advocacy of the ‘security net’. She
wears hers with sequins, even to casual events, which do-gooders
would call the ‘informal sector’.
At such occasions, her Indigo-go crowd turns into Rainbow Warriors,
flashing their manes of many colours.
Talking of which, the environmentalists at the WSF meet ‘‘must pencil
in’’ a workshop on Mumbai’s Green-piece.
This unique ecosystem is the natural habitat of such flamboyant
predators as the land shark and the black buck, the Dalit Panther and
the Sena Tiger, the Queen Bee, the Night-Blooming Creep — and the
Fly-catching Venus.
The Social Forum began in Brazil . So? Mumbai has its own Rio Pillai,
who too reminds corporate czars of the art of living.
Another World? Of course not. We are all like that only.
Don't wait for evolution. Get
with
NEWS YOU CAN USE
• 3Com to hire 100 in
Hyderabad
• H-1B visas may go up by 20k
• Protect your kin, pick wisely
more >>
RATE THIS ARTICLE
1 2 3 4 5
1=Poor,2=Mediocre,3=Average, 4=Good,5=Outstanding
COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE
No comment has been posted for this article yet.
TOP
About the Publisher | For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
Copyright © 2004 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. | Advertise with Us | mailto:[email protected] | Terms of Use | Feedback | Sitemap
The first completely customisable news site on the web
129 years in print
Search
in
The Statesman
April 27,2004
Web
Home | Classified | Jobs | Matrimonials | Archives | Advertise | Feedback | About Us
News
Page one
India
World
Editorial
Perspective
Business
Sport
Bengal
Magazine
Sports & Leisure
Career & Campus
Science & Technology
Voices
Lifestyle
Kolkata Plus
Bengal Plus
Viewpoint
North East Page
Orissa Plus
Note Book
N.B & Sikkim Plus
Entertainment
NB Extra
News Flash
Back to archives for
RADICAL CHEEK Want To Change The World? First,
Understand It
By SAUBHIK CHAKRABARTI
An amusing but nonetheless substantive proof that Indian
capitalism has arrived on the world stage was the arrival of
world’s anti-capitalists in India. The World Social Forum —
briefly, an eclectic collection of post-modern feminists and
post-graduate farmers, trade union activists and trade
treaty analysts, actresses-turned-politicians and authorsturned-pamphleteers — sang, sloganeered and talked, and
talked and talked in Mumbai.
Social crisis
Porto Alegre, Brazil, is the WSF’s usual venue for its
annual Woodstock of social and economic policy.
Organisers said the shift to Mumbai was to give the
deliberations a more Afro-Asian flavour. Why, in this day
and age of hyper-connectivity, should geography determine
discourse is not clear. Even assuming it does, why pick
Mumbai and not, say, Mombassa, which would have given
organisers a better flavour of social crisis and economic
despair. Mombassa, of course, does not have terribly good
hotels.
Equally important, radicals need, have always needed,
orthodoxy. Big cities, big corporations, big shopping malls,
etc provide a wholly more comforting context in which to,
say, excoriate consumerism or capital flows than the urban
cesspool of a failing society, where the priority topic would
have to be whether the average person can survive the
next day. India is making the grade already occupied by
China and South-East Asia.
That’s why it attracted WSF’s attention. And in India, had
WSF not picked Mumbai for some reason, it would have
gone for Delhi or Bangalore, may be even Chennai, but not
Kolkata. Kolkata may have many driven radicals but it has
few drivable roads and, therefore, just not a good
advertisement for capitalist dynamism.
WSF would hotly deny this, of course. Just as it would any
suggestion that it doesn’t know what it is talking about
when it says the world needs to abandon the current
political economic orthodoxy.
Awful lot of invectives were hurled at this orthodoxy in
Mumbai, as has been the annual practice at Porto Alegre.
This “nasty” and “brutish” system so elegantly loathed by
the radical chic is basically freedom of commerce within
and across borders backed by elected government and
laws protecting liberty and property. Doesn’t sound so
Login
Username
Password
New user? Sign-in
nasty and brutish, does it? Of course, there are many
variants of this basic definition, and almost all of them,
whether in the West or Asia or Latin America, have their
faults and distortions. But the bottom line in any discussion
on human affairs is this: any system to succeed must
encourage productive economic activity and in that there
isn’t a better alternative to free commerce. Political
freedom is not necessary for economic freedom in the
short run — as China demonstrates — but its absence can
create serious strains over time — as China will
demonstrate.
Evil system
Where does all this leave the poor, the dispossessed, the
marginalised, thinking about whom WSF delegates toss and
turn on their nice beds in their nice hotel rooms? Answer: it
leaves them, mostly, in those parts of the world where this
evil system hasn’t reached. Take Africa, especially subSaharan Africa, supposedly the worst victim of global
capitalism and free trade.
Is the region poor because of the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund and the World Trade
Organisation, the trinity of evil according to WSF?
In that case, the Bank, the Fund and WTO must be in a
dreadful conspiracy with Botswana, an African country that,
on average, boasts of better social indicators than India
and has consistently posted good growth. And Zimbabwe,
once an African beacon of hope, must be a laboratory of
Bank-Fund experiments. Except that there’s Robert
Mugabe who has all but destroyed the economic vitality of
a country through his surreally stupid land redistribution
policies.
Mugabe is symptomatic of what is the most wrong with
Africa — godawful leaders, a mixture of warlords,
kleptocrats and practitioners of crony socialism. It is
astounding that radicals who have had the benefit of
university education can principally blame globalisation or
trade or anything or anyone else for the continent’s ills.
Botswana shows what Africa, if governed better, can do.
Most of the rest of the continent needs halfway decent
rulers and a legal and institutional environment where
business can be conducted. It needs aid and its products
need markets. In short, it needs capitalism and those evil
institutions. There’s absolutely no alternative to this basic
diagnosis and no alternative medicine either.
But WSF types will prattle on about “another world”. Why?
Old-fashioned capitalist self-interest may provide an
answer.
Today’s radicals are mostly from what are called nongovernment organisations. NGOs, Third World ones
especially, get their money from Western institutions. The
donors have a very specific “vision” — there’s untold misery
and supra-Dickensian economic and social squalor in
developing countries. Money only comes if you can sell a
slice of this vision to the donors. If an NGO develops a
project for, say, making India’s agro-industrial sector more
brand conscious and market savvy, it won’t get a cent.
Migrant labourers’ woes? A handsome grant is guaranteed,
unless, of course, someone has already beaten you to it. In
which case you can offer a variation — say, gender bias in
marginal food allocation among marginal farm workers in
south-east Rajasthan.
The point is not that developing countries, including India,
do not have poor and dispossessed. But NGOs are hardly
the answer to that, simply because bunches of do-gooders
cannot effect macro transformation. The charge against
NGOs, and what explains their radical rhetoric, is however
far more serious — they don’t want to transform. They want
misery because misery gets them money.
Serious objections
However, since this money is mostly foreign, one would
have expected NGOs to have no objection to other
external economic dimensions — more foreign trade and
more foreign investment. But, as we have noted, they have
serious objections, arguing these are prime sources of
Third World’s “subjugation”.
The argument is bunkum. The hypocrisy is breathtaking.
It’s all right for an NGO to get a fat grant from Ford
Foundation but evil for a domestic auto manufacturer to get
investment from Ford Motors.
In fact, and contrary to what media savvy radicals have
turned into conventional wisdom, there are far fewer
restrictions on foreign money coming in for NGOs than for
businesses. No government of any party can even think of
taking a close look at NGO funding without articulate, well
travelled, well paid radicals telling the media, especially
foreign media, that “civil society” is being attacked.
These people do not want economic growth, spreading
prosperity or better social infrastructure. Their livelihood is
threatened if a poor country gets its act together. India is
at a stage where, probably for the first time, it has a
chance to escape the poor country mould. Of course, many
things still need doing. Let us start by doing one of the
easy ones — stop listening to the radicals.
