~ Delhi Crime ~

Delhi Crime is based on the 2012 Delhi gang rape case that took place in the neighbourhood of Munirka, in South Delhi. The Netflix series follows the story in the aftermath of the gang rape, where Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), South Delhi, Chhaya Sharma (Vartika Chaturvedi in the reel) is tasked to find the culprits, responsible for the assaults and death of the female victim. Shefali Shah has performed the role of Chhaya Sharma very well.

Yesterday, Netflix promoted #DelhiCrime in the app. I thought for a moment and decided to skip it. Just because the 2012 incident, enraged & shocked most Indians for the brutality of the cimem. This article by @_NAN_DINI articulates well. https://t.co/Luwq3GBbxt

— Vivek (@vevck) March 28, 2019

Yes, I finally finished watching the series and it is well made. The anthology on the gruesome gang-rape is written and directed by Richie Mehta, Canadian film director and writer. It presents a view-point on different characters from the Delhi Police who were crucial to the investigation. 

After hearing constant corruption cases and scams involving politicians from different political parties over the last decade, people were very angry at Central government of 2012. Even I was very outraged at that incident and vented my anger against the establishment in a post 'Dance of Democracy'.

In an Insta-Everything-World, people's expectations from - the government, the police, and the judiciary - are such that we expect cases to be solved and justice delivered instantly. After watching Delhi Crime, the Indian viewer is reminded of the reality of we Indians live and operate. The situation depicted of Delhi Police probably holds good for any state police force across the country - under-staffed, over-worked, paid less, lacks infrastructure, etc. Against all such odds, the Delhi Police team under Chhaya Sharma, DCP South Delhi, did do an impressive job and arresting all the 6 accused in a span of five days, under some tremendous pressure and scrutiny from politicians, media and citizens. 

Rapes haven't stopped in Delhi or elsewhere in the country post December 2012. Here's a twitter trail on few of the rapes that I have come across and that's been reported in the media. This is definitely is not complete list, it requires the collective effort from the family and society in the up-bringing of young boys and men. 

This so disgusting. This is not the India we would like to live in. Please act. @rajnathsingh @HMOIndia @narendramodi @mlkhattar https://t.co/Bkiplvw7tp

— Vivek (@vevck) June 7, 2017

We the people have very high expectations from our forces while not considering the factors under which they operate. Unfortunately, our country has been run like this for ages, without much accountability from the governments that have ruled from Independence. Wish the young citizens of the country will change that and ask questions to the governments that seek vote every 5 years -

1. Why should there be reforms to law, judiciary and governance only when such terrible incidents happen. Why cannot the law-makers, read politicians, work for the betterment of people and forces?
2. Where do all the funds for the police forces go and how are they spent?

In retrospect after watching Delhi Crime, I feel the Media could have done much better job instead of bashing the police force for other political agenda. Media plays a very vital role in any democracy. However, in the recent years many journalists, TV and print, instead of reporting they also seem to be involved in doing activism leveraging their reach. Thanks to Social Media which has brought some equilibrium in countering such one-sided activism.

Additional reading - 
1. Chhaya Sharma inspired Delhi Crime

~ Jingalala Part 2 ~

After 9 months hiatus, I had my second jingalala moment with TATA Sky. Here is Jingalala Part 1, in case you are interested.

This time around it was related to the renewal of my annual subscription of MEGA HD pack. Renewed it on 7th Jan evening and noticed that the renewal wasn't reflecting. Hence, called the customer support to check what could be the issue. Below is the gist of the conversation between me & the CSR executive 

Vivek: Hi, have renewed my annual subscription but it doesn't seem to be reflecting against my TATA Sky account & still a message on the TV screen.

