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On the US Decision of Withdrawing Combat Troops from Iraq
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On the US Decision of Withdrawing Combat Troops from Iraq
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Images and Politics in Peepli Live
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On the US Decision of Withdrawing Combat Troops from Iraq
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On the US Decision of Withdrawing Combat Troops from Iraq
i agree with the author, the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq is a step in the right direction. however it is just the initial step and hopefully more would be done or rather needs to be done. As far as President Obama is concerned it hardly matters whether this is a political gimmick or this decision is encouraged by political motives keeping in mind his commitment and future election. One needs to get real here, every decision in today's world will have to be directly or indirectly politically motivated especially when one is talking about so called democratic polity. In the process if there is a decision which goes in the right direction one should welcome it and it needs to be praised. I would urge everyone to view this development objectively without any pre conceived notion about a particular personality or a country.
The war in Iraq has become too expensive an adventure for the recession rigged US exchequer. That’s the crux of the story. Also, Obama feels the need to reorient his politico-military policies keeping in mind the left resurgence in its ‘backyard’. The Iranian impasse too has contributed to this decision. Now it’s Ahmedinejad who tops the priority list of the US and to coax out ‘consensus’ from Russia on the said issue, it has to make compromises. One already made in central Europe in the form of some dissociation from the GUAM formation and abandoning the plan of missile defence shield; another may be made in Iraq.
kinjal.
your crayon box of multiple colours - (rainbow coalition?) - makes you a political opportunist. your assertion that filmmaking is an expression of "empathy" over and above everything else, shows your ignorance towards the rich debates over art and film making over the past 100 years or more. and your arrogant outburst that when a filmmaker tells a story one should only "listen carefully" and not talk back or critique, reflects an undemocratic and intolerant attitude.
your opinion that "empathy" should not be guided "ideological correctness" is fairly dangerous. do you know that mahatma gandhi had once said during the partition days that the RSS may be doing a lot of good work for the hindu refugees (out of empathy) but that does not take away the fascistic character of that organisation? the same can be said about the LeT/JuD doing empathic relief work during the recent floods in Pakistan...
the criticism against the film is precisely that while it pretends to be empathetic to rural india and the farmers, that empathy is a sham because it does not even make an attempt to delve into the crisis faced by rural india and the farmers. it scratches at the surface by making fun, and hopes to make money out of that by selling it to fun loving multiplex audiences. in fact it feeds into urban prejudices that farmers commit suicides in order to get compensation.
there is of course nothing illegal in that. govinda or akshay kumar movies are trying to do it all the time. the difference is that this movie is an epitome of PRETENTIOUSNESS. it pretends to be a radical/progressive film dealing with real life issues like agrarian crisis and farmers' suicides, but is actually almost a slapstick comedy on the media and mainstream politics, a highly sellable genre that is proliferating in bollywood today. it is this gigantic pretense, in an otherwise forgettable and average film, which makes it irritating. and shoddy cum arrogant defences like ratnakars' only increases that irritation.
Fantastic write up.......i strongly disagree with people that this article is glorifing obama.....if someone is doing good in a situation, he should be lauded. we have grown learning that degrading is the best policy to prove oneself AWARE.
Thanks for some good critical comments. I have no intention to praise Mr. Obama in this article. I had made some points very clear.
1. Although, the President Obama has only announced the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq, lot have to follow. The non-combatant American military personnel will remain in Iraq, and there are many private American security companies with sizeable presence in the country. This also need attention and until international community are involved in the peace building process of Iraq the desired result will not be achieved.
2. America has to accept that multi-polar world order in the only solution of the problems which has gripped different regions of the world. Active involvement of other countries with divergent view of world politics will democratize the international system and roots of conflict will be reduced.
3. t is more imperative that the US should take steps to involve the regional players in Afghanistan, rather than increasing its own troops.
For Obama yes ,
He supported the Israeli policy against Palestine and that too in a press conference before his elections.
Af-pak policy is a farce, and America will follow the Iraqi model in Afghanistan. American will not pull out completely from Afghanistan, as it is a strategically located country.
For sanctions on Iran and in South America Obama do not have any lenient formula, but are we sure that Republican should had waited in the case of invading Iran. Obama is still evading the pressure which is on him in the case of Iran.
