Media Coverage

English: Durga, Kathmandu, Nepal Español: Durga, Kathmandu, Nepal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are the Thakres in Mumbai, and the Owaisi brothers in Hyderabad, and (in media) the Dixit brothers in Kathmandu. Kanak Dixit cemented his reputation with the Himal magazine a long time ago, and they have branched out since. I have thought of Kanak as a distant comrade on the democracy issue back in 2006, in the more recent years I have thought of him as an opponent on the federalism issue.

Let me make it clear, I have never had issue with any trending topic on Twitter, and #GoHomeIndianMedia was no exception. Free expression is a beautiful thing. I can disagree and celebrate at the same time.

But I have been curious. I have had the disadvantage of not seeing the TV coverage that brought about that Twitter storm. For the most part. I have seen a few minutes here and there on Facebook. But I have yet to come across something I might find offensive.

TV coverage is what brings in the help and the aid. TV coverage gone, most of the incoming help also comes down to a trickle, as it predictably did.

Of course the media is going to report on the extremes and the dramatic. That is how they work everywhere. The Dixit brothers are in the print medium. Maybe they should jump into the online video segment as well. That will help them appreciate.

In fact the first foreign correspondents to parachute in the next morning were surprised on the drive into the city that they didn’t spot a single ruined building. Had they flown into the wrong hotspot by mistake? ....... there is a formula for news and it’s hard to file a story that doesn’t fit it........ Which is why from Haiti to Haiyan, from Nargis to Nepal, it is, quite literally, the same old story. ...... The international media arrives in herds and hunts in packs. Everything has to conform to a preordained script: you parachute in and immediately find good visuals of ‘utter devastation’; recruit an English-speaking local who doesn’t need subtitling; trail the rescue teams with sniffer dogs you flew in with as they pull someone out alive, after 12 hours (the rescuers need their logos on TV as much as you need them in the picture). ....... Then it’s back to the hotel bar to swap stories of derring-do, before calling the desk to plan tomorrow’s story of slow government response, and the day after tomorrow’s account of yet another survivor pulled out alive. After that, get a ride in a rescue helicopter for the out-of-town visual of utter devastation in a remote mountain village.

Why is this surprising? Is this Dixit trying to pull a Go Home Western Media?

To my knowledge no foreign correspondent went around shooting streets in which all the buildings were still standing. They didn’t have time to look at farmers harvesting potatoes by the roadside as they rushed to pan across more historic ruins. ...... No-one found it extraordinary or newsworthy that the phones were working, that they could tweet even from the hinterland, or that Kathmandu got back electricity in three days. Such bits of information didn’t fit the script. ...... Because competing TV channels are in the same helicopter, there is a temptation to over-dramatise, embellish and overstate. And countries like Nepal better have their disasters on a slow news day in North America - otherwise they might not make the bulletins.

And now the money quote.

But in Kathmandu this month it was the arrival of Indian TV journalists that exposed the worst shortcomings of the international media. It was as if the reporters were selected for their archetypal crudeness and rudeness, and ability to be insensitive to survivors. Nepali villagers who had just lost relatives were treated like hard-of-hearing hillbillies who should have been thankful to be on camera. ..... the most biting criticism came from India’s own public sphere, with many criticising the country’s TV coverage of the Kashmir floods last year as equally crass and overbearing.

This always happens, no?

Although many correspondents tried to get more minutes on air, the media had moved on to the UK elections, Syria, Yemen and Iraq. The challenge now is to keep the spotlight on Nepal when another disaster strikes. Not another earthquake, but when the monsoon rains in July-August trigger landslides on mountains destabilised by the tremors.

Do that on social media. Become your own media.

Summary: I am surprised Kunda Dixit is surprised the global media was interested in fallen temples and houses and not those intact and standing. That is how TV works. Of all people, he should know.

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The Chinook Mistake Was An Impeachable Offense

And if the Nepal Army had anything to do with it, I think that criminal act negates 50% of the good work they have done in the aftermath of the earthquake. The Chinook was so badly needed. This is not a time to emphasize the chain of command. This was and is the time to take relief supplies from the Kathmandu airport straight to the villages. The Chinook deliberate mistake is enough reason for Sushil Koirala to resign. How dare the Nepal Army play asinine politics with the best relief helicopters money can buy at this time of tragedy?
 

In a town called Dhap, so many animal carcasses were trapped in wrecked buildings that the whole stretch of road reeked of decay, and people jogged by with handkerchiefs clamped over their mouths. ...... The families from Dhap were huddled in a schoolhouse, their eyes wide: If they even approached the rock piles that had been their homes, flies swarmed around them in such numbers that they turned back. Here I saw, for the first time in Nepal, something like despair. As we passed that town, I saw a woman sitting on a hillside, staring into empty space, as if part of her had already left this earth.