CSR: The renewal has not been activated; should I go ahead any initiate?
Vivek:Yes, please proceed with the activation.
CSR: Sir, there is a slight problem.
Vivek: What is it about?
CSR: Actually, there is a slight difference in the annual subscription fees. Its not Rs 7500/- but Rs 7990/-
Vivek: Sorry, that price is never listed on your website. I paid for what was shown to me during the renewal.
CSR: Sir, actually there is some glitch on the site and hence the latest prices are not reflected on the website. So, you will need to pay the difference amounts for me to proceed with the activation.
Vivek: *Surprised to hear that*. Told, will not be paying anything extra as it wasn't my fault in the first place if the site didn't reflect the correct amount. I paid for what the site displayed.
Vivek: Have shopped on any of the ecommerce sites; What do you pay for - what is listed on the site or the invisible price that should have showed up?
CSR: Yes sir, I have used ecommerce site and agree it is not your fault. But, you need to pay the difference in order to activate.
Vivek: Am not paying the difference, coz it ain't my fault nor yours. The fault lies with your business, marketing and QA teams who failed to validate the correct pricing on the product offerings. Please ask the respective team to correct the same so that in the future you don't need to fight with customers.
CSR: Sure will pass on the details to the team, but you need to pay the difference.
Vivek: I would like to talk to a superior in the chain of command.
CSR: Sure sir, please hold the line.

Conversation with Sr CSR 

Sr CSR: Yes sir, how would I like to help you.
Vivek: Have the same conversation once again and same response.
Sr CSR: No sir, you need to pay the difference.
Vivek: Lost my patience, told him about Jingalala Part 1. I can once again escalate it to your CEO South region and get this problem rectified, if you don't activate.
Sr CSR: Sir, What is your subscriber number? Is your TV & setup box on?
Vivek: Yes.
Sr CSR: Sir, activation completed. Your subscription has been renewed.
Vivek: Thank you. But TATA Sky has lost the difference amount thanks to bad validation from Business & Marketing teams. If the pricing isn't updated then customers will not pay the amount and your company will loose the amount.
Sr CSR: Agree sir. Will pass on the message to the internal teams.
Vivek: I shall check your site after 24 hours and see if you have updated the amount on your website.
Sr CSR: Sure sir. Will get it fixed.
Vivek: Thank you. Good night.

4 days later, nothing has been changed. It still lists the price at Rs 7500/-

A bit of googling provided the info on the number of DTH (78million) subscribers in India. According to TRAI, there are 39.74 million active DTH consumers in India. Going by the 20% market share of TATA Sky sums up to 7.94 million or 79 Lakhs subscribers.

If we go with 5% of them as Annual Subscribers then we have 395K or 3.95 Lakhs Users. Off these 395K, if we go with various % of users who do their renewals in January then below are the lossese for TATA Sky due to wrong pricing on their website :)

• 19.35 Lakhs @ 1% in January
• 96.77 Lakhs @ 5% in January
• 1.93 Crore @ 10% in January

P.S: Not sure how many subscribers would challenge TATA Sky for the pricing errors & not pay the difference.

~ TATA Sky Customer Care ~

If you are TATA Sky subscriber in India you must have seen their promos / teasers of the upcoming upgrade to their network. I happened to be one of the customers who suffered with the loss of channels - HD, news, regional.

Registered a complaint on 4th April 2015 and happened to wait for the technician to visit. I did give 4 days before calling the Customer Support & stating that no one had visited us. They said that a technician will be sent in the next couple of days. 

Eventually, the technician calls on 11th April when we were away from home and hence requested him to drop by at 17:00hrs. As he didn't turn up, called him to check when he would be visiting. He stated that he wouldn't be able to do much as it was raining (whole evening in Bangalore) and would visit on 12th April.

12th April goes by and he doesn't show up nor answers the phone. 

This is where things getting repetitive:

1) Wait for 20+ mins to get through the IVR process to speak with an (CSR) Customer Support Representative in Mohali, Punjab

2) Appraise them the situation

3) CSR apologies for the inconvenience caused & states we shall send the technician before next day.

4) *Hope* that technician shall visit :)

13th April

As usual, no show from the technician till 8pm. Repeat Step 1-4

14th April

No show once again. Me & wifey repeat Step 1-4. 

15th April

No show once again. Argument with Wifey because she had preferred Airtel over TATA Sky when we were deciding on the DTH connection.Can't even get out due to 12 month subscription which ends in 2016. Me & wifey repeat Step 1-4. 

16th April

No show once again. Repeat Step 1-3. Escalate the matter to Sr CSR & then escalate the matter to Floor Manager (FM). FM says we have a ticket closed that a technician had visited. Was surprised to hear that. Asked Floor Manager, if that be the case then why would I be calling the Customer Support again? Also asked for reference number or acknowledgment for technician's visit. No proof for the visit, FM guarantees that technician will definitely come tomorrow and problem will be resolved.