You may call Obama as a different face of imperialism, speaking rhetoric with no substance. Still one cannot put war monger G. Bush and Obama in the same basket. It is also a fact that Bush had done his politics on hate, and by advocating invasion. On the other hand Obama speak a different language, and he talks of peace. What that peace is , what is his parameters of peace are questionable. Still while criticizing a person we cannot loose the sense of proportion, and calling back the combat troops from Iraq is a positive action, atleast that must be recognized and that is what is written in the article with no intension to glorify Obama and his Presidentship.
if you did not like the film, you did not and i should not persuade you to change your mind.
but i can tell you why i did.
i liked the film because it lends the same kind of humanity, ugly, petty, pretty etc to characters that you find among the rich and the urban or poor and the urban. its about an extreme situation that could happen [happens all the time] to ambani, or well....anil agrawal of vedanta fame.
there is something called 'empathy' for a real life predicament that excites me. and then what follows.
i believe when it comes to cinema and storytelling in general, our empathies are all too often guided by ideological correctness and extremely precise but hugely pretentious stancing.
this is unnecessary because the film is what it is because you take it as you want to, anyway.
in brief, instead of listening carefully, we are always telling the storyteller what tale to tell and how to tell it!
which is why, its our turn to tell a tale, we go around asking - which one should i? and how should I?
and by the way - it certainly doesn't depend on my politics if by politics you mean a crayon box of fixed colours where i can place myself!
strangely, you seem to have started suffering from illusions about Obama at a time when most within the Left are coming out of it. Troops withdrawal from Iraq is a gimmick. 50000 american troops will continue to remain stationed in iraq, to inter alia ensure, that the pillage of iraqi oil resources by the western MNCs are not disturbed. and do you seriously believe that by appealing to the American president through your blog, a multi-polar world will be accepted by them and the af-pak policy given up in favour of a regional solution involving russia, china, iran and india?? are you also blind to see what is happening in palestine and obama's backing of the israeli regime? are you missing the steeping up of sanctions against iran? where are you seeing the "peace"? and your take on american domestic situation is also ill-informed. the war-mongering republicans are making a big comeback. that is because obama's half hearted stimulus measures have not reduced unemployment. obama, as expected, is falling between the two proverbial stools of imperialism and democracy.
brajesh
what is the authors take on Obama's policies towards south america.. how does he substantiate the decision of sending thousands of marines into hapless Haiti,which had suffered one of the biggest earthquakes known to man kind...It would be nice to hear about the "peace" based obama politic that maintains huge number of american soldiers in Columbia who continously poise a threat to red venezuela and also about the coup in Honduras where his own administration played a vital role
regards
Abin
You could add a bit about how capacity utilization determines investment.
Today, we are witnessing a series of revival meetings for demanding separate Telnagana. Their zeal and enthusiasm are like that of born-again Christians carrying on a crusade against injustice. It is axiomatic that exploitation occurs only between two unequal and that the exploiter would always like to keep the exploited weak. Therefore, development of the Telangana region in a combined state is theoretically not possible. This leaves little scope for the implementation of developmental strategies even if they are suggested. This is precisely what has been happening. For example, the magnificent prosperity of the people living downstream of two mighty rivers Krishna and Godavari, is due to adequate utilization of their waters for their benefit. This is hardly the case with Telangana through which these rivers pass. The people of Telangana, particularly of this generation, feel they are cheated out of their educational and employment opportunities. Add to this the absence of any developmental programs. No wonder, the people are disenchanted and frustrated. Because of the violation of rules made to protect their interests, their faith and credibility in the government has been getting guide seriously eroded. What they are asking for in these meetings, is their right to guide their own destiny. They are not asking for anything that belongs to others. They regard it utterly fatuous when someone tells them not to ask for separation. They see it as an invitation to be exploited further. And they consider it extremely uncouth and uncivilized the way some people try to humiliate them in their own house.
Coming to the question of regional imbalances which are in reality the outcome of discrimination and neglect, it surprising that even in the matter of supplying water to drink, a strange type of indifference can easily be noticed on the part of government . Although Hyderabad is the capital of unified Andhra Pradesh, the water scheme drawing water from the Krishna has been allowed to languish on the drawing boards for almost a quarter of a century. In order to delay the scheme, government has been spending crores of rupees in the name of fresh appraisals; a scheme that was recommended by three expert committees and for which two foundations stones have already been laid, sites fixed and compound walls built. To develop the concept, a private consultant was paid Rs 5 crores whereas, there is hardly anything left to conceive. Meanwhile, the cost of the scheme has gone up from Rs. 129 crores to 180 crores; which means, if the scheme is even taken up and commissioned, only those living on the Banjara Hills and few others, can afford to buy that water, aggravating further the hardship faced by vast majority of city's population, and incidentally, that of the surrounding municipalities that now form part of the so called megacity. Meanwhile, the water from different river basin is increasingly being diverted to the city depriving the people of Medak and farmers toiling for generations in the are under Nizamsagar their legitimate share. The most tragic of all is the case of Nalgonda. People for generations have been facing the twin problems of scarcity and excess fluoride in the water.
