Daily Archives: January 1, 2007
Do we look and move away too easily
Certainly there’s no country without problems, even massive ones.
Certainly we should not ignore our successes, nor the plethora of
Indians working quietly in their own ways to make this a better place.
Sixty years is a substantial age, an achievement by itself. Many other
countries that are about that old have succumbed to civil war, or
coups. India has not, and that by itself says something about us.Yet
I often feel India is unique in one respect: the desire in so many of
us to look away from our problems, to pretend that there are none. Thus
the “booming” headlines, the lascivious attention offered to a rising
Sensex, the complacency over the power and promise of “free markets”.
Thus the senior editor who, while instructing me recently on how I
should write for him, said: “Just positive stories, DD! You can send
the negative ones somewhere else, but for us, only positive stories!”
Why are we afraid to look at the things that need to be fixed? Have we taken after the ostrich? Or maybe we are too much like our national bird – the peacock? We need to feel proud and we’ll show off our lovely plumage only when the weather suits us?
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links for 2007-01-01
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Somalia has had no government since 1991. It was cut off for a while, but then private mobile companies moved in and found that the collapsed state provided a curious competitive advantage.
No government means no state telecoms company to worry about,