17th April

Shit hits the fan. Me & wifey are both frustrated & angry that they aren't able to send a technician. When the CSR spoke, asked him to put through to FM directly. Asked the FM, is he sending me a technician from Mohali & should I book a train ticket? He says sorry for the inconvenience caused we are looking into the matter. I stated, "you have been looking into the matter for 13 days without any resolution. Again the same guarantee every other day". This time I took the call reference numbers which I could use in the future.

Then I got an idea, why not find email of TATA Sky CEO, board members or other TATA subsidiaries. Next 30 minutes was spent on LinkedIn and TATA corporate site to get the details. Then sent the below email to various people from different subsidiaries of TATA across globe.

18th April, 12:30pm

Checked my inbox at to see if I have received any response from the CEO. Pleasantly surprised to see that CEO had indeed responded the same night.

Replied back immediately.

Post that email, the action began. Received a call from Mr Das and assured that the problem will be resolved by evening.

At 4pm, receive a call from technician. He resolves the problem in 15 minutes. I tell him that I had to reach the CEO to get this matter resolved. Then he tells me that he had visited another Customer's home the previous day which was again a CEO escalation ticket.

Now you see the pattern. I feel that the main problem here is lack of communication & coordination between Customer Support in Mohali and various nodal centers across the country. 

Wonder if every customer needs to reach out to the CEO of TATA Sky for resolving their issues? I don't know the answer but that definitely worked for me, this time. 

If you are facing similar issue then you know what to do. The entire experience with TATA Sky Customer Support definitely wasn't Jinga La La.

~ Silent killing ~

Economics PhD Sebastião Salgado only took up photography in his 30s, but the discipline became an obsession. His years-long projects beautifully capture the human side of a global story that all too often involves death, destruction or decay. Here, he tells a deeply personal story of the craft that nearly killed him, and shows breathtaking images from his latest work, Genesis, which documents the world's forgotten people and places.

~ News traders ~

Gone are the days where journalists used to report news AS IS. These days they trade news based on who pays them ( the media owners to be precise). I know it is broad acquisition against all, but that's how I view them these days. The numbers of journalists who actually report news is quite few compared to the number of media companies that have grown in the past decade across India.

Thanks to Social Media & other alternate news site which provide a different perspective to abused, TRP seeking, continual *BREAKING NEWS* on every mainstream news channel, be it regional or national.

Public Service Broadcasting trust and Prasar Bharti Corporation have come together to produce a documentary on #PaidNews in Indian media. 
Note: This documentary is nearly 3 years old, but very relevant even today.

After watching it, you realise that many cases have not been taken to it's logical end by the Media. Watch what the Sports Journalists has to say about the media's role on IPL

40:53

it's happening life feel clock in the morning and still going on

41:00

the media which had been going gaga over the IP 0 for three years

41:05

sadly did a somersault a day after the times likes to serve the Baltimore these

41:09

for scams on the news all yesterday the Enforcement Directorate is doing

41:12

everything

41:13

to drag him back to India and face the charges said

41:19

it's like upto order readers or your viewers

41:23

I like a herd you you them in one direction could one day

41:26

and southerly when they actually you're getting exposed

41:29

who were exposed also in this the people who had not call their viewers

41:34

I'm sure they've really don't hesitate to ask was reading newspapers are those

41:38

really P weekend as

41:40

the foot three years you told us a different story know all of a sudden you

41:44

are

41:45

picking a somersault and saying everything is on the border

41:49

this man are about to %uh this poor River you for these two years

Following are some of them which I regularly follow:
News Laundry
Media Crooks
Media Nama
The News Minute

Which alternative sites do you visit on a daily basis for your news? Do share them. 

Source: News Laundry

~ India 2014 ~

I might not have witnessed freedom struggle for Indian independence. However, I did witness something historic & significant today,16 May 2014, which is decimation of Indian National Congress (INC) Party and freedom from them for next 5 years {or may be more}.

If you look at the shaded map below, the regions highlighted in blue show the impact and presence of INC. That is how badly the grand-old dynastic political party have performed in 16th Loksabha Elections of India.