The Royal Netherlands Government had offered to provide financial assistance, which is non-repayable, to provide fluoride-free water to the people who are suffering from crippling effects of flourosis. It is really pathetic to see people afflicted with the disease. Yet no serious effort has been made to secure the grant offered. Under this scheme. around three hundred villages and an equal number of hamlets were to be covered. It was also proposed that Srisailam Left Bank Canal should provide water for some of these villages. The Dutch experts were shocked to hear that though the canal is being dug, nothing has been done to make the water flow in it.
The areas around Hyderabad where the industries are located have become unlivable; the ground water is polluted, denying the people water to drink and the air vitiated in such a way that breathing is hazard. The waste treatment plant has been declared as the biggest polluter by the Supreme Court of India.
The general feeling one can gauge in these meetings is that they have crossed the point of no return. Hope held out for so long has been tormenting their soul; anything offered now is not likely to affect their resolve. They attribute it to sheer arrogance when they hear people saying that they will not concede Telangana.
Telangana is nobody's pocket. It does not lie in their mouth to criticize those who favor separation when they themselves have deified the man who wrested the Andhra region from the erstwhile Madras province. In spite of all this, it is remarkable that the voice of the protagonists of Telangana is conciliatory. They believe that affection grows with separation. Bonds that have been established between the two Telugu speaking people can never break. And Telangana, as it has been its traditions, will continue to welcome all those who have genuine love for it. Telangana invites them wholeheartedly to participate in search for and the selection of the most appropriate developmental alternatives for this region, not only to remove the present imbalance but also to lay the path towards a glorious future. The real celebration of the fiftieth year of our independence as a nation lies in this
@anonymous
I dont think this is a review; let us leave that to paid writers in newspapers. I read these as notes of a common viewer. The ad drama around Peepli Live has created a situation where every progressive has to like the movie, forcibly. Otherwise, his/her progressive credentials become doubtful! I liked the note quite much.
First, the movie does claim that it is about farmers' suicides. This is evident from (1) the promos and (b) the ending sentence that 8 lakh farmers left farming between 1991 and 2001 censuses. The 2nd statement is itself erroneous, as it only says that farming has ceased to be the "main" occupation (as defined by Census, ie., spending 183 days or more in one occupation) of 8 lakh people between 1991 and 2001. This could even be because of better oppurtunities outside agriculture, adopted either by choice or by distress. Anyways, given these claims, the movie ought to have had a better coverage of the agrarian distress. Otherwise, it becomes just a marketing ploy.
Now, secondly, please see http://caravanmagazine.in/Story/423/Natha-Will-Die.-Or-Maybe-Not.html. Here, the director of the movie says: “In a country where people sell blood for seven rupees, sell their children for seven rupees, a compensation of 50,000 rupees to the family is sure to draw a lot of desperate people into taking their lives”. For me, this is a disgusting statement, that exposes the sheer ignorance and cavalier attitude of the director towards farmers' suicides. This is a statement completely devoid of humanism of any kind. Here, the director is clearly saying that when she made the movie, she had compensation-driven suicide in mind and not any distress-driven suicide by farmers.
How can the film claim any relationship with what is happening on the ground in large areas of Vidarbha and other States?
PS: The note by Tejal Kanitkar should have been just titled as "Images and Politics in Peepli Live". The postfix "Towards an Analysis" adds unnecessary expectations in the minds of the reader. Looks like an editorial error...
stalest review i saw in a long time. newspaper reviewers scratch better at the surface! reviewing is not the same thing as generalized 'disgrunlement'!
an excellent critical review of the film.
Come what may, the "Abhisheks" of the world would continue to remain apologists for multinational companies! The likes of “Abhisheks” have little or no concern for their fellow beings. What lessons have been leaned from the Bhopal disaster? Who has forgiven whom in the case of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What lessons have been learned from Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Safety considerations must be given a go bye to encourage “serious” industrialists to set up industries! Hiroshima-Nagasakis and Bhopals must be forgotten for the sake of “progress”! The brazen apologist then contradicts himself. He wants “NGOs instead of harping about the past”, i.e., without learning lessons from past mistakes, to “guide the government for future so that such accidents do not happen or are managed well.”
It is a classic case of muddleheaded thinking!
A true tribute with these extremely good and touching words and lines
Touching poem; let caste be more openly interrogated like this by Marxists.