The author is Resident Editor, The Statesman, New Delhi
CITIES: MUMBAI
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2005
THE TIMES OF INDIA
POWERED BY
TIMESCITY.COM
Hi Guest , Sign Up.| Clipping(s)| My TOI | Sign In
Search
The Times of India
Indiatimes
Web
Indiatimes > The Times of India > Cities > Mumbai > Article
Home
CLASSIFIEDS
Matrimonial| Jobs
Real Estate| Auto
Tenders
Post Print Ads
All Classifieds
A carnival of global rage
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 2004 02:51:30 AM ]
Sign in to earn Indiatimes points
HOT LINKS
ePaper
Bollywood
NRI News
Indo-Pak Ties
The BPO Wave
NEWS
Cities
Ahmedabad
Bangalore
Chandigarh
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kolkata
Lucknow
Mumbai
Panaji
Patna
Pune
Thiru'puram
City Supplements
India
Cricket
Sports
Weather
World
Entertainment
India Business
Intl Business
Infotech
Health/Science
Photo Gallery
TOI Headlines
Most Read Articles
Top Media Headlines
Obituary
Archives
OPINION
Columnists
Editorial
Interview
Letters to Editor
SUNDAY SPECIALS
All That Matters
Life
Mind Over Matter
Open Space
Special Report
NRI SERVICES
India on Mobile
Remit2India
SUPPLEMENTS
Education Times
Times Property
South African dancers perform
at the opening session of the
World Social Forum 2004 in
Mumbai on Friday.
MUMBAI: If goodwill,
exuberance and sheer
energy were enough to
change the world, a new
world might indeed have
risen on Friday night at
the opening of the World
Social Forum in Mumbai.
Almost a lakh of people from all corners
of the world— adivasis from Jharkand,
Bush-bashing Vietnamese and Carribean
nuns—converged at the NESCO grounds
here in Goregaon , melting social
movements, artistes, political activists
and NGOs into one mega-mela.
In this carnival of the marginalised,
Dalits demanding
equality danced
alongside Australians , Rajasthani
villagers sang about their land and
forest rights,while a bunch of college
girls from Godhra marched alongside,
sloganeering for peace and unity.
Writer-activist Arundhati Roy kicked off
the speeches by urging people to shut
down the offices and projects of those
companies which had benefited from the
Iraq war.
"It is no good just saying 'jeetenge, bhai
jeetenge'. It is time we did something,"
MUMBAI
HEADLINES
Shanghai surprise:
Italian major opts
for Solapur
Big bucks for
beefcakes
Conflicting reports
over Nagma's Dlinks
Soon, city's
coastline to have a
new look
Be on guard while
hiring security
guards
16-year-old plots
her way to England
Underworld's role in
Geelani attack
ruled out
New D-Company:
A law grad, a
priest’s son...
BMC may clear top
ten storeys of 5star hotel
Charitable
hospitals: HC
seeks report
'Lawyer still runs
fake marriage shop'
Extortionist learnt
tricks of trade in
jail
Gangster gunned
down
Police lathi-charge,
arrest diamond
traders' supporters
Sena plays its own
game on Indo-Pak
cricket
Watchman, lover
held for killing 60yr-old
Students take
deadly doses to
'cure' exam fever
Urban jungle set to
invade gaothans
Abstract by
Gaitonde sells for
Rs 92 lakh
Delhi Edition
DAILY DOSE
News Puzzle
Crosswords
Horoscope
Jokes
Newsletters
that in the great European cities, they
were openly talking about neo-liberalism
and how the unruly needed to be
policed.
Builders hit
jackpot, city gets
crumbs
HC puts banks on
notice over strongarm ways
Continued... Next >>
Sign In.Surf. Earn
Points
Ads by Google
�
WinGreat
Prizes
Mumbai Matrimonial
Lakhs of Mumbai matrimonial matches Free Registration search & contacts
JeevanSathi.com
Shaadi Karo Matrimonial
100% Free Matrimonial Matchmaking for Indians & NRIs
ShaadiKaro.com
Jobs and Employment
550+ Companies Guaranteed to Pay Or Your Money Back. $5000+ monthly!
www.eSurvee.com
RATE THIS ARTICLE
1 2 3 4 5
1=Poor,2=Mediocre,3=Average, 4=Good,5=Outstanding
COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE
Read all comments
TOP
About Us | For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
Copyright © 2005 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. | Advertise with Us | Careers @ TIL | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Feedback | Sitemap
CITIES: MUMBAI
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2005
THE TIMES OF INDIA
POWERED BY
TIMESCITY.COM
Hi Guest , Sign Up.| Clipping(s)| My TOI | Sign In
Search
The Times of India
Indiatimes
Web
Indiatimes > The Times of India > Cities > Mumbai > Article
Home
CLASSIFIEDS
Matrimonial| Jobs
Real Estate| Auto
Tenders
Post Print Ads
All Classifieds
HOT LINKS
ePaper
Bollywood
NRI News
Indo-Pak Ties
The BPO Wave
NEWS
Cities
Ahmedabad
Bangalore
Chandigarh
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kolkata
Lucknow
Mumbai
Panaji
Patna
Pune
Thiru'puram
City Supplements
India
Cricket
Sports
Weather
World
Entertainment
India Business
Intl Business
Infotech
Health/Science
Photo Gallery
TOI Headlines
Most Read Articles
Top Media Headlines
Obituary
Archives
OPINION
Columnists
Editorial
Interview
Letters to Editor
SUNDAY SPECIALS
All That Matters
Life
Mind Over Matter
Open Space
Special Report
NRI SERVICES
India on Mobile
Remit2India
SUPPLEMENTS
Education Times
Times Property
A carnival of global rage
MUMBAI
HEADLINES
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 2004 02:51:30 AM ]
Sign in to earn Indiatimes points
<< Previous |
"That's you and me," she
said. Nobel Peace prizewinner Shirin Ebadi, who
spoke in Farsi, said that the
forum was a symbol of
hope. "I hope that one day
there will be a world where
globalisation will not be
synonymous with inequality,
a globalisation where the
human being is the centre,"
she said.
Shanghai surprise:
Italian major opts
for Solapur
Big bucks for
beefcakes
Conflicting reports
over Nagma's Dlinks
Soon, city's
coastline to have a
new look
Be on guard while
hiring security
guards
16-year-old plots
her way to England
Underworld's role in
Geelani attack
ruled out
The World Social Forum
was born in 2001, as a
counter to
the
World
Economic Forum and to
oppose policies of trade
liberalisation
and
privatisation.
New D-Company:
A law grad, a
priest’s son...
BMC may clear top
ten storeys of 5star hotel
Built around the slogan 'Another World is Possible', it seeks to throw Charitable
up alternatives and responses not just to globalisation, but also issues hospitals: HC
seeks report
like Third World debt, sectarian violence, communalism and war.
This year, US militarism and the war in Iraq have become a major
focus. British MP Jeremy Corbyn, who said he was honoured to be
the only European on stage, claimed Iraq was now "on sale to global
interests".
'Lawyer still runs
fake marriage shop'
Extortionist learnt
tricks of trade in
jail
Gangster gunned
"We have anti-terror laws in the US, the UK, India, everywhere. How down
can the US unleash terror against countries like Afghanistan and
Police lathi-charge,
Iraq?"
arrest diamond
traders' supporters
A rainbow cultural offering matched the multi-cultural masses, with
Sena plays its own
performances from Sufi band Junoon and African dancers.