The number of seats won by the BJP in Loksabha elections is probably biggest by a Non-Congress party in Independent India. Am happy that people of India have given a good mandate for the NDA to serve us better. Am sure Muslims did vote for Modi (BJP/NDA) considering the number of seats won in UP & Bihar and complete results in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi.

The man at the helm is Narendra Modi, who has done the planning and work to get his party the majority. He has been hounded by media (both national & international), many political parties, countries have denied VISA & many intellectuals have spoken their mind on Gujarat Riots, Development of state, etc. Today while he spoke at Vadodara, he stated once again that he will work for every Indian & with every MP. Also stated that he wanted support from various political parties to take India ahead.

It is time people for Narendra Modi & his team to deliver in the coming 5 years as they have a clear mandate & majority. The elections results have silenced many of the Journalists, Political Spokespersons, Intellectuals, Pseudo-Seculars - who were spreading messages of fear amongst the minorities if Modi becomes PM during the campaigns.

I wish to see Modi go by his words that were made during the elections campaign that stressed upon betterment of every Indian citizen over Religion / Caste. Hope we Indians also raise above religion in our thinking and evolve for good. 

A good opposition is needed to have check and keep the ruling party grounded in Democracy. Hope Aam Admi Party & Congress do their retrospective studies and give some fight in the upcoming Delhi & Bihar Elections. If the Congress thinks they can divide and rule Indians they will end up with another defeat. First, move away from being a Dynastic political party. 

If you want to know why congress lost then check out the gems from the Rahul Gandhi, Vice President of Congress. Am sure you will enjoy them & thank me for sharing it :)

Elections results can be found on Election Commission of India or highly interactive visualisation by Gramener.

Good night!

~ Be nice ~

The following are extracts from a girl who experienced a change in how people behaved or interacted with her in public domain, purely based on her attire. I suggest you to read her blogpost & adopt the same in your daily life.

"The power of this experience lies in the fact that it was not an intentional experiment. It happened simply because of the Chiberian weather which required me to cover as much of by body with warm pieces of cloth. Apparently, the type of cloth you place or wrap around your head defines how you will be treated."

"I pray one day, and soon, that people will be familiar enough with all other cultures and beliefs that they are not afraid or have reservations, and that the thing that stands out to them is not the wrap around my head, but the smile on my face."

Good learning for all. Time to change one's perspective about people, based on how they dress or look. If you are a parent then suggest you to groom your young one(s) about the moral of accepting people from diverse back grounds, cultures, belief systems & different sexual orientation. As in Urban India, we are seeing a lot of people from different states living in a city. We need different kind of social education in the younger ones where they mingle with everyone & not just flock by their feather. 

~ Right to education ~

ASER has done a great job in coming up with statistics from across India. Interesting to know as to the percentage of children going to Private schools across various states:

• 60% in Kerala & Manipur
• 54% in Haryana
• 42% in Punjab, J&K, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan & Meghalaya
• 30-40% in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh & Himachal Pradesh 
• 20-30% in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh & Sikkim
• 10-20% in Gujarat, Jharkhand, Chattisgargh & Assam
• < 10% in Bihar, West Bengal, Orrisa & Tripura

There is large number of state where 50% receive private education outside schools. Education planning needs to consider the large number of people enrolling to private institutions, so that Government institutions can do better.

Right To Education is a good thing for India as long as we can keep the drop outs low. Hats off to the efforts of volunteers who worked with ASER to come with the stats.

Via Hans Rosling

Today in New Delhi to learn from http://t.co/OHjGxTn9iY It´s probably the world´s best NGO for Primary Education https://t.co/pOPvBHVAhW
— Hans Rosling (@HansRosling) February 8, 2014

~ Django Django ~

Have always wondered how effortlessly they do that. Obviously it takes a lot of practise to get there.

~ Dial out criminals ~

Times of India has started a campaign against the Ordinance which the government is proposing to pass which allows criminals to hold on to their posts as MPs and MLAs. 

All you need to do is call +918067730022. The number of missed calls received will be published to show the President of the number of people against the Ordinance. After one ring, the call automatically disconnects. You will get an SMS thanking you for the miss call. Those who live overseas can participate.