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Bring In The Chinooks

They don't have to go near the villages if the fear is they might bring down weak houses. They could land in valleys some distance from the villages. But these helicopters are the difference between no help at all and some help in most remote villages.

The authorities are saying no because (1) coordinating all the incoming help has been tough, but that is a bad excuse, the problem should be that not enough help is coming in, it can not be that too much help is seen coming in, there is a huge unmet need, (2) when you fly in relief materials from the Kathmandu airport, you are bypassing the Nepal government machinery - corrupt, inefficient, sub par - and that hurts a lot of feelings at many different levels, you are challenging many people's authorities, they don't fear collapsing houses, they fear what they see as a collapse in their authorities, they want all help to reach the poor through them, this helicopter feels too much like direct help, and (3) the bean counters in the Nepal Government think the money the UK government is going to spend on these Chinooks is money that the UK government might otherwise give directly to the Nepal government if the helicopters are not allowed, but if they allow the helicopters, there will be less money for them to play with.

The truth is, these helicopters are needed, badly so. The monsoon is at the doorsteps. The monsoon is the real earthquake. And it is on its way.

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The Government Under A Cloud

Could Nepal’s messy politics hamper relief efforts?

Big earthquakes happen in Nepal roughly once a century. More than 7,000 died in the last one in January 1934, a life-defining caesura for those old enough to remember it ..... Nepal’s ability to co-ordinate efforts unfortunately look likely to be hampered by unresolved political issues and a lack of strong leadership. ..... It might be tempting to think that delays over writing Nepal’s long-awaited constitution don’t matter, that life can go on as normal without political resolution (and many Nepalis, bored with the games of political musical chairs in Kathmandu, had begun to think just that). But the earthquake shows just how vital it is to have political institutions that work, both at the centre and, even more importantly, at the local level. ..... Panchayat rule was milder than the preceding Ranas – it was more nationalist and developmentalist and spoke the language of democracy and equality. But it was ruthless with opponents, banned political parties, and, in practice,

institutionalised ethnic and social exclusion

...... Even when hostilities ceased and parliament was reinstated, the old game of sharing the spoils in a series of coalition governments continued. The hard work of thrashing out what a new reconstructed federal state would look like was repeatedly put off to the last minute. ..... Earlier this year, the prime minister himself torpedoed any chance of compromise and the timely declaration of a new constitution, as success would have meant handing over his job to his UML counterpart, as part of a coalition deal. ..... The fact that Koirala is 75 and and physically weak does not help in producing a vigorous response to the crisis. The lack of strong, co-ordinated leadership at the top is evident. ..... Apart from coming up with a constitution, there is a great deal of unfinished business from ten years of civil war, which will inevitably be put off still further by this natural disaster. One important example is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which is supposed to look at serious human rights abuses that occurred during the war. Another, which really should have been dealt with by now, is local elections.

उद्धार र राहतमा भेदभाव भएको छैन: सरकार

पछिल्ला खोज तथा राहत काठमाण्डू, गोरखा र सिन्धुपाल्चोकमा बढी केन्द्रीत रहेको भन्दै अति प्रभावित दुर्गम पहाडी गाउँहरुमा पनि राहत पुर्याउनुपर्ने आवश्यकता औल्याएको थियो। .... अबको ६ हप्तापछि सुरु हुने भनिएको वर्षायाम अघि नै भूकम्प प्रभावित सबै स्थानमा दिगो उद्धार तथा राहत पुर्याइसक्नुपर्ने जोड राष्ट्रसंघको रहँदै आएको छ।

सहयाेग रकम दातृ निकाय आफैं खर्च गर्ने धुनमा

मुलुकलाई राहत र पुन:स्थापनाका लागि रकम आवश्यक भइरहेका बेला अधिकांश दातृ निकाय भने सिधै गैरसरकारी संस्थामार्फत खर्च गर्न खोजिरहेका छन्। सरकारले सहयोग रकम प्रधानमन्त्री दैवीप्रकोप उद्धार कोषमा दाखिला गर्नुपर्ने अनिवार्य व्यवस्था गरेपछि लबिङमा लागेका दातृ निकायले सोमबार परराष्ट्र मन्त्रालयमा भएको छलफलमा यसलाई प्रमुखताका साथ उठाएका थिए। ..... दातृ निकायले हालसम्म रकम कबोलेर करिब ३ अर्ब रुपैयाँबराबरको प्रतिबद्धता जनाइसकेका छन्। तर, कुनै पनि रकम प्रधानमन्त्री दैवीप्रकोप उद्धार कोषमा जम्मा भइसकेको छैन। सरकारले अहिले मुलुकभित्र दुई वा दुईभन्दा बढीबाट उठाइने रकम र विदेशी सहायता कोषमार्फत परिचालन गर्नुपर्ने व्यवस्था गरेको छ। दातृ निकायले अनौपचारिक रूपमा सरकारको खर्च गर्ने संयन्त्र कमजोर भएको र जवाफदेहिता पनि नरहने दाबी गर्दै कोषमा रकम दाखिला गर्न चाहिरहेका छैनन्।