<< Previous |
Ads by Google
Muslim Matrimonial Photos
Free membership, photo gallery, and more. Meet Muslim singles now.
www.MuslimMatrimonialsNetwork.com
Tamilmatrimony.com
The Leading Tamil Matrimonial A sure success site
www.tamilmatrimony.com
game on Indo-Pak
cricket
Watchman, lover
held for killing 60yr-old
Students take
deadly doses to
'cure' exam fever
Urban jungle set to
invade gaothans
Abstract by
Gaitonde sells for
Rs 92 lakh
Delhi Edition
DAILY DOSE
Beautiful Hindu Singles
News Puzzle
Crosswords
Horoscope
Jokes
Newsletters
www.HeartDetectives.com
Sign In.Surf. Earn
Points
Hot Hindi Singles Here. View Photos and Profiles. Free Fast Signup.
HC puts banks on
notice over strongarm ways
RATE THIS ARTICLE
1 2 3 4 5
�
WinGreat
Prizes
Builders hit
jackpot, city gets
crumbs
1=Poor,2=Mediocre,3=Average, 4=Good,5=Outstanding
COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE
Read all comments
TOP
About Us | For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
Copyright © 2005 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. | Advertise with Us | Careers @ TIL | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Feedback | Sitemap
EDITORIAL
Tuesday, April 27, 2004 | Updated at 03:52 hrs IST
Search
in
Economic Times
Hi Guest, Sign Up.| Sign In
My ET | .Clipping(s)
Indiatimes > The Economic Times > Editorial > Article
Home
News
News By Industry
Companies A-Z
Economy
Politics/Nation
International Business
ET Headlines
Most Read Articles
Markets
Stocks
Forex
Debt / Money
Commodities
Money Matters
Mutual Funds
Insurance
Savings Centre
Loan Centre
Credit Cards
Tax Centre
Law
Corporate Law
Tax Law
Business Law
Personal Law
Property Law
Notifications
Opinion
Columnists
Editorial
Today's Features
Letters to Editor
A gigantic Kumbh Mela for the
Left
VIKRAM DOCTOR
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 2004 12:20:21 AM ]
One of the minor mysteries of the
World Social Forum (WSF) that’s
currently underway in Mumbai is why it
chose to come to India after two
comfortable years in Brazil . The official
explanation is that it needed to
broadbase its campaign against global
capitalism, but it must have been tough
to leave a country — one of the few
these days — with a generally
supportive socialist government for one
where the government was not likely to
be sympathetic.
In the event, the Indian government hasn’t bothered to manifest
hostility to the WSF — perhaps observing that it hardly needs to,
given the amount of hostility the WSF is getting from the Left itself.
It’s rather confusing at the moment, in Mumbai, gauging the nature of
the WSF given the amount of graffiti and posters put up around the
city by anti-WSF forums like Mumbai Resistance and other elements
of the extreme Left with slogans like: “Oppose Imperialism! Oppose
WSF!”
This is somewhat comic, but also rather sad. The WSF deserves
better than becoming the brunt for the factionalism of the Left. Its
Magazines
stated objective of creating a platform for the voices that are often
drowned out on the global stage to enable dialogue and crossThe Sunday ET
Big Bucks: Inv. Guide fertilisation is an excellent one. There are many talented and sincere
Brand Equity
people participating in the WSF and many of the issues being raised
Corporate Dossier
are very important ones like environmentalism, gender issues and the
ET Travel
rights of tribal minorities.
Financial Times
Strategic Marketing
Gen. Mgmt. Review
Times b2b
For NRIs
India on Mobile
Remit2India
Services
Portfolio Tracker
Expert Aid
Bill Pay
Archives
Transact
Medianet
E-Commerce
Auctions
Shopping
Classifieds
Travel Booking
And yet, if one takes that objective of dialogue seriously, one can’t
escape a pervasive sense of pointlessness with the whole enterprise.
Many of us will have had the experience of talking to people involved
with the WSF, or groups linked to it; we are all likely to count friends,
colleagues and people we respect among them. These are people we
know and like and hence they are due a dialogue — and yet how
hard, if not impossible, it is. It quickly becomes clear that dialogue is
only possible as long as you share certain assumptions of the evils of
globalisation, corporation, the United States and several other large
targets for their ire.
EDITORIAL
HEADLINES
The all-time Teflon
diplomat
Through the third
eye
Will the poor be
with us always?
Don't rush in
Do we need a
foreign coach?
Handle with care
Sebi's smi
End of the road
Change of heart ?
Behind the glitter
What price interlinking of rivers?
Will the ban on
tobacco ads
work?
The ban might go
up in smoke
Will the ban on
tobacco ads
work?
The ban on
tobacco ads is but
the first step
Prepare for bigger
government
Vietnam redux
Afternoon with
Achyut
Lethal wastes
Kabhi haan, kabhi
na
Wanted: A stable
government!
Asian century
EC gets carried
Any attempt to suggest that issues can be more nuanced, that it’s not away
all black and white and that these institutions they oppose might
legitimately claim a right to be part of the dialogue, are shot down by
aspersions at your personal integrity or the unverifiable assertions of a
conspiracy theory. If a dialogue is to take place, it can only happen
within the narrow parameters defined by the Left — but what is the
point of that? If the aim of the dialogue that WSF promotes is indeed
to ensure that “another world is possible” (to use the forum’s slogan)
then surely they should particularly include the opposing viewpoints
rather than just talking to themselves?
Continued... 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >>
Related Stories
WSF activists say stop child abuse, save the world
On the move
Loud & clear: anti-war drums
ET Features
Read our features on
management
education, corporate
law, infrastructure,
networking,
automobiles and
more
ET Special Features
Get the complete
collection of our
special features on
Bollywood, cricket,
property and more
The GenNext theme
Don't wait for evolution. Get
with
RATE THIS ARTICLE
1 2 3 4 5
1=Poor, 3=Average, 5=Outstanding
............................................................
COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE
No comment has been posted for this article yet.
TOP
About the Publisher | For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
Copyright © 2004 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. | Advertise with Us | mailto:[email protected] | Terms of Use | Feedback | Sitemap
EDITORIAL
Saturday, February 19, 2005 | Updated at 15:57hrs
Search
IST
in
Economic Times
My ET | .Clipping(s)
Hi Guest , Sign Up.| Sign In
Indiatimes > The Economic Times > Editorial > Article
Home
News
A gigantic Kumbh Mela
for the Left
News By Industry
Companies A-Z
VIKRAM DOCTOR
Economy
Politics/Nation
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 2004 12:20:21
International Business AM]
ET Headlines
Sign in to earn Indiatimes points
Most Read Articles
Continued... << Previous | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >>
Money Matters
The only way I can explain it is to see it ultimately as not
a matter of argument but of faith. The groups that are
taking part in the WSF are now so cut off from the
mainstream dialogue that they have essentially retreated
into a religious position with an object of faith defined by
Markets
its negativity — against the US, against companies,
against globalisation. Like all objects of faith it doesn’t
Stocks
do to examine it too closely — their own links with
Forex
Debt / Money
companies, for example, or the extent to which the tools
Commodities
of globalisation like the Internet or telecommunications
Hot Links
have benefited their own movement.
RSS feeds
Like all matters of faith it cannot be questioned — which
Business Families
is why, unfortunately, like all matters of faith it tends to
BPO
the schismatic. If you aren’t into real dialogue you end
Jobs
up always opposing like all the participants in the antiCars
Earnings
WSF forums, unforgiving of any deviation, probing for
ET Hindi
lapses and points of weakness, more concerned with the
Law
purity within than the larger aims above. Like any faith it
has its messianic preachers — Noam Chomsky,
Corporate Law
Tax Law
Arundhati Roy — to set the fanatic line against
Business Law
backsliding or compromise. And like any faith it seeks
Personal Law
and finds its converts among the ready to rebel young,
Property Law
hence an emphasis at WSF on youth camps and youth
Notifications
volunteers that cane be found with religious cults of
Magazines
every kind.