Impressive account with exaggerations. I wonder why no one is talking about the authorities who are not cleaning the mess - The delipidate dcarbide factory. If we were to believes the theory of conspiracy or even other wise a plant with suspectly stored MIC and other poisons - in the absence of a proper maintenance is likely to blow up again one day when it may call a still bigger BHopal disaster II for which I think the state, the central govt and all the NGO whoc have been creating hurdles for cleaning the mess be held responsible and be treated the way we are asking Anderson and Co to be treated - HANG TILL Death??? Its high time to go ahead and learn from the past mistakes ad go on. Even Hiroshima Nagasaki has also been forgiven and Japan has shown exemplary growth. But pooor Madhya Pradesh will continue to crib for rest of the life as despite of signing thousands of crores of MOU no serious industrialist is willing to come forward to put industry. Its nice to be emotional about tragedies but not correct to bring in emotions in the road to progress. NGOs instead of harping about the past should guide the government for future so that such accidents do not happen or are managed well. case in point - Almost all the government including the government secreteriat do not have proper fire extinguisher. Why no NGos raise a voice about it - ofcourse before the tragedy happens their is no publicity or the funds and thus it is better to crib then to prevent a tragedy.
it is not only ne incidents. it is happening through the ages of the whole Tamilnadu history.
I appriciate of Mr. Umashankar I. A. S, what he did. each and every one have to support him because we are as a human being. So you people thing and together against corruption and exploitation in all fields.
By Yours sasudhin....
Kudos to Dr Gopalakrishnan for once again doing essential homework for our MPs. This is another opportunity to beat back the US imperialist offensive. Only those politically naive enough to take BJP's Swadeshi charade at face value will be surprised by BJP cutting a deal with Congress . It was the BJP Govt that laid the foundation for the Indo - US strategic agreement . They champion a militarized , nuclearized imperial Akhanda Bharat. Let us raise the minimum demand for 1)Restore article 17(B)as drafted y the parilamentary committee 2) Do away with the new insertions 7(1) 3) No cap on liabilities.
Fraternally NMK
has the BJP cut a deal with the Congress? why are they selling out to the american companies?
"Last year, during the initial debate around the Food Security Act (henceforth FSA); we..."
The above sentence has incorrect punctuation. Rather is should be: "Last year, during the initial debate around the Food Security Act (henceforth FSA), we..."
Moreover, you don't have to write "henceforth"; it is redundant as readers would understand that FSA is the shortened form for Food Security Act. Hence, you can do by writing Food Security Act (FSA).
Also, you should have expanded NAC in the first sentence: National Advisory Council or NAC. Again, helps the reader.
"It is surprising that the NAC-recommended press release does not reflect any spirit of the strong social-political action behind the mobilisation around the food security issue since last few years". Do you imply that mobilisation around the food security issue launched in the
last few years or the NAC-press release in the last few years?
Again, wrong sentence construction. Rather, paraphrase like:
"It is surprising that recent NAC-recommended press release does not reflect any spirit of the strong social-political action for the food security issue seen/evident in the last few years by the political parties"
Remember, correct punctuation in bringing clarity and makes it a readable and engaging copy. I could not read beyond the first few lines.
Cheers,
Vaibhav
I think there is a good artile i had come accros posted by Proletarian Politics on Mao at the site www.proletariancritique.blogsopot.com
T.K. Ojha
Sorry, I misspelled the word 'critique'.
Taposik
Karunanidhi is such an arrogant, autocratic, corrupt and criminal-minded politician that he will never countenance defiance to his unjust authority from an officer of high morality! His men will not hesitate to even physically harm one who dares to discharge one's duties in accordance with the rules and regulations without minding them.
Once again Karunanidhi & his ilk among the Dalit leaders stand exposed vis-a-vis their quite nauseating claim for the sole leadership of Dalits when a Dalit officer is being tortured for no fault of his own by their government .
It is the duty of one and all who still cherish the values of honesty and uprightness in both public life and governmental affairs to stand by and safeguard this lonely crusader!
As the matter is no longer in the administrative domain since it has been taken to the SC/ST COMMISSION and the officer also fears for his life, the TNUEF shall consider enaging the rulthess killer gang that passes for civil authority.
Let us not forget that an honest CPWD engineer from Bihar ,one Mr. SATHYENDRA DUBEY , had to pay with his life for not obeying the dictates of Ranjan Bhattacharya, a close relative of the then PM Vajpayee, inidentally Karunanidhi's close friend also , in awarding contracts
In the article replace 'embarrassing' with 'embracing' open standards ...