Nepal's disastrous politics could hold back its recovery

Over the past nine years, Nepal has had eight prime ministers. The country still has no permanent constitution. And the same vested interests that once shaped its civil war, have become entrenched once again in its politics.

Bureaucratising relief

according to one international rescue and relief worker, in the four days after the earthquake, over 200 international teams had arrived in the country. Coordination for any functioning government would be an uphill challenge. ...... But this is not just ‘any government’ and it has never been the most ‘functioning’ even before the earthquake ....... an issue of a ‘lingering lack of governance’ ..... The state, based on inherited feudal structures and cultures of government, has built upon and expanded patronage networks prioritising the distribution of state funds among elites (read the now resurrected all-party-mechanisms [APM]) and has continued to treat inhabitants as subjects and not rights-bearing equal citizens. ........According to an international relief worker, in the immediate days following the earthquake, the Israeli rescue and relief team had been ready to take off in its helicopter at the airport at 6.30am. However, they were made to wait until 9am when the bureaucrat whose signature they required to be able to fly in the helicopter, arrived for work. Such permissions are still required on a day by day basis. When every second counts to save lives, especially in the early days of rescue, the feudal state mechanisms ambled, and ambles, on; literally causing death by bureaucracy. ......... The same feudal logic informs the holding up of vital relief supplies at the airport. Home Ministry spokesman Laxmi Prasad Dhakal is quoted as saying the inspection of all goods from overseas “is something we need to do”. At a time of emergency, that what the government ‘needs to do’ is save lives appears to be missed. An international source stated that a few days ago, a Japanese team had arrived ready to spring into action at 7am but were forced to wait until they received their goods 12 hours later. How many lives could have been saved in that time? ....... Official clarifications that organised relief materials and ‘individual’ relief materials are not taxed, but the latter require additional paperwork and post-work confirmation have been useful. However, doubts have been raised on the actual implementation of these rules. That taxes on tents and tarpaulins were only lifted on Friday raises the issue of how Nepali custom officials had defined relief materials before this date and what had and had not been consequently taxed. There are reports from the eastern part of the Tarai of taxation on relief materials crossing the border by land. ....... “The taxes the state is forgoing is not trivial…It wants to ensure that the implicit state subsidy is targeted towards genuine relief. Do not underestimate the scale of cheating that goes on when there is no monitoring or voluntary code of honour in place.” .......

here the ‘business as usual’ mentality holds sway in the face of the biggest tragedy the nation has faced in decades. Concern over loss to the national treasury trumps the need to save lives. Underlying the monetisation and clear devaluation of people’s lives is the logic of a state that seeks not to serve citizens, but to accumulate power to justify its existence along feudal lines of authority.

...... “Lying by the road in the village was a pile of supplies under tarpaulins. These had been delivered by the government the previous evening. However, the officers at the small police station there had not been authorised to distribute them, so they lay untouched.” ........ it has been the internationals and the non-state sector (with the exception of the Nepal Army) which have played key roles in responding to the needs of the people. With few exceptions, the state has so far performed miserably in the aftermath of the earthquake. While there is a real need to not undermine state authority, and indeed to build state capacity, it must be made clear that rebuilding/strengthening a feudal state is not the goal. The feudal legacy embedded in an antiquated bureaucracy and reinforced by a political elite centered on power and its preservation, must be fiercely critiqued and resisted by all citizens. Prioritisation of the lives of citizens—not the policing of restrictive rules in a time of emergency—should be central. The expedient delivery of relief materials from the airport and other locations to citizens in need must take precedence.

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Racism?

English: Indian actor Salman Khan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have been following the #GoHomeIndianMedia Twitter trend. So far I have seen only one video clip that was called offensive, for the sole reason that the reporter called Thamel "Mini India." I responded here.

लोग कह रहे हैं चीन से तो नहीं आए मीडिया वाले। जैसे कि वो कोइ अच्छी बात है। अरे चीन मीडिया न आने के कारण हैं: (१) चीन में प्रेस फ्रीडम नहीं है (२) चीन के लिए अगर तिब्बत दुर है तो नेपाल तो बहुत दुर हुवा न (३) नेपाल को मदत करने सबसे पहले भारत पहुँचा, चीन नहीं।

It is possible some Indian journalists asked some questions that might have come across as insensitive. But, like I said, I have seen only one video clip, and that did not pass the test.