I just did my bit. Time to ring out the criminals from the political system. 

It's your fault

In the latest episode of All India Bakchod they talk about Rape & how the victim is blamed every single time. Kalki & Juhi appear in the video satire, which covers the typical clichés that are spoken about Rape.

It's Your Fault

~ Our own doing ~

This week we saw nature's fury at Kedarnath, Uttarakhand. According to the CAG report tabled in April, the state lacks an effective disaster management system to tackle such disasters.

~ Kedarnath Temple 1953 ~

~ Kedarnath Temple 19 June 2013 ~

I feel this highlights how we Indians approach life & live. Most of us, live by reactions than pro-actions. Instead of addressing problem in an holistic manner, we tend to wake &  fire-fight only when we have disasters on our hands. 

Samarth Mungali, CEO of TadpoleStore, has a very thoughtful post on the disaster.

"…People driven by greed and not need, started plundering their own land. A land which was their existence. 

All this while nature coped, but there’s a limit to tolerance. It’s natural. What was done had to be restored. And thus in a frame of minutes nature took the matter in it’s own hands and cleaned the slate that we had made dirty with our scribbling.

What has happened is a message from nature to stop, to amend. We have been wrong and it is we who are to correct. 

I sincerely hope that in the pretext of redevelopment of the devastated, the same mistakes are not done again. Where the structures have been erased, none should come again. It might sound uncommercial but then…"

Anand Sankar has an interesting post as well.

The devastation caused by Monsoon 2013 in Uttarakhand and to a lesser extent in Himachal Pradesh has been predictably covered by television studios based out of New Delhi. This flood has literally flowed into the lap of the television news media, who can feed their half-baked drivel to people across the country who are anxiously tuning in to get some titbits of information about loved ones trapped in the mountains. While there has been a lot of clamour for a speedy rescue effort, it sorely misses the point when it comes to ground reality. This is another incident which will go down in the history of disasters in India, as one that could have been prevented. 

Do read the 5 points which Anand makes.

As the Media & Desktop-activist, would now go on dissecting at length as to what went wrong; who could be held accountable for this; how it could have been avoided; Atheists asking the very presence of God; et al.  It is very much our own doing.

Instead of developing State units for handling any emergency events, we seem to be always banking on our Armed Forces. My salutations to the men & women of Armed Forces who have always ready for any contingency at any part of the country.

Photographs source: TadpoleStore blog.

~ Indian Memories ~

Came across this unique project from Anusha Yadav called Indian Memory Project.

It is an online, curated, visual and oral-history based archive that traces a personal history of the Indian Subcontinent, its people, cultures, professions, cities, development, traditions, circumstances and their consequences. Applying images, letters and stories from family archives (sent and collected from contributors), it reconstructs a visual history that is emotionally rich, vivid, informative and even more surprising than we think.

I enjoyed reading the story of Sir Mohinder Dhillon. Some great untold stories of Indian History can be read on the project website. 

~ Android & OEMs ~

Is HTC suffering from the onslaught of cheap Android phones? Are Android OEMs having the same fate to that of PC OEMs? Yes for both the questions.

Two recent articles which highlight the problems HTC is facing - The Verge 

The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One.

It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession — most recently Jason Gordon, the company's vice president of global communications. Other fresh departures include global retail marketing manager Rebecca Rowland, director of digital marketing John Starkweather, and product strategy manager Eric Lin.

While Om Malik writes about how both, Apple & Samung have the upper hand in integrating Supply Chain in the manufacturing process.

Apple has used all the billions in the bank to lock up supplies for processors, memory chips, radios, displays and other such components at favorable prices. It has worked out long term manufacturing arrangements with the likes of Foxconn. It has its own retail outlets. While most of us try and focus on Apple’s hardware and software integration, we forget that it is software, hardware and supply chain integration that allows the company to sell 37.5 million phones in the most recent quarter. It allows the company to make phones that meet the needs of different carriers.

Samsung too is an integration beast. It owns memory chip plants. It makes its own processors. It makes displays and it owns the factories. It has the unique ability to churn out new products faster than anyone else in the consumer electronics business and thus overwhelm the market with dozens of models. Just look at the many flavors on its latest Samsung S4 device and you start to see that this is a game only for big boys.