The Sunday ET
Big Bucks: Inv. Guide This link between the Left and religious belief is nothing
new. South American liberation theologians tried to
Brand Equity
Corporate Dossier
popularise it in the Catholic church before being fairly
ET Travel
brutally silenced by the Pope. It’s been argued that
Financial Times
Sayyid Qutb, the Egyptian ideologue of radical Islam
Strategic Marketing
executed in 1966 who is now described as the father of
Gen. Mgmt. Review
Times b2b
Islamic fundamentalism and the biggest influence on alFor NRIs
Qaida, was strongly influenced by Marxist ideology he
encountered while studying in the west.
India on Mobile
Remit2India
More recently an interesting article in In These Times, a
Chicago based journal of progressive ideas, describes
Opinion
the allure that traditional Christianity is having for
Columnists
Marxists left adrift by the collapse of communist regimes.
Editorial
Today's Features
Abandoned by the what they believed in most strongly
Letters to Editor
it’s not surprising they look to religions which, their
Services
embarrassing social aspects apart, certainly do
understand faith. If nothing else, this explains why so
Tenders
Portfolio Tracker
many on the Left find it easy to overlook aspects of
Portfolio in Email
fundamentalist Islam they would otherwise be howling
Expert Aid
about — the repression of women, the lack of free
Invest Online
speech — in their embrace of its cause against the US.
Archives
Transact
Continued... << Previous | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >>
Mutual Funds
Insurance
Savings Centre
Loan Centre
Credit Cards
Tax Centre
Medianet
E-Commerce
Related Stories
Ads by Google
Why outsource to India?
You can get high quality software from Brazil at a
competive price.
www.tecnosource.com
BPO Evaluation Centre
UK's Leading Guide to IT and Business Process
Outsourcing
www.evaluationcentre.com
Freelance Coders $10/hr
C++, Java, .Net, PHP, Perl, Palm Easy outsourcing, get
started today
www.odesk.com
Please fill in the form and we will contact you for more
details
Mr.
E-mail Id
First name
City
Last name
Country
Phone No./ Mobile
Countr
Learn More
Area c
Send Money Now
EDITORIAL
HEADLINES
Number
Chat Now
Auctions
Shopping
Classifieds
Travel Booking
On to Basel II
On the move
Step by step
Loud & clear: anti-war drums
Corporate blog power
The GenNext theme
The democratisation of aid
‘Indo-Austrian ties are ever growing’
Sign In.Surf. Earn
Points
WinGreat
Prizes
Print this
Mail this article
article
Comment on this article
Satyagrahis' right to defy law
Textiles deserve better
RATE THIS ARTICLE
1 2 3 4 5
1=Poor, 3=Average, 5=Outstanding
............................................................
For environment -friendly growth
Turn of the screw
A bonanza for the Indian farmers?
COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE
No comment has been posted for this article yet.
TOP
About Us | For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
Copyright © 2005 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. | Advertise with Us | Careers @ TIL | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Feedback | Sitemap
EDITORIAL
Saturday, February 19, 2005 | Updated at 15:57hrs
Search
IST
in
Economic Times
My ET | .Clipping(s)
Hi Guest , Sign Up.| Sign In
Indiatimes > The Economic Times > Editorial > Article
Home
News
A gigantic Kumbh Mela
for the Left
News By Industry
Companies A-Z
VIKRAM DOCTOR
Economy
Politics/Nation
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 2004 12:20:21
International Business AM]
ET Headlines
Sign in to earn Indiatimes points
Most Read Articles
<< Previous | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Money Matters
Mutual Funds
Insurance
Savings Centre
Loan Centre
Credit Cards
Tax Centre
Markets
Stocks
Forex
Debt / Money
Commodities
Hot Links
RSS feeds
Business Families
BPO
Jobs
Cars
Earnings
ET Hindi
Law
Corporate Law
Tax Law
Business Law
Personal Law
Property Law
Notifications
Magazines
The Sunday ET
Big Bucks: Inv. Guide
Brand Equity
Corporate Dossier
ET Travel
Financial Times
Strategic Marketing
Gen. Mgmt. Review
Times b2b
For NRIs
India on Mobile
Remit2India
Opinion
Columnists
Editorial
Today's Features
Letters to Editor
Viewed this way, the decision to locate the WSF in India
makes sense. Where else to go but this country the
fount and repository of belief of every kind. (Perhaps this
explains why the BJP government hasn’t bothered to
attack the WSF — they recognise fellow traffickers in
faith-based politics). What is the WSF then other than a
gigantic Kumbh Mela for the Left, a place to come,
immerse oneself, have ones sins washed away?
For a few days you can drink kokam sharbat to atone for
all the Coke you’ve drunk (just wish it went as well with
rum), eat organic, sun-cooked snacks instead of fastfood offerings (banish the lingering sense that it all
tastes like cardboard) and believe in the promises of the
possible world to come (without thinking too closely if
possible equates desirable). Then its back to the real
world outside, to live with its daily temptations and
challenges until next year, next location, next time to
renew your faith.
<< Previous | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Ads by Google
icici bank india
NRIs - Convenient home loans 5 Lakhs to Rs 100 Lakhs
in 7 days
www.icicibank.com/nri
Investors: profit in 2005
Economic news - the facts & where you should put your
money
info.moneyweek.com
IT Ticker
Real data in real time delivered to your desktop. Free
download!
ITtoolbox.com
Please fill in the form and we will contact you for more
details
Mr.
E-mail Id
City
Learn More
Area c
Send Money Now
On the move
Loud & clear: anti-war drums
The GenNext theme
Print this
Mail this article
article
Comment on this article
RATE THIS ARTICLE
1 2 3 4 5
1=Poor, 3=Average, 5=Outstanding
............................................................
COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE
No comment has been posted for this article yet.
Services
Tenders
Portfolio Tracker
Portfolio in Email
Expert Aid
Invest Online
Archives
Transact
Medianet
E-Commerce
Last name
Country
Phone No./ Mobile
Countr
Related Stories
First name
EDITORIAL
HEADLINES
Number
Chat Now
Auctions
Shopping
Classifieds
Travel Booking
On to Basel II
Step by step
Corporate blog power
The democratisation of aid
‘Indo-Austrian ties are ever growing’
Sign In.Surf. Earn
Points
WinGreat
Prizes
Satyagrahis' right to defy law
Textiles deserve better
For environment -friendly growth
Turn of the screw
A bonanza for the Indian farmers?
TOP
About Us | For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
Copyright © 2005 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. | Advertise with Us | Careers @ TIL | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Feedback | Sitemap
EDITORIAL
Tuesday, April 27, 2004 | Updated at 03:52 hrs IST
Search
in
Economic Times
Hi Guest, Sign Up.| Sign In
My ET | .Clipping(s)
Indiatimes > The Economic Times > Editorial > Article
Home
News
News By Industry
Companies A-Z
Economy
Politics/Nation
International Business
ET Headlines
Most Read Articles
Markets
Stocks
Forex
Debt / Money
Commodities
Money Matters
Mutual Funds
Insurance
Savings Centre
Loan Centre
Credit Cards
Tax Centre
Law
Corporate Law
Tax Law
Business Law
Personal Law
Property Law
Notifications
Opinion
Columnists
Editorial
Today's Features
Letters to Editor
The global anti-globalisers
PRADEEP S MEHTA
[ SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 2004 03:02:43 AM ]
Curtains have come down on the
alternate stage, the World Social
Forum. There was nothing much which
came out, though over a hundred
thousand people from all over the world
converged at Mumbai to look for an
alternative to the existing world order.
Not that everyone who was there had
any inkling about what they came there
for. It was a jamboree and as was
dubbed by some, another Kumbh Mela.
At the Kumbh Mela, which happens
once in 12 years, people come with the
faith that a dip in the holy confluence would wash away their sins. At
Mumbai, it was someone else’s sins that people had gathered to wash
away. It was organised chaos, to say the least.