It is the job of the journalists to ask the wh questions: who, why, how, where, when, what.

But I have seen a ton of evidence of blatant racism. A guttural hatred of Indians defines the chief ideology of the power elite in Kathmandu. Indians have a hard time facing that fact. Just go to this Facebook page and see for yourself.

One example. There were online rumors that Salman Khan had donated crores of rupees and a few helicopters to Nepal. Salman did the right thing: he put out a statement saying that rumor is not true.

A whole bunch of Nepalis have been jumping up and down the street on that one. Who does Salman think he is? वो अपने आप को क्या समझता है? People have been calling him names. And he is a movie star. So if people can talk hate upon Salman Khan, don't try to justify their talking hatred upon some young Indian TV journalists.

The word Madhesi does not exist in Delhi. Or in Patna, or Lucknow, or Kolkata. मोदी से ले के जितने आते हैं पशुपति के दर्शन कर के चले जाते हैं। सबको लगता है अपनी ही बिरादरी के हैं। भारत तो १९४७ में आजाद हो गया लेकिन मधेस अभी भी गुलाम है। इस बात पर दिल्ली में कोइ हमदर्दी नहीं। चलो सोशल मीडिया के जरिए वो hatred तो सबके सामने आ रही है।

पहले था Go Home Indian Media, अब वही लोग Go Home Indians, Go Home Indian Army पर उतर आए हैं।

Twitter ने सबको एक एक मेगाफोन दे दिया है। लोग तो बोलेंगे ही। तरह तरह के विचार आएंगे। लेकिन ये गाड़ी free speech के पटरी से उतर के hate speech तक पहुँच गयी है। जो hatred नेपाल के मधेसी रोज भुगतते हैं वो आज सलमान को भी भुगतना पर रहा है।

यमन के दौरान युरोप के कइ देशों ने मोदी को धन्यवाद बोला ---- नेपाल वाले कब बोलेंगे? काठमांडु वालों को चाहिए कि Twitter पर #NepalthanksModi #ThankYouModi को ट्रेंडिंग करो।

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ठमेल: Mini India?

ठमेल लाई Indian हरुले Mini India भन्ने गरेको हुन सक्छ ------ भारतीय पर्यटक बढ़ी त्यहाँ बस्ने गरेकोले ---- अमेरिका को प्रत्येक ठुलो शहरमा एउटा एउटा Chinatown छ --- न्यू यॉर्क मा त अझ Mini Brazil, Koreatown, Little India के के छ के के ----- Globalization को जमानामा काठमाण्डु को कुनै भाग को नाम Mini India हुन पुग्छ भने त्यो गर्वको विषय हो --- Kathmandu has become a cosmopolitan city, it has arrived भन्नु पर्ने हुन्छ।

#GoHomeIndianMedia
भारतको रोल, चीनको रोल, नेपालको आफ्नो रोल

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Use The Delhi, Patna, Lucknow And Calcutta Airports

Why only use the Kathmandu airport? Why not also make use of the much better airports in Delhi, Patna, Lucknow and Calcutta? Then get the stuff into the country by train and trucks. You could haul more stuff that way.

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सरकारले काम गरेको कि नगरेको?

मुख्य सचिवले भने मानवीय संवेदनाको ख्याल राख्नुस्, पढ्नुस् उनका कडा छ कुरा

कर्मचारीले अहोरात्र काम गरेका छन्। सेना, प्रहरीले गरे अरुले गरेनन् भन्ने छ। बिजुली कसले बनायो? भत्केको बाटो कसले बनायो? निजामती कर्मचारीको दक्षता खोज र उद्दार होइन। त्यतिकै गाउँमा खटाउँदा कुटाई खाने अवस्था हुन्थ्यो। अहिले राहत आयो। हामीले सहसचिवलाई गाउँ पठाएका छौँ। १२ घण्टामा कर्मचारी फिल्डमा पुगेका छन्। सबै मोबिलाइज भएका छन्।

Nepal customs holding up relief efforts, says United Nations

“They should not be using peacetime customs methodology,” he said, adding that material was piling up at Kathmandu airport instead of being ferried out to victims. ...... Anger is growing as hundreds of thousands of people made homeless by the quake were yet to receive aid because of logistic bottlenecks, poor infrastructure and a chaotic government response. ..... Thousands of villages have been devastated, with up to 90% of clinics and schools in some districts rendered unusable.

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