Supply Chain Integration could be a very key factor for a Global player. However in India, which is one of the fastest growing smartphone market, has seen the rise of 2 companies - Karbon & Micromax - that offer low lost Android Smartphones. Micromax sources China for their production, like any other OEM to reduce production costs. The product features & functionality match that of Samsung. The exterior build quality looks same in both cases, PLASTICY. One can own a Micromax phone with S2 features for about 15000 INR which is 30% lesser compared to Samsung's device. The devices offered by Mircomax/Karbon might be cheap imitations of the South Korean giant, but they are selling like hot cakes in India.

If Samsung wants to retain it's growth & share in the Indian Android market then it needs to take cognizance of these companies & have a strategy. While Apple has always been late in introducing products in the Indian market. Micromax has outpaced & outsold both Apple & Samsung which is gearing up to touch the $1 Billion mark.

Additional reading: Pretty profitable parrots | First Mover or Fast Follower?

~ Leopards: 21st Century Cats ~

The special episode from BBC Natural World provides an insight into how the Leopards & humans are living together in cities & rural areas. Rom Whitaker takes you through various parts of India highlighting the differences in each region related to how Humans live & respond to the Leopards.

After you have seen the documentary one can conclude that in the ever expanding human settlement the Leopards have adapted their lifestyles with the changes to the environment. We Humans have encroached natural habitats & caused major damage to the wild-life and the eco-system.

We are equally responsible for turn the Leopards into man-eaters. Guess what, Mumbai has the highest Leopard presence compared to any other Urban Metropolis on Earth. That's interesting isn't it :)

~ News is entertainment ~

Post the Doordarshan era when the Govt of India allowed private players to broadcast, we initially had a bouquet of sports & entertainment channels. As far as the News channels were concerned, back in late 90s we had - DD, Zee News & Aaj Tak. The alternative source of news were magazines - The Outlook, The Week, India Today & regional cousins - and traditional Newspapers.

Step into 21st Century, we have 120 News channels operating across India. Of these 120 channels, guess about 5 English channels are watched by most urban population, discounting the Regional news channels. 

Thanks to these channels, am disillusioned by how information is feed to us & at times they have constant supply of *Breaking News*. Thanks to FDI &  politicians / political parties who want a medium to reach out to the masses, we now have many of them who own or control some of these channels. Most of these channels are biased towards a specific party, religion or an issue. Very rarely do we see these channels take a neutral stance &  get the bottom of an issue. 

After the Radiagate exposè, I lost faith with some of the main stream media professionals {& their organizations} whose names have appeared in the deal making. I feel the role of media today has changed to that of a *Middleman* who brokers deals between different political parties, business men, corporations than their primary objective of delivery quality information to the people of the current affairs. My view holds good w.r.t Indian media only.

I have been watching Madhu Trehan's episodes today morning & agree with her points. Wonder how those anchoring the shows fail to miss the obvious. I wish those Media professionals watch Madhu's show & take it as feedback about their work & bring some change. Have been following the alternative media - bloggers or websites - which cover/offers another perspective to the main stream media. Some of them which I frequently visit are:

Open The Magazine

The Caravan

Kafila

Churmuri

Media Crooks

News Laundry

Faking News *Satire 

Move over bloggers or websites, we now have  realtime crowd-sourced news being covered by people across the globe powered by Twitter. Any major event {Political | Sporting | Festival | Product Launches} or Catastrophe being delivered instantaneously with videos & pictures. This breaks the hold of mainstream media on coverage of events. The below pictures were taken by Andrew Kitzenberg, in the night when Tsarnaev brothers had a show down with police.

Here it’s clear to see the brothers taking aim and firing on the officers. (Taken at 12:47:57AM)

This is a zoomed in view from the last image. The red circle highlights the pressure cooker bomb that was used just moments after this photo was taken. These are the only pictures which I have come across on the internet captured by Andrew. For first hand account of the event witnessed by Andrew visit here

However, the normal public do not have access to information when it comes to Govts or Corporations. That's where we bank on the these Media Corps to deliver news AS IS versus interpreting or transforming before reaching us.