The WSF was conceptualised as an alternative to the World Economic
Forum. But the differences are too many. Firstly, the organising
committee for the social forum is an amorphous lot of activists, who
may not necessarily agree with each other on most things. Secondly,
the agenda is negative rather than positive. No implementable
alternate agenda is put across. A jamboree is held, which puts across
ridiculous ideas and ludicrous proposals, and globalisation is
condemned as being absolutely bad.
EDITORIAL
HEADLINES
The all-time Teflon
diplomat
Through the third
eye
Will the poor be
with us always?
Don't rush in
Do we need a
foreign coach?
Handle with care
Sebi's smi
End of the road
Change of heart ?
Behind the glitter
What price interlinking of rivers?
Will the ban on
tobacco ads
work?
The ban might go
up in smoke
Will the ban on
tobacco ads
Many debates were held among the converted, yet there was little work?
Magazines
The ban on
agreement on each of them. Perhaps, one issue which had a tobacco ads is but
The Sunday ET
Big Bucks: Inv. Guide universal appeal was the increasing US hegemony, of which Iraq is the first step
but one symbol. Somehow, anything which is associated with
Brand Equity
for bigger
Corporate Dossier
Americans gets lumped into the larger globalisation debate. However, Prepare
government
ET Travel
the very construct of the meeting on such a large scale is but due to
Financial Times
globalisation. The communication infrastructure at the WSF, Vietnam redux
Strategic Marketing
international transport used by protesters from across the world, use Afternoon with
Gen. Mgmt. Review
Times b2b
of English as the link language, use of international money for all their Achyut
For NRIs
spending and the vast coverage for the event by most media
channels, sums up the equation as: “Anti globalisation with the help of Lethal wastes
India on Mobile
globalisation”.
Remit2India
Kabhi haan, kabhi
Services
Portfolio Tracker
Expert Aid
Bill Pay
Archives
Transact
Medianet
E-Commerce
Auctions
Shopping
Classifieds
Travel Booking
na
Most of the tourist activists came here on international funding, some
of which are indirectly linked to funds from international financial
institutions and large American companies and philanthropists.
Arundhati Roy in her opening address spoke about targeting some of
the US companies that have benefited from the Iraq war and of
closing their offices world-wide. Though the Iraq war raises a genuine
concern against the increasing US hegemony, would it be wise to shut
down TNCs who employ millions of people all over the world? If one
endorses the idea of hurting a US company, wouldn’t boycott be a
better response, if it can be successful? In any case, imposing the
same view on others would represent totalitarianism.
Most WSF delegates were not even sure why they were there?
Rayban sunglasses, Nokia cell phones, Nike and Reebok shoes were
a common sight at the WSF and interestingly worn by the same
people who were stridently voicing anti-globalisation slogans. Most
organisations are not even expected to maintain any leftist or rightist
ideologies. The fight against child labour can be as well fought in
today’s globalised world as in a world without TNCs, WTO or World
Bank. Similarly protests over rights of the poor and marginalised can
be heard in both a neo-liberal and a non-liberal world. Several
organisations dealing with the marginalised and the underprivileged
Wanted: A stable
government!
Asian century
EC gets carried
away
ET Features
Read our features on
management
education, corporate
law, infrastructure,
networking,
automobiles and
more
ET Special Features
Get the complete
collection of our
special features on
Bollywood, cricket,
property and more
were protesting against globalisation. Corporates and international
NGOs are the major funders of these NGOs. Probably these NGOs
would be the biggest losers if anti-globalisation and anti-TNC fantasies
ever came true.
A disturbing trend was the use of WSF as a podium for promoting the
ideologies of communist and socialist parties. The same communist
parties have more or less become pro-liberal in Kerala and West
Bengal , or in Vietnam and China . They have changed after realising
that they have failed to live up to the promises of full employment and
better living conditions. The emphasis on liberty and economic
freedom over security has led to the rejection of communism and
socialism all over the world. The so-called torch bearers at the WSF
proposed another world, but failed to realise that in a society where
the ideal is next to impossible, any other alternative to liberalism would
be a disaster.
Joseph Stiglitz used a good expression: “Protest the wrongs!
Celebrate the opportunities”. Instead of merely painting the whole of
globalisation as imperialist and unfair, one should target the problems,
provide alternatives, market those alternatives and instead of making
another world possible, create a better world of the present.
A good way of looking at the WSF is in the form of balancing the
increasing tilt towards capitalism as an ideal. The WSF brings to the
forefront the need for countries to superimpose their development
objectives over liberalisation objectives. An organisation from Korea
“Globalise from Below” was protesting against the forced liberalisation
brought about by the IMF and World Bank. Similarly another NGO
organised an event against water privatisation. An Indian NGO
launched a movement against the dumping of GM seeds by US
companies. These are the voices of change that question the method
of globalisation as against the phenomenon of globalisation and this is
the right approach. If you ask for a yard you get an inch. Similarly if
the WSF challenges the existence of globalisation, of international
financial institutions and of capitalism, the least they can achieve is
that policy makers would review their decisions from the view of a
marginalised farmer who is contemplating suicide after his Monsantosupplied seeds failed.
For all those messiahs who preach that the world should be more
socially concerned than economically, I can but rely on what Adam
Smith said many moons ago: “It is not from the benevolence of the
butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from
their regard to their own self-interest”.
(The author is the Secretary General of the Jaipur-based CUTS
Centre for International Trade, Economics and Environment)
Don't wait for evolution. Get
RATE THIS ARTICLE
1 2 3 4 5
1=Poor, 3=Average, 5=Outstanding
............................................................
COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE
with
No comment has been posted for this article yet.
TOP
About the Publisher | For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
Copyright © 2004 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. | Advertise with Us | mailto:[email protected] | Terms of Use | Feedback | Sitemap
EDITORIAL
Tuesday, April 27, 2004 | Updated at 03:52 hrs IST
Search
in
Economic Times
Indiatimes> The Economic Times > Editorial > Article
Home
News
News By
Industry
Companies A-Z
Economy
Politics/Nation
International
Business
ET Headlines
Most Read
Articles
Markets
Stocks
Forex
Debt / Money
Commodities
Money Matters
Mutual Funds
Insurance
Savings Centre
Loan Centre
Credit Cards
Tax Centre
Law
Corporate Law
Tax Law
Business Law
Personal Law
Property Law
Notifications
Opinion
Columnists
Editorial
Today's
Features
Letters to Editor
Magazines
The Sunday ET
Big Bucks: Inv.
Guide
Brand Equity
Corporate
Dossier
ET Travel
Financial Times
Strategic
Marketing
Gen. Mgmt.
Is the World Social Forum relevant?
WSF activists are selling dreams as reality
BARUN MITRA
[ FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2004 01:03:27 AM ]
It was quite appropriate that the WSF was held in Bombay:
Bollywood dream merchants are mostly honest about the nature
of their products — to create an illusion, as far removed from
reality as possible. WSF activists seek to sell their illusion as
reality.
EDITORIAL
HEADLINES
The all-time
Teflon
diplomat
Through the
third eye
Will the poor
be with us
In this the WSF is either dishonest about the true nature of their always?
products or have become completely blind to the real world.
Don't rush in
They are ardent critics of global corporate brands, yet the icons
Do we need a
of protest movements, from Che Guevara to Naomi Klein and
foreign coach?
Arundhati Roy, have all become logos. They have mastered
modern communication technologies to create their global Handle with
networks, yet do not want modern technologies to reach the care
masses. They are masters at marketing themselves, yet spare no
efforts to restrict the market. They thrive on donated capital, Sebi's smi
particularly foreign capital, yet oppose anyone else having End of the
access to capital. They are against profit motive, yet have road
perfected the art of generating profits out of nothing. They
freely trade and network with each other, yet want to deny Change of
people the same freedoms, ignoring that poverty is caused by heart?
too little, and not too much, trade. They talk of significance of Behind the
government in social sectors like education and health, yet glitter
ignore that it is government intervention and subsidies that have
severely restricted access of the poor to such basic services — What price
education, health, water or electricity, while at the same time inter-linking
of rivers?
making private investment in these areas almost impossible.
WSF activists are the new empire builders who have no qualms
about profiting out of poverty. The greater the poverty, bigger
the scare in society, the greater the opportunity to expand their
own empire. Not surprisingly, for all their avowed concerns for
the poor, they hold the poor in utter contempt. They do not
recognise the right of the poor to decide for themselves. For all
its inner contradictions, WSF protest lobbies help us cherish our
freedoms. While they do not respect freedom of others, without
freedom there can be no protest. So when these products of
globalisation protest against globalisation, the rest of us can
only appreciate the strength and resiliency of freedom —
political and economic.
(The author is Director Liberty Institute)
Will the ban on
tobacco ads work?
The ban might
go up in
smoke
Will the ban on
tobacco ads work?
The ban on
tobacco ads is
but the first
step
Prepare for
bigger
government
Vietnam redux
Don't wait for evolution. Get
with
Afternoon
with Achyut
Lethal wastes
Kabhi haan,
ET Features
Read our features on
management
education, corporate
law, infrastructure,
networking,
automobiles and more
ET Special Features
Get the complete
collection of our
special features on
Bollywood, cricket,
property and more
kabhi na
Times b2b
For NRIs
Wanted: A
stable
government!
India on Mobile
Remit2India
Services
Portfolio
Tracker
Expert Aid
Bill Pay
Archives
Transact
Medianet
E-Commerce
Asian century
RATE THIS ARTICLE
1 2 3 4 5
EC gets
carried away
1=Poor, 3=Average, 5=Outstanding
............................................................
COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE
No comment has been posted for this article yet.
Auctions
Shopping
Classifieds
Travel Booking
TOP
About the Publisher | For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
Copyright © 2004 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. | Advertise with Us | mailto:[email protected] | Terms of Use |
Feedback | Sitemap
Thursday, February 05, 2004
Today's
Supplement
Metro Life
Science and
Technology
Today's Edition
Front Page
Deccan Herald » Edit Page » Full Story
MAIN ARTICLE
WSF convention in Mumbai and after
Voice through cacophony
By PUNYAPRIYA DASGUPTA
Why are some intellectuals scared out of their wits by such a nonmilitant organisation as the World Social Forum?
Search DH
News
National
State
District
City
Business
Foreign
Sports
Edit Page
Supplements
Economy & Business
Metro Life - Mon
Spectrum
Sportscene
DH Avenues
Metro Life - Thurs
Science & Technology
Living
She
Open Sesame
Metro Life - Sat
Sunday Herald
Sunday Spotlight
Foreign Panorama
Articulations
Entertainment
Advertisements
Deccan
International School
FLOWERS to
Bangalore, Chennai,
Delhi , Hyderabad,
Mumbai, Pune,
Kolkata, India Wide
Reviews
Book Reviews
Movie Reviews
Art Reviews
Other Headlines
Nuclear deals »
Kerala capers »
Voice through cacophony »
STF in new garb »
Of lobbies, populism &
sops in rail budget »
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
»
FROM OUR FILES 50
YEARS AGO »
Those who have likened the World Social Forum’s fourth annual global assembly in Mumbai
last month to a Kumbh Mela have a point. Certain similarities in the two events are
undeniable. By the applicable standards — of international political rallies in one case and of
religious congregations in the other — both are colossal gatherings. Both are immeasurably
diverse in their crowd compositions and yet retain their own essential unity. At Kumbh
Hindus wash themselves in some sacred river on an auspicious day in the belief that
moksha will be attainable.
Tens of thousands from all over the world have been thronging the venue of the WSF
conference every January in the hope that their presence will help in finding a way —
elusive so far — towards a more equitable world. In Mumbai this time nearly 80,000
delegates of 206 organisations came from 132 countries and as they went about their 1200
conferences, panels, seminars, workshops, cultural activities, designed to spread the
message that “another world is possible”, some more thousands, mainly locals, watched.
Such an event is too big to be ignored. True, the outcome came nowhere near a beginning
in mapping a route to an alternative to the present iniquitous world system driven by
capitalism and globalsation. No such miracle was expected. But that is no reason why a
vitriolic campaign should have been unleashed to discredit the WSF’s aims and conferences.
Several commentators suddenly felt inspired to place their resources and skills at the
disposal of a no-holds-barred propaganda campaign against the search for an alternative to
the present dominant pattern of economic and social organisation and those engaged in it.
One attack, delivered through the columns of a New Delhi-based national daily, begins:
“For those of you uninitiated in the alternative world, the word NGO is extremely sacred. It
is about a collection of people who work for the poor, live with the rich and pretend to
change the world to make it a better place for themselves.”
NGOs or non-governmental organisations have been identified as the villain behind the
WSF. Their constituents dress themselves in “minimalist clothing... they call it bikinis or
swim suits” and “get out of air-conditioned cars only when there is a battery of
photographers”.
A toddler
Judged by age alone, the WSF is a toddler. Its existence dates from 2001, when a handful
of not-so-well-known Brazilians with some French intellectual input succeeded in launching
it in Porto Alegre in their country. The aim was to open a meeting place where civil groups
and non-military movements opposed to neoliberalism and a world dominated by capitalism
pursue their thinking, debate ideas democratically, formulate proposals, share experiences
and network for effective action. To attract the widest possible participation it was also
stipulated that the WSF would not promote campaigns nor produce declarations or even
final documents. The Forum was determined from the beginning not to become a locus of
power which could be disputed by participants in encounters.
This position was strictly adhered to at all the three annual assemblies at Porto Alegre and
made possible the huge gathering in Mumbai this year where the participants – from Nobel
Weekly Horoscope
Year's Horoscope
Previous
Editions
Yesterday's Edition
Archives
Others
DH Cartoon
DH Classifieds
Weather
About Us
Advertisement Details
Subscribe to Deccan
Herald
Send your
Suggestions / Queries
about the Website to
the
Webmaster
For enquiries on
advertisements &
responses :
Contact Us
laureates like Joseph Stiglitz of the USA and Shirin Ebadi of Iran to street children of India
and eunuchs from Bangladesh brought for discussion every conceivable counsel or cause.
The proceedings in Mumbai could not, most of the time, then have sounded anything but
cacophonous. And yet a clear agreed voice emerged: A reiteration of the determination to
continue the search for a world free from capitalist domination and a condemnation of wars
and threats of more wars. In spite of the Forum’s inflexible rule of authorising no action
programmes, the leading lights succeeded in calling for global protests on March 20, the
Iraq War anniversary.
By its charter principle the WSF is a talk shop. This has laid it open to attacks from the left
such as the one in the form of the Mumbai Resistance, a small parallel rally organised by
those usually identified as Maoists.
Leftist activists and extremists allege that WSF is a clever creation of the capitalists to act
as a safety valve for the resentment to globalsation, neoliberalism and imperialism building
up globally. These critics have no doubt that NGOs are used to control the Forum.
Universal truth
The same NGOs are being assailed from the right for what is seen as their failure to
convince all the socially-conscious segments of the world that globalsation as promoted by
economic powers like the USA, the EU and Japan through agencies such as the WTO, the
World Bank and the IMF, is the only universal and unalterable truth. That is why an article
by the editor of a women’s magazine, carried by another New Delhi-centred national daily,
proclaimed after the WSF session in Mumbai had ended: “WTO belongs to a New World and
represents a major historic paradigm shift away from 19th and 20th century imperial
domination in world trade.” This preacher wants us to believe that “the Third and Second
(sic) World countries can muster enough clout as a collectivity, on account of their
numerical advantage, to take on the superpowers (sic)”.