We have hacktivist style of news reporting from YourAnonNews & WikiLeaks. Even though their means of obtaining information is not considered ethical by majority their intent isn't *always* wrong. From the recent Boston bombings, we have seen online vigilantism which caused a lot of rumour & chaos in the already stressed environment. This is one of the major drawbacks of digital world when data is available for everyone to piece together & offer their own versions.

One of the politicians I admire is Mr Obama. How I wish our PM Mr Manmohan Singh shared some wit or at least spoke, at times, when it mattered. Enjoy this talk, Obama taking digs at the entire media during his speech at the White House Correspondent’s dinner.

Additional reading: A week inside India's media boom {FT} | Inside the Anonymous Hacking File on the Steubenville 'Rape Crew' {The Atlantic} | THE LESSONS OF STEUBENVILLE {The NewYorker} | Breaking news is broken {Slate} | Hey Reddit, Enough Boston Bombing Vigilantism {The Atlantic} | Security alert: notes from the frontline of the war in cyberspace {The Guardian} | The trolls among us {NYT}

Update 13 May 2013

Anubha Bhonsle has a very good write up on how Twitter plays a role in how we consume news & also the responsibility of the journalists to get their basics right & provide meaningful context to the raw data. Do read 'News in the time of Twitter' on News Laundry. 

There is no denying that social media platforms can today spread information and misinformation far quicker than they would have spread a decade ago. The problem though isn’t with technology. The problem is many of us have all but abandoned standards of good reporting, the very basics. The need of the hour is a reporter who will shape a narrative in a cacophony of noise, conversation and abundant content around him/her or on the social web. A reporter who will dig, question, unearth and make the linkages.

Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter has been quoted as saying, “We provide the information. That’s when we hand off the baton to journalists, to provide context.”

~ Oil, Nations & Corporations ~

Image courtesy: FIFP

Spent my Sunday evening watching the 4 part series - Secret of Seven Sisters, by Al Jazeera. The documentary showcases how the so called Seven Sisters came into existence to explore and control Black Gold across various continents under different political regimes. 

The pact by Seven Sisters which influences the foreign policies of various nations is not an eye-opener. When many of the recent wars are fought in the pretext of human rights, terrorism, WMDs, etc; but the main reason could be attributed for controlling the stake of oil reserves among - US, UK, France, Russia, China, the UN permanent members to the Security Council. 

The documentary highlights the following about the Oil Corporations:

• How the tribes in the Middle East were fooled by them for many years by paying meagre sum for oil extraction
• How Dictators, Kings, Political Leaders are influenced and used to keep their commercial interests going
• Many of the oppressing regimes have had blessing of the UNSC permanent members which favoured the Oil Corps
• French Oil Corps have a lot of stake in oil exploration in Africa
• They looted many of the African nations until each country began nationalizing their natural resources
• The money never really benefited the people of the land. Rather it helped the Oil Corps get rich & in turn compensated the Kings, Dictators, Political & Militant Leaders for their support
• The ecological habitats have been destroyed in some places by these Oil Corps
• Sanctions over Libya was removed once Gaddafi paid compensation for the Lockerbie bombing of about $2.7 billion. Seriously? Money cannot compensate the loss of people lives here. By paying money made out of oil sales, Gaddafi couldn't alter his karma. He eventually was lynched by his own people during the uprising.
• Saddam was as - friend, enemy, oppressor - over the years of his rule of Iraq by UNSC permanent members
• Even the most recent catastrophe in the Gulf-of-Mexico where BP has a lot to answer

As the now dead Libyan Minister said,"There are no friends or enemies. Everyone has their interests when it comes to dealing with Oil producing nations. It's a win-win situation for everyone".

People might be skeptical of the documentary made by Al Jazeera channel, which is based out of Qatar. I feel majority of the media is controlled these days. On the contrary the programme offers a lot of different views on how the new world order is rising up to take on the Seven Sisters in the 21st century.

India & China would be a major factor as they want to meet the growing needs  of energy for 2 billion people. Both the nations have been warming up to Iran for oil despite the US sanctions in place.

One of the reasons why I like Elon Musk's vision of alternative energy resources & expansion of human settlement beyond Earth.

H/T: Naveen, thanks for the sharing the documentary.