A professor from Thiruvananthapuram also tried to plead, in the same paper, for the WTO
and advised us, Indians, to be thankful about the benefits that accrued to us from the
colonial domination of our country in the past. Some of our intellectuals have been scared
out of their wits by even such a non-militant organisation as the WSF and only because it
is helping the voice against globalsation to be raised and heard rounds the world.
Copyright 2004, The Printers (Mysore) Private Ltd., 75, M.G. Road, Post Box No 5331, Bangalore 560001
Tel: +91 (80) 5880000 Fax No. +91 (80) 5880523
INDIA
TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2004
THE TIMES OF INDIA
POWERED BY
INDIATIMES
Hi Guest, Sign Up.| Clipping(s) | My TOI | Sign In
Search
The Times of India
Indiatimes
Web
Indiatimes > The Times of India > India > Article
Home
CLASSIFIEDS
Matrimonial | Jobs
Real Estate | Auto
Post Print Ads
All Classifieds
HOT LINKS
ePaper
Bollywood
NRI News
Indo-Pak Ties
The BPO Wave
Elections 2004
US presidency
NEWS
Cities
City Supplements
India
Sports
Weather
World
Entertainment
India Business
Intl Business
Obituary
Infotech
Health/Science
Photo Gallery
TOI Headlines
Top Media Headlines
Most Read Articles
Best of the Week
Archives
OPINION
Columnists
Editorial
Interview
Letters to Editor
SUNDAY SPECIALS
All That Matters
Men & Women
Mind Over Matter
Open Space
Special Report
NRI SERVICES
India on Mobile
Remit2India
SUPPLEMENTS
Education Times
PRINT EDITION
Delhi Edition
DAILY DOSE
News Puzzle
Crosswords
Horoscope
Jokes
Newsletters
Send to friend
HEADLINES
Transexuals give WSF cracker of a INDIA
Militants attack
former minister
show
MEENAKSHI SHEDDE
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 2004 08:18:12 AM ]
MUMBAI: No-one who saw Prima
Donna perform on Sunday night will
forget them in a hurry. A Malaysian
dance troupe that includes transexual
and homosexuals, Prima Donna brought
firecracker ammo to the World Social
Forum, its ineffably attractive singers
and sinous dancers oozing panache.
Our effete Page Three namunas could
certainly take tips from the articulate
Regina Ibrahim, in flaming red lipstick,
shimmering earrings, and a long,
spaghetti strap white gown completely
smothered with sequins, counterpointed by her bass, smoky voice.
They were a revelation, and a far cry from India’s transexual and
hijras — the latter usually a highly exploited lot, with whom the middle
class public interacts only when they are busy shooing them away at
traffic lights or chucking coins at them to hastily erase them from their
mindscapes.
'I feel bad for
Congress and its
president'
Dinner for India's
top politicians
SC quashes
warrants issued
against President,
CJI
NDA will get
comforatable
majority: Venkaiah
Train rams school
bus, 4 killed
SC sets norms for
private schools
Part -time infantry
on long-term job
Young guns fire on
biz power
Vajpayee to
campaign in
Lucknow on
Tuesday
Khartini, who heads the Malaysian group, works with an organisation
Atal attraction
called Pink Triangle that deals with issues of gender and sexuality.
swings down
Prima donna includes performance artists, people living with
HIV/AIDS, sex workers and HIV consultants. Khartini says she has
been a consultant on AIDS/HIV issues for 18 years and is Asia Pacific
coordinator for the network of sex workers, as well as the chair of an
international network of sex workers.
There were a large number of sex workers in the audience, and it was
good for them to see what sexually marginalised people in other
nations are up to. All the more remarkable, considering Malaysia is an
Islamic nation.
Asked if awareness campaigns on AIDS/HIV had significantly helped
raise their profile and make them more acceptable in society, Khartini
says, ‘‘Of course. Especially in Asia, where there is high illiteracy,
people prefer to use culture and entertainment to get their message
across. People get bored at seminars and we’re a lot more
entertaining. After all, we are not asking for special rights, just equal
rights — to treatment, jobs, like anyone else.’’
SC refuses to ban
exit polls
21 pc come out
and vote in
Srinagar
Sporadic violence
rocks Phase II
Will President lend
an ear to
Chautala?
Bofors case: CBI
team on 5-nation
tour
Vaiko poll-star in
DMK-led alliance's
campaign
Vote for BPL cards
Low turnout spells
Regina believes sex workers play a valuable role in society ‘‘because bad news for BJP
they bring down sex crimes in any culture. And I told the hijras I met
in Mumbai we need them for a peaceful life, for the development of Missing, missing,
missing
nations.’’
Mulayam the king-
Like transgender people in many cultures, she supports her family. ‘‘I maker?
have six sisters and have helped get them educated and married. My
parents don’t support me but they don’t exactly say no either. It’s
easier for them to accept what I do when I show them a videotape of
my shows and my fans, as well as my paintings — I recently had a
solo show of my paintings.’’
Says their manager Tan Dicky, ‘‘I manage the careers of men, women
and transexual. I find the transexual easiest to deal. Men and women
are plastic — you have to praise them all the time. Women,
especially, often demand to be treated first class, but transexual are
just as talented and are more concerned about putting on a good
show.’’
Regina parting shot for Mumbai: ‘‘We deliver. We make people happy.
Take us for what we are. Maybe the time has come to wake up and
smell the coffee — and discover it’s really nice.”
SEND GIFTS TO INDIA
Flowers & Gifts
Delivered the
same day
Jewellery in
Gold,
Diamond, Pearl
& more
more>>
BUY
Don't wait for evolution. Get
with
NEWS YOU CAN USE
• 3Com to hire 100 in
Sensational
Sachin at
World Cup
2003 VCD @
Rs. 145, DVD
@ Rs. 499
Hyderabad
• H-1B visas may go up by 20k
• Protect your kin, pick wisely
more >>
SPOTLIGHT
Film Reviews
RATE THIS ARTICLE
1 2 3 4 5
TOONSCAPE
By Ajit Ninan
1=Poor,2=Mediocre,3=Average, 4=Good,5=Outstanding
COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE
No comment has been posted for this article yet.
TOP
About the Publisher | For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
Copyright © 2004 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. | Advertise with Us | mailto:[email protected] | Terms of Use | Feedback | Sitemap
Watching Media in the Subcontinent
The more the media matters, the more we must track what it does.
http://www.thehoot.org
Home
Discussion Board
Media Watch
Media Resources
Media Law
Right to Information
Views from the Region
Media Ethics
Media on Media
Media Research
Press Freedom
Media & Conflict
Media Activism
Media & Gender
Development Reporting
Grassroots Media
Community Radio
Regional Media
Media and disability
New Media
For Readers/Viewers
For Journalists
For Journalism Students
Media Jobs
Who we are
Why this website
Support us
Feedback
Letters to the hoot
Media Statistics
Indo-Pak Monitoring
Who we are | Why this website | Support us | Contact us | Advertise
Development Reporting
1
3/27/2004
An opportunity lost at the World Social Forum
A comparison of the coverage by the English and the language press
in Karnataka state reveals that the real constituency of the WSF
never got to hear about its proceedings.
Shangon Das Gupta
‘Another world is possible’………………For five days in January this year, a
humungous mass of people met at Mumbai to protest against free trade,
structural adjustment and express their dissent on the growing income
disparities and social conflict. With over 1,00,000 people converging to
reiterate the need for another world, the Mumbai experience highlighted a
progressive increase in numbers from the previous 20,000 to 50,0000
participants in the meets held at Purto Alegre (Brazil).
The WSF at Mumbai emerged as a "growing global movement against trade
liberalization and privatization, held together by grassroots groups, trade
unions, NGOs and artistes." As former President Dr. K.R.Narayan put it on
the closing day, "The end of the WSF is the beginning of a new form of
world."
The five day fare
Over one lakh people, 130 organisations, 130 countries, 1200 workshops,
600 exhibitions stalls spread over 150 seminar halls, five conference halls,
seven performance stages for cultural events, films, (the numbers are
not exact, but are only indicative of the scale) came together in a spirit of
voluntary participation to raise their concerns, dissent and even protest.
Exhibitions, seminars, panel discussions, conferences, rallies, morchas,
street plays, film screenings, protests, exhibitions and sales filled the five
days with an unprecedented colour and energy.
Issues as wide-ranging as mobility access, to sexual rights to anti-war
movements and the ruling orthodoxy in the economic world, found their
space at the WSF. Experiences were discussed, ideas exchanged, and
alternatives identified. Gandhians, free thinkers, anarchists, socialists,
anti-imperialists, peaceniks, feminists, human right workers, disability
groups, sexual right activists, and social workers - they were all there to
celebrate the pluralism of a democratic world.
At the end of five days, the groups wend their way homewards, tired yet
exhilarated, to start their work towards building ‘another world’. The oncein-a lifetime experience of solidarity absorbed by those who were able to
make it to Mumbai ……. members of civil society who were able to put
their lives on hold as they joined shoulders with others to voice their
concern, protest, dissent and celebrate.
As expected, the mainstream press reported on the WSF meetings. About
3000 media personnel were present to cover the event and report back to
their constituencies on the mood of the world’s greatest show of dissent.
Some stationed full-time reporters, correspondents and photographers.
Though two-third of this number were from the ‘alternate media’, the fact
that major publications positioned dedicated correspondents at the specially
erected media centre was significant.
Sobering facts
So then, what did the media do? A random look at the newspaper
coverage reveals that the media regarded the WSF as an annual feature of
global dissent on the political calender. The writings were mostly news
reports, sometimes bordering on curiosity, and at other times patronising
towards a group of well-meaning mavericks who had to be indulged for the
sake of political correctness. Nonconformists, perhaps even anarchists and
deviants who demanded attention. Contrary to this, those present at the
WSF strongly aver that the event was not made up of reactionaries who
used the forum to promote anarchist methods against the Northern rich.
We, at CDL(Communication for Development and Learning), undertook a
compilation of the news coverage of the event in Karnataka over the fiveday period (16.1.04 - 23-1.04). Four language dailies were scanned and
the same number of English newspapers. All the English newspapers were
multi-city editions, except for one (DH) which was a state-based
newspaper. The break-up of the nature of coverage reveals (See Table
One)
16th Jan to 23rd Jan 2004
News Articles Editorial Letters
The Hindu
The New Indian Express
The Asian Age
The Times of India
Deccan Herald
Prajavani
13
3
1
4
21
4
2
1
1
8
12
2
1
3
2
1
15
3
9
17
1
18
10
1
11
59
9
6
8
82
While most of the coverage naturally revolved around the newsmakers and
the big names at the WSF, there were some interesting asides which
included a story on the t-shirts at sale and the music and dance carnival.
Each of the publications carried an Editorial and the use of visuals was
lavish and interesting. The Hindu went an extra mile when the Jan 18
edition carried the complete text of the speech made by Arundhati Roy at
the opening Plenary session. Also significant was that this was reproduced
was within the main edition (Page 14).
This database includes the attention given to the unfortunate case of rape
which immediately became a point of media attention. Of the 70 clippings
in English, 9 were on the rape case and one in kannada. While the rape
case cast a shadow on the event, this was interpreted in every hue and
colour possible.
An unexpected finding was the fact that of the four newspapers scanned in
the language press published from Bangalore, only ONE newspaper carried
news about the WSF. Three of the leading editions did not make any
reference to the ‘world’s biggest show of dissent’.
We also undertook a comparative assessment of the coverage in the city
edition of the Deccan Herald and that of the only language dailies that
carried news on the WSF. What did this reveal? There were 18 news
items in DH and 11 in PV. All were news-based and around events
organized during the day. The use of photographs was extensive in the
English paper while the language edition had little visual relief. Each of the
newspapers carried an editorial and no letters to the editor was noted.
Neither paper gave emphasis to the rape case nor its implications and
treated this as yet another event. Interestingly, 6 of the articles in PV
were placed on page one though two of these were continued within the
edition (page 8). In the DH only 2 clippings were positioned on page one,
though one of these was the main photo with a caption.
Melting pot of DIVersity
But contrary to the limited media mix of the coverage, the participants at
the WSF believe that there were much deeper complexities at work during
the event. The focus of the WSF was to draw attention on the economic
order where the terms of global trade and investment are skewed in favour
of the rich countries. It was also a forum to celebrate the DIVersity of a
world rich in variety, opinions, voices and perspectives. The farmers,
people with disability, child rights groups, women’s groups, displaced,
tribals, war victims, all had a point of view which was expressed fearlessly.
The statement that development strategies should be people-centred, not
dictated by markets and profits, that livelihoods need to be sustainable and
not based on the prototypes dictated, manufactured and marketed by the
multinationals, and that the interests of the wealthy and powerful cannot
be imposed on a world rich in DIVersity, emerged out of this melting pot of
inDIVidual perspectives.
If the participants at the WSF came together to represent and protect the
interests of the marginalized, the poor, the tribals, dalits and the landless,
were these adequately represented? For every one person who was able
to make it to the mela, there were hundred others who could not. If
these groups were the very reasons behind the WSF agenda, were efforts
made to include them in their absence? To inform them of the discussions
and the decisions being taken? Of the importance to sustain their
involvement on the issues that affected their very existence?
This is where the media had a critical role to play. Particularly the
language press. The NRS surveys clearly indicate that the reach of the
vernacular press is far greater than that of the English press. Karnataka
has several newspapers with a state-wide circulation and a district-based
readership; then there are others which are largely city based.
Yet little effort was made to inform the vast numbers who were not
present at the WSF. Our evidence states that only one language
newspaper in the state carried news reports on the WSF. Now that the
talking is over, the constituencies will not be wrong when they question,
"Is another world possible only for those who read English or were able to
travel to Mumbai?"
The fact that only one language newspaper in the state chose to include
news about the five-day event in the editorial content is a sobering
indicator of the lop-sided focus of the media attention.
That this
newspaper is the sister publication of the leading English daily in the state
which positioned one correspondent at Mumbai for the entire period is a
side issue. The point is that this language publication very early recognized
both, the importance of the WSF and its relevance to the rural readers as
well as the need for pluralistic content in its pages. Defining local news
content was the first message against globalisation !
So while the World Economic Forum was covered, the Editors ensured that
the WSF also got equal importance. In fact, the editorial comment on the
last day of the WSF stated, "The World Economic Forum (WEF) where
some of the world’s most powerful political and business leaders meet,
has commenced its annual conference at Davos. The kinds of worlds
envisioned by the WSF and the WEF are poles apart. The WEF vision
needs correction and its delegates would do well to heed the call that has
come out of the WSF meet." (DH 22 Jan 04)
That the meet was held in India where fractured civil society and DIVisions
on political lines are dominant facets of its society, had a significance
beyond the five-day event. That this implies a responsibility to reach the
discussions of the WSF to the ultimate constituency needed to have been
addressed much earlier.
Putting together such a humungous forum, both in terms of the resources
involved and the logistics was not an easy job, and one that can not be
repeated in a hurry. Can this then be regarded as an ‘opportunity lost’ in
engaging with the mass of humanity that cannot be ignored.
Communication with the masses, albeit at a tertiary level, would have
indicated quite clearly not just that ‘another world is possible’, but that
"another world is happening."
That efforts within the media could not address this sooner, by engaging
with the language press, is probably the greatest casualty of this enormous
event.
Shangon Das Gupta runs Communication for Development and Learning.
Contact: [email protected]
1
Print Story
Email this story
Copyright © 2000 Media Foundation
All rights reserved world wide. Standard disclaimers applicable
The use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of
Media Foundation's Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy
Site best viewed at a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels
Our Technology Partner : 4Cplus